DOW-R Seminarians to Be Ordained to Transitional Diaconate

Rev. Jason Kern Director of Vocations jkern@dowr.org

�ith gratitude to God, Bishop Barron will ordain two men to the transitional diaconate this month. Brian Klein and Nicholas Gawarecki have both been recommended for ordination this summer. Please come to the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka on May 27 at 10 a.m. to join this wonderful occasion. Both Brian and Nick will serve in parishes this summer after their ordination and will return to St. Paul Seminary this fall to complete their theology studies. They will be, God-wiling, ordained priests next summer.

In addition to these two preparing for ordination, another seminarian, Josh Miller, will be ordained to the diaconate later in this year and is preparing to be ordained a priest in 2024 with Brian and Nick.

Josh has been recommended for ordination by the seminary, but, because he transferred to our diocese and is still finalizing his discernment of God’s call to be here, he is preparing for a later ordination than this May.

Please join me in praying for these men as they approach holy orders, where they will make their promises of obedience, celibacy, and fidelity to prayer. May they be ready to serve and sacrifice their lives in ministry to God’s people.

Those ordained to the diaconate are called to be sacramentally united to Jesus Christ the Servant. He came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28). The word "deacon" means servant, and this is the call of those who serve as deacons in the Church - to do the works of charity as ordained clerics. They become witnesses to Christ’s ministry of charity in the world and form the body of Christ as models of this sacrificial love for others. Those who are preparing for priestly ordination are ordained first to the diaconate and will always carry this order of configuration to Christ, even once ordained priests.

our lips than in the office we bear. We are first, and most importantly, members of the Body of Christ, from which we must never separate ourselves. We are all called in some way to proclaim the Gospel. We cannot do this unless first we have welcomed the Word in our hearts, treasured it, nurtured it, obeyed it, followed it, and trusted it. Mary would not have become the Mother of God had she not first accepted and kept the Word of God in her Immaculate Heart. We too must hold in the purity of our hearts the Word entrusted to us. Mary could not have endured the passion and death of her Son without cradling in her heart the Word that had come to her. We cannot endure the trials and difficulties of life without knowing and nurturing and loving the Word entrusted to us members of the Church.

Yes, our lives can be modeled after Mary. We too are to give humble yet bold witness to the Gospel. Ours is a vocation of humble service, not arrogant rule. Ours is a vocation of boldly proclaiming the Gospel. There is no place for the timid there. We must proclaim boldly, with conviction and faith arising from a pure conscience.

May God bless us all!

Deacon Robert Yerhot serves the parishes of St. Mary in Caledonia and St. Patrick in Brownsville.