{"id":279642,"date":"2018-02-14T14:13:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T19:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&p=279642"},"modified":"2018-02-14T14:13:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T19:13:03","slug":"from-the-secret-service-to-the-diaconate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/02\/from-the-secret-service-to-the-diaconate\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Secret Service to the diaconate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s all about service. Check out this great vocation story, from the Arlington Catholic Herald:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

From an early age, Mark Arbeen felt called to ministry. During his confirmation, the presiding bishop looked at him and said, \u201cLet me know when your ordination is.\u201d But it would take him many years to realize he was not called to be an Episcopal priest, but a Catholic permanent deacon. A revelation from his birth mother further affirmed his vocation. \u201cThat\u2019s the way my life has been guided by God,\u201d Arbeen said.<\/p>\n

Arbeen was born in 1968 in Chicago, the last of three adopted children. He grew up in the suburbs, and his family attended an Episcopal church \u2014 the church featured in the movie \u201cHome Alone.\u201d After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Navy for eight years. On one memorable trip to Italy, the Catholic chaplain on his ship asked if Arbeen wanted to meet his old seminary professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t tell me his professor was Pope John Paul II,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we had a private audience with him and gave him a ship\u2019s hat.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving the Navy, Arbeen earned a degree in economics from the University of Illinois, and then moved to Alexandria to attend the Virginia Theological Seminary. But after a year and a half of study, he left the seminary. \u201cI sensed I was not called to be there. There were a lot of changes going on in the Episcopal Church that I personally struggled with,\u201d he said. \u201cI (then) served at a parish on their vestry, but still served on the altar all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2002, \u201cI met a woman whom I fell madly in love with, and she was Roman Catholic,\u201d he said. While dating, they attended her church, St. Raymond of Pe\u00f1afort Church in Springfield, on Saturday night, and Episcopal services on Sunday morning. When they got engaged, the couple received permission to be married in his Episcopal church, with then pastor of St. Raymond, Father James R. Gould, present.<\/p>\n

While engaged, Arbeen went on a trip to Mexico City and attended Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Though he grew up with great respect for the Blessed Mother, he was a little skeptical of the apparition. But he spent the entire Mass in a kind of trance, friends later told him. While staring at the miraculous tilma, he decided that if his wife became pregnant, he would convert to Catholicism.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t mention the promise to his wife until after they learned she was pregnant. Then, the first call he made announcing the pregnancy was to Father Gould. \u201cShe\u2019s pregnant,\u201d he said, \u201cHow do I become Catholic?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s all about service. Check out this great vocation story, from the Arlington Catholic Herald:\u00a0 From an early age, Mark Arbeen felt called to ministry. During his confirmation, the presiding bishop looked at him and said, \u201cLet me know when your ordination is.\u201d But it would take him many years to realize he was not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":81599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Secret Service to the diaconate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's all about service. 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