Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast , a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center . I'm Jack Riggert , your host , very excited to be giving an update for Claymore Militist Christie . This is our discipleship program for young men . I have the president of Five Stones , mike Pace , who just wrote a book on prayer .
I asked him to come on because I was telling him about these young guys that we're meeting Despite all odds , growing up in the most toxic culture , their innocence has been robbed from them at a very young age , obliterated their moral imaginations and in spite of all of that , it's an incredible story of the human heart and the resilience of the human heart to
seek something more . And that's what these guys are doing . You know they woke up and they said you know what ? Enough of this stuff . There's got to be something more . And they're awakening to the sacred . Mike Pasture , it's great to be with you . Thank you so much for joining us today . Thanks for having me . Jack , tell us a little bit .
So you're the president of Five Stones . I've been out there to visit you on a number of occasions . You guys are doing incredible work . Give us just a minute or two of how you decided to work and take over at Five Stones and the kind of work that you're doing .
Mike , yeah , kind of the short . The very short version is I'm a recovering trial attorney .
Yes .
You know , I was a litigator for about 14 years and really starting to question whether I was doing what God wanted me to do and really , just you know , the fighting every day and as a litigator just was really starting to wear on me . Lori , my wife also was starting to question are we , you know , do we really believe this stuff ?
Are we all this faith stuff ? And we're starting to raise our kids and bring them to the sacraments ? Are we going to live our lives the way we're living them , if this is what we truly believe ? So we went on a retreat together , had a really strong Holy Spirit moment . I asked God look , I don't think you want me to be a trial attorney anymore .
What do you want me to do ? I thought you know I was looking for some destination . Oh , you know , go be an attorney for the church or go do this . And the words were just leave . So I fought those words for a year and on the Feast of St Therese 2004 . I resigned my partnership , walked out of the law , having no idea what I was going to do .
Isn't that amazing ? Now , our friendship goes back quite a while , and so I know that journey that you're on . It's not always easy , is it ?
You wrote a book Prayers for Catholic Men , and the reason I want to bring this up right now there's a section in there and I don't want to focus on that so much today , but there's a section in there on discernment and it's very interesting .
If we don't get to it today , mike , we'll get to it again , because what you said on discernment is very important . It's very important for these young guys that are trying to figure out the next stage of their life , so how to pray for discernment . Because here's what's happening , mike .
Just to set this up these young guys , some of them have not been formed at all , some of them have , some of them haven't , but some of them are growing up without fathers . Some of them are growing up with no faith at all and they're coming into prayer and they're finding something very , very powerful . You know this vacuum that they've been growing up in .
One of the things that's most important to us is , first thing , in the morning , we ask these young men and I do the same thing . Before you look at that , I call it a goofy phone , but there's some good things that come out of a phone .
But before you look at that phone in the morning , before it robs you of your attention , get down on your knees and what we do is we pray with our blessed mother , mike , be it done to me according to your word , right off the bat , and we're opening up our hearts . The second thing we do is we understand temptation is not a sin .
Jesus himself was tempted , so we use temptation as an invitation to prayer . You have a section in there that's so important for these young guys . And then the third thing we get up and we become persons of love , filled with divine life and love . We go out and practice that . We realize we need prayer all day . For that .
Your book starts out so beautifully and I think this is going to be a great resource . In fact , I want to get this to a lot of the young guys that we work with and have them on hand for myself , and I'll put a link in the show notes for young guys and the people that love them that want to buy that book .
But it starts out right off the bat , mike , and this is where I want you to go with . Here's how you start your morning . So we kept it purposely simple , mike , because we said , hey , no matter how busy you are in the morning , you got three , four or five minutes . That's okay . You can do these three simple things .
What we're finding is guys are getting up five , 10 minutes earlier and they go . What else could we pray ? What else do we do ? What can we do during the day ?
And so I'm going to throw it in your court , mike , and talk a little bit about some of the things that you wrote in here for early morning prayer , lunchtime , catch it again , and maybe even on the way home . So this is where we're filling up our hearts , because there's a lot of distractions out there for these young guys .
So everything you're saying is true . And prayer , of course . Of course it's for young men and it's for old fogies like you and me , and the reality is prayer is for everyone , male , female .
