Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Catholic Conversations #181: Faith Over Fear: A Catholic Guide to Conquering Worry

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Catholic Conversations #181: Faith Over Fear: A Catholic Guide to Conquering Worry · Catholic Spirit Radio

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Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio Hello everyone and welcome to
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Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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I'm your host, Paul Garcia, and
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today we are joined by a guest who will simply go by the name of Marie.
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She has advanced degrees in spiritual direction, theology, and education,
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and she's here to share a faith-based approach to overcoming worry and anxiety,
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something that so many of us struggle with today.
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This conversation isn't about promoting Marie's services, but about offering
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hope and spiritual tools to help listeners stop living in fear and start living
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the abundant life that Jesus promised.
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Marie, thank you so much for being with us today. I truly appreciate your time.
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Thank you so much, Paul, for having me here today. Of course, it's our pleasure.
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So Marie, to start things off, just tell us what inspired you to focus on this
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topic of worry and anxiety?
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Well, before I answer that question, I'd like to say and give all praise,
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honor, and glory to God, because it's a marvel that I'm here today.
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And here is why. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, I would pray in the Adoration
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Chapel after Mass and that.
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And sometimes I would ask the Lord to speak to me, you know,
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called contemplation, where you speak and then you wait and wait for Him.
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And what would come sometimes is radio time. Just two words and I'm like, what is it?
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Is that just me? I mean, is this crazy?
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Radio time. I just wrote it down in my journal. I have about 70 journals and,
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So, then it came to me again in the 2000s, and then 2012, I was leaving a job
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for a better promotion, and I was like,
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Lord, what do you want me to do with my last month's pay?
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And it was radio time, and I'm like, I don't understand.
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So, like the Virgin Mary held it in her heart, I was like, okay,
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I'm just holding it in my heart.
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And then I get this call, here it is years later, and I get a call to be on
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the radio to talk about fear and worry and these things that I talk to so many people about,
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and they're so worried about all the stuff that's going on in the world,
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what's happening, you know, with the kids, the crime, the inflation.
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You know, the church, different things like that.
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And so I myself, I mean, I'm speaking from experience myself,
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where I have had times where I did not worry and I really took it to God.
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And then I had times where it was like, I'm not kidding you,
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God pulled the rug out from under me just to test me to see if I was going to
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worry and what I was going to do. So I have a lot of experience here.
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Not only that, but I've counseled a lot of women in spiritual direction,
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too. and many of them are worried about their children.
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You know, if they're children about, you know, what is this life all about?
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What is the purpose in this life?
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Okay, there's two forces in this life, right? You know what those forces are, the good and evil.
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And God made us and he wants us to be in heaven.
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So what is something that every person on this planet has in common?
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Birth and death. Okay, so we may be birthed, you know, in a different place,
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but where are we going to end up? Are we going to end up in heaven?
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Are we going to end up in the smoking area?
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So it's a very serious topic, too, in a way.
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But what happens on the way is we get tormented with fear and worry and all the stuff going on.
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And both, it says in the scripture, there's 365 scriptures.
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That talk throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament about worry and
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fear and be not afraid and fear not and I'm with you and all that.
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And in 2 Timothy 1.7, Paul tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear,
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but of power, love, and a sound mind.
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So it can be, when you look at that and analyze that, it's like a spirit of fear.
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Fear can be a spirit. Now, there's two types of fear.
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You know, you fear if there's a fire going and you want to get away from it.
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That's a whole different, that's for our safety, and that's instinctive.
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But then there's another kind of fear that brings torment to people.
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It torments them in their mind, you know, maybe with ruminating thoughts or
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just keeps beating them over the head with the guilt and things like that.
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And that type of fear is what Paul's talking about, is spirit of fear,
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where it zaps you of your power.
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It makes you feel terrible.
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It makes you feel like you're losing your mind if you're worrying so much.
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And so many people, what happens is these negative emotions affect their nervous system.
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So then they have to get on medication.
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Thank God for medication, right? All the plants that they get medication from
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are derived from plants,
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some of them, but they do add some synthetic things too, but there's many natural
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ways too to help your, you know,
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natural fear that can grow into that kind of negativity. So.
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And the torment, the thing that casts out the torment is love, love of God.
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I'm going to give out a few keys today that will really help quench that.
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And number one is prayer. So prayer with thanks to God, praising God.
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There's all types of messages throughout the Scripture about praising God, and praising Him.
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And whosoever's mind is kept on God, you know, they're free indeed from having
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these torments and that, because God loves us.
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He doesn't want us to be tormented. He doesn't want us to fear anything.
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And so we pray with praise, and it says in the Scripture, we enter His gates
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with praise and thanksgiving.
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So we thank Him. Hey, even the good stuff, the bad stuff, the ugly stuff,
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it says all things, all things, good, bad, and ugly, work together for good
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for those who love the Lord.
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Well, do you love the Lord?
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That's the question we ask ourselves. Do you really love the Lord?
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Well, what does Jesus say about that? Jesus says, if you love me,
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you will obey my commandments.
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And then my Father and I will come and make our abode in you.
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All right, well, do we know the commandments?
