Denver Catholic

1 We encountered many different disciplines of prayer, but one of the most valuable to me was St. Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits. I had only encountered St. Ignatius's rules in passing prior to Formation, and I found the Spiritual Exercises greatly enriching and very useful in integrating my daily life and my prayer life. 2 A profound, growing, and central role. Prior to For- mation, I had become an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion as part of my many roles with the Knights of Columbus and it was there that I discovered a deep love for and devotion to the Eucharist. I always loved Eucharistic Adoration, where I could spend quality time in prayer with the Lord. This was supercharged by my cap- stone project, where I explored this devotion further in an effort to find stillness and silence in our hectic, modern world. I really grew in appreciation for just being there with the Lord… where, to paraphrase a story attributed to St. John Vianney, "I look at him, and he looks at me, and we are happy. 3 A persistent, inexplicable set of questions, actually! I had a close high-school friend reappear after over a decade of absence, and during that discussion he asked me if I had ever thought of becoming a deacon. Weeks later, a woman who I didn't know well from the parish approached me and asked me the same question. A few more occurrences like this continued to cultivate the seed, and I eventually approached formation to see what the answer to that question would be. 1 There were so many things to learn but the most valuable is to conform my will to God's will through prayer. 2 The Eucharist has and does play the central role in my faith and vocation. Spending time in adoration gives me time to spend with Christ and that time is, for me, is the most precious of time. 3 Both! There have been times in my life where God's will was shown to me through coincidences, little small happenings and quiet ref lection. And there have been times when he made his will known through thunder and lightning, literally. The key has been to listen with the heart and understand what was happening. This was particularly evident to me during my year spent in Afghanistan. God was watching over me in so many ways. ⊲ 1 I learned to trust in God's will and plan for me. I faced an agonizing discernment that would have either had me leaving formation or attending my son's civil union to another man. God called me into formation knowing my son's nature. He also knew that he wanted me to be both father and deacon. In the end, with the help of my formators, I was able to discern that I needed to follow God's call and trust that he would take care of my son and our relationship. 2 The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. During formation, I really began to crave adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Sitting with our Lord, and just being with him brings so much peace and comfort. Being able to receive him, body, blood, soul and divinit y at Mass is amazing. I can't help but smile when I'm distributing either species, knowing I am holding God in my hands! 3 My call was definitely a roar! I was on a week-long business trip in Copenhagen. I met a colleague, who like me, traveled over 100,000 miles that year on business. The first night at dinner I learned that he is a deacon in the Byzantine rite. We spent the dinners and breaks talking about our faith, and how he managed to balance being a deacon with his busy professional life. At the end of the week, he told me I needed to pray about whether I was being called. I spent the 14-hour trip home praying about it. When I got home, I told my bride about the conversation and that I thought I needed to look into becoming a deacon. Her response was, "I always thought you'd do that." When was she going to tell me?!? D E ACO N J O S H DA LCH E R St. Mark's Parish in Westminster D E ACO N B E R N I E S CH WA R T Z E St. Anthony Parish in Sterling D E ACO N T H O M A S G A R CI A Shrine of St. Anne in Arvada 35 DENVER CATHOLIC | AUGUST 2023

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