Women of Grace - March 16, 2021 - Johnnette Williams -

important to your life and faith spiritual insight practical wisdom join us as we transform the world one woman at a time women of grace for such a time as this now here's your host johnette williams well good morning everyone and welcome to women of grace live i am john at williams i am delighted to be with you today i certainly am you know we love to spend this time with you monday through friday as we discuss issues of importance to your life and your faith and we always invite you to give us a call here our phone lines are open for you ryan penny is back in the saddle today we're so excited about that and he is looking forward to having you say howdy hey to him and he'll say howdy hey back be sure to let him know if you're a first time caller and then we ring our first time caller bell to welcome you to our broadcast for your premier air time we look forward to that always as well and we have jeff burson back today too and he is our social media manager and our producer and we're happy he's back in the saddle too he will dash on out there to ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page and he will retrieve the questions that you leave for us in that chat feature there and if you're a first time submitter why we invite you to let him know that too and once again we ring that welcome bell to you i'm using all three of the bells today you never know which one's going to pop up next so it's kind of exciting to do that so we invite you to get on out there and join us live here lots and lots of things to tell you but i do want to tell you this we've got a very special guest with us today and he's going to be with us after this first block of time we have dr paul thigpen with us and you know he is going to be one of the presenters at our upcoming women of grace retreat it is our lenten online retreat happening march 27th so dr paul is going to be sharing with us a little bit about what he'll be talking about and why it's important and we'll be dipping into at least one of the books that he's given to us and i'll tell you you've got to get this book if you do not have this book this book belongs on your shelf right next to the bible the catechism of the catholic church and then dr paul's book and it is uh the manual here it is i'm holding it up for those of you out there in social media manual for spiritual warfare i'll tell you this is a must-have book and i cannot tell you how many priests have this book how many lay people have this book how much it has helped them to discern the good from the bad and to understand and make sense of what's happening in their lives especially that which comes to us from the pit of hell and we all need to be discerning at this moment because by golly it's it you know things are let me just put it this way you know the evil one is on the loose he's on a rampage right now but we have to remember one thing we are more than conquerors in christ jesus we are a people of hope we're a resurrection people so we do not flag in the pursuit of that which is good true and beautiful we do need however to understand the enemy if we don't know the enemy we never stand a chance of winning the battle and that's the truth of it and we're watching very big people go down one after the other why because they're not attentive they're not alert they're not vigilant and they don't know the tactics of the evil one we're going to be finding out a lot about that today but also through our online retreat so we are looking forward to hearing from you today you might want to start to stack your questions up for dr paul thigpen 833 288 ewtn that's toll free for you right here in north america eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's the way that you can join us right here live toll-free in north america if you're outside of north america country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five that's country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five please do join us here live on women of grace live today want to let you know also again social media land open for you ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page now listen before we go to the break um i had some people that were with us yesterday and asked some questions through social media and i encouraged them to come back today and said that i would answer those questions for them so i'm going to try to get to them very quickly before we go to that break and then welcome dr paul thigpen to be with us for the remainder of the program and jen had written in to uh youtube or facebook i don't know which one but she asked uh what what are the requirements for a valid confession this is a very very good question so when we talk about a valid confession we mean one where you know absolution sticks so to speak right that means that we're going into confession with an attitude of remorse that we are truly sorry and and for our sins that we truly want to repent and so when we talk about a sacramental confession of course we're talking about the sacrament of penance or reconciliation or the sacrament of confession it goes by all of those names it is the same thing uh the very first requirement is that we have true contrition for our sins so when we go into the confessional we ought to be really sorry for what we did if we're not really sorry you know we might feel the priest uh but we're not going to fool the lord the lord sees our heart right uh the priest is a holy vessel a holy instrument he's in persona christi in some way in in the ministerial priesthood jesus christ shares his one priesthood with them and they operate under the guidance of the holy spirit through the the sacrament of holy orders that makes them in persona christi in the person of jesus with us so it's actually our lord that's giving the absolution but it's coming through a human vessel the human vessel is not necessarily reading our hearts though some priests have that capacity padre pio certainly did but the fact of the matter is if you're not truly repentant even though absolution comes it doesn't mean you're truly forgiven because you have to have remorse you it can be an imperfect contrition that remorse might not be as great as it should be it might just be that you're there out of fear of hell but you know you're sorry you did this because you might burn you know in the everlasting fires if you don't confess this sin that's imperfect contrition it counts we want to work towards perfect contrition though right secondly you have to fully disclose your sins to the priest you have to share those sins with the priest not hold not holding something back oftentimes you know there can be a sin that we've committed that we're very ashamed of and we don't want to bring it up in the sacrament because you know we feel so terribly about what we've done and we're embarrassed and could even be our pastor and maybe he knows our voice and we certainly don't want him to think of us in a poor way and so out of that pride we hold back and that would really in some way impinge upon uh the confession that we're offering you know for example i have had women that have told me that you know i've held back the fact that i've had an abortion how often have you been to confessional i go to confession regularly and how long have you been holding this back well i've been holding it back for 20 years 30 years we we bring all of this to the sacrament trusting in god's mercy so it's very important for us to be you know very very honest in that confessional and to disclose our sins you know if you're suffering from a very serious illness you want to make sure you're bringing everything that you know about how you're feeling and what the symptoms are to your doctor so it can appropriately help you well how can we possibly you know come to the sacrament a healing sacrament and expect healing if we're not being fully honest right so you disclose your sins uh we also have that that third part that that is called satisfaction or we we know it is penance uh so the priest will say now you know uh do this you know uh in reparation for the sins that you have committed right and and sometimes this can be something that is in the form of a prayer or it might well be in in a form of an action like if you tell the priest that you've been harboring unforgiveness in your heart he might tell you to begin that process of forgiveness is your penance he might tell you if you've gossiped about somebody do your best to restore that person's reputation and then we receive the gift of absolution and that is the moment when god wipes away our sins through his mercy uh by way of the instrument who is the priest so i hope that that helps you jen uh we'll try to get to some of those others maybe a little later on in our broadcast but if not we'll be back with you tomorrow and i'll try to take those two coming right back at you stay with us [Music] on this tuesday of the fourth week of lent we turn our attention to a beautiful but mysterious part of the gospel of saint john and this is the story of the man who went to the pool called beth cider this man had been ill for 38 years and he was waiting at the pool to be cured and jesus came along and he saw him lying there for a long time and jesus said to him do you want to be healed and the man answered sir i have no one to put me into the water when it is troubled and jesus said to the man arise take up your stretcher and walk you're healed and he stood up and he started to walk now he was in trouble again because this was a sabbath day and the man could not quite understand why he should be persecuted but jesus stopped and he felt it was important to say to this man you better clean up your act sin no more that nothing worse will befall you it seems to me that if there was anything i could wish for in this country it would be a greater respect for the mystery of sin and the divine law god's law is not given to us to make him happy god's law reflects his absolute goodness very little of god's law refers to himself not to have false gods to worship god to be reverent not to take the name of the lord in vain to keep holy the lord's day those are not difficult things the big difficult things are the rest of the commandments and these commandments are there to make human life decent and good and spiritually productive for everybody and somehow or other we have come to forget them jesus says if you love me keep my commandments encouraging women in their gift of authentic femininity here's more women of grace with john ed williams well welcome back everybody we're so happy that you are with us today and i'm inviting you to pick up the phone and give us a call we are here for you we're eager to answer your questions today we have a very special guest with us and i just think our topic is going to spark those questions so please please please make yourself aware of this number you might want to jot it down it's 833 288 e w t n that's 8 3 3 2 8 8 3 nine eight six and that is toll-free for you right here in north america if you're outside of north america we welcome your calls too we certainly do we'll float you to the head of the line there when you call in from outside of north america that number for you it begins with the country code country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five again country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five also available for you out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page the chat feature is there for your use you can put your question comment inside inspiration or word of encouragement in there and our producer jeff person will dash on out there he'll grab it he'll get it up on the board for us and we'll be able to take it well i was telling you uh before we went to the break that of course march 27th is a big day that saturday is the day of our online linton retreat we're inviting you to join us there all of the details available for you at our website womenofgrace.com you'll find it it's number two in the slideshow and it's also listed for you right there under our upcoming events section on our homepage you just scroll down a wee bit you'll see it there if you click on that slideshow which is number two or you go down to uh the online event there and put your cursor over either and click it's going to take you to a landing page that gives you all of the details and also the opportunity to register and when you go there you're going to get a chance to see who