Journey Home - 2017-08-21 - Marie Joseph

[Music] well good evening and welcome to the journey home I'm Marcus Grodi your host for this program and our program tonight is we're having a returned guest will do this occasionally and Marie Joseph was on the program how many years ago six years ago this year 'aa go and she is a revert she's also the executive director of a legacy of Life Foundation she's got a website life legacy of Life Foundation org I'm sure we'll talk about that she's an author and a speaker welcome Marie back to thank you for having me it's good one of the things I liked we'll get to it later but one of things I'd like to talk about when I have a returning guest is you've been a Catholic for eighteen years or so and so part of it is it's one thing to talk about what brought us into the church which I'm going to ask you to do again but then after a number of years we started looking back and see other ways that the Lord opened our heart long before I realize it was work in our life that we can talk about that later but first let me back away and give the audience a little summary of your journey it was war so I was raised in a Catholic household so cradle Catholic my father was from Sicily Italy my mother Puerto Rico and they met in New York and they didn't really know their faith that well so it was 1965 when I was born and there was a lot of confusion at that time in Vatican two documents that just come out and things were changing I was a little confusing and I believe some of the Catechism catechesis had not really taken root in the hearts my parents didn't know their faith that well so we were raised with after confirmation that was graduation from the faith and so we stopped trying the same yes right so without knowing stop practicing it was really an exercise we just got out of we did something else on Sunday went to the museum when it's a restaurant and so slowly so I just started living a life that had nothing no God in it at all and I probably said this is the first time you're on the program I but when I think about your New York City 67 Italian Porto Rican that sounds like West Side Story to me that's right that's right that's right that's right that was your culture that was it that was actually it and so very passionate people lively a lot of love and a lot of great stuff going on good food but but the faith wasn't really there so so I was really raised especially as a woman to be go out there and make something of yourself go out there and get a degree and get a job and my mother hadn't been to college so get a job get an education and then never stay home and think about marriage and children a lot later so I went to Cornell University I got a business and communications degree and a Spanish minor might as well right and and I graduated and I met my husband there and and life was great we had a girl we had a boy we were living the dream we were both making good money and there were times in raising the children specially I had the children where I was thinking I wonder if I should get a hold of that faith thing I should probably learn that faith thing where do you go get where'd he go buy some of that stuff you know and I really didn't there was nobody in my life who was who was Catholic or even Christian who talked about Jesus it was almost like you saw it you thought it was a nice story so really it just wasn't existent in all my life and then my husband didn't bring anything it was he was Catholic but he hadn't been going to church either so the two of us were happy but go once in a while we felt like being good people is not what good people do they get up on Sunday when they have nothing else to do and they go to church and go to brunch and make it an event and that's all that's all I really did and then one day I found out you know so I had the second child things got a little bit rocky ER trying to manage a family life and my husband and my jobs and it got really difficult and then I was really hit with a divorce with him coming home and staying I actually I thought it was another woman and I was ready to say and maybe need to go find yourself and and and why even though I wasn't a private living my Catholic faith I just knew two things one is that you don't get divorced and and homosexuality isn't something that we embrace well oh my goodness he's going to be homosexual and and so he's leaving and so my children were one in three at the time and so I immediately was thrown into being a single mother and then at the time I had I had stayed home with the children and now I was gonna have to figure out what I was going to do next so I went through a lot of pain and suffering him without faith and there was a moment where I said gee I wish I would have somehow gotten that faith thing I was thinking of it happened too and I decided to go speak to priest and I went to the church and I just didn't have a great experience and God bless the poor priest but I I was a live one that walked into the office that night because I went there on a Saturday night and I said you know I am gonna be divorced I am a homosexual husband and I want to know how I fit into this Catholic Club because I have two strikes against me so I'm out right what do i do what do I do and I was looking for a program I was looking for something and he really was just saying and I have that you start by going to Mass on Sunday and I said why what's that going to do for me and so I just didn't feel I didn't I went the next day I had to crying children I was crying you know we didn't really fit in and so I left they're angry and that's when I can really point to the moment where I said I'm leaving the church that I'm not even going to I'm leaving now and with anger and my heart and it was almost like the pain of what I was going through I was putting that on what I thought were the teachings of the church you know I was now a sinner and I wasn't welcome and no one said that to me so I left there again without the correct theology without the correct teachings but the many teachings that I know people right now have those thoughts in their mind that if their life doesn't fit in with the teachings of the church they're an outcast and so very hurt I joined the gym instead and I you know and I started living a very sinful lifestyle I started gravitating towards nightclubs and places where you know people were encouraging me get back on that horse again get out there the priesthood said you know you you you can't get married again you know and I said well I don't understand