From The Boston Pilot:

While volunteering at MainSpring House and My Brother’s Keeper, Deacon Michael Judge met many “giving men.”

The giving men were themselves deacons, who volunteered with Deacon Judge, then a layman, at the two nonprofits. My Brother’s Keeper is a charity based in Easton and Dartmouth that provides food and furniture to those in need. At MainSpring House, a homeless shelter in Brockton, Deacon Judge was responsible for “checking in” residents and listening to their stories. He would eventually start a prayer group for them.

“I learned that everybody has a different story, a different background,” Deacon Judge, 59, told The Pilot. “Everybody has a different set of circumstances. And the one thing in common we all have, no matter what our background is, is Christ.”

Some of the people he talked to had just lost their job while others were struggling with drug addiction or mental illness.

“It gave me a sense that there was more that I wanted, more that I needed, more that I was being called to do,” he said.

That sense of purpose brought Deacon Judge to the diaconate.

Deacon Judge, a parishioner of St. Mary of the Angels in Hanover, was one of seven men ordained to the permanent diaconate of the Archdiocese of Boston in a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sept. 21.

Screenshot

The other men ordained were: Paul Gerard Costello, 63, of Resurrection and St. Paul Parishes in Hingham; Thomas Francis Heyne, 40, of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Brookline; Kris Josef Larson, 60, of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Marblehead; Anthony Ferdinand O’Brien, 64, of St. Theresa Parish in North Reading; Nelson Medeiros Pimentel, 63, of Immaculate Conception and St. James Parishes in Stoughton; and Richard Gerard Rabb, 61, of Blessed Sacrament and St. Mary Parishes in Walpole.

One member of the ordination class, Richard Johnston died in 2023 at the age of 63 while still in formation.

“One of our brothers received another vocation,” Cardinal O’Malley said of Johnston in his homily. “He was called home to eternity.”

Read it all.

Congratulations, brothers, and welcome! Ad multos annos!