all of our speakers are and one of those speakers is our guest today dr paul thigpen he is going to be finishing up our day with us his talk is it is finished the new beginning and of course you recognize those words it is finished coming from the mouth of our lord as he hung upon the tree at the very end of his natural physical life here on earth and we know that he is is is offering us this new opportunity for a new beginning in him that comes by way of his redemptive grace and so dr paul thigpen will be talking with us all about that he's the author of a number of books and i want to tell you ewtnrc.com has a whole lot of those books for you and i want you to get out there and take a look the one that i'm really recommending to you today is manual for spiritual warfare it's available for you at ewtnrc.com but there's also something else that you should be aware of uh dr paul thigpen has put together the spiritual warfare bible which it's the bible but he's inserted in there these sections on spiritual warfare it is a fabulous fabulous bible a fabulous i think addition to your own library and i have it and i love it very much many of his other books are out there as well and still others available for you out there at amazon so we invite you to check everything out that you've got there for dr paul thigpen and the good work that he does and so welcome welcome welcome dr paul thigpen to women of grace live we're so happy to have you with us today gotta have a delight to be here thank you so much oh you're so very welcome and dr paul thigpen is joining us from the mountains of georgia today where he tells me it's absolutely beautiful one of these days i'm going to get myself over that way just to have a big long chat i would love to do that paul uh you know we've known each other for so many years and uh what a great grace it's been uh through these years to have uh uh this opportunity for spiritual friendship and to talk about the things of the lord and that's one of the the blessings that we have through these opportunities that are made available now online and we're so looking forward to this event coming up march 27th and you presenting what do you think of our topic there you know man of sorrows lord of joy what a beautiful way to approach the season i mean you uh we we often focus on the sorrows and of course we should that's an important part of of lent but the whole point of witness to lead up to easter which is joy right so yes uh to talk about him as a man of sorrows but also a lord of joy seems to me you're you're keeping an eye a focus on both of those very important things there neither one of them is complete without the other yeah and so i'm so happy especially to get to talk to him about one of what's called the seven last words on the cross because it is so very important that it opens doors into so many understanding of so many things there's no question about that you know and and of course we think of that moment of of our lord hanging on the cross and those precious seven last words that he gives us and that phrase it is finished and yet we know what is finished there is this is the work of salvation uh but he reminds us you know in that uh very very phraseology that it's not the end of things you know uh it it is the end of our captivity if you will our bondage to sin because he's taken it all on his back we have a duty and a responsibility and an obligation to live that out and that lets us know how well that new beginning will encourage us in relationship with him yes you know i think about how when someone graduates from high school they always look at this is an end we're done you know this is great and they celebrate and they wear their cap and gown they go across the stage and i always feel like i have to remind them do you remember what this this ceremony is called it's called the commencement what does commencement mean it means beginning it means something new beginning and uh just like with confirmation i mean sadly how many you know young folks will go through the confirmation process and think this okay now i'm done with religious education he said no no no this is just the beginning it's like a commencement and so the same thing when our lord says it is finished the implication is what what he says later on in the book of revelation behold i make all things new i make all things new and so part of what we want to do is reflect some about what is finished and what is new what is the new creation yeah well i can't wait yeah well i can't wait to hear what you're going to share with us because every time i you know you i've had you on the program or anytime that we've been together at other events i listen carefully to what you have to say i i think the holy spirit works for you in such a dynamic way and you always bring us treasures that we can take away and and spend time unpacking in our time of prayer which i think is also very important these retreats are not to be one-offs they're they're they're in and of themselves supposed to be a type of commencement a type of new beginning or a new step taking in our relationship with the lord and that's why we encourage you all to come and to join us and uh you know we've had several of these online and you know we get tremendous comments from those who have participated all of the information is available for you there at ew or excuse me at womenofgrace.com get out to our website womenofgrace.com and as i told you just a few minutes ago number two on the slideshow or right down there and the listing of events on the home page will take you to the landing page where you can read all about it see the schedule get a sense of direction based on the speakers and and the talk titles that are there for you and you can actually register right online you know i want to talk a little bit about the necessity of these kinds of things today paul because we are living in in very contentious times and it's very very confusing to so many people we've just watched you know a major catholic singer songwriter basically declare that she is no longer a christian and how upsetting these things are for us and and we look at this and we say well that could never happen to me but you know the evil one is very wily uh and we have to