Ep 103 - Sugarcoated Jesus is Not The Real Jesus with Dr. Dan Schneider

The conversation explores the power and popularity of Jesus, the relationship between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, and the threefold mission of men to teach, heal, and drive out demons. It also delves into the effects of sin on individuals and families, the importance of order and discipline for men, and the need to embrace the challenges and suffering of life. The role of prayer and fasting in spiritual combat is discussed, as well as the practice of Lectio Divina and the importance of taking action and applying spiritual insights in daily life. In this conversation, Dan Schneider discusses the importance of applying Scripture to one's life and provides resources for doing so. He also emphasizes the role of prayer in engaging with Scripture and encourages readers to read the daily Mass readings. Schneider addresses misconceptions about Jesus and highlights the importance of following Jesus's example, particularly in sacrificial love. He concludes by expressing support for Jim Harbaugh as a Catholic man living his faith.

Takeaways

• Apply Scripture to your life by reading the daily Mass readings and reflecting on them.
• Engage with Scripture through prayer and allow God to speak to you through repetition.
• Recognize that Jesus was a regular man who called ordinary people to be his disciples.
• Follow Jesus's example of sacrificial love, particularly in the context of marriage and family.
• Support and appreciate public figures who live out their Catholic faith.

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Transcript

Dan Schneider (00:00.853)
being accused by the Jewish leaders of driving out demons by the prince of these guys, the pagans. And it says that they crowded him in so much he couldn't even eat, it says. I mean, we missed it. We just kind of gloss those over and go to the big stuff. He was so powerfully popular that he couldn't even grab his coffee and pick it up. They were packing in, wanting to hear every single word. You know.

And you know what I promise you, he didn't have perfect hair gel and he wasn't wearing skinny jeans. He didn't have the perfectly cropped beard. I mean, he was a manly guy. And that masculinity drew people. And what drew them most, I think, was his clarity. His clarity. And speaking direct and forthright. In a charitable way, but very direct and forthright.

The Manly Catholic (00:53.33)
Yeah, and gosh, I mean there's so much to just the context of the time period that he lives in. I think often, especially now in the 21st century, we forget about what happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus was alive, the time period, what was going on in the context, and how radical his teachings were, especially when we mentioned exorcisms that you mentioned here.

And I know you're writing a follow-up book about from the Libra crystal method kind of diving more into that But I do want to touch on that a little bit because that especially mark mark's gospel is the action-packed gospel You know and he talked I mean, I don't know how many exorcisms Jesus actually did I don't know if you have a number on top of your head, but this was paramount to his ministry and You know, I think two people often mistake well

Nowadays we know a lot of it is mental illness, which clearly mental illness was around back then as well. But Jesus was the son of God, so I think he could identify the difference between a true possession versus a true mental illness. And what often gets mistaken is when Jesus, because Jesus is, it's not like Jesus is love, God's all about love. And of course he is. But whenever Jesus radically transforms somebody's life...

whether it was healing a blind man or healing the woman who had the hemorrhaging for a number of years, he always followed the healing with, go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. That was always his follow-up. Yeah.

Dan Schneider (02:27.381)
Present yourself to the Pharisees. Yeah, present yourself not to the Pharisees, to the priests, yeah.

The Manly Catholic (02:32.838)
Right, and there's always that following. People seem to forget that part is that Jesus is all about love and mercy and again, of course he is, but you know, he's also the God of the Old Testament, which I know a lot of people have problems with is the God of the Old Testament, you know, the ultimate justice. And maybe we can dive into that a little bit too, that correlation, Dan, between God of the Old Testament and God of the New Testament, who's Jesus obviously. And yes, he's that merciful figure.

but he also ultimately is calling us to life of transformation, which a lot of us don't wanna do because we're stuck in our comfort, we're stuck in our ways, especially both of us live in the United States, a lot of comforts here in the US, which we're gonna see with the craziness of our culture. When we get too comfortable, our minds think, oh, we don't really need God. We don't really need this figure from a long time ago, or, oh, that's just kind of old tradition, and we don't need Jesus anymore. We're more sophisticated than that.

Dan Schneider (03:30.729)
Yeah, yeah. What's interesting is you mentioned this God of the Old Testament. There were two principal heresies around the Old Testament near the church. You had Marcionism, the followers of Marcion, and they were they fell into the same error. This God of the Old Testament is completely contrasted to the to the God of the New Testament. And so they took some of the Gospels and some of the writings of Paul, but they dismissed the Old Testament completely because that God, they couldn't reconcile that with the with what

teachings of Jesus. Then you had the Ebionites or the Judaizers that wanted to keep all the old rituals, ceremonies, circumcisions, other things. They couldn't get into how the transition from old into new, from letter to spirit, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the sacramental. They couldn't bridge to make that step. But if you look at God's first self-revelation in the Old Testament, he reveals himself

of course as the I am, right, to Moses. And then after the deliverance of the people of God through the Exodus and through the parting of the sea, Moses writes a poem and he says, God is a warrior. Lord God Almighty is his name. So the first title that he proclaims is God is a warrior. This phrase, when you hear the Lord of Host, the Lord God Almighty, those are translations of

of the God of Host, of the heavenly host, the God who directs and commands the heavenly armies and defeats the cosmic enemies of the people of God and intervenes in human history for his people, the God of Host, the God of the armies, the Lord God Almighty. This title for God is used 185 times.

in the Old Testament and the concept of a warrior God. And then again, we get a picture of Jesus now from a lot of our homilies and popular media. Oh, he's a nice guy. He's a sugary Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Then look to Revelation 19. Jesus is not sitting there on, you know, he's not sitting at a bus stop with a little latte and a perfectly groomed beard and, you know, and it's smelling like hair gel, perfectly groomed. You know what I mean?

