Note from the National Fellowship of Catholic Men: The testimonial below was sent to the National Fellowship of Catholic Men by Mark Emerson, and is a wonderful testament to the current move among Catholic men to unite to God. It also demonstrates what can happen when ordinary Catholic men step out in faith to reach out to other men for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Recently, I met with my pastor about starting a Catholic men’s fellowship group with guys from our church. Because I have the tendency to worry about things before I pray about them, I frantically began to seek out resources like scripture studies and books to aid me in facilitating the group.
A concern about using the sacristy as the location of our men’s fellowship meetings arose at the first planning meeting. Was the sacristy too close to the Blessed Sacrament? Would it keep the men from loosening up and talking? I told the others that, on the contrary, I felt it would enhance the move of the Spirit and give more consolation than might be expected. However, I wanted to be certain, so I took the question to prayer.
In prayer, I asked the Lord the following question, “Why should the men meet in the Church?” The answer came to me in the form of a Q & A session as I prayed before the Blessed Sacrament.
“What do you do in the Church everyday?”To answer that I had to consult the Catechism. I learned that the celebration of the Sacrament does two main things: 1) It unites us to God and 2) It unites us to one another. Okay, so not only had I answered my concern over meeting in the sacristy, but I thought I also might have the mission statement for our group: “To unite us as Catholic men to God and to one another.”“We celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass.”
“Aren’t the major elements of that Celebration what you want the men to experience when they come together in prayer?”
Later that week, I was listening to Catholic radio and a priest stated, “The Cross of Jesus is the engine of the Church because we are united to God and one another through his suffering.” He stated that when we obey his command to “…take up your cross…” and follow him; we are never closer to God.
It was about then I ran across the National Fellowship of Catholic Men (NFCM) and a book they offer, Brothers! Calling Catholic Men into Vital Relationships by Geoff Gorsuch. This book is available, along with many other high quality Catholic men’s resources, on their website at www.catholicmensresources.org. In the first chapter of the Brothers book I saw a diagram with an arrow pointing from the words “the cross” to the words, “Christ like” and the scripture:
“We…are being transformed into his likeness…” and “… conform to the likeness of his Son the firstborn among many brothers…”This harkened back to words about the Eucharist uniting us to one another. It also felt as if the Lord was trying to get me to pass on a positive word about the benefits of suffering. The world is always trying to make us fear it, subdue it, or run from it no matter the cost. My recent reading has uncovered a lot to do with the strength we gain by uniting our suffering to the celebration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Was this something these men needed to hear? Could this be a uniting factor for this diverse group of men?
It was also in Brothers, Chapter One, in the section about the “One Anothers” I learned, “that the way Christ’s love is manifested is by practicing the ‘One Anothers’.” There are over 50 commands in the New Testament to: accept one another, encourage one another, exhort one another, support one another, love one another to mention a few.
I was reminded that these men were my brothers because of what Jesus, my Father’s Son, did on the cross. Now, two thousand years later we must obey the commands to build effective brotherhood in this new small faith community.
Confident I finally had it right, I started to put together my mini talk for the first timers to the men’s fellowship group. I added to it the reminder from the Brothers book that there is a litany of obstacles to brotherhood and we needed to avoid them.
Finally, a week later we were together. After short introductions, each man described his reason for coming. Then we discussed the few thoughts and questions I’d put together. Never would I have been ready for what came next.
We all agreed to approach the Tabernacle. We sang “Rise Up O Men of God.” With the help of Deacon Andy, we encouraged the men to come up and to speak out their needs individually. We told them we would pray with them and that the brothers would gather around, and those that wanted to would put a hand on the brother’s shoulder as a sign of support while some prayed aloud and others quietly.
One brother felt “selfish” for asking to “feel Jesus in his life” but no body complained. He was a distinguished looking middle-aged man that had yet in life to experience the fullness of Christ for real. We prayed for faith and for Christ to come to him in a very real way.
We prayed for another man who wanted healing for himself and prayers for his mature married children to learn their faith better. We prayed for another who wanted healing for his wife. We prayed for a younger man who wanted his children to “live up to their faith.” For each of these men that we prayed for, we offered words of encouragement afterwards. Then it happened.
A mannerly middle-aged brother who had hardly spoken above a whisper in the discussion came forward. At first he could not speak. Finally, he spoke in a humble genteel manner. “I need prayer.” For a moment, he stood motionless. Slowly I noticed his eyes began to water. Then a slight quiver came over his tall frame. One could sense he was self-conscious and hurting immensely.
Spontaneously we all stopped and stepped closer to him. “My daughter-in-law! Her cancer is back and it’s much worse than before.”
Stunned and sober each man stepped to his side and placed a hand on him. One threw an arm over his shoulder. I looked up briefly from our prayers and glanced around at the faces. There wasn’t a dry face in the bunch; even the brother who wanted “to feel Jesus” wiped his hand past the corner of his eye.
Several weeks have past now. We are more committed than ever. Last week, in my search for new articles with which to facilitate discussion, I found an ideal article again on the web site for the National Fellowship of Catholic Men. The article is titled, “We Are in a Spiritual Battle Whether We Want to Be or Not.” The article, and the discussion questions, were skillfully put together by the Executive Director, Maurice Blumberg.
The article hit home with the men and the questions made my role as facilitator a breeze. After reading the article together, our discussion was free flowing. We grew in unity by discovering our strength as men committed to a “search and destroy mission” against the enemy of the Lord. We discovered together that as men bound together we are strong and can root out the work of the enemy like an army, rather than as a flimsy bunch of loners.
Our pastor is immensely proud of the support the men have shown each other and the fruit of their work together. I’ve stopped worrying a lot by taking my concerns to prayer and to the men in our group. I just wish all parishes could experience the benefits of a Catholic men’s fellowship group, as we have, and the great support we have received from the National Fellowship of Catholic Men.
(This article is part of NFCM's sponsorship of the Catholic Man channel and is used with permission of the author. Contact NFCM at P.O. Box 86381, Gaithersburg, MD 20886, email them at info@nfcmusa.org, or call them at 301-519-0646)
