Dear Brother Knights,

The last few years have been a virtual cram session for me to catch up on what I was too lazy to learn about God and our faith before that. So slow I am to put the pieces together in my own mind that I fear there is far too much homework to do, and this will be a pop quiz guaranteed. But let me share my latest puzzle piece. One of the church bulletins in September had a letter on the cover that spoke to us not using the talents given to us from God enough. This is a waste of the gift and is spoken of in many of the parables. The best one for that would be when the servant buries the gold his master gave him to hold until his return, instead of investing it like the other two servants did. They of course reaped the benefits of putting some effort and thought into the whole thing and their master was pleased. I hate to admit that it took this long for me to finally get this one, but I am sure that those of you who have read anything that I have written before will understand that. I fear that for far too long, I have been protecting and hiding my own gifts from God. I felt that they were mine to do with what I pleased. This parable explains to me that this is in fact not true. One day I will stand before God and during my judgment, one thing I must be able to do is report what good I accomplished with the gold I was given to hold for my Master. So let’s keep this in mind as you read through the reports in this and other newsletters. If I could, I would make a request of all of you while going through these reports from all the executive and directors that have reports to give. Could you walk with me and together we can all work on not hiding our gold given us from God.

Well I think that we hit the ground running this year and September went very well. With the exception of the Membership Program, which is currently still being handled stellarly by our DGK Darren Allen, all of our programs have directors, and we have started the year with two new members to add to our versatility.

September also saw the Charter Night for the Our Lady of the Hill Council #13064 in Beaumont. We are the official sponsoring council of this new neighboring English council, but as was obvious at the Charter night, they are getting truckloads of support from many other councils in the area, especially the long standing Conseil Lapointe, also of Beaumont. It seems that there is an abundance of things for them all to do there. From what I have been lucky enough to see of them already they have just the right mix of experience and fresh enthusiasm to really work well and productively. Many of the members are past members of our own Fr. Leduc council, and as such we have a good strong built in tie to them. So lets keep our eyes open for them and the activities to come from there.

I could hardly wait to mention again our program directors this year. We worked a bit over the summer with some of them to get things moving. Based on what we have discussed, we can expect to see a good variety of new and vibrant activities to begin. Many projects have been talked about and pages full of ideas for more are continuously building. Among the many objectives we have set for ourselves to accomplish, is this. We want to recreate and offer some of the fellowship building events that may have been lost or forgotten along the way, as well as developing new ones. This means providing the opportunity to you as members, to get together for more than just the monthly meeting and to work a Bingo or two. There are far too many ideas ready to accomplish this to write down and also I wouldn’t want to steal more thunder than I already have, but rest assured that plans are underway to meet this goal. A secondary benefit to this I hope would be that our wives and families would never again automatically think that whenever “Knights of Columbus” is written on the calendar, Dad is gone for that whole night away from them and they are not invited. We aim to change that for most of you if possible. After all, we certainly cannot call ourselves a family fraternal organization, and only follow through once or twice a year. What fun is that?

Our Charities Appeal tickets have arrived and Brother George Rodrigue has again gracefully accepted the task of distributing and tracking the project this year. Also we have received this year’s set of the State KC Pro-Life calendars. These are produced with drawings done up by children in Edmonton area schools to be sold to raise money for the pro-Life program in Alberta. The cause is truly inspirational and this project has been successful in other councils. What I would like to do is hear from you on this as to how you would like to proceed with it this year. Constructive ideas would be appreciated. For example, we could give them out to the parish, we could try to sell them, we could send them back, we could use them as prizes at the bowling event for the kids, maybe they could be donated to the schools for a project they might find useful, etc. We are trying to be very open minded as far as new ways to get the most out of this, but in my own mind it is something that needs to be done before Christmas is upon us.

Padre Night is approaching again this year. Brother Lito’s new Nazareno council in Edmonton is hosting this year and it is to be held on November 10 at St. Basil’s Cultural Center (7007-109St). For those who are interested, you are welcome to join our troupe in attendance this year. All I ask is that you all remind me to invite our own clergy to this event. Sometimes I have been known to miss the bus on certain things until it is too late.

Thanks to Brothers Andy Hawboldt and Richard Yoner for jumping on a good deal when they saw one, and purchasing the council a large used photocopier from an auction in town recently. As soon as it is up and running, we will be faced with what to do with the smaller one. Any thoughts…or offers?

I would like to remind you all that in December is the Christmas Hamper Delivery that we join many Edmonton councils and citizens and volunteer our efforts to deliver the food hampers to the needy each year. As soon as details about times and locations arrive, we will be calling you up for help where possible. To those newer members that maybe have never had the opportunity to participate in this exercise, it has become a bit of a tradition for a large group of us in the council. This presents us a great opportunity to get together as a group of family and friends to accomplish a goal that can be very eye opening and humbling too. Watch for information to come in the newsletters on this in case you don’t get called by phone.

This month ends with Halloween, immediately followed by All Saint Day on November 1st. I am a total sucker for a good scare, the fun of the costumes and parties, and the mystery of paranormal and supernatural things that seem to accumulate at this time of year. However as a Catholic parent and the head of this council in a Catholic men’s organization, I would very much like to see us approach Halloween with a little bit of thought going into offsetting the sometimes overwhelming evil that bombards us leading up to, and especially upon this day each year. Becoming numb to the moral decay and violence that society finds to be more and more acceptable is especially concentrated at this time of year, and it is my personal opinion that things easily get worse in society, but it takes effort, courage, and faith to maintain our own standards and uphold our beliefs. This is more and more apparent each day. It has now become illegal for a Catholic school to apply Catholic rules to its students attending their Graduation with their homosexual partner. My challenge to all of us is how do we share the gift of God with our youth, families, and friends as well as the community in the face of such nonchalant corrosion. Let’s talk.

In case any of you have not been informed in one way or another about this, I would like to take time to thank God for his many blessings upon me and my family, and announce that my wife and I are expecting our fourth child in late February. This is big news for us, but there is more. We are in the process of moving into Leduc from our home in Calmar. If it seems that I am preoccupied when I talk to you, you can imagine why I’m sure. So I will thank all of you now for your patience with me in the meantime, and also those of you who have been forced to apply patience in dealing with me already.

So thank you to all of you who continue to support and nurture the growth and strength of the Fr. Leduc Council. I have high hopes for the results we may see as a result of things that have been ongoing, new ideas that continue to grow and change, and the potential of the new growth we have yet to see.

Investing God’s gold in you,
Chris Carr, Grand Knight Fr. Leduc Council #7061

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