Dan Schneider (05:57.501)
He's sitting on top of war horse and the war horse, you know, the imagery from the Old Testament, from Job and other places, the battle horse, right? The war horse that grunts and anticipation of going into battle, Jesus is sitting on that, a sword comes out of his mouth. The warrior God comes back in judgment. So we've lost sight of that. And so part of that is, you know, you asked a question.

about how much exorcism is in the New Testament. Father Ripperker has noted that it's up to 25%, 24%, about a quarter of the Gospels. Focus on this. If you look at the Gospels, the Gospels themselves, especially in Mark's Gospel, if you had an actor that played the Gospel of Mark, the Jesus Gospel of Mark, it would have to be like the old Clint Eastwood. Jesus is a gunslinger in Mark's Gospel. I love Mark's Gospel. I mean, I did

five years, six years of research on the Gospel of John, which is fantastic. But then I've now gone into Mark for this present manuscript I'm working on. And the Jesus of Mark that is presented by Mark is just this is a very matter of fact masculine Jesus. And so he starts off his ministry in Mark, Chapter one, doing three things. And this pattern repeats itself throughout Mark. He does it. And then he sends his disciples out to do these three things. And then he commissioned his disciples to go into the world to do these three things.

These three things are known as the tria munera, the threefold office of the priesthood. And that is what's called the munus docendi, the munus sanctificandi, and the munus regendi. Those are Latin phrases that mean the, a munus is a duty, a responsibility, an obligation, an office, technically it's an office, but it's also responsibility. It's something that the priesthood, these are three marks or duties of the holy priesthood.

Jesus bestows on them. First, he does it himself, and then he goes out and sends the apostles out. And what is that? And Jesus goes out on his very first day of Mark's gospel. He teaches, he heals, and then he drives out demons. So the ministry of teaching belongs properly to the local bishop. The ministry of healing we see, and that healing, ironically the word that when Jesus healed all the sick, the word for sick oftentimes

Dan Schneider (08:19.081)
Sometimes it could be mental sickness, spiritual sickness, vice, as well as physical sickness. In fact, the word to save and to heal is often synonymous in the New Testament, and Jesus saved them and Jesus healed them. And then finally, the ministry or the office of ruling, rigende, this is where exorcism comes in. This falls into the juridical authority of the priest, the local priest, and this is how...

Jesus sets out, he teaches, he heals, and he rules. And part of that ruling is ruling as the Lord God Almighty, as God the warrior who rules over the cosmic realm, as a warrior, as the leader of battle who directs the heavenly host beneath him to intercede and to help us in our own struggles. Now, going back to men.

we in a way we share in that not in the same way at all not even close in essence or degree it says in the council does our priesthood is our priesthood our priesthood is distinct from the universal priesthood of the baptizes distinct from the sacerdotal priesthood of the ordained but we also share that in our homes men need to see themselves as teacher right as healer and as king or ruler in the home

not at the parish level, not going out and holding prayer sessions in the basement of the church, in your home, militating in these threefold fashion. That's very important for us to understand as men. But Jesus does this primarily, and then part of the Jesus who rules is that title of God. Two phrases, the Lord God Almighty. The second phrase, the jealous God. I am a jealous God. The jealous God who commands fidelity.

Fidelity on behalf of its people.

The Manly Catholic (10:11.262)
Yeah, Dan, that's fascinating. I mean, we so often we get caught up with, you know, like the I think we talked about last time we got together was, you know, like the Andrew Tate's, the Jordan Petersons who have good things in mind for men, but it misses the fullness of what it means to be a man so that you know they're all about discipline and taking care of yourself in order and things like which is fantastic. But again, there's a step beyond that. And that's exactly what Jesus

brings out or should bring out of us exactly what you said the threefold mission of every man is to I wrote it down is to teach to heal and to drive out demons you know and I think a lot of times too men think oh like education that's you know that's the mom's job or that's the wife's job like no absolutely not like you are the head of the household it is your responsibility to make sure what is being taught whether it's in the home or even outside the home is to make sure what is being taught is in line with church teaching

And then, again, as we talk about, we are the tip of the spear when it comes to spiritual warfare in our own family. So if we're not taking care of ourselves, then what do you think Satan and his demons are gonna do? It's like, oh, this family's vulnerable. And he's gonna get in, he's gonna divide, and he's gonna try to conquer us. Because, I mean, his goal is to get us to hell and every single part of our family. Because if he can get us away from the church, away from Jesus, then it's so much easier to go after.

the wife and the children because they are relying on us. And if we're not doing our duty, as you mentioned, then we're failing in our role as men. And I do want to talk about sin as well and what that actually does to us. And I don't know if we really dove into it last time we met, but you know, I think we often compare ourselves to, I don't know the worldly sinner so to speak like.

The public sinners, if you will, is like, well, at least I'm not murdering someone, or hey, at least I'm not cheating on my wife. And again, that's another radical teaching of Jesus as well was he goes way deeper than that, and he really challenged us, like no, if you commit adultery in your heart, then it's the same as actually committing the act of adultery, and he talks about that frequently about sin. So can we talk about, and I'll kick this back to you, what does sin actually do?

The Manly Catholic (12:31.362)
to us, maybe even just physically, but also, if we dive into the difference between venial and mortal sin, what mortal sin actually does to our soul as well.

