Women of Grace - September 11, 2020 - Johnnette Williams

certified for more news from a catholic perspective visit ewtnnews.com women of grace with johnnette williams starts now this is women of grace live discussing issues 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 johnnette williams i am delighted to be with you today i certainly am looking forward to hearing from you that's for sure always enjoy hearing from you right here on women of grace live let me give you the number to use we've got ryan penny on the telephone today he's going to answer your calls he's going to screen him and get him up on the board for me and i just know he's very eager to hear those phones ringing not as eager as i but maybe maybe close so let me give you that toll-free number for you right here in north america it's 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 also reminding you that we're available to you out there in social media land and jeff berson who is our producer and social media manager he'll go out there and retrieve your questions and comments that you leave for us in the chat feature at both of those locations so use that chat feature to get your questions comments insights inspirations words of encouragement up there and i'll tell you what we'll take it and we'll get it on the air also love to take your prayer requests pray with you on the air and we receive them as well through email women of grace at ewtn.com that's women of grace all one word plural on the women women of grace at ewtn.com is the way in which you can email us your prayer requests or any questions that you might have on any number of issues do put however in the subject line prayer request if in fact that is what it is so that jeff as i tell you can segment them properly and we can get them uh you know on the air as soon as we possibly can so that we can pray with you i know that so many of those needs are uh urgent needs and we certainly want to respond to that as quickly as we can so that helps us in our process here also too we take your questions for wacky wednesdays and for monthly marriage monday uh with my spouse my husband uh jack williams and we do that the first monday of every month so just some of the little things that we do here who knows we just kind of move where the holy spirit is leading us and i hope that that's the case for all of us today that we're always moving under the inspiration and the guidance of the holy spirit we make great progress that way i've probably shared that little story with you before but i'll share it again just speaking about the progress that we make when we flow in the current of the holy spirit uh one day i was at a red light and i looked out the window and there were all of these seagulls and these seagulls were just flying in the air and it was beautiful it was really very beautiful just to watch them and you know i think birds are fascinating and uh you know so graceful you know so i was observing these uh these flying birds as i was sitting at the red light there and um you know i said to the lord you know they are so graceful lord they're so beautiful thank you for letting me see them this morning and the lord said i felt that he was telling me way down deep in the bottom of my heart where saint francis de sale says we hear the voice of god uh i i felt like he was saying to me jenna what do you think would happen if one of those seagulls turned around and tried to flow in the opposite direction well it was clear to me that they were riding the air current because they weren't flapping their wings they were just gliding and i said lord that wouldn't be good they would be going you know against the direction of the wind and i said they would be flapping their wings and we would see feathers flying and those little birds would make no progress the push of the current against them would hold them in place they'd never make any progress and then then i sensed him saying to me so to it must be for you he said flow in the current of my spirit and much progress will be accomplished and you know and is that the case oftentimes you know we get so strong-willed about things and and we we just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and there is no forward advancement and we cannot figure out why and the why of it is that you know the lord is leading us in a different way and if we would just turn around and flow with the spirit we would make great progress and we would find happiness and joy we certainly wouldn't be frustrated we wouldn't be impatient you know we wouldn't be experiencing the sufferings that we're causing for ourself so i don't know what's going on in your world today i don't know which direction you're trying to go in and you're getting this pushback uh you know there is there is some resistance if if that we can experience as a result of moving forward in the direction of the lord so sometimes we have to discern okay so is this this resistance that i'm feeling coming from uh you know those powers and principalities that would prevent me from doing god's will or you know am i just so attached to what i want to do that i'm not moving in accordance with god's will and generally speaking we know that we know it on a very deep level we know when we're pushing forward in our will versus moving in the direction of god's will we really do know that and and when we hit that resistance you know that comes from striving to do god's will you know then then we can say wait this is god's will i discern this i know this is the direction he's leading me in this is spiritual warfare i simply have to suit up and i just have to persevere and i've got to grow in these virtues they're going to lead me to the next step but i am not going to give up that's very different from moving in our own direction and trying to push push push push push push push you know when we try too hard you know sometimes we're just playing trying too hard you know and when you find yourself just trying too hard to move your will along you can be pretty certain that it's not the direction that the lord's leading you in so just some words to contemplate some words to think about as we move forward in our program today maybe you'd like to share a story from your own life where you know you are pushing and pushing and pushing for your will but the lord had something else in mind and as soon as you made this about face and started to go in his direction wow the breath of the holy spirit was on you pushing you forward you were making great progress much was being accomplished and there was great relief ah a great relief so uh give us a call tell us about your story 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288-3986 we are here for you got really exciting news for you i have all kinds of news for you today really exciting news for you uh you know our television program has been moved from 11 a.m eastern time to 1 p.m eastern time which makes me giddy because i am no longer my own competition in that hour so it makes sense to me we're excited about the new time slot and uh we're gonna be having a live show every friday and today is friday so we're having a live show it's going to air at 1 pm eastern our guest is dr bill donohue and i am thrilled about having dr bill donohue with us on the air today he is the president of the catholic league for religious and civil rights it's a very important organization uh does great work uh at at keeping uh the the public square to the extent that it's able you know uh in in a position whereby our rights as catholics our rights as christians are not denigrated and are not marginalized or sidelined and today that work is outrageously important we're going to be talking about catholics culture and crisis a world in turmoil that's the theme catholics culture and crisis a world in turmoil we're going to be talking about all of this in light of the upcoming election we're also going to be talking about the catholic vote listen i just got to tell you this is a very important election cycle and we need to be as well informed as we possibly can and so i am asking you to watch the program today to see what dr donahue has to share with us and you're going to have an opportunity to weigh in too because the second half of the program we accept your phone calls so we will be there for you and you can talk to him yourself and and you can talk to me and we'll try to sort it all out together as we come together at 1 pm uh today eastern time for our women of grace television program catholics culture and crisis the world in turmoil our guest dr bill donohue looking forward to being with you there really looking forward to hearing from you right here though and right now 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 398 coming right to you after the break asking you to stay tuned pick up the phone make ryan penny happy and me too we'll be right back we should pray because prayer is conversation with god and conversation is the only way to build a relationship we need that relationship with god we should pray and talk with god about what's on our hearts what's on our minds what's active in our lives the joys we have we should share all of these with god prayer is conversation and conversation is the only way to build a relationship with god if it's the most important relationship all of our other relationships depend on this one i'm janette demello editor-in-chief of the national catholic register and co-host of register radio with matthew bunsen join us every week as we talk with the register's expert writers and editors about the news you need to know and offer authentic catholic insights on the important stories that impact your life register radio every saturday at 7 pm eastern and sunday at 11 a.m eastern here on ewtn global catholic radio 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the eighth commandment you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor at one level the reputation a person has is one of their most precious gifts and to intentionally harm the good reputation of someone is a very grave matter we can do this often through detraction by disclosing others faults without a valid reason or callumly just outright lying about other people likewise through rash judgment this commandment also protects the truth which is another very very great good to lie is to speak something that we know is false with the intention of deceiving others we ought to be dedicated to the truth it is the truth that sets people free while errors and lies entrap people in many difficult and often sinful situation the lord asks us to give witness to the truth of the gospel this commandment therefore asks us to stay dedicated to the truth and to other people's reputation the eighth commandment you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com encouraging women in their gift of authentic femininity here's more women of grace with john ed williams well welcome back everybody hope you enjoyed that little bit of a respite between the first segment and this second segment of our program today looking forward to hearing from you phone lines lighting up nicely oh i just know ryan is so happy and you know i'm happy because you can hear the smile in my voice in the glee in my expression so do give us a call here 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 i think that we'll go straight to the phone lines now so that we can be sure to get to everybody today and you know as one line opens up you know then that's an opportunity for you so if you call in and you can't get on the air just keep trying 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 toll-free for you right here in north america do want to remind you we're available to you out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page the chat feature is there for you and we will take your questions as well let's go to carol she's in boston massachusetts station of the cross is the way she's listening to us hi carol how are you good morning jarnett i first want to say i love your television show and i'm watching it every day oh thank you so much and oh it's wonderful it's wonderful um so i called you the day after mother's day and i was very very sad um because of the place that my daughter and i were in at the time you suggested that i let go of anger and that i praised the mother of not the novena if not which i did well if there's anybody that um doubts the power of prayer i'm here to say they're wrong um not only are we in a very very good place um and we have been for a while now but something i never thought would happen for a long time is that she actually moved from the west coast back to the east coast oh my gosh so my hat yeah my heart is so full