MANUAL
for MEN

Thomas J. Olmsted,
Bishop of Phoenix

Compilation by Dr. Travis Cook

TAN · BOOKS

Charlotte, North Carolina

Nihil Obstat:

Reverend Matthew Kauth, STD
Censor Deputatus

Imprimatur:

Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, JCD
Bishop of Charlotte
November 1, 2017
Feast of All Saints

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book is free from doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who grant the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.

Copyright © 2017 TAN Books, PO Box 410487, Charlotte, NC 28241

Part I is slightly adapted from Into the Breach: An Apostolic Exhortation to Catholic Men, my Spiritual Sons in the Diocese of Phoenix, copyright © 2015 Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix.

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in articles and critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

All excerpts from papal homilies, messages, and encyclicals copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Unless otherwise noted or in text quoted from other sources, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Except where otherwise acknowledged, prayers and other texts have been taken from a variety of print and online sources and are believed to be in the public domain.

ISBN: 978-1-5051-0898-9

Printed and bound in the United States of America

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2017

To my father, Patrick, with gratitude and love

Do not think that you are destined for easy struggles or
unimportant tasks; you are the salt of the earth.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

CONTENTS

How to Use This Manual

Part One: Into the Breach

1.A Call to Battle

2.Purpose of the Exhortation

3.What Does It Mean to Be a Catholic Man?

4.How Does a Catholic Man Love?

5.Sent Forth by Christ

Part Two: Wisdom and Prayers for Men

6.Church Teaching on the Role of Men at Home and in Society

From the Catechism

From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Papal Documents and Teaching

Pastoral Guidance for Men

7.Scriptures for Men

Models of Virtue

Avoiding Vice

Manhood and Love

The Cardinal Virtues in Scripture

Psalm 51: King David’s Example

Fasting

8.Saints, Our Heroes of Faith, and Other Exemplars

Lives of the Saints

Wisdom From the Saints

Wisdom From Other Sources

9.Prayers, Devotions, and Hymns

The Three Prayers That Anchor the Catholic Man’s Spiritual Life

The Blessed Mother

St. Joseph

The Archangels

Guardian Angel Prayers

Our Friends, the Saints

Prayers for the Family Man

How the Catholic Man Ends His Day

Bibliography and Resources for Further Reading

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL

e at TAN Books are honored to present to you, the Catholic men of the United States and beyond, this Manual for Men. We are especially honored by the participation of his Eminence Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted who has allowed us to adapt and use his magnificent apostolic exhortation “Into the Breach.” Bishop Olmsted’s exhortation has served as both a rallying cry for the Catholic men of Phoenix and the impetus for a growing nationwide movement of committed Catholic men … a movement that has brought and will continue to bring increased vitality to the faith lives of the individual men involved, an increased vitality that will help each man to better serve his family, friends, parish, community, and country.

As important as these benefits surely are, they pale in comparison to the work of saving souls to which Bishop Olmsted has dedicated his life. It is our hope that the bishop’s reflections on manhood, coupled with the outstanding compilation of quotations from the Bible, Church documents, saints, and other sources, will draw you into a deeper relationship with Christ and his Church.

In order to derive the most spiritual benefit from this Manual for Men, we urge you to set aside some quiet time to first read Bishop Olmsted’s introductory exhortation, in its entirety if possible, or section by section if that works better for you and your schedule. Prayerfully consider his words and the ways in which you can step “into the breach” where needed.

Then, read, in whatever order and manner most appeals to you, the words of wisdom from the Church’s rich tradition, ancient and modern, words that speak so directly to men. Saintly models of virtue are presented, along with practical advice on avoiding those sins to which men, especially, can be prone; magnificent prayers are found within these pages—some of which you likely know, others you may not—as are pearls of wisdom from Scripture on true manhood, true love, and a host of other topics.

Wherever you are in your walk with the Lord, we are confident that this Manual will be a treasured part of your spiritual library, one to which you will return again and again, and one which you will want to share with others.

In closing, we could do little better than echo the words of St. Francis de Sales in the final entry in the Manual, that entitled “How the Catholic Man Ends His Day” in which he writes of the evening examination of conscience. This exercise, as well as that for the morning, must never be forgotten; since by that for the morning, you open the windows of your soul to the Sun of Righteousness; and by this for the evening, you close them against the darkness of hell.

May this Manual help you, dear Reader, to open the windows of your soul to God.

PART ONE

Into the Breach

1

A CALL TO BATTLE

begin this letter with a clarion call and clear charge to you, my sons and brothers in Christ: Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real. It is primarily spiritual, but it is progressively killing the remaining Christian ethos in our society and culture, and even in our own homes.

The world is under attack by Satan, as our Lord said it would be (cf. 1 Pt 5:8–14). This battle is occurring in the Church herself, and the devastation is all too evident. Since AD 2000, fourteen million Catholics have left the Faith, parish religious education of children has dropped by 24 percent, Catholic school attendance has dropped by 19 percent, infant baptism has dropped by 28 percent, adult baptism has dropped by 31 percent, and sacramental Catholic marriages have dropped by 41 percent.[1] This is a serious breach, a gaping hole in Christ’s battle lines. While the Diocese of Phoenix has fared better than these national statistics, the losses are staggering.

One of the key reasons that the Church is faltering under the attacks of Satan is that many Catholic men have not been willing to “step into the breach”—to fill this gap that lies open and vulnerable to further attack. A large number have left the Faith, and many who remain “Catholic” practice the Faith timidly and are only minimally committed to passing the Faith on to their children. Recent research shows that large numbers of young Catholic men are leaving the Faith to become “nones”— men who have no religious affiliation. The growing losses of young Catholic men will have a devastating impact on the Church in America in the coming decades, as older men pass away and young men fail to remain and marry in the Church, accelerating the losses that have already occurred.

These facts are devastating. As our fathers, brothers, uncles, sons, and friends fall away from the Church, they fall deeper and deeper into sin, breaking their bonds with God and leaving them vulnerable to the fires of hell. While we know that Christ welcomes back every repentant sinner, the truth is that large numbers of Catholic men are failing to keep the promises they made at their children’s baptisms—promises to bring them to Christ and to raise them in the faith of the Church.

This crisis is evident in the discouragement and disengagement of Catholic men like you and me. In fact, this is precisely why I believe this manual is needed, and it is also the reason for my hope, for God constantly overcomes evil with good. The joy of the gospel is stronger than the sadness wrought by sin! A throw-away culture cannot withstand the new life and light that constantly radiates from Christ. So I call upon you to open your minds and hearts to Him, the Savior who strengthens you to step into the breach!

_______________

1Center for Applied Research into the Apostolate. Frequently Requested Church Statistics, 2014.

2

PURPOSE OF THE EXHORTATION

offer this Exhortation as an encouragement, a challenge, and a calling forth to mission for every willing man who reads these words: priests and deacons, husbands, fathers and sons, grandfathers and widowers, young men in preparation for your vocation—that is, each and every man. With this Exhortation, I want to clarify for you the nature of this mission from Christ, for which I will rely on the clear guidance of the Holy Scriptures, the Magisterium of the Church, and the example of the saints.

In this Exhortation, I will address three primary questions:

1.What does it mean to be a Christian man?

2.How does a Catholic man love?

3.Why is fatherhood, fully understood, so crucial for every man?

Before addressing these three basic questions, it is important to put them into proper context. In the following section, I will explain three important contexts that help us understand the main questions.

Context 1: A New Apostolic Moment—
The “New Evangelization”

First, a new apostolic moment is upon us at this time in the history of the Church. The Holy Spirit is bringing about what recent popes have termed the “New Evangelization.” By evangelization, we mean the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ by all means available, such as preaching, teaching, witnessing a fruitful and faithful family life, living celibacy for the sake of God’s kingdom, and employing media and other arts placed at the service of the gospel. And what is new? The newness of our times is this: In the West, we find ourselves in the midst of competing cultures, particularly in cities and neighborhoods where the gospel once permeated quite deeply. Jesus Christ’s Great Commission (see Mt 28:16–20) to go out to the whole world and share the Good News has already happened where we live! This permeation of Western culture was once so deep that, in a sense, it became part of the soil, and we still stand on that soil in certain ways. It is evident in current assumptions about life, which come directly from the Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian framework; assumptions regarding fairness, equality, virtue, human dignity, compassion, representative government, the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments, the hospital, the university, and other clearly positive developments in the history of civilization. All this is our patrimony and inheritance from our spiritual ancestors. We find ourselves standing on this rich soil, where blessings are many because the gospel has been taught here, received in faith, and put into practice.

Yet, at the same time, termites are hard at work in this soil. Here, in the developed desert of Arizona, we know termites well. Homebuilders know that no home built in our climate is entirely immune from these hungry, subterranean insects. Likewise, no culture—deeply Christian though it may be—is immune to the corruption of half-truths and hidden sin. Many fruits of our Christian heritage still exist, but the roots below the soil are under siege. Much about our culture remains good and must be preserved, but it would be foolish to ignore the current and growing trends that threaten the remaining good, and dangerous to risk squandering the patrimony with which we have been blessed.

The answer and only ultimate solution is the New Evangelization of which we speak. Pope St. John Paul II, with whom I was blessed to work closely for nine years and who has inspired many men, reminds us of this needed response: “There can be no genuine solution of the ‘social question’ apart from the Gospel.”[2] With this Exhortation, I gladly make his words my own; there is no solution to our cultural decline apart from the gospel of Jesus.

This is daunting, perhaps, but surely an adventure. In the Book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus tells us, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rv 21:5)—that all things old and tired, sinful and broken, are renewed in His incarnation, death, and resurrection. Could this possibly be true? The answer is a resounding yes! A true Catholic man stakes his whole life on this proposition—that all is made new in Jesus Christ. Our Lord has promised that He is and will always be with us. Thus, Catholic men across the centuries have responded to the call to enter the battle, ever ancient and ever new, and I have confidence that you will respond alike to fill the breach in our time. Be confident! Be bold! Forward, into the breach!

Context 2: A Field Hospital
and a Battle College

In his homilies, Pope Francis has described the Church today as “a field hospital after battle”—a constant source of mercy in order to endure and overcome wounds that we all bear. The Church is also the powerful source of Truth to heal men and prepare them to battle another day for Christ. In many places today, the Church is finding—though it must redouble its efforts to find—the paths to healing for ourselves and the means to care for others who, like us, bear the mark of the Fall in debilitating ways, whether these wounds be physical or spiritual. Our time calls for a renewal of the Church’s genius for physical and spiritual healing given to her by the Holy Spirit. As Pope Francis says, the wounded are all around us, and “it is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal the wounds.”[3] At the same time, the proclamation of the fullness of truth found in the Catholic Church is essential. This leads you, men, to live lives where sins do not cause festering wounds. Through Christ’s mercy and truth, we are healed and revitalized for battle. In Christ’s mercy and truth, we become strong in His strength, courageous with His courage, and can actually experience the joie de guerre of being soldiers for Christ.

Since the Church as “field hospital” after battle is an appropriate analogy, then another complementary image is appropriate for our day: the Spiritual Battle College. The Church is, and has always been, a school that prepares us for spiritual battle, where Christians are called to “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tm 6:12), to “put on the whole armor of God”, and to be able “to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph 6:11).

Ever since Jesus chose the twelve apostles, formed them in His presence, and sent them out in His name, He has continued to choose and form men through His Church and to send them out to the wounded. This is the meaning of the word apostle—men who are sent. With this letter, then, my sons and brothers, I urge you to heed Jesus’s call and to let Him form your mind and heart with the light of the gospel for the purpose of being sent. That is why this letter is an apostolic exhortation. I am hereby exhorting you to step into the breach—to do the work of Christ’s soldiers in the world today.

Context 3: Man and Woman Are
Complementary, Not Competitors

The complementarity of masculinity and femininity is key to understanding how human persons image God. Without knowing and appreciating this, we cannot know ourselves or our mission as men, nor can women embrace their own vocations, confident in the Father’s love.

Men and women are certainly different. Science increasingly deepens our understanding of this difference. Up until recently, we had little idea of the complex workings of hormones, chemical reactions, and the brain differences present in boys and girls, men and women, all in response to the XX or XY combination of chromosomes present at conception. For example, the significantly greater amount of corpus callosum (the connective nerve fibers between the two sides of the brain) in the average woman is a fascinating discovery, as is the way the male brain is typically more segmented in its functions. Studies show that on average, infant girls will look at the face of a silent adult twice as long as infant boys, more interested in the person by God’s design.[4] All these biological facts discovered by science add to our knowledge of the symphony of complementarity between man and woman, something at which we rightly wonder and in which we rejoice when we encounter the beauty of the sexual difference.

This difference is also a challenge, since misunderstanding can creep in and sin can cause us to lose respect for one another, robbing us of our hope for peaceful and fruitful collaboration between men and women. But this struggle between the sexes is not the fault of God’s creation; it is the result of sin. Pope Francis puts it this way:

Man and woman are the image and likeness of God. This tells us that not only is man taken in himself the image of God, not only is woman taken in herself the image of God, but also man and woman, as a couple, are the image of God. The difference between man and woman is not for opposition, or for subordination, but for communion and procreation, always in the image and likeness of God.[5]

Alongside this struggle, the rapid advance of a “gender ideology” has infected societies around the world. This ideology seeks to set aside the sexual difference created by God, to remove male and female as the normative way of understanding the human person and, in its place, to add various other “categories” of sexuality. This ideology is destructive for individuals and society, and it is a lie. It is harmful to the human person and, therefore, a false concept that we must oppose as Christians. At the same time, however, we are called to show compassion and provide help for those who experience confusion about their sexual identity. This confusion is not unexpected when the poison of secularism reaches such critical levels: “When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself becomes unintelligible.”[6]

The damaging impact of this “gender ideology” on individuals and society was addressed at length in 2015 by Pope Francis:

I ask myself, if the so-called gender theory is not … an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution. In order to resolve the problems in their relationships, men and women need to speak to one another more, listen to each other more, get to know one another better, love one another more. They must treat each other with respect and cooperate in friendship.[7]

As Pope Francis reminds us all to “love one another more,” I exhort you, my sons and brothers in Jesus Christ, to embrace more deeply the beauty and richness of the sexual difference and to defend it against false ideologies.

Having now established the contexts in which to understand the questions addressed in this Exhortation, I will now respond to the above-stated questions themselves.

_______________

2Pope St. John Paul II, Encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991), 5.

3Interview, September 19, 2013.

4There are, of course, rare exceptions to the genetic rule. We are aware of the exceptions due to genetic defect or insufficient hormonal development. For example, Turner’s syndrome in girls and androgen insensitivity syndrome or XXY syndrome in boys cause situations which are very painful in the individual lives of these young men and women and their families. I pray that Catholic researchers, psychologists, and physicians would be at the forefront of studying these phenomena and providing ethical counsel, care, and support to these individuals and families.

5Homily, June 14, 2015.

6Pope Paul VI, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes (1965), 36.

7Pope Francis, General Audience, April 15, 2015.

3

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A
CATHOLIC MAN?

Ecce Homo—Behold the Man

very man, particularly today, must come to a mature acceptance and understanding of what it means to be a man. This may seem obvious, but in our world, there are many distorted images and much evidence of confusion regarding what is true masculinity. We can say that for the first time in history, people have become either so confused or so arrogant as to attempt to dictate their masculinity or femininity according to their own definitions.

At one striking moment of Jesus’s trial, Pontius Pilate, with all his worldly power, presented Jesus to the crowd with the words, Ecce homo—Latin meaning “Behold the man!” Thinking he was merely pointing to a man from Nazareth, he failed to recognize that he was pointing to God made man—the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth—who at once is fully God and fully man, and the perfection of masculinity. Every moment of His life on earth is a revelation of the mystery of what it means to be man—that is, to be fully human and also, the model of masculinity. Nowhere else can we find the fullness of masculinity as we do in the Son of God. Only in Jesus Christ can we find the highest display of masculine virtue and strength that we need in our personal lives and in society itself. What was visible in Christ’s earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of His divine Sonship and redemptive mission. The Father sent His Son to reveal what it means to be a man, and the fullness of this revelation becomes evident on the Cross. He tells us that it was for this reason that He came into the world, that it is His earnest desire to give Himself totally to us.[8] Herein lies the fullness of masculinity; each Catholic man must be prepared to give himself completely, to charge into the breach, to engage in spiritual combat, to defend women, children, and others against the wickedness and snares of the Devil!

Looking to what the secular world holds up as “manly” is in fact to look at shadows—or even at outright counterfeits—of masculinity. No athlete, no matter how many awards; no political leader, no matter the power he wields; no performer, businessman, or celebrity, no matter how much adored; no physical attribute or muscle mass; no intelligence or talent; no prizes or achievements can bestow masculinity on a man. The idolatry of celebrities at this time is a particular temptation, but to build one’s masculine identity on such fleeting models is to build an identity on sand. My Catholic sons and brothers, we can only build a certain foundation for masculinity on the rock, Jesus Christ. We look to our Savior to be transformed in Him, to be the men we are called to be, and to let others see Him in us.

Yet we do not merely look to Jesus. We truly encounter Christ at Mass when we receive the very gift of Himself in the Eucharist. For this reason, I call upon my brother priests to awaken the sense of transcendence in the hearts of men through reverent and beautiful liturgy, helping men to rediscover Jesus in the Eucharist each and every Sunday. I ask my brother priests to teach the faithful about the powerful truth of the liturgy, especially in ways to which men can relate. Teaching men to understand the fullness and power of the Mass must be a top priority. What a joy it is for men of God when they are led by priests who have a confident sense of their own masculinity, their call to participate in Christ’s spousal love, and their generous, life-giving fatherhood!

Saints, Our Heroes of Faith

This is what our forefathers, the saints, have done for two millennia. As the gospel reveals the reality of masculinity, we can also find it lived out in the heroic witness of the saints.

Saints are a kind of continuation of the Gospels and so give us examples of the varied paths of holiness. Thus, as Jesus shows us the perfection of masculinity, so we can also find it lived by the saints who were led by Christ. Just as an aspiring baseball player is inspired at the Baseball Hall of Fame, so must we men look to those who have gone before us, to look to them for inspiration and encouragement in fighting the good fight.

Think of the varied skills and talents of baseball players. A young person may dream to hit like Babe Ruth, catch and throw like Willie Mays, have the agility of Henry Aaron, the consistency and hard work of Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson. Young pitchers would dream of pitching like Cy Young and Randy Johnson. As they see each of these players play the game in different ways, they are inspired to a love of baseball.

Yet far greater than a ball game is what Catholic men seek. We look to the saints as to heroes, striving to live like Christ, united to Him and learning from Him at the same time. In a dramatic way to which we can relate, the saint’s life says Ecce homo!, “Here is the man!” This is what St. Paul implies when he writes, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Each man should make a decision to have a patron saint. While there are many more, I offer the names of ten saints with whom each and every Catholic man should become familiar. Next to each saint’s name is listed one virtue with which he is associated, as well as the sin that opposes that virtue. When we identify our predominant sin and the opposed or corresponding virtue, we can identify which saint’s intercession will be particularly helpful:

•St. Joseph (Trust in God – selfishness)

•St. John the Baptist (Humility – arrogance)

•St. Paul (Adherence to Truth – mediocrity)

•St. Michael the Archangel (Obedience to God – licentiousness and rebelliousness)

•St. Benedict (Prayer and Devotion to God – sloth)

•St. Francis of Assisi (Happiness – moralism)

•St. Thomas More (Integrity – double-mindedness)

•Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (Chastity – lust)

•St. Josemaría Escrivá (Boldness – worldly fear)

•Pope St. John Paul II (Defending the Weak – passivity)

We don’t even need to look to the distant past to find heroes of the Faith. We witnessed St. John Paul II forgive his would-be assassin, and after recovering his health, continue tirelessly to call the world to “open wide the doors to Christ.”[9] Time and again, he exhorted us, “Be not afraid!” Today, in parts of the world where persecution rages, we are seeing courageous witnesses of truth in the recent martyrs of Syria, Nigeria, Iraq, and other war-torn countries. We remember our twenty-one Coptic brothers who, in 2015, were beheaded on a beach in Egypt, and as Pope Francis noted, “only because they confessed Christ.”[10]

Men, we must never believe that holiness and courage are things of the past! You and I are called to a holiness that shows Christ to the world as our forefathers have done countless times throughout history, following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in this time of evil’s growing boldness, each man must prepare himself for nothing less than martyrdom, whatever form this may take, and to instill in his children and grandchildren the willingness to do the same.

Will the Lord not continue to inspire men? Of course He will, and He continues to do so! Our concern is not if the Lord will give us the required strength, but how He is doing so right now. How is His Spirit moving us to rise up and reject passivity in a culture of fatherlessness? How is He now giving us interior strength in a culture of pornography? How is He now inspiring us to look beyond ourselves and our technology to the peripheries where Christ is needed? How is the Lord inspiring you and me, right now, to cast aside concerns for our own comfort, to serve our fellow man, to put out into the deep, to step into the breach?

I strongly encourage your familiarity with the lives of the saints. Just as a young baseball player would lack much having never studied the greats enshrined in Cooperstown, so we lack much if we are ignorant of the saints who have preceded us to the infinitely more glorious halls of heaven.

The Catholic Man’s Identity

I wish now to speak to you about our identity in Christ. Most of the holy men I mentioned above lived in times quite different than our own. They had different challenges and different callings, but all had one thing in common: Jesus Christ, who gave each his true identity! Here we recall the wisdom of the Second Vatican Council: Jesus Christ “reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”[11]

However, in ways subtle and not so subtle, we are tempted to look elsewhere for our identity. We seek it in such things as the opinions of others, success in our careers, the size of our bank balance, or the number of things we have. All of these things can serve as distractions or obstacles to recognizing ourselves as, first and foremost, sons of God. While some of these must be a part of life to an extent, they are not the core of our being. Having been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, “our commonwealth is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). The world cannot possibly give us our true identity; “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). We must be aware of being distracted by false identities and remain grounded in Jesus Christ.

Simply put, our identity is caught up in the identity of the eternal Son of God. It is received at our baptism as was clearly exclaimed at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). When we speak of conversion, we are speaking about an acceptance of and growth into this identity. When we speak about sin, we are speaking of all that distances us from our identity as beloved sons of the Father. Since this is our identity—beloved sons of God the Father—is it surprising that the Devil is waging a fierce battle against masculinity and fatherhood in our day? The process of Christian conversion includes coming to know God’s love and experiencing brotherhood with Christ who deepens our identity as sons of the Father in the Holy Spirit. To ever strengthen that bond with God and be with Him forever in heaven is our goal and the prize for which we fight this spiritual battle.

Beloved and Free Sons, Called
to the Battle Within

Let us look to John the Apostle and Beloved Disciple for insights into this battle. In his first letter to the Church, St. John speaks of the three-fold temptation faced by all of us: temptations to the passions of the flesh, to possessiveness, and to pride (see 1 Jn 2:16–17). Are not all sins tied to these three temptations? John identifies the battles that each of us must fight within ourselves. In fact, Christ fights specifically against these temptations during His encounter with Satan in the desert (see Mt 4), and then instructs us in the Sermon on the Mount (see Mt 6) how we are to struggle against them.

Turning away from the passions of the flesh, Jesus rejected Satan’s offering of bread in the desert, and in the Sermon on the Mount, twice He instructs us to fast (see Mt 6:16). Notice that the Lord does not say “if you fast” but rather “when you fast.” Fasting is training in self-knowledge, a key weapon for mastery over oneself. If we do not have dominion over our passions, especially those for food and sex, we cannot master ourselves and put the interests of others before our own.

Tempting Jesus to possessiveness, Satan offered Him “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” (Mt 4:8), but once again, Jesus refused. This shows us that Christ calls us to freedom from the temptation to gain the world at the cost of our souls. Often, Satan tempts not through persons but through objects like a car, a house, or the latest high-speed technologies. The world is rife with messages, both overt and subtle, that tempt us to seek happiness through possessions. We recall how the rich young man sadly left his encounter with Jesus because “he was very rich” (Lk 18:23). Pope Francis reminds us, “The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.”[12] With Jesus, we are called to seek out, not to “settle for,” a simplicity of life which frees us for our mission in Christ.

In Satan’s third attack upon Jesus in the desert, the Lord was tempted to pride. Satan enticed Our Lord to use His power for selfish purposes, but Jesus rejected this cross-less glory and chose the path of humility. In the Sermon on the Mount, He exhorts us to humility not once but twice when He repeats, “when you pray” (Mt 6:5–6). Indeed, the greatest protection from pride and self-reliance is turning humbly to God in prayer. The new technologies of social media through which we can constantly display and discuss ourselves can lead to a type of idolatry that consumes us. Honest prayer will keep us grounded and help us to avoid this temptation.

Men, this need for pastors to challenge men to fight the battle within, to embrace the richness of a committed interior life with God, is nothing new. Listen to the words of St. John Paul II when, as archbishop of Krakow, he spoke to college students in 1962:

We are quite ready to take, or conquer, in terms of enjoyment, profit, gain and success—and even in the moral order. Then comes the question of giving, and at this point we hang back, because we are not prepared to give. The element which is so characteristic under other forms in the spiritual portrait of women is barely perceptible in men…. We have a tendency toward the Nicodemus type of religious attitude, toward the type of devotion which is characterized maybe only by superficial discretion but very often also by fear of what others might think…. This male Catholicism is not interior and deep enough; the male believer does not have a true interior life…. We men do not have a deep enough interior life.[13]

Man is a creature, and therefore in relation to God a receiver of love and courage before he can give it away to others. Nemo potest dare quod non habet is the famous term the Church developed in Latin for this fundamental truth. You cannot give what you do not have. Mary our Mother, the great Receiver of God’s love in her very body, is the model for us as Catholics, but not only Mary—every great Saint, that is, great lover in the history of our Church serves as a model for us to emulate. There is no shortcut to holiness, to being the great Catholic men we are called to be. There is no avoiding the age-old interior fight that each of us must engage!

As we develop in receiving God’s love and mercy in prayer and sacrament, the Lord gives us sure weapons in the “good fight.” St. Paul names them when he writes:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith as a shield, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph 6:11–17)

We may be tempted to say, “When I get this three-fold battle behind me, I can start living the life of holiness,” but this is a lie! It is precisely in the course of this fight that we become holy. As Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati said, “To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth—that is not living, but existing.” Are you and I merely existing? Or are we living our Christian faith as men fully alive? Recall the famous words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “You were not made for comfort; you were made for greatness.” Any greatness that we might merit as Catholic men depends upon this fight for holiness. It is the same fight Jesus Christ fought in the desert and the same fight our Christian forefathers fought in order to hand down the faith. Woe to us if we do not pick up the weapons of the Spirit—offered to us freely—and accept them bravely and gratefully! Courage, confidence, and humble reliance on God’s infinite resources are called for here as we engage. Forward! Into the breach!

The Practices of a Committed Catholic Man

Given these reflections on Catholic manhood, we move to the practical; that is, how to live like a Catholic man. What practices can help us to take up our cross and follow our King?

If we think of soldiers who do not remain in strong physical and mental shape and who fail to practice the essential combat arts, we know they will not be ready for battle and will be a danger to themselves and their comrades in arms. The same is true for Catholic men; those who do not prepare and strengthen themselves for spiritual combat are incapable of filling the breach for Christ.

While there are many habits that a Catholic man can develop and devotions that he can adopt, I charge you with keeping these seven basic practices on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. If these practices are not (yet) part of your life, start now!

