The Twig Boy and the Man Among Men

Sometimes I struggle to come up with a topic for my daily posting.

And… sometimes a picture really can tell a thousand words.

My oldest brother died of pancreatic cancer seven years ago. He was severely wasted at the end of that terrible three month battle. The last time I spoke to him via FaceTime call just the day before his demise, he said to me, “I love you. The time has come. If I lose any more muscle mass I may come close to resembling a gun control activist.”

In all seriousness – and I do not know this Hogg character from a hole in the ground – there is something seriously amiss about the current generation of 20-something young men. I do not know if he has an aversion to heavy lifting (not just weights, I’m talking about just lifting anything from a suitcase to a backpack) or if he actually has a wasting disease. Maybe it is the latter. If that is the case I will pray for him. If he just doesn’t feel like being a man, I will also pray for him. Hey pal, God gave you that Y Chromosome for a reason. Ultimately, it was supposed to have triggered your pituitary gland to direct your gonads to release massive amounts of testosterone into your bloodstream so you could, you know, develop into a man.

So he wants to take my guns?

I’ll arm wrestle you for them!

That’s what I thought, Twiggy.

Hahahahahaha.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

OK, on to more serious news for the night. I re-read the article posted on Mark Dougherty’s blog, Non Veni Pacem, yesterday regarding St. Joseph. This may have been one of the best blog posts I have ever read. Kudos to the blog’s author, Laramie Hirsch, who did a phenomenal job outlining the case for why St. Joseph is indeed the saint for our times and why men need to increase their devotion to him. I texted with a friend from the parish tonight that I find it funny that I never had a remote devotion to St. Joseph until about a year ago and then, as if out of the blue, I felt a need to try to develop one.

And how does one develop a devotion to a great saint? Well, as I’ve learned over the years, you pray hard and then you do what you can. Case in point: if you want to do more pull-ups, then do more pull-ups. You’re never going to hit the Marine Corps PT Test goal if you cannot do one and you cannot do one if you do not try.

St. Joseph is a great saint. If you want to foster a devotion to him, pray about it. Then, turn to him. Talk to him. Ask his intercession. Ask him to guide you. Ask him to pray that you become more like him as a husband and father. Sometimes devotions to particular saints are a gift from God. Sometimes we have to ask for that gift. Always, we have to work at it. And for heaven’s sake, if your biceps resemble smore’s skewers pick up a couple of dumbbells and start curling, lad. There’s no shame except when you didn’t try.

St. Joseph, help me to be the man God has called me to be. At today’s Mass, the communion verse for St. Peter Canisius, came from the Mass “In Medio of a Doctor” and it is one of my favorites as I hope it may be said of me one day:

“The faithful and wise servant, whom his lord setteth over his family: to give them their measure of wheat in due season.”

St. Joseph, model of husbands and fathers, pray for us!