This is a special post this Sunday celebrating 17th anniversary of my diaconate ordination. The words spoken by the presiding prelate Bishop Kicanas was so striking and timeless, "Believe what you read, preach what you believe and practice what you preach". I'm nowhere close to these loaded words. I'm ever grateful to Bishop Gerald Kicanas, D.D. who called my family before the ordination and thankfully, I was able to talk to my mother. Gasping for breath, I shed tears (of joy) while on the phone. This simple gesture was much appreciated considering that there was no immediate family member present. This was before the rise of social media and existence of smart phones. Possibly, there was a smart phone but I didn't have one. Facebook may have been created in 2004 but I had no account yet and back then it was much different than now. I'm thankful to the late Fr. Bob Tamminga for accommodating me at St. Francis de Sales Parish and hosting the ordination. My gratitude goes to all who came to join the solemn celebration. If my memory serves me well, I don't remember sobbing at any part of the Mass. At least, no one told me. A priest now a Monsignor told me, I talked a lot during the word of thanks which was really embarrassing. I was supposed to speak for no more than two minutes (nobody gave me a heads up) but ended up 15 minutes or so. Not good. Mea culpa. This year, honestly, I almost forgot this anniversary. As I was browsing the phone's calendar for upcoming parish events early this week, oh I said to myself August 14 is coming up. That's right, something special happened to me that day...it's my diaconate ordination! I'm quick with numbers but not always accurate. I hurriedly, opened the calculator app to double check if my initial calculation were correct. Yes, indeed, it's been 17 years since I took the vows to God/promises to human beings. I could hardly believe. 

Today, August 14 is the memorial of Maximilian Mary Kolbe of polish origin, the patron saint of prisoners and chaplains. Because my ordination coincides with his memorial, I have a special calling to prison ministry. He offered himself in place of a married man, a sergeant and father of a family for execution during the Nazi Germany. My ordination too falls on the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15. Although the Assumption of Mary is not explicitly biblical, devotion to Mary’s assumption has been the practice and belief of the ancient church (history and tradition). In his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (The Most Bountiful God) published on November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, … we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: "that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever- virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory".