A deacon offers wide-ranging ministry to God's family
Deacon Michael McKale, Special to The Michigan Catholic
Published January 5, 2007
Vocations Supplement
My desire to serve God began at a very early age. Soon after I made my First Communion I learned the Latin responses and became an altar server.
During the summers I would walk daily to my home parish and wait there for a priest to come in to say an unscheduled Mass at the side altar just so that I could serve. I remember running into church during my lunch hour at school to pray in order to get some of "God's grace and energy" before going out onto the playground.
In high school I went to St. Gregory's Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, but after four years I decided that the priesthood was not for me. The longing to serve God, nonetheless, did not subside in me.
Then came Vatican II and the permanent diaconate was restored. Jesus' parable concerning the talents seemed to be always at the forefront of my consciousness. I realized how blest I was and I knew that I was called to give back to God for all that He had done for me.
As soon as I heard that the diaconate was restored, I applied. Unfortunately, I was told that the minimum age was 35 and I was too young. After that the years slipped away without much further thought about the diaconate and in 1978 General Motors Corp. moved me from Dayton, Ohio to Detroit.
Soon after we arrived in Detroit, my wife and I joined a charismatic prayer group and became leaders. I began intently to listen to God once again. When Christians come together and witness to one another how God is working in their lives, and when the community prays in love for a given need that has been brought to them and then they see how God answers prayers, a person knows in the deepest part of his heart of hearts that Jesus Christ is alive and working in each and every person's life on a daily basis. Knowing the generosity and love of God one must provide a return to Him through service to God's people.
Fr. Robert Burke, my mentor, a close friend and a holy priest, one day asked me whether or not I had ever considered becoming a permanent deacon. At that moment reality struck. It was like the proverbial light bulb went on and I knew that God was calling me to the permanent diaconate. On Oct. 19, 1985, I was ordained.
Besides the normal liturgical duties in the parish of Mass, baptisms and marriages that deacons normally participate in, I have been involved in ministries from jail to soup kitchens, from promotion of family life to the promotion of vocations, from serving on the Deacon Assembly to now becoming the associate director for deacons. The service that a deacon can render is only limited by the lack of one's imagination and the hours of the day to accomplish God's purposes. Wherever one of God's family has a need, it is fitting that a deacon be present.
Of all the services that I have been called on to do, however, the two that most touch my heart is a Bible study on Wednesday mornings from 6:30-7:30 a.m. at Holy Name Parish in Birmingham and a Catechesis Study Group on Fridays during the same hour. About 30 men are regulars and each Wednesday about 20 men meet, and on Fridays about 15. What is so amazing about this ministry is to see how God works to form and conform men to the message of his Gospel and to hear how this shapes the way they respond to the moral issues of the day. Often we cover no more than a page or a page and a half of prepared materials. The reason is that discussion is so building and uplifting that we need not cover any more material than that.
God is calling each of us to serve his people, especially the poor, by use of our time and talent as well as by our treasure. I suggest that each of us will one day need to stand before God and give an account of our stewardship. We must each answer how we have spent our God-given talents. The question becomes how God is asking you to use your talents. Perhaps He is calling you to become a permanent deacon.
Deacon Michael McKale is the associate director of deacons in the archdiocesan Office for Clergy Life and Ministry. He and his wife, Joyce, have five grown children and live in Troy. For more information about becoming a permanent deacon, call Msgr. Michael LeFevre at (313) 865-6300, ext. 225, or e-mail deacon_director@aod.org.
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