(170) The Role of the Deacon in Promoting the 2019 Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal

AMDG

Dear faithful Deacon:

            First of all, thank you so much for giving the rest of your life to God, His Church, and to us.  Your work is so important in assisting the pastor with administering the sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony, serving at Mass and thus making it special, giving homilies, ministering to the sick, counseling, teaching, parish administration, overseeing parish groups, etc., while keeping up with  the indispensable Liturgy of the Hours.   No longer does the American Church have the luxury of having two or more priests in almost every parish.  Through your most noble vocation, over your career you will have brought the Lord’s mercy to hundreds if not thousands of souls and help them along the narrow and often difficult road to salvation.  May God reward you richly and use all of the trials, crosses, and frustrations of your crucial job to make you a saint.  Again my deepest gratitude.

            May I ask your help in promoting it along with the parish representative and other laymen.  Or you can be the parish representative yourself as at St. Paul’s and Christ the King in Athens.  Please permit me to impose upon your time with the following write-up of mine on the importance of the Conference and resources for promoting it.  By now your parish should have received at least one poster and a packet of brochures for each one of your parishes.  If not please contact Roger Huck by e-mail at huck4816@roadrunner.com or call him at home 740- 984-2234 or his cell at 740-336-9128.

Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal Saturday, March 23 from 9 am – 4 pm at St. Stephen’s Church in Caldwell (off of Exit 28 on I-77 a half hour north of Marietta).  The theme is “The Cross as a Source of Strength and Path to Ultimate Victory Over All Adversity”.  The main speaker is Mark Nehrbas, former director of Franciscan University conferences and noted speaker himself, will give a testimony regarding his victorious six year battle with stomach cancer and miraculous healing at Lourdes.  More important, he will teach us the lessons he learned from his suffering, how to confront it, and how it can you a saint when it’s your turn to suffer as part of the human condition.  The $25 Registration could be a belated Christmas gift for the men in your extended family.  Contact Name of Parish Representative (phone no. & e-mail) (e.g., John Doe (245-9404 or jdoe@gmail.com) to register.  Enjoy the fellowship by going in the parish van, which leaves at 6:30 am from the Parish Hall.

ROLE OF THE DEACON IN PROMOTING THE 2019 DIOCESAN MEN’S CONFERENCE

            It is the role of the father to assume spiritual leadership in the family, but in many if not most cases, the mother assumes that role.  As Danny Abramowicz, 2012 Conference speaker and former All-Pro wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, says, “The men have dropped the ball”.  If the father takes the spiritual lead, the probability that the children will remain faithful to the Church in later life doubles or triples.  The Church in American may be losing a generation of youth.  The men must become the pillars of the parish, not only the women.  The men must step up.  Thus it is crucial to reach the men and the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal plays an important part because the enthusiasm generated is contagious.  The men witness to each other.  Setting the men on fire means stronger families which in turn means the renewal of the parish.

 The Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal will be held on Saturday March 23 from 9 am to 4 pm at St. Stephen’s Church in Caldwell.  The theme is “The Cross as a Source of Strength and Path to Ultimate Victory Over All Adversity” with St. Joseph, model of a true man of God, as the Conference’s patron.

 

The Conference will open with a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament.  The featured speaker is Mark Nehrbas, a speaker at many conferences.  The morning talk, “Victory of the Cross in My Battle With Cancer”, will include his testimony of his six year battle with an aggressive form of stomach cancer and his healing at Lourdes, France.  In the afternoon talk, “Victory Over Suffering: Lessons Learned From the Cross”.  Mark Nehrbas will explore the mystery of suffering, why God permits it, how he confronted it, how he grew from it, the lessons he learned, how it can be very productive, how it can make you a saint, and tips on how to cope when it’s your turn to suffer.  Sooner or later every one of us must suffer.

The crux of his talk is redemptive suffering, a concept which Protestants and most Catholics do not understand.  Doctors recognize that patients who spiritualize their suffering do better.  Uniting our cross with the Lord’s cross and offering it up as a dynamic prayer for our country, our Church, and our loved ones makes suffering productive and gives it purpose.

Mark Nehrbas

Bishop Monforton will preside at the Mass and give the homily.  Confession with a Penance Service is also offered and you are asked to be one of the confessors.  A bag lunch will be served.  This is a hard sell for many men, but the Lord will help us.  If we can mobilize an average of 10 men from every parish in the diocese, this event would be a smashing success!

 

          The Ideal. We have found that when the pastor enthusiastically backs the Men’s Conference, participation of the men significantly increases.  The ideal is for the pastor to accompany his men.  This is a great opportunity to become closer to the men and know them better.  This helps parish solidarity as the men also get to know each other better.  For those in the southern end of the diocese, the distance might be great, but that makes the Conference a Lenten sacrifice and gives it a pilgrimage flavor with enjoyable fellowship, discussion about points brought out, and prayer such as the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

          For example, Fr. Walter Heinz, pastor emeritus of Sacred Heart Pomeroy was an imposing figure.  According to one of the men of the parish, he simply told the guys: “It’s all paid for and we’re going”.  They did.  It was hard to tell him, no.  He heard confessions while there and returned in time for his Saturday evening Mass. 

