“As Iron Sharpens Iron”

The following comes from the NCR:

There is a crisis in our society — a crisis in masculinity. Men need to man-up and save their families and themselves from destruction of not just the physical but the spiritual kind — their very souls.

So emphasizes a wake-up call for men in a new short, challenging and inspiring film called “A Call to Battle — a short film on ‘Society’s Crisis in Masculinity.’” This film on YouTube is another clarion call, like a bugler signaling men to charge into the fray, from the Diocese of Phoenix.

It directly grows out of Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s apostolic exhortation to Catholic men released last Sept. 29. He gave it the perfect title: Into the Breach.

In a no-nonsense way, Bishop Olmsted stirringly calls men to become the men God calls them to be. In the exhortation, he says: “Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real. It is primarily spiritual…”

He stresses: “Herein lies the fullness of masculinity; each Catholic man must be prepared to give himself completely, to charge into the breach, to engage in spiritual combat, to defend women, children and others against the wickedness and snares of the devil!”

Film Accents the Message

This new short film brings that message home in images and insights from others that should move men’s hearts and minds, and challenge them to courage, to step into the breach at this critical time. And that means ALL men.

We’ve always been called to be soldiers of Christ. Now, as the spiritual battle rages in every quarter, the film and the exhortation from which it grew wants to gather the troops to step into the breach. It’s a manly call to arms.

Read the rest here.