Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#664 Commissioned for Battle-The Importance of Spiritual Formation: Review the Claymore Battle Plan
Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”
Ready for a battle plan to navigate today's spiritual warfare? This episode unveils Claymore, a discipleship program rooted in St. John Paul II's teachings that equips men, especially young men, to understand their identity and purpose in a confused world.
Jack shares exciting developments for the Claymore apostolate, including an upcoming dedicated platform and handbook divided into 52 weekly "acts" that systematically build spiritual formation and brotherhood. This isn't just another program—it's a roadmap for answering life's fundamental questions: Who am I? What's my purpose? Why are we created male and female? How do I find authentic love?
At the heart of Claymore lies the recognition that we're in a spiritual battle fought primarily on the battlefield of the human heart. The episode reviews the Claymore Battle Plan, which addresses Satan's three-pronged attack on individuals, families, and culture. You'll discover practical spiritual disciplines like the "morning solution"—beginning each day in prayer before technology—and learn how temptations can become invitations to deeper spiritual connection.
Drawing on Scripture and John Paul II's teachings, Jack explains how our daily choices shape who we become through "self-determination." We don't merely receive formation passively; we co-create ourselves with God's grace through our actions. This understanding cuts through today's moral relativism and offers clarity in confusing times.
Whether you're a young man searching for meaning or someone who cares about the next generation, this episode provides both inspiration and practical steps for reclaiming truth and building a culture of life. Join the Claymore journey and discover your role in God's larger story—because the future of our culture depends on warriors with the courage to stand for truth.
Here are the links to Read Act 3: Substack on X https://x.com/JP2Renewal
Download the Claymore Battle Plan https://jp2renew.org/claymore/
Contact us: info@jp2renew.org
Parable of the Sower and the Weeds and Wheat at Matthew 13:1-30
Welcome to the Become Who You Are podcast, the production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Rigert, your host. This is our special edition of Claymore. Claymore is an apostolate that we have within the John Paul II Renewal Center for young men and all the people that love them. They're searching. We're meeting them all the time. Actually, some older men too. So we're not excluding them, but uh they're young at heart and they're looking for something, right? What is going on in this crazy culture? And so this is what we're doing. It's a discipleship program. Very, very exciting. So what what's coming up right now, and the reason I say it's getting very exciting, is that as it's growing, it's going to have its own platform. So you'll find its own podcast, its own articles. We're writing a handbook. I'm almost done with it, but then it has to be published. So it's a little ways out there, but all of this stuff is in the works. The handbook's cool because the young guys that we met said, hey, Jack, can you can you divide this into 52 uh chapters? I call them acts, 52 acts, 52 for you, that in one year you read one a week with other people and with our group. And uh as you get to know those people, you're you're you're you're building up a relationship with them and you have this material to share. 52 and you, and over one year, you're gonna be astounded on the formation that you have. You're gonna be able to uh answer those big questions in life. Who am I? What's the meaning and purpose in life? What why did God create us male and female? How do I find happiness here on earth? What is love? How do I find love that satisfies forever? All of those things. The second thing, you're gonna make sense of the insanity in this world. It I mean, it's it's insane in so many different ways. And third, you're gonna be able to build, uh, find a role to build this out, to change the culture, to actually do your part in these small ways and not by yourself. We build out these communities, involved in the communities, you build out the culture. So we'll be going through all of that, and it's all fun, it's all a progression. And uh so we're as we're building that out, we have to realize we're in a spiritual war. This is a spiritual battle. It it and it has been for a long time, so we'll bring that up. So for I'll let you know in plenty of time when we're getting ready to move this to another platform. For for right now, you'll find everything just what you know, tune in to every uh Friday to this podcast, either on audio or on YouTube. Everything is posted on X, but then you have to scroll through down. But I'll have our X link in there. But we have a community that we just are piloting right now, so if you want to join that community, it's it's just a holder community until we get the other platform set up. But it's a way for young people, young men, and