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All we have to know, even the first ones, love God first and love yourself and
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your neighbor as yourself.
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And if you keep those two commandments, you're not gonna lie, cheat, and steal.
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You're not gonna be jealous of people and that.
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So if you obey the first two and put God first, we're obeying the commandments.
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So he says, also, it says in John, 1 John 4, 18, perfect love casts out fear
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and fear brings torment.
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So if we don't have that kind of love for God, and many of us don't,
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I didn't. When I was younger, I didn't either.
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That's why I'm talking about all this stuff. I have learned the hard way.
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And when I did not have inspiration, when I did not have desire,
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when I did not feel like I had love for God, when I was like,
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wow, everybody seems to have it so much better than me, Lord, why is that?
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I have been through so many trials, and I'm telling you what works,
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that other people that talk about this topic, I've never heard them say, very rarely.
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Now, I should never say never, but I would say it's rare.
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And this is the crux of what actually will stop this.
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And that's what I'm going to share with you, too. It's almost like it's not
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a secret, but it is a secret because nobody talks about it.
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So besides the prayer and the praise is surrendering to God.
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Surrender to Him. And I want to share with you these most beautiful words,
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maybe after the break or something.
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By all means, you can do it now. Okay. If you're willing.
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But after the praise and the prayer, so that's just something really easy to think about.
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Comes the surrender and trust.
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Trust. You have to trust.
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God is the only one we can really trust. We really cannot trust anybody.
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We can trust them up to a certain point, maybe with certain things,
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but nobody has—you can trust them across the whole gamut.
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It just—there's all—everybody has their spot. You know, God is the only one
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we can really trust completely, 100%. So this is a surrender prayer.
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It is one of the most beautiful prayers.
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It is unlike any prayer I have ever come across, and it was given by Jesus to
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a, I believe he was a priest or a monk, and his name was Father DeLingo,
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and DeLingo means pain.
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And from his very young age, he did become a priest,
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But he did meet Padre Pio, and he was so holy and so humble that Padre Pio said
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of him, the whole of paradise is in your soul.
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And he suffered so much, and he offered up all of his sufferings for people
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who are suffering, and for the world, and for salvation of souls, and that.
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And it was also prophesied to him from a bishop that you will be a martyr in
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your heart. That means he'll suffer.
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It's not going to be like he's going to be shot, not a blood martyr, but the other.
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And in his profound humility, the Lord would visit him and speak to him.
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And he did worry about some things because he was living in Poland and that.
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There was a lot of communist things going on and whatever else was going on
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that caused him to suffer and worry.
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And it caused him even more tremendous suffering. So Jesus shared this with
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him, and he would say, Father, Divine Father, I am totally poor, a poor nothing.
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My strength is my prayer, and my leader is the will of God,
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which please take me by the hand, and my security over the uneven path in the
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heavenly journey to God is with Mary.
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So he wrote about these treasures that Jesus, he took it down,
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he wrote it down, what Jesus told him to pray.
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And there's nine prayers and nine days that the apostles waited before the coming
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of the Holy Spirit, nine to 10 days.
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So, that's what a novena is. It's just, it's another word for nine. So.
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He got these nine prayers, and I would like to share with you just even just
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a few of them. They just melt my heart.
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And when I was going through the worst time in my life, I mean,
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the rug was full of everything, and everything was just like on my shoulders.
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Have you ever felt that way?
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Have you ever just felt like, wow, everything's happening? And this prayer was
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given to me by my spiritual director, who is still my director.
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He's a retired priest. He's been my director for over a decade.
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And this is one of the prayers.
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Day one, just think of this as Jesus. Just if you just sit there and just let
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this wash over you as if Jesus was saying this to you.
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He says, why do you confuse yourself by worrying?
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Leave the cares of your affairs to me, and everything will be peaceful.
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I say to you in truth that every act of true.
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Blind, and complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and
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will resolve all difficult situations in your life.
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And just to pray, even like 10 times like, Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you.
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Take care of everything.
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Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you.
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Take care of everything. And he says that 10 times after this one prayer.
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And it's kind of like, I think of that in contrast to St. Faustina.
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Have you ever heard of St. Faustina of the Divine Mercy?
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Sure. Well, Jesus told Saint Faustina she was being tormented by fear and worry.
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And Jesus told her similar things.
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And He told her, He said, if you say, Jesus, I trust in your goodness—.
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That will make all that fear flee, because if it's a spirit,
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it will flee, because they cannot stand to hear, any bad spirits or evil spirits
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cannot stand to hear about the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Jesus, or Jesus's goodness.
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That was the secret that He told her, Jesus's goodness.
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Now, I have tried that many times, and it does work. and Jesus will bring peace into your heart.
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And also, another thing is all the emotions that we have, the devil can really work on your emotions.
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Now, most people, I would think in the listening audience, since we're on a
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spirit radio, which is Christian, I mean, Jesus spoke about demonic spirits,
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how many times through the Scripture?
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I mean, you'd have to not believe the Scripture. And Solomon,
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he was really like one of the first exorcists.
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There's other books besides the Bible that tells a lot of stuff,
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which I love to read all this really deep stuff that goes connections,
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but it's the Scripture I read, you know, and also that the stuff that is also connected to,
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the scripture and has been studied for centuries.