Daily

1.Pray every day. Each Catholic man must start his day with prayer. It is said, “Until you realize that prayer is the most important thing in life, you will never have time for prayer.” Without prayer, a man is like a soldier who lacks food, water, and ammunition. Set aside some time to speak with God first thing each morning. Pray the three prayers essential to the Catholic faith: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be. Pray also at every meal. Before food or drink touches your lips, make the Sign of the Cross, say the “Bless us, O Lord” prayer, and end with the Sign of the Cross. Do this no matter where you are, with whom or how much you are eating. Never be shy or ashamed about praying over meals. Never deny Christ the gratitude that is due to Him. Praying as a Catholic man before every meal is a simple but powerful way to keep strong and fill the breach.

2.Examine your conscience before going to sleep. Take a few moments to review the day, including both your blessings and sins. Give God thanks for blessings and ask forgiveness for sins. Say an Act of Contrition.

3.Go to Mass. Despite the fact that attending weekly Mass is a precept of the Church, only about one in three Catholic men attends Sunday Mass. For large numbers of Catholic men, their failure to attend Mass is a grave sin, a sin that puts them in mortal danger. The Mass is a refuge in the spiritual battle, where Catholic men meet their King, hear His commands, and become strengthened with the Bread of Life. Every Mass is a miracle where Jesus Christ is fully present, a miracle that is the high point not only of the week but also of our entire lives on Earth. In the Mass, a man gives thanks to God for His many blessings and hears Christ send him again into the world to build the kingdom of God. Fathers who lead their children to Mass are helping in a very real way to ensure their eternal salvation.

4.Read the Bible. As St. Jerome so clearly tells us, “Ignorance of the Sacred Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” When we read God’s word, Jesus is present. Married men, read with your wife and your children. If a man’s children see him read the Scriptures, they are more likely to remain in the Faith. My brothers in Christ, this I can assure you: men who read the Bible grow in grace, wisdom, and peace.

5.Keep the Sabbath. From the creation of Adam and Eve, God the Father established a weekly cycle ending with the Sabbath. He gave us the Sabbath to ensure that one day out of seven we will give thanks to God, rest, and be refreshed. In the Ten Commandments, God asserts anew the importance of keeping the Sabbath.
With today’s constant barrage of buying and selling and the cacophony of noisy media, the Sabbath is God’s respite from the storm. As Catholic men, you must begin, or deepen, your observance of the Sabbath. If you are married, you must lead your wives and children to do the same. Dedicate the day to rest and true recreation, and avoid work that is not necessary. Spend time with family, attend Mass, and enjoy the gift of the day.

Monthly

1.Go to confession. At the very start of Christ’s public ministry, Jesus calls on all men to repent. Without repentance from sin, there can be no healing or forgiveness, and there will be no heaven. Large numbers of Catholic men are in grave mortal danger, particularly given the epidemic levels of pornography consumption and the sin of masturbation. My brothers, get to confession now! Our Lord Jesus Christ is a merciful King who will forgive those who humbly confess their sins. He will not forgive those who refuse. Open your soul to the gift of Our Lord’s mercy!

2.Build fraternity with other Catholic men. Catholic friendship among men has a dramatic impact on their faith lives. Men who have bonds of brotherhood with other Catholic men pray more, go to Mass and confession more frequently, read the Scriptures more often, and are more active in the Faith.
Proverbs tells us: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prv 27:17). I call on each of our priests and deacons to draw men together in their parishes and to begin to rebuild a vibrant and transforming Catholic fraternity. I call on laymen to form small fellowship groups for mutual support and growth in the Faith. There is no friendship like having a friend in Christ.

_______________

8General Audience, April 15, 2015.

9Pope St. John Paul II, Homily for the inauguration of his pontificate, October 22, 1978.

10Pope Francis, Address to the moderator and representatives of the Church of Scotland, February 16, 2015.

11Gaudium et spes, 22.

12Pope Francis, Encyclical Laudato Si (2015), 204.

13Pope John Paul II, The Way to Christ: Spiritual Exercises (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 51.

4

HOW DOES A
CATHOLIC MAN LOVE?

ow let us consider masculine love. This is not easy to do because the word love has almost lost its meaning in today’s society. It is a word that men have even become uncomfortable using. Why is this? What does the word now imply? A mere feeling? Something passing? A four-letter word useful for marketing and greeting cards but for little else?

Christ makes clear that central to His mission is love. “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12) He says with passion, but without a hint of sentimentality. All of Our Lord’s teachings boil down to this command. Love is not a side-job; it is the mission itself. Yet, we can only love as we are created, and therefore, we can only love as men. So, how do men love?

For decades now, a model for manhood has been fashioned in the fictional British spy character named James Bond. Various actors have taken turns portraying this man who, in several adventures, has proposed what it means to be “manly,” yet Bond remains an enigma. Like the women that he uses in the films, the ones who watch him find themselves wanting to know him. He is never a father, nor does he accept responsibility for or love one woman. In him, we see a man whose relationships are shallow and purely utilitarian. Indeed, “James Bond is a male character whose name is the height of irony. He is 40 years old and has no bonds. He is actually pathetic.”[14]

How different this is from Jesus Christ! Is there fear in Him? Not in the least! Who is more of a man, the one who runs away or the one who can face the responsibilities and challenges of relationships, family, and intimacy? Could a man fearful of self-gift be a true disciple of Christ? In fact, can such a man love at all?

James Bond’s name is the height of irony because he is a man with no bonds. Yet true masculine love will always build bonds! On the Cross and through the Eucharist, Jesus gives His very blood to bind us to Himself in love. At the Last Supper, offering us the Eucharist, His prayer to the Father is “that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:11). As He proclaims, His committed, binding love will “draw all men to [himself]” (Jn 12:32). In its Latin root, the word religion implies “binding together.” Thus, it is no wonder that in a culture of broken bonds, so fearful of commitment, we often hear, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” Satan is also “spiritual, but not religious”! A man who lives life without a single, self-giving bond in his life deserves our pity, not our admiration.

In this context, I must mention what, in Spanish, is called machismo and call Catholic men to rise above this tendency. The display of machismo attempts to seek safety in an image of toughness and emotionless living. However, it is merely a thin outer mask covering a deep inner fear of true bonds with others, bonds that are forged through true relationships and that make one’s life rich and meaningful. Behind the mask, as any mature person can see, is a man stuck in adolescent fear of vulnerability. In most cases, he has himself been badly hurt and is repeating a cycle learned in childhood.

In contrast, the true love of Christ is centered on willing the good of the other, on pouring oneself out in charity for others. This is how the Son reveals the Father’s love: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:9, 12). In Christ, we see that sacrifice is at the heart of love. Only the man who has fought the interior battle of self-mastery, the man who lays down his life for others, can avoid stagnancy and self-absorption. Never doubt that this sacrifice is worth the suffering! Our Lord encourages men in saying, “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

Three Masculine Loves:
Friend, Husband, Father

1. A Friend in Christ—Bands of Brothers

At the very inception of His ministry here on earth, Jesus called other men to join Him. What was He teaching us here? We see that Jesus called His disciples to Himself in such a way that they would form deep bonds of friendship and brotherhood. At the last supper, He specifically said to them, “No longer do I call you servants. For the servant does not know what the Master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15). This friendship with God is possible, a true brotherhood with Jesus, because we have the same Father. Do you, my sons, have true brothers in Christ in your life?

Throughout all of history, including the history of Christianity, important movements were spurred on by bands of brothers, friends in Christ. The early Church Fathers St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Basil were great friends and coworkers in the defense of Christ as they stood for the truth and defeated early heresies threatening the Church. St. Benedict and his monastic companions established communities of men that preserved and furthered Western culture in the face of barbarian destruction. This veritable fortress protecting truth, goodness, and beauty was built upon the stable and rich life of Christian brotherhood and friendship. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic each started bands of brothers in service to the poor and in defense of the truth. The early founders of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, influenced countless other men, brought about great renewal in the Church, and evangelized to the furthest reaches of the world. In the twentieth century, we see the friendship between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and their brother “Inklings” as indispensable in the growth and flourishing of their own literary and apologetic gifts.

What is friendship? Who is a friend? The Scriptures tell us, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prv 17:17). I am convinced that if men will seek true brotherhood, the adversities we face today will solidify bands of brothers who will be lauded in heaven!

Therefore, men, ask yourself: What are your friends like? Do you have friends with whom you share the mission of holiness? Often young men will go to the seminary and discover the difference made by Christ-centered friendships, and their lives are transformed. This friendship is not limited to religious orders and priests. The renewal of masculinity cannot happen without banding together as brothers and true friends. In my own life, ever since my first year as a priest, I have been richly blessed by brother priests in the Jesus Caritas Fraternity.[15] Their commitment to Eucharistic adoration and simplicity of life, their fidelity to Christ in celibacy and daily prayer, their fraternal love, wise counsel, and encouragement have richly influenced and inspired me to persevere in my own mission in Christ. It has been a joy to see how fraternity among Catholic men in dioceses across the country has grown and flourished through participation in Men’s Conferences, Knights of Columbus, That Man is You, Cursillo Movement, and other such groups and events. There is room to grow, of course, but already the fruits of the Spirit are evident among these Catholic brothers and friends.

Conversely, we have seen what happens when men, young and old, do not form or sustain healthy friendships. Many, looking in the wrong places, find themselves in the false brotherhood of gangs, or without brotherhood at all, isolated and alone, and lacking these critical formative experiences of accountability and the trusted fellowship that only true friendship provides.

Studies have shown that many men today are living friendless lives.[16] This has its effect on marriages where men have no emotional support apart from their wives, as well as on children, who should see true friends in the lives of their parents but often do not. What a blessing to have the presence of good faithful friends to provide the encouragement and accountability we need to be free! Indeed, as the Scriptures tell us, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prv 27:17).

2. Man as Husband—the Purpose of Masculine Erotic Love

Next, let us seek to understand more deeply man’s calling to spousal love. Every man is made to live as a husband and a father in some way: “God assigns the dignity of every woman as a task to every man.”[17] Each man is called to commit and give of himself completely. For most men, this call is marriage while for others, this call is to the priesthood or to some other sincere and total self-gift in God’s service. Yet, in our day, such commitment is often seen as settling for something conventional, even boring; something that limits freedom or threatens love. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Instead, I remind you of the words of St. Josemaría Escrivá: “[T]here is a need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work.”[18]

Preparation for this sincere and complete spousal gift coincides with a man’s growth into masculinity. The “single years” of a young man’s life should be spent in this formation process and not wasted through idleness, passive “waiting,” or indulgence in sin. “Youth was not made for pleasure, but for heroism,” says Paul Claudel, the great French Catholic playwright. I urge you, young men, to prepare for marriage even before you meet your (future) bride. Such training in sacrifice is to love your bride before you meet her so that you may one day say, “Before I knew you, I was faithful to you.”

Through spousal love, men live out a strength that endures, a strength for which the world longs, and a strength that will stabilize a crumbling society. True, this love is not free from periods of difficulties and suffering. No vocation is! However, with St. Paul, we “consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed” (Rom 8:18). There is glory in man’s calling to be a husband.

When the great St. John Paul II spoke of a “spousal meaning of the body,” he implied that we men are all called in some way to spousal love.[19] That is, a committed love, a love that gives life, seeking the good of those to whom the man has committed. When a man is called to spousal love in marriage and family life, the priesthood, or some consecration to the Lord, he is called to a great and meaningful life. Indeed, if we run from this battle because of its challenges, we will be left empty. Those who arrive at the judgment seat of God, after this life, without the scars of a sacrificing husband, will “hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks who fought with us.”[20]

Let me now speak specifically to men called to conjugal love in marriage. This is a calling to the dignity and beauty of that union that is symbolic of Christ’s spousal love for the Church. St Paul explains this relationship in his instruction to husbands, saying:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church. (Eph 5:25–32)

Marriage in Christ is not merely a human endeavor. It is higher; it is a “great mystery.” The human desire for love is, in a way, a longing for infinite and eternal love. In the Sacrament of Marriage, human love is caught up in the infinite and eternal love of God.[21] This is the glory, men! Called to marriage, you are called to be as Christ to your bride. Because this love unites you and your spouse sacramentally with the infinite love that Christ has for each of you, your sacramental marriage overcomes the limits of natural marriage and achieves the infinite and eternal character to which every love aspires.

Here we come to the epicenter of the masculine battle in our time, the nexus of life and love that is God’s gift of sexuality. The need to develop chastity in your life, my sons, cannot be emphasized enough.

While much of our culture may not fully understand or encourage this commitment to and vision of the grandeur of spousal love to which we are called, we should in no way be discouraged. Rather, consider how blessed we are to be called to proclaim this truth in a time when it is most needed. In doing so, you radiate the light of Christ in an area of society so darkened by those things that have always threatened spousal love. Our Catechism names them clearly: “discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation … self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one’s own pleasure.”[22] We could add here the use of pornography, always toxic to both the participants and the observers, and the consumptive “hook-up” subculture that removes sexual encounters entirely from the spousal relationship.

How did it come about that a culture so steadfast in supporting marriage and spousal commitment two generations ago became a culture that has reduced sexuality to mere pleasure and self-serving ends? The answer is the Sexual Revolution. For many, the Sexual Revolution promised “free love” and liberty from the shackles of old ideas about masculinity and femininity. What resulted was the separation of sexuality from the commitments of marriage and a widespread option for sterility (chemical and surgical sterilizations), amounting to a denial of what is most essentially masculine and feminine in the person. Worse, the Sexual Revolution ushered in the scourge of abortion, pornography, and sexual abuse so rampant in recent decades. Instead of real and authentic love, this false “liberty” offers cheap pleasures that mask a deeper loneliness and pain. Instead of the security of traditional family bonds, it leaves children longing for the stability of a mother’s and a father’s love. Instead of the freedom that comes with accepting the truth of God’s design for human love between a man and woman, the Sexual Revolution has arrogantly rebelled against human nature, a nature that will never thrive so long as it is mired in confusion and lack of self-control. Indeed, the “love” promised by the Sexual Revolution has never been found. In its wake lies the wreckage of countless broken hearts bound by fear of more pain, broken lives, broken homes, broken dreams, and broken people who no longer believe that love is even possible. This is the rotten fruit of the Sexual Revolution.

It stands to reason that if love is our deepest desire and longing, destroying love will cause us the most pain, the deepest wounds. Thus, where do we start? Where do we begin to rebuild? What do we repair first?

My sons and brothers, we must begin with ourselves.

If I may return to the analogy of the athlete, we know that no champion achieves greatness without discipline in practice or without training to pursue greatness in his sport. He must be a master of himself; he must possess self-mastery. For the man called to live conjugal love, this self-mastery finds its culmination in the virtue of chastity. We need to see masculine chastity for what it is, whereas too often, this virtue is seen in negative light, as something weak. Nothing could be more false! Chastity is strength and a rejection of slavery to the passions. Christians have always believed that chastity, whether in marriage or celibacy, is a freedom from the enslavement to sin and our passions.

To understand chastity, we must understand God: “God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image …, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion (FC 11).”[23] The love we live as men is a participation in and a demonstration of God’s love. As equal sharers in dignity, women, of course, also demonstrate God’s love, and yet there is a difference in how we do so. For both men and women, “Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.”[24] According to the Catechism,

Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man’s belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.[25]

Chastity allows us to master and properly live out this calling to be men of authentic communion.

Here, let me recall Jesus’s crucial words regarding any man who “looks at a woman lustfully.” Such a man has “already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). This leads me to call specific attention to those acts that are (wrongly) considered “normal” and even encouraged for men in today’s culture. Here I am speaking of pornography and masturbation. The damaging effects of these hidden and narcissistic habits train the man in a way of life that is diametrically opposed to a life of self-giving love. He learns nothing more than to use others. Instead of life-giving and self-emptying love, he learns to settle for self-absorbed, sterile pleasures. Recall again Jesus’s words:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Mt 5:27–30)

With these prophetic words, Jesus foresees modern pornography that feeds the lust of the eyes. He uses hyperbole, strong words, metaphorically encouraging men to gouge out their eye and cut off their hand in order to drive home the point that urgent action is needed. Pornography not only leaves a man in danger of hell, but it also destroys the bond that unites him with his wife, a destruction similar to that wrought by adultery. In other words, think of pornography as just as serious and no less grave than adultery. To attempt to love another person while engaging in this practiced narcissism will surely bring grave harm.

When battling pornographic temptations, it is important to consider honestly the factors surrounding the temptation. For most men, these include loneliness, boredom, anger, insecurity, and stress. Simply understanding the context of a temptation prompts us to invite God to send His grace to begin to overcome the Devil’s tactics. The sacrament of confession is the place of superabundant grace and support. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). This is not a promise merely to be attained in heaven! This promise is to begin for us now, in our everyday lives. The saints attest to this truth. Through building purity of heart, men, you will not only see God in the women in your lives but also in yourselves, as you, too, are made in the “image of God”! Even if the darkness seems insurmountable, Christ never abandons us. As a priest, I treasure the honest encounter in confession with those who want the Lord’s healing. It is a blessing to work with men in the fight to turn the tide from false to real love.

Imagine with me how different our world would be for our wives, sisters, and daughters if men lived this interior strength of chastity. In our time, we hear of such high rates of sexual assaults in our society, especially on college campuses. Is this not a time for a renewal of masculine chastity? Is this not a time for men to build up the virtue of temperance through fasting and prayer amidst brothers? Is this not a time to consider more deeply St. John Paul II’s proclamation that the “dignity of every woman is a task given to every man?”

Masculine chastity is a “long and exacting work” that we should be proud to undertake![26] Imagine standing before the throne of God on judgment day, where the great saints of ages past, who themselves dealt with preeminent sins in their own day, will say to each other, “We dealt with the trouble of lust in our day, but those twenty-first-century men! These happy few battled the beast up close!” We can help each other and other men around us to strive for self-mastery, as this is best addressed among brothers. I encourage you to put aside your fears and insecurities, those that keep you from engaging head on in the fight for chastity. Christ wants to help men be formed after His own heart in each confessional of the Church and at each Mass where the power of His Blood poured out on the Cross is offered in Holy Communion.

3. Fatherhood Is Essential

Fatherhood changes history. In the Gospel according to Matthew, where “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers …,” forty-two fathers lead up to Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. In the words of St. John Paul II, fatherhood is essential to the flourishing of the world:

In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God (cf. Eph 3:15), a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family: he will perform this task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived under the heart of the mother, by a more solicitous commitment to education, a task he shares with his wife (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 52), by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability, and by means of the witness he gives of an adult Christian life which effectively introduces the children into the living experience of Christ and the Church.[27]

All men are called to fatherhood in some way:

Becoming mothers and fathers really means to be fully realized, because it is to become similar to God. This is not said in the newspapers, it does not appear, but it is the truth of love. Becoming dad and mom makes us more like God…. You are called to remind everyone that all the baptized, even though in a different way, are called to be a father or mother.[28]

Like masculinity itself, perhaps fatherhood has never been a widely-pondered topic among the philosophers because it has always been presumed, its meaning fairly obvious. This is no longer true. In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope St. John Paul II writes of the attack on fatherhood in modern society: “This is truly the key for interpreting reality … original sin, then, attempts to abolish fatherhood.”[29] The great pontiff of the family points to our first parents’ original act of disobedience, which cost them and us our original innocence and freedom from bodily death, and in that original sin, we find a primordial rebellion against God’s fatherhood, a desire to do away with fatherhood itself. This is our enemy’s underlying plan: to first diminish and then eliminate our reliance on God, the benevolent Father. To do this, Satan’s primary strategy is to damage and abolish human fatherhood, the very relationship through which each of us first glimpses what God’s fatherhood might be like.

Today’s attack on fatherhood, and by extension, motherhood, is multi-pronged and breathtakingly damaging. Forty-one percent of children are born into unmarried homes in our day, an increase of 700 percent from 1950, when the out-of-wedlock birthrate was a mere 6 percent. These children are not fatherless because of some sweeping physical conflict, like World War II, which caused many wounds of fatherlessness, but rather because, far worse, fathers’ own willed absence is happening on a massive scale. It is not hard to see how men’s fears of fatherhood find so much “support” in today’s culture of self, which encourages men to flee from this beautiful gift in pursuit of their own desires. The child is forced to ask the question: “Where is my Daddy?” What then is the impact on a child’s heart, on his or her understanding of the world, of love, and of the heavenly Father, when the answer to this question is “He left us,” or “I don’t know,” or “From the sperm bank, and he left no contact address”?

Catholic men also contribute far too regularly to this same scandal that devastates the heart of a child and makes too many women in our culture live as if they were widows! The ache of the fatherless child’s heart cries out to heaven: “He will not ignore the supplication of the fatherless, nor the widow when she pours out her story… And the Lord will not delay, neither will he be patient with them, till he crushes the loins of the unmerciful and repays vengeance on the nations” (Sir 35:14, 18). Why do the widows and the fatherless cry out? They have lost their protectors and providers! There is an unnatural void where should be found the one called upon by God “to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family.”[30] It is because of this loss, this void caused by men’s absence, that we have always naturally, traditionally, lamented fatherlessness.

There are those in our culture today, however, who do not want us to see fatherlessness as unnatural or lamentable. Do not be fooled by those voices wishing to erase all distinctions between mothers and fathers, ignoring the complementarity that is inherent in creation itself. Men, your presence and mission in the family is irreplaceable! Step up and lovingly, patiently take up your God-given role as protector, provider, and spiritual leader of your home. A father’s role as spiritual head of the family must never be understood or undertaken as domination over others, but only as loving leadership and gentle guidance for those in your care. Your fatherhood, my fatherhood, in its hidden, humble way, reflects imperfectly but surely the Fatherhood of God.

What does it mean to “father”? In a reflection on fatherhood, Pope Francis explains: “When a man does not have this desire [for fatherhood], something is missing in this man. Something is wrong. All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate. Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life, giving life.”[31] This is why fatherhood—living out one’s vocation to fatherhood, whether that fatherhood is bound up in physical marriage or spiritual marriage in the priesthood or religious life—is absolutely essential for a man to live out the fullness of his meaning in life. We speak of the Church Fathers, the Desert Fathers, our pope as Holy Father, and, for good reason, our priests as “Father.”

To fully live, all men must be fathers and live out their fatherhood! We cannot “become like God,” my sons and brothers, without this understanding and this movement of the heart followed by decisive action. If you do not embrace the spousal and fatherly vocation God has planned for you, you will be stuck in the impotence of the “seed” that refuses to die and refuses to give life. Don’t settle for this half-life! The question for every man is not, “Am I called to be a father?” but rather, “What kind of father am I called to be?”

Grandfathers, You Are of Great Importance

I wish to speak a word to you who are grandfathers. Few cultures have ever expected less and shown such indifference to those like you who have battled and who possess tested wisdom to offer their children and grandchildren. The world tells you that your time of influence is at an end and that it is time to retire, that is, to resign your post of fatherhood. Don’t believe it! Grandfathers matter greatly.

I have the privilege of being named after my grandfathers: Thomas Tighe Olmsted and P. James Hughes. Each in his own way fathered me alongside my own dad. Grandpa Jim drew upon his Catholic faith to face with dignity and hope the early death of his wife, my grandmother, from cancer. Without giving into despair or self-pity, he struggled mightily to keep the family of six together and to provide for the children—the youngest of whom was my mother—during the very difficult years of the Great Depression. The memories I treasure most about Grandpa Jim are those of his peaceful spirit, his Irish humor, and his sincere devotion to the Church. Grandpa Tom had an even greater impact on my life, even though he was never baptized. Beside him, I learned to care for walnut trees and watermelons, pumpkins and squash, horses and cattle, chickens and hogs. Amidst the many activities needed to make a living on our farm, I learned from Grandpa Tom and my dad the importance of being a good neighbor, of telling the truth no matter the cost, and of having a deep respect for “Mother Nature.” When I was ordained a priest, I chose a biblical saying for my First Mass card, one that captured what I had learned from my grandfathers: “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mi 6:8).

Grandfathers, you are an essential and treasured gift to your families, and I encourage you to continue to be strong for them, to share your wisdom with them, and to fight for them. Remember Jesus’s earthly grandfather, St. Joachim, who lived a life faithful to God. In his advanced years, God the Father blessed St. Joachim and his wife, St. Anne, with the great gift of Mary, our Blessed Mother. Let every grandfather be reminded that even when the routine of daily life may appear to be insignificant, we never know what great plans God has for the last years of our lives.

Hope in the Shadows of Lost Fatherhood

I would now like to say a special word to those of you who have suffered the absence of your own father. There are many reasons why men abandon their responsibilities, or even if they remain, stay distant, as a result of the lack of positive experience of fatherhood in their own lives. This wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly fatherlessness is never God’s plan. Do not give in to discouragement, however, and do not lose hope. The Church is always called to reveal God the Father. Allow Christ to show you the Father who never abandons His children, but rather offers His only begotten Son. If you have not already done so, allow Christ to guide you in order to see your father as He sees him. Jesus will not leave you without the grace necessary to forgive and heal your father. This may happen in conjunction with the graces offered to you through your spiritual fathers, your priests, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through your discovery of the Fatherhood of God, our loving, eternal Father, you will be witnesses to the only fatherhood that never fails.[32]

Finally, I want to offer a special word for those men who know that they have failed in their fatherhood. This is true, to a greater or lesser degree, of each and every one of us. Failure in this area can manifest itself in or be caused by addiction, abandonment, marital conflict, emotional and/or spiritual detachment, abortion, physical and/or emotional abuse, a failure to guide the family in the Faith, or in the countless other ways that we obscure the image of God as the loving Father. I stand with you as an imperfect father, asking God the Father to make up for the ways that we fail in this greatest of masculine missions. It is important to acknowledge the enemy’s tactics; Satan will attempt to drag us down into a despair that can lead us to abandon our fatherhood even further because of our sins. Yet we must never give up, my sons! Pray and be renewed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Christ strengthens us through confession and the Holy Eucharist to spend ourselves in rebuilding fatherhood in whatever way possible.

_______________

14Dr. Paul Vitz, Lecture, February 21, 2015.

15See Appendix for description and call to form these groups among laymen.

16Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30038995.

17Pope St. John Paul II, Catechesis on Human Love, 100:6.

18St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way.

19Pope St. John Paul II, Catechesis on Human Love, 14:5.

20Shakespeare, Henry V, iv.3.

21Cf. Gaudium et spes, 48.

22Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1606.

23Ibid., 2331.

24Ibid., 2332.

25Ibid., 2337.

26Ibid., 2342.

27Pope St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (1981), 25.

28Pope Francis, Address, June 15, 2015.

29Pope St. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994), 228.

30Familiaris Consortio, 25.

31Pope Francis, Homily, June 26, 2013.

32Adapted from Evangelium Vitae, 99.

5

SENT FORTH BY CHRIST

he best friend of St. Gregory Nazianzen was St. Basil. As young men in their early twenties, each one’s personal search for a deeper understanding of the Christian faith led them by separate paths to Constantinople, where they soon developed a deep respect for one another. St. Gregory’s description of this friendship is hopeful: “If this is not too much for me to say, we were a rule and standard for each by which we learned the distinction between what was right and what was not.”[33] Their friendship inspired each to grow in virtue and freedom, to be less concerned for self and more eager to place his life at the service of others. I hope that each man reading this manual will experience, if he has not already done so, the blessing of good friendships like the ones between the saints. I cannot imagine what my own life would be like without the good friends God has given me.

