How one deacon answered the call

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:14 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

How one deacon answered the call 2015-03-13T16:14:34-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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An interesting glimpse into one deacon’s life, from The Grand Island Independent in Nebraska:

According to Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the sun.”

Don Placke of Central City has discovered that his season has come in his 60s and 70s, not in his 20s as he originally assumed.

“I went to parochial school my entire life,” said Placke, who is now a deacon at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Central City. He noted that he first attended a K-8 parochial school in St. Libory. At the time, it was a safe assumption that all the students who had attended St. Libory’s parochial school – now closed – would board a school bus and go to Central Catholic High School in Grand Island.

Following high school graduation, Placke went to a Catholic seminary in Wisconsin in order to become a priest. “After three years, I was told I didn’t have a vocation,” said Placke, who almost certainly was surprised when he was told that information. It was suggested he perhaps could pursue a vocation as a brother.

“I had no desire to be a brother,” he said.

So Placke opted to go to floral design school so he could work as a florist. “My first job was in Kansas,” said Placke, who noted that he met and married his wife, Jan, during the eight years he worked in Kansas. They then moved to Central City, where he had the DJ Shop and he and his wife raised their children, a son and two daughters who are all now adults.

During all those years, Placke never gave a thought about his long-ago desire to be a priest. Then, one Sunday, Monsignor Nelson Newman talked to the congregation about being a deacon, saying that he felt certain that “out there is a future deacon.”

The rest is history. He also describes his homily preparation—which is decidedly collaborative:

Placke said he and his wife are a team on homilies. Early in the week, Placke said, he will begin considering the scripture and Gospel readings for the following Sunday’s Mass. Late in the week, he begins putting his homily together. As a former school teacher, his wife polishes his homily by ensuring that he has the proper structure for everything he wants to say.

There’s much more. Read it all.

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