“Overwhelmed with gratitude!”—President Kyle Washut Reflects on Diaconate Ordination
On Thursday, June 12th, President Kyle Washut was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Artur Bubnevych, Bishop of the Eparchy of the Holy Protection of Mary (Eparchy of Phoenix). Father Deacon Washut, who will continue to serve as President of Wyoming Catholic College, was asked to reflect on the offices and duties of the deacon, and on the particular ways in which it applied to him in the unusual role of college president. Those reflections are below.
Remarks on the Occasion of my Ordination to the Diaconate
St. Stephen’s Byzantine Catholic Cathedral
Phoenix, AZ – June 12, 2025
I am overwhelmed with gratitude! Gratitude to Bishop Artur, to the vocations directors who have guided me over these years, to the chaplains and pastors who have advised me, and to those who join me today in this wonderful celebration.
My remarks on this joyous occasion are arranged according to the three offices that are entrusted to a deacon—preaching, works of charity and service, and liturgy—the three offices that correspond, respectively, to the image on the holy card commemorating my ordination, and to the two Scriptural citations it bears.
The deacon’s first office is the Office of Preaching. In the liturgy, he is entrusted with the proclamation of the Gospel and with preaching its meaning. When St. Francis of Assisi finally agreed to be ordained a deacon, it was so that he could assume this office of preaching the Gospel. I selected the icon of Christ preaching in the temple as a way of emphasizing the ministry of preaching which I have now received. But it is an image that is very meaningful for me personally, as well. Eighteen years ago, as I prepared to enter the Eastern Christian Study Program at the International Theological Institute in Austria, I wrote to the vocation director about my desire for ordination. Since that day, the road has been full of twists and turns and delays—changing bishops, deaths, lost paperwork, and more.
The icon on my card depicts Jesus as a twelve-year-old, sitting in the temple and preaching to the assembled elders and priests. But then, his mother comes and calls Him back to rural Nazareth, and He does not begin His public ministry for eighteen more years. This delay is not one of pointless waiting, however. In fact, He transforms the place to which He retreats. Mary, His mother, herself becomes the throne of wisdom, replacing the throne in the temple. His family is drawn up into the mystery of His redemptive work, and His day-job as a carpenter becomes a conduit of grace for all around Him. In a sense, Christ does not abandon the need for a temple, but refashions the tiny town of Nazareth into a true temple, and from there, He begins His ministry.
That’s very much how I feel. The eighteen-year delay has blessed me with my beloved wife and my six beautiful children. My diaconal ministry will be a fount of grace for them, but more importantly, they—my Nazareth—have become the place of my ministry, and are taken up into it. Also, in the order of Providence, had I been ordained in a more streamlined fashion (as I wished), I would not now be the president of Wyoming Catholic College. This role, too, is taken up into my new ministry. Just as Our Lord’s work as a carpenter was a sign of His redemptive building of the Church, so, too, may my work as president be a conduit for my preaching of the Gospel.
Next, the deacon is entrusted with the call to diakonia, that is, the Office of Service. He is to be an icon of Christ, who came as a servant. And he is to offer the spiritual and corporal works of mercy to meet the needs of the Church. Today, the fifth day of Pentecost, is dedicated to praying for the fifth gift of the Spirit (counsel), the fifth Beatitude (mercy), and the fifth fruit (kindness)—all of which are ordered to the practical, active works of merciful love. Being ordained today, I feel called to the practical works of service, but especially in regard to the spiritual works of mercy.
The spiritual works of mercy are not as tangible as the corporal works: feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are clear, physical manifestations of the healing mercy of Christ. But the Church has always recognized the profound need to offer the spiritual works of mercy, as well—the redemptive works of Christ applied to the spiritual needs of those who might not even know they need that mercy.
As deacon and as college president, I am tasked with the spiritual work of mercy that is Christian education. St. Paul tells us in Philippians that the goal of education is to put on the mind of Christ. This mind, Paul reminds us, is the mind of a servant, for Christ humbled Himself and took the form of a servant. As deacon, ordained to have the mind of Christ the Servant, I consecrate my time at Wyoming Catholic College to that spiritual work, as we help our students to have their minds renewed in our Incarnate Lord.
Lastly, the deacon is called to a particular ministry of prayer at the altar, to the Office of Liturgy. As one of the liturgical instructions puts it, the deacon gathers the prayers of the people within himself, and then raises them up aloud in the Church, serving as the link between the priestly offering and the people’s petitions. 
As a servant of Christ, I am called to be a steward of the Sacramental Mysteries—not by being the one who consecrates or absolves, but as the one who gathers the prayers of those in my community to apply the sacramental grace to those needs.
In praying aloud the prayers; in whispering the intentions of the living and the dead as I incense the the altar or lift the consecrated gifts as an offering to the Father; in beseeching the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and our needs, I will be serving as one called and consecrated to pray for the people entrusted to me. This means that I am especially consecrated to pray for the community of Wyoming Catholic College: our students, our faculty, staff, board, benefactors and friends. I am eager to exercise this ministry of prayer, and I ask that you pray for me today, that I may worthily fulfill this awesome ministry.
