From the Pastor's Desk - October 11, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

St. Paul writes in this Sunday’s second reading, “I know how to live in humble circumstances. I also know how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things, I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need.” This reminds me of the First Principle and Foundation of the Jesuits, devised by the great St. Ignatius of Loyola: “We should not want health more than sickness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one—and so with everything else; desiring and choosing only what leads more to the end for which we are created.”

The “secret” that St. Paul and St. Ignatius discovered was detachment. We tend to be attached to pleasure, honor, riches, and power, in a way that separates us from our ultimate goal, our salvation. Both of these great saints knew that we shouldn’t choose any good in this life for its own sake, but only inasmuch as it leads us to God. Sickness may lead us to salvation more than good health in some circumstances, or vice versa. So we shouldn’t choose one over the other, but in whichever happens to befall us, use that condition to deepen our life in Christ. Our spiritual growth depends in great part on our detachment from worldly goods. The only thing in the end that we should be fully attached to is God, and anything that weakens that attachment—even the greatest goods we can think of—should be rejected as temptations to sin. This is the road to true freedom.

I invite you to our first of three Marian Encounters in this month of the rosary, Monday, October 12 at 6:30pm in the church. Come to deepen your relationship with Our Blessed Mother and to learn the science of sanctity that she lived unlike anyone else.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave