Man Up! on EWTN this week

Jared Zimmerer, author of Ten Commandments of Lifting Weights and Man Up! Becoming The New Catholic Renaissance Man is currently on EWTN's Women of Grace television series with Johnnette Benkovic in a 5-part series about Catholic men.

 

Man Up! Becoming The New Catholic Renaissance Man received honorable mention in the 2015 Catholic Press Awards for Gender Issues and speaks well to the dilemma facing men in general today. The ideas of heroism, virtuous living, and recognizing and honoring what masculinity truly is are central to Jared's work.

 

Jared himself has wide appeal as both a man of intellect and a man of physical strength. He builds his body as well as his spirit and in that way walks the talk quite well. Contributors to Man Up! include Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Kevin Lowry, Kevin Vost and other great voices for our times. The foreword is offered by Fr. Dwight Longenecker.

 

The Women of Grace episodes are available to watch online if you aren't able to catch them on EWTN.

 

 

 

God's Recklessness

There are a lot of words we use to describe God and his mercy.

God is generous and kind. His mercy is endless, boundless and limitless.

We use words like faithful, agape and constant when we think of his love.

One word that has never, ever come to my mind (and maybe not yours either) when I think of God is "reckless."

So Fr. B. had my attention this past Sunday--Divine Mercy Sunday--when he spoke of God as being reckless. I mean he really had my attention. I tend to love homilies as they sort of wash over me and refresh my spirit, but this one had me on the edge of my seat.

God is reckless in his mercy?

Yep, that's what Fr. B. said: God is reckless in his mercy.

I absolutely loved where Fr. went with this idea of God's recklessness. It made sense to me. It captured my imagination as I thought of my great God being so reckless in his mercy that he gives it to me unabashedly, recklessly. After all, I can do anything with it. I can accept it. I can reject it. I can toy with it, even.

Reckless.

God's reckless mercy.

I like it. He's not thinking about the consequences of his actions when he showers me with mercy. He hasn't wait until I'm well-prepared to receive his mercy. There are no strings attached. Just willy-nilly, God offers me mercy. Undeserved, unearned.

Wow.

Reckless.

It occurs to me rather quickly that God asks me to be reckless too. Reckless in offering love and kindness and mercy and forgiveness.

Today maybe God is asking us all to be a little reckless!