that what do you mean I can't come ready to get it so I left angry and I was out there trying to find happiness and trying to find joy and it was getting me more and more depressed and and in that journey of heading downward spiraling downward I I got to that point that many people do where you just want to end your life and so in that moment I am I then an experience where I called out to God and my grandfather had just died and it made me think about heaven and when I wonder where he is and then I said is this all you have for me Lord I mean I did say Lord I didn't know him I said you whoever you are out there your God and you made creation out there and you made me - why is it so beautiful out there and why does it feel so disgusting in here that's how I felt I felt disgusting I felt I felt not worthy I just felt like my life had no purpose and had no matter it just I felt like I was kicked to the curb and I just felt rejected by society the life I was living was was creating that vacuum for me with two little children trying to be a mother working three different jobs and trying to make it all happen and then trying to have a social life which was actually a destructive life and so I when I heard I had a feeling that the answer was no to that question what is this all you have for me because I'm done I'm done if you do and I went to sleep I woke up the next morning and I heard go to church when I said go to church the Catholic Church because another thing markets that had happened at the time in this life of single motherhood of partying and of you know going places with two children you start meeting other single mothers and other people who have also been divorced and other people that are living lies where they're broken and I'm feeling pain but masking that pain I'd met a lot of women who had belonged to different churches and so I we know someone said we'll join the Church of God over here they come and me there's great community there and they help you with their home and they help fix up your house if my house was kind of falling apart because I was falling apart and they said you know or come to this event here they they help women that are single with children and I didn't feel like that existed in the Catholic Church and so I was there were many times when I was going to join another church because of the community so but I when I get that feeling go back to 7:00 in the morning on a Tuesday morning go to church who hangs out at the Catholics ferns at 7:00 in the morning so I said okay I guess I'll go and I was definitely dressed inappropriately I mean I had tank top and short shorts and I walked into the church at night and I saw mass was gonna start and I said okay I guess I'll stay and in that mass in that moment that's where I prayed from the first time from my heart to a god that I used to just say Oh God I never prayed before I finally said oh god please help me help me to to make a change to leave here different and and that day I heard the gospel proclaimed from the altar I heard the word I heard hope and peace come out of whatever the words he said and the gospel proclaimed and then I also there was something about the Eucharist when the priest raised the host there was something about that Eucharist that I knew something was real when I left that day I didn't realize that when you're depressed and when you're really down and in that kind of time for that long you start to look down you start to you don't notice the beauty in life in creation I left that day with new eyes I left that day seeing beauty and seeing a sky that I never seen before and Sun and greenery and just everything was just wonderful and if somebody cut me off on the road I said oh god bless you I can pray for you instead of you know getting angry and and my whole life started to change at that at that moment I was thinking that you you may have seen your your children through different eyes - one of the first I'm so glad you said that one of the first things that happened was and it's for some people when you feel like you got saved all the siding they're just you're just you're not the same person and I started saying well who's Jesus does any do you know Jesus because I don't know anything about Jesus that people would say you're gonna be a Jesus Freak I said well I can't be a freak if I don't know who he is but I kept thinking Roble he he saved me I was lost and now I'm found so he probably has something huge for me to do I mean big big give me something big for me so so I went to and I didn't know anything about adoration somebody said there's an adoration Chapel where you could sit before that the Eucharist and you could pray before our Lord and so I you know I went in there people were teaching me different things and and I was in there and I said Lord what do you what do you want me to do you have something big for me and it's probably one of the clearest I've ever heard the Lord speak to me and he said be a mom be a mom I said be a mom that's that's what she wanted me to be again somebody ain't God you know I had a big job in corporate America being a mother was was just something on the side right or something but you know be a mom so from that moment on I made my motherhood be my my my Ivy League career was being a mom and it wasn't dude the job of a mom it was be a mom at the level of being and that took me on a journey of I mean bringing the faith bringing my children to Mass having a schedule for my children now there was no order in my house having a schedule or they love back and praying with them on a regular basis and I decided to make the faith fun so what I did was I would oh it's a feast day well we should have that big dinner with a big ice cream cake or some big dessert and then I found that every single day I was having the big dessert because there's a feast day almost all the time so we were always celebrating so there was always celebrations in my house then they would come home if it was a merry feast day I remember one time I got balloons and they were all and they would they came in and every Hill Mary they would pull the balloon so he walked into a house of balloons confession the sacraments were alive confession on Saturdays they'd be playing ball you know my neighborhood was awesome and everybody would be playing baseball all the kids on I'm on the weekends and I would pull out with my minivan and I would go confession and then all the kids would come running because they would know that my kids had to jump in the car every Saturday we were going to confession but they all wanted to go so we all went to confession and the kids that were not Catholic said well how do I become Catholic I want to be Catholic they actually went to see the priest he said are you sending people over to me that are underage I said yes absolutely but after confession we had to celebrate that we were cleaned so I took everyone to ice cream so it was just so much fun to be Catholic and and that's how that's that's what really changed I brought the sacraments into my house by making us live the faith we started having dinner every night around the table instead of on the fly right so every night was dinner to this day every night is dinner and so there were things that I that I just received just from the sacraments of being in the church that was amazing the community I was missing there was an evangelization program pretty soon after when I started going around who's Jesus there was it was called the Alpha program that's in many of the Christian churches and the Catholics were adopting it and I joined that and that was community building and that's where I started to see the community in the church all right I guess it will be Joseph what I okay now when I hear your story I'm you know as I listen to the stories and journey home week after week every week we guy I always find myself stepping back and and amazed by the different ways that God uses grace to touch people's lives and sometimes we think all that that person was so smart it was intellect that convinced some of the church but even in any of these cases we see the work of God's mercy and grace in somebody and in your case it almost seems like you talk about it you look bad what was it was he letting you get to the bottom of the barrel was that what was needed for you so that grace could awaken you to the beauty of his because to a certain extent what you learned you had had to certain stat all long about the faith but for some reason now all of a sudden you see it that's grace so did he need for you given what you had you need to let you get all the way down before you get bring you up again absolutely perfect perfect description and I believe I think of the word mercy for sure and I think of the word experience experience and I feel that every God works in each of us differently depending on our own personality so he knows with me make it happen kind of gal that that if I had to really know that I had tried it my way I'd like the song and and and and everything had always gone my way my whole life so the only way I would really have known that I was lost and now found was to get that that that feeling of pain and destruction and and death to be now a feeling of joy and that well like the woman at the well welling up inside of me well I didn't buy that I didn't do anything to earn it I wasn't my Ivy League education so it was so exactly and I feel that for me and everybody's different it was the experience that I believe God intended there to be at this during the in the sacraments the experience of his mercy and confession I had incredible when I went into confession I went in with a long list gosh god bless the freeze these these wonderful priests that had to deal with me but I had a long list of all you know there were different men in there you know Bill Bob Harry I had to go through all of them and he said Ben no you don't have to do that mess and I said oh yes I do or yes I do and when I got through the list I felt this incredible oh joy that's incredible gift of the Holy Spirit and I was experiencing Christ in the sacraments before I knew anything about the faith and then I said okay now I want to learn the faith because and this evangelization program was number one it was who is Jesus how do you pray who is the Holy Spirit it was just such elementary things that we need to encounter Jesus in a personal way then it was okay now let's learn let's learn the faith and the history of the faith which I then went to st. Charles I became at to your point too I was baptized Catholic I went to I went to public school but then I went to all-girls Catholic High School so there so I don't know what happened there right but that happens for so many people were closed and we don't hear we don't hear so I didn't know the faith but then and I became one after being I went and became a Catholic school teacher my children were small they were now in school and then I went at night to st. Charles Borromeo seminary and to get my master's in theology so I would really no lose faith and that was an amazing experience sometimes for it's a true of all fallen away Catholics but sometimes when they're brought up in the church and they get information but it doesn't this as some C doesn't go from the head to the heart you know doesn't bring that conversion about but one of the things that becomes a barrier can be devotions because as a young Catholic you see the statues and and the different actions and the beads and stuff so that when you leave the church coming back what do I do with this stuff now was that authentic Catholicism or do I learn it fresh to get its meaning was that a part of your journey so right my journey was and I needed a lot of healing I needed to be set free of a lot of things I needed forgiveness and mercy so my experience was first with Jesus you know then it moved in to God the Father and God bless my like wonderful time father there were definitely issues with that relationship that the father-daughter relationship and so I so experiencing the love of the Father and that helped me in my relationship with my own father and so but that was experiencing that for the first time and then his life went on all of a sudden I started going so what is this with Mary what's this thing of Mary cuz you know I just go straight to Jesus so I could have been just any other you know Christian out there who's saying you know but I don't I don't really buy this thing with Mary I don't get that I'm going right to Jesus and I had a really good relationship my mother but but I just didn't know how that was necessary and then in God's and God's divine mercy I was able to then experience actually was Scott Hans book the book about Mary oh I forgot what it's called right now but anyway it's a great book and when I read through that and so that really brought out the scriptural references to Mary and also the teachings of the church and that said clean Mary as your mother I did and that was the end of that I had some great women in the church that taught me how to pray the rosary and that's it