Quote for the Day

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“We are called to depth of heart, breadth of vision, and integrity of action.” — Michelle L’Allier, OSF

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Quote for the Day

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“It never pays to become discouraged at the faults of others or at our own.” — Venerable Solanus Casey, OFM Cap.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Trinity Sunday, Cycle B, 2015

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless each of you!

Trinity Sunday, Cycle B

May 30/31, 2015

 Dt. 4: 32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28: 16-20

The central mystery of our Christian faith is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. God, the only God, the one God, who is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the Trinity, and the revelation of the Trinity by God himself through the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit that is the core of all we believe as Catholic Christians.

God is one, one God, the only God, infinitely perfect, infinitely pure, infinitely just, eternal, the complete Truth, without division or defect, God without beginning or end, who knows all, understands all, God who is pure Love. He is incomparable. He has no equal. He is everywhere at all times. He is brilliantly beautiful. This is the same God of whom Moses spoke in our first reading today:

Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and the earth below and there is no other.

 Yet, God is three as we heard in our second reading from St. Paul, and in our Gospel today. For St. Paul told us that God the Spirit enlightens us to recognize God the Father, Abba, and glorifies us in God the Son, Jesus; and Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel to go and baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice he said name not names. One God, three Persons.

Yes, one God, three divine Persons. One divine nature, one divine will, all three persons acting together as one divine Being.

This God, who is both One and Three, and possesses all these attributes is the same God who dwells in you by the grace of your baptism. He is the same God who, as Moses said, now calls you to live your lives always aware of this relationship you have with Him, always conscious that wherever you are, whatever you do, God is there, the mighty eternal amazingly beautiful and awesome and powerful God, is right there each and every moment telling you to not be afraid to do what He asks and demands.

 We are called into the relationship with the Trinity. This is what we learn if we contemplate the Holy Trinity. We are called into a relationship , an intimate relationship with God himself! God never leaves us alone and we cannot flee him. This is why we so very much need each other and the Church, why we need family, why we need God. We were created to be in relationship with God, the triune God, who is himself a perfect relationship of Father, Son and Spirit.

Why is it today more and more of us think we do not need to be in Church, we don’t need each other to know God or worship Him? We cannot live in love, or thrive in life, without each other to sustain each other and to love each other. Just as God the Father never does anything without God the Son and God the Spirit, for indeed they, though three Persons are one God and act in complete unity, so too we must not act as lone rangers in our lives. We must not live as if we are only individuals and relate only to ourselves. No, we are one with each other. We desperately need each other. We must act together as on Body in Jesus Christ.

Just as the Father is always and completely a father to us, always and at each moment fathering us, so too the Son is always one with us in our human struggles to teach us how to be united to him and to follow him as true sons and daughters of God, and so too the Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son into our lives at baptism and confirmation, draws us up into the love who is God and enables us to be in relationship with the very nature of God.

Yes, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central Christian mystery. No one can understand it with reason alone. Only God knows himself as he is. We only know what he has revealed to us about him, and he has revealed to us that he is One God in three divine Persons. Not only that, but he has sent the Spirit into our lives to draw us up into an intimate relationship with him. Only Divine Love could draw us into this relationship with the Trinity, because without God’s love in the Spirit we would be far too afraid to come close. We would hide in fear. But God sends us his love in the power of the Holy Spirit who always says to us, “Be not afraid!”

We are to live in these mysteries. Our lives are to be swallowed up, you might say, by the Holy Trinity. Our lives are to become one with God.

May God the Father protect you!

May God the Son walk with you!

May God the Holy Spirit inspire you to newness of life!

May the blessings of God remain with you always!

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning’s Mass. God bless!

I fell in love with the Book of Sirach, which we are reading this week as our first reading at Mass, back in my freshman year in college. Back then, I was required to read the whole Bible from front to back as part of a full-year scripture course. I came to Sirach, which I had never read before, and I loved it.

In Sirach we hear described in so many wonderful ways who God is and how he acts in the world. Beautiful descriptions of God and his working in the world. It gives us the opportunity to contemplate, to reflect, on what we know about God.

Of course we think of God as the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, and we will be hearing about him in that way this Sunday as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, but what else has God revealed about himself?

God is one. There is only one God, there is no other. God is perfect unity. God is perfect balance. God knows all and is everywhere. We may try to evade God’s presence but we can’t. No matter where we may be, God is there. God is pure spirit. God has no defect or error. God is the Truth. God is pure Love. God is so much more than these attributes. No one cannot understand God, only God himself. We know only what he has revealed to us.

This is the same God who lives in you! The God of the universe lives in you! In the fullness of time, and with great love, he chose to become man to further reveal to us who he is and to draw us to him in an intimate relationship. God wanted to touch us as a man and forgive us and bring us into communion with him.

My friends, I think it is good for us to take the time today, maybe for just five or ten minutes, to sit back and think of God, and how he loves us and lives in us and wants us to become like him.

God lives in you! The God who is so much greater and different than us, the all-powerful Divine Being, the Triune God, lives in you! He brings you to himself!

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Random Thoughts as we enter Ordinary Time

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Well, I just prayed Vespers for Pentecost. That means I have entered Ordinary Time, as have all of you who similarly have prayed the Office. For those of you who love the Easter season and do not want it to end, you can extend it a few hours, if you would like, you know like until about 7:30 pm your time. You really shouldn’t pray Vespers later though so as to drain the last few drops of Easter joy from the season!

I don’t know, but I rather like Ordinary Time. The Old Testament readings in the Office and at Mass, the “greenness” such a sign of life, and the breadth of the Gospel readings for Mass that challenge me as a preacher. Yeah, Ordinary Time is okay.

Moving on….. I was privileged to attend yesterday the wedding of the daughter of a good deacon friend of mine in Rochester, Minnesota. I kid you not, there were four priests on the altar, a deacon, a couple of other priests in the congregation, and four other deacons in attendance. Plenty of clergy. The couple was richly blessed in that way. The liturgy was excellent, the homily engaging, the conversation afterward rejuvenating. It is always so good to be with brother deacons, especially in liturgy and in celebration. I was able to meet and laugh with a deacon from the Diocese of Green Bay who boldly proclaimed the Gospel at the Mass and equally boldly kept us mutually in laughter at the reception. Good stuff all around. I always find it so remarkable that we deacons have common struggles and joys regardless of our dioceses or our assignments. Proved true yesterday.

I was wondering at 9:30 am Mass today, as I was being deacon in the sanctuary moving about in my activity, “How does one enliven a parish.? What brings newness of life to a community?” I don’t have a facile answer, although I keep going back to the idea of improved preaching. The beginning seems to me to always lay in the preaching of the Word to hopefully open ears, followed only then by the Eucharist. This is how the liturgy itself is structured, is it not? So I ask myself, “How much of ministry do we structure in the same way? What do we first give the people? Is it the Word? Or is it bread?”

Moving on again, I am anxiously awaiting the printing of the Josephinum Diaconal Review (JDR) for a couple of reasons: 1) my article entitled, The Diaconal Call to a Spiritual Martyrdom, will be finally published, and 2) I can begin to use the JDR for continuing education purposes for our diaconal community in the diocese. It will be filled with quality articles on the diaconate from noted persons throughout the world. If you haven’t subscribed, do so soon. Log on to the Pontifical College Josephinum and click on the JDR tab.

More thoughts will quickly follow. Until then, God bless!

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, Seventh Week of Easter, 2015

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning’s early Mass. God bless each of you!

St. Paul says today, in our first reading, “I am on trial for my hope in the resurrection.” How many of us  here this morning would be convicted of this charge should we be on trial for it? Indeed, it is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that is the central piece of the Gospel, the core preaching of deacons, priests and bishops. It is the resurrection and the call to conversion, to union with him.