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So the emotions are caused by the thoughts, positive or negative.
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And when you worry and you can constantly think about something,
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whatever your problem is going on in your life, you may think about it a lot,
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or it's on the back of your mind, it's in your subconscious,
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it's in your dreams sometimes, you have a terrifying dream.
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Well, psychologically.
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We don't realize this, Jesus said not to worry, because everything starts in
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our spirit. We are spirits in a earthly container.
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So what affects our spirit, which the worry and the thoughts in, it affects us mentally.
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It'll affect us physically. And so it keeps on broadening out,
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just like if you throw a stone in the water, it ripples out.
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It's like that. But we've got to get to the root.
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The root of what it is. What's the root of the worry? The root of the worry is fear.
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Fear is a spirit, as it says in the Scripture. What do you do about it?
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If you don't have love for God or desire for God, ask Him for it.
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It's there for the asking.
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I'm from the show me state, and Jesus showed me, and He did show me.
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He did show me in all these little intricate ways.
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So that's what the thought I want to leave you with in this segment.
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Absolutely. Beautifully, beautifully said. I mean, from the devil having access to your emotions.
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I've had an exorcist tell me that, and that's been on this show as well.
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The devil has access to your emotions.
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You talked about Paul talking about this very problem that we still have today,
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although it looks a little different. People have always been worrying.
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It's an age-old problem.
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But again, it can look really different now. You spoke about Padre Pio as well.
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And of course, he knows very well that, yeah, the evil ones,
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the evil spirits will scatter when you ask them to pronounce the name or that Jesus is Lord.
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You know, that's a classic story, him in the confessional. Some evil person
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walks in, so it seems, and they start confessing and defending their sins in the confessional.
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He says, Professor, Jesus is Lord. And they disappear in a little flame.
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I remember hearing that story. That's beautiful.
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But I have a lot more questions for you, as do our listeners as well, I'm sure, Marie.
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But I want to talk about when we come back from the break, maybe a little bit
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about more about how to surrender, how to actually do that.
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Maybe what are some of the other worries that people have today? Maybe some more tips.
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I'm sure you've got them. But all that and more is coming up in just one moment.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit
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Radio. I'm your host, Paul Garcia, and we are back for part two of three with Marie.
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Marie has advanced degrees in spiritual direction, theology,
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and education, and she's here to share a faith-based approach to overcoming
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worry and anxiety, things that we all know far too well, some more than others.
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What a complicated issue, but the way through it, it seems, has a lot to do
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or entirely to do with your faith and your relationship with Jesus,
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and much more than just that.
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And that's why Marie's here. She's going to explain all that in ways that you can understand.
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But Marie, we were just talking about the importance of surrendering.
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When you're worried, when you are anxious, there's so many, 365 different Bible
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verses alluding to this very problem.
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So it's age old, but how, and maybe this is just the man in me. I want protocol. call.
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I want to know how to actually do these things.
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And in talking with a lot of people on this show, I've learned that a lot of
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the time women are more about the fluffy, for lack of a better term,
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things like, you know, it's about the relationship surrender to God.
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And then men are like, well, what does that mean? Let's take a step-by-step approach to this.
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So I want to ask you on behalf of men and everyone listening,
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how do you really surrender? And what does that mean?
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Thank you so much for asking that, and I just want to tell you that I am like you.
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I am not for the fluffy, and people who really know me know that, don't they?
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So step by step, I was very skeptical when I was younger.
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I grew up in the church. I grew up with a mother that taught me well,
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but I wasn't surrendered.
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And what happened was I...
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After you go through so many experiences where all the turmoils of life and
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the trials of life came in, I was just like, what are you doing?
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What's going on here? And then I found out that I needed to surrender to him,
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that I was doing everything by my own will,
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by my own thoughts, like what I thought would be good.
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I should do this and I should do that. Well, yeah, he gives us a brain so we
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can make those decisions, but he also has a will.
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And he wants us to ask him to guide us on the path where he will lead us to the happiest.
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Wherever our gifts and talents are, that's where we're going to go our farthest.
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So that was number one, okay? I was looking for, what's my gifts and talents?
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And so, Lord, what path are you sending me on? Now, this is when I was really young.
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So I'm starting even for if teenagers are listening to this,
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okay? So I'm going all the way up.
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And I kept praying, and I found out that you have to make—here's the key.
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You've got to make a decision.
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You make a decision. I want to surrender to God. And I'm speaking to anybody
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who doesn't believe in God, who's skeptical, who's, you know,
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thinks totally other things about God.
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They may not even believe in God, but just ask.
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If you just ask, ask one time in a conversion type way, just like any kind of
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prayer like that, anything you ask God, asking God is a prayer.
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The prayer word gets all messed up.
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It's just talking to them. Just say, Jesus, God, God the Father,
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Holy Spirit, I want to know. I want to know you.
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I want to know that this stuff is true.
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Show me. You know, just take me and show me.
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And that is the first thing. I make the decision to do that and just say a short
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prayer and ask him to come into your life. Because you have to ask.
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You have to ask. He is a gentleman. He's not going to just come in. He wants you to want him.
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Just like, you just have to ask.
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And so that is one of the first things.
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And then if you have trouble trusting, which I did, I had trouble trusting.
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So I had to pray for God to give me the faith, faith, faith,
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to trust Him and to give me more faith because it takes faith.
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You have to have faith. Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest is love.
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Well, was I loving God that much by questioning everything? So I had to question myself.
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Love casts out fear. I had to read, I read the scripture.
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Scripture verses, if you, there's one thing that you're really struggling with,
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and right now it is so easy to find those things out, like on Google.
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Just Google, where does it say in the scripture about fear? Where does it say
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in the scripture about love casts out fear?
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How can I be more loving? It'll come up, it'll give you all kinds of ways,
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so I'm just giving you some shortcuts, you know, of how to do that.
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But basically, it's a decision and a prayer.
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You have to pray and praise God. Thank you, Lord, because I know that you have
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to know that He's going to do something, and He will.
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And that's the faith and the trust to know He's going to do something, and He promises.
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A lot of people don't know that God says, never, never will I leave you or forsake you.
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Never will I leave you or forsake you.
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And no matter what you've done, you know, we're all, we are all sinners.
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We're all made out of the same dirt, clay, whatever you want to call it.
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And it says that apart from the vine, you can do nothing.
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Now, you may be able to do something in the world and be really successful in
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everything else, but what's the end going to be like? Where's your eternity going to be?
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And Jesus says, what do you gain when you have the whole world?
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You could have the whole world.
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And this is in the Scripture. You can look it up on Google.
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You can have the whole world. But if you lose your soul, you've lost everything forever.
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It's like, wow, I don't want to wait till I'm too old to wake up and realize that.
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And so all we have to do is ask, and God will wake us up to that, ask Him to show you.
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And also, there's other scriptures that people don't believe,
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they don't know that God's with them, but He is.
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And in the scriptures in Hebrews, St. Paul talks about a lot,
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Hebrews, Corinthians, Philippians, the Lord is my helper, be not afraid.
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I will always provide for your needs. if anybody had anything to worry about, there has been me.
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I have had so many things that I could have just worried myself sick.
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If I hadn't had this grounding, I don't know.
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God showed me and He grew me, grew me, grew me, and that's what He will do with
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anybody. But I'm telling you, I started pretty young.
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And so that's why I guess I can talk on it too a little bit,
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because I've been through so many trials, and it works.
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This works. The bottom line, you got to get to the root of everything. The bottom line.
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And just to throw in a little thing here, too, because I know you got a lot of verses here.
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One of my personal favorites I think about often is when Jesus says, why do you worry?
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You're not going to add a single hair to the top of your head by worrying.
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Look at the birds. You know, they don't worry and still they're fed.
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This isn't going to add another second to your life. And a lot of times when
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I start to worry or my wife starts to worry, I'll either tell her or tell myself.
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We're sitting here worrying about this and making our blood pressure go up,
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making our heart rate spike and feeling all sorts of negative emotions.
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And it's not doing a darn thing for the well-being of the situation or for the
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resolution of the situation.
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It's completely useless. And worse than that, it's actually counterproductive.
28:45
So it can be hard. It's so easy and natural to want to worry.
28:49
And to quote Fulton Sheen, we were just speaking about Fulton Sheen.
28:53
Your husband is here for the listeners who don't know that.
28:55
And he went to the school in Peoria that Fulton Sheen went to.
29:00
And so it kind of jogged my memory. And I remember him saying in one of his
29:03
books that not more than a hundred years ago, people would be nervous and anxious
29:08
when they would see, wake up in the middle of the night and notice that frost covered all the crops.
29:13
And they thought, oh no, are we going to have any food?
29:16
Or when a bull was charging them, oh no, you know, I fear for my life.
29:21
And that was their anxiety.
29:22
But today we might think of a hypothetical situation or read something troubling
29:27
and have the same mental,
29:30
psychological, neurological even effect of having the bolt charge at us or noticing
29:35
that the crops were frozen and dying.
29:38
And that's just real shame, really.
29:41
And I know during the break, you even mentioned something about a neurologist,
29:45
maybe, or some neurological principle.
29:49
And I was wondering, maybe after you read what you're about to read,
29:53
if you could tell us a little bit more about that.
29:55
Yes, I was going to suggest there is a Dr.
29:59
Carolyn Leith, and she's a neuroscientist. I have always been interested in
30:06
the brain. In fact, that's what I was going to go into.
30:09
The brain, like structures and things like that, not abnormal psychology,
30:15
but neuroscience, kind of how the brain affects different nerves and what happens
30:21
in the brain and things like that.
30:23
But God sent me a different way. But she has done extensive research for so many decades.
30:30
And again, her name is Dr.
30:32
Carolyn Leaf, just like the leaf, L-E-A-F.
30:36
And if you want more in-depth information about how this affects your brain
30:43
and what it does to your body and why Jesus said,
30:48
don't worry, and why God says, don't worry, you will understand.
30:53
That will help you understand. So what she does, and I do too in my studies, I still study.
30:59
I study and read every day and listen to podcasts. I'm always studying and learning.
