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2 episodes with what st
2 episodes with what st
2 episodes with what st
2 episodes with what st
What makes therapy Catholic—and is it really just adding a rosary to the session? In this unique episode, Dr. Greg is the one answering the questions, sitting down with college student Lucina Frank who's wrestling with how to bring her faith into the world of psychology. Their conversation pulls back the curtain on why CatholicPsych's approach feels so different—because it is—and how it responds to the deep hunger for healing that actually honors both our humanity and our faith. Whether you've been skeptical, searching, or simply curious, you'll walk away seeing therapy—and the Church's role in it—through a whole new lens. Key Topics: Why “just adding prayer” isn't what makes therapy Catholic The real difference between faith-informed and faith-integrated therapy How a Catholic understanding of suffering changes the entire therapeutic goal What St. John Paul II's personalism offers that secular psychology can't How CatholicPsych is meeting a deeper need in the Church—and why it matters The danger of over-spiritualizing therapy (and how to avoid it) Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction 03:07 – From Divorce to Vocation: Dr. Greg's Journey to Becoming a Therapist 09:05 – What's the Therapeutic Approach at CatholicPsych? 13:15 – Leading Clients Toward True Human Flourishing 17:00 – Therapy Isn't About Erasing Suffering 21:32 – Faith-Informed vs. Faith-Integrated Therapy 28:54 – Do Catholic Therapists Just Add a Rosary to the Sessions? 32:19 – Where Does Spiritual Direction Fit in Therapy? 41:12 – Why St. Thomas Aquinas Still Matters in Modern Psychology 46:22 – What St. Thomas Got Wrong about Gender Learn More: CatholicPsych's model of daily accompaniment: Integrated Daily Dialogic Mentorship Spiritual Passages by Fr. Benedict Groeschel Discernment of Spirits course by Dr. Greg Bottaro Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) Mulieris Dignitatem by Pope John Paul II Related Episode: Ep. 197: Correcting Aquinas: JP2's Truth Bomb on Gender and Human Dignity Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment Follow Us on Socials: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter (X) | LinkedIn
What St. John Vianney say to a Protestant.
(00:00-19:55) Caller Adam has a bone to pick and would like the stage. And he's been removed from the stage. GOAT this man. Pulling back the curtain of the TMA Listener of the Month competition. Cardinal draft picks haven't really blossomed into superstars. The 11 most iconic plays in Suber Bowl history. Edmonds gave that dump button a workout. (20:04-44:58) Jacob Kirn of the St. Louis Business Journal joins us. Some South Countians in the Facebook comments of Jacob's article don't care for Tim. Talking about the St. Louis Board of Aldermen meeting. Accusations of alcohol use. Dysfunction abound. Discussion of use of the Rams money. Mutiny on the floor of the Board. The board reconvening today. What St. Louis County is doing with ther share of the money. (45:07-1:03:55). Andy Crouppen is in studio with a nice little ensemble on. Solving the city's problems during the commercial break. The Telepathy Tapes. Deja vu. Delving into lunacy. Martin had some lean last week. Barrett Sports Medias mid-market morning drive rankings. Dirt & Sprague. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
(00:00-19:55) Caller Adam has a bone to pick and would like the stage. And he's been removed from the stage. GOAT this man. Pulling back the curtain of the TMA Listener of the Month competition. Cardinal draft picks haven't really blossomed into superstars. The 11 most iconic plays in Suber Bowl history. Edmonds gave that dump button a workout. (20:04-44:58) Jacob Kirn of the St. Louis Business Journal joins us. Some South Countians in the Facebook comments of Jacob's article don't care for Tim. Talking about the St. Louis Board of Aldermen meeting. Accusations of alcohol use. Dysfunction abound. Discussion of use of the Rams money. Mutiny on the floor of the Board. The board reconvening today. What St. Louis County is doing with ther share of the money. (45:07-1:03:55). Andy Crouppen is in studio with a nice little ensemble on. Solving the city's problems during the commercial break. The Telepathy Tapes. Deja vu. Delving into lunacy. Martin had some lean last week. Barrett Sports Medias mid-market morning drive rankings. Dirt & Sprague. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lessons from St. Paul on engaging our duties with Father Nathan Cromly founder of the St. John Institute. (6:11) Why you don't need to avoid or overcome your fears, mistakes or the holes in your life. (22:44) What St. Paul teaches us about confidence, pain, and courage. (33:00) Nearly 900 medals lost by women to men pretending to compete as women while protest against San Jose State continue (43:31) Resources mentioned : Fr. Nathan Cromly – Saint John Institute https://www.saintjohninstitute.org/ Coached by Paul the Apostle: Lessons in Transformation https://scepterpublishers.org/products/coached-by-paul-the-apostle-lessions-in-transformation?srsltid=AfmBOopTys0DgHYLY3DgN-CZtRIWICG17ShVJQfJX7JbopooDshcGoDf&variant=44218634764465 UN report: women lost 890 sports medals to males who claimed to be ‘trans' women https://catholicvote.org/un-report-women-lost-890-sports-medals-to-males-who-claimed-to-be-trans-women/?mkt_tok=NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGWXNuw_aYU7115kkodvmQro8FXeevs0sxNsM1Lndugm0-nGFnblerMnG1efcswhsKDgdlSEdnvGf1azrA6Jk7oLuF36PoubfEs9H94s0D2ew Dem rep speaks out after reversing course on men in women's sports following Harris' loss https://catholicvote.org/dem-rep-speaks-out-after-reversing-course-on-men-in-womens-sports-following-harris-loss/?mkt_tok=NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGWvuvCi2PmpYMIC142kRnN2nn_vTEu24uuQKMujfS_tjBSRb4HpJGiVE0QNcIKCR0QcHJyIwnjIvfqt7HB1kpNVBDolSzYN6oxd-4dQ_cm-Q Australia women's national team lose to Under-16 boys https://www.thedailystar.net/sports/australia-womens-natl-team-loses-u-16-boys-1230229 FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women's National Team in a scrimmage https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/
The early church had some table trouble. What St. Paul shared with the church at Corinth is as relevant now as it was then. Special Note: This is World Communion Sunday when churches from across denominations choose to take communion on the same day and reflect on what this holy, unifying meal means. 1 Cor 11:17-34.
The experience of loneliness is one that many people can relate to. What St. Thérèse describes as her “saddest” years are marked with loneliness. Her years at school found St. Thérèse without many friends and even bullied. Another element of her suffering in these years was the entrance of Pauline into Carmel. Fr. Jacob-Bertrand and Fr. Michael-Joseph ponder the hardships that St. Thérèse endured and how God's presence was evident throughout them. To get your copy of the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/catholicclassics or text "SOUL" to 33-777.
On the 26th episode of Bomb Squad Matinee, Tanner and Tim discuss the 2009 Jason Reitman-directed George Clooney-starring dramedy Up In the Air. Does this film hold up 15 years later? Is the romantic plot strong enough to justify being labeled as a romcom? What St. Louis-based talent worked on this film? Tune in to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bombsquadproductions/support
THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 03.06.2024 Ann Dorn of the Captain David Dorn Foundation talks about her late husband David Dorn | Why she started the David Dorn Foundation | What's in the first responder bag they give out | What St. Louis city needs to do about crime | Check out the trivia night on Friday April 12th at the Festus Elks Lodge | There's a breakdown in the court system and parole system in St. Louis https://dornfoundation.com/ FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstream RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 0:00 SEG 1 Trump is picking up Biden voters | Michelle Obama threw her name out of the hat | AOC chased out of the theater by insane leftists | Kathy Hochul deploys National Guard to subway system Today's Speaker's Stump Speech is brought to you by https://www.hansenstree.com/ and is about Texas' Speaker of the House being forced into a runoff election 17:03 SEG 2 Ann Dorn of the Captain David Dorn Foundation, talks about her late husband David Dorn | Why she started the David Dorn Foundation | What's in the first responder bag they give out | What St. Louis city needs to do about crime | Check out the trivia night on Friday April 12th at the Festus Elks | Breakdown of the court system and parole in St. Louis https://dornfoundation.com/ 32:03 SEG 3 Presidential trivia | Women-owned companies FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstream RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 03.06.2024 Ann Dorn of the Captain David Dorn Foundation talks about her late husband David Dorn | Why she started the David Dorn Foundation | What's in the first responder bag they give out | What St. Louis city needs to do about crime | Check out the trivia night on Friday April 12th at the Festus Elks Lodge | There's a breakdown in the court system and parole system in St. Louis https://dornfoundation.com/ FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstream RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 0:00 SEG 1 Trump is picking up Biden voters | Michelle Obama threw her name out of the hat | AOC chased out of the theater by insane leftists | Kathy Hochul deploys National Guard to subway system Today's Speaker's Stump Speech is brought to you by https://www.hansenstree.com/ and is about Texas' Speaker of the House being forced into a runoff election 17:03 SEG 2 Ann Dorn of the Captain David Dorn Foundation, talks about her late husband David Dorn | Why she started the David Dorn Foundation | What's in the first responder bag they give out | What St. Louis city needs to do about crime | Check out the trivia night on Friday April 12th at the Festus Elks | Breakdown of the court system and parole in St. Louis https://dornfoundation.com/ 32:03 SEG 3 Presidential trivia | Women-owned companies FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstream RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Everything outside of planet earth we call “space” or “outer space.” This inversion is about reclaiming wonder for “the heavens,” which has been lost during the onslaught of “The Enlightenment,” for which a better name would be “The Great Flattening,” “The Vanilla-ing,” or perhaps “The Vacuuming” since we have undergone three centuries of sucking the enchantment out of life, making heaven and all spiritual things prohibited from the public square. Instead of lying in the grass or on rooftops looking up in awe at the incredible depth of the heavens, we now are face down looking at Webb telescope pictures of space on our phones. What a buzzkill. The pictures are amazing, but the wonder is gone if we just see the pics as the images of a mechanical automation spun off by an absentee creator. Even the word space tastes like a saltine cracker compared to the triple-fudge sundae of the word heavens. Perhaps you noticed that the word is plural in some translations of the opening line of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.” In some translations, heaven is singular, but most use the plural form. This requires some inspection because we tend to only think of heaven as where God is, but the bible uses this word to mean the sky, the stars, and where the angels and saints live. Before going too far in this inversion, let's set a stake in the ground as a marker. Whether we say “heavens” or “heaven” matters little in the end. What matters is enchantment. When you are re-enchanted to say “heavens” instead of “space,” heaven becomes larger and more inclusive than what the engineers and physicists have taught us to believe. Seeing the “heavens” opens creation back up to link the immaterial with the material. Much like the composite of our body and soul, so are the heavens of the angels and the stars and the saints and the sky. All of God's creation brings the believer a collective wonder. So how many heavens are there? Or how many levels? Dante had ten. But according to St. Paul, there are three. Let's stick with St. Paul. He said, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” In the days of creation, we can also read of the three heavens: * Atmosphere or air, the place of birds and clouds.* The starry heaven, what we now call by more dull names, like space or the universe.* Highest heaven. The third heaven. The heaven closest to God. The unseen, invisible realm, is best described in the book of Revelation. Also known as paradise. We still use terms like this today when speaking of the heavens, but we mean different things when talking about heaven at a funeral versus talking about the heavens in astronomy class. The first answer everyone wishes to know is: what is this third heaven? Is it a place? Is it a dimension? We often use metaphors of mountains or clouds with our imaginations, but imagination is a bit dangerous. Popular ideas about heaven imagined by artists suggest that it's all harps and pearly gates. Seems kind of weak. This is likely why many people would rather rock out at a music festival than pursue heaven. Harps and golden gates lack appeal. Did it ever appeal to anyone? I think not. Please set those old artistic images aside and think of them no longer, because Jesus doesn't elaborate when he tells the apostles that he will go to make a place for them, making no mention of harps or gates. He only speaks of “dwelling places”:In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. (Jn 14:2-3)So it is a place, but a place we cannot fully know yet. It's a house of some kind. A good spiritual reading on heavenly places is The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila. Now there is a mystic that needs to be read by modern people. She embraced the mystery of the heavens and had the gift of articulation for this place that can never be fully articulated in human words. Mystics like Teresa of Avila can lead us toward God without giving us a formulaic answer. This is frustrating for us in the age of data because we want to know all the details, but Jesus says if we know him, we will know the way to this house - and that is sufficient for our salvation. We want all the data, but one of the most important steps toward humility before God is accepting that we cannot know all because we are not God. This concept of the “place” of heaven where the saints exist is a mystery, and the greatness of the act of faith, from the Trinity, to the Incarnation, to the Eucharist at Mass is enmeshing our whole minds, hearts, bodies, and souls into these mysteries in humble prayer. This “place” of heaven is yet another wonderful mystery, which is why meditating on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary every Wednesday and Sunday is a great way to spend a holy hour. But like many mysteries, Jesus gives clues. “I go to make a place for you,” tells the apostles there would be a place for them to be after earthly death. The third heaven is that place. In other words, what we usually think of as heaven means the third heaven that St. Paul speaks of when his friend in Christ was “caught up” to the third heaven. This is powerful language. St. Paul, like his friend in Christ, is a saint, which means his soul is in the third heaven, even though the bodily resurrection has not yet happened. A few people have been “taken up” body and soul to heaven already. We know that Jesus' resurrected body and soul went to heaven on his own power, in the mystery of the Ascension. The only other human we know for certain was taken up body and soul into heaven is the Mother of God, Mary. She was assumed into heaven, as in pulled up body and soul. As for us regular humans who experienced the effects of the Fall, we know of three specific people in the bible who seem to have been pulled up to the third heaven. * Enoch in Genesis 5: “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” * Elijah goes up to the third heaven in a fiery chariot. * Moses' resting place is unknown and it is a traditional pious belief that he was taken up to heaven. This brings us to one of the strangest events in the Gospels, which is why you should pause on this mystery every Thursday during the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. I'm talking about the Transfiguration, which has much to do with heaven. Jesus takes three apostles to a mountaintop. Jesus turns into pure light. “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.” Now, the light aspect of this event requires a whole chapter of its own, but for now, just consider who appears with Jesus. Moses and Elijah, two spiritual heavyweights, flank Jesus. Notably, these two men are believed to have gone straight up to heaven. Could it be a preview of the third heaven for the apostles? Could it be that Jesus is showing a glimpse of the unseen, invisible heaven? Yes. Of course it is. What are Moses and Elijah doing? They are talking with Jesus. Understand, please, that this is heaven. They are face-to-face and talking to God. To paraphrase another quote from St. Paul, he says that here on earth we see through a glass darkly but in heaven we will be face to face with God. What is happening at the Transfiguration? We see in heaven Moses and Elijah are face to face, speaking with God. That's what heaven is. No harp is needed. Consider the sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Those who have been purified live in rest, in peace, with God, face to face.No wonder Peter is stunned and stammers some nonsense. He hasn't been purified yet for heaven. James and John also fall to the ground when God speaks. And what mere human wouldn't fall to his knees and stammer at this sight? That is actually the correct response. They see their infinite unequalness to God's glory. Seeing Jesus turn blindingly bright and talking to the long-deceased Moses and Elijah - that alone would bring jaw-dropping wonder. Enter in the booming, thunderous voice of God. Then add the glory cloud of the Holy Spirit. Peter, James, and John are alive in space and time, yet somehow amid the Holy Trinity and two of God's most holy chosen people who bore crosses for God to the end, who endured and gained their eternal souls. This would be enough to make us all fall to the ground. But that is the point. That is how we should experience the Trinity. After all, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom comes from humility before God. Peter repeatedly learns that God is not his equal or just some extra thing in his life, but that God is infinitely higher and utterly central to his life. Best of all, his preview of heaven in the Transfiguration was recorded by the apostle John so that we can all go there, to the mountain, again and again, and see the preview that Jesus offered. Contemplative prayer done on the mountain of Transfiguration is where the intellect, will, and even the dangerous imagination can seek a glimpse of heaven. We can see the sky and the stars, but we cannot see the third heaven without the help of scripture and prayer. The invisible realm is beyond reason and requires the submission of our intellect and will to see. Another example of a clue about heaven is when Jesus is dying on the cross. He tells St. Dismas, the Good Thief, that “today you will be with me in paradise.” He's not talking about Hawaii. He's talking about the third heaven. It is the place of everlasting worship of God, where everyone lives in obedience to God. And what is paradise? It's not likely what you think. Basically, paradise is where everyone just lives out the Ten Commandments. That is what heaven is: people living in joyous obedience to God and singing together, without trying to win or one-up God or each other. That is what the music of the birds and clouds and stars and planets and angels and saints is. Paradise is kind of like the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas where all the Whos in Whoville sing together out of joy even after all their consumer stuff is stolen. In fact, the Good Thief in his humiliation on the cross is being purged and purified for paradise right alongside God incarnate. He has a change, a repentance, a turning to Jesus. Obedience to God comes late to him, but the only thing that matters is this: it comes. It happens. Yes, perhaps he only labored in the field for an hour, but Jesus is generous and gives him the full day's wages. He's already singing God's praise while being tortured to death. St. Dismas now desires to be obedient, not out of fear, not for the promise of heaven, but out of the joy that comes from the forgiveness of a loving Father. He wants to follow the Commandments and live in harmony with God's will. And what happens when his turn is pure and true? He is granted entry into paradise by Christ. Jesus says that heaven is paradise. Again, no harps. In the end, the third heaven isn't that hard to understand, because it's just people living the commandments and embracing God's love by giving up their will and ego. What St. Dismas discovers in his last hours is what many of us never will, because our own will is in the way of God's will. Regarding this mysterious third heaven, the question of time arises. I spent a lot of time discussing the nature of time in the first inversion. But here we must consider the nature of time once more. This falls into mystery territory as well. Jesus is like a best friend who won't tell all the spoilers, he only tells us what we need to know to have ultimate enjoyment, or what is known as the beatific vision - pure happiness - upon reaching heaven. If we are talking about heaven as the sky and stars, then time certainly exists, as we can track asteroids and land rockets on Mars. We measure wind in terms of miles per hour. But if we mean the third heaven, empyrean - the highest heaven of the angels and saints - then I'm afraid that knowing the nature of time is beyond my pay grade. God is eternal, outside of time, because he created time. The Maker, the Prime Mover, the First Cause is most certainly outside of time, but can also be present in time, as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the Incarnation of Christ prove. However, what of time in the heavens of the angels and saints? There is an idea from St. Thomas Aquinas and others called aeviternity, which is not quite the same as eternity. This is not much spoken of today, but I wish it were. Time may be different in St. Paul's “third heaven,” where the saints are. Does time exist in the highest heaven? What do we need to know about it, if anything? Jimmy Akin's “Hitchhiker's Guide to Heaven” can help us here. Connected with the question of whether heaven is a particular place is the issue of whether time exists in it.A popular conception is that it does not. The logic is fairly simple: God exists outside of time. God dwells in heaven. Therefore, there is no time in heaven.That's true enough when heaven is conceived of exclusively as the dwelling place of God, but it is not true when it is conceived of as a place that is occupied by angels and by humans after their deaths. In that case, a different sense of the word time is involved.The First Vatican Council taught that God “from the beginning of time brought into being from nothing the twofold created order, that is the spiritual and the bodily, the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human which is, in a way, common to both since it is composed of spirit and body.”This indicates that the spiritual realm is created and subject to time. Thus John Paul II taught that eternity, in the sense of being beyond time, “is here the element which essentially distinguishes God from the world. While the latter is subject to change and passes away, God remains beyond the passing of the world” (General Audience, Sept. 4, 1985). In short, time may exist in the highest heaven, or some form that we don't fully understand. But the good news - great news - is that if we partake in the Sacraments and die in a state of grace, we will learn the answer. As far as salvation goes, we need not know the details about the place Jesus prepares. This is difficult, but this is where the mysteries of the faith can be great sources of meditation and humility. God is first. The heavens are mentioned as his initial step in creation. Earth comes afterward. Worth noting here is that the heavens are created, as God created “out of nothing.” That is to say, the heavens did not exist before or concurrently with God. Like time, it was also created. Like the stars and the sky, the highest heaven is also created. The thrones, dominions, powers, and principalities - all are created by God who created all out of nothing. In this order of introduction regarding creation, heaven gets top billing over earth. This doesn't belittle earth, it simply makes an argument that the spiritual realm existed before matter. This is why spirit is higher than matter. This is why we should realize that our soul has a body, too, as the spirit gives life to the material realm. This order also places us in the proper posture of humility before God, because there is an order to creation and even beings within creation.Interestingly, this ordering fits with modern science, but I don't think that's the main point, since the sacred writer was making a point about religious truth, not modern physics. Genesis is not a math book or science book, but a book of higher truths. But still, it makes me pause to notice the accuracy: according to the Big Bang theory, the heavens were created first, if by the word “heavens” we mean the parts needed for making stars. Truly, heavens is a term worth much contemplation, because it can mean the stars and the sky, or it can mean the spiritual realm - or it can mean both - and it does. Just as we have both souls and bodies, so do the heavens. There is the spiritual heaven and the starry heaven. As it turns out, astrology is mostly nonsense, but they are correct about a couple of things: the position of Saturn and Jupiter and Alpha Centauri do matter to us, because like the planets and stars, we also have matter and all of these bodies have a gravitational effect on each other. But the effect of the stars and planets is not focused on us. That's the mistake of astrology. The music of the spheres in the heavens has the purpose of glorifying God, and that's all. Indeed, these heavenly bodies matter to us, because like all of creation, they matter to God. But they do not dictate our moods or beliefs, because all things created by God that didn't experience the Fall are still rightly aimed at God in their purpose. The birds and clouds in the nearest heaven are good, just as the harmonic motion of the starry night is good, but best of all is the highest heaven, where the angels continually sing God's praises. However, the angels are just doing what the stars and birds are, which is glorifying God. Like the birds, we should live our lives as a small humming in the great song of creation. Just as birds sing, we should make our own song of praise. Birds are fruitful and they multiply, working and singing, and so should we. The stars are in motion, dancing and giving light, and so should we. The saints give witness to the lights that we too can become through the humble offering of ourselves for the glory of God. No bird or star competes with God, rather, they are in concert with God. No bird or star attempts to make a name for itself, rather, they make a name for God. The birds, stars, and angels give us the same lesson that Christ did. The education of Christ surrounds us in the heavens, if only we would forget about ourselves to partake in the great play of creation. The goal of life is to reach heaven, yet as Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is among us.” “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Forget honor and wealth; look upward to the heavens, as the birds and stars and angels do. The point here is to be inverted in your understanding of the heavens: all of creation glorifies God, from the birds to the stars to the seraphim. This is why the “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” is sung right before the Eucharistic prayer at Mass. The “Hosts” of this song are the seraphim, the cherubim, and the angels, in the highest heaven, the third heaven. Like any concert, there are lights raised in the audience, moving in unison, and to partake in the divine nature, we raise our light to play a part in this amazing show, so that while we are just one little light, we can see that we are part of a whole. Every anonymous star adds to the majesty of the night sky, despite getting no name or notice. Our little light of faith is part of the whole, and we can share in the joy because of the certainty that God is at the center of all things, not us. Next time at Mass, when you sing the following words, know that you are part of a choir that includes all of creation, from us on earth and upward to all three heavens. This is why the Mass is more than just an obligation, it is a gift: Holy, holy, holyLord God of Hosts.Heaven and earth are full of your glory.Hosanna in the highest.Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.Hosanna in the highest.Further reading:How many heavens are there?The Hitchhikers' Guide to HeavenHow not to think about heaven - Bishop BarronBlasting Holes Through the Buffered Self - Bishop BarronRe-Enchanting the Secular - Matthew Petrusek. Secularism is the predominate worldview in the West. However, it does not answer the deepest longing of the human heart. Did God Create Heaven?Is heaven a place or only a state of mind? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com
Happy New Year! At least that's what we all want it to be. Many of us, though, fail in our resolutions and quit before we even get started. Ever wonder why? We listen to the wrong voice, that's why. The one that shows up to convict you of your mistakes and throws your past failures in your face. That voice is the voice of the Evil One. So how do we move past it and start moving forward? By "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." ( Phil 3:13) Listen in this week as John and Victor turn to St. Paul, St Augustine, and Our Lord Jesus Christ for their advice on how to live in the present and look forward to the new year with hope. In this episode, John and Victor discuss: - Spiritual Warfare - Listening to the right voice - What St. Paul, St Augustine, and Jesus have to say about the New Year - 4 steps to take to win the battle and move forward with courage in your resolutions Become a Monthly Partner in the Pew www.donorbox.org/pew START A MEN'S GROUP IN YOUR PARISH! www.justaguyinthepew.com DOWNLOADS Get a copy of my new eBook, “12 Ways Guys Can Get Closer to Jesus”! JUSTAGUYINTHEPEW.COM/EBOOK JOIN US ON A PILGRIMAGE TO ITALY! rb.gy/ue800
Every metalhead knows how insane the Australian metal scene is. It seems like every band that comes out of the country and breaks through, becomes regarded as one of the best bands in the scene.But what is it about the Australian scene that makes this happen? Why is tougher to break through than we realize? And what are bands doing in order to stand out in such a highly regarded scene?Rory and Sam from the Australian emo/metalcore band St. Sinner are our guests on the Chord Progression Podcast today. With this episode, you will discover:The struggles of the Australian metal scene due to geography and live show capabilities, with some hilarious travel stories added in.How Australian metal has become more accessible to everyone, allowing for the scene to grow all over.What St. Sinner is doing to stand out, finding their identity through an identity crisis in their current sound and musical creations.This is a great episode to learn more about great Australian music. So hit that subscribe button to not miss out on more episodes on this.Find St. Sinner Online:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/st.snnrInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/st.sinner.vevo/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjLbrnVvQtrsfw2TUC2tkEgSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3OeX9lekdj5s9FByuNxW8G?si=jTXaioLsQBuz7y4QbUSL_gApple Podcast: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/st-sinner/1537061863Check out our sponsor: DarkFusion Systems!Use code "CPPOD" for $100 off of your computer build!https://darkfusionsystems.comFollow us on social media!Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chordprogressionpodcastTwitter:https://twitter.com/cppodofficialInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/chordprogressionpodcast/YouTube:https://youtube.com/channel/UCqRKZCDMcFHIYbJaLQMfDbQChord Progression Podcast (Spotify):https://open.spotify.com/show/53XWPGrIUvgavKF5Fm6SLkChord Progression Podcast (Apple Podcast):https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chord-progression-podcast-the-gateway-to-new-rock-and-metal-music/id1454876657Chord Progression Podcast (Amazon): https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b8dad803-444c-4a73-8aa5-67b4fc43f4baChord Progression Podcast (iHeart Radio):https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-chord-progression-70632531/Podcast Webpage:https://mysongoftheday.com/my-song-of-the-day-rock-2000-today/chord-progression-podcast/Welcome: (0:00)Diving Into the High Quality Australian Music Scene: (1:00)Metal Culture Becoming More Accessible to the Masses: (7:53)The St Sinner Backstory, Finding their Identity: (11:40)The Cheese Debate; Yes We Debate Cheese: (16:01)The Struggles of the Australian Market Exposed: (18:01)The Brisbane Driving Horror Story: (23:40)Why Australian Bands are Doing So Well, A Theory: (30:01)St Sinner's Identity Crisis Goal of 2024: (36:00)Music Reaching Young Female Demographic: (44:50)The 3 Aussie Bands to Check Out: (50:00)Kevin's Final Thought; The Intelligence of the Identity Crisis: (56:43)
We welcome back Dr. Michael Pakaluk of the Catholic University of America to discuss his latest article in The Catholic Thing about a misquote attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas. What did he say, what didn't he say, and why is the difference so important? What St. Thomas Aquinas Didn't Say SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Merit (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 114) St. Jean's Two Martyrdoms - The Catholic Thing Embarking on "Ventures of Faith" - Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman Website Read Fr. McTeigue's Written Works! Visit Fr. McTeigue's Website | Herald of the Gospel Questions? Comments? Feedback? Ask Father!
The Catholic Church has a vast panoply of canonized saints, some obscure, others well-known, others so popular they have claimed a space in non-Catholic or secular traditions as well. Perhaps the most familiar of these in the United States, is St. Patrick, the primary patron saint of Ireland. Celebrations associated with St. Patrick's feast day, in this country, include parades, wearing green, eating corned beef, drinking green beer, and sometimes even dyeing whole rivers green. Plenty of people who may know little about the saint's biography or the history of Catholicism in Ireland still enjoy commemorating his feast day. But who was St. Patrick, really? What was his impact on Irish culture, and why is he so important to Irish Americans today? Which of the myths and legends associated with his story are historically accurate? And how do we balance an appreciation of St. Patrick's cultural and religious legacy with concerns about colonization and the loss of indigenous traditions? On this episode of the podcast, hosts Cassidy Klein and Rebecca Bratten Weiss talk to scholar and writer Damian Costello about the true story of St. Patrick and why his feast has become so popular. Costello specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology, indigenous spiritual traditions, and colonial history. He has written extensively about St. Patrick, in U.S. Catholic and elsewhere. You can read more about the history of St. Patrick in these links. “There's more to St. Patrick than shamrocks and beer” By Damian Costello https://uscatholic.org/articles/202103/theres-more-to-st-patrick-than-shamrocks-and-beer/ “How St. Patrick changed Ireland—and the church” By Damian Costello https://uscatholic.org/articles/202103/how-st-patrick-changed-ireland-and-the-church/ “An Easter slave raid inspired this saint to pursue justice” By Damian Costello https://uscatholic.org/articles/202103/an-easter-slave-raid-inspired-this-saint-to-pursue-justice/ “What St. Patrick's prayer song teaches us about connecting with the land” By Damian Costello https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/what-st-patricks-prayer-song-teaches-us-about-connecting-land “St. Patrick and the Buddha: More alike than different?” By Damian Costello https://www.ncronline.org/spirituality/st-patrick-and-buddha-more-alike-different Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. https://www.claretiansusa.org/
What is Marriage? “The Sacrament of Marriage does not involve two persons, but three.” But like Dr. Fagerberg of Notre Dame quips: “by Trinitarian arithmetic, that means there are five persons involved in each marriage.” Marriage is a mystery and a sacrament, just as the Holy Eucharist is a mystery and a sacrament. As Pope Leo XIII puts it in his encyclical on marriage:“Christ our Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament; that to husband and wife, guarded and strengthened by the heavenly grace which His merits gained for them, He gave power to attain holiness in the married state; and that, in a wondrous way, making marriage an example of the mystical union between Himself and His Church, He not only perfected that love which is according to nature, but also made the naturally indivisible union of one man with one woman far more perfect through the bond of heavenly love (Arcanum).”The Sacrament of Matrimony is one of the sacraments at the service of communion. Matrimony is a vocation to a state of life that joins a baptized man and baptized woman in a lifelong covenant of love for the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children.Marriage in God's PlanThe Bible begins with a Marriage and ends with the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and it contains wedding imagery all throughout. At the beginning, God created man and woman in His image and likeness. He saw that it was ‘not good that man should be alone.' Just as God is a communion of three divine Persons , the Blessed Trinity, marriage is a communion of life and love between husband and wife with their children.For a long time in human history, Marriage had fallen from its created nature and original practice because of sin. Moses allowed divorce because of the hardness of the people's hearts. But Jesus Christ restored and elevated Marriage to the level of a Sacrament. Jesus' first public miracle is performed during a wedding feast. Really when a man and woman are married, they are entering into a deep communion with one another and with God. Marriage is an efficacious sign of Christ's presence. As He said,“From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder (Mk 10:6-9).” Matrimony is thus a Sacrament for two baptized Christians. Dr. Scott Hahn gives us a helpful reminder: “Marriage does not make it easy. Marriage makes it possible!” In order to overcome human failings, the married couple must cooperate with the grace of God and follow the teachings of Christ and his Church. Marriage is oriented to the salvation of both spouses, and the more they recognize Heaven as their mutual goal, the more fruitful their marriage will be. Marriage is far more than a civil contract. The Sacrament is an indissoluble covenant, which serves as a conduit of God's grace and means of sanctification and salvation for both husband and wife. Celebrating Matrimony and Matrimonial ConsentProper preparation for marriage is vital. Those who can receive the Sacrament of Matrimony are a baptized man and woman, free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent. To be free means to not be under constraint and not impeded by any natural or Church laws. If the conditions are not met, then the marriage is invalid (i.e. - it does not exist).The two must consent totally, freely, faithfully, and fruitfully. In other words, they consent to marry for life, free of any coercion, to be faithful to one another, and to be open to the procreation of children. The couple declare this consent in the presence of two witnesses and before a properly authorized minister of the Church: bishop, priest, or deacon. The matter, the stuff, of the Sacrament is the couple themselves. The form, in the Latin Rite, is the vows they make: “I, N. take you, N., for my lawful wife (husband), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” This consent freely given, without impediment, makes the marriage. After the minister ratifies and blesses the marriage covenant. The sealing or consummation of marriage occurs later in the conjugal act. This consummation makes a marriage indissoluble. In the Latin Rite of the Church, the minister of this Sacrament is the couple themselves. The priest or deacon officiates but he acts only as an official witness of the Church. In the Eastern liturgies the minister of this sacrament (called “Crowning”) is the priest or bishop who, after receiving the consent of the spouses, crowns the bride and groom as a sign of the marriage covenant.At any rate, consent makes the marriage. And consummation makes the marriage indissoluble.After the husband and wife have been joined through the exchanging of consent at Mass, then receive the Holy Eucharist. Because, of course, all of the sacraments are directed towards the Sacrament of sacraments, the Eucharist. I love the way the Catechism of the Catholic Church phrases this, so please permit me the longer quotation:“In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself forever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ (CCC 1621).”Effects of Matrimony and the Goods and Requirements of Conjugal LoveChristian marriage is bound up with the union of Christ to the Church and therefore is ordered to the communion of the spouses and children with God. The effects of the Sacrament profoundly reflect the essential properties of Matrimony: unity and indissolubility, as well as the two fundamental purposes of the marital act: union and procreation. Matrimony joins the spouses in a perpetual and exclusive bond. Matrimony gives couples the grace to strengthen their indissoluble unity. As the Second Vatican Council puts it: “The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent (GS, 48)."Marriage is all about a total gift of self from one spouse to the other. Matrimony and conjugal love gives a ‘new significance' to human sexuality. More than simply a biological process or reflection of love, this good and noble act strengthens the marriage bond and demands permanence, fidelity, and openness to procreation. St. Thomas Aquinas (cf. Supplement to the Summa, q. 49, a. 2) and the Council of Trent after him speaks of three blessings of Marriage, in particular: children, fidelity, and the Sacrament.ChildrenOf course, not every woman is able to bear children, for whatever biological reasons. But for those who do, St. Paul says that “The woman shall be saved by bearing children.” This does not mean just having children, but as St. Paul says to Timothy, they must also continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. So, it is clear that the procreation and education of offspring has been held as a primary end of marriage, since the time of the Apostles.The blessing is not only to the wife. Psalm 127:3-4 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” FidelityThe blessing of faith in Marriage is the virtue of justice to remain faithful to one's spouse. As the Council of Trent puts it: “the fidelity which binds wife to husband and husband to wife in such a way that they mutually deliver to each other power over their bodies, promising at the same time never to violate the holy bond of Matrimony.” As St. Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the Church.” We have to remember that Christ's love for His Church is immense. This love brought no advantage to Him, but only advantage to His spouse, the Church.The SacramentThe third blessing is the Sacrament itself: the indissoluble bond of marriage. Marriage ends only in death. Just as Christ never separates Himself from His Church, so the wife cannot be separated from her husband in so far as regards the marriage itself. The Second Vatican CouncilHow does the Second Vatican Council build upon these duties and summarize what has been said? In the Constitution on the Modern World, we hear:“Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother. For this reason Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state. By virtue of this sacrament, as spouses fulfill their conjugal and family obligation, they are penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole lives with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the perfection of their own personalities, as well as their mutual sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God (GS, 48).”Marriage is a path to holiness and the practice of marriage means undergoing sanctification. As the Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Church puts it:“Christian spouses, in virtue of the sacrament of Matrimony, whereby they signify and partake of the mystery of that unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and His Church, help each other to attain to holiness in their married life and in the rearing and education of their children. By reason of their state and rank in life they have their own special gift among the people of God (LG, 11).”Can Divorced Catholics Receive the Eucharist?Just a note on something very controversial in the Church today. Can divorced Catholics receive the Eucharist? First, it should be noted that divorce is always a tragedy. Being divorced, however, is not in itself an obstacle to receiving the Eucharist. This is a very misunderstood reality.Divorce is a purely civil affair and legal separation for the safety of the children or one of the spouses may even be appropriate in cases of domestic abuse. However, marriage, even natural marriage between non-Catholics, is viewed as ending only in death. This fact is preserved by the Church with love and tenacity. Therefore, the remarriage of a validly married person transgresses the nature of marriage itself and is therefore a serious offense against the plan and law of God as taught by Christ. Though the civilly remarried cannot currently receive Communion does not mean they are excluded from the Church! It is the job of the Church to continue lovingly care for their spiritual lives and work to normalize any irregular situations.What is an Annulment?Chiefly this normalization is investigated through the annulment process. Some people who want to get married in the Catholic Church eventually may find themselves in marriages that do not appear to be working despite their best efforts. In these cases, the Church encourages counseling in an effort to save the marriage.However, in cases of domestic abuse or addiction to alcohol or drugs, it might be in the best interest to separate. This, however, is not divorce or permission from the Church to remarry. Some individuals or couples seek a decree of nullity, called an annulment. This is a statement of the Church, after thorough examination of the marriage at the time of consent, that a valid marriage was never established. In other words, from the very beginning there was something seriously lacking at the time of consent which limited the marriage in a serious enough way as to make it null and void.Once an annulment is granted, those involved in the invalid marriage are free to enter into a sacramental marriage or the religious life. In order to procure an annulment, the person must prove that some kind of impediment to marriage existed at the time of consent. This means that they were not actually free to marry for some reason. Or that the intentions of one or both of the spouses lacked in being free, total, faithful, or fruitful.The Duties of Married PeopleWhat are the duties of married people? St. Paul and St. Peter provide quite a few duties of husbands and wives. All of these are geared to the primary goal: get my spouse to heaven!Duties of a HusbandThe husband is to treat his wife generously and honorably. Adam called Eve his companion given to him by God. Remember, Eve was not formed from the feet of Adam but his side! Nor was she formed from the head of her husband; so, it is not her duty to command her husband but rather to be a helpmate to him. The husband is also traditionally expected to, using the language of the Council of Trent, “be constantly occupied in some honest pursuit with a view to provide necessaries for the support of his family and to avoid idleness, the root of almost every vice.” This is not to say that the wife cannot work as well, but the husband is the one who, nonetheless, has the normative duty to provide and to avoid idleness.Finally, the husband is to keep his family in order, to correct their morals and behavior, and to see that each family member does what is expected of them and that they heed their responsibilities.Duties of a Wife“Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands,” says St. Peter, “so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, when they see your reverent and chaste behavior (1 Peter 3:1-2).” He also exhorts women to prefer inner sanctity to external beauty. What St. Peter is saying here that wives have remarkable power of example over their husbands. They are to be obedient to their husbands, in that he has the final say as the head of the house, but the woman's behavior and witness has a tremendous effect on the direction of the decisions. Wives are called, in a special way, to train their children in the practice of virtue and to especially care for domestic concerns. There have been tectonic shifts in our societies and cultures and there is a lot more freedom of movement for women. The Church does not say that these developments are contrary to the Faith. But the natural gifts of women towards making a house a home and compassionately caring for the needs of domestic life are unrivaled by men. The Council of Trent ends the section on the duties of a wife with the following: “... let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent with Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience.”The Domestic ChurchWhy is the Church so insistent on this idea of the husband as the head of the house and the wife as the suitable helpmate? It is because this is what God created when He created mankind. This is the original state of marriage which keeps everything in good, working order. Marriage is the fundamental building block of society. If we get marriage wrong, we get the family wrong. If we get the family wrong, we get the community wrong. If we get the community wrong, we get justice wrong. If we get justice wrong, everything falls into chaos. When our Lord Jesus Christ raised marriage back up to its original place at the level of a Sacrament, He was also instituting the Ecclesia domestica, the domestic church. Throughout the history of the Church, the local Parish has always been a family of families, a Church of gathered domestic churches. In the domestic church, the faithful exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a most excellent way. Following the example of the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, the family of God, in their household, moving towards Heaven as “islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world (CCC 1655),” to quote the Catechism. It should be noted here that single people are not left out. Whatever the particular circumstances, Pope St. John Paul II reminds us, “No one is without a family in this world: the Church is a home and family for everyone, especially those who 'labor and are heavy laden (FC 85).”Where is Everyone Going?Until we recapture this reality of the domestic church, the whole Church will continue to hemorrhage. 