When Jesus rose from the dead, it was a mighty earthquake of sorts. His resurrection shook the very foundations of the world. It was an event that was so pivotal that the Apostles couldn’t help but preach to the whole world that Jesus was the Son of God who had come into the world, saved it by his cross and resurrection, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and that there is no other way for anyone to be saved but through Jesus Christ, the Gospel, and by baptism into his body the Church.

Just as we heard also today in the Gospel, a portion of Jesus’ great prayer to the Father before his Passion, just as we heard that Jesus and the Father were one in the power of the Holy Spirit, one in the Father’s love, so too are we now one with Jesus by our baptism. We are one with God. We have been incorporated as members of his very Body, so much so that wherever Jesus is, so are we! Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and so are we in a certain sense. Jesus is here on this earth, in his Mystical Body the Church, and  so are we. We are one with Jesus, and the Spirit, and the Father. We have been drawn up into the Trinitarian life.

If we could only truly begin to grasp this! If we could only begin to wrap our minds around this mystery! We are one with God by virtue of our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is no other name in heaven or earth by which we can be saved… only Jesus through his Body, the Church. No other way; no other name. Only by knowing Jesus Christ!

Yes, we must come to know Jesus! We must, as the theologians would say, encounter Jesus. To know Jesus is to open for us the gates of heaven.

When we come to know him, then, my friends, then we must go out there and live as he has commanded us to live. Then, my friends, we will experience what Jesus told us, “My commandments are not burdensome.” Then, only after knowing Jesus, will we be be able to live the Church’s moral life with its obligations and live it well.

Know Jesus! Be one with him! Live then well!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“Praised by you, my Lord, through Sister Water, so very useful and humble, precious and chaste.” —  St. Francis of Assisi

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter, Cycle B, 2015

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for the weekend. God bless each of you!

 

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B, 2015

May 9/10, 2015

Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35,44-48; 1 John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17

It is easy to “love” this passage from the Gospel. We “love” to hear it. Many today use the word “love” to explain or justify living in ways that are contrary to the Gospel and to human nature and the common good of everyone. When you ask someone why they do what goes against God’s law and the natural law written in our hearts, they often will reply, “Because of love.”

We use the word “love” to justify a whole lot of things nowadays, including our bad behavior and our confused thinking, and our misplaced beliefs. The word “love” has lost its Christian meaning, and has been reduced to meaning “affection” for something or someone.

This Gospel today is actually a daring Gospel, a real challenge to every one of us. It is a daunting challenge. It is a challenge to do something great, magnificent, bold, and different from what society would have us do. It is a call to excellence and a call to greatness. It is a call to real love.

My friends, God does not call you to smallness. God is not calling this parish to smallness or mediocrity. God is not calling the Church to small changes. No; He is calling us to great things, even things that may seem heroic at times.

In the Gospel today, Jesus doesn’t say, “Just try a little harder, would you?” What does he say? “I command you: Love one another.” It is a command. He commands us to love each other in heroic ways, even to lay down our lives if necessary. The kind of love that is truly great is not the kind of love we usually think about, i.e., feeling attracted to someone or something. The kind of love that is truly great is a love that is found in holding on to the Truth of who we are and who we are meant to be. It is found in grasping on to who God is, who he has revealed himself to be. It is found in accepting the truth that God exists and he is the source of all truth. Our thoughts and opinions and feelings are not the sources of truth, it is God.

For example: God made us male and female. God made marriage to be between a man and a woman. God made us in such a way that we are to live and die for others. God established the Church as a community of believers and gave us the sacraments to help us through this life. All of this is from God, so we do not make ourselves male or female depending on our desires. We cannot redefine marriage based on affections alone, or political or social correctness. We do not have the right to take all our gifts and talents that God has given us and use them only for ourselves. We cannot pretend to not need the Church and the sacrament.

Yes, God is calling all of us to greatness. God is calling us to the fullness of love which we can only begin to imagine. He doesn’t want mediocrity in our lives. He doesn’t want minimal effort or small changes. He wants great things. He wants us to give our all, to give everything we have, our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole selves, give it all to him. This is the first commandment, is it not? God is not calling this parish to mediocrity and now is the time for change. God is calling this parish to great things, to a great love. He wants us to become who he made us to be no matter how talented or inept we may think we are. We are called to love greatly. Now is the time for great things. Now is the time for to love each other in a more excellent way.

