Fr. Andrzej's Blog

We are approaching the end of Liturgical Year. We will begin Advent season and beginning of the New Year in the Church in two weeks. Traditionally, the liturgy inspires us to reflect upon eschatological topics during this time. Eschatology is the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. We are encouraged to think and make an effort to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord at the end our life. We believe our existence does not end on earth, and we are called to life eternally with God after death. Eschatology prepares us for this transition. All today’s readings speak about eschatology. Each of the readings written in different context by very different authors use dissimilar images and stories to explain eschatological truth. The only common idea of all the eschatological readings is to help us to prepare to meet the Lord after our death. We must never understand these eschatological images and stories literally. Bible is not a historical, astrological or cosmological book. All the numbers, names, and stories must never be understood as scientific proofs. They are given to us by God to interpret them in pure spiritual sense. Unfortunately, there were many false prophets in history, who interpreted the Bible about “the end of time” literally. They created false ideas and even announced dates for the end of the world. But “the ends of the world” have never happened. There were even religious sects, who were so sure about “the end” that committed mass suicide. This is what happens when people are led by a false prophet, interpret Bible literally and are not flexible but rather fundamental about their believes. On the other hand, there were religious groups of people also led by false prophets who believed that everybody will end up happy in God’s Kingdom regardless of our efforts and whatever we do. Really? Why then would Jesus have gone through so much in order to tell us it is important how we live our life now? Eschatology found in the Scriptures must not make us sad, depressed and to live in fear. Contrary it is to encourage us to reflect on and make an effort to life to the fullness of life and prepare for life eternal with God.  At the end, let me explain just one unusual image from today’s gospel reading. Mark, the author of the gospel, describes a disaster of falling stars. “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (Mark 13:24-25). As I mentioned above, this passage is not about astrology and cosmology. It is not a scientific statement at all. Mark is encouraging us to appreciate Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is the true authority for us. The other stars on the sky represent our human stars, authorities we created who are falling down. All the kings, political rulers, most popular celebrities and even religious authorities have fallen or will eventually fall. The only “star” that will never fall is Jesus Christ. We must never forget this truth as his disciples. Thus, the Feast of Christ the King ends the liturgical Year next Sunday

We are privileged and blessed to have St. Martin of Tours as the patron saint of our parish community. Martin of Tours, a soldier, good Christian, a saint, and follower of Jesus Christ. Martin of Tours, above all, was a person of mercy. He had a big heart, full of love and compassion, and he practiced his love in action. The Vision and Mission statement of our parish, newly renewed and approved last year, was influenced by St. Martin’s virtues and example. The Vision and Mission statement is profound, courageous, and motivates us to leave our comfort zone to practice the corporal works of mercy to continue the mission of St. Martin with our brothers and sisters in our parish and larger community. The Fall Harvest Fest, celebrated on the occasion of the feast St. Martin of Tours, is a newer tradition at our parish community. This celebration will be very special this year as we are celebrating two important anniversaries. Fifty years ago, the SCJs began their ministry at our parish, and twenty years ago the new church was dedicated. As St. Martin's community, we want to remember these two events and celebrate them with the SCJs who ministered here as well as the principals of the school, teachers, staff, benefactors, other workers, volunteers, and friends. It will be a good opportunity to express our gratitude for their ministry, hard work, sacrifices, and of help we received from them during these many years. Some of them will join us for the official celebration during the Fall Harvest Fest. Many of them cannot come on that day, and some have passed away, however they will be remembered in our hearts and prayers. The Fall Harvest Festival will begin in the church on November 9. Fr. Tom Cassidy, SCJ, Rector of Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, will say Thanksgiving Mass at 4pm. Fr. Tom will represent Fr. Vien, the SCJ Provincial Superior, and the entire US Province of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. After Mass we will move to the parish hall for less formal festivity with dinner, music, fellowship, presentations, and a silent auction. We are excited and looking forward to it. At the same time, we are proud to celebrate the feast of our parish on Veteran’s Day. We are glad to have many veterans among us at the parish community. We would like to remember them during the same weekend of our parish feast. They will be mentioned and named during Masses on that weekend. We honor St. Martin of Tours, a great soldier with a big compassionate heart, by honoring our brother and sister veterans. Thank you for your service. St. Martin of Tours, pray for us. Fr. Andrzej

