The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 215: Deacons and the Diaconate (2026)

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Together, with Fr. Mike, we examine the ordination of deacons and the diaconate. Fr. Mike unpacks each of the essential elements of the rite of the ordination of deacons as well as each of the tasks of the deacon. He emphasizes that only a validly ordained bishop can validly confer the sacrament of Holy Orders. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1569-1576. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly homeland. This is Day 215. We're reading paragraphs 1569 to 1576. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a foundations of faith approach that you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also

download your own catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. You can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today, I just want to take a moment to thank you so much. All of you have supported the production of this podcast with your financial gifts, your prayers. We couldn't do this without you. I ask her prayers at the end of every, every one of these episodes. And I promise you, I am praying for you every, literally every single day. You're part of my daily prayers. as part of my daily mass I offer for every person listening to this. Just so you know that I'm praying.

I'm holding up my end of the bargain. And I know that you're probably holding up your end as well. Today is tape 215. We're in paragraphs 1569 to 1576. Well, we talked yesterday about the ordination of priests. Before that, the ordination of bishops. Today we're going to talk about ordination of deacons as well as how is that sacrament celebrated. And so, you know, deacons are that third, I don't want to say third tier, but we'll say

it like that. you know, it's part of the hierarchy, so there's tears there. The third aspect, remember the bishops and the priests, they share, they participate in the priesthood of Jesus in a unique way, and the deacons are ordained to serve. Remember that diaconia is that, that ministry of service. And this really remarkable goes all the way back to the acts of the apostles. Just such an incredible gift. If you know some deacons who have, who serve so well, you just think, wow, these guys are givers, right? They're so generous in their heart. That's, that the heart of the deacon is the heart of a servant. Now, we're also going to talk about two other middle mini-sections.

And the mini-sections are, so how do we celebrate this sacrament? And also, who can confer the sacraments of holy, or the sacrament of holy orders, bishop, priest, and deacon? Who can do that? We're talking about that. Those things today. Let's say a prayer and call upon the Holy Spirit. That Spirit of life, that Spirit of love, that Spirit who continues to fill us with God's grace. We pray, Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son. I ask you to please send your Holy Spirit upon us. Remind us of who you are. Remind us of your love.

Remind us of your goodness so that we can trust you even more fully today. Help us to renew our faith, hope, and love in you. Those gifts of faith, hope, and love are truly graces from you. Lord God, pour them out upon us. Help us to say yes and respond to them in a powerful way. And never let us be separated from you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 2115. We are reading paragraphs 1569 to 1576. The ordination of deacon in order to serve. At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons who receive the imposition of hands not unto the priesthood but unto the ministry. At an ordination to the deaconate, only the bishop lays hands on the candidate, thus signifying the deacon's special attachment to the bishop in the tasks of the archapeut. In the task of his diaconia. Deacons share in Christ's mission and grace in a special way. The Sacrament of Holy Orders marks them with an imprint, character, which cannot be removed and which configures them to Christ who made himself the deacon or servant of all. Among other tasks, it is the task of the

deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the gospel in preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Latin Church has restored the Deaconate as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy, while the churches of the East had always maintained it. This permanent deaconate, which can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the church's mission. Indeed, it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a truly diaconal ministry in the church, whether in its liturgical and pastoral life,

or whether in its social and charitable works, should be strengthened by the imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles. They would be more closely bound to the altar, and their ministry would be made more fruitful through the sacramental grace of the diaconate. The celebration of this sacrament. Given the importance that the ordination of a bishop, a priest or a deacon has for the life of the particular church, its celebration calls for as many of the faithful as possible to take part. It should take place preferably on Sunday, in the cathedral, with solemnity appropriate to the occasion. All three ordinations of the bishop, of the priest, and of the deacon followed the same movement. Their proper place is within the Eucharistic

liturgy. The essential right of the sacrament of holy orders, for all three degrees, consists in the bishop's imposition of hands on the head of the ordnance, and in the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate is being ordained. As in all the sacraments, additional rights surround the celebration. Varying greatly among the different liturgical traditions, these rights have in common the expression of the multiple aspects of sacramental grace. Thus, in the Latin Church, the initial rights, presentation and election of the ordnand, instruction by the bishop, examination of the candidate, litany of the saints, attest that the choice of the candidate is made

in keeping with the practice of the church, and prepare for the solemn act of consecration, after which several rights symbolically express and complete the mystery accomplished. For bishop and priest, an anointing with holy chrism, a sign of the special anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes their ministry fruitful, giving the book of the Gospels, the ring, the mitre, and the crozier to the bishop as the sign of his apostolic mission to proclaim the word of God, of his fidelity to the church, the bride of Christ, and his office as shepherd of the Lord's flock, presentation to the priest of the patent and chalice, the offering of the holy people which he is called to present to God, giving the book of the Gospels to the deacon

who has just received the mission to proclaim the gospel of Christ. Who can confer this sacrament? Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken his flock, but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles, and guides it still through these same pastors who continue his work today. Thus, it is Christ whose gift it is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues to act through the bishops.

Since the sacrament of holy orders is the sacrament of the apostolic ministry, it is for the bishops, as the successors of the apostles, to hand on the gift of the spirit, the apostolic line. Validly ordained bishops, that is, those who are in the line of apostolic succession, validly confer the three degrees of the sacrament of holy orders. Okay, there we are paragraphs 1569 to 1576. we started off by talking about deacons in that third tier, the lower level of the hierarchy, to be found deacons.

And just so incredible, right? The imposition of hands. We talked about that. We're going to talk about that later on, right? That's one of the essential parts of the ordination is the imposition of hands, the laying on of hands from the bishop to that person to be ordained. So they receive there, not when they're laying out of hands, they don't receive ordination to the priesthood, but unto the ministry, onto service.

And there's something so powerful because what does the deacons call? Or even in Sythaghan, what are the tasks that a deacon is kind of like, more or less, supposed to be part of? In paragraph 1570, it says it. It says, among other tasks, there are other things. But it is a task of deacons to do what? To assist the bishops and priests in the celebration of the divine ministries above all the Eucharist.

So to assist at the altar. That's the primary task further in the distribution of Holy Communion. So they are ordinary. ministers of Holy Communion in assisting at and blessing marriages. So a lot of times deacons will witness, they'll assist, they'll bless marriages. The proclamation of the gospel and preaching, this is one of the more annoying things for me. Meaning what I mean by that is I love proclaiming the gospel. I love being able to read the words of the gospels at mass. I love that. And then whenever there's a deacon, he's the one who gets to read it. And it's just always like,

oh, anyways, that's just me and my personal thing. But that's part of his role. proclamation of the gospel and preaching in presiding over funerals and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity there's something so powerful why did why the various ministries of charity we'll go back to the acts of the apostles when the order of of deacon was even brought to us there was there was a need there was the need where the apostles the disciples they were who were so busy trying to take care of everyone that they said it's not good for us to abandon the ministry of the word to wait on tables and so let's let's let's let's let's let these seven men and lay hands on them and basically concentrate them to do that service.

So it's a ministry. They're ordained unto service. It's so powerful. You know, of course, the very next thing you hear about a deacon is a deacon is a deaconne going off and preaching. But that's also part of the ministry of deacons. Now, we have a thing in the West. It was reinstituted, not re-instituted.

It's been restored. I guess probably the best way to say it. The permanent deaconate, which has been such a gift, I think, in the West. Now, in the East, they've always had the permanent diacconate. They didn't have to restore it because they always maintained it. And yet we have been, hopefully our parishes have been blessed. Your parish have been blessed by that ministry of the deacconant. Now, paragraphs 1572 to 1574 talk about the celebration of the sacrament.

And so basically 1572 says it's a big deal. It's a big deal sacrament. And it should be celebrated by the entire assembly of the diocese. Everyone should be able to come out to this. And many of the faithful to take part in this. It says, I like this. It says it should take place preferably on Sunday in the cathedral with solemnity approaching appropriate to the occasion. And like, yeah, that's a good deal. In our diocese, we have such an expansive diocese when it comes to like over the area that it would be really difficult for us to all the priests to be able to attend an ordination on a Sunday because there's, again, we're just spread out so far. It takes a long time to drive across the diocese. So we typically have our ordinations on a Friday because many of the faithful, as well as all the. the priests can make it on a Friday. So we kind of do that here. But again, the heart of it is this is a massively important celebration for the entire diocese. What is a day where the most

number of people can be there? What's the day where the most number of priests can be there? That's in our diocese? They've discerned. They've discerned, not me. They've discerned that that's Friday. Now, the essential right of the sacrament, because whenever we have a sacrament, we want to know, like, what's at the very heart of the sacrament? What's the matter and form? What are the essential pieces? So the essential right of the sacrament of holy orders for all three degrees, right, bishop, priest, deacon, consists on the bishop laying on the head of the ordained hand, and the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

and his gifts proper to that ministry to which the person is being ordained. And that's the essential right of that sacrament. And only a validly ordained bishop in line of apostolic succession can validly confer any of the three degrees of the sacrament of holy orders. So that's what we got for today. Man, what a gift. I will say this. Well, tomorrow we're going to talk about who can receive the sacrament, which is going to be a good and helpful thing for us to be able to pray about because one of the things we recognize is I've been saying for this for the last couple days. We just need to pray. We need to pray for the bishops we have, pray for the priests we have, pray today for the deacons we have. But also, as we move forward, you know, I believe God wants to

continue blessing his church. So let's pray for those men that God is calling to be bishops. That pray for those men, God is calling to be priests. Pray for the men. God is calling to be deacons. Let's pray for them as well. And I am praying for you. You guys, all of this. Here's day 215. This is remarkable. Here you are. Keep pressing play showing up every single day to learn about, God, this is the church you've given to us. These are the graces you've given to us. This is the sacrament of holy orders that you've given to us. And what an incredible gift it is that you and I find ourselves in this church that Jesus Christ has given to the world. And he lets you and I be part of it. So amazing. So incredible. And so let's keep praying. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.