 Okay, hey friends you're watching behind scenes divine intimacy radio and before we jump in today in this show we're going to be talking about the secrets that St. Alfonso Seguri gives us in specific kinds of circumstance in life to overcome the I don't know the darkness to what practices can we undertake to not get stuck in that downward spiral that destructive spiral resisting God's will and all that sort of junk which only causes more sin and more suffering without merit which is really not good so we'll jump into that in a minute we're going through my latest book finding peace in the storm uniformity it's a reflections on St. Alfonso Seguri's uniformity with God's will which is absolutely necessary for our times for Catholics to deal with a lot of the junk we're dealing with before we jump into that we have divine intimacy in marriage retreat we have a few seats left for February of 2024 right before valentine's day the February 9th through the 11th and it's a life-changing marriage retreat we have people fly in from all over the world even to go to this retreat and it's at the shrine of the most blessed sacrament in hands full alabama anointed ground anointed ground it'd be tn's foundress saint or saint maybe mother angelica is is entombed there and she's the one that built the shrine and it's the shrine is we're seeing just in and of itself eight foot tall monstrance second tallest in the world it's really extraordinary exquisite place so the place itself is holy you have those nuns are praying for us while we're doing the retreat and then the retreat is based on Catholic mystical tradition not pop psychology so it's very different from anything you've experienced men are not asked to act like women and women are not asked to act like anything but what they should and no kumbaya no no goofy of exercises no guys love it i mean all the guys who go and even i even had a guy who was in like an unbeliever went with his wife because he loved his wife and he said he hadn't laughed that hard in a long time because there is humor and story in the midst of all of it and he enjoyed it and he enjoyed being with his wife but pre-married so if you're engaged to be married if you're married and your marriage is about ready to fall apart it feels like it or your marriage is very healthy we we have believe it or not the retreat helps all of those people right in an extraordinary way i've said it before any priests who are listening to this we have young couples in marriage prep pre cana send them to this don't send them to the encounter weekend this is this is going to serve them far far far and above that's not even remotely the amount of words that should be given to how much better it is now and go ahead and pray for us because i know that yet at jordan's exhortation he's really pushed on us to he would love to see this turn into some sort of parish pre cana program for wedding couples i mean you're going to be coming with your fiance to it i mean you've helped with it but you're going to actually come and participate or you did you actually did wait that was in november sorry that was last that was november that was the last one um but we've got one coming up in february sorry like i'm like wait wait was i there was i there um yeah yeah so and and we're we're having a book written about this to help support the work so pray for us yeah pray for um our ability to take this deeper and help as many as possible this is a strange thought too but you know on the topic of priest and pre cana stuff priests may want to go because the teaching there could really strongly benefit them in their counseling a couple throughout their ministry i honestly believe that that's i'm not just saying that yeah there's no bias in any of this i think it would be really well and i'll and i'll put it out there if there's any priests listening if you want to come no cost to you come and you know celebrate maus come and help travel except for travel the event we'll cover food cover your food in the event in the event and you can stay at the barn um a soupy oh yeah which is beautiful yeah yeah so we'll take care of your house but it's your food and the event if you can get there then we would love to have you and then the shrine has a special place for priests to stay with an amazing private chapel it's starting yeah so what's interesting about your praise of this thing is you you listen to us all the time yeah which means at times i mean you've heard us say everything we have to say like 78 times however add a few zeros add right 78 000 times but it still was helpful to you yeah well and it was also it was interesting because i was able to observe it being put into practice for other people as well so it wasn't just that you know yeah sure i was hearing things that i already heard which is always good there's nothing bad about having good things reiterated to you so you can hammer it into your head but watching the couples there and seeing all ages yeah all ages watching them slowly transform and i'm not saying that with any sort of exaggeration there there were particular couples that i saw and acting a particular way at the beginning of the retreat retreat and then at the end of it it was like there were different people yeah and i was like what this is crazy yeah i mean it's really it's really beautiful from the stage oftentimes people get there and they're actually their backs are slightly turned to one another in the chair without being and they're separate and then they start to turn towards one another then they're holding hands it's crazy it's beautiful even hearing some of the conversations that there have did you what did you think this really this really i didn't i never thought about this this you know i have watches in general okay yeah this is hit and it's and it's because it's catholic mystical tradition people don't have a lot of exposure to that like what does that have to do with marriage and we do it on purpose because it comes out of left field but it's totally relevant and powerful but it sort of messes with your head a bit it jumbles things up and you got to go wait i get this is a different view this isn't just pure you know modern psychology or or whatever not that that's all bad not giving any and i know we got to get into the show people are like all right shut up but right not getting into any unnecessary