And prayer , remember , the most important thing is prayer is just communication , Prayer is just a relationship , and God , above all things , wants to be in a relationship with you . So what's the start of the day , my favorite phrase about that moment , the first moment of the day . St Josemaría Escrivá called it the heroic moment .
You know , you wake up at that moment and it doesn't matter you're groggy , maybe you're anxious , maybe you're still tired , maybe you're sad , maybe you're excited , doesn't really matter . That's that moment , that first moment of consciousness that you get to make a decision . And what's your decision ? Your decision is for God or not for God . That's exact .
You know , don't go too fast through this , because what you hit is just perfect , right ? This is exactly why we get down to our knees and there's a fear sometimes , right , I mean , there's a lot of things hitting us right as men . And what you're saying , mike , just let's unpack that a little bit .
You know , these guys are down on their knees in the morning not only temptations from sexual sins , but from the fear what they got to go out and face in the world . You know , I mean , this life that we're living is not so easy . And so talk a little bit about that . Facing the fears in the morning , first thing .
Again . Well , let's focus on fears . But it doesn't matter what if you're about to have the greatest day of your life . And that's one of the things that the devil's out . You want to talk about it , the devil . You actually are more inclined to turn to God when you're in fear than when everything's going great .
So I think it's actually sometimes easier to get up and pray when you're afraid of the day .
How about that day that you just had , that awesome day ? Everything's going to be phenomenal . Are you still willing to get up and make that first moment about God ? Because God wants everything . He wants our fears , he wants our joys , he wants our sorrows , he wants our sufferings , he wants our accomplishments .
He wants to celebrate with you , doesn't he ? In your joys . That's a great point . Thank you for not letting me take you off just in one direction there , because God , you , you know he wants a relationship . And this is the biggest thing , mike , isn't it that we have to ? As men ?
We have to realize this is real , this is what these young guys are waking up to . You know , one good thing about the evil in the world , you know , is that you know we can see that , and you know we're bombarded and we say , hey , you know , I saw what happened when you guys took God out of a life . What would happen if I put him back in ?
And that's what we're talking about here , isn't it ? Yep .
So that moment , the first conscious moment of your day , has got to be turned to your God , your creator , your father , and you just give him the day . And there's you have . In Claymore , you've got some suggestions .
They're awesome .
Give it to God , Call upon our lady , Give the day to God that habit of getting up . Here's another thing too . And I'm going to get up at 6 when you know you're really going to get out of bed at 7 . If you're really tired , get out at 7 . Get up at 8 , whatever it is .
But whatever you made that decision the night before , for whatever reason it was , then get up at that moment , Open up your eyes . You know when you're young , jump out of bed on your knees when you your knees when you're a little bit older . I kind of do the kind of like , kind of fall off the bed to the side .
I try not to hurt any of my muscles and kind of slip onto my knees right next to my bed and then give God that first moment .
Yeah , I love it . I love it . And you know what ? Over time you're going to find out that it's so much better just to get up and just flop on down to your knees and say good morning to God . It's so much better than fighting that snooze button a couple of times . It's almost ridiculous what people do . But I agree 100% .
The other thing to think about too is , you know , habits . Again , we have to be careful about habits . If we're doing things out of habit for merely the sake of habit , that's not good . But when we develop good habits in life , that's what carries us through the times where it's very tough to do the right thing .
So you know , whether it's something like prayer , sometimes you have no problem getting up first thing in the morning and praying . Other times you have no desire . God is not talking back . Well , he is . You just can't hear him . You can't feel it . You're getting no consolations whatsoever .
It's the habit that carries you in that prayer and there's no difference between that and getting up and going to your job every day . Nobody feels like going to their job every day , but you have to do it . Nobody feels like going to school every morning , but you've got to do it .
If you're married , nobody is perfectly happy with their wives every day , but you have to work at that relationship . And let's say , you struggle with pornography . Now that's going to surprise a lot of guys about that marriage thing , Mike .
Yeah exactly Somebody's going to say you mean , I'm not the only one that's not happy , every single day with her .
Right and vice versa .
Right , but you're right . And when you open up the prayer , you know , the third thing we do , mike , is we got to love the next person we see . And so if that , if you're living with a spouse or with kids , and if you're not , then I don't care if it's the gas station attendant down the street or , you know , the cashier .