Dan Schneider (12:40.849)
Yeah, before we get into the sin, I want to... Because the sins of the Father, right? They affect the children. They're going all the way back to Exodus, and I will curse to the third and fourth generation, right? Due to the sins of the Father, to those who hate me. So there's a relationship between the sin that enters into the family through the sins of the Father. And why is that? If you look at Father Ripperger's, when you look at Dominion...

and he's talking about what the phenomenon of generational curse is. We probably shouldn't sidebar into that today, but that falls under the general topic of authority, interestingly. Contextualize it. This is where he contextualizes it because the authority structure is, as you alluded to earlier, it isn't based on merit. It isn't based on good looks. It isn't based upon

how well you can defend whether Jesus had brothers and sisters or not. It has nothing to do with that. The authority structure is. It is set and is embedded into the natural law, right, and also the divine positive law that the church that builds upon natural law. And part of the authority structure is men are head of households. This is very unpopular today because we live in a very highly radical feminist culture, even the culture that's infiltrated the church in many ways. And so understanding the authority structure is

Now, when people talk about spiritual combat, and sometimes at parishes, I'll talk about Ephesians chapter six and what's embedded into Ephesians six and our weapons are, you know, we fight battle not against flesh and blood, et cetera. But Paul sets the stage for Ephesians six with Ephesians chapter five. I think it's Ephesians 528. Wives, obey your husbands or be subordinate to your husbands in all things. And so this is like very unpopular in the modern parish today.

But if you look what that word means, he's getting ready to go into militaristic language, describing the uniform of the Roman legionnaire that would be occupying the city of Ephesus and the uniforms that they would wear. And these would be the guys that are walking the streets keeping order, okay? The uniforms. Put on the entire armor of God and describes the shield, the sword, etc. And he spiritualizes them in a midrashic way, if you will, and he explains what they mean in spiritual combat.

Dan Schneider (15:02.621)
But even before he gets to that, he uses another military term here in Ephesians 5, be subordinate to. That word obey literally means to be ordered under. The Greek word upotasso, the Latin would be sub ordinazio, to be ordered under. Literally it's a military term that means to be under the protection of, under the provision of. Embedded into that word is the two-fold ends of the authority structure.

are in authority, whether as a priest or as a layman, of head of household, or even under authority, even by natural law in your work environment or your business that you own, you have a two-fold obligation within the office, right, of head of household. Remember, it's office, it's a munus, it's an office. And the two-fold ends of that are to provide and to protect. And so it's as if God has given the husband and father a shield and a sword spiritually.

and his job is to take his wife and his children and place them behind him, holds up his shield, holds up his gladius, his sword, and he defends in the spiritual realm. He's the first to engage the enemy. He's the first to recognize. He's the first to teach. He's the first to protect. This is the role. This is all that is embedded into that word. It's a militaristic term. So the connection with sin is...

And the way the Romans would work, Paul describes the sword, the gladius, but before they would break out the gladius, the first thing they would do is throw the pila, p-i-l-a pila. The pila was about 11 or 12 feet long spear, and it had a heavy metal tip.

And then it had a heavy tip on the back, a small little tip on the backside that was metal so that when they could pick it up in the battlefield and use it as just an improvised weapon in between these two halves, it was held together with a wooden shaft, a wooden bolt. So that bolt was meant to sever. And they would throw this spear out, this pila, and the enemy would have to hold their shield up and it would penetrate into the shield, right? Because you have wooden shields back then. It would penetrate into the wooden shield. And then that wouldn't...

Dan Schneider (17:20.109)
screw would snap and it would hang there. So you had about 11 pounds hanging there, hanging off your shield. And you had to make a decision, do I drop my shield and fight without a shield, or do I use my right hand to hold my shield up and fight defensively without a sword? And so he effectively minimizes your battle capacity. And then he comes in with the sword. And the enemy still does that. The enemy comes in and he hammers us.

with the first round, the volley, if you will, to lower our shields. And so men need to keep that shield raised up because the target isn't you per se. The target is first the marriage. If you can divide the marriage and separate you from your wife, then he can go after the children because the children ultimately are the target. And how does he divide the husband and the wife? What is the pila? What does it look like?

he begins to separate you, first getting you to stop praying together. Even the minor little ways of just saying grace together, praying the rosary together, praying the angelus together. Praying together is very important. Doesn't have to be anything mystical and kung-fu-y and exciting. Very simple, vocal prayers together. And then he starts to change and whittle away at our perceptions of each other. And once he starts those two, that's sort of his tactics. And once he can divide the husband and the wife, she's now no longer under his...

direct protection. She's now outside of his shield. And so the children are as well. And so that that's why sin is important because when you commit a sin, particularly a sin of as the head of house, when you're looking at pornography as a man, you've taken your sword and your shield, you've laid them aside, you preoccupied yourself with this immoral behavior. And now that you've been neutralized, the pila has now taken down your shield and your family who are who are by natural law under your protection or normal.

The Manly Catholic (19:17.742)
Yeah, I just the military I mean you can't help but look at you know the terms of the military in relation to this fight that we're in especially as men you know and just like with the Pila like you said and transitioning that into the spiritual combat spiritual warfare what Satan is always trying to do and I think I referred to earlier is he just wants to divide and conquer us and I know you talked about this last time to the importance of order

especially as men, as the head of the household, is if your life is not in order, like you said, if you're looking at pornography, if you're just watching sports or scrolling social media all day long, you're not diving into the spiritual life, you're not expanding on your spiritual life and your relationship with Jesus, then you're failing in your role as a man, in your duty and your obligation as a man, because everything we have is from God. And he put us...

Whatever your dynamic is whatever your situation is with your whether you're married you're not married Whatever the case might be Jesus put you in that situation For a reason and you are here at this time in the place whenever you're listening to this whatever situation you're currently in right now Jesus will provide the resources to either get out of it or to improve upon or whatever the case might be but Again, it goes back to what Jesus always tells

the people that he heals is, is go and sit no more, but you have to put forth the effort to change whatever the case might be. Whatever you're in, whatever you're struggling with, you have to put forth the effort. I know when we had to reschedule last time, Dan, and I called you because it was not going on in my life, and you know, you gave me good advice. You're like, hey man, you gotta embrace the suck. And I know we talked about that last time, is you know, because sometimes it, you get in your own head.

