MARCH 2017
LEARNING, FAITH & LEADERSHIP A Kennedy Catholic Lancer Publication
COMMUNI-K PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE In the past 12 years, I have had thousands of conversations with amazing Lancer dads about their role with their teenage sons and daughters and along with that, their own roles as men of God. None have touched me as deeply as the father in this story. I’m standing in the home stands prior to a football game. It was early September and the sun was beginning to cross the field. As I watched our boys warm up, a father approaches me and after a short conversation, he tells me that he has less than 6 months to live. The first thing we do is join hands and pray. Our prayer was for the Holy Spirit to guide his family, to put great supporters in place to counsel, manage and spiritually nurture. Of course, his parish priest became Mike Prato - President his counsel, his closest friends became his cheer squad, and Kennedy Catholic faculty and staff worked with his two daughters to live the trial this family was encountering. If you are like me (and you are---I will soon have two daughters at Kennedy Catholic), your life undoubtedly runs full speed to hyper-speed, sometimes in the blink of an eye. Carpooling, sports, music, contests, play practice, retreats, leadership opportunities and so on! Over-committed and a breadth of passions are the outcomes of our mission, which affects us all and in the meantime, those four short years disappear before our very eyes and we ask, where did it go? So, unless you are a senior parent (the stress is now mounting for you), you fight the urge to become so busy that you lose sight of the intimacy that is fatherhood. So, I am offering an invitation to slow things down as a dad, to become curious about fatherhood in the eyes of God and take a risk to be formed along with other dads just like you. I’m not set on any particular model for what this might look like. For now, I’m planning one evening with a simple meal so we can discuss together what our time might look like. Depending on your interests, I can share a snippet from Fr. Bill Watson’s The Forty Weeks, TMIY (This Man is You), and Catholicism by Bishop Baron. We may settle on accountability groups, a simple Bible Study, or weekly discussions on fatherhood in general. At the end of the day, it is the role of the father to be the spiritual leader. Come and find out why. If nothing else, free food. To best plan the evening dinner and sharing session, please take 5 minutes and complete the survey found here. This will help me gauge interest in a dad’s group and make the best use of your time when we meet. Please complete the survey by March 15. At that time, I’ll follow up with a confirmation for the dinner gathering and request an RSVP at that time.
Kennedy Catholic High School
140S 140th Street, Burien WA 98168
www.kennedyhs.org