Prayer, Personal Formation, and Fraternity
The talk emphasizes the importance of prayer, personal formation, and fraternity in men's lives. They discuss the significance of setting aside quiet time for reflection, attending daily Masses, participating in Adoration, and regular confession. The speaker also highlights the importance of making New Year's resolutions and sticking to them, using the analogy of cleaning a car to explain the benefits of confession. Additionally, they recommend saying the Rosary and attending the Dedication Mass at St. Johns on the 27th.
MC: Joseph Gruber
Presenter: Steve Berkemeier
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Jackson Michigan & Surrounding Area Catholic Parishes
Queen of the Miraculous Medal: https://queenschurch.com/
St John the Evangelist: https://saintjohnjackson.org/
St Mary Star of the Sea: https://stmaryjackson.com/
St Joseph Oratory: https://saintjohnjackson.org/new-here/st-joseph-the-worker-oratory/
Our Lady of Fatima: http://www.fatimaparish.net/
St Rita: http://www.stritacatholicparish.com/
St Catherine: https://stcatherinelaboureconcord.org/
Audio Trasnscription
participantOne:(0-26940): For the first time, awesome, round of applause. So a couple of reminders. One, CORE is here for prayer, formation, and fraternity for men in Jackson. That's not just the Knights of Columbus, though the Knights of Columbus are the organization putting it on. It's not just for Catholic men. It's for all men because Jesus commissioned us.
participantOne:(27240-54460): to make disciples of all nations, which means everybody, which means that includes all of the men in Jackson. So if you've seen a man in Jackson, that is a man who God wants to be part of his church. That is someone who God wants a more intimate relationship with. That is someone that the sacraments were given to us for that man. So it's good to remember that. Other things.
participantOne:(55199-86880): Coffee's over there, bathroom's over there, there's a natural connection between the two. Other things. Anybody make it to the Rarate Cheli Mass last week? How'd that go? I sent my wife in my stead and I got to sleep in just about five extra minutes before kids came and got me up. So, but my wife went and she said she started weeping from the moment she came in, that it was so beautiful.
participantOne:(87520-118600): Yes. Especially Nancy Jo who climbed up to the top of the house. I was wondering who got those. Were you the one who got the candles up there? I got two of them. Okay. There he is now. Awesome. So last week was an emphasis on prayer. This week is going to be an emphasis on our own personal formation as men.
participantOne:(119220-145200): For that purpose, we're having Steve Berkemeyer come up. Steve, you may know him. He was the, what was the title of, you were the manager, the manager of the Secretary of State here in Jackson. He's retired. He's been married for 38 years, as far as he can tell, with five children, one grandchild, and another one on the way. He plays music all throughout town. You may have seen him perform.
participantOne:(145520-177820): and he is here to talk to us about how to become better men. Steve Berkmeyer, everybody. Thank you, Joseph. And try not to be too loud here. But, yeah, Joseph was saying we started at Advent, and we're actually a couple weeks in now with this. And so it's interesting.
participantOne:(178180-194060): well into Advent, but it's still an opportunity for a fresh start because Advent is the start of a new liturgical year for the church. And any time you have a new start or a new beginning, it just lends itself to an opportunity for self-reflection
participantOne:(194360-218840): and our relationships with our families, our spouses, our kids, our parents, our coworkers, people we interact with day to day. And I get excited at New Year's because occasionally you make New Year's resolutions and they stick. And I know for myself, several years ago now,
participantOne:(219480-236660): I knew that I should be wearing a seatbelt. I wasn't in the habit of doing that. That was probably back when I was shortly out of college, so this goes back a ways. And it was one of those New Year's resolutions that I decided I was going to make because I knew it made sense and it was something I should be doing.
participantOne:(237240-267120): And so I made a resolution that year to put my seatbelt on every time I got in the car, whether I was driving or riding shotgun, or in the backseat. This will come out, but I'm the youngest of nine kids in my family, so that had a big impact on me in a lot of ways. I'll discuss a little bit more later as well. But that stuck, and it's something I've been glad that I've done throughout my lifetime.
participantOne:(267360-295940): And so I look forward to the new year to reflect on, you know, how the past year went, what I'd like to change for the upcoming year. And I think Advent provides an opportunity for that, for self-reflection. Think about the things that have been going well and the things that maybe haven't been going so well, and what changes you'd like to make. And to that end, you know,
participantOne:(296880-326300): I've got some suggestions, but just think about the things that you might want to change, whether it's maybe giving up smoking, drinking too much, eating too much, the language we use, the time we spend on the screen and what we're spending our time doing, whether it's making us better men or making it more challenging to be the men that we know we should be.
participantOne:(327740-349500): I have just a few suggestions that I think may be helpful. Some of these you might already be doing. Some of them maybe not. But I think it's worth considering that now might be a good time to start some new habits or break habits that you're into that need to be broken.
participantOne:(350260-376580): So maybe some things to start is if you haven't yet set aside some personal times quiet time for reflection whether it's first thing in the morning that's what works for me before before well when the kids were in the house before the kids get up before your day gets busy set aside some time and to that end
participantOne:(377140-390280): Some things that might be helpful. You may have seen these. These are little blue books that are available at the church for Advent. If you didn't get one this Advent, they'll be coming out in Lent again.
participantOne:(390740-418260): Only they'll be black. They're little black books, but these are daily reflections I think they say it takes about six minutes to read these but it's a great way to get started In getting used to setting some time some time aside Basically each each day is a usually a little story and then a reflection on the days church readings whether it's the the Gospels or one of the other books and
participantOne:(418560-438940): Some people use the Magnificat, which has the daily readings for the masses, also with reflections and commentary on those. My brother, Tom, gets all of us, my brothers and sisters, a copy of Living Faith, which is a Catholic daily devotional.
participantOne:(439220-465900): And this one takes probably even less time. This is probably like two or three minutes, but it also has the listing of the daily readings in here. So the gospel readings of Psalm and the reading from the epistles or the Old Testament. So I use that to go to my Bible to review the readings for that day.
participantOne:(467420-497140): If you can get in the habit of setting that time aside, like I said, it gives you time to look forward to the day, what challenges you have coming up, and how best to prepare for those, and also to start your day in prayer. To the extent that you can end your day in prayer, I don't know if you're familiar with, I'm drawing a blank on his name, Father Larry. He's...
participantOne:(497740-512980): Father Larry Richards? Yeah, Father Larry Richards. Thank you, Joseph. His saying is, no Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no bed. Meaning you should get up, read the Bible before you have breakfast. Before you go to sleep, you should read the Bible.
participantOne:(513280-542880): I'm still working on getting that down regularly. I've gotten the morning part down, but a lot of times I forget to do it. Also, Matthew Kelly, in his prayer process, have you ever seen that? Also recommends a reflection at the end of the day to think back on how your day went, what areas you did well in, what areas you could have done better. And to that extent, Advent also provides a great opportunity to think about
participantOne:(543300-571700): Relationships we may have with people that maybe we need to extend some forgiveness to and mend fences That's that's usually quite challenging, but it's it's worth visiting and giving serious Thought to some other things. I guess I would recommend it if you haven't yet to make use of
participantOne:(572360-600500): the Adoration Chapels in town. Both Queens and St. Joseph have Adoration Chapels. My wife and I started this probably, I don't know, eight or 10 years ago now. We go every Saturday morning at eight o'clock. And it's just a great reset for us. Despite how busy we get, it really forces you to take time to slow down, think in the presence of Christ there.
participantOne:(601020-629660): What where your life at is? And again, it gives you great opportunities for self-reflection on the areas that you need to work on areas that you can improve on and also It's been a great source of inspiration and different ideas that I've had They covered all aspects of my life, you know my spiritual life my personal life my professional life and I
participantOne:(629959-660880): It's just another great opportunity to sit and reflect on where you're at and where you want to go. Also, during Advent, they have the penitential services. Actually, later this morning, St. Mary's will be doing that. If you've ever been to one, they bring pretty much every priest in the area here for confessions.
participantOne:(661520-689280): So you can get in and out usually fairly quick, but the schedule for that, St. Mary's is today at 10 o'clock right upstairs. St. Rita's is going to be Monday at 7 o'clock. Queens will be Wednesday at 7 and St. John's is, St. Joseph's, I guess it's going to be at St. Joseph's it says for St. John's and that's going to be Thursday at 7 o'clock.
participantOne:(689800-715600): And I like an analogy that Matthew Kelly had in one of his books about confession. You know, it's something that if you're like me, I went several years probably. You know, I tried not to go that long, but before I got more into my faith, I probably went a long time, longer than I should have to go to confession. It's easy to put off.
participantOne:(715920-739620): and it can be intimidating if you haven't been to them for a long time. Fortunately, they have aides at the churches to do an examination of conscience and then a reminder or a refresher on how to go to confession, you know, your act of contrition, how to greet Father and such. But Matthew Kelly makes the analogy of
participantOne:(740800-768060): Confession is kind of like, you know, you clean out your car really good, and it feels great because the carpet's fresh, you know, it's clean, the dashboards are all wiped down, the seats are cleared out. And then eventually, you know, you drive around and you go to the store and you come into the car, you've got a receipt that you don't need, so you kind of put it in the ashtray or what used to be the ashtray. I guess they still have ashtrays, I don't know. I never used one, fortunately. I didn't have to.
participantOne:(768240-796980): Then you go to church and you get the bulletin and you toss that in the seat next to you and forget about that. Eventually you're out driving and you're hungry and you want to stop and you pull into McDonald's and you get your order of whether it's breakfast and you eat your coffee and your breakfast sandwiches or you eat your hamburgers and fries. You don't want to put it in the front seat so you're licking it all the time so you toss it in the back seat. You've got stuff that just accumulates in your car and after a while you don't even
participantOne:(796980-826020): realize how messy your car is and that's kind of the way our lives are in the habitual sins that we fall into and the shortcomings that we have and going to confession is like getting that car cleaned out you know the more the dirtier your car is the less you care about whether you get it more dirty and it's the same with us our habitual sins our our shortcomings the way we relate to other people
participantOne:(826740-857000): And when you go to confession, it forces you to stop and consider when you're doing that examination of your conscience of what areas you've fallen short in and what areas you need to improve in. And you go in, get a clean slate, and you get a fresh start. And then you're more careful, just like you would be if your car was clean. You know, instead of throwing the trash in there, you're going to find a place for it when you get home or when you get to the store and put the trash in.
participantOne:(857420-887880): You tend to hold yourself to higher standard, I guess, once you have that fresh start. So it's important to make regular use of that. How often you go is kind of up to you, but I think going at least once a month, I've heard a good recommendation, at least, you know, the church requires at least once a year, but...
participantOne:(889000-925720): the more often you go, I think the better you're gonna feel. Also, another area that you could make use of is the daily Masses. You know, not only going to Mass on Sunday, but occasionally or as frequently as you can getting to the daily Mass. And the last thing I probably wanted to recommend is getting in the habit of saying the Rosary if you're not already. When I was growing up,
participantOne:(926300-954600): My parents had us say the rosary every night, and it was just something we did. My son actually had all my siblings over at our house last weekend. As a matter of fact, my son's working on a project, and he wanted to ask us some questions about our faith and what we remembered growing up being at home. And I think it was the first thing that came to all of our minds was that we said the rosary every day.
participantOne:(954880-974940): It was just something our folks got us in the habit of doing, and we didn't really question it. We didn't really, at that time, at least when we were young, probably even understand the benefits of it. We knew that prayer was important and it was powerful.
participantOne:(975520-1003520): But I have to admit when I got, you know, out of my own, got away to school, college, and even after I got out of college, I kind of got away from saying the rosary only under special occasions. You know, if you go to the funeral parlor and say the rosary there. And it was one of those things, again, that I knew I should be doing because for me the benefits of the rosary, you know, not only is it
participantOne:(1004140-1032440): On a good day, it's contemplative. You're able to think about what you're praying about. But for me, the times it's been most beneficial is when, you know, something tragic happens or you're just overwhelmed by bad news or something about somebody. You don't know what to do or what to say. And you always have the rosary to fall back on. It's like...
participantOne:(1032680-1060340): when you can't do anything else you can start saying the rosary first and i found that to be very comforting several times throughout my life and it wasn't the rosary for me was another new year's resolution and this was more recent because mentioned i was number nine kid in the family so when we would say the rosary
participantOne:(1060860-1091040): I was just following along. And it didn't dawn on me until I think I went on a Curcio weekend. I thought, well, I should be saying the Rosary, you know. I realized I didn't really know how to say it because I'd always followed. And so I know there's different mysteries. All right, you've got your joyful mysteries, you've got your sorrowful mysteries, you've got your glorious mysteries, and then they throw in the luminous mysteries. It's like, okay, I know a couple of them, you know, your fear in there, you know.
participantOne:(1091420-1121120): visitation, luxiation. I started wondering, you know, Jesus cures blind man. I said, no, that's not one. And you start feeling embarrassed, especially if you have to leave, you know. And then what days do you say what once? You know, it's like, yeah, and it's like I realized, I think I was about 50 years old at the time. I said, I don't know, I'll say the rosary myself. So fortunately,
participantOne:(1121720-1147200): It's like in the back of the church in the nights. Have these, how to pray the rosary. And these, it has all the prayers, even the ones at the end that we don't say too often other than with the rosary. I mean, everybody knows the Hail Mary and Our Father. But it has all the prayers in here. The order that you do them in also tells you which days you pray which mysteries and all the mysteries in their order.
participantOne:(1148040-1182880): And like I say, the Rosary, if you look at church history, the power behind the prayer is there's just lots and lots of stories where the Rosary has really been a very powerful prayer for the church and for individuals. So I highly recommend that. The other thing is that with New Year's resolution, you probably made it before.
participantOne:(1183400-1213480): and you know, you get to January, you're doing pretty good. By the end of January, maybe not so good, whether it's going to the gym or, like I said, trying to stop smoking or drinking or some other vice that you might be struggling with, you fall out of the way. It's kind of human nature. I was looking up how many times it takes a person to try to quit smoking before they actually do it.
participantOne:(1215840-1250400): I found several different answers. The most consistent seems to be about eight to eleven times that people try to stop. And there was a popular ad campaign several years ago that said you don't quit quitting until you quit. And I found that to be the case and the stuff that I try to work with. It also provides a great opportunity because not only do we have this opportunity during Advent, but if you start,
participantOne:(1250780-1278480): and you fall off, New Year's is just around the corner. So you can start again in New Year's, all right? If New Year's goes a little better, maybe you figured out, okay, I gotta watch out for this, maybe not go to this place because that's gonna lead me down a place I don't wanna go, or maybe not hang out with these people because I know I get in trouble when I do that. You can kinda learn from your mistakes, hopefully.
participantOne:(1279680-1310820): And you might last a little longer. Maybe you'll get to February or March. And then you know what starts? Lent. So you've got another opportunity to reflect on the areas that you want to change, the areas that you want to improve in. And you can start all over again. And like I say, in Lent, these little blue books will be black. And they'll be in the back of your church. And it's a great way to get into those habits of daily prayer and reflection.
participantOne:(1311320-1342300): And I'd like to leave you with, and today, just by saying, I did a rosary, I think, for Advent especially. I know now something I didn't know before, but today is Saturday. So we say the joyful mysteries today. And being that it's Advent, I think the first joyful mystery would probably be Advent. That's the Annunciation. So it's just the beginning.
participantOne:(1344580-1376500): Our Lord. You know, this is something I just, when you grow up Catholic, probably got a lot of cradle Catholics here, but we probably have a few converts as well. I find that converts tend to be some of the best Catholics because they have a better understanding of why we do things. Like I said, I grew up Catholic, so all this stuff was just kind of, I absorbed it and I didn't question a lot.
participantOne:(1377360-1411060): But something that's kind of blown my mind just the last few years is, you know, they talk about Christmas time and the Christ child. And it just blows my mind when you look out at the stars at night or you wonder at, you know, all these scientific discoveries. You know, in DNA, going smaller and smaller or you're going further and further out into space.
participantOne:(1411500-1444520): and just seeing what's out there. And knowing that God, the source of all this, the original cause of everything, humbled himself to come down to earth as not only a human being, he could have come as a great leader or conqueror or ruler, he came down as a little baby born into such humble circumstances.
participantOne:(1445240-1468240): And that's something I just, you know, like I said, I've heard it all my life, but never really recognized the significance of that until recently. But anyway, with that, I'd like to do the first joyful mystery this morning, which is the Annunciation.
participantOne:(1468460-1503180): name the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are you, Thou who art in heaven. Blessed be the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus Christ. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
participantOne:(1504139-1534520): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. God, pray for us sinners now. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. God, pray for us sinners now. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
participantOne:(1539600-1573620): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. God, pray for us sinners now, and the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. God, pray for us sinners now, and the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. God, pray for us sinners now, and the hour of our death.
participantOne:(1575200-1608540): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Mother of God, pray for us sinners now. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Mother of God, pray for us sinners now. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Pray for us sinners now, amen.
participantOne:(1609020-1626440): our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be, world without end. Amen. Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need.
participantOne:(1628520-1661240): Thank you gentlemen and one other thing I do have a few of these Pamphlets Here and there's a whole staff of upstairs in the back church You don't get one of these or take the bag whichever church All right, thank you Steve
participantOne:(1661540-1690480): So now we're going to have some time for discussion. If you want to refill on coffee and make your way back to the back tables. Whenever you get there, just make sure that somebody's leading the discussion. How about that? Oh, and we're going to get a quick announcement from Michael Philpott. Hey, good morning, guys. Just really quick. A lot of you probably know, but I'm the director of operations at St. John's. So...
participantOne:(1690560-1709820): We've got the apps that's been, having been painted by Joe Mackham for the last year, that unveiling is coming up, most of you probably know. But I just wanted to make sure to invite everybody, regardless of what parish you're in, on the 27th, on the Feast of St. John's, so Saturday morning at 9 a.m., is the Dedication Mass.
participantOne:(1710220-1731840): So you're all invited to that. Now, it'll be ready. Christmas Eve will be the first time it's visible. But you're going to be going to whatever Christmas mass you're going to with your families. But Saturday morning, 9 a.m., 27th. Love to see you there. Awesome. Thank you.
