The Deacon

By Deacon Steve Kramer, D.Min.

At the end of every Mass, as people exit the Church, a line of individuals comes forward to greet and shake hands or embrace the priest and/or deacon. These are our people – we see them in the neighborhood, at scouting events, school conferences, and football games. How often has someone approached you and asked, “Will you pray for me? My father/brother/ mom is ill, our daughter just got engaged, my best friend was just sentenced to prison, my granddaughter has died, my daughter just got accepted to medical school, my son is being deployed overseas.” People look to their priests and deacons to pray with and for them for various needs.

Prayer is a conversation with God. There are times that we are “battering the doors of heaven” – beseeching God to hear our prayers, supplications, desires, needs, and pleas. Hoping and trusting that God will help us in our most trying circumstances, thanking God profusely for his grace, mercy, and hesed (loving kindness) in a precarious situation. However, there are times that God is desperately trying to get our attention to get us to unclog our ears of the noise that impedes his voice from reaching us. Between cell phones, radio, TV, podcasts, and other voices that fill our ears, God wants us to have some quiet time for Him to speak to us. In our ministerial role, the Lord expects us to listen to Him and to pray for the needs of our brothers and sisters.

Fr. Leo Dehon, the founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, once shared this quote at a retreat that he gave in July 1910: “Busy people even more than others must be faithful to spiritual exercises and put themselves deeply in the presence of God when they start the day, and repeat that again at certain times of the day; this is a necessary part of the inner life which they must not neglect.” For the deacon, it reminds us that even in the hustle and bustle of our own personal lives, we have been entrusted to continually call upon the Lord and to pray for others. We do this communally when we are preparing and proclaiming the petitions of the Universal Prayer at Mass. However, we also pray privately for the needs of those who have specifically asked us to implore the Lord to heal, hold, or change someone or a particular circumstance. Deacons bring to God the needs of his people and the difficulties they are facing.

Paragraph 71 of The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States of America (Second Edition) succinctly notes: “A deeply felt need in the decision to reestablish the diaconate was and is that of a greater and more direct presence of Church ministers in the various spheres such as family, work, school, etc., in addition to pastoral structures. While transforming the world is the proper role of the laity, the deacon – in communion with his diocesan bishop and the diocesan presbyterate – exhorts, consecrates, and guides the People of God in living faithfully the communion and mission they share in Christ, especially in making the Gospel visible in their daily lives through their concern for justice, peace, and respect for life.”

Brothers, we are an emissary, a bridge from the altar to the people, a listening ear for those in need. We walk with our people day by day, at work, in school, on the soccer field, and at the grocery store. A sacred space for prayer and conversation can be found in the humblest of places, and that’s where the deacon will often hear the important question, “Will you pray for me?” TD

DEACON STEVE KRAMER, D.Min., is Director of Homiletics and Professor of Pastoral Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. He can be reached at skramer@shsst.edu.