details but i've gone through a lot of this stuff before on the other side of things you know what what is provided in terms of like preparation and there's there's no comparison i can say that with a fervor the marriage prep you've been through there is not anywhere close to what this is and truthfully a little bit of anger there's no because it's shallow or whatever yeah yeah very frustrating yeah so we're talking about doing intimacy marriage retreat you can find it at spiritualdirection.com forward slash events February 9th through the 11th for the guys if you want a great gift for christmas sign up now i we don't have that many seats up i've been seeing a lot of sign ups right right so get get moving yeah and then put it under the tree your wife will love you for it all right on your mark it's at go this uh no markets at go this is dan stephanie and jordan berk welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints to help us navigate the tumult of this life and today we're talking again in series on my latest book uh finding peace in the storm reflections on st alphonse auger's uniformity with god's will you go out to amazon and you look at the ratings on this book you will see 100 stars from 100 of the reviewers and there's a lot of them and there's a reason for that and it's not because i'm a good writer it's because the content is absolutely life changing and by the way don't buy it from amazon buy it from edwtn's religious catalog you know yeah yeah uh spiritualdirection.com shop but if you do happen to buy extra copies and you want to help us you know keep getting the word out fine but at least buy your first copies from edwtn but uh this show is about the secrets or specific prescriptions that saint alphonse gives us in specific instances of experience of difficulty in challenging circumstance right before we jump into those i want to share two prayers that i shared in the last chapter that i think are very applicable to getting your head to this space of god is good and he only wills the good for me he wants the good and orienting your heart and mind to that so this is on page 55 if you happen to be following along it's a prayer that you can pray to get your heart your mind oriented to the goodness of god you can trust him he's going to help you it's lord i know that you love me and that all you will is for my good please help me to embrace your will and thus to know union with you and peace in this life in the next i know you love me which is an affirmation it's an act of faith some people think when we pray these things have no effect like we just say it does have an effect it in you're saying i choose to believe that you love me and that what you will is for my good so as you're praying that you're actually by the because it's god's will and because it's true and because jesus said i am the way the truth in the life because you will know the truth and the truth will set you free when you affirm these things as an act of the will and faith and pray they begin to reprogram your junk and then it says and then there's a petition please help me to embrace your will so that i accept it instead of railing against you and thus to know union with you and peace in this life in the next that is a prayer he will always answer if we pray it so that's one that's helped me a lot the second prayer that's helped me even more that i pray a ton i was in bed i don't sleep well but i don't not because of mental things or whatever it's just physiologically so i wake up a lot at night and last night this prayer was on my lips over and over and it's a prayer it's derived from st alfonso slugory stations at the cross and it's it's it's just a beautiful prayer that he prayed i love you jesus my love grant that i might love you always and do with me what you will i love you i want to love you forever you it's up to you do whatever you want with me and i embrace it you know out of love for a couple years now i say that for every hour on the hour i have a little alert set up on my watch just as a practice of reorienting myself and so that i'm i'm constantly aware of the presence of god we're going into admin so that's probably if people are looking for practices to pick up that's a really easy one you can start and it's going to help you implement everything that we're talking about you know it's interesting that you say that so you're that so i've influenced you that way the way you influence me is i set the alarm on my watch and what i do i don't pray but i pray that the other prayer all the time but now what i pray is for all the suffering in the present hour the past hour and the suffering of the coming hour i offer up you know for various things intercession or whatever so my my lungs aren't working all that great right now so i it's just pretty constant and but that that helps me to orient myself to yeah i'm suffering but i i'm going to participate in god's redemptive work in that suffering not by complaining but by offering it up instead of just sitting in it or complaining about it or whatever which is a perfect segue into this so okay so either one of you two or both of you he goes into this first point about in external matters in times of great heat cold rain famine epidemics you know war and bearable you know what should we do like how do what is he what's his prescription for not resisting his will for things that are happening outside of us right right out so not from our heart and our mind right not emotional it's not spiritual it's it's external circumstances circumstances right and basically you know rather than saying wow it's so hot and it's freezing in here and what a tragedy and blah blah blah in essence don't complain shut up okay you said it guy at day just don't complain don't complain we should avoid expressions indicating opposition to god's will in essence because there are people who are going to hear this and they're going to say while you're saying that i shouldn't comment on the weather like that's not what he's saying he says very clearly of expressions indicating opposition to god's will so there's an interior movement that says this is cold and i hate it right like that's oppositional to god's will whereas you can say it's kind of cold outside i should probably put on a jacket or wow this is cold that's fine so just a distinction for those who are like hearing that