255. The deacon is a servant to all.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 255

Ave Maria series

255  What happens in diaconal ordination?

In diaconal ordination the candidate is appointed to a special service within the sacrament of Holy Orders because he represents Christ as the one who came, “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).  In the liturgy of ordination we read: “As a minister of the Word, of the altar, and of charity (the deacon) will make himself a servant to all.”

Altar piece above: Stephen, a deacon and martyr of the Church, is first mentioned in Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to poorer members of the community in the early church. …..255

DEACON:  The deacon (Greek diakonos=servant) is the first degree in the sacrament of Holy Orders in the Catholic Church.  As the name itself implies, a deacon is involved especially in charitable work (diakonia), yet he also teaches and catechizes, proclaims the Gospel, preaches at Mass, and assists during the liturgy.

The original model of the deacon is the martyr St. Stephen.  When the apostles in the original Church of Jerusalem saw that they were overwhelmed by their many charitable duties, they appointed seven men “to serve tables”, whom they then ordained.  The first mentioned is Stephen: “full of grace and power”, he accomplished much for the new faith and for the poor in the Christian community. Over the centuries the diaconate became merely a degree of Holy Orders on the way to the presbyterate, but today it is once again an independent vocation for both celibates and married men. On the one hand, this is supposed to reemphasize service as a characteristic of the Church; on the other hand, it helps the priests, as in the early Church, by establishing an order of ministers who take on particular pastoral and social duties of the Church. Diaconal ordination, too, makes a lifelong, irrevocable mark on the ordained man.  140

“Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for gain,… Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households as well.”  1 Timothy 3:8, 12

Saint  Stoning Saint Stephen