With The Help of God

Joyful Servants

Joyful Servant Deacons and Wives with Bishop Vann and Bishop Brown

Oregon excursion

No, I haven't stop the novena.  I just got back from a quick trip to Portland, Oregon with Loni visiting some old friends.  My quick trip mentality somehow did not include a cord to power my laptop!  So, with divine providence, I was taken away from my "internet world" and was blessed with an amazing time out with God's creations.

I will be posting Day 3, 4, and 5, as soon as I can get my self reoriented with the "always connected" world. It's a strange feeling to be gone for just a few days and finding myself with a new perspective on life.  I hope to share thoughts on this in a near future post.

Novena to Deacon Saints, Day 2: St. Francis of Asissi

Since we visited Catholic Charities of Orange County last night, and Joe S. made the suggestion, I thought our Day 2 should focus on the deacon saint most exemplified the spirit of love for all creations, St. Francis of Assisi.  Much have been written on St. Francis, and it would be a disservice for me to try and duplicate those efforts.  Having noted that, I hope that you will join with me in lifting up our intention for a most blessed ordination and a lifetime of service to all, by the intercession of St. Francis, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.  Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi, by Deacon Lawrence Klimecki
The Book of Saints

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Lord, make me an instrument of peace
Where there is hatred,Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood,
As to understand;
For it is in giving that we
Receive, it is in pardoning that
We are pardoned.
And it is in Dying that we are
Born to Eternal life.

Novena to Deacon Saints, Day 1: St. Stephen

As ordination draws nearer, I want to offer a novena to all of my brothers and sisters that are in the Joyful Servants diaconate formation class.  Each day I will post an intentional prayer to a Deacon saint, and I hope you will join me in offering the novena for all of us being ordained.  Joe G. sent me a novena prayer to Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr.  I think it's appropriate that we begin Day 1 with a prayer to the first deacon and martyr.

St. Stephen, by Deacon Lawrence Klimecki
(used without permission, forgive us our trespasses)

O glorious St. Stephen, first Martyr for the Faith, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles. I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you to take my present need under your special protection the Joyful Servants, that they may serve faithfully in your love to all. Vouchsafe to recommend it to our Lord Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the angels and saints praise Him through all eternity.


O most powerful Saint Stephen, Deacon and martyr, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for me the grace of entering heaven, forever and ever.

Oh, most holy Saint Stephen,
Pray for us, so that we may be worthy of Christ.

Here is a little history of him.
St. Stephen was a deacon and the first martyr of the Church.  We read about him in Chapters Six and Seven of the Acts of the Apostles.  As a deacon, he was one of the seven chosen by the apostles for the specific ministry of distribution of food to widows and the poor.  The scriptures refer to him as a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, Acts 6:5.  Stephen was well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures.  He used them to try to convince others that Jesus was the Messiah but his efforts were rejected.  The result was the stoning of Stephen by an angry crowd.

About Deacon Lawrence Klimecki

I was searching for deacon saints when I came across this website The Books of Saints.  What got me hooked was that the first volume was on Deacon Saints!  I'm definitely getting the first volume.  I wanted to know more about the artist/writer, but there was no bio about him on the website.  So I went and google for "Lawrence Klimecki" and found that he has another blog devoted to religious and liturgical arts called Gryphon Rampant.  Beautiful artworks!  I'm more intrigued as well as inspired.  Again, there was no "about" page that I could find.  This is like searching for Waldo--mystery man.  I went back to the Google results page, and near the bottom, I almost exclaimed "No Way!"  Lawrence Klimecki turns out to be a Deacon for Presentation of Blessed Mary Parish in Sacramento, CA.  I'm thinking a road trip to Sacramento is in the near future for me.

This is how you do it

Yes, I will have to pledge my obedience to the guy in the cowboy hat in a few weeks.  That's my Bishop Kevin W. Vann on the piano, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaking for myself, I really have a big problem with this "obedience" thing.  It was a real obstacle to my discernment toward diaconate ordination.  I still have my reservation, but I chose to push forward since I vowed to go on this path as far as I could and not quit on my own.  The Church have to kick me out before I give up my diaconate calling.  Having said this, I now see that my obedience issue is link to lack of respect, lack of trust.  It's understandable, to me at least, that I can't respect or trust someone whom I do not have a relationship with.  Although I am pledging my obedience to the office of the Bishop, it's still difficult for me to separate the office from the person.  I am not a robot where I can distinguish between the Holy Office of the Bishop of Orange, and Kevin W. Vann.  To me, they are one and the same.  I would hope that Kevin W. Vann sees himself as Bishop all the time and not just some of the time.  And to that end, I need to develop a relationship with Kevin W. Vann before I can give him my respect, trust, and ultimately, my obedience.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of Kevin W. Vann to be our shepherd, our Bishop.  Please grant him the wisdom to guide your children, courage to defend your flock, and compassion to do all in love for your people.  In all this, we ask through the intercession of Mary, Mother of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reign with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus Loves You

But I'm His favorite

When we were down in Cabo San Jose back in July, I spotted this article about human trafficking in a secular "Gringo" newspaper.  Note the caption in the lower right corner.  When was the last time you saw something like this in a newspaper?