From the Pastor's Desk - February 22, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

I must admit, I haven’t watched much of the Winter Olympics. I’m more of a World Cup fan, myself— coming to the U.S. this summer! One of the things that does impress me, though, about Olympians is their training regimen. I can’t imagine the discipline and desire that goes into the years-long training to participate in an Olympic event. I think of something like the ski jump, which takes all of a few seconds. Countless hours of training over the course of years goes into the preparation for a few-second-long run in the Olympics.

There is something similar in the desire which should animate our Lenten disciplines. What is the spiritual goal towards which our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are aiming? We discipline ourselves so that we may participate well in the Holy Triduum: the days beginning on Holy Thursday and culminating on Easter Sunday. We have forty days to prepare ourselves to participate in something much more intense and glorious than an Olympic event. Jesus said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished” (Lk. 12:50). You can sense the Lord’s deep yearning to enter into the goal of his life (and the goal of every human life), his Passion, Death and glorious Resurrection.

We participate well in the Easter Triduum when we have dared to share in the Lord’s sufferings, embracing our crosses in union with him. We participate well when we seek in prayer to imitate his own prayer of sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. We participate well when we willingly offer him what is most valuable to us, as did the woman who anointed his feet with costly perfume. This level of participation in the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection requires focused spiritual training, which is why we need Lent. Remember the goal towards which we are aiming!

Please mark on your calendars the dates of our Lenten Parish Mission, which will be in the evening of Thursday, March 5, and Friday, March 6. The Mission will be given in English and in Spanish. Manuel Luna from the Society of St. John will lead both evenings in Spanish, while Frs. Larry Swink and Greg Shaffer will lead the English segment of our mission.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave