By Emilie Ng
MEN are struggling to find their place in the world and be faithful to their Catholic faith, an American author of a new book for Catholic men said.
Randy Hain is the author of Journey to Heaven: A road map for Catholic men, and co-founder of Catholic eMagazine and website Integrated Catholic Life, a book that addresses the crisis of manhood in secular society.
“Manhood and fatherhood are being belittled constantly and I think men are believing the lies,” Mr Hain said.
“I’m not sure what the status of men or manhood is in Australia, but one of the things we’re dealing with in the United States is the emasculation of manhood and the diminishing of manhood.”
He describes the book as a practical one “for teenagers to great grandfathers and everyone in between”.
“Men can read about other men just like themselves, going through struggles and fighting back, then marry that practicality with Church teaching,” he said.
The book deals with issues on faith, family, and work and the public square, with much of the inspiration behind the book coming from Mr Hain’s own personal experiences.
“I came into the Catholic Church in 2006 with my wife and two sons, and as I’ve grown in my faith and really come to understand my vocation as a Catholic man and I’ve been talking to Catholic men around the United States as I speak to support my writing, I just find that men are struggling,” Mr Hain said.
Before becoming a Catholic, Mr Hain was a Southern Baptist but walked away from his faith at 16.
“And then I had no faith for 23 years, none, zero. I call that period the spiritual wilderness,” Mr Hain said.
He and his wife started their journey into the Catholic Church when their oldest son Alex was diagnosed with autism 14 years ago.
“That was the first thing that really had touched my heart in a profound way,” he said.
Sensing that their family was “missing something” the couple looked into joining the Church.
“My wife had been baptised Catholic, never confirmed, but in talking to an old college friend of hers who is my son’s Godmother, a really devout Catholic, my wife felt she needed to reconnect with this faith she had earlier,” he said.
After two weeks of reading books on Catholicism, Mr Hain said he was “blown away” by the teachings of the Eucharist.
“I said to my wife, ‘We need to find a Catholic priest right about now’,” Mr Hain said.
Although he had an intellectual conversion, it was not until his first Mass with his family that he was 100 per cent decisive about joining the Catholic Church.
“My wife asked me if I needed to go to the hospital because I was white as a sheet and had sweating hands,” Mr Hain said.
“For the first 10 minutes of Mass, I remember feeling like I was coming apart at the seams.
“For the first time in my life, what went through my mind was, ‘Jesus you need to be in charge, I surrender, I can’t do this alone anymore, I give in’.
“As soon as I did, this incredible weight off my shoulders.
“The 23 years I said no was exhausting.
“At that first Mass, what I really did is put Christ first for the first time in my life and I said yes.
“I put all that energy that I used to put into saying no to God, to just serving Him, serve him versus defy him. “
Mr Hain decided to write about his story and after sharing it with friends and other networks, his writing was picked up by other Catholic websites and online publications.
Since 2010 he has written six books on his Catholic faith, his expertise in job search strategies, and in November will release another book about being a joyful witness.
The Catholic Leader is giving readers a chance to win one of two exclusive copies of Journey to Heaven: A road map for Catholic men by Randy Hain. Click here to enter!
