Finding a Remedy For Your Problems and Needs.

Everyone Has Problems and Needs.  What Are Yours?

As a Man, you are a natural problem solver.

So, where do you go to find answers?

Do you study the real problem, or only blame the symptoms?

Symptoms like: Can’t find a woman to marry, wife won’t agree, kids don’t want to listen, inadequacy or depression, too many bad habits, and the worst symptom of all, don’t know what God wants of me.  

Usually Men blame the situation rather than take ownership when the matter falls short.

I have RARELY heard a Man say to me, “Frank, it didn’t work out, and it was all my fault”.

Many times all it takes to solve a problem or work through an issue is to share it with like-minded Men who you can trust to have your best interest at heart. The bad decisions you make sometimes are because of the (Men) outside influences you keep.  Life is like a trash can. The trash you put inside of you comes out of you in the form of your words and actions.

Encouragement from a parish small men’s group, or just a devout Catholic Man, can make the difference with the challenges you face in the workplace and at home everyday. My rule is if my circle of friends is not leading me to Jesus and to Heaven, then they’re pulling me apart.

When problems seem to be out of control, usually Men will indicate going to a shrink, before they go to confession.  There is a place for counsel, whether it be a psychologist, a spiritual director, or a workshop. However, confession, and making yourself right with God, many times can be the baby-steps that sets you in the direction of real positive change.

Your relationship with God is the ‘pebble in the pond’ that has a ripple effect on your positive connections with others and the world around you.

One small step that many Men who are friends of CMCS practice is “A Man’s Prayer”.  They pray this everyday, and it has over time set the tone for their outlook on life as a Man and as a Catholic.  If you don’t have this prayer card contact us.  We can also send you a stack for you to hand-out to other men in your neighborhood or parish, or give to your pastor to place them in back of church.

Daily prayer changes things, from your heart, to your family, and into your community.  You will also see God better use you to answer your prayers, and the prayers of others too.

Do you need a money miracle?  How do you react to pornography?  Is your wife your ‘enemy’, or the other way around?  Do you have trouble getting to Sunday Mass, or getting your wife or family to go with you?  Are you having an affair – with a person who is not your wife, your computer, sports, booze, or some other vice – that keeps you from your relationship with God and / or your wife?  Do your kids spend too much time texting their friends … at the dinner table?   Know that you can turn to CMCS!

Talk with us when you are looking for a remedy and have nowhere else to turn.  Prayer in numbers is a powerful thing for change ….. to first change us ….. and then our circumstances.

It’s all about helping each other make it through life.

Speak your mind below or share this blog post with a friend.

Frank J Casella, CMCS-Director

(CMCS Archives 2012)

Manhood Monday: God’s Plan for Our Success

From Today’s Readings:

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

Alleluia  JN 1:49B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rabbi, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

* [1:49] Son of God: this title is used in the Old Testament, among other ways, as a title of adoption for the Davidic king (2 Sm 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:27), and thus here, with King of Israel, in a messianic sense. For the evangelist, Son of God also points to Jesus’ divinity (cf. Jn 20:28).

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will,” Shakespeare tells us. God has a master plan for the human race and to each one of us he has given a little niche in that plan. If we play the part he has given us, though it be noble or humble in the eyes of this world, we will make a success of God’s master-plan, of this great human drama. Our own eternal success will be assured.

Deacon John Rangel, CMCS Director of Mission

God bless your day.

Catholic Men Chicago Southland Apostolate (CMCS)

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Frank’s Photo of the Week

You see, God designed us men as problem solvers, and the best way to solve a problem is to spend time in prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit so we can meet God where He is at work .

… that is our goal as Catholic men. Yes, easier said than done.

Embrace the darkness. If we have developed trust in God in the light, we’ll embrace Him in the darkness, and in fact, we’ll even embrace the darkness as His path for us.

In other words, when we experience darkness, we’ll back away if our faith is weak, but we’ll move into it if our faith has been strengthened by years of experience in seeing God’s faithfulness, grace, and power.

The thing we have to do as Catholic men is to live out our salvation in Christ through the Sacraments.

Thanks for Reading.

Make it a great week. See you back here again next Monday.

Frank J Casella,
CMCS Executive Director

A larger collection of photographs can be viewed on my portfolio.

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Please Donate What You Can

We rely on contributions from readers and members of our community to keep Catholic Chicago Men Blog free. If you’d like to pay what you can for the service, we’d greatly appreciate it. These contributions touch the lives of many and help us keep investing in new technologies and better content.

