At 90 years old, Deacon Lawrence “Larry” Hammel has no desire to slow down. For the last 20-plus years, he’s served as a permanent deacon at St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville, a hospital chaplain and a prison ministry coordinator. But his ministry extends beyond the bounds of the Arlington diocese.
Several times a month, Deacon Larry packs a suitcase and his two cats, Noah and Oliver, and drives from his home in Potomac Falls to his cabin in Romney, W.Va. He serves two parishes in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston: Our Lady of Grace Church in Romney and Assumption Church in Keyser. In addition to preaching the homily at Sunday Mass, he holds a Communion service whenever a priest cannot celebrate daily Mass, and organizes First Friday adoration.
Recently, he launched a support group for the West Virginia parishioners. He said the support group welcomes parishioners of any season of life who need consolation and accompaniment through their life’s struggles. “I’m called to walk with people in their little crises, whatever the crises will be,” he said.
At St. Francis de Sales, he preaches the homily on third Sundays and helps run the Young at Heart group for seniors. But the ministry that is closest to his heart is preparing parents for their children’s baptisms. “It’s a fun experience,” he said. At his meetings with parents, he walks them through the baptismal promises. But he also takes the opportunity to encourage them to strengthen their family’s faith life. Parents need to feed their babies often, “are you not feeding yourself on the Eucharist?” he asks them.
He has also witnessed the Holy Spirit at work behind the bars of a cell and in hospital rooms.
Before the pandemic, Deacon Larry coordinated prison ministry at the Loudoun Adult Detention Center. He said the inmates he encountered were hungry for hope. “Two-thirds to three-quarters of the inmates who came were not Catholic,” he said.
In addition to prison ministry, he served as a hospital chaplain at the Loudoun Adult Medical and Psychiatry Services near Leesburg until the pandemic. “You see everything there, believe me,” he said. His late wife, Marianne, had served as a nurse in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and ministering to the sick became a family endeavor.
But, as Deacon Larry often said, “I wasn’t born a deacon.” He was born in Queens, N.Y., in 1935 and grew up on Long Island. In 1956, he met Marianne at a parish young adult dance in Huntington, N.Y. Several months later, the two went to another dance, with Marianne dressed as a cowgirl in yellow. The next day, he took her on a date to the beach, and thus began a lifetime of love. They married Sept. 26, 1959, and went on to raise four children and share 64 years of marriage.
The moment he and Marianne returned from the honeymoon, he found out he had been drafted into the U.S. Army. He started out his marriage as an E-5 specialist and served for several years before he left to work as an engineer.
Several decades later, he felt God’s call to serve the church. He was ordained a permanent deacon May 19, 1984, for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He enjoyed ministry as a deacon, and as soon as he and Marianne moved to Northern Virginia in 2000, he searched for a parish to set down roots. He served at multiple parishes in the Arlington diocese, including Christ the Redeemer in Sterling and St. John the Apostle in Leesburg, and settled at St. Francis de Sales.
Two decades later, Marianne died March 20, 2024. Deacon Larry said that throughout his life, his marriage has helped him better respond to God’s call. “I can’t love God without loving Marianne. If I love Marianne, I’m loving God,” he said.
And while he misses his wife every day, “I am joy-filled,” he said, scratching Noah behind the ears. “I’m blessed. There’s a purpose for me, and it’s good. It’s fulfilling.”
Donofrio can be reached at [email protected].
