Making Decisions Without Fear

[Music] [Music] so have no fear of their fear in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen today is a sermon on how to make decisions without fear so we're just going to jump right into the instructions on this the first is make sure you're in sanctifying grace this is why this is so important because if the Holy Spirit's in you he's the only one who knows your past present and future and I think you guys have heard me preach on the big five is you know we have to be free of mortal sin if we're going to make good decisions and a lot of American Catholics think that basically only killing is a mortal sin but as you know any commandment that is broken to the sixth or rather any infraction of six to ninth commandment sexual sins are always mortal sins almost always mortal sins actually always according to Saint Alphonsus Liguori we're going to talk a lot about st. Ignatius of Loyola he says if you destroy someone's reputation here in mortal sin so it's worth googling you know sins to know if you're actually in sanctifying grace but I think everybody here knows the church is teaching so we're going to keep going on to the main part of this sermon which is to find peace and intuition how do we make good decisions in life that's really where we're going to be looking at today in this line so have no fear their fear and the Carmelites kind of draw a picture of the soul that looks like this imagine like a cross-section of a tree you have the outer layers although we going into the inner the outer layers of our soul is like the appetite and slightly and from that is the emotions and then what's called the estimation and you keep going in and in and you have like reason and at the very core is intuition and the Carmelites don't mean that in the sense of like the New Age people they mean at the very core of the soul is our intuition at the very very core of that if we're in sanctifying grace if we're frequently going to confession at the core of that is where the Blessed Trinity resides now here's the amazing thing Satan has Satan demons have some access actually quite a bit of access to our appetite that's why they can tempt us with food and sex they have quite a bit of access to our emotions that's why we can get angry at the smallest thing and we know that there's some preternatural influence they have some access to our reason but not total access to reason but the one place that demons don't have access is our intuition especially if we're under the protection of sanctifying grace now the risk of getting people mad at some stereotypes we look at emotions and reason very frequently women use emotions for their decision-making and men use reason now there's some people who kind of break from that stereotype and we're going to see actually that intuition is the place to make decisions in prayer what is the advantage and disadvantage of emotions what's the advantage and disadvantage of Reason advantage of emotions is it kind of feels a little bit more like intuition so women kind of have that upper hand on us men but reason is slightly less affected by the fall and this is where you can kind of look at two columns of things and make better decisions and this is why God has made men to be the spiritual leaders of the family however there's something even deeper that if we can really kind of calm our hearts we're going to see what st. Ignatius of Loyola says about what's called discernment of spirits something where men and women can go deeper than emotions and reason and go very deep into intuition it's very core of our being the problem is how do we get that deep if we're already in sanctifying grace we can be in sanctifying grace and still imagine you're in the Caribbean and you're trying to see this underwater treasure and you know the water is clean but all you can see is seaweed and sand and human junk this is like our souls trying to see God's will that we might have all of these instruments sonar and stuff which I guess would be analogous to reason but until that sand settles you can't see that hidden treasure and Saint Ignatius of Loyola is going to give us some instructions on how to get past fear and anxiety and make big life decisions and that's actually what we're going to talk about today in this so what we have to create is in our hearts I know it's easier said than done but I'm going to give you just a few pointers on that the first to find peace in the hearts is peace in the family of course second is exercise we talked about that last week a lot of times if we get exercise our mind is clear sometimes getting a walk or especially if we break a sweat I'm convinced spiritual toxins leave us the rosary that most the families here do the rosary every day and that's so important because it brings peace into the family I have a good friend and she said anytime you have a big decision go make to Holy hours before the Blessed Sacrament one from one decision and one for the others decision and I love that advice not that we're supposed to wrack our brain because that kind of continues to kick up the sand but if we can go make to Holy hours in a church whether the tabernacle is open or closed when we can make - holy hours God often gives us that peace where we just have clarity and when I say don't rack your brain with it I mean don't think about those two decisions read a good Catholic novel something by Michael or Brian or just read the Gospels and you'll notice that dust settles and God gives you an answer it doesn't come from like a computer printout from the church or a location where God speaks to you but you just see things as God does and then we can do what the first coat Peter tells us today have no fear of their fear