31:05
I love to learn because I'm a teacher and I just, I love to share.
31:10
And so I have a lot of neuroscience subscriptions where I read a lot of that.
31:16
And I try to marry the science with the biblical, and it is.
31:22
And, you know, now that we've gotten more advanced technology,
31:25
there's more and more things coming out that these things really are connected.
31:31
God created everything. He created science. He's the major scientist.
31:36
It's the study of his creation at the end of the day. Absolutely. Absolutely. He made it.
31:41
So he knows how it took. He knows everything about it.
31:44
And he probably just sits back and smiles at the ones who really dig into it
31:50
and find some of his secrets and share them with the world.
31:54
And, of course, you're always going to have the debaters. Of course.
31:58
That's just the way it is. It's just life.
32:01
Life in the big city. But if we put on, there's another, now going from the
32:08
neuroscience and now marrying it to what God says again, is in Ephesians, St.
32:14
Paul, he's really goes into a lot of this.
32:16
The Ephesians, he says, be strong in the Lord and his power.
32:21
Put on all the armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against all
32:27
the strategies of the devil.
32:28
For we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but of evil rulers and authorities
32:36
of the unseen world, against mighty powers and principalities in this dark world.
32:43
Now, everybody knows there's evil in this world, right?
32:48
There's evil and there's good. And there is a spiritual war going on,
32:52
whether people know it, see it, or not.
32:55
But there is. And so that is another reason why we need to be surrendered to
33:01
God, because there's so much deception in the world now, too.
33:07
There's so many ideologies, and some can carry us away from the Word of God.
33:13
And very gently it happens. It happens with a lot of them. And so that's another reason.
33:22
Is to be closer to God, because this is something that I grew up with.
33:28
My mother used to say this from a priest.
33:31
His name was Father Johnson, and he always preached, you don't know when God's going to call you home.
33:38
And I think of the people in the Twin Towers.
33:41
What did they do last night? Did they meet Jesus in a good way that day?
33:46
They had no idea what was coming to him. And it says in the scriptures, our days are allotted.
33:51
We have so many days. He knows the hairs on our head and all that about us.
33:57
He knows everything about us.
33:58
And we don't know, so we need to stay ready at all times.
34:02
And so that's another reason that actually helps you to want to surrender to God.
34:10
And like I said, the key to it is the decision, but it's a process. That's another key.
34:19
It's a process for a woman to say, oh, I surrender, God.
34:25
Okay, well, isn't it like magic and snap your fingers and all of a sudden you're
34:30
just all surrendered out?
34:33
You have to say it from the heart, just like your heart is bleeding out that
34:37
prayer. It bypasses your mind.
34:39
It is coming from the heart to Jesus's heart that I surrender to you. I trust you.
34:47
Take care of me. You know, he says in Psalm 91, read Psalm 91,
34:52
that he will protect you.
34:55
He will keep you from even hitting your foot against a stone.
35:02
Even he'll call his angels out for you, but you have to trust.
35:07
So the prayer and the praise, the trust and the process, you have to trust the
35:13
process because it's not going to happen overnight.
35:16
Some people can get infused with special graces and it can happen overnight,
35:22
but usually for most of us, it's a process.
35:24
Absolutely. It seems, you know, to put it kind of simply for myself,
35:29
that by not trusting God, sometimes we get in the way of his will being done
35:35
in our lives and just in general.
35:37
I remember hearing Father Mike Schmitz even say, yeah, everyone loves to say
35:40
everything happens for a reason.
35:42
Sometimes that reason is you are dumb.
35:45
Sometimes you make the wrong decision. Sometimes you make decisions and you're
35:49
not in a great state of grace with God and you make the wrong decision.
35:53
You're not in tune with his frequency. You're not in a state of grace,
35:57
maybe, et cetera, et cetera.
35:58
But trusting in God is so, it's crucial to living the life that he wants us
36:03
to live, which is the most fulfilling life, which is the most fulfilling and
36:07
sure way to get our souls into heaven for eternity.
36:10
It all just works together. I loved what you said about science and how science kind of.
36:15
Uncovers the secrets of God's creation, but nonetheless, it is God's creation
36:19
that it's uncovering the secrets of.
36:21
We have a little more here in our next segment. We'll be right back in one moment.
36:25
You're listening to Catholic Conversations, and this is an incredible conversation with Marie.
36:31
With advanced degrees in spiritual direction, theology, and education,
36:33
we're learning about how to approach and overcome worry and anxiety with a faith-based method.
36:40
Stick around. You'll want to hear this next segment. We will be right back.
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Landon, can I listen to Catholic Spirit Radio on Alexa? You bet, Grandpa.
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Alexa, play Catholic Spirit Radio. That's it? Yep.
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38:38
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit
38:41
Radio. I'm your host, Paul Garcia, and I am joined by a great guest,
38:46
Marie. And this is our third of three segments today. So we're winding it down here.
38:51
And she has advanced degrees in spiritual direction, theology,
38:54
and education. And she's here to share a faith-based approach to overcoming
38:58
worry and anxiety, things that we all know too well.
