Women of Grace with Johnnette Williams - January 31, 2022

us this [Music] now here's your host johnette williams well good morning everyone and welcome to women of grace live i am john at williams very happy to be with you today i certainly am we love to spend this time with you monday through friday discussing issues of importance to your life and your faith for that reason we always do invite you to give us a call here oh yes we do it's the way we can talk to you right here on the air let me give you that toll-free number it's 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 so please pick up the phone give us a call right now we have got matt gabinski on the phones today and we're all excited about that so please do call in and let him know you're excited about it too say howdy hey to him he will get your information and he'll put it up on the board and we will be able to address whatever it is that is on your mind today we're also available for you out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page we invite you to use the chat feature there and again put your question or comment in there and we'll get it jeff burson our producer and social media manager would retrieve it and put it up on the board all kinds of things going on amen and hallelujah so we certainly want to know what's going on in your world as well and we invite you to join us here it's 833 288 ewtn that's 833.28839 so you know i've been doing some thinking uh it's a good thing to know right but i do think i was doing some thinking and i thought you know one of the issues that we frequently get questions about has to do with spiritual direction what is spiritual direction why do we have a spiritual director what's the point of spiritual direction so i prepared some information for you here and i'm just going to go into it in my book women are full of grace women in the abundant life i offer you some insights i think that are very helpful and useful for you to find a spiritual director as well as to determine what spiritual direction is meant to be so what is it that spiritual direction helps us to do and i have a bullet pool bullet point list here yes i can get those words out bullet point list here so just think about these things spiritual direction helps us to detect mediocrity or inner weakness all right so a good spiritual director is going to let us know geez are you leaning towards warm lukeness you know are you making excuses for yourself or here is an area that i think would help you to develop more uh union with our lord you know he would that individual man or woman will help us to see that spiritual direction also helps us to handle periods of difficulty those times when we have dryness in prayer or even in our own personal life our spiritual director will help us to do appropriate penance our spiritual director will carefully moderate enthusiasm for extraordinary phenomena and this is an important one you know we sometimes think that the spiritual life is meant to be filled with all of these supernatural phenomena that have happened throughout history and the lives of some saints and notice i used the word some not every saint received supernatural phenomena in their walk of faith i'll give you two great saints whose names are both uh teresa or derivative from teresa saint charezza lazu never experienced anything extraordinary mother teresa of calcutta never experienced anything extraordinary except for one moment in time and then went through decades of spiritual darkness right so you know sometimes we think well you know if i really have this deep relationship with the lord it's going to be marked by all of these supernatural wonders signs insights maybe even an apparition not so so our spiritual director will help us to moderate enthusiasm for extraordinary phenomena our spiritual director will help us to discern a vocation obviously a vocation to religious life or a vocation to the priesthood if we're a man but also our vocation is it directed toward marriage you know what will god have us do or even making you know a a specific decision about a vocational way within the larger vocation of our state in life should i be a teacher should i be a lawyer i have an opportunity for this position over here or this position over here how do i make a decision on that our spiritual director will help us give us insights on how that we achieve that decision uh our spiritual director will also help us to exercise wisdom in reading material what is best for us to be reading at this time there's a lot of good information a lot of great books out there how do we determine which one is meant for us at this moment our spiritual director will also help us to detect shadings among virtues and vices identify psychological problems assess spiritual progress or the lack of it and acquire accountability and experience support so you know we need to have somebody that is at least a spiritual companion if we cannot find a spiritual director per se someone who we can share our heart with in a confidential kind of way someone who has more experience in the spiritual life than we do who can give us the insights that we need to be able to yield the greatest fruit out of our relationship that god would have us have with his son our lord jesus christ so i wanted to encourage you in that way that is the purpose of a spiritual director well what are the qualities that we seek in a spiritual director saint francis de sales sums up the necessary qualities of a spiritual director in three words three words charity knowledge and prudence charity a love for the you and for the progress of your soul knowledge knowing what it is that the spiritual life is meant to be and prudence one who weighs carefully the judgments the concepts that are presented the direction that is being shared if he lacks one of these says saint francis there is danger saint teresa of avila agrees and her autobiography she writes this it is of great consequence