Tom Olson reached a milestone in his 11-year journey toward the priesthood, July 25, when Cardinal Se\u00e1n P. O\u2019Malley ordained the 35-year-old to the diaconate for the Archdiocese of Boston at St. Columbkille Parish\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026\u201dJesus comes as the one who serves, the suffering servant who is meek and humble of heart. He wants his followers to have the same spirit of service and humility,\u201d Cardinal O\u2019Malley said in his homily at the ordination.<\/p>\n
One of three ordained ministries in the Church \u2014 deacon, priest and bishop \u2014 the deacon, from the Greek \u201cdiakonos,\u201d means servant or minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeacon is a Greek word. It doesn\u2019t mean very important holy man, it doesn\u2019t mean big shot, or Church leader, or Lord High Executioner, it means servant,\u201d the cardinal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only speculate as to why the Church has maintained the practice of ordaining men deacons before ordaining them priests. The Church could ordain them priests without first ordaining a man a deacon but probably the reason is to impress on us that ministry is above all service, humble service of the Lord and of His Church,\u201d the cardinal said.<\/p>\n
He reminded Olson to keep his eye fixed on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist as the heart of his ministry.<\/p>\n
\u2026The cardinal also touched on elements of the ordination rite that took place after the homily. He called the stole Olson received a symbol of service like a towel shared by Jesus with the deacon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest privilege we receive is the towel that Jesus entrusts to us to wash the feet of those we are called to love and to serve. Be a deacon \u2014 a good and faithful servant,\u201d the cardinal said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston\u2019s Cardinal Se\u00e1n O\u2019Malley recently ordained a man to the diaconate, as he continues a particularly long journey to the priesthood. He offered some important thoughts on the diaconate:\u00a0 Tom Olson reached a milestone in his 11-year journey toward the priesthood, July 25, when Cardinal Se\u00e1n P. O\u2019Malley ordained the 35-year-old to the diaconate for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deacons"],"yoast_head":"\n
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