Our Lady Of Perpetual Help

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Reflection - Week of May 3

Question of the Week:

What can I do this week to know Jesus better, to serve those who are overlooked, and to prepare my spiritual home?

(From PASTORAL PATTERNS. Copyright © 2025 World Library Publications, a division of GIA Publications, Inc., 7404 South Mason Avenue, Chicago, IL 60638)

  As the early church grew and grew, especially when Saint Paul or one of the Twelve came to preach, with hundreds of people being baptized every day, more ministers were needed to serve the church’s many members. In the first reading today, it is the needy among the Hellenists—who most likely were Palestinian Jews and other Jews from the diaspora who spoke Greek, the more common language at the time, and not Hebrew or Aramaic—who are being overlooked. Clearly, the Twelve did not want this to continue. But there were only so many of them and they needed to remain dedicated to preaching and teaching the word of God. So they appointed seven disciples (seven symbolizing universality) to take on the task of serving those with material needs. These seven—all with Greek names—are considered the Church’s first deacons (from the Greek diakonos meaning servant).

     The building we enter to celebrate the Eucharist may be made in part with physical stones, but Peter points out in our second reading today that the Church is made of a different kind of stone: living stones. Along with all other baptized Christians, we make a living spiritual home in which God may dwell. Just as we would prepare our own physical home for guests, we pray that God help us prepare our spiritual home so that we may be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood,

a holy nation, a people of his own” so that our lives may be lived in praise of God (1 Peter 2:9).