that the director should be prudent i mean of sound understanding and a man of experience if in addition to this he is a learned man it is a very great matter but if these three qualities cannot be had together the first two are the most important because learned med may be found with whom we can communicate when it is necessary i mean that for beginners learned men are of little use if they are not men of prayer i do not say that they are to have nothing to do with learned men learning is a great thing from silly devotions god deliver us so once again francis de sales charity knowledge and prudence saint teresa echoes him the director should be prudent a man of sound under under uh understanding and should be a man of experience and i wanted to kind of conclude this with something that we find in a diary of saint teresa of avila excuse me in the diary of saint paulsteena and she talks about the fact that when we feel that we need a spiritual director and and if we want to make true progress in the spiritual life a spiritual director is essential she says the sho the soul should have prayed ardently and at greater length for a director and should have asked the lord himself to choose a spiritual director for it so what is the first step we pray ardently and at great length for god to send us a spiritual director what begins in god writes the saint will be godly and what begins in a purely human manner will remain human god is so merciful that in order to help a soul he himself chooses a spiritual guide and will enlighten the soul concerning the one before whom it should uncover the most hidden depths of its soul just as it sees itself before the lord jesus himself so good advice from saints on how it is and why it is that spiritual direction is a very good thing we're coming right back after the break you hear that music 833 288 ewtn that is the way that you can join us right here on women of grace live we're coming right back stay with us for church pop i'm brantley milligan this is jeanette demelo from register radio i'm colin flynn ewtn news rome correspondent get trusted catholic news every day on ewtn television and radio the power of prayer depends on god's action not on our praying the holy spirit prays within us with groanings too deep for words as romans 8 says and he empowers us to seek god and to seek from him all that we need and the answer to prayers are always from god in order to worship him [Music] and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are addicted lord jesus christ we praise you you revealed yourself as the good shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep we pray for those who are suffering the chains of addiction [Music] break those chains of self-destruction by the power of your cross which destroyed sin and death help our brothers and sisters who are addicted to find their way to freedom peace and joy you are the way you are the truth you are the life lord jesus amen ewtn radio is on youtube search for ewtn to find the ewtn youtube channel remember ewtn is everywhere the women of grace phone lines are open 1-833-288 ewtn 1-833-288-3986 [Music] welcome back everybody you're listening to women of grace live i'm johnnette williams very happy to be with you today eager to hear from you we are available for you this is the number for you to use it's toll-free for you right here in north america it's 833 288 ewtn that's do pick up the 833-288-3986 give us a call we've got matt kabinsky back with us here he's in the saddle he is indeed he is our call screener and he'll take your question or your comment he'll be sure to get it up on the board for us so will jeff berson who is our producer and social media manager he lives in the world of ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page so if you're out there online today you might want to zip by there to see what's going on with that great group of people that gather there for our program and put a question or a comment there in the chat feature and we'll retrieve it and we'll get it up on the board we were talking about spiritual direction uh in the opening of the program today we're going to go back to that in just a minute but i wanted to make you aware of some really exciting things that are coming up in the not too distant future here we are we are almost tomorrow will be the next the second month of this new year it's hard to believe that that we're already trudging along through these days that lead to a new month but we are indeed and i want to invite you to join us for a beautiful valentine's online marriage retreat that is happening saturday february the 12th it features myself and my husband jack williams the theme is falling in love and staying there love that theme falling in love and staying there again it's february the 12th 9 a.m to 4 p.m it's an online retreat you can be in the comfort of your own home right we're going to have some interactive aspects of this retreat we're very excited about it and we're looking forward to having you with us so i want to direct you to our website womenofgrace.com you're going to see it out there click on it it'll take you to a landing page where you can see the schedule you can see the talk titles and you can register right there it's easy breezy and we hope you'll spend this day with us you know valentine's day this is in anticipation of valentine's day which is of course february the 14th and we think about that day but you know the fact of the matter is what are we doing about our marriages you know what are we really doing about our marriages are we feeding that marital bond are we striving to nourish it you know we have to be intentional about these things especially in a day and time that is ripping marriages apart this is a day and time that really doesn't even acknowledge the marriage or the insti the institution of marriage it doesn't acknowledge what marriage is meant to be and it really denies the institution the necessity of it it's become a time when we have redefined marriage you know and and we've made it a very disposable thing and it's no wonder living in this culture with all of the assaults against marriage today that if we're not very intentional about our marriage if we are not seeking and striving to nourish our time together as husband and wife the time that god gives us on this earth then you know we can fall victim very quickly and very easily to the onslaught of the world that seeks to destroy this union between one man and one woman for life that's the definition of marriage one man one woman united together in a covenantal bond for life that's it so you know if we're not intentional about that if we're not seeking to take that covenantal union that covenantal bond the matrimonial bond and feed it and nourish it and then we end up with marital problems you know where do we where do we go what do we do so i'm really encouraging you number one take seriously your vocation of matrimony number two feed that marital bond number three one way you can do it is to join us for this beautiful online marriage retreat february 12 9 a.m to 4 p.m falling in love and staying there and i want to encourage you if you're engaged this would be a great great retreat for you as well because some of the issues that we're going to discuss are going to be issues that you are going to discover the longer you are married so we really do want you to join us the information is available for you online i'm encouraging you to get out there and take a look at it see what's going on that is february 12th that's not this weekend but next weekend if i'm doing my math correctly i also want to let you know that we have an online foundational study based on my book full of grace women in the abundant life i was reading from that book earlier with regard to spiritual direction it is beginning february the 1st that is tomorrow so get out there you can still sign up it's lovely these online retreat uh these online foundational studies work out so very well as do those online retreats uh so we invite you to get out there and to take a look at that and then we are going to be uh in harrisburg pennsylvania april the 2nd for a women of grace retreat for young women and a women of grace retreat for adult women all of the information available for you at womenofgrace.com 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 that's the way that you can join us right here on women of grace live where we do love to have holy conversation with you i did throw something out there for you at the beginning of the program spiritual direction anything to do with the spiritual life we're eager to talk about today but we'll talk about any topic that is important to you 833 288 ewtn or go out to ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page and see what's available for you there we have anna with us and she is calling us from dallas texas hey anna how are you i'm good how are you very well thank you for calling and thanks for asking well thanks for taking my call um kind of on a side note i just thought i'd share i'm actually i'm not catholic i'm greek orthodox but i just love your show and i love um ewtn um and i yes and i it actually came to me last night as i was reading scripture um [Music] i keep getting these little voices if you will just as i it can be when i'm reading scripture it can be when i'm praying i could be making sandwiches and um and i had these little voices saying you know you can't really believe that anna you don't really believe for example last night was you can't honestly believe that christ this this christ is going to come back again and you know in the second coming it can be just different areas but these doubts keep coming to my mind and i do pray about it um i just was hoping to get your thoughts on maybe some specific things that i can pray about maybe there's a part of something in there that i'm not seeing uh and also just kind of your general thoughts um they would any any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated sure and thank you so much for calling and i this is not an unusual situation that happens is we're making progress in the spiritual life and i want to highlight underline and put stars around the word progress if you were not making progress in your union with god there would be no need to begin to insinuate doubt into your mind there are three d's of the devil i like to call these the devil's 3ds and we find these right there at the very beginning of the dawn of civilization we find it right there in the garden of eden how does the devil operate first of all um he operates through doubt that's the first thing that he does there you know he he entices eve and then he's he strives to put doubts into our mind the other thing that he does is he tries to trick her with deception he lies to her right but he does it in a very clever and seductive way and we would call that way a type of deception delusion he deludes her into thinking that she is not like god already but that if she should eat from the knowledge of the from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that she would be like gods eve was already like god because she was full of grace there was no sin so whenever we see this attempt to deceive us to delude us or when we begin to have doubts insinuated into our mind it's an indication to us that there is progress that's being made in our union with god and the evil one wants to take us out now it says in sacred scripture that we should resist the devil and he will flee so how is it that we resist the devil in these moments well i'm gonna you know my go-to way of resisting the devil is to praise the lord right there and then the dog comes in you can't really believe in the second coming you can't believe you know this or right away as soon as that starts coming anything that comes into our head that's contradictory to sacred scripture and the teachings of the