Catholic Men, and Mary

Today is the Solemnity of the Bodily Assumption of Mary. In this video, shot in my hotel room in Hays, KS, having spoken at the Men of God, Men of Mary Conference at the invitation of Salinas Diocese Bishop Jerry Vinke, I talk about the hunger in the hearts and minds of men across the country.

The hunger is real and so is the God who satisfies it.

TOPICS COVERED

• Why getting together for worship and fellowship during the CCP virus lockdown is an essential service
• How only Catholicism balances the role of the feminine in religion. We have the Father and the Son, but we also have the Mother and the Church as Bride.
• The Bodily Assumption of Mary means she is enjoying in God’s glory right now what we will at the Last Day when our bodies are raised to glory
• St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM, died August 14, 1942, by lethal carbolic injection, having volunteered to take the place of a condemned man, Francis Gajowniczek
• The Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolph Hoess, repented in the final weeks of his life and sought a priest to hear his last Confession. None could be found, until a Father Fr. Wladyslaw Lohn, SJ, agreed to come to the grounds of the former death camp to hear the mass murderer’s confession and give him his Viaticum or last Holy Communion. I believe that happened as a result of Father Kolbe’s powerful intercession.
• Forgiveness is a human act powered by divine grace.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Lecture at Seton Hall: “A MASS MURDERER REPENTS: The Case of Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz“
• “The Miracle of Father Kapaun: Priest, Soldier and Korean War Hero,”  by Roy Wenzl and Travis Heying