remain vigilant which is why i'm really encouraging everyone out there to get a copy of this beautiful manual for spiritual warfare that that you have compiled put together and i included a lot of good writing in on your own paul it's important for us to be aware of these things so taking advantage of these opportunities is one of the ways in which we arm ourselves but let's talk a little bit about this spiritual battle that we find ourselves in and why it is important for us to suit up and how it is that these kinds of of opportunities uh become part of our our weaponry you know john i think about uh and i'm talking about this i often refer to uh i was a movie maybe a documentary i saw one time about the civil war and there was uh they showed a scene that where the two armies were encamped and actually you know fighting but they were on either side of a beautiful meadow and one one you know the guns were facing toward each other in the middle of the meadow there were flowers and butterflies and beautiful sunshine clouds above and and i remember thinking that goodness what if what if a small child happened to wander out in that meadow and thought oh isn't this beautiful look at the sunshine look at the clouds look at the butterflies look at the birds the grass the flowers and the bullets are whizzing by his head on either side how dangerous that would be and yet that's how it is for for many many folks and many of us i was in that situation myself where we don't realize we are in the middle of a battle and and its consequences aren't just for this like they're for eternity and so we're like that child sometimes just kind of walking around and smelling the flowers and not realizing that the bullets are whizzing past our heads and so the reason for writing the manual in some other books about the topic have been to kind of wake people up to that because whether you like it or not the battle is going on whether you're aware of it or not the battle is going on and you've got to wake up to it you've got to prepare yourself you've got to know first of all who is the enemy you know what are his strategies how does he come after us temptations especially but other things too and then how do we respond what god hasn't left us that is mercy how do we we arm ourselves uh what what defenses has god given us what offensive weapons has god given us about him and then to have some uh some help from the saints to have some help from the the scripture and the um the church's documents there's so much available for this battle but it won't help us any if we if we just keep smelling the flowers you know well you know that's a that's a perfect analogy and and i think that that is the case i don't think that people uh you know often people do not realize what's going on especially you know the secularists don't see what's going on there is a a necessity to have spiritual vision to to become alert to what it is and to know the ways and the tactics of uh satan your spiritual manual helps us to do that i do believe that that there will be elements of our time together at this online lenten retreat that will help us to do that and you've got another book i'm i'm just going to mention it that is out there and available for you at ewtn rc friends and it's a dot com it's saints who battled satan 17 holy warriors and in this book you yet we learn from our older brothers and sisters in the faith and i think this is one of the beautiful things about these lenten retreats we have speakers that are seasoned speakers and are able to bring us great insight but also we get great insight from the people who participate uh through the chat feature and all that we have opportunity to see what people are saying see what people are thinking we grow together and and we are the church militant we are this army on earth that is meant to be fighting at this moment in time against the powers and principalities these rulers of this present darkness right oh and you know johnny i'm so glad you mentioned that because in that book one of the stories i give there's there's a whole chapter on saint francis of assisi and of course most folks when they think of saint francis they think oh yeah you know the nice guy that he preached to the birds and he and the wolf fell in love with them and you know and all that's true he was caught very excited very sweet and he's the patron saint of the animals and things like that and people have you know on his day have their animals blessed but they're pets but what they don't realize is they had a great spiritual warfare side to his life he had to because he was doing so much damage against the kingdom of darkness that the kingdom of darkness often you know assaulted them came back and one of the stories all of the most that's so important with regard to what we're talking about people becoming aware is that we're told by one of his biographers that there was a a wall city fortified city as many of them were in italy during his time that was having terrible civil strife and it was right on the verge of civil war captains that just hated each other and were coming after each other and everybody knew it's gonna happen any time and so he decided i'm going there to preach he goes there and the evening before he's he's to go into the city to preach he's staying in some kind of lodging outside of the city overlooking the city from a distance and while he's there the lord pulls back the veil and allows him to see what's going on spiritually in that city and what he sees is that host of demons are all you know swarming over the city like like flies like roaches and they're provoking the people against each other they're stirring them up they're provoking them to hatred and to malice and to revenge and all those things and he realizes this you know this has got to change before i could even preach and have any reception here so he does a wonderful typical saint francis thing you know he calls him i think it was brother sebastian it was one of the brothers who was the most simple and most obedient that he knew would not give him any any flack you know when he gave him this instruction he said okay brother i want you to go down to the gates of the city stand before the city uh here's what's happening all these demons are all around and i want you to tell them to they must leave in the name of jesus christ now if you or i have been asked to do that you know we would have been saying oh family please don't send me that you know you do it somebody else do it but brother sebastian good good prior that he was he said yes sir he goes down to the city you know he points out he can't even probably himself see what's going on but just in the name of the lord jesus christ and of my my father francis be god and they did francis was watching you know he could see spiritually the next day francis came in and preached reconciliation and forgiveness and there was reconciliation forgiveness they responded and the city was saved the civil war that's such a clear example the kind of thing we're talking about we have spiritual life in our personal lives but it's also going on at a social level for us right now and so much of the polarization and the the malice and the hatred and the conflict is being stirred up by the enemy and we don't even know it we think it's just because we don't like that guy we don't like his politics or whatever but the enemy is spurring that on and so we have got to pray we've got to remember the story of francis and realize that before any of that can be healed we have got to do spiritual warfare in our prayer you know what what an excellent excellent story you told us and what an excellent example uh i think of of what it is that we need to do as you so rightly state at this moment uh you know and the passage that comes into my mind when you talk about this polarization paul is that passage from sacred scripture where you know a house divided against itself cannot stand right and and so the enemy always tries to divide you know divide and conquer is another is another maxim right so the the um the idea is that he tries to polarize us and and we're all too willing and he does it through our own weakness and this is what we have to understand you know how how is it that he gains this control over us well he really gains this control over us uh by enticing us towards the the the seven capital sins you know pride lust you know agreed agree a lust for power uh greed you know a a desire for control exactly yes and anger especially in this case yeah yeah absolutely you know and then that's what sets us apart well friends listen i'm sure you have you want to weigh in we want to talk with you some more about this very topic and about our upcoming lenten retreat i'm inviting you to join us if you are you know benefiting by what you're hearing today on radio know that that's going to be there for you too at this lenten retreat uh all of the information is there online for you at womenofgrace.com you can register there it's march 27th it's saturday it's a one-day event we want to hear from you today so here's the number toll free for you it's 833 288 e wtn call with your questions coming right back to you after our break enrich your lenten experience with resources from ewtn visit ewtn.com lent for all you need to know ewtn bringing you closer to christ during this lenten season to ask why should i pray is the same as asking why should i raise my mind and heart to god since that's what prayer is but when stated like that it's pretty obvious we need to pray because god is he to whom our minds and hearts are ultimately directed union with him is our ultimate destiny without prayer we lose our direction to god as our ultimate end and thus set ourselves on a path that leads back into the slavery of sin 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 care for the elderly heavenly father we love you who have created us out of love in your scriptures you teach us that kindness to the elderly is not forgotten by you we pray for those who work caring for the elderly and for those who now care for an elderly father or mother give them generous hearts lessen their burdens and reward them with joy and blessings for charity is the one thing we will take with us to eternity amen hi this is sci kellet later today on catholic answers live the ever popular trent horn and it's an open forum catholic cancer is live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to women of grace transforming the world one woman at a time let's return to women of grace with johnette williams well welcome back everybody it's so good to be with you today and we are so delighted that dr paul thigpen is our guest today he will be one of the presenters at our upcoming uh online lenten retreat that's taking place march 27th it begins at 9 30 in the morning the entire schedule is there for you it's going to be a beautiful saturday in the lord we've got great speakers one of whom is dr paul thigpen all of the talk titles are listed for you there and who's presenting on what the theme is man of sorrows lord of joy of course that's a reference to our lord jesus christ in addition to all of that we will have a healing rosary in the evening and i'm telling you we've seen signs and wonders through those healing rosaries so if you're in need of of you know some serious prayer i can assure you that that prayer will be coming to you through the evening there we will have virtual adoration of the blessed sacrament uh beautiful day in the lord we've put on several of these in the past and people have just been so delighted with the experience and the way in which they received special little graces from the lord many many blessings for the course of the day uh we're talking here today with dr paul thigpen about some of what he'll be sharing with us about but we're talking also about spiritual warfare and this is pinging if you will off of the great manual that he's given to us manual for spiritual warfare that's available for you at ewtn's religious catalogue along with another book that is out there available for you saints who battled satan and dr paul thigpen just gave us some insight on one of the stories that he relates to that book and what what it is that we can learn as a result of that we're inviting you to give us a call we are here for you how are you seeing spiritual attack taking place within your own life uh we'll talk about it here uh when you call and when you get it up there on ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page