The Empowered Catholic Podcast

Fear is natural. It's a natural emotion. [00:14:10] Why, then, do we have this emphasis on fearlessness? There are things that naturally come up in life that are always going to give rise to fear. And In those situations, probably what's needed is courage. The courage to act in the face of feeling fear and doing the right thing. Fearlessness is different and addresses all the rest of the fears we...

God made you. So live your life. It's YOUR job. If you are living a version of your life only because it's the version that someone else thinks is what you should do, you will feel it in your bones. It will sap your power, meaning that sense of agency that creates energy to live your life. Authenticity looks like Acting from your core; doing/saying/showing up from your beliefs, values, choices, pe...

So often, we're looking ahead. We're looking to the future. We're waiting until something happens or until we get to the next place, or to the next milestone. Or we're worried and anxious about what might happen in the future. That's living in the future and not living in the present where we're meant to be. Our power is in the present and it is where God meets us. Learning how to trust the proces...

We often think we are making choices, but really it's our past, our worries and fears, our habits, our trigger behaviors, or our doubts that are making the choices for us. We are hijacked by our past without us even realizing it. Because when we make choices, we are always filtering them through our past experiences. What we learn from those experiences tends to create what the "facts" are for us....

Awareness is a discipline, meaning a kind of excellence that you could cultivate, that shows up in a few different contexts. Awareness is the ability to know "what is". It's the ability to discern what's actually happening from your mind's interpretation of what's happening. In a sense, it means being present versus seeing a situation from the past. We have a catalog of past experiences and those...

Serene acceptance is radical acceptance. It sets the stage for our most powerful action and divine cooperation. There's nothing passive, woe-is-me, or giving up when we practice serene acceptance. It shifts us immediately to see what might be possible. What you are resisting about life? When you are busy rejecting, resenting, resisting, or glumly resigning yourself to a situation, ask yourself: Wh...

Our modern ideas about discipline are deeply impoverished relative to the days of the fathers of the church. When we think of discipline, we think about a general disciplining the troops, the principal dishing out punishment, or the need to persevere to complete a hard task. Yet these are only one part of discipline. Jesus invites us to be his disciples. Disciples are invited to be much more than...

Boy! It's hard to hope!  The challenges of the present age overwhelm us, and we worry, we fear, we become discouraged and defeated.  As Christians, we grasp onto the cosmic hope of Christ and struggle to make it our own. Hope itself is a contradiction, a stance in the midst of uncertainty, and a refusal to avoid the tension of being human.  We strive to do what Abraham did, trusting "against all h...

Our hope is too small. Scripture reveals a hope that embraces all of creation cosmically reordered and recreated as an interlocking of a new heaven and new earth. We are so individualistic, so atomized in our culture, that we can hardly even understand what we read in the New Testament when it comes to hope. Remember Romans 8 where all of creation groans as it waits for the revelation of the sons...

"I'm gonna answer the call. I am willing to use my gifts. I am going to choose my greater potential." Magnanimity is the greatness of the heart. It is fundamentally conceived in terms of vocation and stewardship: it is a response to God's call, and willingness to use his gifts. As Aquinas says: "Magnanimity makes us deem ourselves worthy of great things in consideration of the gifts we hold from G...

Gratitude kicks off a cycle of positivity in your relationships because it engenders the same response from other people. We all need to remind ourselves of the good things we have because our lovely brains have a big negativity bias that will take over unless we actively resist negativity. Easter is a season to embrace new hope, and to look at the world with new eyes of faith. Appreciation and gr...

You weeded the garden in Lent. Now it's time to plant some seedlings. Try out something new. Reconnect with your experience of awe to open your heart up to something new. God always has something new for you. Something just for you. You were busy cleaning your house in Lent. Now the Holy Spirit is here and waiting to engage you in new ways. Awe is a universal human experience that catapults us out...