yeah i mean it's really it's the it's the indicator of what's a complaint right what's not and that that's never the difference so it's complaining and it's complaining you know that the ducks aren't laying eggs and i don't have any duck eggs you know right we need to buy more ducks you know whatever it is right so we don't complain about external and there's a great there's a great story about st francis poisier who arrived at uh did you want to talk about that one he arrived at a jesuit house in a snowstorm and he knocked and knocked and you know you can predict what happened no one was there so nobody came so he slept outside in a snowstorm right and then when morning came they were all embarrassed when they discovered him and uh the saint however said that he enjoyed great consolation laying there in the snow i mean just think about the how what a different kind of life it would be if we had you know this kind of attitude and i mean what he said was i spent my night imagining that the lord was up in the sky dropping the snowflakes down upon me yeah i mean talk about a shit a paradigm shift right let me sit there and instead of complaining that i'm freezing cold and nobody's answering the door i'm gonna turn my eyes upon the lord i'm gonna look at his beauty look at his grace this is grace falling down on me that's exquisite what a night of meditation right you know shivering meditation right but meditation pretty amazing pretty amazing okay so then so that was external circumstance uh what about in personal matters like hunger thirst poverty lack right desolation loss of reputation how do we what what's his advice there yeah how about you john build up or tear down oh lord that seems good in your sight i am content i wish only what you desire this is a this is a statement from one of the senile faunces rodriguez who was one of the first jazzo it's known for his obedience and discipline he was a very holy guy right yeah i mean it's just as simple as that goes back to what we already talked about in the first instance it's just saying all right god you're allowing this to happen for whatever reason so praise be to you i'll do what i need to do and trust that you're gonna support me through and help me in whatever way i need in this moment yeah keep moving forward yeah and and i think what comes to mind is job you know the book of job you know the lord giveth and the lord take it away blessed be the name of the lord right he he reigns upon the just and the unjust you know he shines upon the just and the unjust whatever it is the lord's allowed it in my life so this must be for my good it doesn't feel good but it must be for my good he's doing something he's at work i mean i often tell people listen if you've got a terrible storm going on in your life you can rest assured the lord isn't he's at work he's moving because he's getting stuff out of your way out of his way because he's coming he's coming so let the storm rage and wait on the lord you and i were talking about this before the show and i was i was saying basically one of the thing when i've talked about this topic one of the things that people really struggle with is that understanding it's why is the storm happening well we we know because it's very clear in this and in scripture as you mentioned job in other instances that god is breaking things free as you just said so that good can come of it you know why why is someone poking this wound why am i struggling with this irritation well god's permitting you to struggle with that irritation not willing the sin of others but allowing it to happen so that you can come to the virtue that you're called to because if we're honest with ourselves most of us if not all of us are not taking the necessary steps to deal with it ourselves so god says well i love you you're my child and i want to see you become the person i've called you to be so i'm going to allow these things to happen so that the ultimate end may come yeah yeah and and to to the folks out there going wait wait wait i'm i'm supposed to lean on self-reliance that's not what we're saying right what we're saying is if we're not doing the work to come to know what our own defects are what what our vices are and if we're not surrendering those to the lord taking them to confession working on the opposite virtues he's going to bring the storms that are going to bring about that good exactly and we can guarantee that if we have storms going we could look back in our life and go okay there's a theme here i keep ending up in the same situation and and i'm kind of getting tired of this and the lord's going good are you ready you know good are you getting tired of this are you ready for me to come are you ready to give up what you've made your god oh you finally got it i've been dropping hints this whole time right right right so rodriguez goes on to speak about the spiritual warfare aspect in this so we're talking about i i'm in poverty i'm hungry i'm first thirsty i'm in desolation i have a reputation issue you know and he says what the devil will do is even if that circumstance isn't present he will get you to go out to the future and speculate that this mayor will happen and then he says in these cases the enemy's trying to get a sinful consent that we will be unhappy and complain but the answer is to do the opposite and say uh let let us dismiss this temptation by saying by god's grace i would say or do what god want me to do i think we can go further in that when we get back from the break let's talk about because this is a common tactic of the enemy to get us off track which is speculating about the future which wrecks the present it it causes us to exit out of the present where god is but there are specific ways that we can renounce these things that stephanie's really good at teaching these things so we get back from the break more from finding peace in the storm reflections on senile faun's is uniform me with god's will it's my latest book you can find a lot about this and also about other teachings on the contemplative life out at dan birk on the way of contemplation on youtube brand new youtube page check that out too we'll be right back on your market set go oh well let's see uh real quickly if you want some more food for holiness for advent we have a humble of heart advent study spiritual direction dot com forward slash events we