Here’s a little something to lift your heart on a Sunday, a story about a huge gathering of men in Milwaukee, all eager to learn and live the gospel message:

Father Larry Richards, host of Relevant Radio’s “Changed Forever” program, didn’t pull any punches as the leadoff speaker for the second annual Men of Christ Conference on Saturday.

“We need men” to follow Jesus, Richards said as he prodded and challenged 3,000 Catholic men in State Fair Park’s Expo Center to reach for heaven instead of possessions, power and pleasure.

Like a spiritual football coach with a sense of humor, he told stories about his own wayward father and ridiculed priests who tell people they are doing fine just the way they are.

When he asked the crowd to hold up their Bibles, he knew what he would get. Few people had one with them.

“Oh, you’re going to hell,” he said, smiling, as he told them to get a Bible and use it.

He made the message clear that God loves them deeply but the status quo carries eternal consequences, and any ticket to heaven includes knowledge of God’s Scriptures, daily prayer and the realization that “when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.”

When most men are asked if they pray daily, they say that they try, he said.

“What!” he said. “Do you ‘try’ to eat every day? If you don’t eat, you’ll die. If you don’t pray, you’ll die.”

His call for humility in prayer and boldness in actively living Catholicism drew applause.

“If that doesn’t challenge you, if that doesn’t give you inspiration to go out and live for God, for Christ, then you must be dead,” said Andy Meier, 54, a Hartland-area man who was critically injured last year when a bus carrying mainly Wisconsin pilgrims crashed in Bosnia en route to the Catholic shrine of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje. “I’m paralyzed from my chest down, and I wanted to stand up and give God a standing ovation.”

Another speaker, Father Richard Heilman, founder of a group called The Knights of Divine Mercy, cautioned men against seeking false Holy Grails of happiness through materialism and urged them to go to confession and put Jesus first in their lives instead of being impotent in spiritual battles against evil.

Organized by a few laymen to meet the needs of Catholic men and boys, the first conference drew 2,200 to West Bend last year. The event was moved to State Fair Park so it could grow. Lenos Villegas, a spokesman, said they had hoped for at least 3,000 this year and were pleased.

With an emphasis on traditional devotion and teachings, the conference also included more than 70 priests hearing confessions. At one point, some 300 men, some with sons, were in line.

Go ahead and read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you did.