Dear Brother Knights:

Lent is one of the greatest time periods every year for a plethora of reasons. It allows us a few extra moments to consider our faith and recommit ourselves to the cause of being a good Catholic. Much like New Year’s resolutions, I spend several days leading up to Ash Wednesday contemplating what would be a good fast, or sacrifice to put forth in a show of good faith. I find it somewhat funny that some people have a critical reaction if you mention that you are going to give up chocolate, or sweets or pizza, or alcohol, when the Church itself asks you to give up meat on Fridays. But Fish still counts and not on St. Patrick’s Day, where the Bishop has cleared us to eat as much corned beef as we would like. If you eat chocolate every day, and you give it up for Lent, every time you reach for an M&M but realize you cannot eat it, I would bet you remember your faith in God. Is that not the point of this exercise?

Regardless of what you gave up, if you have not started yet there is still plenty of time. I vowed to give up my time, by praying a rosary once a day. I thought it would line up with our beliefs as a Knight, sound fairly religious in nature, and allow me to pray for something daily. I’ll admit I already missed a day, but I also ate a Turkey sandwich on Ash Wednesday only realizing afterward that I blew it. Back to the Sin Bin! I will keep trying, and I encourage my Brother Knights to do the same. 20 days might not be 40, but it sure sounds better than zero.

I also want to take a moment to single out our wonderful Financial Secretary, Brother John Sheldon. Last weekend at Pasta For Life, John not only baked two dozen cookies for the raffle, but he single-handedly put together a “kids raffle” that was the highlight of the night. So many kids left our dinner happy and it was all because of Brother John’s creativity and sincere effort. Being a Financial Secretary is a thankless job, but I honestly thank John every day, and I can’t wait to hear about his upcoming pilgrimage to Spain.

And speaking of Pasta For Life, a big thank you to Deputy Grand Knight Adam Struck, his lovely wife, and brother Dave Carboni. Their collective efforts raised nearly $2,000 dollars for the Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home and the Sacramento Life Center. And they did such a good job promoting the event that a real “Pro Choice” protester showed up and picketed our dinner. Now that is a job well done.

Most Sincerely,
Bryan McKrell
Grand Knight, Council 953

Dear Brother Knights:

The Council continues to thrive, but there is no doubt that we need more Knights. January was a busy month for the Council, highlighted by a fantastic dinner followed by the longest business meeting of my tenure as Grand Knight. Two weeks later we had an outstanding crab feed, put on by Al Picardo and his lovely wife Peggy. The highlight of the night was the thrilling wins by George Mills and Kevin Riley during the raffle. I’m sure the crab feed will be another financial triumph for the Council but we can’t simply raise funds and consider ourselves successful. We also must be impactful with our charity, and our community outreach.

Brother Dale Edwards reported at the Officers meeting that over 175 children at St. Mary’s school participated in the annual free throw contest, with another large group of children participating at Sacred Heart. These are fabulous numbers which represent one of our most impactful community outreach programs that we participate in as a Council. In addition to these, we have our largest charitable donations slated to be disbursed over the next three months. Scholarships for students at Christo Rey, stipends for seminarians, money to help support Pro-Life groups and children trying to visit their parents in prison. These incredible causes are worthy of our support, and I look forward to seeing these checks written and disbursed by our Financial Secretary.

But to grow our ranks, and thus provide more energy, manpower and enthusiasm to increase our charitable giving, we must create more opportunities to volunteer and be present at the parishes we represent. We must develop stronger relationships with the priests that fall under our Council and reach out to them to see how we can be of assistance. It would be my goal, and my wish, to see us help out at least once during this Columbian year at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and Immaculate Conception parish. We know that the Bishop has put an extra layer of bureaucracy on our Order, to insure the safety of our young people by requiring finger printing and training classes, but we are going to cross that hurdle next month. I have scheduled in person training and finger printing to take place at our March business meeting so that any Knight who wishes to volunteer, will be able to fulfill the Bishop’s wishes with very little inconvenience. By being present at the Parishes we represent, and volunteering there, we give ourselves a chance to recruit more Brother Knights to our Order.

So, in the spirit of our Brother Dale Edwards, let’s reach out to our parishes and create an opportunity over the next four months to be present and helpful at our local parishes. St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart, The Cathedral. St. Francis, Immaculate Conception, St. George, Holy Spirit, and St. Andrew’s are all waiting for their Knights to make an appearance. Let’s see if we can find our way to perform a little outreach and show our potential Brothers what we are all about.

Most Sincerely,
Bryan McKrell
Grand Knight, Council 953