I guess we were in a sense, because everything we ever talked about always came back to our faith in the redemptive and life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

The Reverend Michael Ryan, the first ordained permanent deacon of the Catholic Church in New Zealand, was an inspiration to me. He died in Rotorua on Tuesday last week surrounded by his family.

Aged 85, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer a few months ago. He declined conventional therapy and decided to live out his last days at his suburban Utuhina home, tended round the clock by family members and staff of the Rotorua Community Hospice.

“I’m ready to go home to my Lord,” he told me, “so I’ll let nature take its course.”

Deacon Mike, as he was known to all at St Mary’s parish in Rotorua, was born and bred in Petone and educated at Petone Convent School and St Patrick’s College.

After serving his apprenticeship in the building trade, he entered Holy Cross seminary in Mosgiel, near Dunedin, to train for the priesthood. But after three and a-half years he became persuaded that the priesthood was not for him.

He spent most of his working life in shepherding and farm management, and supervised the breaking in of thousands of hectares of Maori land for the Maori Affairs Department. He was a travelling farm advisor for Merke, Sharp and Dohme.

He established a Perendale sheep stud at Ngakuru, which became noted throughout New Zealand and Australia for the quality and fertility of its animals.

He married in 1954 and was strongly supported by his wife, Helen, who died in 1997. He leaves eight married children, 34 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

After he sold the Perendale stud, Deacon Mike trained as a marriage guidance counsellor in the early-1980s. He chaired the inaugural Hamilton Diocesan Family Commission for five years from 1985 and was appointed director of Catholic Social Services for the diocese in 1987.

It was about that time he was encouraged by the late Bishop Edward Gaines and Father Gerry Fitzgerald to look into the permanent diaconate. After several years of preparation, he became the first permanent deacon in New Zealand when he was ordained in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Hamilton by Bishop Gaines on December 8, 1990, in spite of controversy over the diaconate among the priesthood of the Hamilton diocese.

He was appointed director of the new diocesan diaconate office by Bishop Denis Browne in 1994, and retired from that position last year, aged 84. He was invited to continue contact with the office in a consultancy role, which he did until ill-health overtook him earlier this year.

He will be fondly remembered by Catholics in Rotorua for his single-minded dedication to the diaconate, his devoted and compassionate ministry of service to parishioners of St Mary’s, his unfailing courtesy and kindness, and his wicked sense of humour.

He spent long hours creating and writing the Permanent Diocesan Diaconal website (www.diaconate.co.nz). He is the author of a booklet “Why do Catholics?” which explains a wide range of Catholic belief, tradition and dogma, and was working on a history of the diaconate in New Zealand when he took ill.

His lifetime of service to his God, his family and his church was recognised at his Requiem Mass last Saturday at St Mary’s at which Bishop Browne presided. He was a man rich in years, rich in experience and rich in wisdom and was always prepared to share his life with others.

There are today several dozen permanent deacons in the Hamilton and Auckland dioceses — in itself a lasting memorial to the life of Mike Ryan.

I shall miss him and his stories of his full and eventful life, told with all the wit, humour and self-deprecation of a genuine Irish raconteur.

But I rejoice that he is now in the everlasting arms of his Lord, and has heard those wonderful words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

I know, without a shadow of doubt that he indeed rests in peace.