39:03
It's been a great conversation thus far. And during the break,
39:06
Marie, you were talking a little bit about the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the beauty of that.
39:11
Can you please let our listeners know what you were thinking about the Divine
39:15
Mercy Chaplet? Absolutely.
39:17
And I would like to start that off by asking all the listeners,
39:22
do you believe that Jesus can change your circumstances?
39:28
Do you really believe that? And if you don't have the faith to believe that, just ask for it.
39:33
Jesus, I need the faith for you to change my circumstances.
39:37
Jesus, I just need to, I need to trust in you more. Please give me that grace.
39:41
And then you will have hope.
39:44
And in Luke 18, 27, it says that with God, with God.
39:51
All things are possible. And I have seen miraculous,
39:57
I've seen miraculous marvels and miracles in my family because my mom was so
40:05
devout and my grandma was like a little saint.
40:08
I have seen so many things that I would love to write a book about sometime,
40:14
the marvels and those that I have seen. and all things really are possible that
40:19
you don't even really believe could happen and things would turn around.
40:24
And so I'm a living testimony to a lot of this that we're talking about.
40:29
I've lived through hardships, like I said, trials and tribulations, lots of grief.
40:34
Boy, could I talk on grief and how to get through that.
40:38
And I trusted it all. And my faith was tested so terribly.
40:43
I mean, it was like, I felt like I was on the edge of the cliff of my faith,
40:48
where my spiritual doctor said, you can't lose your faith.
40:54
I mean, that's how hard this trial was. It was just overwhelming, and I was so alone.
40:59
I felt alone, but I really wasn't alone, see?
41:04
And so what happened was when I would read, I would read the diary of Faustina, St.
41:10
Faustina, And she is the one who Jesus appeared to and told her about his divine
41:18
mercy, that he is mercy itself.
41:21
He's just, so we can't forget, he's majesty, he's just too.
41:25
Everybody thinks about, oh, do you just love and mercy, fluff and fluff and
41:28
stuff, you know, like you say.
41:30
But he's just too. He's going to give you time, you know, but he will actually
41:36
just take you right back into his arms, just ask for it. I'd say,
41:40
I just want to come back. I'm sorry, you know.
41:43
But here's Jesus' words. And I would ask you and invite you to reflect on these
41:49
words of Jesus that I reflected on.
41:53
And I saw this in myself and my brother, who was far away from God.
42:01
In fact, my older sister told me, she goes, and I can't believe she even said
42:06
this, but She's passed away, but she knows I've said this before.
42:11
I have told her that in different talks I've given over the age of time that
42:18
I've been living, she knows I did.
42:21
She gave me permission, and so did my brother, to talk about this.
42:24
But she said, don't even pray for him.
42:28
He's so, forget about it. And I was like, I was like indignant.
42:33
I go, hey, I believe in my prayers.
42:35
And here's why, too. Because when I prayed the prayer of faith.
42:42
And I asked for trust, and I said, Jesus, I want to be love. I want to be loving.
42:48
You know, everybody's got their good side and bad side, you know, the shadow and all that.
42:54
And so these words, reflect on these words, the more a soul trusts,
43:02
the more graces it will receive.
43:06
Now, that's what Jesus told St. Faustina, and that's in her diary in 1572.
43:13
And I was at a point where, okay, I had to carry a picture of the divine mercy around in my pocket.
43:21
And when I was having a hard time, I'd pull that chair, I'd pull that picture
43:26
out and say, I'm trusting in you.
43:28
It says right at the bottom of the picture, Jesus, I trust in you.
43:32
And so that picture, he said, I am offering people a vessel with which to keep, to come for graces.
43:40
Just by, when you see a picture of your son or daughter or niece or nephew,
43:46
you think of them, right? It's the same thing.
43:48
Well, Jesus was a human being, so we can have a picture of him.
43:52
So when I looked at Jesus and it's got Jesus, I trust in you at the bottom.
43:58
I could pray again. And I would just pray, and I kept that in my pocket.
44:03
And he said, the blessing, it's not in the picture, but it's in his grace.
44:08
It's the grace because you're thinking of him, so he gives you grace.
44:12
So he told Faustina, tell aching mankind, because everybody needs peace.
44:19
The bottom, if we get rid of fear, we have peace, right? Everybody wants peace of mind, everybody.
44:24
A lot of people have false peace. They think it's going to be okay because they
44:29
don't want to look at the responsibility or something.
44:31
So they just trick themselves or deceive themselves and think about it.
44:35
He said, tell mankind and womankind
44:39
to snuggle up to my merciful heart and I will fill it with peace.
44:45
Now, isn't that awesome that Jesus would say something like that?
44:51
And you know what? I do that. I'll just like snuggle up in my pillow and just
44:55
say, Jesus, I just want to snuggle up to your heart like that. And.
45:01
And I just feel so calm when I do that, too, because that's my prayer.
45:07
Even though it's like a little kid snuggling up with a teddy bear,
45:11
we're not supposed to be childish, but we're supposed to be childlike.
45:16
And I want to believe that I can snuggle up to Jesus's heart.
45:21
And that's what he wants us to do. And he says, tell people,
45:25
tell people that I am love and mercy itself and that when a soul approaches
45:31
me, now I've seen, I saw this happen.