Thank you for being the best part of Catholic Chicago Men Blog! Your contributions make a difference. On behalf of Bishop Joseph Perry, and all of us at Catholic Men Chicago Southland, and all of those that will be helped, thank you.

Donate What You Can

Love Neighbor. Love God.

Watch this video for the Gospel Daily Reflection for Saturday July 18, 2020.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. To become configured to be more like Jesus.

Jesus shows us that instead of cutting people down to carry out injustice, reach out to those who know their need for healing and forgiveness. Prayer should lead us to the depths of loving and serving others.

To do this, instead of taking action for justice Jesus first withdrew, as should we to address our own need for healing our own wounds.

Love is the only thing that can conquer hate, darkness, and intolerance.

hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. . . . The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. . . . and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.

Martin Luther King

Thankfully God doesn’t cancel us, He redeems us.

Bishop Joseph Perry: Family Prayer for Vocations

Parent(s):

Good Lord, we beg your blessing upon our family.  We thank you for the children with which you have blessed us.  Bless us as we use this day to give you praise.  Help our children grow towards you through the various things they learn about the mysteries of life and creation sewn by your hand. Grant wisdom to me/us their parent(s), their teachers and others you have given to guide them.  Preserve our efforts to give our children all that they deserve.

We pray you grace our children with faith, openness of heart, a willingness to learn, a desire to do good to others as you have taught.  Keep them ever strong and ready for any test of character.  As they grow in knowledge and experience inspire in our children a desire to serve you in holiness of life.  In whatever walk of life they choose be for them a true path to your kingdom. May you find among our children generous hearts to serve you and the Church perhaps as a priest, or religious brother or sister.  Should their Calling be to extend this family of ours, may theirs be a holy matrimony and family life after the example of your life with Mary and Joseph. 

Child/Children:

O Jesus, whisper in my heart how I might best serve you.  Make me strong in faith, always attentive to people’s needs, ever spiritual, understanding and charitable.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you very much.  Bless our priest(s) and religious who serve(s) us.  Bless my parents, our bishop and pastors and all who help the Church’s work.

Family:

Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, increase the number of our priests and religious men and women.  Preserve them for your Church.  Keep them zealous in their vocation and successful in their labors.  May they do all things for love of you and the Church.  We pray through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever.  AMEN

Bishop Joseph N Perry

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Sub-Committee on African American Affairs

2020

Click here for more prayers by Bishop Perry

Prayer for VocationsDownload

Manhood Monday: When You Get to Know God

From Today’s Readings:

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Alleluia  Jn 10:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Love is stronger than evil. Take each day of the next week and spend fifteen minutes with God.  Not to pray, but to listen.  Ask God to dwell in your heart and to speak wisdom to you (James 1:5).  Tell Jesus that you love Him with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind – and then do it and live it.

 “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jn14:6. When you get to know God, you will see He knows you and He loves you!

God bless your day.

The CMCS-Team

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Frank’s Photo of the Week

Bishop Prays the Rosary – Copyright 2016 Frank J Casella

Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago finds a place to pray the rosary at a Bishop Perry’s Catholic Chicago Men’s Forum.

“The month of May is a time when the People of God express with particular intensity their love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary”, Pope Francis says, “the restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this “family” aspect, also from a spiritual point of view. For this reason, I want to encourage everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May.”

Want to discover the peace and clarity that comes from praying the Rosary? Follow this link from Dynamic Catholic.

Thanks for Reading. Please see the note below.

Make it a great week. See you back here again next Monday.

Frank J Casella,
CMCS Executive Director

A larger collection of photographs can be viewed on my portfolio.

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A day dedicated to unleashing the power of giving

GivingTuesday is joining forces with PayPal to help nonprofits like CMCS rally their supporters, raise donations and rebuild communities.

#GivingTuesdayNow is a new global day of giving and unity that will take place on May 5, 2020 – in addition to the regularly scheduled Dec 1, 2020 #GivingTuesday – as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19.

Let’s come together to create a wave of generosity, citizen engagement, action from business and philanthropy, and support for communities and nonprofits around the world.

Several CMCS-Men are out of work, and many more of us are trying to sort out what the new normal will look like for the coming weeks and months. While we could not convene in person on April 18th at the Bishop’s Men’s Forum, Catholic Men Chicago Southalnd (CMCS) has continued to support our community… We’ve tested small groups of parish men who’ve been meeting with us on video chat about the Gospel readings, and we’re looking to invest in the tools to expand on this and to help us all connect the dots on our journey and CMCS motto of ‘Living the Goodness of a Catholic Man’.

And we look forward to the day that we can meet again with all of you in person!

