Journey to the diaconate

  By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

As a boy, Jerry Miranda ran away from catechism class, according to his mother’s reports.
As a man, he didn’t attend Mass.
But on May 20, he is to be ordained a permanent deacon at St. Paul Cathedral in Worcester.
What happened?
A retreat, for starters.
Later, he had an interest in being a deacon, even though he still can’t explain why. And the opening of doors made that vocation possible.
Mr. Miranda told The Catholic Free Press about his journey to this point.
“I wasn’t a church-goer at all,” he said. “I was baptized as a baby.”
He said his mother told him she dropped him off at catechism classes when he was a child, and that he ran away from class.
“I don’t remember that, but I believe my mom,” he said.
He was born and brought up in Puerto Rico and graduated from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos high school.
In 1994 he married Legna Colón. Their first child, Lidrianys Miranda, was born with spina bifida in 1996. They had her baptized, but didn’t attend Mass. In 1997, seeking better healthcare for her, they moved to Southbridge, where his wife has family members.
They’ve lived there ever since. Their other daughter, Yerilian Miranda, born in 2004, was baptized, but the couple still didn’t frequent the sacraments themselves.
“In 2008 I did a retreat for men,” Mr. Miranda said. “I completely changed. I started going to church.” He invited his wife to make the women’s retreat, also put on by Movimiento Juan XXIII, a movement similar to Cursillo. She went two months after he did, and they started going to church at St. Mary Parish in Southbridge as a family.
Around 2015, Mr. Miranda said, the idea of being a permanent deacon “started to come into my mind.” No one asked him to consider this; “it came out of my heart,” he said.
“In 2016 I approached Father Peter Joyce,” his pastor at St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, which had been formed from St. Mary’s and other parishes in town, Mr. Miranda said. “He was so happy.”
Father Joyce connected Mr. Miranda with Deacon Anthony R. Surozenski, of the Office of Diaconate.
“Why do you want to be a deacon?” Deacon Surozenski asked.
Then, as now, Mr. Miranda didn’t have an answer.
“I never could hear God’s voice” audibly saying to be a deacon, he said. So he told God, “Shut or open the doors.” Some people have a clear answer, Mr. Miranda said, “but the answer I have is: ‘Up to today doors opened. They’re still opening.’”
In 2018 he received a letter accepting him into a discernment period, along with several other men, “to see if (the diaconate) was a calling we were willing to accept.” The men’s wives came too; “if your wife doesn’t agree, you won’t become a deacon,” he said.
“I’m being ordained, but she’s part of the vocation,” Mr. Miranda maintained. “I see it that way because” there will be times when she will have to handle family plans because he’ll have diaconate responsibilities, such as a funeral. Or she will help with his ministry, like preparing for baptisms.
“They’re the ones that stay home with the kids,” he said of the deacons’ wives. “We don’t have little kids, but she’s the one holding the home.”
After several weeks of discernment sessions, most of the men were accepted into the diaconate program to begin formal studies, Mr. Miranda said. One, already having degrees, was moved forward faster.
“Out of five (others), I’m the only one left,” Mr. Miranda said. He takes this as a sign – one of those doors that opened.
“God lives in the heart,” and he feels in his heart that he should keep going and be ordained, he said. He said he’s nervous, but has no doubts he’s doing what God has called him to do. (He plans to continue driving a truck for the Uxbridge-based Medline, in addition to serving as a deacon.)
“I don’t forget where I came from,” Mr. Miranda said, returning to his story about the Juan XXIII movement. “I’m part of the Southbridge group,” one of several in the Worcester Diocese. He helps not only locally, but, with his wife, is a member of the national team that leads another Juan XXIII retreat – one for couples. (In the northeastern United States, these are held in New Jersey, he said.)
It was on his initial Juan XXIII retreat that he met Deacon Teodoro Camacho, then serving at St. Mary Parish in Southbridge. Deacon Camacho became his spiritual director, and, with his wife, Rita Camacho, an important part of Mr. Miranda’s spiritual growth.
“They’re like a mother and father,” said Mr. Miranda, whose own parents, Victor Miranda and Olga Meléndez, remained in Puerto Rico, but plan to come for his ordination. His brother, Jeffrey Miranda, and his family, are not coming from Puerto Rico, he said. But Brenda Meléndez, his cousin from Southbridge, who is like a sister to him, is to attend with her husband and daughters.
Mr. Miranda said he leaned on the Camachos a lot.
“When Teodoro passed away (in 2019) it was tough,” he said. “Still is.”
When Mr. Miranda was asked who he wanted to have vest him at his ordination, he replied, “Rita.” Told that he needed an ordained person for that role, he chose Father Joyce.
“Father Peter’s my friend, and he’s more than a priest,” Mr. Miranda maintained.
Asked about his goals for his diaconate, Mr. Miranda said, “I would love to do the ministry in the jails,” in addition to parish ministry and ongoing service to the Juan XXIII movement.
“My goal is to help people,” he added. “Hopefully I can guide people on the right path.”


Ordinations
Bishop McManus is to ordain the following men
To the permanent diaconate
Jerry Miranda
To the transitional diaconate
Luke Johnson Stephen Mullaney Assumptionist Brother Elmer Vergara
When: 10 a.m. May 20
Where: St. Paul Cathedral, 15 Chatham St., Worcester
To the priesthood
Peter Phuong Phi Bui Gustavo Correa Garcia
When: 10 a.m. June 3
Where: St. Paul Cathedral, 15 Chatham St., Worcester
To View: All are welcome to attend the ordination Masses. The TV Ministry will livestream the Masses from the cathedral and viewers can watch via a link from the diocesan website worcesterdiocese.org