Open Line with Father Brian Mullady - 02/17/2022

this evening from the studios of ewtn this is open line with today's host father brian milady in north america call toll-free 1-833-2888 that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call you can also 1-205-271-2985 the letters ewtn to 5500 or send an email to openline ewtn.com a tremendous thursday to each and every one of you thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line father brian malady is in the house ready to answer your questions if you'd like to speak with father the number is 833 288 ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at 1-2-0-5-271-2985 you can always send us an email openline ewtn.com or you can text your question text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams michael mccall producing the program your call screener is matt gubinsky and jeff berson handling our social media efforts so if you're watching on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and our host as he is every thursday dominican father brian malady how are you just fine thank you are you are you uh are you gallivanting about or are you at home yeah portland not yet no yeah when lent begins we are we are preparing to gallivant right very good so today you wanted to talk a little bit at the top of the program about one of the virtues uh in particular the virtue of prudence right yeah uh they're basically according to well philosophical tradition there are uh four cardinal virtues and one is in the intellect knowing the truth but uh it's also a virtue that's very strange because it's in the will too uh one is in the will alone that's justice and then fortitude and temperance are basically found in our feelings today we have a great crisis of truth but it's not just theoretical truth it's also practical truth what should i do here and now now the cardinal virtues is a classic doctrine of philosophy but it's not just in philosophy the catechism of the catholic church remarks this in 1805. four virtues play a pivotal that's where the word cardinal comes from a role and accordingly are called cardinal all the others are grouped around them they are prudence justice fortitude and temperance if anyone loves this is a quotation from the book of wisdom if anyone loves righteousness wisdom's labors are virtues for she teaches temperance and prudence justice and courage and then it very graphically states these virtues are praised under other names in many passages of scripture so our traditional idea of prudence would not just be something that philosophy or reason discovers but also something that's talked to us in our religion now what is prudence prince is knowing how to apply theoretical truth to practical life it basically has three movements all of which are necessary for it to be properly formed the ability to take counsel in other words to do research on what possible choices you have the ability to make a judgment because if all you did was take counsel but you never make a judgment you never make a decision and you certainly never do an action and then finally and this is its final perfection and completion command where you command the action uh hearing the word is fine but as james says this week in one of the his epistle be hearers of the word not only but doers also so you have to carry it out in practice the formation of prudence is extremely important because this is where you internally apply the moral law and it becomes a part of you not just a part of what someone else is telling you so a good bit of moral education turns around the ability to form prudence and it's not just like case studies or something like that it's where you have a sense you develop a sense of what the law of god and truth have in store for us also interestingly enough remember that this is one of the only virtues that also involves the will so therefore you have to apply it now the implication of this is in a negative sense that prudence is the only form of knowledge that is not lost by forgetting it prudence is lost by contented worldliness so it's no wonder today in the society that we live in that many people who do actions which are contrary to god's law don't really develop a proper prudence about what the truth should be in society and even if they could write you a paper about it it's very difficult for them to actually apply it so contented worldliness is where we have to strike when it comes to trying to develop what prudence really is and uh the carrying out of this in the will is uh so important it's the prudence is like conscience only conscience ends with the judgment you should do this or not in prudence you actually carry out the judgment on an everyday level and interestingly enough aristotle has a famous principle in his ethics as a person is formed so does the good seem to him so in other words if you're if you've been committing sexual sins let's say throughout your whole life that colors your attitude toward what the good of sexuality really is or if you've been doing cowardly acts throughout your whole life if you look on prudence for example as tactics to get out of things not to be involved not to make judgments or be a part of moral decisions to absent yourself from life basically then so the safety seems to be the only real choice for doing the good and therefore it's no wonder that we've destroyed in the western world through things like contraception through contented worldliness through materialism our whole ability not only to resist evil but also to stand fast in the face of what could be the corruption of the moral law it's therefore important for us to remember that first and foremost we have to know what the truth is before we can actually do it and therefore the foundation