79% of former Catholics leave the Church before age 23. 50% of Millennials raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic today - only 7% of Millennials still actively practice their faith today.Where are they going? 49% said that they are not affiliated with any religion. 25% became evangelical Protestant. 13% became mainline Protestant. And 13% became something else (Mormon, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jewish, Muslim). So, what is happening in our domestic churches and local Parishes? Why are they leaving? A whopping 60% of those surveyed in 2016 by PEW research said that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, 32% said their family was never that religious growing up, 29% perceived negative religious teachings about or treatment of people with same-sex attraction, 19% mentioned the clergy sex-abuse scandal, 18% said that a traumatic event happened in their life, and 16% said they left because their church became too focused on politics. What this says to me is that our domestic churches do not know how to be domestic churches. The grace is there. The Sacraments, including Matrimony, have power. Remember Dr. Hahn's phrase: “Marriage does not make it easy. Marriage makes it possible.” The Root Cause of Our ProblemsEveryone you talk to, in the Church, whether conservative, liberal, traditionalist, or progressive has their own opinions and reasons why the Church is losing so many young people. They will say that it's the liturgical changes, the rigidity, the rules, the abuse scandal, the Latin and tradition, poor catechesis, hypocrisy, something the pope said (present or past popes, for that matter), or so many other things.I would argue that one of the largest single contributors is a misapprehension of what Marriage is. Over 50% of marriages today, in or out of the Church, end in divorce. Our society today certainly does not celebrate good, holy marriages. Our country has now even tried to redefine what marriage is. Even within Catholic marriages, how many wives seek to be subordinate and loving to their husbands? How many husbands strive to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, with all the theological significance of that particular vocation? Our society is broken and the first remedy to shore up the flood waters and begin to rebuild a true culture is good, holy marriages. As the Second Vatican Council puts it:“Authentic conjugal love will be more highly prized, and wholesome public opinion created about it if Christian couples give outstanding witness to faithfulness and harmony in their love, and to their concern for educating their children also, if they do their part in bringing about the needed cultural, psychological and social renewal on behalf of marriage and the family (GS, 49).”One of the best things that we can do is give words of affirmation to those living their marriages well. I am sure we all know someone who is clearly devoted to their spouse and vice versa. No marriage is without its problems, but there are saints among us. Let us lift them up in prayer and show them to the world as the wonderful examples they are! If you are married, give thanks to God for your spouse. If you are unmarried, please pray that more young people will answer the vocation to good, holy marriages. Thank you for reading Will Wright Catholic. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willwrightcatholic.substack.com
Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society. The RIMS Canada Conference 2022 was held last week from September 11‒14th in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Your host, Justin Smulison, had the chance to meet some of his old friends, make some new friends, and speak with some of the leaders in risk, insurance, education, and global policy; as well as some award-winners that have elevated or continued to advance the risk profession. This episode was produced and recorded live, on-site, at the conference — so join in for the ambiance and fantastic interviews with keynote speaker Janice Gross Stein, award recipient Stéphane Cossette, and risk leader Bernard McNulty! Key Takeaways: [:01] About the RIMS Membership. [:14] About RIMScast. [:27] About today's episode. [:37] Upcoming RIMS webinars, workshops, events, and more! [2:50] More about today's episode with Susan Gillies-Hipp. [3:24] Today's first live on-site interview with Janice Gross Stein. [4:22] Janice shares what they spoke about in their keynote. [5:13] Do catastrophes like wars and pandemics change the trajectory of where we're going regarding how we think about risk? [6:02] Janice's experiences with risk managers and professionals. [7:05] Is Janice in touch with any of their students that have gone on to be risk professionals? [8:20] Janice's words of advice for those who are just joining the risk profession. [9:10] Justin thanks Janice for joining him! [9:20] Justin introduces and welcomes Stéphane Cossette to RIMScast! [10:03] Stéphane shares his experience of returning to the RIMS Canada Conference. [10:31] Stéphane was awarded the Donald M. Stuart award at the RIMS Canada Conference. Stéphane shares his thoughts and feelings on being honored in such a way. [12:00] What Stéphane thinks Canadian risk managers and professionals need to know to succeed in 2022 and beyond. [13:02] About Stéphane's session at the RIMS Canada Conference as well as his advice for the next generation of risk professionals. [14:19] Justin congratulates Stéphane once again on his award and thanks him for joining RIMScast! [14:38] About RIMS's upcoming virtual workshop: “Contractual Risk Transfer Canada.” Be sure to register before the 19th! Links below! [15:09] Today's final guest, Bernard McNulty of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Americas. [15:56] What Bernard and Allianz have done to attract and retain talent that is new in terms of process or initiatives. [18:58] Bernard's advice on what risk and insurance professions can do to attract and retain new talent? [21:33] Bernard shares his excitement about returning to RIMS Canada Conference 2022. [22:26] Justin thanks Bernard for joining! [22:36] Justin thanks today's guests and shares some of the links to check in today's show notes. Mentioned in this Episode: RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS ERM Conference 2022 — November 10‒11, 2022 | Indianapolis, IN — Agenda Now Live! Spencer Educational Foundation | Annual Gala Returns Sept. 22, 2022 RIMS Western Regional — Oct. 3‒5, 2022 — Long Beach, CA In-Person Events: RIMS Events App Apple | Google Play NEW FOR MEMBERS! RIMS Mobile App RIMS Buyers Guide Contribute to RIMS Risk Management magazine Dan Kugler Risk Manager on Campus Grant Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information. Virtual Workshops: Contractual Risk Transfer Canada — Oct. 19‒20 | 12:00‒6:00 pm EST | Registration Closes Oct. 18 — Register Now! RIMS South Asia Risk Forum — Dec. 2‒3, 2022 in Mumbai, India See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops Upcoming RIMS Webinars: “Supply Chain Risk Management for Product Manufacturers: Production Risk Management in the Post-COVID Environment” | Presented by the RIMS International Council | Sept. 7, 2022 “Coverage Conversation: Economic Outlook and the P/C Marketplace” | Sponsored by Gallagher CORE 360 Insights | Sept. 8, 2022 “Reduce Your Risk of Electrical Fires” | Sponsored by TÜV SÜD Global Risk Consultants | Sept. 15, 2022 Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: “Aon's 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season Overview” (NEW) “ESG Through the Risk Lens” | Sponsored by Riskonnect “A Look at the Cyber Insurance Market” | Sponsored by AXA XL “How to Reduce Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Risks” | Sponsored by TÜV SÜD “Managing Global Geopolitical Risk in 2022 and Beyond” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Keeping Subcontractors Safe Through Partner Elevation” | Sponsored by Highwire “ESG: A Responsibility and a Growing Megatrend” | Sponsored by Prudent Insurance Brokers Ltd. “Focusing on Your Team to Deliver Exceptional Quality and Service to Your Clients” | Sponsored by Gallagher Bassett “Bermuda Opportunities in 2022 with BDA Chair Stephen Weinstein” | Sponsored by Bermuda Business Development Agency “SyncR: A Tool to Enhance Your Risk Quality & Insurance Strategy” | Sponsored by Prudent Insurance Brokers Ltd. “Navigating the Risk Landscape in 2022” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Prioritizing People: Expertise and Innovation” | Sponsored by Gallagher Bassett “Risk Findings for the Industrial & Manufacturing Industry” | Sponsored by Aon “Establishing the Right Assurance to Request From Business Partners” | Sponsored by HITRUST “Aon's 2021 Retail Industry Overview” | Sponsored by Aon “A Legacy of Resilience” | Sponsored by J.B. Boda Group “The Golden Era of Insurance” | Sponsored by The Hartford “Insurance Investigation Trends Happening Now” | Sponsored by Travelers “What Could a CRO Do for Your Business?” | Sponsored by Riskonnect “Hard Reality: A Look at Rising Rates in Property & Excess Casualty” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Property Valuation Deep Dive” | Sponsored by TÜV SÜD “Property Loss Control Engineering” | Sponsored by Prudent Insurance Brokers RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops Upcoming RIMS Webinars On-Demand Webinars RIMS Advisory Services — Ask a Peer Risk Management Magazine Risk Management Monitor RIMS Coronavirus Information Center RIMS Risk Leaders Series RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RIMS-CRMP Stories — New interview featuring RIMS-CRMP Chairman Ward Ching! Spencer Educational Foundation RIMS DEI Council RIMS Path to the Boardroom Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org and listen on iTunes. Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org. Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Follow up with Our Guests: Janice Gross Stein's Profile Stéphane Cossette's LinkedIn Bernard McNulty's LinkedIn Tweetables (For Social Media Use): “We need to change the way we think about risk. The last 30 years are a very poor guide for the next 30. We are seeing convergent pressures here. We know where we've been, but we're not sure about where we're going.” — Janice Gross Stein “We need to fuse our concept of risk rather than continue to think about risk in very siloed ways.” — Janice Gross Stein “Risk management is mostly about networking. … It's a business of good faith but how can you have good faith if you don't know the people? Being back [at the RIMS Canada Conference] is — to me — worth the time. I recommend everyone come to … conferences.” — Stéphane Cossette “Take any chance you can. It's not about day-to-day work. …The bulk of your career will be built on relationships and the knowledge … and expertise you require. So RIMS is the perfect platform to get to that.” — Stéphane Cossette
ST Rappaport works with young professionals who, despite trying everything, still feel powerless to take control of their lives, find focus and increase productivity. She assists them in rewiring their brain so that they can remove overwhelm, get things done and be more expective at work Growing up, ST's parents spent a lot of money on tutors with no results. Her mom, who is originally from Israel, where Feuerstein is popular, sought it as an alternative to improve her mental health. It worked, and around 10th grade, she had made a giant leap from where she was before, but she was fed up with school.She convinced her parents to let her switch to college in England, where they finish school at 16 and start college. Thanks to the Feuerstein work done on rewiring her brain, ST was able to adjust to the situation, get along with everyone and make things work. This was amazing, and during the holidays, she started training in Feuerstein, and the best part was that as she got trained, her brain started working EVEN MORE efficiently. She began planning even better and understood people from new perspectives. As a coach, ST helps people make similar shifts in their lives. Segmented timestamps:[01:57] - ST shares about the time when she was pursuing something that was big and how she embraced that challenge to achieve[05:51] - What ST is currently focused on stretching to get better in what she does[09:00] - Some practices that ST has found to be particularly impactful to the people she is working with[12:29] - Tips on finding an outside perspective and how to get answers by using your non-dominant hand [15:12] - Practical decision-making model that ST has found to be helpful in big decisions and managing everyday decisions [18:06] - ST's most impactful life lesson in her journey that keeps her going [20:31] - How to reach out, support, or connect with ST Notable Quotes:“It's important to work together with your brain instead of trying to fight it off.” ~ ST Rappaport“We all have weaker and stronger cognitive functions, but the weak ones often have a dominant effect on all other areas of life.” ~ ST Rappaport"If you have hard time comparing, or don't know how to compare correctly, you're going to have a hard time making decisions." ~ ST RappaportReach ST at:Website: https://www.lifepixuniversity.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/st-rappaport-869b7619b/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifepixuniversityGet more from The Big Possible show:Website: https://www.thebigpossible.com RSVP for our next epic retreat here Follow us on social: @follownoah @thebigpossible
Many today say that universalism (i.e. that all souls will be saved and enjoy heavenly bliss) has never been condemned by a Council, that some Saints taught this doctrine, and that therefore it is an acceptable view for Orthodox Christians to hold, even if it is a minority view. While some Saints appear to have held this view in some way, the vast majority of Saints rejected such ideas, and some even specifically distinguished their sanctity from their error on this matter. St. Photios the Great said, “What St. Gregory, the bishop of Nyssa, said about the apocatastasis, the Church does not accept.” Both the 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils explicitly reject any notion that all unrepentant souls, both men and demons, will ultimately be redeemed and will enjoy the love and truth of Christ. St. Sophronius of Jerusalem (+638) wrote this letter upon becoming Patriarch of Jerusalem in 634 while the monothelite heresy (i.e. that Christ has one will, not two) was raging. His Synodical Letter was read and accepted at the 6th Ecumeincal Council that condemned monothelitism, as well as the teachings of Origen and those of like mind. In it we find a clear condemnation of universalism as well as a condemnation of principles essential to the theory of evolution. May we pray genuinely and simply those prayers of the evening prayer rule: "O Lord, deliver me from the eternal torments" (prayer of St. John Chrysostom), and "O Lord, I fear Thy Judgment and the endless torments" (prayer of St. John Damascene). +Universalism, eternal hell+ “[Origen and other heretics] want an end to punishment” “alleging the restoration of all rational creatures, angels, human beings, demons” “we both speak of the consummation of the present world and believe that that life which is to come after the present life will last forever, and we hold to unending punishment” +Adam, Eve, Paradise, Creation, Evolution+ “They throw out the planting of paradise, they do not want Adam fashioned in the flesh, they object to the moulding of Eve from him, they reject the utterance of the snake” “But it is not only on this point that the deranged err and go astray from the straight road (such impiety would be tolerable in comparison with [their other] evils), but they also make myriads of other statements contrary to the tradition of the apostles and our Fathers. They throw out the planting of paradise, they do not want Adam fashioned in the flesh, they object to the moulding of Eve from him, they reject the utterance of the snake, they forbid the ranks of heavenly armies as they were created to be in the beginning by God, imagining that they resulted from a primordial condemnation and deviation. They dream up, both godlessly and mythically, that all rational things were produced in a henad of minds, and they abuse the creation of the waters above heaven, and want an end to punishment, and they introduce besides total corruptibility of all perceptible things, while alleging the restoration of all rational creatures, angels, human beings, demons, and again confounding their differences into one mythical unity, when Christ will be different from us in no respect, whom they preach in a foolish manner, not the one whom we proclaim in pious belief in glory or honour or kingship or lordship. They seethe like demons and bring forth myriads of things from the diabolical and impious store of their heart…” Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy from Oxford Univeristy Press. See pgs 119-125: https://www.scribd.com/document/20535... Orthodox Wisdom is now on your favorite podcast platform! Go to the “About” tab at the top of the this channel to find links to: -Apple Podcasts -Spotify -Stitcher -and more… This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/orthodox-wisdom/message
Happy Ash Wednesday! Are the BattleHawks returning? What St. Louis food would you give up? Jenna Jameson confined to a wheelchair? STL bars boycotting Russian Vodka? We have all the answers for you! Plus, music by Inimical Drive & For The City courtesy of Beyond FM 24-7! #WeGoDeep #UndergroundSTL
What St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom (and the Canaanite woman) have to teach us about the art of communication… Read on
You've probably heard the statistic - nearly half of Americans (48%) who are married or living with their partner say that they argue with that person about MONEY. Most of those money fights are about spending habits, with one person saying that the other spends too much and the other person saying the other is too cheap. Then comes fights about being dishonest with money, how to pay the bills, forgetting the bills (been guilty of that one before) and financial priorities. So what's a Catholic to do with those kinds of odds? It's a loaded answer- but I know part of it is witnessing the joy of a couple who have worked through major financial decisions together and seeing their joy and their peace and their mission to help others have that same experience when it comes to their finances. For only the second time in the nearly five years that I've been hosting this podcast, I'm joined today not only by Amanda Teixeira, but also her husband Jonathan, and guys, it's such a good conversation. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in one episode. We're talking about everything from whether or not we should actually be tithing ten percent to getting on the same page with your spouse about finances and truly dreaming together. If you know all too well those arguments about finances and you just want to know how to get the financial results you want while actually enjoying your life and your marriage, sister, this letter is for you. Topics we talked about in this episode: How Jonathan and Amanda paid of $25,00 in debt in less than eight months and what that taught them about finances The four phases of the WalletWin method and how they can free you from financial stress and say yes to generosity Why God doesn't want just ten percent of your money and how you can give God your all The boundaries you can set up around money so you can build wealth without losing your soul What St. Katherine Drexel teaches us about radical generosity How Jonathan witnesses Amanda's feminine genius in their marriage (and how Amanda sees Jonathan's masculine genius!) Resources you should check out after listening to this episode: Get a copy of Jonathan and Amanda's new book, “How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World Through Generosity: A Catholic Guide to Managing Your Money” Check out the pre-order bonuses (including that live video about funding your vacations Listen to Jonathan and Amanda's podcast, WalletWin Check out The Little Catholic Box and access the exclusive bonuses for LTW listeners Pick up a copy of the new Letters to Women book today! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/letters-to-women/support
A look at the season so far through 6 games. What St. John's has been able to do well. What they need to work on. And how the players are performing. Then we take a look at the up upcoming Kansas game. Intro/ SJU Team break down 0:00 - 17:30SJU player breakdown 17:30 - 35:50SJU vs Kansas Preview 35:50 - 43:36