became the really a foundation in my household yeah his book was hail holy Queen and a very wonderful book and because he besides coming at it with a very very sound Catholic theologian he he also because of his past outside the church knows the barriers that people have so he does a great job of addressing that issue which again in your case brought up Catholic you may have had bad examples of devotion to Mary and so I did get through all that you you very quickly I think after becoming a Catholic got involved in pro-life stuff is that right talk about how that all and why how did that start right so well the first thing when I came back to the Catholic Church the guy that I kept thinking god something big for me but then also and now I have to serve so as many people also do try to kind of overdo it by going in to join the choir I could sing join the choir I can do this do this you know so do everything and and I saw that there was praying in front of an abortion clinic and I saw a pro-life Club and I said I gotta be in that I got to join so I went to pray with my children in front of the abortion clinics and that's what we're doing March to late March for life and I had little children it was great to to teach them about the value of life and but that's really all that I thought that there was to even do for the pro-life movement it was quickly after I graduated from the seminary that I was praying what God wanted me to do next and and we can talk about it I went through here once again where he wasn't going to just show me right away I had to make sure that I had a year where I was running out of everything including honey and waiting and speaking and doing and I was teaching it was the adjunct professor at st. Charles and theology theology professor and my passion really was to bring people to Christ and to teach the faith so I wanted to teach and and jobs where I would have a job and not get the job and it was just going on and on and then all of a sudden I got a phone call saying this might be off your radar but how would you like to be the executive director of a brand new crisis pregnancy center that were just got started it's just a project but we need somebody like you and I said well that is definitely off my radar because I was doing the other things but that was kind of all I was you know really doing and this was really going on the front lines this was this was running a center and really trying to develop it from the ground up and they had gotten started then they saw that they were saving some lives and they wanted somebody with business experience with theology experience and then also with a passion for the faith yeah yeah so you jumped into that didn't about both feet and started it was the woman who had been there and left we were stupid we needed to make it a 501c3 and I started doing the counseling I started getting and it was me myself and I recruited volunteers I was really living and breathing it and and we started to see that you could take the principles of some of the gifts and skills God's given us in business and communications and we can put that into a ministry and how we'll use it if it's if there's order there and pretty soon we're starting to save in 25 lives seventy-five lives than a hundred lives and now after these last six years because when I was here I had just started that and and now it's been 1645 lives that would have been aborted or alive today and more importantly women who are finding who have found love and mercy and are transforming their lives yeah we're let's see I'm gonna still pause and with the break coming up with the want to ask you another question because often there's a debate amongst Christians about what's what what are we to do and there are those that really see our goal as Christians now is to evangelize to share the faith we're called to abide in Christ and produce fruit where the fruit are new Christians so there's that that side of it but there's another side that looks at it no we are to love we are to care we are we're to feed the poor we're to clothe the naked we would take care that's what we're called to do and so sometimes these two groups can seem like enemies it can be kind of against each other you know now we're not so we're supposed to evangelize and the truth is no they're together its hand in glove and I wanted to talk a little bit about how the work of of saving these lives indeed leads to evangelization absolutely so and this really is or it fits with our theology is that we meet them with mercy and love and no judgment the same way that Christ meets every sinner and that's hard for people sometimes I could see it and it's because if you're so Catholic and you believe and and that's a sin well you have to enter into that sin so we enter into the sin where we really just as mother 3 seems to say just empty ourselves of our own of our own self of everything that we I mean we don't leave our beliefs but we were present for them so that they don't the reflection that we're giving them by listening is no judgment mercy love kindness compassion and we we journey with them they're in the decision process and then we advocate and that's where we give them the help that they need and then they delay their going to this we have this three-year super mother program it's called the star program they become super star mothers and in that program we're developing relationship and now they're starting to trust and and we're becoming family okay and then in those years in that process of delivering this new baby they're saying wow mother it's an amazing gift who are you people anyway you people are crazy nice crazy love this is insane my own family's like this now you're my family and then now once you start feeling better because your needs are met your material your physical needs are met now the Spirit comes and they start saying I would like a Bible study I would like to know so now what happens in our three year program is that most of the people coming for abortions are writing down about eighty percent rate Christian or Catholic they write it down and now when we go to start to do what we do Bible study with them we're finding they all say I want to know who Jesus is I want to know how to pray I want to know the Holy Spirit is I don't know the Bible I want to know the Bible and I get that reflection to where I was so what's the difference between me and them and myself let's just say it's we're just at different places but but but now the Spirit comes and now they're ready and now they want to