From the Pastor's Desk | August 31, 2025

Happy Labor Day!

This weekend is the unofficial end of summer.  I pray everyone found time to rest and relax over these past few months.  

From the very beginning, going all the way back to Genesis, God creates; God is generative.  And, he created us out of love for love.  He also created us with labor in mind.  

“God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened” (Genesis 1:28-30).  

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for ‘work’ - avodah - is also the word used for ‘worship’ signifying the spiritual reality of labor.  The word we use for our liturgical celebrations - liturgy - also means ‘work.’  Our work - our labor - is linked directly to our worship of God who himself works through his creativity.  

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend, let us commend the dignity of our labors, and all laborers, to the Lord.  Let us also recommit ourselves to not only our daily labor, but also the labor of our worship.  How hard are we working in worshiping the Lord?  Have we fallen into spiritual sloth, allowing our worship of the Almighty One to slide?  Are we working and worshiping with the community of faith, particularly on Sundays in the celebration and work of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?

The Kids are Back!

Wednesday, August 20, marked the first day of the 2025–26 school year. The building is alive again! While I do appreciate the quiet and slower pace of summer, there's nothing quite like the energy that fills the halls when the students return.

Please keep our children in your prayers. Pray intentionally that they grow in wisdom and in their relationship with God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Also, please remember our dedicated faculty and staff in your prayers. They work tirelessly to educate and lead our children closer to Christ and His Church.

Ceremonial Groundbreaking!

Everyone is invited to Mass at 8:20 am on September 25, 2025 with Bishop Earl Boyea here at St. Martha as we ceremonially break ground on the site of the new school addition!  Immediately following Mass we will move to the site where we have a short presentation and the ceremonial groundbreaking.  Refreshments will be provided.  Please pray for good weather!

Please note that as we continue to get things in order, construction will likely begin in late October and we hope to be complete by the end of July 2026.  Keep praying for the success of this project.  It is quite exciting for the parish!  

Thursday Confessions

A quick note about Thursday confessions following Mass: now that school is back in session, we will once again be rotating classes through confession on Thursdays. The students will go first so they can return to class promptly, followed by everyone else.

This process doesn't take very long, and I appreciate your patience and understanding.

As pastor, I believe it's vitally important to provide our students with regular opportunities for confession for both their spiritual growth and formation in the faith.

Gospel Reflection

You may, or may not, know that I’ve been working on a book titled: How Humility Made Me Great: An Autobiography of a Life Well Lived. (Obviously, that’s a joke!) I start with that line precisely because it’s absurd! I know myself all too well.

This weekend, our readings draw us into the foundational virtue of humility. St. Thomas Aquinas defined virtue as habitus or habit. More specifically, a virtue is a good habit, a stable disposition of the soul that perfects our ability to act rightly and, ultimately, to achieve our final end: eternal beatitude with God. Virtues, like habits, are meant to be practiced until they become part of our character - woven into the fabric of who we are.

People often tell me they wish they had more patience, more faith, more trust, more prudence. My response is always the same: Be careful what you ask for. Because when you ask for greater patience, God tends to provide more opportunities to practice patience. The same goes for trust, faith, prudence, and all the rest. And if we’re honest, those opportunities to grow in virtue can often be quite uncomfortable.

The Church identifies several key virtues: the Cardinal Virtues - prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance - and the Theological Virtues - faith, hope, and charity. Interestingly, humility doesn’t appear on either list. Why not?

The Cardinal Virtues are attainable through human reason and natural law. The Theological Virtues, on the other hand, are gifts from God - infused at Baptism, and rooted in God’s own life (what we call sanctifying grace). Humility, while certainly a virtue, is best understood as the foundation upon which the Theological Virtues can be lived. Without humility, it is nearly impossible to live out faith, hope, and love. It is the humble soul that is best disposed to receive and respond to God’s grace.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux gives us a helpful definition: humility is the virtue by which a man, knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself. In other words, humility is grounded in truth. And there are at least two truths about ourselves that are worth reflecting on.

First, St. Paul writes to the Ephesians:

“You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived, following the age of this world... we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

That’s a sobering reality. Left to ourselves, we tend toward sin. We follow the world, the flesh, and the devil - forces that draw us away from life and toward spiritual destruction. If we’re honest, we know this truth about ourselves.

But then Paul continues:

“But God, who is rich in mercy... brought us to life with Christ... raised us up with him... so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

We could not save ourselves. Salvation required divine intervention - the Father sending the Son. If you’ve seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, you may remember the brutal imagery of Jesus being scourged and crucified. Ask yourself: If that was the remedy, what does it say about the severity of our condition?

As Paul writes to the Philippians:

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

The truly humble soul understands this: before God, we are utterly dependent. “Without me,” Jesus says, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This awareness is not just theological - it’s deeply personal. It shapes the very DNA of the disciple.

To grow in humility is to live out John 15: He is the vine, and we are the branches. We must remain grafted to Him constantly and intentionally. Otherwise, we drift back into the state Paul describes: wrath, not grace.

Our greatest model of humility is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her Magnificat is a beautiful testament to the heart of the humble:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him 

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever (Luke 1:46-55).

Let us pray today that we, too, might echo her words, not out of forced modesty, but out of the truth of who we are before God. May humility not be something we simply admire, but something we practice habitually and intentionally until it becomes part of who we are.

Know of my prayers for you all! 

Fr. Ryan