 Okay, hey friends, you're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio. So today I'm excited We're going to be talking about a subject that's very deeply ingrained in my own heart a subject that In some ways saved my life, you know with Jesus and How he works to get us free from things that bind us and break us And keep us in anxiety and all of this other stuff. So Today, we have a special guest to first time in studio and in fact, what's kind of cool? Those who watch regularly will notice that the studio has changed and we have two more microphones And we have three humans instead of just two humans So um, we're last time we had three humans by the way just funny enough was in our old studio We had Jonathan Rumi who of course, you know, and but and but he we had to move the microphone back and forth Because uh, we you know, so it was a tiny it was about half the size if that of this studio Yeah, so this is an upgrade. Yeah, definitely upgrade and and before we get started with the show I do want to note the significance of this being the feast Of st. Dominic and we do have a dominican in house. Oh, yeah dominican in the house St. Dominic. Yes. I think there's something, you know prophetic or amazing about all this So there you go, you know what lord father jesse before I I didn't coach you about before the show is We try to make and everybody's listening but that's sort of the interest of behind the scenes We try to make our shows evergreen so that we don't reference dates So we won't reference the feast of st. Dominic because people will the live streamers will hear that today, which is fine But when we start the normal show That will be post producing it will it might be three months before it airs on eWTN radio Okay, that makes sense. So we don't reference dates or times or anything like that all right So before we jump into the show You want to tell them about an exciting event we have coming? Yes. Yes calling all gentlemen All all husband's male humans husbands. Are you listening? Yeah, are you listening? Yeah I am giving you an opportunity to make great um spirit great relational emotional Love deposits into your marriage. Yeah, how do you do this? You need to take your wife? I almost said your woman. You need to take your wife On a divine intimacy marriage retreat, you know, so huge huge Blessings here. So it's coming up. Yeah, it is a Man's retreat a woman's retreat. Yeah, it is not a Nambi Pambi hold hands sing kumbaya kind of retreat. We don't act men to act like women Yeah, or women to act like men either. Yeah, we don't do the other way You guys are always trying to dominate and make us stop it. Stop it Anyway, this retreat's coming up. You're it's gonna Have a huge impact. I have to tell you the feedback and it's not because of me and Dan The the grace the outpouring of the holy spirit out upon this retreat Time after time is extraordinary. It is so beautiful. What's the lord's doing in it in and through it So i'm going to invite you to check it out at spiritualdirection.com forward slash events It'll be held at the shrine of the most blessed sacrament in handsville, alabama. We do have two opportunities One is november 3rd through the 5th of this year 2023 The next one will be in february of 2024. They're both up. You can register for either And it would be a great, you know, like early christmas present you print off your registration put a ribbon around it Put it under the tree. You are one and done and you will be a knight in shining armor For your wife. So anyway, don't miss it Hey, man Ready i'm ready ready, okay On your mark Get set go Welcome to divine intimacy radio. This is dan and stephanie burk And you're listening to your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the heart the monastery of the mind Where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints And today i'm so excited to be talking about something we're going to talk quite a bit about in the coming months And that is we live in the midst of a storm. I mean every age has its difficulties But in my life my lifetime There has not been such a storm Both inside and outside of the church now in my parents lifetime, of course We had the 60s, which was a great cultural storm in the united states In now, but I I was just a little you know a little baby Then now in our lifetime as adults, we're seeing a similar storm but one of quite Much more grave consequence and then we also have a global storm with uh, you know, it's sort of World war threatening on the horizon Um Between because of the conflicts between great nations or large nations or significant nations. So There's a lot of reason for people to be anxious. Uh, and I and I I think what's really important to To set the stages as we speak about this We actually have compassion And that's why we're talking about it. So this isn't about you're bad. You shouldn't have anxiety. That's If you hear that you're list, you're not hearing the enemy's kind of twisting what's happening here What we want is for you to know what jesus meant by When he said uh in john 14 My peace I leave you my peace. I give you not as the world gives Do not let your heart be troubled Do not let it be afraid and so that is the topic of today, but with a little twist and that is the the idea of the contemplative life And why do people who live the contemplative life? We need to talk about what that is People who live the contemplative life. I'm not saying they're contemplatives in the that doesn't mean I'm not saying they're I'm saying they're living in a particular way Why do they when they face storms? Why are they different? Then those who are not living the contemplative life. So I want to begin with just looking at And you guys jump in that's enough of the intro. I want to begin with The story of peter on the sea of galley, right? So peter is is Experienced an initial conversion You know, he listened to the call of jesus. He went through all that wrestling and he said, yeah, i'm gonna follow you Setting aside everything. He's a married man. He has a fishing business and you know, uh worldly concerns and and the messiah comes He's like, yeah, i'm following you however He's and he sees all these miracles anybody ends up out in the ocean in a storm And what happens in the storm? Yeah Yeah, and I think as you know as our listeners are hearing you set this up I think for those that are watching the chosen. It's so beautifully done You just