know and and that many of them many many hundreds have been away from their churches all different denominations because they felt judged and and they're hurt and so that's where I feel like we're really getting to the evangelization it's on it's on the back end it's on the end where they're transforming because because now they're having experiences of love and mercy it's a process of time what comes first and second it isn't one against the other and the danger is as you know we can evangelize them but they have needs too or we can we can take care of their needs but they need to know the source of that life they need to know Jesus but there's a there's a timing and you deal with what's up front and you know the people are hurting poor and naked well we got a deal with those issues first before they can hear us it happens Mother Teresa all the way and creating that place in space so that somebody can encounter and have experiences with with other people you know and that's that's the thing when people see a sign I know when we came in Saturday and she's she was gonna have an abortion and she saw a sign that said Jesus loves you and people were yelling that to her and she said I don't even know who he is you know or or we love your baby and and so sometimes when people try to evangelize at that moment of crisis they're not ready to hear and so so to have ears that can hear we first have to meet them with love and mercy and compassion and that's that's really what our mission is to do is to build a relationship and help help build that trust through all the support and the love they receive yeah I don't know if I've said this before on the program but I remember hearing full machine talk about Mother Teresa and he related a story about one time mother Teresa was speaking to a group of priests and one of the priests at question and answer time stood up said mother Teresa I don't understand how you can you can get down there with those dirty filthy people I don't understand they're so repulsive how can you do that and she said I didn't know they were that way mm-hmm I didn't know they were all I saw was Jesus you know you know it's I just love reading her readings and it just gives my staff and I so much strength and courage to continue because we fall in love with these women and these families and the truth is that you know I made a volunteer may come in and say we will tell some of the stories of the conversations well someone said yes I know it's murder I have to kill my baby well how do you where do you go from there and you just you just listen and you just keep saying why and they keep talking and then and then you finally it's like peeling away that onion but I look at every single woman and say you're beautiful you're beautiful and I and and that's just the grace of God you were given the ability to see that through the grace we can all have that if we turn to God and ask for that because we're called to love and that love that we're called to do is a gift of God it isn't just us but let's do it's pause here let's take a break and we'll come back and attend your conversation all right we'll see you [Music] [Music] welcome back to the journey home I'm your host Marcus Grodi and our guest is a Marie Joseph she's author and speaker if you want to find out about her writings and her speaking you can go to fired-up catholics calm right but also we're going to talk about this legacy of life foundation a little bit but before we get to that I had some question that is you were telling your story crossed my mind is that there's an awful lot not just Catholics but of other Christians that feel experientially like divorce is the unforgivable sin they can sometimes feel like whoa I can I could have done almost anything else and going the confessional and move on free but divorces is tough you know and they can feel a lack of community lack of support rejection I think you experience that talk about that but also how do we make the community more more receptive of those whose lives have fallen apart to divorce and you feel like an outsider and you know that everybody that's the big sin and maybe today it's it's the unplanned pregnancy I mean it's the things and see everybody can wear their sins and cover them up but that one you can't you know and when you go to the church it's a reminder when you see all these big happy families together and then you know and then you're there by yourself or with two little children and and I would say number one would be to help people understand the truth that the sin is not divorce you know the sin is what we do with our bodies and you know infidelity is that we you know or the you know and that's the that's the son right so or committing adultery but the sin is not divorce so it doesn't mean that you can't be a part of the congregation and but it's how you're looked at it's how you're so the church can do a better job of reaching out and we definitely need more grassroots especially in the Catholic Church grassroots approaches to to meeting people where they're at first and foremost and then teaching them why some of the you know teachings are about the Eucharist and everything because once you understand why then it makes a big difference and sometimes we look at our lives I think I think people are staying outside of the church because they think from for me to be welcome and me to be entering in the Union again so much would have to change there's no way there's no way that we would be able to change this but God I've seen I've seen miracles about what God does in lives and even with my own just just going I went and had you know got the annulment and you know I've been living single all these years it's been 18 years now it's been more than that actually and I've never never thought I could have this kind of love and in a single life and that's what God is called me to maybe not tomorrow maybe not a couple years but that's what he's called me to and some people don't think they could possibly live that way but if you're receiving the sacraments and you're in union and community all things are possible and it works so so churches has to do a better job of just small grassroots welcoming you know groups in the church yeah I'm moving on you know it's right all I want to do you know what do we what should I be doing the answer to any of those questions Ruthie begins with whatever it is I want to do what God wants me to do we have to get to that point whether it's to be remarried or to have a family it really got to get to that point