of doing just acts or courageous acts or temperate acts has to be forming your judgments in prudence prudence is not um none non-involvement in life never volunteering for anything and hiding it's rather entering deeply into life when it's necessary and also participating in the realization of the good even if it means sometimes you suffering and being harmed by it 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america two 8332 eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada once again that number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and if you are from outside the united states and canada then um we will put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an email that email address is openline at ewtn.com that's openline at ewtn.com and you can put something like ewtn's open line thursday or father brian milady or something like that in the subject line and we'll get it to the appropriate location and then you can also text your question to father brian text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply if you're watching us on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and uh jeff berson our magnificent social media maven is monitoring that throughout the course of the program and uh he will put those up as he sees fit the questions that you're answering on social media again it's ewtn's open line thursday if you'd like to be part of the program the toll-free number is 833 288 ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six grab one of these open phone lines we'd love for you to be part of the conversation any question that you may have on your mind regarding the catholic faith everything is fair game as we talk today with father brian malady on ewtn's open line thursday [Music] [Applause] it's really awe inspiring to know that take two with jerry and debbie has the impact that it does we know from what our listeners share on the air but also from corresponding with them outside of the show via email and social media there's no better feeling than knowing you've helped someone maybe many people at a time work through various situations and more clearly see god's purpose and plan for their lives take two with jerry and debbie tomorrow noon eastern on ewtn radio this is life issues with brad mattis president of life issues institute when kaylee mcavoy a united church of christ pastor and her pastor boyfriend became pregnant the first thing they did was pray and search out an abortionist kaylee said she never felt more loved by god than when she entered the doors of a planned parenthood whatever voice she listened to it wasn't from god it was from satan the bible is very clear about the sin of adultery and abortion we can't claim to be faithful christians while we pick and choose which sins apply to our lives yes the blood of christ covers every sin including adultery and abortion but this doesn't give us permission to sin as we please knowing we'll ask for forgiveness later that's not true repentance when satan entices you to make choices contrary to scripture they are lies for more information visit our website at lifeissues.org and stay informed more informed than you've ever been this is open live on the ewtn global catholic radio network if you have a question call 1-833-288-ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call 1205 271 or send us an email to openline ewtn.com you know you can stay informed and educated with the latest news and truth on abortion euthanasia assisted suicide in the culture of death on ewtn pro-life weekly with prudence robertson and we can send ewtn's pro-life weekly directly to your email inbox every week just visit ewtn.com and click on subscribe two lines open for you at 833 288 ewtn that's our toll-free number 833-288-3986 first up today is veronica in the great state of north carolina listening on siriusxm channel 130. veronica you're on with father brian milady hi thank you so much you know i'm driving and i even i'm here now at the parking lot with my taking notes in my teachers because what father said about the virtues belonging to realms of the intellect the will and emotion it it's incredibly it just sounds very important to me something that i've been like thinking and praying about um but i don't completely understand it and i was not able to hear exactly i know that somewhere in the intellect and like uh he said knowledge and then in the real justice but i didn't get them all so if he could repeat all that and can i explain exactly what that means as much as he can i would appreciate very good i'll be happy to do that the whole issue of where the virtues reside is an attempt to explain why all four of these developing these qualities is necessary to make one single moral decision well and the basic powers of the soul according to catholicism which they we really take from the greek philosophers are the intellect of which truth is known the will in which the good is loved the passions which have to do with really enjoying good really hating evil and then courage or hope in pursuing the good or avoiding evil and in order for a person to be mature and for them to be whole is thick to have what we call integrity all four of these are necessary because if you miss one it compromises the others so let's say i'm a very powerful personality i have great courage but i have courage for the sake of something evil let's say i'm a nazi who's fighting battles in order to be able to persecute jews well i may be very courageous but i'm not courageous in a human sense because i'm courageous for evil and falsity or let's say i'm a doctor who is a very excellent physician as far as how to carry on an operation i may have prudence but i do it for evil purposes for the sake of