Conference speakers exhort participants to be men of prayer

Curtis Martin, the founder and president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, gives a presentation to participants at the fifth annual Indiana Catholic Men’s Conference on Oct. 16. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

The speakers at the fifth annual Indiana Catholic Men’s Conference on Oct. 16 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis challenged their approximately 700 listeners to stand up to the challenges to their faith in society today, and to boldly carry out the mission that God has given them. (Related story: Conference participants moved to take its message home)

Curtis Martin, the founder and president of the Denver-based Fellowship of Catholic University Students, warned conference-goers against one aspect of the prevailing culture that can take them away from living out their God-given mission: materialism.

He said that success is often defined in society today by the accumulation of material things—a big house, fancy car and the latest electronic gadget.

“If you have all of those things and you die not knowing God, you are an absolute failure, an absolute failure,” Martin said. “And if, on the other hand, … you never get awards, you never get honors, and nobody says you’re the greatest, and you die and you know God, you win. It’s just that simple.”

Father Larry Richards, a priest of the Diocese of Erie, Pa., was blunt with the conference participants, and told them that carrying out God’s mission in their lives requires prayer—first and foremost.

“If you’re a man who goes to church and you don’t pray, get out,” Father Richards shouted. “If you’re going to be a man of God, you must be a man of prayer or you will do more damage to the Church than you’ll do anything else. You must be a man of prayer.”

Describing prayer as “spiritual oxygen,” Father Rick Nagel, director of the archdiocese’s Young Adult and College Campus ministry, expanded on Father Richards’ message in a homily during a Mass celebrated at the conference.

“We can go forth with that spiritual oxygen into a world that so desperately calls for the spirit of Christ to be alive in each one of us,” said Father Nagel, the principal celebrant of the Mass. “Without it, we go forth without God. With it, we go forth with him as our armor, our protection, our voice.”

Retired National Hockey League referee Kerry Frazer invited his listeners to consider how the little things they do each day can have a tremendous impact on others by telling a story about former NHL players Theo Fleury and Tyson Nash.

Fleury had made a comeback in his career after bouts with alcoholism and drug addiction. But during a game, he broke down after Nash, in the midst of typical athletic trash talking, questioned if Fleury had really overcome his addictions and said that he should go snort some more cocaine.

Instead of throwing Nash out of the game, which Nash’s coach had suggested, Frazer convinced Nash to meet Fleury on the ice and apologize to him face-to-face.

Nash talked with Frazer about the incident a decade later, and described it as a “turning point” in his life.

“For me, it was an affirmation that no matter how insignificant we think little things that we do are, they can make such an impact on people,” Frazer said. “They can affect their lives. … God was at work in that incident. God allows things to happen so that he can ultimately use us and teach us [to be] good. But we can play on the other team just as easily based on the gift of free will that he gave us.” †