Mighty Men

Mighty Men

Mighty Men

30 mighty men in every diocese and 3 mighty men in every parish!

These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: 

 

Josheb-basshe′beth a Tah-che′monite; he was chief of the three;
he wielded his spear against eight hundred whom he slew at one time.

 

And next to him among the three mighty men was Elea′zar the son of Dodo, son of Aho′hi. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew. He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand cleaved to the sword; and the Lord wrought a great victory that day; and the men returned after him only to strip the slain.

 

And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Har′arite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the men fled from the Philistines.  But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and slew the Philistines; and the Lord wrought a great victory.

 

These things did Benai′ah the son of Jehoi′ada, and won a name beside the three mighty men.  He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.

 

2 Samuel 23:8-12, 22-23

Image if we had 30 mighty men working in every diocese and 3 mighty men working in every parish?  Imagine instead of slaining 800 we brought that number of men to Christ! There is nothing we could not do with the power of God!

We are coming out of a very difficult time in our lives and in the church and many ministries became inactive during the last 2 years. God Squad Canada, on the other hand, continued to reach the men of Southern Alberta and beyond. With the world normalizing again, we are receiving many requests for God Squad to do BBQ’s and works of service, not to mention trying to build the network of men in our diocese.  

 

We need you! 

 

Please prayerfully consider joining our mission with your gifts and talents. We would love to see you, and we would especially like to invite the young men to join us in the following apostolates. 

  • BBQ outreach, which is 2-4 hours of volunteer time depending on the event and what is being served. Recent examples are CCO banquet serving brisket, Bishop McNally Grade 12 retreat serving 500 Spolumbos and the same for the 200 at the Diocese Synod wrap up.
  • Parish leaders or captains to help build men’s ministry at the parish level and be a conduit for God Squad to invite men to events.
  • We have requests from Bishop McGrattan and the community to do different works of service. We have recently been asked to paint the church in Brocket and lead a procession for a statue of Our Lady of the Cape from the cathedral to the shrine in Canmore.
  • Disc Golf evangelization is a new endeavour that God Squad has undertaken.  It is still in its infancy and we are hoping to host a tournament, run clinics and create more disc artwork.

Please fill out this form and together we can win the day for Christ!

We are hoping to gather a team of 10 and be able to start and complete the work on a Saturday.
Right now we are tentatively looking to schedule this on one of the two last weekends’ of August 2022.

Disc Golf

Disc Golf

Why Disc Golf and God Squad?

Disc golf is a great fit for God Squad

By Sean Blair

My first exposure to disc golf was a number of years ago when my young family went out to the Canmore Nordic Centre.  We saw the maps of the course and thought “Hey, why not!  Throwing frisbees is fun!”. 

 

We rented our discs and trotted out to the first hole with our small army of (at the time) 6 young children and thought “how hard could it be?”

 

Very hard, actually.

 

We quickly found ourselves off in the trees looking for lost discs, and also found many young adults “playing through”.  Many of them, I noted, had full backpacks of discs, and seemed to know how to handle them.

 

After two holes of playing hide and seek with our discs, we decided maybe this wasn’t the right time and place for our family to figure this game out (Nordic Centre is a tough course), and we instead decided to do some orienteering.  

 

I found out that there was a tournament happening the next day and all the young adults playing through were doing their practice rounds for it.

 

I was intrigued at the passion and dedication that these players showed.

 

Fast-forward a number of years and my kids are getting older.  I see a course built in our local Baker Park in the NW of Calgary and I am intrigued.  My young teens show interest as well and we pick up a couple starter sets and now three years later, it has grown to a passion for our family as well (I don’t have the backpack yet, but I’m getting there!).

 

Disc Golf has a number of positive aspects to it: 

 

  • Depending on the course, pretty much all ages can play
  • It is challenging, and thus rewarding
  • It is easy to pick up (if you can throw a frisbee, you can play!), but difficult to master
  • Fosters socializing and camaraderie 
  • It is not uncommon to see babies in strollers along for the ride, thus is a great sport for the whole family!

 

So why would a Catholic men’s organization be jumping into disc golf?

 

It would seem that the sport is a great fit for God Squad:

 

  • A chance for men and their families to get outside and join other men in a meaningful pursuit
  • Healthy competition between men is always a good thing
  • An opportunity to encourage each other (Iron sharpens iron)
  • A chance to promote our patron Saint Joseph?  Yes Please!
  • Young men really enjoy the sport and it is still an approachable game for all skill levels
  • Last, but not least: Nothing beats a good Spolumbos BBQ after 18 “holes” of golf

 

We want to encourage you, as you register for this year’s conference, to pick up a set of discs, and plan to join us for the tournaments and activities being planned as we speak.  If you’ve been inactive during these past couple years of COVID, I could not recommend a better sport to get limber and moving again.

 

We’ll see you on the course!!



If you are interested in learning more about the sport, feel free to check out the following sites:

 

https://www.pdga.com/news/what-disc-golf-guide-parents-kids

 

https://calgarydiscgolf.com