Join the men of the Parish that brought you
CRHP, Into the Breach, Mission of the Family, and COR at St. Charles Borromeo:

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Men’s Day of Reflection – The Desert in the City

February 7th, 2026
St. Charles Borromeo
601 N. Fourth St., St. Charles, MO 63301

We are getting ready to enter the holy season of Lent—a time the Church calls a “joyful journey” toward the Resurrection. But for most of us, the reality of Lent is a collision between ancient disciplines and a “high-uptime” modern world.

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We live in a culture that is relentlessly loud. We navigate high-stakes technical fields where efficiency is king, we face shifting ideologies in the workplace that challenge our core convictions, and we carry the weight of leading our families in a confusing age. We often feel like we are playing “catch-up” in a spiritual race that never stops.

In the Gospel, we see Jesus led into the desert. The desert wasn’t an escape from reality; it was a battleground. It was where He faced the hunger of the body, the pride of the ego, and the noise of the enemy.

This day will be our desert journey. We will try to realize that the traditional Lenten pillars—Fasting, Almsgiving, and Prayer—are not religious chores or items for a “to-do” list. They are tactical tools for spiritual survival.

• We Fast to prove we are not slaves to our devices or our appetites.
• We give Alms and serve to break the isolation that a digital world imposes on us, building a true brotherhood in the process.
• We Detach to stop “white-knuckling” the control we think we have over our careers and families.

For this Day of Reflection, we will move through these stages of the desert. You will hear from men who are in the trenches with you—men who understand the pressure of failure, the tension of the secular world, and the exhaustion of a busy home.

This Lent, we aren’t just giving something up. We are taking something back. We are reclaiming our identity as sons of God, forged in silence and prepared for the mission ahead.

Opportunities for Confession, Adoration, Community Prayer, and Mass!

Talks (Reflections) for the Day:

Movement	Topic	The Masculine Transformation
I. The Body	Fasting & Freedom	From Impulse to Self-Mastery
II. The Neighbor	Service & Brotherhood	From Isolation to Common Mission
III. The Will	The Light in Detachment	From Anxiety to Trust
IV. The Spirit	Prayer & The Deacon’s Call	From Distraction to Divine Conversation
V. The Center	The Interior Cell	From Fragmentation to Deep Integration