Our New Deacon
In this photo you see me with our new deacon, Juan Carlos Castro, and his wife, Anita. Juan Carlos was ordained to the Permanent Diaconate by Bishop Vann during a beautiful Mass at Christ Cathedral on Saturday, October 23rd. Along with Deacon Mike Stock and Deacon Victor Samano, Deacon Juan Carlos will be serving our parish in the many ways that deacons can serve: assisting the priest at Mass, preaching, celebrating Baptisms, presiding over Weddings and Funerals when these occur outside of Mass, and in general supporting the spiritual and sacramental life of the parish.
It is a great blessing to have Deacon Juan Carlos in our parish. Last Sunday he assisted and preached at the 10:00 am Mass at San Felipe de Jesús and the 1:00 pm Mass at St. Edward the Confessor. We had a wonderful time congratulating him and showing our appreciation for his dedication to the Church in general and our parish in particular. Although Spanish is his first language, Deacon Juan Carlos and his wife Anita also speak English, and I am eager for you to get to know them as I have.
On an unrelated note, I would like to comment on our Evening of Encounter, which took place on Thursday, October 21st. It was well attended, and it was an awesome experience for all of us. Matt Zemanek (of St. Timothy Parish) gave an outstanding, inspiring talk on our encounter with the love of God through Jesus Christ. We adored the Eucharist; prayer partners prayed with those who wanted individual prayer; Confession was available for those who wanted it. And I must not leave out the beautiful music supplied by Johnny Oskam and other music ministers. We will definitely have such an evening again. In the meantime, if you were present at the Evening of Encounter, I would like to hear from you. Please email me (psmith@stedward.com) with your reaction to the evening.
Gratefully yours,
