Brother Knights,
First of all, thanks for your support in my taking the office of Grand Knight. A special “thank you” to all the men who stepped up and agreed to take on additional responsibilities by agreeing to fill the various officer roles. I’m deeply appreciative to each of you.
Briefly, I’d like to say a few words about my goals and my expectations.
First, the goals. There are three.
- The first goal is to create at least one new major fundraiser to benefit the general fund. I have a few ideas, but I want to hear yours. When we needed a replacement for the spaghetti dinner, a little voice—probably my guardian angel—whispered in my ear “sub sale”. I ignored it for about three meetings, because I didn’t want to be the one leading it. Finally I couldn’t ignore it any more because the voice was getting really insistent. Do you have an idea for a new fundraiser? Do you hear a whisper in your ear? Don’t ignore it! If you have an idea, let me know. You don’t have to run it. I’ll find people to run it if you don’t want to do it. Just bring me your ideas.
- The second goal is to have one major community event outside of the parish staffed by or attended by Knights. We need to do more than just make delicious food. There are lots of community opportunities for us that we’re not participating in. For example: Did you know that Special Olympics is almost entirely funded by Knights of Columbus Supreme? It’s too late for helping at the Special Olympics Summer Games at Ohio State this year—it’s already passed—but it’s something to consider for next summer. Another example: Honor Flight. Sure it’s fine to have a Knight here or there show up and maybe bring his family, but why aren’t we going together to at least one Honor Flight, and showing up as the Knights of Columbus Council 11445? These are just two examples. I know there are plenty more. Do you have any ideas of how we can be more visible in the community? How can we better help our community? Again, bring me your ideas. Let’s make them happen.
- The third goal is to get our council off of autopilot and get more of our men involved in more things. Look, this is not a new goal. Seth pushed for it two years ago as Grand Knight. Personally, I’ve heard it from every one of our Grand Knights for the past decade at least. Every time I run into another Knight of Columbus, no matter where they’re from, I’ve also heard them complain about the same thing. I’m not even going to set a ridiculously high bar, but I do want to get our council back to a pre-covid level of volunteerism and activity.
The last goal leads to my expectations. There are only two.
- The first expectation is that I want every Knight in this council to work 1% of their free time every month. What does 1% look like? There are roughly 240 hours a month where you’re not sleeping or at work, so the math says that two hours amounts to about 1% of that time. So I’m asking every Knight in this council to work two hours a month, and that’s two hours more than they’re already doing. More specifically:
- One hour a month I want every Knight to work on themselves spiritually. To paraphrase St. Padre Pio, he who does not move forward in the spiritual life gets blown backwards. If we are to be on the front lines of the Catholic Church as her Knights, we need to keep our spiritual swords sharp, gentlemen. Some examples of what you can do:
- Take an adoration hour once a month. Already have one? Take another.
- Go to an extra Mass once a month. There are on average 26 days a month that aren’t Sundays. Pick one and go to Mass.
- Go to the Saturday men’s group or one of our faith by fireside events once a month. Be around other Catholic men and discuss your faith. Remember: Iron sharpens iron.
- Break the hour up into saying three extra Rosaries a month. You can do it in your car driving to or from work.
- Read a spiritual book for five minutes a day every Monday-Wednesday-Friday. You can do it while you brush your teeth.
- Listen to Catholic radio or a Catholic podcast instead of music or sports shows. You can do it while you mow the grass or work out.
- One hour a month I want every Knight to step up and volunteer at something. For starters, Measure Up desperately needs volunteers every year. The fish fry needs volunteers every year. Hoagies For Heaven needs volunteers. When it’s our turn to cover friendship Sunday, we always need volunteers. Corporate Communion needs volunteers. Those are just our current needs that we already struggle to meet. Whatever new fundraiser or community event we kick off will need volunteers, and the same people who volunteer for everything else shouldn’t be the ones doing all the extra work. With over 200 members on our council roster, if even a quarter of our Knights stand up and give one volunteer hour per month, imagine what good we can do with fifty additional man-hours per month. Imagine!
- One hour a month I want every Knight to work on themselves spiritually. To paraphrase St. Padre Pio, he who does not move forward in the spiritual life gets blown backwards. If we are to be on the front lines of the Catholic Church as her Knights, we need to keep our spiritual swords sharp, gentlemen. Some examples of what you can do:
- The second expectation is that you reach out to other men who you know are brother Knights who are not actively participating in the council, and personally invite them to get involved. Invite them to come help at a volunteer event. Invite them to come to a social. Invite them to come to a holy hour with you. Do they work close to you? Invite them to come to a noontime Mass with you in the middle of the week. Invite them to come to a council business meeting with you, or to one of our fire pits, or to listen to a Catholic podcast you’re listening to. Whatever it is, whoever it is, every knight who receives this knows someone who isn’t engaged in the business of being a Knight of Columbus. It’s up to each of us to personally invite these men to re-engage.
Look. Covid hit and locked everything down, and men found other things to do, things other than the Knights of Columbus. Well gents, covid is long since over, meaning our excuses are long since over.
It is our duty and our responsibility to be the spiritual leaders of our households. We owe it to them. Our families need us to step up and put in that extra hour per month in our faith lives.
And when it comes to volunteer hours, I need you to step up and give that extra hour per month toward our council volunteer activities. But it’s not just me. Your brother Knights in this council, they need you to step up, help them out, and give them that one hour a month. This council needs you to personally invite other Knights to step up and give that one hour a month. Our parish needs the Knights in this council to step up and give that one hour a month. Our community around us, they too need the Knights of Columbus, in this council, to step up, and give that one hour a month, and get to work.
Brother Knights… we have work to do. It’s time to step up and get to work.