all of us, you know, all of us, to be able to find everything that's posted there. All the Friday uh videos will be there, the podcast. So I'm writing, just to make it clear, I'm writing these acts, these 52 acts. Um and every week, right now, though, you don't have to wait, because every week I'm publishing it. Today we're gonna be talking about Act Three, Commission for a Battle and the Importance of Spiritual Form and reviewing the Claymore battle plan. The link to the uh act will be in the show notes. Um and you can go back and and hopefully um read the uh the the first two that kind of open up this this whole story. So again, you can find us on X. If you want to go into the community there where you can find everything in one place instead of trying to scroll through everything, just email us. There's an email there. Most of the guys are we want to just do a referral so that we have a lot of we don't have a lot of noise in there. We just want real, you know, guys that are searching and we want to be able to just work with them and not be posting just you know every news event that comes in, drive us all crazy, right? Okay, if you have any questions, three things download for now that the Claymore battle plan will be go over and we're gonna be going over that today, just reviewing it a little bit. Think about a brother or two that you can bring in. If you haven't been, uh if somebody didn't already ask you to join, then you think about asking somebody else and share this. You don't really have to know anything. That's what the podcast is for, that's what the act is for. You read it, you're going into this journey, and I'll go through this a little bit more with you today. Got it? If you have any questions, email is there info at jp2renew.org. You let me know, and uh I'll be happy to answer any questions. Or I get that uh that email too. I'll see that too. So Commission for Battle, the importance of spiritual formation for you, because again, we're in a spiritual warfare. It starts out with Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 is very, very important, especially let's call it verses 10 and on. You'll be able to read it there. I'm just gonna read you uh verses 11 and 12. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Listen to this, for we're not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness. We are not contending against flesh and blood. You know, when you go out there and you see these crazy people yelling and screaming, you know, there's nothing I can do right at that point, you know, unless I'm protecting somebody or whatever. These people are insane. But when I'm looking at them, you know, I start praying for them because I realize they're really oppressed or feeling, you know, we i if you don't have grace, there's so many people that aren't baptized today that that have or have are baptized and have walked away from the faith. So they have no protection. And so when I look out at them, I say, that's not my enemy, that person. The enemy is the enemy. Satan is the enemy. Now he has somehow got control of them. We'll be getting into that as we go. But for right now, all right, brothers. You felt the spark of beauty from the first two. The first two acts that I wrote, really that spark of beauty coming into this beautiful story because it is a beautiful story. We have to capture that in our hearts. This isn't, this is a battle for our heart to find beauty, right? The three core things of a man, uh, the life's supposed to be an adventure. It's gonna be a battle. We always know that, but it's for beauty, huh? It's for love. So now's the time to gear up for the fight. It's a battle. And in that battle, you're called to be a warrior. And John Paul II said, You're you're made in the image of God with a heart built for love and a mission to build a culture of life. But there's an enemy out there, and he's been gunning for you since Eden, right from Genesis 3. Satan lied to Adam and Eve, and they fell, choosing his lies over the truth. Choosing his lies over the truth. That's where this culture of death started. And it's still coming for you guys to porn, division, lies that say you're not enough. You know, but you're in a story bigger than yourself. And like Sam Gamgee, what sort of tale have we fallen into? I read that in the first couple of acts. Sam Gamgee in the Fellowship of the Rings. What sort of tale have we fallen into? It's and if you really understand it, it's a love story. But ever since the fall, it's also a war. Look at this, it's just a reality. This is the war, this is the battle that we've came in, come into, you know, it's a temporal space. The enemy's been defeated by Jesus Christ. Jesus and Jesus is coming looking for you. That's why uh this is so much fun to be part of Claymore because this is in our hearts. Our hearts were made for more. So when we talk to guys, you know, we're just the mediators here and we work, we're journeying together. You know, Jesus said on the cross, you know, I thirst, I thirst, longing for you to join him in this mission. But Satan's fighting to keep you trapped, pushing a cultural lies that breaks