Give What You Can

It is our mission to encourage and support contemporary Catholic men to grow in holines, and to make Jeus Christ the center of our lives. Your contributions help us do that. As an example, we’ve seen a 70% increase in followers to the Catholic Chicago Men Blog, and still growing. We don’t charge subscriptions for this and never will. People contributing the amount they think is fair for our blog, and now our video ministry, is what allows us to support Catholic men in the Chicago Southland, the Archdiocese, and everyone who needs our resources.

CMCS is an Illinois State recognized nonprofit, and is not an IRS-certified charity. No revenue is generated by advertising, and funded only by individual support. Operation of CMCS is debt free, and administration is done by the CMCS-Team who gain no financial benefit from their engagement for this apostolate. Donations above CMCS expenses contribute towards the part-time work of the director.

And we can’t do this critically important work without you.

Would you consider to keep our mission alive, by helping more Catholic Men to grow in their love and understanding of God through a gift to CMCS today?

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Catholic Men Family Connection

Photo: ‘Learning the Game’ Copyright 2010 Frank J Casella

Families, as the domestic church, have the opportunity to make the family meal a time of prayerful encounter with one another and with Jesus. At a family meal we share our experiences of the day and connect them with the experiences of others in the family.

We can also enjoy the meal as an opportunity to reflect upon our family life in light of the Scriptures, that connects us to Jesus too.

Choose a family meal each week to share each of our experiences of the week. Perhaps take turns as family members to plan and prepare the meal together. Begin the meal by reading the Gospel for the day. As you eat, talk together about how these events speak to our lives in the light of Scripture.

Download and share Bishop Perry’s Prayer Before Meals.

family-prayer-before-meals-CMCSDownload

Next, each family member can share the things that are going on in his or her life. Consider what Jesus might say to each person if he were sitting at your dinner table. Conclude with a special prayer after your dinner.

Dad’s, as the priest of your family the domestic church, pray a prayer of blessing for each family member, asking that Jesus continue to be present in each person’s life, helping each one to be a better follower of Jesus. Conclude with a Sign of Peace.

A Father’s Love

Men, how many times have you (and I) done things with human understanding instead if seeing those things through the eyes of Christ. Do you have this regulator switch that turns Christ’s love ON and turns it OFF, instead of being filled with His love and making our ‘plans’ His. It’s all about relationships. If you are a Father, what is your relationship with your children? What is your relationship with the Lord Jesus?

I recall a few years ago when I spent a weekend with my teenage son attending a basketball tournament that he was playing in. I rationalized that because of the distance and cost of travel we would stay in a hotel, but the real truth is I knew that I needed to do a better job at giving my son my time. I always ask for lessons from God in everything that I do, but this weekend God had a lesson that I didn’t ‘plan’ for.

We all have the same amount of time, what is different is how we use it. We all have ‘important’ things to take care of: work, house, car, and many details in-between. Sometimes, we make all of these details so important that we let go of the one thing that is most important – relationships.

I was thinking about all of this while watching one of my son’s games, when he took a hard fall while driving the ball and was injured. This is a very rare occurrence for him. It wasn’t until after the game and on the way home that his knee started to puff up and become painful. I cannot find the words to describe how much I wanted to take that injury from him and carry the pain for him. If you are a Father I’m sure you know what I am talking about.

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me. 1 Peter 2: 24 – 25: ” He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep’s but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

The lesson the Lord spoke to me is this: Jesus envelopes you with his loving arms, like a father with a young child. It is impossible to love Jesus more than he loves you, more than how a father (or parent) loves their children.

A father’s love for his own child is only a glimpse of A Father’s Love from the Lord Jesus. Just like how Jesus says ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’, when you feel distant from God, who moved?

In other words, does your relationship with your children example A Father’s Love that you have with the Lord. If not, what has stopped that from happening?

Our first job as a Dad is to get our family to Heaven. Each child is different in making the connection and developing the relationship. It is never time wasted because, as a Father, the impact you have on your family can go three generations deep.

Frank J Casella, CMCS-Director

Bishop Joseph Perry: A Prayer for Employment

O God, Father of us all, You bestow on us gifts and talents to develop and use in accord with your Will and to advance your kingdom on earth.  Grant to me, through the intercession of Saint Joseph, the man chosen by God to care for you in your childhood and youth, employment and work that I may with dignity provide for my family. Grant me the opportunities to use my energy and abilities for the good of those who depend upon me for care and support.  You placed me in charge of this family.  I beseech your assistance in helping me provide for them as you would have me do. You are our God and head of this family.  Amen

Bishop Joseph N Perry

Click here to download (PDF) copy