Spaghetti Dinner to Benefit Fire Victim

Our next meeting is this Friday at St. Mary in Pinckney. 

We encourage any hungry and charitable families to come early to the church for a benefit dinner to support a parishioner whose home recently burned down. Please see the image at the right for further details.

40 Days for Life!

We are changing things up a bit for our next meeting on All Saint's Day. As part of 40 Days for Life, we will meet up at Holy Spirit at 7:00 PM then drive down as a group to the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Ann Arbor. Our scheduled time to peacefully pray for an end to abortion is between 8:00 and 9:00. Please join us, and bring your whole family! 

Father/Son Pancake Breakfast & Talk by Fr. Mark Rutherford

The club boys (ages 12-16) have organized an event that will be held THIS Saturday March 23. It is a pancake breakfast for fathers and sons in our area. It will be preceded by Holy Mass and include a special Lenten Spiritual talk by our dear friend, Fr. Mark Rutherford. His theme will be "staying close to Jesus in these times".

The boys want to offer something to our community and at the same time, spread the word about Conquest to their peers. So please, help them get the message out!

Our awards ceremony for the Winter 2013 Campaign will take place immediately afterward. Families are welcome to join us as we recognize the boys for their achievements during the "Obedience" Campaign. 

Stations of the Cross

This Friday, we will meet as a group at St. Mary parish in Pinckney to pray the Stations of the Cross. Afterward, we will regroup back at the barn for the remainder of the meeting.

The object of the Stations is to help the faithful to make in spirit, as it were, a pilgrimage to the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death, and this has become one of the most popular of Catholic devotions. It is carried out by passing from Station to Station, with certain prayers at each and devout meditation on the various incidents in turn. It is very usual, when the devotion is performed publicly, to sing a stanza of the "Stabat Mater" while passing from one Station to the next. (source)

Habemus Papam! ConQuest Conclave 2013

At our most recent meeting, we held our own "mock" Conclave to elect the next Pope! The boys (and some of the dads) donned red mitres and learned about the history of Papal Conclaves and the process by which the Pope is chosen. They each assumed the identity of actual Cardinals of the Church, some of whom are considered among the papabile, literally "pope-able", candidates. 

Unlike a real Conclave, cell phones with cameras were obviously permitted!

One-by-one the Cardinals cast their secret ballots. There was a run-off between the top two vote-getters: Peter Cardinal Turkson of Ghana and Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco of Italy. When the final votes were verified, these words were announced to all present:

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam! Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Angelo, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bagnasco, qui sibi nomen imposuit Connor I."

("I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope! The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Angelo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Bagnasco, who takes to himself the name Connor I.")

We had a lot of fun with this. But the boys were reminded that we cannot predict the outcome of the actual Papal Conclave. Only God knows who the Cardinals will choose under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

May God grant His Holiness Benedict XVI many years of prayer and rest! May He bless us with a Holy Father who will continue the work of his esteemed predecessor for the good of the Church!

Father/Son Pancake Breakfast & Talk by Fr. Mark Rutherford

The club boys (ages 12-16) are organizing an event that will be held on Saturday March 23. It is a pancake breakfast for fathers and sons in our area. It will be preceded by Holy Mass and include a special Lenten Spiritual talk by our dear friend, Fr. Mark Rutherford. His theme will be "staying close to Jesus in these times".

The boys want to offer something to our community and at the same time, spread the word about Conquest to their peers. So please, help them get the message out!

Rome Pics

In our first meeting back after the Christmas holiday, Mr. Borek shared photos from his recent journey to Rome with Mr. Burke and the boys in the Catholic Central marching band. Here are just a few of them for your enjoyment.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Ad multos annos!

Mr. Borek in front of St. Peter's Basilica

Go, Joe!

I miss him already!

Mr. Burke and Mr. Borek at the tomb of Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta,
"Little Daughter of the Divine Will", whose cause for anonization is under review





Mass near the tomb of a former Pope



CatholicQuiz.com Advent Challenge Results

Well, the results of the Conquest CatholicQuiz.com Advent Challenge are in! From the Conquest Leaders Newsletter from January:

There were a total of 19 Programs signed up for the Contest. Everybody who played learned key things about their Catholic faith and everyone had fun.

Congratulations to the winners of the Conquest Advent Contest 2012 at CatholicQuiz.com! This year's competition was a very close race between Marvin Duarte's Junior Program at Holy Rosary in Milton, Ontario and David Wilson's Junior Program at Holy Rosary in Pickering, Ontario. In fact, only 13 points separated the two Programs! Marvin Duarte's Juniors achieved a grand total of 10,307 CQ-IQ points at 85% accuracy rate.

David Wilson's Juniors made 10,295 CQ-IQ points at a 78.6% accuracy rate! Wow! What a competition that went right down to the wire on Christmas Eve! There was some strategy employed by both the Duarte and Wilson Programs, but they both get credit for playing themes across the board. Accuracy really helps in the total scoring as can be seen by the fact that Holy Rosary outscored Holy Redeemer even though the one played fewer games - 622 to the other at 1,016. Andrew Serafini's Father/Son Program from St. James in Calgary gets honorable mention because of achieving the highest percent correct score even though the Program played significantly fewer games. Congratulations to everyone that participated in this year's Advent Contest.

Our program achieved a grand total of.....607 points. Needless to say, we will need to seriously step up our game if we hope to take on our brothers North of the border! 

Good news: the next Contest kicks off on Ash Wednesday, February 13. Let's be prepared this time.

CatholicQuiz.com Advent Challenge is Underway!

Our Conquest Club has an annual membership for CatholicQuiz.com – an interactive website with games and quizzes that build religious understanding, curiosity and confidence in learning our faith tradition. Every Conquest member has 24/7 access to the entire CatholicQuiz.com website with over 7,500 Church-approved Q+A presented in 14 easy to access quiz games.

CONQUEST ANNUAL NATIONAL

ADVENT CHALLENGE

Who:         All the clubs in North America can compete against each other!

What:       Choose from more than a dozen quiz games playable in 2-minutes or less to earn CQ-IQ points for your club!

When:       Login and play everyday between November 28^th and December 24^th

Winner:    The club with the most CQ-IQ points for games played and questions answered correctly will win a PIZZA PARTY!

As the boys play online, they will accrue CQ-IQ points (for their club) across ten different knowledge categories and four challenge levels. Our club will earn points for every game played and every question answered correctly (15 points possible in most games).  Play after school, play for a study break, play in carpool on iPhone and iTouch. Play one game or more each day of Advent – like your own personal Advent Calendar.

  

1.      Go to www.CatholicQuiz.com

2.      Click on Login in the upper right hand corner

3.      Enter your assigned login and password

4.      Click Login to land on your clubs MyCQ page

5.      Choose a game, check your Scorekeeper – EXPLORE THE SITE!

6.      No cost to individual boys!

Go Support Father Gabriel Richard Football This Saturday!

From one of our Conquest parents:

Just wanted to invite anyone who may be interested to come to Howell High School at 1:00 Saturday to watch our son and the Father Gabriel Richard's football team as they play in the Division 5 Semi-finals against Portland.

 

This is the farthest Gabriel Richard has ever gone in the playoffs, and we are hoping for a lot of support and noise from fans on Saturday. From what we hear, the whole town of Portland is behind their team, so we want to invite as many FGR supporters as possible!

 

If you can't make it to the game, it will be streamed live on foxsportsdetroit.com (click on the Prep zone).

 

This sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Of course, coming directly to Conquest afterward can only make it better!

 

Please pray for the success and safety of all the players!

Recap of Our First-Ever Morning Meeting

Thanks to all of you who were able to rearrange your schedules last Saturday. Our apologies to those of you who were unable to make the change. It was a rare occurrence that allowed us to participate in the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally in Howell. There was a small turnout this time so our presence was very well-received. God willing, our federal government will soon cease with its unconstitutional attacks and these rallies will become unnecessary. 

Even though the meeting was shorter than usual, the boys had a great time with formation. Plus, we had time for a whiffleball home run derby and fathers vs. sons dodge ball. Nicely played, boys; we'll get you next time!

We now return to a regular meeting schedule of every other Saturday. We'll see you on the evening of Saturday November 3rd!

STAND UP Rally in Howell this Saturday at noon!

Right To Life - Livingston County is holding another Stand Up Rally for Religious Freedom this Saturday from Noon until 1:00 PM at the historic Howell Courthouse. Over 140 rallies such as this will take place nationwide at the same time.

The first two nationwide rallies were held on March 23 and June 8 with a total of over 300 cities and 125,000 participants.

