Brother Knights,
Below is my talk from last night’s meeting. I would encourage everyone to sincerely reflect upon your own commitments this year and consider stepping up to help find new ways to engage the knights with our parish and with the broader community. I also ask that any Knights who are interested in helping to plan the parish breakfasts please let me know so we can get started on our inaugural event.
Good evening everyone. With festival season coming to an end and parish life returning to normal, I thought this would be a really good time to talk about time and volunteerism as a council. Especially in today’s age with work eating up more of our lives and our kids in more extracurriculars than ever before, time has become one of the most valuable resources we have. Using that time for the benefit of others is one of the more selfless acts that a person can perform. As Jesus said: “Giving brings a far greater blessing than receiving.” We are grateful that our Knights chapter truly embodies this ideal. I’d like to talk through this a little bit and discuss the great things we’ve accomplished this year and also a little bit about where I’d like to see us involved in the future.
One of my favorite mottos of the Knights is “In service to one, in service to all”. We serve God, and we serve those around us. This phrase was illuminated even more clearly in a document from the second Vatican Council Lumen Gentium: “The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven”
In a world still recovering from Covid shutdowns; one that is increasingly giving in to vanity and selfishness; one that is more concerned with the latest TV show or mindlessly scrolling through social media in an attempt to gain quick dopamine hits; one where the ideal of making money and becoming rich has blinded us to the needs of those less fortunate; the Knights of Columbus represents a shining beacon for what a world in which people sacrifice of their own time and their own self for the sake of others can look like. We at council 11445 and at St. Michael are blessed to have one of the best examples of what it means to have an actively involved laity and a thriving community.
Here’s some quick stats:
-last year our council donated $12,366
-most importantly, donated 766 hours of time
Speaking of impressive numbers, let’s talk Knights festival stats.
-Of the 183 members, we had 58 volunteer at the festival
-We held 14 of the chair positions, plus 3 more wives of knights, bringing the number to 17.
Truly impressive. We absolutely could not make the festival happen without the great work of the Knights and their families. We also know all these numbers are likely higher, given many of us show up without signing up or don’t necessarily go out of our way to be recognized.
Despite these great achievements, I find myself asking “it is enough?” There is always more to do, always people who need help, always work that needs to be done. That would be true no matter how much we did. But I think this is a question that can really only be answered by us as individuals. We all have different lives and different circumstances and different demands placed on us that make our situations unique. So I want everyone here to think deeply about your own involvement in the life of the community and of the church and ask: “do I do as much as I could?”
I’m sure we’ve all heard the 80/20 rule: 20% of people do 80% of the work. All of you in this room today are living proof of this. But even still I ask, deep down, do you think it’s enough? Despite as much as I feel like I do personally, I think I might honestly say no, what I do isn’t enough. I’m NOT doing the most I can. There is always more we could do. If you find yourself in the same circumstances as myself, I’d like for you to dig down and commit to doing more- even if it’s just a few more hours per year. I know that’s a lot to ask, especially to those in this room. But I fear that if we don’t, the consequences may be greater than we think.
In my time with the festival, parish council, and the Knights, I have had a lot of opportunities to talk to the older guys here. Guys who have been at this parish for most of their lives and have seen it evolve and grow over the years. What I hear are stories of a parish that was rife with activity. A parish that was largely tended and cared for not by paid help, but by volunteers like us. One that could see a group of men come together and start the grand tradition of our festival, and design an entire series of electrical lines to create the iconic lights, not to mention the intense set up required for the booths that we used to use. But over time that burden became too great. Volunteers became fewer. We eventually went from an electric crew that worked to set up all those lights, to sometimes just Ron Fann by himself at 75 years old stringing lights up on a lift. From a group of 50 volunteers working to build booths one by one to having to use Tony Schera’s crew who he paid out of pocket to be there. To a festival that we have had to cut down on a large number of games because we simply didn’t have enough people to fill the booths.
A lot of this of course is due to declining membership in the church itself. We all know the stats on that. For every new convert we are seeing four people leave the church. Only 25% of Catholics attend Mass regularly. These are sobering numbers. And what can we do? Well, we certainly can’t fix the problem by ourselves. But we can put in the effort and become an example to those around us as to what a healthy and vibrant Catholic community looks like. As said in the gospel of Matthew: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” By serving the church and letting others see that service, we are setting an example that will have a domino effect on the community around us.
That is what we at the Knights can do. And I think we can do a better job than we have been. Ever since the start of the Covid pandemic, I believe a sense of complacency that was already settling itself around the laity of the church was accelerated and is now a long term threat to our order. I think we all feel the sense that we as a group aren’t doing what we could, and most certainly not what we have in the past. And so, despite us being one of the most active councils in the diocese, I still ask for a revitalization of this group so we don’t see the type of decline that has plagued other councils. Donating money to good causes is great. But donating time and becoming that beacon for others is how we bring the community together, how we increase our numbers, and how we keep that momentum moving forward into the next generation. I want to see our presence in the community of this parish increase beyond the festival, beyond the fish fry, and beyond the various small projects. People want to join, people want to serve the church and their community, but they need to see examples of what that service means to really get the fire lit under them. To that end, I would like to start two things.
First, I want to get a group together to plan out a community breakfast on a semi regular basis. Corporate communion is a great time for the Knights to get together, but it is too insular and not welcoming enough to the broader parish family. We aren’t intended to be an exclusive club and our parish deserves regular community building, too. Sunday breakfast is something I have seen a lot of councils do across the country and something I believe our council has actually done in the past. I would like to bring it back as a way to get parishioners in a room, sharing a meal, and seeing with their own eyes the way the Knights selflessly serve and contribute to the parish. This will give the Knights a great recruiting opportunity while also increasing the feeling of unity within the parish. The second thing is that I want us to take a more active leadership role in helping with the material needs of the parish – not through money- but through actual service.
In my many talks with the facilities manager and with the parish staff, there is work all over that needs to be done that they don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to do. Not to mention that some of this stuff are things that we have done in the past anyway. Things like replacing pavers, gardening, and other minor repair work that could and should be done by volunteers. So I am going to begin working closely with the parish office to create a running list of things that need to be done around the church- some very small projects that will only take minutes of your time, but some larger ones that will take a few guys to complete. I want to ask that those on this council stand up and take ownership and pride of our parish facilities. Because this is our parish and we are responsible for it. Our community is only as vibrant as we make it. We through our very acts have chosen to become leaders of our parish, so let the parish see our leadership. I will have details forthcoming on these two initiatives, but please if you are interested in either, or if you have other ideas for how we can become more actively involved, let me know.