The Catholic Gentleman

This conversation was originally recorded in June 2024. Exorcist priest Fr. Chad Ripperger grew up working in his father's diesel mechanics shop, where he learned that reality doesn't care what you think or how you feel. A bolt either fits or it doesn't. A machine is either fixed or it isn't. And a man is either being formed or he's being stunted. In this conversation, Fr. Ripperger unpacks why young men today are trapped in adolescence, what the curse of Adam has to do with effeminacy, and how the simple act of learning to use tools and do hard work is the antidote to the softness crippling an entire generation. From the lessons his father taught him through one-liners and long days under the hood, to why men find such deep fulfillment in buying a new tool, to how his formation as a mechanic directly prepared him for his work as an exorcist, Fr. Ripperger connects the practical and the spiritual in a way only he can. If you're raising boys or trying to become the man you never had an example of, this one's worth your time. 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: ⁠⁠https://catholicgentlemanplus.com⁠⁠ 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every man knows the difference between a morning that owns him and a morning he owns. In this episode, Devin Schadt and I walk through a practical seven-point framework for building a morning routine that actually holds. From the heroic minute and the science behind a fixed wake time, to what you put in your body before prayer, to why your evening examen the night before may be the most overlooked factor in how your next day unfolds. We get honest about what didn't work, like falling asleep face-down at 4:45 a.m., white-knuckling 18 months without caffeine, and trying to out-pray their wives out of competition rather than conviction. This isn't a productivity hack. It's a rule of life built on obedience, worship, and the promise that God doesn't bless leftovers. He blesses first fruits. 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: ⁠⁠https://catholicgentlemanplus.com⁠⁠ 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Men today are doing everything they’ve been told, working hard, providing, staying faithful, yet they still feel disconnected or confused from their wives and children. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt sit down with Adam Lane Smith to uncover why. Drawing from the science of attachment theory, Adam exposes how a man can be highly capable on the outside while remaining emotionally isolated on the inside, and how that disconnect quietly shapes every relationship he has. They explore the hidden dynamics behind fading desire, emotional shutdown, and why so many men default to solving problems alone. Adam also lays out a clear framework for rebuilding connection in marriage, including the overlooked steps that either strengthen or slowly erode a wife’s trust and intimacy. Adam Lane Smith - https://adamlanesmith.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AttachmentAdam 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Get Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We carry pain we can't name. It shows up as anxiety, anger, overwork, or the sense that no matter what we do, it's never enough. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt sit down with Dr. Bob Schuchts of the St. John Paul II Healing Center to explore what's really driving the unrest men feel and why pushing through it, numbing it, or ignoring it only makes it worse. From the gap between who we are on the inside and who we show the world, to the deep wounds of abandonment, powerlessness, and the need for validation, Dr. Bob opens up about his own panic attack, the moment one tear changed everything, and why healing isn't weakness. It's the doorway to becoming the man, husband, and father God created you to be. 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Dr. Bob Schuchts - https://jpiihealingcenter.org https://www.youtube.com/@JPIIHealingCenter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lent is over, but this isn’t the end. It’s the beginning. This Easter, let's look at what it means to live as a resurrected people, not just celebrate for a day. The question now is simple: will you return to old habits, or prepare your heart for Pentecost and the life Christ is inviting you into? Check out our newly refreshed Online Store: https://store.catholicgentleman.com/ 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Men using the internet have no idea they are losing a war they never knew they were fighting. The algorithm is not neutral, it is rewarding outrage, feeding pride, and quietly rewiring the way men think, speak, and relate to God. Timothy Flanders, Editor-in-Chief of OnePeterFive, has lived inside this tension for years. He has built a major Catholic journal online while wrestling personally with what the digital world does to a man's soul. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt sit down with Timothy to lay out what Scripture actually demands of a man's words online, why Christians are often the worst offenders in the digital public square, and how fallen angels use social media to attack Catholic men in ways most would never recognize. Timothy introduces the Internet Promise, a set of commitments rooted directly in Scripture, and offers a concrete battle plan for men who are ready to stop being used by the internet and start using it for the Kingdom. Timothy FlandersPelican Plus: https://pelicanplus.com — COUPON CODE for 10% Off: PLUS OnePeterFive: https://onepeterfive.com The Meaning of Catholic: https://meaningofcatholic.com 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Into the Desert, Fr. Ken Geraci and John Heinen confront the tension at the heart of Palm Sunday: the same voices that cry “Hosanna” can quickly turn to “Crucify Him.” What looks like devotion can collapse under pressure, revealing how easily men drift with the crowd, seek approval, and abandon the path of Christ when it becomes costly. They press into the question: “Will I remain with Him when the path leads through suffering, rejection, and contradiction?” This is not about chasing hardship or proving strength. It is about surrendering preference and choosing the will of God over comfort, efficiency, and control. Because the Christian life is not built on the easy road or the hard road, but on obedience. And Holy Week reveals it clearly: every man must decide which voice he will follow, and whether his “Hosanna” will last when the Cross appears. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/rosary 🟢 Join us as we go Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/lent 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/t... COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We get this question all the time, what do I need to do to find a wife or get married? So often we find men waiting for the right woman to find them, the right opportunity to arrive, the right moment to finally step up. The problem isn't that they lack a desire; the problem is that they haven't yet done the interior and exterior work of becoming marriageable. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt cut through the noise and lay out five concrete frameworks every man needs to examine, from the physical to internal, if he's serious about becoming the kind of man a woman of character actually wants. They cover what a man's physical discipline communicates to a woman long before he opens his mouth, why work ethic is inseparable from self-mastery, how the interior life anchors everything else, what brotherhood has to do with your readiness for marriage, and why posture - how you position yourself in the world - may be the most overlooked trait of all. 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every father eventually faces a moment when his child pulls away. The distance grows, the relationship hardens, and most men respond in one of three ways. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt use the parable of the Prodigal Son to diagnose what's really happening beneath the surface: why rebellion cuts so deeply into a man's sense of worth, and what the wounds underneath his reactions are actually telling him. But this conversation doesn't stay in the failings we have, it moves toward the father who ran. John and Devin unpack what it looks like to stop protecting your ego and start pursuing your child, how to separate your hurt from their harm, and why asking for forgiveness is one of the most powerful things a father can do. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: ⁠⁠https://catholicgentlemanplus.com⁠⁠ 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno ______________________ -- FOLLOW THE CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN – ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/catholicgentleman ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/TheCatholicGentleman ➡️ https://x.com/catholicgent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start Lent with strong intentions. The fasting plan is clear. The prayer routine feels doable. The discipline is there. But somewhere in the middle of Lent, the struggle begins. The motivation fades, the routine breaks down, and we quietly give up. In this episode of Into the Desert, Fr. Ken Geraci and John Heinen explain why this exact moment is where real spiritual growth begins. The desert exposes the limits of self-reliance and reveals how much a man still depends on his own strength instead of God’s grace. Instead of seeing failure as the end of Lent, this conversation reframes the struggle as the place where humility, surrender, and deeper conversion begin. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/rosary 🟢 Join us as we go Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/lent 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/t... COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20

The word "headship" has become so loaded that most men either weaponize it or abandon it entirely. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt cut through the cultural noise to recover what male leadership actually means, not as domination or control, but as a divine paradigm rooted in the very nature of God and modeled from the beginning in Adam, St. Joseph, and Christ Himself. Why do men of goodwill still feel confused about their role? This is Satan's playbook and plan of attack. What follows is a frank, theologically grounded unpacking of what Devin calls "charitable authority", the kind of leadership that doesn't demand compliance but authors the story of a family's glory by pouring itself out. The three P's of the leader of the family are examined not as a management framework but as a way of understanding the ransom a man pays so that his wife and children can be free. 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Devin Schadt's new book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno ______________________ -- FOLLOW THE CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN – ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/catholicgentleman ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/TheCatholicGentleman ➡️ https://x.com/catholicgent 🔴 PLEASE HELP US GROW THIS CHANNEL 🔴 1. Don’t miss a Youtube Catholic Gentleman Video: Please click SUBSCRIBE, then Click the "Notification Bell" = 🔔 and select “ALL”. This will make sure that you are notified when any new video is released. 2. Please "Like" this video. 👍 3. Please share this video on Facebook and Twitter using the SHARE button. Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, AND SHARE

