Category: Spiritual Formation
July 9, 2025
The Art of Being Fearless
Fearless. The very word evokes strength, courage, honor, and resilience.
Conditioned by film producers, we tend to think that being brave means having no fear.
The truth is that courageous people have fears too. ... READ MORE
July 2, 2025
Sickness and Unforgiveness 3 Signs That You Haven’t Let Go
Medical research has demonstrated that unforgiveness is linked to stress, heart disease, high blood pressure, lowered immune response, anxiety, depression and more (John Hopkins Medicine).
Recently, I encountered a woman who will not forgive her husband for having an emotional affair.
She suffers from a number of very intense health problems, including a second round of cancer.... READ MORE
July 1, 2025
Make Prayer Powerful: 3 Steps
Have you thought, while praying, that you were really not praying?
Have you ever had the thought that during prayer you didn’t think once about God?
Many people pray but leave prayer unchanged.
Unchanged people have no power to change the world around them.... READ MORE
May 15, 2025
The Devil’s Six Darts
The evil one assails us with six darts for the purpose of preventing us from being lifted up in sacrificial glory, and become like Christ: a magnet of self-giving love.
Theses six darts are: doubt, discouragement, deprecation, disobedience, despair, and ultimately death...... READ MORE
May 14, 2025
Who Do You Pray To? It Matters.
Recently I asked a large group of men on retreat, “Raise your hand if you pray—not to Mary, not to St. Joseph, not even to our Lord Jesus, but—to God the Father—specifically.”
Not one hand went up.... READ MORE
April 16, 2025
Psalm 22: 10 Ways Jesus Fulfilled the 1000-Year-Old Prophecy
Far from a cry of defeat, the words, “O God my God . . . why hast thou forsaken me” was Jesus’ recitation of the first line of the prophetic Messianic Psalm 22.
By saying the first line of Psalm 22, Jesus was stating that the one-thousand-year-old prophecy contained in the psalm is now fulfilled in Him.
Far from being a cry of death, at that very moment, from the Cross, in the face of His nemesis, Christ proclaimed His definitive victory over evil.... READ MORE
April 8, 2025
Wrong and Real Repentance
Considering this, the truth is that you will sin.
But how you respond after that shameful moment has the potential to determine your life’s trajectory and, indeed, your eternal destiny.
How you repent matters. St. Paul tells us, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.” (2 Cor 7:10).
... READ MORE
April 1, 2025
Love That Incurs Hatred
The world’s version of virtue is embodied by “getting along,” avoiding moral judgements, and proclaiming and living the gospel of “niceness.”
Peace, kindness, and love are terms that the secular culture has hijacked, disfigured, reinterpreted, and manipulated as an imposition on the Christian man that he might become manageable...... READ MORE
March 17, 2025
The Secret Sauce of the Saints
To discover who we really are, to discover who God has designed and destined us to be, can be one of life’s greatest challenges.
There is a way...... READ MORE
March 5, 2025
Transform Your Trials into Your Triumph: 3 Steps
...Of course, there are a million more reasons why our lives end up being what we don’t desire them to be.
We often despise others because we despise our life, and we despise our life, not for external reasons but because we despise our internal self...
This post is for anyone whose pain of not becoming who you were created to be, becomes so intense that you are willing to embrace the pain of changing your life...
... READ MORE
February 12, 2025
Prayers that Keep Me Anchored
One of our faithful Father of St. Joseph group facilitators in Ireland asked me to provide some prayers that are…well…not as verbose as the ones I have written. Prayers that are easier to remember and memorize, and consequently, easier to pray...... READ MORE
January 21, 2025
How To: Your Best Morning Offering
The Foundation is Essential.
You can build a splendid house.
But if that house is built upon a faulty foundation, regardless as to how grand it appears, it will eventually crumble.
It cannot endure.
Our Lord, the eternal craftsman tells us that there are those who build their house (their life) on rock (solid habitual beliefs and actions based on His Word) whose lives endure in glory.
And there are those who build their lives on sand (faulty, shifting beliefs and actions based on human respect and opinion). He refers to these as foolish men.
... READ MORE
January 15, 2025
The Secret to Knowing God’s Will
Perhaps you have heard someone say something like:
“How do I know what God’s will is for my life?”
