Updated: Oct 14, 2022
October 16, 2022
On Friday, we traveled to San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville to check in with Father Shaughnessy. It was the first time a couple of us had met him and we were DELIGHTED! Our upcoming retreat on 10/22 promises to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We brought Father up to date on our efforts to exhort our men, according to our model of Masculine Spirituality, to do something extra each day and prepare to make a (more) personal commitment to Jesus in the new year. We are filled with grateful anticipation as this retreat serves to close out 2022 and open a bright new 2023 Dinner Program series.
October 9, 2022
Our theme for 2023 is starting to take shape. Each month we will ask a new question designed to guide our formation (allowing for our annual retreat in October, time off in December, etc.). After much discussion, planning, and prayer we've built a set of lessons around eight questions that will take us deeper into our individual faith journeys, hoping that by going through the process together we will foster fellowship, spirituality, and community. Stay tuned to this space as we reveal one new question each week. Hint: The first question has to do with something everyone wants to be.
September 25, 2022
When you hear, Faith Formation what do you think? Generally, youth formation comes to mind. However, there is priestly formation and diaconate formation too. What doesn't come to mind so often? Adult formation. When Rev. Ronald Oakham, O. Carm. visited Saint Charles on 4/22/22 to talk about the evolving RCIA, he stated, "The Catholic Church has not done a great job of forming adults after RCIA or confirmation. Most of our energy has gone into youth formation."
Whether you come for fellowship, or spirituality (or for the food), Men of Faith plays a role in your adult faith formation. We are working to make our 2023 programs a vital part of your ability to Be Christ to Someone Every Day by giving you a vision for your own formation and solid practices that will bring you closer to God.
September 18, 2022
What keeps us from going out to the culture and proclaiming the Good News? "What can we do during our monthly dinner meetings to prepare ourselves and our brothers to spread the Gospel?" To the extent that any of us doesn't feel properly prepared to share our Catholic faith, we would like our theme for 2023 to help.
However our theme may evolve between now and January, one thing is certain: We will ask for your open-hearted support of an approach that requires more from each of us (not more time; more emotional investment). We would like to create an experience of increased participation and sustained attendance that excites each one of us to work toward a common goal to grow together in Christ. Please pray that the Holy Spirit may be with us as we head into next year.
September 11, 2022
Last week we talked about a theme to guide us in 2023. Not only do we pray it activates our group's journey, a theme will also help our speakers develop content to touch our hearts. One of our first steps is to choose a prayer to light our path--one we will use to close each meeting, reminding us of why we're investing our time together.
Prayer For Christian Men To Be Godly Men
Loving Father, thank You for sending Jesus to come as our perfect example of a godly Man, a Man Who demonstrated that godly living means to walk in spirit and truth, in submission to the Holy Spirit and in obedience to You, His heavenly Father.
Lord, I lift up Christian men everywhere and pray that Your Spirit of grace and truth may rest and remain on each one. I pray that Christian men may grow in grace and in a knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord and that they become strong in the Lord and in His mighty strength, and not rely on their own abilities but rest in Him alone.
May the beautiful character of the Lord Jesus be increasingly reflected in each one, and may the Christian men throughout the world be godly witnesses to the truth of the gospel both in their own homes and with others they encounter.
Build up the body of Christ, I pray, with an army of Christian men who will become a reflection of the Lord Jesus so that they may grow into heroic men of God. In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen
September 4, 2022
Father Kwame often reminds us that Mass is a rehearsal for our work of being Christ to Someone Every Day. The Mass inspires us and the Eucharist fuels us to go out into the culture and proclaim the good news (Matthew 28:16-20).
Men of Faith's vision is that each man is intimately connected to Christ, one another, and the whole community. In pursuit of that future, we imagine a powerful theme for 2023. We invite the Holy Spirit to work through our monthly dinners in fresh and meaningful ways--for you and our fellow disciples.
Each week, we will use Men of Faith News to update you on our progress. Even though a whopping 60% currently open our weekly newsletter, it will become a critical tool to inform, coordinate, and activate us to go out and touch the lives of others with the love and mercy of Christ's message in the coming year.
Please read Men of Faith News each week to follow our collective story as it forms and then launches on October 22nd at our one-day retreat.