Perhaps every morning when you get up, you can hear Jesus say, “Follow me,” and you are ready to go about your lot in life as his disciple.
I strive for that, but the truth is it can be hit or miss some days. Nonetheless, it’s always good to reflect on the vocation of discipleship, to better understand what Jesus meant in responding to his first disciples, “Come and you will see” (Jn 1:39) and beginning on the path they were to follow. They did accompany Jesus, most likely not realizing how answering such a divine call would develop over time into a mission of making more disciples for Christ — for the sake of mankind.
Two thousand years later, we Christians are to keep pressing on in this mission. The Gospel of Matthew closes out with Jesus, just prior to his ascension, commanding the Apostles to make “disciples of all nations” (cf. Mt 28:19). We, too, are being sent to share Christ with the world by telling others what Jesus has taught through his divine wisdom.
“Men of Christ: Rising Daily in Discipleship” is the title and theme for the 2024 Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Catholic Men’s Conference hosted by Catholic Watchmen. The annual conference will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 23 at St. Joseph in Rosemount. More information and registration can be found online.
Presenters at the conference will include nationally-known speakers Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers and Jeff Cavins, a scholar and author who teaches at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.
Doors will open at 8 a.m. for registration and to visit vendors, find fellowship and quiet time before 9 a.m. Mass with Archbishop Bernard Hebda. Confessions will be offered through the morning and snacks and box lunches will be available. Auxiliary Bishops Joseph Williams and Michael Izen, and the director of the Office of Synod Evangelization, Deacon Joseph Michalak, will participate through presentations, fellowship and prayer.
The conference will sound the daily challenge of Catholic Watchmen, urging men to be disciples of Christ steeped in prayer, worship, word and deed for the love of God and love of neighbor. In friendship and by his witness of that same inseparable love, a Catholic Watchman goes forth in relationship — making disciples of others who will be on fire to do the same. This starts with his own family, extends to his local parish and radiates through his community of work, play, prayer and fellowship. It is a call to evangelize and transform the culture in his own little corner of the world. Rising daily in discipleship as a man of Christ to continue what the first disciples were commanded to do by Jesus — out of a pure act of love.
Deacon Bird ministers to St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville and assists with the archdiocesan Catholic Watchmen movement. See heroicmen.com for existing tools supported by the archdiocese to enrich parish apostolates for ministry to men. For Watchmen start-up materials or any other questions regarding ministry to men, contact him at gordonbird@rocketmail.com.
