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Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Recorded on the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Her “Little Way” of humility, confidence, and love, a path to find life, when the world feels loud, divided, and spiritually confused. Jack reads Luke 10 and takes Jesus seriously when he sends disciples out like “lambs among wolves.” To bring love and truth, and peace, into the places we live, refusing to get sidetracked, and even learning when to step back and let your peace return to you.  Jack reflects on the mid-terms and names the spiritual battle head-on, including the “mystery of evil” when people can practice faith while supporting policies that harm the innocent and undermine religious freedom. Rather than getting lost in personalities or slogans, we keep it concrete with clear questions about protecting children, honoring biological reality, and choosing life. If you are seeking "the Truth of things" and want practical answers, visit Claymore Milites Christi!  Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Something feels different lately, like the pressure is rising and the stakes are getting clearer. We name that feeling for what it is: a spiritual battle that doesn’t start “out there,” but in the human heart, where truth competes with addiction, comfort, fear, and compromise. We pull threads from Scripture, Catholic spirituality, and spiritual warfare to explain a simple but demanding vision of the human person: body and soul plus grace. When we say yes to Christ and actually ACT, grace becomes alive and changes us. That is why we keep coming back to ACTION: love is a verb, self-gift is the path to freedom, and the interior fight has to come before any public fight. From there we zoom out to the culture, using the prophetic witness of Saint John Paul II and Archbishop Fulton Sheen to diagnose what happens when a society forgets God. John Paul II’s experience under Nazism and Communism shapes his insistence on human dignity, moral truth, and authentic freedom. Sheen’s warnings about the spirit of the world, distraction, and a “cut flower civilization” land hard, and they lead to practical steps like the Claymore 10-minute morning ritual, prayer, sacrifice, the sacraments, and disciplined daily choices. The Battle is real and it starts in the heart of each and every one of us! Join us at Claymore Milites Christi.com If this conversation challenges you, don’t just nod along. Share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more people can find the path from fear to truth and from talk to action. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Something is forming the next generation right now, and it’s probably not neutral. We sit with a blunt premise: when a culture forgets God, human dignity gets severed from its source, and the dominoes start falling in homes, churches, and civic life. That’s not abstract theory to us, it shows up in anxious young people, fragile marriages, and a society that can’t agree on what a person is.  Jack walks through the Claymore Battle Plan as a practical Catholic formation path for men, fathers, and families who want a way back to solid ground. The starting line is intentionally simple: “knees before the phone,” a 10-minute morning ritual, and a short daily reading that builds a stronger interior life over time. We also share why community matters, because nobody is meant to fight this battle alone. Then he zooms out to Catholic social teaching and the “spirit of new things,” drawing from Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus. Industrial upheaval then looks different from artificial intelligence now, but the core questions don’t change: What is the human person? What is freedom for? What must the state recognize rather than create? We unpack the “three necessary societies” (family, civil society, Church), subsidiarity, and why the real battleground is the human heart in an age of smartphones, pornography, social media, and AI. Start today! Review the Claymore Battle Plan! If you’ve felt overwhelmed by the speed of change, this is your map and your first step. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s trying to rebuild, and leave a review with your answer: what’s one habit you’ll change this week to put formation back in the driver’s seat? Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” “Child trafficking” can sound like something that happens somewhere else, to someone else’s kid, at the hands of strangers. But the harder truth is that some trafficking in the United States starts inside the home. The Trump Administration Stands for more than politics as normal. The Battle is Real and its between good and evil.  Read Tom's Article and More at Illinois Family Institute Visit Claymore Milites Christi...Subscribe for more, share this with someone who works with kids, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. What warning sign do you think your community is most likely to overlook? Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Satan is real, the dragons are real, but the most dangerous ones rarely show up with smoke and fire. They show up as early wounds, distorted desires, and quiet lies that tell a man to stay hidden. We talk about what’s happening to the heart of a man in a porn-saturated culture, why so many boys encounter explicit content before they ever learn the innocence of real love, and how that early exposure can train the imagination toward consumption instead of commitment. We also face the hard truth that many people carry trauma from abuse and betrayal that came through relationships of trust, and those scars don’t vanish at adulthood. We wrestle with the formation crisis behind the crisis: when fathers are absent or emotionally checked out, someone still forms the boy. It might be peers, social media, or an algorithm, but the vacuum never stays empty. From there, we draw an essential distinction between what happened to you and what you choose now. Freedom is possible, and the Christian promise isn’t a time machine, it’s a Redeemer. The battlefield is the human heart, and spiritual warfare is ultimately about restoration: restoring dignity, restoring the ability to see people as persons, and restoring the capacity to love. We also get practical. Temptation isn’t a sin, and we share a simple, repeatable way to “pray with temptation,” turning moments of lust into moments of intercession and grace.  Learn more, sign up for our newsletter and enter the battle! Claymore Milites Christi Read Toms article!  If this helps you, subscribe, share it with a brother who needs it, and leave a review so more men can find the fight for freedom. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” When Christians ask where the answer to the evils of the age must begin, the first reply cannot be “they.” It must be “with me.” I have attended a lot of funerals this year—not as many weddings, and still fewer baptisms. It’s a sign of the times. Death it seems is still mandatory, the others optional...or so we think.  So, my dear friends, I want to begin with the words Saint John Paul II prepared for the hour of his death. In his testament, he wrote: Totus Tuus ego sum—I am all yours. It was the language of belonging entirely to Jesus through Mary. He placed his last hour, his Church, his homeland, and the whole human family into her hands. He quoted the Lord’s warning: “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Then he added the words that still pierce: “I thank everyone. I ask forgiveness of everyone. I also ask for prayers, so that God’s mercy may prove greater than my own weakness and unworthiness.”[1] This is the voice of a shepherd who knew the times are hard, as is our need for grace, and was never afraid to say so. Yet across the years, I still hear his great summons: “Be not afraid!” The world is hurting...Subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What’s one concrete step you can take today to stop standing idle and enter the vineyard? Visit Claymore Milites Christi and Download the Battle Plan Outline!  Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Bishop Fulton Sheen’s 1974 diagnosis of a “crisis in Christendom” say this coming: family breakdown, media shaped by anti-Christian assumptions, and a society that slowly adjusts to decline like a frog in warming water.  We start with Nick Shirley’s reporting on alleged adult daycare fraud and the uncomfortable question it raises: when taxpayer money disappears into “programs,” who benefits, and who gets protected when the spotlight turns on? We talk through why certain leaders go silent, why whistleblowers get attacked, and how following the money can reveal the incentives that drive political corruption. From there, we zoom out into the moral and spiritual roots beneath the headlines. We share two simple tests we use to judge whether a public leader is oriented toward the common good: do they defend innocent human life, especially the unborn, and do they defend marriage and the family as the core structure that forms stable citizens? When those pillars collapse, everything else follows: dishonesty becomes normal, vulnerable people get manipulated, and ideologies step in to replace conscience. If you feel the urgency, join us on a practical path: The Claymore Battle Plan Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the one moment that challenged you most. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” If you feel like the ground shifted under parenting in the last decade, you’re not imagining it. We walk straight into the pressure points families are facing: explicit content showing up earlier, “comprehensive sexuality education” that goes far beyond biology, and a culture that treats truth as negotiable while asking kids to define identity before they can even read. Along the way, we share the real story behind “Stolen Innocence” and why this work isn’t driven by outrage, but by the cost we’ve seen when innocence gets stolen and silence takes its place. We also get practical about what these conversations look like with actual teens. One retreat moment starts with a pronoun demand and ends with a simple reset: “Can I call you a beloved child of God?” From there we unpack what kids are learning about love, sex, and self worth, and why so many are starving for a clear definition of love that isn’t just a feeling or a transaction. We talk about school libraries, debated book content, parent rights, and why “leave it to the experts” often means pushing parents to the margins. We close with a constructive path forward: Love Ed, a facilitated parent-led program built to help families talk early, talk often, and build trust that lasts. If this matters to you, subscribe, share this with a parent seeking answers, and leave a review so more families can find it.  Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Anxiety is everywhere, but what if it isn’t just a personal problem, it’s a warning light? We sit with the hard reality Gen Z is naming out loud: depression, dark thoughts, and a constant sense that something is off. Then we make a bold case that your heart might be telling the truth about the world around you, and that the fastest way to lose yourself is to numb that signal with nonstop distraction. We use the “frog in the boiling pot” to explain how whole generations have normalizes insanity little by little. And how to make a jail break!  This isn’t a rant, it’s a reset. We share a simple, realistic plan: “knees before the phone,” and the Claymore 10-minute morning prayer ritual, then reading five minutes out of the Handbook at night. In a short time you'd be surprised at how far you've come.  Get started today! Visit us Claymore milites Christi Subscribe, share this with someone who feels stuck, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or question. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Most of us don’t need more religious trivia. We need a clear path that shows how a man actually changes. That’s why we brought back Cooper Bohn with Mark Schmidt co-hosting with me, and went deep on one of the most practical frameworks in the Catholic tradition: the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. We start with the real world where guys live: dating, marriage prep, and the fight to love well. Cooper shares how Theology of the Body and Natural Family Planning (NFP) stopped being abstract Church talk and became a concrete invitation to honor his wife, tell the truth in his vows, and root out sin. We also name the problem that too many people tiptoe around: porn culture reshapes the heart, and if it isn’t healed it can follow a man straight into his marriage and poison intimacy. From there, we zoom out to the spiritual life “training plan.” We talk about why you have to begin with the end in mind, what union with God actually means, and why the road can feel harder over time even as you grow stronger. Cooper lays out the purgative way with blunt clarity: stop mortal sin first, go to confession, and start fighting like your soul matters. Then we move into the illuminative way: consistent mental prayer, deeper vigilance, and God drawing you into quiet so your soul becomes ready for communion. Check These Out!  The Claymore Battle Plan Handbook by Jack Rigert The Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more men can find the path. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” A whole generation is being handed a worldview that feels “normal” only because they grew up in it, and it’s everywhere. We’re watching the results of human pulverization in real time: confusion about truth, freedom, love and a growing romance with Socialism. Yet, Socialism and Communism have never succeeded anywhere, and they always crush the human person. Visit Tom's Work at Illinois Family Institute! Gen Z is waking up, join the movement! Claymore Milites Christi If this conversation challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so others can find the show. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Something feels off right now, and it’s not just policy or elections. When the culture starts calling evil good and good evil, it’s easy to spiral into doom-scrolling, cynicism, and the quiet lie that nothing we do matters. I read a viral post that captures that dread, then I push back on the trap underneath it: outrage that never turns into action becomes apathy, and apathy is how families, churches, and entire communities slowly collapse.  Visit Claymore Milites Christi to join the movement!  From there, I lay out a simple framework for Christian renewal that’s meant to be lived, not argued about online. It starts with the human heart choosing what’s true and good, then restores marriage and family as the backbone of civilization, and stays anchored in Christ and the Church. We also talk about corruption and institutional decay, using a clip about government fraud to show how real people get hurt when systems are captured, and why reform has to be paired with moral formation.  The anchor story is Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Catholic who climbed mountains, loved his friends, served the poor with his own hands, and refused to separate prayer from public life. I contrast his path with Robespierre as a warning: “justice” detached from God can turn into terror. The goal here is Christian social activism and Catholic political engagement rooted in charity, truth, courage, and joy, so we fight for the innocent without becoming what we hate.  If this challenges you, share it with someone who feels stuck, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one concrete action you can take this week to choose the good? Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” A billionaire-by-today’s-standards heiress walks away from New York high society, gets disinherited for becoming Catholic, and ends up in a poor mountain town because a stigmatic friar tells her to stay. That’s Mary Pyle, and her hidden life helps explain why devotion to Padre Pio spread so far, especially among American soldiers who came home changed. We sit down with author Susan De Bartoli, secretary of the board of the Padre Pio Foundation of America and founder of Little Flower Pilgrimages, to tell Mary’s story.  ...Mary’s early sense that “something was missing,” her years working with Maria Montessori as a multilingual assistant, and the moment Padre Pio looks at her and calmly claims her future: “This time you remain.”  Then the wartime stories hit. Susan recounts the WWII bombing mission reportedly stopped by a monk in the sky, and how GIs later recognize Padre Pio’s face, along with images of Our Lady holding the Child and Saint Michael with a sword.  Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the story. Padre Pio's American Daughter: The Story of Mary Pyle Visit the site of Padre Pio and more! Little Flower Pilgrimages Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” Anxiety has a way of haunting the edges of your day, even when you’re praying and trying to do everything right. We start with a simple moment that turns intense fast: a bike ride, traffic that feels too close, and a rising sense that something is off. The turning point comes when we stop treating that fear like random noise and name what it often is: a real battle, both interior and exterior, between truth and falsehood, good and evil, beauty and what deforms it.  From there we move straight into the heart of Christian spirituality: Jesus Christ as the light of the world. We lean on John’s Gospel and on the command to “walk while you have the light,” then connect it to the courage of “be not afraid.” We also bring in GK Chesterton’s line, “Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural,” to explain why modern culture can feel so irrational even with all our technology and information. When the supernatural gets rejected, we don’t become more “natural” or more free, we lose the light that makes human identity, marriage, freedom, and truth intelligible.  John Paul II’s insight lands hard here: we cannot understand ourselves without love, and we cannot fully know ourselves apart from Christ who reveals man to himself. That’s why Jesus can say both “I am the light of the world” and “you are the light of the world” we become luminous only by staying close to the source. We end with a clear, practical path: knees before the phone, daily prayer, Scripture, confession, the Eucharist, the rosary, and silence, so the light of Christ can shine through ordinary lives.  Visit Claymore Milites Christi and Download the Claymore Battle Plan Outline Subscribe, share this with someone who feels worn down by the darkness, and leave a review with one practice that helps you stay close to the light. Support the show

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message” A move for work sounds like a plain life update until the details start stacking up in ways you can’t unsee. Tim shares a real, personal testimony that begins with landing in Wheaton “randomly,” learning it’s packed with Churches and people of faith, including a strong Catholic community. From there, the story turns into a trail of moments that feel less like chance and more like God’s quiet direction, the kind that shows up in ordinary places and refuses to stay ordinary. Tim shares what it feels like when coincidences stop reading like luck and start reading like providence. The heart of the conversation is prayer: rediscovering it, trusting it again, and realizing other people have been praying specific things on your behalf without you even knowing. One of the most striking beats is the timing between a sudden desire to return to Church and a mother’s heartfelt prayers the night before, a reminder of how intercessory prayer and family faith can carry someone even when they’ve drifted. Then comes the simple decision that changes the day: walking past the same coffee shop again and again, feeling the nudge to go in “now,” and meeting Catholic men who become part of the path back to Jesus.  If you’re searching for encouragement to return to the Catholic faith, rebuild your prayer life, or find Catholic community that feels real and grounded, visit us at Claymore Milites Christi, and join the movement. A clear message: pay attention to your heart, take one small step and invite  God in. The Claymore Battle Plan guides, in three indispensable steps. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with the moment in your life that stopped feeling like coincidence. Support the show