For the longest time, I never considered researching the possibility that I have a Saint whose feast day is the same as my birthday. I had looked a few years ago at one of the calendars that are available at the Church, but never found that a Saint was celebrated the same day as my birthday, which is June 4th. Last year, I realized that the Dominican calendar is slightly different than the Roman Rite, so I decided to see if they had any Saint whose feast day fell on 6/4.

As it turns out, I’m in a Dominican Parish for a reason. June 4th is the feast day of St. Peter of Verona (Also known as St. Peter Martyr). Born in Verona, Italy around 1206, he was born into a family who were believers of the Manichaean heresy. Through God’s providence, he was sent to Catholic school in Northern Italy and later attended the University of Bologna, where he would meet St. Dominic. While there, he converted to the Catholic Faith and entered the Order of Preachers to become one of St. Dominic’s first followers.

Sometimes called “a second Paul”; after his conversion, he spent a great deal of his time traveling through Italy preaching the Doctrine and denouncing the errors of the day, mainly of the Manichaean propaganda being spread at the time. Among their erroneous beliefs was the thought that God only created the heavens and that an evil being was the creator of the material world. St. Peter Martyr preached in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Genoa, and where he went, crowds of people would gather to listen.

At one point, upon returning to Milan from the city of Como, a group of heretics attacked him along the road and one known as Carino brought an ax down on Peter’s head. While that blow would have been enough to kill any man, St. Peter got up onto his knees, and taking the blood coming down from his scalp, he wrote the words “Credo in unum Deum” which means “I believe in one God”. He was then killed by another blow to his side, and upon his death, was carried to Milan where his body is still at rest at the Dominican church there dedicated to St. Eustorgius.

It happened that his martyrdom also brought the conversion of Carino, the Manichaean who dealt the first blow to St. Peter.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he states, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:6-7) Again in Philippians 12, Paul tells them to, “Work out your salvation in fear and trembling.”

We can see from just these two instances that Paul was a fan of sports and used them quite a bit in his examples and teachings. In keeping to his plan, I started thinking of comparing the way we should all prepare for the season of Lent with how college football players prepare for the combine and NFL draft. And now that we are half-way through the season, I figure that it’s better to start late than never.

First, it must be understood that these collegiate players had to start their training somewhere. Most likely, they started in high school or earlier, worked on basics and rules, then developed the skills the more they practiced. In that same light, we should be willing to start small in our prayer life if that is an area we need to work on. Father Blau mentioned in a homily that we can’t just go from “no prayer” to spending a full hour in deep meditation. His advice is to start small. An example would be to find the daily Gospel reading for the day, read it, and then spend a few moments reflecting on its meaning in your life. Sometimes we may need to read the same passage more than once, and that’s okay. This way, we don’t become overwhelmed by trying to do too much all at once.

Another important step is practice. Unless divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, none of us are going to become saints overnight. Just as these football players put in hours of practice each week, so we should also try to keep a regular prayer schedule. It may take some time to get to where it doesn’t feel painful to prayer for half an hour, but no one gets through a football practice without a few bruises either. What may start out as a chore, with time and determination, will turn into a good habit that we will miss should we go one day without.

Once we get into a good practice schedule, we should try to find ways to further develop our spiritual lives. No player out there allows himself to reach a certain level and then just sit there. If he does, he’ll get replaced by the next player trying for his spot on the roster. And while we have no fear of being replaced, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of contentment.

One last thought as we take to the spiritual field of our prayer lives it that, like Fr. Blau also said, prayer is part “saying”, and another part “doing”. Our actions speak so clearly to those outside of the faith, that any misstep on our part can leave a bad impression. Example: What good does it do to have a Right to Life bumper sticker on your car if you’re going to drive like you want to run everyone else off the road?

There are a great many things in the world today that can generate worry. Job security, family issues, car problems, garage doors malfunctioning (that last one just happened to me as I came home from Rosary Sunday Mass), and so on. So many times I’ve started to panic as one or more of these issues crossed my path. That’s when the words of St. Pio come to my mind. “Don’t waste energy on things that generate worry, anxiety and anguish. Only one thing is necessary: Lift up your spirit and love God”.

St. Pio was born on May 25th, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. At the age of 16, he entered the novitiate of Capuchin Friars, and four years later made his solemn profession. Early on in his life he faced hardships. Shortly after being ordained a priest in 1910, he would have to spend the next six years at his home in Pietrelcina for health concerns. Having devoted his entire life to Jesus Christ in service to his people, just two years after arriving at the Friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, he came into a closer union with Christ by receiving the wounds of our crucified Lord on September 20th, 1918.

In 2008, at the request of Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican opened the archives on the Church’s investigation into then Padre Pio’s claims of having the stigmata. There is an article attached through EWTN’s website that gives the sworn statement of the saint in which he stated he was praying in the choir loft after Mass and was visited by the crucified Christ. He stated that he asked how he could be closer to Christ. Our Lord asked him to “join souls to his Passion”. St. Pio then asked him what he could do. At that moment, Jesus said,” I will unite you with my passion.”

From that moment on, St. Pio undertook the salvation of others through his sufferings, offering them up to the Lord for all the ingratitude of man. It’s here that I tell myself that for all the problems that I may have, I can never outdo Our Lord in suffering. Rather, as St. Pio did, we should unite our suffering to His, even in the smallest things, and in that way, not lose the hope for a better future.

Going through my journey to understand the vocation God is calling me to, I found time in August to visit the Benedictine monks of St. Andrew’s Abbey up in Cleveland. Around 22 monks reside in the abbey, of which about 8 or nine of them are priests, who on the weekends go out to various parishes in the Cleveland diocese to say Mass.

The theme of the retreat was “Work and Prayer in Balance”. It is a theme that for many of us has been hard to embrace these hectic and multi-tasking days. The talks over the weekend centered on how to put St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries into practice in the working environments. Discussions ranged from making one’s work a living prayer to our Lord, to dealing with co-workers of different temperaments. I’ve read some of St. Benedict’s Rule and there are sections that actually do teach monks how to deal with others in the community whose personalities just don’t blend very well together.

The idea of community was presented very strongly among the monks of St. Andrew’s Abbey. Each and every man there has a role to accomplish much like a well maintained watch. Without one of the parts, the watch itself doesn’t function properly. So it is with the monks. One washes the clothes, anther cooks, another cleans the kitchen afterwards, another buys the food and supplies for daily living, so on and so forth. It’s done in obedience to the Abbot which is also a showing of obedience to God.

The other major thing they stress is the point of consistency. Our Lord was the same in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Why is it so hard for us to imitate that? I have at times not been able to even leave the television set to one channel to watch the football game. As soon as commercial come on, I’m flipping channels. The monks on the other hand stress staying consistent even in work. One monk was given the job of washing clothes the day he joined the order, and he’s been doing that job for over the last 40 years without the need to have to jump around from position to position within the order. The weekend I was visiting, there was a young monk that just joined who had been given the task of being the barber for the community. This role was new to him, and he was nervous ( so too were some of the other monks going for haircuts), but given time and obedience in training, he’ll be just as good as the last barber who had cut hair for so many years before.

Now I’m fairly new to the Knights of Columbus, but I see much of the same elements here with this group of men as I did in Cleveland. There has always been a strong sense of community within the group, ever since the founding days. Working to improve the community one pizza sale at a time, everyone has a key role to play. And while positions change every couple years or so, the same sense of dedication to helping the community has been the constant theme of the Knights and it will not change. I’m not sure of where I am on my journey, but standing among my brother knights, I know I’m on the right road.
Thank you and God bless.

Tonight I will hand over the reigns of the Grand Knight Position to Robert McGonigle. I am leaving you all in capable hands. I’ve been honored and humbled to have worked for you all the last two years. It has been fun and challenging and I do love a challenge. (Why do you think I have so many kids?!)

God bless you all and I look forward to continuing to work with you at events.

Tonight at the Greater Columbus Chapter meeting, our council–along with the others in the diocese–were presented with our council awards. As you know already, we made double-star council. I was quite excited to see the plaque they gave us (see to the right). You can click it to see a blown-up version of it.

Congratulations, Men, you all helped with this. It’s a great honor. I am very happy about this.

Thanks so much to Fletcher for hosting our annual Family Picnic! While it was a small crowd, we had fun anyway. The kids played on the swing set in the back as well as played board games in the house.  Us adults hung out under a shady tree and took in the breeze.

I have a couple pictures below, I didn’t bring my camera so I only used my cell phone to get pictures my children.

Fletcher was teaching my son Nick how to play ping pong. He actually made it over the table once with me!

I went to the tour meeting this past weekend and they outlined the Ohio State council’s new two-year program “Strong in Faith and Service”. There are some new options and some returning ones. I’m very excited about this year and the work we’re going to do.

The entire calendar has been entered into our online calendar. Our events for the parish are in there so you can see all the great things we’re going to accomplish.  I look forward to working with each of you and working with new people as well.

It looks like we’re on track to get DOUBLE Star council for last year! I’m very excited about that! Thank you to everyone for your efforts and work you did!

On a final note. Please continue to keep in your prayers Shane Ball. Brother Ball was in a car accident last month and got pretty banged up. He’s up and around but still in a back brace. He’s got a lot of healing to do.  We’re praying for you, Shane. Take care of yourself!

I want to thank all those Knights who helped out at the last two events; our first fish fry and the Youth Pancake breakfast. Especially those guys who came in a pinch to help out at the last minute. It was very helpful!

So, our big fund raiser is on it’s way. The money we receive from these fish fries help fund so many of the things we give away money for including our yearly gift to the parish of $1,000 and seminarian help as well as many other organizations we give money to. Please pray for the success of the fish fries because they this really makes or breaks us.

The pancake breakfast was very successful! I don’t know how much we raised for the youth but I think it was a lot. Thanks again for your help.

So, everyone is giving Happy New Year messages… I guess I’m no exception.

I want to thank all those great Knights who have helped with our events this past year. Fletcher brought us through to half way through the year as one of the best Grand Knights we’ve had in a long time. I took over in July and had a rough start but I think I’m getting the hang of things.

Please continue to pray for me and my family as I try to lead this council for the remainder of the fiscal year.

My goals for this council this year are as follows:

1. Encourage as many as our 1st degree knights to get your 2nd and 3rd degrees as possible.
2. Fulfill our insurance quota for the year.
3. Meet all our state goals.

I think these goals are all attainable. Will you help me reach these goals?