apart individuals in hearts, families, souls. You live in an age of moral relative relativism, right? There is no truth, only my truth or your truth. Well, it's a trap. And John Paul saw this coming. He said that the family, where love and life begin, it's the heart of culture. And that's where it's attacked and disintegrates. Society either either comes alive or fails, depending on on the family. Everything centers around the family. John Paul said the the future of humanity passes by way of the family. When the family is destroyed, uh, then there's nothing to build out the culture or the nation. And we're we're in that battle. We're we've already seen the effects of that. When you look out in the world, that's what you're sensing. So Satan's targeting, how is he doing it today? Abortion? He's redefined marriage to be meaningless, right? When marriage is anything to anybody, it's it's nothing anymore. It's it's meaningless. Gender confusion. Trying to build, and this is Satan trying to build an anti-creation. What God creates good, Satan twists into the store. Don't forget he doesn't have his own clay. He can only take what God made good and twists and distort. He does it with our own hearts. He does it by killing children, you know, this gender ideologies that they push on him. He wants to reverse it. Think about that. We render those children that make it through the womb sterile. We actually cut off their body parts. All of this is rendering what? An anti-creation. We redefine marriage. You know, when you can equate, and and I'm not talking about going out and you know, bothering your same-sex neighbors or something. I I don't bother mine, right? I if I I'm civil with them. But at the end of the day, we have to know that that's not normal. Don't don't tell me that's that's that's normal. You know, we'll get into all this, but nature's law, it takes a man and a woman. You know, I mean, this isn't brain surgery, is it? I I hope I'm not uh I'm not the first guy that gave you the the the the talk, right? But it takes a man and a woman to to come together, uh, join uh in marital relationships and have children, right? Natural law. We know this already on our heart, huh? And the and the third thing, it's been revealed to us. So anything, I I'm not telling you guys anything you shouldn't know, but at the end of the day, we have to know what marriage in the family is to us, huh? And then we have to proc be able to proclaim that because there's a lot of confused people out there. Well, why do I need to uh proclaim it? Because a lot of young people are lost right now, and we need to proclaim the truth to them, right? And we're not powerless. You're made for this fight, commissioned to Christ to stand for the truth. What is the truth of things? He said, Come and see. You know, this is the most beautiful thing. You know, when you start to look at this, you go, Oh my, I don't know if I'm ready for this battle. John chapter one, read that. Verses 38, 39, let's say. These two disciples of John the Baptist start following Jesus. And Jesus just turns to them. He says, What do you seek? What do you see? Now, this is the creator of human hearts. He knows the human heart, he knows what they're after. And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? You know, we heard you speaking, something's touching our heart. We we want to continue on with you. And what does Jesus say? Come and see, come and see me, come and see the person, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, huh? I am the way, the truth, and the life. So just come, no ideology, no propaganda. This is what you guys are are sensing when you listen to the gospel. When when your heart and the gospel meet, and you have that aha moment, you go, there's truth there. This is what Jesus knows already. And and so when you have this in their heart, you know, He He knows, He knows this running through your DNA. What we're talking about here is not just more information. You can Google my information. We're talking about what's running through your heart already. So you'll know, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So hopefully you've downloaded the Claymore Battle Plan. If you haven't, maybe you want to put a pause on this podcast. Uh take a f because I want to take just a few minutes to review this with you. It's very, very important when you understand that we're in training, spiritual formation. We have to lay that down. You know, the parable of the sower, some seeds fell on rocky ground, some fell on places where the birds ate it, and then finally some fell on good soil. Good soil. So what we want to do with formation is open up our hearts to create that good soil for God's seed to come in. Otherwise, this will be something you start and then you just fall away from. Prayer, spiritual formation, opens up and gives that good seed. And then, uh, and I'll put this in the show notes. I would go on to read uh the weeds and the wheat, and how how right now you go, well, why doesn't God stop all this evil around? Well, he's allowing the weeds and the wheat to grow together, and at harvest time he'll take that