Meet Dcn. Richard Dorsch, a transitional deacon for the Archdiocese of Detroit (Home parish: St. Thecla, Clinton Township), who will be ordained a priest later this year.
What was the highlight of your time at Sacred Heart Major Seminary?
One of the highlights of my time at Sacred Heart has been welcoming guests to the seminary — discerners here for a long weekend, alumni wanting to walk the halls again, or parish groups/schools interested in knowing more about this element of the Church. What happens inside these walls is nothing short of life changing and getting to share even a fraction of that story with those who visit makes Christ and his Church almost tangible as we walk the halls.
What has been one or two highlights of your time serving as a transitional deacon?
Two highlights of being a deacon include 1) losing my name and 2) distributing Holy Communion. It is rare for someone to address me as “Richard or Richie” anymore; instead I am “Deacon.” This hit me as I was greeting parishioners after Mass over the summer. There is a certain possessiveness in that greeting. I have in a sense become theirs — their deacon, their minister — I am no longer my own, I am theirs, I am God’s. What a responsibility, what a privilege.
Second, there is something so powerful about distributing Holy Communion after you have proclaimed the Gospel and preached about the very person you are about to receive and distribute in the Blessed Sacrament. Over time you also begin to know the names and stories of your communicants and that Eucharistic encounter becomes even more real as Jesus comes into their personal lives!
How are you preparing for your priestly ordination?
I am preparing for my priestly ordination by maintaining my discipline of prayer and study. I also plan on extending my Lenten practices through to my ordination day as these resolutions have kept Jesus more in the foreground of my day-to-day life.
What kind of priest do you want to be?
As mentioned in the recently released vocations video, I want to be a priest that is both faithful and forgotten: faithful in getting up everyday and ministering to God’s people in whatever might come about that day, and forgotten so that, after an encounter with someone, they do not necessarily remember me but they remember Christ.
What are you looking forward to after being ordained?
The thing I look forward to most about priestly ordination is being able to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I will never forget during a mission trip to India where I was serving with the Missionaries of Charity and Mother Superior approached me after Mass one day and asked, “Promise me my dear brother, that, not if, but when you are ordained, you will come back and do for us what only you can do — offer the Mass and make Jesus present in Holy Communion.” There is nothing more supernatural or more powerful than offering the Eucharist and bringing Jesus to his people. May I never take that privilege for granted.
Please join us in praying for Deacon Richard Dorsch during his final months of preparation leading up to his ordination.