John Sablan spent the better part of his adult life being what he now calls the X factor in his family: the one holding everything back. Raised in abuse, living a wayward life, he and his wife stumbled into the Catholic Church, and he settled comfortably into being lukewarm. His marriage came to the edge. Then at a men's conference, with a general confession, and a priest praying deliverance over him in Latin changed the trajectory. In this conversation, John Heinen and Devin Schadt sit down with John Sablan to get at the real roots of what's keeping men soft and what it actually takes to do something about it. Rooted in Thomistic psychology (which he studied under Fr. Chad Ripperger), John defines effeminacy the way Aquinas did: not a personality flaw, but a moral vice. The inability to deny pleasure in order to pursue the arduous good. He unpacks the trap men fall into when they finally decide to get serious: trading softness for stoicism, white-knuckling virtue as a self-improvement project, making the whole thing about proving themselves rather than serving God. They also tackle why "do you want to save your marriage?" is the wrong question.

Every man knows the difference between a morning that owns him and a morning he owns. In this episode, Devin Schadt and I walk through a practical seven-point framework for building a morning routine that actually holds. From the heroic minute and the science behind a fixed wake time, to what you put in your body before prayer, to why your evening examen the night before may be the most overlooked factor in how your next day unfolds. We get honest about what didn't work, like falling asleep face-down at 4:45 a.m., white-knuckling 18 months without caffeine, and trying to out-pray their wives out of competition rather than conviction. This isn't a productivity hack. It's a rule of life built on obedience, worship, and the promise that God doesn't bless leftovers. He blesses first fruits.

Pride among Catholic men rarely looks like arrogance. What men don't realize is that it surfaces as control, self-reliance, withdrawal, or even habits that appear virtuous on the surface. In this episode of The Catholic Gentleman, John Heinen and Devin Schadt are joined by Patrick O’Hearn to examine why pride is so difficult to recognize in ourselves—and why it quietly blocks growth in the spiritual life, marriage, and leadership. They unpack why the Litany of Humility remains one of the Church’s most demanding prayers, and how it exposes attachments that many men don’t realize they’re carrying.

Why does God allow suffering, especially for good and innocent people who are trying to live faithfully? Many men assume suffering means something has gone wrong: a lack of faith, a mistake, or even abandonment by God. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt confront that assumption directly. Drawing from our own personal suffering they challenge the modern instinct to avoid pain at all costs and instead ask a more honest question: what if suffering is not evidence of God’s absence, but of His love and formation? The conversation moves beyond theory into the real struggles men face in marriage, fatherhood, prayer, and responsibility. John and Devin explore why men resist suffering, how pride and presumption distort our response to it, and what suffering actually produces when it is accepted rather than numbed or escaped. They also discuss why learning to suffer well is essential to becoming a strong, faithful Catholic man.

Why does God allow suffering, especially for good and innocent people who are trying to live faithfully? Many men assume suffering means something has gone wrong: a lack of faith, a mistake, or even abandonment by God. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt confront that assumption directly. Drawing from our own personal suffering they challenge the modern instinct to avoid pain at all costs and instead ask a more honest question: what if suffering is not evidence of God’s absence, but of His love and formation? The conversation moves beyond theory into the real struggles men face in marriage, fatherhood, prayer, and responsibility. John and Devin explore why men resist suffering, how pride and presumption distort our response to it, and what suffering actually produces when it is accepted rather than numbed or escaped. They also discuss why learning to suffer well is essential to becoming a strong, faithful Catholic man.

Men who are trying to be disciplined, responsible, and successful still feel internally restless, scattered, or dissatisfied. They work harder, set better goals, and chase improvement, yet something underneath remains unresolved. The problem is not effort. It’s formation. Many men were never given a clear vision of what masculinity is ordered toward, only pressure to perform and compete without understanding who they are or why they strive. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt name seven hard truths most men are not prepared for, truths about identity, discipline, interior life, spiritual warfare, vocation, marriage, and suffering. These are non-negotiables that reorder a man’s interior world and reshape how he lives, loves, and leads within his vocation.

What starts as a small vice for men spirals into continuous sin, addiction, and spiritual destruction. Today, John Heinen and Devin Schadt tackle three devastating habits that plague virtually every man's journey. They reveal the surprising connection between self-perception and our most dangerous tendencies, showing how both thinking too little and too much of ourselves leads down identical paths to self-destruction. With brutal honesty from their own experiences, John and Devin offer a practical and simple framework for understanding and conquering these universal male struggles before they consume your life, relationships, and soul. Every man needs these insights for the battles in his life.

Today we address a great conversation that occurred on the Diary of a CEO debating the economic effects of Trump's election. The conversation quickly turned into the global crisis of masculinity today and the commentators found themselves unexpectedly on common grounds. John Heinen and Devin Schadt listen and respond to clips from atheist Scott Galloway, agnostic Konstantin Kisin, Daniel Priestly, and Steven Bartlett as they try and make worldly sense of what it means to be a man. We discuss the overwhelming large global issue that occurs when masculinity is denied, Trump's view of masculinity, why men need a code of life, and how to raise sons in times like these.