F.r Samuel Martin presented his parishioners with a version of a “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay in the of Wausau's Holy Name of Jesus Parish newsletter.

Looking back over the past few months, Martin reported that he’d had to cancel some travel, but that he and seminarian Tim Reither had visited churches in the diocese, including Saint Anthony’s in Cazenovia, and Sacred Heart in Lone Rock, as well as churches in Boyd, Cadott, Marathon City and Rock Falls. They hosted seminarians multiple times and played euchre late into the night.

“Tim and I watched some good movies together too," Martin said in the newsletter. “'Life is Beautiful' is one of my favorites, and we invited John Duranso over for that one. We also watched “Twelve Angry Men” together— that’s the Henry Fonda film that was produced in 1957 and is still an absolute classic. 

"Insofar as 'all work and no play makes us dull boys,' we watched 'What about Bob?' with Bill Murray. I explained to Tim that it’s really a story about clingy parishioners. He always seemed to appreciate the wisdom that I was sharing with him." 

The two went fishing and while the water temperature and food supply made catching fish difficult, Martin caught small perch, enjoying the time outside on the lakes. He spent more time outdoors walking almost daily, while Reither made multiple trips around Rib Mountain during the summer on his road bike. They read books and visited family too. 

“Looking back and counting our blessings is essential to living with hope and joy," Martin said. "We need a little help from the Holy Spirit to do this, otherwise we tend to remember the failures and not the blessings. Doing this every day gradually changes our hearts so that we look forward to each new day with the hope that something good might happen. And when our hearts are eager to embrace life, our hope becomes contagious. 

"Remembering the past with gratitude prepares us to live in the present with hope and to look forward to the future without fear. Ask the Holy Spirit every night before you go to bed to show you the day as He saw it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many good things we forget that make life worth living.”