A former theology professor once said that we cannot comprehend the depths to which we as a people had fallen from God, nor the heights to which we are now called by Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said the same when he said, “I no longer call you slaves… I have called you friends” With the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we now are called by God, St. John said, to go forth and bear fruit that will endure. All of us are called to this excellence, and now is the time to challenge ourselves to love as Jesus has commanded us, to bear fruit. Indeed, the great truth that is so evident if we read the Scriptures, and the great mystery of Christianity is this: God over and over again revealed himself to us throughout history, revealing himself and reaching out to us in love until he finally in the fullness of time and of love did what was unimaginably great, i.e., he took on our humanity and he died and rose again so that we might know clearly what love really is, what it really means. Then he looked at us and commanded us, “I have pulled you up from the depths of sin and have raised you up high with me. I no longer call you slaves, but friends. Love others like I have loved.” At that moment, he commanded us to greatness, and promised to give us the grace and the strength to do just that in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let no one here today think that God does not love them enough to expect greatness from them. Let no one here today walk out of this morning’s Mass thinking God only expects mediocre, small things from them. No… God calls us now to love as he has loved.

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God.

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Holy Father’s Catechesis on Marriage

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Pope Francis offered us a beautiful catechesis on marriage in last Wednesday’s General Audience. I am going to incorporate it into the homily I give in weddings.

Here it is. The original is Italian. The English translation is from the Osservatore Romano.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,

In our journey of catecheses on the family, today we touch directly upon the beauty of Christian marriage. It is not merely a ceremony in a church, with flowers, a dress, photographs…. Christian marriage is a sacrament that takes place in the Church, and which also makes the Church, by giving rise to a new family community.

It is what the Apostle Paul says in his celebrated expression: “This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul says that the love between spouses is an image of the love between Christ and his Church. An unimaginable dignity! But in fact it is inscribed in the creative design of God, and with the grace of Christ innumerable Christian couples, with all their limitations and sins, have realized it!

St Paul, speaking of new life in Christ, says that Christians – every one of them – are called to love one another as Christ has loved them, that is “be subject to one another” (Eph 5:21), which means be at the service of one another. And here he introduces an analogy between husband-wife and Christ-Church. It is clear that this is an imperfect analogy, but we must take it in the spiritual sense which is very high and revolutionary, and at the same time simple, available to every man and woman who entrusts him and herself to the grace of God.

Husbands – Paul says – must love their wives “as their own body” (Eph 5:28); to love them as Christ “loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (v. 25). You husbands who are present here, do you understand this? Do you love your wives as Christ loves the Church? This is no joke, these are serious things! The effect of this radical devotion asked of man, for the love and dignity of woman, following the example of Christ, must have been tremendous in the Christian community itself. This seed of evangelical novelty, which reestablishes the original reciprocity of devotion and respect, matured throughout history slowly but ultimately it prevailed.

The sacrament of marriage is a great act of faith and love: a witness to the courage to believe in the beauty of the creative act of God and to live that love that is always urging us to go on, beyond ourselves and even beyond our own family. The Christian vocation to love unconditionally and without limit is what, by the grace of Christ, is also at the basis of the free consent that is marriage.

The Church herself is fully involved in the story of every Christian marriage: she is built on their successes and she suffers in their failures. But we must ask ourselves in all seriousness: do we ourselves as believers and as pastors, accept deep down this indissoluble bond of the history of Christ and his Church with the history of marriage and the human family? Are we seriously ready to take up this responsibility, that is, that every marriage goes on the path of the love that Christ has for the Church? It’s a great thing, this [responsibility]!

