Practical Catholic

Technology is here to stay, and more importantly technology is an integral part of our daily lives whether at work or at home. But technology especially at a young age has many problems, such as technology addiction leading to poor social skills and a computer alter ego, or cyber bullying, predators and a lot of bad information, such as pornography, or violence that can shape our child's views of life. As stated in my last episode, episode 10, parents have a vital role in raising their children, and part of that is introducing and managing technology to their children. But parents are not alone. There are tools, techniques and other parents who can help us in parenting with technology.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about parenting and technology, and talking specifically about using policies and other parents to help with this technology challenge. It is important to understand that as parents we cannot do it on our own. As the saying goes, "it takes a village to raise a child." I will discuss the idea of having a family technology policy which provides an easy way for parents to build a technology culture in a family. Lastly, we will discuss how to keep vigilant in this technology challenge. As parents, we can become saints by simply growing in virtue and holiness in this technology challenge. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 03-Dec-2020

Technology is here to stay and is a great part of our lives, but is technology spiritually healthy? There is a wide spectrum of parents on the issue of technology. From the far right, who do not like technology and do not allow it, to the far left who have abdicated their parenting to technology and allow kids to freely use technology. They use technology on their kids like a pacifier is for infants. To keep them occupied and quiet. With COVID-19, we are seeing a greater use of technology, to socialize, educate and entertain. But is technology the issue or is it how we use it or what we allow as parents?

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about parenting and technology. Technology, like all things in life, is morally neutral, neither good or bad, like a gun or knife. It really depends on how and what we use it for. Yet many parents fear technology or don't care. I am going to discuss how parents can integrate technology in their children's life to maximize social safety and spiritual growth. As parents, we can become saints by simply growing in virtue and holiness in this technology challenge. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advise from Practical Catholic. 19-Nov-2020

Have you ever been chained up, either emotionally or intellectually or feel paralyzed or limited at work or family or even in your own identity. The worst stereotype in life are the ones we put on ourselves that limit us and tells us that "I don't do this," or "that's not me". As Catholics, we tend to bottle ourselves up and see the world as a bunch of "don’t's" or "No's" or feel like we are constantly judged by others. God only gave us 10 Commandments of the "do nots" and yet most Catholics think the world revolves around millions and million of "do nots" or we are measured by the millions of rules and rituals that sometimes seem not to make sense and make us feel guilty if we make a mistake.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about becoming a joyful carefree Catholic and finding out that most of our chains are centered in our soul and not physical. That the world and Satan would want us to focus on the "do nots" and "no" to paralyze us. But, so many great saints, such as St. Maximilian Kolbe who was imprisoned and beaten in Auschwitz were physically imprisoned, but the soul was free and grew to great heights. We will learn what makes us chained up and how to break those chains to bring peace, love, and joy into our lives and really grow spiritually to succeed here, while growing as a child of God. Not Theoretical, but practical; real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 12-Nov-2020

COVID has currently killed over 231,000 people in the US and 1.2 million people world wide. That is a large number of deaths. Why would God allow this virus to kill people? Is there even a God who cares? We can always question God and his wisdom especially when great tragedy occurs such as a pandemic or natural disaster or even personal tragedies like cancer or heart failure that leads to death. Death is tragic, and we have to wonder why God allows it. Why does God allow almost 900,000 babies to die every year. There must be some great good in death that we are missing. What is it?

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about death. There so many questions, fears and hopes about death. Why is there death? What is the meaning of death? What is it to die? How many of us block out the idea of death until a tragedy occurs or death in a family member? And yet even when we block it out, we flirt with death by watching war movies or horror movies, or even dramas like CSI, NCIS or other shows that talk about autopsy. We have plenty of memorials to understand people have died before us, and yet do we think about our own death, which is inevitable. The moment we are born, the clock starts ticking on death. Not theoretical, but practical; real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 05-Nov-2020

If you are asking the question, who should I vote for President this year, I totally understand. This presidential election is really tough to decide on who to vote for. On the one side, we have president Trump who is pitching the economy, "Law & order," relationships with foreign nations to bring peace, and minimizing the COVID-19 pandemic to open the economy. You have Vice-President Biden, who is pitching a better and universal healthcare, a solution about racism and underprivileged, and protection from COVID-19 Pandemic. I agree with both Candidates. So now what?

