What is The Rule?
The Rule — Office of Custos: Counsels and Directives for Husbands and Fathers outlines seven sections that constitute the spirituality of the Custos, and 88 specific counsels, rules, and directives that aid men in living this essential and transformational way of life. These seven sections constitute a rule for Catholic masculine spirituality with precision and clarity, helping a man discern when God is operative in his mission and when the evil spirits are at hand, and the actions to take to be triumphant in the spiritual battle.
Each week a counsel/directive from our soon to be published book, The Rule, will be posted.
April 8, 2024
Let the Custos understand and interpret the relationships, daily responsibilities, obligations, services, trials–in a word, all that constitutes his vocational role and responsibility–as the analogy of the bridegroom and the analogy of fatherhood. As a theatrical drama, or a fictional novel, often expresses an analogy to cement a proposed theory or concept in a person’s mind in a memorable way, so God uses a man’s vocation as husband and father to...... READ MORE
March 26, 2024
Let the Custos be aware that by sacramentally vowing himself in lifelong fidelity to his wife, and by swearing before God to receive and raise children to God, he has irrevocably embraced his vocation as a husband and father as his primary path to holiness, glory, and union with God; therefore he must not look for another primary path.... READ MORE
March 18, 2024
Let the Custos be aware that the evil spirits are bent on conditioning him to seek honors, validation, glory, and affirmation from men. For if the Custos seeks the glory of men he becomes incapable of glorifying God, for he is determined to glorify himself. If the Custos is determined to please men, he becomes incapable of pleasing God. As the holy apostle warns, ... READ MORE
March 18, 2024
Let the Custos be aware that when encountering tests, trials, tribulations, sufferings and setbacks, the evil spirits will gravely tempt him to doubt the goodness of the fatherhood of God; to believe that God is distant; that God is the cause of his sufferings; that God is his enemy; and that God the Father is not trustworthy. Doubt in God is the greatest insult against His divine benevolence and therefore the evil spirits ... READ MORE
March 18, 2024
Let the Custos understand that only the son who trusts that God is his loving Father, and that God the Father’s love is all-sufficient, becomes capable of emptying himself of vain ambitions, seeking human honor, clinging to status and human glory, while also becoming a servant to others, obediently embracing the Cross of Jesus Christ. The holy apostle says, ... READ MORE
February 9, 2024
Let the Custos understand that his entire vocation, and in fact his entire life, and his very salvation depend upon him believing, receiving, embracing and trusting that God is his Father, and that he is God’s son in the Son of God; that God has chosen him for His own; that God loves him for who he is and not for what he has done or will do; and that God wills to perfect him in ... READ MORE
