The booming, baritone voices that rang throughout St. Joseph Church in Herndon during Mass March 4 had the cadence of a military exercise at times. These men were gathered for a spiritual bootcamp and the pursuit of a deeper relationship with God, through Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The diocesan Men’s Conference 2023 drew more than 500 men for inspirational speakers, fellowship, confession and Mass. The theme was “My soul rejoices in the Lord!” reflecting the Marian focus of the ongoing, second preparatory year for the Diocesan Golden Jubilee in 2024.
Author and apologist Tim Staples spoke of his faith journey and how Protestants downplay Mary’s importance to the Christian faith. Raised Southern Baptist, he later joined an Assembly of God community before converting to Catholicism. He studied for the priesthood for six years when he discerned his present calling. He credited his brother, Father Terry Staples, pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer Church in Orange, as instrumental to his conversion.
While questions about church teaching on Mary initially delayed his embrace of Catholicism, Staples now debates other Christian thinkers on the subject and wrote a book on “Behold Your Mother: A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines.” In lively remarks delivered with the flourish of his Baptist upbringing, he cited with Scriptural references that he said illustrated Mary’s vital importance, from the Annunciation to the Wedding at Cana to the Crucifixion, when Christ directs the apostle John to accept the Blessed Virgin Mary as his spiritual mother.
“Jesus obviously has never been to a Billy Graham crusade, because Jesus didn’t get the memo that all we need is Jesus,” he said.
Dominican Father Thomas Petri spoke of how humans were created in grace to live in a supernatural relationship with God, which was lost by Adam and Eve through original sin that disordered the balance between body, mind, and soul, and left present-day man discombobulated. By contrast, Mary was rightly ordered in terms of her relationship with God “with not one ounce of sin.”
“The Blessed Mother is the only truly liberated woman,” he said. “Because where there is grace there is true freedom, and she has grace in spades.”
During his homily, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge spoke of the need to confront wounds as well as sins in our spiritual lives.
“As we participate in that process of conversion, we come to see some new things that we thought we may have overcome, maybe past hurts, failures, disappointments, guilt, shame. We have to realize that we are not yet healed. So today, brothers, I encourage you to name specifically the wound that you’re asking the Lord to heal in your life and trust his power to do so.”
He also encouraged spending more time this Lent being with the Lord in prayer instead of becoming consumed with worldly demands, and to seek out new ways to support parish ministries.
After first hearing about the conference through his involvement in That Man is You, Rae Edmonson of St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville has attended the past three men’s conferences and recruits fellow parishioners to attend. He challenges anyone who dismisses a Catholic conference as boring and said the keynote speakers are compelling each year.
“It’s really refreshing to see this large group of men all in one place,” he said. “Mass is awesome because you have all male voices.”
Steve Babish of St. John the Evangelist Church in Warrenton was a first-time attendee who plans to come back next year.
“As part of my spiritual journey, I had been longing to attend an event like this to enjoy fellowship with other men and gain encouragement knowing other men are seeking to grow closer to God as well,” he said. He expressed appreciation for the two speakers and Bishop Burbidge’s homily. “He encouraged us to leave behind our old ways, and turn to God. And when he spoke of Mary and Martha, he mentioned the doing and the being. If we try to spend a little more time at the Lord’s feet, we will find the strength for the doing of life.”
Schweers can be reached at [email protected].
Watch the speakers
The diocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Respect Life has published video recordings online of the speeches by Tim Staples and Father Petri.
