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Welcome To James L. Martin Council 637 The Knights Of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded by Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882, it was named in honor of the mariner Christopher Columbus. Originally serving as a mutual benefit society to low-income immigrant Catholics, it developed into a fraternal benefit society dedicated to providing charitable services, promoting Catholic education and actively defending Roman Catholicism in various nations.
The Knights of Columbus James L. Martin Council 637 started on January 19th, 1902 and continues the work of Father Michael J. McGivney. Our Band Of Brothers do this by promoting Charity, Unity, Fraternity, and Patriotism. Want to join or learn more contact us at
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‘Spiritual Lifeboats’ on the Titanic
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First in Faith and Charity
The urgent necessity of evangelizing men, bringing them closer to Christ and his Church, was front and center at the 141st Supreme Convention, held Aug. 1-3 in Orlando, Florida, under the theme “First in Faith and Charity.” “For Father McGivney and the rst Knights, faith and charity went hand in hand,” Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly told the delegates, clergy and guests gathered for his annual report at the opening business session Aug. 1 (see page 18). “In these di cult times, so much depends on the commitment to our mission,” the supreme knight continued. “Will we be credible witnesses to a living faith? Will ours be a charity that evangelizes? ... Our answer is the same as Father McGivney’s: Yes!” is past year, the Order’s more than 2 million members served 49 million volunteer hours and gave more than $185 million to charity in 2022. With regard to growing in faith, the Knights of Columbus is expanding Cor, an initiative focused on prayer, formation and fraternity that the supreme knight called “a game changer.
“A er a very successful pilot program in 21 jurisdictions, we’re preparing to roll Cor out to the entire Order,” Supreme Knight Kelly said. “Every Knight and every Catholic man, of any age, can nd value in Cor. I encourage you to make it a priority and invite the men of your parish.
Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori echoed the supreme knight’s urgency at the closing business session Aug. 3. Noting that faith and charity are gi s bestowed by baptism, he stressed that Knights have a responsibility to help each other develop these virtues:: “Every decision we make, every program we initiate, every leader we choose, every interaction we have among ourselves and with our partners in the Church — all this must begin from the central question: Does this help our men to grow in their faith and to lead lives of charity?”
For more info visit www.kofc.org/columbia
At the 141st Supreme Convention, Knights are called to make forming Catholic men the Order’s top priority
“The Blessed Sacrament”
April
Prayer:
ACT OF ADORATION I adore Thee, 0 Jesus, true God and true Man, here present in the Holy Eucharist, humbly kneeling before Thee and united in spirit with all the faithful on earth and all the blessed in heaven. In deepest gratitude for so great a blessing, I love Thee, my Jesus, with my whole heart, for Thou art all perfect and all worthy of love.
Give me grace nevermore in any way to offend Thee, and grant that I, being refreshed by Thy Eucharistic presence here on earth, may be found worthy to come to the enjoyment with Mary of Thine eternal and everblessed presence in heaven.
Amen.
The three Catholic priests on the doomed ship heroically brought comfort and absolution to its passengers until the end….By K.V. Turley
On the night of April 14, 1912, as RMS Titanic plowed through the Atlantic, all appeared to be in order. It was to prove a tragic illusion.
The ocean liner had set sail with much fanfare from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. The ship made first for the French port of Cherbourg to pick up passengers, crew and supplies, and then to Queenstown, Ireland. From there, the Titanic was bound for its final destination — New York City — due to arrive on the morning of April 17.
But the ship never did arrive: The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, and sank at 2:20 a.m. on Monday, April 15, with the loss of 1,516 lives.
Over a century later, the ship deemed “unsinkable” still haunts the public imagination. It has become a symbol of many things: luxury, innovation, social and class divisions, technological hubris. Yet, it endures as a sign of something else besides: the heroism of the priestly vocation. For as that Second Sunday of Easter drew to a close — a day that later became synonymous with Divine Mercy — three ordinary Catholic priests were called to become extraordinary martyrs to charity.
NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Of the 2,224 passengers on board the Titanic, three were priests: Father Thomas Byles, 42, from England; Father Juozas Montvila, 27, from Lithuania; and Father Josef Benedikt Peruschitz, 41, from Germany.
However glamorously the sea crossing may have been portrayed by the shipping company, for the priests, as for many passengers, it was simply a means to an end. Father Byles, a convert to Catholicism, was traveling to New York City to officiate at his brother’s wedding. Father Montvila was to begin life in that same city at a parish for Lithuanian immigrants. Father Peruschitz, a Benedictine monk and teacher, was heading to Minnesota to help start a school.
What linked the men was that which defined them: their priesthood. However, they also shared another quality, and that was their very ordinariness. None of them was considered remarkable by their superiors.
The main reason Father Peruschitz was chosen to go to the United States was because he was deemed young enough to adapt to the challenge. His brother monks at Scheyern Abbey in Bavaria had known a good priest and monk, but a man who in no way stood out. In fact, after his death the monastery struggled to say anything about him other than he had met his end as any monk would be expected to do.
Ordained in 1902, Father Byles had struggled for years with his health. He started his ministry in London but soon was sent to the countryside of Essex to escape the strain of city life. A small rural parish was thought about right for his gifts and aptitude.
Father Montvila, serving as a vicar in what is today northeastern Poland, had attended to the spiritual needs of the Unitates, Eastern-rite Catholics whose presence was unwelcome in czarist Russia. As a result, he was denied permission by the authorities to minister in his homeland. So that he could once again openly serve as a priest, his superiors dispatched him to America, where his brother, who lived in Brooklyn and helped cover his fare on the Titanic, was waiting to greet him.
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