You love the next person , you see , and you know , you realize you need prayer in order to do that every day . Prayer in order to do that every day . But you can do it . You can actually do it .
You know , when you start to pray and you're bringing joy into a place , into a house or into that local gas station , and you know you can bring some joy in there . It's amazing , man , and you may not feel God on your knees yet , but when you go out , you know you're going to find them .
You're going to find them , like Mother Teresa , in the faces of other people that you see .
Well , let's put those two together . Why do we turn to God ? We turn to God first thing ? A lot of reasons , because it's not all about me when we wake up in this excuse me larchic slumber , hit the snooze eight times and start trying to figure out well , how can I make myself feel good today ? Now you've turned internally , not externally .
You haven't even recognized that every good thing that could possibly come today comes because your creator , god , has given you those beautiful things . Now , when you get out of yourself right away first thing in the morning , then you realize the other thing . What are the two commandments ? Love God and then love your neighbor .
So it's not all about you , it's not all about you , and so you get in that habit right away of getting out of yourself , and so you meet God . And then , when you meet person , when you meet that first person that you tell , hey , good look , act with love towards the first person you meet . Well , who are you ? What are you doing ?
You're acting towards God again , because you're supposed to see God in your neighbor . This is the beautiful , beloved child of God that he created . Whether it's your spouse , whether it's the gas station attendant , this is a beautiful son or daughter , you know what .
So today's the feast day , as we're recording this , of St Catherine of Siena In her dialogue with God . Right , this is what we're speaking about , this dialogue that she had with God . She would go on these ecstasies and one time God said you'll never be able to love me like I loved you . And she said what do you mean ?
He said because I already initiated this love , I already gave you this love . You're giving this back to me , but , but , but . I created your neighbor so that you can love somebody that doesn't always love you back , so you can experience this type of love that I do . What you said , mike , is so important .
God fills us and you can't give what you don't have right . So you know , god fills us and you can't give what you don't have right , so that we can love people that don't even love us back , and that's what God does . It's amazing . When you enter into that story with God , mike , you can change the world . You know , become who you are .
Came from St Catherine of Siena again . Become who you are and you will light the world on fire . And it's true , in your own little way , in your own little world , you can become the hero of the story by just being a person of love .
Amen , and being the person God's calling you to be .
Yes , yes , yes , mike , before I rudely interrupted you a couple minutes ago , you were also talking about these addictions that hit young men , and that's number two , right . We're going to be on our knees and we're going to say temptations will come , but temptation is not a sin , it's an invitation to prayer .
You have a nice section in here , michael , on temptation and also the beauty of prayer , right , and how we can pray in and through those things .
Well , temptation is going to come and addictions , and what I realized , you know , what I was trying to get across is we can make things very complicated and I am not trying to lessen the very seriousness and the very , you know , involved nature of serious addictions , whether it's chemical , whether it's sexual , whether it's anger issues , whatever , all sorts of
different things . There's a lot of things we're going to have to do to work at those . You know , yes , prayer is very important . There's a lot of things we're going to have to do to work at those . You know , yes , prayer is very important .
Now , if you are very addicted to alcohol or to drugs , you very well may have to get external help besides just prayer . And the same way with , you know , pornography addiction . There's a lot of great organizations , including yours , that helps deal with this .
But , at its basis , one of the important things when I don't want to lessen no-transcript it's a habit and all things in our character start with good habits . It doesn't mean it's going to always carry us through every single moment of every part of our lives , but what it's going to do is it's going to give us a lot more strength to get through them .
Because when we develop these habits and again , it's not every moment . You're going to just feel like , ah , the lights are on and God's shining on you . My gosh , I'm loving this prayer Like no . I want to go back to sleep , but I'm going to pray through it .
Michael , that's why we have a sword right , Because what you're describing . What you're describing is the battle . That's the battle right there . What you're describing right now , where it doesn't always feel good , it feels like , oh my gosh , I got to face the demons out there . That's John Paul would call it , and see the sword behind me .
That's the Claymore sword right there and I have that there because that's the battle . That's battle time . I don't really feel like it . Look at , a hero's not made is he Mike ? Because it's all just kumbaya . A hero's made because he's there to face the demons and the evils out there .
