Msgr. John Martin 1934- 2021

Today we went to the funeral of one of our favorite priests, Monsignor John Martin.  He has served the Diocese of Rockville Centre for sixty years in many different capacities, as a teacher and as a pastor of a number of churches.  He retired in 2007 and eventually came to St. Brigid's Church where it has been a joy to have him.  He is such a wonderful teacher and homilist.  His sense of humor shows the spark within him and that while delivering a sermon, he finds that humor is helpful, and welcome.  He was also self-effacing, letting us all know that he struggled with the normal human traits, as we all do and that made his lessons so much more relevant.  We first got to know him when Kathy had a question on religion that had to do with one of her clients.  She asked if she could come talk with him, and she recorded the session.  The biggest lesson was that religion was not about rules, but, simply, about love, in all it's aspects.  That was the beginning of our friendship and we invited him to our house for dinner a number of times, and it was a joy to spend time with him.  We would be excited when, before Mass started each week, we would catch a glimpse of him and say to each other "It's Father Martin!" as we looked forward to yet another wonderful lesson about life from him.  We will miss him so.