bring it to mind of peter standing in that boat the water's coming in And I I love how they've depicted this because he's struggling. Yeah He is wrestling with his With his own purgation with all this the lord's bringing up in him and in his brothers around him in the boat and the storms of of This life that they've been called to and what is this to follow this man That that is the messiah and what does this mean for me? What does it mean for my wife? What does it mean for my life and all of this right and it's just such such Such an extraordinary way to depict what's both happening inside him and around him that he's struggling with struggling with So before we so that's exactly it's a good setup, but we forgot there's a dude in a white suit Sitting in this room with us That knows much more than either of us. What is this guy? He he has the indwelling of the holy spirit because we see the manifestation of beard but what who is this Strange dominican No, you tell you you tell him who he is. Well, we are very blessed to have with us today father jesse mango he is from trinidad tobago And in the dominican province, which one ireland ireland Dominant dominican province and we've just been really super super blessed I don't know why the lord shared so much grace on us, but he has been hanging with us at the retreat center for the last month praying Eating talking walking praying a lot praying a lot and and just you know Blessing us with his presence and his ministry. So I'll let you Jump in here. Why did you become a priest? Why did I become a priest? Yeah A great mentor of mine saint shahlda fuko. He said something he had a conversion When he came back to the faith and he said the moment he discovered god to be real What else could he do with his whole life but to serve god now We could all live that out in all our different vocations of life. Yeah the way that I heard that was Become a priest and I suppose for me ultimately was incredible gift of of celebrating the mass and and holding the living god in my hands and Just doing such a gift on on church and on his people. So that's a driving I suppose call to be able to enter into that awesome mystery of the priesthood with christ And to give jesus to people very simply and like what a privilege and Yeah, do you know what just happened when you said that? And I know it like I know it There are men listening And it started to burn in them I could feel it For you guys I want to just tell you go out to myhighcalling.com if you want to find some Some it's not connected to any diocese though We serve more than 40 dioceses in helping them with With vocations and that sort of thing, but we're independent and And if you want to explore in a safe way Either religious or diocesan life Head out to myhighcalling.com with that because I know Because it affected me and I'm not called to the priesthood. I mean I'm called to be You know, we're all there's a priest we share in because of our baptism But it's not the same as as being able to hold the lord as you say To bring you know to bring about the reality of bread and wine into body and blood But if that's burning in your heart head out to my myhighcalling.com So you became a priest. Well, you felt the calling to become a priest. Why did you become a dominican? so Feeling this definite call to the priesthood you have so many choices in the church so many Charisms and spiritual families diocesan life that you could be drawn to I I felt called to the to the dominicans because at first I knew that I I wanted a place to be able to pray. I wanted like a sacred world Area where I could be with this god that captured my heart that that I discovered after coming back to my faith Reversion back to faith And I also knew that for so many years I lived without Acknowledging Christ and knowing Christ without knowing his peace his love and above all this awesome mystery of Eucharist Um, and so I felt this urge to share that with people I'm sure people spoke to me, but I had deaf ears And I wanted to be able to kind of shout on the rooftops and I also love study Yeah, I was a big part of my life and I have great great learning hunger for learning and And so and also I knew that I want to live in community Yeah, and so these are the four central pillars of the dominican charism You know all aimed towards the salvation of souls. Yeah, so Um real desire in my heart for the salvation of souls was burning So that's what led me to the order and through some providential You know encounters with people and I've been incredibly blessed and grateful for For the gift of of my vocation as a dominican and has taught me so much I've met amazing dominicans and brothers You kind of pick up things by osmosis just living with brothers and so many gifts in one place so many characters And you you learn as in marriage you rub two stones rub against other in the stream of life and they make each other smooth um, but so I've been incredibly blessed and What I've been discovering more deeply in the last Couple years it's been there from the beginning But also to how Deep in our own charism is the onwander of the eucharistic mystery Which is just catholic, but but saint thomas Aquinas Yeah, you know articulating more clearly for the life of the church The reality of this is jesus. Amen And and of course in Catherine of sienna living on the eucharist only for like 60 however long Yeah, yes and semen to the poorest spending eight hours a day in adoration You know so many of these saints like other saints in the church. So in essence these are graces. I'm grateful for So we opened our conversation with talking about uh finding peace in the storm finding peace in the storm is definitely kind of set up that moment where peter Initially converted but but obviously with a lot of work still need to be done Uh subsequent to this of course he betrays jesus. He cuts off the year of a soldier, you know, so He's got a lot of stuff to be to be healed But I see him at this stage in the purgative way, you know, we think of the interior life I think the most popular framework is the purgative illuminative and unitive and they're You know the purgative being childhood the illuminative being adolescence and the unitive being adults No comparable to human development And so so peter's still in the purgative way, uh, you can see by his reaction to the storm He has faith Which allows him to step out into the body as faith which allows him