The Humility Leadership Circle

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The basic Blue Knights Club is focused on a Dad and Son relationship.  The purpose is very simple: To provide the opportunity for Fathers to evangelize their sons.  At RCA Atlanta we Dads agreed to take this a step further, and provide the boys age and experience appropriate opportunities to practice leadership skills.

Our youngest Knights are the privates, just as they are in every army in the world.  As privates they learn the ways of the organization, and develop the humility to follow other boys direction.  In some cases this may mean a boy may accepts direction from a child younger than he, but in the program longer!  This reflects the real world, where we work with people of all ages at various states of authority over us.

Last year I provided small tasks to various boys to complete as part of their leadership training.  At the end of the year designated the two 7th Graders as Lieutenants and two fourth year 4th graders as Sergeants for the year.  The LTs participated in planning the year, and run the game with our Teen Mentor.   The Sergeants handle room set up, uniform inspection, and share in the ceremonial duties.  Their biggest task will be coming up soon as I direct them to prepare for the scheduled school maintenance day with Mr. Zakis.  This will help RCA Atlanta prior to our open house.

A key component of leadership with these Blue Knights to take the humility we learned as new knights and incorporate it into our leadership.  Leaders know their capabilities, and look for people to help them.  We are not expected to be experts on everything.  Each of us has talents given to us by God.  Yet we all know our talents are not equal in every task.  A good leader knows how to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses of himself and his team.  In this way the team always has the best chance of success.

This understanding of leadership also plays into the understanding of personal temperaments taught at RCA.  Just as individuals must learn to balance themselves to become more centered, so must a leader balance his team’s temperament and experience to make it stronger in the face of a challenge.  This also means a leader will be expected to kindly help their team members grow where they are weak when needed through appropriate encouragement.  This takes patience, kindness and toughness in appropriate measure.

We Dad’s are taking this one step at a time, but fulfilling our own intent of raising boys to men well versed in virtuous living and leadership for our fallen world.

-ehw

Angels and Confession

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As we continue our journey this year the Fourth Years dove into the importance of reconciliation, and the Second Years learned about our angelic friends.

As with all meetings, our Bible shouts got a little loud.  The competition this week was fierce, and all adults considered bringing earplugs for the next meeting.  Nothing like young boys screaming (at your direction) at the very top of their lungs to wake you up for a meeting.

Mr Bunn led the Fourth Years in discussion.  He brought examples of the need for and value of reconciliation.  This touched all of us, and gave us some thoughts on how to prepare for the sacrament.  Finally we decided we wanted some confessionals in our model church.

Mr Levergood helped his boys work on understanding angels, and even placing an image of one on the second year cross.  The boys enjoyed the use of the Drummel tool…but this is just another example of what Blue Knights is all about.  Boys expressing themselves, learning our mission to know and love God, and playing (oh I mean working) with power tools.

We finished up the night with a LT lead challenge came combining knowledge, skill and speed.  Just enough to challenge each boy, and remind them their spring trials are not that far away!

-ehw

Earned not Given

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This year the boys most important lesson was as always, earned not given.  Two weeks ago the boys stood before a board of review to prove they knew their lessons under a shinning examination light.  The Blue Knights at their ceremony stood tall and swore to their new expanded duties as role models, teachers and planners.

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This year the Blue Capes received formal orders promoting them to the Order of Green Cape.  In their orders they learned their primary mission next year was to be role models for the new recruits we pray will join us on our evangelization mission.  The importance of this mission should never be lost.  In creating good character in boys we must ensure they realize all men need to look up at good moral examples to learn from, and to ensure the shadow of our actions is one which will safely lead others to God.    While big brothers learn this naturally, some middle and youngest boys need to receive this growth opportunity by being inside a dynamically changing group.