And John Paul would say that that battle , that battle first takes place on the battlefield of the human heart , the individual man and woman's heart . It's usually between love and lust , right Between . You know this giving that we're talking about and grasping and taking .
When you can't figure out your way through that , a lot of times you feel an ache in your heart and then we start with our addictions , trying to fill those infinite desires of the heart with these finite things of the world that were given to us as beautiful things . You know , our passions and desires were given to us by God .
It's these twisting of our passions and desires and what you're describing is this untwisting again . Through prayer you can untwist those and open those back up , can't you ? To our Lord ?
Yeah , and focus . I mean the whole thing is focus . The beauty about the theology of body is to understand that he created a male and female without shame and they looked at each other with love and beauty at first and then we got broken . So the reality is , the body is beautiful , the male and female anatomy and the sexual act is beautiful and it's amazing .
But do we distort it ? Sure , we distort it . So we need to find out , well , where are those distortions happening in our lives ? What are our habits towards that ? What do we have to avoid ? And you know I'm sure you've had a million different conversations of this over all of your many podcasts but that phone , that phone can be your best friend .
It can be your worst enemy . So you have to develop habits , you have to develop filters , you have to develop whatever it is , how to use that phone properly . And it's funny you said about the first thing in the morning looking at your phone . I would tell everybody never make that .
I wouldn't make it your second thing either After your prayer , don't just turn to your phone , because then what you're really trying to do ? You talk about habits . If your first thing is , I'm going to spend three minutes praying to God , and then I'm going to grab my phone and check my social media .
I'm going to check one of my news feeds or whatever , even the news .
What are you basically saying through this prayer thing in order to go do the thing I really want to do , as opposed to do the prayer thing and then get up and take a shower or get up and work out or get up and make the cup of coffee ?
and don't look at your phone right away .
Put that further down in the day .
Because you're going to have time and again . You bring it out in the book too . You're going to have time to meditate , you're going to have time in that silence . Talk a little bit about silence , mike , because this is a great time , look .
The third thing is go love the next person , you see , but even before you go love that next person unless they're laying right next to you you got a little time to be in silence , right , and this is what Mike is saying right now about looking at your phone right after it intrudes on that silence , that time where what happens , mike , when we're quiet now ,
what happens in this dialogue ? Somebody gets to speak to us now .
Gosh , give me a couple hours now .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , I've got to put together— Give me three minutes .
I've got to put together a bunch of those points . First of all , we always think about prayer . Petition is always the first thing that comes to mind . Prayer is talking , but prayer is communication . So therefore , prayer is listening . If we're always shouting at God working our way and I look , I love the rosary , I love the chapter , those are all good .
But if all we're doing is focusing on my words , my words , my words , my words , we're not listening . We have to listen to God . God wants to speak to us . So let's say you get up , you get in the car . One thing I hate about my car and I've gone through all the different things and I've turned it off a lot it still does it .
My car automatically turns music on , automatically turns something that's playing .
And I personally , when I get in my car and I may listen to the news at some point , I may listen to a book , I may listen to a podcast , but when I first get in my car first thing in the morning , I want nothing but silence for a while , because we have to just spend that moment in silence . I just want to be present .
It's a great time , it's my first thing in the morning . Most people aren't awake yet . I get to work fairly early . I'm going to 630 Mass , so I love that moment of darkness , of silence in my car . Wait , jack , I'm going to hold you One more , one more .
Yeah , yeah good .
You talked about silence and you also talked about loving an individual . Now we always think , loving an individual , I'm going to go . You said I'm going to go . You said the gas issue . I'm going to go pump gas for the person . I'm going to go wish them a Merry Christmas or a Happy Valentine's Day or whatever .
One of the most beautiful acts of love is to listen to a person . How often are we too busy talking and not listening ? That is one of the most beautiful acts of silence is just to listen to another .
Yeah , that's true . You know when and again , a lot of the guys listening to Claymore are single , but not all of them , that's for sure . And of course , a lot of the people that love them are married parents , et cetera , et cetera .
And this is the first thing when I'm talking to guys in a relationship with a woman and trying to figure out how to get uh , how to , how to deepen that and see what went wrong is to put that phone down and listen . You know when I first you think I wouldn't have to discover this , mike , but I did , I put start to put that phone down and listen .