sterilization well that's not an integrated action either and no matter how good a physician i might be i'm a very bad man so it's important to see that in order for us to have a holistic choice about anything and this means that we allow our souls to be reduced from what we're able to do to actual formation so that we really love the good and really hate the evil that properly formed intelligent human choices in which the passions participate are necessary unfortunately many people they'll emphasize just one to the expense of another and that that's not integrity so uh i remember i gave a class of the virtues once to some sisters and at the end of the class one of the sisters raised her hand and she said now let me get this straight we're supposed to enjoy being virtuous and i said well yes in a properly ordered soul of course you enjoy being virtuous because all virtue is you're taking the powers of your soul and you're implementing them in such a way in a human way by choice that they all go together and participate in the good and of course you'll notice that this is very much related to the issue what constitutes a mortal sin too remember there are three requirements full knowledge complete consent and the thing has to be contrary to human nature it is significantly deep way well to have full knowledge and complete consent you have to have not only your intellect present to know the truth but you also have to have your passions that are supporting your will so you really love the good and really hate evil that supports you now of course we don't believe that morals is totally about feelings but if you're if your passions or your feelings are properly formed they're tools that support your expanse of your character in this very human way so all four of those powers because there are two powers in the emotions one of which has to do with loving the good the other which has to do with seeking to attain it when it's difficult which is where things like anger and courage uh reside all four of those potentials all have to go together in one single human choice that's why morals education is so difficult number one and number two why we should see what a very creature human being is so anyway that's that's it thanks veronica we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 frank is a first-time caller in the great state of north carolina you're number one in north carolina today father he's listening on siriusxm channel 130. frank you're on with father brian milady hello thank you for taking my call yeah my question has to do with what you said earlier about prudence it all stems from an argument i had with somebody i know they said that their neighbor was using drugs but it didn't affect them in any way and so they would never say anything to them and so i judged that as a cowardly act i didn't want to confront him and i didn't realize if i heard you right you said that it has to do with prudence so first the prudent thing would be to determine that that's wrong and then the second thing would be to will it so that will the justice like to go there and say you're doing something wrong and is that cowardly for them not to do those things did i understand that right that's my question yes i think you did except that you need to think more about it and you need to make more distinctions morals is not an easy area so the question becomes do you have any authority to tell that person that now if you're an authority let's say you're the police chief then you have an obligation to do it if you're not the issue becomes if you think the correction would be received in such a way that it would actually alter the person's behavior or would it make them more obstinate in what they want and this relates to the whole issue of fraternal correction in the gospels if my brother sins how often should i tell him well in religious life we have a problem with this all the time because fraternal correction is important when thomas aquinas approaches this issue he says well yes we do have an obligation to correct our brothers remember the person purpose of correction is the amendment of the evil doer now here in prudence because of who this person is who you are what the situation is about prudence is hard to develop because it unveils all these different things you have to think about you're pretty sure the correction would make the person more opposite in doing what they were doing and they just ignore you then you have an obligation not to say anything because it would make the situation worse and not only that but when i was a novice of course we had a lot of novices who were very zealous to correct everybody else's faults not their own but everybody else's faults and i remember my novice master telling me yes brothers we do have an obligation to correct our brothers but it should be done humbly always admitting that you're not perfect either it should become quietly not raising your voice in order for the person to be open to listening to what you have to say and rarely so uh yeah prudence if you think that you could help the person uh and they'd be open to it because of friendship or something you have with them then you would have an obligation of some sense to say something and if you wouldn't you'd be kind of guilty of cowardice but those are a lot of things to put together in process is that helpful for you frank that is thank you so much you're very welcome we appreciate it we're going to go right down the street from you in portland oregon father brenda is listening on simple radio app brenda you're on with father brian mullady thank you for taking my call i really appreciate it my question is related to how respectfully you treat cremated remains from a body my son recently passed away