Diaconate Community Summer Convocation

Deacon Dominic Cerrato's convocation presentation, “Growing in Greater Intimacy with Christ the Servant,” offers a compelling theological and pastoral vision for the renewal of the diaconate. Rooted in the RIM Dynamic—Relationship, Identity, and Mission—and enriched by the personalist thought of Pope St. John Paul II, the presentation invites deacons to rediscover their vocation through a deeper interior communion with Christ the Servant.

Rather than focusing solely on ministerial function, the convocation emphasizes that who the deacon is must precede what he does. His ministry flows from an ontological configuration to Christ, received through the grace of ordination. This identity is not abstract but deeply relational, grounded in the Servant Mysteries revealed in Scripture and Tradition. Through these mysteries, the deacon becomes a living icon of Christ, called not just to serve, but to be a sacrificial gift-of-self, a conduit of divine love.