The annual Men’s Conference, sponsored by the diocesan Office
for Family Life, was scheduled to begin March 7 at 9 a.m. at
Foxchase Manor in Manassas. If you got there 45 minutes
before it started, you would have found a full parking lot
with the nearest place to park more than a mile away. A
combination of snow piles in the parking lot and more than
1,000 attendees were the culprits.
The conference theme, “Victory Over the Common Enemy,”
attracted men from the diocese eager to hear speakers like
Fathers Larry Richards and Marc B. Drouin talk about ways to
conquer sin and evil.
Father Richards is an author and EWTN radio host whose
frenetic presentation style makes him a popular speaker.
He started off the morning with a request for the men still
outside the ballroom.
“Get your butts in here,” he yelled.
They did. He also warned them that some may be offended by
what he said. Some may have been.
“Show me your Bibles,'” he asked the men.
Some men did bring Bibles, and they raised them in the air.
Father Richards said that if you are going to fight evil you
need a weapon, and that weapon is the Bible.
He said that God is speaking to you; you just have to listen.
Start with the Bible.
“Start reading until God hits you with a ‘two-by-four,'” said
Father Richards. “You get your marching orders from God
almighty.”
He then asked the men why they came to the conference. Some
men answered, “To grow.”
“If you don’t grow, you’re dying,” said Father Richards.
The way to grow, he said, was to own your own Bible, and to
read it every day. You also need to pray. But you can’t just
go through the motions of prayer. For Father Richards, the
best prayer is the Our Father. The Our Father is recited
daily by millions every day, but many don’t really know what
they are reciting. “Thy will be done” is key, he said. Most
people do their will, not God’s.
He said that some people complain they do not have enough
time to pray. But we all have the same amount of time.
“You need to build your day around prayer,” said Father
Richards.
Prayer should become part of your life from this day forward.
Men need to commit time with the Father every day.
But love is also important, he added. You need to love your
family and yourself.
“If you lay down your life for others,” he said, “that’s
love.”
Father Richards concluded his presentation by telling the men
to “commit yourself to prayer every day, and tell the people
you love that you love them.”
After Father Richards spoke, Father Marc Drouin took to the
podium. Father Drouin is pastor of St. André Bessette
Parish in Laconia, N.H., and is Manchester Diocese Bishop
Peter A. Libasci’s liaison for healing and deliverance
ministries. He spoke about the devil’s real presence in our
lives.
“We see the presence of evil day in and day out,” he told the
men. “The devil is real.”
Father Drouin said that the devil is not some fictional
character as many people believe.
He told his own story of being sexually abused as a child.
The stigma of that abuse followed him through his life and
into the priesthood. In 2004, he read Neal Lozano’s book,
Unbound – A Practical Guide to Deliverance.
“This is what I needed,” he said. “My entire life was
changed.”
The book freed him from years of shame and embarrassment.
Most of us are wounded to some degree, he said, but we can
find relief through God.
In his conclusion, Father Drouin reiterated Lozano’s five
keys to healing: repentance, forgiveness, renunciation in the
name of Jesus, taking authority in the name of Jesus, and
receiving the Father’s blessing. A blessing is a powerful
thing, said Father Drouin. Fathers should bless their
children at night. Men should also bless their families at
Thanksgiving.
The reactions of the attendees to the conference and the
speakers were positive.
“This was great,” said Andrew Knepper from St. John the
Baptist Church in Front Royal. “I read about Father Larry
Richards and wanted to see him in person.”
George Getek from Church of the Nativity in Burke said that
Father Richards was very dynamic, and he took to heart Father
Richards challenge “to give five minutes each day to Christ.”
There were many fans of Father Richards, including Mike Turk
from St. Raymond of Peñafort Church in Springfield.
“(Father Richards) was so dynamic, so ‘in your face,'” said
Turk.
The day of reflection and commitment ended with Mass
celebrated by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, sending men
out to fight evil and to live a good Christian life.
