It was a cold blustery night in 1947 when Abbe Pierre who was known as a modern apostle of mercy and Service to the poor in Paris, found a young family almost frozen to death on the streets. He invited them into his own poor dwelling, which was already crowded with vagrants. Where could he possibly house another family? Abbe Pierre was a man of Service and he knew he would find a way, even though not everyone would applaud what he did.

Abbe Pierre went to the chapel, not to pray, but to solve his problem. He removed the Blessed Sacrament and placed it in a cold unheated area in the attic. Then he took the family to the warm chapel to sleep for the night.

When his Dominican confreres heard of this, they expressed shock at such irreverence to the Blessed Sacrament. Abbe Pierre replied simply, "Jesus Christ isn’t cold in the Eucharist, but He is cold in the body of a little child."

Felix, a watchmaker, and Mary Barreda, a hairdresser, were a couple who found ways to be of Service with the poor of Nicaragua in the coffee fields. They had been married for 30 years and had six children. They were leaders in a base community and expressed their faith by Service to the impoverished. Since coffee was the main crop, the contras instilled terror against the coffee harvesters, and many workers were killed or wounded. On Dec. 28, 1982, the contras surrounded the workers and kidnapped 56. The coffee crop was destroyed. Felix and Mary were forced to march to a camp in Honduras where Mary was repeatedly raped. The couple was executed on January 7, 1983.

Mary Barreda had written earlier: "The opportunity to go and pick coffee will be converted into health, clothing, homes, and roads, and food. For this, I am going to pick coffee with all my love and enthusiasm. In every grain I cut, every bean I pick, everyone of your faces will be present."

"Whatever you do to the least of My brothers and sisters, that you do unto Me"... clear message from Jesus, who is the model of Service in the highest degree.