um she's still not exactly living the life i would like her to but you know what step by step that's right that's right baby steps these incremental movements are great but baby steps nothing i never expected such a huge leap and um i just never expected what would come of my praying oh my goodness yeah well thank our lady i mean she she is the effector of that right i mean her maternal i love our lady i do too i do too and you know that novena prayer is so effective it just is and so i want to encourage everyone you're listening to carol's testimony and i just have to tell you carol i love these praise reports so thank you very much for sharing this good news with us and and so carol's testimony right i should give you encouragement if you're going through something that just doesn't seem to be reconcilable at all pray that novena to our lady undoer of knots it incorporates the rosary and we know that the rosary is absolutely crazy powerful and so i i do want to encourage you to move forward carol this is such good news i'm so excited for you i'm so happy well i i really i wanted to share this with you because you just gave me such a lifeline and i try to pray the rosary as much as you know i i probably i can't say i do it every day which i should but i love the rosary and um i just love our lady she's just been so wonderful well thank you so much i i just like to funnel people towards our blessed mother you know because she always funnels us towards her son she never detracts from him uh but you know we that that maternal be attitude is just so beautiful and i'm glad you're experiencing that we'll continue to keep your intentions in our heart too i'll tuck them into the rosary that the next step happens now right so oh congratulations to you i'll be watching you on tv oh thanks yeah i'm excited about the program today as i mentioned uh i haven't had dr bill donahue on for glory be many many years uh he's a hard man you know he's a hard man to get in touch with because and a book because he's so much in demand but he was open and available and i i just know that's the holy spirit because this topic is so very important for us today so do watch and uh you know if a question pops into your mind we're going to be available to you in that second half hour so give us a call okay well god bless you johnette i really appreciate everything you do oh thanks carol god bless you too keep praying for us see isn't that nice don't you just love to hear these praise reports i mean they do edify us don't they they just lift us up they keep us going i mean maybe you're having a really hard time in prayer right now you've been praying for something it just doesn't seem that the answer is coming just persevere just persevere what god did for carol he will do for you because he's no respecter of persons meaning that he doesn't treat one better than the other he treats us all with with immeasurable love we've got diana with us you can be with us too phone lines available for you right now eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six give us a call hey diana you're in tampa florida yes how are you i'm doing very well thank you those are kind of my stomping grounds you know i spent um over 40 some years there in pinellas county as my permanent residence yeah so just just across the bay it's not that far then no no no no no so tell me what's going on did you come to tampa so i think i can see you one of your one of your retreats and stuff you know well we would love for you to do that and let me just say this since you since you just mentioned that i am going to be at our lady of divine providence house of prayer october 3rd for a day of recollection so i'm going to be in your area all you have to do is just you know pop onto that courtney campbell causeway and get yourself over there i think it is the first you know you got the bayside bridge there which i don't you don't want to turn on to but it's really like the first uh left on the mainland there that you can take it's it's uh uh bayside bayside boulevard i think bayview it's bayview bayview boulevard right there yeah bayview you know where it is it's just a beautiful beautiful place beautiful grounds so i'm going to be there october 3rd offering a day of recollection so please join us there and any of you listening from that area or anywhere in the state of florida it's a lovely drive across the state if you're on the east coast or uh you know to come a little south or a little north to join us right there um at our lady of divine providence house of prayer october 3rd it's likely to fill up very quickly and seating is is um you know there's there's room for i i don't know 300 and some people but it should fill up so we invite you to join us diana i will i will try of course thank you so what's going on in diana's world there in in the sunshine state yeah so i was i was calling you because you mentioned about how you know you know when you want to do something and you don't know if it's god's telling you or if the other side is telling you and then maybe that could be a bad thing too so what i've been thinking for years is um changing my my career where i work um it's very simple and they're very flexible and i like it for the reason but the work indeed i i've been wanting to change it for years because it's not something that motivates me okay um but i'm being grateful to that i gave it to me so i have a child with disabilities which needs a lot of attention this job allows me to do that and i have my mom helping me with him during the day but then i was thinking well can i do something else that i can do spend more time with him maybe work at home or um do have some ability where i can learn something new and so i've i've been researching on things that i was learning to do um especially for example decision how to do publicity online like marketing online and market businesses i'm helping a friend of mine and in the process i'm learning too but then i'm spending all this money on learning and getting more in depth and i'm like i don't know if this is right and then i get anguish and then i'm thinking and then i have people telling me you should do this you should do that you should go for this and i'm like oh my god i just this is not uh it's confusing and so i always put it in prayer and but i just i let it go for a while like i let it go for a whole year i was trying to do something else last year and i didn't do it because i just i wasn't i was tired um and then i was like i don't think at the moment but i'm always feeling that way and i said well if that's enough right over me you know so i'm always going yeah so let me ask you this diana have you i mean have you landed on a decision yet or are you still in this discerning process kind of discerning but making a choice so right now i'm making a choice of learning how to do marketing for example so that i can learn something new that i can do from home yeah and then if i get good at it maybe i can do careers from it maybe i can pursue on certifications and anything that i can learn online right well and let's talk about that for just a moment i i think that that's a very good thing for you to do for two reasons first of all i'm a big proponent of education i don't think that we should ever consider ourselves so brilliant and so bright and so skilled that we don't continue to learn especially when it comes to the things of the lord and trying to um live a life in union with his son our lord jesus christ right so i'm a big proponent of education i don't think that it ever hurts us you know spiritually or uh you know from a secular perspective to pick up new skills to to understand more things uh to pursue new avenues of possibility for ourselves uh unless those things are immoral or illegal or in opposition to the revealed truth of sacred scripture and the teachings of the church there are there are many things that are morally neutral so you seeking to learn more about marketing maybe to take a class here there about marketing to learn how to use some software that uh you know is is marketing software i i see no problem with that and whether or not that ever turns into a career or not you're going to benefit by what it is that you have learned just an illustration from my own life you know i i graduated with a bachelor of science degree in education from penn state university taught school for seven years then i became an insurance agent uh in the state of florida i got my 220 license and my 218 license i was you know life and and uh health and and property and casualty agent did that for seven years and i've been in catholic evangelization now uh for you know well since 1981. so the fact of the matter is uh you know just because we learn these skills uh and and we don't apply them in the specific area doesn't mean that they haven't accrued to some value in our lives and you know when i plan my uh television programs for example you know i go back to what i did when i taught school you know i kind of come up uh it's second nature to me at this point i come up with a type of lesson plan what do i want the people to walk away from how do i get them there what do i ask the guests to achieve that goal you know always leaving room for the holy spirit to to move in in different directions so all of those skills that we learn accrue to something so i think that that's a good thing but i want to give you uh and and maybe this is going to be valuable to uh to you listening as well to what i'm going to share now with diana i'm going to give you a really good way uh to begin this process of discernment and i give credit to father mitch pacqua who entrusted this ignatian exercise to me when i had to make a serious decision uh and it was it was a monumental decision it was going to change you know the course of of of the way in which uh my the ministry was going to go and and i said to him i just don't really know what to do i'm on the horns of a dilemma i don't know which way to go he said well this is what you do johnette and and this is how he advised me he said first of all do you know what we used to call in the secular world of ben franklin you list your pros and you list your cons but that comes from saint ignatius of loyola just in the natural list all of the pros in making this decision and all of the cons and that doesn't just apply to you know the the the obvious things you know how is this going to affect my income you know how is i you know you know i what is the distance to drive but it it incorporates into it um those other things too that that have that have real uh importance in our lives that should be primarily important like how will this affect my family is this going to be something that's good for my marriage is it going to call me away from them too much how many hours is this going to involve outside of my home life and then we also evaluated according to our emotional realities you know um do i think that i'd be happy in this position or uh do i think that this is frustrating am i stretching myself enough in this new position or am i stretching myself too much you know so we we we look at that as well so we we we do all of our pros and cons according to all of these aspects of of our personhood and all of our duties and responsibilities by virtue of our vocation and our state in life um we should have an answer at the end of that if we don't have an answer then we do the next thing and the next thing is and and this is this is really this was really the clincher for me you picture yourself and you know you just sit back relaxed right you use the gift of your imagination and you picture yourself in the position that you're considering or in the decision that you are making and you pay very close attention to rises uh what rises up inside of you in your soul you know our emotions are are are part of the the makeup of our soul so you pay attention to those emotions do i feel peace do i feel joy do i feel a certain exhilaration of spirit um do i do i feel an excitement uh do i feel uh you know a sense of joy um does this pull for me um a desire to move forward we look at all of that if all of those emotions are are are are uh leading towards a positive a plus sign then we can think that maybe god's calling us there now if on the other hand you know we begin to feel a certain dread um you know a certain restriction in our heart we begin to feel a certain uh anxiety um fear not the fear you know you know the anticipatory if you're oh my goodness this is a big big change kind of a thing you know not that kind of of you know oh my my life is about to change kind of a thing that is natural to the human condition but i mean like a dread i use that word that's a very good word a dread if if if we begin to feel uh inhibited if we begin to feel um ill at ease if we begin to feel depression rather than joy well no then that's not the direction the lord's leading us in because god chose us and him before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight to be full of love so love communicates joy communicates peace communicates hope communicates excitement and exhilaration it does not communicate dread it does not communicate fear it does not communicate hopelessness it doesn't communicate lack of trust so that'll help us and when i was doing these exercises according to that i can tell you diana i knew my decision right then but father mitch said if that doesn't do it for you still then you go to the third you go to the third test if you will and the third one is picture yourself before the throne of god at the moment of your particular judgment and the lord says to you diana let's make an account of your life you know i offered you this opportunity to to take some courses in marketing i wanted you to move in this direction but you didn't do it you didn't do it because you thought it was too much you thought it was too fearful you thought it was going to cost too much money you just plain didn't do it tell me why did you make that decision and then you have to account for it well i was fearful i was this i didn't trust you uh all of those things if you think that at that moment a particular judgment you you're gonna have a hard time explaining you know you have a hard time explaining lucy why you went the direction you went then you know that this isn't the direction the lord would take you to so all of that i hope helps for you diana you know to to to look at this through semi-objective eyes right but as i say and as i prefaced it's always good to learn it's just a question of okay so now do i leave my job and and pursue this the course of action exclusively and and that's the decision that you have to make and that's where i think those rules of discernment will help you and i hope this has been beneficial for you and i hope it's been beneficial for a whole lot of you out there give us a call 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 it's the way you can join us right here looking forward to being with you on the other side of the break stay tuned al cresta the secular press just doesn't get our story they don't even understand it and so it's incumbent upon us to get the story straight and get the story out the leading catholic voices are on ewtn radio hi everyone this is an ewtn bookmark brief i'm doug keck your host just had the pleasure speaking with fiorella nash from waltzingham in england about the abolition of woman how radical feminism is betraying women published by ignatius press it's available of course through the ewtn religious catalogue ewtnrc.com all things catholic fiorella why did you write this book and why is it an important book for people to read so i wrote the book for two reasons firstly to challenge contemporary feminism to challenge their obsession with abortion and to put forward the message that abortion is exploitative to women it's not a tool of women's empowerment but also to put the case for pro-life feminism and hopefully to get more women involved in pro-life feminism in the future the abolition of woman how radical feminism is betraying women ewtn's religious catalog selling ewtnrc.com the place for all things catholic thank you so much for joining us we'll see you next time ewtn's cathedrals across america and the diocese of cleveland ohio invite you to a celebration of apostolic succession as they welcome their new apostle and shepherd the most reverent edward c malesic from the cathedral of saint john the evangelist the mass of installation of the most reverend edward c malesic as the 12th bishop of the diocese of cleveland monday at 2 p.m eastern on ewtn television and ewtn radio essentials i'm gloria parvis i'm on senior charles pope and i'm deacon harold the morning glory team asks can you vote to change god's law monday morning 7 eastern now back to women of grace with johnette williams transforming the world one woman at a time let's return to women of grace with johnette williams welcome back everybody you are listening to women of grace live i am john at williams very happy to be with you today looking forward to hearing from you 833 288 ewtn that's 833. 288-3986 that is the way that you can join us here live on women of grace live uh we're talking about all kinds of things today we're talking about pushing forward we're talking about discernment we're talking about going with the flow of the holy spirit and of course it is 9 11. and we certainly do want to commemorate this important day in the history of the united states of america and truly in the history of the world and once again we are reminded of all of those men and women who lost their lives on that fateful day and i think it would be good at this moment as we start the second segment or this uh third segment of our program to remember all of those uh who did lose their lives and beg for god's mercy for them and so it is father god that we come before you in this moment and we lift up to you all of those men and women who lost their lives uh on this day september 11th in the year 2001. father we know that in your mercy and in your kindness you receive every soul and you invite every soul to have faith in you father god we pray that whether these men or women were properly disposed toward meeting their final moment or not that in that moment before soul left body they had an opportunity for reconciliation with you we pray for your eternal mercy to be upon them lord god to open up the gates of heaven we pray for all of them who may still be suffering in the purifying fire of purgatory we ask lord god that the dross of of of of the uh of the years that they accumulated through decisions that were outside of your precious will outside of your laws and commandments i we pray that that would all be taken away lord mitigated we pray lord god that that you would receive each one of them into the arms of our lord where they might enjoy eternal life with you in heaven we offer this prayer to you in the name of our lord jesus christ by the merits of his cross through the power of the holy spirit and with the maternal beatitude and