{"id":213,"date":"2024-05-29T20:20:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T00:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/?p=213"},"modified":"2024-05-31T11:32:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T15:32:39","slug":"who-will-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will Step Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the <\/span>Knights of Columbus<\/span><\/a>, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for Catholic men who perhaps are straddling a young adult and young family group. Looking at parish life, I think the 30-40 year age group is underrepresented, understandably so, because of family responsibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

For my local Knights of Columbus council, the fraternal year begins in June. The new year is marked by a new slate of officers who commit to serving in their respective roles for the upcoming year. How the slate comes together is quite a process. At the May council meeting, there\u2019s usually a nomination process of brother knights who either want to continue their roles or who might be interested in serving. When the question is put out there, \u201cWho will step up?\u201d, it\u2019s usually met with crickets chirping. Recruitment is difficult because very few men are willing to step up to a leadership role.<\/span><\/p>\n

"black

Khyta\/Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s ironic that one of the phrases that the Knights of Columbus advertises is \u201cLead, they will follow.\u201d This is aimed at Catholic fathers, challenging them to step up as a faith figure in their family. Why is it a struggle to see any initiative among Catholic men in the parish and in Knights of Columbus councils? It may be a time commitment issue, but I would venture to guess that another reason may be fear. How do we name this fear? Fear of failure? Fear of burnout? Fear of uncertainty? Whatever the case, I think this fear is suffocates parish life and the Knights of Columbus as a worldwide order.<\/p>\n

"closeup

Vinicius \u201camnx\u201d Amano\/Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think one challenge is expressing the faith outwardly. Men privatize their faith. I can speak from experience. My father never talked about his faith growing up and still does not. It\u2019s not to say my father has anything against the faith. He faithfully brought our family to church growing up, but faith was not something we talked about. Last month, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly <\/span>spoke<\/span><\/a> at the John Carroll Society\u2019s 38th Annual Award Dinner, being one of the awardees. He remarked:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us are called to be missionaries in a society that often views religion, at best, as a matter <\/span>of private opinion \u2014 or at worst, as an enemy of the public good\u2026This requires that we live out our mission constantly \u2026 at all times, in all places, and to all the people we meet.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last part struck me: \u201c<\/span>This requires that we live out our mission constantly\u2026at all times, in all places, and to all the people we meet<\/b>.\u201d Mike Mason, founder of the <\/span>St. Joseph Society<\/span><\/a>, in a Crisis Point podcast <\/span>interview<\/span><\/a>, put it bluntly:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re there. We\u2019re not there to eat donuts. We\u2019re not there to eat brats. We\u2019re not there to do a service project. We\u2019re not there to discuss what Paul meant in Galatians 5. No, what we are here for is we\u2019re here to figure out how to become holy.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mason spoke about the staleness of men\u2019s groups and why men in their 30s and 40s aren\u2019t fully engaged in groups or parish life. He notes that men are called to lead because it\u2019s a path to holiness. I think about my own marriage preparation and how it\u2019s been drilled into me that a Catholic man\u2019s mission, as a husband and father, is to lead their spouse and children to heaven. There are vehicles, if you will, to help men fulfill that such as fraternal organizations like the Knights of Columbus and the St. Joseph Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Writer Gerald Korson, in an 2021 article \u201c<\/span>Live the Virtues of a True Leader<\/span><\/a>,\u201d wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership is about character, after all, and character must be formed and developed through effort, discipline and grace. A virtuous character makes for a virtuous and true servant leader. That\u2019s what Catholic men must become in order to lead their families and communities amid the challenges they face.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

"man

Jacob Bentzinger\/Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps men who are hesitant to take up the mantle as a leader, have not given themselves the opportunity to form themselves as a servant leader. You cannot give what you do not have and you cannot lead without having people around you. In rethinking the title for this article, perhaps it\u2019s better to reframe it as an invitation, \u201cWho will join me?\u201d Take the step today and join your brothers in community and lead!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for Catholic men who perhaps are straddling a young adult and young family group. Looking at parish life, I think the 30-40 year age group is underrepresented, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5046,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,15,9,6,12],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brother","tag-community","tag-knights-of-columbus","tag-leader","tag-st-joseph"],"yoast_head":"\nWho Will Step Up?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Will Step Up?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mirror of Patience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-30T00:20:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-31T15:32:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1800\/2024\/05\/khyta-x9WZ3aMFKME-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Laorden\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Laorden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/\",\"name\":\"Who Will Step Up?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-30T00:20:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-31T15:32:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#\/schema\/person\/54e805f7405ec05578c0f168c258c42f\"},\"description\":\"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who Will Step Up?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/\",\"name\":\"Mirror of Patience\",\"description\":\"Patrick Laorden's column, Mirror Patience, explores faith, family, work\/life balance, male spirituality and Catholic social teaching, guided by the inspiration of St. Joseph.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#\/schema\/person\/54e805f7405ec05578c0f168c258c42f\",\"name\":\"Patrick Laorden\",\"description\":\"Patrick is a Catholic husband and father. He works in philanthropy as a grant writer and grants manager. Having discerned religious life for almost five years, the experience provided a great foundation for his involvements today, namely: nonprofit work, parish ministry, Knights of Columbus and Lay Dominicans. Patrick has a passion for performing charitable works, scripture, and Catholic social teaching. In his free time, he enjoys running, hiking, gardening, woodworking, photography and dad jokes.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/author\/plaorden\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Will Step Up?","description":"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Will Step Up?","og_description":"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/","og_site_name":"Mirror of Patience","article_published_time":"2024-05-30T00:20:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-31T15:32:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1800\/2024\/05\/khyta-x9WZ3aMFKME-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Patrick Laorden","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick Laorden","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/","name":"Who Will Step Up?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-30T00:20:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-31T15:32:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#\/schema\/person\/54e805f7405ec05578c0f168c258c42f"},"description":"Since 2019, I\u2019ve been a part of the Knights of Columbus, a decision I never regretted. I\u2019m in my mid-thirties and this age is a time of transition for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/2024\/05\/who-will-step-up\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Will Step Up?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/","name":"Mirror of Patience","description":"Patrick Laorden's column, Mirror Patience, explores faith, family, work\/life balance, male spirituality and Catholic social teaching, guided by the inspiration of St. Joseph.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/#\/schema\/person\/54e805f7405ec05578c0f168c258c42f","name":"Patrick Laorden","description":"Patrick is a Catholic husband and father. He works in philanthropy as a grant writer and grants manager. Having discerned religious life for almost five years, the experience provided a great foundation for his involvements today, namely: nonprofit work, parish ministry, Knights of Columbus and Lay Dominicans. Patrick has a passion for performing charitable works, scripture, and Catholic social teaching. In his free time, he enjoys running, hiking, gardening, woodworking, photography and dad jokes.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/author\/plaorden\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5046"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mirrorofpatience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}