let me give you those numbers again toll free for you right here in north america is this number 833 288 e wtn that's 833 288 3986 ryan penny is there for you pick up the phone give us a call don't be shy just give it a try we look forward to hearing from you in addition to that we are available for you outside of north america country code one two zero five one ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page also available for you and uh here's a very nice comment for you paul from mary ann she's with us on youtube she says i did a bible study with dr paul and father kirby on saint luke it was wonderful and beautiful thank you dr paul so thank you marianne for that beautiful statement that you've made about this time that you spent with paul thigpen and father kirby which father kirby was that paul uh jeffrey kirby who's uh the diocese of charleston and uh tam can book saint benedict press uh published a video series on the gospel of luke and then then we did another one as well in the biblical names of jesus so i love you we work together he's delightful he's really delightful well i am so glad that's wonderful we've had him on our show i thought it might be him but i wasn't really sure uh so thank you marianne for that comment and and once again it just goes to show what a great teacher our guest is today dr paul thigpen and we're looking forward to his words of wisdom for us on march 27th he'll be giving us our talk on it is finished one of the seven last words of our lord but the title of the talk is is finished uh the new beginning and we're very very excited about that eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six just pick up the phone and give us a call you know paul we were talking on the break there about the fact that this polarization and this attempt to divide takes place on a national scale uh but in in many that's the macro the the micro is this is what the evil one tries to do within our own families and unfortunately sometimes we play right into his hand we do it's uh you know we care so deeply about those closest to us and our families and so the passions are understandably high sometimes and we disagree about something especially we're talking about with um with adult children but also of course with spouses and if you disagree about something it it's so easy for the enemy to kind of prod you a little bit beyond just a disagreement or even annoy it since it's something much much more serious and also also things like failures are forgive the enemy's really big on that if he can keep uh bringing to your mind or reminding you of the things that your family member does that annoys you or that you're concerned about uh if we're not aware that those thoughts come from the enemy and that he depresses them in order to to press up you know he can't make us hit but to press up that direction to give us the temptation then it's so easy just to slide into attitudes within the family that will divide it there's no question about that and you know you bring up this business about you know if we if we keep uh thinking of all of the negatives you know that our family member has done we keep harping on all of the things that they do wrong it's interesting the the science that they're doing right now and the plasticity of the brain and there is this whole uh area out there that talks about rumination and i don't mean you know okay so you look at your past and you say you know this was regrettable uh and i'm sorry that i did this you know how how can i what what lessons can i learn from this so i don't do it again it's not there's nothing the matter with looking at the past but there is something the matter when we're living in the past and there is something the matter when we are ruminating on all of the misery of the past and what they tell us is that it actually begins to make a new neural pathway where our thought processes will logically go down so if all we're doing is thinking about all of the negative that a family member does or our husband does or our children might do or or the misery of our work situation or what this person if we're we're only looking at those things pretty soon that becomes a part of the way in which we see the world and and it's a miserable place and and we put ourselves into a type of bondage that the evil one wants us to be in based on those negative things that have happened in the past that that's remarkable to me yes i you know i love to the image i like to use uh when i was a young person growing up in savannah out on one of the islands we we lived on a it's called suncrest boulevard but it was a little dirt road it's kind of a funny name and uh and when you would drive on the road they you know they didn't always grade it as soon as they should and it would develop ruts and uh and one of the things i learned about ruts is that when you're when you get bad ruts on a road and you're trying to drive the road uh if you want to go the way the ruts are going that's great you know but if you don't want to go the way the cirgo that's bad because russ will pull you in and so every time you keep going down the same place again and again and again you build basically a rut in the soul and that's true with thoughts that's true with good or bad habits places and virtues you build a rut and so uh so if it's a good habit or a good thought that's great you could you can hit that rut it will pull you right in there and it just you know uh breezes the the slide so to speak right into the good place but if on the other hand it's bad thoughts it's negative thoughts it's you know simple thoughts then it'll do the same thing you'll kind of fly in that and you have to work heroically almost to stay outside of the rut and i think that you know it's like that for our soul we have ruts in our soul we build ruts in our soul by the way we keep thinking about certain things and returning to them or by our good or bad habits yeah absolutely a33288 ewtn is the way to call us we have one phone line open which means the other ones are all being used right now we'll let you know as they become available but let's get out here appall to elizabeth she is somewhere in new hampshire listening to us via youtube first time caller welcome welcome