BOSTON -- Deacon Maximilian Muenke is a trained pediatrician with extensive experience in the healthcare research field. Now, he wishes to be a "doctor of the soul," attending to people's spiritual needs rather than their physical ones.

Deacon Muenke first felt called to the priesthood as a child in Germany, but his parents forbade him from entering the seminary. He came to the U.S. 40 years ago for his medical career. Throughout his life, he refused to listen to God's calling until he was walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain. He attended Mass at a local church and was blessed by the priest. When he exited the church, it was raining. It felt like a second baptism.

"And the Lord said, 'I want you in the priesthood,'" Deacon Muenke recalled. "And I thought, 'Lord, I'm too old.' And the Lord said, 'I want you anyway.'"

He sent a letter to Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, expressing interest in entering Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, the only seminary in the U.S. that specifically forms older men for the priesthood.

"After many, many interviews, I was accepted," Deacon Muenke said.

He is now in the final year of his formation. On May 2, he, Deacons Alexander Charow, Joseph Jasinski, and Timothy Walsh Jr. were ordained to the transitional diaconate in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Richard G. Henning at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

"It feels out of this world," Deacon Muenke said. "It feels like God's grace showering on me. I'm beyond words."

Deacons Charow, Jasinski, and Walsh are all in formation at St. John's Seminary in Brighton. For their final year before being ordained priests, they will serve as deacons in parishes throughout the archdiocese.

The Rite of Ordination began with the candidates being presented to Archbishop Henning, who asked if the candidates were worthy of the diaconate. When told that they were, he elected the candidates for ordination. The assembly applauded to show their approval.

Archbishop Henning told the deacons that in their ministry, they would be expected to act as humble servants, instruct the people in the faith, practice celibacy, and imitate Christ to serve as a witness for both the faithful and nonbelievers.

The candidates themselves chose the readings for that day's Mass, including one from the Book of Jeremiah. In his homily, Archbishop Henning remarked that while the Apostles themselves did not recognize that Christ's suffering on the cross was foretold in the Book of Jeremiah, the candidates did, based on their choice of readings.

"As I reflected on these readings, it struck me you understood the nature of what the Church asks of you today," he said. "You have been formed and educated for this role, prepared for this day."

He said that on this day of their ordination, the candidates were giving themselves to God completely. That was the call they had chosen to embrace.

"Your job, in fact, is not to give yourself to the people of God, it's to give yourself to God for the sake of the people," Archbishop Henning said, "to receive in your own heart that truth of the Word and of grace and of charity, and allow it to overflow from you."

After the homily, the candidates pledged obedience to Archbishop Henning and to his successors. During the Litany of Supplication, the candidates lay before the altar, showing complete submission to the will of God.

After the Litany of Supplication, Archbishop Henning laid his hands on each candidate's head, as the Apostles did to ordain the very first deacons. With that, and Archbishop Henning praying the Prayer of Ordination upon them, the candidates officially became deacons.

Upon their ordination, each of the deacons received the stole and dalmatic -- the vestments of their office -- and a Book of the Gospels from the archbishop. The books served as a reminder that the deacons were expected to preach and practice all of the teachings therein. Each deacon then received the Kiss of Peace from the archbishop and all of the clergy present. After Mass, the deacons joyfully greeted their loved ones who had come to see their ordinations.

"What's been such a great gift to me is recognizing how much the Church is really praying with us, the Church here in Boston, and to have known that already we've had an impact on people's lives and that will continue now," Deacon Charow said after the ordination.

Deacon Charow, 32, attended high school at St. John's Prep in Danvers. The example of his headmaster there inspired him to become a priest.

"He had served God, the God who loved him, and he had done so much for so many people, even people who maybe didn't even know what he had done," he said. "And so that really got me excited about the thought of the priesthood."

He will serve as a transitional deacon at Sacred Hearts Parish in Bradford. There, he will try to "imitate the Lord who's loved me enough to call me to this ministry."

He compared formation in the seminary to water slowly smoothing a stone one day at a time.

"The toughest part, I think oftentimes, is being faithful to what we're called to, living in the same community with the same guys who are maybe different," he said. "They have different interests, different feelings about things, but in learning to love them every day, we conform ourselves to Jesus and who he is."

"It feels incredible, such a feeling of freedom and peace and joy," Deacon Jasinski said. "And I think my sweat indicates it's been a workout of a day, but feeling God's grace through it, all his love, and the chance to reflect back on the journey he's taken on."

It's been a long journey. Before entering the seminary, Deacon Jasinski, 38, worked as a sportswriter and middle school English teacher. Growing up, he said, he was "blessed to meet a lot of great priests" who inspired him.

"Through all those experiences and all the relationships I've had, I can look back and hear God's voice whispering to me and taking me along this road," he said. "And finally, I think, he's given me the humility to listen to that voice."

As a seminarian, he's been learning how to "shut up and listen" to God.

"He has a plan greater for all of us than we could ever imagine," he said. "I hope and pray that I can remain humble and remain faithful as he's been with me. And I can't wait to get started, and can't wait to continue to grow in love with him and with the people that he sends my way."

"I'm a servant of Christ, and that is all I hope to be in this life," Deacon Walsh said through tears. "It's the greatest feeling on Earth. I am what God wants me to be."

Deacon Walsh grew up at St. Elizabeth Church in Milton, where he was an altar boy. He first felt called to the priesthood at age 16.

"I loved serving the Mass," he said. "I loved being as close to Christ as I could possibly be."

When he is ordained to the priesthood next year, there's one thing he wants to accomplish.

"The salvation of souls," he said. "That's it."