And you know the first thing about a man right as soon as a woman says something , we're trying to fix it . And I stopped trying to fix it . I just was listening . It was amazing and my wife started to have this joy in her voice . I honest to goodness , mike , I hope she doesn't listen to this . Sometimes I didn't even know what she was saying .
You know what I mean . I'm just allowing it Like I had questions like what are you talking about ? But I didn't Long as she was rolling , I just listened and it was amazing how I started to understand there's things going on in her heart , in her head . I had no idea and I started to get to know her by listening , like that it was amazing .
Yeah , that's . The problem is , you know , we do want to go fix , we want to jump to , you know , to the next level , and when we start figuring things out in our brains , we're not listening anymore . I mean , I'm kind of listening , but I'm even listening for a reason .
It sadly goes back to one of the reasons why I'm happy I'm not a trial attorney , because while I'm sitting there in front of a group of people , whether it's a judge or whether it's the jury , oh sure , I'm listening , but I'm only listening to the point that I'm getting the information that I need to make my next point , to make sure that I win .
And that's how I was trained , not a good way to deliver a relationship , so I can actually listen and think at the same time , yeah , but I'm listening for my purposes , to get what I want out of it .
So it's been a lifelong journey of trying to listen to my wife , listening to people who I don't like . God has put people in my life that I have to deal with . I have to help and they're obnoxious to me . They're hard to listen to . Certain people with mental illness that I have to deal with .
I love them , but they're hard to listen to and to just shut up and listen . That's one of the greatest acts of love .
Yeah , and that's why it's so important what you said , with prayer in the morning to listen to God , let him speak to you about these things . We don't realize it , but there's going to be more grace that flows into those relationships throughout the day because of what we did in the morning .
In other words , god knows that we're going to be , you know , in relationships , or at least in contact with these people that are difficult . I might be difficult some days , right ? No , jack stop it not you , but you know you have to have the grace to do this , you know , and that grace is going to come from that morning . But we're not done yet .
You know , talk a little bit about . You've got some prayers there for lunchtime and here's the last two things we'll hit on today , mike , and then I'm going to tell the audience . I want you to come back for a couple other things , but that lunchtime prayer , you've got a few minutes there . It's time to kind of reset again .
And then at nighttime we're getting home , because when you walk in the door at night again , this could either be a great fruitful time to unwind and to open your heart up or it could be just a time of distractions again . This is where a lot of guys with porn addictions and drinking and stuff , this is where all this stuff comes up again .
The age-old question is not only what should I pray or how should I pray , but one of the big questions is how often should I pray ? And I thought Guardini had a great statement which he puts it as the minimum . Who had this statement Guardini , bearish minimum .
Kiss God good morning , check in with him in the middle of the day and then kiss him good night . So he's saying a bearish minimum . Make your first thought of the day about God . Make your last thought , you know , communication with God , and those are two pretty long , you know , far away bookends . Check in at least once more in the day .
I like that . I like that a lot .
Yeah . So start off with prayer in the morning . And I do think you know , before you go to sleep , you should try to first of all get rid of all the worries , the concerns , everything of the day , and try to have that last moment as much as possible focused on God . It's a great time for examination of conscience and other types of prayer .
Reading the Bible is really nice right before you go to sleep , whatever . Now in the middle of the day , it's important . Now the Jesuits they have a habit of doing what's called examine . Jesuits , they have a habit of doing what's called examine . So kind of looking at you , kind of go through your morning and what have you done ?
What has your life been like ? What are the things and has God been in it ? Now , maybe God's been very well in that , you know , maybe it's cleaning out the trash , maybe you're a welder , it was welding , maybe it was going to school , maybe you're a teacher , or maybe it was welding .
Maybe it was going to school , maybe you're a teacher , or maybe it was bad . Maybe you know , god was not in it . You spoke very poorly to your mother , your brother , your wife , whoever . All right , then , time for a little course alteration . What am I going to do this afternoon and how am I going to make some changes for this afternoon .
This does not have to be 30 , 40 minutes . This can be a couple minutes . But quiet yourself , take a couple deep breaths , think about it , come back to God and then ask him . So , whatever form this takes , the important thing is remember you're in the middle of your day . Hopefully God was with you for this first half . Maybe he wasn't .