elizabeth we're happy that you're with us today so what is your question or comment uh yes i have a question um did the angels really carry the house of loretto to italy because i am currently in a class of saying consecration to saint joseph and we have read the chapter on the house and the instructor kind of rebuked what don callaway is saying saying that based on an article from catholic news agency that they are saying that this was actually false and that it was carried by a family from jerusalem or nazareth to um to italy by boat now i rebuked that and i said that cannot be the boat would have to sink and also i also said that you know the house was in croatia and i was backed by other in the class and it was just totally dismissed so i feel like i'm being attacked um you know in my own class and i don't know if i want to continue um because it's not the first time things in that class have said that guests don't ring right um and that was just one that needs to be you know corrected is it really you know cna telling the truth they say they have backup information documents on the vatican or you know people are just looking for a way to again create scandal in the church we already have enough of it well the interesting question that you asked us today and i'm going to pass this by you paul well you know it's uh it's one of those things certainly the church has not made a definitive statement on that it's an ancient tradition um i it's always sad to me when people spend their time trying to um you know to cast down on traditions it's uh if it was taken by a boat i'm sure the angels had something to do with that but you know for me i'm not gonna let something let that bother me it's uh i just trust that to the lord and learn what i can from it um i don't know that it's it's worth arguing about but if it you know it feels to you like you're you know it's kind of undermining your faith i just encourage you to make sure your faith is in the lord and what the this church definitely teaches and um but if it continues to feel like it's uh you know undermining your faith in some way then then you might be better you know in a different group yeah now i think that's very good advice and i'll say this elizabeth you know uh with with many of these remarkable realities that have happened there have been stories that that have grown up around them uh and and they've become legends now it doesn't mean that a legend doesn't have truth in it but it does mean that sometimes it's embroidered and fabricated to some extent in this situation we really don't know how it is and it very well could be that a family did move it there but even if they did move it there you know uh in a certain sense you know they they they were angels in in the sense of of bringing it there uh participating in some of those beautiful angelic qualities of angels so i i don't it's this is not a matter of dogma right this is not one of those things that we must believe in order for our faith to remain intact uh you know any of these things uh that that involve uh extraordinary events uh in the life of the church that are like this we can look at and say okay so you know i i just praise and thank god that we have this opportunity to see this beautiful home that that our blessed lady lived in and that you know this obviously is is a a type of of uh relic in a sense right that can draw me deeper into the faith so now if if in this class they start to challenge truths of the faith that we're told to believe like the perpetual virginity of our lady or you know the the assumption of our blessed lady or anything that we pronounce in the creed and profess in the creed you know uh or that jesus is really truly present the blessed sacrament that's a whole other matter but when it comes to private revelation and some of these other uh situations you know i i think that they're i i don't think that it's something that really should dissuade you so let us uh let us just say that and and we'll leave it there and thank you for your call and how beautiful that you want to be consecrated to saint joseph i think that this is a beautiful devotional practice that uh is is not something new uh but but is being renewed in our day and time and for very good reason because as we know paul st joseph one of his titles is terror of demons yes it is and i've used that title many times been calling them many times and again we think of them as you know a very kind and gracious man faithful and all those things and yet the church understands that in order to be the um in order to care if there would be the guardian of of mary's son and the son of god he he had to be a warrior he had to be a fighter he had all kinds of situations i have a chapter on him in in that saint to battle satan a lot of this kind of speculation on my part but just drawing from the fact that of the things he had to do in order to protect um the holy family and then now as protector of the church universal church you can only imagine the battles he has to fight but he is the terror of demons amen to that one we have josephine with us she is in louisiana she is joining us via catholic community radio good morning josephine how are you all right thank you good so share with us what's going on well my concern is that i've had a a long time issue with harassment of evil i don't know what other label to give them and i'm i'm a practicing catholic have been all my life and uh church is very close to me and i have been a faithful catholic all my life i have tried to stay within the church for seeking help and not go to any other protestant churches or whatever for help but um i have had a problem with trying to find the priest who couldn't help me i have had my house blessed uh many times and and cleaned with a group of sensitives that have come out with different priests and removed things that were questionable from the house and such and so i have had that level of assistance that i call i guess spiritual warfare and and and priests your work with deliverance i i am using words as best i know them i certainly am not proficient in spiritual warfare so you know guide me if i'm getting into language that is inappropriate all i know is to call it deliverance work rather than there i don't