For the Permanent Deacon today there may be a Holy Exhaustion

This article is for the many Permanent Deacons out there that are feeling tired today; a completely holy and contented sort of tired!  Yes, I'm focusing on the Permanent Deacon as I know all too well that the same could be said of Bishops, Priests, Seminarians, and even many dedicated and hard working lay ministers too.  Excuse me tonight as I focus this article on Permanent Deacons.

The Permanent Deacon, for the most part, is very much a full time minister in the Catholic Church and all the while he is husband, father, grandfather, and is either very much employed in business or active in retirement.  Unless able to do so, the Permanent Deacon does not get time off just because it's Holy Week or the Triduum.  For many Permanent Deacons, they give their all to the liturgies of these high holy days while working a full time job, volunteering in the community, attending to the duties of home and family and cutting the grass or doing the dishes.

And in the week that was, it is the Permanent Deacon who also must attend many liturgy practices, show up 2 hours early for each liturgy/service, function as the Deacon of the liturgy/service, then stays 2 hours late to make sure everything is ok.  It is the Permanent Deacon who often plans the liturgy/service, organizes the altar servers and others, proclaims the Gospel, incenses the Priest and the people, processes with Jesus, reserves Him in another place other than the normal tabernacle, stays with Jesus to midnight on Thursday night, practices again, carries the cross, holds the cross for veneration,  takes the part of the narrator, and retrieves and reposes again Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  If there are Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, it is often the Permanent Deacon who leads the prayer.  And there are more practices come Saturday, perhaps decorating the altar, practice some more, lights the fire, carries the Christ candle proclaiming the Light of Christ, chanting the Exsultet, proclaiming the Gospel, assisting with Baptisms and maybe Confirmations, distributing Holy Communion, sending worshippers home with the sound of Easter alleluia's.  And again it is the Permanent Deacon, all too often, who makes sure the doors are locked and the lights are off.  And he rises early on that glorious Easter morn to do it all over again, maybe just one Sunday morning Mass, but then again, maybe three.  And if this Permanent Deacon is involved in a special ministry at the Archdiocesan level, it is he who goes to prison during Holy Week, or is God's presence at a nursing home, a hospice facility, a hospital.  Just because it's Holy Week or Easter time, and despite his exhaustion, he is also distributing food to the hungry, help to the poor, company/presence to the lonely.  Don't forget, he also is slicing the Easter ham, bouncing his grandson or granddaughter, being present to his wife and children.  He may also be the one who cleaned the house, cut the grass, fired up the BBQ pit.  He then retires every evening to dutifully pray his divine office and then he sleeps, perhaps he sleeps.

On Monday there is a fatigue that says you my friend have Holy Exhaustion.  But the alarm clock rings, it's back to work, it still is a full time reality of husband, father and grandfather.  And if a ministry calls today, just because it's Monday, he goes.  And he goes with a full heart and with a beautiful spirit and the humility of wondering silently, why did God choose me? 

And his thanks is the will of the Father, the love of Jesus Christ, and the strength provided by the Holy Sprit.

Brother Permanent Deacons, I admire and respect each and everyone of you and gain strength from you in the way you are faithful and obedient to your call.  I hope you are as exhausted as I am and as ready to serve again, even if that next call is tonight, tomorrow or all week long.

If you get a chance, thank your Permanent Deacon because for the most part, we have no idea what he does for the people of God, and even more truthfully, we have no idea who he is that allows him to serve so faithfully, so humbly, so completely!

I love the ministry of the Permanent Deacon and all my brothers who labor in His vineyard!