From the Pastor's Desk - January 21, 2024

Thank Yous

This is long overdue, but with the early Christmas bulletin deadlines being set by our priting company, many of my articles had to be written well in advance of publication.  I want to extend a word of deep gratitude to everyone who helped coordinate, organize, distribute food and other items for the Thanksgiving and Christmas food drives and the Giving Tree.  I also want to thank everyone who generously donated items for all of these endeavors.  (I was told that many did not want their names mentioned, so I will abide by that request).  

I was overwhelmed by the generosity of St. Martha Parish!  It is a testament to how we live the Gospel and shows the Church in action to help our brothers and sisters in need.  The amount of Christmas gifts and food that was collected was unbelievable, and I cannot say thank you enough.  I know that those who received these donations had a better Thanksgiving and Christmas than they expected due in large part to the heart of this parish community.  May God be praised! 

Thank you also to everyone who helped make our Christmas Masses all the more prayerful and joyous!  Wow!  There were a lot of people here to pray!  Thank you to the following: 

• Tony and Marie Andorfer for planning, organizing, and directing our music 
• Joey DiMenno for planning, organizing, and directing our children’s choir 
• Jackie Rosalez for planning, organizing, and directing our children’s pageant 
• Brigit and David Martell, Jean and Don Morgan, Diane Brady, and the entire crew who helped decorate the church
• Michaela and Natasha Stiles for serving as vocalists and helping to both play and coordinate the children’s choir
• Hallie Card and Claire Boomer for a lot of behind the scenes work leading up to and during Christmas
• Gregg Alchin for setting up extra seating and ensuring that the church was ready to go
• Trevor Hale and our custodial crew as well as Doug Hunter for ensuring that the church was clean and presentable for our all of our guests 
• All of our servers, readers, eucharistic ministers, ushers, and sacristans  

Without your help, we would not have been able to accommodate so many people to pray and worship on Christmas.  So, thank you!  

Gospel Reflection

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”  I don’t know about you, but these words are incredibly convicting for me.  I stand before you day in and day out, week in and week out preaching the Word of God.  It isn’t always easy because I am very cognizant of my own shortcomings and my own sinfulness.  So, I beg for your prayers - always.  Msgr. Lunsford, one of the holiest priests I know, told me something years ago in seminary that I have never forgotten - “You are first preaching to yourself.”  How true that is!  

Jesus doesn’t ask us but rather commands us to do two things in the Gospel today: 1) repent, and 2) believe.  Both go hand-in-hand.  Why repent if we don’t believe in the Good News?  Why believe in something or, rather, someone that doesn’t require something of us?  The Greek word translated as ‘repent’, metanoia (μετανοεο), means to change one’s mind - to expand it in such a way as to have a new perspective of the world and one’s self.

We just finished celebrating the great feast of Christmas, recalling God becoming one of us and entering our world.  Jesus Christ entered this world to engage an enemy and rescue you and me from the corruption of sin and death.  That is the Good News!  Do we believe this?  In other words, to quote the Lord from last week’s Gospel, “What are [we] looking for?” (John 1:38).  Are we looking to remain stuck where we are - stuck in the same habits, the same trajectory, the same sins?  Or, are we looking to be pulled up?  

We have begun the New Year and soon we will be entering into the holy season of Lent.  God gives us the gift of time - time to reflect and take stock of ourselves.  Let us pray to make the changes that need to be made.  But, let us not use empty words in our prayers.  Let us resolve to repent and believe in the Good News! 

Know of my prayers for you all! 

Fr. Ryan