church we know right away the devil is at work what do we do we praise and thank god father god i praise you and i thank you that jesus is going to come again i praise you and thank you that every day is a new coming of jesus in my own personal life and walk with him i praise you and thank you that i am fearfully and wonderfully made in him and you brought me into union with your son you just start praising the devil cannot stand up under that and pretty soon we arrive at peace and calm so if we resist the devil in that way he will flee the other way we plead for the intercession of our blessed lady because the evil one hates our blessed mother and she is the one who smites his head and he can't stand that and so you know o mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee and pray a hail mary you know go into that kind of of prayer asking for the intercession of our mother um and then you know the angels and the saints as well but start with praise anna and you'll get those under control and look at them from the positive and that positive is well if i wasn't making progress this one wouldn't be trying to work against me so hard okay that sounds great um very helpful thank you so much you're so welcome anna you know and and i just want to say to all of us you know and hey listen when i when i talk on the air here i'm talking to myself as well uh you know i think the evangel the evangelist evangelizes through evangelizing and evangelizes himself or herself and so you know you know it is yeah so uh you know just get out there and try that and see what happens for you and and i just know that uh that'll get under control pretty quickly okay well again i appreciate it and bless you bless bless um everyone working there well thank you anna and god bless you too and i just want to remind you friends you know that this is this is the reality you are not a threat to the evil one if you are not striving for union with our lord jesus christ as soon as you set out you know in that direction to have a deeper union with our lord you can be sure that powers and principalities are going to come up and this is this is one of the devil's you know most elementary of tricks so we're just not gonna we're not gonna tolerate it and we just go to praise i wish that we understood how powerful praise is and lived by praising the lord each and every day of our lives there's so much to be grateful for and if we concentrate on that which we have to be grateful for in many cases we just see that the overall effect is we have the capacity to move forward in strength and in power and we do it with absolute gratitude in our heart and a real real experience of joy 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 that is the way that you can join us right here on women of grace live we've got jackie out there jackie is a first time caller oh my goodness let me reach for my bell and we like to ring our bell for our first time callers and submitters jackie so we're happy you're with us and jackie is calling from san antonio texas today good morning jackie how are you good morning ma'am i am doing well how are you i'm well thank you for asking okay um all right oh thank you for taking my phone call first of all but um this is my situation and i'm trying to get some advice um anyway uh i am 51 years old i've never been married i don't have children uh my dream has always been to get married and have children have my own family but it hasn't happened right now um i am dating someone i have a boyfriend um he's a very good catholic man uh and we have talked about marriage however um he has a lot of physical issues um and around me is telling me you know uh he may not be a good candidate for marriage because when you get married you're trying to find somebody that will try to take care of you not you necessarily take care of him and he you know he can walk around and stuff but he does have very you know big issues as far as his health um and what i was telling your call strainer is that i would you know love to you know marry get married i don't know that i'm gonna marry him i i'm not sure but um i i i'm trying to find someone that is a good catholic man and unfortunately the dating pool is getting smaller and smaller for me because of my age and i just i it's very difficult for me to find someone that is a very good catholic man um i don't know really what what to do i i don't know i'm just confused right now i don't know if you can help me with something like this well sure jackie let's talk about this for a moment you know if somebody's health is poor that does not necessarily disqualify them as somebody who would be you know a beautiful husband or a beautiful wife to an individual uh depending upon your gender you know um and and it troubles me that the people that are giving you this advice says well you want him to take care of you you don't want to have to take care of him what do the marriage boss say you know for better for worse and sickness and health right for richer for poorer i don't have those in the right order until until death us do part so you know there have been many many individuals who have fallen in love and they were ready to get married and one of them falls very ill and they marry anyway and for the period of time that god gives them to each other they have a beautiful beautiful marriage so it troubles me that these individuals would be so selfish in their perspective you know it's not a 50 50 kind of thing marriage it's a 100 percent 100 percent now there are other considerations that come into play uh you know that i think are are more important than the health issues uh and and one of those would be yes where is this man as a relationship with god that's very important and that's one of the things that you've already said that this gentleman has are you compatible you know do you enjoy each other's company do you like to be around each other you know what are some of the virtues that you see