Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,<\/p>\n
Blessed Trinity Sunday and Father\u2019s Day Weekend! I hope everyone receives many blessings this day! Similar to other celebrations we\u2019ve had over the previous Easter Season, our celebration of the Trinity\u2026as well as Father\u2019s Day, actually fit very well with our celebration of the 1700th<\/sup> anniversary of the Nicene Creed.<\/p>\n As we know, the Profession of Faith begins with \u201cI believe.\u201d If you recall from a couple weeks ago, \u201cI believe\u201d is a direct translation of the first word in Latin:\u00a0 \u201cCredo.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, the Profession of Faith is the faith of the entire Church, but in the Mass each of us proclaims it to assert our personal faith together with other believers. That is, each of us proclaims individually what we all believe together. This makes our profession more personal and also imitates what we do when we renew our baptismal promises:\u00a0 \u201cDo you renounce Satan? \u00a0I do.<\/strong>\u00a0 And all his works? \u00a0I do\u2026<\/strong>Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth? \u00a0I do\u2026<\/strong>\u201d By answering for ourselves and by professing the Faith ourselves, we really are taking ownership of the Faith. It would sound so different to start by saying, \u201cMy dad told me there is one God\u2026\u201d or \u201cthe priest believes in one God\u201d\u00a0 or even \u201cChristians believe in one God.\u201d Instead, we each take ownership and say \u201cI believe.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Creed, each of us professes first belief in \u201cone God.\u201d Our belief in one God alone goes back to the Old Testament times (Deut 6:4\u2026\u201dHear, O Israel:\u00a0 The Lord our God is one Lord.\u201d) That God is one is an important truth\u2014it shows that there is no lack of perfection, differences, weakness, or rivals for God. He Himself is all that we will ever need. He ultimately fulfills every desire. If God really is the perfect answer to all we need and desire, what does that mean? It means He alone is worthy of our highest praise and honor. God alone is deserving of our best and most devoted love.<\/p>\n As our Catechism<\/em> teaches, the foundation of all Christian Faith is the Trinity: God the Father who revealed himself to His chosen people over time and is fully revealed in and through the Son, and the Holy Spirit sent forth by the Father and the Son to unite us in the perfect bond of love. Although God is pure spirit and is outside the boundaries of gender, God reveals \u201chimself\u201d as a father; Jesus the Son reveals very directly the truth about the relationship between the Father and the Son, as well as the relationship between the Father and us.<\/p>\n So what does that mean for us in our daily living?\u00a0 As the Catechism<\/em> teaches, \u201cBy calling God \u2018Father,\u2019 the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children\u201d (CCC 239). By calling himself the Father, God is speaking to us in a language we can understand. He draws upon our human experience of parents. Even though we know our parents can be fallible and can make mistakes, God draws on our experience to give us an image of how he loves and cares for us. In truth, God\u2019s goodness and care for us is the origin of fatherhood and motherhood; that is, every father and mother participates in the loving and caregiving parenting of God the Father. This is a good reminder to pray for parents\u2026that they can love in the same way that God loves us.<\/p>\n Father\u2019s Day weekend is for me a great opportunity to give thanks for my dad and all the good men who have helped me grow through the years\u2014I am thankful to each one who has helped me be the priest and spiritual father I am today. Know that I join my prayer of thanksgiving for all the fathers in our parish family\u2026and that I send everyone my blessing this day!<\/p>\n In Christ,<\/p>\n Father Luke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"