March 2023 Newsletter
A Call To Lead Right Where He Is
Charlie Goetz lives a dynamic life. He’s a family man, a military officer, and a scholar. He holds multiple advanced degrees—including a Ph.D. from the Airforce Academy—has lived all over the country, and currently serves as director of a thinktank dedicated to research in national security. In addition to researching, consulting, and teaching, Charlie’s job also consists in serving as a flight instructor for various military aircraft and he is a loving husband and father of three children.
Amidst all of this, Charlie is also a dedicated cooperator of Opus Dei; and has been so for nearly a decade. His journey to the Work began almost simultaneously as his rediscovery of his Catholic faith.
The impetus to reexamine his faith more closely began from a frustration with an ineptitude he felt when attempting to explain his faith to his non-Catholic, Christian friends who often challenged him with tough doctrinal questions. To redress the situation, Charlie and his wife embarked on a journey of careful study and a more intentional practice of their faith. His wife converted to Roman Catholicism in the process.
Throughout this journey, Charlie was faced with a persistent question: in what concrete form was he called to live out his faith? What did faith in action look like, for him specifically as a layperson? Deep down, Charlie felt a calling to lead. But he wasn’t sure what exactly this meant. At first, he assumed it was something to be found in pastoral or liturgical commitments, like being a eucharistic minister, a lector, or a catechist.
It was not until he began receiving formation through Wespine, an Opus Dei center in St. Louis, that he began to see the picture more clearly. The inner voice calling him to be a leader, he discovered, was not calling him to lead in an ostensible way; but rather, in the quiet yet persistent apostolate of leading all the people in his life to Christ.
It is this understanding that has kept Charlie close to the Work throughout the past ten years, even during episodes when he has lived in New Mexico, Alabama, and Utah, where the Opus Dei footprint, if it exists at all, is extremely minimal. Today, Charlie lives in Colorado Springs and attends activities through a group of supernumeraries in Denver and surrounding areas.
Book Review: Tinkers by Paul Harding
Paul Harding begins his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Tinkers at the deathbed of George Washington Crosby, a clock repairer, as his thoughts drift back to memories of his father during his childhood. The novel intertwines descriptions of George’s last moments as he wanders through time and consciousness and the parallel story of his father Howard, a traveling salesman, as he struggles to support his family and comes to terms with life circumstances that will require him to make decisive choices that will determine the future direction of his life and of his family. The juxtaposition of the two interlocking narratives as they take place in two different time frames, moving at two different paces, all at George’s last moments (remember, he’s a clock repairer or “tinker”), results in a novel that the Kirkus Book Reviews perceptively describes as an “evocative meditation on the nonlinear nature of a life.”
Pope Francis’ audience on our calling to be apostles
In his General Audience of March 15, 2023 Pope Francis asserted that laypeople are called to be apostles. We can use this reminder to consider how we can reflect Christ to others, and when appropriate speak to them about the exciting prospect of belonging more fully to Christ.
Let us continue the catechesis on the passion of evangelizing: not only on “evangelizing,” the passion for evangelizing and, in the school of Vatican Council II, let us try to understand better what it means to be “apostles” today. The word “apostle” reminds us of the group of the Twelve disciples chosen by Jesus. At times we refer to some saint, or more generally the bishops, as “apostles:” they are apostles, because they go in the name of Jesus. But are we aware that being apostles concerns every Christian? Are we aware that it concerns each one of us? Indeed, we are required to be apostles – that is, envoys – in a Church that, in the Creed, we profess as apostolic.
So, what does it mean to be apostles? It means being sent for a mission. The event in which the Risen Christ sends his apostles into the world, passing on to them the power he himself received from the Father and giving them His Spirit, is exemplary and foundational. We read in the Gospel of John: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me even so I send you’. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:21-22).
It is a call that concerns both those who have received the sacrament of Orders, consecrated persons, and all lay faithful, man or woman: it is a call to all. You, the treasure you have received with your Christian vocation, are obliged to give it: it is the dynamic nature of the vocation, the dynamic nature of life. It is a call that empowers them to actively and creatively perform their apostolic task, within a Church in which “there is a diversity of ministry but a oneness of mission. Christ conferred on the Apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in His name and power. But the laity too: all of you, the majority of you are laypeople. The laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own share in the mission of the whole people of God in the Church and in the world.”
Updated: Evenings of Recollection for Men
The updated schedule and location for Evenings of Recollection in English are as follows:
For young professional men: Second Tuesday of the month, 7:00-9:00pm.
For men: Third Monday of the month, 6:30-8:30pm
The Evenings of Recollection will take place at Midtown Cultural Center (1825 North Wood Street). Parking is available in the St. Mary of the Angels Parish lot, accessible from the Hermitage side of the block. You can enter the residence from the white porch just off the parking lot, next to the playground.
The evening consists of times of prayer led by priests and talks given by laymen, focusing on how to grow in the spiritual life and integrate faith into daily life. An emphasis is placed on sanctifying marriage and family life, as well as one’s professional work. Recollections include Eucharistic Adoration and opportunities for the Sacrament of Confession.
Support Midtown Cultural Center
Please support the work of Midtown Cultural Center by making a tax-deductible donation online at our secure site. Thank you for your generosity!
“Your work must become a conversation with Our Father in heaven.”
— St. Josemaría Escrivá