We have exciting news. Catholic Founders now has an official spiritual director to guide us in this work. Today’s issue comes from him. Learn about who he is and why we’re excited in the Highlights at the end.
Welcome back to Saintly CEO: the Tuesday morning newsletter for business owners whose first objective is to become a saint.
IN TODAY’S ISSUE
News/Updates/Events
Feature Content: Called to Be World Changers, by Fr. William J. Slattery
Heavenly Hustlers x 7
Highlights
[read time: ~8 min | word count 1,769]
Events:
We’re on day 7 of the Novena to St. Homobonus, patron of business people. His feast is this Friday, Nov 13. Pray along with us, we go live on Substack each morning around 6:45AM Central Time.
📞 Guild call tonight: how to reclaim the culture through the holidays. Check your calendar for the invite. On Nov 24, Leo Linbeck III makes the case for the family business. Not in the Guild yet? Join today!
Ever wondered why we started Catholic Founders and where it’s headed? I lay it all out on #97 Why Catholic Founders Exist and Our Vision for the Future (If you’re new here, please listen to this).
In-person events before Christmas: Nashville workout + coffee (Nov 14), Dallas Mass + breakfast (Nov 21), Dinner + Comedy Night in DC (Nov 21), a Thanksgiving brunch in NYC (Nov 22), Wausau Mass + breakfast (Nov 28), Charlotte (Dec 10), and another Nashville meetup (Dec 10).
Grab a spot on our Luma page. Want to host one in your city? Let us know and we’ll help you organize it.Check out all of our in-person events on our Luma page.
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Called To Be World Changers
The Mission of Catholics
Called to be world changers: that is the mission of Catholics. It is stated on page one of God’s revelation, in Genesis. The identity of the human is stated there: man is called to be and to act in the image and likeness of God. All the preceding lines tell us who God is: the Creator.
Therefore humans are designed, encoded, to be creative people. We are not satisfied with the status quo. We are designed to be breakthrough people who change this world and make it into what it is designed to be: a homeland in which God and humans are bonded, now and forever, through a civilization that breathes the Divine. That civilization is fully human because it follows the Divine blueprints. That is the message of divine revelation from beginning to end.
Our Mission as Business People
Therefore we, as business people, are called to be ambitious. We are called to be ambitious to change the world through our specific mission as business people, as entrepreneurs, as men and women who create opportunities for the masses of people in our society. This is the context of Catholic business.
We are people who are for others: for the countless people who feel the frustration of not being able to fulfill their ambitions, and of not finding work that is deeply satisfying and changes the world for the better. So we need each other, in order to develop the potential each one of us has, by acting in unison.
Bond to Create a Civilization in Which Humans Can Come Fully Alive
Begin with the Goal
St. Thomas Aquinas says that in all things we should first have clearly in our minds the purpose and goal of our action. When the goal is clear, the means to achieve it is clear, and we move with speed, integrity and clear-sightedness.
The Goal of the Bible: A Homeland for God and Humans
The entire Bible speaks about the ultimate purpose of humanity, of the cosmos, and of each individual human. From page one to the final page, the Bible gives the same answer. In Genesis, God declares that the cosmos has been created to be a homeland for God, angels and humans.
In the final pages of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation (which in Greek means “disclosure”), we see a cosmos that has been transformed. At its center are resurrected humans living on what can only be described as a fully ecological planet. At the center of that planet is a civilization in which God is all in all, because he is everything to everyone.
In this civilization of the new heavens and the new earth, humans are described as creative. Through their own creativity, they bring the transformed cosmos to ever higher levels of beauty. This is the ultimate goal. It will be Heaven on Earth. That is what we pray for in the Our Father: “Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Building the Beta Version Now
Why have we been given this vision of the end purpose and goal of the cosmos? Because we are meant to act right now. We are meant to create the beta version of this ultimate civilization. We are called to bring into existence a civilization that will reflect, however imperfectly, the beauty, splendor and creativity of the new heavens and the new earth.
