Forums — strength in numbers

It goes without saying that we all want to grow in our faith, but how, practically, do we do this? From the beginning, God’s plan was for us to live our lives in community, with supportive relationship with others. One of the key elements of Legatus is to provide members the opportunity to develop supportive friendships with peers who not only share common life experiences and challenges (i.e., in business), but who also share a deep commitment to their faith. Spiritual Forums take this Legatus experience to a deeper level by providing members an opportunity for spiritual growth at a personal level. They are meant to provide a trustworthy resource for peer discussion from a Catholic perspective with prayerful concern for each other.

Let me tell you about my path to forming a spiritual forum. In the past, I have shared about the impact that spiritual reading has had in helping me to grow in my faith. I remember going on a Legatus retreat in May of 2013, which took place at Mundelein Seminary.

During the retreat, I picked up a book, Navigating the Interior Life by Daniel Burke. In the book, Burke talks about the importance of having a spiritual director, so I sought one out and we started meeting regularly. When we got together, he listened to what was going on in my life and recommended different things to help me grow in my faith. After meeting with him for about a year, he encouraged me to get involved with a men’s group (i.e., a spiritual forum) as a means to go deeper in my spiritual life. He explained that this environment of mutual trust and accountability with other Catholic men, who are peers, would be an impetus to my spiritual growth. So, I reached out to several men in my chapter, five of us in all, and we started a spiritual forum. That was seven years ago, and we have been meeting monthly ever since. These relationships and monthly meetings have provided me a great deal of support. Because the group is not too big, each of us typically has time to go around and share what is going on in our lives each time we get together. Over time, our relationships have developed, and I know I can trust these men. We share freely and openly with each other and genuinely enjoy each other’s company.

If you are not currently a part of a Legatus spiritual forum, I encourage you to prayerfully consider joining or starting one.

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12

TOM MONAGHAN is Legatus’ founder, chairman and CEO.