Our Order of the Gold Cape received two levels of commission.  Each level suited to the abilities and age of the boy.  The older two boys received the commission of Lieutenant, and the responsibility to plan next year’s meetings with myself and the Teen Mentor.  This way they will learn vital skills of receiving strategic guidance, forming operations and tactical missions to achieve the group objectives.  The younger boys will become Sergeants responsible for setting up meeting spaces, teaching prayers, uniform requirements and basic drill and ceremony.  This will be an exciting year for each of these four boys.

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Each boy was inducted into the new order using our customary knighting process.  Kneeling, receiving medals from Dad and capes from Mom.  The older boys found themselves recipients of new swords and the Lieutenants Black and Gold capes custom made for their increasing size (Thanks Grandma Baker).  This year their equipment and mission was also blessed by our Regina Caeli Pastor Father Augustine Tran.

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As the boys go forth this year, we pray they continue their vocation discernment and apply their increasing knowledge of virtues to fight vice.  It is our desire as parents that this work we do to train the boys makes them men of virtue who lead our families and churches as true God Fearing  and Loving fathers.

As always we also enjoyed having our families present at this ceremony, because this type of growth needs acknowledgement in public.  We all observed our sons come out of the Board of Review with chests raised higher.  This was good.  The knowledge that other now expect greater virtue and leadership from them daily was greater.

Thanks to the parents of these wonderful boys for sacrificing valuable time and resources to the Blue Knights cause with their boys.  Thank you Dawn Bunn for photographing the ceremony while I worked as the Master of Ceremony…and most of all…

Thank you God for giving us these boys to train to seek, know and live a life of beauty rooted in your divine goodness.

-ehw

Board of Review

Big or small, the greatest challenge many of us face is the the ability to face a board of review.  In our lives these boards will have many names: job interviews, final exams, auditions,  or asking a father for the hand of his daughter in marriage.  None of us enjoy these boards of review.  It is just a fact of life we must pass these trials to achieve our goals.

Here in this circle of Blue Knights, we begin training the boys to calm their fears and accept the challenge from a young age.  We set up a classroom with the board members looking at them through various symbols of our order.  In this case what I hope is a mildly impressive set of statutes of St. Michael the Archangel, The Holy Family, The Armor of God, Swords, Candles (battery powered ones!), and our circle banner.  Now as an adult you might look at this with a who cares…but place yourself at the level of a seven year old.

Each year this imposing table will look smaller and less imposing.  This is exactly what we want the boys to think!  We want them to know this board is something they can grow through.  To also increase the review’s value we ensured the boys had to respond to men who they did not call Dad.  This put a level of uncertainty into their fates, and they knew it.

The older boys did not realize we demanded higher levels of response than younger boys, boys needing an reminder to focus received it, boys who thrived got a pat on the back, and boys on the edge of passing learned their fate was in their own control not ours with a sudden death round.  We did not change the minimum standards set over a month ago….and they did achieve the standards expected of them. We Dad’s are very happy for them…there is quite a lot of pride in our hearts as well for their accomplishments.

So these boys all took another step on the road to adulthood through developing virtues to root out vices.  This is what we are all about.  Next up is our Step Up Ceremony on May 10th…I can’t wait to see the joy in their faces as they new capes sit on their shoulders in our school’s St Michael the Archangel Chapel.

 

Good Friday Quest 2016

The Blue Knights of Regina Caeli Academy conducted a three hour mission to honor our Lord’s Crucifixion on this Good Friday.  We fathers took our boys to learn the way of the cross, to find new viewpoints into the mystery, expand our knowledge of the universal Church, and then have our sons lead stations themselves in our school chapel.  It was a grand mission, and an important one to help them continue their voyage from boys to men of God.

We started our day at St. Benedict and participated in the stations led by their pastor.  We learned how we would talk, stand and kneel in honor of our Lord and Savior.  As we left the church we exited to find a girl wearing a blue bow with her mother and learn a lesson of Mary’s sorrows at the foot of the cross.  We learned the women of Jerusalem stood fast that day, and shed their tears for our Lord while all but one Apostle hid from the crowd.  We received a jar of St Benedict to remember he calls us to not cower in fear but rely on God’s Providence.  We must stand and defend our Lord and families in the face of evil as Jesus did.

Mary Grace Harrison presented the boys with a container with a blessed handkerchief to accompany us on our Journey, and off we went to St Brigid!

(Thank you to Mary Grace and Mrs Kristen Harrison for teaching us to the lesson of Mary of Sorrows!)

Then we traveled to St Brigid to meet a man and son in blue.  There they taught us how Jesus defeated death, and turned the cross from a symbol of despair to of the greatest hope.  We must all pass through the needle of death, but if we keep the faith we too can become one with him in heaven.  With a cross handed over in example, we moved on to the next part of our journey.

(Thank you Mr Scott Wiley and James Wiley for your assistance at St Brigid and teaching our lesson!)

Then we went to the Byzantine Rite Catholic Church where Mr John Fuchko explained to us some traditions of his church.  We learned how his family uses the icons to focus their prayers, how the consecration occurs behind the doors on the throne, and no one but priests and altar servers may enter the sanctuary.  We learned of the five wounds of Christ, and how they are revered and honored in their church.  The boys asked many more questions, and Mr Fuchko and his son JJ both answered for as long as we had time to share.

(Thank you to Mr John Fuchko and his three oldest sons for being with us today, and introducing us to the understanding of the beauty of the Universal Catholic Church both east and west.)

The we were off to conduct our own Stations of the Cross using all the lessons learned today in our spiritual home of St Micheal’s Chapel.

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Our teen mentor John Paul organized the boys for stations, Kalen carried the cross, and together the boys walked the way of the cross.  Our visiting boys participated in the stations as well, in the hopes they would one day join us as full Blue Knights.  As we reached Jesus death on the cross, the alarms sounded saying it was 3PM and the start of the Divine Mercy hour.  I smiled with glee when several boys recognized the significance of such a moment.  Our quest was complete.

Today marked the first use of the St Micheal the Archangel Chapel, by the St Michael the Archangel Circle of Blue Knights.  It was a fitting as well when completed the Stations under the watchful eye of our Blue Knight patron St. Joseph.  It was a wonderful day where young boys took steps towards being good Catholic men.

(Thanks to all the parents for bringing the boys and young lady to help with our Quest!)

-ehw

Grandparents and Swords

On January 13th the First Year Blue Knights achieved a great milestone, the building of their first sword.  The Sword of the Respect for Authority is meant not to give power but to follow the will of God.

Another outstanding aspect of Blue Knights occurs when the extended family helps a boy understand the virtues we adults are passing on are both timeless and universal.  Tonight Coltrane’s Dad was returning late from a business trip, so Granddad stepped into the void.  It was fun to see the pride in both their faces as they worked on the sword.

The third year knights reviewed the extraordinary stories of St Patrick and St Columban.  Since the boys had learned of St Patrick before, the lesson was easy as they told me the story for a change of pace!

When Pirate Blackbeard arrived, he reinforced the Vices and Virtues lessons by challenging the boys to answer a vice riddle…it was a perish or thrive kind of moment!

We closed out the night with a birthday party for Richard, one of our First Years around our round table.  It was fun to hear the boys remind me the round table reminds us no one is greater than another before God.

-ehw

 

 

Codes, Spears, and Saints

Tonight the First Year boys made their first weapon, the Spear of the Love of God.  They boys learned sometimes we all need discipline, and the discipline is justified!  In fact there can be no mercy without justice first!  It is the only way we can work ourselves towards experiencing the love of God in its fullness!

Meanwhile the Third Year boys dove into code work, and learned the value of the works of Saint Cyrill and his brother Saint Methodious.  See these saints went into the great steppe of Eurasia and preached the Gospel.  To have the most effect though, they first had to create the written language for the people to use!  People thought they were mad, but millions of converts later they thought it was an ok idea….So here the third years dive into coding and decoding.

We continued to drive forward with our manual of arms training too.  We hope to be ready by the May Parade on field day to escort Our Lady and the First Communicants with an Honor Guard.  We need to earn approval to do this, it is not a given!  We’ll be ready though, with our best face forward!

