Brother Knights,
On July I attended the VA State organizational meeting and the 10th National Eucharistic Congress. The organizational meeting was a great kickoff to the new fraternal year and focused on many of the practical works and programs we have planned. All of you should have an email listing council activities in August and if you have not received it, please reach out to me and/or our Financial Secretary, Brian Ripple, so we can confirm the contact information we have for you.
All our charitable works are necessary, yet we should always remain grounded in our Catholic faith. The Eucharistic Congress was an extraordinary call to renewal of our Catholic faith and many attendees, including my wife and I, witnessed this. The mission we have now is to spread this call to renewal. How does this renewal happen? To borrow the words of Fr. Mike Schmitz’s keynote speech: “you can never have revival without repentance”. This is a reminder for me and all of you to go to regular confession. What do we do next? Per Bishop Robert Barron’s closing from his keynote speech:
“Your job: bring the lumen to the gentles. Bring the light of Christ out into the secular world. This great revival will have been a failure if we don’t change our society, if we don’t stream forth from this place with the Light of Christ. Become the people you’re meant to be.
Catherine of Sienna said it: ‘become the people God wants you to be and you will set the world on fire’”.

James Valenzuela
Grand Knight

Vivat Jesus Brother Knights! I just got back from the Virginia State KofC Convention and I saw a little of how other Knight Councils are doing and what problems they are running into. Which is pretty much the same as we are facing. I would like to see us being a little more involved with our parishes and not asked to help just when there is a beer tent or a grill to be manned. It was inspiring to see over 170 Knights get together. Our State Chaplin, Bishop Loverde, wanted me to pass on that he continues to pray for all the Knights and their families and Fr Sal, one of our Assistant State Chaplains, wanted us to pass on to our councils to please thank our priests. They pray daily 7 times for us and our families.I look forward to seeing what ideas come up from this weekend and what lies ahead for Council 562

Vivat Jesus!

Worthy Brother Knights,
Where are you? What are you doing to help those around you? Ukraine is fighting for its continued existence from Russia. France looks like it is about to mobilize for war. Haiti’s government has fallen and the capital (just a 2 hr air flight from Florida) is in chaos. What are you doing? To quote the song of a Christian Rock singer he said he asked God why don’t you do something. God said “I did – I created you”. No one is going to appear and solve the issues going on in the world with a magic wave of their hand. It is up to us to do something – in our homes, in our churches, our neighborhoods, and so on.
So I am still trying to reach out to the members of Council 562. What do you want to be involved in? What charities do you want to support? What family activities do you want us to host? What do you want us to do? If you don’t tell us then it will be just a few officers deciding for everyone.
I and all of the Council officers wish you all a Happy holy week and a Joyous Eastertide.

Vivat Jesus!

Clyde Moak,
Grand Knight Council 562

Worthy Brother Knights,
I hope that you all are doing well this Lent. It has been a fast start to the year and we are now just a few weeks from Easter. During this time of reflection I wanted to reach out to all of you. There are so many of you that obviously value being a Knight that you continue to pay your dues year after year. Many of you have not graced the doors of our council home for years.
What will it take to bring you back?
What do you want to see from this council?
What events do you want us to do?
Do you want us to bring back anything in particular?
Special Dinners?
Dances?
Any specific local charities or events you want us supporting?
Please let me know. What can we do that will bring you out to be involved?
Do you want us doing more at St Andrews? St Elias? OLN?
I have heard of the past where the council hosted local teams in softball, bowling and golf. I
even heard of annual picnics out in the city parks. What do you as Knights of this council want to see. Please send me your ideas and wants. Email me atGK562@vakofc.org or drop a note to:

Grand Knight
PO Box 20974
Roanoke VA 24018

We want to see you all back involved with the
council. Please let us know what you would
like to do.
Vivat Jesus!

Worthy Brother Knights,

Hope your new year has been good so far. We are now entering the busiest time for our council – Lent and through spring has multiple events. We have everything from parties to fish fries to dinners to religious formation events. I ask everyone to please watch for notes and emails regarding all these going forward. I hope to see many of you at these different events and look forward to seeing how 2024 rolls out for us.