I strongly encourage you to listen to the end. What St. Damascene says may be words you find yourself, as I have, reflecting on many times over. Please listen all the way through this short recording. Of all the writings of the New Martyrs that have come down to us, this excerpt from St. Damascene of Glukhov is one of the most inspiring and hopeful. In the very midst of the height of uncertainty, division, and persecution, St. Damascene writes:"Unite yourselves for grace-given guidance around one of the worthy pastors, and let everyone separately and all together prepare themselves for yet greater service to Christ ... Just a few people united in such a life already makes up a small Church, the Body of Christ, in which the Spirit and the Love of Christ dwell ... If we do not become members of the Body of Christ, the temple of His Life-giving Spirit, then this Spirit will depart from the world, and the frightful convulsions of the dying world organism will be the natural result of this."“Therefore, let it be that darkness has temporarily covered the earth (from the sixth to the ninth hour), let it be that the lamps of certain Churches are hidden under bushels so as not to be put out by the satanic whirlwind (as has occurred with the majority). After a short time of rest from the Lord (perhaps even the time when the darkness will imagine that its work has already been completed), the lamps will be revealed, will come together, will ignite a multitude of others which had been put out, will pour together into a great flame of faith which, when efforts are made to put it out, will burn more brightly; for many which have been put out and have felt the torment of the darkness and the cold of Tartarus will prefer to burn upon the bonfire of the flame of faith than again to be immersed in darkness."“With us is Christ, the Conqueror of death and hell. The history of Christianity shows us that in all the periods when temptations and heresies have agitated the Church, the bearers of church truth and the expressors of it were few, but these few with the fire of their faith and their zealous standing in the Truth have gradually ignited everyone ... The same thing will happen now if we few will fulfill our duty before Christ and His Church to the end."The fearless confession of faith and of one's hope and a firm standing in the Church's laws are the most convincing refutation of the Sergian deviation and are an unconquerable obstacle to the hostile powers directed against the Church. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."Read this text, and the entire “Russia's Catacomb Saints” by I. M. Andreyev and Fr. Seraphim Rose here: http://russiascatacombsaints.blogspot...You can also find a wealth of lesser known info on St. Damascene and other Catacomb Saints here: https://catacombhistory.blogspot.com/...This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/orthodox-wisdom/message
Special Guest: (St. Xavier High School) Head coach Andy Porta Topics: St. Xavier baseball, Their new Director of Operations, What St. X looks for in a player, coaching execution, KY baseball talent and much more.Drill: Cuts, Relays and Longhops
How do you discern God's voice in your heart? How do you recognize the voice of evil seeking to lead you astray? Thankfully, Fr. Timothy Gallagher is here to help us tell the difference. We'll examine St. Ignatius' 14 rules of discernment and how they can transform our spiritual lives. In this podcast we'll learn: - Who St. Ignatius was. - How to recognize the voice of God. - What St. Ignatius meant by “rule.” - Each of the 14 rules. - How we can apply these rules to our own lives. DOWNLOADS Get a copy of my new eBook, "12 Ways Guys Can Get Closer to Jesus"! https://justaguyinthepew.com/ebook SUPPORT: Join the Community! I've created a brand new resource for guys called "The Narrow Road." It's a monthly booklet and accompanying videos to help guys live a life of virtue and holiness. You can join The Community and subscribe to "The Narrow Road" here: https://justaguyinthepew.com/the-narrow-road NEW: Shop the store! We have a new Just a Guy in the Pew store where you can stock up on great merch HERE: https://store.justaguyinthepew.com/
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy, I bet you didn't know that Pastor Shane can sing, he can. Some people get all the talents. If you're new, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide, you can fill it out. The physical copy, you give them the back of the Welcome Center, and if you just leave it there, we'll get in touch with you over the course of the week. We also send a little gift in the mail, and if you're like, "Oh, a gift, what is it?" Well, there's only one way to find out. With that said, would you please pray with me with over the preaching God's Holy Word.Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good Father and we are so proud of you. We boast in you that you are our God that you revealed yourself to us. You gave us the gift of revelation, you gave us the gift of faith, you gave us the gift of regeneration. You give us the gift of anointing, the same anointing that Christ had, we are anointed by the power of the Spirit and our hearts are sealed, within our hearts is a guarantee that we are yours, and we're so proud that we get to know you, and we're so proud that we get to serve you, that we get to be used by you, we thank you for that.Jesus, we thank you that you lived that perfect life of love toward God, toward people and then you present your life as a living sacrifice for us, you died in our stead, in our place. Bearing the wrath of God that we deserve and you rose from the dead on the third day, and we're so proud of you. You are our Lord and our older brother, we're so proud that we get to know you thank you for saving us. Holy Spirit, we're so proud that we get to know you, we're so proud that you are in us, that you are filling us, that you fill this church, that you're building, this church we're so proud of your work here in a really difficult area, and we pray continue to work, continue to use us.Lord, we are proud of one another. We're proud of the work you're doing in one another. There's a mutual up building that's happening, and we're so thankful for it. I thank you for this body of believers and I thank you for joining many more to yourself uses here in the city to continue to build your kingdom all to the glory of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and pray this in Jesus name. Amen.Title of the sermon is I'm proud of you. Do you grow up in a household where you were told by your parents, verbatim out loud using these words, I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I did not. I know my parents are proud of me. I can see it in their eyes and both my mom and dad but they didn't use that language, partially because of Slavic background. It's like if you do good, you're supposed to do good congratulations. Then partially I think there were theological reasons, why? Because pride is a sin, it's the mother of all sins. It's the sin that made Satan, Satan. God hates pride. So many of us have a hard time of saying anything that begins with the words I'm proud, et cetera.So should parents tell their kids that they're proud of them? Yes, resoundingly yes. When you see your children growing, when you see them maturing, when you see them growing in the Lord, you're supposed to say, "Praise God, that I get to be your parent. Praise God, for God's work in you. I see how he shaping you into the image of Christ. I see how he's changing your heart, to love God and to love people. We see the Lord at work in your life, and we thank him for what he's doing." God the Father gives us the example. He looks at his son and the day that Jesus is baptized, and he says, as he's anointed by the power of the Spirit, he said, "This is my son, that's my Son, in whom I am well pleased."So we shouldn't be proud of our God, we should be proud of our Heavenly Father, we should boast in the Lord. God, we're proud of you, God, thank you for the work that you're doing in this church, the work you're doing in these people, and we're proud of the service of God's people. We should be, we should be able to say to one another, "Hey, I'm proud. I see the work that God is doing. I see how you've grown. I see how you serve. I see how you give generously. I see the gifts of the Spirit that you're exercising for God's good. I see that." There's no tension there. We agree with that. But can you say, "I'm proud of the work that I have done for the Lord by the power of the Lord." If you preface this with in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, I'm proud of the life I've lived. I'm proud of what I've accomplished. Can say that? There's a tension there, it's a little uncomfortable. That's the tension we're dealing with today.In Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 12, and then through chapter two, verse four, would you look at the text with me? "For our boast is in this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity, and Godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge, just as you did partially acknowledge us that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us, as we will boast of you, because I was sure of this. I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes and no, no at the same time? Surely, if God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ when we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him, it is always yes for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for His glory, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.But I called God to witness against me, it was despair you that I refrain from coming again to Corinth, not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many dears not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you."This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time together boast about God's grace in you, boast about God's work through you, and then boast about God's love in you. First boast about God's grace in you. He begins verse 12 by saying, "Our boast is this. This is what we are proud of." What are you saying, Paul? We are proud of this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity. The original is hagios holiness. Meaning I focused, I oriented my whole life around what's most important, which is God has glory, loving people proclaiming the gospel, building the church. That's a life of holiness. He calls it simplicity. He didn't clutter anything around.So if you missed the love Jesus simple sermon series go back. But we say love Jesus simple and by simple we don't mean simplistic, simple, we mean we focus on what's most important. That's how St. Paul built his life, simplicity, holiness. That's his external behavior, simplicity. We behave with simplicity and Godly sincerity. Not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. Boasting is a major theme in Second Corinthians, the word group, the verb or the noun is used 29 times significantly more than any other letter of Paul. Why is he bringing in languages of boasting partially because he's defending himself against false teachers that have entered the church, and what he's doing is he's comparing and contrasting, they're boasting in the wrong way about the wrong things. He is showing that you can boast, there is a right way to boast, a holy boasting, a humble confidence, and he does it in his own personal example.There's lots of lessons to draw from the text. So when I sit down when I'm preparing a sermon, I get a text like this. I'm like, "You can go a million different ways." You can talk about conflict resolution, proper management of disputes between Christians and people in general speaking hard truth and tender love. I had a writing teacher I remember in high school English, and this is what she used to say, "If you write a paragraph, it can only have one idea. That's it. That paragraph needs to support the one idea of the chapter and your book should have this, whatever. There's one idea." Then I go to homiletics class in seminary, and they're like, "Your sermon should have one idea. One big idea, what's the big idea?"Then I started studying scripture, and I read Jesus and Jesus sermons have many more than one idea. The sermon on the mountain has about 80,000 different ideas, and then I read St. Paul and St. Paul is like, every sentence could be like 12 sermons, it just weaves things. I think they just had a shortage of parchment of paper, and he's like, "How many pages we got today?" They're like, "We have six." He's like, "All right, we're making the most of it." That's how he writes. So there's a million ways you can go, but I think there's something here that's the undercurrent of the text, and it's and I choose to focus on this because it's so rare in Christians. It's so clear in the Scripture, but it's not found often in the practice of believers.What you see here is something difficult to acquire, at least in the truly biblical form, something many of us are suspicious of even averse to it's a confident assertion that I did the right thing, a confident assertion that I believe the right thing. A confident assertion that I have true knowledge I have, it's mine, and I act accordingly. It's a confident assertion that I have been faithful. You look back at your life and you say, "I have been faithful." Why is this so hard to grasp? Why is there such a tension because we know sola gratia, that we're saved by grace alone, only grace. We are dead in our sins is Jesus Christ that saved us. He gives us the gift of faith. He gives us the gift of sight of sanctification, he gives us the gift of justification, and ultimately glorification, he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Everything he does, in and through us he does by the power of the Spirit. Yes, we know that.We believe in total depravity. We believe that there's a comprehensiveness of sin. So seems somehow inappropriate, even blasphemous to say, "Well, there is virtue in us. There is a goodness in us. We did good and we were right." I was having this conversation with my wife, she's like, "What are you preaching?" I was like, "I'm preaching on the fact that in the Lord, I'm proud of the work that I've done for him." She was like, "You can't say that?" I was like, "Why not?" Paul says it. She says, "You're not Paul. He's an apostle, his name's in the Bible, he wrote half the New Testament, you're not in there." I was like, "Ah, but my name is written the book of life bruh." That's what I said to her. These are the conversations that we have. So what do we do here?If Paul like he's as close to an angel, as anyone gets uncommon, devotion, uncommon testimony, God, Jesus Christ in the flesh, resurrected appears before and that's how he got saved, and he must have had an extra dose of the Holy Spirit that we don't have access to. So he live the holy life all the way from the Damascus road to the prison in Rome where he died. Since he is not like us we can't draw any lessons from him and his life, right? I would argue no. Paul isn't the only one in the Bible that boasts of his character, of his conduct. He's not the only one that says, "In good conscience, God is my witness, I did the right thing. I lived a life of integrity." Psalm 26, one through three. "Vindicate me oh Lord for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, oh Lord, and try me, test my heart and my mind, for your steadfast love is before my eyes and I walk in your faithfulness."Or Nehemiah who sacrifices so much to go rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Toward the end of his career, he says, "Remember me, oh my God concerning this, do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service." Nehemiah isn't that a little boastful? Well, scripture does teach we are to give honor where honor is due, and everything we do, eat or drink we do to the glory of God. In a sense, if God does work in you, if God changes you, if God uses you, for you to not give God honor for that work that he's doing in and through you is to deflect from the glory of God.I'll just give you an illustration and I'm going to deal with a couple caveats. Illustration. In my household, we have four daughters, my wife and I were bilingual. So we decided we're gonna raise our kids to know two languages. My job with them is to teach them how to read in English before they're taught that in school, her job is to teach them how to read in Russian, her job significantly harder. I chose these. I'm sitting with my third daughter yesterday and we started probably three and a half, four and now she's six and we've done some good work. She read a whole book yesterday, 27 pages about a little otter that went to a zoo, it was so sweet. Then at the end, he went to the gift shop and he bought stuff. It's a marketing ploy by the zoo, that's what that is. She read the whole thing, she read the whole thing, I helped her with a couple of hard words, she read the whole thing. At the end, I'm like, "Baby girl, I'm so proud of you. You can read. You did a tremendous job." Which is fine. It's great.Now, if she gets up but she's like, you know what? I'm proud of me, that I taught myself how to read. I'm going to take issue with that because I've invested hundreds of hours, and I'm talking about hard hours. After you work a full day and in the evening hours before I put you to bed out, I am brain dead right now, when I'm giving you an hour of my time, I've given you the hundreds of those hours. Baby girl, if it wasn't for me, you'd be an ESL. There's this combination, we did it together, you did it by my help. In the Christian life it's the same thing, that God is sovereign, we're responsible. He is the one that empowers us. He's the one that gives us every single breath that we have. He gives us the Holy Spirit, but you have to work. Scripture says, "You're only saved by grace through faith, faith itself is a gift of faith without works is dead."So you have to be able, at some point, if someone asks you, "Show me your works. Show me why you're a Christian." You have to be able to say, "By God's grace, I have done X, Y and Z. By God's grace." St. Paul says in First Corinthians 15, he said, "It's by the grace of God, I am what I am, and God's grace has not been in vain in me, because I've taken his grace and I've worked harder than any of the other apostles, it wasn't me it was God's grace in me." So if we are to not take God's grace in me, we are supposed to work, and then you have to be able to show a portfolio of the work that you have done by God's grace for God's glory.Caveats. Whenever you deal with something that has as much tension as this, you got to deal with a little caveat. Caveat number one, simple isn't claiming sinlessness. When he's saying, "I live the life of holiness." He's not saying I've been completely sinless, a lot of us use holiness as a synonym for sinlessness. It's not true, holy means you've been set apart, your life has been set apart. St. Paul is brutally honest, Roman seven, verses 14 through 25, brutally honest about his own sinful nature, demoralizing sinful nature. But there's so often that he doesn't do the things he wants to do and the things he doesn't want to do, that's the stuff that he does. He wrote Romans during his three month stay in Corinth, the very visit that he's promising to make.So if you would ask him as he's in Corinth, as he's writing, Romans, "Hey, St. Paul, when you were in Corinth, and you wrote Romans, are you saying that you had never committed a sin of thought, of deed, of word ever in relation to the church in Corinth or in relation to other churches?" He'd say, "My goodness, no." I'd never done a sinless thing in my life. I'm certainly not saying I'm sinless. No one is sinless, except for Jesus Christ, that's a caveat. Caveat two is, in claiming innocence, holiness, faithfulness here. He's saying he did everything in the power of Christ. So he's not taking credit for his own achievement, he's recognizing the achievement that God has done through him, that's what boasting in the Lord means.So he's saying, "Look at what the Lord has done in and through me of all people." This certain kind of pride is entirely appropriate, a certain kind of satisfaction and doing the right thing, being the right person in the Lord. Jeremiah nine, 23, 24. Something St. Paul quotes all the time. "Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his mind. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, let him who boast, boast in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight declares the Lord."Can you do it? Can you stand up and say, "You know what? I am proud that I know God. I am proud that I understand God. Not because I came to this understanding in of myself, God revealed to me. So I am proud that I know the truth." There's too many Christians today who vastly right there. I know Jesus said He's the only way but a lot of people said that there's another way to God, and because we don't have that firm conviction where we say, "You know what? This is truth, and I'm proud that I know this truth. I get to know this truth, and I'm going to proclaim this truth, so that others get to know God." First Corinthians one, 30 through 31, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord Christ is in us by the power of the Spirit, and we are in Christ. So everything good in us comes from Christ."There's a wisdom that we have access to, there's a sanctification, there's a righteousness, there's a redemption that we have access to, and we both, God I am so proud that you will let me be in Christ. God, I'm so proud that you give me access to this treasure house of wisdom. God, I'm so proud, I'm boasting in the Lord. Second Corinthians 10, 17 through 18, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord for it is not the one who commands himself who was approved, but the one whom the Lord commands." So he's saying we should boast in the fact that God approves of me. God approves of me not because of what I've done, because of Christ has done and because of Christ has done he fills me with the spirit now he does things through me.Second Corinthians 1:12, he makes it clear, it's only by God's grace. This is our boast. "We behave in the world with simplicity, Godly, sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you." So who gets all the glory? God does. But there still is a recognition that God you did this in and through me, and you're using me. God, you chose to use me, you chose the four year grace into me. Caveat number three is, Paul's claim to holiness or innocence in matters of dispute, and that's what he's doing. Is not to deny that his personality might have rubbed people in the wrong way, and this is true. It's true that we find some people easier to love than others. Some people just have a more congenial personality, just more personable. Maybe just they have more people skills, or maybe they have a nice smile, and you're like, "You're a nice person. I already like you." You haven't said anything.A lot of the time just from appearance, you look like a nice person. St. Paul did not. How do I know he didn't look like a nice person? Extra biblical historians tell us and then we get some of this book of Acts where he goes into towns with Barnabas, and everyone's like Barnabas is the head guy, right? Because he's good looking and Paul can't be the head guy, he's not very good looking. Because extra biblical historians, they tell us that he was short, he was pudgy, and he had a unibrow. You can Google it. This is true. I'm telling you, if you have a unibrow in the middle of school, that shapes your personality in a way.So he in of himself until he started talking people don't, they were like, "What do we supposed to mean?" Then he does start talking, and he was the smartest person in any room that he walked into it with. That's why it took Jesus to stop him on the road to Damascus and be like, "Hey, bro you're mine." Because Jesus was the first person he ever met that was smarter than him. St. Paul had this personality where finally, if you convinced me that this is the truth, and Jesus did, now he has this mission, a sense of mission of just a force of zeal in him that whenever he walk into any room, and he's teaching people feel like they're drinking from a fire hydrant.He had two speeds, one in relation to people, he listens and then he dominates. That was his personality. That was his character. So we can't always say that St. Paul is likable. He's not talking about likability, Paul and Peter were the same in this, John was a little more likeable. But if you read church history, virtually every great Christian whose name you know, who's actually accomplished things to get into church history, they rubbed people the wrong way, they rubbed good people the wrong way. John Knox, John Calvin, Martin Luther, they exasperated people with their personalities. Jerome Francis Schaefer. No one has ever met someone that everyone finds endearing, there aren't people like that. Paul isn't speaking about personal likability, he's speaking about his conduct as a minister of the gospel, he's speaking about his character as a Christian.We can't always say, "Hey, we live blameless lives." Like Paul here says, but we are to strive for blameless and holy and life of sincerity. When we find ourselves that we're not living a life of honor, we're living a life of shame. We have to repent at those times when we fail, David was faithful, and he was righteous until he wasn't. But God calls him a man after my own heart because he repented of his sin. So St. Paul isn't talking about personality, he's talking about care. He's talking about life, he's talking about integrity, and if you have the grace of God, it should make a difference in your life. If you're a Christian, it should make a difference in your life.People should be able to see that difference, that you're a person of integrity, you're a person of honor, you're a person of patience, honesty, commitment to truth, love, kindness. Yeah, we are to remain humble. It's only God. It's only by the grace of God, but he does make a difference. We can and should be able to boast about the difference that he's made. Praise God am not the person I used to be. Praise God, that He did save me, because I know the trajectory that my life would be on. Praise God, that He saved