45:34
When a soul approaches me with trust, I will fill it with such an abundance
45:39
of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but it radiates it to others.
45:48
The grace is so, it radiates and it refreshes other people.
45:54
So many people have spiritual worries.
45:59
So Jesus wants you to give it to them. And he also told St.
46:03
Faustine, he said, Say the Divine Mercy chaplet that I have taught you,
46:07
and whoever will recite it will receive great grace even at the hour of death.
46:14
And even if the sinner was the most hardened sinner, if he or she were to recite
46:21
it just once, they would receive unimaginable graces.
46:28
And would learn to trust in their mercy. My brother, he gave me the permission
46:32
to tell this story to him.
46:34
He came over to my house, and he was the one that was so far away.
46:38
My sister said, don't even pray for him.
46:40
And I said to him, I said, Ronnie, you know, I really love you.
46:44
And, you know, if you really love me, would you just please,
46:48
I know you shouldn't say if you really love me to somebody, but it's like,
46:51
please show me you love me by praying a prayer with me. It only takes 10 minutes.
46:56
And I went and got the picture of Divine Mercy. I put it on my table.
46:59
And when I came back out, he was kneeling on the floor. I couldn't believe it.
47:04
That had to be the Holy Spirit because he was kneeling on this wooden oak floor, you know.
47:10
And so I come back in there and I'm like, I got choked up just seeing him.
47:14
And so I knelt down and I just said, just repeat it after me.
47:18
He didn't even know it. Just repeat these words after me.
47:22
And he did that. And unimaginable graces did come, you would not believe how his life changed.
47:31
He started going to church again.
47:34
He gave me this plaque about how he started praying to God. He wanted prayers,
47:39
you know, to pray and put by his bedside and stuff.
47:42
I mean, it was, and then we would have these talks, these late night talks.
47:46
He'd come and stay all night sometime.
47:48
And we would stay up till like midnight and two o'clock in the morning,
47:53
and I would share a lot of this stuff with him.
47:55
And he's passed on now, but look, he got last sacraments a couple of times before he did pass.
48:02
And here he was on the fringe, and then he's in God's graces then, you see?
48:08
So God really did. He let me see that, even my brother.
48:12
And there's been so many other things too.
48:16
So Jesus said that in this hour, you can obtain for yourself at the three o'clock
48:22
hour. That's when he died.
48:24
So you can obtain for yourself and for others if you ask.
48:30
That this is a great time of mercy for the world, and in that hour I will refuse
48:36
nothing, refuse nothing to the soul who makes a request of me in virtue of my passion.
48:44
That means like, Jesus, in virtue of your passion, you suffered and died for us.
48:49
Okay, so in virtue of your passion, especially at the time when you felt agony
48:54
and abandonment, where you've suffered the most, where you were being beaten
48:59
and everything, You did that for us.
49:01
So would you please give me the grace to trust you? Give me the grace to have faith in you.
49:08
Give my daughter, my son, my husband, my aunt, my whoever, the grace to come to know you.
49:16
Because he will listen to those kind of prayers. Those are prayers of conversion.
49:20
And he will listen to all those prayers, and those prayers will be granted.
49:24
That person, whoever you pray for at that time, they would actually have to
49:29
completely reject God. Do you see what I mean?
49:33
But God's graces are so irresistible. And sometimes it happens at the very end of their life.
49:42
And that happened with my aunts. One was on the operating table.
49:48
She had last sacraments, didn't have anything to do with God in her life.
49:52
And she was 45. She had a tumor in her brain, and they operated,
49:57
and she accepted last sacraments, which fortifies you.
50:02
It's the blessings and prayers of the church that fortifies you for your way
50:08
to before you meet Jesus, because we all meet Jesus when we leave our bodies.
50:13
And she died on the table, so thank God for that.
50:18
And another one of my aunts was 95. She died at 100. at 95 years old,
50:24
and she came back to the Lord.
50:26
So, these prayers and trusting in God, even praying for other people, it really works.
50:33
It works. God will do those things. He will answer those prayers.
50:38
And just on that real quick note, I just wanted to say it because I remember
50:42
it's one of the more touching saint stories I've heard just regarding last rites
50:45
and the anointing of the last rites, really.
50:48
There was some saint that was shown, maybe it was Mary, maybe it was just an
50:51
angel showing her like at the hour of these people's deaths, what was happening.
50:56
And I wish I could remember what saint it was, but she was at the time, not yet a saint.
51:00
She was being shown these things that she said, now that gentleman,
51:03
I know him and he died, but he was an awful man.
51:07
Why did he immediately go to heaven without stopping in purgatory?
51:11
I don't get it. I know that guy. I know what he's done.
51:13
And the angel, saint, whoever it was said to her, she's like,
51:18
you don't understand he received last rites and.
51:23
Of course, everything is forgiven at that moment. And it doesn't matter how fair you think it is.
51:28
They go straight to heaven because that's the incredible power of the sacraments
51:32
that God has instilled. And it was just interesting. It doesn't matter.
51:36
If you receive last rites, awesome. There's no better way to go.