and he was cremated but he was blessed and the last rights and anyway as luck would have it and i won't go into all of why it happened um his remains will not fit into the urn that i picked out for him so basically what that means is that i feel like i have split his body because there's a small portion that's put into another little special container that's going to be placed in a crypt with his father but it's just weighing on me because i've always believed that you treat those fascists just like you were a body and um i just need to know if that's okay i mean i did what i had to do but anyway i hope that makes sense well it doesn't make sense i just have a question that why can't you get a bigger urn well that's a whole different story it had to be special ordered and uh there wasn't enough time to do when when it why don't you get it now and then you can just transfer all the things to one and then bury it well because of the time time limits are there time limits to very cremated bodies i mean my mother she was cremated she my father was cremated but he was a service person and they couldn't bury him because all these people were getting killed in afghanistan in the government cemetery he wasn't buried for three months until aft after he died but he was buried he wasn't scattered or anything like that oh no no never do that never so what i need to do then is even though i have this small portion i just need to buy a bigger urn so that well it's a solution i mean they do sell them it's a solution brenda in the in the scenario that you described earlier would the the larger urn and the smaller urn be in the same crypt probably yeah so i yeah okay there you go just i was but i mean if you wanted to solve your conscience about this why can't you just buy a bigger urn you know if you want to yeah if you're long as you're burying them that's fine too don't put them on the mantel though exactly thanks brenda we appreciate the call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's open line thursday with father brian milady [Music] [Applause] the power of prayer depends on god's action not on our praying the holy spirit prays within us with groanings too deep for words as romans 8 says and he empowers us to seek god and to seek from him all that we need and the answer to prayers are always from god in order to worship him [Music] and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are suicidal heavenly father we adore you you delighted in the thought of each one of us and so created us that we would share in your life and love both now and forever our lives are precious help those who are tempted to take their own lives to find you reveal your love to them and open their eyes to the wonder of their existence give them hope and their despair joy in their sorrow peace and their distress amen this is father brian milady if you missed part of today's show catch the encore tonight at 10 eastern check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.net and click podcasts what's your take on how people dress to go to mass we'd love to hear it tomorrow on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now more of open line with father brian malady this is open live on the ewtn global catholic radio network a couple of open lines for you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3988 six next up is marie in the great state of wisconsin listening on the ewtn app marie thanks for holding you're on with father brian hi thank you for taking my call you're welcome what can we do for you today yeah thank you my question is um does god have a preferred response um when it comes to our passion and then how if so how do we learn that or develop that and can we help others well i don't quite know what you mean by preferred response the passions were created by god they were created by god to support us in doing the good and so if you if you by having a preferred response you mean should we consider our passions good of themselves or evil in themselves neither one they're there they're natural factors but they're there for a reason to help support our moral lives so in human beings that we have a similar experience of passions to the animals like being angry when pain occurs and uh hurting and sorrow and all those things but we have a further response that is because in our souls we have a spirit the intellect and will our passions are naturally born to be obedient to reason not destroyed by reason obedient to reason so they're not sublimated as freud thought instead they're assumed they're assimilated into the higher self so for example anger christians have a lot of trouble with anger many people think anger become angry is always evil well it's not god created anger why because anger helps us to resist evil our own evil and the evil of other people too a person who can never feel anger now i don't say get angry i say feel anger in other words i'm not talking about it's expression but the inner emotion a person who can never feel anger is easily victimized by evil and so part of our morals education is the human formation of the passions which again is to assume them into the higher self not destroy them not pretend they don't exist but to form them in such a way that they support the higher self or for our free choices in good and evil not color our judgment but instead help us to carry out well what we have judged should be good or what we don't want to experience is evil so if that's what you mean by preferred response yes the lord does have a preferred response when it comes to the passions 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 that's the number cheryl used in lake havasu arizona watching us today on youtube cheryl you are on with father brian milady oh thank you very much father for taking my call i have a very good question for you it's regarding a satanic evil out here in scottsdale arizona i don't know if you heard about this one on the newsroom but there is an evil satanic group out here they're calling themselves satan khan now besides prayer what else can we do should we go out there to protest and if we use prudence against them would that leave us wide open for their attacks so this is father if you're not familiar in scottsdale there's they're having this this this group is putting on you know how they have these comic book conventions and superhero conventions called comic-con and they've taken a page from that book and they're calling it satan con and they're having scottsdale uh arizona convention center it is completely sold out and uh so she's that's that's what she's referring to with regard to you know what can can we do other than than praying well if it's sold out i doubt there's much you can do about it at all except to let people know perhaps you'd like to you know have a kind of protests uh that this is evil but they have to be allowed as you know to do what they want some for a lot of people especially those people on the west coast this is more a matter of kind of stupidity where they just anything that's weird they like um but i'm sure there's some satanists there for sure uh and as you know there's satan's standing things in schools now skating clubs uh i don't know but the important thing is to if you are able to do this to let people know at least as far as you can that this is uh very dangerous for one thing spiritually and she was kind of wondering if they were to maybe demonstrate at outside of the event would they be opening themselves up to uh you know spiritual attacks i assume so but i mean the whole country is full of spiritual attacks at the moment so i'm not sure it would be any much more than the media or this the satanic clubs of these schools or any of that business but um not if you mean by possession no i don't think it would be quite that severe but of course satan doesn't want any good to happen we know this in religious communities because there are lots of strange things that happen in religious communities not in the sense of the paranormal but just in the sense of getting along that wouldn't get it wouldn't pass buster in an ordinary living situation because you don't live so closely and satan doesn't want us to be happy and live together in christ so he'll use every weakness we have against us to try to create dissension sometimes i come and i in the communities i live and i'll say is there something in the water in this place [Laughter] because it's not normal some of the stuff and people have these total over reactions uh to things that most people would be too busy earning a living to do or something like that so anyway that's my answer beautiful thanks cheryl and don't underestimate the power of just simply praying the rosary right 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 we head next to terre haute indiana connie is a first-time caller listening on redeemer radio connie welcome to the program thank you i have just a general catholic question for father um my the holy water that we get at our church just been blessed by our we have a franciscan parish so it's been blessed but my aunt was telling me that water needs to also be blessed with salt not just with the free stand and i didn't understand but she's a pretty strict catholic i was wondering if you could explain the difference between regular holy water being blessed and is there a special type of blessing for holy water with saul well there is no difference actually however the old ritual demanded that blessed salt be used also the pre-vatican ii ritual and part of that is because of the whole symbolism of life and you know the life coming from the ocean salty water and that sort of thing uh but uh really the present ritual does not demand that and so the holy water would be equally blessed by either one so there we have priests that like to use the blessed salt because they're more traditional and people who just follow the present ritual and omitted in either case the holy water would be blessed thanks connie we appreciate that phone call today we've got plenty of time for your phone calls and a couple of open lines for you at eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we received a text from joel and his question is is god's will for our lives mutable or immutable well god's will for our lives is immutable but his immutable will depends sometimes on our decisions he makes a certain effect depend upon us as the cause so he doesn't force us to do it he knows what we're going to choose but you got to remember god looks at things from eternity not from time so as far as he's concerned the end of the world has already happened but some effects he makes dependent upon the free person's free will choice to do this or to do that even though he knows what he's going to do so his will is immutable from one point of view but from another point of view that immutable will is carried out often through mutable choices on the part of human beings eight three three two eight eight ewtn is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six um we have an email from a lady who identifies herself simply as m and she says i'm a new catholic convert at age 60 praise the lord she said praise the lord she said my question is regarding the timeline of the nativity and subsequent events okay so jesus is born then at the completion of the appointed time for purification he is presented at the temple and a prophecy is received as well as a blessing the bible said the holy family then went home to nazareth so where