And that's why I love chatting with you is that like, hey man, you just gotta embrace the suck because there is virtue that comes from it. And this isn't forever. We always go through consolation and desolation and it's that roller coaster. And whatever you're in desolation is bear down, grit it out because there's going to be tremendous power and grace that comes at the tail end of it. But you gotta suck it up and you gotta embrace it because.

The Manly Catholic (21:35.274)
What else can you do as a man? This is the fight that we're in, and we're never gonna be in this perfect world until we get to heaven, Lord willing.

Dan Schneider (21:43.925)
Yeah, what's interesting, you mentioned Jordan Peterson. He's got a brilliant mind. I think he's moving his way towards Catholicism because he's too smart because Flannery O'Connor said that Catholic churches are filled with freaks and geeks. And so it attracts the geek. By freaks, she means the marginalized, the poor, but it also attracts these brilliant minds like Jordan Peterson. And he's talking about, if we could translate what he's talking about, making your bed.

The Manly Catholic (21:49.259)
Oh for sure.

The Manly Catholic (21:57.959)
Hahaha

Dan Schneider (22:13.801)
the order and discipline. These are what we would call natural remedies of combat. These are very important that, you know, most guys say, oh man, I want to be a green beret. I want to be Ranger, you know, I want to be a, you know, special ops guy. I want the tab and all these things. But all those guys have mastered the basic skills first before they go. And then go to the next level from basic soldiering to special operations. The battle is right here. The battle is in your head.

A friend of mine was a retired Green Beret Colonel and a Marine was going through the Q course and he kept asking every phase, the Q course is the qualification course for the Green Berets. And they asked him, he kept asking, this Marine kept saying, okay, after this phase, what do I do? After this phase, what do I do? How do I get through this phase? I think the guy ended up never making it all the way through. And my buddy says, look, if you want to make it through the Special Forces Q course, here's what you need to do. Keep your head down.

keep your mouth shut and keep walking. And that's great advice for men. Just keep your head down, keep your mouth shut and keep walking because it's going to come and the battle is going to come and then you're going to have a law and then there's going to be peace and then there's going to be a lot of fun and then it's going to rain and then it's going to be muddy and then it's going to be nasty and then they're going to be trying to kill you again and then you're going to be shooting back. And it's just, but you just get through it. You just keep your head down.

keep your mouth shut and keep walking. And what does that mean? Going back to Jordan Peterson's, the natural remedies means you have to impose order in your life. Here's what we found in our protocol. This is what we found discovered over the years, that the enemy responds to the imposition of order as much as to the prayers themselves. The whole idea of the pila is to disrupt the ranks, the orders of the enemy, is to break his ranks. Because once the rank breaks, then the heavy infantry would move in.

the Roman legionnaire would move in an extremely ordered way, not moving. The centurion would sit in the back and he would have a, we would call it a swagger stick, which was made from, you're in Italy where there's a good wine, right? It was made out of a vine, a venea. It was made out of a vine branch so it could bend like this and not snap. And so if anybody broke ranks,

The Manly Catholic (24:24.924)
Thank you.

The Manly Catholic (24:31.396)
Thank you.

Dan Schneider (24:39.217)
the centurion would bash him in the bare part of the back of the legs. Stay in the ranks. Stay in order because order is absolutely important to the way the Romans fought. This is why they could defeat far larger enemies. If we know that, we fight an ancient enemy and there's certain battle corollaries between combat, physical combat and spiritual combat, that order is very important. When I was a kid, like many people in my generation, we loved Hulk Hogan.

right? I was a hokumania. He was fantastic. And he would always say to young people, listen, kids, you know, and by the way, the wrestlers today, they couldn't light a candle to the old guys, you know, Hulk and Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, and these guys were giants. So this is what Hulk Hogan said, you want to be a hokumaniac, eat your vitamins, exercise, do your workout every day and say your prayers, you know, and so

The Manly Catholic (25:09.82)
Oh yes.

Dan Schneider (25:35.801)
And so there really is a certain amount of truth to that. We tend to want to say, I need that special weapon, that special prayer, that secret prayer so I can launch this thing like Iron Man shoots a little missile out of his thing and walks away and goes home and has a cocktail. That's not true combat. True combat is a grind. It's a grind. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes you blow up an enemy depot spot and you head back to the officer's club. But other times it's trench warfare. And oftentimes when you're when guys find themselves in a battle.

Understand that yes spiritual combat takes on the it is mirrored It somehow mirrors natural combat and sometimes natural combat is trench warfare and you just got to grind it out You just got to grind it out

The Manly Catholic (26:17.327)
Isn't Hulk Hogan, isn't he a pretty strong Christian? I think I saw him, yeah, I think I saw him on the Joe, maybe it was just a clip on the Joe Rogan podcast and I saw, he spoke about, I think he invited Joe Rogan to church, I think, but there's a little sidebar there.

Dan Schneider (26:19.839)
I think so.

Dan Schneider (26:31.185)
Yeah. Jesse told me that one time he ran into, into Hulk on, uh, on an airplane and he was wearing this big, huge crucifix and he's, he said, Hey man, nice crucifix. So I don't think he's fully Catholic, but I think he's, I think he's, uh, the only way. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (26:46.038)
He's on his way. Get the Hulk. But I do, I do want to mention, because we brought up Jordan Peterson a couple times, the importance of order, but the importance of discipline too, and I've been listening to, I'm sure you've heard of Jocko Willink, who was a US Navy SEAL. I mean, he's all about discipline equals freedom. That's kind of his motto. And, you know, looking at the gospels, you see how disciplined,

Dan Schneider (27:02.88)
Uh-huh.

The Manly Catholic (27:14.562)
Jesus was as well. Because what did he do before he even entered public ministry? He went into the desert for 40 days for fasting and for prayer. What does he always call us to do? He mentioned to his disciples where he said, you know, they tried to drive out a demon. I forget which gospel, but they couldn't. And they said, hey, Jesus, why couldn't we drive him out? He has some demons that are only driven out by prayer and fasting. And, you know, he recognized, too, the importance of

to sort of recharge. Because certain parts he said, you know, disciples go on ahead of me, I'm gonna go to the mountains and pray, or I'm just gonna go and pray. And he said that multiple times in the gospels. And the discipline that he had, because recognizing as a human, the weaknesses that we have, especially weaknesses of the flesh, and the importance of that discipline, I mentioned Jaco Willink as well.

And they're all about no matter what you do is you need to exercise because everything else in your life will get better. Your, your business, your, your career, your, um, just your, your health obviously as well, but it gets corollary back that back to Jesus is how much discipline that he had and the importance of that too, because like you said, Dan is sometimes it's going to be.

You know, you shoot a missile and it blows up and you can go back and it's one and done. It's super quick. But most of the time it is that trench warfare. And if you think about trench warfare, especially like the World War One, I remember reading all quiet on the Western front and it was, you know, it was just back and forth, you know, like you gain 10 feet and then you, you lost five feet and then you gained two feet and then you lost six feet. You know, it's just back and forth. And that's going to happen in the spiritual battle as well, because it is that grind, because we are human and we do become tired and fatigued.

and is recognizing and instituting that discipline that we need every single day in order to defeat the missiles that are constantly being fired at us about the demons and Satan himself.

Dan Schneider (29:13.173)
Well, St. Paul uses analogy in Ephesians 6 that put up faith as a shield. And so we often think of, yeah, to quench the smoldering arrows of the enemy, right? These arrows that are on fire. You talk about an analogy for impure thoughts. The enemy is just firing fiery arrows at us, dipped in pitch and lit a little light to try to burn our shield down, right? But part of the way the Romans used the shield.

was it had a boss on the front in the middle of the shield, a big steel ball with a spike. And so the shield wasn't just a defensive measure, you know, help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus. You know what I mean? The shield was an offensive weapon as well. Before the PILA came first, and then the infantry moved in. Okay, the infantry moved in. After the infantry moves in, and once they engaged, they didn't start slashing like the

the Germans and others, they would first, that line would come up heavy, strong discipline and they would pound into the enemy with the shield and knock them off their feet to lower their shield and then they would come in with the gladius and start slicing and cutting and wounding and then just moving on like a buzz saw. So that keeping that shield up and Paul says it's a weapon of faith, how do we use it? Not just defensively.

but offensively. How do we use that offensively? Jesus shows us. It's called mental prayer. It's called Lectio Divina. So men have to start to learn how to pray, right? There's three types of prayer basically in Catholic tradition. You have vocal prayer, which is you know, we've got the deliverance prayers for use by the laity. My book, I've used a lot of those in the Libra Cristo Manual. We brought those prayers over.

how to pray those prayers at what time. That's very important. But then mental prayer, sometimes it's called meditation, but mental prayer. It's using the mind and using the imagination, meditating upon the words of scripture, slow reading. When Jesus was tempted by the devil and the devil throws scripture at him, Jesus throws scripture right back. You should not put the Lord God to your test. You're not, the man doesn't live by bread alone. These are

Dan Schneider (31:39.713)
classic temptations against us that all men are going to face, right? We face, this is kind of a pattern Jesus is showing us. This is how the demon is going to tempt you, the world to flesh the devil, and this is how we counter back through scripture, by reading scripture, meditating on the life scripture. This is why meditation, reading, slow reading, daily reading of scripture is extremely important because it starts to reorder our interior selves to be able to do, because combat takes place right here.

It takes place in the faculties, in the mind. And so getting the mind disciplined and through a prayer, a life order to prayer, not just praying a couple of secret prayers, right? Doesn't work that way. You gotta get the mind, you know, you gotta get your dirt out of the warden's hole, right? You gotta get your mind right. So how do you get your mind right? Through prayer. St. Catharine of Siena, doctor of the church says this, everybody should pray at least 30 minutes a day, unless you're busy. And she said, and then you should pray for an hour.

The Manly Catholic (32:21.71)
Thanks for watching!

The Manly Catholic (32:26.667)
Okay.

Dan Schneider (32:39.165)
So, and so what does that look like? Vocal prayers, prayers for your family, stringing down concertina wire, laying the perimeter. In my book, I use the analogy of the wire. The wire is what string together claymore mines, and those mines became the protective perimeter. You gotta lay those down for your own interiority, but also laying them down for your family. Prayer is a protection, a perimeter prayers.

other prayers that you should pray every day to protect your family. That's vocal prayer. But then also moving into mental prayer. Learning that the tradition of the Western tradition on prayer is very important. Reading about the lives of the saints, St. Teresa, we just celebrated John on the cross yesterday. How do we do mental prayer? It's something we have to do. And one last thing, learning the words of Jesus when the disciples couldn't drive the demon out.

of the boy that was possessed, and Jesus drives him out, and they ask him, why couldn't we do it? And Jesus says, this type only comes out through prayer and fasting. So it isn't just this intellectual thing that I'm doing, I'm battling sword fight with my brain and my thoughts and my intellect, because you'll lose. You're dealing with a creature, an apex predator that has an intellect that is far superior to the one that you are.

far exceedingly superior to yours, even the lowest demon of the lowest intellect is a hundred times more intelligent than you and I. So you're not going to battle him here. But how do we do that? We do it with what Saint Faustina says, the envy of the angels, right? If the angels could envy us, if they were capable of envy, she said, they would envy us for two things. One is that we can receive Holy Communion, that we can bodily receive our God. That should tell us something.

That we should receive God every day if possible. And the whole Eucharist, we should stop and have a touch every single day, go into adoration, even in 15 minutes to pray the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament. And then also the second thing they would envy is our ability to suffer. So if you're doing battle in your home, it's not just going to be, I need to come up with the special prayer. It's also engaging with your body, engaging with fasting.

Dan Schneider (34:58.037)
I've heard it in session, the demon will call the team members out and say, none of you guys are fasting. I'm not going anywhere. This is consistent with a new book that Tan just put out on an exorcism from, I think it was about a generation ago from the 50s. The demon said, I'm not going anywhere because your bishop doesn't fast. Fasting takes more than just the lack of food. It's engaging with our bodies. You can fast from hot water. You can fast from...

The Manly Catholic (35:04.134)
Oh wow.

Dan Schneider (35:27.609)
sweet little creamer, so you turn your morning coffee into milkshake, right? You can fast some coffee, you can fast from a lot of things. It's engaging with the body while we can, using our bodies as weapons of righteousness, if you will. And so that's part of the order of prayer as well. It's being able to make small little sacrifices for your family. That's a dimensionality of warfare that nobody, it's kind of lost, right? But we need to recapture that.

The Manly Catholic (35:29.71)
Thank you.

The Manly Catholic (35:57.286)
Dan, can you hold up your deliverance book one more time? Look at that tatter. Oh no, the deliverance prayers. Look at that. That is a well-used book, my friend. For those of you who are just listening, it is just torn to pieces basically because it's used so much. So it's a well-used book.

Dan Schneider (36:00.69)
Yeah.

Dan Schneider (36:04.161)
Oh, my goodness.

Dan Schneider (36:15.601)
Yeah. It's got some holsterware, if you will. It's been taken down range and used in righteous anger. So yeah. Yeah. Again, it's a secret. It's a grind. It's just a grind. Like we used our friends in the military walking to the sock. You just walk in the sock. The sock is the combat zone. It's the discomfort of combat, the discomfort of food, the discomfort of sleeping on the ground, the discomfort of...

The Manly Catholic (36:26.653)
Dan, you know-

Dan Schneider (36:44.345)
of people on the other side that want to do really bad things to you. But the second phrase is embrace it, embrace the soul. That means you grab onto it. You say, yeah, it's okay. I love it here. I wish it would suck more. I love it here. It's great. And so I think I mentioned that cartoon that was in all the flight line everywhere I was stationed because I was a pilot. And it shows an army grunt.

The Manly Catholic (37:01.515)
Oh, shoot.

Dan Schneider (37:12.509)
in the rain up to his waist in mud and the first caption, it just shows us basic soldier says it sucks out here. The next picture is a ranger. He's got his ranger booty cap. He's all rangered out, tricked out. He says, it sucks out here. I love it when it sucks out here. And then it goes to the green beret, tiger stripe paint on his camo, booty cap.

geared up, standing in the same mud, same rain. It sucks out here. I love it when it sucks out here. I wish it would suck more. And then the next one shows a Cobra pilot inside the perfectly airtight canopy. And it says, man, it looks like it really sucks out there. So, yeah, nobody likes it. It would be inhuman to want this, but the Rangers and the SF guys, they get it. The airborne guys, they get it. The paratroopers, I also went to

paratrooper school and they taught us this. How far are we going to go? All the way. Because we don't know. When the army sets out and says, we're going to do a three mile run or five mile run, you can put it into your head that, yeah, I can do this. I can run five miles. And the minute you go more than five miles, you'll start watching guys drop because they put it in their head, I'll go five miles, but no more. And so the airborne motto is how far all the way.

you go as far as you have to go. So if you're in a firefight in your home over your marriage, your children or whatever, don't just think, oh man, all I gotta do is if I can just grind this out for six months and do these set prayers, then I'm good. Because once those six months ends, and I've seen this training fighters, I can drop this guy in two rounds. Well, what happens if he makes it through the second? It's like, man, I guess I might as well quit. You gotta be prepared to go the distance.

How long it takes, however long it takes. And that's just part of the grind of combat. And part of that is not complaining because suddenly when you're complaining, you have more to complain about. When you're complaining about how horrible it is over here, you fight. Remember, I put this in my book, the quote from Chesterton, the true soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves what's standing behind him.

The Manly Catholic (39:04.494)
100%.

The Manly Catholic (39:32.863)
Hmm

Dan Schneider (39:32.945)
And so you have to engage combat, not because I hate what the enemy is doing to my family. I hate the embarrassment it brings to me. I hate that he's messing with my marriage or whatever. You do it because you love your family. You do it out of love for them. And so if you're struggling with pornography, quit because you love your family. And don't let the enemy draw you into hating him. But out of love and obligation, do you overcome these vices that are afflicting you?

The Manly Catholic (40:01.962)
Yeah, and I know we mentioned your book a couple times. I'm just going to post it up here. So it's the Libra-Crystal Method, a field manual for spiritual combat. And you did mention too, Dan, a little bit ago, you know, Lectio Divina. And for some of our listeners, this might be the first time they're hearing that term. Do you mind just briefly explaining and walking through like what is Lectio Divina?

Dan Schneider (40:22.037)
Yeah, lecture was a Benedictine concept. Here's my morning coffee is my Benedictine. So there's no cream, man. You know, that was pure black grinds. Yeah, that was it. That was Army coffee. So that's it. No, I just, yeah. Yeah, actually at Ranger school, we would, and I think about this sometimes when I get, when I feel a little soft, you know, when I'm feeling like, oh man, I need a little more time in bed. I need a little more, you know, hot water in the shower. At Ranger, at Army Ranger school.

The Manly Catholic (40:25.15)
Yes, love it. Hope there's no cream in that, Dan. Ah.

The Manly Catholic (40:34.722)
Chew it on the beans!

Dan Schneider (40:51.581)
we would just to get through, you didn't even start, there were times we'd go days without stopping, but you know, no sleep, no stopping. You just walk for, I remember walking for five days straight, literally walking for five days straight, no sleep. And so you would get a little coffee packets about this big and you would just, you know, fill the dry powder in and then your canteen is filled with river water. You wash it down with river water.

