This reflection was published in the August 20, 2025 issue of Discerning Deacons’ newsletter The Witness. Subscribe to receive reflections like these in your email inbox every 1-2 weeks, along with a digest of upcoming events and opportunities to connect with the mission of Discerning Deacons. All we know about St. Phoebe is condensed into two verses […]
The day after Pope Leo XIV’s election, I was in a funk. After the rush of excitement the previous evening, staying up until 4 am the night of the new pope’s election to file stories, I was feeling a kind of ecclesial hangover. In his address to the College of Cardinals the next day, Pope Leo […]
For Immediate Release: May 8, 2025 Catholic Women’s Organization Celebrates New Pope Leaders from Discerning Deacons are hopeful after the historic election of Pope Leo XIV; say it signals a Church ever more open to the gifts of all who serve Leaders from Discerning Deacons, an organization working to engage Catholics about the […]
At the close of the October 2024 session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the members of the synod, along with Pope Francis, published the final document of the Synod on Synodality. The document, which belongs to Pope Francis’s ordinary magisterium, serves as a road map for the implementation of […]
Recently, the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), invited Discerning Deacons to participate in a U.N. parallel event entitled, “Women and Forced Migration: Addressing Challenges and Promoting Rights.” Dermis de Jesús and Maureen O’Connell traveled to NYC for the event. Dermis, a parish lay leader at St. Vincent De Paul Church in Philadelphia and […]
Desire. Passion. Call. For almost 40 years I have lived out a call to diakonia as a lay ecclesial minister in the Catholic Church. As a child my family nurtured my faith, I longed for the sacraments and sought to draw closer to God. At all ages, I have desired to know God better and […]
By Lisa Amman, Deputy Director of Engagement at Discerning Deacons This week as we Celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, I’m reminded of my dear colleague and mentor Sr. Josetta Marie Spencer, SSND. When I was a young and new ecclesial minister at my first parish, I had the fortune […]
As global delegates to the Second Session of the XVI Assembly of the Synod on Synodality completed their work in Rome and published their final document, we are heartened by the momentous conclusion of this three year synod. The final document – framed in terms of the three disciples who meet the risen Christ – roots […]
Reflection for the celebration of St. Phoebe by Rhonda Miska A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (24:1-11) “At daybreak on the first day of the week, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb…behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They said to them, ‘Why […]
St. Phoebe, Deacon Icon by Cheryl Liske 10”w x 14”h Egg Tempera on board Completed Spring of 2024 Artist Statement Phoebe appears in Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which he exhorts the Romans: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.” Paul writes, “I ask you to receive […]
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