As a kid in Mexico, Ruben Quezada was already learning what it took to serve others, being the errand boy for the family. If anyone needed anything, be it milk or tortillas, Quezada went off to get it and bring it back.
“I liked it,” Quezada said of his errands as a youth. “They were not paying me or anything, but I liked to serve.”
That experience helped prepare Quezada for another kind of service years in the future. On Saturday, June 6, he and six other men — Anton Trang Dang, Edgar Rafael Jimenez, Jose de Jesus Martin, Eduardo Martinez Rivero, Enrique Mota Hernandez, and Paulinus Osy Ofondu — were ordained as permanent deacons at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
For Quezada, once the ordination Mass was over, he could hardly contain himself.
“Oh, my heart doesn’t feel like it’s in my chest; it’s like trying to explode,” he said. “I can really feel God, his presence in all this. He was with us the whole way since the beginning.
“I just want to be humble and put myself in God's hands to follow him and to listen to his voice, whatever he wants to send me. I’ll be there.”
In his homily, Archbishop José H. Gomez called on the new deacons to be a sign to those whose hearts are “divided” and who have “stopped believing that love is possible.”
“Deacons are called to live as the personification of goodness, and friends of God,” Archbishop Gomez said. “Jesus sent you out to bear fruits of love in this world, where love has gone cold.
“Love the people you serve. Love them as Jesus loves them. And through your love, help them to see the beautiful reality that God is with us.”
At the Saturday morning Mass, the deacons were accompanied by their wives and cheered by family, friends, and parishioners. After the Rite of Ordination — which includes a series of promises, prayers, and the imposition of hands by the bishop on each deacon candidate — the men were helped into their new stoles and dalmatics by their wives, who at the end of the Mass were recognized for their participation and support in the five-year formation process.
For Maria Guadalupe “Lupita,” married to Deacon Quezada, and Cindy Dao, married to Deacon Dang, both spoke of having been wary of the diaconate process because they weren’t native English speakers.
Dao said she struggled through the formation, but her four children came to her rescue by helping to translate many of the formation materials.
“I think that’s a blessing for us because it’s not only about us, for me, and for Cindy, but for our children as well,” said Dang, a CT scan technologist who decided to become a deacon after the COVID-19 pandemic. “It seemed like it was a whole-family formation.”
Lupita also said she had trouble, but knew she needed to support her husband’s calling, especially after two years had passed since he initially told her about it.
“I finally told him, ‘Well, it’s like God has spoken to you in several ways, what more do you want? Do you want him to come and talk to you [directly]?’ ” she said, laughing.
Deacon Jimenez’s wife, Michelle, said she discovered through the formation that there was a higher purpose for both her and her husband.
“I discovered that God shows you what he wants for you in this ministry,” she said. “The gifts that he gives to us as a woman, I discovered that. It’s to pray for them, to be there for them, and I love the journey. It made us stronger and more united, and just know that his walk is not only his, it’s ours. It’s mine too.”
Following the Mass, the hundreds in attendance lined up at the cathedral’s outdoor plaza for first blessings from the newly ordained deacons, who had to occasionally pause for a drink of water or an impromptu selfie.
Deacon Jimenez, a chaplain at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, was asked to describe his feelings that morning. His one-word answer: “Grace.”
“God’s grace is active and alive when we open our hearts,” he said. “When I see people’s joy and desire to receive a blessing, God is present.”
Ofondu was assured of his ministry decision when he heard the Mass’ entrance song, “Here I Am, Lord,” which he said was the song playing at his parish that prompted him to finally turn in his paperwork to become a deacon.
“That song was playing, and that was like, here I am, Lord, I come to do your will,” he said.
“I know (the ordination is) not the end in a way, it’s the beginning. Looking at the people that lined up to say congratulations, that brings my spirit to a new level, knowing that my prayer has to take a different tongue, asking God for the source of all those graces to minister to his people, to reach out to his people, to be that voice for the voiceless.”
The full group:
- Anton Trang Dang and Cindy Cuc Dao of Maria Regina Church in Gardena
- Edgar Rafael Jimenez and Gabriela Michelle Jimenez of St. Gregory the Great Church in Whittier
- Jose de Jesus Martin and Elvira Martin at Holy Family Church in Wilmington
- Eduardo Martinez Rivero and Sofia Martinez Escalante at Santa Teresita Church in Los Angeles
- Enrique Mota Hernandez and Ofelia Mota Hernandez at St. Marcellinus Church in Commerce
- Ruben Quezada and Maria Guadalupe Ramirez de Quezada at Immaculate Conception Church in Monrovia
- Paulinus Osy Ofondu and Stella Nneka Ufondu at St. Eugene Church in South Los Angeles
To learn more about the diaconate, go to lacatholics.org/diaconate-formation.
