May 18, 2020, marked our one year anniversary for our ordination into the diaconate. My brother deacons and I were asked if we would write a reflection on what our year was like for the Fall River diocesan deacon newsletter. Here is a brief synopsis of what my first year as a deacon was like.
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It was the Grateful Dead who put it so eloquently when they said “what a long strange trip it’s been”. It just hasn’t been very long at all, only one year, but what a year of strangely wonderful blessings it has been! We are supposed to count our blessings so here goes!
Blessing #0 - The friends I made through this process. I was ordained with 8 other men who I now consider “brothers” in Christ. The journey was awesome and they made it even better. This friend list also includes everyone else involved in this ordination process, teachers, priests, bishop(s), deacons, leaders, mentors, and speakers. Zero is not a typo, I’m a programmer so we always start with zero, plus, that’s why the Roman empire fell, there isn’t a zero in Roman numerals!
Blessing #1 - My church assignment. My family was truly blessed to be assigned to the church we currently attended Holy Family in East Taunton. We were blessed that the current Deacon, Bob Craig, volunteered to step aside so I could remain there and that was my first huge blessing as a deacon.
Blessing #2 - Ministering the Sacraments. On May 19, a day after our ordination, I ministered my first Sacrament, the Baptism of baby Harper Lilley! The family knew it would be a day after ordination and they were very supportive and excited with me! Since then I have been able to minister at 11 other Baptisms as well as two Marriages and a whole bunch of Masses. Indeed the sacraments are awesome and being able to minster them is wonderfully humbling!
Blessing #3 - Ministering at Funerals/Grave sides. August 19th, the funeral of our Director of Religious Education. This was one of the most difficult blessings I have partaken in. Karen was such an integral part of our parish and a mentor to many, myself included. Karen’s husband Paul is a Deacon in the Boston diocese and played a big role in my Diaconate. Our parish was very close to both of them.
Blessing #4 - Serving on the altar with children. My daughter Faith, who we adopted from China in the Fall of 2009 had been asking to be an altar server for a long time. My son Adam volunteered to “come out of retirement” to help her. We finally figured out all the logistics so my wife had a place to stand and sign for her (my daughter is deaf) and in July she served her first Mass with her big brother and dad!
Blessing #5 - Eucharistic services at Life Care in Raynham. Being able to visit the residents at Life Care has taught me a deeper respect and love of the Eucharist. I have seen many of these residents break down into tears when receiving the Eucharist as it may have been weeks since they last received. The enthusiasm and love which they receive our Lord, regardless of their current circumstances in life has been uplifting! I hope we can return to this ministry sooner than later!
Blessing #6 - Being a Deacon in a Pandemic. In March the world flipped on its head and serving as a deacon changed a bit. I found myself behind a camera, trying to stream live adoration and doing live stream stations of the cross from my dining room table. The live stream of virtual adoration/rosary on Tuesday night did not go well for a while. In the fourth week of failure, I went home to give up. A big blessing came from one of our parishioners. She wanted to thank me for my perseverance and added that her husband had passed away a few years ago and she had also lost a daughter and was alone now that she has been in lockdown. She said she very much looked forward to the live stream and to the humor I added during all the failed attempts. That changed my mind, I resolved to get it working, and we did, the next week and future weeks went well!
Blessing #7 - Catholic Trivia night! My wife Allison got the idea after our Friday night stations of the cross live feed attendance fell off significantly after Lent. We were wondering what we could do to stay in touch that would be either interesting or educational or fun! The Holy Spirit blessed her with an idea that could be all three! We started a Facebook live stream of Catholic Trivia from our dining room table and have been doing it for weeks now! We even had a special “call-in” guest who went live with us in June, Fr. Kevin Cook, our last pastor who is now in Seekonk.
Blessing #8 - Preaching. I feared this part of it the most but honestly, through prayer, adoration, and asking the Holy Spirit to guide me it has gone pretty good. Sure, when I’m up there I sweat (sometimes a lot) but my comfort level has increased and I was actually looking forward to preaching again for the June 21st Masses after a couple of months off.
Blessing #9 - Adoration and benediction. Wow, I can’t put this one into words but when I lift Jesus in the monstrance for benediction it is such an amazing, humbling and wonderful experience, one I had never even considered until I did this the first time. The feeling, the warmth, the humility, the emotions I felt that night, and every night after is one you can only understand by doing benediction, praise God we deacons can!
These are by no means an exhaustive list of all the blessings I have received during my first year and I am certainly looking forward to what future blessings being a deacon in the Fall River diocese has to offer!
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