One of the things that confuses people is the difference between an annulment and divorce. A divorce is a legal matter. It is a declaration by the state that the marriage has ended. Sometimes a divorce is necessary. A spouse has to protect himself or herself from serious harm. However, I have seen too many divorces that were not necessary, simply because one or the other gave up too soon. Sometimes young people are not well prepared for marriage. They expect heaven on earth from their marriage, and when this does not happen, they look elsewhere. The Church does not grant divorce to end a marriage. The Church may grant an annulment after a marriage has broken up. An annulment is a statement that after serious investigation, a couple is not obligated to each other under God because their vow is not valid and there was something seriously lacking in their commitment from the beginning. Why is there no divorce in the Church? Among many reasons, there is an essential one, that the sacrament of marriage is not a private arrangement. Its origin is from God as we heard in the first reading. Spouses vow to each other and to God to become one flesh. Jesus confirms it in today’s gospel. A man and women decide to marry each other as husband and wife “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death.” They are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate (Mark 10:8-9). I am not married and have no children. I have no experience and should not talk about how to be married. But growing up and being in a family, listening to married people during my ministry, and accompanying many couples through their divorce and annulment, I learned that without prayer together as family and daily forgiveness, marriage – similarly to religious community – will not stand long and will not persevere even with first crises. Prayer and forgiveness are essential elements of living together. In short, there are various vocations and states of life, marriage, single, religious life or priesthood... Every way of life has it joys and difficulties. Whether we are married or not, our major task in life is learning how to grow in love. That’s what it is all about and that is our joy in this life and will be in heaven. Fr. Andrzej P.S. We are about to begin a new ministry for young couples at St. Martin of Tours. This ministry, which is run with the help of St. John Paul II foundation, is a good opportunity for young families regardless if they have children or not, go through crises or not. It is an opportunity to listen and share with other married couples, pray and support each other in family life. Please register and sign up or contact us at the parish office.

We’ve recently entered into the fall season. Summer is over. Although many ministries and committees took a summer break, it was still a meaningful and quite busy time at St. Martin of Tours. Thus, I would like to offer you a quarterly report of some new ministries, projects and activities going on in our parish. First, I am grateful to our volunteers and benefactors who support many ministries and activities in our community, to mention a few; the Ground & Buildings Committee, the Cemetery Committee, Liturgy & Worship, Stewardship and the Formation Ministries. I am grateful to those who prepared for the rummage sale in June, cooking egg rolls, those who took care of the parking lot during the Labor weekend, and those who organized many social and formation events. We are blessed with a good parish staff and councils. Without their hard work many of these events would not be possible including this report. New Personnel and Ministries We hired Abby Wass, who became the full-time Religious Education and Youth Ministry Director. We were able to organize Totus-Tuus summer camp for our children with cooperation of St. Alphonsus Parish in July. It was a blessing to have over 30 children who played on our playgrounds, prayed in the church and had fun. We hope to continue with summer program for children and youth next year. We hope to begin a new ministry for married couples in fall. This ministry, which is run with the help of St. John Paul II foundation, is a good opportunity for young couples at our parish. Please register and sign up. Incoming Projects This year we are celebrating two great anniversaries: 50 years of the presence of SCJs at the parish, and the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the new church. We want to celebrate these occasions during the Fall Harvest Festival on the Day of our Patron Saint, St. Martin. We hope to invite and honor those who had a significant part in our history, the priests, principles, teachers, workers and benefactors on that day. We would like all our parishioners to be actively involved and participate in this important event on November 9th. On the occasion of these anniversaries, we hope to decorate our church with stained glass windows. I am grateful to many of you for your feedback and constructive criticism to the proposals shown and displayed in August. We will inform you about any progress of this project. Another significant project we started during summer, that we hope to complete this fall, is the parish photo directory. The most recent directory is almost 20 years ago. The directory is a vital tool for the staff, for ministry and it’s a good opportunity to get to know each other in the parish community. At this time, there are only 23% of families who took their pictures and participated in this project. We hope with your help to have the directory complete this fall. I would like to encourage everyone who did not yet have a chance to take a photo to do it soon. The last opportunity will be on November 22nd from 9:30 to 2:30pm. Helpful Numbers We are growing spiritually and in number as a parish community. We welcomed 17 new families who joined our parish since June 1, 2024. 4 children were baptized and 2 couples received the Sacrament of Matrimony. 5 of our members died and 4 families moved from our parish. This year we have 75 students in total in our religious education programs: 43 K-8 students (excluding First Communion Students), 13 First Communicants, for a total of 56 K-8 Students. In our Lifeteen program we have 9 - 9th /10th Graders, and 10 Confirmation Students, for a total of 19 high school students. Additionally, we have 40 students in the Vietnamese religious education program. The numbers look good, but we have to keep in mind that there are 326 Catholic children and youth (5-18 years old) within the parish. This means that less than half of them joined the religious education program. We would like to reach out to them and welcome them into our formation programs. Please help us to contact them. Besides our religious education program, we host a few other groups who use our church and school facilities weekly. Among them are two Catholic Homeschool groups with a total of 125 children. We are glad that we can welcome and serve children and youth in our parish and larger community thanks to our large facilities. Capital Developments We were able to accomplish a few maintenance projects in the last quarter. Besides cleaning the classrooms and repairing school equipment to get ready for the school year, we were able to improve the road and parking lot behind the school and food pantry. We patched concrete at the entrance to the church and parish office, we repaired and painted the entrance door to the parish office, and we fixed some equipment in the kitchen and parish hall. There were two major projects accomplished in July and August: replacement of the six remaining heating and cooling units on the church and gym buildings ($137,180) and the server transfer to the cloud with all our parish data ($25,000). Lastly, thank you for your prayers and support. I always appreciate your comments, suggestions and encouraging words, but also criticism and complaints. Please do not hesitate to give me your feedback and thoughts not just about this report, but also about our parish life. Our effort as parish staff and administration only makes sense with your willingness to collaborate and your care. I am blessed and proud to be your pastor. Fr. Andrzej

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