Monthly Archives: March 2008

Father Jeff is a pastor of Saint Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist-St. Louis.

God spoke to him through the Boston song What Does It Take to be a Man? Came out when he was 17, on the basketball team etc.

If I want to be a man, he must surround himself with good, faithful men (Psalm 1).

Our culture would hold up John Wayne as the role model for a good man … be on our own, win our fights, do good stuff … we don’t need anybody else.

Nobody wants to be a wimp … but what does scripture say? How about Psalm 92:11 … the Lord has given me the wild oxen strength.

That’s great, but we need even more … we need the strength from the Body of Christ … the sacraments, his Church, and the wild oxen strength of our brothers in the Lord.

Our pride prevents us from using the wild oxen strength that we’ve been given for the good of others.

1 John … “we love because John first loved us. If anyone says that ‘I love God’ but hates his brother, he’s a liar …”.

Matthew 25:41-46 … the only depiction of the last judgement in the Gospels.

There are many more things than what Jesus gives in that passage … we are required to give ourselves completely.

Jesus has profoundly touched us in “we and him” … he built us for community, to be in the body of Christ.

If we are not willing to use our wild-oxen strength in reliable, honest, and vulnerable relationships with our brothers then we are not honest, we are kidding ourselves, we are lying.

Michelangelo … “the problem with us humans is not that we aim to high and miss our goal, it’s that we aim too low and we hit our goal.” Ouch, but oh so true.

He has been in a monthly accountability group of men for more than ten years, and that has been essential.

We NEED this because otherwise we’ll rationalize and take short cuts, we won’t be what God intends for us to be … we’ll be something less. Don’t even pretend that you have the wild-oxen strength if you’re trying on your own.

Today, as good as it is, must be about the future, about what we’re going to do to live the Gospel tomorrow.

In short, what does it take to be a man? It takes other good, faithful men.

Some Ideas for Action

Repent. Find a group of friends from some past experience, like a Kyros, CRHP, Acts, Cursillo, Luke 18, whatever, and reconnect. Be honest and reach out for help.

Jesus came so that we might have his life, and have it abundantly.

Enough small-talk, enough passing time. God is aching for us to be the men he intended when he created us.

Check out the National Fellowship of Catholic Men. Find a group, a format that works for you and get to work.

Finished with the story of Eustace becoming a dragon in the Chronicles of Narnia. Jesus not only wants to make us a new man, he wants to keep us a new man.

The third talk is by Ken Henderson, founder of True Knights, an awesome apostolate strengthening men in the faith. As part of his apostolate Ken is a purity coach for men.

His apostolate is focused on purity, particularly the attacks against every member of our families through the media.

He came to this after a debilitating addition to pornography.

He became Catholic in the 90s, but received a poor catechesis and eventually left the Church for paganism, wikka, blah blah. From his bio:

Kenneth Henderson is a husband and father of three young children. He has been blessed with his marriage to his wife, Michelle for 18 years. However, Ken spent most of his life and 13 years of his marriage, lost, self-centered, addicted to pornography, and an inept husband. He knew his life was missing something and he wanted to know the meaning for his life…a meaning he thought he could find all by himself. Then he met God! In one miraculous event, Ken’s whole life was transformed. Jesus Christ took a pathetic soul, in response to a desperate cry, and showed Ken what it meant to be a true husband, father and son. In a journey that would ultimately lead him to the Catholic Church, Ken would come to know that all things are possible with Christ and slavery to the sins of the flesh were not meant to be the destiny of man.

After that he understood that our #1 job is to get our wife and our children to heaven. Period.

The #1 sin confessed is pornography. Satan uses this stuff because it is so destructive of men, as men.

What happens when you cut the head off the body? It dies. That is why Satan attacks the men.

Every computer, every television set is a potential gateway to hell. Pornography is that destructive.

We need to emulate our Lord Jesus … he humbled himself and layed down his life to protect us … we must do the same for our families.

In the middle ages (during the Crusades), before a man became a knight they spent the entire night on their knees before the Blessed Sacrament, with their weapons besides them pledging their lives to defend the Gospel.

