Kako biti džentlmen

In short: a great little book, perfect for gifts to give to any man (mine was a gift too). I recommend it and I have underestimated it.When I first started reading it, I wasn't impressed. The chapters in the first half of the book talk about generic things regarding masculinity, being a gentleman, the virtues, fatherhood etc. but this was nothing new for me, nothing I haven't heard elsewhere before and simply nothing special, nothing that would set this book apart from other guides to manliness. I found the way it is written rather weak, because there are many short chapters which are in no way connected to each other, so in the beginning it felt like I was just reading a random collection of short blog articles.Now, after I've read it, I see that this is actually a very pleasant way to read. Each chapter covers one topic, therefore one can read one chapter a night and reflect on it and read this book slowly, without having to fear that one will lose the plot because they are not connected.As I delved deeper into the book, around halfway in, the chapters started to get better and better and spoke to me more and more. Some of them were the chapters on suffering, the value of work, sainthood, community, prayer and the Blessed Virgin Mary.Sam Guzman is not a theologian, a heavy-hitting philosopher or a mystic who shares complex wisdom with us, but he has read a lot of books and has shown the talent to compress all that knowledge in short and easily digestible chapters. Again, the author didn't introduce me to new concepts, but the pleasant writing style and repetition of hearing the same things put in simpler words have helped. Repetitio est mater studiorum really applies here.I was reading [b:The Ways of Mental Prayer 2579218 The Ways of Mental Prayer Vitalis Lehodey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327971702l/2579218.SY75.jpg 2593607] - a book on advanced mental prayer written by a 19th-century-born Cistercian abbot, endorsed by none other than Pope St. Pius X. and recommended to me through a talk given by none other than the traditional, FSSP-educated exorcist and Thomist Fr Chad Ripperger - at the same time as I was reading The Catholic Gentleman. While I was learning all about the ins and outs of mental prayer from such a learned author, I still benefitted from Guzman's simple words in his short chapter on prayer. Sometimes, we really do just need to hear the same things over and over again, put in simpler words.