Dear Parishioners,
Today we celebrate as a parish community the Feast of our patron, St. Martin de Porres. Happy feast day to all of you! Although we are living in a different moment than we have in past years, we still give thanks and praise to God for the gift of this parish community. Since 2007, our three churches were merged to create the community of St. Martin de Porres Parish, which to this very day continues to grow and flourish most particularly through his powerful intercession. I am blessed to serve this community as Pastor. I thank all of you for your continued support and prayers, most especially as we journey together though this pandemic. We are blessed to have His Excellency, Most Reverend Witold Mroziewski as the main celebrant and homilist for our Mass this morning. This is Bishop Witold’s first visit with us here at St. Martin de Porres. I thank him for allowing his schedule to permit being with us today. I also want to thank the parishioners who donated breakfast food for the “to go” bags that everyone will receive after Mass today. Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, we are unable to have a reception as we usually would today. A group of parishioners decided that they themselves would donate food to give out for everyone! Let us continue to pray for one another, that through the intercession of St. Martin de Porres, each of us will continue to grow as disciples of Christ the Lord.
Parish Stewardship Program
Over the last few weeks, many of you have received letters from me regarding our Parish Stewardship Program. As you know, our parish doors were closed from March to July. Our parish finances as you can imagine were impacted by the closure, most especially our Sunday Mass collections. We also missed our Holy Week and Easter collections. Realizing that this has been a difficult time for everyone financially, we have been asked to participate in this Stewardship Program. It is not connected to the Annual Catholic Appeal, nor is it a separate appeal program. What we are asking through this Stewardship Program is three-fold. One, to consider a minimal increase to your generous Sunday Mass offertory. Second, to consider electronic giving. Many of you have started to use Give Central, which electronically places your collection directly back to the parish. The third part of this program is to update our parish census. We encourage everyone to use their envelopes, but there are some families that have moved from the parish, which causes the post office to mail them back to us here at the parish office. I want to thank all of you for your continued financial support of St. Martin De Porres Parish. Please be assured of my prayers for all of you as we continue to build up this strong and vibrant faith community.
Thanksgiving Food Basket Distribution
If you know of any families who maybe going through some hardships this holiday season and will be in need of food for Thanksgiving, please send us their contact information to be placed on our Thanksgiving Food Basket distribution list. We did not collect as much food as in previous years, so please call the parish office as soon as possible to have names placed on the list.
Wishing you a blessed a peaceful week,
Father Alonzo Q. Cox