Dear Brothers in Christ,
The leadership team (listed below) for Catholic Men’s Ministry (CMM) realizes a calling by the Holy Spirit to our next phase of growth. We have answered that call to provide direction and guidance for all that He wants to accomplish in the months and years ahead. There is so much that our ministry can do to help Catholic men in our diocese become all that our Lord wants them to be – to become saints!
There are over 250 of you receiving this email. All of you are men that in some way have been involved over the years with CMM and/or or with your parish’s men’s ministry programs. We write today to invite you to become part of a new group of men’s ministry leaders in our diocese that we refer to as “the 72.” That number comes out of the gospel of Luke (Chapter 10) where Jesus commissions a group of 72 disciples to help the 12 go out and share the gospel - in other words to “evangelize.”
The number 72 is somewhat irrelevant – 82 of you may say yes to this invitation, or 122 ... or 202 ... But however many of you do say "yes," it will be our job as the leadership team to help equip ourselves and all of you for the task of evangelizing other men.
What Does That Mean?
Together, our goal is to become more intentional about helping to bring other men into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church. What "other men" are we referring to? Men already in your parishes; men that have lapsed from the Faith; men in your families; men in your neighborhoods; men in your workplaces; men of any age. But, men that need to be set on fire for Christ. Men that will then change the world by changing themsleves, their marriages, their families and their workplaces.
If you’re like most of us your next thought probably is, “sounds great but what are you guys specifically asking me to do?” Our answer is that in terms of your actual day to day ministry, perhaps little will change. You’ll still be involved with your TMIY group or your Knights Council or whatever other things you do in your parish. But it's your heart (and our hearts) that we want to help change. To make all of our hearts resemble more and more Christ’s heart – through our prayer life and our sacramental life. And to make all of us more intentional in identifying other men who need a personal relationship with Christ – and becoming an instrument for God to use in helping those other men.
As We Continue...
As a group, we’ll all stay connected via occasional gatherings or Zoom meetings. We’ll get to know one another, pray for one another and encourage one another in the work of evangelization. We’ll celebrate our successes and pray for one another when we stumble and fall. We’ll learn together how to pray, how to evangelize, how to share our own testimony. And through it all, we’ll seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph.
Interested in Joining Us?
We hope so. But the next step is for you to pray about this invitation. Are you able to prioritize your marriage and family above this work, while still making time for this ministry? Some of you will discern that this is not the time to say yes, and that is fine. But we also know that for some of you, this IS the time to say YES, and join our work of bringing other men to Christ, and helping them grow in that relationship through our Catholic Church.
If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact any of us – our names and email addresses are below. Otherwise, if your response is YES, please let us know as soon as you are able. And, for those of you saying YES, please mark your calendar for Saturday and Sunday December 4 and 5. This will be a 2 day (one overnight) retreat – at Damascus– for all of us, where we’ll focus on our own spiritual formation and learn more about effective evangelism. We'll follow up soon with more details.
For those of you saying YES, we look forward to hearing from you. For those who have already said YES, we're excited that you are joining us! And to all of you, thank you for all that you are doing already to serve men in your parish and beyond. For those interested, please reply to this email or Contact Us.
Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, pray for us!
In Christ’s Sacred Heart,
Peter Krajnak pkrajnak@rogerskrajnak.com
Tom Lindsey strayer4740@gmail.com
Mike Lisi mlisi1@wowway.com
Kevin McNamara kevinmcnamaratherapist@gmail.com
Tom Mignery tom.mignery@burgessniple.com
Matt Palmer matt.palmer@josephgroup.com
Patrick Petit patrick1petit1@gmail.com
John Schechter jschechter@sbcglobal.net
Nate Schroeder nateschroeder4@hotmail.com
Chris Schweitzer chris@designcanbedangerous.com
John Packer Stevenson johnpackerstevenson@gmail.com
Joe Urquhart jurquhart@oh-ins.com
Mark VanHuffel mvanhuffel@royalbp.com
