December 2021 Newsletter
Men Alive weekend draws young professionals to learn, experience virtues of true manhood
Midtown Cultural Center hosted its second annual Men Alive weekend for young professionals, focusing this time on the essential elements of true manhood. Perspectives came from speakers Doug Hinderer, Rich McEwen, Jim Klein, Dan Cheely and Marc Porter. The five speakers lent unique insights on how to improve on one’s God-given masculinity in a world that would have men cast it away. A common theme was service to others.
The weekend was held at a Wisconsin lake house and was over-subscribed. The final registrants were told that they were welcome to attend, but would have to bring a sleeping bag and camp out on the floor. That didn’t deter numerous participants who were happy to partake of the weekend.
Doug, currently a marriage and family therapist, cited virtues like magnanimity, prudence and temperance as key ingredients to self-mastery so that a man can channel energy away from self and to others. Doug said, ‘And to do so, we must, yes, look to the perfect man in Jesus, but also the perfect husband in Joseph. To solve this crisis of saints we must solve the crisis of men.’
Rich McEwen, a retired pilot, followed with a militaristic approach to battling our dragons - our vices - with sharpened spear and the armor of virtue. For Rich, true masculinity begins with self-dominion in everyday life and detachment from our comforts. This takes on concrete substance when given the many opportunities to serve at home.
Formerly the CFO of Kraft, Jim Klein offered a different perspective, warning about common traps to avoid when pursuing professional success: wealth, pleasure, power and honor. “Untethered, they can be dangerous without temperance. With discipline, they can be vehicles for helping others.”
Dan Cheely, a retired law partner, treated us to a showing of world-renowned film, Casablanca. This was the starting point for a discussion about service, “This life is about pumping out more good for others, not to indulge in the self. We receive natural joy if we do this.”
The film paired nicely with Marc Porter’s emphasis on forging good friendships. “Seek the good for others and we begin to imitate both Jesus who gave everything to his friends and us. The closer we are to God, our hearts expand to understand others and has more room to love others.”
The sage advice was accompanied by plenty of good guy-time. On Saturday afternoon a high-flying flag football game brought out the competitive spirit among participants. We returned to the warmth of the lake house, a barbecue dinner, and discussion of the ideas offered earlier in the day.
Book Review: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
What does Zeno, an amateur Greek scholar who is rehearsing a play with middle-school children at a public library in Lakeport, Idaho in the year 2020 have to do with Anna, a fourteen year old orphan, who meets Omeir, a gentle country boy with a cleft palate, during the siege of Constantinople in 1453? How are they connected to Konstance, an intrepid teenage girl locked in a vault next to an artificially intelligent computer on board a starship as it hurtles through the depths of space sometime around the year 2100? And what about that boy, Seymour, an ecoterrorist who is sitting outside that Idaho library with a bomb in his backpack?
In his new novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr (author of All the Light We Cannot See, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2014) weaves these geographically and historically disparate stories together into a tapestry of human choices and relationships, a tapestry supported and dynamically held together by “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” an ancient Greek fable (invented by Doerr). As we skip forward and backward and sideways through time, repeatedly jumping from Idaho to Constantinople to the spaceship Argos and back to Idaho again, we come to perceive how human choices and history contribute to the preservation and transmission of this fable and, at the same time, how even a relatively minor and unknown literary work affects the lives, dreams, and motivations of human beings throughout different times and places, and ties them (and us) together into a grander and more sublime story that continues, even now, to be written.
In preparation for Christmas, Pope Francis encourages us to focus on Christ and others
In preparation for Jesus’ birth at Christmas, Pope Francis encouraged us to be ever open to God’s love for us. “Let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by God's compassionate and tender closeness, and by the Christmas atmosphere that art, music, songs and traditions bring to our hearts […]” he said in an address to the groups from Peru and Italy who donated the nativity scene and Christmas tree for St. Peter’s Square. The Holy Father warned us not fall into consumerism or indifference to others during this special time. He said that Christ’s arrival as a baby is an invitation to care of our brothers and sisters, particularly the poor and marginalized. Christ himself was born poor and marginalized. (Lk 2:7, “[Mary] wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”).
100 Nativity Scenes in St. Peter’s Square
Besides the large Nativity Scene from Peru in the center of St. Peter’s Square, there is also an exposition called ‘100 Nativity Scenes’ on display encircling the Square, underneath the Colonnade. There are a total of 126 cribs exhibited this year from countries such as Italy, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Indonesia, Uruguay, Colombia and the United States. There is even a nativity scene made entirely of chocolate that weighs 220 pounds.
If we can’t make it to St. Peter’s Square in Rome this year, we could still be inspired set up at least one Nativity Scene in our home and to visit Nativity Scenes at the different churches in the city in which we live. It is a wonderful way prepare for and get excited about Jesus’ arrival at Christmas.
Evenings of Recollection for Men
The schedule and location for Evenings of Recollection in English are as follows:
For young professional men: Second Monday of the month, 7:00-9:00pm
For men: Third Monday of the month, 7:00-9:00pm
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