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.
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