and stand as beacons of light in a broken world. The example of being a chaste, wholehearted, and sold-out servant of the Lord builds up the Body of Christ.
We have been set free in Christ — free from the past and the power of sin, and free to live as weapons of righteousness in a fallen world. Through our example, our prayers, and our service, we strive to be good husbands, fathers, and brothers within our family of faith.
The world is temporary and takes what it wants from us. God is eternal and gives us all he has. His constant care and overflowing living water sustain us. His Spirit revives the dry and dead bones of lifeless humanity, bringing life to the lost. We are empowered to stand as witnesses of God’s love as we live in fellowship with our brothers — holding them accountable, offering our support, and staying strong in the storms of life while walking with them on this journey of faith. As you move through this study, let the surrender and service of your life witness to the glory of God and the power and presence of Christ in the world.
Introduction
What it Means to Witness
When we think of the word “witness,” we often envision someone at a legal trial, at the witness stand, giving a testimony about what they heard and saw with regard to a crime. Essentially, this is what a Catholic man is called to do for his faith. There was a great crime against humanity: the coming of sin into the world and the suffering it brought to the earth and its people. But there was also a loving God who looked down upon this suffering and provided a remedy for our situation in Jesus Christ. The only Son of God willingly left his home in heaven to walk the road to Calvary and take our sins to the cross.
Jesus has touched our lives. We have experienced his love, and we know that it transforms us daily into godly men. We have seen the impact Christ has had on our families, our work, and our relationships. If we are honest with ourselves, we should be overwhelmed with all that he has accomplished for us. How could we not give witness to the great things Jesus has done? How could we not share the story of salvation with everyone we meet? What could keep us from living a totally sold-out life that offers God the glory and thanksgiving he deserves? This is what witness is all about.
During the next ten weeks, we will be looking at what it means to be a witness for the gospel of Christ. We will see that it involves more than saying words or doing holy tasks. Being a witness involves every aspect of our lives and results in deepened relationships and transformed lives.
This book is both a personal daily devotional and a tool for group study with other men. Each day, you are encouraged to read through the day’s devotion, pray and meditate on the message from God’s Word, and reflect on the questions provided, always remembering the theme for the week and seeking to apply it to your life. It is suggested that you take fifteen to thirty minutes in the morning to complete each devotion, and then let your prayerful experience with the Lord guide you throughout your day.
On Saturday you are encouraged to look back on your week of study, reflecting on the progress you’ve made, thanking God for the work he has done in your life, throwing any mistakes into the ocean of God’s mercy, and committing to personal goals in areas where you’d like to see improvement in the coming week.
For those who want to take things a step further, you are encouraged to keep a journal where you write your reflections, track your progress in Christian living, and dialogue with the God who is leading you on this journey of manhood. You can then use your journal to help you share your insights and discoveries with other men.
The key to growing with this study involves two things: taking time to read and learn each day, and then living out the message through practical acts of love. This means taking the reflection questions and turning them into action steps that you can do as you love your family, serve your church and community, and lift up your brothers in the faith.
Once a week you are encouraged to come together with other Catholic men to share your thoughts on the devotions, the insights you have gained in prayer, and the ways you have put these principles into practice in everyday life. The leader of your study group will facilitate a discussion, focusing on those passages, reflections, and actions that have meant the most to the men in the group. After a general sharing of thoughts about the daily devotions, the leader can focus on the Saturday “Go Deeper” questions. As each man shares ideas, the leader will encourage the other men to build on the ideas raised and add their own unique voice to the discussion.
As you make this journey, determine to spend more time in prayer, study, and worship to grow in your faith. Look for opportunities to interact with your brothers as you build one another up, carry one another’s burdens, and hold one another accountable before God. Love your families and your communities with the same uncompromising love that Christ has poured out onto you. Look for ways to make this world a better place by being a man who represents Christ and his Church well. And look forward to all the blessings that are to come in God’s good time!
Week 1
The Love of the Husband for His Bride
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Ephesians 5:21–31
As Catholic men, we are commanded to love our wives as Christ loves the Church. Christ deeply desires that Catholic men who are called to marriage should live out their duties as husbands with utmost fidelity. Marriage involves intimacy and vulnerability. With the exception of Jesus, perhaps no one knows us more intimately than our wives. Unfortunately, sometimes as men our egos outweigh our virtues, and this can make being a good husband a challenging task. When this happens, we become weaker in our witness and lacking in our leadership, because we fail to honor the helpmate God has given us and fall short in our call to love her as Christ loves the Church.
Sadly, many men have taken the passage quoted above from Ephesians and turned it into an excuse for dominating their wives and lording it over their families. Too often men insist on being “King of the Castle,” but they don’t act like true kings. After all, if we want to be kings in our homes, are we willing to treat our wives like queens? Do we serve and protect them, lovingly and sacrificially leading them to a deeper holiness day by day? Do we cherish our wives for who they are and who they are becoming in Christ? As husbands, our call is to love our wives as we love ourselves.
Those who are single are not free from the principles of this passage either. Just as a married man is called to be faithful and chaste toward his wife, unmarried men are to treat women with the utmost respect and dignity, showing them the same love Jesus showed to his mother and the women who followed him. This is true of all women, but in a special way women in the Church are our sisters in Christ. Our call always is to work together to build one another up as we become all we can be as the Body of Christ.
Let us look at some principles from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians that can help us grow as Christian witnesses over the next week:
1. Relationships are all about mutual submission.
As men, we are to yield to those things that God has established for marriage or single life for the sake of his kingdom. We should assume our role as husband, priest, brother, or layman and live it out as God intended. This begins with seeking to grow in mutual submission with the women in our lives. Husbands must be willing to sacrifice their needs for their wives, and all men