Hello, everyone. Today's, episode is about helping you select the best presidential candidate. This is not a voter's guide, but an understanding and prioritizing of the issues to help select the best presidential candidate. This is not about Republican or Democrat or Socialism Vs Capitalism, but a true understanding of the issues and how to weigh each issue based on a real objective and prioritized criteria and not based on our feelings or emotions or some special interest. Not theoretical, but practical; real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 29-Oct-2020

Dealing with difficult people is not easy to do. Many people either try to avoid them or try to reason or argue with them which either leads to anger, mistrust and rarely goes anywhere. When dealing with difficult people, we think, why can't they just get it? Or maybe we are optimistic and we think, if only they can get this one point, and then we beat them over the head with this one point.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about working with difficult people, such as a family member, a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or boss and not only growing in holiness with them, but also having them do what you want them to do in most cases. The saints, like St. Therese, and I use a skill that helps us grow in virtue with difficult people and even in most cases can make the difficult person do what you want them to do. I will go over this skill, so you can grow in holiness and Love. Not Theoretical, but practical. Real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 22-Oct-2020

Last episode, we discussed that great saints and mass shooters both heard voices. Great saints heard angelic voices to do great things while mass shooters heard diabolical voices to commit horrible shootings. The world chalks the latter as some crazy and mentally ill person, yet mental issues don't make a person a killer. It's these voices that lead people to do great acts or the worst of actions. We all hear and listen to voices, which influence our decisions and actions every day. Are we listening to the right voice or not? This is important, because these voices can make us a great saint or a bad sinner.

Hello, everyone, today's episode is about discerning the voices in our head and harnessing the power of those voices to become holy like so many great and holy saints in the Catholic Church did. We will be doing a deeper dive on the four voices, which I call the voice of reason, the voice of passion, the angelic voices, and the diabolical voices. Not Theoretical, but practical; real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 15-Oct-2020

What does Adam Lanza, the grade school shooter of Newtown, CT, who killed 27 people, of whom 20 were young children under the age of 7, Stephen Paddock, the Vegas shooter who killed 61 people and injured 861, of whom 411 were by his own gunfire, and St Francis and St Joan of Arc have in common? Answer: All four of them heard "voices in their head." But why such different actions and results, one group are infamous shooters, while the group became great and holy saints. All people hear voices in their head, some more drastic and diabolical and some holy and angelic. How can we tell the difference? Do we even hear the voices in our head?

Hello everyone, todays, episode is about discerning the voices in our head and harnessing the power of those voices to become holy, like so many great and holy saints in the Catholic Church did. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advise from Practical Catholic. 08-Oct-2020

The blame game is as old as Adam and Eve. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the Serpent rather then taking the responsibility and saying forgive me Father for I have sinned. The Blame game destroys families, businesses, and even countries. It is the first and primary source of concrete, external manifestation of disunity and charity.

When two spouses or parent child or business partners, start saying "well it's his or her fault", this is the blame game. There is no winner in the blame game, because blame games are circular argument that you can never win, like tic-tac-toe, the one who loses is one who makes a bad move, which is usually the week and defenseless.

Hello, everyone. Today's topic is about how to avoid the blame game and grow in Holiness. As Catholics, we are not to separate or segregate but to unit in a loving relationship. The blame game is the destroyer of unity and love. If you look at great men and women in history and compare them to great and Holy men and women in history, you will find a common attribute and that is they take responsibility for their actions and never play the blame game.

Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advise from Practical Catholic. 01-Oct-2020

We often are told by the Priests in Homilies, or in retreats or even in confession or spiritual direction that we need to forgive, but rarely do they ever tell us how to forgive. It is wonderful to hear the Gospel reading which states that we should forgive not just 7X7, but 70X7. It's easier said then done!! It can even be frustrating hearing that we need to forgive and the benefits of forgiving, but not knowing how to do it. How do we forgive someone who has broken our trust, who destroyed everything we built or is so negative. Most of the time, these people I am talking about are not total strangers, but our own family members, our spouse our children, our brothers/sisters, etc. The world says run away; they are toxic. The world's solution is separate and segregate.

Hello everyone, today's topic is about how to forgive and show mercy. As Catholics, we are not to separate or segregate but to unite in a loving relationship. This begins with forgiveness and mercy. I have a great secret that makes me forgive very easily. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 24-Sep-2020

Great and Holy Men and Women are made in Times of Crises, are you one of them? In this Covid pandemic crises, which has devastated our economy and relationships and society, we have an opportunity to become holy and great. And how do we become holy and great in this crises? Easily by doing our DUTY. In World War II, it was the citizens and soldiers simply doing their duty, who made the "greatest generation". Our generation has an opportunity to become great by simply doing their duty. Like WW II citizens who went to the manufacturing job to build the industrial war machine and made sacrifices of food and comfort, by rationing and creating victory gardens. So their lives were impacted and it was simply duty that they were doing. We have an opportunity to be great by doing our duty.

Hello everyone, todays, episode is about doing our duty and the virtue of obediace and how doing our duty brings us peace, stability, faith and hope. The best person to teach us duty is the great General MacArthur, who led the US Marines in the Pacific and in Korea. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advise from Practical Catholic. 05-Mar-2020

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about the spirit of Mercy and how to obtain this great spirit. As mentioned before, Mercy is so important to relationships. It is the "buffer" among individuals in a relationship, so relationships don't fall apart. Many Families fall under the "spirit of criticism" rather then the spirit of mercy, which can tear down a family or another person self esteem. This spirit of criticism can hit even pious families. We are going to learn how God shows us mercy and then how we can mimic his mercy and avoid the spirit of criticism. Not theoretical, but practical; real-life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic. 27-Feb-2020

Many times good Catholic parents send their kids to a Catholic University all for the wrong Reasons. It might be because it has the major their child is pursuing, or is famous, or has great connections, or has a good football team, or it stands out in the secular world.

