I hope you're doing well today. I am getting ready to go on a pilgrimage and I'd like to invite you if you have an intention that you'd like me to carry with me, please send it in e-mail to me or send it to office. On Monday I am going to head to Rome. A guy that I've known since he was 16 years old, was in the youth group that I used to help lead in Salem, he is going to be ordained a Deacon in Saint Peters Basilica next Thursday. It's an exciting time and it's a super privileged moment for me to see him become a Deacon, and to watch how he's grown and become more like Christ as he gives his life over to the Church.
I'm here at the Grotto, standing by the 12th Station of The Cross, where Jesus dies on the cross. That's what a Deacon is all about; the Deacon is the sacramental sign that means he incarnates and makes flesh, he's meant to at least, reflect the passion and the total outpouring love of Jesus Christ. When we see a Deacon, we're supposed to see someone so given over to the Father, so given over in love for us, that we believe that there's been no greater love given than that, and now it's becoming present to us. It's a great challenge to have to be that, and the Deacons primary apostolate is service, especially to the poor and the lowly. He serves at the table of the Word, that is, he proclaims the gospel and sometimes preaches. At the table, the altar, where he helps the priest as Jesus Christ makes himself present.
Pray for Brent, he was with us for a couple weeks one summer, so pray for him as he becomes a Deacon that he might be that model of total self-giving, that kenosis of Christ. That's something I'm hoping, why I'm going on pilgrimage and not just a trip, that I'm able to do that. Thanks to the generous gift that you gave me for my 10th anniversary as a priest, I can renew that in my own life, that I can be a better witness, a better receiver of Christ total self-outpouring of love and better giving it over for you.
If you have any intentions that you'd like me to take with me to Saint Peters to offer up to the Lord as an offering, let me know and so I will pray for that in those holy places of Rome. While I am gone, you'll get to have Bishop Peter with you and a couple of other priests so I hope you enjoy, and I should be back if flights go well on Thursday the 6th of October.
God Bless You,
Fr. Matt