out. Now, why does he do that? Think about your life. You know, you're coming into say Claymore right now and starting on this journey. Me too, at one time, right? And so one time you were the weed. I was the weed. And so now we want to become the wheat, huh? We want to open this up for the that that the good soil so the seed can start to grow and produce wheat. But we've all produced weeds, haven't we? We're all sinners. So what happens if God took me out when I was still a weed and then I suffer eternal damnation? This is why, because God's given us a chance. And so when we look at all the other weeds out there, uh, you know, we pray for them. We try to to bring them into the story. This is why it's so important, like I said earlier, to proclaim the truth to these young people that we're meeting all over the place. Men, women, etc. Some older people. Some of the old women, especially the old the old women libs, you can't do anything about it, but just love them, love them in the truth, and then don't be afraid of them. You know, they're they're they need our prayers, huh? They're lost souls. So here's the battle plan. Let's just go over this real quick. The Claymore battle plan, and you don't have to print the the front page as color, right? With St. Michael the Archangel on it. So just print with the second page. It's just black and white on purpose. When you open that up, it I'm gonna put my glasses on and just read you just a couple of things. You can read this on your own, but this is very important to have on your desk and review it. It starts out with this Claymore, Militus Christi, soldiers for Christ, the battle plan. This is from 2 Timothy. So this is St. Paul writing to a young guy, Timothy. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before many witnesses, entrust to the faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Take your share of suffering as a good soldier for Jesus Christ. So the teaching you heard from me, you take it out now. And this is the whole idea behind this, right? That we once we start to learn this, you don't have to be perfect because Claymore are the podcast, the acts that uh we're we're writing every week, and you'll be able to get that's bringing you into the story. So all you got to do is just take baby steps. You don't have to learn this all in one day. It took you a long time to get to where you're at. We got 52 weeks in you to put this whole thing together for you and you'll start to understand everything. Claymore is inspired by St. John Paul II's apostolic letter to young people, Delectia Michi, which means dear friends, and everything he wanted to tell young people and all of us. It's it has encyclicals are in here, especially on Catholic social teaching, his theology, the body. We'll we'll start to unpack all that. Again, helping you to understand who you are, identity, purpose, marriage in the family, love story, etc. This is the mo uh this is a movement of men with the courage, the reason, which always seeks the truth, and the uh intellect and the will then to join with other men, of like-minded hearts and minds, as they've done through the ages, to do what? To go out and seek the truth and to do that love, and then love people in the truth. That's how we rebuild the culture. Then finding the treasure to share it with a brother, building a community of brothers, seeking all that's true, good, and beautiful, especially the beauty of authentic love. And so this is a face-to-face thing. The podcast, yes, technology, the articles, you know, you're you're gonna read. You have a handbook, you'll have it in your hand. That's why I want to print this out uh when we're finished with it, so that you have something in your hand. You know, uh the AI and all this social media can just take you away from your heart. I'll read you one more, one or two other things. Make no mistake about it. This is a spiritual battle primarily fought on the battlefield of a man's heart, your heart, my heart. And you guys are waking up to this reality, and Claymore is that battle plan. Read the thing by Kirowatiwa, who was a cardinal who became John Paul II, Pope John Paul II. His his warning to the country and what we're in right now. So we're we're in a real battle, and we know that. But how do you find happiness? How do you find love? You you have to say, Jesus, I trust in you. This is what the divine mercy that you you listen to every morning. Jesus, I trust in you. And I usually say to him, I said, you know, and you're God, my mentor, my friend, you're God, and I'm not. So teach me, huh? Teach me today. So the battlefield defined very quickly, you can read the rest of this, but there's three things. First, he's going to attack the individual person, you, me, each one of us, right? With the porn addictions, the all kinds of stuff. But he tries to actually kill the child in the womb, so we have to fight for life. When the child makes it out of the womb, like I said, gender ideologies, twisting, distorting, all the different things he does. So we start with that. We're a body and a soul. The default position for a body and a soul without God, without