Faith
A lot of you have asked me with regards to the diaconate, "What is formation?", and "You have to go to school, right?", and "How long will it take before you are ordained?" All great questions, and ones I had as well, as I was discerning regarding whether to apply!
Formation means just like what the word implies: to be formed-- but not just formed in some random direction; there are four areas of formation on which the program focuses:
How Formation Takes Place
In no particular order, one way is through school: at the end of August I will be starting class for the Fall semester, at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary, with the objective of obtaining a "Master of Arts in Ministry" degree. My personal goal is to complete this program in four years: one class each semester, plus one class each summer. Because almost all deacons are married plus have families and careers, school is very much a part-time thing.
Logistically, my "Area Catholic Community" and my Diocese split the tuition and book costs. They have rooms one can rent for a ridiculously low price; my plan is to "Zoom" into my Monday-and-Wednesday mid-day class on Mondays; to drive down for my Tuesday evening class; to sleep over night at the school; to study all Wednesday until 13:00, when class on Wednesday starts; then to work my career on Saturday-- i.e. Sunday and Wednesdays will be my "weekend".
But there is a ton of flexibility with classes, and you have a wonderful advisory team who will help you plan your route through the program.
A second way formation takes place is pastorally. I was already doing much of this prior to any kind of diaconal discernment: I serve at the altar; I am a sacristan; I am a lector; I run the liturgy committee; I am strongly integrated with my church community; I do volunteer service work; I help people with their own discernment in life by trying to be a good listener, and supplying whatever meager spiritual advice I can, etc.
For me personally, my next steps are to learn how to be an extraordinary minister, to start doing ministry at "the big church in town", and to formulate what "my deacon things" will be. I am part-way through the road towards prison ministry, and I also enjoy catechesis so may be helping teach at OCIA classes. I think I have partially-latent charismatic gifts, which I would like to explore. And I am also starting this wonderful business, to serve all of you, who are in turn serving others!
But for men just starting out, they will be asked to start upping their involvement, under the supervision and direction of their pastor. So don't worry if you are just getting involved-- that's what the program is for!
A third way formation takes place is via trusted counsel. Discernment doesn't just mean "do I apply for the program or not"-- rather, discernment is the label applied to the entire journey! Just as is the case with priests, many men who begin formation discern out of it part-way through, due to a wide variety of possible circumstances. On the journey you are accompanied by a Spiritual Director and a Deacon Mentor. I was very blessed to already have a Spiritual Director, and a dear friend of mine is a deacon, so he gladly agreed to be my mentor. But there are resources to help you find both of those people, for you!
What a Deacon Does
Going into Vatican II, there were various clerical orders-- acolyte, lector, and so forth-- not to mention priests and bishops. These were changed up a bit-- now there are three ordained orders in the Church:
The two primary functions of a deacon are to be Christ's hands in the community, and to be what is often called "a minister of the threshhold".
There is some debate about the etymological root of the word, but it is often said that "diakonia" means "service". Either way, if you look at the "we don't have time to wait on tables!" origin of the Diaconate, in Acts 6, you can see the way largely painted as to what deacons should be doing today: serving the community, and helping the pastor with spiritual and administrative tasks.
The second function involves the fact that, unlike the other two ordained orders, deacons are almost always married with kids. So they have one foot each in two different vocations: that of the ordained, and that of consecrated married life. As such, they are community leaders and liaisons of a little bit different flavor than, let's say, a priest-- making the diaconal office distinct.
The re-institution of the permanent diaconate order at Vatican II was extremely contentious. One of the main arguments was, "We already have laity serving the poor! So now we're going to ordain non-celibate men to... work at soup kitchens, or something?"
What has emerged in the many decades since then is this answer to that question: many people-- laity, deacons, or otherwise-- obviously have charisms; gifts of prophesy, healing, speaking in tongues, or whatever it may be. A charismatic, let's say, might be engaged in healing at a ministry event-- but when he is out grocery shopping, he is not probably engaging that charism.
The difference with deacons is that it is a permanent state: no matter where the deacon is, he is always a deacon-- once he's in, he's in, and no matter the setting everyone recognizes his permanent, clerical condition as an ordained minister. This is part of the special grace that flows through ordination; if ordination did not dispense special graces, then why would we ordain bishops or priests either?
Hopefully this helps explain things a bit, but as always please do send me further questions or thoughts. God bless!
Formation means just like what the word implies: to be formed-- but not just formed in some random direction; there are four areas of formation on which the program focuses:
- Human: This includes things like emotional maturity and stability, ability to relate to people of all stripes, self-awareness, and effective communication skills.
- Spiritual: This dimension involves depth of prayer life, an understanding of Christian theology, and ability to discern vocations.
- Pastoral: This includes leadership potential, service to the community, collaborative abilities, plus pastoral sensitivity and compassion.
- Intellectual: This involves the application of theological knowledge, Biblical literacy, the ability to learn, plus critical thinking skills.
How Formation Takes Place
In no particular order, one way is through school: at the end of August I will be starting class for the Fall semester, at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary, with the objective of obtaining a "Master of Arts in Ministry" degree. My personal goal is to complete this program in four years: one class each semester, plus one class each summer. Because almost all deacons are married plus have families and careers, school is very much a part-time thing.
Logistically, my "Area Catholic Community" and my Diocese split the tuition and book costs. They have rooms one can rent for a ridiculously low price; my plan is to "Zoom" into my Monday-and-Wednesday mid-day class on Mondays; to drive down for my Tuesday evening class; to sleep over night at the school; to study all Wednesday until 13:00, when class on Wednesday starts; then to work my career on Saturday-- i.e. Sunday and Wednesdays will be my "weekend".
But there is a ton of flexibility with classes, and you have a wonderful advisory team who will help you plan your route through the program.
A second way formation takes place is pastorally. I was already doing much of this prior to any kind of diaconal discernment: I serve at the altar; I am a sacristan; I am a lector; I run the liturgy committee; I am strongly integrated with my church community; I do volunteer service work; I help people with their own discernment in life by trying to be a good listener, and supplying whatever meager spiritual advice I can, etc.
For me personally, my next steps are to learn how to be an extraordinary minister, to start doing ministry at "the big church in town", and to formulate what "my deacon things" will be. I am part-way through the road towards prison ministry, and I also enjoy catechesis so may be helping teach at OCIA classes. I think I have partially-latent charismatic gifts, which I would like to explore. And I am also starting this wonderful business, to serve all of you, who are in turn serving others!
But for men just starting out, they will be asked to start upping their involvement, under the supervision and direction of their pastor. So don't worry if you are just getting involved-- that's what the program is for!
A third way formation takes place is via trusted counsel. Discernment doesn't just mean "do I apply for the program or not"-- rather, discernment is the label applied to the entire journey! Just as is the case with priests, many men who begin formation discern out of it part-way through, due to a wide variety of possible circumstances. On the journey you are accompanied by a Spiritual Director and a Deacon Mentor. I was very blessed to already have a Spiritual Director, and a dear friend of mine is a deacon, so he gladly agreed to be my mentor. But there are resources to help you find both of those people, for you!
What a Deacon Does
Going into Vatican II, there were various clerical orders-- acolyte, lector, and so forth-- not to mention priests and bishops. These were changed up a bit-- now there are three ordained orders in the Church:
- The Episcopate: Bishops. They shepherd the flock, and are the spiritual descendents of the Apostles, having had apostolic authority delegated to them through the ages.
- The Presbyterate: Priests. Since a bishop can't pastorally serve a huge flock by himself, he has priests to help him.
- The Diaconate: Deacons. They have a primary two-fold purpose, which deserves its own paragraphs below since this is the subject of this blog post.
The two primary functions of a deacon are to be Christ's hands in the community, and to be what is often called "a minister of the threshhold".
There is some debate about the etymological root of the word, but it is often said that "diakonia" means "service". Either way, if you look at the "we don't have time to wait on tables!" origin of the Diaconate, in Acts 6, you can see the way largely painted as to what deacons should be doing today: serving the community, and helping the pastor with spiritual and administrative tasks.
The second function involves the fact that, unlike the other two ordained orders, deacons are almost always married with kids. So they have one foot each in two different vocations: that of the ordained, and that of consecrated married life. As such, they are community leaders and liaisons of a little bit different flavor than, let's say, a priest-- making the diaconal office distinct.
The re-institution of the permanent diaconate order at Vatican II was extremely contentious. One of the main arguments was, "We already have laity serving the poor! So now we're going to ordain non-celibate men to... work at soup kitchens, or something?"
What has emerged in the many decades since then is this answer to that question: many people-- laity, deacons, or otherwise-- obviously have charisms; gifts of prophesy, healing, speaking in tongues, or whatever it may be. A charismatic, let's say, might be engaged in healing at a ministry event-- but when he is out grocery shopping, he is not probably engaging that charism.
The difference with deacons is that it is a permanent state: no matter where the deacon is, he is always a deacon-- once he's in, he's in, and no matter the setting everyone recognizes his permanent, clerical condition as an ordained minister. This is part of the special grace that flows through ordination; if ordination did not dispense special graces, then why would we ordain bishops or priests either?
Hopefully this helps explain things a bit, but as always please do send me further questions or thoughts. God bless!