Fraternal Love
In a momentous chapter for the Church and the faithful in America, the recent election of Pope Leo XIV—the first American pope—calls us to deeper reflection, renewed unity, and heartfelt prayer. As we continue through the month of May, traditionally dedicated to Our Lady, we turn to her with childlike trust, asking her intercession for our new Holy Father, that he may lead with wisdom, courage, and love. At this second Saturday gathering of CORE, amidst new faces and familiar ones, we are reminded of why we come together: not only for fellowship and formation but because someone once invited us, believing it could make a difference. And it did. In light of this historic papacy and the guidance of Our Blessed Mother, we are challenged to extend that same invitation—to bring one more soul into this community of faith. As we look ahead to our upcoming breakfast, we recognize that what sustains us is more than just food or friendship—it is the quiet conviction that Christ is working in our lives, shaping us through one another, and now, through a pope who speaks from a land we call home. May we pray for Pope Leo XIV, and may his shepherding call each of us to be better men, better witnesses, and bold evangelists in our everyday lives.
MC: Adam Hohn
Parochial Vicar: Tyler Arens
Presenter: Joseph Gruber
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
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participantOne:(960-34320): the new election of our pope, Pope Leo XIV, first American pope. As we continue on through this month of May, may we ask your mother for intercession as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. May your mother, who died, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.
participantOne:(34739-69680): And welcome to the second Saturday of CORE for the month of May. Now is anyone here for their very first CORE meeting? Anyone here for their first time? Alright, welcome back. Does anyone have any announcements? In two weeks, the fourth Saturday of the month, we're going to be doing the breakfast as scheduled this time. So I'm going to pass around the sheet. If you didn't sign up last week, please sign up this week.
participantOne:(70000-103060): One of the things that, the reason that you're here, I want you to think back, when did you first hear about CORE? Somebody mentioned it to you, and as Joseph says on a regular basis, we just want you to bring one more guy. So think about how you're going to present it to that person. It's going to be a little bit more robust than when you heard about CORE because CORE was just starting or was underway. But now that you've been here for a while, think back.
participantOne:(103400-131179): Why did you come? Because somebody invited you. But what's more important is why did you stay? Why are you here this morning? You find meaning, you find a lot of great guys in here, you can get some free food. So when you're talking to somebody, think of the person that invited you to be here. So you have, don't sell yourself short.
participantOne:(131640-157160): If you go to someone and say, hey, you know what? There's this poor program I went. The first time I went, just because a buddy of mine told me about it, I said, I'm going to check it out. But you know what? The reason I stayed, the reason I've been here for a year now is because I've met a lot of cool guys. I'm learning some stuff, and it's making me better. I think you should at least try it out. We have a free breakfast coming up. So I really want you to give that some thought over the next two weeks. Thanks.
participantOne:(157400-179700): And as I pass this sheet, if you want to change the number of invites, go ahead and do that. Because we have something really cool growing here. We're well over a year. Well, by a couple weeks. But there are other men out there that are searching. And I'm just waiting for someone to say, hey, just come try it out. You might like it.
participantOne:(180800-208680): What a better way to start out your weekend with a positive note, with some good guys, and an opportunity to build your faith. So as I pass this sheet, as you look at that sheet, I want you to think about that. Think of that one guy that's sitting there saying, you know what, I wish I found more purpose, more meaning in my life. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. Hey, Rob. If anybody is going to the Good Shepherd fundraiser tonight and going to the...
participantOne:(209960-242060): the Mass with the Bishop of Marianne and I are still looking for a ride to that. Let me know afterwards or whatever. I'd like to go to the Mass with the Bishop. I got you covered, David. And also related to the dinner, I have a couple that canceled out. Danny's still making for dinner, which I'll let you cover. I have two seats for the dinner tonight after the Mass. So if you want to go to the dinner tonight, first come, first served, let me know. Thank you.
participantOne:(242340-273680): Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Dave and Mark again. Any other announcements? Mark, you got a pen? Yes, sir. So some of you during this week may have received a message about the talk that may be given today about the 14th, an in-depth analysis on our new pope. Well, that talk will not be given today.
participantOne:(274040-308380): Yeah, we're throwing you a curve. So only some of you, so some of you do know the talk that will, well, an idea of what the talk that's going to be given today. So now I will turn it over to Joseph, who will not be talking about Pope Leo the First Year. Thank you, Adam. Good morning. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good. How's everybody? I want to tell you a story to begin. Oh, yeah.
participantOne:(309120-338100): So this takes me back. I was a Catholic missionary on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years. That's MIT. And so whenever I talk about this school, the first story that comes to mind is a story that I heard when I was on tour of the campus when I first got there. And it was about we were in one of the classrooms, and the tour guide was talking about how a professor there used to walk back and forth as he was lecturing.
participantOne:(338500-366560): Every day, back and forth, he probably walked several miles every class, just back and forth. And the students knew this about the professor, and some of the students there were also taking an introduction to psychology class. And they came to the section where they talked about positive and negative reinforcement. And so they decided to conduct an experiment on this professor.
participantOne:(367080-400840): So every time the professor walked this way, they were stoic. Their faces were impassive. Every time that he walked this way, they smiled at him. It was just one or two students. It wasn't very noticeable, but stoic, stoic, stoic, smile, smile, smile. Well, they told some of the other classmates in the course about it, and so a few more the next day.
participantOne:(401540-437320): Stoic, stoic, stoic, smile. Stoic, stoic, stoic. And so they told a few more. So the next day, smile. More of the class. Stoic, stoic, stoic. Until almost everybody was in on this. And you could tell something happening because this fellow would get faster and faster going this way.
participantOne:(437600-465500): pretty sedate, pretty slow going this way. And then something magical happened. They got everybody in on it. And he came walking in, notes in one hand, copy in the other hand, Dunkin of course because at least Boston runs on Dunkin. And as he walked in, he saw everyone smiling. And he walked so fast, boom!
participantOne:(466040-491200): spilled coffee all over himself. And the lesson there, gentlemen, is if you're trying to please everybody, you're going to get burned. Thank you. Wow. Wow. Great crowd. Great crowd. Thank you.
participantOne:(491800-519580): So that's the first story. It has nothing to do with the rest of the talk. But I love that story. Keep smiling. Keep smiling. So the next story is, I also had the privilege of leading a Bible study with a bunch of graduate student men. So at one point I had something like 20 guys who were coming every Friday afternoon to study the Bible with me.
participantOne:(520500-554800): And one day we were talking about this idea that God loves us. God is our father, which means that we are beloved sons of God. And we were talking about that, and everybody was like, yeah, that makes sense. That's what they say about our baptism. And so I posed the question, what would change if you remembered that you were a beloved son of God every day? And one of the guys, one of the more quiet guys in the group, which, granted,
participantOne:(555140-588940): in a sea of MIT graduate students, quiet is actually kind of the norm. But one of the quieter guys, he spoke up. He said, if I remembered that I was a beloved son of God every day, everything would change. I said, okay. Well then I think we know what we're going to do this week. We're going to remind each other that we are beloved sons of God. And they said, what do you mean? I said, well, if you see
participantOne:(589719-620800): One of us in this group, this week, I want you to feel responsible for reminding the other guy that he is a beloved son of God. They said, what do you mean? I said, exactly what I said. Remind them that they are a beloved son of God. How do you do that? I said, I don't know. Tell them that they're a beloved son of God. Okay. And so that unleashed something that continued today.
participantOne:(621000-644020): Until I left that campus over a year later, these men, any time they saw each other, would say, Remember, you're a beloved son of God. Remember, you are God's son. Remember, you are a prince of the kingdom. And it caught on in the Catholic community. You'd have other students doing this.
participantOne:(644400-672800): And they wouldn't do it just if they saw them, you know, from like five feet away or six feet away. They would do that if they were 50 feet away or 60 feet away. They would call across the quad. They would call across the infinite corridor. The infinite corridor is a very long hallway at MIT. They would say if they saw them in the distance, hey, you're a beloved son of God.
participantOne:(675520-703660): That would echo in the halls of MIT. Because one guy said, if I remembered that I was a beloved son of God, that would change everything. And I decided in that moment that it wouldn't just be his job to remember that. It would be our job to remind each other of that. But how does that change everything?