If not , hey , let's get him back in there in the afternoon . Beautiful Night prayer we talked about , but I want to talk about one that I think is very important in our culture , and that is most of us have this break that comes at some point or another , where we finish work or we finish school and we come back to our house .
We come back to our family . It could be to a parent , it could be to a spouse , it could be to children , and it's a big change . Okay , and even for people , let's say you're a , let's say you're , you're a woman or a man , and you're you're the house husband , the housewife , whatever it is .
Well , now you may be still in the same place , but your world's going to change because people are coming back in to your world . It's that moment and what I try to do and I'm not as good as as I should in that car . I get into the garage and I don't just hop out of the car .
I'm like , wait a second , I'm about to go greet my spouse or my children . My children are grown now , but my spouse still home . What do I want to share about my day ? What do I not want to share about my day ? I don't want to walk in there and talk about all my problems . How am I going to let go of the problems ?
How am I going to be loving towards this person ? How am I going to focus myself to live with this person , to love with this person and to listen to this person and so making that transition from one part of your life to another part .
I don't know if great saints have talked about it , but I would say I think it's one of the most important things we can do as people who just live in our society and our culture .
Yeah , that's beautiful . You also said in the book which I hadn't thought about as much when you're walking in the door and you had a great day and you just walk in , exuberant .
Again , it's about me though my great day and you might be walking into a , you know , into a house where people have struggled and they really don't need to hear about my great day yet . You know what I mean . Give them some transition time .
You know , the biggest thing I think a man could learn is that it's not all about me and it doesn't have to be , and when you do that it's something so beautiful that happens . It doesn't it , mike ?
And in other words , when I can humble myself and it doesn't have to be about me over a little bit , it doesn't take long and all of a sudden you can relax . You know , I don't have to be the center of the stage anymore . You know I can walk in and I put my kids or my friends or whoever that is . I let them be center stage .
Let God be center stage . If I'm walking into a house with nobody there , right , god center stage . And maybe I'm going to go out then and do something good for somebody . But anyways , at the end I'm so much more relaxed .
I mean , there was a time where , if it wasn't , you know , if I wasn't like performing somehow or something , right , but now I don't have to do that anymore and I learned this many years ago . Now . It's just a joy to get into somebody else and say how was your day no , you tell me about you or even if it was a struggle and to get into that .
And what a gift that is to be able to be a gift to other people . And it's a beautiful thing John Paul said to young people so often . He said young people , you know that your life has meaning to the extent that it's a gift to others . And he said you'll find yourself in giving yourself away . And it's true , it's really true .
You know it's something that just hit me too that you said some of your audience are perhaps young men that maybe they live alone and maybe they don't have a spouse yet they're not living with their parents , that's right . Or young women .
Let's talk about that for a second . That's often yeah .
Well , let's talk about that for a second . So now you know , maybe you're still fairly early in your career , where you don't have a lot of autonomy . So you're at work and a lot of your day is structured around what you have to do , or you're at school and it's such a round .
Well , I've got to go to these classes , I've got to do the studying , et cetera , and now you're going to walk into your house . Let's say you're going to walk into an apartment all by yourself . Another great reason to stop and say well , you've got now this chunk of time two , three , four , whatever number of hours how are you going to use it ?
Are you going to crack a beers ? Is this really the way that you're supposed to spend your Tuesday night , your Wednesday night , your Thursday night , every single night ? What are you going to do and how are you going to use your time and what time are you going to go to sleep that night , if nobody is telling you what to do ?
Well , if you're going to get back up at five or six the next morning , maybe that's the time to say you know what I think I'm going to do this weekend . Tonight I'm going to do blank , and I've been pretty tired today . I'm going to make sure I'm in bed by blank whatever it is , but it's a great check time .
Yeah , that's beautiful . You know those are times and we'll get into it in the future , mike , but those are times for these little fasts . I , you know , we always talk to young guys about these little fasts . You know , when I hit my knees in the morning , I usually give up one or two little things . Right , no dessert today .
You know , no alcohol today , whatever . And you know , pick out . You know , pick out your poison . And just once , just today , I'm going to give this up . And then temptation is not a sin . So this will be a temptation to go back to whatever that habit was . And now I open .