does the magi visit the angel warning the flight to egypt the murder of the innocents fall in this story was the temple visit on the eighth day for jesus circumcision i can't find the correct order of events for some reason no particular reason i just wanted to get this story logically ordered in my head um well you got to remember the different texts in scripture emphasize different things so yes the presentation i believe occurred at the normal time going home and being subject to them in nazareth though i uh i know that that happens after the 12 year old uh you know finding in the temple but there perhaps the evangelist just wants to omit the rest of that episode and jump to nazareth to show christ's sacred humanity and how he carried out his childhood but the the general events would be certainly that they were in bethlehem when the magi incident occurred and also when they fled into egypt because of the massacre of the innocents but then eventually of course they did wind up in nazareth after herod died so it's possible that the evangelist was just telescoping all that together then uh next up is john michael in the great state of ohio listening on saint gabriel radio john michael you're on with father brian milady hi thank you so much for taking my call i have a quick question about god's love this question came from a discussion my catholic roommates and i were having and essentially the question is does god love or favor certain children more than others well as far as god's offer of his final experience the experience is the same for everyone naming god's vision and this is reflected in the parable of the 11th hour where as you know some people work one hour some people work 10 but they all receive the same reward however some people receive a help in this i'm a special act of god's favor so they're able to pursue it in a more efficacious way obviously there's a hierarchy in heaven because as far as receiving the reward some people are better prepared to receive the reward than others and the classic line for that is that's merit what we call merit and we don't merit anything by strict equality from god by strict equality he offers everyone the same reward but in a proportionate inequality each person does what they're able to do so for example there was there's no one that would be more loved by god then she whom he chose to be his mother that doesn't make our love of him any less but what it does mean is that we have a call to experience seeing god in a different way it is a mystery this in the final analysis little flower remember reflected on this and she couldn't understand why some people receive so many helps like paul who was gave a special revelation by god on the road to damascus and yet other people in pagan countries die without even receiving any help of that kind anyway because everybody has sufficient help to be saved and this is when she decided that the experience of heaven was like a garden and the garden had different kinds of flowers but as long as you were in the hands of the good jesus it didn't matter what kind of flower you were and all the flowers were necessary to make the bouquet beautiful and that's when she said she was a little flower there and that's where her name comes from you know her that was attributed to the little flower so yes everyone receives the same reward in that sense god loves everyone equally but in the sense that he gives some people more helps than others he could be say have a more special love for some than others i could be wrong about this but i recall people ask mothers for example that have maybe eight children if they love all their children equally and most of the honest mothers will say well i love them all but i don't love the ball in the same way so we used to say we were teachers no teacher has favorites right uh you you relate to some better than others now of course all these are based on god's gifts so he helps to support us in our choices and things like that but it was it's a mystery why he gives some people so many gifts and not as many gifts to others except for the fact that otherwise we'd have an awful monotonous experience they have because we all be absolutely the same so it's not a monotonous thing it's a communion of saints with all kinds of different people with different gifts you know i heard a mother of a large family once say i love them all the same i don't like them all the same yes yes ewtn is our toll-free number we're here to check out family theater classic radio this sunday and every sunday at 11 30 p.m eastern time right here on ewtn radio next up is nathan in the great state of virginia listening on siriusxm channel 130 nathan you're on with father brian milady hi hi nathan what's your question today oh i've been a lifelong catholic and i was away from the church for a while my teen years returned with the process of rejoining the church and such uh gone through some things in my personal life and my professional life is doing very well but it seems like the more i pray in my personal life the less progression there is in it and i speaking to my priest his question was well do you still believe in god like yes but to be honest it feels like i'm it's working against me not your belief in god is working against you kind of yes uh in what way just that you don't feel the same things when you pray that you felt before just the the continual failures and relationships well you mean like with a per a woman or something like that yes and i mean to the point of whom i'm [Music] not dealing with now very involved in their church not it's not a catholic church it's not denominational to where i almost feel like i'm working against her involvement well maybe god doesn't want you to be married