I hope, too, that you will take what is helpful in my message, bring it to the Lord in prayer, and go forward confidently in your vocation as men. Our life in Christ is not one of “do’s and don’ts,” but an adventure in authentic freedom. Embrace that freedom in order to place your life at the service of Christ, beginning in your home and radiating into the world.

Where Is the Faith of Our Fathers Now?

As I write this, videos are being released documenting the barbaric practice of selling baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. Since this infamous agency receives around half a billion dollars each year from the United States government, funds to carry on their slaughter of innocents, no American citizen, and certainly no man, can remain silent about this travesty of our times. We need to get off the sidelines and stand up for life on the front lines. We need faith like that of our fathers who defended the children of previous generations and who gave up their own lives rather than abandon their faith in Christ. My sons and brothers, men of the Church in the United States and beyond, we need you to step into the breach!

The Catholic martyrs of England inspired Frederick W. Faber to write the hymn “Faith of our Fathers” in AD 1849. As Faber paid tribute to the men who refused to deny Christ “in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,” he also issued a call to arms for the men of succeeding generations. Join me in praying that we, men of the twenty-first century, will make the words of this verse our own:

Our Fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free:
How sweet would be their children’s fate,
If they, like them, could die for Thee!
Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

__________

Part 1 of this manual is a slightly modified version of Bishop Olmstead’s Apostolic Exhortation to the Catholic men of the Diocese of Phoenix promulgated on the Feast of the Archangels, September 29, 2015.

+THOMAS J. OLMSTED
BISHOP OF PHOENIX

_______________

33“On St. Basil the Great,” Funeral Orations (The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 22) (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1953), 27.

PART TWO

Wisdom and
Prayers for Men

6

CHURCH TEACHING ON THE ROLE
OF MEN AT HOME AND IN SOCIETY

The Catholic Church for us is both “mater and magistra” or “mother and teacher.”

FROM THE CATECHISM

Laity and Evangelization

he initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church.[1]

Duty to Assist Your Bishop and His Priests

Since, like all the faithful, lay Christians are entrusted by God with the apostolate by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, they have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. This duty is the more pressing when it is only through them that men can hear the Gospel and know Christ. Their activity in ecclesial communities is so necessary that, for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it (Cf. LG 33).[2]

The Fidelity of Conjugal Love

By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement “until further notice.”

The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony the spouses are enabled to represent this fidelity and witness to it. Through the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage receives a new and deeper meaning.[3]

As the Family Goes, So Goes Society

The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.[4]

The Duties of Parents Toward Their Children

The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute” (GE 3).

Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God’s law.

Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery—the preconditions of all true freedom…. Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:

He who loves his son will not spare the rod…. He who disciplines his son will profit by him. (Sir 30:1–2)

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Eph 6:4)

The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.

Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the “first heralds” for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. (LG 11 § 2)[5]

The Duty of Children Toward Their Parents

Sadly, in today’s society, care for elderly parents is neglected or often left principally to daughters. Sons must honor and care for those who brought them into the world.

“Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16) Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.[6]

The Important Role of Single Men

Some forgo marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to give themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the good of the human family.[7]

The Complementarity of Men and Women

Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.

Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way.[8]

Lust and Pornography

Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.[9]

FROM THE COMPENDIUM
OF THE CATECHISM OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Seven Virtues

379. What are the principal human virtues? (1805; 1834)

The principal human virtues are called the cardinal virtues, under which all the other virtues are grouped and which are the hinges of a virtuous life. The cardinal virtues are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

380. What is prudence? (1806; 1835)

Prudence disposes reason to discern in every circumstance our true good and to choose the right means for achieving it. Prudence guides the other virtues by pointing out their rule and measure.

381. What is justice? (1807; 1836)

Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give to others their due. Justice toward God is called “the virtue of religion.”

382. What is fortitude? (1808; 1837)

Fortitude assures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It reaches even to the ability of possibly sacrificing one’s own life for a just cause.

383. What is temperance? (1809; 1838)

Temperance moderates the attraction of pleasures, assures the mastery of the will over instincts and provides balance in the use of created goods.

384. What are the theological virtues? (1812–1813; 1840–1841)

The theological virtues have God himself as their origin, motive and direct object. Infused with sanctifying grace, they bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.

385. What are the theological virtues? (1813)

The theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity.

386. What is the virtue of faith? (1814–1816; 1842)

Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and all that he has revealed to us and that the Church proposes for our belief because God is Truth itself. By faith the human person freely commits himself to God. Therefore, the believer seeks to know and do the will of God because “faith works through charity” (Galatians 5:6).

387. What is hope? (1817–1821; 1843)

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life.

388. What is charity? (1822–1829; 1844)

Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment, the fullness of the law. “It is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14) and the foundation of the other virtues to which it gives life, inspiration, and order. Without charity “I am nothing” and “I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

PAPAL DOCUMENTS AND TEACHING

“Jesus Christ reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”

GAUDIUM ET SPES

New Evangelization

In connection with the prophetic function is that state of life which is sanctified by a special sacrament obviously of great importance, namely, married and family life. For where Christianity pervades the entire mode of family life, and gradually transforms it, one will find there both the practice and an excellent school of the lay apostolate. In such a home husbands and wives find their proper vocation in being witnesses of the faith and love of Christ to one another and to their children. The Christian family loudly proclaims both the present virtues of the Kingdom of God and the hope of a blessed life to come. Thus by its example and its witness it accuses the world of sin and enlightens those who seek the truth.

Consequently, even when preoccupied with temporal cares, the laity can and must perform a work of great value for the evangelization of the world. For even if some of them have to fulfill their religious duties on their own, when there are no sacred ministers or in times of persecution; and even if many of them devote all their energies to apostolic work; still it remains for each one of them to cooperate in the external spread and the dynamic growth of the Kingdom of Christ in the world. Therefore, let the laity devotedly strive to acquire a more profound grasp of revealed truth, and let them insistently beg of God the gift of wisdom.[10]

POPE PAUL VI

The Sanctity of Marriage

Christian spouses, in virtue of the sacrament of Matrimony, whereby they signify and partake of the mystery of that unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and His Church, help each other to attain to holiness in their married life and in the rearing and education of their children. By reason of their state and rank in life they have their own special gift among the people of God. From the wedlock of Christians there comes the family, in which new citizens of human society are born, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism are made children of God, thus perpetuating the people of God through the centuries. The family is, so to speak, the domestic church. In it parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children; they should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them, fostering with special care vocation to a sacred state.[11]

POPE PAUL VI

The Hour Has Come for a Re-Evangelization

To all people of today I once again repeat the impassioned cry with which I began my pastoral ministry: “Do not be afraid! Open, in deed, open wide the doors to Christ!

Open to his saving power the confines of states, and systems political and economic, as well as the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Do not be afraid! Christ knows ‘what is inside a person’. Only he knows! Today too often people do not know what they carry inside, in the deepest recesses of their soul, in their heart. Too often people are uncertain about a sense of life on earth. Invaded by doubts they are led into despair. Therefore—with humility and trust I beg and implore you—allow Christ to speak to the person in you. Only he has the words of life, yes, eternal life” (124).

Opening wide the doors to Christ, accepting him into humanity itself poses absolutely no threat to persons, indeed it is the only road to take to arrive at the total truth and the exalted value of the human individual.

This vital synthesis will be achieved when the lay faithful know how to put the gospel and their daily duties of life into a most shining and convincing testimony, where, not fear but the loving pursuit of Christ and adherence to him will be the factors determining how a person is to live and grow, and these will lead to new ways of living more in conformity with human dignity.

Humanity is loved by God! This very simple yet profound proclamation is owed to humanity by the Church. Each Christian’s words and life must make this proclamation resound: God loves you, Christ came for you, Christ is for you “the Way, the Truth and the Life!” (Jn 14:6).[12]

POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II

The New Evangelization: A Desire to
Share the Inestimable Gift of God

This variety of situations demands careful discernment; to speak of a “new evangelization” does not in fact mean that a single formula should be developed that would hold the same for all circumstances. And yet it is not difficult to see that what all the Churches living in traditionally Christian territories need is a renewed missionary impulse, an expression of a new, generous openness to the gift of grace. Indeed we cannot forget that the first task will always be to make ourselves docile to the freely given action of the Spirit of the Risen One who accompanies all who are heralds of the Gospel and opens the hearts of those who listen. To proclaim fruitfully the Word of the Gospel one is first asked to have a profound experience of God.

As I stated in my first Encyclical Deus Caritas Est: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Likewise, at the root of all evangelization lies not a human plan of expansion, but rather the desire to share the inestimable gift that God has wished to give us, making us sharers in his own life.[13]

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Need for the Proclamation of the Gospel

As Pastors, we have first of all reflected on the mission to proclaim the Gospel in today’s world. This mission, “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), is today more timely and necessary than ever, even in traditionally Christian countries. Moreover, we cannot ignore the increase of secularization, relativism, even nihilism, especially in the Western world. All this calls for a renewed and powerful proclamation of the Gospel, adapted to the cultures of our time. Our traditions represent for us a patrimony which must be continually shared, proposed, and interpreted anew. This is why we must strengthen our cooperation and our common witness before the world.[14]

POPE BENEDICT XVI AND
PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW I

Resisting Relativism and Pressure From
Others to Abandon the Catholic Faith

The Catholic man’s faith is rooted in the creed of the Church and friendship with Christ.

How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves—flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St. Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.

Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be “tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine”, seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.

We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An “adult” faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.[15]

FROM A HOMILY GIVEN BY
JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER

Citizenship in Hard Times

As every hope of safety lies in the protection and succor of our Heavenly Father in the midst of so great private and public necessities, We would earnestly desire to see confidence united with the revival of an assiduous zeal in prayer. In every great crisis of Christendom, and every time the Church was afflicted by evils within or dangers without, our fore fathers, with their eyes lifted to Heaven in supplication, taught us how and when we should seek for the light of our souls, for the strength of virtue, and for help suited to the need.[16]

POPE LEO III

Courageous Love of Truth

Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love—caritas—is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God’s plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:32). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity.[17]

POPE BENEDICT XVI

In Praise of the Family

Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are made for love—indeed at the core of our being, we long to love and to be loved in return. Only God’s love can fully satisfy our deepest needs, and yet through the love of husband and wife, the love of parents and children, the love of siblings for one another, we are offered a foretaste of the boundless love that awaits us in the life to come. Marriage is truly an instrument of salvation, not only for married people but for the whole of society. Like any truly worthwhile goal, it places demands upon us, it challenges us, it calls us to be prepared to sacrifice our own interests for the good of the other. It requires us to exercise tolerance and to offer forgiveness. It invites us to nurture and protect the gift of new life. Those of us fortunate enough to be born into a stable family discover there the first and most fundamental school for virtuous living and the qualities of good citizenship.[18]

POPE BENEDICT XVI

__________

There is a truly marvelous design inherent in the Sacrament of Matrimony! And it unfolds in the simplicity and frailty of the human condition. We are well aware of how many difficulties two spouses experience…. The important thing [is] to keep alive their bond with God, who stands as the foundation of the marital bond. And the true bond is always the Lord. When the family prays, the bond is preserved. When the husband prays for his wife and the wife prays for her husband, that bond becomes strong; one praying for the other. It is true that there are so many difficulties in married life, so many, when there is insufficient work or money, when the children have problems. So much to contend with. And many times the husband and wife become a little fractious and argue between themselves. They argue, this is how it is, there is always arguing in marriage, sometimes the plates even fly. Yet we must not become saddened by this, this is the human condition. The secret is that love is stronger than the moment when there is arguing, and therefore I always advise spouses: do not let a day when you have argued end without making peace. Always![19]

POPE FRANCIS

St. Joseph the Protector

On the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry, receiving the papal pallium and the Fisherman’s Ring. On that occasion he offered the following words on St. Joseph.

In the Gospel we heard that “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife” (Mt 1:24). These words already point to the mission which God entrusts to Joseph: he is to be the custos, the protector. The protector of whom? Of Mary and Jesus; but this protection is then extended to the Church, as Blessed John Paul II pointed out: “Just as Saint Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model” (Redemptoris Custos, 1).

How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.

How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own. This is what God asked of David…. God does not want a house built by men, but faithfulness to his word, to his plan. It is God himself who builds the house, but from living stones sealed by his Spirit. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ![20]

POPE FRANCIS

Christianity Teaches Virtue

Christian teaching reveals God and His infinite perfection with far greater clarity than is possible by the human faculties alone. Nor is that all. This same Christian teaching also commands us to honor God by faith, which is of the mind, by hope, which is of the will, by love, which is of the heart; and thus the whole man is subjected to the supreme Maker and Ruler of all things. The truly remarkable dignity of man as the son of the heavenly Father, in Whose image he is formed, and with Whom he is destined to live in eternal happiness, is also revealed only by the doctrine of Jesus Christ. From this very dignity, and from man’s knowledge of it, Christ showed that men should love one another as brothers, and should live here as become children of light, “not of revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.” (Rom 13:13). He also bids us to place all our anxiety and care in the hands of God, for He will provide for us; He tells us to help the poor, to do good to those who hate us, and to prefer the eternal welfare of the soul to the temporal goods of this life. Without wishing to touch on every detail, nevertheless is it not true that the proud man is urged and commanded by the teaching of Christ to strive for humility, the source of true glory? “Whoever, therefore, humbles himself… he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:4). From that same teaching we learn prudence of the spirit, and thereby we avoid prudence of the flesh; we learn justice, by which we give to every man his due; fortitude, which prepares us to endure all things and with steadfast heart suffer all things for the sake of God and eternal happiness; and, last of all, temperance through which we cherish even poverty borne out of love for God, nay, we even glory in the cross itself, unmindful of its shame. In fine, Christian teaching not only bestows on the intellect the light by which it attains truth, but from it our will draws that ardor by which we are raised up to God and joined with Him in the practice of virtue.[21]

POPE PIUS X

Seven Lamps of Sanctification

Over the course of several general audiences, and inspired by Pope St. John XXIII, Popes John Paul I and Saint John Paul II treated the seven traditional virtues. John XXIII called these virtues “Seven Lamps of Sanctification.” It is interesting to note that in this case you have one pope, John XXIII, inspiring another, John Paul I, only to have his successor, John Paul II, continue this particular catechesis upon his death. This fact highlights a truth in the lives of men. We all build upon those who came before us, even, actually especially, popes; hence the importance of fathers and grandfathers and any and all exemplary men who precede us and pave the way for us. Let us strive to exemplify the virtues in both word and deed for those who will follow us.

Pope John Paul I on the Theological Virtues

FAITH

Pope John [XXIII], in a note of his, which was also published, said: “This time I gave the retreat on the Seven Lamps of Sanctification.” Seven virtues, he meant, that is, faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. Who knows if the Holy Spirit will help the poor Pope today to illustrate at least one of these lamps, the first one, faith….

… When it is a question of faith, the great stage manager is God. Because Jesus said: “No one comes to me unless my Father draws him.” St. Paul did not have faith, in fact he was persecuting the faithful. God waits for him on the way to Damascus: “Paul,” he says to him, “don’t take it into your head to rear up, to kick, like a restive horse. I am that Jesus whom you are persecuting. I need you. You must change!” Paul surrendered; he changed, leading a completely different life. Some years afterwards, he will write to the Philippians: “that time, on the way to Damascus, God seized me; since then I have done nothing but run after him, to see if I, too, am able to seize him, imitating him, loving him more and more.”

That is what faith is: to surrender to God, but transforming one’s life. A thing that is not always easy! Augustine has told of the journey of his faith; especially in the last few weeks it was terrible; reading, one feels his soul almost shudder and writhe in interior conflicts. On the one hand, God calls him and insists; on the other hand, his old habits, “old friends,” he writes, … ; “and they pulled me gently by my mantle of flesh and they said to me: ‘Augustine, what! You are abandoning us? Look out, you won’t be able to do this anymore, you won’t be able ever again to do that other.’” A hard thing! “I felt,” he says, “like one who is in bed, in the morning. He is told: ‘Out, Augustine, get up! Finally the Lord gave me a sharp tug, and I came out. You see, one mustn’t say: ‘Yes, but; yes, but later.’ One must say: ‘Yes, Lord! At once!’ This is faith. To respond to the Lord generously. But who says this ‘yes’? He who is humble and trusts God completely!”

My mother used to tell me when I was a boy: “When you were little, you were very ill. I had to take you from one doctor to another and watch over you whole nights; do you believe me?” How could I have said: “I don’t believe you, Mamma”? “Of course I believe, I believe what you tell me, but I believe especially in you.”

And so it is in faith. It is not just a question of believing in the things that God revealed, but in him who deserves our faith, who has loved us so much and done so much for our sake.[22]

HOPE

I said that hope is obligatory: that does not mean that hope is ugly or hard. On the contrary, anyone who lives it travels in an atmosphere of trust and abandonment, saying with the psalmist: “Lord, you are my rock, my shield, my fortress, my refuge, my lamp, my shepherd, my salvation. Even if an army were to encamp against me, my heart will not fear; and if the battle rises against me, even then I am confident.” You will say: is not this psalmist exaggeratedly enthusiastic? Is it possible that things always went right for him? No, they did not always go right. He, too, knows, and says so, that the bad are often fortunate and the good oppressed. He even complained to the Lord about it sometimes; he went so far as to say: “Why are you sleeping, Lord? Why are you silent? Wake up, listen to me, Lord.” But his hope remained: firm, unshakeable. To him and to all those who hope can be applied what St Paul said of Abraham: “In hope he believed against hope” (Rom 4:18).

You will say further: how can this happen? It happens because one is attached to three truths: God is almighty, God loves me immensely, God is faithful to promises. And it is he, the God of mercy, who kindles trust in me; so that I do not feel lonely, or useless, or abandoned, but involved in a destiny of salvation, which will lead to Paradise one day.[23]

CHARITY

In a word: to love means travelling, rushing with one’s heart towards the object loved….

[This] brings sacrifices, but these must not stop us. Jesus is on the cross: you want to kiss him? You cannot help bending over the cross and letting yourself be pricked by some thorns of the crown which is on the Lord’s head (cf. St Francis de Sales Oeuvres, Annecy, t. XXI, p. 153). You cannot cut the figure of good St. Peter, who had no difficulty in shouting “Long live Jesus” on Mount Tabor, where there was joy, but did not even let himself be seen beside Jesus at Mount Calvary, where there was risk and suffering (cf. Ibid., 140)….

… God is too great, he deserves too much from us for us to be able to throw to him, as to a poor Lazarus, a few crumbs of our time and our heart. He is infinite good and will be our eternal happiness: money, pleasure, the fortunes of this world, compared with him, are just fragments of good and fleeting moments of happiness. It would not be wise to give so much of ourselves to these things and little of ourselves to Jesus.

… It would not be right to say: “Either God or man.” We must love “both God and man”; the latter, however, never more than God or against God or as much as God. In other words: love of God, though prevalent, is not exclusive…. “Jacob”, writes [St. Francis de Sales], “loves Rachel with all his might, and he loves God with all his might; but he does not therefore love Rachel as God nor God as Rachel. He loves God as his God above all things and more than himself; he loves Rachel as his wife above all other women and as himself. He loves God with absolutely and superbly supreme love, and Rachel with supreme husbandly love; one love is not contrary to the other because love of Rachel does not violate the supreme advantages of love of God” (St. Francis de Sales, Oeuvres, t. V, p. 175).

And for your sake I love my neighbour. Here we are in the presence of two loves which are “twin brothers” and inseparable. It is easy to love some persons; difficult to love others; we do not find them likeable, they have offended us and hurt us; only if I love God in earnest can I love them as sons of God and because he asks me to….

… I forgive offences received. It almost seems that the Lord gives precedence to this forgiveness over worship: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:23–24).

… Lord, may I love you more and more. Here, too, there is obedience to a commandment of God, who put thirst for progress in our hearts…. To love God, we have seen, is also a journey: God wants it to be more and more intense and perfect. He said to all his followers: “You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13–14); “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). That means: to love God not a little, but so much; not to stop at the point at which we have arrived, but with his help, to progress in love.[24]

Pope Saint John Paul II on the Cardinal Virtues

PRUDENCE

Today John Paul II presents himself to you, for the first time. Four weeks after that General Audience, he wishes to greet you and speak to you. He wishes to carry on with the subjects already started by John Paul I. We remember that he spoke of the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. He ended with charity….

Today we must speak of another virtue, since I have learned from the notes of the late Pontiff that it was his intention to speak not only of the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, but also of the four so-called cardinal virtues…. The ancients spoke a great deal of this virtue. We owe them, for this reason, deep gratitude and thanks. In a certain dimension, they taught us that the value of man must be measured with the yardstick of the moral good which he accomplishes in his life. It is just this that ensures the virtue of prudence first place. The prudent man, who strives for everything that is really good, endeavours to measure every thing, every situation and his whole activity according to the yardstick of moral good. So a prudent man is not one who—as is often meant—is able to wangle things in life and draw the greatest profit from it; but one who is able to construct his whole life according to the voice of upright conscience and according to the requirements of sound morality.

So prudence is the key for the accomplishment of the fundamental task that each of us has received from God. This task is the perfection of man himself. God has given our humanity to each of us. We must meet this task by planning it accordingly.

But the Christian has the right and the duty to look at the virtue of prudence also in another perspective….

… He must—expressing ourselves even more in the language of faith—take part in the divine plan of salvation. He must march towards salvation, and help others to save themselves. By helping others, he saves himself.

I pray in order that, in this light, those who are listening to me will think now of their own lives. Am I prudent? Do I live consistently and responsibly? Does the programme I am realizing serve the real good? Does it serve the salvation that Christ and the Church want for us? If a boy or girl student, a son or a daughter, is listening to me today, let such a person look in this light at the homework, reading, interests, pastimes, the circle of friends, boys and girls. If a father or a mother of a family is listening to me, let such a person think a little of the conjugal and parental commitments. If a minister or statesman is listening to me, let him look at the range of his duties and responsibilities. Is he pursuing the real good of society, of the nation, of mankind? Or only particular and partial interests? If a journalist or publicist is listening to me, one who exercises an influence on public opinion, let such a person reflect on the value and purpose of this influence.[25]

COURAGE

Whom do we regard as a strong, courageous man? This word usually conjures up the soldier who defends his homeland, exposing to danger his health, and in wartime, even his life. We realize, however, that we need fortitude also in peacetime. And so we highly esteem persons who distinguish themselves for so-called “civil courage.” A testimony of fortitude is offered to us by anyone who risks his own life to save someone who is about to drown, or by one who provides help in natural calamities, such as fire, floods, etc. St. Charles, my patron saint, certainly distinguished himself for this virtue when, during the plague in Milan, he carried out his pastoral ministry among the inhabitants of that city. But we think also with admiration of those men who climb the peaks of Everest or of the cosmonauts who set foot on the moon for the first time.

As can be seen from all this, the manifestations of the virtue of fortitude are numerous. Some of them are well known and enjoy a certain fame. Others are less known, although they often call for even greater virtue. Fortitude, in fact, as we said at the beginning, is a virtue, a cardinal virtue. Allow me to draw your attention to examples that are generally not well known, but which bear witness in themselves to great, sometimes even heroic, virtue. I am thinking, for example, of a woman, already mother of a large family, who is “advised” by so many to suppress a new life conceived in her womb, by undergoing “the operation” of interruption of pregnancy; and she replies firmly: “no.” She certainly feels all the difficulty that this “no” brings with it, difficulty for herself, for her husband, for the whole family, and yet she replies: “no.” The new human life conceived in her is a value too great, too “sacred,” for her to be able to give in to such pressure.

Another example: a man who is promised freedom and also an easy career provided he denies his own principles, or approves of something that is against his sense of honesty towards others. And he, too, replies “no,” though faced by threats on the one side, and attractions on the other. Here we have a courageous man!

There are many, a great many manifestations of fortitude, often heroic, of which nothing is written in the newspapers, or of which little is known. Only human conscience knows them … and God knows! …

… The virtue of fortitude always calls for a certain overcoming of human weakness and particularly of fear. Man, indeed, by nature, spontaneously fears danger, affliction and suffering. Therefore courageous men must be sought not only on battlefields, but also in hospital wards or on a bed of pain. Such men could often be found in concentration camps or in places of deportation. They were real heroes.

Fear sometimes deprives of civil courage men who are living in a climate of threats, oppression or persecution. The men who are capable of crossing the so-called barrier of fear, to bear witness to truth and justice, have then a special value. To reach such fortitude, man must in a certain way “go beyond” his own limits and “transcend” himself, running “the risk” of an unknown situation, the risk of being frowned upon, the risk of laying himself open to unpleasant consequences, insults, degradations, material losses, perhaps imprisonment or persecution. To attain this fortitude, man must be sustained by a great love for truth and for good, to which he dedicates himself.

The virtue of fortitude proceeds hand in hand with the capacity of sacrificing oneself. This virtue had already a well-defined contour among the Ancients. With Christ it acquired an evangelical, Christian contour. The Gospel is addressed to weak, poor, meek and humble men, peacemakers and to the merciful, but, at the same time, it contains a constant appeal to fortitude. It often repeats: “Fear not” (Mt 14:27). It teaches man that, for a just cause, for truth, for justice, one must be able to “lay down one’s life” (Jn 15:13)….

To be men we need fortitude. The truly prudent man, in fact, is only he who possesses the virtue of fortitude; just as also the truly just man is only he who has the virtue of fortitude.

Let us pray for this gift of the Holy Spirit which is called the “gift of fortitude.” When man lacks the strength to “transcend” himself, in view of higher values, such as truth, justice, vocation, faithfulness in marriage, this “gift from above” must make each of us a strong man and, at the right moment, say to us “deep down”: Courage![26]

JUSTICE

Justice is, in a certain way, greater than man, than the dimensions of his earthly life, than the possibilities of establishing in this life fully just relations among men, environments, societies and social groups, nations, and so on. Every man lives and dies with a certain sense of an insatiable hunger for justice, since the world is not able to satisfy fully a being created in the image of God, either in the depths of his person or in the various aspects of his human life. And thus, by means of this hunger for justice, man turns to God who “is justice itself.” Jesus expressed this very clearly and concisely in the Sermon on the Mount, when he said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt 5:6).

Having this evangelical sense of justice before our eyes, we must consider it at the same time a fundamental dimension of man’s life on earth: the life of man, of society, of humanity. This is the ethical dimension. Justice is the fundamental principle of the existence and the coexistence of men, as well as of human communities, societies and peoples. Furthermore, justice is the principle of the existence of the Church, as the People of God, and the principle of coexistence of the Church and the various social structures; in particular of the state, as well as of international organizations. In this wide and differentiated area, man and mankind are continually seeking justice: this is a perennial process and it is a task of supreme importance….

… Christ left us the commandment to love our neighbour. In this commandment, everything that concerns justice is also contained. There can be no love without justice. Love “surpasses” justice, but at the same time it finds its verification in justice. Even a father and a mother, loving their own child, must be just in his regard. If justice is uncertain, love, too, runs a risk.

To be just means giving each one what is due to him. This concerns temporal goods, of a material nature. The best example here can be remuneration for work or the so-called right to the fruits of one’s own work or of one’s own land. But to man is due also his good name, respect, consideration, the reputation he has deserved. The more we know a man, the more his personality, his character, his intellect and his heart are revealed to us. And the more we realize—and we must realize!—with what criterion to “measure him” and what it means to be just towards him.

It is necessary, therefore, to deepen our knowledge of justice continually. It is not a theoretical science. It is virtue, it is capacity of the human spirit, of the human will and also of the heart. It is also necessary to pray in order to be just and to know how to be just.

