Manly Catholic: Igniting Men to Light the World on Fire

James Caldwell

Voted #1 Catholic Podcast for Men! Jesus Christ is the epitome of what it means to be a man. With masculinity in our culture more confused than ever, join us at The Manly Catholic as we strive to ignite men to be on fire for Christ. Men are challenged and fight battles that often distract them from their ultimate goal: to become a saint. We will help you become saints and become the men God created you to be. And have some laughs along the way. Because who couldn't use more laughter in their life? 

  1. 3d ago

    Ep 221 - History’s Toughest Saints (Dr. Dan Schneider)

    What does true spiritual toughness look like when the world demands passivity? In this episode of The Manly Catholic, host James Caldwell welcomes back Dr. Dan Schneider—professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and expert on spiritual warfare—for his fourth appearance on the show. Together, they break down a lineup of the most relentless, courageous, and "gangster" saints in Church history—men and women who refused to back down in the face of violent empires, interior vices, or demonic forces. From a Capuchin friar leading 20,000 men into battle holding only a wooden crucifix, to an elite Roman Praetorian Guard left for dead who walked right back to confront the Emperor, this discussion pulls no punches on what it takes to forge heroic virtue today. Dr. Dan and James explore the difference between physical combat and the interior battles every man must fight, the trap of spiritual softness, and why modern men need to direct their strength toward the true enemy rather than those they are called to protect. Consider supporting the podcast on our https://buymeacoffee.com/tmcpage (https://buymeacoffee.com/tmc) to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible!  Subscribe to our https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ page: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ) Check out our https://themanlycatholic.riverside.com/ (http://themanlycatholic.riverside.com/) Get delicious coffee from https://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/ Downloadhttps://tanbooks.com/tan-digital-app/?gc_id=10316277314&h_ad_id=730848595836&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=10316277314&gbraid=0AAAAADyykAwicqF-HKPia6TTPy8QAcIPz&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtfXMBhDzARIsAJ0jp3BvOz3u8c1HzCclma7fM0Vf-DUe6eJ5O0dUN0jTbV4sZZaLuCg6lZMaAomQEALw_wcB to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code ‘MANLYCATHOLIC’ to get 50% OFF your subscription!  Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

  2. Sep 30

    Ep 220 - The Miraculous Medal with Shaun McAfee

    Alphonse Ratisbonne hated the Catholic Church. He put on a Miraculous Medal as a joke, just to win a bet with a Catholic friend. Days later he walked into a church in Rome, saw Our Lady standing exactly as she's pictured on that little medal, and walked out a changed man. He became a priest. That conversion, and the hidden nun behind the medal that caused it, is the whole episode today. Shaun McAfee joins James for his fifth appearance on The Manly Catholic (he's officially in the Five-Timers Club now) to talk about his newest release for TAN Books, Saints and Sacramentals: Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal, the second book in his Saints and Sacramentals series written to give parents a way to explain Catholic devotions to their kids. In this episode: Who Saint Catherine Labouré was, and how a farm girl became the visionary behind the most-produced medal in Church historyWhy she refused every bit of credit for the rest of her life, and how nobody knew it was her until after she diedWhat's actually on the Miraculous Medal, and what the serpent, the twelve stars, and the two hearts on the back really meanThe wild true story of Alphonse Ratisbonne, an atheist who wore the medal to mock it and ended up a missionary priestPRODUCTS & REFERENCES MENTIONED: Saints and Sacramentals: Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal by Shaun McAfeeCompendium of Sacramentals and Compendium of Eucharistic MiraclesSaints and Sacramentals: Saint Dominic and The RosaryShaun McAfee's websiteKEY TAKEAWAY: Stop outsourcing your faith to a shopping cart. This week, go find a local Catholic bookstore and pick out a sacramental in person — a medal, a scapular, a rosary. Hold a few in your hand before you choose one. The intimacy of picking it yourself is part of the point. Thank you for your prayers and support! Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ Check out our website Get delicious coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee Download TAN Digitalto access the incredible TAN Library! Use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' to get 50% OFF your subscription! Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