51:40
If your loved one received last rites at the hour of their death or even when
51:43
they're unconscious, that's awesome.
51:45
That's better than being alive because you're assured of the kingdom of heaven.
51:49
And you might say, well, what is that? Just get out of jail free card type of thing? No, not at all.
51:53
And you don't know exactly God's, how he controls all those things,
51:58
but no one is getting a get out of jail free card in the form of last rites. It just doesn't happen.
52:03
You're talking about how certain things can't coexist, such as the only way
52:07
that person cannot receive the graces from God that you prayed for in the divine
52:12
mercy chaplet, they'd have to totally reject him.
52:15
But if they're not doing that, they can't help but receive some of that grace.
52:19
And just the same way here.
52:21
If you're receiving last rites, you're not a hopeless person.
52:26
It's just not gonna happen.
52:28
So anyway, I just wanted to say that because some people might hear that thing
52:32
about last rites that you were talking about, receiving those sacraments and
52:35
not understand how incredible that is.
52:37
So I just wanted to throw that in there, but back to what you were saying.
52:41
Oh, thank you. And that coincides with what you said with the scripture where
52:45
the workers in the field, the laborers, and one came and worked all day,
52:50
and then the other one came at, what,
52:52
five o'clock or something, and they all got the same pay, and the other ones
52:55
that worked all day, and he was like,
52:57
they weren't liking that so much, and it's like, hey, I'm generous.
53:01
And what does it matter to us? We, as humans, tend in our pride,
53:05
the same thing that cast the angels out of heaven in the first place,
53:08
tend to think that we understand what is right and just and fair more than even
53:12
Jesus, who was telling that story.
53:14
And it's just a ridiculous thing. We think we know what's fair.
53:18
And then when we start to think that's not fair, I'm better than him and I have
53:22
it worse. That's where jealousy comes in.
53:25
Envy, you know, and that's the only, who was it?
53:28
A Warren Buffett said, this is maybe inappropriate. He said,
53:31
that's the only deadly sin that never at any point feels good,
53:34
you know, and it's like drinking rat poison and hoping the other person dies.
53:39
Anyway, I'm going on a whole tangent here, but. Oh, that's good.
53:42
I mean, it all relates to what we're talking about.
53:44
It's funny how these ancient verses have perfect applicability to today's problems. They're timeless.
53:51
And that's the whole key, too, is that.
53:55
We can't take for granted that would be, they call that a sin of presumption,
54:00
that, oh, yeah, oh, I'm just going to live whatever I want to do,
54:04
and at the last minute, I'm going to say I'm sorry.
54:07
We may not have that moment, you see?
54:09
Exactly. So we have to be prepared now.
54:12
We have to be prepared now, and it takes a while to convert,
54:17
and so we have to build those virtues and things like that.
54:20
And so, whoever got the Peteran, they called the Peteran Petra for St. Peter.
54:29
The St. Peter last rites, they said that they get to go right to heaven.
54:37
Some people who have never had Jesus in their life at all, they'll still go
54:43
to heaven, but they may have to learn what they missed.
54:46
Sure. You know what I mean? That makes sense. I've never heard that.
54:49
It's like you're in the kingdom, but you're on the steps, you know,
54:54
but you got to go take a bath real
54:56
quick, you know, before you go in the kingdom and give Jesus a big hug.
54:59
That's right. And I've even heard talking to the purgatory lady.
55:02
That's her title here on this show.
55:04
She said that, well, of course, we have purgatory. It's a state more than it is a location.
55:08
But also if we were given the opportunity at the hour of our death to enter that kingdom of God.
55:14
The incredible wedding feast, that we ourselves would not be dressed for the
55:20
occasion and would therefore want to go into the cleansing fire or to just go
55:25
get ourselves in shape to be able to go in there, to get dressed up, to get ready for that.
55:31
So it's not even, it's not, I think it's just a theory that we actually choose
55:36
to undergo that purification in seeing the beauty of the eternal wedding feast.
55:41
So anyway, all that's very interesting. We're getting towards the end of this segment.
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Before we go, though, Marie, is there anything you want to briefly let the listeners
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know before we end this great conversation?
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Yes, I'd like to let you know that myself and A lot of people that I know have
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been praying for all of our listeners and anyone who listens and who they speak
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to about this, too, that they will actually get lots of grace.
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And my closing words would be to say, you know, pray.
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Praise, surrender everything to Jesus. Look up the surrender of novena prayer.
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Surrender, you can get all nine prayers and just say, Jesus,
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I trust in your goodness and kick worry to the curb.
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There we go. Marie, thank you for sharing your wisdom and spiritual insight
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with us today. It was very, very helpful and wonderful to listen to.
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For anyone listening who's battling worry or anxiety, know that you're not alone
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and that through faith prayer and the right mindset, that it's possible to find peace and freedom.
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And thanks for tuning into this episode of Catholic Conversations.
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Until next time, may God bless you all with a great week.
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And remember Jesus's words to St.
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Faustina, the more a soul trusts, the more graces it will receive.
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It's really that simple.
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Marie, thank you very much for your time. You've been listening to Catholic
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Conversations. Download our podcasts at catholicspiritradio.
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Music.