We cannot forget Our Lord’s words: “The measure you give will be the measure you get” (Mt 7:2).

A just man is a man of a “just measure.” May we all be so! May we all strive constantly to become so![27]

TEMPERANCE

Today the turn has come to speak of the fourth cardinal virtue, “temperance.” …

When we speak of virtues—not only these cardinal ones, but all of them, every virtue—we must always have in mind the real man, the actual man. Virtue is not something abstract, detached from life, but, on the contrary, it has deep “roots” in life itself, it springs from the latter and forms it. Virtue has an impact on man’s life, on his actions and behaviour. It follows that, in all these reflections of ours, we are speaking not so much of the virtue as of man living and acting “virtuously”; we are speaking of the prudent, just and courageous man, and finally, precisely today, we are speaking of the “temperate” (or “sober”) man….

The term “temperance” itself seems in a certain way to refer to what is “outside man.” We say, in fact, that a temperate man is one who does not abuse food, drinks, pleasures, who does not drink alcohol to excess, who does not deprive himself of consciousness by the use of drugs, etc. This reference to elements external to man has its basis, however, within man. It is as if there existed in each of us a “higher self” and a “lower self.” In our “lower self”, our “body” and everything that belongs to it is expressed: its needs, its desires, its passions of a sensual nature particularly. The virtue of temperance guarantees every man mastery of the “lower self” by the “higher self.” Is this a humiliation of our body? Or a disability? On the contrary, this mastery gives higher value to the body. As a result of the virtue of temperance, the body and our senses find the right place which pertains to them in our human condition.

A temperate man is one who is master of himself. One in whom passions do not prevail over reason, will, and even the “heart.” A man who can control himself! If this is so, we can easily realize what a fundamental and radical value the virtue of temperance has. It is even indispensable, in order that man may be fully a man. It is enough to look at some one who, carried away by his passions, becomes a “victim” of them—renouncing of his own accord the use of reason (such as, for example, an alcoholic, a drug addict)—to see clearly that “to be a man” means respecting one’s own dignity, and therefore, among other things, letting oneself be guided by the virtue of temperance.

This virtue is also called “sobriety.” And rightly so! In fact, to be able to control our passions, the lust of the flesh, the explosions of sensuality (for example in relations with the other sex) etc., we must not go beyond the rightful limit with regard to ourselves and our “lower self.” If we do not respect this rightful limit, we will not be able to control ourselves. This does not mean that the virtuous, sober man cannot be “spontaneous”, cannot enjoy, cannot weep, cannot express his feelings; that is, it does not mean that he must become insensitive, “indifferent”, as if he were made of ice or stone. No, not at all! It is enough to look at Jesus to be convinced of this. Christian morality has never been identified Stoic morality. On the contrary, considering all the riches of affections and emotivity with which every man is endowed—each in a different way, moreover: man in one way, woman in another owing to her own sensitivity—it must be recognized that man cannot reach this mature spontaneity unless by means of continuous work on himself and special “vigilance” over his whole behaviour. The virtue of “temperance”, of “sobriety” consists, in fact in this.

I think, too, that this virtue demands from each of us a specific humility with regard to the gifts that God has put in our human nature. I would say “humility of the body” and that “of the heart.” This humility is a necessary condition for man’s interior “harmony”: for man’s “interior” beauty. Let everyone think it over carefully; and in particular young men, and even more young women, at the age when one is so anxious to be handsome or beautiful in order to please others! Let us remember that man must above all be beautiful interiorly. Without this beauty, all efforts aimed at the body alone will not make—either him or her—a really beautiful person….

For the present this is enough. I have tried in this way, as well as I could, to follow John Paul I’s testament.[28]

Penance Atones for Sin

Penance then is, as it were, a salutary weapon placed in the hands of the valiant soldiers of Christ, who wish to fight for the defense and restoration of the moral order in the universe. It is a weapon that strikes right at the root of all evil, that is at the lust of material wealth and the wanton pleasures of life. By means of voluntary sacrifices, by means of practical and even painful acts of self-denial, by means of various works of penance, the noble-hearted Christian subdues the base passions that tend to make him violate the moral order. But if zeal for the divine law and brotherly love are as great in him as they should be, then not only does he practice penance for himself and his own sins, but he takes upon himself the expiation of the sins of others, imitating the Saints who often heroically made themselves victims of reparation for the sins of whole generations, imitating even the divine Redeemer, who became the Lamb of God “who taketh away the sins of the world” (lo. i. 29).[29]

POPE PIUS XI

Men as Husbands and Fathers

Within the conjugal and family communion-community, the man is called upon to live his gift and role as husband and father.

In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God’s intention: “It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a helper fit for him,” (Gn 2:18) and he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2:23).

Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: “You are not her master,” writes St. Ambrose, “but her husband; she was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife…. Reciprocate her attentiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love” (St. Ambrose, Exameron, V, 7, 19: CSEL 32, I, 154). With his wife a man should live “a very special form of personal friendship” (Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae Vitae, 9). As for the Christian, he is called upon to develop a new attitude of love, manifesting towards his wife a charity that is both gentle and strong like that which Christ has for the Church (Cf. Ef 5:25).

Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood. Above all where social and cultural conditions so easily encourage a father to be less concerned with his family or at any rate less involved in the work of education, efforts must be made to restore socially the conviction that the place and task of the father in and for the family is of unique and irreplaceable importance.[30]

POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II

PASTORAL GUIDANCE FOR MEN

Healthy Sexuality

The virtue and vocation of chastity is essential to love in all its forms. Chastity means “the successful integration of sexuality within the person,” and thus the attainment of self-mastery and genuine freedom in the sexual arena of human action. It is “a virtue that allows us to do what is right, good, and truly loving in the areas of relationship and sexuality.” Chastity integrates our internal desires for sexual pleasure into our overall pursuit of moral excellence and holiness. Chastity may be “an unpopular word,” but as Pope Francis has indicated, love is chaste. “All of us in life have gone through moments in which this virtue has been very difficult, but it is in fact the way of genuine love, of a love that is able to give life, which does not seek to use the other for one’s own pleasure.”

Chastity is opposed to lust, which is an inordinate desire for sexual pleasure apart from the true meaning of sexuality and marital love. Whereas lust uses another person as a means for sexual gratification, chastity affirms the whole person, body and soul, over and above his or her sexual qualities. It helps us to recognize the great goodness and profound meaning of human sexuality and authentic sexual desire as ordered to the love of man and woman in marriage. The chaste person also seeks to cultivate the virtue of modesty, which inspires one’s choice of clothing and behavior out of reverence for the dignity, even mystery, of oneself and others, a reverence which includes appreciation and respect for the human body. While living a chaste life is “a long and exacting work,” it is a path to human flourishing. Chastity calls us to rely on God’s grace and to persevere with fortitude in order to resist temptation and make the right decision in challenging circumstances.[31]

American Bishops on Pornography

Deliberately viewing pornography is a grave sin against chastity. Sexual intimacy and the pleasure that derives from it are gifts from God and should remain personal and private, enjoyed within the sacred bond of marriage alone. Such intimacy should not be put on display or be watched by any other person, even if that person is one’s own spouse. Nor should the human body be unveiled or treated in a way that objectifies it sexually and reduces it to an erotic stimulant. Jesus is clear in his teaching that sexual immorality is not only a matter of one’s actions but also a matter of one’s heart: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:27–28). Regardless of the relationship between the parties, looking at another person with lust—as only a sexual object to enjoy, control, and use—is a sin. It is a disordered view of the person, because it is ordered toward use, as of a thing, rather than love, which pertains to persons. This is why pornography can never be justified, even within marriage.[32]

For Parents

Thank you for your great love and sacrifice! You are cherished by God the Father, from whom your fatherhood and motherhood is named. You are the first guardians and teachers of your children and are called to be their models of chaste and fruitful love. The Church is so grateful for you who form, protect, and guide the domestic Church. As they grow up, children secure in their parents’ love for each other and for them will have a distinct advantage in navigating the challenges of the world. Children have the right to receive “an authentic education in sexuality and in love,” which includes education in chastity. It is your great and crucial responsibility to teach your children the true meaning of human sexuality, enabling them to see its beauty as an expression of total love. Even from an early age, your children can learn self-control, modesty, and respect for others from your words and actions.[33]

Monitoring the Internet

While the following passage is written specifically for parents—for our purposes, fathers—the sound advice here also may be applied to men as they monitor their own use of the Internet. Be vigilant, avoid near occasions of sin, and take measures to make sure that your Internet use becomes not a stumbling block on your path to salvation.

To parents. For the sake of their children, as well as for their own sakes, parents must “learn and practice the skills of discerning viewers and listeners and readers, acting as models of prudent use of media in the home”. As far as the Internet is concerned, children and young people often are more familiar with it than their parents are, but parents still are seriously obliged to guide and supervise their children in its use. If this means learning more about the Internet than they have up to now, that will be all to [the] good.

Parental supervision should include making sure that filtering technology is used in computers available to children when that is financially and technically feasible, in order to protect them as much as possible from pornography, sexual predators, and other threats. Unsupervised exposure to the Internet should not be allowed. Parents and children should dialogue together about what is seen and experienced in cyberspace; sharing with other families who have the same values and concerns will also be helpful. The fundamental parental duty here is to help children become discriminating, responsible Internet users and not addicts of the Internet, neglecting contact with their peers and with nature itself.[34]

_______________

1Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 899.

2Ibid., par. 900.

3Ibid., par. 1646–47.

4Ibid., par. 2207.

5Ibid., par. 2221–25.

6Ibid., par. 2200.

7Ibid., par. 2231.

8Ibid., par. 2333, 2335.

9Ibid., par. 2351, 2354.

10Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Lumen Gentium (1964), 35.

11Lumen Gentium, 11.

12Pope Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Christijdeles Laici (1988), 34.

13Pope Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter Ubicumque et Semper (2010).

14Pope Benedict XVI, Common Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (2006), 3.

15Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice: Homily of Card. Joseph Ratzinger” (Vatican Basilica, April 18, 2005), http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html.

16Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Quod Auctoritate (1885), 5.

17Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009), 1.

18Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience (St. Peter’s Square, May 5, 2010), http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100505.html.

19Pope Francis, General Audience (St. Peter’s Square, April 2, 2014), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20140402_udienza-generale.html.

20Pope Francis, “Homily for Inaguration as Pope” (Saint Peter’s Square, March 19, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130319_omelia-inizio-pontificato.html.

21Pope Pius X, Encyclical Acerbo Nimis (1905), 4.

22Pope John Paul I, General Audience, September 13, 1978. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-i/en/audiences/documents/hf_jp-i_aud_13091978.html.

23John Paul I, General Audience, September 20, 1978. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-i/en/audiences/documents/hf_jp-i_aud_20091978.html.

24John Paul I, General Audience, September 27, 1978. https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-i/en/audiences/documents/hf_jp-i_aud_27091978.pdf.

25Pope John Paul II, General Audience, October 25, 1978. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19781025.html.

26Pope John Paul II, General Audience, November 15, 1978. https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19781115.html.

27Pope John Paul II, General Audience, November, 8 1978. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19781108.html.

28Pope John Paul II, General Audience, November 22, 1978. https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19781122.html.

29Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Caritate Christi Compulsi (1932), 25.

30Pope Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (1981), 25.

31United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Create in Me a Clean Heart” (2015): 3–4, http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/pornography/upload/Create-in-Me-a-Clean-Heart-Statement-on-Pornography.pdf (footnoted citations removed).

32Ibid., 6.

33Ibid., 23.

34Pontifical Council for Social Communications, “The Church and the Internet” (2002): 11, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_church-internet_en.html.

7

SCRIPTURES FOR MEN

MODELS OF VIRTUE

Joseph: A Model of Justice,
Obedience, and Trust in God

ow the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus. Mt 1:18–25

The Christian Man Is in the
World but Not of It

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 Jn 2:15–17

AVOIDING VICE

Temptations of the Flesh

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Ex 20:14, 17

__________

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Mt 5:27–30

__________

Beloved, I beg you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Pt 2:11–12

__________

Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Rom 13:11–13

__________

Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life. Prv 4:23

Do not be jealous of the wife of your bosom, / and do not teach her an evil lesson to your own hurt. / Do not go to meet a loose woman, lest you fall into her snares. / Do not look intently at a virgin, / lest you stumble and incur penalties for her. / Do not give yourself to harlots / lest you lose your inheritance. / Do not look around in the streets of a city, / nor wander about in its deserted sections. / Turn away your eyes from a shapely woman, / and do not look intently at beauty belonging to another; / many have been misled by a woman’s beauty, / and by it passion is kindled like a fire. / Never dine with another man’s wife, nor revel with her at wine; / lest your heart turn aside to her, / and in blood you be plunged into destruction. Sir 9:1, 3, 5–9

__________

Drink water from your own cistern, / flowing water from your own well. / Should your springs be scattered abroad, / streams of water in the streets? / Let them be for yourself alone, / and not for strangers with you. / Let your fountain be blessed, / and rejoice in the wife of your youth, / a lovely hind, a graceful doe. / Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, / be infatuated always with her love. / Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman / and embrace the bosom of an adventuress? / For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, / and he watches all his paths. / The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, / and he is caught in the toils of his sin. / He dies for lack of discipline, / and because of his great folly he is lost. Prv 5:15–23

__________

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal 5:16–24

__________

Do not desire her beauty in your heart, / and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; / for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread, / but an adulteress stalks a man’s very life. / Can a man carry fire in his bosom / and his clothes not be burned? / Or can one walk upon hot coals / and his feet not be scorched? / So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; / none who touches her will go unpunished. / Do not men despise a thief if he steals / to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry? / And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; / he will give all the goods of his house. / He who commits adultery has no sense; / he who does it destroys himself. / Wounds and dishonor will he get, / and his disgrace will not be wiped away. / For jealousy makes a man furious, / and he will not spare when he takes revenge. / He will accept no compensation, / nor be appeased though you multiply gifts. Prv 6:25–35

Gluttony

Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Gal 3:19

Sloth

The desire of the sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to labor. Prv 21:25

__________

Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. Eccl 10:18

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Heb 6:11–12

Possessiveness

You shall not steal….

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house … or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s. Ex 20:15, 17

__________

He who loves gold will not be justified, / and he who pursues money will be led astray by it. / Many have come to ruin because of gold, / and their destruction has met them face to face. / It is a stumbling block to those who are devoted to it, / and every fool will be taken captive by it. / Blessed is the rich man who is found blameless, / and who does not go after gold. / Who is he? And we will call him blessed, / for he has done wonderful things among his people. / Who has been tested by it and been found perfect? / Let it be for him a ground for boasting. / Who has had the power to transgress and did not transgress, / and to do evil and did not do it? / His prosperity will be established, / and the assembly will relate his acts of charity. Sir 31:1–11

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Mt 6:19–21

__________

As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed. 1 Tm 6:17–19

__________

And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Lk 12:15

Caution With Regard to Debt

The borrower is the slave of the lender. Prv 22:7

Pride

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if any one thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Gal 6:1–4

__________

What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Jas 4:1–10

__________

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:3–11

__________

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. Prv 8:13

When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but with the humble is wisdom. Prv 11:2

__________

By insolence the heedless make strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. Prv 13:10

__________

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Prv 16:16

__________

For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. Rom 12:3

__________

You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Jas 4:14–16

__________

When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come, and say to you, “Give place to this man,” and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, “Friend, go up higher”; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. Lk 14:8–10

Envy

And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him. Acts 6:9

__________

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. Jas 3:16

MANHOOD AND LOVE

My soul takes pleasure in three things, / and they are beautiful in the sight of the Lord and of men; / agreement between brothers, friendship between neighbors, / and a wife and a husband who live in harmony. Sir 25:1

Man as Friend

The Moral Value of Friendship, When It Is Founded in God, Is Clearly Recommended By Sacred Scripture

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter: / he that has found one has found a treasure. / There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, / and no scales can measure his excellence. / A faithful friend is an elixir of life; / and those who fear the Lord will find him. / Whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship aright, / for as he is, so is his neighbor also. Sir 6:14–17

Genuine Friendships Are Formed Over Time

When you gain a friend, gain him through testing, / and do not trust him hastily. / For there is a friend who is such at his own convenience, / but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. / And there is a friend who changes into an enemy, / and will disclose a quarrel to your disgrace. / And there is a friend who is a table companion, / but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. / In your prosperity he will make himself your equal, / and be bold with your servants; / but if you are brought low he will turn against you, / and will hide himself from your presence. Sir 6:7–12

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Prv 27:5–6

__________

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Prv 17:17

__________

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Jn 15:13

__________

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Prv 18:24

__________

He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Jb 6:14

A Man Without Virtue Is Incapable of True Friendship

David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come to me in friendship to help me, my heart will be knit to you; but if to betray me to my adversaries, although there is no wrong in my hands, then may the God of our fathers see and rebuke you.” 1 Chr 12:17

A man who pricks an eye will make tears fall, / and one who pricks the heart makes it show feeling. / One who throws a stone at birds scares them away, / and one who reviles a friend will break off the friendship. / Even if you have drawn your sword against a friend, / do not despair, for a renewal of friendship is possible. / If you have opened your mouth against your friend, / do not worry, for reconciliation is possible; / but as for reviling, arrogance, disclosure of secrets, or a treacherous blow— / in these cases any friend will flee. Sir 22:19–22

__________

Make no friendship with a man given to anger, / nor go with a wrathful man, / lest you learn his ways / and entangle yourself in a snare. Prv 22:24–25

__________

Every friend will say, “I too am a friend”; / but some friends are friends only in name. Sir 37:1

__________

He who withholds kindness from a friend / Forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Jb 6:14

__________

It is not an enemy who taunts me— / then I could bear it; / it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— / then I could hide from him. / But it is you, my equal, / my companion, my familiar friend. / We used to hold sweet converse together; / within God’s house we walked in fellowship. Ps 55:12–14

__________

Man as Husband

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. Gn 2:18–25

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Eph 5:25–33

__________

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. Do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement for a season, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, lest Satan tempt you through lack of self-control. 1 Cor 7:1–5

__________

A good wife is the crown of her husband, / but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. / Happy is the husband of a good wife; / the number of his days will be doubled. / A loyal wife rejoices her husband, / and he will complete his years in peace. / A good wife is a great blessing; / she will be granted among the blessings of the man who fears the Lord. / Whether rich or poor, his heart is glad, / and at all times his face is cheerful. Sir 26:1–4

__________

A friend or a companion never meets one amiss, / but a wife with her husband is better than both. Sir 40:23

__________

Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Lk 16:18

__________

Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered. 1 Pt 3:7

__________

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Eph 5:22–28

Man as Father and Son

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Ex 20:12

__________

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.” Gn 17:3–8

__________

Lo, sons are a heritage from the Lord, / the fruit of the womb a reward. / Like arrows in the hand of a warrior / are the sons of one’s youth. / Happy is the man who has / his quiver full of them! / He shall not be put to shame / when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Ps 127:3–5

__________

He who spares the rod hates his son, / but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Prv 13:24

__________

And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

Lord,

nor lose courage when you are punished by him.

For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:5–11

__________

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:4

__________

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Col 3:21

__________

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse. Mal 4:6

__________

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to make merry. Lk 15:20–24

__________

And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Dt 6:6–9

THE CARDINAL VIRTUES
IN SCRIPTURE

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the soul suffered four wounds by the sin of our first parents. Human beings now suffer ignorance in their reason, malice in their will, infirmity in their anger, and [the] powerful longing [of] desirous appetites. These four wounds are removed by the four virtues traditionally called “cardinal”: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Prudence lets reason perceive what action in any particular situation most conforms to what is morally right. Justice disposes the will to act fairly and to render to everyone his due. Fortitude enables the soul to steer a middle course between excessive fear and rashness. Temperance balances desirous appetite between the immoderate pursuit of pleasure and insensitivity to pleasure. All the moral virtues have as their aim conformity to right reason—that is, correct judgment about what is naturally lawful—but prudence in particular decides in what way, and by what means, man may in his conduct attain the golden mean of reason. Hence Prudence is the measure and rule of the other Moral Virtues.[35]

Prudence

True prudence is recommended

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Mt 10:16

__________

The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. 1 Pt 4:7

Then Eli´hu said: “Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know; for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good.” Jb 34:1–4

__________

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one. Col 4:5–6

Imprudence has consequences

A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple go on, and suffer for it. Prv 22:3

__________

He who is estranged seeks pretexts / to break out against all sound judgment. / A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, / but only in expressing his opinion. Prv 18:1–2

__________

He who restrains his words has knowledge, / and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. / Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; / when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. Prv 17:27–28

__________

When a man of understanding hears a wise saying, / he will praise it and add to it; / when a reveler hears it, he dislikes it / and casts it behind his back. / A fool’s narration is like a burden on a journey, / but delight will be found in the speech of the intelligent. / The utterance of a sensible man will be sought in the assembly, / and they will ponder his words in their minds. Sir 21:15–17

Fortitude

And when David heard of it, he sent Jo´ab and all the host of the mighty men.

“Be of good courage [said Jo´ab], and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what seems good to him.” 2 Sm 10:7, 12

__________

But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. Jer 1:17–19

When David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.’” 1 Kgs 2:1–4

__________

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Jas 1:4

__________

Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Cor 16:13

Temperance

But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited. Likewise urge the younger men to control themselves. Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us. Ti 2:2–8

__________

My son, test your soul while you live; / see what is bad for it and do not give it that. / For not everything is good for every one, / and not every person enjoys everything. / Do not have an insatiable appetite for any luxury, / and do not give yourself up to food; / for overeating brings sickness, / and gluttony leads to nausea. / Many have died of gluttony, / but he who is careful to avoid it prolongs his life. Sir 37:27–31

__________

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 1 Cor 9:25–27

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Cor 6:19–20

Justice

Justice is a virtue that wants to render to each man his due. Unlike fortitude, prudence, and temperance, justice regulates man in his relations with others. Consequently the matter on which justice exercises itself is not the passions, but exterior actions and things.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without redress. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Ez 22:29–30

__________

If you pursue justice, you will attain it / and wear it as a glorious robe. / Birds flock with their kind; / so truth returns to those who practice it. / A lion lies in wait for prey; / so does sin for the workers of iniquity. Sir 27:9–10

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, / and his ears toward their cry…. / When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, / and delivers them out of all their troubles. Ps 33:15, 17

__________

He who pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honor. Prv 21:21

PSALM 51: KING DAVID’S EXAMPLE

David is a great example for men. This was a man who loved God, but fell into serious sin. Unlike Judas, who despaired, David threw himself on God’s mercy, begging forgiveness. We should do the same through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Do not despair when you sin! Make Psalm 51 your own heartfelt prayer.

A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet
came to him, after he had gone in to
Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your
steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy blot out my
transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned,

and done that which is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence

and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Fill me with joy and gladness;

let the bones which you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your
deliverance.

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth shall show forth your praise.

For you take no delight in sacrifice;

were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be
pleased.

FASTING

Fasting, whether from food and drink or other legitimate goods, is a beneficial practice in the life of a man. The Church, in her wisdom, encourages the faithful to live modestly and eat and drink temperately, the better both to fight against our baser instincts and to share what God has given us with those less fortunate.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Mt 4:1–4

And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. Mt 6:16

__________

And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” Mk 9:28–29

_______________

35Kenelm Vaughan,. The Divine Armory of Holy Scripture (New York: Catholic Book Exchange, 1894). 333.

8

SAINTS, OUR HEROES OF FAITH,
AND OTHER EXEMPLARS

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, Foster-Father
of Jesus, Patron of the Holy Church

e ought to confide greatly in the protection of Joseph, for his sanctity makes him very dear to God. In order to conceive the sanctity of Joseph, we have only to remember that he was chosen by God to fill the place of father towards Jesus Christ. Who does not know that amongst all the saints, Joseph is the most dear to God after the divine mother, and most powerful to obtain graces from God for those who ask his intercession? We ought to honor St Joseph, since Jesus Christ himself has honored him by calling him his Father. What angel, or what other saint has been thought worthy to be called the father of the Son of God? By this name of Father, God has conferred more honor upon Joseph than upon all the patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, and bishops; these he calls his servants, Joseph only did he style his father.

Jesus Christ, as long as Joseph lived, respected and obeyed him as a father; his obedience lasted for thirty years. To Joseph, during all that time, fell the office of ordering all things as head of the family; and the part of Jesus was to obey, as being subject to Joseph, whom God placed over him with the authority of father. “And therefore,” says St. John Damascene, “did he give to Joseph the love, the vigilance, and the authority of a father.” He gave to him the affection of a father, in order that he might guard him with the most tender love, and the vigilance of a father, that he might guard him with all watchfulness, and the authority of a father to secure him obedience in all the arrangements he should make for our Lord.

ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

The Special Protection of St. Joseph

St. Bernardine of Siena says, “We may be assured that the same filial reverence and respectful familiarity with which Jesus Christ treated Joseph while on this earth, he not only does not deny him in heaven, but has rather increased towards him.” St. Bernard says of the power which Joseph has of his dispensing graces to his clients: “To some saints,” he says, “it is given to protect us upon certain occasions, but to Joseph it is allowed to help us in every necessity, and to defend all who fly to him.” And what St. Bernard writes as his belief, St. Theresa of Ávila confirms by her experience. “It appears,” she says, “that to the other saints it is given to help us in some one necessity; but we know from experience, that Joseph can aid us in every need.”

Therefore, let us not fail to recommend ourselves every day and night to St. Joseph, who, next to divine Mary, is most powerful with God. Let us not fail to address to him, each day, some special prayer; and let us increase our prayers during his novena, and let us fast upon his eve, and beg favors of him; all of which he will obtain for us, provided they be useful to our souls.

ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Grandfather of Our Savior

St. Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin, was a native of Nazareth, a little town in Galilee. His parents, though occupying a humble position in the world, were descendants of the holy king David. It was not without inspiration that, at his circumcision, the name of Joachim was given him; it means “Preparation for the Lord,” or, as others translate it, a preparation for the arrival of the Lord. It has been understood by many to signify that he would have a daughter whom he would prepare, by a holy education, to be the mother of Our Lord. Arriving at the years of manhood, he married Anna, a virtuous and chaste maiden of Bethlehem, whom, without doubt, God gave special graces, as she was chosen by Him to be the mother of the Queen of Heaven. Joachim and Anna continued, after their union, to serve God with the greatest fidelity. The most perfect charity and harmony reigned in their dwelling. They had divided their possessions into three parts. The first they devoted exclusively to the honor of God and to the adornment of the Temple; the second, to the poor; and the third they kept for themselves. One thing saddened the lives of Joachim and Anna. They had been married many years without being blessed with a child, and their advancing age made them despair of ever having one. Barrenness was considered a great disgrace and Joachim lived under that cross for many years. He never ceased to implore God with tears, prayers, and fasts to remove it from him; but it seemed that he was not heard, which gave him great grief. He, however, never murmured against the Almighty, but, submitting to His will, continued his prayer.

It is also believed, that he and his spouse made a vow that, if they were blessed with a child, they would consecrate it to His service. St. Epiphanius relates that, one day, while St. Joachim was praying, an angel appeared to him and assured him that God had heard his prayer, and that a daughter should be given him, who would become the mother of the promised Messiah. The angel informed him also of the name which God had destined for her. When he heard this, the joy of St. Joachim was beyond all description. He went immediately to tell his spouse of it, who, according to some authors, had received the same revelation. Both gave fervent thanks to the Almighty and praised His mercy. The angel’s prophecy was fulfilled and St. Anna gave birth to a daughter, who was born free from the stain of original sin, full of the Holy Spirit, blessed above all women, and destined by heaven to be the mother of the only-begotten Son of God. St. Joachim, renewing his thanks to the Almighty, redoubled his zeal in His service. As soon as the lawful time arrived, St. Joachim and his holy spouse carried their new-born child into the temple and offered her with great devotion to God, redeemed her again according to the custom, and returned with her to their home. Three years they kept their daughter with them, after which they brought the tender child, who was, however, gifted with the full use of mind, into the Temple of Jerusalem, and having consecrated her, with the usual ceremonies, to the service of the Almighty, gave her in charge of the priests for education and instruction. In this manner, St. Joachim fulfilled his vow and showed how truly he loved God. For although his love for his daughter, no doubt, surpassed the love of most parents for their children, yet he deprived himself of that which was most dear to him on earth and consecrated it to the Most High. It cannot be doubted that God rewarded his self-sacrificing love with great graces and favors. After having made this sacrifice to the Almighty, Joachim and Anna lived for many years in great sanctity. It is believed that St. Joachim expired in the eightieth year of his age.

Practical Considerations

HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES

St. Joachim lived with his holy spouse, St. Ann, in continual love and harmony; they made use of their worldly possessions to honor God, decorate the temple, and support the poor; they practiced patience together; they prayed together, and together consecrated their beloved daughter to God in the Temple. All married persons should follow their example, and, in love and harmony, encourage each other to practice all Christian virtues. According to Scripture, God has expressed His pleasure with married people who agree well together. But He abhors those who quarrel with each other, abuse, insult, defame or curse each other, who prevent each other from doing good and even incite each other to wicked deeds. And what do they gain by their disagreements and arguments? They deprive themselves of the assistance and grace of God, which they so much need in a life which is difficult at best. Christian couples should therefore daily pray to God for charity and unity; and should there come clouds between them, let them instantly seek out the cause and remove it, that their discord may not grow until it is impossible to uproot it, and thus draw upon them misery.

PERSEVERANCE

St. Joachim took refuge in prayer in his grief and sorrow, and though God did not appear to hear him for a long time, he continued with confidence, submitting to Providence and abstaining from all complaints and murmurs against God. Follow his example in trials and trouble. Seek shelter in God; pray without ceasing; even if your prayer is not granted, do not despair. Never complain or murmur against the Almighty; for He has His own reasons for not immediately complying with your request, even though you cannot comprehend them. Reflect a little on your past life, and see how often God has called you and exhorted you to correct your faults, to become more zealous in His service; and you closed your ears to His admonitions. How can you expect that He will heed you immediately? How dare you complain if He does not hear you? Perhaps, too, your prayer is such as is unworthy to be heard by the Almighty. You say your prayers, perhaps, with a thousand voluntary distractions, and do not hear yourself. How, then, can you be surprised that God does not hear them? St. Bernard says: “I greatly insult the Almighty, if I desire that He will hear my prayer, when I do not hear it myself, and pay no attention to God nor to myself.” “If you desire to be heard by God, take heed that you are first heard by yourself,” says St. Ephrem, and he means that you should perform your devotions with attention and devotion. If even then you are not heard, think of the words of St. Gregory, who says: “If you are not heard immediately, do not leave off praying, but continue your prayer and increase your devotion. God wishes to be begged. He will be forced, so to speak, and will be vanquished by importunity.”

GRANDFATHERS ARE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE

Too easily forgotten these days, grandfathers can offer wise guidance from their long experience with life. It is certain that the glory of St. Joachim in heaven and his intercession with God are proportioned to his merit and dignity in having been chosen to be the father of the Mother of God, and, therefore, the grandfather of Jesus Christ. Those who in need and sorrow invoke him with confidence will surely find that he is ever ready to carry the petitions of the faithful to the throne of the Most High.[36]

St. Paul the Apostle, Lover of Truth

St. Paul was born at Tarsus, of Jewish parents, and studied at Jerusalem. While still a young man, he held the clothes of those who stoned the proto-martyr Stephen; and in his restless zeal he pressed on to Damascus, “breathing out threats and slaughter against the Disciples of Christ.” But near Damascus a light from heaven struck him to the earth. He heard a voice that said, “Why do you persecute Me?” He saw the form of Jesus, who had been crucified for his sins, and then for three days he saw nothing more. He awoke from his trance another man, reborn in Jesus Christ. He left Damascus for a long retreat in Arabia, and then, at the call of God, he carried the gospel to the uttermost limits of the world. For years he lived and labored with no thought but the thought of Christ crucified, and no desire but to spend and be spent for Him. He became the Apostle to the Gentiles, whom he once had hated. Perils by land and sea could not damp his courage, nor toil and suffering and age dull the tenderness of his heart. With St. Peter he consecrated Rome, our holy city, by his martyrdom, and poured into its Church all his doctrine with all his blood. He left fourteen epistles, which have been a fountainhead of the Church’s doctrine, the consolation and delight of her greatest saints. His interior life, so far as words can tell it, lies open before us in these divine writings, the life of one who has died forever to himself and risen again in Jesus Christ. “In what,” says St. Chrysostom, “did this blessed one gain an advantage over the other Apostles? How comes it that he lives in all men’s mouths throughout the world? Is it not through the virtue of his Epistles?” His life remains an example of tireless work for Christ; his writings continue to witness the truth of Our Lord. Even now, like a most chivalrous knight, he stands in our midst, and takes captive every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Practical Considerations

St. Paul instructs us to seek all things for Christ. Let us resolve to give ourselves without reserve to God. St. Paul, pray that we may follow your instructions to lead holy and honest lives, “acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:3–4).[37]

St. Benedict, Abbot

St. Benedict, blessed by grace and in name, was born of a noble Italian family about 480. When a boy, he was sent to Rome, and there placed in the public schools. Disturbed by the immorality of the Roman youth, he fled to the desert mountains of Subiaco, where he entered a deep and almost inaccessible cave. He lived there for three years, unknown to any one save the holy monk Romanus, who clothed him with the monastic habit and brought him food. But fame of his sanctity soon attracted disciples. The rigor of his rule, however, provoked hatred in some of the monks, and deciding to kill him, they mixed poison with the abbot’s drink. But when the saint made the Sign of the Cross on the poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to the ground. After he had built twelve monasteries at Subiaco, he removed himself to Monte Cassino, where he founded an abbey in which he wrote his famous rule. There he lived until death.

By prayer he did all things: wrought miracles, saw visions, and prophesied. One time an anguished man came to see St. Benedict. The man cried out, “My son has died! Please, give me back my son!” The monks joined the poor man in his plea, but the saint replied, “Such miracles are not for us to work, but only for the blessed Apostles. Why will you lay a burden on me which my weakness cannot bear?” Moved by compassion, however, Benedict knelt down by the body of the child and prayed earnestly. Then rising, he cried out, “Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of this man, who desired the life of his son, and restore to the body that soul which You have taken away.” Hardly had he spoken when the child’s body began to tremble, and taking the boy by the hand, Benedict returned the living boy to his father. Six days before his death, he ordered his grave to be opened and fell ill of a fever. On the sixth day he requested to be borne into the chapel, and, having received the Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted, and leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly expired in prayer on March 21, 543.

Practical Considerations

St. Benedict never feared to undertake any work for God, however difficult. Surrendering his own will to God, he relied wholly upon prayer for assistance and support.[38]

St. Raphael, Archangel

This holy archangel, sent by the Almighty to Tobit, himself explained who he was in the following words: “I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the Lord.” St. Raphael is generally called an archangel like St. Michael and St. Gabriel. Our knowledge of him is taken from the book of Tobit. Here is the story:

Tobit of Nineveh, a good and faithful servant of God, was old and blind. Remembering that he had lent a sum of money to a relative named Gabelus, who lived in the distant city of Rages, he wished to send his son, the young Tobit, to collect it. But unwilling to send him alone, he bade him go and seek a travelling companion to bring him safely to the place of his destination and back again. Hardly had the youth gone into the streets of Nineveh to seek a companion than he saw a handsome young man dressed as if ready to set out on a journey. This youth, as will be seen, was St. Raphael. Tobit asked him who he was and if he knew the road to Rages. Raphael answered that he was the son of the great Ananias. He knew the way to Rages well, and had made his abode with Gabelus, an inhabitant of that city. Tobit rejoiced and told it to his parents, who called the youth before them, and asked him whether he would conduct their son to Rages and back again for fair wages. Raphael agreed, promising to do as they desired. The two youths then set out on their journey.

After the first day’s march, Tobit rested on the bank of the river Tigris. As he went to wash his feet in the river, an immense fish suddenly leapt up to devour him. Tobit cried for help, but Raphael told him to have courage and draw the giant fish to land. After Tobit did so, Raphael told him to open the fish and take out the heart, liver, and gall, for they were strong medicines.

Along the journey they stopped at the house of a relative named Raguel, who had an only daughter named Sara. Raphael advised Tobit to take Sara as his wife. Tobit feared to do this, as he had heard that Sara had already been given in marriage to seven husbands, all of whom had been killed by the devil. Raphael, however, said: “Hear me, and I will tell you who may fall to the devil. It is those who, when marrying, close their hearts and minds to God.” Tobit obeyed his holy companion and remained unharmed. While Tobit remained at the house of Raguel, Raphael went to Rages, retrieved the borrowed money from Gabelus, and accompanied Tobit back to his home at Nineveh.

Anna, Tobit’s mother, was meanwhile grieved at the long absence of her son. On the day of his return, she saw him from afar and ran to her husband and informed him of his son’s coming. Being blind, Tobit the elder gave his hand to a servant and went to meet his son, as also did Anna. Both embraced him, kissed him, and wept for joy. Having all entered their house, they adored the Almighty and gave due thanks to Him for the happy result of the journey. Tobit, the son, then took some of the gall of the fish, and anointed his father’s eyes, as the Angel Raphael had instructed him. Immediately the blind father recovered his sight. Indescribably great was the joy of the father, the mother, the whole household.

Having given humble thanks to God for this new grace, Tobit told his parents how many benefits he had received from his travelling companion. “He conducted me and brought me safe back again. He received the money from Gabelus, he found me my wife, and he chased from her the evil spirits and brought joy to her parents. He saved me from being devoured by the fish and you, also, father, he made to see the light of heaven. We are filled with all good things through him. What can we give him in return for all these blessings?” Before his father could answer, young Tobit begged him to give his faithful companion one half of all the things they had brought. The elder Tobit agreed without hesitation, and calling the Angel, they both begged him to accept the payment for his services.

But the Angel said to them: “I will not conceal anything from you. I have said, ‘It is good to guard the secret of a king, but gloriously to reveal the works of God.’ And so, when you and your daughter-in-law Sarah prayed, I brought a reminder of your prayer before the Holy One; and when you buried the dead, I was likewise present with you. When you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner in order to go and lay out the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me, but I was with you. [The father had done this for a man who had been murdered. (see Tb 2:1–6)] So now God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One.” Having thus spoken, the holy archangel was silent, but Tobit and his son were seized with fear, and fell trembling, with their faces to the ground. The angel cheered them, with the words: “Do not be afraid; you will be safe. But praise God for ever. For I did not come as a favor on my part, but by the will of our God. Therefore praise him forever.” Having said these words, he vanished from their sight. They, however, lay prostrate on the ground for three hours, partly from fear, partly in wonder at the great goodness of God who had sent so high a prince of heaven to protect, comfort, and help them. At length, they repeated their thanks to God, and announced everywhere the blessing He had bestowed on them.

Practical Considerations

1. From the second instruction that St. Raphael gave to the old as well as to the young Tobias, we learn first that we must give thanks to God and praise Him for all benefits received; and secondly, how agreeable to the Almighty and how useful to men are prayer, fasting, and alms. Whoever practices these is happier than he who gathers the greatest treasures of gold and silver; for gold and silver can cannot open heaven, while, according to the angel’s words, alms and other good works cleanse and save man.

2. Consider what the holy Angel says of those who commit sin: “They are enemies to their own souls,” which, after God, they should hold most dear. The sinner does himself more harm than all men, all demons can do.

3. Remember that the good works done by men are offered by the holy angels to the Almighty and are not lost, although they are not immediately followed by a reward. Consider why the pious Tobit was visited with blindness. “When you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner in order to go and lay out the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me, but I was with you,” said St. Raphael. It is not a sign that we are forsaken by God, or that we are not in favor with Him, when we have to suffer, even when we strive to lead a pious life. “The misfortunes which assail the pious are a proof of virtue and not a sign of divine anger,” says St. Gregory.

St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine was born in 354, at Tagaste in Africa. He was brought up in the Christian faith, but was neither baptized nor did the faith ever truly take root. An ambitious school-boy of brilliant talents and violent passions, he early lost whatever he had of faith as well as his innocence. He persisted in his irregular life until he was thirty-two. While living in Milan, Italy as a professor of rhetoric, he tells us that while his intellect struggled to know and to receive the light of Faith, his sins held him bound in blindness. Day after day he would decide to change his life, yet day after day he found some reason not to do so. One day, fearing that it was simply impossible for him to live chastely, he sat alone in a garden, exhausted by sorrow. From deep grief, he said to God, “O Lord, for how long?” Augustine heard a child’s voice from a neighboring yard saying, “Take it and read! Take it and read!” Full of awe, Augustine rose and grabbed the nearest book and opened it. There his eyes fell on the words of St. Paul: “Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:13–14). These words calmed the storm in St. Augustine’s heart, and he found the strength to begin to live a life of chastity. He received baptism, returned home, and gave all of his possessions to the poor. At Hippo, where he settled, he was consecrated bishop in 395. For thirty-five years, he was the center of ecclesiastical life in Africa and the Church’s mightiest champion against heresy. He is a Doctor of the Church, and his writings are a deep well of devotional thought and theological speculation. He died in 430.

Practical Considerations

1. St. Augustine put off his conversion, but when once resolved, he earnestly did penance and never returned to his former life of sin. St. Augustine showed heroic constancy, and it is possible for us to draw strength from his example. Remember that he fought for a long time to control his lust and was only successful by the grace of God. Ask St. Augustine to pray for you if you struggle with lust.

2. Take frequent advantage of the healing power of confession. This beautiful sacrament is a gift of Christ to His Church. Seek Christ’s forgiveness when you stumble and you will find new strength to turn away from lust.[39]

St. George, Martyr

St. George is honored in the Church as one of the most illustrious martyrs of Christ. The intercession of this saint has been implored especially in battles and by warriors, and he is said to have been himself a great soldier. The extraordinary devotion of all Christendom to this saint is proof how glorious his triumph and name have always been in the Church. All his acts relate that he suffered under Emperor Diocletian. Some accounts say that St. George was born in Cappadocia of noble Christian parents. After the death of his father, he went with his mother to Palestine, where she possessed a considerable estate, which fell to her son George. He was strong and robust in body, and having embraced the profession of a soldier, was made a tribune, or colonel in the army. By his courage and conduct, he was soon advanced to higher stations by Emperor Diocletian. When that prince waged war against the Christian religion, however, St. George laid aside the marks of his dignity, gave up his commission and posts, and complained to the emperor himself of his severities and bloody edicts. He was immediately cast into prison and tortured with great cruelty, but nothing could shake his constancy. Soon he was led through the city and beheaded.

St. George has been regarded as the patron of military men, in part due to his profession and partly because of his appearance to the Christian army before the battle of Antioch against the Muslims. The victory of this battle by Christians made the name of St. George more famous in Europe and disposed military men to implore more particularly his intercession. This devotion was strengthened by reports of an apparition of St. George to the English king Richard I in his Crusade against the Saracens. St. George is the patron saint of England.

St. George is usually painted on horseback, and tilting at a dragon, under his feet; this representation suggests that by his faith and Christian fortitude he conquered the Devil, called the dragon in the Book of Revelation.

Practical Considerations

While service in the military has been honored throughout history, it is interesting to note that we find the names of more soldiers recorded in the martyrologies than of almost any other profession.

Every true disciple of Christ must be a martyr in the disposition of his heart, as he must be ready to lose all, and to suffer anything, rather than to offend God. Every good Christian is also a martyr by the patience and courage with which he bears all trials. There is no virtue more necessary, nor needed more often, than patience. In this mortal life we have continually something to suffer from disappointments in affairs, from the severity of the seasons, from the injustice, caprice, peevishness, jealousy, or antipathy of others; and from ourselves, in pains either of mind or body. Even our own weaknesses and faults are to us subjects of patience. And as we have continually many burdens, both of our own and others, to bear, it is only in patience that we are to possess our souls. This affords us comfort in all our sufferings, and maintains our souls in unshaken tranquility and peace. This is true greatness of mind, and the virtue of heroic souls. But, alas, every accident ruffles and disturbs us and we are intolerable even to ourselves. What comfort we would find, what peace we would enjoy, if we could learn the true spirit of Christian patience! This is the martyrdom and the crown of every faithful disciple of Christ. The intercession of St. George is a powerful aid to success in spiritual battles as well worldly battles.

St. Francis of Assisi, Founder
of the Friars Minor

St. Francis, the great founder of the order that bears his name, a man endowed with heavenly wisdom and especial gifts, was born in a stable at Assisium in Italy. His father was a wealthy merchant, and he expected that Francis would follow him in the same occupation. Ever compassionate, St. Francis resolved that he would never pass a poor person without giving him alms. One day, when he was overwhelmed with business, a beggar asked for some money to buy bread. Francis, in his hurry, refused it, but no sooner had the man gone, than he remembered his resolution. Francis ran after the beggar, gave him a rich alms and vowed never again to refuse anyone who asked his assistance. One day he met a poor man in the street, and he gave him his new clothes and clothed himself in the rags of the beggar. At another time, a leper came to him begging; Francis took a coin and gave it to the poor man. When the latter stretched out his hand, deformed by the terrible disease, Francis took it into his own and kissed it most tenderly. Continuing on his way, he turned to look for the leper, but could nowhere perceive any sign of him. Francis knew that either an angel or Christ Himself had appeared to him; the thought filled his heart with great comfort and moved him to still greater liberality. After this, he began to turn away from all worldly things, sought solitude, and became more fervent in his prayers. Francis begged the Lord for the grace to know how he should serve Him. During this prayer, Christ appeared to him, hanging on the cross and covered with wounds. This vision filled the heart of St. Francis with such devotion to our beloved Savior that he could never think of His passion or look upon a crucifix without shedding tears.

One day at Mass, Francis heard in the Gospel the words of Christ: “Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff” (Mt 10:9–10). At these words, the holy man felt his mind illuminated and his heart stirred with deep emotion. It seemed as if God said to him that this was the rule by which he was henceforth to regulate his life; and immediately giving his money to the poor, he put off his shoes, clothed himself in a rough penitential garment, which he girded about him with a knotted cord, and determined to lead henceforth an apostolic life.

His humility matched his poverty. He would not allow anyone to praise him. “No one,” he said, “should be praised until we see how he ends.” And again, “No one is more or less than he is in the eyes of the Almighty.” One day, Francis was asked what he thought of himself. The saint answered, “I think that there is no greater sinner upon earth than I am.” When asked how he could say this with honesty, he replied, “If a wicked man received the many mercies I have, I am certain that he would be more grateful and more holier than I.” His humility made him refuse the priesthood, as he deemed himself unworthy of it. He greatly honored priests, saying, “If I should meet an angel and a priest, I would first kiss the hand of the priest and then duly honor the angel. I owe him the greatest veneration who holds the most holy body of Christ in his hands and administers the same to others.”

Despite his love of poverty, we are told that St. Francis was always cheerful. This little prayer was ever in his heart: My Lord and my all!

Practical Considerations

1. “My God and my all,” St. Francis’s constant prayer, explains both his poverty and his wealth. Ask St. Francis to pray that you may grow in your devotion to Christ.

2. “Happy are those who persevere until their end in the good which they have begun.” St. Francis continued in his austerity, poverty, and other virtues until the end. We can learn from his persistence. “Concerning Christians, we regard not so much the beginning as the end,” says St. Jerome. “Paul began badly, but ended well. We praise Judas at the beginning; but the end is spoiled by his treachery.” If you desire to be happy with God for eternity, pray each day for help in living a holy life. “What good,” writes St. Bernard, “if we follow Christ, but do not reach Him?”

St. Michael, Archangel

Experience has taught us to venerate this great prince of heaven, and in truth we have most important reasons to show him especial honor, for he is the prince of the heavenly legions. He is the first of those happy spirits who are continually in the presence of God, standing before His throne. It was he who, at the first moment of his existence, turned to the Almighty and submitted to Him in perfect obedience. It was he, who, so to say, first took up arms against the proud Lucifer, who would not be subject, but thought himself equal to the Most High. His humility, obedience, and zeal for the honor of God raised him above all in heaven; as pride, disobedience, and deceitfulness shamed the proud Lucifer and threw him into hell. St. Michael has been chosen by the Almighty as the protector of the Church of Christ and he is even now watchful for the faithful of the Church. He comes to help her, prays for her, and protects her against her enemies. At the end of the world, he will manifest his protection of her, especially against the Antichrist, the greatest enemy of the Christians, as St. Gabriel revealed to the holy prophet Daniel, saying, “But at that time, Michael shall rise up, the great prince, who stands for the children of your people” (Dn 12:1). This holy archangel is also appointed to bring the souls of men to the throne of the Most High, that they may receive their judgment; and that their sentence may be favorable, he strongly assists them upon their death in the last battle they may have to fight. The Devil, at that moment, uses all his powers to overcome man and make him unhappy for all eternity. St. Michael, appointed by God to assist and to strengthen our souls in this dangerous combat, helps us to conquer. Hence the holy Church addresses him in the name of all the faithful in the prayers for the dying, as follows: “Holy Archangel Michael, protect us in our fight, that we may not go to perdition on the day of Judgment.” She teaches us also to invoke this holy archangel before all other heavenly spirits, in the litany of all saints. But if we desire to secure his intercession, and enjoy his assistance in our last combat, it is necessary that we endeavor to imitate his example and fight bravely against the evil spirit, whom, at the end of our lives, we desire to conquer with St. Michael’s assistance.

Practical Considerations

St. Michael remained true to God when many other angels became faithless to Him. He did not follow their example. Let us not follow the bad example of others, but fulfill God’s commandments. Remain faithful to the Lord though thousands of others leave Him. St. Michael was zealous in honoring God and opposed those who would not be obedient to the Creator. We must also do this. When others speak against the true Faith in our presence, against the sacraments and commandments of the true Church, against purity, against the honor of our neighbor; when we see that they transgress the laws of God and of the Church, we should defend the honor of the Almighty and prevent all the evil you can. If you are so situated that you cannot say or do much, show, by your silence, by your seriousness, that you are displeased by such offences against the Majesty of the Most High. St. Michael fought valiantly against Lucifer and his adherents. Therefore God placed him above all the heavenly spirits. Lucifer, with his adherents, endeavors to induce you to leave God, to become faithless to Him. Fight bravely against him and you, too, will be exalted. Say to him, “Who is like God? Who is so kind, so mighty, so lovable as God?” And that you may fight vigorously, in life as well as death, call often and fervently on St. Michael: “Help us here to fight and to conquer the enemy, O St. Michael!”

St. Vincent de Paul

Vincent was born in 1576. In later years, when he had become adviser of the queen and an important voice of the Church in France, he loved to recount how, in his youth, he had guarded his father’s pigs. Soon after his ordination, he was captured by pirates and carried into Barbary. He converted his renegade master and escaped with him to France. Appointed chaplain-general of the galleys of France, his tender charity brought hope into those prisons where despair had reigned. A mother mourned her imprisoned son. Vincent put on his chains and took his place at the oar, and gave him to his mother. His charity embraced the poor, young and old, provinces desolated by civil war, Christians enslaved by the infidel. The poor man was to him the image of Christ, who became as “a leper and no man.” “Turn the medal,” he said, “and you then will see Jesus Christ.” He went through the streets of Paris at night, seeking the children who were left there to die. One evening, robbers rushed upon him, thinking he carried a treasure, but when he opened his cloak, they recognized him and his burden, and fell at his feet. Not only was St. Vincent the savior of the poor, but also of the rich, for he taught them to do works of mercy. When the work for the orphans was in danger of failing from want of funds, he assembled the ladies of the Association of Charity. He asked that his most fervent daughters be present to encourage the others on to action. Then he said, “Compassion and charity have made you adopt these little creatures as your children. You have been their mothers according to grace, when their own mothers abandoned them. Cease to be their mothers, that you may become their judges; their life and death are in your hands. I shall now take your votes: it is time to pronounce sentence.” The tears of the assembly were his only answer, and the work was continued. The Society of St. Vincent, the Priests of the Mission, and twenty-five thousand Sisters of Charity still comfort the afflicted with the charity of St. Vincent of Paul. He died in 1660.[40]

Practical Considerations

1. It is easy to profess piety while avoiding the many opportunities God gives us to practice charity toward our neighbor. We are all aware of the beautiful devotion to the poor of St. Teresa of Calcutta, and her example is admired by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Indeed, corporal works of mercy are often praised—if selectively—by contemporary culture. Few today deny that almsgiving, feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless are humane. Less frequently remarked are merciful acts such as visiting the sick and imprisoned. The life of St. Vincent de Paul reminds us that true and meritorious charity flow only from a love of Christ. His devotion to the poor cannot be overlooked. St. Vincent’s courage in captivity not only serves as an example of persevering under hardship; it may also serve as a reminder of the importance of visiting and consoling the imprisoned! His mercy extended to the more affluent as well, through pleading and exhorting, but more importantly through his example. Such spiritual acts of mercy are profound, for when undertaken with the proper disposition of charity, they offer the opportunity to follow the example of Our Lord.

2. On the other hand, we should remember that neglecting acts of mercy is condemnable; perhaps damnable. As Our Lord says in the parable of the bridesmaids, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Mt 25:40).

Let us pray then, for the intercession of St. Vincent de Paul that we receive the eyes to discern our opportunities for works of mercy, and for the grace to undertake all of our works for the right reasons and in a genuine spirit of charity.

St. Alberto Hurtado

Alberto Hurtado was born on January 22, 1901 in Vina del Mar, Chile, a picturesque city on the Pacific Coast. He learned, first hand, about poverty and suffering at an early age as his father died when he was only four, and his mother had to sell the family’s property to pay off debts. Moving frequently to and from the homes of different relatives, young Alberto eventually found stability when he was awarded a scholarship to attend a school run by Jesuits in Santiago, the capital of Chile. He never forgot his early experiences, and he displayed a love for the poor that manifested itself in practical works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual, for the rest of his life. As a student, he devoted his Sunday afternoons to them in the worst neighborhoods of the city.

His entry into the Jesuits after graduation was delayed as he was counseled to first provide for his mother and younger brother and so attended law school at the Catholic University while working in his off hours. All during this time, he continued his work among the poor. After fulfilling the required period of military service, Alberto finally entered the Society of Jesus novitiate in August of 1923. He was ordained a priest in Europe in 1933 and returned to Chile in 1936, where he began teaching, leading his students in devotion to the Blessed Mother through the Sodality of Our Lady, and in works of mercy through regular visits to the poor. He also became a noted spiritual director, retreat master, and author during this time, as he penned a book called Is Chile a Catholic Country?.

In 1944, while preaching a retreat, Padre Alberto implored his listeners to look to the poor and marginalized of Chilean society. They responded generously with donations and gifts of land; thus began his most famous work, The Hogar de Cristo, or “Home of Christ.” The first home was for children of the streets, but soon homes for men and women followed, and the work prospered. Much like the good work of Don Bosco, Saint Alberto’s eventually came to encompass trade schools and rehabilitation centers as well, all of them imbued with a profound Christian ethos. Padre Hurtado himself would drive his green truck throughout the city rescuing young people from the streets. The Hogar de Cristo continues today as Chile’s most recognizable charitable institution.

Though he was a teacher, he was no mere academic; though he was an apostle of good works, he offered more than just immediate assistance to the poor. Father Hurtado was a Catholic man in full, dedicated and faithful to the Church’s doctrine in its entirety as much as he was to the relief of God’s poor. As a true Catholic, he knew that if the Church’s teaching, which is Christ’s teaching, in all aspects was lived in full, many of society’s problems would resolve themselves. Towards that end, he wrote books on trade unionism, social humanism, and the Christian social order.

Padre Hurtado was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the prime of his life. He bore the excruciating pain with an equanimity rooted in his deep faith. He was frequently heard to say, “I am content, Lord.” Padre Alberto Hurtado died on August 18, 1952 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

Practical Considerations

Saint Alberto Hurtado is a model for all men, priests and laity alike. In exemplary fashion, he combined traditional Catholic devotion to the Blessed Mother and all the Church’s doctrine with good works in the form of direct action on behalf of the poor. He also sought, through his writings, teaching, and personal example, to change his society, seeing in it departures from the gospel that no Catholic should, in good conscience, countenance. In writing his landmark work, he conducted a sort of national examination of conscience for his countrymen. We may imitate him by following his example on a personal level. Even as a layman, he kept the Sabbath by visiting the poor and teaching them their catechism. Ask yourself, “In what manner do I keep the Sabbath?” Ask yourself, “Am I a Catholic man? Do I truly live my faith?” The good Father Hurtado shows us that the spiritual and corporal works of mercy must be part of every Catholic’s life; he shows us that, we must be concerned with “structures of sin” in our society; he shows us, in short, how to be Catholic men in the modern world.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Blessed Pier Giorgio is a man to be emulated. He was devout but not dainty, prayerful but not “holier than thou,” and charitable and wholly committed to the truths of the Catholic faith. He was also an outdoorsman, prankster, brother, son, friend, and, most importantly, an exemplary model of a Catholic layman in the world.

Pier Giorgio was at the same time a man of faith, culture, and action. He was inspired by the letters of St. Paul, the sermons of Savonarola, and the writings of St. Catherine of Siena. He enjoyed theatre, art, and music and could quote passages of Dante. And, of course, he is most well-known as God’s mountain climber, as he loved to be out and about among the peaks of the Italian Alps.

The son of an agnostic father prominent in Italian political and journalistic circles, Pier Giorgio was a young man of an intense spirituality that he was unafraid to share with others. He wanted them to share in his joy. However, the charitable actions that were inspired by his faith, in his humility, he was somewhat reluctant to share with others.

He was active politically, and though he carried out the works of mercy in a fashion not often seen today, he also knew that as a Catholic he had an obligation to work towards a just society to the extent his circumstances allowed. And he was not afraid to fight, even physically, in defense of his ideals and his friends, often going toe-to-toe with both anticlerical communists and later with fascists as well.

Pier Giorgio was a young man who knew that love meant sacrifice, and his great love for neighbor would demand of him the ultimate sacrifice, that of laying down his life for another. His intense apostolate of care for the poor in his home city of Turin led directly to his early death for it is thought that he contracted poliomyelitis from the sick he visited. His last act on earth was one of concern for one of the men he cared for; with a nearly paralyzed hand he scribbled a note urging that “Converso’s” injections not be forgotten. His family was surprised when at his funeral the streets were lined with a multitude of mourners unknown to them. Those impoverished mourners, many of whom he had served in his works of charity, were likewise surprised to learn that the saintly young man they knew was an heir of a powerful Italian family. Apparently, he never thought to tell them.

Practical Considerations

Pier Giorgio was and remains an attractive figure precisely because he seemed to get it, “it” being just how to live the life of a saint while in the world. Nourished by regular reception of the sacraments, devotion to Mary, and Eucharistic adoration, this man accomplished more in his twenty-four years than many do in lives three times as long. He was a true Catholic man of action in all areas of life: friendship, sports, culture, politics, spiritual activities, and works of mercy. Let us imitate him by making the most of our time on earth, doing good, cultivating good habits, reading good books, remaining physically active, staying close to the Church and her sacraments and loving one another as God first loved us.

Blessed Franz Jagerstatter
A Man of Conscience

Franz Jagerstatter was born in St. Radegund, Austria in 1907. His father was killed in the first world war, and young Franz took the surname of his stepfather when his mother married Heinrich Jagerstatter. Growing up, he was a bit wild and fathered a daughter out of wedlock. However, in 1936 he married a woman named Franciska, and together they lived a Catholic life; Franz became a sacristan and began the practice of attending daily Mass. This was also the time of Hitler’s rise to power, and Franz thought deeply about what his faith demanded of him in the context of the troubling developments of the time. He displayed the courage of his convictions by being the only person in his village to vote no to the German’s proposed annexation of Austria, known as the “Anschluss.”

Twice called up briefly for military service, Franz was able to return to his farm through the intervention of his town’s political authorities. He resolved there would be no third time. He would not wear the Nazi uniform. In 1943, he was called up again and so went to the recruiting office where he offered to carry out some non-military service. This offer was refused, and Franz was thrown in prison, tried for sedition, and sentenced to death.

Criticized at the time for his willingness to go to prison and be executed for his principles when he had a wife and family (three daughters with Franciska), Franz noted from his cell, “I cannot believe that just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend God.”

Guillotined in August 1943 by the Nazis, Franz Jagerstatter was beatified in 2007.

Practical Considerations

From Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, the Catholic man can learn that you must form your conscience through study, prayer, fasting and reception of the sacraments and then listen to it, come what may. Formed properly in the Faith, Blessed Franz gives us an example of the power of the statement “No, that I will not do.” Franz believed that to pick up arms in the furtherance of the Nazi cause would be sinful. He was not an out and out pacifist; he simply believed that fighting on behalf of Hitler and his regime was unjust. He sought permission to serve as a paramedic, which indicates he did not seek death. But when his request was denied, he did not compromise his principles to avoid it. At the time, his neighbors, many priests, and even bishops would have and did argue with him. Looking back, one can wonder how the world would have been different had more Catholic men simply said, “No, that we will not do” with Franz.

Consider how often you have the chance to stand strong and say no to temptations of the flesh, to gossiping, to mistreating others, to defrauding your boss through shirking your work. And then consider how often you yield and say yes. You are not facing death, but you betray your principles perhaps out of fear of ridicule or a blow to your pride or a missed chance to be thought clever, or simply sloth, greed, envy, or anger. So often men are measured by their willingness to fight physically, but Blessed Franz Jagerstatter fought the spiritual battle and won the crown of martyrdom and heaven through his fidelity to God and the still, small voice of conscience that God had placed in him. Listen to your conscience and learn to say no when you should with Blessed Franz Jagerstatter.

WISDOM FROM THE SAINTS

Friendship

Friendship is the guardian of virtues, which are only found but in men of good character. It must be gentle in correcting and averse to seeking its own advantage. Betrayal by a friend is more hateful than the betrayal of another man, as is recognized from the example of Judas and of Job’s friends.

ST. AMBROSE

We must take care not only to avoid leading a bad life, but we must not contract a friendship with those who live sinfully, for that, according to the Prophet, is included among the sins. True friendship exists, not in family interests, nor with those persons by whom we are accustomed to be entertained, nor with those who flatter us, and whose company is dangerous; but with those who cherish the holy fear of God and the study of Holy Scripture.

ST. JEROME

The Imitation of Christ

Our imitation of Christ consists in living the life of Christ, in having that interior and exterior attitude that is in all things conformed to Christ, in doing that which Christ would do if he were in my place.

ST. ALBERTO HURTADO

The Priority of Salvation

Man was created for this end, that he might praise and reverence the Lord his God, and, serving Him, at length be saved. But the other things which are placed on the earth were created for man’s sake, that they might assist him in pursuing the end of his creation. It follows, that these things are to be used when they profit him in pursuing that end but not when they hinder him. For this reason we should be indifferent toward all created things (when it is up to us and when indifference is not prohibited), so that (to the best of our power) we seek not health more than sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty, honor to contempt, a long life to a short one. But it is fitting, out of all, to choose and desire those things only which lead to the end.

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA

The Priority of Prayer

You can do nothing without a prayer life. The soul who does not pray will never reach the peak of sanctity. God cannot penetrate the soul if we don’t seek him out.

ST. ALBERTO HURTADO

The Our Father Is a Battle Cry

In this prayer, Christ has just spoken of the Evil One, placing us on alert before the battle, reminding us of our enemy, and keeping us from negligence. Now He goes on to encourage us and raise our spirits by recognizing the King who leads us into the field, pointing to Him as the One who is more powerful than all. Christ says, “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours” (see Mt 6:13).

Doesn’t it follow, then, that if the kingdom belongs to God, we should fear no one? For no one can withstand Him or tear apart His empire. When Christ says, “The kingdom is Yours,” He shows us that even the enemy warring against us has been brought into subjection to God.

The Devil may seem still to be fighting against us, but God is only permitting it for now. After all, he too is one of God’s servants, though a corrupt and guilty one. He would not dare fight any of his fellow servants if he had not first received permission from above.

“The power is Yours,” Christ says. For this reason, no matter how many forms your weakness may take, you may still rightly be confident in the battle. You have the kind of Sovereign who’s able to accomplish everything necessary that concerns you, and to do it with ease.

“The glory is Yours.” Not only can God free you from the dangers you face; He can also make you glorious and outstanding in battle. His power is great and His glory is beyond telling—they are both limitless and never come to an end. See how He has in every way anointed you, His champion, and surrounded you with confidence?

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

The Name of Jesus

By invoking the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, Satan is driven out of men.

ST. IRENAEUS

__________

O name of Jesus, lifted up above every name! Triumphal name, joy of the angels, joy of the righteous, dread of hell: in you lies all hope of forgiveness, all hope of grace, all hope of glory.

ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA

__________

We are all inclined to sin, my children; we are idle, greedy, sensual, given to the pleasures of the flesh. We want to know everything, to learn everything, to see everything. We must watch over our mind, over our heart, and over our senses, for these are the gates by which the Devil penetrates.

See, he prowls round us incessantly; his only occupation in this world is to seek companions for himself. All our life he will lay snares for us; he will try to make us yield to temptations. We must, on our side, do all we can to defeat and resist him.

We can do nothing by ourselves, children. But we can do everything with the help of the good God. Let us pray Him to deliver us from this enemy of our salvation, or to give strength to fight against him.

With the name of Jesus we shall overcome the demons; we shall put them to flight. With this name, though they may sometimes dare to attack us, our battles will be victories, and our victories will be crowns for heaven, all brilliant with precious stones.

ST. JOHN VIANNEY

True Correction

Blessed is the servant who bears discipline, accusation, and blame from others as patiently as if they came from himself. Blessed is the servant who, when reproved, mildly submits, modestly obeys, humbly confesses, and willingly satisfies. Blessed is the servant who is not prompt to excuse himself and who humbly bears shame and reproof for sin when he is without fault.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

No One Can Harm the Man Who
Does Not Harm Himself

In no case will anyone be able to injure a man who does not choose to injure himself: but if a man is not willing to be temperate, and to help himself no one will ever be able to profit him…. It is not stress of circumstances, nor variation of seasons, nor insults of men in power, nor intrigues besetting you like snow storms, nor a crowd of slanders, nor a promiscuous collection of all the ills to which mankind is subject, which can disturb even slightly the man who is brave, and temperate, and watchful. On the contrary the indolent and supine man who is his own betrayer cannot be made better, even with the aid of innumerable ministrations. This at least was made manifest to us by the parable of the two men, of whom the one built his house upon the rock, the other upon the sand: not that we are to think of sand and rock, or of a building of stone, and a roof, or of rivers, and rain, and wild winds, beating against the buildings, but we are to extract virtue and vice as the meaning of these things, and to perceive from them that no one injures a man who does not injure himself. Therefore neither the rain although driven furiously along, nor the streams dashing against it with much vehemence, nor the wild winds beating against it with a mighty rush, shook the one house in any degree: but it remained undisturbed, unmoved: that you might understand that no trial can agitate the man who does not betray himself. But the house of the other man was easily swept away, not on account of the force of the trials (for in that case the other would have experienced the same fate), but on account of his own folly; for it did not fall because the wind blew upon it, but because it was built upon the sand, that is to say upon indolence and iniquity. For before that tempest beat upon it, it was weak and ready to fall. For buildings of that kind, even if no one puts any pressure on them, fall to pieces of themselves, the foundation sinking and giving way in every direction. And just as cobwebs part asunder, although no strain is put upon them, but adamant [a legendary rock or mineral, ed.] remains unshaken even when it is struck: even so also they who do not injure themselves become stronger, even if they receive innumerable blows; but they who betray themselves, even if there is no one to harass them, fall of themselves, and collapse and perish. For even thus did Judas perish, not only having been spared any trial of this kind, but having actually enjoyed the benefit of much assistance.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Repent Before You Die
(The Importance of the Great
Gift of Confession)

There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.

ST. JOHN DAMASCENE

Our Enemy, the Devil

Draw near to God, and Satan will flee from you.

ST. EPHRAEM THE SYRIAN

__________

The Devil’s snare can’t catch you unless you’re already nibbling on the Devil’s bait.

ST. AMBROSE OF MILAN

__________

The principal trap that the Devil sets for young people is idleness. This is the fatal source of all evil. Do not let there be any doubt in your mind that we are born to work, and when we don’t, we’re out of our element and in great danger of offending God…. First tell the Devil to rest, and then I’ll rest, too.

ST. JOHN BOSCO

__________

A man who is deeply wounded in his heart by provocation and abuse shows thereby that deep in himself he harbors the old Serpent. If he bears the blows in silence and answers with great humility, he will render the Serpent weak or will kill it altogether. But if he argues with bitterness or speaks with arrogance, he will give the Serpent an added strength to pour poison into his heart and mercilessly to devour his entrails.

ST. SIMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

Fasting

If you are able to fast, you will do well to observe some abstinence beyond what is enjoined by the Church. For in addition to the ordinary benefits of fasting—namely, lifting up the mind, subduing the flesh, strengthening virtue, and earning an eternal recompense—it is a great matter to be able to command our tastes and inclinations, and to keep the body and its appetites subject to the law of the spirit. And even if we do not fast to any great extent, Satan is the more afraid of those who, he is aware, know how to fast.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

Be Satisfied

St. Francis de Sales used to say that the covetousness of the eyes consisted in never looking down to what is beneath oneself but always above. Because of this, the covetous man is never satisfied, never at rest. As soon as a man wishes to be greater or richer than he is, the wealth and honor he possesses cease to be of value in his eyes. And when he has obtained the object of his wishes, his appetite increasing by being fed, he is always toiling on and never can arrive at an end, only death cutting short his plans, hopes, and expectations.[41]

Justice in Business

St. Francis de Sales used to say that to exercise justice well, we must make ourselves buyer when we sell, or seller when we buy, for the most common injustice is that the vendor wants to get more than the real worth of his merchandise, and that the purchaser desires to pay less than the fair price. This gives rise to so many dishonorable actions in commerce.[42]

Anger

Anger is a momentary madness. Those who are prone to anger neglect themselves for the sake of it, and because of this they often expose themselves to all sorts of problems. Remembering wrongs that may have been inflicted on them is like a needle which continually pokes them. Their excited minds know no rest until they have caused some great grief, or until they have inflicted some injury on those who may have offended them. What they wish to do often shocks them.

ST. BASIL

Hurry

St. Francis de Sales approved of the device of an ancient Emperor, “Make haste slowly,” and this also: “If good enough, soon enough.” He did not so much approve of undertaking many things, as of having a few well done. One of his frequent sayings was “Little and well.” Take care not to place perfection in a multiplicity of good actions, external or internal.[43]

Love of Neighbor

One loves because he is loved, another because he is honored, another because he thinks that it will be of service to him; but, alas, how seldom it is that you meet with a person who loves his brother as he ought for the sake of Jesus.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

In dealing with our neighbor, we must be as pleasant as we can. By this friendliness we begin to win him to the way of virtue.

ST. PHILIP NERI

__________

True devotion consists not only of seeking God in heaven or in the Eucharist, but also in seeing him and serving him in the person of each one of our brothers.

SAINT ALBERTO HURTADO

__________

It is very good to do no wrong, but it is very wrong to do no good.

SAINT ALBERTO HURTADO

__________

Consider the greatness of a life consecrated not to material gain, nor the attainment of fleeting honors, but rather to passing through this world doing good, comforting the afflicted, helping the poor, teaching the ignorant, praying for sinners, adoring and loving God eternal.

SAINT ALBERTO HURTADO

When the tongue says one thing, and the heart means another; this is deceit, and a lie. If through humility you circulate a lie, if you had not committed a sin of lying before, you become, by lying, what you were not before, a sinner. The sin of lying is not solely committed by word of mouth, but by deeds designedly carried out for the purpose of deceiving. It is a lie to call yourself a Christian, when you do not practice the works of Jesus Christ.

ST. AUGUSTINE IN HIS ENCHIRIDION

Forgiveness of Trespasses

It is more glorious to bear an offense silently, in imitation of Christ, than to retort with a sharp and sarcastic reply. If it should happen that remembering an injury stirs your soul to anger, call to mind what the Son of God has suffered for us, and how comparatively few have been your sufferings. By this means, you will throw water on the smoldering flames, and you will be the better enabled to smother your resentment.

ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZEN

Patience

How much interior patience and humility a servant of God may have cannot be known so long as he is contented. But when the time comes that those who ought to please him go against him, as much patience and humility as he then shows, so much has he and no more.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

The world is tired of words: it wants deeds; it wants to see Christians living out the dogmas they profess.

ST. ALBERTO HURTADO

Holiness, Whatever Your Situation

You are married; Moses was married too. What, then, should prevent you from retiring every day, as he did, to confer with Almighty God on the important affair of your salvation, and to pray for His grace? You have children; the mother of the Maccabees had seven of them, and that did not prevent her from being holy, and when asked, preferred the love of God to that of her offspring.

David was required to rule. The government of states and the guidance of subjects did not hinder him from continually consulting God through prayer; he kept himself humble in the midst of his grandeur, and he resided with their court without being infected by its vices.

You are rich; Abraham perhaps was richer than you are. Well, like him, be the father of orphans, the host of strangers, the defender and provider for the needy; your riches will help you to become a great saint. Or maybe you are poor, and your poverty brings on you illnesses and cares. Look at poor Lazarus, his poverty sanctified him, and he is placed on Abraham’s bosom.

You are a workman, and you are compelled to toil all day and part of the night in order to support your family. Remember that St. Joseph, the glorious husband of Mary, was a workman and, in the exercise of his trade, through his incomparable virtues, is now one of the highest saints in heaven. You have joined the army; call to mind that brave officer, of whom the Gospel speaks, who went to war as you do; and nevertheless you see that he was so full of faith, zeal, and charity, that the Son of God delighted in him.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Observations of St. Josemaría Escrivá
With Particular Relevance for Men

Don’t say: “That’s the way I’m made … it’s my character.” It’s your lack of character: Be a man.

Excuses. You will always find plenty if you want to avoid your obligations. What a profusion of well-thought-out nonsense! Don’t stop to consider it. Dismiss it and do your duty.

__________

Be firm. Be virile. Be a man. And then … be a saint.

__________

You are ambitious: for knowledge, for leadership, for great ventures. Good. Very good. But let it be for Christ, for Love.

__________

You laugh because I tell you that you have a “vocation for marriage”? Well, you have just that: a vocation. Commend yourself to the Archangel Raphael that he may keep you pure, as he did Tobias, until the end of the way.

__________

You never want to get to the heart of the matter. Sometimes, through politeness. Other times, most times, through fear of hurting yourself. Sometimes again, through fear of hurting others. And, always, through fear! As long as you are so afraid of the truth you will never be a man of sound judgment, a man of worth.

WISDOM FROM OTHER SOURCES

Courage

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide—or a drill-book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier, surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.[44]

G. K. CHESTERTON

__________

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

PLUTARCH

Hector Leaves for War

Men have many duties, and it is not always possible to fulfill them all at the same time. A clear example of this is when men are faced with military service. The following beautiful story is from Homer’s Iliad, and it shows a soldier saying goodbye to his wife and young son. He leaves with the hope of saving his people, but death is always a possibility.

Hector the Trojan prince hurried from the house and went down the streets by the same way that he had come. When he had gone through the city and had reached the gates through which he would go out on to the plain, his wife Andromache came running towards him with a nurse who carried his little child in her bosom—a mere babe, Hector’s darling son, and lovely as a star. Hector had named him Scamandrius, but the people called him “protector of the city,” for his father stood alone as chief guardian of Troy.

Hector smiled as he looked upon the boy, but he did not speak, and Andromache stood by him weeping and taking his hand in her own. “Dear husband,” said she, “your bravery will bring you to destruction. Think about your infant son, and about me, who soon will be your widow, for the Greeks will set upon you and kill you. It would be better for me, if I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone; only sorrow. I have neither father nor mother. I have lost seven brothers to this war. Hector, you who to me are father, mother, brother, and dear husband, have mercy upon me. Stay here upon this wall. Do not make your child fatherless and your wife a widow.

And Hector answered, “Wife, I too have thought about all this, but how should I face the Trojans, men or women, if I shirked battle like a coward? I cannot do so. I know nothing except to fight bravely at the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown for my father and myself. I know that the day will come when mighty Troy and her people shall be destroyed, but I grieve for none of these, not for Hecuba, nor King Priam, nor for my many brave brothers who may fall in the dust. None of these do I grieve as for you, Andromache, should the day come when the Greeks rob you forever of your freedom, and bear you weeping away. It may be that you will have to ply the loom in Argos at the bidding of a mistress, or to fetch water from the wells, treated brutally by some cruel task-master. But then will one who sees you weeping be able to say, ‘She was wife to Hector, the bravest warrior among the Trojans during the war.’ On this your tears will break forth anew for him who would have put off forever the day of captivity from you. May I lie dead under the dirt that is heaped over my body before I hear your cry as they carry you into slavery.”

He then stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and nestled in his nurse’s bosom, scared at the sight of his father’s armor, and at the horse-hair plume on his helmet. His father and mother laughed to see him, but Hector took the helmet from his head and laid it all gleaming upon the ground. Then he took his darling child, kissed him, and dandled him in his arms, praying over him the while to Zeus and to all the gods. “Zeus,” he cried, “grant that this my child may be even as myself, chief among the Trojans; let him be not less excellent in strength. Let men say of him, ‘The son is far better than the father,’ and may his mother’s heart be glad.” With this he laid the child again in the arms of his wife, who took him to her own soft bosom, smiling through her tears. As her husband watched her, his heart yearned towards her and he caressed her fondly, saying, “My own wife, do not take these things too bitterly to heart. No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man’s hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born. Go, then, within the house, and busy yourself with your daily duties; for war is man’s matter, and mine above all others.”

He took his plumed helmet from the ground, and his wife went back again to her house, weeping bitterly and often looking back towards him. When she reached her home she found her maidens within, and bade them all join in her lament; so they mourned Hector in his own house though he was yet alive, for they feared that they should never see him return safe from battle.[45]

Concerning Moral and Religious Training

This must comprise the intellect, the will, and the heart. The child must be instructed in its duties to God, to himself, and to his fellow-men, and taught to acquire a firm and enduring tendency toward moral goodness, in order that he may attain to “the age of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Consequently, parents are duty bound to instruct their children at an early age in those moral and religious truths which are necessary for salvation, to accustom them to the daily practice of religion, to protect them against being misled or corrupted by companions, and particularly to train them in obedience and respect to authority. This responsibility falls on the parents, whether the children are schooled in secular school, religious school, or the home.[46]

Education by Example

Education is always the result of personal influence. A mother, a father in the home, a pure and loving heart at the altar, a true man or woman in the school, a noble mind uttering itself in literature, which is personal thought and expression, these are the forces which educate. Life proceeds from life, and religion, which is the highest power of life, can proceed only from God and religious souls. Not by preaching and teaching, but by living the life, can we make ourselves centers of spiritual influence.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN LANCASTER SPALDING

George Washington’s Mother
Demanded Obedience

“Obedience and truthfulness are cardinal virtues to be cultivated,” remarked Mrs. Washington to her husband, with whom she frequently discussed the subject of family government. “No son or daughter can form a reliable character without them.” Here was the secret of Mrs. Washington’s successful family government. That George owed more to faithful maternal example and training than he did to any other influence, he always believed and acknowledged. And Obedience was the first commandment in the Washington family.[47]

If–
(Poem by Rudyard Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt
you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your
master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your
aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to,
broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out
tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your
virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common
touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my
son![48]

The Father at Prayer

Prayer is one of those necessary requisites which belong to the vocation of a father; to be a truly Christian father he must be a man of prayer.

Those who have even a slight knowledge of the vocation of a father will admit that it is a difficult one, and that its duties cannot be faithfully performed without special assistance from above. The father needs this assistance to know how to bring up his children properly, and the children are in need of it that the father’s efforts in their behalf may bear fruit. But to obtain this assistance the father must pray.

He must pray for himself that the Lord may assist him to be a good father to his children. He must pray for the grace to lead a good Christian life, to avoid this or that sin, to fulfil his obligations, for all this is necessary to a successful bringing up of children. He must also, like the mother, pray to God for good and sound judgment and discernment, that in difficult cases he may determine the true course to be taken; that he may know how to treat his children, each according to his or her disposition, ability, good or bad qualities. He must pray for the real supernatural love for his children, and for the grace of perseverance under the many difficulties he may meet with and the sacrifices he must make in the education of his children. Can a father be found who, understanding the great importance of a good education and realizing the difficulties connected with it, will not feel inclined to ask assistance and help of God?

He must pray for his children. The more he loves them and wishes to lead them to their true welfare the more fervently will he pray for them. For no matter how much he may have done for them he must remember that his efforts will not bear fruit unless the Lord mercifully grants his grace and assistance. He will therefore always pray for them. Can we suppose that a good father could say his morning and evening prayers, receive holy communion, etc., without remembering his children?

He recommends to God in prayer whatever he does for his children. He prays that the Lord may preserve them in his divine grace and enable them to overcome their evil inclinations; he prays that God may assist them to advance in the Christian virtues, and lead them to eternal happiness.

A Christian father will pray for his child when it goes to confession and holy communion; in a special manner will he pray for it when he leaves home to live among strangers. The greater the dangers to son or daughter the more fervent will be the father’s prayers. Or it may be a question as to a choice of a state of life; how important, then, that he should pray that their choice may be according to the most holy will of God. Again, the children may be addicted to certain vicious habits; the son or daughter has been led astray; they ignore his advice, care not for his warnings, and do not respond to punishment. The father’s heart bleeds, but he cannot remedy the evil. One thing alone remains to him, he has recourse to prayer. He prays for his unhappy child, and quits not till his prayer is granted.

There are innumerable occasions on which a father is called upon to pray, and a Christian father obeys the call. In all his prayers he remembers his children, and the greater the necessity the more fervently will he pray. In his prayers he will address Jesus, the true friend of children. He will invoke in their behalf the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, of the angels, patron saints, and all the saints in heaven.

The child of such a father is indeed happy; by his prayers he calls down upon the child the gifts and graces of God. And however great the blessings may be which the child has derived from a Christian education, the father’s prayers are still a greater blessing, for all else that he does for his child receives from his prayers its power and efficacy.

Happy is the child who has a father (and mother) who pray for their children! A father and mother praying for their children is a spectacle on which the eyes of God love to dwell, and their united prayer is an appeal which he must answer. We therefore repeat here: “Oh, fathers, pray; pray without ceasing; pray with fervor and from your heart for your children!”[49]

Mercy

Mercy is sometimes said to be a virtue influencing our will to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate the misfortune of another. It flows from the love of God.

Traditionally, there are seven corporal (or bodily) works of mercy: To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked; To harbor the homeless; To visit the sick; To ransom the captive (that is, help the imprisoned and enslaved); To bury the dead.

There are also seven spiritual works of mercy: To instruct the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To admonish sinners; To bear wrongs patiently; To forgive offenses willingly; To comfort the afflicted; To pray for the living and the dead.[50]

Works of Mercy

We have a duty to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, harbor the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead—all depending on the various needs of men. Helping the poor is a moral rule like this: As love of our neighbor is a matter of rule, whatever is a necessary condition to the love of our neighbor is also a rule. The love of our neighbor requires that not only should we be our neighbor’s well-wishers, but also his well-doers, according to 1 John 3:17–18. “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.” In order to be a person’s well-wisher and well-doer, we ought to help relieve his needs through almsgiving.

All material help really has a view to relieve the spiritual wants of the poor. Giving must be within a man’s means; but to refuse all help when asked by those in dire need is a serious sin. Giving should be proportionate to the need—much to him who needs much, little to him who needs little—and done with the appropriate degree of timeliness. Sometimes, but not always, the most effective method of relief is through the Church and her agencies. Christian charity extends to all men, as God has mercy on all. Still, there are those who have first claim upon our charity, including parents, children, relatives, friends, and members of our community. “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10).[51]

Friendship

A true friend proves his friendship when things grow uncertain.

CICERO

__________

Friendship has certain essential characteristics without which it is unworthy of the name. The basis of true friendship is self-sacrifice, disinterestedness, truth, virtue and constancy. You may have friends who possess these qualities of friendship, but Jesus Christ alone possesses them in a perfect degree.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Marriage

The modern writers who have suggested, in a more or less open manner, that the family is a bad institution, have generally confined themselves to suggesting, with much sharpness, bitterness, or pathos, that perhaps the family is not always very congenial. Of course the family is a good institution because it is uncongenial. It is wholesome precisely because it contains so many divergences and varieties. It is, as the sentimentalists say, like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy. It is exactly because our brother George is not interested in our religious difficulties, but is interested in the Trocadero restaurant, that the family has some of the bracing qualities of the commonwealth. It is precisely because our uncle Henry does not approve of the theatrical ambitions of our sister Sarah that the family is like humanity. The men and women who, for good reasons and bad, revolt against the family are, for good reasons and bad, simply revolting against mankind. Aunt Elizabeth is unreasonable, like mankind. Papa is excitable, like mankind. Our younger brother is mischievous, like mankind. Grandpapa is stupid, like the world; he is old, like the world.[52]

G. K. CHESTERTON

__________

If Americans can be divorced for “incompatibility of temper,” I cannot conceive why they are not all divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.[53]

G. K. CHESTERTON

__________

The principle is this: that in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain or tedium that must be survived, so that the pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle comes after the first fear of death; the joy of reading Virgil comes after the bore of learning him; the glow of the sea-bather comes after the icy shock of the sea bath; and the success of the marriage comes after the failure of the honeymoon.[54]

G. K. CHESTERTON

__________

About sex especially men are born unbalanced; we might almost say men are born mad. They scarcely reach sanity till they reach sanctity.[55]

G. K. CHESTERTON

Marriage is the most inviolable and the most irrevocable contract that can exist. Every human compact but this can be lawfully dissolved. Nations may be justified in abrogating treaties with each other. Merchants may dissolve partnerships. Brothers will eventually leave the parental roof and divide their inheritance. Friends, like Abraham and Lot, may part company. But the marriage bond can never be dissolved except by death.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Catholic Men and the Rights
and Duties of Citizenship

You speak of your rights, your privileges, but you have not a word to say of your duties, your obligations. Ah, my brethren, if men and women had due consideration for their duties and responsibilities, their rights would take care of themselves. There can be no rights where there are no corresponding obligations. There are no rights against the law of God.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Man as Citizen in Times of
Religious Persecution

An age of religious liberty is not one most fruitful in sturdy heroes of faith. It is not an age most favorable to the growth of a Judas Machabeus, a Cyprian, a Thomas of Canterbury, or a Sir Thomas More. In times of religious persecution, the will is on the alert to resist attacks. In times of religious freedom, the will is off its guard and is easily assailed. Far better is it to endure the sword of open persecution than to drink the subtle and intoxicating poison of religious indifference, which paralyzes the energies of the will.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Anger

Anger Can Be Controlled

The ancients had a legend, that to the composition of man, different animals had contributed qualities characteristic of their kind; and that anger was nothing else but the working up and seething in our clay of the fiery element contributed by the raging lion. Certainly, by anger man is changed into a brute. But man’s fury is culpable, because it is capable of restraint, whereas the poor beast cannot do otherwise than rage under provocation. The bull in the arena must roar, and stamp, and foam at the flaunting of the red flag. Man need never play the wild beast.

FR. JOHN KELLY

Dishonesty

Lying Makes Other Sins Worse

It would take up too much space to give all the reasons we should give up lying and deceit. It is enough to know that the lie magnifies other greater sins; it lessens the simplicity of virtue, and it scandalizes truth. Avarice is rendered more criminal, when, in order to secure or purchase another person’s property, it makes use of a false oath; pride is more sinful when it circulates false reports in order to gain the approval of some, or to avoid some affront. Hatred is rendered more intense when it forges imaginary crimes, in order to deprive the innocent of their honor. Heresy is more detestable, when it designedly misinterprets the sense and meaning of Holy Scripture, the Fathers and the precepts of the Church. Virtue loses its simplicity, when deceit is introduced. Humility is not entirely innocent, if it induces a man to lie in order to hide his perfection. Mercy becomes sinful, if it excites a man to make use of a falsehood for the purpose of giving relief to the poor, or with the intention of checking the vices of his neighbor. Justice partakes of injustice, when by use of an untruth, it ascertains the truth of an important fact. Other virtues cannot possibly preserve their purity, however good the intention may be, if a lie or a deceit be made use of.

FR. HELIODORE OF PARIS (CAPUCHIN)

Tribulation and Time

The Virtue of St. Joseph Was Put to the Test; Yours Will Be Too

With that timidity and reserve so natural to her matchless humility, Mary had not told even her beloved spouse about the Archangel’s visit and the miracle of her maternity. Doubt and trouble must have seized on the soul of Joseph. He saw, and knew not what to believe. See how he acts towards her in his confusion, showing the depths of his charity and the resources of his prudence. “Being a just man,” says St. Matthew, “and not willing to expose her publicly, he decided to put her away privately.”

What anguish of thought do these words betray! What agonizing fears and misgivings, when the laws of nature challenged the justice of his esteem and affection. But the dark cloud soon passed. Peace of his soul returned and his admiration and love Mary shined forth brighter and more cheering than the noon-day sun. “While he thought on these things,” continues St. Matthew, “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying, Joseph son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

What consolations St. Joseph must have received in his sorrow! In the months before the nativity he adored the unborn Savior in the tabernacle of Mary’s womb; when he first saw the sweet face of his foster-child smiling upon him and felt his soft fingers; when he nursed Him in his lap, and held Him in his arms; when he watched the child sleeping, murmured soft prayers in His ears, and soothed Him with hymns of and the mercy and compassion of Israel’s God. What joy was blended with his sorrow, even when the angel’s voice commanded him to carry his frail child into Egypt, once the home of humiliation and bondage for the Jews! In this remote region of his own exile he found a home that was dear to him, as long as he looked on the face of Jesus and Mary. Whatever hardships he endured, he thanked God so long as his arm was strong enough to earn for his beloved companions, his growing child and his adored wife, the means of clothing and sustaining them.

FR. JOHN KELLY

Time Is a Gift Not To Be Wasted

Let us examine ourselves and see how we employ our time. Is it employed in useful things, or is it frittered away, in seeking after vain pursuits? The wise man is not satisfied with comparing the days of our life to those of a traveler, in order to express its short duration; he says that this short time passes away so quickly, that it’s like a shadow. How likely we are to lose it, and what dangers do we not incur, if we do not take especial care to make a good use of that which God has given us.

A traveler pressed for time thinks only of how soon he can complete his work; he deprives himself of sleep, of his meals, his relaxations—in fact, all that he can shorten or cut off. If we do not make a profitable use of the little time that remains to work out our salvation, what do we not risk?

LE PERE CROISET

_______________

36Adapted from F. X. Weninger, Lives of the Saints: Compiled From Authentic Sources With a Practical Instruction on the Life of Each Saint, For Every Day in the Year (New York: P. O’Shea, 1876), 211–214.

37Adapted from John Gilmary Shea, Pictorial Lives of the Saints, With Reflections for Every Day in the Year (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1922).

38Adapted from Ibid.

39Adapted from Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, With Reflections for Every Day in the Year (New York: Benziger Bros., 1894), https://archive.org/details/livesofsaintswit00butl.

40Adapted from Ibid.

41Jean-Pierre Camus and Francis, The Beauties of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva. Selected and Translated from the Writings of John Peter Camus (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1829).

42Ibid.

43Ibid.

44G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: John Lane Co., 1908), 170.

45Homer, The Iliad of Homer: Rendered into English Prose for the Use of Those Who Cannot Read the Original, trans. Samuel Butler (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898), 390.

46Anton Koch, A Handbook of Moral Theology (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1928), 5:21.

47Freely adapted from William Makepeace Thayer and Henry Lee, Young People’s Life of George Washington: Boyhood, Youth, Manhood, Death, Honors (New York: John R. Anderson & Company, 1883).

48Rudyard Kipling, Rewards and Fairies … With Illustrations by Frank Craig (London: Macmillan & Co., 1910), 175–76.

49Wilhelm Cramer, The Christian Father: What He Should Be, and What He Should Do; Together with a Collection of Prayers Suitable to His Condition (New York; Cincinnati: Benziger, 1883), https://archive.org/details/thechristianfath00cramuoft.

50Freely adapted from Joseph Delany, “Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911), http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10198d.htm.

51Freely adapted from Koch, A Handbook of Moral Theology, 5:198 ff.

52G. K Chesterton, Heretics (New York: John Lane Co., 1905), 188–89.

53G. K Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1910), 68.

54Ibid., 66.

55G. K Chesterton, Everlasting Man, in The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, vol. 2. Edited by Rutler Azar and George Marlin (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 248.

9

PRAYERS, DEVOTIONS, AND HYMNS

THE THREE PRAYERS THAT ANCHOR
THE CATHOLIC MAN’S SPIRITUAL LIFE

The Our Father

ur Father,

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil. AMEN.

The Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now, and at the hour of our death. AMEN.

The Glory Be

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

THE BLESSED MOTHER

The Rosary

The Rosary of Our Lady is the spiritual sword wielded by Catholics all over the world. Carry a rosary in your pocket, and “tell your beads” often. The following meditations were composed by Paul Thigpen for his Manual for Spiritual Warfare, a “must-have” for Catholic men also published by TAN Books. His meditations, rich in biblical imagery and a martial spirit, will help men contemplate the “stakes” of the battle we all must fight with our ultimate adversary, the Devil.

The Joyful Mysteries

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL TO OUR LADY

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and shall bring forth a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father … and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:30–33).

The first Eve believed the lies of the Serpent, and so began the battle with our ancient Enemy for the eternal destiny of her children (see Gen 3:1–7). But Our Blessed Lady, the new Eve, believed God’s word, announced by the angel Gabriel. By faith she conceived the Son of God, who crushed the Serpent’s head and won a kingdom that will never end.

Have I too placed my faith in that King? Have I committed myself to do battle for His kingdom?

THE VISITATION OF OUR LADY TO ELIZABETH

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior … because He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name…. He has shown might with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart, He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Lk 1:46–47, 49, 51–52).

God created the angelic hosts and gave them heavenly thrones of power and authority to administer creation for Him. But the angel Lucifer and his allies imagined in their wicked pride that they could rebel against God and take His place (see Is 14:12–15). When Our Lady met Elizabeth, she praised God’s saving power, who scattered the proud demons, cast them down to hell from their thrones, and raised up instead the redeemed of the lowly human race, so that we might reign with Him.

Have I joined our Blessed Mother in that song of praise? Do I share her confidence in God’s triumph over evil?

THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD

For this reason the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the Devil (1 Jn 3:8).

Heaven’s strategy to overthrow Satan’s kingdom was brilliant in its humility: The glorious Son of God came to earth quietly, not in a king’s palace or a grand temple, not adorned in gold and purple, but born to an obscure peasant girl, wrapped in makeshift clothes, laid in a dusty manger. In his immense pride, the Devil was taken by surprise: He could not understand, he could not anticipate, that God would humble Himself this way for the sake of a weak and wayward human race (see 1 Cor 1:26).

Does my pride make me vulnerable to Satan’s snares? Or do I imitate Our Lord’s humility, so that I too can confound the Enemy?

THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted. And your own soul a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:34–35).

When Our Lady and St. Joseph presented Jesus in the temple, the aged Simeon warned them of the great spiritual conflict that had begun. In the fierce warfare between the Dawn from on High and the rulers of darkness (see Lk 1:78; Eph 6:12), many would rise and many would fall; and the mother of our Champion would herself bear unspeakable wounds in union with His agony on the field of battle.

When I am wounded in battle, do I join my suffering to that of our Blessed Mother and her Son? Do I recognize that only by God’s grace can I be numbered among those who rise, rather than those who fall?

THE FINDING OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE

And not finding Him, they returned to Jerusalem in search of Him. And it came to pass after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions… And He said to them, “How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Lk 2:45–46, 49).

Even at such a young age, Jesus knew who He was and what business He was about. He understood and embraced the mission His Father had given Him.

Am I aware of the battle that rages around me (see Eph 6:10–21)? How can I fight at Our Lord’s side and share in His victory unless I too know my place in His army, recognize my mission, and follow His commands?

The Luminous Mysteries

THE BAPTISM IN THE JORDAN

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit through the desert for forty days, being tempted by the devil (Lk 4:1–2).

At His baptism, Jesus was honored by the Father with words of affirmation from heaven, and the Holy Spirit filled Him with power. Yet even then, the Enemy was awaiting his chance to tempt the Savior, and he made his move soon afterward. Through prayer, fasting, and His knowledge of Scripture, Our Lord won the contest, and the Devil withdrew in defeat.

Do I ask the Holy Spirit’s assistance in my own struggle against temptation? Have I taken up Christ’s weapons of prayer, fasting, and Scripture?

THE MIRACLE AT CANA

And on the third day a marriage took place at Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now Jesus too was invited to the marriage, and also His disciples…. His mother said to the attendants, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:1–2, 5).

Turning water to wine at Cana was the first of Jesus’ miracles. In the following days of His ministry, He undid the works of the Devil as He continued His miraculous deeds, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, and demonstrating in other ways His divine power over evil.

Am I willing to accept a share in Christ’s saving power so I can help to set the captives free from bondage to the Enemy (see Lk 10:17–19)? In exercising that power, am I willing to follow Our Lady’s instructions to do whatever Jesus tells me?

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:14–15).

To deliver us from the dominion of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of light (see Col 1:13), Jesus did more than work miracles; He preached the gospel as well. This gospel—this good news—was the announcement that through His life, passion, death, and resurrection, the incarnate Son of God had come to defeat the powers of evil, to vanquish sin and death. Then as now, such a proclamation demands a response of faith.

Do I firmly believe this good news? Am I a witness who declares it to others, so that more and more, the righteous reign of God is extended throughout the earth?

THE TRANSFIGURATION

As He was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.” And on hearing it the disciples fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. And Jesus came near and touched them and said to them, “Arise, and do not be afraid” (Mt 17:5–7).

A divine intervention on the Mount of Transfiguration startled and terrified the three apostles who witnessed Christ’s stunning radiance there. They were paralyzed by fright, so that Jesus had to touch them and tell them not to be afraid. His call to courage would soon prove all the more urgent: They descended from the glory on the mountain to confront a demon down in the valley, where their lack of faith hindered them.

Am I prepared to overcome my fear when the spiritual warfare between heaven and hell rages fiercely all around me, or am I tempted to flee in terror? Have I asked the Lord, as the Apostles did, to increase my faith (see Lk 17:5)?

THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST

For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until He comes (1 Cor 11:26).

When Our Lord instituted the Eucharist, He placed in the hands of His Church an incomparable weapon in her warfare with the Evil One. His death on Calvary was to be the supreme defeat and humiliation of the forces of darkness, so that ever after, demons would shrink from the emblem of the Cross. How much more, then, do they tremble even at the thought of the altar, in whose Holy Sacrifice that all-conquering death is both proclaimed and re-presented, until the Lord returns to earth in His final triumph over evil?

Am I partaking of the Eucharist worthily, faithfully, and frequently, so that the Enemy of my soul is firmly repulsed (see 1 Cor 11:27–32)? Do I avail myself of the powerful graces of the other sacraments as well?

The Sorrowful Mysteries

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven to strengthen Him. And falling into an agony He prayed all the more earnestly. And His sweat became like drops of blood running down upon the ground. And rising from prayer He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, so that you may not enter into temptation” (Lk 22:43–46).

In the hour of His greatest trial, Our Lord was no doubt tempted by the Devil to turn away from the cup of horror that He must drink. He prayed earnestly, and His Father answered those prayers through the ministry of an angel sent to strengthen Him. Meanwhile, the disciples had allowed their deep sorrow to numb them; having failed to pray that they would not enter into temptation, they would soon succumb to it, abandoning their Master to His murderers.

Do I seek the powerful assistance of the angels and saints when I must wage war against the Enemy’s temptations and other assaults? Do I ever allow sorrow, fear, or doubt to paralyze me so that I falter in prayer?

THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed…. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death (Is 53:5, 12).

How sharp is the grief of realizing that Our Lord was scourged because of my sins! And yet how sweet is the consolation of knowing that by His stripes, my sins are forgiven, my soul is healed, and my spiritual Adversary is overthrown. The meek Lamb of God who poured out His soul to death has become the conquering Lion of Judah who divides the spoil with the strong (see Rv 5:5–10).

Am I faithful to seek God’s mercy often through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (see Jas 5:16) so that, through Christ’s stripes, I can be healed? Do I make a sincere confession and practice heartfelt penance to strengthen my will against the snares of the Tempter?

THE CROWNING WITH THORNS

And I saw heaven standing open; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and with justice He judges and wages war. And His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems…. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood … And He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rv 19:11–12, 16).

The crown of thorns placed in mockery upon Our Lord’s head is now transformed: The Lamb who was slain comes as a conquering Warrior King, wearing glorious diadems on His head, with His robe dipped in the precious Blood whose irresistible power crushes the demon host. All authority in heaven and on earth is now His, and every knee must bow, every tongue confess that He is King of kings and Lord of lords (see Phil 2:10–11).

Do I find courage to persevere daily in the strength of this divine Warrior, my King? Do I hope in His promise that those who share His triumph will one day exchange their own thorny crowns for glorious crowns of righteousness (see 2 Tm 4:8)?

THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS

But as for me, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14).

The spiritual battle is waged not just against the Devil but also against “the passions of the flesh, which wage war against [the] soul” (1 Pt 2:11), and the false attractions of the world, which we must fight to overcome (see 1 Jn 5:4–5). To combat these enemies, Our Lord calls us to deny ourselves and take up our own cross—a share in His cross—in order to follow Him (see Mt 16:28). Through daily, sacrificial self-denial, the flesh and the world become dead to us, and we to them.

Do I make self-denying sacrifices, seeking the detachment that will allow me to triumph over the flesh and the world? Do I see my sufferings as splinters of Christ’s cross, to be born with patience and hope?

THE CRUCIFIXION

Because children have blood and flesh in common, so He in the same way has shared in these, so that through death He might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is, the Devil; and might deliver them who, throughout their life, were kept in servitude by fear of death (Heb 2:14–15).

Fear of losing someone or something we love can enslave us, weakening our will to choose what is right. So fear of death is the greatest bondage of all, because death poses as the loss of all we hold dear. But on the Cross, God Himself has tasted death on our behalf, mastering it and overcoming the Enemy through whom death first entered the world. Death has lost its power over us, because we know that beyond death lies life everlasting for those who are in Christ.

Can I face the Devil without fear because I know that his weapon of death has lost its sting (see 1 Cor 15:55)? Do I firmly believe that all those who share in Christ’s death will also share in His resurrection (see Rom 6:5)?

The Glorious Mysteries

THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD

Christ has risen from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep…. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live. But each in his own turn, Christ as first-fruits, then those who are Christ’s, who have believed, at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He does away with all sovereignty, authority, and power. For He must reign until “He has put all things under His feet” (1 Cor 15:20, 22–25).

If Christ had not been raised from the dead, our faith would be futile (see 1 Cor 15:17). The Devil, wielding death as his weapon, would have won the battle for our redemption, and all would be lost. But Christ has indeed been raised, and the head of the ancient Serpent was crushed by the stone that rolled away from the empty tomb. That morning saw the dawn of a new creation, in which every power opposed to God will at last be vanquished, and the One who triumphed over the grave will reign forever.

When the world all around me appears to be still in the grip of the Evil One, do I hold fast to the hope that his days are numbered? When the Devil reminds me of my past, do I remind him of his future?

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

Thus it says, “Ascending on high, He led away captives; He gave gifts to men.”… He who descended, He it is who ascended also above all the heavens, that He might fill all things (Eph 4:8, 10).

The ascension of Our Lord was the return of the King of Glory to His eternal throne. As heaven’s gates were thrown open to receive Him, He brought in His train His vanquished demonic foes in chains. Like the victorious kings of old, Christ made a spectacle for all the subjects of His kingdom to watch, for through the Cross He had disarmed the demonic principalities and powers, and made a public example of them (see Col 2:15).

If Christ is now triumphantly seated at the Father’s right hand in heaven, where He intercedes for us, am I confident of His powerful intercession for me? Am I certain that in Him, I am more than a conqueror, and nothing — not even demonic angels, principalities, and powers — can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus (see Rom 8:34, 37–39)?

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

And I send forth upon you the promise of My Father. But wait here in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high (Lk 24:49).

Who descended at Pentecost to clothe the disciples with power? It was the same Holy Spirit of God who had broken the Israelites’ bondage and delivered them from death when He parted the Red Sea and overwhelmed Pharaoh’s chariots; the Spirit who had come upon the warrior judges of old to defeat the enemies of God’s people, and had come upon young David to vanquish Goliath; the Spirit by whose power Our Lady had conceived the Savior, and by whose power the Savior had been raised from the dead.

Do I try to fight this fierce spiritual war on my own? Or do I rely on the Holy Spirit’s unlimited power to overcome my foes, because He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world (see 1 Jn 4:4)?

THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, so that when she had brought forth he might devour her son. And she brought forth a male child, who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God…. And the dragon was angered at the woman, and went away to wage war with the rest of her offspring (Rv 12:4–6, 17).

In the Book of Revelation, the great panorama of our spiritual battlefield unfolds, displaying the age-old enmity between the Serpent and the Woman. Our Blessed Lady, clothed with the sun (see Rv 12:1), enters the fray by giving birth to the Warrior King. The Dragon, that ancient Serpent, seeks to swallow her Son in the tomb, but He breaks free from the bonds of death and ascends to His heavenly throne. His mother, too, escapes the Devil’s grasp; her body defies death’s corruption, and with her soul is assumed into heaven to join her Son.

If I remain in Christ, my mortal body will also put on immortality and be clothed with the radiance of heaven (see 1 Cor 15:53–55; Dan 12:2–3). But while the Dragon still makes war with me here on earth, am I making that body a weapon of righteousness? Or am I yielding it to my spiritual enemies to use against me (see Rom 6:12–14)?

THE CROWNING OF OUR LADY AS QUEEN OF HEAVEN

He who overcomes, I will permit him to sit with Me upon My throne; as I also have overcome and have sat with My Father on His throne (Rv 3:21).

The King of the universe, having returned to His throne in heaven, welcomed Our Lady there as His Queen Mother. Full of grace, she had conquered the ancient Serpent, and so He fulfilled His promise to crown her with a share in His unfading glory (see 1 Pt 5:4), and to seat her at His side on His throne. Yet even though her place there is unrivaled, far above the angels and other saints, she waits to welcome all her children to their own abundant share in her Son’s glory and authority.

Do I turn with trust to the Queen of Heaven to intercede for me and assist me, the Queen of the angels who continually come to my aid? Do I recognize that even now, because I am in Christ, I am seated with Him in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion (see Eph 1:16–22, 2:5–6)?

After the prayers of this final decade, conclude with these additional prayers:

Hail, Holy Queen …

St. Michael, the Archangel …

Angel of God, my guardian dear …

And this final acclamation:

Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ rules!

The Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. AMEN.

ST. JOSEPH

Litany of St. Joseph

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy
on us.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Renowned offspring of David, pray for us.

Light of Patriarchs, pray for us.

Spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Chaste guardian of the Virgin, pray for us.

Foster-father of the Son of God, pray for us.

Diligent protector of Christ, pray for us.

Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.

Joseph most just, pray for us.

Joseph most chaste, pray for us.

Joseph most prudent, pray for us.

Joseph most strong, pray for us.

Joseph most obedient, pray for us.

Joseph most faithful, pray for us.

Mirror of patience, pray for us.

Lover of poverty, pray for us.

Model of artisans, pray for us.

Glory of home life, pray for us.

Guardian of virgins, pray for us.

Pillar of families, pray for us.

Solace of the wretched, pray for us.

Hope of the sick, pray for us.

Patron of the dying, pray for us.

Terror of demons, pray for us.

Protector of Holy Church, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the
world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the
world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the
world, Have mercy on us.

V. He made him the lord of His house:

R. And prince over all his possessions.

Let us pray. O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to choose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother; grant, we beg you, that we may be worthy to have him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our Protector; you who live and reign forever and ever. AMEN.

Novena Prayer to St. Joseph

Oh St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my concerns and desires. Oh St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your divine son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers. Oh St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. [Mention your petition.]

St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us. AMEN.

A Prayer to St. Joseph by St. Leo XII

To you, O blessed Joseph,

do we come in our tribulation,

and having implored the help of your most holy
Spouse,

we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you

to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God

and through the paternal love

with which you embraced the Child Jesus,

we humbly beg you graciously to regard the
inheritance

which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,

and with your power and strength to aid us in
our necessities.

O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,

defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;

O most loving father, ward off from us

every contagion of error and corrupting
influence;

O our most mighty protector, be kind to us

and from heaven assist us in our struggle

with the power of darkness.

As once you rescued the Child Jesus from
deadly peril,

so now protect God’s Holy Church

from the snares of the enemy and from all
adversity;

shield, too, each one of us by your constant
protection,

so that, supported by your example and your
aid,

we may be able to live piously, to die in
holiness,

and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
AMEN.