When we read the Lord's Prayer with the understanding that it's a prayer for the Kingdom of God now and forever, we can grasp how "forgive us our debts" is a reflection on how the Kingdom of God operates. It's a kingdom where forgiveness is offered and received. We are all reconciled with God and each other. That's why we are the people of peace: we are living our vocation of forgiveness. Join us...

Teach us, Lord, how to pray. And we got this remarkable prayer that's so very short. How can it be called a summary of the Gospels? The key is to understand how to pray it with the end in mind. Remember that life tip that says "Begin with the End in Mind"? When we keep the end in mind, then the petitions make more sense. "Hallowed be Thy name" can sound like "don't use the Lord's name in vain." Bu...

The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect Christian prayer, and in this episode, we discuss creating the right mindset for this beautiful prayer. Watch out!   We'll be tackling big scary things like 'eschatology', 'eschatological dualism', and '2-stage eschatology'–but only to find out they're not so scary after all. We don't know exactly what God's future will look like, but we do know some things, a...

From the earliest days of Christianity, people recognized there was something very important and special about being given the words of the Lord's Prayer. Peter Chrysologus was teaching it to some newly baptized Christians and he said: "The angels stand in awe at what you are going to hear today."  I think to the modern Christian, the kind of praise and reverence that early Christians showed to th...

SHARPen up your marriage! We have some high-level tips for you. S is Shared Vision or Story. H is healing in your marriage. A is attend to the marriage bond. R is the R-word, you know what it is: Relationship! Brush up on your R skills! Be a better friend. P is for personal growth. Gotta grow. When you grow, you will bring new energy to the relationship.    Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midli...

Husbands really, really want to please their wives. C'mon, I mean, St. Paul even warns us about it! Laura Doyle wants wives to believe it and lean into it by telling their husbands what would please them. The trick is to do so without being demanding or unpleasant. Listen in for this how-to marriage tip!    Referenced Materials Laura Doyle, The Empowered Wife, Updated and Expanded Edition: Six Sur...

Much of what is taught about having a great marriage is not very helpful, according to marriage guru John Gottman. He says one of the biggest keys is to learn how to cultivate a deep friendship. He writes, "I rarely see small moments of connection in the tapes of couples who later divorce or report their marriage has permanently soured". Cultivate a connection with the habit of "turning toward" yo...

Our "maps" of who we "know" our husband or wife can get outdated. We have assumptions about them that are not true anymore. We could ask better questions: curious, open-ended questions that are gentle and inquisitive. We give you some good ideas about how to ask those questions. We also discuss the five levels of sharing. It's surprising how seldom we reach the deepest levels, even after many year...

If you are struggling with your goals, we offer you five common reasons that goals are not accomplished. One of them is that our goal does not require taking measurable actions, so we don't know if we are executing our plan. For example, if you have a goal to improve a certain relationship, that could be a wonderful intention but it does not require any measurable actions, so it's not a goal. But...

We often lack what's needed to actually make changes.  In other words, we often have a goal and do not realize we are not ready to chase that goal. So we are not successful in creating the change. I think all of us have experienced that!! It's not as easy as "just deciding" to do "it." Karen shares the four requirements for change. The first one is to GET RID of the baggage that's associated with...

Today's episode is an EXERCISE to create great goals for yourself. Jump in and try it! As we practice the virtue of living in the moment (episode 101) we might wonder: Am I doing what I'm meant to do at this time? Having great GOALS helps with this question. What if you had great, inspiring goals? A strong direction? Often our goals are a glorified to-do list that provides little true direction. "...

Living in the present moment is a habit to help us reach for interior peace and integrate our lives. God is never early, He's never late, He's always right on time. God's grace is found in the present moment. If you are in the present, as Jaques Philippe says, you "entrust the past to the mercy of God and trust the future to His providence, doing just what is required of you today," and that helps...

Listen to catch some new thoughts about the way you think about time! The modern mind thinks of time as a commodity. As a tool or a resource. There's a limited amount of it. We have a lot of sayings that reflect this viewpoint, such as "time is money." Or "living on borrowed time," or "it's about time." But time is more than another object we use. Time was created by God as a way for us to partici...