Step Up Ceremony

On May 26, 2015 the St. Michael the Archangel Blue Knight Circle celebrated the completion of another outstanding year of faith and fellowship with our annual Step Up Ceremony. Four Knights received the honor of being promoted to the Order of the Red Cape to begin their missionary studies next year. In addition all four Knights earned the Helmet of Hope for passing additional trials along the Second Year Trail not included in their baseline promotion requirements. Two additional Knights also received these honors, but were unable to attend to to another promotion ceremony.

This year’s ceremony took place in the St Thomas Aquinas narthex due to a raging thunderstorm. All Knights shields received a blessing from Deacon Kevin in the Marian Grotto at our church on Memorial Day. We did this to honor the ancient tradition of Knights standing watch, and praying to Our Lady Queen of Knights for support in our daily lives. Sir Levergood directed the retrieval of shields from our Armorer Sir Bunn enroute to the ceremony. KofC Sir Knight Wojtkun officiated the ceremony in the Narthex.

Once at the ceremony, before our friends and family, the Blue Knights requested any young men wishing to join the order come forward to join our ranks. Our long serving squire in training then left his mothers side to join his father and brother in the ranks of Knights. He accepted his commission with humble pride. Each of our remaining Knights then came forward to receive their new commissions with our traditional replacement of capes and bestowing of the Helmet of Hope. We did this before our St Michael banner and the flag of our church.

As a sign of their growing maturity, the younger Knights led the opening ceremony and old knights the closing ceremony. As missionaries in training, called to evangelize alone as adults in daily life, these young knights will now begin to take charge of the ceremonials and chores of the order in the coming year of the red cape.

With great prayer we pray our ranks will swell with new knights in the coming year to join us in knowing and loving the Lord!

-ehw

Memorial Day and Blessings

Today we Blue Knights went to church and prayed for fallen soldiers who gave their lives for us to worship freely in America. We also asked Deacon Kevin to bless our shields as we begin our next year as Knights, learning the trials of missionary life on Tuesday.

It is important for Blue Knights to be visible and learn to be leaders of service to our church. We should learn to serve at the altar, lector, sing and pray with and for our church. That is why a Blue Knight was serving, and the rest of us (still to young to serve at our church) filled in doing other jobs as needed. With practice we will become stronger boys and young men in both faith and virtue.

-ehw

Joseph and Mary

Blue Knight at St Thomas Aquinas recently completed their last lesson before the step up ceremony, it discussed our Generals in our fight against the challenges of this world: Joseph and Mary. Joseph and Mary lead us by example. Joseph ever the silent servant of God, listening without question, leading heroically, and protecting our Lord at his most vulnerable. Mary, our mother was ever attentive to the needs of our Lord. She too did God’s will without question and with agape love flowing from her heart.

We learned if we follow their examples as children in a family striving for holiness we can build a family which withstands the tempests of family life. As parents one day, we can use their example and intersession to make up for our weaknesses as we build a domestic church.

Here you see us repairing our shields, learning our lesson and then undertaking the Joseph and Mary obstacle course. In the obstacle course we first answered questions to remove our sins. Then we ran the course with our remaining weights asking for guidance from Mary and Joseph. When we followed their guidance we found ourselves at their center of their lives…facing our dear Lord Jesus.

-ehw

PS The young lady is our role player for the Virgin Mary…she is the sister of two of the boys!

Testing Blue Knight Knowledge

Almost the end of the year for these Blue Knights! So tonight they had their first testing session, hidden nicely in a game of family feud!

What were they asked? Here you go to just name a few of the 20 questions
1) How did Jesus unlock the gates of Hell?
2) What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?
3) Where in the Bible does the Hail Mary come from?
4) Who is St Finbar? Who is St Barnabas? Which St was imprisoned by her father and husband?
5) Which saint fought heresy with hymns?
6) What does the word angel mean?

Recite your St Michael the Archangel prayer (By the way who is he?)
Recite your St Joseph prayer (By the way give me your two favorite stories with the holy family and how did God talk to St Joseph?)

Of course it was not all work and no play. The young knights were able to get some sword training in, drill and ceremony, slash a target, and then play the game of turtle (Using grace blankets t to protect you from sin balls).

I am pleased to report the boys did very well! All earned their helmets of hope.

Next month one final lesson and then the Step Up Ceremony!