whose fear well our enemies on earth is primarily who Saint Peter means in today's epistle but it's also interesting that in some sense demons fell out of heaven out of fear fear that God was holding something back and making a creature higher than them something they saw as angels before they ever became demons of course that person was the Blessed Virgin Mary and now the demons can't get to Mary or Joe or Jesus because you and I carry the image and likeness of God they want to get it us and if they can't get it us through sin guess that they're going to get at us through anxiety anxiety is the number one way to kick up all the dust so that we use what Saint Ignatius of Loyola calls fallacious reasoning to come to these conclusions well the person who really came to these fallacious reasoning after his conversion and realized there's something deeper than this alienation of Loyola he was a 16th century warrior a great Knight which cannonbolt of the leg and when he was recovering from this he asked for some wartime books they couldn't find any so all they had was actually the New Testament and a book of saints so they brought him in his hospital bed the New Testament in the book of Saints and he was so enthralled with the Saints like st. Francis of Assisi and Saint Dominic he simply said that their lives of penance I can do that I think I can do this and he decided to become a saint I know that sounds kind of like a self-made man but he decided by God's grace he wanted to become a saint well so he had this huge conversion he decides to go live in a cave like a hermit out in mung rest which is in Southeast Spain still the 16th century and he's so faced by all the sins and by the way the devil's advocate and his canonization later said that he had broken grievously all 10 of the commandments horrible sinner and he was so overwhelmed that his sin that he knew he couldn't make up for all of his sins he knew he could make up for a symptom in that cave he almost committed suicide but then God intervened God showed his mercy to him and God showed Ignatius that he couldn't Ignatius couldn't make up for his sins but Jesus could now or his Ignatius made a lifetime of reparation for his sins later in life with great penance but we have to realize our initial reconciliation can only be made by the blood of Jesus and confession and what was revealed that day or that night in that cave and monterossa brought him out of this tailspin of bad reasoning and in some sense the reasoning was correct he realized he deserved hell but he realized there's something more than just living in our brains or emotions we have to go into what was later called by the church Ignatian discernment of spirits a little bit of a long holiday I guarantee this homily his sermon will affect your life because the Ignatian rule is a discernment are still the gold standard of the Catholic Church to see past fallacious reasoning and emotions to make decisions in concert with the will of God I'm going to quote a couple of these and my suggestions sometime this month find a couple hours and silence whether it's on a boat or before the Blessed Sacrament and in adoration Chapel and apply these rules and because it's a bit of a long homily I'm going to go through it pretty quickly so I don't take all morning but I will encourage you if it means anything you listen to it later on my blockers you can really apply these again the church considers these the gold standard for making decisions in life so Before we jump into these um the only two definitions I have to describe is consolation and desolation probably a lot of people here already know that when you enter into prayer consolation is when you have good feelings I'm just going to put it in very eighth-grade terms consolation is good feelings in prayer desolation is bad feelings or dryness when you just don't enjoy praying and saints and sinners both oscillate between these two consolation and desolation so we're going to look at the discernment of spirits part one number three is this is what st. Ignatius of Loyola says I call it consolation when an interior movement is aroused in the soul by which is it if by which it is inflamed with love of its creator and Lord and as a consequence can love no creature on the face of the earth for its own sake but only in the creator of them all it is likewise consolation when one sheds tears that move to the love of God whether it be because of sorrow for sins because of the sufferings of Christ our Lord or for any other reason that is immediately directed to the praise and service of God finally I call consolation every increase of faith hope and love and all interior joy that invites and attracts to what is heavenly and to the salvation aborted soul by filling the peace and quiet in its creator and Lord notice that tears are a consolation not a desolation there might be a little bit surprising the main thing to remember what he just said there is any increase in faith and hope and love is a consolation that means that imagine you lost a child or a parent some people that could be a moment of a loss of faith hope and love that other people that becomes a opportunity in life for an increase in faith hope and love so our attitude also makes a big difference on it for receiving consolations if we really trust God number six though in desolation we must never change our former resolutions it will be very advantageous to intensify our activity against the desolation we can insist upon prayer upon more meditation and on much examination of ourselves we can make an effort in a suitable way to do some penance now that number six there that is key to every seminary any seminary coast-to-coast here whether it's Novus order or traditional you'll hear people quote that all the time you'll always say never make a decision in desolation what it means is don't make a lifetime decision when you're in darkness or dryness in prayer you should only change course when you to use my analogy of looking under water you have total clarity where that treasure is when the dust is settled when the sand is settle and you're not just covered with seaweed and human junk and you can see in prayer and peace and in clarity because when the dust is up we're likely to make a bad decision that is hasty and so never make a decision in desolation number nine the principle reasons why we suffer from desolation or 3/1 the first is because we have been tepid and slothful or negligent in our exercises of piety and so through our own fault spiritual consolation has been taken away from us the second reason is because God wishes to try us to see how much we're worth and how much we will advance in his service and phrase when left without the generous reward of consolations and signal fissures the third reason is because God wishes to give us a true knowledge and understanding of ourselves so that we may have an intimate perception of the fact that it is not within our power to acquire and attain great devotion intense love tears or any other spiritual consolation but that all this is the gift and grace of God our Lord now having done spiritual direction for about a decade I realized that a lot of young people when they're in desolation they immediately think they're mother Teresa who's in her sixty years of darkness well some people might be tested like that but a lot of times our desolation is just laziness the way to test that is to dig deeper to do more prayers to do a little bit of penance and see if you come out of it but again but you might have some of that mama trees that thing going on - because Saint Ignatius of Loyola says sometimes God remains in darkness to test us in other words sort of like how weight lifting works that technically in weight lifting you're actually breaking your muscles down with the hopes that it gets stronger sometimes God throw some extra weights on the end of the end of the bar for us to get stronger in the spiritual life you might be taken aback at that because we think of prayer is kind of wimpy but it's truly a battle so also quote God wishes to try us see how much we are worth and how much we were advanced in service and praise when you left without the generous reward of consolations and singing favors number 10 when one enjoys consolation let him consider how he will conduct himself during the time of ensuing desolation and store up a supply of strength as defense against that day what this means is this I'll tell you about my life when I have consolation and clarity and especially peace we're going to talk about how peace of all the gifts of the Holy Ghost love patient love the joy patience kindness kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control peace is the one that Satan cannot simulate when we have that peace and clarity that's the time to come to resolutions always of course in concert with the teachings of the church so I will write out in my journal resolutions but I'll really only come to those conclusions in consolation number 11 t who enjoys consolation should take care to humble himself and lower himself as much as possible let him recall how little he is able to do in time of desolation when he is left without such grace or consolation he doesn't mean left without sanctifying Duras sanctifying grace way to get back to this confession on the other hand sending nations rights one who suffers desolation should remember that by making use of the sufficient grace offered him he can do much to it stand of all his enemies let him find his strength his Creator we were closed for what he's saying there is if you're in sanctifying grace in you're in desolation or dryness and you're not enjoying prayer he's saying keep going keep praying it's not going to last forever God is still with you cannot assume he's not with us just because of the feelings as long as we're staying close to God through the sacraments especially confession and Holy Eucharist we can be confident we should keep going in that path in other words but he also he also says this tom [Music] he who enjoys this constellation take care to humble himself in other words if you feel close to God we're in danger of thinking we're some type of saint when we have all this peace for in our lives he said don't go that far humble yourself because probably will lead to the fall if part two gets even better if you apply this to your fair life and really 15 minutes a day is probably better than that 2 hours a month I just proposed because you can start to experience these rules and this is why you're going to forgive me for a bit of a longer homily because if you apply these rules to 15 minutes of Prayer day you will be following the footsteps of the gold standard of these Ignatian 2 sermon experience that the church is really proposes the very best way to make decisions through prayer okay number one part two it is characteristic of God in His angels when they act upon the soul to give true happiness and spiritual joy and to banish all the sadness and disturbances which are caused by the enemy it is characteristic of the Evil One to fight against such happiness and consolation by proposing fallacious reasoning subtleties and continual deceptions so again real quick even though emotions are more affected by the demons than our reason our reason can still kind of come to these wrong conclusions like imagine how many times you thought someone hated you it just turns out their phone was dropped in the toilet or something