also have mary queen of the home home school courses coming spiritual direction dot com forward slash home school check these things out back to the show and your market set go welcome back this is dan stephanie jordan birk you're listening to divine intimacy radio we're talking about finding peace in the storm uniformity with god's will uh my latest book published by sophie institute press you can find it at um at ewtn's religious catalog spiritual direction dot com shop pick it up it'll rec the lives that wreck your life and it'll give you the truth to be free so let's talk about the normal temptation to the enemy to well g and jesus admonished us don't worry about tomorrow right he said don't think about it don't worry about it we don't have tomorrow we don't all we got right now yeah so what's the spiritual way do you combat this um well first of all is to recognize that taking all thoughts captive to christ right saint paul exhorts that what's the scripture second Corinthians but what does that mean well why don't you quote the great those you would ask me to quote the scripture verse it's it the passage says that we that we have divine power to destroy strongholds we're we're in a war and that we have divine power to destroy strongholds and what are those strongholds those are lies false beliefs that raise up themselves up against the knowledge of god in our hearts and minds and he admonishes us to use the weapons at our disposal to banish those lies and to reject and to resist those reject and resist those lies okay okay so that's the first thing is we need to recognize that our battle ground is in our mind right that's our battle ground male or female no matter if you've got a pulse there's a battle going on in the first place the front line of that battle is actually in your in your mind in your brain it's not out there it's not in circumstances not in your feelings it's not in whatever it is right there in your mind and it's that thought that enters your head and when that thought comes you have to decide am I going to capitulate to this am I going to accept this thought am I going to embrace this thought and am I going to embrace this this desolation this doubt this this despair this narcissism as true am I going to embrace that or am I going to resist it because we're told by st. Ignatius and by scripture resist the devil and he will flee draw near to the lord and he will draw near to you change four seven so the first thing we do is we resist it we recognize it we we categorize it basically and say okay this is not of the lord it's not of the lord so I'm not going to embrace it and I'm going to resist it in the name of Jesus I renounce all doubt despair narcissism anxiety pride fear just whatever it is anxiousness condemnation you know pick something right in the name of Jesus I renounce all these spirits that are not of the lord I send them to the foot of the cross never to return and so we by an act of the will and in the power of the name of Jesus we renounce these sand things and send them packing right and then we ask the lord for what we need and we can do it through the intercession of our lady she's media tricks of all grace she always comes to our aid as especially when we draw near to the lord she's right there with us she'll guide us she'll intercede and help us and so we say in the name of Jesus please fill me with the opposite virtues fill me with the faith of Mary fill me with the hope of Mary fill me with the love of Mary lord Jesus in your holy name fill me with all that is of you in the perfection of the virtues that you desire me to come to and and help me set me free in this that I can be reminded that I'm a daughter of the king that I'm a son of the king that I am royalty that I am chosen that I am loved that I am a beloved and that I'll have everything I need even if it's not what I want right yeah right right he will never allow us to to be tested beyond the graces that he's given us he's not going to abandon us yeah it is going to feel dark yeah and and we're lying to you if we're going to tell you some sort of you know you know pansy kind of indifference that oh yeah you just got to do this and you'll be over it it's not true it's hard work but those who persevere will be free yeah well in the first step is taking every thought captain yeah you know and that's really a fundamental practice that we all have to put into effect in order so that we can actually put these things into practice yeah because if we're just responding we're just allowing our emotions and feelings to dictate our responses we're not going to even come close to beginning to understand let alone put into practice what we're talking about on the show but Jordan what if I feel I just really feel like this is true I feel all these things I've said this a million times I'll I'll say until that there's a dead horse in here somewhere that's been beat but you know you're being god gave you your feelings and your emotions for a reason but you need to think of them like indicators on the dashboard of your car a little light pops up it's an indicator of something doesn't necessarily mean that what's popping up is true a lot of us have had cars that have check engine light pop on we think oh no the engine is gonna crash it's gonna blow up like well no maybe you just need more you know it's like they're indicators they're not your gps they don't dictate how you drive it's just okay this is popping up what does this mean let me take it to prayer Lord what are you trying to reveal to me that's how your emotions are supposed to work with all of this can I trust my feelings I wouldn't if I you can't no no no and let's just get down to the brass taxes it was a loaded question yeah you can't trust your feelings right you can't you know the enemy can manipulate your feelings he watches you he studies you he knows what your triggers are he knows where you what your weaknesses are and you know this little known secret that I think is just so fascinating when when the when each one of those fallen angels was created your guardian angel you know whatever it was right whatever angel was out there when they were created they had a mission that they were to complete when the Lord's thought of them created them he already had a mission and a plan for them a purpose and so he set them in motion they rejected his will