‘That’s What I Was Made For’: Denver Deacons Share Lives of Service at SEEK26

Personal witness highlights the beauty and urgency of the diaconate in today’s Church.

(Photo provided)

Three deacons from the Archdiocese of Denver addressed a packed breakout session at the SEEK26 conference, sharing their journeys from their call to the diaconate to their ordination to their daily living the heart of the servant. The gathering was part of the Archdiocesan Diaconate Office’s efforts to raise awareness of the diaconal vocation and the beginning of a new partnership with FOCUS.

In his opening remarks, Bishop Jorge Rodriguez said, “I always tell the deacons, I hope you are aware of what a wonderful reality you are for the Church.” He told those considering formation that they should have a “heart and a soul for those who need to hear Jesus’ consoling words,” especially the poor and suffering.

In introducing the speakers, Deacon Ernie Martinez, archdiocesan director of deacons, said deacons are ordained to be like Jesus Christ, the servant.

“Christ called ordinary men …  to serve in an extraordinary way. Men with jobs, men with families, men who are grandfathers, men who are celibate. Men who have discovered what God is asking them, not to abandon their lives but to offer them a deeper encounter. That … is the heart of the diaconate,” he said.

Prayer on the Plains

Deacon Luke Oestman, who serves at St. John the Evangelist Church in Yuma and St. Andrew Parish in Wray, became a FOCUS missionary in 2009 before being ordained a deacon in 2023, the youngest deacon in the archdiocese.

Attending his seventeenth or eighteenth SEEK conference, Deacon Oestman told the audience he was called to a heart of service in 2000 when his youth group traveled to Rome for World Youth Day and made a side trip to see St. Francis’s tomb in Assisi, Italy. As he prayed at the tomb, he said, the Holy Spirit asked him what he wanted to do with his life, and he said, “I want double whatever this guy had. I want double the portion of what St. Francis had.”

Deacon Oestman said he learned in college that his parents only wanted two children; he was the third. He said that reality hit him.

“I wouldn’t be here on this Earth if it were up to my parents’ will,” he said. “Lord, you created me for something … There’s no human reason that I’m here … what do you want me to do in this world?”

He said his heart for service grew, leading him to become a FOCUS missionary. He grew in faith and mission, and he entered formation in 2015.

After he began his duties two years ago, Deacon Oestman said, a young couple conceived a child after five years of prayer. At 20 weeks, he said, he learned the mother had been rushed to the hospital, and he could not get there. However, he made himself as available as possible to the family by phone, even explaining emergency baptism to the father. The child lived just 45 minutes.

“That’s what I was made for. That’s why I was called to serve them,” he said.

A Family Yes

Deacon Raul Martinez told the crowd his marriage and family were witness to his work as a deacon. He was ordained in 2023 and serves at St. Theresa Parish in Frederick.

Deacon Raul Martinez said he was struggling, and things were going “severely wrong” in his life when he first married 20 years ago, but the Lord opened his eyes to see that he needed to reshape his priorities to put “God first, then his wife and family and then everything that fell after that.”

As he drew closer to the Lord, he heard the call to the diaconate, but worried about how he would juggle formation with his family responsibilities.

“God cannot be what we do when we have nothing else to do. If God is calling us, he is calling us now,” he remembered his wife telling him.

“Before I could proclaim the gospel in my own voice, God needed to proclaim it through my wife,” he reflected.

He entered formation in 2015 but discerned out after a year. He was called back in 2019.

“God’s call did not disappear; it was sitting, waiting patiently,” he shared.

More than just a personal call, his “yes” to his vocation has echoed into his family. His son, Vick, recently wed Katie, the daughter of a brother deacon and classmate. As the two families prayed together the night before the wedding, Deacon Martinez said, “It struck me that God had been forming more than just individuals but forming families united in mission.”

The Fire of Faith

For Deacon Derrick Johnson of Assumption Parish in Denver, who also serves as a captain and chaplain with the Denver Fire Department, the diaconal call came through the liturgy, but being a deacon goes beyond that.

“We don’t just deacon Mass but take that commission to go out into the world and to do the good of Jesus the servant,” he said.

Since his ordination in 2021, Deacon Johnson has been on the front lines, both in his secular career and in his vocation, putting out physical fires but inflaming hearts with the love of Jesus. He said the work is most fruitful when God has placed him in conversations with people “longing for Jesus.” He said he was able to help bring one firefighter back to the Church, all the way to confirmation of himself and his family.

“Deacons act in a very special way because we are ordained and we have the grace of Holy Orders to act as sheep dogs to go out into the flock and find the lost ones,” he said.

Jesus Christ the Servant

For all the deacons, no matter their path to their vocation, one thing is clear. Following God’s will for their lives has brought tremendous joy and purpose.

“Deacons are ordained to Jesus Christ the servant. When Jesus is on his knees, washing the feet of the apostles, he’s entering into service to the people of God, and we are blessed as deacons to do that type of service in our lives,” said Deacon Ernie Martinez.

And it is that exact blessing they wish to extend to other young men — both at SEEK26 and beyond.

André Escaleira, Jr., contributed to this report.