Today, December 26, 2010, on the Feast of the Holy Family, the community of Deacons in New Orleans celebrated the memory of our patron St. Stephen, first deacon & martyr. This date is normally the feast of St. Stephen; supressed today to honor the Holy Family.
The gathering spot for this annual event is St. Stephen Catholic Church, a grand and elegant old church on Napoleon Avenue in the garden district of New Orleans. Deacons, wives and candidates gathered for the celebration along with our Archbishop Gregory Aymond. And we gather first at the memorial, located in the rear of the church, to honor those who have gone before us. We pay special honor to the 6 Deacons who passed away in 2010 along with the 2 widows of still serving Deacons.
We also recognized the service of the ten remaining Deacons from the ordination class of 1980, celebrating 30 years of ordained ministry, and the ten remaining Deacons from the ordination class of 1985, celebrating 25 years of ordained ministry.
Then we gathered in prayer, a reading from the 6th chapter of Acts of the Apostles, a reflection on diaconate ministry from one of our own, Deacon Richard Brady, and an address by Archbishop Aymond. We sang our songs of service and retired to the hall for an afternoon of good food and fellowship.
I now share with you a couple of paragraphs from the reflection in today's program titled "We are standing on Holy Ground":
"Today as a community we stand on holy ground. Thirty-six years have come and gone, sixteen groups have been formed for participation in the ministry of Christ as Permanent Deacons, this offer of service to the People of God is represented in the lives of more than three hundred good men. In his faithfulness God continues to call forth co-workers in the vineyard. At present we have twenty men in formation, and thirty-four who have applied to enter into a deeper discernment of God's will for their lives.
Today as a community we stand on holy ground. We give thanks for those who serve as bishops, priests, deacons and religious. We know that the harvest is great but the workers are few. We beseech God to send us more co-workers for the vineyard. We pray especially for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life and are thankful for the great numbers of vocations to the ministry of deacon in the Church. May this celebration we share on the Feast of the Holy Family inspire us to answer yes again and again to God's invitation to be faithful, to love and to serve. To Him be Honor, Glory and Praise."
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