From the Pastor's Desk - October 4, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

St. Paul gives some sage advice in this Sunday’s second reading: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” The tendency for our restless minds and hearts is to ruminate and to feel resentment. In essence, St. Paul says to entrust those things that weigh heavily on you to the Lord. The action of entrusting is key. This means that we surrender those things to the Lord with great confidence that he can work them out much better than we can. Whatever we are overthinking or stressing about, our loving Father is inviting us to share with him. That’s why great saints, like Teresa of Avila, would say, “May nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing away, but God never changes.” St. Padre Pio said, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.” More humorously, but just as trustingly, Pope St. John XXIII would pray at the end of a long day, “God, it’s your Church, I’m going to bed.”

St. Paul continues, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is holy, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” We tend to focus on the negative; if ten good things happen in a day and one bad thing, we hyper focus on the bad one. St. Paul instructs us to do just the opposite. The more we make space for the the good, the true, and the beautiful in our thoughts, the more our souls are filled with peace and light. In another place, St. Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” It’s precisely this that we’re called to, that by changing what we think about to Godly things rather than worldly ones, we transform our souls.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave