St. Cecilia's Youth

http://www.spiritdaily.com/realmen.htm

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Step up Men!!!

IT'S TIME FOR REAL MEN TO RETURN TO THE CHURCH AND DEFEND IT AGAINST ONSLAUGHT
By Michael H. Brown
The other day I was speaking to a priest who'd con-celebrated at our Chicago retreat, and he said he was pleasantly surprised that when he entered through the rear, what he most noticed was the back of the heads of quite a few men. He was happy to see that. So were we. At the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, retreat (near Philadelphia), there were even more: men were about half the audience.
It's encouraging because we are in a time when what folks are used to seeing is an absence of that particular gender.
Women have been the ones who have held the fort. God bless them. We would be nowhere without them. Now it is time for the men to help them, to stand up. I hope the same continues as we move to a retreat in the L.A. area (to be announced shortly) and God-willing elsewhere. If our Church is to survive the current assaults, we need both male and female warriors.
Is it "weak" to be devout? Is it the stuff of women only?
Try telling that to Joe Klecko, the former, four-time pro-bowl defensive star for the New York Jets, who stands 6'3", weighed 260 as a player. He was one of the men in attendance at the Cherry Hill retreat.
Klecko, who is now in construction work, and, we are told, still spars with Gerry Cooney, was converted after his wife went to Medjugorje in former Yugoslavia. He now says 12 rosaries a day. This is a man who spent 11 years in the league, is only one of three Jets to have his uniform retired, and has a son who is a three-time Super Bowl winner. "Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me," he tells Catholic audiences. "Prayer and fasting can change the course of nature, it can end wars. If there's a day that goes by when I don't get the Eucharist, I feel empty." [Listen to his testimony].
During my first trip to Medjugorje, I ran into another football great, Miami coach Don Shula.
Are these wimps? Is former heavyweight champ George Foreman [below, right], who is now a minister?
I remember a lawyer in Sacramento who had been a Green Beret during the Viet Nam war and is now involved in the Marian movement. He told me that spiritual warfare made fighting in war seem tame.
It is the real stuff. It is the right stuff. It is the stuff of real men. Yet they have largely left the scene. My question to them: Do we men really want to see the women fight it out alone? Are we going to remain on the sidelines during the greatest spiritual battle since pagan Rome? Is that manly?
And what does it mean for the Church?
The decline of the Anglican Church in England is most recently noted in the fact that more women than men are studying for the priesthood. In Catholicism, it is women who have to fill in as altar servers, lectors, ushers, and Eucharistic ministers.
They do a great job, but maybe if our youth saw more men active in the Church, there would be more vocations -- and less by way of attack. Maybe, in San Francisco, homosexual activists would not be so prone to mock us -- even during Mass.
Why have so many men left? Perhaps it is because it has become unfashionable for men to rely on God. We pride ourselves on our independence -- apparently, in too many circles, even our independence from Him.
We're materialistic: Our culture is obsessed with making money, and men are still key "breadwinners" (though these days we should say "Lexus-winners"): God does not mix well with mammon.
Men are too "busy." There is -- yes -- football on Sundays. Mass is too long. The homilies bore them, they complain. The words from the pulpit seem lost in some other historical time.
They feel "superstitious." Somehow, we have gotten to the point where "real men" don't believe in fairytales -- are afraid of being teased. A strapping man doesn't even need saints! Or at least doesn't think so.
There is the clergy abuse scandal: for too long, the strong, masculine priests have been marginalized (pray for these heroic souls) while too many homosexual priests have made the headlines. This chases away men -- or at least disinclines some of them.
There has been the feminization of Jesus. Despite all indications of His great strength -- and every indication that He was as masculine as they come (take a look at the Shroud of Turin) -- there has been an attempt, since the Renaissance (when so many unfortunate trends developed), to portray Him as overly meek.
Think of how absurd this is: no man I know of would have the strength, power, and courage to face -- willingly -- crucifixion. Our Lord is a mighty and masculine Lord! The same should be true (and often is, when we let them) of our priests. We need our seminaries to screen for power, for strength, for masculinity. Those with an overly feminine tendency can serve in other capacities (as long as they are not practicing homosexuality).
I recall the words of a psychiatrist named George Ritchie who had a famous near-death experience as a young man and who in fact recently died. It was his near-death episode that sparked all the current research in this realm, and during it he said He encountered Jesus.
This was not the Jesus of his Sunday school books, noted Dr. Ritchie. It was not the Jesus that many artists portray.
"That Jesus was gentle, kind, understanding -- and probably a little bit of a weakling," he notes. "This Person was power itself, older than time and yet more modern than anyone I had ever met.
"Far more even than power, what emanated from His Presence was unconditional love. An astonishing love. A love beyond my wildest imagining."
He was a loving Man. He was a strong man. He had been a carpenter. Have you ever noticed the sinew in carpenters? He meant business. He was a man of physical stature. In many ways, He was daunting. His Presence elicited respect, even during Crucifixion.
It is now time for our men to realize this and realize too their duties and their true strengths, which are spiritual, not in how many games they can watch during a single weekend.
Men, you have an obligation to join your wives and mothers, your sisters, in defending and filling and reviving the Church. It cannot go on forever without you.
It is time for real men to stand up. Do you really want to see the Church destroyed?
It is also time to kneel. It is masculine to love God. It is masculine to love others. It is masculine to fight for Jesus while we are on this battlefield, this playing field, in this boxing ring called earth.
Want real power? Want real masculinity?
Pray. Go the Mass. Fast.
See if you are tough enough for that.
[Audio: Joe Klecko's testimony]
[resources: Prayer of the Warrior and George Ritchie's book Return from Tomorrow]
[see also: Is something about to shake Church?]