Conferences and faith-based groups are helping men know, defend, and live their Catholic faith.

Today’s magnificent solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven began back in the Garden of Eden. In God’s mind from all eternity, when He decided to create beings made in His image and likeness, and fill them with the gift of His life-giving love, it is within a woman’s being–within her heart and soul–where His love first established a foundation and home. The spirituality of a woman is rooted in the fact that she is the heart of love and through her special and unique relationship with the Holy Spirit (as one who gives life), a woman is truly the example of what it means to be fully human.

Shortly after our twins were born, I spent one of my many sleepless nights thinking about how my life had changed since the day I met my wife. How I had abandoned the thought of entering religious life; how I moved across country, leaving the only home I had ever known on the East Coast of the United States; how entering into a life-long commitment of loving communion and intimacy in marriage had changed my relationship with God; and not really having an appreciation at how four young children can – all at the same time – exhaust me to the point of numbness, make me mad enough to pull out what little hair I have left, make me laugh until I cry, and fill me with so much love and joy that I can barely keep my heart in my chest.