About eight years ago a friend and I tried to form a men's small faith group (patterned after the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers) in our parish and it failed. Year after year some guy would come up to me after Mass and ask me when we were going to bring back the "Joseph's group." I smiled nicely and said "we'll see," knowing well I was not interested in another failure. A little over two years ago I relented and invited some of the male leaders in our church to discuss revamping the group. (This idea was founded on John Maxwell's Law of Explosive Growth). We kicked around format ideas and settled on a new name - Joe Catholic. I got the idea from Joe the Plumber in the recent presidential election. We also liked the name because we wanted to promote that we were just ordinary guys trying to learn our faith.
Joe Catholic now meets the fourth Saturday of each month, bright and early at 7:00AM. Over forty men have attended at least one gathering and we consistently have fifteen or so at each get together. We have settled on a three prong format: Catholic Toolbox, Saint Talk and FAQ of Faith. Each session lasts about 15-20 minutes and they are non-sequential by design. The Catholic Toolbox is normally a catechetical talk. Saint Talk covers the life of a saint whose feast we will celebrate during the month we are meeting. FAQ of Faith takes an apologetic approach to questions Catholics are often asked by their non-Catholic friends and family. We maintain a casual environment encouraging men to show up late if they have to and leave early when they need. The bottom line is that we want to help men grow in their Catholic faith.
Last year, Bishop Kevin Vann invited us to the Fort Worth cathedral (St. Patrick) to celebrate mass with him and subsequently to present one of our meetings to him. He has since taken in an interest in our little group and has asked for another visit.
This blog began as a supplement to the gatherings with resources for deeper study of the topics covered in the gathering. Now, we hope it will be an instrument to promote the apostolate on a wider scale, casting the net into deeper waters.
NOTE ON THE LOGO: The artisan's toolbox represents that we are all working men living ordinary lives. The green book is the Catechism of the Catholic Church representing that we are loyal to the Church's teachings. The black book is the Holy Bible to represent that we are men of the Word of God. The Rosary represents that we are men of prayer. The hammer and rule are representative of traditional symbols of St. Joseph - the original Joe Catholic and our patron saint.
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