in this man are they the virtues that you consider to be most important is he honest you know is he diligent is he a persevering kind of person um is is he open and receptive to you uh does he admire you and does he does he want to care for you to the extent that he can care for you i mean these are some of the things that i think that you would look for so you know here you are you're you're you're sharing with us uh you know through our little notes here that you're 51 years old there are very few people at 51 who don't have something going on you know oftentimes there are little things that are beginning to show up arthritis for example or blood pressure issues or cholesterol seemingly minor things but sometimes there are larger things too so you know as you say we we've got to look at this and we've got to look at it through eyes of prudence that requires you know which means that sound judgment based on the things of the lord but you know i i i i don't think that i don't i don't think that health issues uh would immediately disqualify somebody i think that you have to be prepared if he has health issues now you have to you have to love him enough that you would see yourself taking care of him and if you are that giving of a person and you can see that and you want to do this you want to be about yielding the best that you can for this individual then i would say you move forward and you continue to test you know a little bit longer i don't know how long you've been seeing him but you know hopefully uh it's been long enough for you to be able to determine you know where how the two of you would match up in a lifelong for however long that life is situation we're going to be right back with you 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 ewtn live truth live catholic now we have today's thought from mother angelica's perpetual calendar what stands in the way of my becoming another christ christ is within me waiting for me to let him shine forth mother angelica's perpetual calendar features an inspirational message for each day of the year it's available from the ewtn religious catalog at ewtnrc.com that's ewtnrc.com or you can call 1-800-854-6316 want to be notified when women of grace goes live on facebook simply follow ewtn radio's facebook page and click on the bell icon to be notified [Music] hello this is brian kemper of priest for life with the pro-life update january 31 is the feast of st john bosco who had a special gift to minister to the young those in the church today who do youth ministry have a special challenge to deal with children growing up in an age of abortion on demand have a harder time hearing the gospel the reason is that they are survivors of abortion they have been told by law and culture that their value depends on someone else wanting them and that they could have been discarded that makes it hard to understand love those who could have been aborted often suffer abortion survivor syndrome they often feel guilty for living or fearful of dying abortion not only kills unborn children it wounds born children find out more at priestsforlife.org this is brian kemper on the ewtn global catholic radio network [Music] tomorrow on more to life positively pessimistic are you or is someone you know struggling with a negative attitude we'll help you develop a proactive mindset that's tomorrow on more to life 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 we're so happy to be with you today we certainly are love being with you monday through friday and always happy to hear from you right here on women of grace live let me give you that toll-free number to use if you're in north america join us here maybe you have a question or comment and insight and inspiration that's going to help someone who's already called in or maybe you know you just want to share it with the world we want to hear from you anyway all of your questions you know we we enjoy so please do call uh we began by talking a little bit about spiritual direction and we'll continue with that through the course of our program but we're wide open for any phone call 833 288 ewtn that is the toll-free number for you right here in north america it's 833-288-3986 want to remind you that we're available for you out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page simply use the chat feature there and put in your question or comment and we'll get it we've got jeff berson our producer who is also a social media manager who will go out to ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page and retrieve your questions and we have matt kabinsky with us on phones today and again that number is 833 288 ewtn if you're a first time caller or a first time submitter let us know and we will ring our welcome bell for you we have marilyn with us she's out there in corpus christi texas we've had a lot of texans calling in today hey marilyn how are you hi janet i would just like to share a wonderful prayer to protect against the voices or thoughts of negativity that may come to one and it's a simple prayer but it's a very powerful prayer i i was in that same situation sometimes so the lord just enlightened me to say lord jesus i plunge myself and all whom i love into the depths of your sacred heart where no evil can enter your will be done grant me your peace and that's the prayer that's really very helpful and if if i just want to say it quick jesus i plan i plunge myself into your the depths of your sacred heart no harm can come to me there so i feel very assured and i i just go on about my day continuously saying that if i have to even washing dishes or whatever i'm doing i i feel so safe there in his sacred heart and i know that's where we all dwell so that is a beautiful prayer it is a beautiful prayer and i love the word plunge i plunge myself because you know what is that it's a cooperation with grace but it it indicates you know i want to go as deeply as i possibly can you know i plunge myself it's