I open , I'm praying all day , because when you fast you get a little hungry , you start praying and I offer that up . When you do that for a while , you'll overcome some of those bad habits . Or at least , if I'm going to watch a game , you know I'm not going to do it as soon as I get home .
First I'm going to pray , I'm going to call somebody up , make somebody else's life a little bit better . I'm going to do one or two little things and then later on , hey look if I watch sports for a half hour or something , that's . You know , you have to make those decisions for yourself .
But if you sit there right off the bat , like you said , you sit down right away . You lose that inertia , man and uh , and it's so much better to unwind with a little prayer and walk , take a jog , a walk . It's good stuff . Undo some of those bad habits . Michael , let me just mention a couple of things .
I'd love to have you back on , because you've got this book again . Tell us where you can get it . We'll put it in the show notes . This is a small book and everybody should be carrying this around with them . It's really got those beautiful morning , lunch , dinner routines .
Whether you're single you've got something about there whether you're married , so there's prayers for everybody there . But then later on in the book you get into the Mass , confession , the Rosary . These are all things that are very important to Claymore , and so I'd love to have you back to talk about that .
But for right now , mike , where can guys and family get this ?
Pretty much . You can get it anywhere . The books are available . I'd like to support .
Ignatius . Okay , let me say the name again . So Prayers for Catholic Men by Mike Pace . Yeah , it's by Ignatius Press .
So obviously you know I love Ignatius Press . They're an amazing Catholic publisher . So Ignatiuscom is their website . You can get it there , you know . But obviously it's getting out to bookstores now and it's , you know , on all the online type stores as well . So Beautiful .
Well , you know it's , it's . It's amazing how you and I started to talk and I was telling you about Claymore and I was over by you actually for some some uh , some work involving the John Paul II Renewal Center and uh , and then you reach out with this prayer and it just fits so well into what we're doing now . So we really appreciate it .
It's really done well . Some beautiful prayers there and a good reminder Can .
I point out , jack , we've talked about the prayers , but the other thing about this , it's a daily guide , you know , and I really like the name , prayers for Catholic Men . But it's really more than that .
It addresses very simply all sorts of different things that hit a man in his life Going to school , determining should I go to school , should I become a doctor , a lawyer , a janitor , a welder , a priest , should I get married , should I not get married ? I'm suffering from depression .
I'm suffering from the loss of a child , the loss of a spouse , the loss of a parent . I'm facing retirement , I'm facing the end of life , all these different issues , all these very key moments of life . It's addressed , there's some advice , simple , and then there's prayer to help you as you're going through those challenges in life .
Yeah , those are great points the discernment that I brought up earlier , what you're kind of talking about there today too , right now , with the discernment process . How do I get through these ? How do I make these decisions ? How do I deal with these things ? Yeah , it's really beautiful .
You know , when I sat down to read it I said , well , I'm just going to read a bunch of prayers , and it's not like that . Even the addiction sections . You know , you open that up , you talk about it and then you bring the prayers in . So it's done really well . So thank you for that work , mike . Hey , God bless you .
Reminder for you , for those of you who live in the Chicagoland area join Illinois Right to Life at one of the most impactful pro-life events of the year . Don't forget , this is about action too . To be part of Claymore , you have to go out . You have to go out and do good things in the world . Pro-life is one of the things that we have to do .
So we have their annual Leaders for Life dinner is being held on Thursday , may 15th at Drury Lane Theater and Events in Oakbrook Terrace , illinois . It's going to be featuring big names , wonderful people like Abby Johnson , dr Anthony Laventino , dr Linda Corey and Father Tom Lawyer , who's been with us on a number of occasions , an incredible priest .
Plus , experience their new Pro-Life Expo , where the John Paul II Renewal Center will be there exhibiting Love Ed . I'll be there with our executive director , david Avignone . So stop by . Meet David , he's an incredible guy . Enjoy an open bar . Meet David , he's an incredible guy . Enjoy an open bar .
You know we're Catholic and Christian , so we can have a glass of wine or a beer to start the program . Get your tickets at IllinoisRightToLifeorg . Check the show notes for more information . Thank you , hey . Thanks everyone . Thanks for joining us today .
We'll get Mike back on in a couple of weeks and we'll go into the Mass discernment confession , maybe some other things . Right , michael ? Thank you so much . Thanks everyone . You're welcome . Thank you , jack .
God bless .