RECEIVING THE GOSPEL — Newly ordained deacon Geoffrey Young receives the Gospel from Saskatoon Bishop Donald Bolen: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” (Photo by Kip Yaworski)

Young ordained to diaconate

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski

UNITY, Sask. — Diocesan seminarian Geoffrey Young of Saskatoon was ordained to the order of deacons at a celebration May 26 at St. Peter’s Parish in Unity, a community some 200 km west of Saskatoon.

Bishop Donald Bolen presided at the celebration, which marks another step on Young’s journey to ordination as a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon. Young served his internship year in parishes at Unity and Kerrobert. This summer he will serve at St. Paul’s Cathedral before entering his final year at St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton.

“Today is a great day, because God continues to stir among us,” said Bolen. “This evening we celebrate principally God’s ‘Yes’ to Geoffrey, and God’s ‘Yes’ to all of us. And we receive Geoff’s ‘Amen’ in response.”

Parishioners from the surrounding area and from Young’s home parish of Holy Spirit in Saskatoon filled the church, joining friends, family, priests and seminarians for the celebration.

In presenting the candidate to the bishop, St. Peter’s pastor Rev. Gerard Cooper called forward three representatives of the local faith community to provide testimony about Young.

Dan Wilgenbusch, principal of St. Peter School in Unity; Bev Murphy, parish life director at Assumption of Our Lady Parish in Kerrobert and a member of St. Peter’s Parish pastoral council; and Cooper himself reflected on Young’s gifts and talents, testifying to the quality of his service during his internship year.

“We received many gifts from Geoffrey whom God has called and blessed with abundant gifts of the Spirit,” said Cooper, noting Young’s work and witness in the parish, the community and the school and in many informal conversations. “His faith and his proclamation of it are very much at the centre of his life.

In his homily, the bishop reflected on the Scripture readings about the call of the prophet Jeremiah, the appointment of the first deacons in the Acts of the Apostles, and words about the Good Shepherd from the Gospel of John.

“When you speak, try always to speak with the voice of that shepherd, Jesus himself,” Bolen said. “You are always called, not only to proclaim the message, but to embody the message and to be transformed and be evaluated according to that message.”

Bolen described the role of the deacon: “to bring God’s Word to believer and unbeliever alike, to preside over public prayer, to baptize, to assist at marriages and bless them, to give viaticum to the dying, and to lead the rites of burial, and to perform works of charity.”

In all of this, the deacon serves Jesus Christ and others, the bishop said. “From the way he goes about these duties, may you recognize him as a disciple of Jesus, to serve and not to be served.”

The bishop also encouraged the new deacon in his role to foster unity, “that there will be one flock and one shepherd.

“As a deacon you are to be an instrument of reconciliation, an instrument of unity. The Gospel we proclaim is one which draws people together,” Bolen stressed, encouraging Young to remember the name of the town where he was ordained a deacon.

During the celebration, Young made promises of celibacy and obedience. The community prayed for Young as he lay prostrate on the floor before the altar during the litany of the saints. Ordination as deacon was conferred through the laying on of hands and the prayer of ordination by the bishop.

Young then put on the vestments of a deacon, before receiving the Gospel from the bishop. “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach,” said Bolen.