We had a guest walk in with gooey butter bars, so you already know it was a good night. Deacon Michael Halbrook is back, his fourth trip to Tulsa (one more and Dave's putting him in a green jacket), and Lady Pamela's baking came with him. Adam's oldest, Luke, was in studio too, which almost never happens, because mom was away and there were no rules. Luke's been out most nights hunting the raccoon that's been picking off the family chickens. No kill yet. But he knows what he's after now, and that's half the hunt.
This week's pour was fitting: Hazel Baker Kentucky Straight Bourbon, six years old, bottled-in-bond at 100 proof, family owned out of Louisville. It came from a barrel the dads at Father McGivney Catholic High School picked out in Kentucky. Full strength, real caramel, nothing watered down.
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This episode is brought to you by the Amen app from the Augustine Institute, the free app Adam's family uses to pray the Sunday readings on the way to Mass. No paywall, no subscription trap, just Scripture, prayer, and audiobooks like Divine Mercy in My Soul and True Devotion. And by Select International Tours, the group Adam and Dave trust for pilgrimages. Whether you want to lead one or join one, that's who you call.
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Then it got serious. Michael spent 18 years in corporate tech and walked away from it to build something for the Church. Not on a whim. He built it nights and weekends for years while the paycheck was still coming, took the business plan to his wife and sons like a board of directors, and only leapt when the runway made sense. But the moment that broke him open happened kneeling in the back pew before Mass. He asked our Lord for the certainty he could keep providing for his family, and he heard back, unmistakably: You've never been the one who provided. I've always been the one who provided.
That's the whole episode in one line.
Bishop Paprocki gave him the order of operations: pray for clarity first, then courage. Most men flip it and go charging into the dark. Michael talks through the discipline of saying no to good things so you can say yes to the right one, and then walks us through what he built, the &Altar app from Domus Formation. One reading, five minutes, a launch pad for your holy hour instead of a replacement for it. Pray, fast, give. A track for every season of life: the man, the woman, the family, the teen, the young adult, the elder.
The back half is fatherhood. Michael's second son, Matthew, is at Air Force basic training right now (pray for him), and Michael's living the Establish pillar in real time. Protect and Provide, most of us understand. Establishing a son (raising him to walk on his own, then actually letting him go) is the hard one. They get into the father wound, the men who never had an example to copy, and the way out: be a good husband first and the father will follow. Because the office of father never ends, and neither do your prayers for your kids.
Raise your glass.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Deacon Michael Halbrook's fourth visit, Lady Pamela's gooey butter bars, and Luke's ongoing raccoon hunt
- Hazel Baker Kentucky Straight Bourbon, a bottled-in-bond barrel pick from Father McGivney Catholic High School
- Leaving 18 years in corporate tech to build a ministry, without doing it recklessly
- Building the thing on nights and weekends while the secure paycheck was still coming
- Taking the business plan to your wife and kids and making them the board
- The back-pew moment: "You've never been the one who provided. I've always been the one who provided."
- Bishop Paprocki's rule: pray for clarity first, courage second, and why men flip the order
- Why success is more about saying no than saying yes, and the hundred failures you never see behind the one win
- Charlie Kirk's seven things and the discipline of a short list
- What the &Altar app actually is: five minutes to seed a holy hour, not to replace it
- Pray, fast, give, and tracks for the man, woman, family, teen, young adult, and elder
- Liturgical living: letting the Mass form the home instead of the other way around
- Matthew at Air Force basic training and learning to let a son go
- Protect, Provide, and the hard third pillar: Establish
- The father wound, and the men trying to be good dads with no example to copy
- Be a good husband first, and the father will follow
- Why the office of fatherhood, and your prayers for your children, never expire
Referenced in this episode:
- Deacon Michael Halbrook: permanent deacon, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois; founder of Domus Formation
- Domus Formation: https://wearedomus.com/
- &Altar app: https://andaltar.wearedomus.com/
- Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois
- Bishop David Konderla, Diocese of Tulsa ("two moments in a Catholic's life: at Mass, and getting back to Mass")
- Hazel Baker Kentucky Straight Bourbon: bottled-in-bond, Louisville, KY
- Father McGivney Catholic High School barrel selection program
- Charlie Kirk, on the discipline of focusing on a short list
- Maria von Trapp, early writer on liturgical living
- Amen app (Augustine Institute): Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Maria Faustina; True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort
