New deacon heard God's call at Mass

Dana Ackerson's call to the permanent diaconate came suddenly.

Known to family and friends as Dan, he can pinpoint the moment he felt he should pursue becoming a deacon.

"People for years said, `Did you ever think about becoming a deacon?'" he said. "I would say no. Then two-and-a-half years ago at the Easter vigil, I was sitting in a pew and I heard God calling."

Looks right

Although he didn't share this information with his wife Mary for a few days, when he did tell her, he found she had an interesting reaction.

"Mary said that at the same Mass, she had looked back at me while I was talking to people at the back of the church and thought: `He looks right there as a deacon.'"

Mr. Ackerson and his wife had both graduated from the diocesan Formation for Ministry Program five years ago. His involvement in the Church included serving on the parish council at St. Francis de Sales in Troy, as well as a Eucharistic Minister, usher, and member of the prayer and worship committee.

Preparation

The father of two found preparing for the diaconate a challenge.

"Everything suffered more than I wanted it to," he said, noting that his youngest daughter, now a high school senior, seemed to get lonely on the evenings and days he and his wife were participating in diaconate formation.

He learned to stick to commitments. Once something was scheduled, it would take a dire emergency to pull him away from the event. Also to provide some balance in their lives, he and his wife stared "x-out days." They would sit down together and look at the calendar and pick out days that would be off-limits for meetings and other commitments.

Work and ministry

A unit supervisor for the New York State Office of General Services, he said that preparing for the diaconate made him better at his job. Prior to his training, if an employee came to him with a problem, he would jump in to solve it. Through his training, he learned that sometimes people just want someone to listen to them.

"Now I've learned to say, `Do you want me to do something or do you just want me to listen?'"

He is looking forward to all that will come his way now that he is ordained a deacon. He has volunteered as a chaplain at Samaritan Hospital in Troy and hopes to use that experience in his ministry. He said he would be most interested in working with the elderly or ill.

(10-08-98) [[In-content Ad]]