John Hienen, owner of The Catholic Gentleman, said that often men treat Lent as though it is “extra credit,” as though we are being kind to God by offering Him a little extra. How nice. Lent is not an add-on feature, a bonus segment on a liturgical app, an extra rep, or an extra lap around the track.Lent is essential.You will only have so many Lents—perhaps seventy or eighty for those who are granted a longer life. “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)Indeed, how many of these Lents have we embraced to the fullest?

Temperance is also more than “moderation in all things.”  Plenty of things don’t need moderating – like love and goodness.  Temperance is not just balancing ourselves between extremes, or keeping mild instead of intense.

O St. Joseph predestined and chosen by God from among men, you received the glorious honor of being the chaste, guardian of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Inflamed with divine love you received her as your beloved wife and through her God bestowed upon you the most privileged distinction of being the virginal father of God the Son.

Fear is a mental and spiritual virus. It spreads faster and more efficiently than any airborne disease. Its symptoms are at times anger, aggression, isolation, despair, irrationality, loss of faith, and clouded judgement, among other things. And if there is one emotion that dominates the world at this time, it is a deep and abiding […]

Life is complex. As a husband and father, blogger, podcaster, full-time employee, and full-time graduate student, it often seems like the responsibilities I face continue to multiply endlessly, while the time allotted to accomplish them does not. No sooner do I make progress in one area of life, than another domain for which I am […]

Even a cursory glance at news headlines is enough to plunge one into anxiety. Mass-killings. Inflamed, hate-filled rhetoric. Mutual mockery. Revelings in perversion. Moral debauchery. Religious persecution. Terrorism. Scandals. These are the defining marks of our age, it seems. And that is not to mention the polarized cacophony of insults and vitriol that social media […]

When we think of Lent, it rarely calls to mind feeding our desires. Rather, for those who fast or engage in other penitential practices, Lent feels like a a seasons of denying our hunger and of mortifying desires. Perhaps it is even a season where we feel physically hungry for the first time in a […]

Being a man today can be confusing. We are shamed for our “toxic masculinity” and told we should be less masculine if we want to get ahead in life. Fathers are mocked in TV and movies, and men in general are often portrayed as either low-functioning, ill-bred beasts, or as cruel and violent. Add to […]