From the Pastor's Desk - July 19, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

Jesus uses various parables that have to do with plants, whether its wheat or weeds, mustard trees or figs. Evidently, he saw the spiritual life as a process of continual growth culminating in producing fruit. I think many of us have held an erroneous view of our religious and spiritual life as merely avoiding sin. According to this way of thinking, if I just avoid sins, I’m in God’s good graces and don’t have much to worry about. Although there’s an element of truth to this, this oversimplifies the spiritual life—keeping us in control— which is really a dynamic relationship of deepening communion with God and others.

One of the difficult things about the spiritual life being a process of of maturing and growth is that we can’t will our own growth. We can’t just force our way to spiritual maturity through our own efforts. In fact, relying on the power of our will and our own efforts is a sure way to stunt our growth. Jesus says that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it won’t produce any fruit. Unless we allow God to heal our hearts of their self-will, stubbornness, fear and various other disorders, we will keep running into a wall instead of progressing in the spiritual life. This requires great patience, trust, repentance, surrender and docility to the work of the Holy Spirit. At times, this feels like a death of an old way of being, thinking, and acting. These little deaths to our unredeemed self open us up to the life of the Spirit within us. Only the Holy Spirit’s action in us can produce fruit for the Kingdom of God.

St. Paul says that we don’t know how to pray as we ought, but no need to worry, because the Holy Spirit prays within us with inexpressible groanings. For him, the spiritual life wasn’t so much about what we’re doing, but about what God is doing deeply within us. When we learn this lesson of paying attention to God’s work within us more than our self projects, we will see the growth and fruit that Jesus envisions in his gospel parables.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave