Sweet Spot Between the Sacred and the Secular

“God, Sex and the Universal Longing”…

An incredible event is happening in my hometown in just about one month. It’s already happened in a few cities around the country, and will most likely be coming to a city near you in the coming months. The event is called Fill These Hearts (FTH). FTH is a four hour long info-concert, centered around beauty, art, music, philosophical teachings on the “Theology of the Body” and an all around incredible night that will open eyes and win hearts.  Christopher West and Mike Mangione & The Union Band will present an awesome night that is sure to please.

I don’t promote every event that comes along, but want to promote this event for a few reasons:

1. Everyone needs to hear, learn and live the Church’s beliefs found in Theology of the Body.  (Christopher West makes these teachings/principles livable, relevant and understandable.)
2. Men, especially, enjoy visually stimulating images.  This event has that.  This event is great for men of all ages and for men at every stage along a faith journey. 
3. Beauty, in our society, has been so distorted.  Christopher and the rest of the FTH team are diligently working to win back beauty.   Beauty raises our hearts and our minds to God, the source of all true beauty.
4. Theology of the Body has converted hearts, won over marriages, encouraged births, saved men from pornography and many other wonderful things.  Theology of the Body is not just a set of teachings but is a way of life. 

I highly encourage everyone to get to the next Fill These Hearts event that is in your area.  For more info, or to buy tickets, go to the FTH website at http://fillthesehearts.com/.  (Check out the trailer on the TrueManhood.com Home page.)

TrueMan up!

Being Great At What You Do

My father-in-law is great at what he does.  He loves what he does.  He eats, sleeps, breaths and talks about what he does.  In his case, what he does and who he is really equal up.  (That’s not usually the case in people.)  I want to take a few words and honor his dedication to what he does and to how faithfully, fervently and excitedly he does it.

My father-in-law, Gary, is the Director of Catholic Music at the Air Force Academy.  I have the privilege of working with him on the Catholic staff at the Academy and I know, firsthand, that he is incredibly dedicated to his portion of our ministry.  See, what Gary does is he puts his passion to work for the Lord and he doesn’t hold anything back.  Sunday was a great example of that when he showed his mastery of fine choral music with a concert by the Catholic Cadet Choir, Men in Blaque (a men’s vocal group from the Univ of California, Irvine), In the Stairwell (a men’s a capella group from USAFA) and the Cadet Orchestra.  The concert was a resounding success and Gary is at the heart of that success.  Yes, the voices and instruments make it, but he put his heart and soul into the logistics, planning, timing, musicianship and professionalism of the concert.  To that, a job well done Gary!

My point with this today is that we should all be putting our passion to work for the Lord.  Find what it is that God created you to do and do it, fervently and with joy!  For Him!  If more men would live out their passions in life, we’d all be better off.

Man up!