Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,<\/p>\n
I hope everyone enjoyed a great 4th<\/sup> of July! Our patriotic holidays always remind me of my Grandpa James on my Dad\u2019s side of our family.\u00a0 Grandpa was a WWII Navy Veteran and also one of the most faithful Catholic men I knew growing up. I often share that he was a great example to me of what it meant to be a good citizen and a faithful Catholic. The two seemed so well united in him, and reminds me of the kind of unity that Christ makes possible in our hearts. Of course, we are made for unity\u2014we are made out of love for love\u2026it is God\u2019s desire that we be united with Him and one another.\u00a0 In John 17 at the Last Supper, Jesus prays that \u201call would be one.\u201d Not surprisingly, that focus on unity is a great lead in to our review of the Four Marks of the Church\u2014today focusing on a very simple and powerful word\u2026the Church being \u201cOne.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.\u201d <\/strong>One<\/em> is a word that most of us learn from when we are very small.\u00a0 We learn early on that it refers to singularity\u2026so how exactly is a Church with millions and millions of people and thousands and thousands of buildings characterized as one?<\/p>\n \u201cSo there shall be one flock, one shepherd\u201d (John 10:16). The Church is one because her source, Jesus Christ, is one. As St. Paul teaches us, \u201cThere is one body and one Spirit\u2026one Lord, one faith, one baptism\u2026\u201d (Eph 4:3-6). Ultimately, unity comes from Christ who founded the Church. Because Christ\/God is a perfect unity, there can be no division within Himself or within His work. So, if Christ founds the Church which is united to Himself, it has that characteristic of singular unity from the start.<\/p>\n How is that unity manifested on a daily basis? We show forth the unity by our Profession of Faith, the faithful celebration of the seven sacraments, and through the unity of our Church hierarchy. The Profession of Faith, as we have been reviewing, is our unified statement of what we believe. Consistently professing the same belief (and living it!) unites us together. Similarly, celebrating the sacraments daily with the same rites and prayers achieves the purpose of the sacraments\u2014uniting us to Christ. As a visible sign, the clergy of the hierarchy in unity with each other offer us a constant reminder that Christ leads His church through the apostles and their successors (more on that in a couple weeks!).<\/p>\n So, Christ cannot be divided\u2026yet people have introduced \u201cdivisions\u201d in Christianity which we observe around us\u2014different ways of worshipping and differences in beliefs among various Christian communities. What does this mean? It means we have work to do!\u00a0 Christ prayed for unity at the Last Supper\u2014unity is His will: \u201cthat all be one\u201d (John 17:17-23). Part of our call as Christians is to keep striving to do our part in living that unity. We do this by living lives of faith, virtue, love, and prayer. If each of us concentrates on being united more closely to Christ, then we will all be more closely united together. Let us resolve and make the effort to appreciate truth wherever it may be found, to enter into conversation and dialogue, to pray daily that the will of Christ will be realized\u2026and we will all be truly one with Him!\u00a0 As St. Paul said so fittingly: \u201cComplete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind\u201d (Phil 2:2).\u00a0 Know of my prayers for you all this week!<\/p>\n In Christ,<\/p>\n Father Luke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"