Fr. Kolbe Wolniakowski, OSB, of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, gives the homily during Mass at the Sons of Thunder Men’s Retreat held at the farm of Joe and Mary June Cecil of Daviess County on Oct. 23-24. COURTESY OF ANDY TELLI
Retreat invites men to encounter Jesus, change their lives
BY ANDY TELLI, WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC
Jesus is inviting men to have an encounter with Him that will change their lives, just as it did for the apostles James and John. That was one of the messages heard during the recent Sons of Thunder Men’s Retreat sponsored by the Netbreakers Men’s Ministry at Precious Blood Parish in Owensboro.
“James and John were obviously fiery people,” said Dcn. Jay VanHoosier, diocesan director of faith formation and one of the speakers at the retreat. The Gospel of Mark says that Jesus named the brothers “Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder.”
“An encounter with Jesus changed their lives,” Dcn. VanHoosier said. “An encounter with Jesus should change your life as a man.”
“How did John get from being a son of thunder to the disciple whom Jesus loved?” Fr. Ray Clark, chaplain of Carmel Home and Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, asked during his talk at the retreat. “It goes through the cross.”
John saw that Jesus’ greatest hour was on the cross, Fr. Clark said.
“On the cross is a man as free as a man can be,” said Fr. Jason McClure, moderator of the curia, vicar for clergy, and director of St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center in Bowling Green, and another speaker at the retreat.
The current culture can pull us away from Christ’s invitation to be closer to Him, said Fr. McClure. But the laws of the Church free us to be the person Jesus meant us to be, he added.
In his talk at the retreat, Fr. Kolbe Wolniakowski, OSB, subprior of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, looked at the crucifixion through the eyes of James and John and the other apostles.
“You had to sort of feel defeated. Like, ‘Hey, I thought this was going to be the guy, this was going to be the one,’ Fr. Wolniakowski said. But with the resurrection “their whole life must have just changed. …
“To be sons of thunder is to understand how the cross changes our life,” he said.
Fr. McClure urged the men at the retreat to put Christ at the center of their lives. “If Christ is at the center of your life, everything is balanced,” he said.
“Sinning is not the worst thing,” Fr. McClure said. Worse is choosing to stay in the sin. But when we fall, Jesus is there urging us to get up, added Fr. McClure.
In his talk, Fr. Suneesh Mathew, pastor of St. Paul Parish in Leitchfield, pointed to St. Thomas. “Jesus does not abandon Thomas because he struggled to believe,” Fr. Mathew said. “He met him in the middle of his struggle.”
“Reaching out to people who are struggling is so important,” he said. “When you’re reaching out you see the goodness in people.”
Originally printed in the November 2026 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
