Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
I am so pleased that we have a Blessed (soon-to-be saint) Carlo Acutis family spirituality group at St. Martin’s. (If you are interested in learning more about it, please speak with Sr. Maria Belen). Young people need modern-day saints to look up to and to imitate. We are all called to be saints, and we can’t do this without models.
Human beings are by nature imitative. That is, we see the behavior of others, be they parents, peers or celebrities, and we copy it or make it our own. The same is true of the Christian life. Christ himself says in the gospels, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise” (Jn. 5:19-20). St. Paul tells the church at Corinth, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Jesus spent three years with his disciples, not only to teach them about God, but to model for them what they themselves were to do.
As we celebrate All Saints Day on November 1, don’t miss the opportunity to introduce the lives of the saints to your children, godchildren or grandchildren. Of course, we have the great saints of Church history: Mary, St. Joseph, St. Francis or St. Catherine of Siena. But we also have so many wonderful modern-day saints: Blessed Carlo Acutis, St. Chiara Luce Badano, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Padre Pio, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Maximilian Kolbe, to name a few.
This Sunday’s gospel summarizes what it means to be a saint: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. There are an infinite number of ways to live out these commandments, but all of them point to the unsurpassable dignity and call of the human person to love as God loves.
Next Sunday, November 10, we celebrate our patronal feast day of St. Martin of Tours! We will celebrate a 5:00pm trilingual Feast Day Mass. Immediately after Mass there will be a meal and inaugural play depicting the life of St. Martin in the school gym. Please note that there is no 6:30pm Mass on Sunday, the 10th. I hope many are able to attend the celebration and that we learn to imitate the life of our great patron saint.
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
