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Faith


Our Catholic Faith is extremely important to the Knights of Columbus. Below is a discussion of our Catholic Faith based upon lessons from the Knights and including many questions you can use in a personal self-assessment in your own spiritual journey. Join us and let's grow in our faith together

Bishop Vann’s Call to All Knights

Bishop Vann called on every Knight in every Council in the Diocese of Orange to take a leadership role in establishing Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at every parish.

Do you take seriously the Knights of Columbus claim that we Knights are at the service of our Bishops and that we will do what they ask to the best of our ability?

Do you know the Supreme Knight Carl Anderson says we are also “The Knights of the Eucharist” and that over the years Supreme has urged Knights to support Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration?

Do you have a love and devotion for Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament?

Do you spend time in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?

Do you know what Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is, which is what Bishop Vann is calling us to champion?

Do you understand the importance of the statement by St Jose Marie Escriva which is:
“In the first place prayer. In the second place reparation. In the third place, and very much in the third place, action”?


Fr Jerome Karcher and Fr Joseph Knerr's Call to All Knights

Father Jerome told the Knights of Columbus Council 6020 to work on growing in personal holiness and to inspire the rest of our parishes to do the same. Father Joe concurred with this call.

What are you doing to grow closer to God each and every day?

Do you pray daily?

Do you do daily spiritual reading with Sacred Scripture having pride of place?

Do you make sacrifices such as fasting or tithing or volunteering on a regular basis? And offering those to God prayerfully?

Do you go to Confession on a regular basis?

Do you go to Holy Mass as often as possible, and when in Church, do you act appropriately by maintaining a quite prayerful disposition without chatting to neighbors, etc.?

Did you know that in the Book of Revelation Jesus speaks those who are “hot”, “cold” and “lukewarm” in their faith and that of the three he “hates” the lukewarm?

Have you ever attended a Catholic retreat of any kind? Do you attend them regularly?

Have you ever prayed via Catholic meditation? Do you know the saints say this is the key to holiness?

Do you follow the Greatest Commandment which is to “Love the Lord Thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength”? Think of your favorite sports star. Do you love God the way, for example, our brother Knight Kobe Bryant(RIP), loved basketball?   The Greatest Commandment calls us all to be obsessed with God, over and above everything else in our lives. Are you?

 

The Most Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary

At our induction into the Knights  we are given a rosary and told to carry it with us always and to pray it daily. We are urged to grow in our love and devotion to the Blessed Mother Mary.

Are you carrying your rosary with you?

Are you praying the rosary daily?

Do you meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary, which is a most critical part, and “ponder in your heart” the lessons for you in each of those mysteries?

Have you ever read a book on the Rosary, or on devotion to Mary, especially consecration to Mary?

Have you ever studied the prayers of the rosary? The Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Fatima Prayer, Hail Holy Queen, Closing Prayer?

Are you growing in your love and devotion to our Most Blessed Mother? Can you say you have more devotion to her now than on the day you made your 1st Degree?

Tempus Fugit Memento Mori

Time flies. Remember Death. This is the slogan of the Knights.

The devout Catholic faith urges one to meditate on the Four Last Thing: Death, Judgement, Heaven, Hell.

A Satanic problem in our culture today is we not only do not think of death but many of us actually consider it a blessing to die suddenly. In point of fact for centuries the Litany of Saints included the invocation “From a sudden death deliver us Oh Lord!”

Do you meditate on death like so many of the saints? Do you understand why the Church considers this so important? Do you know of any resources to do so?

Do you have a concern for the salvation of your soul and the souls of others?

Do you pray for the dead?

Do you have Holy Masses offered for the dead?

Do you realize there is a Hell and that Scripture strongly implies more people go to Hell than go to Heaven? Do you know that is highly unlikely that most people who go to heaven go there directly but rather must spend time in Purgatory?


 

The Cross

The Knights are taught that the crucifix is to remind us of Christ’s passion and death on the Cross. We are reminded that Christ told us to “Deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Me!”

Once again, do you make sacrifices such as fasting or tithing or volunteering on a regular basis? And offering those to God prayerfully?

Do you “live for Christ Crucified” as St Paul admonishes us to do in Sacred Scripture?

Do you meditate on the Passion of Christ as so many saints recommend us to do?

Have you ever read a book on the Passion of Christ, or the Catholic explanation for suffering?

Do you unite yourself, and all your personal sufferings, to the Cross of Christ and the sufferings of our Savior?

 

 
Learning Our Faith

 Can you name the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary because of regular praying of the rosary? Do you know the 10 Commandments and try to live them? Can you name the Seven Sacraments and are they a central part of your life?

Do you know your faith better now than you did, say, six months ago?

If someone comes up and tells you the Catholic Church is not scriptural, for example, can you cite Scripture to show that someone that they are very much mistaken?

Have you read any books written by Catholic Saints, Popes, or Fathers of the Church?

Are you well versed in Sacred Scripture?

Are you well acquainted with the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

The Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Priesthood

Look at the top right of this web page and you see Knights  medallion, which not only states our three main pillars, Charity, Unity, and Fraternity but in the center emphasizes the “Source and Summit” of our Catholic faith, i.e., the Eucharist.

We Knights are told to support our priests and bishops, to respect them, to defend them, to help them, to be their “spiritual right arm.” We are taught to foster vocations even within our own family.

We are taught the importance of the Mass and the Eucharist. We are told by our Supreme Chaplain, Archbishop Lori, to make the Eucharistic the center of our lives, to attend daily Mass, to participate in Eucharistic Adoration. We Knights are further told by a canonized saint, Pope John Paul II, to make the Eucharist the center of our lives and to work on our Catholic Spirituality. St John Paul II did this in a video message specifically for the Knights of Columbus!

Do you love the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?

Do you pray the prayers at Mass such as the Agnus Dei or are you too busy high-fiving, so-to-speak, your friends and neighbors at the Sign of Peace such that you don’t even realize you were supposed to be begging Jesus Christ present on the altar in the Eucharist to “have mercy on us”?

When you are in Church do you act as you should in the House of God with silent reverence and prayer before, during, and after every liturgy, especially the Mass or are you prone to chit-chat with neighbors, and/or day dream about what you will be doing once this event is finally over with?

Do you make visits to Jesus hidden in the tabernacle and/or exposed in the Monstrance as often as you can? When you arrive at Church, even for an event as mundane as a Council Business meeting, do you make a point to make a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?

Would you ever think of visiting your parents house and not at least saying hello to them? No? They why not treat God at least the same?

Have you ever made a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration?

Have you studied the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? In theology books? In Sacred Scripture? In the writings of the saints?

Do you ever make spiritual communions? Have you ever heard of “spiritual communions?”

Our Lady of Fatima

The messages of Our Lady of Fatima encompass all of the spiritual lessons of the Knights. In addition, Pope Francis made Our Lady of Fatima the patron of his pontificate.

Are you familiar with Our Lady of Fatima? Do you know her story, the story of the child visionaries, two of whom are now canonized saints? Do you know the story of the Angel of Fatima, of the warnings, of the admonishments, of the promises?