Nice to be recognized but for me, nicer for the faithful to learn more about Deacons

So my Friday night was spent on the campus of St. Paul High School in Covington Louisiana.  The event was the Northshore chapter dinner of the Catholic Foundation of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  The mission statement for the foundation states: "to financially sustain and enhance the charitable, educational, and spiritual ministries of the Archdiocese of New Orleans."

For this particular dinner, the Foundation decided to honor the Permanent Deacons of Deanery X which includes the western half of St. Tammany and Washington Parishes.  By the way, that is parish as in county.

We heard tonight from our spiritual father and shepherd, the Most Reverend Gregory Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans.  Our archbishop is always supportive of his deacons and his comments tonight certainly reflected that.  The keynote speaker was one of our own, Deacon Dennis Adams from St. Peter Parish who affirmed our identity and mission, reminded all of who a deacon is and what a deacon does, thanked our wives for their generous help and loving support, and reminded us all that deacons, like Jesus, serve and do not seek to be served.

The deacons present tonight and recognized by the Catholic Foundation included:

Deacon Dennis Adams   St Peter Church
Deacon James Ardoin   St Peter Church
Deacon Thomas CafferyJr   Most Holy Trinity
Deacon Stephen Cohan   Our Lady of the Lake
Deacon Mark Coudrain   St Jane de Chantal
Deacon Jay Frantz   Our Lady of the Lake
Deacon John Jung   St Peter Church
Deacon Frans LaBranche Jr   St Jane de Chantal Church
Deacon Brian McKnight   Most Holy Trinity
Deacon Andrew Raspino Sr   Our Lady of the Lake
Deacon Charles Swift   Most Holy Trinity
Deacon Michael Talbot(that's me!)   St Jane de Chantal
Deacon Kenneth Uhlich Jr   Most Holy Trinity

Unfortunately there are about 15 additional deacons who minister in this deanery who were not present tonight.  We were joined tonight by our director, Deacon Ray Duplechain and visiting deacons Warren Berault, Dennis Hickey and Peter Miranda.

As a deacon we do what we do because who we are and we never seek any recognition on our own.  However, it was nice to be acknowledged for who we are and what we do by others in the church.

I want to express my thankfulness to not only the Catholic Foundation of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, our Archbishop and our Director and our local Pastor, Fr. Ken Allen, who made sure all of his deacons were present via a gift from the church parish.

It was a wonderful night!