The Church Makes Us World Changers
In this mission, the purpose of the Mystical Body of Jesus, the Church, is to make people into these world changers. She does this by making us into the new man and the new woman in Christ described by St. Paul. We are called to become complete humans, like the first complete human, Jesus. This is the entire purpose of our life.
Through participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in Holy Communion, his lifeblood runs through our veins and empowers us to become like him. Thus we see the Church as the spearheading movement for world transformation.
Fully Alive in Christ
This is the big picture of reality that has been divinely revealed. It confirms what we feel in our guts that we should be. In its light, we realize the truth of what Jesus declared to be his mission in John 10:10: “I came that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
When we live in Jesus, through Jesus, with Jesus, we become fully alive. We become fully energized to change this world in the way it should be changed. As entrepreneurs and business people, we suddenly discover that our Catholic identity and our identity as entrepreneurs mutually strengthen and intensify each other. We acquire a vision and a strength for changing the world that the secular world does not possess.
We Need Community
To keep alive this ambitious striving for world change through business and entrepreneurship, we need community within the Mystical Body of Jesus. That is the mission of the Association of Catholic Founders.
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Thank you to Aaron for sponsoring this work.
Heavenly Hustlers
These are other Catholic business owners. Nominate one (including yourself).
📱 Matt Reiswig is building Into the Deep Media. Fully managed social media that helps Catholic parishes evangelize online. St. Paul, Minnesota.
🗺️ Emily Blasdell is building Maps Management & Consulting. Back-office “detail engineering” for ministries, small businesses, missionaries and events. Houston, Texas.
🏥 Tomasz Bachosz is building Ona Health. An AI-powered operating system for clinics that combines EHR, CRM and billing. San Francisco, California.
💍 Madigan Maere is building CommitmentISM. A Catholic matchmaking service for singles who want marriage. Dallas, Texas
🤖 Lucinda Musa is building Impact Catalyst Collective. AI training and advising that gives nonprofit teams their time back. Dallas, Texas.
💻 Kyle Albert is building Tag Along K. Websites, digital marketing and apps for small businesses and nonprofits, including the Catholic wallpaper app Saintly. Spring, Texas.
📣 Katie Cosby is building Vigil and Vine. Marketing and events for Catholic-owned and mission-driven brands. Charlotte, North Carolina.
🙋♂️ Nominate a Heavenly Hustler (including yourself) - It takes 1 min.
Hire Catholic Offshore Talent
We help you find vetted Catholic offshore talent to help your business grow.
$500 upon hire and $500 if you’re still happy in 30 days.
Email us your needs -> hire in days -> admin@catholicfounders.com
Highlights: New Spiritual Director for Catholic Founders
We are honored to announce that Fr. William J. Slattery, PhD, STL, has officially accepted our request to be the Spiritual Director for us at the Catholic Founders team. He will guide us on this journey.
He was ordained by St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica. He brings decades of scholarly and pastoral depth to this mission.
He’s currently serving as chaplain at the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus, and professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also the author of Heroism and Genius, Enchanted by Eternity (foreword by Mark Wahlberg), and The Logic of Truth.
In today’s feature essay, Fr. Slattery sets the vision for our apostolic work: reminding us that as founders and builders, our earthly ventures are called to shape culture and reflect the glory of heaven.
If you liked what you read today, he encourages you to read his book, Enchanted by Eternity specifically. This is one that will resonate well with our readers and guild members.
Welcome, Father!
PS: Buying his books is a good way to support his work and efforts towards helping us so please pick up some copies (maybe even give out a few for Christmas gifts).
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Here is a huge list of various resources that we have compiled over time: The Ultimate Catholic Founders Resource Guide.
Feel free to bookmark it as we’ll continue to update it. And if you have suggestions on what to add, ping us (even if you want to promote your own stuff).