intercession of our lady amen 833 288 ewtn is the way that you can join us here on women of grace live that's 833-288-3986 also available for you out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel facebook page we've got some questions coming into us that way we're going to take those in a minute but first danielle's with us she is in donaldson iowa she's a first time caller i don't have my bell danielle but i'm gonna ding ding ding for you anyway to welcome you to the show how are you good how are you very well thanks for calling so what's going on in your life um i think i'm in a pickle um ten years ago i was baptized through not a catholic religion all right and i have eventually made my way into a marriage that has become very ungodly and uh very abusive and in july it hit me that i really want to be a catholic like i just need to be and at the same time i've also been wanting to have a divorce because of the abuse um and i don't know if i can become a catholic in this marriage or with a divorce okay well you know that that's that's a little bit of a pickle but it's not an unresolvable pickle so what i want to ask you next is have you spoken with a catholic priest about your desire to become a catholic i have not okay well i would encourage you to do that uh i would encourage you to do that because he will be able to advise you on this question in a way that is prudent and in within the guidelines of the church now let me ask you this a couple of other questions you say that you were baptized in a non-catholic religion okay so was were you baptized in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit yes okay so this was a protestant denomination i'm taking it yes okay it wasn't mormon religion or jehovah witness or anything like that right okay so here's the good news the good news is that the catholic church recognizes baptisms that are are in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit so if you come into the church you do not need to be rebaptized you will be welcomed into the church and that baptism is a valid baptism uh as long as they're you know it followed the popular the the proper formula but you would receive the other sacraments as you're coming into the church the sacrament of eucharist and the sacrament of confirmation so there's that now with regard to this marriage how did that marriage take place um courthouse okay so it was not officiated by a clergy person it was not okay so the catholic church would not consider that to be a sacramental marriage if you were a protestant and you were married in a protestant denomination the church would look at that as as a valid marriage in the sense of of of um a covenant in the eyes of god but what you entered into was really a civil contract not a covenantal relationship in the eyes of god so that that marriage in the eyes of the church would be a marriage that would be out of what we call canonical form uh i'm not i'm not a tribunal person i don't sit on the you know i i don't sit on the tribunal for a diocese you would want to check this out but it's my understanding that that marriage would not be considered to be a sacramental marriage and it probably is a marriage that because it didn't follow you know the form would be easily rectified so that wouldn't be something that would hold you back to the abuse in the marriage you know god does not want for us to be abused there is no question about that god does not want for us to be abused and you um you know you need to consider that in light of of your steps in this marriage if this abuse is something that's not resolvable you know um then then i think that you need to discuss with a priest uh what would be best for you so those are those are my thoughts on this danielle so i i think that obviously the holy spirit does not prompt us to come into the catholic church um without intending for us to receive the fullness of joy that god desires we receive so i would heed that prompting and and i think your next step is to go talk to a priest okay okay thank you so very very very much you're welcome so very very very much now are you in danger for your life i don't think so no all right okay just want to make sure all right okay sweetheart i'll tell you what i'll be doing for you i'll be praying for you i'm gonna tuck you into uh my rosary and one of the beautiful mysteries of our rosary uh in the luminous mysteries is the second one which is the marriage feast at cana so with regard to all of these difficulties and struggles that you're having you're having there and in light of your question to want to come into the church i'll be remembering you in that mystery okay thank you so much you're welcome honey god bless you now bye-bye bye bye-bye um yeah so uh you know all kinds of questions today and we're happy to answer them all right here for you on women of grace uh let me give you that number again it's 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 pick up the phone give us a call ryan is eager to hear from you and so am i we do as i mentioned to you have uh questions and comments coming in through youtube and facebook we invite you to get out to ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page and use the chat feature there you can see me if you go out there and you know i don't know if that matters or not to you but we can at least communicate that way too anna marie is with us she says my brother that had a fight scheduled a flight my brother bill had a flight scheduled on the first plane that hit the tower that morning that would be 9 11. he couldn't make the flight and had to reschedule thank you jesus for uh messing up his morning that that slow guy making you mad in traffic just might be saving your life you know what a beautiful thing uh anna marie when you can see the hand of god so profoundly and i remember at in the aftermath of 9 11 that many stories came forth from individuals who for one reason or another were not able to make those flights or were not able to go to work that day and their lives were spared so the question comes well then why didn't god just make it impossible for all of those people to get to work that day or for that whole flight to be canceled and you know that brings us to the whole issue of evil why does god permit evil and saint thomas aquinas answers that question for us and he says that god permits evil