grace, without the sacraments is sin and death. And you look all around, you go, where did all this sin, death, and destruction and violence comes from? No grace. So what do we do? We're we're turning into the good soil so he can plant this grace with us. Then we become a body and a soul with grace that gives us the potential for human flourishing, the potential for human freedom. And then what how do we how do how do we make that efficacious? How do we make that alive? We act. We go out and act. Will you do that through prayer and your actions, your thoughts, etc.? You create yourself. Co-create yourself, I should say. Second thing then, human person, then he goes after uh marriage in the family. And you've seen this, you know, equating same-sex marriage and these gender ideologies with actual authentic marriage. And again, this doesn't mean you have to go out and attack everybody, but you have to understand the truths because if you're gonna speak the truth, we're gonna change this culture. And if we don't, don't uh don't expect it to get any better than. And you know, the nation won't get any better. And and your future is here, you know. We'll talk about socialism, Marxism, what they're doing to you. Uh, we'll talk about work. We're gonna be talking about in the battle plan, we're gonna be talking about uh exercising, fasting, how all those things fit in. But first we got to start to work on your heart. So the third thing, he goes, you know, Satan's out to attack the culture and our nation. So that's the third part. We have to get that back. So you'll see, it all fits together. Restoring the dignity of person, restoring marriage in the family, going out, proclaiming the gospel, just step by step, baby steps. 52 uh for you. What I want to touch on today is number three, you'll see in the battle plan, spiritual formation. Fought on the battlefield of the individual heart, where a fallen world has rendered man, body and the soul, to that devolved position of sin and death. We want to restore that again. This is called self-determination, John Paul called about when you start to to understand this and you start. I remember I said a body and soul plus grace gives you the potential for human flourishing, the potential for human freedom. But but then you have to act. When I do the good, when I do good things, when I do good, I become good. Self-determination. I'm co-creating myself with the grace of God. Now when I start to do evil, you know, I become evil. I am evil. And that's the weeds in the wheat right there. It's not brain surgery. I have to take the grace and then I have to make these small actions every day to become a good person, right? So that it starts in this three-step morning solution to combat evil is knees before that phone. You have to make a connection with God before you get into this technology that wants to pull you off, unless it was just to wake you up with the alarm. Fall down on our knee your knees with our blessed mother, and you're you're kneeling with her. Let it be done to me according to your word from Luke chapter one. And then from the wedding feast of Cana, Mary, our blessed mother's looking, he says, Do whatever he tells you, do whatever my son tells you. Then the second thing, temptation's not a sin. You have to be able to use every temptation, then becomes an invitation to prayer. When I feel something, some temptation come in, we get bombarded. Sax of course is a big one, but it could be sloth, it could be all kinds of things, fear, anxiety. Just open start to open those things up. And over time, he looked at God's not a bending machine. Just because you pray one time, you know, He you have to work this thing. It's self-determination. You have to work on these virtues and these things that you may not have worked on for a long, long time. It's okay. It's okay. We're stepping back into the plan. The other thing that's very important then with after temptation, download the Divine Mercy app and just listen to it. There's a Divine Mercy, there's a small it's free. It's it'll be a just a 30-second voice you hear Sister Faustina and Jesus speaking. But that message is for us, and it's this message of mercy, and how Jesus on the cross is pouring himself out in mercy. You know, you think, I can't, you know, I'm too too many things wrong, or blah, blah. Now, baloney. You know, Christ came in to to restore and redeem us, just like the prodigal son, right? And then the third thing, charity. Love the next person you see. You get up off your knees, you act, you do good things, neighbor, friend, spouse, etc. And then you'll see the rest of it here, reading 15 minutes of scripture every day. And we tell you how to do that, like the best way that we like to do that, mass. The Eucharist is the most powerful thing you can do, but you got to go to confession first. So that's all in this battle plan. But get that first thing down, go on your knees first of all. That alone will start to change your day. The second thing on there you see is St. John Paul II studies. So that's what we do with the podcast and this 52 for you, these acts, bringing you into a holistic plan