A Prayer to St. Joseph

O blessed Joseph, faithful guardian of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, protector of thy chaste spouse, the virgin Mother of God, I choose thee this day to be my special patron and advocate and I firmly resolve to honor thee all the days of my life. Therefore I humbly beseech thee to receive me as thy client, to instruct me in every doubt, to comfort me in every affliction, to obtain for me and for all the knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus, and finally to defend and protect me at the hour of my death. AMEN.

Hymns to St. Joseph

With grateful hearts we breathe to-day

The tender accents of our love.

We carol forth a little lay

To thee, great saint in heaven above.

CHORUS

O Joseph dear, from thy bright throne,

Incline thine ear unto our prayer.

And o’er us all as o’er thine own,

Extend thy fond paternal care,

More favored than earth’s greatest king.

Thou wert the guardian of that Child,

Around whose crib full choirs did sing,

With cadenced voices soft and mild.

Dei Qui Gratiam Impotes

Seek ye the grace of God,

And mercies from on high?—

Invoke St. Joseph’s holy name,

And on his aid rely.

So shall the Lord well pleased

Your earnest prayer fulfil;

The guilty cleanse from guilt; and make

The holy holier still.

So shall His tender care

To you through life be nigh;

So shall His love with triumph crown

Your dying agony.

Safe in the virgin arms

Of Mary and her Son,

Embracing each in speechless joy,

And sweetest union;

O Joseph, in what peace

Was breathed thy latest sigh,

Dear pattern of all those to come,

Who should in Jesus die!

Hail, mightiest of Saints!

To whom submissive bent

He whose Creator-hand outstretch’d

The starry firmament!

Hail, Mary’s Spouse elect!

Hail, Guardian of the Word!

Nurse of the Highest! and esteem’d

The Father of the Lord!

EDWARD CASWALL, TR.

Dear Guardian of Mary

Dear Guardian of Mary! dear nurse of her child!

Life’s ways are full weary, the desert is wild;

Bleak sands are all round us, no home can we
see;

Sweet Spouse of our Lady! we lean upon thee.

For thou to the pilgrim art father and guide,

And Jesus and Mary felt safe at thy side;

Ah! blessed Saint Joseph, how safe should I be,

Sweet Spouse of our Lady! if thou wert with me.

REV. F. W. FABER

The St. Joseph Rosary

Just as Mary is universally honored throughout the Church by the devout recitation of her most holy Rosary, so, too, can we honor her spouse, St. Joseph, the Guardian of the Redeemer. The Oblates of St. Joseph, an order devoted to the foster-father of Our Lord, are an excellent source for men seeking to center their devotional lives on good St. Joseph. The following version of the St. Joseph Rosary is of their composition, is found at their website www.osjusa.org, and is used by permission.

*May be prayed just as Marian Rosary, substituting the following prayer for the Hail Mary:

Joseph, son of David, and husband of Mary; we honor you, guardian of the Redeemer, and we adore the child you named Jesus.

Saint Joseph, patron of the universal church, pray for us, that like you we may live totally dedicated to the interests of the Savior. AMEN.

Mysteries of the St. Joseph Rosary

Betrothal to Mary (Mt 1:18): Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.

Annunciation to Joseph (Mt 1:19–21): and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Birth and Naming of Jesus (Mt 1:22–25): All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

Flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13–15): Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

Hidden Life at Nazareth (Mt 2:23; Lk 2:51–52): And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled. “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

THE ARCHANGELS

Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
(For private use)

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels, pray for us.

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Most glorious attendant of the Triune Divinity,
standing at the right of the altar of
incense, pray for us.

Ambassador of paradise, pray for us.

Glorious prince of the heavenly armies,
pray for us.

Leader of the angelic hosts, pray for us.

Warrior who thrust Satan into hell, pray for us.

Defender against the wickedness and snares of
the Devil, pray for us.

Standard-bearer of God’s armies, pray for us.

Defender of divine glory, pray for us.

First defender of the kingship of Christ,
pray for us.

Strength of God, pray for us.

Invincible prince and warrior, pray for us.

Angel of peace, pray for us.

Guardian of the Christian faith, pray for us.

Guardian of the Legion of St. Michael,
pray for us.

Champion of God’s people, pray for us.

Champion of the Legion of St. Michael, pray for us.

Guardian angel of the Eucharist, pray for us.

Defender of the Church, pray for us.

Defender of the Legion of St. Michael,
pray for us.

Protector of the Sovereign Pontiff, pray for us.

Protector of the Legion of St. Michael,
pray for us.

Angel of Catholic action, pray for us.

Powerful intercessor of Christians, pray for us.

Bravest defender of those who hope in God,
pray for us.

Guardian of our souls and bodies, pray for us.

Healer of the sick, pray for us.

Help of those in their agony, pray for us.

Consoler of the souls in purgatory, pray for us.

God’s messenger for the souls of the just,
pray for us.

Terror of the evil spirits, pray for us.

Victorious in battle against evil, pray for us.

Guardian and patron of the Universal Church,
pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, O glorious St. Michael,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Sanctify us, we beseech You, O Lord, with Your holy blessing, and grant us, by the intercession of St. Michael, that wisdom which teaches us to lay up treasures in heaven by exchanging the goods of this world for those of eternity, You who live and reign, world without end. AMEN.

Relying, O Lord, upon the intercession of Your blessed archangel Michael, we humbly beg of You, that the Holy Eucharist in whose presence we kneel may make our soul holy and pleasing to You. Through Christ Our Lord. AMEN.

Prince of the host of the Lord;

Standard-bearer;

Mighty seraph;

One of the seven who stand before the Throne:

Dauntless challenger whose cry ran through the
vasts of heaven:

“Who is like to God!”

Guardian of God’s chosen race,

Glorious champion of the Church of Christ
under the New Law;

Triumphant defender of the Woman and her
Child;

Vanquisher of the Dragon and chainer of his
strength;

Leader of souls into the holy light.

FR. HUSSLEIN, S. J.

Hymn to St. Michael

Hail, bright Archangel! Prince of heaven!

Spirit divinely strong!

To whose rare merit hath been given

To head the angelic throng!

Thine the first worship was, when gloom

Through heaven’s thinned ranks did move,

Thus giving unto God the bloom

Of young creation’s love.

O trumpet-tongued! O beautiful!

O force of the Most High!

The blessed of the earth look dull

Beside thy majesty.

First servant of the Ineffable!

The first created eye

That ever, proved and perfect, fell

On the dread Trinity!

O Michael! worship Him this night,

The Father, Word, and Dove,

Renewing with strong act the might

Of thy first marvelous love.

Praise to the Three, whose love designed

Thee champion of the Lord;

Who first conceived thee in His mind.

And made thee with His Word.

Who stooped from nothingness to raise

A life like thine so high.

Beauty and being that should praise

His love eternally!

REV. F. W. FABER

Apparition of St. Michael

O Jesu! life-spring of the soul!

The Father’s Power and Glory bright!

Thee with the Angels we extol;

From Thee they draw their life and light.

Thy thousand thousand hosts are spread,

Embattled o’er the azure sky;

But Michael bears thy standard dread,

And lifts the mighty Cross on high.

He in that Sign the rebel powers

Did with their Dragon Prince expel;

And hurl’d them from the Heaven’s high towers,

Down like a thunderbolt to hell.

Grant us with Michael still, O Lord,

Against the Prince of Pride to fight;

So may a crown be our reward,

Before the Lamb’s pure throne of light.

To God the Father, and the Son,

Who rose from death, all glory be;

With Thee, O blessed Paraclete,

Henceforth through all eternity.

EDWARD CASWALL, TR.

Hymn to St. Raphael the Archangel

Jesu, brightness of the Father!

Life and strength of all who live!

In the presence of the Angels,

Glory to thy name we give;

And thy wondrous praise rehearse,

Singing in alternate verse.

Hail, all ye angelic Princedoms!

Hail, ye thrones celestial!

Hail, Physician of Salvation!

Guide of life, blest Raphael

Binding fast the fiend of night

In the glory of thy might.

Oh, may Christ beneath thy pinions

Shield us from all harm this day;

Keep us pure in flesh and spirit;

Save us from the enemy:

And vouchsafe us, of his grace,

In his Paradise a place.

Glory to th’ Almighty Father,

Sing we now in anthems sweet;

Glory to the great Redeemer;

Glory to the Paraclete;

Godhead sole and Persons three!

In eternal unity!

EDWARD CASWALL, TR.

GUARDIAN ANGEL PRAYERS

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule, to guide. AMEN.

Litany of the Holy Guardian Angel
(For private use)

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
have mercy on us.

God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels, pray for us.

Holy angel, my guardian, pray for us.

Holy angel, my prince, pray for us.

Holy angel, my monitor, pray for us.

Holy angel, my counselor, pray for us.

Holy angel, my defender, pray for us.

Holy angel, my steward, pray for us.

Holy angel, my friend, pray for us.

Holy angel, my negotiator, pray for us.

Holy angel, my intercessor, pray for us.

Holy angel, my patron, pray for us.

Holy angel, my director, pray for us.

Holy angel, my ruler, pray for us.

Holy angel, my protector, pray for us.

Holy angel, my comforter, pray for us.

Holy angel, my brother, pray for us.

Holy angel, my teacher, pray for us.

Holy angel, my shepherd, pray for us.

Holy angel, my helper, pray for us.

Holy angel, my watcher, pray for us.

Holy angel, my conductor, pray for us.

Holy angel, my preserver, pray for us.

Holy angel, my instructor, pray for us.

Holy angel, my enlightener, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world, Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, O holy guardian angel,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who in the counsel of Your ineffable goodness have appointed to all the faithful, from their mother’s womb, a special angel guardian of their body and soul, grant that I may so love and honor him who you have so mercifully given me, that—protected by the bounty of Your grace and by his assistance — I may merit to behold, with him and all the angelic hosts, the glory of Your face in the heavenly kingdom, You who live and reign, world without end. AMEN.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAINTS

The Lorica (Breastplate) of Saint Patrick

This is a magnificent prayer with which to start your day, a prayer replete with imagery and language that resonates especially with men. The wildness of the Christian adventure and the drama of the struggle against the forces of evil are powerfully depicted.

I bind to myself today

the strong virtue of the Invocation of the
Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

the Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today

the virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His
Baptism,

the virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

the virtue of His Resurrection with His
Ascension,

the virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today

the virtue of the love of seraphim,

in the obedience of angels,

in the hope of resurrection unto reward,

in prayers of Patriarchs,

in predictions of Prophets,

in preaching of Apostles,

in faith of Confessors,

in purity of holy Virgins,

in deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today

the power of Heaven,

the light of the sun,

the brightness of the moon,

the splendour of fire,

the flashing of lightning,

the swiftness of wind,

the depth of sea,

the stability of earth,

the compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today

God’s Power to guide me,

God’s Might to uphold me,

God’s Wisdom to teach me,

God’s Eye to watch over me,

God’s Ear to hear me,

God’s Word to give me speech,

God’s Hand to guide me,

God’s Way to lie before me,

God’s Shield to shelter me,

God’s Host to secure me,

against the snares of demons,

against the seductions of vices,

against the lusts of nature,

against everyone who intends injury to me,

whether far or near,

whether few or many.

I invoke today all these virtues

against every hostile merciless power

that may assail my body and my soul:

against the incantations of false prophets,

against the black laws of heathenism,

against the false laws of heresy,

against the deceits of idolatry,

against the spells of women, and smiths, and
druids,

against every knowledge that binds the soul of
man.

Christ, protect me today

against every poison, against burning,

against drowning, against mortal wounding,

that I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ at my right, Christ at my left,

Christ in the fort,

Christ in the chariot seat,

Christ in the ship,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to
me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today

the strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity.

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

the Creator of the Universe.

ATTRIBUTED TO ST. PATRICK

A Prayer in Any Necessity to St. Anthony

We salute you, St. Anthony, soul of purity, ornament and glory of Christianity. We salute you, great saint, cherub of wisdom and seraph of divine love. We rejoice at the favors Our Lord has so generously bestowed on you. In humility and confidence we beg you to help us, for we know that God has given you charity and pity, as well as power.

Behold our distress, our anxiety, our fears concerning [here name your request]. We ask you by the love you felt toward the child Jesus, when He covered you with His caresses, to tell Him now of our needs. Remember how complete was your bliss when you held Him to your breast.

We venerate thee, O glorious favorite of God, and bow our guilty heads before you in humble reverence, while we raise our sad hearts full of hope toward the throne of divine mercy, and to you, our intercessor. He who placed Himself in your arms will surely fill your hands with what we ask of you.

Obtain for us, then, what we need, angel of love, and we will make known the wondrous efficacy of your intercession, for the greater glory of God.

Aspirations to St. Anthony

St. Anthony, whom the infant Jesus loved and honored so signally, grant us what we ask of thee. St. Anthony, powerful in word and work, grant us [here mention intention]. St. Anthony, attentive to those who invoke thee, obtain for us the grace of holy purity, meekness, humility, and obedience. St. Anthony, pray for our priests, relatives, and benefactors, and for all in authority in Church and State.

PRAYERS FOR THE FAMILY MAN

Thanksgiving for My Marriage

Lord, from my whole heart I thank you for having lead me through your sacrament into the married state, sanctified my matrimonial union, and opened the treasures of your grace to me, that I might be able to meet the duties of my state of life, and to persevere in fidelity and love towards my wife, in conjugal purity, and to bring up my children in your Church, and thus to work out my salvation. I thank you for every grace by virtue of this sacrament I have received. I thank you for your protection and assistance, and for all good which you have granted me and mine. Praise be to thee for all eternity!

For all that I have failed to do as a Christian husband, forgive me in your infinite mercy and for the sake of your Son, Jesus. I am firmly resolved that, with your assistance, I will strive harder to fulfil my duties faithfully and conscientiously.

For my wife also I ask you favor and grace. Grant that we, so intimately united by your sacrament, may always be in the love and fear of God, that our married life be, as it should, an image of the intimate union of Christ with his holy Church, and lead us to eternal life. Remember also, O Lord, the children you have given us. Bless and protect them, grant them grace that they may live according to your will. Assist me that I may bring them up entirely for you.

I pray this in the name of Jesus. AMEN.

Mary, pray for us. St. Joseph, pray for us.

A Prayer for a Father’s Wisdom

How great, O God, and how momentous is the vocation you gave me, and how difficult to fulfil it! I must bring up the children whom you have entrusted to me, and teach them to conquer their defects and practice the Christian virtues. O my God, I am ignorant and incompetent. How shall I know the right way if you do not help me? Send, therefore, O Lord, from your heavenly throne a ray of divine wisdom into my heart, just as you gave to Solomon a wise, discerning heart, that he might rule his people well. Enlighten me that I may know how to treat my children, each according to his way, that they may be freed from their failings and preserved from everything that is hurtful and dangerous to them; show me the means and the way to bring them up properly that they may grow and flourish; lead me that I may be neither too soft nor too hard; give me the right word when I instruct, correct, or warn them. Make known to me your holy will when I have to advise them. Led by your hand, let me accomplish the work of their education; for you always lead your children with infinite wisdom in the way of salvation.

O Holy Spirit, dispenser of gifts and graces, grant me the gift of wisdom and of counsel, for the good of my beloved children. AMEN.

Our Father and Hail Mary.

A Prayer for Mildness When
Correcting Children

Divine Savior, who dwelt for three years among your disciples as a father among his children, how much did you have to suffer from their imperfections and failings; how calculated was often their conduct to excite impatience and anger? And yet were always so indulgent to them, so kind, so mild! An unfriendly, hard, cruel word never passed your lips. May I be like you in my demeanor towards my children! I must, if I am your disciple, and I wish to save my soul. May I then learn from thee to be meek. When the misconduct of my children causes impatience and anger in me, help me to overcome these emotions, that I may not manifest them. Grant that I may be calm and dispassionate in correcting or punishing my children. For “the anger of man works not the justice of God.” O meek Jesus, have mercy on me! AMEN.

A Prayer to the Patron Saints of My Children

Holy patrons of my children, take an interest in me their father. Pray for me that through your intercession I may receive the grace that I may by word and example exercise a good influence over my children, and that they, by imitating your virtues, themselves become virtuous, and that they may grow up good members of the Church and be received one day into your happy society. AMEN.

A Father’s Prayer for Blessings on His Work.

O God, all that I may do for the proper education of my children will not bear fruit without the blessing of your grace. Although I may “plant and water,” the increase will be absent if you do not give it. “Except the Lord build the house,” says the Psalmist, “they labor in vain who build it. Except the Lord keep the city he watches in vain that keeps it.” Therefore I ask you, O Lord, give increase to all that I do for my children by teaching, counseling, warning, punishment, vigilance and direction; assist me to keep them from all evil of body and soul; assist me to build that the house of virtue and perfection will have in them a firm foundation. Accompany my words and works with your grace that they may conduce to the welfare of my children, through Jesus Christ. AMEN.

A Prayer for the Household

God of goodness and mercy, we commend to Your all-powerful protection our home, our family, and all that we possess. Bless us all as You blessed the holy family of Nazareth.

O Jesus, holy Redeemer, by the love with which You became man in order to save us, by the mercy through which You died for us on the cross, we entreat You to bless our home, our family, our household. Preserve us from all evil and from the snares of men; preserve us from lightning and hail and fire, from flood and from the rage of the elements; preserve us from Your wrath, from all hatred and from the evil intentions of our enemies, from plague, famine, and war. Let none of us die without the holy sacraments. Bless us, that we may always openly confess our faith which is to sanctify us, that we may never falter in our hope, even amid pain and affliction, that we may ever grow in love for Thee and in charity toward our neighbor.

O Jesus, bless us and protect us.

O Mary, Mother of grace and mercy, bless us and protect us against the evil spirit; lead us by the hand through this vale of tears; reconcile us with your divine Son; commend us to Him, that we may be made worthy of His promises.

Saint Joseph, respected father of Our Savior, guardian of His most holy Mother, head of the holy family, intercede for us, bless and protect our home always.

Saint Michael, defend us against all the wicked wiles of hell.

Saint Gabriel, obtain for us that we may understand the holy will of God.

Saint Raphael, preserve us from ill-health and all danger to life.

Holy guardian angels, keep us day and night in the way to salvation.

Holy patrons, pray for us before the throne of God.

Bless this house, God our Father, Who created us; divine Son, Who suffered for us on the cross; Holy Spirit, Who sanctified us in Baptism. May God in His three divine Persons, preserve our bodies, purify our souls, direct our hearts, and lead us to life everlasting.

Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son, glory be to the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Prayer to the Holy Family for Our Family

Most loving Jesus, Who by the example of Your domestic life, blessed with peace and happiness the family which You chose on earth; look down upon our household as we implore Your mercy. Teach us the sublime and beautiful virtues of humility, obedience, poverty, modesty, charity, patience, and gentleness, and Remember that this family belongs to You for we have dedicated and devoted ourselves to You. Preserve us from danger, give us help in time of need, and grant us the grace to persevere to the end in the imitation of Your holy family, so that having revered and loved you faithfully on earth we may bless and praise You eternally in heaven.

O Mary, most sweet Mother, to your intercession we have recourse, knowing that your divine Son will hear your prayers. And do you, O glorious patriarch, St. Joseph, assist us by your powerful mediation, and offer, by the hand of Mary, our prayers to Jesus. AMEN.

Litany of the Christian Father
(For Private Use)

Lord have mercy on me!

Christ have mercy on me!

Lord have mercy on me!

Christ, hear me!

Thou great Father, from whom all fatherhood
proceeds, Have mercy on me.

God, the heavenly Father of my children,
Have mercy on me.

Thou who lovest my children more than I can,
Have mercy on me.

Thou who willest them to be eternally happy
with thee, Have mercy on me.

Thou who hast sacrificed thy only begotten Son
for them, Have mercy on me.

Thou who sendest thy angels to protect them,
Have mercy on me.

Thou who hast entrusted them to my love and
care, Have mercy on me.

Thou who willest me to support and bring them
up for thee, Have mercy on me.

Thou who will require an account of them from
me, Have mercy on me.

Thou who will reward the father who fulfils his
duty, Have mercy on me.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on me.

Thou who becamest man for us,
Have mercy on me.

O Jesus, who by becoming a child hast
sanctified the tender age of childhood,
Have mercy on me.

O Jesus, most loving child, Have mercy on me.

O Jesus, most obedient son of thy mother, Have
mercy on me.

O Jesus, friend of children, Have mercy on me.

O Jesus, who didst permit little children to
come to thee, to embrace and bless
them, Have mercy on me.

Thou who hast declared woe to all who
scandalize children, Have mercy on me.

Thou who acceptest as done for thee what is
done for children, Have mercy on me.

Thou who lovest my children and sacrificed
thyself for them, Have mercy on me.

Thou who hast endowed thy church with all the
treasures of grace for them,
Have mercy on me.

Thou who, in the sacrament of marriage, didst
bless me and give me grace to fulfil my
vocation, Have mercy on me.

Thou who in holy baptism madest my children,
children of God, Have mercy on me.

Thou without whose grace I cannot do my duty
to my children, Have mercy on me.

Thou without whose grace my children can not
become good and persevere,
Have mercy on me.

Thou spirit of wisdom and understanding,
Have mercy on me.

Thou spirit of counsel and of strength,
Have mercy on me.

Thou spirit of godliness and the fear of the
Lord, Have mercy on me.

Thou spirit of wisdom and of grace,
Have mercy on me.

Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on me.

Holy Mary, Pray for me.

Holy Mother of God, Pray for me.

Mother of Christ, Pray for me.

Thou who didst offer thy divine Son in the
Temple, Pray for me.

Thou who didst flee with him into Egypt,
Pray for me.

Thou who soughtest him in sorrow for three
days, Pray for me.

Thou who didst behold him suffering and dying
on the cross, Pray for me.

Thou who didst rejoice in his resurrection and
ascension, Pray for me.

Thou who art now glorified with him in heaven,
Pray for me.

St. Joseph, Pray for me.

Thou patron of the Christian family,
Pray for me.

Thou who didst protect and cherish thy divine
foster-Son, Pray for me.

Thou who hadst the happiness of living and
working so many years with him,
Pray for me.

Thou who didst breathe thy last in his arms,
Pray for me.

Ye holy guardian angels and friends of my
children, who look upon the face of our
heavenly Father, Pray for me.

Ye who are sent by God to guard my children,
Pray for me.

St. Joachim, consort of St. Anna and father of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pray for me.

All ye holy fathers of the old law, Pray for me.

All holy fathers, Pray for me.

Ye who by fulfilling your duties to your children
obtained salvation, Pray for me.

All ye holy angels, Pray for me.

All ye patriarchs and prophets, Pray for me.

All ye holy apostles and martyrs, Pray for me.

All ye holy bishops, priests, and confessors,
Pray for me.

All ye holy virgins and widows, Pray for me.

All ye holy and innocent children, Pray for me.

Be merciful and spare me, O Lord!

Be merciful and hear me, O Lord!

From all evil, Deliver me, O Lord.

From all indifference to the duties of my
vocation, Deliver me, O Lord.

From all neglect of my paternal duties,
Deliver me, O Lord.

From all indifference to the salvation of my
children, Deliver me, O Lord.

From all unreasonable love and indulgence for
my children, Deliver me, O Lord.

From all anger and passion, Deliver me, O Lord.

From all bad example, Deliver me, O Lord.

From the demon of impurity,
Deliver me, O Lord.

By thy life, sufferings, and death,
Deliver me, O Lord.

By thy love for children, Deliver me, O Lord.

By the rich reward thou didst promise them
who receive children,
Deliver me, O Lord.

By the mercy of thy divine heart, I, a sinner,
beseech thee to hear me.

That thou grant me grace to know the grandeur
of my fatherly vocation, I beseech thee to
hear me.

That thou grant me to know the holiness and
importance of my duties to my children,
I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou grant me wisdom to know my
difficult task, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou grant me zeal in prayer for my
children, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou bless my teachings and admonitions,
I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou grant me grace to always give my
children good example, I beseech thee to
hear me.

That thou guard my children from all frivolity
and mortal sin, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou inspire them with piety and the fear
of God, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou grant them the treasure of inviolate
purity, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou guard them from the attack of the
enemy, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou guard them from the evil influence of
the world, I beseech thee to hear me.

That thou keep them in thy grace, I beseech thee
to hear me.

That thou lead them to eternal life, I beseech thee
to hear me.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the
world, spare me!

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the
world, hear me.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the
world, have mercy on me.

Our Father, Hail Mary.

PRAYER. O God, whose mercy and goodness are infinite, I thank thy majesty for all the gifts and graces thou hast granted me and my children and as thou grantest the prayers of those who beseech thee I pray unceasingly to thy fatherly kindness never to forsake me and my children, and lead us to eternal reward. Through Jesus Christ. AMEN.

For the Civil Authorities

We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom and justice, through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted and judgments decreed, assist, with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government; so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessings of equal liberty.

We pray for his Excellency the Governor of this State, for the members of our Legislature, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare; that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all our brethren and fellow citizens, throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge, and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and, after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. AMEN.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Faith of Our Fathers

This hymn is one that should often be on the minds and lips of Catholic men. In this time when we see the Faith being abandoned all around us, it is good to contemplate what our ancestors, whether by blood or simply in the Faith, endured in order to both practice the Faith themselves and pass it down to the next generation. Some readers of this Manual very likely come from families who have been Catholic for hundreds of years, if not more than a thousand; others may have martyrs for ancestors. Do not be the weak link that breaks the chain. Keep and promote the Holy Faith of God.

Faith of our fathers, living still

In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,

O how our hearts beat high with joy

Whene’er we hear that glorious word!

Faith of our fathers! holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death.

Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,

Were still in heart and conscience free;

And blest would be their children’s fate,

If they, like them, should die for thee:

Faith of our fathers! holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death!

Faith of our fathers, we will strive

To win all nations unto thee;

And through the truth that comes from God

Mankind shall then indeed be free.

Faith of our fathers! holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death!

Faith of our fathers, we will love

Both friend and foe in all our strife,

And preach thee, too, as love knows how

By kindly words and virtuous life.

Faith of our fathers! holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death!

FREDERICK FABER, 1849

HOW THE CATHOLIC
MAN ENDS HIS DAY

Of the Evening Exercise and
Examination of Conscience

From An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

As to the examination of conscience, which must be always made before bedtime, everyone knows how to perform it:

1. We give thanks to God for having preserved us the day past.

2. We examine how we have behaved ourselves each hour of the day; and to do this more easily, we consider where we have been, with whom, and in what business we have been employed.

3. If we find that we have done any good, we make an act of thanksgiving to God for it; if, on the other hand, we have done any evil, in thought, in word, or in deed, we ask pardon for it of His Divine Majesty, firmly resolving to confess it the first opportunity and carefully to amend of it.

4. Afterwards we commend to the Divine Providence our soul, our body, the church, relations and friends; and

5. Finally, we ask God to watch over us and for us; and thus, with the blessing of God, we go to take the rest which His will has appointed for us.

This exercise, as well as that for the morning, must never be forgotten; since by that for the morning, you open the windows of your soul to the Sun of Righteousness; and by this for the evening, you close them against the darkness of hell.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESOURCES
FOR FURTHER READING

Butler, Alban. Lives of the Saints, with Reflections for Every Day in the Year. Cincinnati: Benziger Bros., 1894. https://archive.org/details/livesofsaintswit00butl.

Camus, Jean-Pierre, and Francis. The Beauties of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva. Selected and Translated from the Writings of John Peter Camus. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1829.

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Delany, Joseph. “Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company, 1911. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10198d.htm.

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