This is a perfect opportunity for our ConQuest families and friends to make a statement to those in government and in our communities who do not value our rights as individuals to live our Catholic Faith freely. 

For additional information, please contact RTL Livingston County at 810-227-5788.

Lugnuts Game Recap

Ok, so this post is a bit overdue. But it has been a busy off-season so far!

I posted some photos from our trip out to the ballpark for your enjoyment. They are in a slideshow that you will find on the right hand side of the blog. If you happen to have any other photos of your own, please feel free to send them to conquestbrighton@gmail.com and I can add them.

We had such a great time this year and what a way to wrap it up! The weather was perfect, the pre-game tailgate in the park was a blast, and although the Lugnuts did not prevail that night, the fireworks more than made up for it!

I hope you all enjoy the summer! Our next season is just around the corner, and it should be one of our best!

Final Awards & Lansing Lugnuts Family Outing

Tomorrow evening, well over 50 of us will head west to Lansing to watch the Lansing Lugnuts take on the Bowling Green Hot Rods. This has become an annual tradition for our ConQuest club and we are very excited to see so many family and friends joining us for the event this year!

The latest weather forecast hints at the possibility of a stray thunderstorm a few hours before gametime with temps in the low 70s. As of yesterday, the forecast was drier and warmer. We may still see further changes, so you may wish to plan for various possibilities! 

The game starts at 7:05 PM at Cooley Law School Stadium, but we are planning to meet by 6:00 for a pre-game "tailgate" party and to hand out the final awards for the season. For this purpose, the Lugnuts organization recommended to us the Adado Riverfront Park, which is just a short walk from the stadium. Parking is available along North Grand Avenue and in the covered structure just to the south. There should be plenty of other options in the vicinity, as well. 

We ask that each family brings a main dish of their own plus something to share (such as a dessert, drink, salad, or chips). Just to be safe, everybody should plan for their own utensils.

The final point tally and awards will be announced at about 6:30, and then we will walk over to the game. The Lugnuts have the best record in the entire Midwest League, and second-place Bowling Green is desperately trying to chip away at their lead. So the we should see some very exciting baseball! Afterward, there will be a fireworks display which I have heard is itself worth the trip out to the game! 

Feel free to add your own comments or suggestions in the box below.  

Calendar Update: No Meeting This Weekend!

There was a meeting on our calendar for Saturday April 28th at 6:00 PM. But as a result of at least two conflicts, it is necessary to reschedule this meeting.

St. Mary School is having its 15th annual benefit auction the same evening beginning at 6:00 PM.

Also, our older boys will be competing against other ConQuest clubs throughout the weekend in the 2012 John Paul II Sports Tournament. This event will take place at Everest Academy in Clarkston. Please keep the boys in your prayers!

Celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy

Holy Spirit Parish will be hosting a very special 2-day event beginning on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Tell All Souls About My Mercy

A live, dramatic presentation by

Dave & Joan Maroney, co-directors of "Mother of Mercy Messengers" *

 

April 15th, 2012 (Divine Mercy Sunday) 2:00PM - 4:00PM

2:00-3:00PM: Dramatic presentation about St. Faustina & the Divine Mercy

3:00-4:00PM: Eucharistic Adoration, Prayers, Songs, & Confession

(Refreshments to follow in the Activity Center)

April 16th, 2012 (Monday) 8:00AM & 10:00AM

8:00AM: Presentation for students & families

10:00AM: Presentation for students & families

(Refreshments to follow in the Activity Center)

  

*"Mother of Mercy Messengers" (MOMM) is an Apostolate of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA. www.thedivinemercy.org/momm

COURAGEOUS Movie at St. Patrick

We have NO MEETING this weekend. So, if you are looking for soemthing to do, you might wish to consider this:

St. Patrick parish in Brighton will be showing the film Courageous downstairs in McCann Hall on two separate days this week. In case you were unaware, Holy Spirit held a showing of the film when we were out of town on our retreat. Here is another convenient opportunity to enjoy it.

While you are there, invite some dads and boys to our ConQuest club!

Here are the details:
Location: St. Patrick's McCann Hall (in the parish basement) www.stpatchurch.org
Times: Thursday March 22nd at 7:00PM & Friday March 23rd (immediately following the 7:00PM Stations of the Cross)
Suggested donation: $5 individual and $10 for couple/family
I was informed that refreshments will be provided.
This film is recommended for ages 13 and up, but use your own discretion.http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/courageous