me, that he loves me, he fills my heart with love. Now you can look back and say, "Yeah, we've done great things for the Lord." If you are a Christian, you should be a better person than a non Christian. You should be, and you should be growing there. Why? Because you have the power of God within you. You have the grace of God, you have the anointing of God, but who made you to defer? It was God. So by all means, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. So let us boast.Second Corinthians one, 13 through 14, "For we're not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you." St. Paul says, "This should be a mutual boasting." I'm proud that I get to serve you and you should be proud that you get to serve me, this is a mutual boast. So you know what? After church, I want you to go up to people that you know well and say, "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you, I see the work of God in you. I'm proud of you for your service. I'm proud of you for your generosity. I'm proud of you that you're following the law. I'm proud of your faithfulness."There's that mutual ability, I even test it out with my wife today. I said, "I'm proud of you baby." She said, "For what?" I said, "You want the details?" She's like, "Yeah." Do you want the details? Girls want the details. You give them the details. I'm proud of you, I'm not going to tell you stuff. But I was like, "You, 15 years you've been putting up with me, I'm proud of you. Good job. That's not easy." Second point is boast about God's work through you. Through you, that's verse 15. "Because I was sure of this. I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea."So I mentioned this last week, St. Paul planted the church, then he goes to Ephesus, in Ephesus, he hears that the church isn't doing well. So then he comes back, and that's what's called a painful visit. He talks about it, and it was so painful, because he saw these people that he loved dearly, they shared the gospel with. He saw that they were saved, now they're living in sin, open sin, and actually boasting in the fact that because they're Christians, because they're saved by grace through faith, they can sin as much as they want, because God's job is to forgive and our job is to sin. So St. Paul goes there and he says, "That's not how it works." It was a painful visit, brings discipline. Then he leaves and he writes, First Corinthians. First Corinthians is a hard letter hard words, to soften hearts.What he's saying here is like, "Look, I promised to you that I was going to come a second time, make two visits after that, but I'm going to hold off. I'm going to hold off because I'm going to let God's Spirit take God's scripture, First Corinthians, and apply it so that you have time to put your house in order so my next visit isn't painful." Verse 17, Second Corinthians 1:17 says, "Was I vacillating? When I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes and no, no, at the same time." So he promised in the beginning, he's going to make two visits, and then he says, "You know what? If I make that first initial visit, it's going to be painful again.So you know what? I'm going to take that one out, I'm going to give them some time and then I'm going to make a visit that's longer." He talks about that in First Corinthians 16, and because he did that, because he said, he's going to make two visit but then changed his mind, his enemies came in. They're like, "This guy vacillates, therefore we can't trust him." What St. Paul says is, "Look, when I say yes, I mean, yes and when I say no, I mean, no. But sometimes the Lord changes plans. I wanted to come, that was my initial plan." But then the Holy Spirit said, "Give them time. Give him some time." So that's what he says, verse 18, "As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no." He says, "I'm not being double minded, I'm not double speaking. This isn't a duplicity. I'm not like a politician says whatever you need to say for you to get the vote."He says, "I am honest, a man of integrity, my conscience proves and God testifies that everything I did, I did with holiness, and I did for God, but I did want to come, I didn't want to come and give you a second dose of grace and I will." From that what I glean is, this is a man that understood whatever room he walked into, he is a representative of God. Whatever room he walks into, he knows he's here to serve people. He's here to encourage, he's here to edify, and when he's in the room he gives people doses of grace. That's something that we need to aspire to, that God wants to work through us. In Second Corinthians one, 19 through 20, he talks about God's power, in ministry for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you Silvanus and Timothy, and I was not yes and no, but in him, it's always yes for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him we utter our amen to God for His glory.He said, "We preach Christ too, how can you question our character, our integrity, when you clearly saw your life transform when we proclaim the gospel?" St. Paul knew that this is the way that God works. God chooses to save people through, and this is 99% of the time, sometimes he saves people through visions and dreams, et cetera, but most of the time it's through a human representative. That the representative is filled with the words of God and the representative when he proclaims the gospel of God, the gospel of God as a power, of God unto salvation for anyone who believes and when St. Paul proclaim the gospel to them, the Holy Spirit save them, and then he leaves and these people that come in and say, "We can't trust Paul." St. Paul here is saying, "You can't trust me. If you can't trust me here, how can you trust me that I preach the truth to you? Oh, you can trust me that I preach the truth to you, because your life changed, therefore give me the benefit of the doubt. We preach Christ, and Christ is the one who is the ultimate amen for the glory of God. He is the ultimate truth. In Him all the promises of God from the Old Testament find their yes."Then verse 21 and 22, it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So he continues this motif of God uses us, but not just me, he say, he uses the word language us, put together. Here we see the Trinity, we see God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God the Father establishes us with you in Christ. God is the one that establishes our faith with Christ. Christ is the one through whom we're saved, and he anoints us, in here, this is a wordplay. Christ is Christon in the Greek, anointed is Christos. So Jesus is called the Christ because Christ means the anointed one.So a lot of people are like, "Oh, Jesus is his first name, Christ is his last name." Hello, Mr. Christ. No, Christ is a title, is the Messiah. He says, "In the same way that God establishes us with you in Christ, in the same way that Jesus was anointed, God anoints us." Every single Christian God anoints us, how? He also put his seal on us, like on a letter, there's a seal, he puts a seal on us and given us in His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So every single Christian is established by God in Christ anointed, just like Christ was with the power of the Holy Spirit.Jesus Christ, when he started his ministry sat down in a synagogue and he took the scroll of Isaiah in Luke 4:18. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me." A lot of us, a lot of Christians, we're afraid to use the language of anointing because we've seen some Christians or some churches abuse this anointing. But Scripture is clear, there is such a thing as anointing that when God saves you, he also seals you with the Spirit and He anoints you, anoint you for what? Anoints you to be set apart and powered to serve God and you're authorized to act on his behalf.So when God does use you, you're the boast in the fact that God uses you, and if God doesn't use you, as a Christian, you got to say, "Why not? Is there sin in the way? Have I been suppressing the Holy Spirit, grieving the Holy Spirit? Have I been searing my conscious? Is there sin in the way? From the Holy Spirit flowing, the anointing being used by God. I want to give you that vision, I want to give you a vision that you are a minister of God. I don't know maybe we'll get to here at some point, but I wanted us to come up with these T-shirts where it says Mosaic Boston, on the back it says staff. Every single person this is your T-shirt, that you're the staff, you're the ministers of this church, every single Christian you have anointing from the Holy Spirit, use that anointing, use that power of God.So if you're a Christian you are to be being changed, bad grammar but tremendous theology. You have to be changing and you have to be being used by God because you're anointed. Every single person, there has to be transformation, change in your life that affects change in the lives of other people. If you don't want to change, if you just want a church that you go to as a check mark so when mom and dad who are back in some other state, another state. Mom and dad, yeah, I went to church. If that's the only reason you're here, or because you just want to meet someone or you just want some friends. If that's the only reason you're here and you don't want to change, I'd recommend you don't come to this church. Because at this church people change by the power of God, the Holy Spirit changes people in the Holy Scriptures are read.I was studying how Jesus marketed I was like, "How did Jesus start the greatest human movement in the history of the world?" I was like what were his marketing tactics. Jesus would do this crazy thing where He heals someone He's like, "Don't tell anyone." Bro, everyone I know, everyone that knows me knows I had seven demons in me. I was filled with demons, you did an exorcism. If show up at a party and my friends are like, "Why happened to you?" "I can't tell you." "You can't say?" You used to be blind and you're not, what happened? So it was tremendous marketing, "He told you not to tell anyone, what? Who is that guy?"So I was like, "Why don't we do that in Mosaic?" Text time we do tea ads and not just love Jesus simple, where it's like Mosaic Boston, don't come here. Not the church for you, go somewhere else, unless you want to be changed. Unless you want to be changed, unless you want your life to change, unless you want your life to be reoriented around what matters most, which is the ministry of the gospel to the glory of God. This is what I tell people when they move here, and I say this because at the beginning of the year, fall, I already know everyone's church shopping. So if your church shopping, this is a message for you. Let me just explain what the city does to your faith. Let me just explain, I've been here for 12 years, I have seen this over and over.When you come in, you're like, "I think I'm a Christian." You're going to go one or two ways. You're either going to become a Navy SEAL Christian, like you are elite, or you become unitarian. It's one of the other there's nothing in the middle. Why? Because the city has a spirit. If you're sensitive to the demonic realm, the spiritual realm, you know. I go out to like New Hampshire, and I go up to other parts of the country and like, there's just an openness and your soul and your spirit, and then I come back here and as the plane's am like, "Oh, no. Oh, not this again." You just you're entering, this is a battlefield. So I office in my basement, and the water just gets in. So I got these two dehumidifiers, and twice a day, you walk into the room, you don't smell it, it's not musty, it's just normal room.Twice a day, the dehumidifier gets filled up, both of them get filled up, and I got dumped it out. It's manual work every time, there's no way to automatize and I'm telling you, it's kind of like that, Boston's like that. There's a spirit and you need a spiritual dehumidifier of getting the gunk out of your soul, and that's what ministry is. That's what the gospel is. That's what Scripture is. That's what the church is, that's what your community group is. But you need to understand that that's happening. If you are going to be effective, you need to stay close to the Scriptures, stay close to the Lord and to His church. You've been anointed, you've been sealed, there's a guarantee that you are His.Verse 23, "Would I called God to witness against me? It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again, to Corinth and not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy for you stand firm in your faith." St. Paul says, "I could have come." This what the false teachers are saying, he's not trustworthy because he didn't come when he said he didn't come. He said, "I didn't come on purpose, because I already did one painful visit, I don't want to do another painful visit. I'm going to let God's word do its work." St. Paul is saying, "You think it's fun for me to come in and tell people of their sin? That's not fun."It's like any parent knows, it's not fun to discipline your kids, when they do something where they clearly disobey, where they clearly rebel against you. That's not fun. I don't want to discipline my kids. All I want to do is love my kids. But if all you do is say yes to whatever your kids want, you don't really love them, you don't really care. You don't want to deal with the emotional baggage that comes with actually doing the discipline. St. Paul says, "I had a reason for not coming." Because I don't want to just come with a whip. I don't want to lord it over your faith, because I'm not your lord. You have one Lord, Jesus Christ, and there are times where there's no one in the room except for you. No one knows what you're doing. No one knows what you're thinking. No one knows the decisions you're making except for your Lord.If you're going to grow in the faith, you need this awareness that the Lord is with me, that I am doing what I'm doing, I'm making the decisions that I'm making to live a life of holiness, simplicity and sincerity because I love the Lord. Because he told me to do this, and I want to do what He tells me to do, because I know He wants the best thing for me. St. Paul says, "I don't want to lord it over you." The same way pastors, we're not your Lord. I'm a pastor, meaning I'm a servant, meaning I'm here to serve. I'm here to help. So we're here to equip you for the work of the ministry, but you must have a ministry. You must have a ministry.... We ran out of batteries? Oh, we're back. Praise God. We rebuke the demons that are in the sound systems, the demons.We do everything, we check everything. Now, you have spiritual gifts, you have anointing, you have the Holy Spirit, use that. You don't need my permission to be a Christian. You don't need my permission to start Bible study. You don't need my permission to do evangelism, to throw parties for your unbelievers where share the gospel. You don't need our permission. You have the Holy Spirit, you have a lord. So do the work that God has called you to do. If you have the gift of prayer, pray. If you have the gift of healing, heal. If you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy. If you have the gift of proclaiming God, the gift of evangelism, evangelize, that's what we need. That's what St. Paul says, "Stand firm in the faith."Then finally boast about God's love in you. In chapter two, verse one and two, it's the same train of thought. So the chapter of vision, if you didn't know this, the chapter divisions, the big number's the chapter, the small number's the verse. That's not inspired by the Holy Spirit that was added later by the church in order to make it easier to find text, but this chapter division, it breaks up the train of thought, and that's why we're going to continue into verses one through four. Second Corinthians two, one through two, "For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad, but the one whom I have pained?" He says, "I didn't want to come with discipline again, because when you're in pain, I'm in pain, when you're glad I'm glad, when you're rejoiced, I rejoice."How can he say that? He says that because his heart is wrapped up with their heart. Their sorrow, his sorrow, and he wants to avoid increasing it. He continues this in verse three, "And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all, for I wrote to you out of much affliction, and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you."He's talking to people that caused him affliction, he's talking to people that caused them anguish, because he gave birth to this church so to speak. He planted this church, these are his spiritual children, and then he sees them rebelling from God and from truth. Then he writes them a hard letter in First Corinthians and he wrote it with tears. When's the last time you wept over someone else's soul? That's what he's doing. Why? Abundant love. He's like, "I have so much love in my heart for you, overflowing. That's what says in the original, I have overflowing love for you, and you're like, "Then why are you writing First Corinthians to us?" He's like, "Because I love you, and so I'm going to tell you the truth." This is where it's helpful to understand what biblical love is. Biblical love isn't just sentiment, it's like, "Oh, I love you, you're so sweet.No, biblical love is a choice, it's an act of the will, that leads to sacrifice. That's what biblical love is. So St. Paul is writing to these people and writing to the church, and the church, by the way, had a lot of people already that he didn't know. So sometimes it's hard for me to get up and say, "Mosaic Boston, I love you. I have abundant love in my heart for you." It's hard for you to understand that because I look like this, but St. Paul had a unibrow. So it's okay. Give him the benefit of the doubt, give me the benefit of the doubt. He loved them even though he didn't know a lot of them. What kind of love is that? What kind of love is that? It's supernatural love.He's not saying I have abundant love in my heart, because I'm such a loving person. I'm not a loving person. People aren't the love, and people hurt me and people stab me. But I love them anyway. St. Paul, where did you get this kind of love? What kind of love is this? That you can love the people who are stabbing you in the back. He's like, "I got that love from Jesus Christ." Who on the cross as he's being crucified says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Father, forgive them, forgive them for crucifying me." Pouring out his love on his enemies. So when you come to God and you realize that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that's what it took to save you because he loves you. He loved you not because you were lovely, or because you were loving, he loved you because he's loving, and he loved us when we weren't lovely, so that we can now be transformed by his love.So Jesus, you died for me, my sins were crucifying you, and you did that willingly? What kind of love is that? That melts your heart and you're like, "Now, okay, fine, fine. I can love people, even people in Boston. I can love them too." By the power of God, it's not me. It's not me. It's not you. It's the power of God so we can rejoice in that. God gave me this love, that God filled my heart with this kind of love, and we can boast about God's love in us. This, by the way is what made St. Paul's so effective. He truly loved God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind, with everything. Then if you love God, and he's like, "All right, if I love God and I have to keep his commandments.So I'm going to keep His commandments to the best of my ability, repent when I couldn't, by the power of spirit I'm going to do that. Well, what are his commandments?" One of his commandments is going to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to everybody. So I'm going to do that, and it's going to be hard, and there's going to be consequences for doing that. But I'm going to do that because the God whom I love, who love me, told me to do that, and I also love people. When this combination of like I'm doing because I'm filled with God's love, and I'm doing it because I love people, that right there is what changed the world, that's what grew Christian, that's what's going to transform the city, and that's what's going to grow the kingdom of God here where we are.I'll close with Romans 15, 17 through 21. Because when St. Paul on his second visit does go to Corinth, that's what he wrote, Romans, he starts like this, he says, "In Christ Jesus then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem, and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. Thus, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, less I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will understand."As we transition to Holy Communion, we celebrate communion on the first Sunday of every month. The question before us before we partake is can you honestly say that you have a clear conscience? Can you like St. Paul say I have a clear conscience? "I have a clear conscience." Second Corinthians 1:12 that's what he says. Our boast is this the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and Godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. First Timothy 1:5, "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." First Timothy 3:9, "They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience." Second Timothy 1:3, "I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly my prayers, night and day." Second Timothy 1:3, "I thank God whom I serve as..." I did that twice, all right, there you go, because it's doubly important. That's how important it is.What do you do when your conscience isn't clear? You examine, you own it. Lord, I know my conscience is unclear, so I repent of my sin. I repent of my sin, I thank you for Jesus sacrifice, I call upon the name of Lord. The very second you repent, God forgives you. He forgives you of your sin, He cleanses, the blood of Jesus cleanses your conscience. So that's how we approach Holy Communion. First Corinthians 11:28, "Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Examine yourself. For whom his Holy Communion it's for repentant Christians.So if you're not a Christian, if you've never repented of your sin, if you've never believed in Jesus Christ, cried out to him, called upon the name of Lord, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service it'll do nothing for you, or repent of your sin and become a Christian today. We welcome you to do that, and then you are welcome partake. If you are a Christian, who is living in unrepentant sin, if there's clear sin in your life, repent of it today, and you welcome partake. If not, we ask that you refrain as well.That said, would you please pray with me over Holy Communion. Heavenly Father, thank you for the Holy Scriptures. They don't just teach us about you, they don't just enlighten our minds and illuminate our hearts but they also nourish our souls, and make us the people who desire by the power of the Spirit to fight the good fight of faith and live lives of a clean conscience. So we can be used by you. So the Holy Spirit courses through us, so the Holy Spirit give grace to whomever we encounter and continue to use us to do that. Lord, we do repent of sin. We repent of pride where we attribute your work to ourselves, we repent of that.We're so proud that you call us your own, that you save us and that you forgive us of sin and continue to anoint and empower us. Bless our time in the Holy Communion, Jesus we thank you for your suffering. We thank you that you died on the cross on our behalf in our place to save us. We thank you for that. We thank you that you humbled yourself, the great God of the universe, to save us. Bless our time in the Holy Communion we pray this in Jesus name, amen. The way we do it is you take this little cup, you take the first lid off, you take the bread and then you take the second lid off.The night that Jesus Christ was betrayed he took the bread and after breaking He said, "This is my body broken for you, take eat and do this in remembrance of me." Then proceed to take the company said, "This cup is the cup of New Covenant, my blood was poured out for the sins of many, take drink and do this in remembrance of me." Jesus, we do remember your sacrifice in the cross, and we do remember your resurrection and we do remember your ascension, and before you ascended you promised to send us the Holy Spirit.Holy Spirit we thank you that you have come, that you are in our hearts, that you have sealed us and the Holy Spirit continue to empower us, bear fruit through us. We thank you that you forgive us when we sin and we thank you that you forgive us when we repent of having grieved you, having suppressed you. I pray Holy Spirit continue to use us to build the Church of God, I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.Would you please stand and join us as we continue...
