Pat and I recently returned from attending the Legatus Summit held in Orlando, Florida. It was a meeting of outstanding Catholic business leaders from across America who listened to presentations from inspired and concerned presenters focused around the topic of No More Comfortable Catholicism in light of the negative secular transformational challenges facing America today, seeking to remove traditional values and Constitutional protections from its citizens.
Speakers included Dr. Bill Donoghue, Catholic League, Dr. Robert P. George, Princeton University, Father Mike Schmitz and Pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback Church. It was a time of seeing and visiting with some very important people in our life – Father Rocky Hoffman of Relevant Radio, Carol and Reid Carpenter of Ave Maria, Florida, Linda and Ben Ruf of Chicago, Kathy and John Hunt, Executive Director of Legatus and Tom Monaghan, Founder of Legatus. We were joined by John Oberg, President of the Austin Chapter, Michelle and Paul Tucker of Austin and Brian Follett family of Austin. We saw old friends and made new ones. It was encouraging to be in the midst of so many people who place life and its protection as the highest priority.
A few of the takeaways we received by attending were guidelines for answering the question – How should you live your life as a Catholic business leader in today’s world? Guidance came from Father Mike Schmitz as he shared a three step process for all we do as set out by St. Francis de Sales:
- Ask God to be present in all we do – as in receipt of “sacraments”,
- Offer God this moment – even hard moments as a “sacrifice”, and
- Resolve to accept whatever God gives at that moment – “trust”.
While Matthew Kelly was not present, even so his guidance resonates as we seek to achieve personal clarity and ask these questions:
- Who am I?
- What is my purpose?
- What matters most in life?
- What matters least in life?
Because at the end of life God will have two questions for each of us:
- Who do you say I am?
- What did you do with what I gave you?
Pastor Rick Warren’s presence brought a message of hope and cooperation between Catholics and evangelicals. He summarized what it is going to take to save America:
- Adopt God’s agenda,
- Abandon all distractions,
- Appropriate God’s power, and
- Answer God’s call.
These are wonderful guidelines as we embark on the Lenten season. Lent is a time of self-examination and self-denial as we seek to embrace the Cross of Jesus. The second day of Lent was the Feast Day of St. Thomas More whose belief in Jesus’s teaching caused him to stand up to King Henry VIII of England and oppose the king’s divorce, which led to More’s death as a martyr, just as then in 1535, today there are even more worldly distractions challenging and tempting each of us. Let us use the “man for all seasons” as a great role model to follow. Let us remember that St. Thomas More used the verse from Luke quoting Jesus, “What does it profit them to gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”
This Lent we are enjoying the daily reflections of Matthew Kelly and Dynamic Catholic for the “Best Lent Ever”. Please join us by going to the website and signing up at Dynamic Catholic.com/lent. Remember, as Matthew Kelly puts it: “our lives change when our habits change.”
————————————————-
Timothy Von Dohlen is the founder and president of the John Paul II Life Center and Vitae Clinic in Austin, Texas. (www.jpiilifecenter.org) For a more robust bio, click here. – www.catholicbusinessjournal.biz/content/tim-von-dohlen. He may be reached at Timothy@CatholicBusinessJournal.biz