About the author: Deacon Chuck
Deacon Chuck was ordained into the permanent diaconate on September 17, 2011, in the ministry of service to the Diocese of Reno and assigned to St. Albert the Great Catholic Community. He currently serves as the parish bulletin editor and website administrator. Deacon Chuck continues to serve the parish of Saint Albert the Great Catholic Community of the Diocese of Reno, Nevada. He is the Director of Adult Faith Formation and Homebound Ministries for the parish, conducts frequent adult faith formation workshops, and is a regular homilist. He currently serves as the bulletin editor for the parish bulletin. He writes a weekly column intended to encompass a broad landscape of thoughts and ideas on matters of theology, faith, morals, teachings of the magisterium and the Catholic Church; they are meant to illuminate, illustrate, and catechize the readers and now number more than 230 articles. His latest endeavor is "Colloqui: A journal for restless minds", a weekly journal of about 8 pages similar in content to bulletin reflections. All his reflections, homilies, commentaries, and Colloqui are posted and can be found on his website: http://deaconscorner.org. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. He is the author of two books: "The Voices of God: hearing God in the silence" which offers the reader insights into how to hear God’s voice through all of the noise that surrounds us; and "Echoes of Love: Effervescent Memories" which through a combination of prose and verse provides the reader with a wonderful journey on the way to discovering forever love. He regularly speaks to groups of all ages and size and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group.
Ordained to Serve
The primary ministry of the deacon is service.
The apostles, ordained by Christ to the priesthood, were called to preach and spread the Word of God to all the nations of the world. This was and is a heavy burden, a full-time vocation. But much more was required and demanded of them.
The First Deacons
In Acts 6:1-6 seven men were ordained as deacons to serve, to care for the needs of the poor, widows, and orphans. The Apostles prayed and laid hands on them. The diakonia was ordained to a ministry of service, to be servants who washed feet, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and gave comfort to the sick and dying.
The primary ministry of the deacon is one of service As Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver writes in the foreword to A New Friendship “[It] is the role of the deacon to care for the needy and to ensure that the poor are brought to the communion of the church so that they too take part in that sacrifice handed down by the apostles. A deacon is not just an image of Christ the servant who came to serve and to offer his life as a ransom. The deacon, through his ministry, is the service of Christ and the church sacramentalized and a constant reminder to the church and the world that Jesus Christ is among us always ‘as one who serves’ (Luke 22:27).”