Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1450167
6 FEBRUARY 2022 | DENVER CATHOLIC I came back to the Church. I entered the doors of St. John the Evangelist in Loveland a humiliated man and believed I had failed in some way, and in a lot of ways, I had. I had come from a past of material poverty, but as I came back to the church, I was to experience my true poverty. I could not do this journey of life alone. I was trying to create myself and invent my hap- piness, and I was terrible at it; I was an abject failure at being God. God is what I needed; he was who I needed. He was the missing link in everything I was doing, but I had no idea. God took me at my word when I asked him to show me something, and this he did. When I consented, he brought amazing people into my life. People who taught Through discernment with a dear priest, I learned to listen even more. I found that my heart would only find its peace and joy when it was following a path that God was calling it down." Deacon Derrick Johnson, pictured above with his wife and son, was ordained permanent deacon in June 2021. It was a path he never expected to go down, but in hearing a very distinct call from God, he answered. PHOTO BY JAMES BACA me the fullness of the faith, priests who held nothing back in guiding me to the right path in my spiritual, family, and life as a whole. God took everything that I thought I knew, and he destroyed it. It was beautiful, devastating and, at times, violent. I have never felt so alive and so helpless. To gain humility, God humiliated me by turning my entire worldview upside down. In the time after consenting to "go all in" with my faith, I could see that this is what God wanted for me. This was the path he willed for me. There was peace, true happiness, joy and contentment for the first time; and this is how I knew that God was calling me down a different path. In the years that followed, God was not silent. My family was coming together in a way I never thought possible. We were all facing the same direction, we learned to look at Jesus to guide our lives rather than following our human whims. There was true freedom by being obe- dient to all the teachings of the Church, and I could finally see that. Life was transformed by grace; I was able to listen to the Father with the ear of my heart, as St. Benedict would say. Our family fell in love as we encountered Jesus in a most profound way, and we have never been the same since offering our consent. In the years that came after, God asked us to discern my entering formation for the diacon- ate. I was again shocked at the turn my life was taking, but God made it clear. Through discern- ment with a dear priest, I learned to listen even more. I found that my heart would only find its peace and joy when it was following a path that God was calling it down. Our family took this leap of faith and said "yes" to where we thought God may be calling and entered formation. God took all the experiences we had gone through and transformed our path yet again. Formation was the most difficult and fruitful time I've ever