Today we celebrate the feast of St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence was a deacon and a martyr. Our prayers go out today and every day to all the faithful deacons of the Church, through the intercession of St. Lawrence. Thank you, deacons, for your service to God’s people! The first reading today is from 2 Corinthians 9…”for God loves a cheerful giver.” Certainly the deacons that I know are an embodiment of this Scripture.
The Gospel reading today is from John 12. Jesus says to His disciples, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” This is a very appropriate passage for the feast of St. Lawrence. You see, St. Lawrence dedicated his life to serving the poor.
People have a lot of different ideas about what it means to serve Jesus. Indeed, there are many different ways to serve Him. St. Lawrence knew that in serving the poor, he was serving Jesus. Jesus always showed a preference for the poor. Though we may not be able to dedicated our entire lives in service to the poor, I’m sure that there are numerous ways that we could probably do more than we are currently doing. Is there something you can do to help serve the poor today?
Father, through the intercession of St. Lawrence, we ask you to enlighten us today as to how we may better the serve the poor. Give us the grace to put our faith into action. Amen.
Gus,
Thank you so much for the focus of today’s show on the life and service today’s Permanent Deacons. It is a blessing for us to hear how so many lives have touched by a deacon in one of your listener’s home parish. May God continue to bless deacons’ wives. Without their support, we couldn’t do the work to which we have been called. I am blessed to be a member of the Ordination Class of 1998 for Service in the
Diocese of Metuchen NJ.
During these 20 years, I have
experienced all aspects of parish
ministry. After completing 4
years of Clinical Pastoral
Education (CPE), God has led
me to St Joseph’s Health in
Paterson NJ where I presently
serve as the Director of Pastoral
Care for our 3 facilities. Thank you Gus for all the great work you do every day.
Blessings,
Deacon Larry