that before I answer any of those questions somehow by grace I got to get to I want to do what God wants me to do exactly and if you really believe that God has that kind of power so it's really ask God for more faith because if you really believe that then you believe that you don't have to make anything happen you go where he calls you to go and if he really wants you to meet somebody they end up doing a delivery at your house I mean you really I mean you have to do some work you know that and minister self but you really can follow God that way and that's the ultimate trust in the Lord's will for you and that takes cultivating the relationship with Jesus Christ that takes just saying yeah every day no matter what you're going through and it takes offering as a prayer whatever comes your way that isn't fun that's the painful and suffering um my mom just my mother is one of the first people I prayed for her conversion when I came back that was the first big prayer that the Lord answered it was that she wasn't she had birth she was gonna have breast cancer and she was she was that she didn't have it and it was like amazing machine ended up passing on to eternal life and this past May and she had breast cancer in the bones and but her faith was so beautiful that it ended up being this incredible spiritual experience for me so there's nothing that you're gonna go through that if you if you surrender to God that's you he won't bring you through and show you what he wants you to do next you've been to Catholic 18 years or so yes thank you and we're going to talk a bit about your your 30-day spiritual cleansing in a little bit before I want to get to that one I asked you one question in 18 years as a Catholic returned Catholic you do a lot of pro-life work you probably work with a lot of non Catholic Christians to side-by-side your 18 year reflection why would you say it's important to be a Catholic what's the Catholic side of it that is particularly important for you that's a great question and I have so many close friends and family members that left the Catholic Church and there are in other beautiful churches the most important thing that I received is the experience of Grace and it's it's a strength it's a strength it's a it's a it's a knowledge of God in such a powerful way that I love scripture the Word of God immediately by the power of the Holy Spirit became my my wife just I mean I was trying to get everybody to change our life and read the book and it's Jesus not just the book and and people couldn't believe I was living my life according to the book that's just a book of it's Jesus but in the sacraments and I see it even in the work we do with the staff everybody has to be able to go to the sacraments for their strength to receive the mercy from confession to receive the healing from the anointing of the sick to hear to receive the Eucharist on a regular base base instead a powerful and maybe it's because that's how I came he came back in but the experience I had I couldn't trade that for anything in the world and that's that's what I want for my Christian brothers and sisters that I love so much that our Bible believing and they know how to praise the Lord and I prays with them and sing with them and we love Jesus together and we pray for each other and that's that's the only thing I want for them is I want them to have that same kind of strengthen and grace from the sack of fullness performance with the sacraments and the grace and as our Lord said apart from me you can do nothing okay well well how do I get United with him well he says eat my body and drink my blood the uniqueness of that Eucharistic gift that we could exactly and you know the priesthood the priesthood I mean I said what my mother was dying just to have the priesthood there the priests the priests our Father Stephen father's for me the community of the Catholic Church sisters nuns have been advisers and prayed for me and deacons and and that whole Ministry of the priesthood gave me so much comfort and grace and knowing that my mother was on the journey home not that so to go see the Lord and the saints I remembered my mother loved Saints arez and there was all these confirmations that the Blessed Mother in the States you just you just know and you feel that when you have the relationship with them and that's that's something that is so special that I wish my brothers and sisters in Christ would also know alright I guess is Marie Joseph alright 30 day spiritual cleanse out that idea come about so after I graduated from the seminary I felt like at the end and I've taken you know I said I've had a business major everything with but having the theology major and at the end you have to take the cover they called the comps right anybody so the cops is a comprehensive exam of all the years and I had studied for seven years because I was going at night at st. Charles Borromeo seven and when I studied for those comps which I had for months but in those especially last days I said it's Jesus everything we had learned at the algae the Eucharist the algae grace theology of worship it all came down to it was Jesus so powerfully that I wanted to write it down because again my passions about Vangelis Asian especially for people who don't know the faith so but at the same time I was doing this nutritional cleanse and I was learning about the body and how to get healthy and I had been struggling it so what I was learning was I if you feed the body with all this nutrition and then you cleanse it and you take a fast day once in a while how the cells get rejuvenated and healthier and and so I and we had to do it over 30 days and I said you know I'm going to take what I was learning nutritionally and what I learned from the seminary and do the first half of the book a crash course in the Catholic faith how you could practice your Catholic faith and then the second half a 30 day cleanse which was really just taking again my business background and saying well we know how to plan for things we know how to have a plan or on our desk so what if and also the idea that as a community you could do this together so have you know for 30 days I'm gonna do this first pray what does God want me to know or do to get closer to him and then what are the different parts of the faith that I might maybe the Bible maybe maybe you know going to Mass maybe go to the vet and you write down you make a plan for yourself for 30 days an idea is to cultivate really good habits and then have somebody else become accountable so that every