Podcast
Claymore: Become Who You Are
Hosted by Jack · EN
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
69episodes
Episodes
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#750 From Apathy To Action In An Upside-Down World! Meet Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati
6d ago00:45:39Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Something feels off right now, and it’s not just policy or elections. When the culture starts calling evil good and good evil, it’s easy to spiral into doom-scrolling, cynicism, and the quiet lie that nothing we do matters. I read a viral post that captures that dread, then I push back on the trap underneath it: outrage that never turns into action becomes apathy, and apathy is how families, churches, and entire communities slowly collapse. Visit Claymore Milites Christi to join the movement! From there, I lay out a simple framework for Christian renewal that’s meant to be lived, not argued about online. It starts with the human heart choosing what’s true and good, then restores marriage and family as the backbone of civilization, and stays anchored in Christ and the Church. We also talk about corruption and institutional decay, using a clip about government fraud to show how real people get hurt when systems are captured, and why reform has to be paired with moral formation. The anchor story is Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Catholic who climbed mountains, loved his friends, served the poor with his own hands, and refused to separate prayer from public life. I contrast his path with Robespierre as a warning: “justice” detached from God can turn into terror. The goal here is Christian social activism and Catholic political engagement rooted in charity, truth, courage, and joy, so we fight for the innocent without becoming what we hate. If this challenges you, share it with someone who feels stuck, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one concrete action you can take this week to choose the good?Support the show
Transcribe →#749 Padre Pio's American Daughter: The Story of Mary Pyle
1w ago00:38:26Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”A billionaire-by-today’s-standards heiress walks away from New York high society, gets disinherited for becoming Catholic, and ends up in a poor mountain town because a stigmatic friar tells her to stay. That’s Mary Pyle, and her hidden life helps explain why devotion to Padre Pio spread so far, especially among American soldiers who came home changed. We sit down with author Susan De Bartoli, secretary of the board of the Padre Pio Foundation of America and founder of Little Flower Pilgrimages, to tell Mary’s story. ...Mary’s early sense that “something was missing,” her years working with Maria Montessori as a multilingual assistant, and the moment Padre Pio looks at her and calmly claims her future: “This time you remain.” Then the wartime stories hit. Susan recounts the WWII bombing mission reportedly stopped by a monk in the sky, and how GIs later recognize Padre Pio’s face, along with images of Our Lady holding the Child and Saint Michael with a sword. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the story.Padre Pio's American Daughter: The Story of Mary PyleVisit the site of Padre Pio and more! Little Flower PilgrimagesSupport the show
Transcribe →#748 Christ Is The Light: Why A World Without The Supernatural Becomes Unnatural
2w ago00:25:19Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Anxiety has a way of haunting the edges of your day, even when you’re praying and trying to do everything right. We start with a simple moment that turns intense fast: a bike ride, traffic that feels too close, and a rising sense that something is off. The turning point comes when we stop treating that fear like random noise and name what it often is: a real battle, both interior and exterior, between truth and falsehood, good and evil, beauty and what deforms it. From there we move straight into the heart of Christian spirituality: Jesus Christ as the light of the world. We lean on John’s Gospel and on the command to “walk while you have the light,” then connect it to the courage of “be not afraid.” We also bring in GK Chesterton’s line, “Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural,” to explain why modern culture can feel so irrational even with all our technology and information. When the supernatural gets rejected, we don’t become more “natural” or more free, we lose the light that makes human identity, marriage, freedom, and truth intelligible. John Paul II’s insight lands hard here: we cannot understand ourselves without love, and we cannot fully know ourselves apart from Christ who reveals man to himself. That’s why Jesus can say both “I am the light of the world” and “you are the light of the world” we become luminous only by staying close to the source. We end with a clear, practical path: knees before the phone, daily prayer, Scripture, confession, the Eucharist, the rosary, and silence, so the light of Christ can shine through ordinary lives. Visit Claymore Milites Christi and Download the Claymore Battle Plan OutlineSubscribe, share this with someone who feels worn down by the darkness, and leave a review with one practice that helps you stay close to the light.Support the show