But as parents our last major influence is the college or university to which we send our children. Many of my college friends became atheists because they were educated that way at the university I attended. Friends to this day are still influenced by atheism and are lost and have left the church. Even from good Catholic Families. If you are judging what college your son or daughter is going to based on secular standards, then don't be surprised if they become secular and leave the church.

Hello, everyone. Today's, episode is about what you should be looking into when choosing a college or university. Don’t send them to a Catholic College unless you consider those things we are going to discuss today. Not Theoretical, but practical; Real life Catholic advice from Practical Catholic with David Suess 20-Feb-2020

Hello, everyone! Millions of Americans will be celebrating St. Valentine's day this year with candy, flowers, Romantic dinners, cards, etc. But does this really help us really find true Love and deepen our relationships? Those who are married, engaged or even dating understand that they were probably at first attracted by something that made them get more intimate with the other person. Maybe it was their looks, or conversation, or some suffering that made the relationship more than just friends, something intimate. We often hear of soulmates or love at first sight. All of these are words of intimacy, which is very beautiful. But you cannot base a loving relationship on intimacy alone, as this only leads to a broken heart. True love and relationships are based on both intimacy and commitment, which can bring about even greater intimacy in a time of struggle. 13-Feb-2020

Last week, we discussed "Is Adoption an Option" from an adoptee standpoint. Today's episode is about "Is Adoption and option" from a parent who adopts perspective.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about adopting a child from my own experience and point of view. We will go over the challenges and successes to help those who want to adopt or parents who have adopted. Real life advice from Practical Catholic. 06-Feb-2020

Last Friday was the Pro-Life March in Washington, DC, and many will hold the sign "Adoption is an Option.” But is adoption an option? I recently joined an adoptee group, where many were disparaging their adoptions, one even implying that adoption is "legal human trafficking,” and a recent post of a young Korean adoptee who committed suicide.

Hello, everyone. Today’s episode is about adoptions from my own experience and point of view. We will go over the good, the bad, the challenges and success to help those who are adopted and those parents who have adopted. All within the Practical Catholic Context. 30-Jan-2020

"Damit, I am sick and tired of you and this family!!" Would you believe I once said that to my wife. A lot of people would not believe it. Many Catholics have anger issues. Pent up anger that eventually explodes into a horrific verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

Today we are going to talk about anger, its effect on the home, work, and a person's spiritual life, what causes anger, determining if anger is justified or not and how to overcome anger through the practical lessons of the Catholic Church.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about anger and ways to identify and suggestions on how to overcame anger based on my experience. No psychology lessons, only good old practical Catholic lessons. 23-Jan-2020

Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic. Mobile devices such as the iphone and andoid phones in the Catholic Church typically have a bad rap and are usually frowned on. Even at Mass they start telling people to silence or turn off their mobile devices. You just have to look at kids on their phones who are constantly texting, engaging in social media or taking picture of themselves. It's so addictive.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about my 10 favorite mobile apps and how to effectively use them to grow spiritually. I also talk about the spiritual risks of using mobile devices and how to mitigate those risks. 16-Jan-2020

Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic as he discusses learning from clichés. As I get older, I am realizing that a lot of the clichés that we know, such as the grass is always greener on the other side, are so true. They have such timeless wisdom that I started listening to them. We need to listen to them, but there is only one cliché that I totally disagree with, which I will explain at the end of this episode. But in most cases all of them have such timeless wisdom.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about clichés, how they tie in with the Bible and theology, and how practical and theologically correct they are. 09-Jan-2020

Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic, In this season of new year, millions of Americans will make resolutions to get healthier, smarter and wealthier. Happy New years to all and a Merry Christmas to all. So what does Mary, resolutions, exercising and getting Holy have in common? Your probably thinking nothing. But there is something in common, especially in this Season of making resolutions. So what do they have in common? To understand and effectively apply them, we need to use reason in our resolutions to ensure we can keep them. So many of us do not use reason or think we don't need to use reason, or simply just stopped using reason. Sometimes, in place of reason we use our emotions and feelings to guide us, which really is a problem. This is why people don't understand Mary, or how to make good resolutions, or quit exercising or stop trying to get holy or never attempt it. Why do we fail in our resolutions? Simply because we do not use reason. There are many who use reason at work but fail to use reason in other areas of life, such as our faith and spirituality and even exercising.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about using our reason to make good resolutions to advance in theology, spirituality and even in exercising for our health. It is about how to really apply our intellect so that we can become healthy and holy. 02-Jan-2020

Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic. David has been extremely blessed by God to allow him to have a relationship with two professed atheists. These two atheists have taught him more about God and relationships then any theologian. How is that? and what did they teach me? Today, we are in the Season of Christmas, where the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us as the Gospel of St. John explains. But what is the Word, what does it mean to "keep your word," why does St. John the Baptist call Jesus the "Word," and why does Jesus say "by your words will be condemned"?

Hello, everyone! Today's episode is about what it means to "Keep your word" and that your words have meaning that must be backed by your action!! This was precisely what these atheists taught me. Not by books, not by words only, but more importantly by their actions. 26-Dec-2019

Many of our readings during this Advent season deal with John the Baptist. He is a great saint, but he is also a great Drill instructor for the soul. In Marine bootcamp, I was told that there was no "I" in this platoon, only the Marine Corps, platoon or squad. And so, John the Baptist says, "He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease,” only Christ in us. (December 19, 2019)

Listen to David Suess at Practical as he discusses the two great quotes that Michaelangelo once said and they are.

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." and
"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

I like this quote because, that is what life is all about. How often do we see people as just a lump of marble and not a beautiful angle within the marble? Can we not see the beauty inside the marble and cut away that which is not good?

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about how to harness the greatness and see the beauty in everyone. This is especially important in a family and in a work environment. The difference between managing a family/work or leading a family or work. 12-Dec-2019

Last Tuesday was David Suess's 25th wedding anniversary. In those 25 years, I have seen ups and downs in my marriage, as well as other couples. As Catholics, we would want to believe that marriages by two faithful couples will end "happily ever after". We would want to believe that God is on our side and so everything we do must be good and Holy. Somehow, the Grace shield is going to protect us. But that is not the case at all. I have seen many faithful Catholic couples collapse. Conversely, I have seen great marriages, ones that I see are caring, holy and loving.

This episode is about how I saved my marriage because it was mine to lose, challenges that uniquely affect Faithful Catholic couples and what essential elements you need to make your marriage as loving, caring and holy as possible. 05-Dec-2019

David Suess of Practical Catholic discusses how today, millions of Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving and traveling from all over the US to gather as a family. Those family members who have been scattered around the US will come together and to give thanks for their family, to others and to God and simply focus on being grateful.

But how many of us really do give thanks or are grateful? Or do they use this occasion just to party. Or how many even raise their nose at the Thanksgiving Celebration, seeing it as too worldly and protestant because it celebrates the Pilgrims and the Indians.

The Thanksgiving Celebration is the greatest Exorcism both Materially and Spiritually we can do. This episode is about casting demons out by the use of the Thanksgiving Celebration, both materially and spiritually. 28-Nov-2019

All nations should be ruled by Christ. There was a period of time when most European nations were "Catholic Nations", but over the past 300 years we have seen this segregation of religion from Nations. This is a result of the idea that democracy or real freedom in a nation can only be brought about by nations segregating itself from Christianity. We have this idea that a religion is a personal choice and should never be imposed by the state. But we actually need to make Christ King and ruler not only of our lives, but of our Nation.

Today's episode is about why having Christ as King will bring true freedom, peace and prosperity to a nation and why we Need Christ to Rule over us as King both personally and Nationally!! This weekend we will be celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King!!! 21-Nov-2019

When we think of religious extremism, we typically think of Islam and the "pro-active" martyrdom which leads to the killing of innocent lives, such as the terrorist attacks during 9/11. But do we ever think that within the Catholic Church there is religious extremism?

Today's episode is about religious extremism in the Catholic Church. What is religious extremism, what causes it and how to overcome it. 14-Nov-2019

Do you have an exit strategy in life? A lot of times we have to know the end result before we can actually execute and strive for our end results. What is our exit strategy for life? No matter how strong we are, we are only going to be here in life for about 70 to maybe 90 or 100 years. What is our exit strategy for life when our life ends? It is November and the season to reflect on Death and the end times!! 07-Nov-2019

One solution to the Fake People Syndrome is "reflecting". God has given us an intellect so we can self reflect and reflect about things that surround us and to understand that all things happen for a purpose. Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic as he interviews Robert Hanley, actor, musician, comedian and author as we talk about reflecting. 31-Oct-2019

David Suess of Practical Catholic discusses the continuation of fake people. In the previous episode, I went over the importance of good self esteem, and I explained how the lack of self consciousness of who we are and of our failture to live an intentional life can cause people to become fake. This is because we are brought into a society that encourages a certain behavior and encourages us for our talents. In essence, we are brought into a society that creates robots. It does not emphasize contemplation and meditation on who we are, what are made for and what does God want us to be. Great saints were never fake because they knew who they were.

