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From the Pastor's Desk: October 18, 2020
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Feast of Saint Luke
This weekend our parish community celebrates our "Patronal Feast” – The Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. This great parish celebration gives me the opportunity, together with Fr. Xaviour, Deacon Steve, the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Family, dedicated staff, committed members of PAT and devoted Ministry Leaders to extend my heartfelt prayers and words of gratitude to our parishioners and benefactors– living and deceased – and all who in any way contributed – by prayers and deeds - so that today we can joyfully celebrate another year of faithful service to our parish community and beyond. In spite of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we come together to celebrate the gift of our faith, to nourish our hearts with love, to strengthen our desires to serve and dedicate ourselves to make St. Luke Parish such a wonderful and vibrant parish family. It is our daily commitment to bring the mission of our parish anew and alive so together we can strive for what is true, good and beautiful.
Tradition tells us that 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. 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.
“Luke, a native of Antioch, by profession a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostles and later followed Paul until his [Paul’s] martyrdom. Having served the Lord continuously, unmarried and without children, filled with the Holy Spirit he died at the age of 84 years.” (2nd Century document)
We are grateful to Luke for the wonderful picture of Jesus he has given us and in telling us how Jesus’ disciples, especially Paul, put the Gospel of Jesus into action and brought the message of the Kingdom all the way to Rome, then the capital and administrative center of their world. And from Rome it would extend to the furthest corners of the earth.
In our celebration of St. Luke we need to emphasize the clarity of his Gospel message as an invitation and extension of his life for us today. He offers us an incredible example as a faithful worker for the Way of Christ, and a serious challenge: if the feast of a saint is a reminder for us of what one person can do, how do we measure up to this Evangelist? Are we faithful to the Way? Do we have a clear mission and dedication to justice for the poor? Do we proclaim the Kingdom of God with our own lives? Perhaps that is why we need to pray on this Feast Day of our parish for the grace to bring Christ to the world in new and deeper ways of Evangelization.
With great joy, I welcome all our friends, families, benefactors and everyone who came to join us in prayer of honoring St. Luke and glorifying God on this special day.
Plenary indulgences may be gained on the Feast of St. Luke. Conditions for gaining the Plenary Indulgence: visit to the Church, receive the Sacraments of Confession (within eight days of fulfilling the other conditions) and Holy Communion (within eight days of fulfilling the other conditions) and offer prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father (e.g., Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be; or the Creed and an Our Father).
Saint Luke, Evangelist, pray for us!
With prayers,
Fr. Andy
