There is a fair chance the socks you buy your father this Sunday will be at the bottom of a drawer by Christmas. Michael Jaksic has a suggestion that might fare better. Source: Catholic Weekly.
“Getting your dad a ticket to the Be Not Afraid Men’s Conference is probably one of the best Father’s Day gifts you could gift him,” he said, “because he’ll have an experience and encounter which will last for more than just a day, but the rest of his life.”
Mr Jaksic organises the conference for Maximus, the men’s ministry sitting within the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Life, Marriage and Family team. The 2026 gathering will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral Hall on Saturday September 19, from 7.30am to 4pm.
This year’s theme is blunt: The World, The Flesh & The Devil, Battle and Victory.
“This year’s theme is looking at the obstacles that we face in the spiritual life, which we understand in Catholic tradition as the world, the flesh and the devil,” Mr Jaksic said.
“The purpose of this year’s conference is to put on men’s radar the obstacles that they face, what they are, so they can identify them, and therefore be victorious against them through the grace of Christ, because he has conquered the world, he has conquered the flesh, and he has conquered the devil.”
The line-up follows that structure almost exactly. Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP will deliver the keynote on the world: what Catholics mean by it in its good sense and its bad, and how men might guard against the second without retreating from the first.
Paul Ninnes, of Real Talk Australia, will take the flesh: what sexual integrity actually looks like in a man’s life, and how the appetites might be bent to serve the will of God and the common good rather than the other way around.
Fr Ronnie Maree will turn to the devil and the psychology of temptation: how it reaches us, the tricks it uses, and how not to fall prey to them the way Adam and Eve did in the garden.
Fr Lewi Barakat will close the day on the note Mr Jaksic wants men carrying home: that Christ has already won, “and we can also be victorious in him”. Fr Daniele Russo will also speak, with Fr Ben Saliba as MC.
More than 300 men attended last year’s conference. Mr Jaksic is hoping for 500 this year.
FULL STORY
‘Better than socks’: the Father’s Day gift that could last a lifetime (By Darren Ally, The Catholic Weekly)
