{"id":2709,"date":"2008-10-14T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T00:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/waiting-for-the-invitation.html"},"modified":"2008-10-14T00:02:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T00:02:00","slug":"waiting-for-the-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/waiting-for-the-invitation.html","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for the invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a shiny new blog on the block, A New Song<\/a>, from a colleague of mine, Douglas Souza, who toils from time to time (as I do) for Liturgical Publications<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Doug’s latest post<\/a> is worth reading for a variety of reasons — not least being that it is the eloquent testament of a man who finds himself in unusual circumstances, the sort you don’t read about very often: <\/p>\n

<\/a>Everyday, I rush expectantly to my mailbox. I am waiting for my invitation to the banquet. For the past two years, I have been in the process of seeking what is called a “dispensation from the duties of priestly ministry and celibacy.” In other words, I am a former Roman Catholic priest awaiting permission to be married in the Church.<\/p>\n

In the past, I have received many invitations to the banquet. I waited eagerly to learn that I was accepted to Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. Eventually, I received an invitation to continue my studies in Rome. Then, I received the letters inviting me to ordination first as a deacon and then as a priest. All those invitations I received with a mixture of joy and trepidation, but I never failed to say “yes” to them. Then, after about six years of ministry, I asked to be taken off the guest list. There were other invitations I wanted to respond to.<\/p>\n

My decision in 2001 to hold a wedding banquet of my own meant that I would no longer be able to receive communion or the other sacraments. I certainly knew what I was doing, but at the time I was convinced that I would never be given permission to marry and that the alternative would be a life of frustration – unable to return to ministry and unable to pursue marriage.<\/p>\n

At first, my decision not to receive Eucharist was superficial. I didn’t want to put my pastor in the uncomfortable situation of either having to deny me communion (which he wouldn’t have done) or having to defend me (which he certainly would have). And, since during my ministry I urged couples who were living together or married outside the Church not to receive communion, I couldn’t, in conscience, then receive when I found myself in their shoes.<\/p>\n

As the years have gone on, my decision has taken on new meaning…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest to see what that meaning might be. It’s really something stirring, and beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a shiny new blog on the block, A New Song, from a colleague of mine, Douglas Souza, who toils from time to time (as I do) for Liturgical Publications. Doug’s latest post is worth reading for a variety of reasons — not least being that it is the eloquent testament of a man who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nWaiting for the invitation - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/waiting-for-the-invitation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waiting for the invitation - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s a shiny new blog on the block, A New Song, from a colleague of mine, Douglas Souza, who toils from time to time (as I do) for Liturgical Publications. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}