In the depths of this mystery of creation, acknowledged and restored in its purity, opens a second great horizon that marks the sacrament of marriage. The decision to “wed in the Lord” also entails a missionary dimension, which means having at heart the willingness to be a medium for God’s blessing and for the Lord’s grace to all. In deed, Christian spouses participate as spouses in the mission of the Church. This takes courage! That is why when I meet newlyweds, I say: “Here are the brave ones!”, because it takes courage to love one another as Christ loves the Church.

The celebration of the sacrament cannot leave out this co-responsibility of family life in the Church’s great mission of love. And thus the life of the Church is enriched every time by the beauty of this spousal covenant, and deteriorates every time it is disfigured. The Church, in order to offer to all the gifts of faith, hope and love, needs the courageous fidelity of spouses to the grace of their sacrament! The People of God need their daily journey in faith, in love and in hope, with all the joys and the toils that this journey entails in a marriage and a family.

The route is well marked forever, it is the route of love: to love as God loves, forever. Christ does not cease to care for the Church: he loves her always, he guards her always, as himself. Christ does not cease to remove stains and lines of every kind from the human face. Moving and very beautiful to see is this radiation of God’s power and tenderness which is transmitted from couple to couple, family to family. St Paul is right: this truly is a “great mystery”! Men and women, brave enough to carry this treasure in the “earthen vessels” of our humanity, are – these men and these women who are so brave – an essential resource for the Church, as well as for the world! May God bless them a thousandfold for this!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“How can we ever thank the merciful God that we still have a chance to humble ourselves and to merit?” — Ven. Solanus Casey, OFM Cap.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, 4th Week of Easter, 2015

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning. God bless!

Last week at the National Association of Diaconate Directors convention in Minneapolis, I was able to take in a lecture given by George Weigel, a noted theologian often interviewed on EWTN, Relevant Radio and NBC news. He spoke about Catholic evangelism, and the new epoch of the Church that began during the papacy of Leo XIII and advanced by all his successors.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis, and certainly Pope John Paul II and even Pope John Paul I if you read his several papal speeches, all have called on the Church to enter into a new evangelization of the world. The Holy Fathers have reminded us thats all of us, from the greatest to the least, are called to reintroduce Jesus Christ into our world. Each of us, by virtue of our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us, are called to proclaim the Gospel. Certainly, our society desperately needs this.

None of us are exempt from this mission. All of us, no matter how talented we may or may not be, are called to the same task. We must bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. This is the new evangelizaton.

It is easy for us to say to ourselves, “I don’t have the talent or the aptitude to do that. I don’t have the education.” No…. each of us are called by virtue of our baptisms to proclaim Jesus to the world.

In the Acts of the Apostles, which we are reading at Mass each day during the Easter season, we hear how seemingly insignificant men were called, given the Holy Spirit, and then went forth and evangelized a culture. Indeed, God is calling us also to greatness. He doesn’t want mediocrity; he expects great things from us, and with the gifts of grace and the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to meet the challenge and the need.

Let us go forth to proclaim the Good News to all peoples.

I conclude with the final verse from today’s Gospel passage:

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. John 13:20

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Quote for the Day

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“I have followed my road. May Christ teach you yours.” — St. Francis of Assisi

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47 Deacons to be Ordained!!

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

The diocese of Allentown will be ordaining 47 men to the diaconate this weekend. Forty-seven from all walks of life. This is probably the largest ordination class in the country this year.

I found their ages interesting.

I believe that we need to encourage young men to consider the diaconate. All too often we discourage younger men from applying, especially if they have dependent children.  This is a mistake. If we entrust diaconalministry to men we need to trust they can manage their families as well.  Canon law indicates 35 is the age for permanent deacons.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the diaconate  Let us not put obstacles in his path!

Here is the link to the article about the upcoming ordination

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-catholic-deacons-20150420-story.html

 

 

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Papa Luciani and the “New Climate” and “New System”

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is a quote from Pope John Paul I (Papa Luciani) taken from the book A Passionate Adventure. (The book is translated and edited by Lori Pieper, OFS.) Luciani is speaking about the coming of Jesus in his Christmas homily in 1961. Even though this homily was preached 53 years before the pontificate of Pope Francis, Luciani echoes the themes Francis is now teaching us. In so many ways, Papa Luciani was a herald of what was to come after him, indeed is being lived out in his successors.

