I’m feeling compelled to write a short and quick personal post here about where I’m at with Catholic Gentleman’s Guide. At this precise moment in time (the date of this post’s publication), a lot of our readership have noticed that the activity from Catholic Gentleman’s Guide on our website and our social media has been suspended for several months. This inactivity was not planned or anticipated. It is not signalling the end of Catholic Gentleman’s Guide as we know it. (I’m happy to disappoint you if you had hopes that this site was dead!). It is simply due to the fact that I have been unable to commit myself to the website in the way I wish I could have.
Of course, I have excuses – A lot of excuses. For my pride’s sake, I’ll list them: Juggling life overall. Job. Summer vacation. Oh yeah, a new baby. And we moved. The transition from city to farm life. Still a father of three active boys. Installing a new furnace before Canadian winter. Renovations to accommodate our growing family. And a few reasons I should have better control over: A pretty stagnant spiritual life. The prioritization of doing anything else but blogging. And probably YouTube (Which isn’t wasted time, just unbalanced…(making more excuses)).
I have a few drafts half done that I began over the last few months, and many more ideas of things I’d like to write. But I’ve been much less active than I thought I’d be. Yet, overall, I’m happy to admit my failure in keeping up with what I’d like to have the discipline to do, because I think it makes me human, or more specifically, a man. I think most men can relate to getting in a rut, falling out of routine, and eventually hitting a moment where you know something has to change…And then knowing that you need to find strength somewhere to get out of it.
In this matter, I find strength remembering why this site exists, which is to push out constructive, holy, and manly content to a web that is anything but that. I remember that pushing out content on this site has been a great means for me to challenge myself in growing in Manly Virtue and aspiring to be, myself, the Catholic Gentleman that we’re all called to be. It’s been an exercise for me to study, to pray, and to grow – things which have been dying in my life – slowly suffocated by all my excuses.
Maybe you too know that something is dying in your life and that it needs to change fast. Maybe it is your family life, your prayer, your unhealthy habits, your patience, your virtue, your purity, your relationships. If so, I invite you to join me in being intentional about getting out of the rut and back into routine, of addressing what’s lacking, of letting go of excuses, or of doing whatever your Manly Holiness needs right now. Maybe you’ve done this before. Maybe it is all new. Whatever the case, you know you have to do it, so let’s step up as men together!
So I thank you for your patience. Please pray for Catholic Gentleman’s Guide and its reach, of everyone who wants to take a step to commit to something better …and of course, yours truly,
Your Brother in Christ,
Matthew
~ The Catholic Gentleman's Guide