Today'ss episode continues our discussion of the "Fake people syndrome," and engages the listener in how Catholicism seems to facilitate this fake behavior. Many Catholics will say that Catholics are so fake and not real. And many feel as though the Catholic church is nothing more than a bunch of rules to make us robots. (October 24, 2019)

David Suess at Practical Catholic Interviews Protestant convert David Sanborn, a successful pastor of a protestant church. Listen to David Sanborn's conversion story, his life as a protestant and pastor and what the Catholic Church can learn from his experience. 17-Oct-2019

David Suess at Practical Catholic describes the Fake People Syndrome, where people do not love themselves and chase after the world by using their talents to define themselves and beocme a fake person (October 10, 2019)

Listen to David Suess at Practical Catholic as he discusses: Do we love ourselves? One of the hardest things for any Catholic is to say "I love myself". We have this guilty or bad feeling that we should never say "I love myself" and yet that is exactly what we need to do, to be a loving Christian. Jesus says "love your neighbor as yourself", so in essence, Jesus is asking us to love ourselves. Maybe it is a false or mislead understanding of true humility that leads us to think we should never love ourselves.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about loving ourselves, why we need to love ourselves and more importantly what is the basis of this self love. We can only obtain true humility when we can truly love ourselves for the right reason. 03-Oct-2019

We continue our talk on wrapping up the 4 temperaments and discussing a new way of understanding the self, which I call the two mental process types. The two mental process types are emotional and cerebral process types. I have mentioned these in the past in episode 6 called "Too much drive can be prevent us from Holy Success". I am going to demonstrate through the Bible that the majority of the personal conflicts come from these two process types. The characters we will review are King Saul and David, the prodigal son. the Pharisees and the sinners, and lastly Peter and Paul.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about how to truly know ourselves by analyzing the temperaments and how they effect our family life and discussing the 2 mental process types. This will enable us to work on the proper virtues and vices that hinder us from growing in Holiness. Christian perfection requires us to work on these temperaments and mental process types in order to become a better father, mother, husband, wife, manager, and employee. 26-Sep-2019

We continue our talk about the 4 temperaments and knowing who we are. These temperaments are important to understand who we are, but we should also work on the virtues and vices that hinder us from growing in Holiness. Christian perfection requires us to work on these temperaments in order to become a better father, mother, husband, wife, manager, and employee.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about how to truly know ourselves by using St. Thomas's temperaments as described by Father Marin. We continue our discussion with the phlegmatic temperaments and how all of these temperaments play out in the family and work, as well as using our temperaments to build on our journey to Holiness called perfection. 19-Sep-2019

We continue our talk about the 4 temperaments and knowing who we are. These temperaments are important for an understanding of who we are, and we may use them to help us work on the virtues and vices that hinder us from growing in Holiness. Christian perfection requires us to work on these temperaments so that we can become a better father, mother, husband, wife, manager, and employee.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about how to truly know ourselves by using St. Thomas's temperaments as described by Father Marin. We continue our discussion with the Melancholic and Choleric temperaments.

If you want to be a saint, you need to begin by really knowing who you are. Many of us say we have faults and issues, and we say we are sinners with such self deprecation, but do we really know what our faults are or do we just keep them at a very high level, so we never need to work on our vices, our faults, our sins. This process of knowing who we are is not just a one time event but a continual event that deepens and grows as we seek holiness and become a saint. This knowing yourself is not only good spiritually in growing holy, but also practical, to become a better father, mother, husband, wife, manager, and employee.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about how to truly know ourselves by using St. Thomas's temperaments as described by Father Marin and some cautions on how to effectively use them to grow spiritually and practically. 05-Sep-2019

People with whom we associate, such as family, friends and co-workers, greatly influence our thinking, decisions and actions. These influences can be anti-religious, taking drugs or even some crazy actions like stealing. Most people don't go from good to evil in a single instance. It typically involves a slow process that is based on influences by others. The teenage boy who associates with the "cool" guys smoking marijuana, gradually goes from being the person who thinks he can say no to drugs to the person who is trying it then doing it. To avoid or stop any such influence requires us to excommunicate those who surround us with evil behaviors and to surround ourselves with true friends and true love.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is about how evil friendships and associates can lead us to evil acts and how to stop these behaviors by what I call excommunicating our friends or associates that influence us and building true friendships and love. It is through our controlling the quality of our friendships that we can build ourselves up through positive influences on our lives. 29-Aug-2019

Like all new discoveries, we find prayer to be great and pleasing, especially when we rediscover or convert to the Catholic Church, or maybe even join a Catholic organization such as a secular Franciscan/Carmelite, or Knights of Columbus. But eventually we lose the ferver and zeal and realize that the day to day life is still the same, do prayers even work? We start slowly ending our prayer life because it does nothing to us. We call this spiritual dryness.

Hello, everyone, Today's episode is about spiritual dryness. The killer of the prayer life and the spiritual life. We will be discussing what spiritual dryness is and what we can do about it, especially as it relates to the secular world. 22-Aug-2019

A lot of people complain about the crises of the church. We have pedophile priests, liberal priests and bishops, lukewarm and "cafeteria" Catholics. Satan is taking another route to destroy the church, and that new route is to destroy the "domestic church," which is the family. The critical part about that family is that if you do not have Holy Families, you will not have holy priests, religious and society. The foundation of the Catholic Church is the family.