Here is the quote:

Why then is he master of the world? What system is he using now? That is the word, it is really a new system. Jesus wants to introduce a new mentality from his first appearance. There are enough of those who become great by posing and strutting. It is now that we are going against the current.

Bethlehem is the real “new style” and the “style” will be continued……I repeat: he wanted to introduce a new style, a new climate. Once the climate has been introduced, the teachings come.

It is well known that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has introduced a new “style” to the papacy, a style which causes concern and anxiety among some, especially those who tend to favor a certain posture or walk of faith (“posing and strutting” to use Luciani’s words). But as Luciani said earlier in the same homily, Jesus could have come to save us through a birth as a rich man with an easier life, with evident ministerial success, and a triumphant return to his Father. Instead, Jesus the Son of God chose the hard way, a way of poverty, a life of toil, apparent failure, and death on a cross. Why? So that we could identify with him more fully; so he could say he was one with us in all things but sin.

When will we learn this lesson? Pope Francis is making it evident we must learn it and accept it. When will we see the royal road to heaven being the path of lowliness, humility and self-giving? When will we see real richness as laying in poverty of spirit?

Too many of us are like Peter, who even in his well intentioned protest that death should not touch his Lord Jesus, a protest that earned him a strident reprimand, was not able to grasp the new climate and style introduced by Jesus Christ.

How blessed we are to be baptized into this climate, style, way of living. It is the way of the Paschal Mystery, the way chosen by Jesus Christ the Son of God.

 

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Off to NADD I Go and various other sundry things

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

I will be taking off later today for Minneapolis to attend the National Association of Deacon Directors annual convention. One of the several responsibilities I have been given by my bishop is that of Assistant Director of Deacon Personnel, and so I need to attend this gathering of directors from all around the United States and Canada. There will be ample time for networking with men seen only once a year at this event, and for learning valuable tips on doing my job. I met some wonderful men last year and hope this year is no different.

The weather outside here in Minnesota has turned wintry once again. Snowing at the moment! I had hoped I could turn the furnace off for the year.

I have been reading and re-reading the book, “Living With Hope,” by the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. Martini was the rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome during the years I studied there, and later was ordained a bishop and became archbishop of Milan, Italy. He was a Jesuit, of course, and a scholar of the Scriptures. Many good things could be said of him. I shared recently a quote from his book with the diaconate community of Winona, and I would like to share it with you my readers:

“O Lord, I thank you because I don’t need to be accepted by others; you yourself defend my cause, you yourself sustain me. I can take pride in my poverty, like St. Paul; I can take pride in my being a not too competent, not too influential person, often slower than my brothers, because you are with me and my cause is your cause. I thank you Lord because you grant me to live my life in service of my brothers, in a real relationship with you. You have revealed this aspect of freedom in my life; nothing is useless because  everything is a dialogue with you.”

I have heard from many deacons of the frustration and pain that comes with diaconal ministry and at times a diminished respect offered to deacons. I have also become convinced that an essential aspect of diaconal ministry is a spiritual martyrdom through our identification with the proclamation of the Gospel and with the poor and marginalized. Anytime we so identify ourselves, especially in today’s secular culture but even, dare I say, in today’s ecclesial culture, we will share in the diminished respect that is unfortunately experienced by the poor and powerless. Such is our calling, it would seem.

I would encourage all of us, especially we deacons, to support each other as we demonstrate to our parishes, dioceses, and indeed society as a whole, the vitality and necessity of the diaconate and the splendid manner in which the Holy Spirit is working through us.

I also read with delight an article from Allentown, Pennsylvania about 47 men to be ordained to the diaconate this Saturday. You can read it at: www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-catholic-deacons-20150420-story.html The number delights me, although I have to admit the ages of the candidates (most in their late 50s and 60s) is interesting. Where are all the young men?

I will post a few updates from NADD the rest of this week.

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