Knightly Update – March 2014

As I am writing this article I am in sunny Mexico. If you are wondering, it is hot and I am not suffering. When ever a business trip takes me out of town over the weekend I try to find a church to go to Mass at. Obviously, that is pretty easy to do in Mexico. Of course, the Mass is in Spanish, so I cannot understand a word of it. However, I still understand the standards and I do my best to celebrate the service the best way I can. It makes me realize how universal our faith is. It is estimated that there are about 1.2 billion Catholics in the world; with 483 million in Latin America. There are about 85 million Catholics in North America (USA and Canada). When you start to think about it there are over 7 billion people in the world. This means about 15% of the world’s population are Catholics.
With this many Catholics it makes me think what are they all doing. Less than 50% of the Catholics in the US are at a Mass in a given week and even less go weekly. We often talk about the need for us to evangelize. However, we could fill our churches if we could get the people who are not going to Mass to come. The KofC is a visible part of our community. Many of our activities help those of different believes than our own. Of course who can forget the guys with the pirate hats (OK it is called a chapeau) and swords. We see them at our Corporate Communions but they can be found at a variety of events like for Special Olympics or local parades. The are one of the very public face of our church.
Finally, let us not forget that in March we will start the 40 days of Lent which lead us to Easter and are the most sacred and spiritually powerful in the Catholic calendar. Starting with the words “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” on Ash Wednesday to that coming of the ever joyful Easter day…Lent is a time that Catholics are invited to examine our faith, and deepen the
commitment to live the way Jesus taught us.
Lent is a time for us to reflect on our relationship with Jesus. Jesus wants us to encounter him at a deep and personal level. This time of sacrifice is our time to reach within to try to improve our relationship with Jesus. The way that we do this is through prayer because it means that we are communicating with him. In asking God’s help, we acknowledge that what we cannot do ourselves can be accomplished by His grace.
So I would ask all of my Brother Knights and their families to pray more during this Lenten season. Pray for your families, your Parish, your Council, and your community. Pray for the grace that only God can give us. Finally, pray for our Pope as he leads our church.

Dean Hayward
Grand Knight

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