In less than two weeks, I will receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It seems appropriate to post a short explanation of what the “Sacrament of Holy Orders” is, and what a deacon is, and what it means that I am about to be ordained. I had all kinds of hopes of explaining this in a series of short posts, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. So I’m just going to ramble for a bit and see what comes out.

The Catholic Church has seven “sacraments,” which are the means given to us by Jesus during his earthly life so that his work of salvation would be made present for the rest of time, in this world. Christ does this through the ordained men of the Church, who celebrate the sacraments by virtue of their own reception of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, passing on baptism, priesthood, etc., on through time. For example, bishops have something like family trees. Bishop Zipfel was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop May, who was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal John Cody who was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Ritter, and on and on back to St. Peter himself being consecrated a bishop by Jesus Christ himself.

Of the seven sacraments, the sacraments of matrimony and holy orders, especially, are aimed at the salvation of others. In other words, when you get married, the grace of the sacrament is not largely to your benefit, but to the benefit of your spouse and the Church as a whole. Likewise, when a man is ordained, he is not ordained for himself. He is ordained to serve others, as Christ did.

Among some people I know, there seems to be some confusion about what an ordination is. That’s understandable. After all, not all of you are Catholic, so I don’t expect you to know. First of all, it is nothing like a graduation. It is more like a marriage. When a man is ordained, a permanent change takes place in his very soul. He makes lifelong promises before the bishop, the Church, and God Himself to live the rest of his life dedicated to ministry.

In just under two weeks, I will make these lifelong promises and I will be permanently changed when I am ordained a “transitional deacon.” That means I will receive the first of the three “degrees” of holy orders: the diaconate. The other two are presbyterate (priesthood) and episcopacy (bishop). Before someone can be ordained a priest, he must be ordained a deacon and must serve for a while as a deacon. Hence the qualifier of “transitional” deacon.

Even though I will only serve as a deacon for a year before I am ordained again, as a priest, it is a most important occasion. It is, after all, when I am truly committed to serving Christ’s Church for the rest of my life.

So what is a deacon?
A deacon is “configured to Christ the servant of all” and “is ordained for service to the Church” (Compendium of the CCC). Consider this quotation from the homily in the Rite of Ordination:

Brothers and sisters: since this our son, your relative and friend, is now to be advanced to the Order of Deacons, consider the rank in the Church to which he is about to be raised. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, he will help the Bishop and his priests in the ministry of the word, of the altar, and of charity, showing himself to be a servant to all. As a minister of the altar, he will proclaim the Gospel, prepare the sacrifice, and distribute the Lord's Body and Blood to the faithful. He will preside over public prayer, administer Baptism, bless Marriages, bring Viaticum to the dying, and conduct funeral rites. And in a year’s time, having served as a deacon he will, God willing, be ordained to the Order of Priesthood.

For more information, CLICK HERE to read sections 322-336 of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is an excellent quick reference for Catholic beliefs.

Next, I think I will write a post on what to expect at the ordination. Reading up on it will help you appreciate what’s going on.

Oh, and by the way, the picture above is one of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who happened to be a deacon and who is a patron saint of deacons.

If you have questions or if that wasn't clear, feel free to e-mail me or post a comment.

-Jason

That's right, I'm in Beach. And no, there is no sunbathing on sandy shores here. Apparently this little town of about a thousand people in southwestern North Dakota is named for Captain Warren C. Beach of the U.S. Army's 11th Infantry, who lead an expedition of railroad surveyors through the area in 1880. The town of Beach is easy to find. It's at exit number 1 along I-94. It's very close to Montana, in other words.

Last Friday I headed west to this little town for my summer parish assignment at St. John the Baptist Church. Along the way, I pulled off at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park's Painted Canyon Scenic Overlook and rest area.

To my surprise, bison were grazing on the lawn of the visitor center/rest area. Some were even wandering around the parking lot.

This is the view from the scenic overlook.

Today I went out and walked around town. Here's a snapshot of the water tower.

This is St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, where I am living and working this summer.

One of the windows in the church.

A photo of the county's veterans memorial seems appropriate on this Memorial Day. The list of veterans seems long for such a small population.

Just east of Beach is the town of Sentinel Butte, pictured here beneath the towering butte from which it gets its name. I really wanted to get up to the top of the butte, but some traffic was blocking my way:

I'm not sure where these guys were going in their covered wagons, but they weren't moving very fast and they blocked the road. So I decided to try to get to the butte again some other time.

The towns around here and their church congregations have been extremely welcoming, and I think it's going to be a good summer out here.

-Jason

After years (literally) of agonizing over it, tonight I have completed a draft of my graduate thesis! It is pretty much the only thing I have worked on for the last two weeks. Everybody else left for their summer assignments two weeks ago, but I stayed behind. I did the same thing last year, hoping to make progress on my thesis after everybody left. I ended up completely wasting that time by riding bike and watching hours of the t.v. series "Corner Gas," on DVD. Don't ask me why, but our library has all six seasons. I found that series interesting because it was set in rural Saskatchewan, not too far from home, and because it's hilarious.

But not this year. This year, I buckled down and cranked away on the thesis, thanks be to God! It's actually quite nice around here when it's quiet and I don't have to rush to ten thousand different things each day. This scenario was perfect for thesis progress.

Tomorrow morning I will pray, attend Mass, and quickly pack up my things for the summer. Tomorrow night I'll be in Wisconsin visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and my new little nephew. After that, on to North Dakota.

Adios, Saint Louis. See you in the fall.

-Jason

Last Friday, May 14th, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., my little nephew was born to my brother, Ira, and sister-in-law Heather. They gave him the name "Noah Wallen Signalness," and he weighed 7lbs, 7oz and was 19.5 inches long at the time. Ira tells me he has huge feet and is already sort of "tall," even though he's only a couple days old. He must take after his dad.

I'm so happy for the two of them. I think they'll be great parents. But they might have their work cut out for them. That look on his little face seems rather mischievous, doesn't it?

-Jason

It's hard to believe it, but another academic year has flown by. I'm now a member of the "Theology 4" class, and will soon be ordained as a deacon. The picture above is of my old room at the seminary. When seminarians are ordained, they get new nameplates for their doors that say "Rev. Mr....," but it takes a while. A classmate prematurely put up a temporary "Rev. Mr." in front of my name, so it had to be clarified.

After working nonstop for a week on my thesis over the last days I managed to crank out one more chapter. I suppose I'm about half done with that project. Then, as a reward, I took time to pack up my things and move to a new room.

This is a crazy panorama I stitched together of that old room. It seems like just yesterday that I moved into that 10x10' room, but that was almost 4 years ago.

So now I'm enjoying my slightly larger room on the 2nd floor. The seminary is mostly empty as everyone has left for their summer vacations before their summer assignments begin. It's peaceful here when the place empties out. I'm thinking I might just hang out for another week and pound away at that thesis paper before I head north.

-Jason