Green Pulse Ep 55: Recording a podcast and experience inside an EV 19:36 mins Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change. Singapore is accelerating its drive to electrify its vehicles. The Government has committed to rolling out more charging stations and is also dangling incentives such as rebates, to get people to switch from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EV) early. But what is it like driving an EV? How big of an obstacle is the current lack of charging points for motorists today? To find out, environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty hit the roads in an EV with ST's senior transport correspondent Christopher Tan. They discuss the following points: What ST motoring expert Christopher Tan looks out for when test-driving an electric vehicle (EV) (2:10) Improvements in EV technology (4:28) How have motorists in Singapore been responding to the Government's push for EVs? (6:33) What are the concerns among those who are willing to, but are hesitant about switching to an EV? (11:27) How to use a public EV charging station. (13:55) Also listen to: Ep 45 - Can an electric vehicle push and petrol duty hike green Singapore's land transport sector?: https://omny.fm/shows/green-pulse-1/can-an-electric-vehicle-push-and-petrol-duty-hike Ep 50 - Are electric vehicles really green?: https://omnystudio.com/p/green-pulse-1/clips/686ca931-dad7-41a6-875f-ad74009d855b Read ST's EV supplement of stories here: https://www.straitstimes.com/electrifying-drive-2021 Produced by: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg), David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg), Hadyu Rahim, Adam Azlee & Fa'izah Sani Edited by: Hadyu Rahim Subscribe to Green Pulse Podcast series and rate us on your favourite audio apps: Channel: https://str.sg/JWaf Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWaY Spotify: https://str.sg/JWag Google Podcasts: https://str.sg/J6EV Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg Follow Audrey Tan on Twitter: https://str.sg/JLMB Read her stories: https://str.sg/JLM2 Follow David Fogarty on Twitter: https://str.sg/JLM6 Read his stories: https://str.sg/JLMu --- Discover more ST podcast series: Health Check Podcast: https://str.sg/JWaN ST Sports Talk Podcast: https://str.sg/JWRE Life Weekend Picks Podcast: https://str.sg/JWa2 #PopVultures Podcast: https://str.sg/JWad Bookmark This! Podcast: https://str.sg/JWas Lunch With Sumiko Podcast: https://str.sg/J6hQ Discover BT Podcasts: https://bt.sg/pcPL Follow our shows then, if you like short, practical podcasts! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Green Pulse Ep 55: Recording a podcast and experience inside an EV 19:36 mins Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change. Singapore is accelerating its drive to electrify its vehicles. The Government has committed to rolling out more charging stations and is also dangling incentives such as rebates, to get people to switch from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EV) early. But what is it like driving an EV? How big of an obstacle is the current lack of charging points for motorists today? To find out, environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty hit the roads in an EV with ST's senior transport correspondent Christopher Tan. They discuss the following points: What ST motoring expert Christopher Tan looks out for when test-driving an electric vehicle (EV) (2:10) Improvements in EV technology (4:28) How have motorists in Singapore been responding to the Government's push for EVs? (6:33) What are the concerns among those who are willing to, but are hesitant about switching to an EV? (11:27) How to use a public EV charging station. (13:55) Also listen to: Ep 45 - Can an electric vehicle push and petrol duty hike green Singapore's land transport sector?: https://omny.fm/shows/green-pulse-1/can-an-electric-vehicle-push-and-petrol-duty-hike Ep 50 - Are electric vehicles really green?: https://omnystudio.com/p/green-pulse-1/clips/686ca931-dad7-41a6-875f-ad74009d855b Read ST's EV supplement of stories here: https://www.straitstimes.com/electrifying-drive-2021 Produced by: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg), David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg), Hadyu Rahim, Adam Azlee & Fa'izah Sani Edited by: Hadyu Rahim Subscribe to Green Pulse Podcast series and rate us on your favourite audio apps: Channel: https://str.sg/JWaf Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWaY Spotify: https://str.sg/JWag Google Podcasts: https://str.sg/J6EV Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg Follow Audrey Tan on Twitter: https://str.sg/JLMB Read her stories: https://str.sg/JLM2 Follow David Fogarty on Twitter: https://str.sg/JLM6 Read his stories: https://str.sg/JLMu --- Discover more ST podcast series: Health Check Podcast: https://str.sg/JWaN ST Sports Talk Podcast: https://str.sg/JWRE Life Weekend Picks Podcast: https://str.sg/JWa2 #PopVultures Podcast: https://str.sg/JWad Bookmark This! Podcast: https://str.sg/JWas Lunch With Sumiko Podcast: https://str.sg/J6hQ Discover BT Podcasts: https://bt.sg/pcPL Follow our shows then, if you like short, practical podcasts! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode, we talk about: What we forget to talk about when it comes to St. Joseph; The qualities of St. Joseph; The importance of understanding the Incarnation for understanding St. Joseph; The true Fatherhood of St. Joseph; How Jesus developed in his humanity under the guidance of St. Joseph; The true marriage of Joseph and Mary; Our human need for a father and a mother; What St. Joseph's fatherhood reveals about all fatherhood; Resources mentioned or relevant: Dr. Greg's previous episode about St. Joseph; Custos: Total Consecration Through Saint Joseph by Devin Schadt; Dr. Greg's excitement over an incredible sculpture of the Holy Family at Benedictine College; Dr. Greg's new model of treatment - https://www.iddmentor.com; The Catholic Mindfulness Virtual Retreat; Consecration to Jesus through St. Joseph by Dr. Greg Bottaro and Jen Settle; To find out how Dr. Greg's team can help you, click here. To read the CatholicPsych blog, click here. For resources from the CatholicPsych Institute, click here. If there is a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address, please email your request to beinghuman@catholicpsych.com! We would love to hear from you. Rate, review, and subscribe Please help us in our mission to integrate the Faith with Psychology by hitting subscribe and also sharing this podcast with your friends. Please consider rating or leaving a review of our show. It helps us reach other Catholics just like you who want to become more integrated, whole, and happy human beings. For Apple podcasts, click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5 stars, and choose “write a review”. Then type your sincere thoughts about the show! If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any episodes. Subscribe to the podcast now!
THE WEEK OF TRINITY I - SATURDAYLESSON: HEBREWS 3:7-15Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them … If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” Luke 16:29, 31In this Gospel you see how Abraham refuses to send someone from the dead to teach the living at the request of the rich man. He reminds the rich man that the living have Moses and the prophets to whom they should give heed.In these words, we are also reminded of God's prohibition against any kind of consultation of the dead on the part of the living (cf. Deuteronomy 18:10-12). It is certainly a devilish apparition when spirits make themselves known to men in response to various invocations, and request men to offer up masses for the dead, to undertake pilgrimages for them and to perform other works. There have also been claims that they have given assurances of success to those who have heeded their instructions.In this way, the devil has misled men into putting their trust in works and drawn them away from faith. He has created the illusion among men that works can perform great wonders. What St. Paul foretold is being fulfilled, that God sends upon those who perish and refuse to love the truth and be saved “a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11).Therefore, be well advised and learn that God refuses to make known how the dead fare after this life. Here the only thing that can help us is faith through God's Word, faith which believes that after this life God receives believers into blessedness and condemns unbelievers. This is made abundantly clear in the Gospel of the rich man and poor Lazarus.SL 11:1207 (31-32)AE 78:65PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, You are with us throughout our life; abide with us also at our death. Grant us not to die eternally but to rise to life everlasting with You and in You, who live and reign in the glory of the eternal Trinity, one God, forevermore. Amen.
In this episode we explore Old Testament Joseph's life, because in order to understand St. Joseph as patron of the Church, we must know something of his ancestor, OT Joseph, for whom he is named. Psalm 105 gives us a snapshot of OT Joseph, and a prophecy of NT Joseph: "When he summoned a famine on the land, and broke every staff of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free; he made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to instruct his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom" (Ps 105:16-22, emphasis mine). Thank you to my newest Friends of the Show, Gena M; Erin C; Mary Z; Michele Van W; Anita C; Julie N; and Joan R, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content! LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary. Because I wrote a special LOVE the Word® section for it, my listeners get the Ave Maria Press Notetaking Bible at a discount! Use code CORBITTBIBLE at this link, and get the imitation leather edition for $55 (I have this one) or the hardcover edition for $45. Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.) Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.) One of my favorite things about OT Joseph is how he bore up under injustice and adversity and continued to operate in his gifts wherever he found himself. Ultimately, God used all of Joseph's sufferings as stepping-stones to something greater and to the benefit of everyone: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many should be kept alive..." (Gen 50:20). As you observe your own dysfunctional family relationships and circumstances, and the suffering there, can you discern an ultimate good toward which God might be moving all of you? In your family, is there one person who seems to be in the role of Joseph? Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.) Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin. Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!) Lord, they may have meant evil against me, but You meant it for good (Gen 50:20). Help me to wait for your vindication, and as I wait, help me to forgive. Amen + What we discussed | Show Notes Overview: Minutes 00:12:00 – Why Sonja began studying St. Joseph Minutes 12:01-24:00 – What St. Joseph wanted Sonja to know about him Minutes 24:01-36:00 – OT Joseph, Genesis 37-40: from prophecy to the pit, from the pit to Potipher's, from Potipher's to prison Minutes 36:01-48:00 – Genesis 41-50: From prison to prominence Bible Study Evangelista is on the Laudate app! Facebook Discussion Community We’re talking over on the Bible Study Evangelista Facebook Discussion page. Come chat with us. Read the Transcript Click here for a written transcript of this episode when it becomes available.
What St. Catherine of Siena would say to today’s bishops Mike – Following up from calling in a month ago, I took Patrick’s advice after hitting rock bottom. Lyle – People are cowards by not acting and being the witness they are called to be Jake – Are priests allowed to talk about other things […] All show notes at The Patrick Madrid Show: April 30, 2021 – Hour 2 - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio
Longtime Catholic Exchange contributors and frequent podcast guests Fr. Edward Looney and Jeannie Ewing discuss Mrs Ewing’s much read article, “St. Joseph: Our Patron Saint of a Happy & Holy Death.” In this conversation, Jeannie discusses ways that St. Joseph’s example and support can help us to become better people in our faith, familial, and personal lives. Meanwhile, Fr. Edward gives his insights into the power of the saints in his life as a parish priest.Listen below or find Catholic Exchange on Apple, Google, Spotify or wherever you love to listen to podcasts.Other subjects we discussed:How St. Joseph can help you through the trials of grief and mourning.The humility we can learn from St. Joseph and how that will ultimately allow God to take control.The power of saintly intercession in helping you to grow in your struggles while conquering personal vices.What St. Joseph’s radical trust and obedience can show us in our modern day.How St. Joseph’s intercession can help us with our interior struggles.Links, Books, & ResourcesJeannie Ewing is the author of multiple books, including From Grief to Grace. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Also check out her website, jeannieewing.com.Fr. Edward Looney recently joined us (listen here) to discuss his latest book, Meditations After Holy Communion. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at the handle @FrEdwardLooney. His website is edwardlooney.com.If you want to hear more from Fr. Looney, check out his podcast, “How They Love Mary” on your favorite podcast app.You can find the Litany to St. Joseph here. ✠Photo by Anna Hecker on UnsplashSupport the show (https://catholicexchange.com/donate)
Once in a while you have one of these serendipitous moments where you learn something that's completely different than what you thought you knew. And that is the Genesis for this conversation. I am talking to Cheryl Wilson, who is in charge of the St. Paul's PACE program out of the San Diego area, correct? Yes. So let's start with actually Boone. What St. Paul's is. Well, thank you. Yes, I'm sure. Wilson. I'm the CEO of St. Paul's senior services and St. Paul's PACE. One of our entities that comes under the umbrella of senior services. We've been around for 60 years in San Diego. We do everything from residential living to assisted living services, memory care living, skilled nursing, senior day care, child care in San Diego infants through six years, memory care. Assisted living and PACE Program. Of course. And that's what we will, I wanted to talk to you about today. Terrific. And so let's start with actually an overview of what is PACE.I think that probably most people who are watching, listening, reading have at least heard of PACE, but maybe don't really know what it does, what it's designed to do and that kind of thing. So let's start with that. Yeah, peace is an acronym which stands for Program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, and it is truly all inclusive. So we take a person who is very frail, financially, very poor, and has probably on average across the nation and the PACE programs anywhere from 11 to 15. Co-morbidities. And chronic diseases on average 16 different medications per day. And so they are very frail and on the edge all the time. And so it's a challenge to take care of these folks, because if the arthritis doesn't get you, then the heart disease will, or the high blood pressure will, or the Freitas from the kidney failure because of the diabetes or it's a multi case scenario. But what happens with PACE? And what I found, I am a nurse. And what I've found is that the medical care is about 40% of taking care of these people. The other 60% is the social component of health care. And that includes housing. That includes housekeeping. That includes putting grab rails in the bathroom. If the person needs it. That includes putting a ramp on the front door. If they live in a mobile home and they can't in their wheelchair van and they can't get in or out, we take care of whatever they need. Transportation meals, housekeeping, in home care, to come into the home nurses to come in and give insulin injections every morning, coming in five days a week to get physical therapy with no caps, it can be 52 weeks a year. They get physical therapy every day. And that keeps them able to live at home, able to get in and out of the bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, we provide them with DME also like a commode chair or walkers, electronic wheelchairs, whatever i
2:00 - There's a lot happening in St. Louis! 2:15 - Is Dylan Carlson nearing a call-up? 2:30 - Blues 5-hole questions 2:45 - Kenny Albert on what issues he saw from the Blues in Game 1, and differences compared to last year's playoff run 3:00 - What's Trending? 3:15 - Chris Kerber on the bodies the Blues are missing and the intensity from Game 1 vs. Vancouver 3:30 - Why is Greg Amsinger being so negative about the Cardinals? 3:45 - Progress and winning: What St. Louis City Soccer Club can bring 4:00 - The Gauntlet 4:15 - Mr. Soccer, Bill McDermott, on the impact of the MLS name, crest and colors for the city 4:30 -Update on the Cardinals weekend games and Dylan Carlson call-up conversations 4:45 - The Blues and the physicality needed to beat Vancouver. 5:00 - Why do the Cardinals have so many problems with developing middle of the order hitters? 5:15 - Sports Six Pack 5:30 - How much of an issue is game shape for the Blues? 5:45 - Keyshawn Johnson on the NFL's attempt to return and decisions made by the Big Ten and Pac-12
The Global Revolution underway is intended to bring about the collapse of this present order. What St. John foresaw in the Fourth Seal in the Book of Revelation is now playing out in the headlines. Join Mark Mallett and Prof. Daniel O'Connor as they continue to breakdown the Timeline of events leading to the reign of Christ's Kingdom.
