Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
I am very grateful to all of our volunteers who helped to make St. Martin’s Feast Day on Sunday such a special occasion. I am grateful to our trilingual choir for so beautifully singing in the Mass. I would like to thank those that coordinated the preparation of the dinner following our St. Martin’s trilingual Mass. To feed hundreds of people with a delicious meal in such a seamless way was an incredible feat! The play depicting the life of St. Martin was masterfully done, and I would like to thank our Artistic Ministry, actors and musicians who worked so hard to gift us that production. The devotion, generosity and skill of our parish was certainly on full display on Sunday.
As we near the end of the liturgical year, the readings for this Sunday urge us to reflect on the end of the world. Since the time of Christ, we have been living in the “last days” or “end times.” How long this period will last is unknown, but we await a final consummation when Christ will return to fully establish the Kingdom of God. The old order of sin will be definitively destroyed, and there will be a “new heavens and a new earth.” We can only speak vaguely about these realities, because they have not yet come to pass. The universe has a goal towards which it is stretching, and that is the renewal of all things in Christ. Mass begins with an entrance procession, which signifies that we are pilgrims steadily advancing towards heaven. We go forward without fear of the future, because we have fixed our hope on Christ. His victory is assured and his dominion is everlasting.
Following Thanksgiving this year, Giving Tuesday falls on December 3. It has become customary to donate to a favorite charity or cause on Giving Tuesday. I humbly ask you to keep our parish in mind, especially as we seek to complete our refurbishing of the parish hall kitchen. The last step is to furnish it with appliances, including a warming oven, industrial washing machine, refrigerator and storage racks. The donations we receive on Giving Tuesday will be used to purchase those items and finish the refurbishing of the kitchen. Thank you for keeping this project in mind!
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
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