beautiful beautiful prayer thank you i also wanted to ask everyone to please pray for a young couple um their home may be foreclosed as early as tomorrow his name is richard anthony and she's anna maria mcgretti so they live in houston they have two small children and we're just praying that the lord prevailed for them for their home to be restored and and it's also taking us such a toll on their marriage and their finances so we pray for the will of the lord in this matter for them if everyone would lift them up richard and anna maria negrete thank you so much well we we will do that and and we will entrust them to the holy family so let's just do that now and and you you said you started this off there marilyn i'll pick up father god we do thank you for this beautiful couple and for their children we know that you have a perfect will for them and now through the intercession of our blessed lady saint joseph and jesus we ask that you would indeed make a way for them through this situation that they would not lose their home and that in some way through some miraculous intervention if it takes that lord there would be a way for them to hold on to their home and we asked lord jesus that whatever you know was the the the situation that caused them to be in a financial this financial uh position whereby their home is is under threat of being foreclosed we ask lord that you would rectify that uh whether it's through position whether it's through income for that position whatever the case may be we would ask that that would be rectified that there would be an intervention for this home uh to to be maintained by this family and that they would be able to keep that home because of this beautiful way in which you will rectify it we offer this prayer to you father god in the name of your son our lord jesus christ uh through the merits of his cross by the power of the holy spirit and with the the maternal intercession of our blessed lady and also with saint joseph her most chaste spouse and we thank you for all that you have done and for all that you have yet to do for this couple and also for maryland who cares so deeply about them amen thank you amen god bless you john and all your listeners you're always in our prayers well thank you very much and we just want st joseph you know we we often pray and ask our lady to put her mantle of protection you know over our family over our homes etc and that's a beautiful thing to do but let's never forget st joseph and we ask you st joseph to put your cloak uh not only around this family in a very special way but also uh their home as well marilyn thanks for your call today thank you god bless you god bless you too and friends we invite you to call us 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 looking forward to hearing from you i want to continue a little bit forward with what we were talking about with regard to spiritual directors and the necessity of them i had some more little points that i wanted to share with you from my book full of grace women in the abundant life and we talk about these beautiful characteristics that a spiritual director should have and we spoke about the ones that saint francis de sales outlined for us charity knowledge and prudence echoed by saint teresa of avila or vice versa but all of the saints say the same thing but here are a few that um that uh you know i i came up with on my own based on what the saints have said and so we want to look for a person who is knowledgeable we want to make certain that the director does not adhere does not adhere to gospel standards or approaches that would suggest a relativistic bent right so we want to make sure that they're fully within the heart of the church we don't want for them to also challenge us through the inclusion into spiritual junction of practices that would be affiliated with the new age or anything of that nature we want to make sure that when we go in to visit with a spiritual director for the first time that we are received well you know we look we look at at some of those uh the body language are they engaged with what we're saying or are they looking around are they looking at their watch uh are they attentive to our need you know do they do they take us seriously uh that is a good way for us to be again to see if they actually have that charity of heart that we need to make certain uh that is part of the way in which god's worked within them and we want to make certain that our spiritual director does not come to rash judgment right this is part of that gift of prudence that there's not a quick decision that's made but rather that it's a well thought out plan that we see uh you know emerging from our time with our spiritual director so these are just some other little clues little hints that you uh have that can be of great value um in in your life of of uh union with god why do we have a spiritual director we have a spiritual director for all of the reasons that i mentioned earlier on but we can become you know very confused if we're looking to our own wisdom to guide and direct us one of the great saints made a statement that said this he said if he who has himself for a spiritual director has a full f-o-o-l he who has himself for a spiritual director has a full we don't want to have a fool for a spiritual director right we certainly don't want to feel as though we know perfectly well the way in which we should go we want someone who is wiser than we someone who has traveled the road uh you know uh in that path longer than we someone who has a deep and ardent prayer life someone who practices the sac the the faith but also regularly attends the sacraments and encourages us to do so these are all signs of a good spiritual director 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288-3986 we certainly do hope that you will give us a call right here and jeff i think that we've got some calls out there that have been left for us through our comment line so