  3. Sep 25

    Father Dom's Homs: Set the World on Fire

    With the school year kicking off, Fr. Dom ties together three straight Sundays of readings around one line from St. Catherine of Siena, which is also this year's parish (OLC) theme: "Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire." And that only happens when the three virtues we're given at baptism, faith, hope, and charity, actually get put to work. He starts by walking back through the last two weeks. Elijah, hiding in a cave from a queen who wants him dead, finally hears God in the whispers of the wind and that's what steadies his faith. Then Peter, watching the storm swallow the boat, doesn't ask Jesus to calm it. He asks to get out and walk toward him instead. Fr. Dom's point: faith, hope, and charity don't get unlocked when life is calm. They get unlocked when we actually step out of the boat. From there he circles back to last Sunday's gospel regarding the Canaanite woman who won't take no for an answer, even after Jesus tests her with a hard line about dogs and table scraps. Her comeback earns her one of the only "great is your faith" lines in all of scripture. Wit is one of her strong suits. Fr. Dom notes the real audience for that moment was the apostles, who'd wanted to send her away. Jesus was showing them the kingdom was bigger than they thought. Which brings him to today's gospel: Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, standing in front of a pagan temple built over what people believed was a literal gate to the underworld. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus hands him the keys right there. Fr. Dom shares that this exact passage is what pulled him into the Catholic Church in the first place. He wraps it all up together: every one of them had faith, hope, and charity unlocked by leaning into something hard, not by avoiding it. That's the challenge this week: let God do the same in you. Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page (https://buymeacoffee.com/tmc) to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible!  Subscribe to our YouTube page: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ) Check out our website (themanlycatholic.riverside.com/) Get delicious coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee Download TAN Digital to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code ‘MANLYCATHOLIC’ to get 50% OFF your subscription!  Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

  4. Sep 23

    Ep 219 - Real Martyrdom of St. Peter & St. Paul with Fr. Robert Nixon

    "Quo vadis, Domine?" Lord, where are You going? That's the question Christ asked Peter on the road out of Rome, and it's the last thing Peter heard before he chose to die on a cross turned upside down. Fr. Robert Nixon is back on the show with a brand-new translation almost nobody has read: the Life and Martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, written by a man who was practically an eyewitness. Simon Magus, a demonic flying "miracle," a Roman emperor demanding Peter read his mind, and two apostles who walked to their deaths without a shred of fear. This is the episode that'll make you rethink what courage actually looks like. Fr. Nixon's latest translation for TAN Books brings us the lives of Peter and Paul as recorded by Saint Abdias of Babylon, one of the seventy-two disciples and a near-contemporary of the apostles themselves. Grab a coffee, brothers. This one puts real flesh and blood on two men you think you already know. PRODUCTS & REFERENCES MENTIONED: Life and Martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul by Saint Abdias of Babylon, trans. Fr. Robert Nixon (TAN Books) -- use cpde "manlycatholic" at checkout for a discount and suppor the podcastFr. Nixon's prior episodes: #167 (Eucharistic Visions of Saint Frances of Rome) and #208 (The Mystical Meaning of Numbers in Sacred Scripture) Thank you for your prayers and support! Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page (https://buymeacoffee.com/tmc) to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Check out our store! https://the-manly-catholic-store.checkoutstores.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ Check out our website (https://www.themanlycatholic.com/) Get delicious coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee (https://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/) Download TAN Digital (https://tanbooks.com/tan-digital-app/) to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' to get 50% OFF your subscription! Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro & Welcome 01:55 - Opening Prayer 02:25 - How Fr. Robert Nixon Translates Ancient Texts 04:45 - Who Was St. Abdius of Babylon? 09:00 - St. Peter & St. Paul’s Personalities Beyond Scripture 14:20 - St. Peter vs. Simon Magus (The Showdown in Rome) 22:40 - The Preaching Styles of the Apostles 25:30 - The Martyrdom of St. Peter (Quo Vadis & Vatican Hill) 29:45 - The Martyrdom of St. Paul (Via Ostiense) 32:10 - Key Takeaways for Catholic Men Today 34:40 - Fr. Robert Nixon’s Final Blessing & Upcoming Books