In the US pornography is a $15B industry … more than all pro sports together. Worldwide, $55B to $60B … each year. About 200 new porn websites each week.

But it need to be this way.

As JP2 says, the internet is both a blessing and a curse. Porn is part of the obvious curse, but we need to make it a blessing. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more …

While the sin is not new, technology has made it far, far worse.

Every single woman should be treated as if she was Mary, the Blessed Mother.

Pornography kills a man’s soul, it darkens his intellect.

Jesus answers the prayers of those who seek him, and will pull us out of any addiction if we want it bad enough, if we’ll open the door wide enough.

Satan will attack us the hardest right after giving talks, right after retreats, sometimes right during Mass itself. Man that’s the truth.

We cannot break free on our own … it’s only in total dependence on the Lord, through the power of grace, most effectively delivered through the sacraments.

St. Benedict is the patron saint of spiritual warfare.

Satan tempts us to failure, to defeat, so that we don’t even try. He tempts us to procrastinate, so we’ll just put repentance off and watch all around us die.

But we’re called to stand up and fight, to put all on the line. He’ll honor that and use our willingness to good effect.

Fr. Schulte is one of nine kids, one of his younger brothers is a monk at Gesthemani … joined after a tour or two in the military.

He spent three years in the 82nd Airborne (Army), entered the seminary when he was 39.

His dad knew what it meant to be a father, he knew what it meant to be faithful, what it meant to work hard. A great role model.

Why is there so much brokenness in the world? Why … why… WHY?

Clandestine Warfare

The enemy is attacking our city clandestinely, because he’s not strong enough to do so openly. He is focused on the one organization upon which all the others are built … the family, and the person who’s essential to the success of that organization, the husband / father. The city is the Church (Augustine).

Since we are the leaders of our family, we have a bullseye on us. Satan has us marked for extermination.

The CCC references Genesis 183 times … JP2 made beaucoup references in Theology of the Body.

The family is the only organization that is divinely instituted.

Protecting the Family … Our Own Gardens

The world fell when Adam ate the fruit … God came to Adam to lay down what happens next, after the fall. Our spiritual father was asleep at the wheel, he cooperated with evil and invited it into creation.

So human nature fell, we lost the perfection of creation, and we died that day.

There can be no sin where there is no knowledge. Furthermore, sin is imputed where there is authority and responsibility. Therefore, all humanity died through Adam.

Our garden is our family … for a priest, his garden is his parish. We can restore the damage by faithfully tending the garden that has been entrusted to our care.

We have been given this authority by God … not the state, not anyone else … God. We must not sell our birthright for a mess of pottage, as did Esau.

We must assume our responsibility, we cannot back out on that, we cannot push it off on somebody else. If we fail and do not repent, we will be judged as a father.

All sin is masculine (the sins of our fathers …).

If we address this head-on, then many of the problems of society would melt away. Unfortunately all too often we stand by because of our own selfishness.

There would be no vocation crisis if there was not a crisis in fatherhood, no problems in keeping Catholic schools open without that same crisis in fatherhood.

How many of us stand by while our wives destroy their bodies through contraception?

The only way for us to give glory to God is to live the nature that he gave us, which is manhood, to be a good father.

The father is the priest in his family … not the coach!

What We Must Do

Receive the sacraments faithfully, worthily.

Lead your family in faith … pray as a family.

Be active in your parish. St. Joseph is our role model … imitate him and ask for his prayers. When God communicated instructions to the Holy Family who did he tell … St. Joseph.

FInished with dedication to the Eucharistic Prayer for today’s feast of St. Joseph, and a dedication to the Blessed Mother, Mary most holy.

After cool introductions and welcomes by both Bishop Hermann and Richard Lane (the MC), a couple of interesting videos were played. The most interesting was from a group that is new to me, CatholicsComeHome. They look really interesting – let’s check them out later.

Then a great witness by Chip Awalt, a local Catholic. His story was so much like so many of us.

Then came the first talk is by Hector Molina. Hector is the Director of the New Evangelization for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, a post recently created by Arch. Burke in response to the call of pope John Paul 2.

Hector’s talk focused on spiritual warfare … in fact, he says that Christianity can only be properly understood through the lens of war, through the reality of spiritual combat.

