The essence of service is found in words written on a commemorative tablet located in the southeast corner of the chancel in the cathedral at Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire, England. It is placed near the grave of a remarkable woman named Mary Deacon, who died in 1730 at age 73. Written with that peculiar genius for the language which marks the best of English usage, the felicitous phrase that commemorates her life reads as follows: “To the poor of this city gave she her daily bounty, so private as not to be told, so large as scarce to be equaled.” Those two concepts of privacy and generosity describe what should be the nature and extent of our service to others. Before discussing them, I mention in passing the importance not only of how we serve but also of why we serve. Though people serve for various reasons, some more noble than others, the highest form of service is that which flows from the pure love of Christ. Such service is given without thought of gain or reward in this world or the next, but simply because the giver loves God and His children. In that consecrated service is found the best of life, the surest road to heaven. Service to others, given in love, solves the divine paradox of Christ’s gospel, that one must lose his or her life to find it (see Matthew 16:25). We lighten our own burdens by taking on those of another. In the process of losing our life in service to others, we find who we are and who Christ is. This is the promise of Jesus and the miracle of service.