The Hail Mary, the foundation for the Rosary, is one of our most important Catholic prayers. What St. Padre Pio once called his weapon against the devil is also a great source of comfort, and dew for our souls! The transcript for this podcast can be found at www.ourcatholicprayers.com/hail-mary.html
Summary of today's show: On Tuesday of Holy Week in the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Seán celebrates the Chrism Mass with the priests of the archdiocese, blessing the holy oils used in sacraments for the next year and renewing their priestly vows. In a special broadcast from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor, first, discuss the Mass and Holy Week with Fr. Jonathan Gaspar and the listen to and reflect upon Cardinal Seán's homily to the priests, which each year is the one he prepares for with the greatest reflection and prayer. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor **Today's guest(s): Fr. Jonathan Gaspar Links from today's show: Today's topics: Cardinal Seán's homily at the Chrism Mass 1st segment: Today the show is being broadcast from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross following the celebration of the Chrism Mass. He is joined by Fr. Jonathan Gaspar and Fr. Chris O'Connor. Fr. Jonathan said it's always great to see so many priests turn out. Fr. Chris said many priests make a conscious decision to come from all over the Archdiocese in order to receive the oils used in sacraments and to renew their priestly vows. Many can't come because they are needed in their parishes. Scot said it seems the Cardinal puts extra time and effort into his Chrism Mass homily. Fr. Jonathan said the Cardinal loves to preach, but he spends a great of time preparing for this one in particular, offering the priests a message of hope and encouragement. He said the Cardinal has spent many nights over the past few weeks in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and at his desk writing his homily. Scot said Cardinal Sean said the Chrism Mass is a sign of unity across the archdiocese in the sacred chrism consecrated today to be used in every sacrament of baptism, confirmation, and anointing. Fr. Chris said all of those sacraments are connected to this Mass today. Another element of unity is the presence of Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios. Both the Metropolitan and the Cardinal spoke of the need for Christian unity. Scot said there is a luncheon for priests after the Mass at the cathedral and each year two priests received awards for their service. Fr. Jim Rafferty and Fr. Dave Palmieri were the recipients this year. Scot noted that Fr. Rafferty received unfavorable press coverage for a pastoral decision a few years ago at St. Paul's in Hingham and this was a chance to highlight his service and to reaffirm him as one who preaches the faith in season and out of season. Scot said Cardinal Seán also mentioned during his homily how many priests tell him they first had an inkling of their vocation from their childhood priests who mentioned the possibility for the call in their lives. Fr. Jonathan recalled his own childhood priest who planted the idea of a vocation in him as a boy. He said Cardinal Seán told priests that the first way to foster vocations was to just smile and show the joy of the priesthood. 2nd segment: Scot said the Chrism Mass is the second big event of Holy Week after Palm Sunday. In many places, Chrism Mass is on Holy Thursday morning, but in big dioceses they move it to another day because priests need to get back to the parishes for Holy Thursday evening for all the preparations that must be made. Fr. Chris said in Rome it will be held on Holy Thursday. He said Pope John Paul II used to publish a Holy Thursday letter to the priests of the world giving them something to reflect on. He's hoping Pope Benedict issues such a letter this year. Scot said priests at this Mass renew their priestly promises from ordination. After 14 years as a priest, Fr. Chris reflected on the renewal and he recalled the words, “Lord, I am unworthy.” In the midst of our own brokenness, Christ continues to call us to minister to his people. It also brought him back to his ordination day, being with his brother priests and celebrating the gift of his priesthood. The only large gathering of priests for Mass like this is the ordination Mass. The Cardinal asked three questions of the priests to renew their priestly vows. Fr. Chris said the Cardinal also asked the priests to pray him as a priestly leader. At another point, the vicar general kepis up and reads the names of all the priests who have died in the past year. About 25 priests were named this year. Scot said he reflected on how every priest present knew that one day their name would be read in this Mass. Fr. Chris said all Christians need to be cognizant of their own mortality and death, but the proximity of Easter reminds us of the promise of eternal life. Now we will hear from Cardinal Sean's homily for the Mass and we will stop periodically to comment on it: Good morning everyone. Your eminence, Metropolitan Methodius, Brother Bishops and Priests, Deacons, Fellow Religious, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. I first learned about the great tradition of Boston when John Wright became our bishop when I was a seminarian and he would regale us with many stories about Boston. But my favorite story of his was about Mayor Curley. Once when he was running for mayor, he was opposed by one of his lieutenants, a big, garrulous red-haired Irishman who I think was the police or the fire chief at the time. When his opponent had a political rally he decided to go. When he got there, he asked to speak. He said, “You know, every great man in history has had a betrayer. Caesar had his Brutus, Washington had Benedict Arnold, and our blessed savior had Judas. And you know? They were all redheads. Once I was visited by a priest who was very discouraged. He thought he was a redhead… He said: “Bishop, I am the worst priest in the world.” I said to him, that is quite a distinction. I asked him about his ordination and first mass. I said, “Did you fight over who was going to be first in line at your ordination? Did you betray Christ for the collection? Did you chop off someone's ears with a machete? Did you then run away and hide? I was of course comparing the worst priest in the world with the first priests in the world, the apostles. The vocation of the apostles begins with the joyful discovery of Christ, and with the reckless abandoning of their boats, their nets and their families, to follow the Lord. It wasn't too long however, when they were soon in competition with each other and worried about their retirement benefits, like who was going to have the thrones on the right and the left. They spent most of the first Sacred Triduum locked in the Cenacle, while it was the women who followed Jesus through the Stations of the Cross and to Calvary. To me one of the most poignant scenes in the Gospels is the apparition of the Risen Lord on Easter to the 11 remaining apostles. They're hiding out in the Cenacle with the doors bolted. Suddenly, Christ is in their midst showing them his wounded hands as if to say: “See how much I love you.” The reaction of the apostles certainly must have been one of very conflicted emotions. First of all, they were overjoyed to see that Jesus was alive and in their midst. Secondly, they would have felt a profound shame and embarrassment because of their cowardly behavior. The apostles did not surface even to bury Jesus' body after the crucifixion. Had it not been for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus' body would have been cast into a common ditch to be savaged by vultures and dogs. But Jesus' love and forgiveness is so great, He does not even remind them of how badly they have behaved, but instead gives them the gift of the Spirit so that these sinners could become wounded healers. I find immense consolation in the fact that the Gospels give us, not pious platitudes, but a gritty, realistic portrayal of our first priests, the apostles. They were ordinary men like ourselves, full of humanity and shortcomings and idiosyncrasies. They were entrusted however, to carry on the most important mission in the history of the world and despite all of their weaknesses, they did an extraordinary job. Scot said one the ideas that stood out to him was that the people entrusted by Jesus to spread the Gospel were not those who had the courage to follow the Way of the Cross and stand at the foot of the Cross. Fr. Chris said we only know for sure that the Virgin Mary and John the beloved apostle were there. He loved how he picked up on the flaws and foibles of the apostles because it shows that by Christ picking these flawed men we see that the Church's ministry is about reconciliation. He reconciles them to himself in order to send them out to tell about the power of forgiveness. Scot said the cardinal has immense satisfaction that the Gospels give us a gritty, real, intense view of the apostles. Our Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints. Fr. Chris said it goes back to the incarnation, that Christ became human so we might become divine. Christ is present to us and offering us an opportunity to die to self, so we might live in him. That's what he calls us all to, regardless of state in life. I'm sure that all of us at one point have felt a certain envy of the apostles. We imagine how wonderful it would be to be there and hear Jesus' voice, to see his miracles, to experience the closeness, the companionship and joy of being in his presence. It is ironic however, that the apostles' worst behavior came about while Jesus was still with them. They came into their own after the Pentecost experience. It's then that they go out boldly to proclaim the gospel and to share with the world what they have received. Though we have not had the privilege of walking over the hills of Galilee in Jesus' company, we have received the same Spirit that the apostles did on Holy Thursday, on Easter Sunday and on Pentecost. And now the mission must continue, despite our weaknesses and shortcomings and all obstacles. Christ is counting on us just as He counted on those simple fishermen to preach his gospel, calling people to conversion and discipleship, building a community of faith around the Eucharist. Like those first Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, we must be united in embracing the teachings of the apostles, fellowship and prayer, and the breaking of the bread. Holy Thursday is a very special day for us priests; indeed this very Chrism Mass is an extension of Holy Thursday. On that first Holy Thursday, Jesus washed the feet of his apostles and commanded them to love one another in the way that He loves us. He also commanded them to celebrate the Eucharist, “Do this in memory of me.” And later on that same evening, Jesus tells his first priests: “Watch and pray.” Today, 2,000 years later, Jesus is telling us the same thing: we must love one another, we must celebrate His Eucharist, and we must watch and pray. In Chapter 14 of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke reports how Paul and Barnabas gather the faithful at Antioch and they reported what God had done with them and how God had “opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” Pope Benedict has lifted that beautiful phrase, “the door of faith,” “Porta Fidei,” for the name and theme of his letter announcing the year of faith beginning in the fall. It will mark the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the second Vatican Council, convoked by Blessed Pope John XXIII, and which also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published by Blessed John Paul II. We are people of faith. Faith defines our identity and motivates our actions. Faith is our most precious gift. I am so grateful to have been born into a family of believers, the faith and example of my parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles was so life giving to me as child. And I am ever grateful to my uncle, Father Jerry Riedy, who baptized me into the faith. Scot said although priests today haven't walked with Jesus in Galilee, they have received the same Spirit the apostles did on Pentecost. Christ is counting on these priests just as He did on the apostles. Scot said the Cardinal has a passion for gathering the people of God around the Eucharistic table each week, because it is where we show our love for one another. Fr. Chris said the early Christians did this to show their love for Christ. There is an equality at that table. All are invited and equal in the eyes of God. We receive communion, we are brought deeper into the mystery of God and are meant to share it with our brothers and sisters in the faith. Scot said Cardinal Seán later told the priests to open the door of faith to people and how grateful he is to his family for opening the door of faith to him. We are all called to show people the beauty of our faith in our lives. Fr. Chris said we learn by imitation and example and so when we see the example of those who love the Lord and willingly give their life in service to the Lord we see the love for Christ conveyed and that faith is infectious. Preparing these reflections today, I decided to consult my concordance of the Bible. I found that the word faith appears four times in the Old Testament. However, in the New Testament, which is much shorter, the term faith appears over 250 times and the word believe also appears over 250 times. It is impossible to read the New Testament without appreciating how important faith is. Faith means not being an orphan, having a father who is our God and having many brothers and sisters. Faith is a home where we dwell and move and have our being, where we discover how much we are loved and who we are. Faith is a relationship with Christ, a loving and trusting and enduring friendship. Indeed the mission entrusted by Jesus to the apostles is not first of all to announce the gospel, but first of all to believe in him. As priests we are called to be men of faith, teachers of faith and witnesses of faith. The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. After a beautiful passage celebrating the faith of our ancestors throughout salvation history, the author of Hebrews exhorts us: “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus the origin and crown of all faith.” A few weeks ago I was invited to give the opening talk at a retreat for 75 young Jesuits here in Boston. A Jesuit Father who is a missionary in Siberia had organized the retreat and invited me. Afterwards, he presented me with a beautiful Russian icon of Our Lady. He told me that in Russia it is said: You do not choose the icon, the icon chooses you.” A very interesting perspective. Well, faith is born of a glance. Not so much ours, but that of Christ. The account of the vocation of the Apostles begins by the assertion Jesus looking at them. Jesus saw Andrew and Peter. Jesus saw the sons of Zebedee. Jesus saw Matthew. And having seen them, having fixed his gaze upon them, Jesus calls them to a life of discipleship. We should ask ourselves: “when did we become aware that Jesus had set his eyes on us?” When did we recognize His voice, and His invitation – “Follow me.” Each of us has our own vocational story. For each of us, there is a precise moment for each of us where we became aware that Jesus was looking at us. Certainly, there were many other moments: moments of enthusiasm, moments of definitive choice, and moments of decision to renew ourselves in the face of trials and difficulties and trials in our ministry. Even moments of remorse and shame when we had to cast ourselves on the mystery of our Lord's mercy, like Peter in the courtyard of the high priest, when the Lord turns and fixes his gaze on Peter, who goes out and weeps bitterly. To be under the gaze of the love and mercy of Jesus and to put our eyes fixed on Him, this is faith and from that faith comes every call, every following and even our ministerial vocation which unites us to Jesus who with love, compassion and tenderness sees the crowd and is moved because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Seeing our people's needs, Jesus sends us. Indeed as priests, we must persevere in running this course with our gaze fixed on Jesus, the origin and crown of all faith. It is our own Boston Marathon with many a Heartbreak Hill. It is a long distance run, not the frenetic sprint of the person anxious to be everywhere, who feels indispensable, who never has time for smile, who is not capable of listening, and who does not have the capacity for a profound silence. We need to witness the faith not by adopting the rhythms and times of this world, but rather by responding to the urgency of the gospel. “Faith comes through hearing” (Romans 10, 17) and it is as men of faith, that we must build our lives on the Word of God. There are so many demands on our time and attention, and our energy is not limitless. It requires discipline in the organization of our time to guarantee that each day we can be nourished by listening to the Word of God. Our celebration of the liturgy is also a crucial contact with the power that comes from God's Word and from the Sacraments. Regardless of what one may feel about the new translation, the changes in the liturgy have been an opportunity for us to focus with greater attention to the words we are praying. The Chrism Mass allows us to glimpse the grace of belonging to a presbyterate. It is this in this presbyterate, united to Christ and one another that the gifts that we received by the imposition of hands can be stirred up and enlivened. Here all of our struggles and triumphs are melded into one. The hidden sacrifices heroically made by some of our brothers, the special graces, the pastoral genius, the tireless dedication come together to forge our presbyterate. We are a body that together regenerates itself. Together we share the responsibility to announce the Gospel and to build up the Christian community. You often hear the expression: “keep the faith.” But what we really need to do is not keep the faith, but spread it around. Our faith grows stronger when we share it with others. All of us remember fondly the priests who mentored us in the faith. Now it is our turn to share these treasures. We are earthen vessels bearing treasures. The world is being overcome with darkness. To me one of the most chilling phrases on Jesus' lips are the words: “When the Son of Man returns will he find any faith on the earth?” In great part it depends on us. We who are Christ's priests have a huge responsibility to announce his Gospel in season and out of season. Scot said this was news to him about faith and belief in the Bible. It's important for the growth of the Church to understand that faith and belief are fundamental. Fr. Chris said we have to remember that faith is a gift from God to us, which we can accept or reject. It's also important to remember how grateful the Cardinal was that his parents were believers that they imparted their faith to him. How grateful we should be to those in our lives who have imparted the faith to us. Sometimes when we're lacking faith, the best way to grow in faith is to tell the Lord and then to pray. We become a better athlete by practicing the motions of the sport, and we grow in faith by acting in faith. Scot said the Cardinal said our faith grows stronger as we share it with others. We all have a huge responsibility to preach the Gospel in season and out of season. Fr. Chris quoted the First Letter of Peter, “be prepared to give a reason for your hope,” for why we believe. What are the highlights of our own faith conveyed in 3 minutes that we would give to someone who asked? I often tell the Jesuits that I'm a little envious of them, since they have 35 craters on the moon named after Jesuit fathers. We Capuchins only have a cup of coffee…. One of the best spots to drink a good cappuccino is the Piazza of San Eustachio in Rome. If you have ever indulged yourself at one of the cafés there, you may have noticed the lovely church which looks like many other Italianate churches, except for the fact that on top of the church where one usually expects to find the cross, there is a huge set of antlers. I am sure that there is some pious explanation for the antlers, perhaps some story about San Eustachio running over a deer and miraculously providing venison for 4000 orphans. However, if you ask the Romans why there are antlers on the top of the church you may hear the story that I was told. Apparently, a young Roman nobleman married a beautiful bride in that church, but soon after the marriage she absconded with the best man. Today the man would have gone on the Jerry Springer show. The husband was disconsolate, and in his grief and rage had the antlers placed on the roof of that church. In Italian, a man who has deceived by his wife is referred to as “cornuto” which means having horns. I am told that ever since the antlers went up, there are very few weddings in that church. Accordingly, for many Romans, the antlers on the church betoken defeat and sadness. During this year of faith we need to climb up and pull the antlers down and lift high the cross, the triumphant, life giving cross. Our people need us to be confident and joyful teachers of the faith. Cardinal Dolan spoke of going to a conference by Cardinal Wright on Evangelization, expecting a deep theological treatise. The message of the eloquent Bostonian was simply – smile! Pope Benedict constantly dwells on relationship of faith with joy. The word joy appears sixty (60) times in the New Testament. The very word Gospel means glad tidings. We are messengers of that joyful news. Scot said when he lived in Rome, he never saw the church the Cardinal referred to. Fr. Chris said he is going to Rome this summer and he's planning to check it out. Scot said the Cardinal seemed to be saying that we should tear down anything distracting us from the faith and in its place to lift high the Cross. But the cross isn't about grief. The cardinal referred to Cardinal Dolan speaking of the joy of having received the Good News and letting it permeate out hearts, even before the cross. Fr. Chris quoted St. Theresa of Avila: “Lord, save me from long-faced saints.” We should see the cross as something beautiful and life-giving. Showing the joy of the love of Christ attracts people and is an invitation to the gift of faith. The people need to glimpse our own faith. They need teachers who are witnesses. In our priestly support groups and circles of priests, we need to talk about Christ and our love for the mission that He has entrusted to us. It is because the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus are talking about Jesus, that the Risen Lord draws near and breaks open the Scriptures for them. That experience made their hearts burn within them. Cleopas and his buddy never finished that dinner – they got up from that table probably without even paying the check and ran back to Jerusalem with the waitress chasing them down the road. They were filled with joy, and wanted to share that joy and good news with their brothers – “we have seen the Lord and we recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” Pope Benedict XVI, in Porta Fidei, writes “faith grows when it is lived as an experience of grace and joy.” He warns us not to grow lazy in the faith, and urges us to focus on Jesus Christ, because “in him all the anguish and longing of the human heart finds fulfillment.” At the Chrism Mass, I like to make an appeal, a challenge to my priests and to myself. In the past, I have asked us all to work harder on our preaching. I have asked that every priest make a serious retreat each year – I had to go down to St. Petersburg last year to make sure Bishop Hennessey was not offering the enneagram and reiki. Actually we are very grateful for the wonderful work Bob Hennessey is doing on those retreats. I have asked that each priest develop a personal rule of life to assure the balance we need to pray hard, work hard and play hard. I have asked that each priest join a priest support group to be able to build a truly spiritual fraternity with a deep sense of shared mission. This year I would ask that each priest, myself included, to recommit ourselves to our own ongoing formation. Each of us is ultimately responsible for his own ongoing formation, which needs to be spiritual, human, theological and pastoral so that we might be the teachers of the faith our people need. Pope John Paul II wrote in Pastores dabo Vobis: “Ongoing formation aims at increasing the priest's awareness of his share in the Church's saving mission”. “The priest's permanent formation appears not only as a necessary condition but also as an indispensable means for constantly refocusing on the meaning of his mission and for ensuring that he is carrying it out with fidelity and generosity. By this formation, the priest is helped to become aware of the seriousness and yet the splendid grace of an obligation which cannot let him rest, so that, like Paul, he must be able to say: “If I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel”(1 Cor. 9:16). At the same time, the priest also becomes aware of a demand, which insistently comes from all those whom God is unceasingly calling to salvation. Scot said in the seminary it's important to remind the seminarians that formation doesn't end with ordination. Fr. Chris said none of us are finished products. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were on a journey and each priest has to grow theologically and pastorally. He said he was intrigued by the list of challenges the Cardinal gives each year to the priests for them to work on. It's helpful to look on all of them and see where they've grown. One year is was about working on homilies. Another year was about taking a serious renewing retreat each year. Another year, they were to form a spiritual fraternity. This year it's about ongoing formation. Fr. Chris said it's a good reminder to all of his priests. Scot recapped the end of the Cardinal's homily. For the Church, the Year of the Faith is to be the year of the New Evangelization. Our personal ongoing formation will help us as a diocese in our task of imbuing our pastoral planning with the new evangelization which means taking the Gospel to those who have grown cold, to reach out with a new ardor and with new methods, turning our parishes into communities of evangelizers where every parishioner feels a call to share their faith, to be a part of the mission to make Christ's Gospel loved, and to promote a civilization of justice and love. I am very grateful to Bishop Arthur Kennedy for his willingness to help us to equip our people for the challenges of the New Evangelization and for promoting our ongoing formation. I know that it seems daunting but I am confident that this Year of Faith will be great grace for our Church if we priests take advantage of this time to renew ourselves in an ongoing conversion that is a response to Christ's loving call. Spiritual writers speak of a second call, actually there are many moments when the Lord glances at us as He did to Peter, after Peter's fall and what I call the “Last Breakfast” when the risen Lord, having examined Peter in his love, says “Follow me” again. As we renew our ordination promises may we recommit our lives to Christ, to our brothers and sisters, in the service of the Gospel whose Heralds we are. May the Lord grant each of us a faith that bestows confidence and courage, generosity and joy, as together we work to build up Christ's Kingdom. Together we want to take down the antlers of sadness and defeat and weathervane of doubt and uncertainly and lift high the cross. What St. Francis calls the book that contains the greatest love story in the history of the world – and we priests are all part of that story. God bless you. Scot said it's his sense that the Cardinal's hope is that each parish will come alive and each Catholic will be motivated to share their faith. Fr. Chris said it's an insight that originates with Pope Benedict XVI, who is always talking about this new evangelization, re-presenting the Gospel to those who have grown cold in the faith, re-introducing the idea that Christ is the life and the Resurrection. Scot previewed the liturgies of the rest of the week. He said beautiful images from these liturgies taken by George Martell can be found at . Scot and Fr. Chris said the best way to prepare for Easter is to participate in all the liturgies and services of Holy Week. Fr. Chris reminded everyone that tomorrow night is the final light of The Light Is On For You for this Lent, where the sacrament of confession will be available in every church and chapel from 6:30-8pm.