And then don't waste the grounds, take the grounds and stick them into the corner of your eyes to keep your eyes open. You know, now if I can do that, if I can do that for the, for the, a worldly King and a worldly, why can I not do that and have that level of sacrifice for Jesus Christ, the King, King and Lord of Lords, the Lord God Almighty, God, the warrior, right? And our lady, the warrior queen, making those little sacrifices. Soldiers do this. You want to be an SF guy? That's the stuff. You got to be willing to do that.

You know, you gotta be willing to do whatever it takes to win your battle as long as it takes. So the same thing in the family. So what was the question again? Sorry, I got... Ah, lexio divina. So lexio divina means divine or sacred, holy readings. And it's a four-phase process. Lexio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. Those are the four phases. So prayer, I mean, read.

The Manly Catholic (41:53.307)
No, it's alright, Lectio Divina. Do you mind explaining that a little bit for those...

Dan Schneider (42:14.485)
meditate, pray, contemplate. So it's a slow reading. It isn't this speed reading. You're going to read a chapter a day. No, you're going to read a scripture and you're going to hammer down one short little segment and you're going to really just read and meditate, read on it, and then start meditating, placing yourself there, or start making connections. Where else is this word mentioned in scripture? Where else is this? So you start linking together.

ancient principle from the rabbis and in St. Augustine fleshes it out further. Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. So you don't need to have all these commentaries. What you need is to keep Scripture open and where else has this word been used? What's going on? Where is he when he's saying this? Place yourself at the scene. You're starting to use your mind in engaging with the imagination, turning up every rock, slow reading, and then praying, right? Read, meditate, pray.

contemplate. So then you're starting to start praying and you start applying this to you. And so the three elements of mental prayer, and lexio devine is a type of mental prayer, is consideration, application, resolution, car, right? You consider the mystery. What are you studying? What are you reading? What's the story? What's happening here? Applied. How does this apply to me? Right? How does this apply to me? And then resolution. What am I going to do about it?

So you're going into the mysteries, you're reading scripture, this is how it applies to me. This is like, wow, yeah, you know, the wedding feast at Cana, the whatever, whatever you're meditating on. And then what am I gonna do about it? It's not enough just to say, that's cool. I uncovered some pretty cool stuff. Yeah, that applies today. And maybe I'll write an article for that or do a podcast for that. No, how is this gonna change me? And then contemplation is,

it's and then you and then at times very rarely okay god begins to kind of drive the bus for a while and he begins to you begin to sit in his presence just be silent before him so the idea is to begin by doing the grunt work and then some of the mental work of meditating on the passage connecting it through prayer lord there's no more wine i'm out i've got no more wine i've

Dan Schneider (44:41.405)
I got no wine to defend myself against these assaults, these temptations. I'm completely empty. The stone jars are empty and they're cracking and they're leaking. Help me Lord." And you cry out to God and then make a resolution. And you trust that God's going to do that, that God's going to fill it up. I trust you Lord. So that's the four steps.

Pope Benedict in his book, Verban Domine, added a fifth, and that is axion, axio. And it isn't like, let's go out and be social justice warriors, right? It's action. What am I going to do about it? How is this going to change my life? How is it going to change me? Am I going to be kinder to my wife and to my children? Not just kinder, am I going to be present to them? Am I going to truly listen to my wife when she speaks?

The Manly Catholic (45:18.806)
Thank you.

Dan Schneider (45:36.825)
Am I going to be too preoccupied about all the obligations and responsibilities that I've had throughout today? Am I going to shut down and put a time clock, a visible time clock in my kitchen? And when I get home from work, punch in and go to work, roll up your sleeves, right? Help around the house, be present to your family, right? This is the commitment of action, you know? And if God calls you to do other things in the apostolate, so be it. But that actio, first and foremost, is a spiritual action.

how is this going to apply to me? What am I going to put into place to actualize the fruit of what I've just read in Holy Scripture?

The Manly Catholic (46:14.998)
Yeah, for those of you listening, there's tons of resources out there as well. And I'll put a couple in the show notes just so you guys can look it up. If you know, cause there's, I know there's websites they'll give you passages to kind of start off with, especially the more like prominent ones where it's easy to kind of insert yourself into the scene or to meditate on. So I'll put some resources in there for you. But Dan, I want...

Dan Schneider (46:34.993)
And this is why in our protocol that for the first phase, the prayer discipline, you can look it up on the app store. It's a 30-day discipline, not unlike Exodus 90. In fact, it's a lot easier than Exodus 90. And guys that do Exodus 90 come back transformed because they're learning how to engage with their bodies. Because again, if you're just going to try to do mental judo, you're talking about a judoko.

far superior than you'll ever be. You'll never be at the level to compete with this guy here, this diabolic judoko, but you can beat him with your body. And so the first 30 days is a mental, it also has a mental component, not just praying 6, 12 and six, the angelus and a couple of other prayers, but also pulling back from social media, as good as this podcast is and other things. You're pulling back for 30 days and all you're gonna do is read the scriptures.

I tell people you can read anything you want so long as it's today's mass readings. And you're going to focus, you're going to plug into the liturgical calendar because it's through the liturgy that church catechizes. The primary instrument of catechesis is liturgy. Catechesis, the catechai means to sound down, to echo downward. And so when we put our ear into the tradition of the church, liturgical tradition, it echoes back through liturgy. And this is how God catechizes us.

So learning to do, even if you're just gonna do the daily mass readings, pick them up and do that as your lexio, as your 15 minutes of quiet prayer, reading about those, and it'll begin to interconnect. God will begin to speak to us through scripture. He talks to us through repetition. And I'm not talking about mystical revelations and all I'm gonna have this, no, I'm not talking about all that fancy stuff, man. We're talking about just reading scripture and God going, dude, knock that off.

