Knights of Columbus Council 6793

Father Maher's Knightly News is
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Knights of Columbus
Fr. Peter Paul Maher Council 6793
P.O. Box 570
Olney, Maryland 20830

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We thought March was busy. Only half way through April and we had already done a Lenten Fish Fry, our Easter Egg Hunt, Easter Sunday, our Spring Mulch Sale, a membership drive at St. Patrick’s, and the Divine Mercy service at St. Peter’s. Again, for you Brothers who haven’t been active lately you can see there is a lot of activity in our Council and we can always use help. Pick up the telephone – get active! You will not only experience the fellowship of working with your Brother Knights but you will also have the sense of self satisfaction that comes with knowing that you are doing God’s work.

Convention time is here and I hope all Grand Knights, delegates and alternates are already registered. The month of May will go very quickly for our district because scheduled of the many things that are going to take place. There is one 1st degree scheduled for May 7, 2009 at Our Lady of Guadalupe at 8:00pm and one for May 27, 2009 at Fr Maher Council at 7:30 pm candidates report at 7:00 pm. This is another opportunity to add to our number on our quest for Star Council. Many of you are so close to attaining the goal, you have to want it bad enough. I encourage all members to call our Fraternal Benefits Advisor right away to set up an appointment to become part of our excellent benefits program. This is a part of helping your council achieve Star Council and it is a gift of love to those we love.

Grand Knights go into training now, to prepare for the Grand Knight Olympics at the beach. Grand Knights and the DW must be in excellent shape in order to out score the other districts and prevent the possibility of a tie. Ties will be settled by the DD’s scores. It must not come to that!

May is when the slate of officers for the coming fraternal year must be announced before the election in June. Make sure all who are nominated have indicated their willingness to serve.

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today: protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death; recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family - as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage - and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role; the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.

These principles are not truths of faith, even though they receive further light and confirmation from faith; they are inscribed in human nature itself and therefore they are common to all humanity. The Church’s action in promoting them is therefore not confessional in character, but is addressed to all people, prescinding from any religious affiliation they may have. On the contrary, such action is all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, because this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, a grave wound inflicted onto justice itself.

In order to meet our budget and to continue our community service and charitable programs, we need everyone's help to raise approximately $1,000. A raffle is one way for EVERY member to support the Council. The Spring Raffle will be held at our final Social Meeting of this fraternal year on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at St Patrick's Parish Center beginning at 7:00 PM, (See "Council Pot Luck Social - Scholarship Award Presentations & Spring Raffle Drawing" article in this newsletter.)

The Council will conduct a 50/50 raffle for the Following Prizes: First Prize is 25%; Second Prize is 15%; and Third Prize is 10% of the total funds collected. A letter with two raffle tickets is being sent to all Council Members; included in the mailing is a return addressed envelope. The support of every member is needed to make our raffle a success. REMEMBER THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF OUR ORDER IS CHARITY.

For any questions or for additional tickets please call Bill Kollins, Chairman, (301) 774-2942 or John E. Moore, (301) 774-9260

When a man dies, so does his income. His pension is usually cut in half. His widow gets her husband’’s social security...but loses hers. His group life insurance has been eliminated or greatly reduced.

Welcome to the world of our widows, gentlemen. Statistically your death will put her at or below the poverty level. Now she must survive for another 10-20 years or longer.

Perhaps now is the time, for your K of C agent to help you do the planning that’s necessary to avoid this situation. If you don’t crunch the numbers with a pro...you’re guessing with the amateurs.

Fraternally, Rick Morin, FICF/LUTCF - Your K of C Insurance Agent (301) 384 7627

Knights of Columbus, Fr. Peter Paul Maher Council # 6793 is pleased to announce that we will once again offer scholarships to deserving high school seniors who have been accepted as full time students to an accredited college or university following their senior year. Under the "Fr. Canice Treacy Memorial Scholarship Fund", any graduating high school senior (Catholic or non-Catholic) is eligible to apply for a grant.

The deadline for application submissions is Friday, May 8, 2009. Scholarships will be awarded on June 24, 2009. For more information, please contact Kevin Kennedy at (301) 774-5014, or go to www.kofc6793.org/scholarship.php.

Our Council will hold the 4th Annual Charity Golf Outing at Laytonsville Golf Course, on Friday June 19th at 9 AM. This event will help us support the Council’s Seminarian Support Fund, which offers $500 stipends to as many Seminarians as we can afford to help. The golf format will be a four-person scramble and the cost will be $75 per man or woman of any skill level. The $75 cost includes continental breakfast, lunch, golf cart, beverages, prizes and a welcome bag. Prizes will be awarded to winning teams and individuals for longest drive and closest to the pin. Door prizes will also be given, which means we need help in obtaining donations from local businesses. Donations can be sponsoring a hole or providing advertising items, such as logo clothing, golf apparel, or golf balls.

We would like to assist a record number of Seminarians this year; so come on out and enjoy a day of fun with friends & family for a great cause, remember: "Charity is our business." (See also the Golf Flyer elsewhere in this letter).

Please contact Marc Long at home at (301) 208-7134 or cell at (301) 518-1040 or ramair320_129@msn.com for any questions, to reserve your tee time, to sponsor a hole, or to make a donation. Hole sponsors are very important to the success of this event; Marc is open to any reasonable offers.

