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Why are so many fathers missing from family life, and what can ordinary men do about it? Deacon Joe Grote shares the story behind his book 'Where Have All the Fathers Gone?' and opens up about fatherhood, male friendship, resilience, family sacrifice, and the kind of heroism that begins at home. From St. Maximilian Kolbe to a family bakery collapse, this conversation explores what men owe their wives, children, friends, and the people placed in front of them every day.
Visit Deacon's Website: https://deaconjoegrote.com/ See Catholic Speakers: https://heroicmen.org/speakers
What You&rsquo;ll Learn ✅ Why Deacon Joe Grote sees St. Maximilian Kolbe as a model of heroic masculinity ✅ What men&rsquo;s groups are doing right when they create deep brotherhood over decades ✅ How losing a family business led Joe into a new mission of service and ministry ✅ Why the roles of husband, father, and friend sit at the center of his message
00:00 Meeting Deacon Joe Grote 01:21 Heroism in Auschwitz&nbsp; 02:53 Heroic where placed &nbsp; 04:03 Fatherhood, resilience, and staying alive 05:40 &nbsp;40 years of brotherhood and strength 12:07 The bakery story &nbsp; 16:44 Anxiety attack &nbsp; 17:56 The 26-mile walk home&nbsp; 23:49 Called into ministry &nbsp; 25:11 &nbsp; Where Have All the Fathers Gone? &nbsp; 27:47 The missing fathers crisis&nbsp; 35:01 What men can do now &ndash; husband, father, friend 39:40 Who he wants to help&nbsp;
#HeroicMen #Fatherhood #CatholicMen #Masculinity #Storytelling

Where Have All the Fathers Gone? Deacon Joe Grote on Men | Heroic Stories

Bishop Barron takes several questions from non-Catholics, including: <ul> <li>How does the Catholic Church think about sola Scriptura and Bible interpretation?</li> <li>Since we can't know beyond a reasonable doubt that Christianity is true, why should I become a Christian?</li> <li>Any tips for a Protestant transitioning to Catholicism?</li> <li>Why are some sins considered mortal?</li> <li>Is there a realistic possibility of reuniting the Christian churches, and if not, what are the major stumbling blocks?</li> <li>What is the role of saints? Why aren't they considered to be idols?</li> <li>What is the Catholic view of the apocrypha (deuterocanonical books)?</li> <li>What about apparent contradictions in the Bible? Does this undermine the Bible's inerrancy?</li> </ul> NOTE: Do you like this podcast? <a href="https://www.patreon.com/bishopbarron">Become a patron</a> and get some great perks for helping, like free books, bonus content, and more. Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners…like you! So be part of this mission, and <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/bishopbarron">join us today</a>!

WOF 314: Non-Catholic Q&A w/ Bishop Barron

Join Jason Evert, Jim O'Day, and Brandon Clark, as they share strategies and tools to help you and your family live porn free.
When: Saturday, September 24th from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Central Time
Watch live or watch later – Men who register can watch the Summit live or can watch or listen to the speakers any time after the event on HEROICMEN.COM

Calling all men who believe that pornography is a scourge on our world, and want to seek healing and help from the devastation it causes. In Christ, there is hope for your marriage, your children, your friends, and your fellow brothers in Christ. Join some of the best Catholic speakers Saturday, September 24th to hear strategies and tools to help you overcome the evil of pornography, and uproot this threat from your home, marriage, and parish community.

Our Speakers:

Jason Evert has traveled to six continents to bring the message of purity to millions of people for more than 20 years, including World Youth Days in Australia, Spain, Poland, and Panama. He has lectured at dozens of universities, including Harvard, Princeton, and the United States Naval and Air Force Academies. Jason earned a master’s degree in Theology, and undergraduate degrees in Counseling and Theology, with a minor in Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

He is a best-selling author of more than 15 books, including Saint John Paul the Great, How to Find Your Soulmate without Losing Your Soul, and the curriculum YOU: Life, Love, and the Theology of the Body. He and his wife Crystalina are frequent guests on radio programs throughout the country, and their television appearances include MSNBC, Fox News, the BBC, and EWTN. Together, they run Chastity Project and its website, chastity.com, the podcast “Lust is Boring”, and lead an international alliance of young people who promote purity in more than 40 countries.

https://chastity.com/

Jim O’Day James “Jim” O’Day is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in not-for-profit management, development, executive management, sales, marketing, and relationship development. Jim brings a wide range of experiences serving in senior capacities in the consumer products, defense, homeland security and not-for-profit industries. Jim is also a certified life coach, mentor, and sex and pornography addiction recovery coach, committed Catholic, husband, father and grandfather. Jim feels that all of his experiences in life... the good, the bad and the ugly have been used by God to place him here in his work at Integrity Restored and counts that as a true blessing.

https://integrityrestored.com/

Brandon Clark is a Church Marketing Specialist for Covenant Eyes. In addition to co-hosting the Covenant Eyes podcast and coordinating materials and events for churches, Brandon focuses on growing awareness and engagement surrounding the topic of pornography in the church. He resides on a hobby farm in Minnesota with his wife Tonia and daughter Isabella.

https://www.covenanteyes.com/

Restoring Hope to a Pornified Culture | Heroic Men Summit

Scripture says the power of life and death is the tongue. Demons lie. Satan is known as the Father of lies. So what does that tell us about the importance of using our speech in honest ways? In a culture that is often marked by how well we communicate, how often do we stop to consider the weight and gravity of what we are saying. Are there areas of our lives creating spiritual vulnerabilities because of our "sins of speech?". Father Gregory Pine joins the show to share his reflections on how we can and must train our speech to avoid inviting mayhem into our lives. Get some plants and build your special space. <a href="http://FastGrowingTrees.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FastGrowingTrees.com</a> and use code EXFILES for 20% off your first order. Magnesium time? Go to <a href="http://Qualialife.com/EXFILES" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Qualialife.com/EXFILES</a> and use code EXFILES for 50% off. <a href="http://CowboyColostrum.com/exfiles" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CowboyColostrum.com/exfiles</a> for 25% off your order!<a href="http://linktree.com/ryanbetheashow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Subscribe here to the Ryan Bethea Show</a>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

Taming the Tongue and The Sins of Speech with Fr. Gregory Pine

Deacon Larry Oney issues a Clarion call for spiritual revival. Deacon Oney emphasizes the urgent need for repentance and a deeper connection with God, as he believes the world is facing a profound crisis of faith. He challenges men to embrace a posture of humility, docility, anointing, power, authority, holiness, and freedom, in order to lead the charge for a Eucharistic and spiritual awakening. Deacon Oney's message is a rallying cry for deacons and all men to step up and be the spiritual leaders their communities need.

The Greater Revival and the Role Deacons Play with Deacon Larry Oney

Andrés Villaseñor Urrea joins the BeatiDudes for a powerful, hilarious, and deeply faith-filled conversation about Fearless Masculinity, the apostolate he founded to help men rediscover their identity in Jesus Christ. Andrés shares how a simple encounter with Wild at Heart sparked a calling that eventually became a retreat movement reaching nearly 1,500 men across Mexico, Dallas, and New York City. Along the way, he shares about living in multiple countries, building retreats with spiritual, psychological, and philosophical depth, and learning that true fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but acting with courage in the middle of it. 
This episode also includes one of the more delightfully unpredictable Tiny Table journeys in recent memory, complete with Chili’s confusion, polyglot jokes, and the kind of side quests only the BeatiDudes can deliver. Andrés joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein for a conversation that is equally inspiring, convicting, and laugh-out-loud funny. The heart of this episode is Andrés’ radical witness to prayer, surrender, and trust in God’s providence. He shares story after story of bringing impossible desires to the Lord and watching doors open in astonishing ways, from launching retreats and planning a major congress in Guadalajara to unexpected encounters involving Christopher West, Jordan Peterson, and high-ranking leaders in the Church. 
What stands out most is not the size of the vision, but the simplicity of the posture: ask the Lord, listen closely, and move when He speaks. The BeatiDudes reflect on how easy it is to live by checklists, calendars, and control, while Andrés offers a striking reminder that God still leads, still speaks, and still calls His sons to boldness. This is an episode that will challenge listeners to pray with greater confidence, trust God more fully, and maybe even stop waiting around for “perfect conditions” before saying yes.
 
<a href="https://fearlessmasculinity.com/">Fearless Masculinity Website</a>
 
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FEARLESS Masculinity | Andrés Villaseñor Urrea | Episode #309

She was the University of Dallas' first NCAA cross country two-time All-American. She holds the five thousand meter and ten thousand meter school records at the University of Dallas for track and field and the 5K and 6K school records for cross country. She was the only female NCAA Division III cross country All-American in the state of Texas in 2019 and 2021. She is headed to the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to study for her master's degree in Theology, and she writes and authors Catholic children's books.

CSR 176 Anna Wilgenbusch

Ten years ago, Bishop Barron and his Word on Fire team set out to create something the world had never seen: a large-scale film series about the Catholic faith that put the intelligence and beauty of Catholicism on full display. The resulting <a href= "https://CatholicismSeries.com">CATHOLICISM series</a> has touched millions of people, becoming one of the most effective evangelistic resources of the twenty-first century. As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the <a href= "https://CatholicismSeries.com">CATHOLICISM series</a> this week, we share a special Live Q&A with Bishop Barron about the series, and offer a special way to watch all ten episodes free online. Learn more at <a href= "https://CatholicismSeries.com">https://CatholicismSeries.com</a>!

WOF 140: 10 Years of the "CATHOLICISM" Series + Live Q&A

In this episode, Jon Leonetti reminds us of the wisdom that is found in the desert. When you are tested in the "desert," how do you respond? Spend some time this week to meditate on Jesus' journey in the desert and why we focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving during the season of Lent.

