The providential story of Mother Angelica’s founding of EWTN captivated an audience of more than 450 men at the diocesan men’s conference, “Anchored in Hope,” at St. Joseph Church in Herndon March 8.
Speaker Michael Warsaw, chairman of the board and CEO of EWTN, said that Mother Angelica’s favorite quote was, “Dare to do the ridiculous so that God can accomplish the miraculous.”
Warsaw, who has been at EWTN for nearly 35 years, recounted Mother’s Angelica’s daring when she decided to have a $2 million dollar satellite delivered to her fledgling TV station in Alabama in 1980 when all she had was 12 nuns and $200 in the bank.
“She convinced one of the largest electronics companies in the world at that time, who was the manufacturer of satellite equipment, to sell her a satellite dish and equipment as a cash on delivery deal,” said Warsaw. “The day comes, the truck pulls up, and the driver says, ‘I’m supposed to see this Angelica woman. They told me I can’t unload anything until you give me a check.’ And she, of course, didn’t have the money. And she told him in typical Mother Angelica fashion, ‘Just just hold on a second. I’ll be right back.’ ”
Warsaw said Mother Angelica went to the chapel and prayed as the man waited outside. After praying, one of the sisters told her that she had an urgent phone call. A man was calling from a yacht in the Caribbean Sea to inform her that his son had recovered from a hopeless addiction problem after reading one of her inspirational booklets. He wanted to thank her and to send her a gift.
“He said, ‘I just sold some stock, and I want to send you the proceeds from that and it’s $600,000,’ ” said Warsaw. “She needed exactly $600,000 to write the check for the satellite dish. And without missing a beat, she said, ‘Could you wire transfer that today?’ And he said, ‘Mother, I’d be happy to.’ She got off the phone. She went to the nuns and said, ‘Sister, write the man a check.’ ”
The conference began with speaker John Cuddeback, professor of philosophy at Christendom College in Front Royal. Cuddeback said there is “an epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men.”
“What do we as men need to do?” Cuddeback asked. “We need to pattern confidence for them. We need to go to Scripture. If we become men of Scripture, how can we not have confidence? When we open the Scripture, we recognize this is clearly what our Lord was realizing, that God, in writing the Scriptures, knew that we would need to go there to get confidence.”
Cuddeback, whose apostolate is “LifeCraft: A Philosophy of Household,” said men should consider that St. Joseph was a craftsman. “We need to meditate on his dispositions and his actions,” he said. “He was always a craftsman in everything he did, and we can be, too. God has sent us. God has sent us to be men. God has sent us to lead. He sent us to be a craftsman, according to our state in life.”
Cuddeback’s message made an impact on Eric Beltran, a husband and father of five who attends Holy Trinity Church in Gainesville. “When you’re crafting things, if you’re not confident, if you don’t approach that with a certain authority, then the ultimate product might not be a good product,” said Beltran. “It’s a good reminder to just make sure that we as fathers are ready to craft from a place of real authority and confidence, so it’s not coming from us, it’s coming from our Father.”
The procession of the Mass with Bishop Michael F. Burbidge was accompanied by the spirited congregational singing of “Lift High the Cross.” In his homily Bishop Burbidge returned to the theme of hope, citing the Gospel passage in Luke 5:27-32, when Jesus called the hopeless tax collector, whom others saw only as a sinner. “Jesus saw him as a beloved son,” said Bishop Burbidge. “The same way he sees us. He longs to embrace us, in love, in mercy, as a divine physician to heal us. And he rejoices when we return to him.”
Hope was the reason why Ivan Pierce attended the conference. “It is especially relevant today,” said Pierce, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington. “Many of us are encountering a lot of challenges about things that are happening inside the beltway. So, myself, and my community needed to hear this message of hope.”
