A Note From Our Pastor: January 4, 2026

Merry Christmas! I hope this season continues to be alive in your heart. I want to mention four new and upcoming matters for our parishioners. In no particular order…

1. Please save the date for an upcoming Parish Mission. It’s for both parishes, but will take place at St. Philomena. We have invited Sister Mary Eucharista of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church. Our plan is to have a workshop for women in the morning of Saturday, February 21. We will then have two nights of presentation to all parishioners on Monday, February 23 and Tuesday, February 24. Again, please mark your calendar. More to come.

   
   

2. Second, thanks to the initiative of a generous parishioner, we plan to start a parish “prayer chain”. As people who believe in the power of prayer, and furthermore, in the importance of exercising this power by praying for those who need it, this is an important ministry.

   
   

   From this point forward, if you would like others to pray for you (or for someone you love, or for a cause), please email your request to our parishioner who will serve as the point person: spandstprayerchain@icloud.com. The email address includes ‘sp’ for St. Philomena and ‘st’ for St. Thomas.

   
   

   Additionally, if you are willing to be a prayer warrior—one of the folks who is dedicated to pray for these causes—our point person will add you to the distribution list and will forward to you these causes for prayer. Thank you for considering this.

   
   

3. We will be starting a Confirmation program for adults (at least 18 years old). This program will be for Catholics already baptized, who have received First Holy Communion and are catechized (meaning that they have a good basis of understanding their Catholic faith and have been practicing it, including weekly Mass attendance). This short program will start in early February. Please contact us. We’d love to help you receive this important Sacrament and to help you become a fully initiated Catholic.

   
   

4. Finally, while we have a custodial service at St. Philomena that cleans various parts of our school and parish, we believe it a good and responsible decision to reserve the task of cleaning the church’s worship space to parishioners—as a labor of love. Our plan is to have two teams (the Bucket Brigade), each of whom would come once a month (alternating every two weeks). We would provide cleaning supplies and would help organize. For now, we are gathering information to determine which day of the week and what time of day works best for most people. If you are interested, please use the QR code here,

   

   to help us gather this information. Call if you have questions.

Thank you.

Yours in Christ,

Father Todd O. Strange