Manly Catholic: Igniting Men to Light the World on Fire

What happens when a man grows up under brutal communism, religious persecution, and fear and then discovers that true freedom cannot exist without truth?In this episode of The Manly Catholic, James sits down with Father Peter Damian, a Catholic priest, son of a Eastern Orthodox pastor, and convert who lived firsthand under the weight of communist ideology in Romania. This is not theory. This is lived experience.Father Peter shares what life was really like behind the Iron Curtain, where neighbors spied on neighbors, faith was suppressed, and fear ruled daily life. He explains why freedom, once lost, is never something to be taken lightly and why modern men are dangerously naive about what happens when truth collapses.The conversation turns direct and uncompromising as Father Peter walks through his intellectual conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. He explains why Christ did not leave us a loose federation of opinions but a Church with authority. From Matthew 16 to the Church Fathers, from the papacy to the failures of decentralized Christianity, this episode exposes why unity without authority is impossible and why the early Church always pointed to Peter as the visible head meant to preserve order and truth.This episode dismantles the lie that freedom means doing whatever you want. Father Peter shows how that lie devastated societies in the East and is now hollowing out the West. Without faith, morality collapses. Without morality, society decays. This is not speculation. It is history repeating itself.Father Peter also shares his powerful vocational story, including the role Our Lady of Medjugorje played in his conversion and call to the priesthood. This episode is a direct challenge to Catholic men. Stop living as spectators. Stop outsourcing truth. Stop confusing comfort with freedom. If you want a virtuous society, you must first become a virtuous man rooted in Christ and His Church.This is Part One of the conversation. The foundation is laid. The fight continues.Referenced Products & ResourcesMystic Monk CoffeeHarmel Academy of the TradesPowerful Quotes from the Episode“Without faith, morality collapses. And without morality, society becomes a disaster.”“Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. It is the ability to do what is right.”“The Church is meant to be a symphony. But a symphony without a choir master becomes chaos.”Key Takeaway for MenStop treating freedom as comfort. Start treating it as responsibility. Submit your intellect and your will to Christ and His Church. A man who rejects authority will never lead his family or defend the faith.Support & Stay ConnectedPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page to help grow the show and reach as many men as possible. Thank you for your prayers and support.As always, please pray for us. We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints, and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost.Check out our website and sign up for our newsletter!Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

Logan McGahan, a transitional deacon in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, shares a deeply personal journey of faith and discernment. He candidly discusses his early childhood call to the priesthood and the struggles he faced with addiction and denial. A pivotal moment of prayer led him to wholeheartedly say yes to God, bringing him a profound peace. They explore the realities of seminary life, the meaning of the transitional diaconate, and the true cost of obedience in service to the Church. This frank discussion urges men to listen and respond to God's call.

The world says Christmas is over. The Church says it has just begun.In this homily from Fr. Dom, we step into the Octave of Christmas and confront what this season actually demands of men. This is not a victory lap. This is formation. The Church keeps Christmas alive because families are under attack, fathers are distracted, and men are being pulled away from the center where God must reign.This episode places you back in front of the manger and refuses to let you look away. The Nativity is not decoration. It is a revelation. God in the flesh lies at the center of the Holy Family, and everything else takes its proper place around Him. That order matters. When God is not in the center, families fracture. When He is, grace flows.We reflect on the shepherds who dropped everything and ran to Bethlehem in haste. No hesitation. No excuses. Simple men with simple faith who abandoned worldly concerns to worship God. Their childlike faith stands in direct opposition to the pride, arrogance, and self-sufficiency that blinds so many men today.This episode also confronts hard realities. The massacre of the Holy Innocents exposes the hatred of evil for life itself. Satan targets children and families because that is where the future is formed. That is why the Church places the Holy Family front and center during the Octave of Christmas. This is spiritual warfare, and the family is the frontline.You will hear again the powerful story of a blind woman who truly saw Christ in the manger. Her faith exposes a painful truth: many who claim sight are blind, while those who trust see clearly. The manger reveals Christ born to die, the wood of the crib pointing directly to the wood of the Cross, and ultimately to the Eucharist, where Christ feeds His people.This episode challenges men directly. Fathers are called to be righteous like Saint Joseph. Husbands are called to love sacrificially. Families are called to pray together daily. No exceptions. No excuses. The domestic church rises or falls on whether men will lead with humility, obedience, and faith.The Holy Family is not meant to discourage you. It is meant to call you higher.Push play. Kneel before the manger. Then go build a family where God reigns at the center.3 Powerful Quotes from the Episode“These little hands and feet will be pierced for our transgressions.”“They dropped everything and went in haste. That is a good example for us.”“Satan wants to destroy the family. That is his number one target.”Key Takeaway for MenPut God back at the center of your home today. Pray with your wife. Pray with your children. Lead your domestic church with simple, obedient faith. If a family does not pray together, it will not stand.

Christmas is not soft. It is not sentimental. It is a declaration of war.In this homily from Fr. Dom, he confronts the manger and exposes what most men have been taught to ignore. The Incarnation is not a cozy scene meant for nostalgia. It is God entering enemy territory. It is Christ coming to do battle for your soul.Too many men walk past the manger without stopping. We have seen it too many times. We have grown numb. But the Church places the manger front and center for a reason. If you truly see it, it should cut you to the heart and force a response.In this episode, Fr. Dom shares a true story from his first Christmas as a priest. A blind woman approaches the manger, searching not with her eyes, but with her hands. When she finds the Infant Jesus, she understands what many men miss entirely: those tiny hands and feet were born to be pierced. Born for sacrifice. Born for war.That moment exposes a hard truth. Faith is not passive. Seeing Christ demands action.We walk straight from the wood of the manger to the wood of the Cross, and then to the altar. The same Christ who lay in the hay now gives you His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. That reality changes everything, or it should.This episode forces a question that every Catholic man must answer honestly:Has Christmas actually changed you?If the Incarnation does not move you to conversion, you are missing the point. If the manger does not stir you to fight sin, lead your family, and reject the lies of the world, then you are standing still while darkness advances.Jesus did not come to make you comfortable. He came to claim you. He came to fill you with courage, peace, and resolve. And then He sends you back into the world carrying His light.Christmas is merry because Christ has already entered the fight and won. But you still have a role to play.This episode is not meant to be admired. It is meant to be lived.Push play. Let the manger break your heart. Then take Christ into battle.Referenced in This EpisodeThe Nativity and the mangerThe CrossThe EucharistThe Holy FamilyThe Holy Sacrifice of the MassPowerful Quotes from the Episode“Blessed are these little hands and feet that will be pierced for our transgressions.”“She was blind, but she could see. I could see, but I was the blind one.”“That infant in the manger may look weak, but that is a warrior.”Key Takeaway for MenStop treating Christmas like a memory and start treating it like a mission. Kneel before the manger or the Eucharist today and give Christ permission to change you. Then lead. Fight sin. Bring light into your home. If Christmas does not lead to conversion, it has been wasted.

The world wants Christmas without Christ.Noise without silence.Consumption without conversion.In this episode of The Manly Catholic, James is joined by Fr. Dom for a direct, unapologetic conversation on Advent, Christmas, and why Catholic men must reclaim the liturgical calendar from a culture that hijacks it every year.Advent was never meant to be sentimental. It was penitential. It demanded prayer, fasting, discipline, and preparation. Historically, it was forty days for a reason. In this episode, Fr. Dominic breaks down what Advent actually is, why it was shortened, and how consumerism has stripped Catholic men of spiritual readiness.The discussion moves straight to the battlefield. The manger is not a decoration. It is a sermon. The wood of the trough points to the wood of the Cross. The swaddling clothes point to the tomb. The shepherds reveal the power of simple faith. Christmas is not comfort. It is confrontation.St. Joseph is held up as the model Catholic man. Silent. Obedient. Strong. Disciplined. A guardian who moves when God commands and protects his family without hesitation. This episode makes it clear: families collapse when men abdicate leadership, and cultures rot when fathers refuse to lead.This is not nostalgia. This is formation.Men are challenged to reject the secular calendar, slow down, embrace prayer and fasting, and intentionally lead their homes through Advent and Christmas the way the Church intended. Satan thrives on distraction, disorder, and passivity. The antidote is disciplined, obedient, sacrificial masculinity.If you are tired of shallow faith, distracted homes, and soft leadership, this episode is your call to act.Challenge Issued in the EpisodeReclaim Advent. Strip your life down. Reject consumerism. Commit to prayer, fasting, and discipline. Lead your household intentionally through the liturgical calendar, not the secular one.Products, Sponsors, and References MentionedMystic Monk CoffeeHarmel Academy of the TradesSt. Joseph as the model of masculine leadershipSt. Francis of Assisi and the first NativityThe Advent wreath and the liturgical calendarEarly Church teaching on Advent and Christmas3 Powerful Quotes from the Episode“Christmas doesn’t start until Christmas Day. If you miss Advent, you miss the grace God wants to give you once a year.”“Satan does not want you to remember who you are, where you come from, or the traditions that keep families strong.”“If men lived disciplined virtue like St. Joseph, the culture would collapse overnight and rebuild itself rightly.”1 Immediate Takeaway for MenCreate order through discipline. Choose one concrete act of Advent penance or fasting and lead your home in it without negotiation. Masculine leadership begins with obedience to God.

