F.A.M.I.L.Y.

F.I.A.T. Men,

Next week, September 6th, we're meeting. Here's the schedule:

9:15am- Meet at OLOP for 20 minutes of adoration

9:35am- Head out to Coyote Lake for hiking and reading JPII's Letter To Families

11:30am- Head home to our families

JPII's Letter to Families, from 1994, the International Year of the Family, is an awesome commentary on the nature and role of the family, especially in today's society. Pope John Paul the Great emphasizes the fundamental importance of the family when he says in this letter: " 'God from God and Light from Light', entered into human history through the family." 

The Family, specifically the Holy Family, was the means by which the Second Person of the Holy Trinity chose to reveal Himself to us. Our own families can be the means by which we reveal Christ to others. We can read and discuss paragraphs 1-3 on Saturday, and hopefully continue through the entire document over the coming months.

God Bless,

Chris

August and September

Gentlemen,

The next official Fiat event will be on Saturday, September 6th at 9:30am. Please see the FIAT Calendar, on the right side of the blog, for details. Unless you'd like to do otherwise, I thought it would be good to have regular meetings every other Saturday morning. If another regular time works better, let's talk about it. 

The next event of interest, aside from the FIAT meeting on September 6th, is the OLOP Family Night. It begins at 6pm at OLOP, on Saturday, August 23rd. Besides the food and socialization, The CATECHIZERS will be playing. The Catechizers feature our very own Robert S. and Chris M, and it wil be a concert you won't want to miss. So I hope to see you all there.

Finally, if you have not accepted your blog invitation, please do so. This is a good way for us all to keep in touch. Please feel free to post at any time.

See you later,

Chris

Next FIAT event?

KAYAKING off the Mexican coast!!!!

E5 Tomorrow

Men,
If you're interested, E5 is tomorrow, Wednesday, August 6th, the first Wednesday of the month. It's a powerful time to fast for our wives, and the women who need it.
"Jesus meek and humble of heart, touch our hearts and make them like Your Own."
-C

Genesis of F.I.A.T.

Dudes,
You are invited to F.I.A.T., a Catholic Married Men’s group providing Fellowship In Athletics and Testosterone. This is a group for guys to get together once every couple of weeks to hang out, pray, eat meat, fast, play sports, adore the Blessed Sacrament, do cool stuff, and sacrifice for our wives. You have been invited to F.I.A.T. because your wife has already been invited to Fiat, the married women’s group, and because I think you’re cool.

Fellowship
As working, married men we all share similar joys and struggles. F.I.A.T. is a good place to be in a good wholesome environment doing manly stuff, to share our insights into how to live as better men, husbands and fathers, and to offer prayer cover for the daily spiritual battles that we face. We’ll encourage each other through difficult times, offer practical advice, be examples to each other, and pray for each other. If you’re interested, we can also study Church teaching and spirituality together in order to grow in holiness and wisdom.

Athletics
We’ll get together to do cool guy stuff, which may or may not be limited to the following: Hiking, biking, fishing, shooting, foosball, soccer, eating meat, throwing balls, challenging each other to eat gross stuff, jumping off high things, butting heads, brewing beer, making jokes, building things, etc…

Testosterone
Pope John Paul II tells us that the body speaks a language, a physical language that communicates the spiritual. Being a man means doing cool, brave, difficult physical and emotional things, but also heroic and noble spiritual things. That’s why fasting, penance, and sacrifice will be a major part of this group. So while we may gather sometime to barbeque red meat, drink beer, and eat whipped cream from the can, we also may have some meetings where we skip a meal, or only drink water. Also, this goes beyond our F.I.A.T. meetings. As Catholic men, we have the responsibility to follow Christ and carry our cross every day. So this spirit of sacrifice and atonement should pervade our lives. One way that we can live our call is through http://www.e5men.org/. You can read up on it and see if you want to join. The short of it is, as an E5 Man, you’ll fast on bread and water once a month for your wife. Several of us are already E5 Men. Note that this Wednesday, August 6th, is the first Wednesday of the month, the day on which all E5 men fast.

Let me know:
· Are you’re interested in joining?
· How frequently could you meet (it would be weekday evenings or weekends, and since it’s time away from our wives, it probably won’t be more often than once every 2 weeks)?
· What activities could we do?
· Anyone else who would fit in this group that you’d like to invite?

I propose the first official F.I.A.T. event for Saturday, August 23rd. How does that work?

In the Peace of Christ,

Chris