Diocesan deacons gather for annual retreat
PROVO — The annual retreat for deacons and their wives in the Diocese of Salt Lake City was held Oct. 4-6 at the Provo Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. The theme was “A Bridge to God’s Love: Service in the Diaconate.” The retreat master was Dominican Father Augustine Hilander, Prior Superior of the Dominican Community at Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle, Wash.
The retreat began with evening prayer led by Deacon Odilon Jesse Ricardez. In his reflection, he said that the men’s calling to the Order of Deacon was “to serve our brothers and sisters and to proclaim the Good News, recalling the word of Saint Francis, ‘Proclaim the Gospel and if necessary use words.’”
Following evening prayer, Bishop Oscar A. Solis welcomed the deacons, saying “It is a great honor for all of us to be gathered, especially during this time when we recognize our unity as ministers of evangelization.”
It was an opportunity for them to gather “to do the one thing that is most important and essential in our life, not only as Christian believers but as well as ministers of God … and that is to pray,” the bishop said. “Prayer is the foundation of everything that we do.”
The theme of bridges was appropriate, he said, because the function of a bridge is to connect one shore with the other, and as deacons they are meant “to connect God and the people that you serve. And that is who you are.”
In his presentations, Fr. Augustine dealt with a number of ministries deacons are involved with, including ministry to the incarcerated, to the poor and to people who are addicted. His first session was on family ministry, which he noted can be difficult. If deacons have problems in their own families, he asked them to not try to fix everything by themselves but rather to seek help from other deacons.
He compared family ministry to table ministry, saying ministry at the table “teaches us about those who serve and those who are served. … Some people cook, some people clean and everyone eats. … Everyone has a part.”
Family ministry reaches a wide variety of people, including those who are engaged, married couples, those who are divorced, children and youth, the elderly and the widowed, he said.
In each talk he mentioned a couple of saints who were deacons to provide examples and encouragement.
Fr. Augustine also gave a session on divisions, noting that as deacons they have offered their lives to the Church, “but what causes division in our lives is when we start to take things back.”
He acknowledged that divisions exist in parishes, such as when those who don’t want the parish to change come up against those who do want to do things differently. In such cases, deacons need to listen to both sides, he said.
He urged the deacons to pray when divisions occur. They can do this when, at Mass, they offer the Sign of Peace. “Peace heals divisions. … This peace is a very important thing to bring people together. And even homilies on peace would be a really important part, because these are your words,” he said.
Deacons may be poor, but they are able to give much because “You’re given the excess of God – his bounty – and then you’re sharing it with your brothers and sisters who are poor,” he said. “God is your portion and your inheritance. … This allows you, then, to truly give of the Lord. Because if you think that you have to give of yourself, it will always be less; but if you think you have the Lord’s gifts, there will always be more.”
He urged the deacons to remind people “that it is not an option that you can choose whether to give to the poor or not. God says, ‘Give to the poor.’ Why? Because you were poor once, and God gave to you.”
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