Service to others is at the heart of formation

My journey to the permanent diaconate began many years before formation classes started in the early 1990s. It actually began with meeting and eventually marrying my wife, Barbara. 

During my early childhood, I was raised as a Southern Baptist, was a regular at Sunday School and a churchgoer for as long as I can remember. I always had a love for the scriptures and received much comfort from reading and sharing God’s Word with my friends and family.

My introduction to the Catholic faith began when I started attending Sunday Mass with Barbara before we were married. She was my first introduction to the Church. I had never been inside of a Catholic church and as a child I had even been discouraged from going, but I had always wondered.

The church we attended was located in a gymnasium. It was in a fast-growing community in South Carolina and a large number of northerners were moving in due to the relocation of businesses to the area. Most of them were Catholic, and this small southern town had a tiny Catholic church which had to serve a rapidly growing community.

After a few months, Barbara and I became engaged, and I was able to explore the Catholic faith more deeply. We had a wonderful priest who prepared us for the sacrament of marriage. Our discussions on the Eucharist, baptism, and confirmation opened my eyes to not only marriage but to the wonder and beauty of the Church.

After we were married, I began the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) classes with a good sponsor who had a passionate understanding of the Catholic faith and mentored me in my journey. When I was received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, he and his wife became my godparents and years later also became our son Joseph’s godparents.

Our families became great friends, and through them, we were introduced to different lay formation groups such as Regnum Christi, a family-based lay movement through the Legionaries of Christ. We were blessed to be part of the same group who developed perpetual adoration for the community and after 34 years continues today.

We were very active in our Catholic community participating in the pastoral and finance councils and various ministries. Through these ministries, we were blessed to be part of the fundraising efforts and development of a new church and school, which is now a pre-K3 through high school. Our pastoral council opened a transitional house for mothers and children who needed a safe place to live. Eventually, a men’s shelter was opened, and at the time of our departure from the area, the community was in the process of building a 20-bed hospice center. 

It was a community that started out with 150 families and now has 15,000 families and four new Catholic churches with their own active communities.

Looking back over all of the years of service in our parish and community life, I could say that it was God’s way of beginning my formation toward becoming a permanent deacon. It was present in the love which drove me to help bring the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, and housing to our brothers and sisters, and in the deeper love which drove me to a genuine concern about what happens to them after those needs were met. We weren’t just bringing Christ’s love to them; we were also encountering Christ in our service to them. 

The heart of the permanent diaconate is service to others not only at the parish level but also at the community level, walking with our brothers and sisters on this journey of life, sharing with one another the graces that pour forth from our Church. This is where my call to the permanent diaconate began and continues today.