As my husband’s years of formation come to an end so will the “Deacon Weekends” . Seven years ago we as a family had no idea what a “Deacon Weekend” was. For the small group of men and their families, Deacon Weekends are a special, crazy. hectic weekend. How is that you ask? Well it seems that every month when the preset weekend for the aspirants and candidates rolls around, and the wives are left at home to hold down the fort, everything that could happen does. These weekends invariably fall on THE busiest weekend of the month. Those of us who still have children at home, and that is about half of this class, find that our children must be in 4 different places all at the same time, if not they will explode. This also seems to be the weekend that someone will end up sick or in the Emergency Room. When classes were held at the hospital this was actually quite convenient.
While our husbands are in classes, learning theology, Christology, church law and history, we wives are at home dealing with soccer, swim meets, getting kids to their jobs, dealing with leaking roofs, or pipes or whatever appliance decides to stop working that weekend.
When my husband first starting going away for the weekend I would try and make deacon weekend a special time for the kids, pizza night with ice cream and movies. Really it gave me a sort of night off, no cooking and snuggles on the couch. And pizza is a treat that we only have once a month. So it really made it special for the kids. We kept up the pizza on deacon weekend until my husband realized he did not get to eat any pizza, since I only had it when he was gone.
Now flash forward, we have only a few more months of Deacon Weekend left before ordination. The closer ordination gets the further away it seems. When my husband first announced that he was thinking of becoming a deacon, I was sitting at a table with our parish priest, holding my 2 month old son. Now that son will be turning 7. My children were 6, 4, and 2 months old. They have spent their childhoods growing up experiencing Deacon Weekend. After ordination I know that there will be many changes but one that will take some getting used to is no more Deacon Weekend.
I'll be praying for you and your husband!
ReplyDeletethanks so much, we appreciate the prayers, we have another "Deacon Weekend" comiong up this week, after dh, has been out of town for a long business trip and children have activities to spare. Everyone's prayers help me get through these times when dh must be away
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on your blog several weeks ago after reading the post from Catholic Mom Online. It's interesting to read about another deacon candidatee with young children. My husband will be ordained on June 11th which will complete his five year formation. We have five children (18-2) and of the 43 men in his class, our children are by far the youngest. The class actually has a running joke that we will have several more since we already have a large family.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you and your family during this time of transtion.
Joanne, thanks for visiting. Wow what a big class in your husband's formation. At least by our standards here. Interestingly enough we are not the only family with young children. There are at least 3 other men in class with my husband who have children as young if NOT younger. It has been a joy to go through this experience with so many fine women. We are fortunate that the families join then men on Sundays for mass, lunch and then either wive's formation or social time. I have really enjoyed getting to know these great women and mothers. I will pray for you and your husband for ordination. Ours will be the following day. So I guess it will be a great weekend for Deacons
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