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.
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