I got an email earlier today from Deacon Timoteo Lujan, director of the diaconate and diaconate formation for the Diocese of Gallup:
We had a deacon ordination last Saturday, November 7 and I would like to send you a pic and a short excerpt from the bishop’s homily for your regular notice about diaconate ordinations. We are a small diocese in people, about 90,000, but we cover a very large territory of very poor people in NW New Mexico and NE Arizona. There are 7 Native American reservations in our territory.
He then sent along the picture above, showing Deacon James Wurzbach with his wife Gloria and Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup. Deacon Timoteo included this paragraph from the homily:
Gathered here in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart as we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we also celebrate the ordination of our brother James to the diaconate for service to the Church. Jesus said I came to serve and not to be served and to offer my life as ransom for the many. This is what we see in the calling to the Order of the Diaconate. As we hear, especially in the second reading, the first of the deacons to be called to the church the Apostles identify this need in the church of how the widows were not being attended to properly. We know that to do justice is to take care of the widow and the orphan. This is a real call to service but also a biblical metaphor for all service and justice. And so the calling of deacons is to call them to do justice. So today, we truly give thanks and praise to God for James saying yes to this call.
Congratulations, brother, and welcome! Ad multos annos! And thank you to Deacon Timoteo for this wonderful news.
