Ask a first-timer what set the Be Not Afraid Men’s Conference apart and the answer may surprise you. Not the speakers or the program, but the sound of 400 men singing the Ave Maria.
“Because of the depth of a man’s voice, there’s a beauty in that,” he said. “You feel strength and unity here when we sing and pray to Mary, pray to God.”
Men from across the Archdiocese of Sydney and beyond gathered at St Mary’s Cathedral Hall on Saturday 19 September for the annual conference, run by Maximus Men’s Ministry, within the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation.
This year’s theme, The World, the Flesh and the Devil: Battle and Victory, named the three enemies of the spiritual life head-on.
“Men are confronted with these every day, day in and day out,” organiser Michael Jaksic said. “Today is a day of encouragement for them to identify these struggles.”
Many arrived with that battle already in view. Laith Dababneh, of St John the Beloved Melkite Catholic Church in Greenacre, is married with three children.
“I’ve got a job, the usual pressures of life,” he said. “I come here to hit reset and go out there as a stronger husband and father.”
For Peter Haddad, also from Greenacre, it is about staying the course. “I find that when I stop, that’s when I slip into sin or bad habits,” he said. “So, it’s almost like a habit I need to develop.”
Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP gave the keynote on the world, reminding the men that creation is good and worth caring for, while urging vigilance against the obstacles it can place in their path.
Paul Ninnes of Real Talk then tackled the flesh, presenting confronting statistics on pornography and the damage it has done to masculinity in the modern age.
“It’s confronting stuff, but really crucial to be touched on, to save our generation, to save the culture, to save our world,” said Francis Bryson of Holy Innocents parish, Croydon.
Dababneh agreed. “More often than not, these are hidden dangers that we shy away from. But being able to confront them as men, as a group, is a blessing.”
Jaksic said the message was humbling but full of hope. “As St Paul says, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
Fr Ronnie Maree spoke on the ways the devil exploits men in the spiritual life, before a Q&A panel of Bishop Richard Umbers, Mr Ninnes, Fr Lewi Barakat and Fr Ronnie took questions from the floor.
Sarkis Khoury summed up what many had come for. “We’re simple men, we’re strong men, but a lot of us lack discipline,” he said. “This is what it is. It’s formation.”
Brotherhood ran through the day. Two friends who played basketball together 25 years ago found themselves side by side once more.
“Life takes you on a journey,” one said. “Now we’re reconnected, and faith has reconnected us as well.”
Another attendee looked across the hall and saw “brotherhood, camaraderie, fellowship.” “But I also see desire in their hearts and their eyes to really want to be better,” he added.
Fr Adrian Simmons, chaplain at UNSW, said the real fruit is being borne well beyond the conference, in the men’s groups and Bible studies springing up across Sydney. “That’s where the real work is really starting to flourish,” he said. “You can see it in the archdiocese now.”
Jaksic hopes every man left knowing the battle has already been won.
“Despite all the obstacles and the stresses and the struggles they might face, our Lord has conquered it before them,” he said. “They can also conquer those obstacles in the grace of Christ.”