let's try to get one of those up on the air and address some of those right now my name is bill i'm calling from cairo falls ohio and my question is can we ever get back to what the church was i mean when i was a kid i'm 68 now but i was an altar boy back in the 60s and i remember how many people would you know walk to confession on saturdays between two and four and seven to nine and i went to st martha's in north akron ohio back in the 60s and there were they would stand in line i go to a church here in congo false ohio where i live and you hardly have anybody coming on a saturday for one hour what can we do i mean people just don't go to confession anymore and the priest makes a joke about it the pastor he's only 42 but he knows and he says you know nobody seems to sin anymore but i want you know jeannette or anybody to answer this question what can we do to get the fervency back in the catholic space thank you well you're so welcome and thank you so much for such a very good question and thank you so much for your great concern that you have for souls out there one of the least used sacraments today is the sacrament of confession the sacrament of penance we should be going to that sacrament at least once a month we should strive to go twice a month because we know that the most important reality of our life is union with our lord jesus christ that is the fundamental relationship that we need to have and if that relationship is fractured then we cannot live our other relationships well we can live our other relationships well if we have the grace to be able to do so and that means that we break with sin and that we walk in virtue and that is what this sacrament is meant to do for us but i think that you've hit the nail on the head when you say people don't use it anymore and the pastor jokingly says i guess people don't sin anymore i understand the the light-heartedness of that statement but i would that the priest and every priest would be crying in his heart over the fact that people are not making use of this sacrament the problem that we have is that we live in a very relativistic age we live in an age where we really don't believe in sin all we believe in is the the the uh capacity for us to make decisions on our own we don't hold truth as objective and knowable anymore we don't have any kind of of moral absolutes that attend to us in our daily lives or even within the culture we have instead fallen victim to what i think is one of the greatest ways in which the evil one assaults us today and that is through these isms that have laid hold of our hearts and one of them is relativism which means that everything is relative that there is no standard to judge what is right or wrong because we all live according to a different truth and what is that truth it's the truth that we make up in our own head most typically to excuse ourselves for the ways in which we are behaving that are outside of the will of god and are specified against in the ten commandments and the teachings of the church and so we have the situation in the world today and it has infected our catholic parishes it's infected our catholic mindsets it has wooed us away woed us away from all that are true all that is good all that is beautiful jesus identifies himself and when he identifies himself he says i am very important because god is i am i am what the way the truth and the life one of the ways in which he identifies himself in that passage is to say that he is the truth and truth is knowable we can have a relationship with the one who is truth our lord jesus christ and it is his truth and it is his teachings that we are called to observe but as catholics we have fallen victim to this sense of everything being okay contraception is okay cohabitation is okay you know we we excuse ourselves we excuse ourselves from the moral mandates and i think that what we need and you talk about fervency how how does fervency get built up how do we know the truth you know how do we grow in faith saint paul tells us it comes by way of hearing it comes by way of hearing and so we must proclaim the truth and we need very brave priests who are willing to stand up in the pulpit on a sunday morning and are willing to share with their congregation that there are moral absolutes and that these things are definitely wrong homosexuality abortion contraception cohabitation sex outside of marriage but we don't hear these things anymore and so we get the impression that somehow the church has you know if not embraced them at least has made a place for them and that is not true it's a lie and so we need teachers who are witnesses who stick to the truth and strive to live the truth does anybody live it perfectly no because we are broken and fallen people and that's why the sacrament of penance is so important because when we fall we have a place a font of mercy where we can go and be reconciled with god and our fellow man once again so how do we get that fervency back we get it back by being witnesses to the truth each and every one of us given the circumstances and the relationships of our lives and those that god brings into our life but also by encouraging our priests to speak on these hard issues and not to make peace with the the the illusions and the lies of the evil one so why do we have you know you know short confession times and short lines during those confession times and somebody nobody in that line for that confession time because we're not hearing about how important this sacrament is and we just want a quick brush up at the time of death but jeez you know you know if we're waiting until that moment that moment might not come because death could sneak up on us at any given moment and we might not have a time for preparation so we live according to the way in which we hope to spend eternity we live according to the one who is the way the truth and the life and i want to encourage any priest that's listening today any deacon that has