For Chaplains

Members’ Spiritual Welfare: A Chaplain’s Main Concern

This Month’s Chaplain’s Report

Faith Formation Program

Father John P. Grace, O.S.A.

As chaplains, our primary concern is for the spiritual welfare of our members.

I marvel at the impressive manner in which our Knights undertake their routine of charitable endeavors. One that especially comes to mind is a council I know of that lists and updates all the commitments of each Knight, including their involvement in their parish, town and other areas The figures they compile are really quite impressive. (As a side note here, I urge every chaplain to make sure that his council has submitted the Annual Survey of FraternalActivity (#1728), and if the council has not done so, to complete and send it immediately. The information from these forms is vital to fully document the good works of our Order.)

Along these lines, I would dare say that if the parish priest were to list all his activities, “impressive” would hardly be an adequate term to convey the full scope of his responsibilities.  Many of our council members fully understand the nature of  parish priests’ duties and are at their disposal to aid them in all parish activities as well as support them in whatever they may request of the Knights in order to lighten their burden.

Because of their many commitments, chaplains cannot always participate in the council meetings. Maybe they can only do so on rare occasions.We are praying and working to make our faith formation program take root as an integral part of our council meetings.For that to be fully realized, we need a change of mentality. In the past, there have been some comments among councils that the chaplain does not attend their meeting. In turn, chaplains have responded that the meeting is purely a business affair which must be executed within the quickest possible time frame.

The change of mentality required for the spiritual formation portion of our meetings to grow is for the council leaders to put the business agenda aside for 10 or 15 minutes and address a necessary updating of their understanding and knowledge of the content of their faith.

I can almost hear the groans from here in New Haven! This will prolong the meeting, and it is long enough already, some will say. Possibly, but in fact I make no apology for that because I sincerely believe the benefits of doing this will far outweigh the minimal extra time commitment:

• If the chaplain knows that this is a normal part of the meeting, he will make an effort to schedule time to come to attend even if it is inconvenient for him.
• If the members accept this as being a normal part of the agenda, they have all the more reason to continually invite the chaplain to participate, and maybe even insist a little that he come!
• Our councils will be known as being serious about their faith, and of course this must have an effect on Knights’ families as well.
  

Actually, I believe that our membership will increase if we attend more to our faith and spiritual formation. Some have told me that they dropped out of the Knights because of the lack of any serious treatment of matters of faith at the meetings. The meetings are boring, they say! So, let’s liven them up. Let’s put some Spirit into them. Let’s have some spiritual uplift and allow the Spirit to guide us. Yes, let’s have a new mentality and there will surely be a difference in who we are as Knights and in what we do as brothers. The time is ripe and the material is at hand.

God bless and keep you all.

Father John Grace, O.S.A.
Director of Chaplain Programs and Development
john.grace@kofc.org
(203) 752-4263