Dear Brother Knights,

It is now the season of graduations, weddings, and transitions. Summer is the time when people move to new homes and begin new jobs. Summer is the time when even the earth itself springs to life in our hemisphere. For men and women of faith summer can also be a time of springing to a new and deeper life in Christ. For most of us these are the days when we have a chance to rest and recreate, that is, re-create ourselves. The opportunity in front of us to slow down, think, plan – time to be human and not a cog in the world’s great machine of profit and loss.

Christian men and women need this slower season of recreation as much as anyone else and maybe even more. We are people who must nourish our faith, our sense of closeness to the living Lord. Any other time of the year you may be too busy to do much more than the minimum of prayer. That is the reality of life in America. But now it is summer. Now – if you want to – you can linger with prayer. You might make a day pilgrimage to the National Shrine in Washington or to the grotto in Emmitsburg. You might decide to spend a little time every day with the Bible, reading even just a paragraph and then spending ten quite minutes in meditation. You might take up your rosary and offer the prayer for an increase in vocations or for a deeper respect for human life in our country. You might even take time to make a retreat.

Prayer and the summer days of re-creation go hand-in-hand. What a golden opportunity for anyone who really wants to grow close to the Lord! What will you do this summer?