4. Diaconal spirituality

11. The outlines of the specific spirituality of the deacon flow clearly from his theological identity; this spirituality is one of service.

The model “par excellence” is Christ the servant, who lived totally at the service of God, for the good of men. He recognised himself as the one announced in the servant of the first song of the Book of Isaiah (cf Lk 4:18-19), he explicitly qualified his action as diakonia (cf Mt 20:28; Lk 22:27; Jn 13:1-17; Phil 2:7-8; 1 Pet 2:21-25) and he entrusted his disciples to do the same (cf Jn 13:34-35; Lk 12:37).

The spirituality of service is a spirituality of the whole Church, insofar as the whole Church, in the same way as Mary, is the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:28), at the service of the salvation of the world. And so that the whole Church may better live out this sprituality of service, the Lord gives her a living and personal sign of his very being as servant. In a specific way, this is the spirituality of the deacon. In fact, with sacred ordination, he is constituted a living icon of Christ the servant within the Church. The Leitmotiv of his spiritual life will therefore be service; his sanctification will consist in making himself a generous and faithful servant of God and men, especially the poorest and most suffering; his ascetic commitment will be directed towards acquiring those virtues necessary for the exercise of his ministry.

12. Obviously such a spirituality must integrate itself harmoniously, in each case, with the spirituality related to the state of life. Accordingly, the same diaconal spirituality acquires diverse connotations according to whether it be lived by a married man, a widower, a single man, a religious, a consecrated person in the world. Formation must take account of these variations and offer differentiated spiritual paths according to the types of candidates.