Matthew Leonard was our 2016 Men's Conference Speaker at St. Stephen's Church in Caldwell, Ohio. He is the Director of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville. He continues to give talks on prayer all over the country. As shown by the feedback, those who did not come missed a lot. We can cover only some of the main points and its richness here. Don't pass up another great opportunity in 2017! His e-mail address is <mattleonard@salvationhistory.com>. His website is www.matthewsleonard.com/.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2016 STEUBENVILLE DIOCESAN MEN’S DAY OF RENEWAL
The
2016 Steubenville Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal at St. Stephen’s Church in
Caldwell, Ohio on February 27 opened with a formal Holy Hour with Benediction. Don
Coen, the master of ceremonies, introduced a lot with a few words of
wisdom……..”Be open to the Holy Spirit.
Be open to God’s plan for your life”.
That’s what it’s all about.
Deacon
Lee proclaimed St. John the Baptist’s words in the desert: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is is at
hand” (Matthew 3:2). Christ repeated
that proclamation in the same words in Matthew 4:17. Repent means to turn back to God, perhaps
many times during the day. We do things
that are self-destructive. Let us strive
for the joy of a clear conscience.
Matthew
Leonard’s two talks to 216 men went over very well as reflected by the reaction
of the men and their written evaluations at the end of the day. Some of the men shared the day with their
sons.
Bishop Jeffrey Monforton
presided at the Mass. In his homily the
Bishop related that his father spent time with him. But with each succeeding kid, he received
less attention. Each kid has a different
personality. In his explanation of the
Gospel about the Prodigal Son, the Bishop noted the difference between the two
brothers. In demanding his inheritance,
the prodigal effectively stated his wish that his father be dead. However, the faithful brother was guilty of
self-righteousness, also a sin. He
quoted Mother Theresa: “If you want peace in the family, love your family”. The father must treat each member with
compassion, concern, and mercy.
 |
| Matthew Leonard communicates the love of a father to a new addition to his family. |
The featured speaker of the day was
Matthew Leonard, the Director of the St. Paul Center
for Biblical Theology. He gives talks
all over the country on prayer. His
morning and afternoon talks are summarized below. I hope that my notes are accurate and
complete.
The Art of Being Catholic
In
his morning talk, Matthew Leonard observed that saints are not born; they are
made. For example, St. Augustine at
first led a very sinful life. At 17 he
had a mistress and made her pregnant.
After his conversion, the future
saint said: “Only grace keeps me chaste”.
After her speech before the United Nations, St. Mother Teresa cleaned
toilets so that pride would not get hold.
Mr. Leonard challenged us by
quoting Christ: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”
(Matthew 5:48). That is by grace. We are created to be saints. Eternity is already here.
The
Church is God’s family. Matthew Leonard,
as a son of Pentecostal minister, had an anti-Catholic upbringing. He converted to Catholicism in 1998 at
Franciscan University.
He
exhorted “Give Christ everything you have; He gave us the Eucharist, the path
to immortality”. The best of this world,
the most beautiful is only a hint of Heaven.
But we don’t give much attention to Heaven.
St.
Thomas More, the Lord High Chancellor of England in the 16th
Century, was very much rooted in this world.
He had a family and held the highest position in the Government after
King Henry VIII. Yet he strived for
holiness.
We
must strive to get others into Heaven.
The biggest thing that you can give to your family is prayer and
love. Lead them to Heaven. Everything that we do on Earth must point to
Heaven. The only people in Heaven are
saints.
Don’t
aim for Purgatory. You may miss. So
aim for holiness; live to be a saint. He
emphasized three major points:
1)
Learn
how to love……true love as Christ loved by giving Himself
on the Cross. Love is sacrificial. Put the other person first, starting with
family. Giving talks all over the
country, being on the road, being very busy with job…….he saw that it’s very
easy to forget family. Love your wife as
Christ loved the Church. If you really
love a person, you want to be with that person all the time. Be willing to make sacrifices for your wife.
