Reclaiming Catholic Brotherhood
Jason M. Craig
www.osv.com
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
Nihil Obstat
Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur
Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend
November 8, 2018
The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book is free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.
Except where noted, the Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible — Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 1965, 1966, 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Joseph Stroud, “Knots” from Of This World: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by Joseph Stroud. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
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Copyright © 2019 by Jason Craig. Published 2019.
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Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
200 Noll Plaza
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ISBN: 978-1-68192-270-6 (Inventory No. T1959)
eISBN: 978-1-68192-271-3
LCCN: 2018963433
Cover design: Tyler Ottinger
Cover art: Unsplash Photos by Timothy Meinberg
Interior design: Amanda Falk
Interior art: Shutterstock
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
To Joseph Ratzinger,
a faithful son who has shown
the face of the Father.
Contents
Foreword by Joseph Pearce
Chapter 1: A Crisis of Maturity
Chapter 2: What Is a Rite of Passage?
Chapter 3: Jesus’ Rite of Passage
Chapter 4: Putting Away Childhood
Chapter 5: Boys: Mothers’ Pride and Sorrow
Chapter 6: The Experience of Initiation
Chapter 7: Initiation into Nothing
Chapter 9: Discipline and Identity
Chapter 11: Living the Ultimate Rite of Passage
Foreword
By Joseph Pearce
Once upon a time, when I was a boy, I recall watching a Western on television with my father. At one point the hero, played by John Wayne, walks into a saloon, heads to the bar, and orders himself a beer. The bartender pours the beer and sets it before our hero. The hero takes one sip, delivers his line to the villain with appropriate macho brevity, and walks out of the saloon, his nearly full pint of beer still on the bar. “And he calls himself a man,” says my father, alluding to the undrunk beverage. The lesson was learned. A real man doesn’t order a drink he doesn’t finish.
That was a long time ago, but even today, many years later, I cannot leave a bar or a restaurant without finishing my drink. How could I call myself a man if I did? What would my father think?
It’s funny how such habits become ingrained, inscribing themselves indelibly in our psyche. The lessons we learn at our father’s knee almost become a part of us, almost defining us. For better or worse.