Join us at St. Joseph Radio’s new location for a 6 week series, presented by Greg Robeson, to give us food for the journey in these summer months! The themes for each week are as follows:
WEEK 1: July 20, 2024 – Available on YouTube
“Do as I Do” – My task, let’s learn together the 10 habits that will help in the Journey…..
WEEK 2: July 27, 2024 – Available on YouTube
“Be Perfect and Say you’re Sorry” – Humility & Compassion, what a challenge!
WEEK 3: August 3, 2024 – Available on YouTube
“Supernatural Legacy” – A pool from which to drink
WEEK 4: August 10, 2024 – Available on YouTube
“What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up” – What is our ultimate goal?
WEEK 5: September 21, 2024 – Video coming soon!
“You Can Do Hard” – Don’t lead from where it is easy! Let’s capture the authentic Christian meaning of the phrase, “It Takes a Village”! Care enough to desire Heaven for all!
WEEK 6: September 28, 2024
“Don’t be Like the Hypocrites!” – The fear of hypocrisy is real! It is why parents avoid topics with kids. It’s why priests avoid topics from the pulpit…
Meet our speaker:
Greg Robeson has the reputation of being one of the most dynamic leaders of his time, starting parish-based youth and young adult programs all over St. Louis. He is the founder of “The Transcend Family Retreats”, with this year’s retreat to be held October 2024. Greg is a cradle Catholic who spent 15 years investing in the St. Louis Archdiocese building up pro-life ministries such as Life Really Matters, ThriVe Nation, and Missouri Alliance for Life. Greg did his undergrad at Fontbonne University and received his Master’s in Pastoral Theology from Ave Maria University in Naples, FL. Greg has been married to DeAnna and they have five children. In 2019, Greg sold the furniture company he built to take his family on the road full time. The Robesons traveled North America for four years, devoted to road-schooling their kids through cultural immersion. Greg has spoken at hundreds of conferences all over the nation. He has appeared as a guest on shows such as EWTN’s Life on the Rock. Greg has a rare ability to keep the attention and capture the hearts of people on many issues, in particular marriage and family life. You won’t miss a beat with this 6′ 10” fast talking, bible quoting athlete who loves to share his passionate love for Christ.
Limited space, registration is required!
Call for more information: (636)-447-6000
You can download the flyer here:
Full summary:
1 – “Do What I Do” You know the game of Simon Says? It is hard to copy perfectly, but your kids will copy you pretty closely. If you want them to keep the faith, don’t depend on a school or parish, and don’t give shallow lip service. Live the faith deeply, and so will they. Here we can go deeper into the “10 habits of highly effective Catholics”. Who are the families that “succeed in passing the torch?” What are the things they do well? Look at saint families. If we want the faith to be permanently rooted, let’s get practical and specific with copying the success of the saints in family life.
2 – “Be perfect and say you’re sorry” Hold the high standard (Mt 5:48) while expecting to fail. Don’t pretend perfection or make excuses for falling short. Saints don’t rationalize. Authoritarian styles come from insecurity. Accountability for the 10 Commandments has to be out of concern for growth in holiness, not avoiding personal frustration or guarding personal conveniences (“My life is easier when my kids obey”). There is tension between and complementarity among persistently raising the bar for your family, AND being compassionate with each other reflecting God’s mercy when we fail.
3 – “Supernatural Legacy” Be an “expert” on the faith so kids have a pool from which to drink. This does not mean be a “know it all”. Unless it is your job to be a theologian, don’t invest your time to be the family apologist, chasing a sense of authority that belongs to the Father. Being an expert is not about your bandwidth on Catholic trivia and doctrine. This is about being a reliable witness. You become like the people you are around. Can your kids watch the way you drive, wait in lines, or speak to your family or strangers when they are not around, and learn about the Kingdom of Heaven? Your legacy can’t be merely natural. My son might learn how the lawnmower works, but if that is the extent of my legacy, I am failing “my him” as a father. The formation my children receive from me will directly impact their particular judgment, and I have to answer for that as well as my own soul- Mt 18:6.
4 – “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?” Let go of vicarious success- create an environment for the authentic development of the human person on natural and supernatural levels. My pro basketball career ended with an ankle injury, and probably a poor work ethic- I did not have the grit to push through injury and perform at a level where I could be scouted. One of my boys loves to play basketball for fun. I could step in and direct his path, pushing him toward pro sports, to live through him, what was left unfinished in my life. If your daughter gets noticed for beauty or a certain skill, do you quietly take credit as if it reflects on you? Do you need your kids to perform in certain ways that complete you? Kids naturally want to please their parents. How would your kids say that you define “success”? The expectations they should be measuring themselves against are the same ones to which you hold yourself- sanctity. We need saints in every facet of human life, so encourage holiness and then let them do what they want.
5 – “You Can Do Hard” Be balanced in your evangelization approach to the faith and don’t lead from where it is easy. Parents are the proto-evangelists for their kids. As a parent, it is easy to lead from my own need for healing or preferences. If I were abused as a child, I might avoid counseling my kids on chastity, or if I excel in patience, I might raise super patient kids who lack humility and condescend impatient kids. We all need a balanced approach to growing in virtue. Provide your family with a spiritual bounty that goes beyond your abilities so your kids surpass you in virtue. Build a network of families that is not based just on sports or a preferred extracurricular. Find a youth group, mission trip, or an orthodox camp to build community. Not everyone has a dynamic parish where those attending Holy Mass attend out of love for Christ, or find ways to invest time on campus because investing in the Body of Christ is worth your time. Some kids get this enrichment from siblings, but more is better regarding influence in virtue. There is merit in the phrase “It Takes a Village”. Let’s capture the authentic Christian meaning of that phrase!
6 – “Don’t be Like the Hypocrites!” Jesus’s teaching on prayer in Mt 6:5 can pound me into submission. This combined with Mt 5:48, and I have zero spiritual game! How can I step out and lead my family with this kind of pressure? The fear of hypocrisy is real! It is why parents avoid topics with kids. It’s why priests avoid topics from the pulpit or their column. It’s why most Christians don’t correct obvious public offenses against the Commandments, even when this lack causes scandal. The teaching on prayer is addressing outward phonies, not imperfect Christians doing their best while falling short daily. Mt 5:48 is about having perfect love as our goal, and not shrinking from that, even though the only path forward with that goal is one of dependence on grace, not on our ability.
To the engaged/newly married, this is prep, to the empty nesters, this is healing. To everyone, when Truth is spoken, it helps release shame and guilt so you can prepare for your particular judgment. We all need to take responsibility for past shortcomings and shrink not from our upward calling. Let’s all step forward boldly with the goal of attaining salvation through Christ, and living that destiny fully today, even in the face of our great weaknesses. We don’t move the spiritual goalposts to feel like winners. We are not doing “stuck” anymore- even if your kids are not ready for the new you, become radically holy, and let the Holy Spirit do the convicting.