In today’s world, “how are we being asked to be the deacons?”
If you were one of the folks gathered with us on Zoom last Wednesday for St. Phoebe’s Feast — or one of the hundreds in the overflow livestream on Youtube — I’ll bet you can feel just how much that devotion has been growing!
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Casey’s preaching from last Wednesday’s service. She preached a powerful word on St. Phoebe’s feast that rooted us all in why all this talk of St. Phoebe and women deacons matters right now, in times such as these.
Are we ready, like St. Paul and St. Phoebe, to share in one another’s hardships, to extend generous hospitality, to risk our necks for each other and for the Gospel?
Casey painted a vivid portrait for us of our world characterized by “families torn apart by detention and deportation,” by “young people who are tempted towards despair and powerlessness as they face the enormity of the world of violence that can feel unending,” by the suffering of our brothers and sisters at Annunciation Parish—”the vast ripples of grief and the solidarity that we share in their suffering.”
And, given all that, she asked us:
How are we being asked to be the deacons, not afraid to respond to such a reality?
I think Phoebe would have done the same, because that’s at the heart of what it means to be deacon: empowering others to step into their baptismal call to diakonia.
St. Phoebe’s feast day is an opportunity for each of us to reflect on how we are being called to be the face of the Christ who came not to be served but to serve—to proclaim with our lives of service “that death does not have the final word,” “to ensure that every person is known by name and belongs,” to “profess that communion is stronger than division and that Christ’s mission—the dream of the Reign of God—can sustain us all beyond fear.”
This “St. Phoebe month” of September, across the United States and beyond, you—our Discerning Deacons community—are awakening people to this prophetic, synodal vision of a diaconate that includes women and goes out to the margins.
- You are sharing the good news of Paragraph 60 far and wide, in postcards handed out after Mass and in social media posts and newsletter blasts.
- You are preaching about St. Phoebe the Deacon—how she calls us to brave and bold love (Marissa Papula at Loyola Marymount University’s Sacred Heart Chapel in Los Angeles) and to use our prophetic voices (Kelly Meraw at St. John-St. Paul Collaborative in Wellesley, MA).
- You are teaching about St. Phoebe in your Catholic theology classes and celebrating her during all-school Masses with reflections offered by students.
- You are hosting special prayer services followed by meaningful discussions in your parish halls and living rooms.
Every so often in this work, I am asked the question, “How do you stay hopeful?” My answer is easy: getting to walk alongside all of YOU.
I hope you’ll take the next step on the journey and join a call at the end of the month where we’ll be launching our plan to grow the discernment about women deacons during the Synod’s Implementation Phase—and inviting you to be a part of it by hosting a “house listening session” inspired by the house churches of St. Phoebe’s day.
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