{"id":41329,"date":"2017-07-11T00:30:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T03:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=41329"},"modified":"2017-07-14T00:57:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T03:57:10","slug":"military-chaplain-inspires-young-cadet-to-teach-the-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/11\/military-chaplain-inspires-young-cadet-to-teach-the-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Chaplain Inspires Young Cadet to Teach the Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41364 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/melendez.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"915\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/melendez.jpg 915w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/melendez-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/melendez-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 915px) 100vw, 915px\" \/>An <a href=\"http:\/\/catholicphilly.com\/2017\/07\/news\/national-news\/new-priest-says-military-chaplain-a-major-influence-in-his-vocation\/\">article at CatholicPhilly<\/a> has an interesting story about the small things that can have a big impact on a young military troop&#8217;s walk of faith.<\/p>\n<p>Miguel Melendez was cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy when he saw the example of other Catholic cadets:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One of the Catholic cadets stood up at lunch and announced that a group of students would pray the rosary every Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement piqued Miguel Melendez\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was like, \u2018I want to do that, I want to meet <!--more-->these people and pray even though I hadn\u2019t been in the habit of it growing up,&#8217;\u201d Melendez told Catholic News Service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Melendez&#8217;s pull to faith was assisted by Catholic Chaplain Chaplain Steve Rock &#8212; who also gave Melendez some other important advice:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>he told Father Rock that he wanted to drop out of the academy to become a priest.<\/p>\n<p>Father Rock convinced him to finish his degree and mandatory service first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A few years later, Melendez was given an opportunity for more schooling &#8212; and more service in the Coast Guard. Father Rock again provided the advice that would shape his choice:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYou know, Miguel, if you don\u2019t become a priest now, you never will,\u201d Father Rock told him.<\/p>\n<p>Melendez attended seminary at Theological College in Washington and was ordained in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, June 3.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Timothy Broglio, the Catholic Archbishop for the Military Services, noted that military chaplains have the unique opportunity to encourage their congregations to Christian service.<\/p>\n<p>As Melendez&#8217;s story shows, something as simple as announcing a Bible study can prove a pivotal moment in the spiritual life\u00a0for a young Airmen, Soldier, Sailor or Marine &#8212; or Coastie.<\/p>\n<p>When was the last time you hosted a Bible study or prayer group in your unit?<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-size=\"small\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article at CatholicPhilly has an interesting story about the small things that can have a big impact on a young military troop&#8217;s walk of faith. Miguel Melendez was cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy when he saw the example of other Catholic cadets: One of the Catholic cadets stood up at lunch and announced that a group of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,54,5284,96,871,6327,2,11,10,171,6328,583],"class_list":["post-41329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-bible","tag-catholic","tag-chaplain","tag-christian","tag-coast-guard-academy","tag-miguel-melendez","tag-military","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-steve-rock","tag-timothy-broglio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}