DEACONS Louie Jimenez and Nathan Webb are ready to serve the people of God after their ordinations to the transitional diaconate at two Masses in the last weeks of November.
Deacon Louie Jimenez said his heart was “full of gratitude” for God, his family and his friends after his ordination at Holy Spirit Chapel, Banyo, on November 19.
Brisbane auxiliary Bishop Ken Howell ordained Deacon Jimenez with friends, his brother seminarians, seminary staff, community members and clergy supporting him.
“It was amazing,” 30-year-old Deacon Jimenez said.
“My family were watching the livestream from the Philippines and when I spoke to them that night, they were so proud of me.”
He said when he was lying on the floor during the Litany of the Saints, he prayed to God “that he’ll continue to guide me in my ministry and I’m so thankful for the gift of my vocation”.
It was a moving moment, he said.
Seven or eight years ago, Deacon Jimenez said he could not imagine himself where he was today.
He worked as a nurse in Manilla, the bustling capital of the Philippines, where he saw himself building a life and career.
The priesthood was not totally off his radar.
He had grown close friends with a seminarian who had talked to him at length about life and seminary, and even showed him around the seminary.
“I think my calling to the priesthood grew when I became involved in my home parish as an altar server,” he said.
His friend then invited him to join the seminary.
“At the time, I was just finishing my secondary school studies – I said, ‘I’m too young and not going to consider this at the moment’,” he said.
“It reminded me of the First Reading of Jeremiah at my ordination, actually, where Jeremiah kept saying, ‘no’, saying, ‘I am only a child’.”
Deacon Jimenez said it was during his second year as a nurse that he felt the call to priesthood again.
This time, he accepted the call and said he had not looked back.
Deacon Jimenez will be placed in Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Springfield, parish starting from December 4.
He said he was looking forward to building his relationship with the locals.
“That’s the main thing – if I can do that properly, everything will follow,” he said.
“I’m not just going to minister to them, but learn from them.”
He also wanted to meet the locals who were not going to church.
“The parish has been doing a lot of programs in evangelisation,” he said.
“I want to be a part of that.
“Of course, that means young people too.
“I want to encourage the young people to be a part of the parish community by sharing their gifts and talents.”
Deacon Jimenez wanted to extend a big thank you to the local Catholic community too.
“I just want to thank everyone, those people who have supported me over the years like the seminary community and the parishes where I was placed and of course, our benefactors for the seminary who supported us financially and by their prayers,” he said.
“I want to thank them.
“I wouldn’t have made it to the diaconate without them – from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
New steps in familiar territory
TOOWOOMBA Deacon Nathan Webb has walked the aisle of St Patrick’s Cathedral hundreds of times before “but never quite the same” as his ordination day on November 13.
He said it was striking to step through the door and see so many people, and to walk down the aisle cloaked in prayers.
“It was a really memorable moment – ‘this is it’,” he said.
“The rest of the liturgy flowed from that moment.”
Toowoomba Bishop Robert McGuckin ordained Deacon Webb with his family watching on from the pews and via livestream.
Deacon Webb, the fourth of 12 children, said he was grateful to be able to include his family in so many of the roles in the liturgy.
It was only later that night Deacon Webb got his first chance to assist at a Mass.
People had not seen a deacon in Toowoomba in some time, he said with a laugh, so it was a new experience for many.
He was the first deacon ordained at St Patrick’s Cathedral since 1998.
The parish had to create the booklets, the liturgy plans and orchestrate it from scratch, Deacon Webb said.
“It was a novel thing and it was really a Toowoomba celebration through and through which I was very happy about,” he said.
Dreams of priesthood were present in Deacon Webb since he was five years old, he said.
He remembers playing in the yard with his sister, he a priest and she a nun – his sister is now a Sister of Life ministering in New York.
Of course, he also wanted to be “an astronaut, a policeman and a fireman too”.
But he held onto that possibility of priesthood throughout his childhood.
It was not until he finished secondary school that he saw the possibility of priesthood become a pathway.
He joined the seminary at 18 years of age and remembers telling himself, “I might as well give it a shot, if He doesn’t want me here, I know He’ll tell me; if He does want me here, then He’s got me”.
Deacon Webb wanted his diaconate to get to the roots of the ministry.
“People often see the diaconate going to priesthood… as a halfway step to priesthood, but I hope to see it as a lot more than that,” he said.
“I want to make the most of the diaconate – the service, the self-emptying – I want to make the most of that and I want to take that into the priesthood.
“I think that’s where the ministry of the Church really needs to grow – preaching the Gospel and ministering people on the margins in a spirit of service, which is the guts of the diaconate ministry.”
Deacon Webb wanted to thank Bishop McGuckin, his family, friends, seminary staff and students, and the faithful from the diocese for their support.
He wanted to offer his special thanks to outgoing Holy Spirit Seminary Rector Monsignor John Grace for his guidance and leadership throughout his initial formation journey.
