Prayer Request

A reader writes:

First off, thank you for the work you do in the vineyard. I enjoy your blog and your posts on FB.  I don’t always agree; but I appreciate that, with the Church, you call me to think even and especially when I don’t want to because I *think* I’m right.

Thank you for your kind words.

I am hoping to bend your ear/eyes…

I am currently discerning a vocation to the permanent diaconate. I have been accepted and have entered the propaedeutic period of the program as an aspirant in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  After this year long introduction, there would be 4 years of further formation.

How wonderful!  How generous of you to offer yourself as a Deacon!  Also, propaedeutic is a cool word and I, of course, know exactly what it means but will go look it up in a dictionary in order to inspire others to use the dictionary.  Yeah.  That’s it.  That’s the ticket!

Could you please pray that I do God’s will? That when He reveals it to me, I am awake enough, smart enough, and love enough to “get it”? I believe he has put me on this path, but from experience, I am extremely proficient at projecting my will on His path for me.  Pray that I don’t do that. Please pray that I discern his will in love.

Also, please pray that I have the courage and the self-detachment to follow his path, wherever it leads.

Could you also please pray for my wife?…who I am convinced is a saint for even having married me.  Pray that we grow in Christ together and pray that all ministries we undertake be rooted in the strength and spirit of the grace of our matrimony. She is my everything, pray I do right by her.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you.

I will continue to remember you and your ministry in my prayers.

Your brother in Christ.

Father, hear the prayer of this faithful son of yours and guide his good and true heart to walk in your ways and find the guidance and provision necessary to do the work you have called him to do.  Bless his wife with your guidance and provision as well so that they may grow together in holiness and build up your kingdom here on earth and into eternity.  St. Joseph, Mother Mary, and St. Stephen, pray for them!  We ask this through Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen!