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Great men aren’t born, they are made great through the crucible of life. It is a mystery left only to God’s providence that you would be reading this article in a particular place, and particular time, much of which has little to do with your choosing. You and I were born into a place, a people, and a time with all its particular benefits and challenges. We don’t choose when or where we come into the world, but each of us will be judged by how well we live in it. We are judged by how well we develop our gifts and talents in service to God and one another. This, of course, is hard work. It requires both self-knowledge and self-possession, the two pillars of maturity upon which the foundation of our holiness is built.

What did Jesus mean, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” Could our Lord, by means of this haunting cry, be admitting defeat? Furthermore, Our Lord appears to be saying that He believes that God His Father has left Him. However, Jesus, to be a perfect sacrificial offering to God, was intent on identifying Himself as sin, though He had sinned not. Our Lord willed to embrace the experience of abandonment that the sinner experiences when separated from God. Indeed, Jesus deemed it necessary to endure the abandonment caused by sin for the purpose of fully redeeming all sinners.

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?

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?

God does not want men to be merely nice. He wants us to be strong lions, but not the wild sources of chaos lions can become, or the weak beaten down caged versions. He wants us to be the strong powerful instruments of his will in the world, using all the potential for courage and virtue we have to fight and defeat the enemy and protect and defend the family.

The book of Proverbs says that 'Death and life are in the power of the tongue.' As you go about your day, you hear many use their words for good and for bad. Why is it bad? Why are certain words bad? Let's explore this.

Through the psalms, we were reminded of our constant reliance on God; through the silence, our mortality; through the minimalist architecture, our tendency to excess; through reading, our ignorance; through the monks, our pride.

To be an authentic man, we must invest in the formation and development of our soul, our skills, our service and our solidarity. These four are the door to having real masculine confidence; security in being the man who God designed us to be.