A heroic man understands he is a squire for his lady’s true knight in shining armour, Jesus Christ. He answers the call to share his faith. He truly fears God.

More than 200 men of faith who attended the 29th God Squad Men's Conference on March 13 and 14 at St. Peter’s Parish in Calgary heard these insights about what is required to practice biblical masculinity.  God Squad, a charitable society and men’s apostolate formed by four Calgary police officers, is now the engine behind the Heroic Men Canada movement, both online and in hosting major events.

Conference participants received guidance from Bishop Scott McCaig of the Military Ordinariate of Canada, Luke Taylor, a Catholic youth retreat leader with FacetoFace Ministries and Ryan Schmidt, a father of four serving as director of pastoral renewal for the Calgary diocese.

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Taylor, 30, a father of five children, opened the conference by sharing that he thought his role as a husband was to be that chivalrous storybook hero who rescues the fair maiden from the dragon’s lair.  He admitted that he felt insecure for a few years in believing he was not living up to the “man I thought I should be.”

Through discernment, Taylor heard God say to him clearly one day, ‘Luke, you are not her hero. I am.’ He discovered his calling as a husband is humbler than he envisioned, but valiant, nevertheless.

“I am still called to be heroic in my marriage – to be selfless, courageous and the best man I can be,” said Taylor. “It’s for a completely different reason than I had originally believed: I do it to point her to Christ.”

Schmidt, a 46-year-old who attends Sacred Heart Parish in Strathmore, struck a similar chord to Taylor by urging each man in attendance to “surrender your life fully to Jesus Christ” and obey the plan He has in store for each of them to spread the Gospel.

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The former president and CEO of the Strathmore and District Agricultural Society said God’s call for him includes “dad parking lot evangelization.” Schmidt was dropping off his kids at school, and he felt called to invite a friend named Ricardo to a men’s fellowship night he hosts at the parish. Ricardo enjoyed himself and soon decided to invite his friend Nehru to come out. Both men went on to complete the Exodus 90 spiritual exercise to grow in faith and self-mastery.

“As Catholics, we can be a little bit shy about sharing the faith,” said Schmidt. “I just want to say it can be that simple. Maybe the Lord will convict you to share in a really powerful way, or maybe He will just encourage you to befriend somebody, walk by them and slowly invite them.”

Bishop McCaig, 60, called for the men to hold a filial fear of God, a deep-rooted desire as a son not to offend the Father who loves him, rather than a servile fear, which is the distress of a servant dreading punishment from a master.

He accentuated that being a good father means first being a good son to God.

“Many of you have the blessing of raising children,” said McCaig to the crowd. “That is wonderful. Some of us don’t. But you are still going to be a father – spiritual father, adoptive father. Your heart is made for fatherhood, but before we can do that, we have to be sons. We have to be told who we are. We have to be given our identity. It has to be breathed into us, confirmed into us.”

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McCaig endorsed the power of “the father’s voice” by pointing out how many statistical studies have indicated that “if the father takes his faith seriously, the kids do. If it’s only the mother, very low retention.”

The conference and the Heroic30 Renew Men online video challenge were scheduled for March, as this month is dedicated to St. Joseph, an ideal exemplar of what it means to be a heroic man.