Transcribe →#747 What If The “Random” Parts Of Your Life Aren’t Random: Tim's Claymore Witness Story
2w ago00:03:21Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”A move for work sounds like a plain life update until the details start stacking up in ways you can’t unsee. Tim shares a real, personal testimony that begins with landing in Wheaton “randomly,” learning it’s packed with Churches and people of faith, including a strong Catholic community. From there, the story turns into a trail of moments that feel less like chance and more like God’s quiet direction, the kind that shows up in ordinary places and refuses to stay ordinary.Tim shares what it feels like when coincidences stop reading like luck and start reading like providence. The heart of the conversation is prayer: rediscovering it, trusting it again, and realizing other people have been praying specific things on your behalf without you even knowing. One of the most striking beats is the timing between a sudden desire to return to Church and a mother’s heartfelt prayers the night before, a reminder of how intercessory prayer and family faith can carry someone even when they’ve drifted.Then comes the simple decision that changes the day: walking past the same coffee shop again and again, feeling the nudge to go in “now,” and meeting Catholic men who become part of the path back to Jesus. If you’re searching for encouragement to return to the Catholic faith, rebuild your prayer life, or find Catholic community that feels real and grounded, visit us at Claymore Milites Christi, and join the movement.A clear message: pay attention to your heart, take one small step and invite God in. The Claymore Battle Plan guides, in three indispensable steps.Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with the moment in your life that stopped feeling like coincidence.Support the show
Transcribe →#746 Young Men Discerning Truth Amid Cultural Chaos w Gen Z Author John Krueger (+Bonus Panel Discussion)
2w ago00:43:46Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Something is shifting under the surface of American culture: Gen Z men are walking back into churches, asking blunt questions about truth, purpose, and what it means to live a good life. Recored before a live audience at St. Mary of Perpetual Help, we talk with Gen Z author John Kruger about his new book Dwelt Among Us: America’s Catholic Comeback, and why this renewal feels rooted in more than politics or vibes. When the world gets louder, thinner, and more online, the search for meaning gets more serious.We zoom out to the spiritual and historical backdrop, including Pope Leo XIII’s 1884 vision and the St. Michael prayer, then trace a century marked by war, ideological revolutions, and a steady assault on marriage and family life. We also get honest about what young people have actually grown up with: new atheism, social media identity traps, economic anxiety, and the loneliness epidemic. The thread running through it all is simple and demanding: reason points toward truth, and the human heart cannot live on substitutes forever.To close, we hand the mic to men from the audience who share their own conversion stories, from atheism and online ideology to Scripture, Augustine, and finally the Sacraments. If this conversation challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one sign you’ve seen that people are hungry for faith again?Dwelt Among Us, America's Catholic Comeback by John KruegerVisit Claymore Milites Christi! Join the Movement!Support the show
Transcribe →#745 New Here? Let's Get Started!
Jul 600:04:41Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Your day is getting formed before you even realize it and your phone is usually the one doing the forming. We walk through a simple on-ramp to the Claymore Battle Plan that cuts through the confusion and gives you a clear starting line you can actually stick with.We break down the two key resources the Claymore Battle Plan is built around: the Handbook and the Battle Plan Outline (only a few pages). From there, we give you two daily actions. First is the Claymore 10-minute morning ritual, anchored by one rule that changes everything: “knees before the phone.” Second is reading one short Act each day, letting it sink in with a real pause so it moves from your head to your heart. We also highlight Act 11 as a practical guide for praying with temptations when the pressure is real.If you’re doing Claymore with a friend, a fraternity, or a parish men’s group, we explain why one Act at a time creates better conversations and long-term momentum. Begin today! Then share it with one guy who needs it. Subscribe, leave a review, and send this to a friend!Visit Claymore Watch on our YouTube ChannelSupport the show
Transcribe →#744 How Much Power Does Satan Have? Pope Leo XIII's Terrifying Vision: The Claymore Battle For Hearts
