The challenge this weekend is to make that ‘Amen’ we always say mean something. Brian challenged our attendees to look at all of the passion we have inside us this weekend and imagine if we took that to prayer. For many of us we’ve only scratched the surface of all God can do with us. The enemy wants you to be silent and doesn’t want you to do anything. 

We are taught in this society that being a man of God is simply not good enough. We are afraid of people “bullying” us and are intimidated. We are called this weekend to stand up and be the man God wants us to be. However, we need people around us to give us strength and hold us accountable. 

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For the women’s session, the men left the building so Lisa Cotter could just address the ladies. She stressed the importance of our female friends because being feminine can be complicated and only women truly understand what it is like to be a woman. We need each other. But how do we create deep and lasting friendships?

Three Types of Friendship

Aristotle said there are three different types of friendship:

Friendships of Utility– This type of friendship is based on someone being useful to you, like a friend from a class.

Friendships of Pleasure– These friendships are based on the fun times together (teammates, friends from a club, etc.)

Friendships that are useful or pleasurable are not necessarily bad, but as soon as the usefulness or pleasure is not there, the friendship ends.

Friendships of Virtue (Excellence)– These friendships are based upon doing the right thing at the right time, in the right way. These are deepest forms of friendship.

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Natalie from LEAD is a member of St. Mary’s Parish in Cape Girardeau, MO which is in the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. This fall she will be a senior at Notre Dame High School.

Today she shared with us how God changed her life through friendship.

She grew up Catholic with very involved parents.

And yet, as she entered high school, she wanted to fit in and took on a negative attitude – and a big part of this was that she began gossiping about other people. This left her feeling empty and unloved.

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This morning as we gathered for Mass, Fr. Chris Martin shared with us times in his life where he did not feel like he belonged. Many of his stories took place outside of the country. Being 6’4 he often stands out, but one story in particular was when he traveled to Calcutta, India to teach with the Missionaries of Charity. Fr. Martin likened the Sisters to the Marine Corp. of the Catholic Church. Every morning, the Sisters would go to the trash dump down the street and pick up the children that had been thrown away and would bring them back to their house to care for them. He was amazed by their amount of charity and love and he did not feel as if he belonged.

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