  5. Sep 18

    Father Dom's Homs: Faith Needs a Storm

    Every reading this Sunday (from the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time that is) sets up the same move: chaos first, faith second. Fr. Dom's point is God doesn't calm your storm before He grows your faith. He uses the storm to grow it. Elijah gets wrecked before he gets strong. After torching 450 prophets of a child-sacrificing false god at Carmel, Elijah's a fugitive. He is alone, starving, nobody wants him, living in a cave...or a desert. God doesn't lecture him, He feeds him. Twice. Then sends him to Horeb, where God isn't in the earthquake or the fire but in the whisper of the wind. That's the moment Elijah's courage gets rebuilt from the ground up. Paul gets knocked flat before he gets convinced. Damascus. Blinded, confronted by the risen Christ, and it's that collision that turns a guy hunting Christians into the man who writes half the New Testament. Peter walks into the storm instead of asking Jesus to fix it. Everybody else in his position begs Jesus to calm the sea. Peter asks to get out of the boat. Fr. Dom's read: that's the only way the faith already in you actually gets unlocked. He sinks the second he stares at the wind instead of Christ and Jesus grabs him anyway. Bottom line for you this week: stop praying the storm away. Whatever's raging isn't proof God left. It's the terrain faith gets built on. Faith isn't a feeling, it's a decision to submit and step out anyway. Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page (https://buymeacoffee.com/tmc) to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible!  Subscribe to our YouTube page: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEQ) Check out our website (themanlycatholic.riverside.com/) Get delicious coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee Download TAN Digital to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code ‘MANLYCATHOLIC’ to get 50% OFF your subscription!  Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

  6. Sep 16

    Ep 218 - Eucharistic Miracles with Shaun McAfee

    Shaun is back on the show for round four, and this one will change how you walk up for Communion. A host that leaps out of the ciborium and hits the ceiling. A stolen host that boils over with blood the moment it hits a pan. A doubting priest who watches the Body of Christ turn to bleeding human tissue in his own hands. These aren't legends but documented, forensically studied Eucharistic miracles, and Shaun McAfee just spent a year and a half compiling the most thorough collection of them ever written. We get into how the Church actually investigates a miracle claim (it's closer to a forensic crime scene than you'd expect), the science behind Lanciano's bleeding, liquefying host, the story of a woman who stole a consecrated host to brew a love potion, and why reverence matters more than most men ever stop to think about. 🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY Before your next Communion, stop and actually examine your conscience first. Shaun lays it out plain: how you approach the Eucharist says something about whether you understand what you're receiving. Treat that walk up the aisle like it's the most important thing you'll do all week. Because it is. 💬 QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING "A miracle only exists to draw us closer to Him." "This is the most important thing we do in our lives — to receive Him." "Sometimes God gives us miracles He asks us to keep in the silence of our heart." 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Compendium of Eucharistic Miracles by Shaun McAfee --> USE CODE MANLYCATHOLIC TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST AND GET A SPECIAL DISCOUNT CODE Shaun McAfee personal website RealPresence.org — Eucharistic miracle archive inspired by Bl. Carlo Acutis Thank you for your prayers and support! Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Subscribe to our YouTube page Check out our website Buy coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee Download TAN Digital to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' to get 50% OFF your subscription! Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

  7. Sep 9

    Ep 217: Real History Isn't Safe, But It's True (Phillip Campbell)

    Every civilization that stops telling its sons the truth eventually raises sons who can't handle it. Tonight's guest has spent seventeen years making sure that doesn't happen to ours. Phillip Campbell wrote TAN Books' four-volume Story of Civilization series, now the most widely used Catholic history curriculum in English, adopted by homeschool families, Catholic schools, and entire dioceses. If you've wondered whether it's okay to tell your kids history's hard parts, this episode settles it. The Challenge Phil said it plainly: history was never meant to be sanitized, not for kids and not for us. This week, stop handing the people you love an edited version of anything. Tell the true story. They can handle more truth than you think. 3 Quotes Worth Remembering “I've never believed that history should be sanitized for anybody.” — Phillip Campbell “History is always, always more complicated than the narratives we're sold.” — Phillip Campbell “We're all barbarians in our own way.” — Phillip Campbell Mentioned in This Episode The Story of Civilization (4 volumes) & Heroes and Heretics of the Reformation Use code 'manlycatholic' to get an exclusive discount at TAN Books Homeschool Connections — homeschoolconnections.com Phillip Campbell's website — phillipcampbell.net “Mr. Campbell Explains” on YouTube Thank you for your prayers and support! Consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Check out our store! the-manly-catholic-store.checkoutstores.com Subscribe to our YouTube page. Check out our website Get delicious coffee from Mystic Monk Coffee. Download TAN Digital to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code ‘MANLYCATHOLIC’ to get 50% OFF your subscription! Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

4.8
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Voted #1 Catholic Podcast for Men! Jesus Christ is the epitome of what it means to be a man. With masculinity in our culture more confused than ever, join us at The Manly Catholic as we strive to ignite men to be on fire for Christ. Men are challenged and fight battles that often distract them from their ultimate goal: to become a saint. We will help you become saints and become the men God created you to be. And have some laughs along the way. Because who couldn't use more laughter in their life? 

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