and they couldn't get back to you we use all these reasons but we don't realize that God has something deeper that he knows about number three if the cause precedes both the good angel and evil spirit can give consolation to a soul but for quite different purposes the good angel consoles for the progress of the soul that it may advance arise to what is more perfect the evil spirit consoles for purposes that are the contrary and that afterwards he might draw the soul to his own perverse intentions and wickedness number four is a mark of the evil spirit to assume the appearance of an angel of light he begins by suggesting thoughts that are suited to a devout soul and ends by suggesting his own for example he will suggest holy and pious thoughts that are holy in conformity with the sanctity of soul afterwards you will endeavor little violent to end by drawing the solar to his hidden errands and people design I'm going to give an example of that in a minute basically what st. Ignatius is telling us is that again it Satan can trick our emotions and our reasons a lot a reason a little bit and this is why st. Ignatius says that Satan presents with fallacious reasoning even things that seem pious but I skip number two which is my favorite so listen close to this number two I love this so much God alone can give consolation to the soul without any previous cause that beautiful God alone can give consolation to the cause to the soul without any previous cost it means when you're in prayer angels or demons can kind of get our thought patterns going in either direction but when you're just zapped with peace out of nowhere you can be sure that's God kseniya nation says it belongs solely to the Creator to come into a soul to leave it to act upon it to draw wholly to the love of his divine majesty I said without previous cause that is without any preceding perception or knowledge of any subject on which a soul might be led to such a consolation through its own acts of intellect and will so without cause means you didn't think yourself into a dark corner or you didn't pray yourself on top of the heights God gave you his favor and his love out of nowhere so I think we can summarize what we learned on decision-making in prayer Satan can imitate zeal but he cannot imitate peace you say that again Satan can imitate zeal but he cannot imitate peace that piece is like the sand settling on that search under water for varied treasure and once there's no more disturbance you can see perfectly you don't need equipment like reason even though we do believe as Catholics there's a total marriage of faith and reason but still once we're following church teaching once we're in sanctifying grace even in sanctifying grace we can occasionally be led by fallacious reasoning by Satan and this is where we have to go deeper now now you're thinking but father Nix that's nice but I've never had that happen I'm going to tell you the key to where this happens it's before the Blessed Sacrament I'm going to be for reasons why you can show up with all of your soul in a total mess and anxiety and everything and if you do an hour or two before the Blessed Sacrament in church in an adoration Chapel here's four reasons why I think God would give you that peace one we are as close to Jesus of Nazareth right now in that Tabernacle if anybody in Galileo Galilee was 2,000 years ago of course God the second person Trinity's ever in the world but in a Catholic Church we are actually physically in the presence body blood soul and divinity of Jesus of Nazareth number two we have protection of demons it's not instantaneous God wants to try us but I find frequently after the end of one hour and especially two hours not everybody has that time that I do we are often free of a lot of diabolical influence number three you need to protection from your phone and even good distractions like your family if you can just you know sometimes married people can tag-team each other hey I'm going to go to adoration for two hours can you watch the kids yeah if you do the same for me two hours after that attack team each other number four before the Blessed Sacrament God moves you from your appetites into your emotions into your reason all of which collapse as he can bring very deep into your soul where he speaks to you in peace doesn't mean that you hear a voice in your ears but you have what the Apostle says is the peace beyond all understanding supernatural peace we can't give ourselves and there in that spot in prayer Satan has no access to us so I the launching point for the sermon was that one single line in the fifth Sunday after Pentecost have no fear of their fear Satan can imitate deal but he can't imitate peace one quick caveat I should give to this is st. Ignatius of Loyola also says what seems to me white I will believe black if the hierarchical church so defines in other words everything I'm giving you for the rules of discernment all are against the backdrop of the articulator faith and morals of the church so you couldn't say something like well I'm a married man with four kids and I think God wants me to be a priest well it's against the church lease in the West so remember what seems to me white I will believe black if the higher the blue curacao defines what ignatius means like by this doesn't mean we put our brains to decide to be catholics what he means is all of his rules of discernment all fall under following divine revelation and that's of course the Magister and not the craziness going on today in Rome thankfully apostolic expectations do not carry the weight of infallibility or even the way of an encyclical but the powerful thing the positive side in this that I want you to hear is God would never give you