The Heart of the Diaconate: Communion with the Servant Mysteries of Christ by James Keating (review)

In 1989, in the sacristy prior to the Mass of ordination in St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, England, Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville told the seven of us who were to be ordained that our priorities should be first to our wives and families, secondly to our jobs or professions, and thirdly to the work of the diaconate. Excellent advice! James Keating is well known as a writer on the permanent diaconate in the Anglophone world, and offers similar advice to deacons and wives throughout this well-crafted book. The book has an introduction, and then three chapters (Calling, Formation and Ordination, Ministry) prior to the conclusion. It has a strong spiritual flavor throughout, with many practical applications and suggestions, that flow with ease from Keating's own experience of diaconal ministry and from his working with deacons.

Let me provide some taste of the excellent fare the book has to offer. In the introduction Keating emphasizes that the diaconate must appropriate more deeply the servant identity of Christ, and to dispel "what can only be called its 'retirement' culture" (1). He sees a need for a greater emphasis on specifically diaconal formation in Catholic seminaries, and in line with his earlier works a greater emphasis on spiritual formation for ministry.

Chapter 1 (Calling) describes the importance of human formation for diaconal ministry as well as the importance of the spiritual life, even as the author insists that "It is love of the Trinity that humanizes" (7). Grasped by this love of the Trinity, the potential candidate for diaconal ministry ought to have a profound prayer life. Without this he has no serious foundation, and thus Keating remarks: "Sometimes skills in practical service can be rather easily acquired, but a man with real spiritual problems can hide these within such skills for years" (13). Needless to point out, part of the discernment process is spousal if the candidate is married. Keating sagely remarks, "Encouraging but not mandating spousal attendance (in formation programs) leaves more room for younger couples to come forward and thereby enliven the diaconate in the diocese with not simply the wisdom of age but the vibrancy of youth" (14). As already noted, this is an important point if the diaconate is to avoid being seen as a "second career," or a "retirement position." There are certainly challenges for younger couples with children, which the author is well aware of.

In chapter 2 (Formation and Ordination), Keating underlines that the deacon must make as his own the words of the Lord from Luke 22:27, "I am among you as one who serves" (42). This theme permeates the chapter and, indeed, the entire book. "The diaconal sacramental character can be summarized as a grace that permanently orders a man toward participation in Christ's own self-giving, as one who came to serve and not be served" (53). The service takes shape in his ministry of the Word, service around the altar, and the ministry of charity or, as Keating puts it nicely, "the specific diocesan ministry of each deacon" (56).

Chapter 3 (Ministry) is replete with all manner of insights into the meaning of being a deacon. No deacon or candidate for the diaconate could fail to read this without deep personal profit.

"That is what the diaconate is in its very essence: the consent by a man to be drawn into Christ's very being for others" (19). "To be honest, still in its infancy of restoration, the diaconate does not fulfill the imagination in any expansive way" (45). These two sentences are related. I take them to mean that the foundational understanding of the diaconate is in the kenotic movement of Christ, the self-emptying of the Lord that is hymned in Philippians 2:5–11, and stated in the dominical saying of Mark 10:45. Keating rightly points out in an endnote (79) that...