Catholic Men’sTM National Day of Prayer
by Maurice Blumberg
March 4, 2008
Dear Brothers in Christ,
I wanted to follow-up on my previous Catholic Man Channel article
describing the first Catholic Men’s National Day of Prayer.
Below is a more detailed announcement of this very important event.
The National Fellowship of Catholic Men (NFCM) has sent a letter to all bishops in the
United States asking them to invite Catholic men in their dioceses to participate in the NFCM’s National Day of Prayer, on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, March 15, 2008.
“We are issuing a call for all men to participate in this national day of prayer,” wrote Kevin Lynch, who is the president of the National Fellowship of Catholic Men. “We are holding St. Joseph up as a model for all men with respect to their manhood, fatherhood, discipleship, work, and roles within their families.”
The National Day of Prayer invites Catholic laymen to attend Mass on March 15 and to pray in the morning and evening.
Suggested activities also include praying the Litany of St. Joseph and the rosary, dedicating one’s work week to the Lord, performing corporal works of mercy, and praying for specific intentions on behalf of their families, their workplaces, the Catholic Church, the United States, and the world.
In the process, the National Fellowship of Catholic Men hopes to energize laymen to deepen their personal conversion to Christ, become better disciples, live out their vocations, strengthen their families, and proclaim Christ in everything they do. According to promotional materials for the Catholic Men’s National Day of Prayer, St. Joseph is an important patron and model for men today, because he is “a perfect example of a fully integrated man.
He represents the saintly integration of faith in both his private and public life. For him, there was no conflict between the sacred roles of believer, spouse, parent and worker.”
The National Fellowship of Catholic Men is working in collaboration with Dan Spencer of the St. Joseph Center for Men of Overland Park, KS.
Spencer initially conceived of a day of prayer by and for Catholic men two years ago, when Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, asked for a month of prayer for priestly vocations.
After meeting with the men he knew and encouraging them to participate, Spencer, who has a long-standing apostolate to men and who oversees the Kansas City chapter of the National Fellowship of Catholic Men, realized how much the men he worked with would benefit from a similar event.
“It just hit me that we could use some prayer for men,” he said.
Spencer began to plan a day of prayer for men with his local diocese.
From the start, though, he also wanted to do something on a national scale to get men to dedicate a day to a single, concrete activity that would improve not only their relationship with God but also their families, workplaces, parishes, and communities.
The only problem, he said, was how.
Last year, he said, the Holy Spirit moved him at the National Fellowship of Catholic Men’s leadership conference in Detroit to consider asking them to be a major partner. After praying about it, Spencer proposed a national event to Kevin Lynch,
co-founder and president of the National Fellowship of Catholic Men, and other leaders.
The idea caught fire.
It was such a natural fit, since the National Fellowship of Catholic Men has grown dramatically in recent years. The NFCM has expanded from just two regional conferences twelve years ago to more than fifty today, and it currently distributes podcasts to over 6,000 men every week.
This year, the NFCM plans to begin a 3-year formation and training program to mobilize and energize men for Christ throughout the country.
More information on the National Fellowship of Catholic Men, as well as the National Day of Prayer, can be found at:
May God richly bless you during this grace-filled season of Lent,
Maurice Blumberg
Executive Director
National Fellowship of Catholic Men
P.S.
I thought you’d like to to see how Mike Anderson, President of the
Kalamazoo Catholic Men’s Fellowship, is promoting the National Catholic
Men’s Day of Prayer in his diocese.
MARCH 15TH – NATIONAL CATHOLIC MEN’S DAY OF PRAYER
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
All Catholic men in the Kalamazoo diocese are encouraged to come together for Mass at the Saint Augustine Cathedral on Saturday March 15th at 8:45 AM.
The Mass will be followed by a Kalamazoo Catholic Men’s Fellowship breakfast in the Crowley Center, sponsored by the St. Augustine CMF group.
All are welcome! We will be joined by our Bishop James Murray and our CMF Chaplain Father Larry Farrell.
There will be an update on the progress of the national CMF movement and an announcement about the 2009 Kalamazoo Catholic Men’s Conference.
Come join your Catholic brothers for an incredible morning of joy and fellowship. Let’s make this a
major turn out of Catholic men from our diocese.
This article is part of NFCM’s sponsorship of the Catholic Man channel.
Contact NFCM at PO Box 86381, Gaithersburg, MD 20886 or e-mail them at
info@nfcmusa.org.
Submitted by Doria2
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 