Editor’s Note: The Register invited the five men who were ordained transitional deacons last year to write columns for the Register, to introduce themselves to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.
Deacon Ranil Weerackoon (pronounced We-ruh-cone) is from Cypress, Calif. He was ordained a deacon in May 2023 and served at St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln last summer. He is now in Theology 4 at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
Ordinations will be May 24 (new deacons) and 25 (new priests) in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln.
By Deacon Ranil Weerackoon
I grew up in Southern California in a devout Catholic family with two younger sisters and parents who strongly practiced the faith. Our family would pray the Rosary every night and quite often go to daily Mass when we did not have school. Because prayer was at the center of our family life, my siblings and I developed good prayer habits and learned the importance of taking time each day to pray and listen to God.
After graduating from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif., in 2011, I attended California State University, Long Beach, where I majored in mathematics with an option in statistics. Although thoughts of the priesthood were vaguely on my radar, I mostly ignored them because I was interested in pursuing a career as a sports statistician. As it turned out, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) was one of two universities I could find in the country that had a program that would give me an opportunity to work in that field. From 2015-2018, I attended UNL, where I got a master’s degree in statistics and began working on a Ph.D., while working as a sports analytics intern for the Huskers athletics teams and teaching undergraduate courses in statistics.
It was during my time at UNL that I began to grow deeper in the faith by attending daily Mass and praying a daily holy hour. The thoughts of the priesthood continued to come and go without any serious discernment, until one day when I was volunteering at the Newman Center’s annual fundraiser, “Phone-A-Thon.” Ironically enough, the phone lines were down that day, and we were unable to call donors. But one of my friends mentioned in passing he was going to the seminary, and that got me thinking more about my vocation. He recommended the book “To Save a Thousand Souls,” and I started reading it that very day. Before I could finish the first chapter, I realized God was telling me that I wouldn’t be calling anyone over the phone that day, because He had been calling me to the priesthood all along.
I was immediately convinced of God’s call, and I promptly left UNL to enter the seminary. During my time at St. Gregory the Great and Mount St. Mary’s seminaries, I have developed deep and powerful friendships with good men, some of whom are priests, some of whom are still discerning the priesthood, and some of whom have realized they are not called to be priests, but have become all the better for having entered the seminary. I only wish that when I was younger, I would have asked priests more questions about entering the seminary, because I feared at the time that entering the seminary would mean I had to be a priest.
Nevertheless, the Lord, in His providence, allowed me to learn from my experiences in college to grow developmentally, and I am grateful that I entered the seminary when I did because it’s what ultimately brought me to the Lincoln Diocese.
While celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments are most certainly the most powerful and exciting aspects of the priesthood, I am deeply looking forward to teaching. My time in the seminary has transformed me, with regard to my desire to spread the faith, and I have benefitted from partaking in various evangelization trips, teaching Totus Tuus, leading Scripture studies on the Eucharist at my summer assignments, and preaching as a deacon. I want to transmit the joy that comes from Christ to the parishioners and students I encounter by witnessing the faith and sharing with them my relationship with the Lord.
Indeed, one of the major reasons I have discerned being a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln is due to its strong emphasis on Catholic education. I believe that we need to form people in the faith so they come to know and love the God who made, redeemed, and ardently desires each of us.
I also hope to inspire others to fulfill the vocation God has had in store for them from all eternity. Just as my parents have always prayed that I will be true to the vocation God has called me to, I want to help others to come to know the Eucharistic heart of Jesus by spending time in Adoration and through praying the Rosary so that we can fulfill our true vocation to holiness and ultimately join Jesus, Mary, and the blessed as saints in heaven.
Read the other deacons' columns:
