Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Servant of All

I often think of one particular seminarian from several years ago who obviously will remain nameless, as he himself would prefer. He was a quiet sort of man; you hardly knew he was around. But somehow he always appeared out of the woodwork when something needed to be done. Whether it was conducting the liturgy or reading the lessons or ushering or lighting the candles, he was there to do it. At a potluck supper he would be the one setting up tables and chairs and then seeking the end of the line filing past the buffet table. One day I asked him why he wanted to enter the ministry. Out of all the profound theological things he might have said, the only answer he could muster sounded like an incomplete sentence: "I...want to serve." May the Holy Servitude be filled with an army of such men who see the ministry as their work and not a status.

Dr. James Bollhagen

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