Prince William County Catholic
”We have seven pillars that we seek to ground our group and our lives on: (1) Christocentrism; (2) the Word of God (both Scripture and Tradition); (3) Sacramental Worship (especially Mass and Confession); (4) Life of Prayer (Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Eucharistic Adoration); (5) Obedience (Ten Commandments, Virtue, moral teachings of Christ and His Church); (6) Communio (Mens fellowship, intentional family time, and parish communal life); and last but not least (7) Evangelization (works of mercy, inviting others into Faith and the Catholic Church, and joining ministries of outreach in our parish).”
“Growing in devotion to God through these seven pillars is our goal for the group. We are especially trying to grow in pillar 2, the Word of God, as our surveys of the group showed that it was both the weakest pillar and the one the men most desired to grow in.”
who are real leaders in the community. Next, we had them personally invite 3-5 men from the parish or the surrounding area to join. We had two weekends of promotion in the Mass, the first week by general announcement, the second was we chose nine men to promote it by testimony and invitation at the pulpit after Mass on Sunday. We also promoted our first meeting as a night of fellowship, food, and fun! The first night had about 85 men there, a full house! We are planning another push as we start Lent in a few weeks to get our monthly average up to 100 and our weekly average up to 50-plus. It’s a very edifying thing to see so many men there week after week! I wish all parishes had the ‘“Defenders”! It’s probably important to add that our BYOB&B is an important part of our “Defenders” culture. We all bring a Bible and a Beer, calling it a “Scottish Style” Men’s group! We actually have a self-made brew master, OLA parishioner Christopher Howser, who made an official Defenders of the Faith Beer!”
How many men are participating so far?
What would you want the public to know about your ministry?
”We have about a hundred men on our list but it’s an average of 30-40 each week. But because we have a meeting every week we have about 75-80 different men each month.”
”Men need men to grow in their spiritual life. The wives love this ministry, because the men are more and more becoming the spiritual leaders that they always wanted them to be. The children are being provided for, protected and learning the truths of the faith from their fathers, a tradition and necessity that was lost on a century of families after two world wars and other sources of generations
What are your goals for the group?
What is the group doing to expand and promote this ministry? ”We have had waves of promotion. We started by gathering 15-20 men
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