The Knight's Shield - July 2022

 Happy Independence Day!

    We are also starting a new fraternal year. I would like to thank the outgoing and incoming officers for your service to our council. It takes a team effort for a great council like this to do all we do, and I appreciate all your efforts!

    Mike Hartel and I were our councils’ delegates to the State Convention on Mackinaw Island. It was an important election year with two seats open on the state board. There was also an important resolution to vote on. The resolution moves the money previously taxed for Holy Cross Services to support seminarians tuition at Sacred Heart Seminary.  The states goal is to provide the undergrad tuition to all seminarians. Below are your 2022-23 state officers:

    We hosted a Rosary rally on the lawn June 11th. There were around 20 people to pray the rosary on a beautiful day. Thank you to all who helped with this event. There were many, and all the help was greatly appreciated. On the same day we also hosted the Deaconate formation luncheon. Deacon Marc and his wife, Sue, were hosting this event for prospective Deacons. Thank you to Rick Okerhjelm, Ron Marrese, and Joe Kish for working this.

    We are all looking forward to our new parish priest Father John Kiselica starting July 1st!

    We have the ice cream social coming up July 23-24. We will need help setting up the tent on Friday the 22nd at 7pm. We will also need men to work the Masses. There will be some setup before Mass, handing out ice cream after Mass and cleaning up afterwards. We will need to take down the tent after 11:30 Mass.

    There is also our camping trip July 29-31 with a pot luck dinner on the 30th. This is a fun event, with great food and company. We are at Algonac State Park this year so come join us!

Now a short reflection for Independence Day:

    True liberty is not essentially constituted in freedom from oppressive restrictions imposed on one's way of life by an unjust authority, but rather is found in the eternal possession of God's love. Man's natural desire for happiness is of "divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it" (CCC 1718). The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence echos that desire: "We hold these truths to be selfevident,  that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Vivat Jesus!

Tom Gray

The Knight's Shield - June 2022

 Happy June everyone! I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy.

We welcomed a new member William Murray at our last general meeting. If you see him at church introduce yourself and welcome him to the council.

We completed our officer election process at the last general meeting. Below are your 2022-2023 officers, please support them in any way you can. Thank you fellow officers for stepping up to take on leadership roles in this great council. I look forward to working with everyone of you to make this another successful year!

If you didn't notice Paul Parker's current position is 3 year trustee. With him being elected to Chancellor we will need to have a special election at the July meeting to fill the vacated 2 year trustee position.

We successfully completed our spring road cleanup, thank you to all who helped. A special thank you to Greg Csernai for running it and to Kevin Kennedy for providing doughnuts!

I am going to close with a word about membership. We are currently at 33% of our goal for the year. We can still make it, we will need an effort from just a few guys to ask a friend or neighbor to join.  Consider why you became a knight share that with someone who is not a member. Please don't deny other good men the opportunity for the camaraderie and good works that we do!

Vivat Jesus!

Tom Gray