We are at war … Wake Up!

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God … the wage of sin is death.

One of the greatest victories of Satan has been to convince the world that he does not exist.

64% of Catholics say that the devil does not exist, that he is only a symbol of evil.

Wake up and smell the corpses, wake up and smell the corrupted and rotting souls that Satan has corrupted. This means war.

We contend with Satan, the world, and our own flesh.

Cardinal Medina Estebes (sp?), when asked up this declining belief, … “the existence of the devil is an article of the faith … whoever says that the devil does not exist is no longer a believer”.

JP2 … “He who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Gospel”.

That is, of course, why Jesus came, died, and rose again!

From Genesis 3 to Revelations 20 … the devil is throughout Scriptures. Rev 12: 7 – 9. Starts with the original war, then goes on to describe Satan’s warfare on the Blessed Mother and the rest of his offspring (Rev 12: 17) … those who keep the Commandments. We are targeted for extermination.

No devil in hell is going to take their inheritance from my family, from my children.

Game on … Ephesians 6: 10 – 18.

JP2 … “spiritual combat is another element of life that needs to be taught anew and proposed once more to all Christians today. It is a secret and interior art. An invisible struggle in which we engage every day, against the temptations and evil suggestions that the devil implants into our heart.”

CCC 409 … “the whole of man’s history has been the history of dour combat with evil … man has to struggle on this battlefield to do what is right …”

This is the church militant. (us!). Have you enlisted?

How to win?

1 Peter 5:8. Be sober, be vigilant, be watchful, the enemy is prowling. He does this through sin – the devil’s work.

Sin is not obeying the Father of lights, but the father of lies.

Satan uses sin to entice us to kill ourselves … as in how Eskimos kill wolves.

How to win? Repent and seek holiness, through the sacraments and the Church, through transformation in Christ.

Real men submit their lives to the commander and chief, who takes us and molds us, reshapes us into his image.

The handiwork of the devil is explicit before our eyes … fifty million babies have been killed because we men have been asleep on our watch … Ammendment 2 passed because men like us were daydreaming while Satan invaded our territory.

Winning the war takes saints … we must become saints.

Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, be holy as I am holy.

Be a real man.

The current problem – we don’t want this holiness, somewhere deep down inside. This must change.

St. Augustine – “The God who created you without your permission is the God who can not save you without your permission”.

What’s this transformation going to cost us? Everything.

It’s worth it.

We want to be able to say, when the day is done … “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have run the race”, so that we can hear those blessed words, “well done good and faithful servant, come into your Father’s house”.

Amen.

Excited to being sitting down for the first ever Catholic Men’s Conference in St. Louis, Mo.

Looks like there’s about 1,000 guys here – awesome for a first ever event!

Many thanks to our Arch. Raymond Burke and Bishop Hermann, who see the real need to build up men in their faith to stand up to the onslaught of our decaying culture.

Now there’s a couple of great bishops – real hearts for the men entrusted to their care.

Check out this lineup:

6:45am Doors open

7:00 Mass – Fr. Joe Classen

7:30 Registration / Eucharistic Chapel open

8:30 Welcome Most Rev. Robert Hermann – Auxillary Bishop of St. Louis Introductions,

Richard Lane, Master of Ceremonies

9:00 Testimony

9:10 Speaker: Hector Molina

10:00 Break/Vendor Tables Open

10:15 Speaker: Deacon Alex Jones

11:05 Confessionals open

11:10 Lunch, Reflections in Eucharistic Chapel

12:40 Speaker: Ken Henderson

1:30 Speaker: Fr. Mark Schulte

2:30 Testimony

2:45 Speaker: Fr. Jeff Vomund

3:40 Eucharistic Procession with healing service

4:30 Mass – Celebrant: Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke Archbishop of St. Louis, Priests & Deacons.

6:15 Conference Concludes

Praise and worship music throughout the day by Adam Bitter and band.

Well the music is starting and the crowd is filing it in … there’s a real buzz in the air. It’s great to see so many guys excited to be here so early on a cold, rainy day … it’ll be cool to see what God is going to do today!

I’ll be blogging as the day progresses … God willing!