Deacon Lloyd Huck: Four simple words ignited my prayer life!

By DEACON LLOYD HUCK
Guest columnist

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” is a question I got asked a lot when I was growing up. It was always fun to imagine having different jobs and careers.

Being a permanent deacon never made the list. I grew up in Kenner in Nativity of Our Lord Parish (now Divine Mercy) as one of six kids. I share “second-born-child status” with my twin brother, who is a Jesuit brother.

When I was about 9 or 10, our parish had a three-day mission. After one of the talks ended, we had an opportunity to sit and pray in front of the tabernacle. I remember quietly trying to pray. I don’t remember anything that I said, nor did I hear anything.  What I do remember is having a strong sense that someone was listening.

Fast-forward 20 years: I had finished college, was married with two children and was leaving an accounting job to start doing electrical contracting in a family business. I had done all the things that I had dreamed of and had checked off everything that was on my list of things I wanted to do “when I grew up.”

But at that time, I began to feel that something was missing from my life. My wife, children and I had been going to Mass on Sundays, but I still had a sense that something was missing and that it had to do with my relationship with God.  

At a retreat soon after, I shared my situation – my sense that something was missing – with Jesuit Father Joe Reising. He asked me what my prayer life was like. I told him that I went to Mass on Sundays. He chuckled and asked me, “Lloyd, when you pray, what do you say?” I thought about it and said, “Well, I guess not that much,” because I had been focused on doing things at work and church, and not very much on praying or talking to God. Father Joe smiled and said, “If all you can get out of your mouth in the morning is “‘God, I love you,’ that’s enough. Start with that.”

I was disappointed that he had so little advice, but without thinking about it I began to say those four words every morning. Those four words turned into sentences and conversations that I would have while getting ready for work or driving in my car. My relationship with God took off.  Through that simple suggestion, Father Joe provided the key that unlocked the tabernacle and connected me to the “someone” who was listening to me at that childhood parish mission at Nativity of Our Lord.

As my relationship and love for Jesus grew, I began to contemplate a different question – not “What do I want to do?”  but rather, “Jesus, who are you calling me to be?”

Before this, I would always think about what I wanted to do in light of what seemed important to the world. When I established an intimate friendship with Jesus, I felt safe and began to look to him rather than the world to understand what he was calling me to be. That marked the beginning of my discernment to the permanent diaconate. 

I didn’t know much about this vocation at that time, but knew God was calling me to explore it. I knew that permanent deacons could be married (that’s a great thing, because I was), and I soon learned that they were ordained to serve the Church in a particular way – through the charism of charity and service.

I serve at my parish in a variety of ministries, most visibly by proclaiming the Gospel, preaching, serving the Mass, baptizing, witnessing weddings and officiating at funeral services.

People sometimes are confused and think I am a priest because they see me “doing” some of the same things priests “do.” The easiest way to distinguish a deacon from a priest at church is by looking for sleeves (a deacon’s vestments always have sleeves).

Many people may not be aware of the deacon’s role outside of church. It’s outside of church that my wife sometimes serves alongside me in preparing couples for marriage or giving married-couple retreats. Sometimes, serving is as simple as being present to those who may be going through difficult times or who need assistance.

All of us have a vocation – a gift from God that he invites us to discover. Christmas is around the corner, so it’s a great time to begin to “look under the tree of our lives” and discover our vocational gifts by looking beyond the wrapping paper and opening the box.

If you are not sure how to open the box, keep talking to God. A few simple words are enough to start.

Keep asking.

He’s listening.

Deacon Lloyd Huck, 52, was ordained in 2010 and is assigned to Transfiguration of the Lord Church in New Orleans. He and Hilary Huck, his wife of 30 years, are the parents of three children.