The Dominican Friar vocation is about following God's personal call to give one's life to preach the Gospel of salvation by word and by one's own very life. The Order of Friars Preachers is a clerical order, meaning that most of the friars will be ordained to the priesthood, though some pursue the vocation in the state of consecrated life without seeking Holy Orders.

Those who do seek Holy Orders, however, are in the formation process to give their life also to the sacramental ministry of the Church. Every man who is seeking to serve the Church as a priest is first ordained as a deacon and serves under this capacity for at least 6 months. The diaconate is a vocation of service, one that seeks to model the person of Christ, the servant. 

The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

On February 8, 2025, the Province of St. Martin de Porres celebrated the ordination of his brother, Andrew Martin del Valle, OP, to the Sacred Order of the Diaconate. By this ordination, Deacon Andrew Martin will serve the local parish community (St. Peter Catholic Church, Kirkwood, MO) in a new capacity by proclamation of the Gospel at Mass, sharing the homily, serving at the Altar, visiting the sick and marginalized--especially who seek to receive Holy Communion--among other roles in the ministry of service of Jesus. ​

Please keep him in your prayers as he exercises this ministry and continues full-time studies at Aquinas Institute of Theology before ordination to the priesthood.