Dr. Jared Staudt, a Catholic educator and director of content for Exodus 90, discusses the transformative power of St. Michael’s Lent. He explores the significance of discipline, fraternity, and spiritual warfare in the lives of men today. Jared illuminates how practices like cold showers and night vigils honor ancient traditions, emphasizing the role of St. Michael as protector. He encourages men to unite in brotherhood, engage in spiritual challenges, and prioritize their mission of holiness for their families.

What happens when a Catholic man stops staying silent and starts taking the Gospel into enemy territory?In this episode of The Manly Catholic, Fr. Dom sits down with Marshall Brummel, a Catholic convert, husband, and father who refuses to outsource evangelization to someone else. What began as righteous anger over the corruption of his neighborhood turned into something far more demanding: direct, prayerful, face-to-face missionary work in places most Catholics avoid entirely.Marshall shares his conversion from militant atheism to Catholicism, driven by beauty, reason, Scripture, and ultimately the authority and sacramental power of the Church. But this episode is not about a comfortable conversion story. It is about what comes after conversion, when a man realizes that faith demands action.You will hear how Marshall and a small group of men entered Pride events, markets, and public spaces not with signs or shouting, but armed with prayer, sacramental preparation, and one disarming question: What is love? What followed were encounters with Protestants, atheists, lukewarm Catholics, pastors, wounded souls, and even open Satanists. No yelling. No compromise. Just truth spoken with charity and courage.We talk about spiritual warfare the way the Church has always understood it. Preparation through confession. Strength through the Eucharist. Going out two by two. Naming sin without hating the sinner. Protecting the domestic church while refusing to retreat from the public square.If you have ever felt the fire stirring in your chest and wondered what God is asking of you, press play. This conversation will leave you without excuses.3 Powerful Quotes from the Episode:“If you go out and you want to talk to people about God, they’ll talk to you. They’ll tell you things you never imagined they would.”“We’re not fighting the people. We’re fighting the powers and principalities that are trying to rule them.”“If you’re just doing the small things to avoid the big things God is calling you to do, stop doing that.”One Immediate Takeaway for Men:Stop hiding your faith. This week, speak openly about God in one concrete, public way. Say you went to Mass. Ask someone if you can pray for them. Do not wait for permission. The call is already clear.The battlefield is your neighborhood.The weapon is charity grounded in truth.Send us a text Support the showPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. Subscribe to TAN DIGITAL and use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' (case sensitive) to get 50% off ANY subscription Check out the Ignatius Black Friday Sale and be sure to Buy the Ignatius Study Bible Today! Be sure to follow us on X for more great content. As always, please pray for us! We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Subscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy faces Check out our website Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

