A man who wants to find out more about the Permanent Diaconate will first meet with the Vocation Director. The Vocation Director will assist the enquirer by offering him information about prayerful discernment, and discussing the ways in which he senses a call to the diaconate.
The enquirer is then referred to the Diaconate Formation Team. Members of the team will accompany the enquirer and his wife for a time as they explore their sense of calling. Reading material, spiritual direction, retreats, study and short courses might all be offered as helps to their discernment. When the enquirer and his wife sense that this calling is truly from God, they will be invited to make a formal application to the Bishop seeking entry into the formation program.
Formation, more than education or training, is the shaping of the whole person. It is a process, a journey, in which the man himself is the chief agent, accompanied by his wife, the Formation Team, and the whole diocesan community, together being minsters of the Holy Spirit in the formation of a diaconal heart.
This formation involves four key domains: Human Formation (growth in self-awareness and affective maturity), Spiritual Formation (growth in prayerful intimacy with Jesus Christ), Intellectual Formation (growth in theological understanding), and Pastoral Formation (growth in capacity to minister with pastoral charity).
This formation takes time, typically requiring four years, tailored to each man's own prior experience and needs. Wives of candidates are encouraged to take part in whatever aspects of formation to which they feel drawn. All costs of formation are covered by the diocese once accepted by the bishop.
