A new book by Father of Mercy Wade Menezes, appearing regularly on EWTN, offers men invaluable encouragement, beginning with the title: Stand Firm, Be Strong: A Catholic Daily Devotional for Men on Scripture and Saints.

Written as a 200-day daily devotional for men, the book is intended to cover a six-month period. According to Father Menezes, there are daily devotionals written for women, prayer books, spiritual warfare manuals, and books on how to be a good husband and a better father, but a daily devotional for men is sorely lacking. That served, in part, as inspiration for his new EWTN Publishing book.

In early November, Father Menezes spoke with the Register about how this daily devotional will address the spiritual and temporal life of every man.

Why did you decide to write a book on this particular topic?

No. 1, I think our universal Catholic library lacks the daily devotional format specifically for men. Number 2, given the crisis of men and manhood (e.g. rising divorce rates and fatherless homes), I wanted something that would help revive a man’s spiritual life or make it even stronger.

What makes this 200-day daily devotional different in its setup and presentation?

For each day, at the top of each page, there is a theme: either a one-word or a phrase theme. Below are three things in this order: a quote from Scripture, a quote from a saint, and my own meditation that sums up everything related to that topic.

What are some of the topics you address?

Responsibility, commitment, darkness and light, truth, virtue and vice, purity of intention and embracing the cross are just a few examples. Other topics include trust, temptation, vigilance, trust in the Lord, true friendship, the Eucharist, confession, grace, salvation, and how to obtain more from the Holy Sacrifice and the Holy Banquet of the Mass.

With my 200 themes I address man as a whole, a composite of body and soul. Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that we do not have bodies, are bodies. And we have no soul, we are souls This is how intimate and intricate the composition of body and soul is in the human person. In fact, Saint Thomas Aquinas goes one step further. It says that, while angels are non-incarnated spirits, the human person is an incarnated spirit. So, given that truth, it is necessary to attend to both the body and the soul.

For the more soulful themes, the spiritual part, I have themes such as the Eucharist, confession, grace, salvation and the reality of the devil. For topics that focus more on temporal life, I offer meditations on work, finances, jobs, holy friendships, responsibility, commitment, purity of intention, fidelity to daily duty, and brotherhood and camaraderie. Then there are the crossover themes that address both the body and and souls together that make up the entire man. Things like keeping one’s eyes, temptation, vigilance, trust and confidence in the Lord.

So I turn to the spiritual for the soul, the temporal for the body, and also elements that encompass both the body and the soul.

Why the daily quotes from both scriptures and saints?

Because I wanted to show the continuity throughout the 2000 years of Church history, how the wisdom of the saints merges with the Holy Scripture and how the Holy Scripture merges with the wisdom of the saints. I include saints who were the first Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Augustine, to 20th century saints such as Saint John Paul II.

I also chose some saints because behind every great man there is a great woman. I quote Teresa of Ávila, the great Carmelite mystic and reformer; Saint Edith Stein, philosopher and martyr of Auschwitz; Saint Faustina, seer of Divine Mercy; and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, visionary of the Sacred Heart. Because? Because these women were unconditional defenders of the faith and madly in love with Jesus Christ and his wife, the Church. They serve as spiritual sisters and spiritual mothers to the men who read this book.

You said the book “will help boost a man’s spiritual life.” What if you are already trying to live (or are living?) a good spiritual life?

If you already have a pretty solid spiritual life (with things like your faithfulness to Sunday Mass and your confession four times a year), I want this book to make your spiritual life even stronger. stronger. For example, I want you to start going to confession once a month, 12 times a year. If we confess monthly, for example, in honor of the Nine First Fridays devotion to the Sacred Heart, or the Five First Saturdays in honor of the Immaculate Heart, guess what? We automatically go to confession at least once during every liturgical season of the entire year, and that is a great thing. And instead of just going to Sunday Obligation Mass, maybe you can start going to a weekday Mass as well.

It also shows the importance of “balance” and how that contributes to growing in virtue and a virtuous life. Why is that?

We always want to pursue the median virtue between two extremes. A great example of this is the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth. What we forget is that each of the seven deadly sins has an opposite extreme that can be just as harmful in the person’s life if they suffer from it. That’s why we want to stay away from both extremes.

For example, with pride we want to distance ourselves from the opposite extreme of self-hatred. They are both bad. With lust, one of the seven deadly sins, we want to distance ourselves from its opposite extreme, prudishness. With gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins, we want to distance ourselves from its opposite extreme of deficiency. And with laziness we also want to get away from the opposite extreme of work addiction.

Instead, we should pursue the median virtue. For example, the median virtue between pride and self-loathing is humility. The intermediate virtue between lust and prudery is chastity. We are all called to chastity. Even husbands and wives are called to chastity; There are some things within marriage, for example, that are not allowed. With gluttony and deficiency, two opposite extremes, the median virtue is temperance. And between laziness and workaholism, the middle virtue we want to practice is diligence.

I want men to strive for balance. They have to find the through the media. They have to find and live the virtue that lies between two extremes. The best way to understand this is to look at the seven deadly sins and their opposite extremes and the medium virtues that lie between them.

Your book is very versatile in the way it can be used.

Yes, it is intended not only for the individual male reader, but also lends itself to group study, and this for two reasons. No. 1, there is a topical index in the back, in alphabetical order of the topics and themes of the 200 days. No. 2, at the end of each day’s meditation, I cross-reference other days that share, directly or indirectly, cross-cutting themes with that theme of the day. These cross-references are great for kids who are in prayer groups to study further.

I also incorporated a prayer appendix because, in addition to the daily meditation reading, I want men to regularly pray some of these daily prayers so that they become accustomed to the importance of vocal prayer as a basis for other higher forms. of prayer, such as the prayer of stillness or the prayer of contemplation.

Please note that the subtitle is not a “Male Catholics Daily Devotional” but it is a “men’s catholic “Daily devotional.” Because? Because I want our non-Catholic brothers to read this book and learn more about Catholic male spirituality and how it nourishes both the body and the soul, whether you are a member of a Protestant or non-Christian faith.

How does your daily meditation highlight an important practical formula for the book?

I summarize my 200 meditations this way: prudent advice, plus achievable resolutions, equals achieving goals. This is what I want each daily meditation to accomplish.

Any other goals?

I want every man who reads the meditation in the morning to take this book and refer to that same day’s meditation a couple more times throughout the day. For example, I want the CEO to throw the book in his briefcase when he goes to work in his skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. I want the electrician to throw it in the seat of his work truck; I want the driver of the 18-wheeler to throw it in the passenger seat of his tractor-trailer. I want the priest to have it in his sacristy so that before Mass he can read it and perhaps take out some homiletical material for the Mass he is about to celebrate and the homily he is about to preach. I want the high school teacher to put this book on his desk. Again, I want every man to refer to the morning meditation that he reads at the beginning of his day a couple more times that same day and really assimilate it. Stand strong, be strong. Amen.

READ

Stand strong, be strong

A Catholic Daily Devotional for Men on Scripture and Saints

By Father Wade Menezes CPM

EWTN Press, 2024

336 pages; $18.95

To order:EWTNRC.comor call (800) 854-6316