We can look disciplined on the surface while still clinging to comfort, control, security, and the illusion that what we have is our own. This conversation gets underneath the act of giving and presses on the deeper question: what am I holding onto? Fr. Ken Geraci and John Heinen talk about why almsgiving is more than generosity, why it exposes the heart, and how gratitude breaks the instinct to accumulate. If fasting teaches a man to master his appetites and prayer teaches him to abide in God, almsgiving teaches him to let go. It trains him to live open-handed before the Lord and to remember that everything he has has first been given. This is not just about money. It is about attachment, trust, possession, and whether a man lives like an owner or a steward. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/rosary 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno

We avoid thinking about death until it forces its way into the room. But what happens when a husband and father is suddenly told he has ninety days to live? In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt examine the striking story of former Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, who recently revealed a stage-four pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Drawing from his candid interview reflecting on that moment, they explore how the ancient Christian discipline of memento mori, remembering death, cuts through ambition, noise, and distraction to reveal what actually matters in a man’s life. Sasse speaks openly about regret, fatherhood, selfishness, and the urgency of redeeming time when the clock is no longer theoretical. John and Devin unpack his reflections through the lens of the Church’s tradition, from Sirach’s warning to “remember your last end” to the teaching of saints like Jerome, Augustine, and Alphonsus Liguori, while confronting the questions most men quietly push aside: what would change if you truly believed your days were numbered? 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ for over 31 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/rosary 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/ COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno

Prayer becomes one of two things: a religious obligation or a strategy to get results. But it's not a productivity tool. It’s not emotional therapy. And it’s not a way to convince God of anything. In this week’s Lent series, Fr. Ken Geraci and John Heinen cut through the purpose of prayer. If fasting makes room, prayer is where union happens. Prayer is where control dies, and where a man learns to be with God instead of trying to manage Him. Fr. Ken breaks down why so many men stall in prayer: they measure success by feelings, clarity, or outcomes. But real prayer is about fidelity, surrender, and transformation. It is less about talking and more about consenting to be changed. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/l... 🟢 Join us as we go Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/lent 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/t... COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a man treats women is never a side issue. It is one of the clearest revelations of his interior life, where it is at and even where it is going. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt explore why masculinity is tested not in dominance, intellect, or achievement, but in whether a man honors, protects, and reverences the feminine. From the way a man looks at women in public, to how he speaks about them in private, to how he carries the emotional and spiritual weight of his marriage, the conversation exposes the subtle ways men either elevate women to their proper dignity or reduce them for personal use. Do you protect or consume? This episode moves beyond surface-level advice and into formation and practical use. John and Devin address lust, resentment, spiritual passivity, and the quiet temptation to withdraw when love becomes costly. They examine why a husband’s response to his wife shapes the entire atmosphere of a home, and why a man’s relationship with woman ultimately reflects something deeper about his relationship with God. The path forward is not control, but self-gift; not avoidance, but reverent strength. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 🟢 Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/into-the-desert/ 👉 Devin Schadt’s book - - LEAD - Daily Devotional for Men - https://shop.stewardshipmission.com/products/lead-daily-devontions-for-every-man - The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for a reset to the entire purpose of fasting. John shares how he spent years fasting the wrong way, treating it like self-mortification for the sake of self-control. Until a spiritual director challenged him: fasting isn’t mainly about proving you can suffer. It’s about making room for loving union with Christ. Fr. Ken explains why the Church gives a minimal fasting prescription. It’s meant to be doable for everyone, including children, the elderly, and those with health issues. But if you’re able-bodied and serious about Lent, the question becomes: what is Christ actually inviting you to do? 