Hello, everyone, today's episode is on location at Catholic Family Land (CFL) in Ohio, with My close friend Kim Dax, whom I have known for nine years. We are going to talk about the 4 points that Catholic Family Land always emphasizes, which are sin, grace, holiness and consecration. 15-Aug-2019

The past two weeks I have been in Africa, first climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, then visiting the animals of Africa at the Ngorongoro par, which I call the Lion King park because it includes the animals found in the Lion King. We then headed for the orphanage and Archdiocese of Tabora. This unique archdiocese faces many material challenges, such as very little water to sustain farms, even to wash and cook. Many are scavenging for water. There is no main industry in this area, yet people flock to this area--I think mainly because the church here in the archdiocese is extremely fervent and rich even amongst the many Muslims in this area and in Tanzania generally speaking. Muslims were the first to be here way before the first Europeans and Christians arrived in the mid 1800's. Even though Tabora has its material struggles, the faith and dedication of the people to the Catholic church is amazing. The Church in Africa is vibrant, growing and possibly the way in which the Catholic Church in the West, that is, Europe and US, will be revived.

Hello, everyone. Today's episode is an interview with Archbishop Ruzoka, the Archbishop of Tabora. He is a very holy, knowledgeable and experienced Archbishop. He was ordained a Bishop in 1990 and is the fourth native African Archbishop of Tabora and has been the Archbishop of Tabora since 2006. He has met and has been a great friend to St. John Paul II and St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. These two great modern day saints left their mark on the Archdiocese of Tabora. St. John Paul II visited the archdiocese and St. Mother Teresa established her second missionary house in the Tabora archdiocese. We are honored to have him as a guest on this podcast. 08-Aug-2019

Many of the greatest accomplishments of men and women, whether they be notable like climbing Mt. Everest or little known such as discovering anti-biotics in scientific research, all have virtues that are common to achieving the goal. Those common virtues are fortitude, persistence and a desire to overcome, or what we call in the Marines "True Grit". These virtues are not learned, but experienced.

I believe one of the reasons, why the "Greatest Generation", the generation that fought World War II, had such great determination both in the battlefield, as well as peace time to build such a great American economy, was because they went through the school of hard knocks called the depression, during which they had to survive. People must experience the hardships weather they be in bootcamp for the military or maybe even their upbringing. These hardships and suffering build character in the form of virtue.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and how this experience affected each one of us. It was myself, my 17 year-old-son and Fr. Desderius Katabaro, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tabora who climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. Mt Kilimanjaro is the worlds highest free standing mountain. The height is a little over 19,300 feet. It really took "True grit" and determination to climb this mountain. I was extremely proud and impressed with my son. The amount of pain and psychological heartaches we encountered were extremely huge, which would impress any Marine training. Very few people can claim to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, even fewer can claim to climb it at age 17. Let's listen to how we all were able to overcome and achieve such a great accomplishment. 01-Aug-2019

For the past several episodes, we have been going over prayer and most especially the grades of prayer that focus on the ascetical prayer life. These grades of prayer were emphasized By St. Theresa of Avila in her book the interior castle. Fr. Terrence, a Florida priest, eloquently goes over the second mansion which is meditation. Let's listen to Fr. Terrence as he speaks about the second mansion meditation. 25-Jul-2019

For the past several episodes, we have been going over prayer and most especially the grades of prayer that focus on the ascetical prayer life. These grades of prayer were emphasized by St. Theresa of Avila in her book The Interior Castle. Fr. Terrence eloquently goes over the first mansion which is vocal prayer. Let's listen to Fr. Terrence as he speaks about the first mansion of vocal prayer. 18-Jul-2019

Many Catholics have a difficult time enjoying a calming and peaceful prayer life because of the many distractions. These distractions can be the background noise of children crying or people talking at Mass, or distractions through other senses like annoying smells. Many of us have distractions in our own mind, thinking about work, family or business obligations or even letting our minds wander.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about helping us to avoid distractions and focus our minds in prayer, so prayer can be calming and peaceful, even if the external world is noisy and chaotic. We will be discussing the four main points of distraction, which are external senses, passions, preoccupation and wandering of the intellect, and sin and scruples. 11-Jul-2019

Why don't Christians act like Christians? The Christian ideals such as the ten commandments, beatitudes or even the Golden Rule are very beautiful and not only beautiful, but perfect for running a nation, business, a family or any organizations. It is always easy to blame others for our not following the Christian way of life, but many do not take the time to correct themselves. Even worse, there are many good Christians who want to do better but do not know how to change and become a saint. The secret to a slow change is Resolutions.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is a continuation on our topic of prayer and using prayer to motivate us to make and fulfill resolutions. Many fail on resolutions because of 4 main basic issues. The first is the lack of willingness to change, the second is the faulty view of Prayer (which affects the intellect), the third is lack of use of the Will and the fourth is the improper way of making resolutions. We will discuss all four and how we can overcome these issues. 04-Jul-2019

Many Catholics have a "shoot from the hip" or ad-hoc kind of prayer life and have difficulty sustaining a prayer life. A prayer life that helps us grow in encountering Christ. A Prayer life that is grounded and rooted in the basics will help Catholics spiritually grow.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about the baseline of prayer. A good prayer life has a baseline where we need to start from what can be used to grow in our prayer life. Let's start with the basics and fundamentals as a foundation to a great prayer life. 27-Jun-2019

Prayer is an encounter with Jesus. A loving gaze into heaven. It gives us strength and can heal all wounds and make us into the greatest saints. If this is the case, then why do we feel like praying is a chore, it's boring, dry and sometimes, a pain in the neck.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about integrating our prayer life into our daily lives. What causes agita when we pray and how to overcome them so that we can become a saint and sanctify the world by becoming the holy success God is calling us to be. 20-Jun-2019

Did you ever make resolutions and just failed to keep them after a week or two. How about wanting to grow in virtue, but just keep failing. Why is this? Most likely it is because of a poor prayer life. A prayer life that emphasize petitions and miracles, rather then an ascetical prayer life that helps us elevate our intellect to encounter God through meditation. The fruit of encountering God is Love. Love is the most powerful force and driver of change. Change that will help us fulfill our resolutions. This is the secret of all the great saints.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is the continuation of the last episode on prayer and how to harness the power of prayer through an ascetic prayer life, so we can grow in peace, love, and joy and to become the Holy success God is calling us to. 13-Jun-2019

How many of us pray the rosary, or divine mercy chaplet, or novena prayer as if they were some incantation, expecting God to answer our prayer by the sheer number of times we pray them. Or sometimes we get so frustrated because we often are driven by "a checklist prayer" mentality or give up because God did not answer our prayers.

But there is a logical progression or path of prayer, which can truly eliminate all of our vices, build virtues and help us on our imperfections. This logical path of prayer, or ascetic prayer, life is simple and truly harnesses the power of prayer to become more loving, caring, peaceful and Holy. The power of prayer is not getting God to answer our prayers, but by willingly changing who we are by loving God through prayer.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about how to harness the power of prayer through an ascetic prayer life. The topic of prayer will span multiple episodes, but today's episode will help us understand the type and grade of prayer, so we can implement them to grow in holiness. 06-Jun-2019

Where can we find perfect joy? So many people are searching for that perfect joy in places of pleasure or escapism, but is perfect joy found in pleasure? Or is perfect joy found in suffering? St. Francis would say yes to the latter! In fact, St. Francis would say that you can only find perfect joy in suffering. Can you imagine that great saints actually found joy in suffering. That would be like Saints seeing suffering as a fun ride or great meal. On the other hand, we see suffering as painful or humiliating experiences to avoid.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about finding perfect joy in suffering and understanding how to acquire that perfect joy in everyday life to become the light of the world and salt of the earth and become a Holy success in the world. 30-May-2019

One of the greatest and most profound attributes of the Catholic church is the ability to serve by its members. It is Service that provides the church her priests, religious and all men and women. It is service that permeates the family and unites the family. Service is where the rubber meets the road when called to be loving and self donating. Statistically speaking, devout families that emphasize and do service-oriented works will have a higher chance that their children will keep the faith than devout families who do no service actions. Service is the hallmark of a saint. I can think of no saint who did not serve both God and Man. Service is also the hallmark of great leaders, businesses and patriots.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about service. We are going to discuss what is service, how it is necessary for work and family, how it brings peace in our lives, how to increase service in our own lives along with what prevents us from serving. 23-May-2019

Why do we seem to repeat the same sins over and over again? Why is that we do not change or even want to change? Why can I not seem to progress in my spiritual or secular life? So many of us want to become better and strive to improve, only to fail and get frustrated. We seem to not advance as quickly or even at all. I want to become better, but I don't know where to begin.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about humility or what I call the willingness to change. We are going to discuss how humility is the catalyst to changing ourselves and how so many of us are misled with a false sense of humility. 16-May-2019

Do you have a tough time meditating or even knowing what meditation is all about or know how to meditate. Meditation provides both a catalyst to change one's behavior and a resulting spiritual growth. Many of us either intellectualize or emotionalize meditation and really do not spur a spiritual growth, but only a feel good sentimentality. Yet, Meditation is critical to spiritual growth. In fact, many Franciscan saints will say that Meditation is necessary for salvation because it is what helps us to confirm ourselves to be a Saint.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about the intellect, and how we can use the intellect to meditate and self-reflect to strengthen our will to make and keep resolutions and conform to a saintly behavior. 09-May-2019

How many times do we want to do God's will and feel like he is not there to help us? We might have a problem and feel that God is not there to help us or guide us through those problems. Or we might have a religious friend who uses every ridiculous sign to justify a decision or action that we know is contrary to Catholic church teaching, such as dating a married man, using immoral ways to get pregnant or running a business unethically.