an opportunity to preach a homily uh you know each one of us to be a witness to the truth to let go of human respect to not worry about what people are going to say paul says speak the truth speak it in love and you know what i know i know that god is aware of every time we speak that truth you know why i know that because the holy spirit comes the holy spirit comes into that moment and a life is forever changed oh yeah the person can reject it but they won't forget what they've heard and at some point in time that little seed that was planted might be the very one that sprouts into a great big beautiful wonderful tree of life so i encourage you to encourage your priest but i encourage you to live that abundant life and to live it in our lord jesus christ if you haven't been to confession get there there is no sin that is greater than god's mercy it's a lie of the evil one to think that there is and it's prideful to think that your sin could be greater than god's mercy he who is infinitude of mercy he was infinitude of justice he who is infinitude of love you could never sin greater than his mercy i don't care what you've done and also don't let the evil one deluge you through a a a a sense of of of um being afraid of being ashamed you know he'll use that shame that shame card on us all of the time except the fact that you like everybody else is a broken and fallen person in need of the mercy of god and get to the sacrament and i hope i'm speaking to you directly right now and i hope that you heed my advice and if saturday seems too long away and you feel as though it's it and especially if you've been away from the sacrament for a really long time call and make a special appointment and you can ask the priest to meet you in the confessional if you feel you don't want to go to him face to face i personally like the confessional myself so please do don't live under the weight of that sin anymore don't let that sin become the wedge that pulls you away from the lord and don't let that sin become the victory of satan under any circumstances don't do it we have jen out there on youtube she says something that has struck with me stuck with me is a statement made by an exorcist in an interview that one of the most powerful tools to battle the evil one is a good confession well there you have it gin that's absolutely true as a matter of fact exorcists have said that a good confession is worth a hundred exorcisms so get to the sacrament we think exorcism we think primarily about the occult and all of those uh you know i what do i want to say sensational kinds of ways in which the evil one can't uh you know manipulate a person uh who is in need of deliverance or who is in need of an exorcism but let me tell you this you know every priest has the the capacity for simple exorcism there is a spirit there is a demon that attaches itself to every sin that we commit and that demon will play havoc in our lives well through the sacrament of reconciliation penance confession through that sacrament that that beautiful charism of simple exorcism is uh is in play and when the priest absolves us those demons are gone so i don't care if it's a demon of disobedience or a demon of lying or if it's a demon of stealing or if it's a demon of adultery or a demon of homosexuality or a demon of abortion or a demon of contraception i don't care what demon it is there's remedy for that and we want to seek that remedy so thank you jin for reminding us of that deanna williston one of my dear friends says people would rather receive communion as a way to have their sins forgiven than to go to confession people consider it a one-stop shop with no stigma wait times or need for introspection and she closes that out with a frowny face and i have to tell you deanna you're absolutely right i mean you it only makes you wonder when when you see um what what what our caller uh brought up to us on the comment line that the confession lines are so small that confession has been reduced to one hour and even then the line is so small when you consider all of that you can only begin to wonder how many sacrilegious communions are being received every sunday in our church and i want to tell you sacrilege is a very big sin so we need to ask god to give us a sensitive conscience we live in this in this muscle of relativism this of monism this muscle of materialism and i don't mean consumerism we live we live as pagans we might identify ourselves as catholics but to a great degree we live as pagans and then we dare to present ourselves at the table of our lord to receive the body blood soul and divinity of our lord jesus christ into a soul our soul that might well be putrid through sin i know those are strong words but that's a it's a stench a stench and we invite jesus into that stench and it's a sacrilege it's a sacrilege and then those sacrilegious sins need to be confessed bless me father for i have sinned it's been 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years 10 years 5 years a year since i have been to the sacrament of confession and i've committed this sin and this and this and yet i have gone to communion regularly take it to the sacrament god's mercy is waiting for you what was putrid will now become the smell of roses divine life living in your soul well it's been great being with you today we're going to be back with you again tomorrow always looking forward to it let us hear from you we have take two coming up next we invite you to stay tuned get out to womenofgrace.com sign up for our online marriage retreat god bless you now bye the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio i don't like looking back i prefer to look forward and keep moving forward there's plenty to cover i do a lot of research and try to dig out the bits and pieces of a life or a gin

Channel: EWTN

Views: 919

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: pB7ZWwaMl9M

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 31 2022