and they became fallen angels guess what his will will be done right they still have to complete that mission right and and they're going to do it by means that they don't want to they think they're attacking you but the Lord's going to give you the grace to recognize that that's an attack you're going to resist it you're going to grow and burt you and your sanctification is still going to come if you employ all that we're talking about here if you take all thoughts captive right it's just fascinating so to recap you know the the the secret is related to personal matters so poverty desolation loss of reputation that's so this bad thing that's happening we're living through there's this spiritual component which we're talking about here of spiritual warfare of renouncing not allowing those thoughts to take you out of the present moment and but then and there's an affirmation that's really important and that is that I need to say to myself I don't know what I'm going to do but I am going to praise the Lord and I am going to just do the next right thing I love that phrase do the next right thing because it keeps you the worst thing is to get you out of the present moment in worried doubt despair narcissism which then causes you to have that negative disposition which causes you to distrust God or focus on the circumstance or whatever but the next right thing with God in the presence of God gives like just even saying it gives me hope and encouragement like what if I can't you know what if the economy crashes well what if it crashes I mean what's you know Jesus argued worry will not benefit you in any way in dealing with whether or not the economy crashes I mean he almost literally has said that in scripture right so then stop it it's dumb yeah so don't do that instead choose a different path and say you know I'm a child of God I don't know how I would make it but that's not for me I'm just going to do the next right thing what am I supposed to do right now and that's the other thing that worry and fear porn like the news which is what most news is now is fear porn worry takes you occupies your mind on things that you don't even know that are going to happen are not in your control I mean unfortunately a lot of our catholic commentator friends that's where I was they spent all their time oh what is you know what does this mean what's going to happen what's coming whatever and I'm like dude you know spend that much time evangelizing and teaching faith or an adoration or an outright yeah and you would change and the world would change around you a lot more than you talking about stuff you can't figure out yeah and that's way above your pay grade and have no impact on regardless of you know whatever and well the impact is you make other people anxious right right and you make them spin around yeah speculating and all that yeah and I think that's I'm glad you brought that up because what we need to understand is there's two ways that the enemy gets us he either gets us in worry which is pushing our mind out into the to the four you know into the forward thinking what's going to happen you know I'm it's worry and speculation blah blah blah right or he gets us into regret and looking at all the bad things we did all the wrong decisions all the omissions all the things that I woulda shoulda coulda and that are gone that moment is gone the Lord allowed it so we need to stay in the present moment and it probably means if your mind is going to speculation or worry that there's something right now that really needs to be done and and maybe it's prayer maybe it's trust maybe it's surrender maybe it's loving the person in front of you maybe it's making that phone call that's been kind of egging on your heart where you need to reach out to a loved one maybe it's going to confession you know about the worry and maybe it's going to feed the poor maybe it's to go feed the poor it's whatever's the next right thing right now that you're being called to do I don't want to back something up and then so I don't want to over react to the over reactions there are legitimate reasons to study issues in the church and there are things coming that are going to hit our parishes we need to know about or some people right my position certainly right because I'm I lead a community I write books whatever but but for the most part it's what's the next right thing I'm supposed to do according to my state in life now I was going to say I've been racking my brain trying to remember this verse but it was one of the scripture readings a couple days ago and it was really interesting that Jesus equated anxiety and drunkenness he was warning and the the language was very specific it wasn't you know and or it was these two things or it was making a clear comparison of those two things I just kept thinking about oh this is interesting he's using an example of drunkenness and debauchery alongside an example of anxiety why is that well because anxiety and the easiest way to explain it is it seems that anxiety is drunkenness but it makes you drunk in fear yeah it makes you drunk in these things that it makes you it compromises your faculty right so you don't think in process right about what's really going on yes absolutely fascinating fascinating well we're running out of time again you've been listening to Divine Intimacy Radio Jordan Stephanie Dan Burke talking about one of the most important books for our time not because I wrote it St. St. Alphonsus Aguri Doctor of the Church actually wrote most of it and just I have spiritual reflections finding peace in the storm reflection on St. Alphonsus Aguri's uniform you with God's will it will change your life it will equip you to deal with the dark times that we have it will help you to be holy it will make you more peaceful it will draw you near to the Lord pick it up start a small group there are questions designed just for that there's all kinds of good extra stuff in the back of the book to draw you to other good materials make a difference in your own soul and help others to do the same and thank you for joining us on Divine Intimacy Radio today until next time may the God of peace make you perfect in holiness may he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body you're approachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ amen amen all right so now I'm going to write a note