day you're doing this but then you're also accountable to somebody else and you know I wrote this and that's somebody even write a book and then that's great and everything I did it in that year before I had gotten my job with with the Women's Center with the crisis pregnancy center so I was speaking and I was feeling I was meeting so many Catholics who who aren't praying enough they're they're doing the actions in the church but they're not spending enough time with the Lord and so I I did this and then I had a spiritual director and you know he said why don't you do your book why don't you do your 30-day claim for your for your penance I said okay so I did the 30 days but more intensely than I ever had after I'd written the book and I said this is really a great book this is great my confession when I went to confession because part of it is you document your sinfulness you know every day there's a place to write down where did I miss the mark and then on Saturday going to confession I had it all here it was fresh it was clear and then I felt a new remorse a new sadness for my sinfulness and then a new joy when I brought it to the Lord and so so this book was intended for people to practice our faith I blogged all the Gospels of the Bible of the you know the four Gospels I was doing a blog this is all before I started the work and then when I started to work I decided to give the proceeds of this book to the legacy of Life Foundation to have a new life in Christ support new life you know from women who have chosen life instead of abortion it's it comes up in mind when you're talking about this that a few you take a paper and throw metal filings on the paper there could be just be random and and globular but if you put a magnet underneath that all of a sudden those filings kind of shift didn't come and order and and it sounds like that's what as our lives are a mess and by grace and cooperating with grace pretty soon it can bring your life into order in line with Christ exactly and in hat it's always the order that we didn't think we could ever have it's always see when we we don't take that first step because we think that'll never happen just like we say that person will never change that person will never transform and then you know you do something like this for 30 days and you're doing things you've never done before and you're following some order and you get the grace to do it and now that becomes a habit that you can do that you couldn't you know can go on and on and on and people end up changing and then to praying in ways that they never had before so it's a kind of an introduction and then a workbook that somebody could follow and I found that people when I started this prayer groups were doing it together people would maybe have any kind of speak introduce the book and then they would go and do it together and it's the same way that you start an exercise program you maybe you ask somebody else to walk with you every morning so that you make sure you walk and say I want to walk four times a week okay then let's do it and you hold each other accountable when you don't really feel like doing it the other person helps you to do it all right if someone wants to find out more about that book where should they go this book is on WWE fired up Catholics calm or and it got they can order it right on the internet and the proceeds will go then I'll make a donation to the Legacy Life Foundation very good all right we have an email Paul from Hartford writes how does Murray think her devotion and love of the Catholic Church is different now that if she had never left the Catholic Church in the first place Wow great question so if I had III think about that a lot because there's no way I'm the same person that I was back then I think that I would still be in the church had I not re-entered I believe I would still have been a Christmas and Easter Catholic somebody who still came once in a while and was feeling like I was on the outside still not understanding and I would have been walking around with a lot of the past hurts the effects of the hurts and some of the things that I was carrying that the Lord the encounter with Jesus Christ freed me from a lot of things that I would not be the same I would not be joyful I would not be the same person I can't imagine what that would look like but God again every one of us a little differently amen and there are some people who have given the grace from the time they were very very young to be strong in their faith all their lives to grow and a continuous journey some of us need to have it taken away from us for a while to appreciate what we had in the first place great and I thank God every day for for the things that I went through and I'm grateful for the people who didn't have to go through them too and that's what I hope for my children as well that they can continue on without having to go through that all right I have another email Preston from Virginia Beach writes how can we as Catholic better engage people about Catholicism and not be afraid to share our faith with those in our lives even when it valves tough issues like the sanctity of life and moral issues that are unpopular to talk about another excellent question so I would say and I talked to people a lot about because we deal with people who are sharing their sinfulness right now is that as a Catholic we shouldn't lead with the teachings the moral teachings of the church we should lead with the love and the mercy of God but if we haven't really encountered that in our life then we're holding fast to two teachings that are that that then turn people away right away doesn't open a dialogue so so what I have found is to enter in to find out who people are you know if listen to people and and let them feel that you're somebody that even though you're Catholic they could tell you look I'm divorced and I'm living with this guy right now and you know what I love him and you know what the church should it do you know say that I can't receive the Eucharist blah blah blah you know no like I love you tell me tell me more about that you know what you know what do you like about the relationship and then in time people start saying you know what I'm seeing in you I'm seeing the love of Jesus and I feel better and I want to be a better person and I want to pray I haven't been praying but since I've been talking to you now I want to pray and that's what that's kind of how that's how I've been able to I know through God's grace and and a lot of the people that I work with we've