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From the Pastor's Desk: Oct. 17, 2021
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Today is our "Patronal Feast Day," the celebration of the saint after whom our Church is named, that is, St. Luke!
This celebration affords us the opportunity to reflect on our lives and to give thanks to Almighty God for every grace we have received over the years. I bow my head and lift up in prayers with sincere gratitude our two former pastors – Fr. Luke McLoughlin and Fr. Edward Rooney whose faithful service and commitment to this faith community was especially significant. I am most grateful for the countless number of parishioners of St. Luke, those who went before us and all those who continue to serve the church and whose faithful dedication brought us to this time and place. I am grateful for Father Xaviour, Deacon Steve, the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Family, Parish Staff, Pastor’s Advisory Team and leaders of our community for your love, care, dedication and commitment to make St. Luke Parish such a tremendous faith community that makes Christ present and visible!
By tradition, Saint Luke was a doctor who converted to the faith in about the year 40 C.E., and later accompanied St. Paul during his Second Apostolic Journey. He is the author of the Third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles which give us the most informative account of Christ’ infancy and provides us with a masterful portrayal of the truth of the Divine Mercy.
We should thank St. Luke today for “bringing good tidings” to all of us, because he was a faithful instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Empowered by the grace of divine inspiration he passed on to us a remarkable Gospel account as well as the history of early Christian communities we have in the Acts of the Apostles. St. Luke’s purpose in joining the two accounts of his work is to show Jesus as a model and how the Church gradually learns to imitate and then extends Jesus’ ministry. His writings are an invitation to each Christian community to follow the path of the early Church to open wide the doors to Christ.
One of the traditions says that St. Luke was the first iconographer and painted pictures of the Virgin Mary. One of his “masterpieces” was the painting of the “Black Madonna”, Madonna and Christ Child. It is believed that St. Luke used a tabletop from a table built by the carpenter Jesus. The “Black Madonna” or “Our Lady of Czestochowa” is known today as the Queen of Poland and is the spiritual capital of Poland.
The Patronal Feast of St. Luke affords us the opportunity to reflect on our common life and to give thanks to Almighty God for every grace we receive. May we here at St. Luke Parish continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May our proclamation of the Gospel help us to grow in faith, hope and love and always offer glory to God.
October 19th celebrates the 38th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Polish priest Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. His witness and intercessions became extremely personal to me over the years. He is an incredible symbol of faith, courage, respect and dignity of human life for our times. I would like to invite everyone to join me in a showing of the movie “Messenger of the Truth” on Thursday, October 21st at 7:00 pm in the Parish Hall.
These beautiful and significant moments of the celebration of the Patron of our parish invite us to a deeper reflection that offers us an opportunity to deepen our relationship with the Lord and to do something beautiful for God with our lives. “Faith in action is service. We try to be holy because we believe. In most modern rooms you see an electrical light that can be turned on by a switch. But if there is no connection with the main powerhouse, then there can be no light. Faith and prayer are our connection with God, and power of that connection is service.” –St. Mother Teresa
Happy feast day, St. Luke! Let us rejoice and be glad!
With prayers,
Fr. Andy