We will be holding an organizational meeting at the Council Home on Monday, February 19th at 7pm to just put dates on the calendar for events for the rest of the fraternal year. Please come and let your opinions and ideas be known.

I know that at least 2 of our Brothers are having issues getting email blasts so please let me know if you are having issues and I will make sure to email you directly.

Vivat Jesus!
Clyde Moak,
Grand Knight Council 562

Worthy Brother Knights,

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Welcome to 2024. If last year is any indication, then this will definitely be a interesting year. We have some interesting plans in place heading into the summer, so please keep your eyes open for things to come. We are planning on running a membership drive at the parishes. If you have any ideas about that please let us (the council officers) know.

We also have our fish fries coming soon enough. Actually I am putting sign up sheets out on the bar for each day so please sign up in advance! A sign up genius will come out closer to the events. We also have a dinner or two being planned but those are still in idea stages right now but will let you know as soon as we have some dates in play. A new year is a great time to look at one’s self and decide to do more in one area of life or another. If you are interested in getting more involved in the council and/or it’s volunteer work then please let us know and we will be glad to help point you in the right direction.

Lastly I want to make a quick mention about all the different things I have heard from different areas about the Pope authorizing blessings. You will note stopped from saying “blessing same sex couples” because it directly says not to do that. Remember that there are many blessings in the church, blessings of the sick, for those in distress, blessing of last rites, blessing on homes, and many more. These are all blessings that are allowed and should be offered to everyone. Don’t listen to what is said on Fox or CNN or the New York Times. Listen to what is said by priests and bishops about this.

Thank is all I have for you all this month. I look forward to seeing you all soon

Vivat Jesus!
Clyde Moak,
Grand Knight Council 562

Worthy Brothers,

I hope that you all have been enjoying the summer months. I went to the state meeting earlier this month and the message that the State and Supreme had for all the councils was that our priests need help. Everyone knows that the parishes have had smaller masses after COVID than before and that many parishionersdid not come back to the church after the pandemic.

Our priests during this time worked hard to keep the faith strong and to shepherd their flocks which all were diminished. It made me think about how that felt to our priests. Our State Chaplin Bishop Loverde was very eloquent when he spoke to us and asked us to help our priests. The failure was not with our priests but within the frail hearts of men.

That is why we are having this National Eucharistic Revival. It is to inspire us. It is to help stoke the fires that have dimmed in the hearts of men. That is what we are being asked to help within our parishes. We are called to show faith, hope and charity in action to others so that the spirit can grow and spread. I amworking with the officers to solidify our programs for this next year, but that is our mindset going forward.

I thank you all in advance for your assistancein these endeavors.

Vivat Jesus!
Clyde Moak,
Grand Knight Council 562

Worthy Brother Knights,
We have once again come to July 4th. This is not only a very patriotic time but also stands as the end of our Fraternal Year. I am humbled that once again you have chosen to have me as your Grand Knight for another year.
I hope that this year will see us finish figuring out what and how we are as a council post-covid. WhatI need most is involvement from all of you. I need you all to tell me what you want to do. What dinners do you want to bring back? What Events that we did do you miss? Are there any that you wish we did?
What can I do to help you feel more welcome and part of this council? What will bring you in?
We have over 260 members. How do I reach out to the 200 of you that I don’t see and what do you want to do with this council that will have you active or at least come to one meeting/event.
Please email me at gk562@vakofc.org and leave me a message – even an anonymous one. Let me know where you want this council to go. Thank you.Vivat Jesus!

Clyde Moak,

Grand Knight Council 562

Brother Knights,

As this fraternal year comes to a close, I find a great sense of gratitude for all of the support from my brother knights in our council, district and state. This was my first time serving as grand knight and I was truly blessed to have the guidance from so many brother knights with experience as past grand knights. I look forward to opportunities to continue to serve this council, our parishes, and our state with all of you in the next fraternal year.

There were three brother knights who served as officers this fraternal year who will unfortunately be moving away. Special thanks to outside guard Julio Vazques, trustee P.J. Lyons PGK, and trustee John Krumpos PGK for their service and support, especially in the 2018-19 fraternal year. Each of you will always have a home here with our council and know that you go with our prayers.

Vivat Jesus,
James Valenzuela,
Grand Knight