The Nominating Committee submits the nominations of new Council officers for the fraternal year beginning July 1, 2009 and ending June 30, 2010. The nominees are as follows:

Grand Knight	Paul D. McFarlane
Chaplain	Appointed by Grand Knight
Deputy Grand Knight	Joseph F. Krempasky
Chancellor	Emmanuel Mark Harang
Warden	Frederick L. Whitman
Financial Secretary	Appointed by Supreme
Treasurer	Joseph M. Feakes
Recorder	Charles W. Cozad
Advocate	Eugene I. Kane, Jr.
Lecturer	Appointed by Grand Knight
Inside Guard	Nick J. Padams
Inside Guard	Armond Joseph Caron
Outside Guard	James N. Padams
Trustee (1 year)	Jack Giacalone
Trustee (2 year)	Harry F. Bushar
Trustee (3 year)	John E. Moore, Sr
Convention Delegate	John E. Moore, Sr.
First Alternate	Innocent P. D.Almeida
Second Alternate	Harry F. Bushar

The election is scheduled to be held during the June 10, 2009 meeting. The nominations will still be opened until just before the election.

The following note has appeared for the last seven months and this will be the last report for this fraternal year. I am happy to report that, although we failed to match the challenge, we were able to collect enough to support another Seminarian. Many thanks to those Brother Knights who generously responded to the “challenge.”

“A very generous Brother Knight in our Council, who wishes to remain anonymous, would like to challenge his Brother Knights to donate to the Seminarian Fund. He will match all donations up to $1000. Please be generous in your donations and know that your gifts will have double the impact. This challenge will be separately recorded and the results will be reported monthly in the Knightly News. Send all donations directly to the Grand Knight, John E. Moore, 4500 Prestwood Drive, Olney, Md. 20832.”

To begin with new year in 2009, we have three new members who took their First Degrees in February and March during our Council meetings. Let’s extend a warm welcome to Stephen R. Monette, Fred L. Whitman and Matt A. Konieczny. We also like to welcome Joseph N. Reynes (Transfer), Edward C. Shaffer (Reactivation) and Frank S. Debole (Readmission).

Our Council has scheduled a First Degree on May 27, 2009. We have plenty time to talk to our friends, co-workers, family members and fellow parishioners, and invite them to join us.

For membership information, please call Jack Giacalone at (301) 774-6338 or Homer Chen at (301) 460-0580.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) and three-quarters of Catholic Americans (74 percent) plan to observe Easter by attending Church services according to a newly released Knights of Columbus-Marist poll.

Of Americans who celebrate Easter, 70 percent identified it as the most important, or one of the most important religious holidays. 71 percent of Catholics and 80 percent of practicing Catholics said the same.

The poll also found that 86 percent of Americans and 88 percent of Catholic Americans correctly identify Easter as the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

“This data shows very clearly that Americans and American Catholics have a very deep-rooted faith,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “In their the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter, Americans reconnect to the faith that has been handed down to them over thousands of years, and continues today to be a source of great hope.”

In addition, many Americans are preparing for Easter by observing the solemn season of Lent – the traditional 40 days of penance and reflection leading up to Easter Sunday. 34 percent of Americans, and 63 percent of Catholic Americans (including 77 percent of practicing Catholics) said they are observing the season of Lent this year.

The survey of 2,078 Americans and 521 Catholics was conducted March 24-March 31 by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. The results for Americans have a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent; the margin of error for Catholics is +/-4.5 percent.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II, drawing from the whole of the Catholic tradition, introduced his “theology of the body,” giving a much richer presentation of the Church’s teaching on sexuality and the relationship of spirituality and the physical body.

In ‘Called to Love’ (Doubleday Religion, $24), New York Times best-selling author Carl Anderson and Father José Granados build upon these teachings and further examine the tremendous gift they offer.

“Christianity is itself the fullness of love,” says Anderson. He continues that the experience of love in all its different forms is worth understanding, enabling Catholics to rediscover the full treasure of this Christian tradition and integrate it into daily life.

Anderson and Granados teach that the human body beholds wonder and mystery that teaches people about love in its purest form, and that it speaks of God revealing His goodness.

It also speaks of men and women and the innate human desire to love. The summary of these teachings gives a new understanding of the Christian way of love, how it directly intersects faith and how to embrace both faith and love fully in life.

Carl Anderson is supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, and vice president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Father José Granados is assistant professor of Patrology and Systematic Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

For further information, please call
Innocent D'Almeida at 301-871-6156 or
John E. Moore Sr. at 301-774-9260

May 6	Council Executive Meeting, Cottage, 7:30 pm
May 13	Council Business Meeting, OLGC* 7:30 pm
May 21	Sullivan Bros. Assembly Mtg., Montgomery Council #2323, 8:00 pm
May 25	Memorial Day Ceremony at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery
May 27	Council Social Meeting, First Degree (Members Only) 7:30 pm, OLGC*

June 3	Council Executive Meeting, Cottage, 7:30 pm
June 10	Council Business Meeting, OLGC* 7:30 pm
June 14	Flag Day
June 18	Sullivan Bros. Assembly Mtg., Montgomery Council #2323, 8:00 pm
June 19	Council Golf Outing, Laytonsville GC, 9:00am
June 24	Council Social Meeting, Scholarship Award Pot Luck Dinner, 7:30 pm, St Patrick.s Parish Center

* Our Lady of Good Counsel High School

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