think there's possession so i'm not you know not not going there but they were doing deliverance work sure so let me let me just ask a question josephine so that dr paul thigpen and i get a better sense of what you're talking about here when you say harassment what are you experiencing i mean is it like poltergei porter geist activity where things are moving around in the house or is it uh you know you just feel attacked by neighbors i'll give you the thing i'll give you the things okay uh being awakened at night to the sensation of claws scratching my head to the point where i expect blood and such and being shoved out of the bed um yes i have had encounters uh some of this is delicate so i i'm if i seem evasive with what i'm saying well that's fine i think that that's okay you don't have to give us any more examples i think that that's a pretty good one and paul how do we respond to things like this i mean we we do know that many of the saints suffered like this and god permitted that suffering for a greater good but you know this is unusual activity so what do we think about this uh you know the first thing i think about is that uh that even apart from an exorcist that you know from the special authority of an exorcist that every priesthood he recognizes it has the authority to do what are called minor exorcisms and prayers to pray against this kind of thing so i don't know whether any of the priests you've talked to is actually a manual of those prayers has has done that was just kind of deliverance prayer over the actual minor prayers of minor exorcism if they haven't done that then i would encourage you to find a priest who's aware of what i'm talking about um and is willing to to pray those prayers of minor exorcism if um if you if that's done has been done or is being done and you're still having uh some of that i mean it is true that you have some folks like saint john vianney and some others who think gemma gilgardian some others who had some of those things the lord allowed us over a period of time in order to sanctify them and to to to make them great spiritual warriors but i wouldn't want you to kind of settle for that real quickly if um if these things are continuing to go on um do you have you have you made contact with someone who is actually designated by the church as an exorcist yes okay and all right so um where is that process with you right now josephine you know are they talking with you about this and no it is it is stalemated it is very much stalemated i saw this priest and he uh he prayed with me and he did have one prayer gathering that was he didn't use the term minor exorcism but there were prayers of deliverance there with a group and a team and uh i i don't mean to be in any way rude but i was promised the opportunity that i would be seeing this priest more and to expect you know a call and i'll be waiting by the phone that day no call ever came this happened many times overworked and overlooked i guess i don't know the situation and i i realized that our relationship wasn't working very well for my needs and thank god one of the parish priests in baton rouge had been close and and helpful for many years i saw many years ago and he said right away i am not an exorcist but we will pray together and you are not losing your mind and that was the best news of all is to have someone who said you know i have seen xyz and he gave me examples and he listened to some of the examples and there are multitudinous such as out-of-body experiences and things in the house being damaged and torn up with etc so this priest for many years i saw him regularly as a spiritual director but i i never reached someone that i could sit and talk and hear about how common are my experiences with other catholics yeah i think probably the best thing for you to do josephine see what you think about this paul uh would be once again to try to get in touch with the diocese because uh it doesn't mean that you know sometimes the dioceses change uh exorcists from time to time and it may be that that you know there might be another opportunity there um it's a very serious situation there josephine and i would try to get back in touch with uh that priest that uh had helped you in the past what do you think paul yes i would i would try again and uh and just be as honest as you can with the whatever questions they would ask you um you know listen carefully to what what they might say um but but i i wouldn't i wouldn't give up i wouldn't give up at this point i would keep battling and keep uh taking that help here yeah so think of think of the woman in the gospel you know who kept knocking on the door and uh and jesus used as an example of keep knocking and the door will be open to you absolutely thank you josephine for your call and we'll be talking you into our rosary uh let's go to rosa she's in louisville kentucky i think that this is going to be our last opportunity today she's with us would be a station of the cross first time caller we've just got about 90 seconds left rosa so i'm going to ask you to make it short and sweet so we have uh dr paul can respond to you oh gosh yes okay so um for those of us and all the patients i've ever had who have severe trauma um and we talk about rumination oftentimes it it begins before people even wake up or begin from a weird trigger like a smell or whatever and oftentimes the sensation and the experiences i didn't even know i was ruminating until you know i must hit their way into the the um the experience so right how for very severe cases how do we deal with this well you know i i think i think therapy is is one way that we deal with it and i think the other way that we deal with that is as soon as they get it i think that they begin to change direction i always recommend the rosary um so we're going to leave it with that you can call us back tomorrow if you'd like it's been great having you with us paul everybody listen sign up for this beautiful online retreat it is march the 27th all the info at womenofgrace.com dr paul thigpen thank you so much god bless you all now bye-bye [Music] with all that

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: AoI6tf8YHkQ

Length: 53min 55sec (3235 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021