Esto Vir!

     Be a man! (or for those who prefer the Latin, “Esto Vir!”) is a phrase that many males hear throughout their lifetime, many times before performing some activity deemed to be masculine such as shooting a deer or participating in belching contest. Not every instance in which this phrase is uttered is contributing to the building up of a truly masculine culture, but in many cases causing the masculine culture to be viewed in a superficial way; for example a MAN is a big, strong man who wears flannel, sporting a big beard, who watches sports, works on cars, and is fluent in the language of grunting. In order to combat the American culture's view of what it means to be a man, the Catholic Church has been putting on men’s conferences to communicate to Catholic men what it really means to be a man. In the Diocese of Green Bay this conference is called Esto Vir or the Man for All Seasons Conference. It takes place yearly and brings many big name speakers to come in and speak about what it means to be a man in the Catholic sense; recently the conference brought in Fr. Larry Richards, Matt Fradd, and Green Bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy just to name a few. This event draws around 1,000 men from across the Diocese of Green Bay to come and join together to learn how to be a man of faith.

The Eucharistic Procession

     This year a few of the SPIRITUS men were blessed with the opportunity to attend the Esto Vir Conference and provide a breakout session for the middle school guys that were in attendance and run activities, give talks and pray with the students. It did not stop there, right after the middle school portion of the conference all the men participated in a Eucharistic procession with Bishop Ricken leading the way with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. I had the opportunity to hold the canopy during the procession and even though we had to fight some strong winds trying to take the canopy away and some cold, cold, hands it was a beautiful experience to have 1,000 men following the Blessed Sacrament in prayer around downtown Green Bay. Another memorable moment that occurred during the conference was the “leadoff” speaker, Fr. Larry Richards. Fr. Larry did not pull any punches during his talk, but called the men in the room to pray and to love, stating that the only way we can know how to be a man is to look to Jesus in the scriptures, and to be in relationship with Him through prayer and love of those around us.

     At the end of the day, we left very inspired and it was a good reminder of our goal in life as men, and that is to follow Christ and to lead others to Him. Now we have the challenge of going into our ministry and letting everyone we encounter know of the Lord’s great love for them and most importantly to never stop praying because if we do then we run the risk of allowing our ministry to be fruitless. This conference was a great “pick-me-up” in the midst of a hectic ministry of putting on retreats and doing youth ministry. I go forward with great hope and love for our Church and all I can do is hope that I do not get in the way of Christ carrying out His mission through SPIRITUS.

Pax,

Mike

Adoration at the Conference