5th Sunday in Easter https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050326.cfm I had never seen or met a Catholic permanent deacon before I was 27 years old. My first encounter was in Oklahoma City. I had moved to that city for two years to take a teaching position. Within walking distance of my house was a predominantly Black Catholic church called Corpus Christi, which became my parish. I had not been to a Black Catholic Church before, and I was quickly stuck by the sense of community, the incredible music, and the powerful preaching. Corpus Christi had two Black deacons who had a real gift for homiletics. I privately thought of them as the crying deacon and the professor. The first deacon would preach moving homilies that, without fail, had a moment when his voice would crack and, caught up by the emotion of his testimony, he would breaking down in tears, bring the congregation along with him. The second deacon was a dentist and a professor at Oklahoma University. His homilies were as...
These posts are the collected homilies of Deacon Ned Berghausen, permanent deacon of the Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, assigned to St. Agnes Catholic Church. The title "Foot Washer" refers to the Last Supper (John 13:1-20) in which Jesus washed the feet of the apostles and challenged them, "“Do you realize what I have done for you? If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow."