Please plan on joining us for the 66th Annual Detroit Bishop’s Dinner!
Guest House understands the stigma and shame that often prevent individuals from seeking the help they need for addiction and mental health challenges. These issues affect all of us, including the Catholic clergy and men and women religious to whom we are dedicated to providing quality recovery and overall health and wellness. Our theme, “From Silence to Support: Advocacy, Education, and Hope,” emphasizes our commitment to inspiring hope for those in recovery, individuals living in isolation, families struggling in silence, and for a world free of stigma.
We are honored to welcome former U.S. representative Patrick J. Kennedy, author of “A Common Struggle” and “Profiles in Mental Health Courage.” As one of the world’s leading voices on mental health and addiction, he works to unite government leaders, philanthropists, the private sector, and advocates in transforming our healthcare system to treat brain illnesses on par with physical illnesses.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan hosts very special guests on his radio show: Michigan's "Family of the Year" and the Order's "International Family of the Year", Joe and Tiffany Ampe and their family.
Joe and Tiffany have established a strong and loving family deeply rooted in their Catholic faith. The Ampe family, in collaboration with the Knights in Marquette, have shown unwavering dedication in supporting Ukraine by providing essential resources such as love, food, medical supplies, and financial assistance for survival.
The Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention is an annual gathering of over 2000 Knights and their families, along with distinguished members of the clergy, from various parts of the globe. This year, the convention is taking place in Quebec City from August 6-8.
As the festivities commence, accolades and acknowledgments for the exceptional efforts of jurisdictions worldwide are being presented. Pictured here are Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and his wife, Vanessa, extending a warm welcome to Michigan's Immediate Past State Deputy Christopher Kolomjec and his wife, Julie, as they accept the Pinnacle and Circle of Honor awards on behalf of all Michigan Brother Knights.
September 14th is the 33rd annual Detroit Archdiocesan Vocations League golf outing.
If a council or assembly buys two hole sponsors for $100 total and sends a foursome to play golf, they earn two points. Last year, councils and assemblies earned up to $950 back to be used for their RSVP support!
It’s not too late to join the many councils in the State of Michigan in our mission to provide warmth for deserving children during the cold Michigan winter months. Every council in the state has been invited to participate in any way that they can in the Coats for Kids program. So far, 19 councils have submitted funds for the Supreme Buy One Case and Get a Second Case Free program. You can still choose to participate. Here are some guidelines to take advantage of the BOGO option from Supreme:
The BOGO order must be submitted by the State Council.
As a Council (or District) determine where you want to distribute the coats in your area. As always, work with the pastor of any parish in the distribution of the coats.
After your fundraising efforts are complete, determine the number of cases of coats by type (see www.knightsgear.com) that you wish to order.
There is an order form posted on the State website that must be completed and sent in.
It is critical to have contact information provided on the order. Additionally, the full name and address of the shipping information must be supplied on the form.
Follow the directions on the form when submitting your funds. Checks must be made payable to ‘Michigan State Council’ and put ‘Coats for Kids’ on the memo line.
Checks are to be sent to either your SDRR for tracking locally (please verify this with your SDRR) or myself. My address is on the form.
Once the form and payment is received you will receive acknowledgement back from me. Any shipping information will be communicated then.
If your order is for 10 cases, it will be filled with 20 cases. So please plan accordingly.
We are on track to to submit our order before September 20, 2024. This order will be for all checks and orders received by September 9, 2024. We are planning to do a second order for the BOGO program. To participate in that order your checks and order form must be received by October 2, 2024. However, please be aware that the coats go on a first come first served basis. Popular sizes may not be available on the second order. We will do our best to accommodate all. These deadlines will help get the coats to the distribution sites between October 14 (for the first order) and October 28 (for the second order), 2024. Any questions, please contact me.
On Friday August 2nd, we celebrated Baseball Vocations Night at Jackson Field with the Lansing Lugnuts! It was a fantastic evening filled with support for vocations with family and friends, along with baseball and fireworks.
Even though our Lugnuts didn't come out on top, the love and backing for vocations was a total HOME RUN!
The Order provides resources for members to grow in spiritual health and encounter Christ
Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori
In a column this time last year, I mentioned my daily exercise routine. Consider this a follow-up report.
Like others my age who exercise, it is easy to overdo it. I did just that recently. As the result of my imprudence, I woke up one morning “down in the back,” as they say. I couldn’t sit in anything but a straight chair. Getting in and out of a recliner was excruciating. Getting dressed wasn’t exactly a picnic.
I took a pain reliever, but it didn’t do much good. After a while, I began to think that I had seriously injured my spine. Reluctantly, I went to my doctor. He poked around and then he shared some good news: My bones weren’t the problem. But I had strained my back muscles in the course of my workouts. “What you need,” he said, “are core exercises,” and with that he packed me off to physical therapy.
There I learned a new set of exercises designed to strengthen the muscles of my body’s core, or center — muscles that help to maintain balance and flexibility amid daily activities. I started the recommended exercise routine and soon discovered muscles I didn’t know I had. By stretching the same muscles that I had strained, the pain soon went away, and I felt much better.
You can probably see where this is going. It’s not a big stretch to see the connection between core and Cor, between exercising the core of the human body and the spiritual exercises of the Knights of Columbus initiative called Cor — the Latin word for “heart” and a biblical word for “soul” or the center of one’s existence. I hope many of you are already doing your Cor exercises or will soon begin them.
Why do we need Cor exercises? To start with, we often experience inward, spiritual pain. It may not be excruciating — more of an annoyance, a pain we try to ignore, deny or minimize. Or perhaps we’ve just become spiritually flabby. We tell ourselves that our spiritual life and relationship with God are in good shape and that we are pleasing in his eyes. But then something happens that causes us to think twice about our life, and the pain of guilt is harder to ignore.
Cor aims to help Knights encounter Christ and support one another in growing in faith and virtue, in becoming better followers of Christ, better husbands and fathers.
What to do? When my back hurt, my first move was to medicate, but it didn’t work. Pain relievers weren’t the answer. No, I went to the doctor to find out the underlying problem and to seek a remedy. So too, when we falter spiritually or experience guilt, we shouldn’t try to medicate ourselves with food or alcohol or distractions. No, we should go to the doctor. Encountering the divine physician in the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive God’s mercy and discover that we are not broken beyond his ability to repair.
We also discover that going back to the same old sins and failings will only result in more spiritual discomfort and pain. So, a good next step is to engage in spiritual exercises. That is why the Knights of Columbus offers us Cor. Through prayer, formation and fraternity, it is designed to help us strengthen not our physical core but our spiritual “cor.”
Like the core exercises I was assigned, the spiritual exercises of Cor might be new to some. They take different forms: praying the rosary, reading Scripture, participating in spiritual discussions, to name a few. Cor aims to help Knights encounter Christ and support one another in growing in faith and virtue, in becoming better followers of Christ, better husbands and fathers. Cor is exercise for the heart!
At first, I was hesitant to start my core exercises, just as some may be reluctant to participate in Cor. But I’m glad I did, and you will be too.