Hello Everyone, today's episode is about the intellect, the faculty that is the ordinary means of solving problems, bringing peace into our lives through proper risk management and doing God's will by making key decisions through discernment and prayer. Instead of relying on Google as our God, which I call the new Gnosticism, we can rely on our Intellect, which God has given us to be like Him. 02-May-2019

One of the biggest issues I run into with running a business is finding qualified people to work in my business. Two main issues I find when hiring is that applications appear to lack the ability to use their intellect and reason to solve problems. They typically want to be given the answer or knowledge to solve the problems. They do not know how to create ideas and deduce answers. They tend only to seek sensory knowledge, but knowledge itself is meaningless unless a person can use the sensory knowledge to produce intellectual knowledge and use reason to deduce possible answers and conclusions and grow in experience.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about the intellect, the faculty that makes us uniquely the image and likeness of God and separates us from Animals. I am going to discuss what is the intellect and how it operates. Then, I'll give practical real world wisdom on how to use the intellect for problem solving and risk management. 25-Apr-2019

Have you ever started a diet or spiritual exercise, only to give up after a few days or weeks? Why is Lent 40 days, why do we have novenas, why can't we just pray once and have God answer our prayer? Did you ever wonder how a person would ever want to do an evil act, so extreme like abortion, or genocide. God has given humans a will that that can be used for evil or good purposes or not be used at all. As Catholics, we sometimes use our religion as a crutch or as an escapism because life is difficult.

Hello, Everyone, today's episode is about the will and taking ownership of your life to become a Holy Success. We will explore what is the will and how it operates within the other faculties of the soul and how to harness it for good. 18-Apr-2019

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Sometimes, we feel like we put a lot of effort into our work, our family and our spiritual life, and we just seem to get by and do OK, but do we really strive for Holy Greatness??!! People see us for the great value we provide because we can get things done, but life seems a little too easy. Is there something wrong? Am I missing something? The answer to that is, yes, most of the time we do a good job at work or family or life in general because we have a myopic drive - a drive that we are comfortable with and the world likes, but does not get us to Holy Greatness and success.

Hello Everyone, Today's topic is about achieving Holy Successes through a balanced drive by doing things outside of our comfort zone and breaking our myopic drive, to become well-rounded and perfect. It is not what we are good at that makes us great, but how we can improve in our weaknesses that makes us great. 11-Apr-2019

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Have you ever been caught in the rut of always talking a big game, but never getting things done? How about a lofty goal that you want to go after, but have never achieved. Or maybe a regret that you never tried to achieve a dream because you were too afraid. Sometimes, it might be as simple as a father or mother who just survives and does not interact with his or her kids. Most excuses involve something like this: "we just don't have the time". In reality, it is the lack of drive.

Hello Everyone, today's episode is about drive. The essential element that helps us get things done, helps us to achieve great things. We will discuss where drive comes from, what causes us not to have drive and how to overcome the lack of drive. The topic of drive will be a two-part series. The first being lack of drive and the second being too much drive. So, let's stop regretting and start achieving the Holy Success God is calling you! 04-Apr-2019

Hello Everyone, today's episode is about failure--where it comes from and how to not only overcome failure, but also to use failures to grow in life. Did you ever feel like a failure so much that you just wanted to quit? Maybe you feel like your whole life is a failure? Maybe you have a friend who needs help overcoming failure. How do we recover from failures that truly make us give up, not go after what we want and need? Failures can be in our relationships, work, business, family and spirituality. And they can be so strong that we want to give up our Hope and our Faith. (March 28, 2019)

Have you ever met Catholics who seem to be really good Catholics - they say the rosary, even go to daily Mass - yet when you talk with them about the abortion issues they seem to be pro-choice? Or maybe you have seen people who go to Sunday Mass and to Men's groups but do not seem to practice what they preach? Why is that? Some say it is just "Cafeteria Catholicism" where one picks and chooses what they like from the Catholic Church. But Cafeteria Catholicism is not the issue. It is only the symptom. Today's episode is about the worst disease in the Catholic Church. It affects more Catholics than the flu and destroys more relationships than any other disease. It is the cause of many to sin and bring evil into this world, and that is "luke-warmness by luke-warm sinners in the Catholic Church. (March 21, 2019)

Today's episode is about what makes a saint or a sinner and how we personally can choose to be a saint or a sinner. Did you ever notice that Saints and Sinners are really similar? Why is it that a lot of saints, used to be bad sinners? Could you imagine if Hitler was a saint? The attributes that make an infamous sinner and a Heroic saint is the same. They both are successful, strong, courage, bold, determined, and have the ability to influence many people and even make them change who they are. But they do have one difference that makes them a saint or sinner. And that difference is Love. 14-Mar-2019

Can Catholics really be successful in this world and still be Holy? A lot of times we think that Holiness and success are contradictory. But in reality Holiness requires us to be successful. But why does that sound strange and why do we sometimes feel guilty about it. Today's episode is about worldly success and Holiness. 07-Mar-2019