April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE
How future deacons spent their summer vacations
Each of the future deacons may have worked with the critically ill, helped grieving families or hosted educational programs for children in rural areas. It's all part of what the Diocese calls the "summer practicum" program for men in their second and third years of formation.
Since 2005, men preparing to be deacons have spent one summer at Albany Medical Center as chaplains and another summer working for Catholic Charities. The 10-week internships prepare the diaconate candidates for the service aspects of their future ministries.
Deacon Frank Thomas, the liaison between candidates and their placements, said the practicum acquaints the men with poverty, marginalization, grief and other sometimes intimidating pastoral situations. The Diocese encourages a "rapid immersion" model with hospital placements, plunging the men into service as chaplains immediately.
The "immersion" description hit home for Andrew Grebe, a parishioner of St. Mary's Church in Crescent who anticipates a 2013 ordination to the diaconate.
"I walked into that practicum scared to death," he said of his placement at AMC last summer.
People need people
This year, Mr. Grebe volunteered at Duanesburg Meal Center and Dayhaven Adult Day Services for seniors with disabilities and memory impairments, both programs of Catholic Charities of Schenectady County.
"It's given me some opportunity to see people at different points in their lives," he said. "It's certainly reinforced for me some of the things I've known for a long time: People need people."
Mr. Grebe is a business manager for Brighter Choice Charter Schools in Albany and a married father of three. He'd considered the diaconate for 15 years in his previous home in the Diocese of Rockville Centre (Long Island) and in Albany.
He said the reality of becoming a deacon is both "exciting" and "nerve-wracking."
The combination of the summer practicum, courses at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry at Albany, monthly gatherings and retreats - all part of a future deacon's formation - have calmed him.
"You come to realize you're not in it alone," Mr. Grebe said. As a deacon, he hopes to "help people to see where God is in their lives. People want to share, and people by and large have faith, but they don't know how to communicate it. [I want to be] that conduit for people to just sit and talk to."
Joe Romand, a parishioner of St. Clare's Church in Colonie who will also be ordained a deacon next year, has the same goals. He began discerning his vocation 20 years ago, when his sister's cancer diagnosis made him "realize I had been ignoring the call and misplacing my priorities."
Chaplain's prayer
Mr. Romand's father died last summer while Mr. Romand was doing his practicum at AMC's trauma center. An encounter with a teenage girl visiting her own dying father helped the diaconate candidate heal.
"We were brought together for some reason. I felt the presence of God in the whole thing," he said. "It was extremely moving to be a part of and an instrument of God's mercy."
During the practicum, he also prayed with others facing death and helped families and even hospital staff grieve losses: "It just blew my mind, these experiences."
This summer, Mr. Romand has spent his practicum sorting through clothing and food donations and counseling residents of St. Charles Lwanga Center in Albany's South End. Many of the homeless men who use the emergency shelter have struggled with addiction and poverty.
"I don't look at this as a project," said Mr. Romand, a contract negotiator at the state's Teachers' Retirement System in Albany. "I look at this as being present to people in times of need. It will help me understand the plight of poverty in a more connected way."
Mr. Romand, a married father of three, said the practicum has "helped me understand who Christ was when He was incarnate on earth. I feel transformed by them. I think I have more of a compassionate heart.
"There's nothing in life that necessarily prepares you for some of the things that you encounter," he continued. "It's not about all the material things that we often face. It's taught me, I guess, to be a better human being."
What's up, doc?
The award for most unique practicum placement could go to Dr. Michael Freeman, a family physician from Walton who's scheduled to be ordained in 2014.
He spent the summer developing a health and wellness program on Catholic Charities' behalf for children at the Lantern Hill Mobile Home Park in Oneonta, which houses 60 families. Dr. Freeman taught about calories, hand hygiene, fire safety and dental health. He arranged for visits from a mobile book program, which distributed library cards; a magician, who used balloon animals to teach patience and teamwork; a state trooper, who showed off his dog to teach about loyalty; and an emergency services team.
"It's amazing how kids pick up and learn values when they don't even realize they're learning," Dr. Freeman said. He hopes Catholic Charities will expand on what he started: "People who had nothing before felt very cared about and very empowered."
Dr. Freeman converted to Catholicism from Judaism 10 years ago after marrying a Catholic woman and facing the decision of how to raise their two children. He started discerning his vocation to the diaconate soon after converting.
His first practicum helped him "develop greater patience for working with parents and kids.
"If you discern things in a methodical way and you seek the counsel of other people around you," he concluded, "God will take care of the rest of the details."[[In-content Ad]]
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