to someone who's not catholic because you just returned to the church or trying to return maybe he thinks that wouldn't be good for you is that a possibility i i don't know that's the problem the track record i have is not uh exactly stellar well again maybe you need some more time so maybe god wants you to take more time before you go into a relationship try to learn better how to do it you know i think father sometimes uh i know that that nathan told our call screener that he feels like his his prayer is for nothing at this point and i know sometimes when we try to take steps forward in the spiritual life it's not uncommon that we would maybe be met with some resistance uh to that effort and i think mother teresa and some of the saints have even spoken about this huh uh well yes except that what he doesn't describes to me i don't think is quite the same thing um i think you need just need more time and you need a little more time in your conversion experience and also in developing some prudence which is what i was talking about and how you go about relationships um i don't think this is a matter of the dark and eye of the soul or anything like that which is where a person begins to experience spiritual maturity but they perceive it as a lack of maturity because they don't understand the way god works um i would beware of i would also be aware of basic my spiritual progress on my feelings on what i think i've succeeded in carrying out exterior relationships uh you need to give it time say your prayers and things like that god bless you nathan one good thing you've done is you'll have a lot of our listeners that will be praying for you next stop is rockville maryland michael is in rockville listening on guadalupe radio michael you're on with father brian milady hey how are you doing father okay um my question is i work for a non-denominational church and i don't hide the fact that i'm catholic i go to math try and hit every day it's like you know better days when i go than not anyway um they're very spiritual church they have spiritual conversations a lot of them call themselves recovering catholic so my question is i don't like i said i don't hide the fact that i'm catholic and i often find myself sort of defending the church or when they say something about the church it's often a misconception that they have so i find myself sort of so what's your question my question is is it wrong for me to not go out of my way i suppose to tell them that in fact i'm a practicing catholic is it wrong because sometimes it feels like i'm almost hiding that fact from them even though they've never necessarily asked well i wouldn't hide it from them but i wouldn't go out of my way either to tell them and the reason is because you're working in a place that they don't like the catholic church obviously if they describe themselves as recovering catholics that means that they've rejected our doctrine for various reasons and you you rightly say some of it may be a misunderstanding but you're really working in kind of a hostile environment there and uh if that's the work you want to do and you have to do and it's necessary for your livelihood well that's fine but uh i wouldn't hide it on the same token i wouldn't be more kind of in your face about it either quickly we'll head to uh phillip who is in phoenix arizona listening on i heart radio phillip just a couple minutes left with father brian what's your question today uh yes father my wife and i uh started our cia process and were unable to finish it due to uh illness and we were absolutely casting our heads but we just haven't finished the process yet and until we do i was wondering is it okay if we take the eucharist or not uh based on hearing some rumors that uh pope francis made it a little easier for people to take the university um i've not heard that pope francis said that you didn't have to finish rcia before you received the eucharist i would highly recommend against that i don't that's a good idea you need to finish the rcia process now you may have to postpone this for a while but as soon as you're able to take it up again or talk to the priest if you can't come physically maybe you can do something on zoom or something but you really need to complete the process uh rcia you're not catholic have you been baptized uh not catholic no well well but have you been baptized yes all right and but you haven't received communion and you weren't a member of the catholic church until you you until you're in the process of becoming one correct uh no we were both protestant well no i would not go to communion until i made my profession of faith and you can't do that until you finish rcia in most places so yeah god bless you philip we will keep you uh and your wife in uh our prayers as you continue your journey which hopefully sooner rather than later will lead you to full communion with the catholic church father brian we are flat out of time would you leave us with a blessing may almighty god bless you the father son and holy spirit amen amen on behalf of our host father brian malady our producer michael mccall our call screener matt gubinsky and our social media maven mr jeff person i'm jack williams thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line thursday we'll be back at it again tomorrow our very own vice president of theology mr colin donovan will be in the house taking your questions on theology and church teaching until we get together tomorrow closing out another week of open line god bless [Music] the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio hosting women

Channel: EWTN

Views: 896

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: jwqXsbR_r5Q

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 17 2022