If you are serious about being Jesus’ disciple, you also, have asked a question similar to the one above.
Is it God’s will that we break up?
Is it God’s will that I get married?
Is it God’s will that I be a priest?
Is it God’s will that I quit my job?
Is it God’s will that I take that job offer?
Is it God’s will to enter full-time ministry…purchase that home…become a missionary?
... READ MORE
January 7, 2025
How to Know If You Are a Self-Idolator
Why is belief in God decreasing?
My hunch is that Christians and the practical outcome of their lives, aren’t all that different than people who are worldly.
If Christians act like the world, look like the world, live like the world…why would anyone want to be a Christian?
It is easier just to be worldly without any moral restrictions.
Just a cursory look at believers indicates that people profess that they believe in God but in practicality live as though they do not.
My friend speaking of such a person says, “He is a professing theist but a practicing agnostic.”
... READ MORE
December 3, 2024
Why People Are Miserable…Or Happy
Have you ever had thoughts like this:
Why can’t I be happy?
Why is that person so happy?
Is there a secret way to be happy?
Why are people so miserable?
More precisely, how do I stop being miserable?
Have you ever felt frustrated, perhaps irritated because a friend, co-worker is always “chipper?”
... READ MORE
September 4, 2024
Peace and Confidence that Worldly People Envy
We all want peace.
The kingdom of the world has its version, as does the Kingdom of the Word. Only one can satisfy our deepest longings.
In this post I will examine:
The world’s peace: its four marks and its six promises.
I will also outline the three characteristics of true peace which empowers a man with the confidence to rise above the temptation to bow down to the world.
I will give you a sure-fire method to determine from which of the two fountains—the world or the Word— you are drinking from?... READ MORE
July 31, 2024
How to Know If You Are of the World.
The Christian is to be in the world but not of the world.
But how do you know if you are of the world or of the Word?
This question haunted me.
Should I own a house? Save money for the future?
Is watching movies acceptable?
Scrupulosity (a psychological disorder primarily characterized by obsessive guilt associated with religious norms) took hold.
... READ MORE
July 30, 2024
Satan’s Statue: What Does It Really Mean?
During his presentation on spiritual warfare, Fr. Peter Zorjan, said that occultists are attempting to erect the statue of Baphomet wherever the 10 Commandments are stationed.
For example, the image of Baphomet sits next to the 10 Commandments monument at the state capital in Springfield, Illinois.
Fr. Zorjan says, “Spiritual warfare ultimately boils down to one thing... ... READ MORE
July 4, 2024
Why I Lack Joy
A Franciscan friar, and I sat, facing one another in the midst of the monastery’s lawn.
The topic: my lack of joy.
He counseled, “You lack poverty.”
I was perplexed.
“You mean I have to be poor to be happy.”
He explained how joy and poverty were related.
I failed to understand the connection.... READ MORE
July 3, 2024
After You Fall: 6 Must Do’s
You have fallen—again.
Sinful postpartum, self-accusation, and satanic condemnation assail you.
What you do in this moment determines your future.
The proper Response—the 6 R’s.... READ MORE
June 11, 2024
Is Your Desire Too Small?
Desire is a double-edged sword.
Desire awakens the hope of attaining a “good.”
On the other hand, desire rouses lament because what is hoped for has not been attained.
Desire’s tension is analogous to Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
After leaving Egypt, and before entering the Promised Land, is a period of testing, and wandering...... READ MORE
May 23, 2024
Detaching From Problematic People
Have you been betrayed? Abused? Maligned? Cheated?
Is there someone you don’t like, or who doesn’t like you?
Christ admonishes us: unless you forgive your enemy—from the heart—God the Father will not forgive you.
Forgiveness is conditional.
Forgiveness is granted to those who grant it.
Holy detachment is a prominent theme in the spiritual life...... READ MORE
May 23, 2024
D.E.I or DIE?
D.E.I.: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.
Diversity: “Embracing all aspects of human difference…”
Except for those who believe in binary gender difference (male and female).
Notice the “difference.”...... READ MORE
April 23, 2024
Four Practical Tactics to Defeat the Devil
Many of us, unwittingly, grant the devil power over us.
Why?
We cling to something that gives the devil permission to cling to us.
Four practical ways to cast out demons...
... READ MORE