Servant of Charity
To habitually anticipate the needs of others is a sign of true Christian charity. To spend one's life alleviating the sufferings of others and bringing joy to one's neighbor brings witness to the reality of Christ's love in one's mind and heart. This is the pattern of service and ministry we discover in Father McGivney as we plot the events of his daily life.
Father McGivney seems never to have failed in his interest and concern for others, even at the expense of his own health and well being. We can only rejoice in the example he provides: united to Christ in the Mass, prayer and sacrifice yet never removed from the realities of life that so preoccupied the members of his flock.
There was in Father McGivney a balance between the human and divine. His ability to mourn with those in sorrow and rejoice with those in need of joy and encouragement typified his priestly disposition. Every one of us, cleric or lay, married or single, need to achieve such a balance, an integration, in our own lives.
God hears our prayers for help, and he listens to the powerful intercession of his friends, the saints. Let us learn to invoke the intercession of his holy, humble and very human parish priest for our conversion and growth in spiritual life.
