Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
Blessings on the beginning of Advent. The readings for this Sunday set the stage for this brief but full liturgical season. The gospel concludes with Jesus admonishing us, “What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” Isn’t it interesting that we have become such expert watchers . . . of screens. Yet we have become such poor spiritual watchers. It is so easy to fall into a spiritual slumber, to let our souls slacken and become unresponsive to God’s grace. We “numb out” in the spiritual life in favor of exciting our physical senses.
Advent is a time to rouse ourselves from sleep and become fully awake in the Lord. For some that might mean rediscovering the gift of Jesus alive in the Holy Eucharist; for others, it is time to rediscover the gift of the sacrament of confession. I imagine for all of us it is a time to honestly review how we have let harmful things for our souls seep in and rob of us spiritual health. The Lord acts powerfully during these spiritual seasons. Now is not the time to hit the spiritual snooze button, but to respond in some concrete way to the Lord’s invitation to become fully awake.
To that end, I urge you to join us for our Parish Mission this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Fr. Bill Garrott will lead our parish into a deeper appreciation of our identity in Christ with three powerful presentations, as well as time for prayer for healing and sanctification. Everyone from ages 8 and up is invited to attend, and childcare will be provided each evening for any younger children. Each evening begins with the rosary at 6:30pm in the church, followed by the mission.
There are many other events during this Advent season that we are hosting: a talk on December 7th by Vicky Schneider, The Immaculate Conception Masses, Walk with Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Las Posadas, and the walking to Bethlehem event on Fr. Meyer Field. Please see the website for the calendar of events if you don’t have a copy of the Advent calendar that was in last week’s bulletin.
Thank you to all who have contributed to our parish office air conditioning and new windows project! Your donations go a long way towards helping us cover the expenses for the much-needed refurbishing of our office.
In Jesus Christ, Emmanuel,
Fr. Dave