#14 The Desert

Adam went out to the shop and heard birds. Which would be fine — except the shop has closed-cell spray foam insulation. Thick stuff. Solid. Apparently it doesn't matter, because the birds had been pecking through it anyway, six spots deep, living inside the walls like they owned the place. He grabbed a can of expanding foam, took his six-year-old Leo out to help seal the gaps, and watched Leo immediately stick his hand in the wet foam. It went everywhere. On Leo. On the shop doors. On a previous car that is now long gone. If you've ever tried to wipe expanding foam off anything, you know how the rest of that goes.He opened the show with that story. Then Jim Spencer showed up — back after a long hiatus, cowboy hat on, ready to weigh in — and they cracked a bottle of Kilchoman's 14th Edition, an Islay scotch that doesn't get the attention of a Laphroaig or Ardbeg but probably deserves it. A $110 bottle. Jim put it at a 3.91 on the yummy scale (it was a prime number recording day, so that's out of 7 — work it out yourself). They all agreed it was legitimately good.Before getting into the main topic, Dave gave an update on Baby Mary. She's been on a paralytic to help her grow, and they're trying to wean her off it. She tolerated the second attempt better than the first, but not well enough. They'll try again Monday or Tuesday. Pray for her blood pressure to stay stable when she comes off, and for her heart and lungs to stop fighting the ventilator. Dave said it directly and without dramatics, and that's the right way to hear it.The episode is about the dinner table. Not as a feel-good idea — as a liturgy.Adam had done a piece on this for his <a href="https://substack.com/@adamminihan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Substack</a>: what makes a good day? Not an emotional high. A good day. He landed on three things: early morning prayer and reading, honing his craft in some way, and making it to the dinner table. They spent the hour unpacking why that third one carries so much weight.Dave brought in the biblical thread — Abraham hosting God and the angels, Moses eating with the elders on the mountain, the Passover meal, the Last Supper, Christ asking for fish in his glorified body just to show the disciples he wasn't a ghost, the Road to Emmaus where he revealed himself in the breaking of bread. The pattern is not subtle. God keeps showing up at tables. There might be something to that.Adam made the distinction between communication and communion. A lecture is communicative. The dinner table — done right — is a place of communion. The giving and the receiving. The statement and the response. That's not an accident. It's what the table is for.They got into the practical mechanics: one conversation at a time, husband and wife starting the conversation before the kids are brought in, ending dinner with prayer for the souls in purgatory, the escalating formality through the day (breakfast is just survival, lunch gets the flowers on the table, dinner gets the candles). Dave's daughters were wearing hoop skirts on the grass at the contra dance they hosted the night before. He mentioned a Clear Creek inspiration — the monks don't even sit at breakfast. He's pondering it. Adam is not.The story that landed hardest was from Alabama. He and Dave were on their way to EWTN — they recorded an episode in Mother Angelica's office, and Adam has video of Dave in makeup, which is apparently a treasure. They had dinner at the home of a man named Charlie Remore, a friend of a friend they'd never met. Large family. Long dinner table. Every child had a job, and they knew it cold. One managed silverware, one managed plates. When dinner ended, one stood up and cleared. Adam tried to stack the plates to help, and Charlie's kid corrected him — politely, but clearly. Don't stack the plates. We have to wash both sides. That's my job.That's disinterested service. The Catechism (CCC 2223) actually names it. Charlie's household had made it habitual. No one was waiting for a thank-you. The family is the mission.The picky eater section was, as promised, a hot take. Adam doesn't tolerate it. Eat what's served or it goes in the fridge and that's what you're eating next time. He said it, Dave agreed, and they both acknowledged it's hard — the chicken nuggets are right there, it's easier, you're tired — but the long-term cost of caving is worse than the short-term cost of holding the line. Your kid spreading butter with their fingers in your presence, knowing the rule, is an event that requires a response. Even when it happens to be this morning.After dinner prayer. Pray it. For the faithful departed. It's been jettisoned by most Catholic families, including strong ones, and it shouldn't be. You're feeding those who can no longer feed themselves. That's what it is.Raise your glass.<h2>TOPICS COVERED</h2><ul><li>Birds pecking through closed-cell spray foam — and why Leo is now microdosing industrial chemicals</li><li>Kilkeman's 14th Edition Islay scotch: Jim Spencer's 3.91 on the yummy scale (out of 7 — prime number day)</li><li>Baby Mary update: weaning off the paralytic, prayer request for blood pressure stability</li><li>What makes a good day — Adam's three metrics: morning prayer, honing the craft, the dinner table</li><li>God keeps showing up at tables: Abraham, Moses, Passover, Last Supper, Road to Emmaus, the glorified body asking for fish</li><li>Communication vs. communion — and why the dinner table is the latter</li><li>Dave's contra dance at Niles Ranch and Fecundity Farm — live violin, Jonathan and Jessica Hodge, Becca Niles, ~20 adults, a lot of kids</li><li>Jonathan Hodge's classroom liturgy: "Why are we here? To learn from the great men and women who have come before us."</li><li>Adam's daily school drop-off call and response: "Today's a great day" / "To be a great saint"</li><li>Charlie Remoure's table in Alabama: disinterested service in a large family done right</li><li>One conversation at a time — why the loudest voices always win in a free-for-all, and why that's not the goal</li><li>Husband and wife start the conversation before the kids — the table as marriage prep for your children</li><li>Escalating formality: breakfast informal, lunch flowers, dinner candles</li><li>After dinner prayer for the souls in purgatory — and why it's been quietly dropped by most Catholic families</li><li>Picky eaters: Adam's position, the fridge play, and why every picky eater somehow likes chicken nuggets</li></ul> <h2>REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE</h2><ul><li>Charlie Remoure — dinner host, Alabama; friend of a mutual friend; large family with exceptional dinner table culture</li><li>Jonathan Hodge — teacher, Tulsa Classical Academy; contra dance musician; Jonathan Hodge's classroom liturgy</li><li>Jessica Hodge — violinist, piano teacher to the Niles kids</li><li>Becca (Dave's sister) — violinist</li><li>Little House on the Prairie: The Long Winter — Laura Ingalls Wilder</li><li>EWTN — mentioned in passing (recording trip, Mother Angelica's office)</li><li>The Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2223 — disinterested service</li><li>Deuteronomy 6 — instruction of children "when you sit in your house"</li><li>Clear Creek Monastery — mentioned re: standing breakfast, monastic order</li><li>Father Ketterer — shout-out listener</li><li>Matt — listener, North Dakota, protecting the northern border</li><li>Gage — listener, home from deployment, birthday shout-out</li></ul> Sponsor: Select International Tours — <a href="https://selectinternationaltours.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">selectinternationaltours.com</a> Adam and Dave have used them. When they decided to lead their first pilgrimage and started asking around, Select was the name everyone gave them. Whether you want to lead a pilgrimage or join one, they're the real deal — go see what they've got.