-ehw

Defeat the Arians!

Tonight we had a visit by St Paul and St Nicholas!  Then we fend off a series of raids from Arians trying to steal our Faith and Hope!  Luckily the lessons our Saints taught us made us strong enough to do the job properly.

First St. Paul came in tell us about how he endured beatings, stoning, imprisonment, and even shipwreck to spread the Gospel!  Oh what a neat story about being knocked off his horse to see our Lord.  St Paul also displayed his cranky side….he almost resembled Mr Wojtkun when he got cranky!

Then St Nicholas came to visit.  He had no beard or big belly.  We found out he was very charitable, and a had a flare in defending the faith.   The funniest part was when St Nicholas demonstrated his fabulous uppercut he delivered on Arinias at a church council when he tried to spread the heresy that Jesus was not entirely God and entirely Man!  Boy did St Paul get thrown across the floor!

We played a terrific teamwork game running a team race and defending our treasure from Arian raiders.  Mr Levergood made a great game tonight!

Joseph showed us his decorated shield and he then explained the meaning of the symbols he chose.  We were all very impressed!  He put a lot of thought into his shield.

We finished off our night working on our drill and ceremony.  Yes we are working hard on drill because we want to earn the right to be the honor guard for the May Parade!  We have to pay attention and take it all very seriously to get approval from our school teachers and founder for the honor!  We have plenty of time to get everyone ready!

-ehw

PS We had a great night and all the parents are jumping into the breach helping with various rolls!  It looks to be a great year ahead.

Hope and St. Paul

Our first October meeting focused First Years on the Virtue of Hope, and the Third Years on the work of St. Paul.  When you think about it as an adult, there is a great message in this association!

Mr. Levergood led the boys on their talk of the Virtue of Hope, and worked on painting a cross on the boys new plastic helmets (we start off with these helmets and next year they can try to earn their leather ceremonial helmets!).  Mr Levergood explained to the boys Hope is what keeps the vice of Despair from harming our souls.

I was able to lead the Third Years on a discussion of the life of St. Paul.  We discussed both the evil he did before his conversion to Christ, and his enthusiastic work after the miracle on the road to Damascus.  The boys learned of the great journeys of faith Paul took, and the hope of Christ he brought along the way.

No meeting is complete without some friendly competition.  We had a friendly Memory Verse Yell battle between the groups, and an excellent set of challenges in the game.  Mr Bunn and our teen mentor John Paul gave the boys a wild set of tasks to conduct as a traveling pair, while shouting the word of God to the four corners of the world!

Can’t wait to see the boys at our adventure and review meeting at mid-month!   Please keep the boys in your prayers!

New Knights Step Forward

On Sept 23rd the St Michael Archangel Circle of Blue Knights welcomed two new first year recruits at Regina Caeli Academy.  We called the new knights forth from their mothers sides, and welcomed them to the circle of young men.  Their they knelt and received their first charge to arise as Blue Knights.

Mr. Levergood led the new knights in a short indoctrination into our circle’s method of learning, building and healthy fun.  They learned their monthly scriptural shout, their lesson on faith, and built a shield of faith.  Meanwhile the Third Years held a review lesson on St Peter and St Peter Chanel with Mr Bunn.  We reunited after our lessons completed so the Third Years could share with the new recruits the stories of their faith found on their shields.  We closed out our meeting with a mix match of spiritual dodgeball and saintly fishing.

In keeping with our Third Year’s mission to learn their duties as Knights for missionary work they took charge of the opening and closing ceremonies.  Each Knight also had a special saintly prayer card to use each night with their father or mother from our fishing for Saints game.

A fun new set of games also came from Mr Bunn, where before each meeting he will challenge the Knights with Saint Knowledge quizzes!  So when you think the boys are playing poker; you’ll find it may be Fishy Saint, Knightly Memory or Bingo Halos!

At the end of the knight we all went home with smiles and new companions for the long trials ahead on the Road to Heaven!

-ehw