Admission to Candidacy, Permanent Diaconate
Saint Mary’s Seminary and University
December 6, 2025
Introduction
Dear brothers, your admission to candidacy occurs at the end of Mass but that does not mean it is a secondary matter or an afterthought. It simply means that I found out, too late in life, that we’re not supposed to combine the institution of acolytes and admission to candidacy in the same ceremony. This arrangement is a nod to that requirement.
Whatever the official requirements might be, I am delighted to admit you to candidacy. It is a major step towards Holy Orders, towards the sacred Diaconate to which you aspire and for which you have been preparing. By means of this ceremony, sparse in ritual but rich in meaning, you declare that you are a candidate for Holy Orders and the Church, in her wisdom, accepts your declaration, setting the stage of an even more intense phase of your formation.
The Declaration
Prior to entering the diaconate formation program, you, your wives, and your families gave a great deal of thought and prayer to the possibility that God may calling you to be a deacon. You decided to test out that intuition, if I may call it that, by entering the aspirancy phase of your formation, and then into the full-fledged formation program. You have already devoted much prayer, study, and sacrifice and it has led you to this moment when you are ready officially to declare your intention to become a deacon.
The Church, for her part, has been carefully observing the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life and in the life of your family. The Church has been observing your human, intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral formation – and has come to the conclusion that your declaration should be accepted, and that you should be numbered among those preparing for the Sacrament of Holy Orders. I receive your declaration and give it the Church’s stamp of approval with great joy and heartfelt thanks to you, your wives, and your families.
What This Means
This does not mean that diaconal ordination is “in the bag” – It is rather a moment of humble joy in which you resolve to prepare yourselves for ordination with ever-deeper prayer, ever-more assiduous study, even great attention to your human formation, and a clear-eyed focus on your pastoral formation. Your hard work now will pay dividends later in your ministry.
Let me add that you are not merely preparing to be “professional ministers”. Such a phrase conjures up the specter of the scribes and Pharisees. They were indeed skilled experts in the law but often their hearts were far from the Lord and his promises. On the contrary, anyone called by God to ministry must have a heart that is open to the Lord and his purifying love, a heart that is supple to being formed according to the ways of the Lord, a heart that wants nothing more than to be Jesus’ disciple and a co-worker with bishops, priests, and laity in the Church.
The process of your formation is described by dimensions and stages and it all may sound very complicated. In reality, it is simple and straightforward – you are to be conformed to the heart of Jesus Christ who came, not be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
In Advent, we are preparing to celebrate his birth so that we may be ready to welcome him when he comes, at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead. May you enter into candidacy with hearts filled with expectant hope and jubilant praise, for the Lord who comes into our midst every day of our lives ready to accomplish in us and through us more than we could ever ask or imagine. May God bless you and keep you always in his love!