of action, getting your heart back, understanding marriage and the family, taking that foundation out into the culture and out into the uh nation. Because, you know, socialism, like Margaret Thatcher said, socialism, she she was the she was the prime minister of uh of Britain when uh Ronald Reagan was president here in the United States. It was very, very cool that uh she said that socialism is the step to Marxism, communism, which we're seeing this battle in the United States. Socialism works great until you run out of other people's money. Well, here in the United States, we've run out of other people's money. We're in huge debt. This is what's causing inflation, etc. So we'll get into all those things so you understand that the world of work, the importance of all of that. So here's the battle plan overview. First, know your enemy. Satan's lies are old. Adam blamed Eve and got it in one sentence there, you know, after he committed sin and he's hiding there. Eve blamed the serpent. Today everybody's blaming everybody else. Just listen to the news. This is cultural Marxism. Just know this is the plan. An atheistic vision of man fuels it. It's pitying man against woman, rich against poor, black against white, a constant barrage fueling division. It's always the same thing. If you get caught up in this, just know it. You know, you start, your heart starts to go, oh my gosh, you know, blame game, this, no, no, no. Step back from all that stuff. Take a little break. Social media is a master at this. Second, arm yourself with prayer. St. Paul wrote again, put on the armor of God that you may be able to resist against the wiles of the devil, for we're not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness and heavenly places. And when they say powers, rulers of this present age, principalities, those are ranks of angels, and then we're dealing with the fallen angels. John Paul called prayer your lifeline and makes the Son of God present among us. It's prayer that does that. God is here, God is all around us. You want him in your heart? You got to say yes. You know, this is a love story, and uh God's not gonna force any of us to do anything. You have to be able to do that. How will I know then? You know, you start hitting your knees daily first thing in the morning. It's how you stay sharp and become a person of love. You'll you'll know pretty quick. You start journeying with Claymore, with with your brothers and stuff, staying in prayer, starting to receive the sacraments, you're gonna know because it's it'll be it's it'll be part of your heart. Pope Benedict XVI said, you know, the the this choice to follow Jesus, to become one with Jesus, to open yourself in prayer. He said it's never gonna be an ethical decision or some lofty moral or a physic uh philosophical idea. It's an encounter with an event, an encounter with a person. That encounter with the person is Jesus Christ. Gives you a new horizon, a way to look at the world, the culture, the nation, etc., and a decisive direction for your life. You know, when I look at Christ, I say, you know, this world's passing by. It's temporal, it's not going to be here very long. You know, if I last another 20 years, what is that? It's it's a blink of an eye, really. And so just know it's passing by. You become that person of love. The Bible says love God and then love a neighbor, that's the greatest commandment. Live it out, be selfless, start to protect the weak. Right now, feed the poor, honor all women as sisters, forth, fight for truth. You can speak up at school board meetings, join grassroots movements, pray in the public square. Don't let lies win. We'll be going through all that. This is just baby steps for now. I'm just giving you some ideas. But you're not just fighting for yourself, though. You become selfless. You're part of God's larger story, cooperating with his plan. This is the Charlie Kirk's of the world. You know, Charlie understood this very, very well. When he looked at these young people, he's he wanted to save their souls. That's why he was out there. He he was an evangelist. He knew that they were part of God's larger story, but they didn't know it. So all of creation's on this journey, especially human beings, and you've got a role. We're gonna build the city of God, not the city of man. Every choice you make, love over lust, truth over lies, shapes you and then shapes the culture in a little way. And then God does all the work. John Paul said, be not afraid. You're a warrior and brothers, commissioned for battle. So the next few acts are gonna go deeper into the family, the fight for the truth. So gear up, huh? It's time to roll. If you have any questions, let me know. There's review discussion questions in the in this act. Again, it'll be linked in the show notes. Print out the Claymore battle plan, read that parable of the sower, parable of the weeds among the wheat today, and just spend some time quiet with with God. You'll love it. Go through the other uh discussion questions there with somebody. Just start to think about these things, come into the story. Hey, God bless you. Talk to you soon, everybody.