The week that just past is a typical week in the life of a Permanent Deacon. And the weekend is pretty typical too. In understanding the ministry of the Permanent Deacon we always must understand who the man is. Remember, most of us are married, we have children and grandchildren, and we either have a job or have retired from our lifelong career. Most Permanent Deacons minister within both their local parish and broader opportunities from the diocese level. Many times we are placed in a position to plan carefully, to manage time effectively and choose what we can do while balancing family and work obligations.
For me this past week may have been one such time when a little over-committing made for a difficult week. When faced with that reality it is always best to take a deep breath, go to God in prayer and do your best. With Monday being a national holiday and a day off from work I thought it might be possible to get a heads up on the week ahead. My biggest "ministry" activity that day was simply doing the right thing and tackling the grocery shopping for the family. Some background first. I don't shop. I can probably count on both hands how many times I do the family shopping. But I had the day off, Wendy did not and recently she hurt her knee, so I shopped. No big deal. I spent a good part of the day beginning homily preparation. This is a week that the Deacon preaches and that takes a bunch of time for prayerful preparation. By Tuesday it was back to work, meetings, conferences, clients. And Tuesday night brought two meetings at the parish; one was educational in nature, PSR related. I help with PSR as I can mostly with talks and providing opportunities for adoration. The other meeting is a fledgling attempt for our parish to have a full time vocations ministry. The initial meeting was very encouraging. Wednesday was one of those over-commit days. I agreed to do Adoration & Benediction for the middle school kids at 5 pm, meet with a couple planning their wedding at 6 pm and then give a 45 minute talk on service to our confirmation age students at 7. All of this after a typical 8 hour work day that included spending lunchtime at a deanery meeting with the Priests and Deacons from our deanery. I can honestly say by the end of Wednesday I was some tired.
Thursday was spent in a training class in New Orleans for work which afforded me the opportunity to stay across the lake and take in the 2015 Deacon's class. As I've shared before we currently have two classes in formation; one to be ordained this year and one in 2015. I happily support both classes as a mentor and occasional instructor. So I was very happy to be able to combine my work calendar with my ministry calendar and be present to the class on Thursday night. Friday comes the realization that your homily is just 2 days away yet there was still another ministry staff meeting and a few more appointments at work. By Friday night you pretty much know if your homily is done. Feeling pretty confident my homily was good to go I decided to attend the Saturday morning walk for life in Baton Rouge. Alas, Saturday morning brought a Holy Spirit inspired change in the homily. So plans were changed and the homily tweeked. And now, I'm much more preapred to preach at my 3 preaching assignments for Sunday; which will make for a long day!
By the way, all this time, I'm constantly preparing for future baptisms, weddings and prison ministry obligations. But this is a typical week for a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church. And still, despite the busy-ness of it all, we must remember that it is not so much about what we do but who we are that still matters most!
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