2013 International Family of the Year
On August 7th 2013, we had an amazing and deeply humbling experience of receiving the Knights of Columbus 2013 International Family of the Year award. After receiving the award, Mary and I asked why us? After a lot of prayer, we felt God was asking us to share a beautiful treasure that we received 23 years ago as a wedding gift: the Our Marriage Prayer. We've prayed it every night since then and it has helped us to keep our marriage and family strong through many medical challenges with our son Marcus. And thus, the Our Marriage Prayer ministry was born!
The following video was taken at the Supreme Convention where we received the award. Towards the end of my speech, my son Marcus received a standing ovation! He has been dealing with kidney failure all his life so it was very special.
2013 State Leadership Meetings
During the fall of 2013, my family gave a presentation on the Our Marriage Prayer at each of the five diocesan leadership meetings. It was great to have all five kids get involved in the presentation!
Our Marriage Prayer 2014
This was the first Our Marriage Prayer Sunday and it was held on Sunday March 2nd, 2014. My council celebrated it at all 3 masses at our home parish of St. Peter and Paul in Hortonville, WI. It was fantastic to hear that about 70 councils across the state participated as well as over 12,000 marriage prayer cards were distributed to the councils and handed out to parishioners.
Wisconsin 2014 State Convention
At the 2014 Wisconsin Knights of Columbus state convention, the state officers submitted Resolution 26 that recommends all councils promote the Our Marriage Prayer to all council members and the members of the parishes they serve. The resolution was adopted and can be found here. Here is the key paragraph from the resolution.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that in keeping with Pope Francis vision that a stable union of man and woman in marriage is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God's own love and the importance of including God in marriage, the Wisconsin State Council encourages every subordinate council to promote the following daily "Marriage Prayer" to all of their members and the members of the Parishes that they serve.