On August 10, the great Feast Day of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, issued a letter of gratitude and encouragement to all permanent deacons. In addition, His Eminence calls all deacons to greater personal sanctification in our prayer lives and in the spirituality of the diaconate. Cardinal Hummes draws our particular attention to the ministry of the Word and to the ministry of Charity, which together with the ministry of the Altar, constitute the essence of diaconal ministry.
We are to model our ministry of the Word on St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. We are to constantly struggle to study the Word, practice it, and proclaim it to others. When we were ordained, we were told:
Receive the Gospel of Christ,
whose herald you now are.
Believe what you read,
teach what you believe,
and practice what you teach.
With respect to our ministry of the Word, the Cardinal invites us to meditate on the Word, following the style of Lectio Divina (prayerful reading), and make it our own.
With respect to our ministry of Charity, we are to take as our great model, St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, who administered the goods of the Christian community for Pope Sixtus II. As stated by Pope Benedict XVI, Lawrence was well recognized for his concern for the poor, his generous service of the Church, and his faithfulness to the Pope. Deacons are to identify themselves in a special way with charity, and to assist the poor and marginalized with great generosity. In the recent encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, the Holy Father states “Charity is the royal road of the social doctrine of the Church.”
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