May 2022
My dear sisters
and brothers in Christ Jesus:
In this issue, we celebrate the special anniversaries of our priests, religious sisters and permanent deacons, expressing our gratitude for the many years of service represented among these servants of the Lord.
Our priests are called to renew their love for and fidelity to Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, to whom we joyfully gave our lives on the day of our ordination. It is to be a selfless love mirroring that of Jesus Christ, never counting the cost or the hours. Our gratitude for the ministry of our priests is really an appreciation for the priesthood of Jesus Christ, who through the ministerial priesthood nourishes the faithful with the Most Holy Eucharist and strengthens God’s people with the Sacraments.
In this month, we also express our gratitude for the religious sisters honored and the members of their respective communities, who have so enriched the family of God. Through religious sisters and brothers, the Catholic faith continues to come alive and reaches those most in need, offering them the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, which our religious experience daily in their prayers. As women and men consecrated to God in their own special manner, they serve the salvific mission of the Church through the profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and holy obedience. Their lives remind us of the “life of the world to come!” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed).
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Rochester, following its reinstatement at the Second Vatican Council. For four decades, our Diocese has been blessed with the dedicated service of our permanent deacons, who with the support of their wives and families, have accepted the call of Christ to ordained ministry, blending together the challenges of family life, work and ministry. Our permanent deacons are ministers of charity and serve Jesus in the poor, the foreigner, the outcast, the forgotten and the lost, the imprisoned and the refugee, as well as the faithful in our parishes.
I ask you to join me in asking God’s blessings upon all our dear Jubilarians as they continue to build up the Body of Christ, the Church. May they know of our appreciation, not only this month, but always!
Finally, please join me in praying each day for future vocations, asking “the Master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Luke 10:2), especially here in our Diocese of Rochester.
Invoking the intercession of Our Mother Mary in this month dedicated to her, I remain, with an assurance of my prayers,
Devotedly yours in Christ,
The Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano
Bishop of Rochester
