DETROIT — On Saturday, Sept. 27, three men lay prostrate before the altar at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, waiting to be ordained permanent deacons by Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger.
The three couldn’t be more different in terms of their backgrounds and the gifts they bring to their vocation; however, the prayers in each of their hearts were much the same.
“Lord, let Your will be done,” Deacon Joseph Jones said.
Deacon Jones, 57, Deacon John Kovacik, 51, and Deacon John Rybski, 64 — all Sacred Heart Major Seminary graduates — are the three newest permanent deacons to be ordained for the Archdiocese of Detroit. At the end of Mass, Archbishop Weisenburger announced their first assignments as deacons: Deacon Jones will serve at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Detroit; Deacon Kovacik is assigned to St. John Vianney Parish in Shelby Township; and Deacon Rybski is assigned to Holy Family Parish in Novi.
“The accomplishment that we have made today is only the beginning of our journey in serving our Lord Jesus Christ in his church, for we rejoice, for now is the time, my brothers and sisters — it is the midnight hour,” Deacon Jones said in an address he made at the end of Mass on behalf of all three newly ordained men. “Now is the time when we raise our voices in unison with our clerical brothers and proclaim to all the Christian faithful — the Body of Christ — that the bridegroom Jesus Christ is coming for his church; a church without a stain or spot, without a wrinkle or division.
“We, the newly ordained today, stand ready to serve Christ Jesus and his church,” Deacon Jones continued. “We look forward to that great day when we can all see Jesus … seeing him face to face, where we can all come together and say to Jesus in one voice, ‘Thank you.’”
As Judy Rybski, the wife of Deacon Rybski, watched her husband become a deacon, she was moved by the incredible calling and vocation the Lord had given her and her husband.
“He is called to be a humble servant of God,” Judy Rybski told Detroit Catholic. “We don’t know what the Lord has planned for either one of us, but we want to follow His lead; we want to do His will. As he was lying prostrate, it was all such a beautiful surrender to God’s will, and to me, it became a new adventure. I felt this joy of not knowing what His plans are for us that we have this unbelievable opportunity to lead people to Jesus.”
Deacon Rybski expressed to his wife that in the moment of ordination, he felt a sense of peace and calm.
“My prayer was that I would be able to continue to hear the Lord’s call and follow His way,” Deacon Rybski said. “It was just an overwhelming experience, and I could feel the presence of the communion of saints, and especially of my parents who have gone before us. I had just this overwhelming sense of love and joy, and I was wondering what’s next. I thought: ‘Hold my hand, Lord, I don’t want to lose sight of You.’”
In their newfound ministry, Deacon Rybski and Judy hope to reach the brokenhearted of the Church, especially young people, and bring them back into her loving arms.
Bernadette Kovacik, the wife of Deacon Kovacik, feels similarly about her role. As the youngest of the three couples and the only one with a young, 3-year-old child, Bernadette Kovacik hopes they can help show younger couples that the diaconate is open to them as well.
“The other two deacons don’t have the young family or children who are in preschool right now, so we are definitely at the other end of the spectrum, statistically speaking,” Bernadette Kovacik explained. “I would love to show people within our Church and others in the community, ‘Let's do this, together; let's get the young people back in the Church, back in the pews.'”
Deacon Jones and his wife, Bianca, come into the diaconate with nearly 30 years of ministry experience. Long before becoming ordained himself, Deacon Jones served as a Pentecostal protestant minister before joining the Catholic Church along with his father and most of his family in 2001.
Deacon Jones explained that his father, the late Deacon Alex Jones Jr., led the family and some of his former flock to the Catholic Church.
“His last text message to me before he died was, ‘You cannot serve God and man; you have to choose. What are you going to do?’” Deacon Jones told Detroit Catholic. “I assume and I suspect that he would be smiling down on me to carry on the ministry that Christ has given to all of his church: to go forth and proclaim the Gospel and to be the example to others of the light of Jesus Christ. I believe he would be excited, but that excitement would be tempered because it is work. I don’t look at it as just a title or something that we get involved in and are passive; this is our opportunity to go forth and to work to be laborers in the vineyards.”
In his homily, Archbishop Weisenburger reflected on the Gospel message: “Blessed indeed are those servants who the master finds vigilant.”
“I don’t think it would be stretching the Gospel at all to say (instead), ‘to be found busy,’” Archbishop Weisenburger said. The diaconate is a vocation of service rendered generously and joyfully, he explained.
“If lived well, these three men in communion with their brothers in the order of deacons will help each of us to better recognize our own call to ‘diacona’ (service),” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Brothers, it truly is with great joy that in a few moments I will ordain these three men, consecrate them, set them apart. Of course, the paradox is that even as I am setting them apart, at the same time, I am giving them to you.
“As I do so, I pray that the good works begun in them will come to abundant fruition, and then they will help each of us again in our own unique ways to enter more deeply into our own service for the Lord,” Archbishop Weisenburger continued. “For the Lord's teaching, His words, are indeed sobering as much as they are life-affirming. He has called each of us to make a gift of our lives to one another, to be so gracious and loving in our effort that we imitate the Lord himself, who is the source of all diacona and to be busy about it.”