for one of two reasons one to prevent an even greater evil from happening or two to work a good that couldn't have come if that evil had not occurred and that's you know kind of presents us with concepts that can be difficult to get our minds around but when we look at it through the eyes of faith and we look at it from the vantage point of the knowledge that this god who's chosen us in time to have life also knows the moment when he's going to bring us home to him and uses the brokenness and the fallenness of the world sometimes to be the instrument that does so it helps us to see that everything works according to god's plan for your brother bill that clearly was not the time for all of those other individuals who for one reason or another were not able to make the flights for those individuals who for one reason or another were not able to get to work that day for all of those individuals who for one reason or another had an errand to run that took them out of the building you know and their lives were spared it was not their time it just wasn't their time god's mission for them still needed to be accomplished and maybe god looked and said no there's work to be done here more healing needs to be done more repentance needs to take place maybe my son or my daughter needs a wake-up call to see how it is that that their lives can be reshaped and refashioned by me we don't know but for those who lost their lives i think that it's helpful to consider the fact that god knew that that person might well have been the closest to him that that person would ever be in his or her life and he used that moment for the benefit of their eternal salvation we don't know but we do have hope and we do have faith and we do trust we trust in the ways of the lord he tells us his thoughts are not our thoughts and we certainly know that that's true we cannot comprehend we cannot comprehend his omniscience his omnipotence his omnipresence but we simply trust in it we do pray for the souls that were taken that day that's our job as the church militant to pray for those who have passed before us but we also pray in thanksgiving for the souls and the lives that were spared on that day praying that what it is that god had yet for them to accomplish would be accomplished in them and would be accomplished through them and would be accomplished by them and so i'm delighted you still have your brother bill um we mourn the loss of all of those who were not able to be there that day but you know it's interesting for us to consider the rest of that uh that rest of that message we don't know what it is you know that god is protecting us from when little mishaps happen in our day the first thing we do is get frustrated and irritated and upset and angry you know oh my goodness this is gonna make me late oh my goodness you know this is not a good thing oh my but you know god might be using that uh hold up you know uh or that uh wrong turn you know or the fact that the car doesn't start he might be using all of that all of that for a purpose greater than we know so i think it's always good to just in those moments just you know utter a word of gratitude to him a word of thanksgiving a word of praise father god you know i get it it just wasn't in my plan the car wouldn't start this morning it just wasn't and you know i had so many things planned and it's thrown me off my schedule all day long and you know but i am very grateful because i know that somewhere in this you are working out a great good and i praise you and i thank you for the good that you're working out even if it's just to make me grow and trust or to make me grow in patience lord that is a great good and you're offering me opportunity for it that is a much healthier way uh spiritually emotionally psychologically and physically to approach these things that are contradictory no matter how great no matter how small uh you know i'm not making light of anything here with regard to 9 11 but i'm just simply saying that you know when we look at the omniscience of god and know that he knows all things and he knows all things about all things and he's always involved in the history of man and involved in the history of each and every one of us not just you know the general sense of mankind but no in the life of every man in the life of every woman always seeking to work it to the good why my goodness we realize how great is his providence how great is his love for us so i would encourage us in those moments really to think a little bit of outside of the box outside of the box it takes a it takes a great deal of fortitude sometimes to think in those directions but the holy spirit is there to aid us and we always turn to our blessed lady who goes to her spouse the holy spirit and procures for us exactly the virtue that we need in that moment to make the best of that moment and to live in the grace of that moment 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 that is the way that you can join us live here on women of grace live where we do love having that holy conversation with you i was sharing with you some of the things you know that are going on at women of grace i was telling you about our television program uh that was moved to 1 pm eastern time reminding you again every friday is going to be a live show and we our guest today at 1 p.m eastern time is dr bill donahue of the catholic league catholics culture and crisis a world in turmoil we'll be taking a look at september 11th and in light of that looking at where we are right now especially as we come close uh to the day of of our national elections which happens in november uh we want for you to join us there every friday but monday through to uh monday through thursday as well in our new time slot so i want you to know that also too in light of uh these uh dear souls um who were taken to heaven on 9 11 in 2001 uh we we are very much reminded of the efficacy of a holy sacrifice of the mass being offered for them and we're trying to make it easy for you uh to have a mass prayed for a deceased loved one or for a special need or for a special intention or for yourself uh susan tisoni whom i call the purgatory lady susan desoni says that she is always having masses stored up for herself because we need to do that we all need the prayer of a mass so right there on our homepage at womenofgrace.com we have a spot