Were starting this morning with 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. We begin a new series, Extreme Makeovers, Spiritual Edition. Extreme makeovers are everywhere, arent they? Have you noticed that? It seems like you cant turn on the television without some sort of extreme makeover kind of show being on. Theyll makeover your home; theyll come in and knock down walls and do incredible things in peoples homes. They will incredible things to peoples faces. The Swan, Ive never seen it but I know of it, is the show where they do cosmetic surgery to transform their faces. There are other kinds of makeover shows where they will come in and do your hair, makeup, and clothing and make a new you. Theyve got makeovers for automobiles. They even have makeovers for dysfunctional families. I caught a show called Nanny 911, where she comes in your home and tries to teach you how to discipline children and set up a schedule, so you do an extreme makeover for your family life. Well, God is into extreme makeovers. Did you know that? He does the spiritual kind. Theyre extreme. God is not into fine tuning or minor adjustments; they are extreme makeovers for people who are willing to submit to Him. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old one has gone, the new has come! Theres enthusiasm in Pauls voice as he writes this. This is radical; its extreme! Its a new start. Verse 18, And all this is from your hard work… Nope, it doesnt say that! And all this is from your great book smarts… Nope, it doesnt say that either! It says, This tremendous spiritual renewal and change is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting mens sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If youre ever looking for a snapshot, a short passage, theres a synopsis in the Gospel that you can share with somebody who has spiritual questions; I cant think of a better one than this. This is a tremendous snapshot of what the Gospel is. This says, Gods in the renewal business. So for the next few weeks, were going to talk about renewing our minds, renewing our spirits, renewing our wills. This week were talking about renewing our mind or our heart. I want you to turn to the Book of Ephesians with me this morning, and were going to spend the rest of our time in Ephesians, Chapter 4. In the book of Ephesians, Paul is making a contrast. He is going to contrast the truth of the Gospel, the reality of the resurrection in the Lordship of Christ and lay that in a juxtaposition position with the traditions of men, the philosophies of men, and their thinking. Hes going to demonstrate the superiority of the truth of the Gospel. In Verse 17 of Chapter 4, he says, So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. So he said the word futility, and futility or vernacular means useless. If you say something is futile, you mean its useless. Biblically, this word meant a lot more than that. It meant void of truth or empty, lacking substance. So when Paul says, It is futile thinking, he means it doesnt have any substance. Paul is saying people are entrusting their eternal souls on the philosophy or world-view or a belief system that is empty and void of truth. Its not going to stand the test or hold up. There is only one truth, and truth is objective. I was emptying a truck when I was in high school. I had a job at a factory, and we had to empty a big truck. Im standing up in the truck, the semi, unloading it, putting boxes down on the gravel ground, and Im stepping on the boxes as we spread them out. I stepped on one box, and the next thing I knew, down on my face I went. See, what I stepped on wasnt a box. I stepped on a lid of a box. It looked like a box, a big lid that had been opened up. What I thought was going to hold me turned out to be empty, without substance. Down on my head I went, kiss the gravel! That explains a lot, doesnt it? Now you start to understand a little bit more about why I lose my train of thought. See thats what Paul is talking about. It has the illusion of substance. It has the illusion of durability. When its all said and done, when it is really put to the test, its void of truth. He says thats what mans philosophies are. Thats what mans traditions are, rather than the truth of Christ, which is solid and eternal. In Verse 18, They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Notice, its a process. Its a hardening; its not instantaneous; its a process well explain in a moment. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. It wasnt always like that. There was one time, a time when sin grieved their hearts, but now because of this habitual practice, their hearts have become hardened, desensitized toward the truth of Gods word. When I was a young man, I had a cat named Cuddles. Cuddles and I used to fight. I would put my hand up, and I would play box him; and then wed grapple and Id flip him around and wed fight and wrestle. I just had a great time with my cat. Now my mom chose not to declaw our cat, so my cat Cuddles had some pretty good front claws; so she would just start to tear up the skin on the top of my right hand. It would hurt something fierce. I would have to pull my hand back and say, Ow, that hurt! but it was fun, so Id go back in. Wed fight some more, and Id play and laugh. By the time I was finished, my hand would be all scratched up. Mom would say, Why do you do that? Look at your hand! You need to stop! Id say, Because its fun! I like it! Sometimes Id have to wait a few days for my hand to heal up, and then Id go back to fighting again. Over a period of literally years, literally years, of fighting with Cuddles on a weekly basis, the skin would get cut and heal up and get cut and heal up, that it got to be so tough, it was like rawhide. It got to where the cat could just scratch; it would leave a mark but wouldnt cut me anymore. That skin had become desensitized, that I could just get in there, grapple with that cat and not feel the pain of the claws. I put my left hand in there, and oh man. That would hurt, but the right hand had become callous. Thats what sin does. At first when we sin, we grieve. Were embarrassed; were ashamed. We have scars, theres cut, theres pain. But if we dont then confess and repent and forsake, and go back and indulge again, we say, You know, I kind of liked that. We are hurt again, but this time its not as bad. Over a period of time, through this habitual cycle, we can become desensitized and the effects are sin. Our heart can become callous, so were no longer responding to the voice of God or to the word of truth. Paul warns against that. He says in Verse 20, You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. Paul is talking here about the word truth or lathia. It is objective reality. It is something that is real or true, regardless of the circumstances. Like what Paul says, I could believe that was a real box lid, but the truth of it is, it was just a lid. It wasnt a box. It wasnt going to sustain me. You can think that gravity is not real, but if you step off the roof of this church, youre going to fall. Because reality is objective; its true whether you believe it or not. Regardless of what you believe about Christ and who He is, He is the truth Paul says. He is the alathia. He is the one we rest in. So, the world has changing philosophies. They come and they go. Their heresies are recycled over the centuries, but Gods truth remains the same. I loved what our current Pope of the Catholic Church said, Pope Benedict. I was thinking about what he had said in a speech he gave before the first conclave, and I thought, Im going to try to look up what he said. I had no idea, but when I looked up his remarks, he was commenting on what? Ephesians, Chapter 4. I thought, Well, thats a coincidence right there. But listen to what the Pope had to say, How many winds of doctrine have we known in the last ten years? He looks back on his panoramic view of his life, his theological experiences over the decades. How many ideological currents, how many fashions of thinking? The small boat of thought of many Christians has been tossed about by these waves? Sometimes we, too, can succumb to those lines of thinking. Thats what Paul is warning about in Ephesians. The Pope continued, Thrown from one extreme to the other, from Marxism to Liberalism, even to Libertinism-to just be a free thinker and think whatever you want to think. From collectivism to radical individualism. And certainly he experienced collectivism, that mindset, that political theory or belief that this group, because we think something is right, is therefore the truth. They redefine truth. He grew up under Hitlers regime. He grew up with that collectivism mindset. From atheism to a vague religious mysticism, from agnosticism (questions the existence of God) to secretism, which tries to combine all sorts of beliefs and philosophies, everyday, new sets are created. What St. Paul says about human trickery comes true with cunning, which tries to draw those into air. Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled as fundamentalism. How many of you ever thought because you believe the Bible, something must be wrong with you, the way the world speaks? Sometimes when people throw a label on you, its fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to todays standards. In other words, you become your own truth or reality. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal ones own ego and ones own desires. Notice he says a dictatorship of relativism. What does that mean? It means everybody could become, under that school of thought, their own little dictator. Right? Because relativism is very individual. Its saying that your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth. So everybody becomes their own little island of truth, and the Pope says, No, thats not reality. And Paul says, No, there is one truth, and that truth is in Jesus. Its only in Jesus that our minds could be transformed and renewed. It talks in Verse 22-24 about our part and Gods part. He says, You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul does something here that you cannot detect unless you study it in the original languages here. What Im going to share with you doesnt change the meaning of anything, but its important for you to know that Paul changes voices here in this passage. You say, What do you mean he changes his voice? A voice in the Greek is how the subject relates to the verb, whether the subject is doing the action or the subject is being acted upon. In Verse 22 and 24, when he talks about putting off and putting on, he uses whats called the middle voice, which means the subject, you and I, are doing the action. We are putting off, and we are putting on. However, in Verse 23, when it talks about being made new, he uses something called the passive voice, which means you, the subject, are being acted upon by an outside person or thing. Youre not the one doing the action. Youre being acted upon. So what does that mean? That means when it comes to renewing our spirits, renewing our minds, only God can do that. That is what Paul is saying here. Its in the passive voice. That comes from God. You cannot renew your heart. You cannot renew your mind to obey Gods truth in and of yourself. I was kind of grappling about this. I was trying to think about an illustration that would help me communicate the middle and the passive voices to you and our part and Gods part. I came across an illustration. God gave me an illustration, and I want to share that with you this morning. Hypothetically, imagine you had to go to the doctor to have your heart checked. When you went to the doctor, the doctor found an irregular heartbeat. Something was wrong, and he gave a diagnosis. He said, We think there is reason to believe that your arteries are clogged, that you are going to have to have bypass surgery. Or he said, We have reason to believe that a valve isnt functioning right. Youre going to have to have valve replacement surgery. At that point, you have a decision to make. You could either accept what the doctor has said, or you could reject what the doctor has said. Correct? You can either say, Thats true, and I need to trust your judgment. You have the education. You have the expertise. You have the equipment, and Im going to submit to this operation or you can reject it. You can say, Well, Im still alive. I dont feel that bad. Im just not going to listen to you and go on and live my life. Well, if you do that, chances are you wont be with us long, right? Chances are youre going to succumb to that heart condition, and youre going to pass away because you chose to reject the truth. Paul says, You and I have a disease called sin. God says the wages of sin is death, and all of sin falls short of the glory of God. But there is a solution to that sin. That sin is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That solution is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Youre going to choose to accept that reality and do something about it. Let God do something about it, or you can reject that news and say, Im not that bad. I dont have that much of sin problem. The scripture says, You will die in your sin because theres a spiritual law. The law says the one who sins will die. Thats your choice. You answer to God. So what can you do, and what cant you do? Well, youre going under this health procedure. The doctor says, Okay, Im going to teach you about the heart. This habit youve gotten into about drinking bacon grease for breakfast, were going to put that off, and were going to put on orange juice. So, you start drinking orange juice. You know that habit youve gotten into of being so lazy that you dont even get off the couch to change the channel because if you dont have your remote, you cant even watch TV because youre so lazy? Were going to put that off, and youre going to be stepping on the stair master while youre watching TV. So were going to put off a lack of exercising, and were going to put on a healthy routine, so you can strengthen that heart muscle and have a healthy cardio-vascular system. Or were going to put off ignorance of the heart. Right now, you hardly know anything about your own heart. Were going to teach you about your heart, and were going to teach you about this procedure. Youre going to put on knowledge. Heres the key. You can put on healthier habits, and you can put on healthier exercise, healthier eating habits and exercise, and you can put on education and put off all those bad habits, but you will never, ever, no matter how smart you get about the heart, no matter how fit you get from exercise, no matter how trim you get from diet, you will never be able to perform open heart surgery on yourself. Youre never going to come to the point where you can stand in front of a mirror and go, Scalpel. Oh yeah, theres that little clog thingy right now. Let me just take a vein out of my leg and sew that right in there. You cant do it! Youre going to need an outside person who is an expert, who has the knowledge to do what you cannot do to make that physical change in your heart. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. If youre trying to change your mind spiritually, your heart spiritually, in and off your effort, you will not do it. There are certain things you can put on, certain things you can put off, but only God does the transformation. Only God does that. Your job and responsibility as a follower of Christ or as a human being is to, what? Submit. Its to submit. I go to the doctor, and I say, Im agreeing with your truth. You said this is my condition. You said this will cure me. Im going to take this risk of faith, and Im going to sign my name on this paper that gives you permission to open up my chest and renew my heart. When you succumb to that anesthetic and go into that operating room, you are totally and completely surrendered, arent you? When youre under anesthesia, theres no fighting you. You totally trust that doctor. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. When you come to Christ, what you have to say in response to your sin condition, the fact that your heart needs to be renewed, is to say, God, I am powerless to renewing my own heart, and Im by faith going to sign this contract that says I am yielding my spirit to you, the care and concern of my soul to you. Im just going to lay it all out. Im going to lay my soul there. God, you do the work in me. God, you forgive me. God, you renew me. God, your restore me. And then I will do my part to make sure Im meditating on your word and your truth and allowing your Holy Spirit to renew my mind, but I know only you can do the renewal God, not me. Only you can do that. Man can fix cars and houses and faces, but only God can do a makeover in the heart. Are you trusting Him? What voice are you listening to today? Are you succumbing to the traditions and the winds of doctrine that blow through, or are you on the rock that doesnt change, the truth that is reality because its Gods truth. How are you trying to change your heart? Are you trying the self-help technique? Or will you just fall down at the foot of the cross and cry out to a living God and say, God, change me, because I cant do it myself. If youll do that, God will do an operation on you that we wont be able to see with the naked eye, but well be able to see it, the results of it. Well see a new you, a healthier you, once you submit. There are things you can do, and there are things you cannot do. Humankind has lost a few patients on the operating table during heart surgery. But Im happy to announce to you that God has never lost one. There is not one person who has come to Doctor Jesus and said, Lord Jesus, change my heart. I trust your authority; I trust your rule, and Im submitting to it by faith. Be the Lord of my life. I lay my soul, my eternal soul, into your care. Theres not a one hes dropped. And you wont be the first this morning. A lot of competing voices out there. Are we listening to the voice of truth? Gordy and Brook are coming to sing a song now that we started to sing on Saturday night in our plug service, and then Id catch it on the radio every now and then. Ive come to really appreciate this song and its message. What Id like you to do is reflect upon the words of this song and reflect on its meaning as it applies to the message weve heard this morning. Normally when we pray, I pray or one of the pastors prays, and your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed and your mouths are closed. Were going to pray a little differently this morning. I want to lead you in a confession of your faith and what weve talked about today from Gods word, so I invite you to speak out loud. Whisper if you want to, but move your lips. Say these words, making your confession. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name. For truth is found in that name. I submit to your truth and to your Lordship. I confess I cannot renew my heart. I need you to do that. I ask your Holy Spirit to renew my heart today. Forgive my sins, my weaknesses, my tendency to stray. It is my desire to put off that which does not please you and put on the new man who was made in the likeness of Christ, in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Happy Mothers Day to you moms!
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