Ever feel like sin has you pinned down, making holiness seem out of reach? What if God's grace could prevent the fight before it starts? In this episode of The Manly Catholic, we dive deep into the Immaculate Conception; the feast that shows Mary was conceived without original sin, proving God's power to keep us spotless from the jump. Released right after December 8th's Holy Day of Obligation, this isn't just history; it's a wake-up call for every Catholic man striving to lead his family and crush vice. We unpack the feast's roots from the early Church's "new Eve" vision to Pope Pius IX's 1854 dogma in Ineffabilis Deus, where he declared Mary preserved from sin through Christ's merits. Discover how Franciscans pushed this truth against skeptics like St. Bernard, and why it's one of just 10 universal Holy Days demanding your Mass attendance. Cool ties include the Miraculous Medal's origin, Mary's Lourdes bombshell as "the Immaculate Conception," and her role as U.S. patroness amid pre-Civil War chaos. This dogma spotlights preventative grace. God equips you to say no to temptation like Mary did with her fiat. As men, we see her as the strong model crushing the serpent's head, pointing straight to Christ in doctrines like her Perpetual Virginity and Assumption. But here's the challenge: Pause today and reflect on your baptism, where you were reborn clean. Commit to daily Rosary prayers, leaning on Mary's intercession to build that unshakeable holiness in your vocation as husband and father. Don't miss how this truth fortifies your faith against modern doubts, with papal infallibility explained straight from Vatican I. Tune in now—your path to sainthood starts with understanding Mary's yes. References Mentioned:Ineffabilis Deus (Apostolic Constitution, 1854) Miraculous Medal (revelation to St. Catherine Labouré, 1830) Munificentissimus Deus (Assumption dogma, 1950, for context)Powerful Quotes:"God saves not just by forgiving sins but by preventing them—preventative grace." "Mary's sinless start demonstrates that holiness is possible through God's gift if one says yes to God." "Dogmas are rock solid truth, revealed by God and guarded infallibly... Denying them undercuts Christology."Key Takeaway:Start praying the Rosary every day right now—it's your direct line to Mary's intercession, helping you fight sin proactively and step up aSend us a text Support the showPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. Subscribe to TAN DIGITAL and use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' (case sensitive) to get 50% off ANY subscription Check out the Ignatius Black Friday Sale and be sure to Buy the Ignatius Study Bible Today! Be sure to follow us on X for more great content. As always, please pray for us! We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Subscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy faces Check out our website Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

Catholic men today stand in the middle of a spiritual battlefield, and most don’t even realize it. In this episode, I sit down with Devin Schadt, founder of The Fathers of St. Joseph, co-host of The Catholic Gentleman, and author of The Rule: Councils and Directives for Husbands and Fathers. This conversation is a direct call to arms. If you have grown numb, passive, distracted, or uncertain about your mission as a man, this episode will shake you awake.From the opening minutes, Devin drills into the truth most men avoid: fatherhood is the epicenter of the entire moral and spiritual crisis in our culture. As he says clearly, if you get the father, you get the marriage, you get the family, you get the parish, and eventually you begin to win the world for Christ. This is not theory. This is spiritual warfare. And the devil knows it.We break open the wounds men carry, the lies they believe, the gaps in their spiritual lives, and the hunger children have for their father’s gaze. And more importantly, we lay out the path forward. Devin gives practical direction for living St. Joseph’s spirituality, establishing order in the home, blessing your children every night, uniting with your wife as a single spiritual front, and building a “rule of life” that keeps you standing when the spiritual bullets start flying.If you’re tired of drifting, tired of being spiritually numb, tired of watching the culture swallow families whole, press play. Referenced in the episode: • The Rule by Devin Schadt (Sophia Institute Press) • The Fathers of St. Joseph apostolate • The Catholic Gentleman podcastTHREE POWERFUL QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE“Fatherhood is at the epicenter of everything. As the father goes, so goes the family.”“You cannot give what you do not possess. If I do not have God in me, I cannot give God to my family.”“One man can change the world, and it can be a little hidden man—just like St. Joseph.”KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MENEstablish daily prayer—no matter what. Your family cannot be defended, protected, or spiritually ordered unless you have a lived, disciplined, intimate prayer life with GSend us a text Support the showPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. Subscribe to TAN DIGITAL and use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' (case sensitive) to get 50% off ANY subscription Check out the Ignatius Black Friday Sale and be sure to Buy the Ignatius Study Bible Today! Be sure to follow us on X for more great content. As always, please pray for us! We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Subscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy faces Check out our website Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

Gratitude is framed as a powerful weapon against spiritual temptation. The host reveals how ingratitude opens doors to bitterness and resentment, undermining a man's mission. Drawing from Scripture and saints, he emphasizes that gratitude protects the heart and strengthens spiritual resolve. Listeners are challenged to embrace gratitude during Thanksgiving and beyond, encouraging them to thank God for their blessings and write down ten things they appreciate. This discussion inspires men to lead with clarity and gratitude in their faith.