peace to go against the church beautiful God would never give you peace to go against the church I've heard people say well let the Catholic Church because I felt more joy in an evangelical church or mega church I believe that the government get peace for that and this is where even if a pope or a bishop told you to sin or if you felt you should leave your wife and be a priest it's not of God so we also have those parameters in our decision-making but I think everybody knows that so this is why it's important we find silent time because even if we have no peace entering prayer well we serve an infinitely powerful God who can give it instantaneously well the father I've never felt that type of peace in prayer here's my question to you have you ever asked for it have you ever said father in Jesus's name when I go to make this holy hour would you please give me peace I'll tell you why I think he's going to answer because he wants to give peace this isn't a game with him he actually wants to give us peace st. Catherine of Siena said the water of the sea is not turbid and causes no fear to the soul for she knows the truth it is a deep which manifests sweet secrets so that where the light of your faith the bounds the soul is certain of what she believes this water is a mirror and to which you've the eternal Trinity bid me gaze holding it with the hand of love that I may see myself who AM your preacher there represented in you and yourself and me through the union which you made of your Godhead is our humanity a last note on this this line don't fear their fear I want to make one more note on this indignation discernment of spirits this also means not to fear your own fear sometimes people have a great calling in life and they say they have no peace in doing something but it's just a false excuse they just mean they're afraid for example let me give an example someone might have great peace after one of these holy hours in say confronting a family member with an addiction there they go to make these two holy hours one is to say do an intervention one's not and they have all this peace but they're still afraid they might lie to their spiritual Direction say well I didn't have peace doing it well hold on or let me give you another example let's say someone is praying about being a nun and she has peace but she also is afraid to give up a family well this young woman discerning might know that her spiritual director is an amateur training Ignatian discernment of spirits so sheer to say oh I have no peace in being a nun this amateur spiritual director would immediately say Oh peace no peace that means that she is not called to be a nun she's got to get married but a more advanced spiritual director a probe deeper he might say might say something like this bye no peace do you mean you're afraid of what it would look like to not have a family or are you given supersonic peace that you're called to marriage and if she says father I hadn't given so much peace at the prospect of marriage through and through and through a good spiritual director say I'll get married then I'm going to do the wedding I'm totally behind you but often we can have a great calling that we're afraid to follow and we make this excuse that fears equals no peace that's not true why because we can have both peace and fear in some of these decisions in life both peace and fear can simultaneously exist let me give an example imagine the early church in the Roman Empire they bring entire families that they found out to be Christian before a little a little idol of a Roman God and they say hey just pour a little incense on it and we'll let you go if you don't pour it on it we're going torture your whole family but hey you don't have to mean it you can go back to your strange Christian services in the catacombs just pour a little incense on this God and we'll let you go and we won't even talk about it well entire families kids five six seven eight years old would refuse that and were tortured mercilessly and are now margaret's in heaven do you think they felt afraid yes do I think God gave them this supersonic peace beyond all understanding yes I do imagine them in the Coliseum and the waiting area in the Colosseum knowing that they were going to get eaten by a lion in the next ten minutes were they afraid yeah they were afraid did they have peace that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and he would give them their lives back in their bodies back yes definitely so this shows us that we can have peace and some fear simultaneous in life so the question is not is there fear the question is first is this the law of the church and the gospel when you make a big decision I think since everybody knows the answers to that that's why I've skipped those in doctrinal things today because then if the answer is yes and there's numerous options that are still holy and moral then the question allows for symptoms and then the answer allows for some freedom like a vocation the next question is do I have peace and if one has peace even with fear we must go with it we must continue on is difficult but rewarding adventure of serving God and then do we experience that peace that only God can give and in that peace fear means very little st. John Vianney said flies don't land on boiling water name the father of the son of the litter

Channel: Sensus Fidelium

Views: 164,577

Keywords: catholic, christianity, God, Jesus Christ, holiness, salvation, truth, trust, prayer, decisions, spirits, angel, demon, st ignatius, vocation, history, fear, anxiety, virtue, eucharist, decernment, ewtn, grace, lord, lamb, devotion, religion

Id: xjt8oXRTjgA

Length: 27min 57sec (1677 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2017