Dude, you need to live your life a little, stop living like a pagan. Stop, stop, stop pretending that you're, you know, how long are you going to straddle the fence? Oh Israel, if God is God, follow him. If not, if all is God, follow him, says Elijah. You know, God is constantly calling us to that, to the words that like the words of Elijah. If God is God, follow him. Don't act like it doesn't matter. And so that's what I'm talking about. Those little socks to the, you know, little love taps, you know, doesn't quite draw blood, but it kind of hurts a little bit. Doesn't leave a mark.

The Manly Catholic (48:57.282)
Wakes you up a little bit.

Dan Schneider (48:58.705)
Yeah, that's what prayer, that's what God is in His gentleness. Sometimes, sometimes He gives you a shot, you know, because you got to learn. You've got to learn. He wants you to survive this combat. You and those He's entrusted into your care.

The Manly Catholic (49:13.474)
Yes, I guess for my final question for you, Dan, what is maybe the biggest misconception about Jesus or the biggest takeaway that especially men can take away from Jesus's example here on earth that maybe the culture has sort of sugarcoated or maybe completely taken away from his character itself?

Dan Schneider (49:34.473)
Yeah, you know, Saint Paul tells us in Hebrews that he was like us in all things but sin. So Jesus, sometimes we can picture Jesus so completely other that we can't identify with him. He called guys just like us, knuckleheads, you know what I mean? Guys that would argue and disagree with stuff, you know, the apostles. He was a regular man's man. He was a carpenter. He worked with his hands, you know, he was a manly guy. But he also was demanding, you know, if you wish to be my disciple.

Three things, deny yourself daily, pick up your cross daily and follow me daily. We are conformed as men specifically, we are conformed to Christ and to that, to pick up our cross, to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him specifically through our vocational sacrament. And so this idea, and then we get it, we hear it all over the place and church and Jesus is again, the sugary Jesus, the nice guy Jesus.

who's kind of like Alan Alda from Mass. He's a super nice guy, he doesn't offend. Read the book of Revelation, you know. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God that fed water from the rock, the same warrior God, Lord God Almighty. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, day, and forever. Then the rock was Christ, Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10. So enter and trust and follow the life of Christ. Go into that. Don't just understand Christ as a concept.

but truly begin to pray and engage him in prayer. Lord, come help me. I'm getting my butt kicked down here. Help me out. Pray to him like you talk. Talk to him like a man, right? Not like a concept, because he is a man. Fully God, fully man, right? And so live like he lived, right? And which means he lived for others. Because we like to look at Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 5, women obey your husbands. And I, you know, the guys, we hear that at Mass, we give a little nudge. But the second half of that, St. Paul says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Handing himself over, the word he uses, agape. We hear all about love, love. This is what agape means. It means sacrifice, sacrificial love. This is a love unique to Christianity, a love unique to Jesus Christ. A sacrificial love, love knows...

The Manly Catholic (51:34.05)
Thank you.

Dan Schneider (51:56.741)
No greater love than this to lay down one's life for one's friend. So St. Paul says in Ephesians 5, lay down your lives. As Christ died for the church, you die for your wife. That's the Jesus that I follow. That's how we militate. That's how we are warriors in defending our home but willing to die for our wives and our children. That's what St. Paul is calling us to. It's a lot easier for the call of the woman is a lot easier than the call of the man. We're called to die. We're called to die to ourselves completely. And it's hard.

It goes against our very nature. And so Christ though transforms our nature so that we can now enter into that sacrificial posture or really to offer up our suffering for our families.

The Manly Catholic (52:37.174)
Well, thank you, Dan, as always for your time, that call to action for men. Again, if you wanna check out Dan's book from Tan Books, The Lieber Christo Method, I'll put a link in the show notes and also a little coupon code for you guys. You can get discount off and also help support the podcast. But Dan, before I let you go, I would be remiss to say go blue as they beat your beloved Buckeyes last month.

Dan Schneider (52:59.301)
I know I appreciate the time of the time of morning you honored that. And and but what happened to Florida State and they got bumped. You have to you have to even as a Buckeye fan I have to say it I'll probably make some enemies here but I think I have to I have to root for Michigan over Alabama in this ballgame you got to. So yeah and you know what to say what you want about Harbaugh. He's a pro life guy.

The Manly Catholic (53:03.103)
I had to.

The Manly Catholic (53:06.455)
Hmm.

The Manly Catholic (53:11.094)
Ugh.

The Manly Catholic (53:20.377)
oooo

Dan Schneider (53:26.629)
And he's able to beat the Buckeyes, not even on the sidelines. So you got to give him props for that. And I, and I, and I, and I appreciate what Jim Harbaugh does as a Catholic man, living his faith, not afraid, you know, I appreciate that. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (53:37.098)
100%. Well, you know, I was actually talking to my family too, and it's like, you know, I don't think it's ironic or a coincidence that after he gave this big, you know, pro-life talk and I think in the summertime or before the football season starts, all of a sudden all this stuff is starting to come out. Like, I don't think that's a coincidence that like all of a sudden, let's go after Michigan. So.

Dan Schneider (53:58.269)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they got to find they got a really fine football team this year. So they've been really progressing. And so, yeah, I hope they beat Alabama and the Irish. We have Oregon State. So I think the Irish are going to do OK. We'll see. You never know. But we're entering into bullseye as much as always fun. But I appreciate you not harassing me too much. And you respected the time of morning after the after the loss to the school of North. And but yeah, so I.

The Manly Catholic (54:17.537)
Absolutely.

Never.

Dan Schneider (54:27.561)
but I appreciate it. But it's good, it's good. But see, he's a good witness. Men need not be afraid to speak their minds the truth. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (54:34.05)
100%, yeah. Well, Dan, thank you again for your time. Thank you all so much for listening. Until next time, go out there and be a saint.