27 March 2007

On those who serve

On June 24th, the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, the Most Rev. George J. Lucas will ordain eighteen permanent deacons for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. This will be the first group of permanent deacons ordained for the Diocese since Pope Paul VI restored it.

Currently, five permanent deacons live in the Diocese, each having moved here after their diaconal ordinations. One comes from Detroit, one from St. Louis, two from Chicago and one from Rockford.

As part of the Diocese's efforts to prepare the presbyterate to receive these new members of the clergy a special meeting is being held today to discuss the training and formation these eighteen men have received.

Personally, I am quite excited with the prospects of having a deacon in our parish, although we do not know yet if we will indeed receive one. Even so, I am hopeful.

6 comments:

  1. Are any of the deacons from your parish?

    Bythe way, I have started my own blog. You can check it out at
    http://maxiesmom.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, one of the deacon candidates is from our parish.

    I'll link to your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to hear that you will have a deacon. Our parish is not so lucky. Our first deacon left to follow the pastor when he was transferred and the second deacon died. We have one man who is in the first year of the program. I pray he makes it through.

    Thanks for linking to my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ellen,

    What I meant was that one of the candidates is from our parish. There isn't any guarantee that he'll be assigned with us, though. Still, it never hurts to hope.

    You're most welcome for the link!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, in our diocese, the deacons typically go to serve the parish they are a member of. In fact, one parish that is only about 4 miles from my parish has six or seven deacons, while we have none. In fact, there is anothe parish in our town with 4 deacons.
    I hope that the candidate from your parish is assigned there.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I suspect that is the very situation we are trying to avoid.

    ReplyDelete