there that you can click on it says need a mass you click on that and you will be able to uh have gregorian masses prayed for your deceased loved one there's an explanation of the gregorian masses there as well as individual masses too so there's single masses available for you and gregorian mass is available for you uh we're working with uh father uh ormond senior matthew odong who is the vicar general of the archdiocese of gulu in northern uganda and he is is working with us to have these masses prayed and said and offered for your intentions and it's a very beautiful ministry of women of grace that we have just embarked upon recently so we want to invite you to take advantage of that opportunity and i want you to see uh if you click the first slide show is about our program today click on the second slideshow we will get out to you a a a catholic voter's guide available for you there and i want to encourage you to sign up for our rosary crusade it's every wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m eastern time sign up for that we'll send you a link a pdf file of that voter's guide but you can also download it right there by clicking on it at our website at womenofgrace.com and we have a very very important benedict enrichment seminar that's coming up for you september 29th and 30th our presenter is kathleen beckman we are going to be talking about uh training up our family for the spiritual battle for the final battle very important topic kathleen is a marvelous presenter she knows this topic very very well she sits on the exorcism team for the diocese of orange in california she's been doing this for a number of years she is very very very knowledgeable when it comes to spiritual warfare and we need to become knowledgeable that we might pass this on to our family members and that we might then be trainer uppers you know formatters if you will for our families it's a very important important webinar that we're offering to you a benedict enrichment seminar i should say i want to also let you know that i know september 29th is the first debate presidential debate but you're going to be finished with this enrichment seminar on the 29th in time to watch that debate and it may give you eyes to see and ears to hear you know it just might uh be something that kind of sharpens sharpens your perceptive abilities as very important issues are discussed so i want to invite you to join us for this benedict enrichment seminar train up your family for the final battle also out there we do have the beautiful opportunity for you to see our upcoming events and i i mentioned to you that that we are going to be at um uh our lady of divine providence house of prayer in clearwater florida on october 3rd it's a day of recollection and the the theme is behold i make all things new and that comes from revelation chapter 21 verse 5 and and that is what we will be exploring together on this beautiful day of recollection that will be taking place at our lady of divine providence house of prayer inviting you to attend that event going to be there looking forward to it really am looking forward to it looking forward always to taking your questions as they come into us here we're down to the last two minutes so i don't know that we're going to have time to get to any questions at this point but i do thank you for always joining us and again i remind you about the change in our television program so what are we to do what are we to do on a day like today when we are commemorating very important events that have happened in the history of the country we need to pray right so i want to invite you to pray the rosary today to pray the rosary in a special way to pray the rosary obviously for all of those who lost their lives but to pray the rosary for our country to pray the rosary for those challenges that continue to beset us to pray the rosary that we might govern ourselves as the people of god in this nation according to the will and plan that god had in mind that our government officials and those that we elect would be purveyors of god's will in the culture that they would not try to fly against the prompting of the holy spirit against the commandments that god's given to us against the teachings of the church but rather that they would fly on that current of truth that has been entrusted to us through our church and through sacred scripture we need to pray for godly men and women to lead us who see the value of life who understand which issues are of key importance and which ones we can make prudential judgments about we need to be informed so that we can vote properly and vote rightly so i do want to encourage you take use of the opportunity that we give you to get that uh 2020 catholic voters guided our website take it into your time of prayer let the holy spirit move in you let the holy spirit move through you this is maybe one of the most important elections that we will face as a nation and from my perspective the soul of the nation the soul of the country is hanging uh in in the balance of the way in which it goes well there you have it it's another wrap for women of grace live today right here on catholic radio we invite you to join us next week looking forward to being with you all kinds of good things coming at you please pray for us we're praying for you and watch the program today at 1 pm right there on ewtn television with dr bill donahue our guest talking about important issues god bless you now bye-bye [Music] the tragedy of 9 11 is another year in the past let's talk about this next on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations call to communion through ewtn radio we talk to audiences all over the world one thing i've found out is everybody in the whole world has the same set of questions they live the same human life they all want meaning they all want love they all want significance they want forgiveness that's the most fascinating thing to me the same answers work wherever you are throughout the world because we're all children of god called to communion with dr david anders this afternoon to eastern on ewtn radio ewtn live truth live catholic

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,983

Rating: 4.7808218 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: 3uFFfwSm21U

Length: 54min 54sec (3294 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020