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?

Be still?

These folks played a big part in making this a great retreat!

Lennie, Del, and our retreat master Br. Charlie

Silent conversion or conversation?

One with God

Peaceful

Enjoying the cool breeze after signing our lives over to the Church
(we still have time to reconsider!)

Be still and know that I am God...

Come away and rest a while...

I have loved you with an everlasting love...

These are some of the verses playing through my mind for the past few days as I and my companions struggled through our diaconate ordination silent retreat.

I've been on silent retreat before, and so perhaps I was a little bit more prepared for the unstructured nature of focusing on my relationship with God.  Even so, I was frustrated by the lack of "space" as the hot weather all but forced me to stay mostly indoors.  I wanted to venture into nature, into that sacred space that God created.  Sad to say, though, I got a barren field of dirt and a few shady spot that wasn't exactly inspiring.  Oh, boy, God is going to have a tough time getting through, or so I thought. 

Commitment Ahead

I can't put a finger on it, but I do believe I am having commitment issue. I went through a similar life experience a couple of months before marrying the love of my life. I don't want the date to come, and at the same time, I can't wait to begin. I supposed I should warn the reader that this post may not make sense since I am just typing what is pouring out of my head. I will not edit this post. I want to be able to come back and see how unstable my mind state was before ordination. By the way, take a look to the right. That's how many days are left. It's getting closer, and scarier. Well, I am not scare of the day. I am apprehensive, however, of the hours and days after. There's the homily to prepare, movements and lines to memorized, and worst of all, trying to say the right thing at the right time, especially personal blessings. Jesus, Mary, Joseph. Help me.

The 13th Apostle

Today is the feast day of St. Matthias.  Little is known about this so called "13th Apostle."  Now, some of you may argue that St. Paul is the real 13th Apostle, and I would agree to that position as well.  This could be confusing to some since there can only be one 13th apostle.  According to today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias were among those unnamed follower of Christ, and thus he had first hand experience of Christ's teaching, and so he was chosen to be an apostle by the 11.

Paul, on the other hand, was chosen by the risen Christ to be his messenger, and so by default, Paul is also an apostle.

Here's the kicker, which one do you think is the more "productive" of the two?  Matthias, picked by men, or Paul, picked by Jesus?  This is not to downplay the contribution of St. Matthias to the Church, but it does shows us that God's selection is infinitely better than Man's choice.

"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, ..." John 15:16

Dear Jesus, as we are discerning the call to serve, please let your will be done and let us be example of your love to all those we meet.  Amen.