been able to and it's not fake it's real I love these people you know and so show that love I don't want to ask a personal question to this but to a certain extent did your own experience with your husband also lead to sensitivity in that issue when I first came back to the church because I loved him so much I still do and when I first came back to the church and I was so I'm fired that was the one thing but I was holding on to and every time I be in a prayer meeting or I be a church and someone stood up and so many Catholics feel this way about whatever issue that's holding them back and you hear them saying you know homosexuality is wrong and that hurts because you see we're still trying to have family and even though it's broken right now we're still gonna get together on the holidays and so how do I love him and that's the key how do I love the sinner and hate the sin by God's grace only and so once again I was able to go to the Lord on that he started to show me how to love him have the children praying for him and how to have a relationship with him that doesn't mean that I'm you know condoning the sin and the sin is really hurting him and so we pray for his conversion forever pray for him to receive the love and mercy and that God would bless him and that he would come back to the Catholic Church alright well that's it definitely a prayer that all of us need to pray for all the people in our lives that we wish would come closer to Christ and conversion and in which you know John says at the end of his gospel that if you put down everything Jesus said we wouldn't have enough books so that meant that the Holy Spirit guided there the early writers to select important things that Jesus said that probably had very important impact on the people of the early church and one of those things that Jesus said that the early church early writers recognized yeah this has got to be in every gospel is that thing about take the log out of your own eye before you take this liver out of somebody else's I mean that's so important and going on I want and listening to somebody and they're in their sinfulness and and and talking to them about where they're at and loving them and and being Christ to them doesn't mean that you're less Catholic or that now you don't believe that you know premarital sex is wrong and that you're you're you're reaching out because the bigger the sin the more the potential for mercy and so reaching out and seeing that as a beautiful chance for God's grace to flow through you to somebody else died that's the beauty of what God's calling us to do in the New Evangelization the first thing in having influence is the little word in influence begins with in you can't have influence unless you're in the relationship so you got to be able to get in the relationship if you want to have for grace of God the influence exerted in the star and the star program with the women I'm seeing I'm seeing transformation take place because of experiences they have whether we're we're in the house learning how to cook doing a cooking session or they're learning how to paint and realizing that they have skills and they have creativity all god-given gifts you know they start coming alive and people can change some people believe well that person will never change that's the life they're living they took a wrong turn and and that's it and it doesn't mean that they're you know that you may have to change the way that relationship plays out but to break ties with people just because of because of their sinfulness is is really doing the service to the service of Christ and we see that every day the people can change and they want to change they just need that that love and mercy God work through us okay an email Carol Omaha writes my niece had a pain-filled experience with the family member who is now estranged from her she has subsequently drifted far from the faith and appears angry with God I'm fairly certain that she still struggles with reconciling that suffering with understanding God's love and care for her how can I reach her and assure her that God truly is a loving father who wants the best for his children so I would say with with anybody who's feeling that way and who's estranged in some way the step number one is what can we do to have common ground with that person individually so so maybe it's cooking for them or maybe it's just talking to them about something that they want to talk about and not feeling like we feel like we have to go all the way to the teachings of John Paul to let's say with somebody who's away I mean it's gonna be a journey and so first it's it's always about finding out what is going on in their life and maybe you have to pick up bowling if that's what they like to do or you have to learn football like I have with my son and cook for football games you know because because whatever we can do to be in dialogue and have open communication just us first forget about the whole big church right now we're Church and for many people who are very passionate about their Catholic faith you become I don't want to say Oh God in church for people because that's the only experience that they're gonna have and so you want to make it a good one but you can't do that unless you find out personally what what makes them tick right now what makes them happy and try to be there and then the dialogue starts to begin yeah I was it's at the core of that Catholic idea of offering it up you know this and maybe the one thing that maybe a majority people need to offer up is inconvenience oh yes to reach out to someone well that's not convenient for me no that's got to be left so that we can be a channel of love to that person yeah we're just too busy we're just too busy how many times when you and then this book definitely talks about your daily when you look at the daily plan who did I share Christ with today and when you offer things up like that then God has put people in your path Marie thank you great to see you thank you for joining us again again the website is fired up catholics calm and where they can connect with you so thank you and thank you for joining us on this episode of the journey home once again i hope them or read Joseph's story as well as the things she's talked about in her book and in her work is it encouragement you god bless you see you next week [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

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Id: lUEapRsThgM

Length: 56min 11sec (3371 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2017