-ehw

Called to Worship – A Tridium Adventure

Being a Blue Knight means much more than fun meetings and adventure. A true knight learns his lessons well, to assume leadership in the big world through service to God and his church. So if you see a Blue Knight serving our Lord on the altar, or actively signing from the pews just know they are learning to be men of God one step at a time.

One Blue Knight said of serving as an altar server during each day of the Tridium, “You can never get too tired serving God.” I can attest the young man begged his mother to make sure he was on the schedule each night…and slept like a baby after he was done with the biggest smile on his face.

God Bless!

-ehw

The Good Friday Quest

What good is a Good Friday without a quest to grow in the knowledge of the Lord, and pay him homage on this day of victory over evil?

Four Blue Knights and their dad’s went on a three hour journey to three churches besides our own. We went to attend Stations of the Cross at St. Benedict in John’s Creek. There we met a fair damsel from two knights Regina Caeli second grade. Being Knights in a strange land we asked if she could guide us to find the statues of our Blue Knight patron St. Joseph and his wife Mary the Queen of Heaven. She took us right to St. Joseph, and we taught her our special prayer to St. Joseph asking him to keep us on the path to heaven. Then we went to Mary and thanked her for being such a good mother to our Lord. We bid our fair guide farewell, and were off to St Brendan’s Catholic Community.

At St. Brendan we learned they kept the tradition of covering all statues and images except the cross during Good Friday. So we went in and visited the stations of the cross where Mary received her broken son in her arms after his death. We said our Hail Mary, thanked Jesus for his sacrifice and went on to our next destination, St Brigid!

At St. Bridgid we met two more families from our school, Regina Caeli. Our senior knight met his good friend who proudly showed our knight he was using the prayer book given at his birthday party just over two weeks ago. What a christian brotherhood! Once inside we heard the pastor discussing the seven last words of Christ. So we stepped outside and said our prayers at the prayer rail in the narthex.

With this our journey was done. After such a long journey we were thirsty and hungry young knights…but we learned this was only a fraction of the sacrifice the Lord gave on the cross (and so many martyrs give today). These knights broke fast after three, and reloaded for an evening at Adoration of the cross!

-ehw

Blue Knights Learn of Demons…

During our March meeting we learned of Demons, and how our our lessons on virtues help us avoid them.  Showing prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance will let us defeat rash judgements, sloth, and selfishness when temptation comes to call.

We also recited our St. Michael the Archangel prayer to remind us of our circle’s patron.  We learned how he defended heaven, and can be our ally against temptation.

It was a good time to remind ourselves how our virtues learned last year are just the foundation needed to build a good Catholic man who can be a leader in this world.

-ehw

Angels and Knights work as one

On the night when Atlanta braced for a little snow and ice storm St Michael’s Blue Knights at St.Thomas Aquinas conducted their first drill with their swords.

Tonight we learned about angels. We found out the word angel means messenger. Angels have various orders, and our personal angels are the guardian angels. The often deliver messages to help inform our conscience and keep us on the path to heaven. Other angels are the those who form God’s Army, and under the direction of St. Michael the Archangel cast into hell the Devil and his fellow demons. We can always ask them to help defend us and guide us in times of need. In church every week we even get to sing with the Angels to honor our God!

So what does sword work have to do with everything we do in Blue Knights? It can teach us a great deal!

We started by learning how to stand the proper distance apart. First we acted like Greeks and pretended our arms were spears. They had to stand shoulder to shoulder. Never a break in the line. We however have short broadswords. So we need to have space between us so we can strike to the side, and that we need our partners to be our protection on our blind side. We must work as one when we move together so we can protect each other and achieve our victories with the Lord’s help.

We reviewed our lessons about the Fear or God how to turn our lives to Love of God. We remembered we never want to disappoint our Lord, and want to learn to live our lives in accordance with Gods will. Angels are the key to all of this! They help our conscience, they lead us, protect us, and when we work together sing in praise of our Lord!

It was a fun meeting!
-ehw

Welcome to St Michael the Archangel’s Blue Knights

 

Welcome to the St. Michael the Archangel’s Circle of Blue Knights!  We are a small group of families evangelizing our sons, with the hope of raising them to sainthood.  In the process of getting the boys on track, you’ll find us parents grow stronger ourselves.

We’ll be using this blog to chronicle our journey and growth during our second year!  We’re always open to new members and families joining us on the quest of a lifetime!

Please feel free to contact me at ecwojo@gmail.com with any questions you may have!

-ehw