Jun 3000:23:00Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Gen Z men are walking back into church, and it isn’t because they found a new self-help Podcast. They’re waking up to the cost of the culture’s false promises and they’re hungry for something real: truth, mission, meaning and purpose and a Faith that restores the heart. From there, the spiritual backdrop that sets the present stage we find ourselves in, when Pope Leo XIII overhead the chilling dialogue between Satan and Our Lord coming forth from the tabernacle. To get an understanding of why the last century felt like a pressure cooker of war, corruption, and the breakdown of marriage and family...and why I believe grace is loosening the enemy’s grip in our moment.Then we get practical with the Claymore Battle Plan: a three-step blueprint that begins in the human heart, restores human dignity, clarifies the meaning of sexuality through the beauty of marriage and family, and sends us out to rebuild culture and nation. John Paul II’s voice runs through it all, especially his “be not afraid,” his Theology of the Body, and his insistence that the future of humanity passes through the family. We anchor the fight in Ephesians 6, because this is not against flesh and blood and we need the full armor of God.You’ll also hear exactly how to use the Claymore handbook, the free six-page outline, and this podcast as a three-legged formation rhythm, plus the daily habit that makes it real: the 10 minute morning ritual, knees before the phone. Join the movement: https://claymoremiliteschristi.com/Check Out John Krueger's Book "Dwelt Among Us" and the "Claymore Battle Plan Handbook" on AmazonIf this gives you hope or helps you take a first step, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more men can find the path to Truth.Support the show
Transcribe →#743 The Battlefield of the Human Heart: Between Good and Evil
Jun 2500:04:29Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”America is nearing its 250th birthday, but the argument I can’t shake is this: you don’t lose a country all at once, and you lose it from the inside out. I walk through why the real conflict isn’t simply left versus right, but a spiritual struggle over truth, the human heart, and the meaning of the human person. When a culture embraces moral relativism and treats God as optional, “freedom” declines into tyranny...and it is the most vulnerable, especially children, who suffer the most.From Solzhenitsyn’s warning that “men have forgotten God” to Poland’s quiet resistance through faith, language, and family life, we look at what actually preserves a nation’s soul when institutions wobble. Join the movement: Claymore milites Christi Full Episode on YouTube: Family, Culture, and Patriotism--The Soul of a NationSupport the show
Transcribe →#742 Family, Culture, and Patriotism--The Soul of a Nation
Jun 2300:34:24Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”America is nearing its 250th birthday, but the argument I can’t shake is this: you don’t lose a country all at once, and you lose it from the inside out. I walk through why the real conflict isn’t simply left versus right, but a spiritual struggle over truth, the human heart, and the meaning of the human person. When a culture embraces moral relativism and treats God as optional, “freedom” declines into tyranny...and it is the most vulnerable, especially children, who suffer the most.From Solzhenitsyn’s warning that “men have forgotten God” to Poland’s quiet resistance through faith, language, and family life, we look at what actually preserves a nation’s soul when institutions wobble. Join the movement: Claymore milites ChristiMen, join us for a special event in Chicago on the feast of St. John the Baptist! The special guest is John Krueger, author of the new book Dwelt Among Us: America's Catholic Comeback. RSVP and Learn More! Support the show
Transcribe →#741 Digging For Treasure: A Young Man Finds Home In the Catholic Church
Jun 1900:29:03Tap to summarizeLove to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Watching everyone else walk up for Communion while you stay in the pew does something to you. Our guest, Jack Ray, describes that exact moment as the spark that turned curiosity into a serious search for truth and eventually a conversion to the Catholic Church. He grew up in the Wheaton, Illinois area with a mostly positive view of Christianity, but with faith that felt distant and Catholicism that came with plenty of misinformation. Then friendships, sports, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes reopened the door to Jesus and to the biggest question: which form of Christianity actually makes sense of the world?The conversation turns to brotherhood and accountability. We unpack the difference between friends who are “good to you” and friends who are “good for you,” especially when men are battling pornography, drinking habits, and the slow drift that can crush marriages and families. If you’re hungry for real freedom, real truth, and a community of men who will sharpen you, listen through to the end for an invitation to Claymore Milites Christi. Get a copy of the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook on the website or Amazon. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more men can find the path forward.Support the show
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