participantOne:(704819-741100): We can say that it changes everything. That guy clearly believed that it would change everything, and it certainly changed the whole atmosphere of MIT for about a year. But I want to talk about a particular way that it changes things, maybe two ways to be more clear. So what if we believed that we were a beloved son of God, and what if we believed that our neighbor were a beloved son of God? Look across from you right now if there's a guy across from you.
participantOne:(742540-777180): and realize that the guy across from you is beloved by God, that God actually intends good for that man, a good so indescribably good, you do not have the imagination, you do not have the imagination for all of the good that God intends for that man. He's also, then, your brother. If you are a son of the Father, and he is a son of the Father, that makes him your brother.
participantOne:(778220-808000): And here's the thing. We have this notion coming from Genesis 4, Cain and Abel, that brothers fight. We have this notion that if he is my brother, therefore he is potentially going to be murdered by me or me by him. And I get that. I have sons of my own. Some might say that I have five sons because that's true. And sons do fight. Right?
participantOne:(808959-843640): And sometimes when they fight, I talk to them about the fact that they're fighting, and I said, You just hurt your brother. And do you know what that means to them? Nothing. It means nothing to them. It does not matter. It does not compute. It is not a thing to them. And so it occurred to me that what I need to actually say is, You hurt my son.
participantOne:(847500-880220): When you hurt your brother, you hurt my son, whom I love, the son that I desire good things for. You decided by your action to mess with my beloved son. And here's the hard thing, because you are my beloved son, too. And can you see what kind of difficult place it's putting me as your loving father?
participantOne:(881459-909980): Because I love you, and I love him, and I saw what you did. This is also the crazy thing about my kids, is they will literally take out their fists and start wailing on each other while I'm watching them. And I'll say, do you guys see? Do you see me? Do you know that I'm here watching? And they look at me as if surprised that they got caught. Okay?
participantOne:(915880-952260): So one way to look at the fact that we are all brothers is that how we treat each other, when we treat each other poorly, when we talk about each other behind each other's backs, when we say things that are malicious or thoughtless or do things that are malicious or thoughtless. We are being malicious, bad acting, or thoughtless, not caring about a son of God, the guy who created us, who sustains us, who desires a relationship with us,
participantOne:(953280-990380): And instead of saying yes to him, we're saying no to his beloved son, who God has put before us as a gift. So that's one half of it, that if we actually believe that we are sons of the Father, we should not hurt our brother. But the heart of the Father doesn't just long for inaction. The heart of the Father isn't happy just with, well, I stay in my room, he stays in his room. I stay in my house, he stays in his house.
participantOne:(990680-1022340): I stay in my car, he stays in his car. I don't actually want to think about the bad drivers on the road as people. I just want to ignore them. The heart of the Father doesn't long for inactivity on our part. The heart of the Father doesn't long just for us to not hurt our brother. The heart of the Father longs for us to help each other experience the love of God. Curtis Martin, the founder of Focus,
participantOne:(1022579-1069900): would tell the story about a son asking for a cookie. And one son would come up and say, Dad, I have my brother's. Don't tell any of my brothers can I have a cookie. I don't want any of my brothers to know that there are cookies or that I'm getting one. That's one, one of his sons. Another son says, Dad, can I have a cookie to give to my brother? And can I have a cookie too? One of those sons is asking for less, right? It costs,
participantOne:(1070280-1106320): Curtis Martin, the dad, less cookies to say yes to the one who says, keep it secret, I just want this for me. It costs more cookies to say yes to the son, can I have a cookie for my brother, and may I have one as well. That costs more cookies, but which one does Curtis Martin say yes to 100% of the time and no to 30, 20% of the time? Because sometimes cookies just go out. Yeah.
participantOne:(1106740-1143120): The 100% who will always get cookies. Curtis, he's a great guy. I respect him a lot. He said, if I didn't have any cookies, I would drive to the store to buy cookies for the son who asked for cookies for himself and for his brother. The heart of the father isn't satisfied with us not hurting each other. The heart of the father longs for us to extend goodness to one another. To desire good for each other.
participantOne:(1143840-1166680): To say, I want to help you experience the love of God. I want to help you to live a more graced life. It is easy to live in a silo. It is easy to isolate. God doesn't call us just to do the easy thing.
participantOne:(1169120-1198360): So if we believe that we are sons of God by our baptism, if we believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God, and so is every other person we've ever come across or will come across or can come across, if we believe that, if we believe that everyone who's made in the image and likeness of God is called to a relationship with him, not just any relationship, but the most loving familial relationship, a relationship that is ultimately ordered toward union,
participantOne:(1199500-1235000): If we believe that, and we don't think that God might be calling us to help each other, to experience that union, to go from the purgative through the illuminative to the unitive way, if we don't believe that we have anything to do about that for our brothers, then we might as well be living in like a parallel universe from everyone else. If we think our job is to just not touch anyone else, that is enough to ignore everyone else.
participantOne:(1235660-1271640): then why does anyone else even exist? Okay. Real concrete way to express goodness to our brothers. As Mark said, CORE has been going on for about a year. It seems to be doing okay. You guys have showed up many weeks. Some of you, a lot of weeks. Extend invitations. Mark said, bring one. I don't ask that you bring anyone. You don't have any control over what other people do.
participantOne:(1272139-1304740): And that would be absurd to think that you do. And a weird kind of benchmark. I'm going to say, make invitations. If we're not hearing the word no, or at least non-response from people, then we're probably not doing a good enough job in loving our brother. It doesn't have to be an invitation to court. Make an invitation to something that is true, good, or beautiful. Make invitations to the things that matter, the things that are meaningful in your life.
participantOne:(1305000-1331900): Make invitations. An invitation is simple. Mark articulated one way to do it. Let them know where and when and why, and that you will be there, and that you would be delighted to see them. Can you guys love the other sons of the Father that you come across in your day and your week and your life?
participantOne:(1333520-1363540): If you can, then making invitations should be easy. If you struggle with that, that is something to take to our Heavenly Father. Because this is something that I have to talk about with my sons. Some of my sons think that other sons are annoying. And they are right. But it's my job as their father to help them to see their brothers rightly. And that's something that I delight to do because I love them all.
participantOne:(1364200-1395980): and I want them to see each other as they ought to be seen. So if you think I can't make any invitations, then my invitation to you is to talk to God the Father about how you view your brothers. If you think I could not possibly extend an invitation, talk to God about that. I think he will be able to open your eyes. I know he has opened my eyes to the fact that...
participantOne:(1399160-1431500): that each and every one of you and each and every one of the men, women, and children here in Jackson are worthwhile, are worthy of love. So that's the challenge. That's the idea. God is our loving Father. It's not enough just to not hurt. We actually ought to help. Sounds very simple. And yet, from my experience, my own personal experience, I suck at it, and I think we all do. So it's something to pray about.
participantOne:(1433420-1464500): So I'm going to invite us to pray the first joyful mystery for many reasons, but one of which is that means that I'll probably pray the rest of the rosary today if we do that. So that's good. At your table, there is the last paragraph, or most of the last paragraph. I left off the first two lines in part for space considerations of a speech that C.S. Lewis gave called The Weight of Glory. So I'm going to ask us to pray a decade of the rosary.
participantOne:(1464879-1500460): And then I'm going to ask you to take a minute or two to read over that paragraph. Then after those things happen, we'll go to small groups for discussion. Sound good? Okay. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The first joyful mystery is the Annunciation. 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 us our trespasses. Amen.
participantOne:(1500800-1529920): and to 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 art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at our breath. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at our breath.
participantOne:(1530460-1560000): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary.
participantOne:(1560920-1585480): Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mary of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
participantOne:(1586280-1615540): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary.
participantOne:(1616379-1624380): Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning,
participantOne:(1624960-1652620): and the earth shall be, world without end, and the earth. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who most need thy mercy. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Take a couple minutes with that paragraph, and then move on to the next part of the discussion. All right. Thank you. Corey. Thank you.
participantOne:(1654740-1656120): Thank you.