2)
Love the
Eucharist. If you
really love Christ, you will want to be with Him in the Eucharist and in Adoration. The Eucharist is the medicine of immortality….the
source, the center, and the summit of everything Catholic. God has a plan for your life; so does the
devil. God became man so that man would
become like God. As the baby shares the
nature of the family, God shares His divinity with us. The Eucharist helps us to become a greater
part of it.
3)
Pray. Slow down!
Shut up and listen! We’re made to
be in communion with God…….to move our hearts to God. St. Paul said that the stuff of the earth is
all crap. Go to church early and often
to be with Christ. Our mission is to get
people around us to Heaven. God loves
you more than you can imagine!
Prayer
He prefaced his second talk with the observation that
it’s difficult for Protestants to cope with the Catholic culture. The focus of his talk was to explain what
prayer is and to teach us how to pray.
The goal of prayer is to establish a relationship with
God. Try to grow to be more and more
like Him. We are created according to
the image and likeness of God. But Adam
and Eve lost it. We get it back by
becoming more holy. There’s enough grace
in one consecrated host to save the world!
We must get out of ourselves to others and to Heaven. We are made to pray……to be in communion with
God. Graces are available to us all day
long. We pray the “Our Father” as a son
to a father. God wants to give us
everything.
1)
Will to
pray.
2)
Learn
how to pray.
a) Vocal – the “Our Father”, the “Act
of Contrition”. Prayer depends not on
words, but on the fervor of the soul.
b)
Meditation is interior
reflective prayer (i.e, Lectio Divina). It is mental that
strives for deep understanding. It can
be done through scripture, through the Divine Office, spiritual
reading, etc. Even vocal prayer can
become meditative. The center is
Christ. The best place to meditate is in
Adoration. Eliminate distractions from
inside and outside. The goal is quality
and quantity to develop a relationship with God. Keep it simple.
c)
Contemplation is the
highest form of prayer. St. Theresa of
Avila and St. John of the Cross was the best at it. God pours Himself into you and draws you into
Himself. It’s for all of us. It’s not emotional. St. John of the Cross had dark nights of the
soul; St. Mother Teresa had it for 40 years.
They would feel abandoned by God.
Yet they kept the faith and kept going.
Make
God’s will your will……..that His desires are your desires. You can’t really hear God unless you are
close to Him. The more you pray, the more
you will be fulfilled, and the happier you will be.
Make your prayer deeper. For more
detail on these three forms of prayer go to the Matthew
Leonard’s books (available on amazon.com) and Catechism of the Catholic
Church (2700 – 2724). Every home should
have the Bible and the Catechism. It’s available
on the internet at
A Beautiful Comment By Bruce Davison on the
2016 Men’s Conference
Matt Leonard spoke as only a convert
can speak…..full of love, joy, and passion.
The trials and tribulations of life and the struggle to overcome faults
and vices can sometimes wear one down.
So to hear Matt speak on why we as Catholics, are so lucky or blessed
because of what we have been given, through no merit of our own, had my spirit
soaring.
He first introduced us to God by way
of pointing, quite dramatically, to the tabernacle and saying: “God is
there!!” Then he said that only one
consecrated host has in it the power to save every soul on earth. Amazing!
He went on to explain how each one
of us can tap into that power by prayer.
Prayer is as essential to the spiritual life as breathing
is to the physical life.
He told of the different types and
modes of prayer and praying; how the saints were masters of prayer; how the
saints received graces abundantly; grew in their love of God and because of
that love were able to demonstrate that love by extraordinary loving deeds to
their neighbors. Oh how I long to be a
saint! The only
failure in life is to not be a saint.
As you can
see Matt had a huge impact on me.
Matt
Leonard’s Reply
Paul - Thanks for the feedback about
the conference. More importantly, thanks
be to God! How it must please the Lord
to hear someone say, "Oh how I long to be a saint!" Love it!
Links to His Articles and Talks
www.matthewsleonard.com/ - Matthew Leonard's Website
http://matthewsleonard.com/062/ - His podcasts
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-catholic-matthew-leonard/id1017177745?mt=2 - Art of Being Catholic podcasts.
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