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/l... 🟢 Never miss each Into the Desert release -⁠ https://catholicgentlemanplus.com/lent 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/t... COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You see over 5000 marketing messages every day. In 2025, hundreds of billions of emails were sent every day, notifications never stop, and research shows the average person switches attention every 47 seconds. We are conditioned to live and stay teathered to noise. But all of this keeps us separated from God. In addition, Scripture warns that men will render account for every careless word they speak (Matthew 12:36), and God Himself speaks not in the earthquake or the fire, but in the whisper. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt expose how noise is not neutral; it weakens men, fragments our attention, and keeps us from a purposeful life. Silence is not passivity. It is your strategic power. It is an interior dominion. It is the hidden strength of St. Joseph, the composure of Christ before Pilate, and the battleground where identity and mission are clarified. John and Devin break down silence within ourselves, silence before others, and silence before God, why most men resist it, and why the man who refuses silence forfeits confidence, peace under pressure, and grace. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 🟢 Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/into-the-desert/ 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20Join Email - https://catholicgentleman.com/podcast... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Ash Wednesday, Fr. Ken Geraci and John Heinen go straight to the heart of Lent’s first command: repent and believe. We're focusing on two concrete actions that we avoid until we're desperate: a real examination of conscience and a clean, simple confession. Not scrupulosity. Not vague generalities. An honest inventory of blind spots, weak spots, compromises, and missed opportunities for virtue. 🟢 Father's of Mercy Examination of Conscience: https://fathersofmercy.com/fathers-of... 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness: https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/l... 🟢 Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci -⁠ https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/i... 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: ⁠https://sophiainstitute.com/product/t... COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Men treat Lent as optional. However, if this were the case, Christ would NOT have begun His public ministry with the command to repent. Yet most Catholic men approach Lent as if it were extra credit — giving something up, struggling through forty days, and returning to the same patterns unchanged. In this episode, John Heinen and Devin Schadt discuss the real reason Lent exists. Penance is not a spiritual accessory, and conversion is not reserved for dramatic moments of crisis. Lent is ordered toward metanoia, a real turning away from sin and a deliberate turning toward Christ. Together, they clarify what penance actually means in Scripture and tradition, why many men resist it, and why discipline without direction produces little lasting fruit. Most importantly, they lay out a concrete three-step plan to help men structure Lent intentionally, not as a seasonal effort, but as a path toward becoming like Christ. 🟢 FREE ROSARY - Join Catholic Gentleman+ with over 30 sessions of exclusive formation, daily saint quotes, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness:https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/lent-rosary/ 🟢 Into the Desert with Fr. Ken Geraci - https://catholicgentleman.lpages.co/into-the-desert/ 👉 Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/COUPON CODE for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Video Producer – Pietro Damasceno Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pride among Catholic men rarely looks like arrogance. What men don't realize is that it surfaces as control, self-reliance, withdrawal, or even habits that appear virtuous on the surface. In this episode of The Catholic Gentleman, John Heinen and Devin Schadt are joined by Patrick O’Hearn to examine why pride is so difficult to recognize in ourselves, and why it quietly blocks growth in the spiritual life, marriage, and leadership. They unpack why the Litany of Humility remains one of the Church’s most demanding prayers, and how it exposes attachments that many men don’t realize they’re carrying. 🟢 Get Patrick's Book for 20% Off Today - Code Gentleman20 https://sophiainstitute.com/product/humility-of-the-saints/ Patrick O'Hearn's Site - https://patrickrohearn.com/ 🟢 Join Catholic Gentleman+ for exclusive formation, full sessions, and a brotherhood of men pursuing holiness:https://catholicgentlemanplus.com 👉 Get Devin Schadt’s book The Rule: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-rule/Coupon Code for 20% Off: Gentleman20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices