Welcome to Ascetic Warfare

You’re soft.

I don’t know you. But I know this: you’re softer than your grandfather. Softer than the men that built cathedrals. Softer than the monks who woke up at 3AM to pray in freezing stone cells.

You know it too. That’s why you’re here.

You can’t go 3 hours without checking your phone.

You can’t fast for a day without thinking of food every 10 minutes.

You can’t pray fifteen minutes without your mind wandering to work, sex, or what you’re going to eat later.

You’re distracted. Addicted. Controlled by your appetites.

And you’re tired of it.

This is War

The Desert Fathers had a word for what you’re feeling: acedia. Spiritual Sloth. The noonday demon. That suffocating sense that nothing matters, that discipline is impossible, that you’ll always be this way.

They didn’t write self-help books about it.

They went in the desert and fought.

They fasted til their bodies screamed. They prayed until their knees bled. They lived in caves and fought demons. Literal ones and the ones inside their own skulls.

They called it spiritual warfare. Because that’s what it is.

You’re not struggling with “bad habits”. You’re in a war. And you’re losing.

The Ancient Weapons

For 1,700 years, men have used three weapons to win this war:

Fasting.

Not “intermittent fasting” to look good on the beach. Real fasting. The kind that empties you. The kind that reminds you that your body doesn’t own you.

Prayer.

Not “manifest your best life” nonsense. Real prayer. Structured. Disciplined. The kind Benedictine monks did in the middle of the night because they knew the battle never stops.

Discipline.

Not motivation. Not inspiration. Systems. Rules. A regiment you follow whether you feel like it or not.

These aren’t life hacks. They’re weapons.

And they work.

Why I Started This

My name is Agostino.

I’m Catholic. I study the Rule of St. Benedict. A 1,500 year old manual on how to live with an iron discipline. I fast. I pray. I fight the same battles you do.

I’m not a monk. I’m not a saint. I’m just a guy who got tired of being controlled by his phone, his appetite, and his laziness.

So I started doing what the monks did.

And it worked.

Not overnight. Not easily. But it worked.

Now I’m teaching it to other men.

What You’ll Get Here

Every week, I’ll send you:

• Fasting protocols that work

• Prayer systems you can follow (not vague “spend time with God” advice)

• Discipline strategies from monastic tradition

• The truth about spiritual warfare (Christian, you’re in the fight like it or not)

No motivational fluff.

No “10 tips to be your best self.”

Just the hard practices that monks used to become unbreakable.

See The Logo?

They praying hands holding a rosary?

That’s not a decoration.

The rosary is a weapon. Monks knew it. Soldiers carried them into battle.

Prayer isn’t passive. It’s combat.

Every Hail Mary is a punch thrown at the enemy trying to destroy you.

You’re not here to “find inner peace”. You’re here to fight and win.

One Warning

This will be hard.

Fasting hurts. Prayer feels like talking to a wall sometimes. Discipline means doing things you don’t want to do.

You will come under spiritual attack. Temptations will increase. Remember the devil tempted Christ after 40 days in the desert.

If you want easy, there are a thousand other newsletters.

But if you’re ready to stop being soft. If you’re ready to fight. Then you’re in the right place.

Let’s Go

You didn’t end up here by accident.

You’re here because you know somethings wrong. You know you’re capable of more. You know your grandfather wouldn’t recognize the man you’ve become.

Good.

That’s where it starts.

Welcome to Ascetic Warfare.

The fight begins now.

—Agostino

P.S. Reply to this and tell me: What’s the one area where you know you’re losing the fight right now? Phone? Porn? Food? Drink? Be honest. I read every response.

---