St. Martin de Porres
The parishioners at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church celebrate the feast day by renewing their faith in a spiritual revival. Those who attend the Revival are parishioners from St. Martin de Porres and parishioners from neighboring parishes. Normally, as many as 200 to 250 participants attend the Revival, this year due to covid 19, many people decided not to attend large gatherings. Even though there would be less participants, the Prayer and Worship Committee decided to go forth with planning for the Revival because of the spiritual benefits and the renewal of faith that participants will receive from the Revival. The Prayer and Worship Committee decided to have the Revival virtually by Zoom and also have participants in Church during the Revival.
The theme for the 2021 Revival was “Faith Without Works Is Dead” and the readings were from James 2:14-18 and Acts 12:1-11. Father Maurice J. Nutt, a redemptorist priest, from New Orleans was the Revivalist. The Revival began on Saturday, November 6 at 7:00 P.M. during a Prayer Service, with 25 participants in church and 10 people participated virtually on Zoom.
Father Maurice preached a sermon with a focus on Peter in Acts 12:1-11 as Peter was in chains and was imprisoned for preaching about Jesus. Even though he was in prison, he still continued to preach. Father Maurice called our attention to the fact that Peter had faith in face of such danger. He did not give up even though he was in chains. This was a lesson for us is “to have faith even when things fall apart”. He also reminded us that “real faith is not activated until the bottom drops out and that God will make chains fall off of us as He did for Peter”. Father Maurice also emphasized that we are to identify who Jesus is for each one of us.
Our Revival ended on Sunday, November 7 at the 9:00 A.M. Mass. There were 100 participants at Mass and no one participated virtually by Zoom. Again we were reminded to identify who Jesus is for us.
Many parishioners commented that they truly felt renewed and revived. They also want to continue to celebrate the Feast of St. Martin De Porres as part of the Annual Revival.