We cannot expect the already busy and overworked pastor to constantly promote the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal.  We are grateful that many promote the Conference as bulletin blurbs, the brochure as a bulletin insert, including a prayer for its success in the Offertory Petitions at daily and Sunday Mass, give plugs from the pulpit after Sunday Mass, etc.  The pastor cannot do it alone; he needs the help of the laity.  However there is much the pastor can do with little effort on his part.

Useful Resources. You and the parish representatives you appoint can utilize our Conference Blog at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com.  The 2019 series of resources begins with Blog #160 – Overview; and continued with 161) Ad Form; 162) Diocesan Press Release #1; 163) Possible Short Bulletin Announcements; 164 Promotion Ideas; 165) Functions & Crucial Importance of the Parish Rep; 166) Sign Up Sheet; 167) Sample Bulletin Insert; 168) Diocesan Press Release #2; 169) Backing of the Pastor; 170) Role of the Deacon; 171) Example of an After Mass Talk By a Layman; 172) Possible Pastor Announcements; 173) Diocesan Press Release #3; 174) Catholic Newspaper Press Release; 175) Secular Newspaper Press Release; 176) Appeal to the Diocesan Councils of the Knights of Columbus; 177) Invitation to Parishes in West Virginia; 178) Invitation to College Students; and 179) My Ad in the 2019 Program Booklet.  Numbers 165 – 179 will be added in the next few days.  They correspond to numbers 141- 155 of 2018 which are similar in principle to the current year. 

  

The diocesan website at www.diosteub.org has a link to the brochure and Additional Information.  Hover over the “ABOUT” Menu at the top of home page.  Then hover on “Men’s Ministry” and click on “Men’s Day of Renewal”.  The link to our brochure and “Additional Information” are on the bottom left under documents.  You should have received in January a poster and a packet of brochures for each of your parishes.  If not, please inform me.  For your convenience you will find attached  1) Conference Brochure 2) Registration Forms, 3) Additional Information, 4) Sample Bulletin Announcements, 5) Promotion Ideas, 6) Functions of the Parish Representative, and 7) Sample Bulletin Insert; 8) Sample Sign Up Sheet to put in back of the church.

There are also interesting articles on men’s spirituality at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com, along with summaries of past talks, promotional resources, and other information.  After the Conference and throughout the year, articles will be added to help the men keep in good spiritual shape.  Clergy, Religious, and knowledgeable layman are invited to submit to me for the Conference Blog articles or copies of homilies that are particularly appropriate for men’s spirituality.  For a greater variety, go to “A Little Bit for God and His People” at http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com.

Many if not most men will hardly notice the brochure as a bulletin insert, poster, bulletin blurbs, etc. although they are indeed important and helpful.  What they can’t miss is the one-on-one personal selling by their peers, i.e., talking it up.  The most effective form of advertising or promotion is word of mouth.  Most effective is the witness of men who have gone to a previous Conference.  What is needed is a little “arm twisting” figuratively.  And of course there’s Facebook, Twitter, texting, and the old fashioned phone calling.

The Parish Representative is crucial.  As in any organization, the executive must delegate as much as possible.  The key is to ask one or two good men to be parish representatives.  If one of them is a knight, he could have access to the local council of the Knights of Columbus.  The main job of the parish rep is to promote the Conference, mainly by one-on-one personal selling, register the men, and organize them to go together in the parish van, car pool or bus.  He also helps the pastor to utilize the resources mentioned in the previous paragraph as submitting blurbs and an insert for the Sunday bulletin.  The parish rep can try to talk to each man in the parish before and after Mass or Stations of the Cross or other devotions, during fish fries, at parish or Knights of Columbus meetings, and other activities.  Please send the names, e-mail address, and phone number of the chosen parish representative(s) to both “Don Coen - Chair Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal” donandmargcoen@yahoo.com and to me at paulrsebastian@yahoo.com.

The deacon may be the parish representative as in the case of St. Paul’s and Christ the King in Athens.  Or the deacon may supervise the promotional efforts of two or three laymen.

     Men may register individually or the parish representative may collect the registration forms with payment and send them to Roger Huck; %Men’s Day of Renewal, P.O. Box 54; Beverly, OH 45715.  This would save considerable time waiting at the door on the morning of the Conference.  Checks for the Registration cost of $25.00 per person are to be made payable to the Diocese of Steubenville with “Men's Day of Renewal” written on the memo line of the check.   If any man would like to go, but can’t afford it, we’ll find a way.