On September 10, 2016 we met for the opening Meet & Greet of our fifth and final year of Diaconate formation at St. Louis of France, in La Puente. Next week we will be meeting at St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks. (Please click here to read all of our experiences of the bi-monthly Deacon formation classes)
Today is very surreal. We remember being here four years ago. We had just completed our silent retreat and started in 19th annotation of St. Ignatius. It was the first time that we had seen all of those who were Diaconate formation. Around 100 with most with their spouse. There was what seemed to be a sea of chairs, so many people, and the conversations were plentiful. As they announced each class, we remember hearing the applause for those in the Ordination year, as our class stood to a rousing round of applause, we thought, how far in the future the ordination class was. How distant.
How quickly the past four years of formation have gone by.
Today we were divided into twenty-six different groups or families. Each group tried to have at last one member form each class year. As fifth year, Candy and Jay led the family discussions. Five questions were provided and discussed the best part of formation, the biggest challenge, what you were most grateful for, how you have put your knowledge into service and in what ways are you trying to live out “mercy”.
Jay decided to go a little off topic and discuss how each one came into formation and what it was like when they received their letter of acceptance into formation.
The different years had many of the same experiences, however the journey for each individual was so very different. We all talked of joys and sorrows, struggles and doubts, acknowledging that this journey wasn’t exactly what we had expected. The support given by each member was inspirational, we have found that there is nothing that we cannot get through together.
We talked for around ninety minutes and it was a great time to get to know people in the other formation years. Being able to put a face with a name and knowing those in the different years is a support in itself. This Meet and Greet begins our final year of formation, however this Meet and Greet once again reminds us of the uplifting and richness that is Deaconate Formation.
And our Diaconate Journey continues…
If you have any questions about what we have experienced in the diaconate (aka “that deacon thing”), please ask us or send us an e-mail to gbmom_01_02@yahoo.com.
If you would like to attend a Diaconate Information day, please attend the following:
Sunday, October 23, 2016 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at St. John Chrysostom Parish, 546 E. Florence Ave. Inglewood, CA 90301.
If you are interested in becoming a Deacon or a Deacon Couple for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, please contact:
Diaconate Formation Office
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
3424 Wilshire Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241
213-637-7383
Candy & Jay Krueger,
Diaconate Formation, Year V,
Holy Family Church, South Pasadena, CA
Blessings as we begin out last year of formation!