The liturgy is a sacrament of the Church: it makes the Church manifest in all its constitutive dimensions. The deacon, by his presence at the celebration and by the tasks he accomplishes, contributes thereby at the perfection of the manifestation of the Church according to the charism proper to his ministry, namely, service of people. The deacon is the witness of a Church open to the world. He unites the service of the table of the Word to the tables of Eucharist and of Charity. He is the «minister of the threshold», the one who assists the assembly to enter the profundity of the mystery being celebrated and thereafter to go back to the world to which the assembly is sent.
