April 27, 2016

By Deacon Kevin Mastellon
Staff writer

On the last of our 12 days of pilgrimage Deacon Tom Kilian asked if we heard Our Lord whisper “I love you.” 
He reminded the 56 pilgrims “these are the words God first whispered to us at baptism and, if we listen, we will hear them repeated often in our lives.”

The setting was a small local church in Rome, Italy, that serves the resident population in the area of our hotel.  The pilgrims Tom was addressing in his homily were attending their final Mass before leaving Italy to return to Ogdensburg.

The church was simple; dedicated to martyrs.  The appointments and décor in dramatic contrast to the numerous holy places we had celebrated Mass with Bishop Terry LaValley and Father Douglas Lucia on this journey.

There were three of us deacons on the trip - Deacon Thomas F. Kilian who serves at Notre Dame Church in Ogdensburg and works as a chaplain in the New York State Corrections Department;  Deacon Henry Leader, an attorney who ministers at St. James Church in Gouverneur and  Deacon Kevin Mastellon, a pastoral associate at St. Patrick’s Church in Watertown.

With our wives, we deacons made the pilgrimage sponsored by this paper to Venice, Florence and Rome with important and spiritually significant visits in smaller communities along the way.  We deacons were privileged to travel with our Bishop and to serve him at each Mass on the journey.  We were also privileged, at Bishop’s request, to preach at Mass on occasion. 

Permanent deacons are ordained to serve the people of God, assist at liturgy and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The joy of being given the opportunity to serve and preach in some of the oldest and most revered basilicas and cathedrals in Italy is impossible to transmit.

Deacon Kilian called it “an honor”.  Deacon Leader used the word “breathtaking”.   I would add “humbling”. 
As part of the formation program for deacons we prepare to preach through courses in public speaking and preaching, called homiletics.  We each preach in our parishes in a rotation with our pastor, priest associates and other deacons. 

There is a comfort and a challenge preaching to a congregation of people you know and visit with regularly. It is different when the ambo is in a great basilica or cathedral, the bishop is seated in the presider’s chair and the congregation is composed of people you are just beginning to develop a relationship and friendship with.

The link, the glue that enables a preacher to overcome any butterflies is the Word of God.  A preacher is, after all, only a servant to the Lord who shares His message to each individual through the preacher.

Deacon Leader preached in a cathedral in Orvieto where a Eucharistic Miracle occurred.  My location was the Basilica of St. Francesco in Assisi. 

Richard and Kathy Burns from Potsdam traveled with us.  Rich is a candidate in formation for the diaconate.  He said he learned from watching the ordained deacons serve and preach.

“It was also a very spiritual trip for me,” Burns said. “Assisi in particular, the home of St. Francis, a deacon, drew me to pray about my vocation.”

Each of us, the deacons on the pilgrimage and candidate Burns, was in the company of our wives.  The permanent deacon, when ordained, is configured to Jesus the suffering servant.  However his first vocation remains his marriage and family.  So it was fitting for Mary Lou Kilian, Dayna Leader and Kathleen Mastellon to serve as lector at the Masses when each deacon husband preached.

Deacon Tom asked us if we heard the Lord whisper to us.

This deacon heard “I love you” from the Lord many times during this pilgrimage, in the places we visited, the Holy Doors we passed through, the pilgrims we shared time with, the prayerful leadership of Father Lucia and the confidence of Bishop LaValley in us as deacons.