Countdown to Deacon Ordination

Tonight Brenda and I join seventeen other couples in a retreat for deacon candidates and wives. We’ll spend the weekend together as the culmination of four years of formation before ordination on August 10. Our retreat master will again be the witty and intelligent Deacon Owen Cummings, author of Deacons and the Church. I’m really looking forward to hearing him again, and to getting to spend one last weekend with the other candidates and their wives.

It has been a privilege, a joy, and a great blessing to have spent the last four years with such a generous and spirit-filled group of men and women. In fact, the entire formation process has been a constant source of inspiration and blessing.

For instance, when I began looking into the diaconate in 2008, a very wise deacon friend suggested two scripture verses to pray over:

• “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10
• “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Hebrews 3:15

In the context of vocational discernment, I cannot think of any more helpful prayers than the desire to hear God’s will clearly and the grace to accept it willingly. And isn’t that the secret to true fulfillment for all of us — the ability to recognize God’s will and embrace it?

Those two verses have been my trusty companions for the past four years, along with the Suscipe Prayer attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.

I’ll be pondering those words and much more this weekend as I try to get my ego out of the way enough to hear God’s voice and respond to it with generosity and courage. Please pray for the eighteen of us and our wives. We will all be praying for you as we celebrate Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours together.