Posted by
Redtown on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:11:01 AM
Most of us first heard of Father Mychal Judge, the late New York fire chaplain and "the saint of 9/11", from that iconic photo of his body being carried from Ground Zero.
Fr. Mychal died in the lobby of the WTC while giving aid, interjected by his loud pleas to God to end the disaster and spare lives. His final hour of life at Ground Zero was surely witness that God had not abandoned us.
Even prior to his heroic death on 9/11, Father Mychal was widely seen by many New Yorkers as a living saint for his deep spirituality and his extraordinary work not only with firefighters -- but with the homeless, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and others rejected by society.
This often annoyed the Roman church hierarchy. But like his spiritual father St. Francis of Assisi, Mychal reported directly to a Higher Authority, as evidenced by several medically documented, miraculous healings through him.
Here was Fr. Mychal's last homily (sermon) which he spoke on Sept. 10, 2001 to firefighters. May all of us in every occupation hear these words as directed to us--
from http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com
“You do what God has called you to do.
You go out and do the job.
No matter how big the call, no matter how small,
you have no idea of what God is calling you to, but
God needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us.
God needs us to keep supporting each other,
to be kind to each other, to love each other….
“We love this job, we all do. What a blessing it is !
It’s a difficult, difficult job, but God calls you to do it,
and indeed, He gives you a love for it
so that a difficult job will be well done.
“Isn’t God wonderful ?!
Isn’t He good to you, to each one of you, and to me ?
Turn to God each day --
put your faith, your trust, your hope and your life in His hands.
He’ll take care of you and you’ll have a good life.
And this firehouse will be a great blessing
to this neighbourhood and to this city.
Amen.”