Stone ordained a deacon for the Duluth Diocese

Bishop Daniel Felton ordained Anthony Stone the newest permanent deacon for the Diocese of Duluth in an ordination Mass May 5 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth, before a large crowd, including a bus from St. Thomas Aquinas in International Falls, where Deacon Stone and his wife Teresa are members. 

Deacon Stone, a physician, is the fifth of eight children and was born and raised in northern California, served in the U.S. Air Force, and settled in International Falls in 2004. 

Bishop Felton, in his homily, noted that the ordination and its sacrament of Holy Orders was part of the Easter season and its outpouring of sacramental graces, in baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and the Eucharist.

Bishop Daniel Felton prays over Anthony Stone as part of his ordination as a permanent deacon for the diocese in a liturgy May 5. (Photo by Susan Dunkerley Maguire)

“I’m telling you, the coronation of King Charles III this weekend pales by comparison to the ancient ritual of ordination that we are about to celebrate,” the bishop said. 

Highlighting the nature of a vocation to the diaconate, with its call to proclaim the Gospel, assist at the altar, lead public prayer, and perform works on mercy in the name of his bishop and his pastor, he said that’s the call Deacon Stone has received. 

“With the help of God, he is to live out all these duties in such a way that you will recognize in him a disciple of Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve,” he said. 

But, citing Deacon Stone’s service in the military, as a physician, and in ministries within his parish, he noted that the call to serve was not entirely new to him, “only the vocational manner in which you will celebrate it, embrace it, embody it, and express it now as a deacon.” 

“So, diaconia is not new to you. Or is it?” he added. “Today, as you advance to the order of deacon, it is not about a something that you are now going to do in life as much as it is about a someone that you want to be like in life. That someone is Jesus Christ, who came into this world not to be served but to serve.” 

Joining in the liturgy were two pastors the bishop said had served as “bookends” of Deacon Stone’s discernment and formation as a deacon: Father Ben Hadrich, who first suggested he consider the vocation, and Father Thomas Galarneault, his current pastor, who vested Deacon Stone with stole and dalmatic as part of the liturgy. 

Deacon Stone is assigned to serve at St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Columban in Littlefork.