From the Pastor's Desk - September 14, 2025

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

A very happy birthday to St. Martin’s Catholic School! The oldest Catholic parochial school in Montgomery County celebrates 100 years of education this year. This Friday, Bishop Roy Campbell celebrated a special all-school Mass with the school community. Then on Saturday, we welcome (or if you’re reading this on Sunday, welcomed) back Bishop Brennan to celebrate the 5:00pm Sunday Vigil Mass, followed by the centennial gala. One hundred years ago the pastor and parishioners had the vision and wherewithal to open our school, which has educated thousands of children through many generations.

Catholic education is not just about instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but providing a larger worldview through which to interpret the meaning of the world and our place in it. God created the world freely out of love, and all he created was good. Man and woman were created as the pinnacles of creation, to be stewards of it, and to share in God’s own authority. We suffer the effects of original sin, in that we are wounded intellectually, spiritually, affectively, morally and relationally. God has saved us through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, and he heals and elevates us through the gift of grace. We continue to build up the Kingdom of God by being incorporated into Christ’s body, the Church, and by cooperating with the Holy Spirit in reconciling the world to God through Christ. This is the larger context in which science, math, art, and the rest of the material for education is presented.

Art is an expression of God’s beauty and points us toward the One who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Science points us toward the God who created all things as knowable and who orders creation out of primordial chaos. Literature helps us to see the moral complexity of the human person and the need for justice, honesty, humility, and mercy. Religion helps us to see that we are more than material beings, that we are created in love and for love, and that we are destined for eternal union with God. All school subjects are related to God and reveal his truth, goodness, and beauty, as well as our dignity, place and purpose in the universe. Ultimately, all knowledge leads to Jesus Christ, who fully reveals God to man and man to himself.

We give thanks to God for the wonderful religious sisters, priests and lay teachers who have helped to form the souls, minds and hearts of our young people throughout the past century. Their instruction has led so many young people to discover that truth is not merely a concept, but a Person, the One who illumines our minds and enflames our hearts.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave