Candidates for Permanent Diaconate installed as Acolytes

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WARWICK — Auxiliary Bishop Robert C. Evans installed 10 candidates preparing to enter the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Providence to the ministry of acolyte on Oct. 27 at St. Kevin Church.
Church law requires every candidate for the diaconate (either transitional or permanent) to complete two ministries before ordination: lector and acolyte, with the latter of serving at the altar being the final ministry before ordination.
“You have already received the mission of proclaiming the Word of God when you were instituted into the ministry of lector,” Bishop Evans said to the candidates in his homily. “Having been nourished by reading, studying, praying and proclaiming this divine Word, you are now asking to serve the Word made flesh in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar.”
“As of this day, you will be configured in a more profoundly spiritual way to the passion and suffering of Jesus Christ, since the Eucharist cannot be given us without representing the Sacrifice of Calvary in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,” he noted.
Bishop Evans advised the candidates to approach their ministry humbly, knowing that while nothing we ever do is good enough for God, the Lord expects his servants to live their lives with humility and fidelity rather than perfection and success.
“Your ministry, especially when nourishing the People of God with the Eucharist, should always be a humbling experience for you, for you are being commissioned with a mandate to be an instrument of God’s grace to those whose souls hunger for the Bread of Life,” he said.


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