to follow jesus initially but his but you know, I think, um romans 12 One says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind It's some translations are a little funky here. I think I read a funky one this morning That you may prove is a is a better translation meaning that you may live out and discover And reveal it means in the greek it has a broader meaning Live out discover reveal the work of god in you and how it is that you're you're progressing toward him And then giving yourself, of course, it's a living sacrifice, right? So peter's definitely on the right track But You know, we're already we're going to do two shows I can already tell at least two and folks if you want to know, I mean god be praised. Thank so thankful for uwtm We're live streaming on uwtm Facebook page now and if you ever want to join us out there if you're listening to radio and hearing us You can do that. But also spiritualdirection.com YouTube and facebook page We'll be out on that for the second show because we're already coming to a point where we need to break We get back from the break what I want to do with you father is Is have do you remember that scene in your life? I don't know what it looked like Where jesus had called you he responded in some way But you ended up looking at the waves too much And it really caused you to break down and to and have a deeper revelation of How much you need the lord in a different way than you thought before You know kind of a crisis that helped you to move more deeply into the purgative way in a positive way So when we get back from the break, uh, we'll give you an opportunity to do that You are listening to divine intimacy radio with father jesse mango stephanie the amazing stephanie berk and we'll be right back Okay, so that was 12 that was 12 30. So the next one will go to 13 All right on your mark. Well Before we go back really quickly We have a great course coming up called the gifts of the holy spirit and the divine indwelling It is a graduate level course taught by Dr. Alfonzo Pinto Avila dash institute.org if you ever wanted to Grow more deeply in your understanding of the holy spirit and the divine indwelling And how it is that the lord works in these beautiful miraculous ways We'll be studying of course in this course st. Thomas Aquinas John paul the second blessed or saint elizabeth of the trinity. This is funny this this This tells you that our school was founded Before she was canonized because this is a very early description that said blessed elizabeth of the trinity So she's been canonized since this description was written. So god be praised. We've been around this long But uh, anyway, but a saint elizabeth of the trinity to help the church Understand this mystery through a theological explanation pastoral application doctrinal Wrangling all these greats this great stuff that dominicans love But you also will love it too the priest religious and lady take courses with us go out to abla dash institute.org and your market set go Welcome back. This is divine intimacy radio with dan and stephanie burke and The one and only trinidad tobago Father jesse mango i was almost going to go further with that and i thought no i better not do that i might have to You know, uh might turn father jesse red. I don't know if that's possible with him, but So before the break we were talking about the purgative way The storms that happened in the purgative way to help us understand what's going on with us You have you experienced that? Yeah, absolutely, and i suppose in my own vocational journey when having the clear call to priesthood Thankfully i didn't have a doubt at that time about it or haven't But i did get tossed around on the storms about where to live out this call And when making those first steps into the order You know seeing so many things so many questions so many Things that i can't work out right now thinking about things in 10 years time 15 years 20 years, you know, i'm looking at, you know Lord, where will you be? I look at the waves instead of jesus and so i'm looking at things or looking at nothings and things that don't exist And and putting a lot of energy into that a lot of time mental energy and and and so i sink like peter But every time i would pray and i would go to adoration Or i would read the scriptures kind of like yourself down in your book on spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits I notice peace and i notice, you know, my heart this this this this love and this This drive in my heart and just being grounded So i i notice that similar that similar experience as well But when i thought of the lives of the saints like saint ignatius When you think of what they did What what the scriptures are saying you're really having this conflict between the the knowledge of a fallen mind And the faith knowledge that we're called to have and we have this conflict in all of us And that's the battle of contemplation as well to live in that place where we our minds are remade In the word and we think with the word we think we're god's mind we think According to god's revelation. That's always going to jar With the world around us because the world around us is living in a different way According to a different rhythm a different word, uh, you know according to the self And there's going to be conflict. Yeah, and so I started to really feel that for the more I dug myself into prayer I would feel that settled but it took a while, you know, even in religious life That's a gift of religious life And I think that's the gift of religious life towards the church as a witness You know as as you guys live here You live a religious life as a married couple in a way that is appropriate to your vocation and I've witnessed that That's powerful. Yeah, because I don't think we realize How much time we need to pray how much we need to sacrifice distractions to to to find this peace That jesus is speaking about and and sin John the cross teaches that one of the greatest Barriers for the mind and heart is contemplation. Mm-hmm. You know the the devil He hates it because it's a bright light and he can't he blinds him so he doesn't know how to attack In the same way, but when you're buried in the heart of christ and deeply pray Of course, we're not perfect. So we we're not in heaven yet. So we will be fast wrong and that's okay in those moments We just step back And we say this is okay. I I I my lord is lord and he will bring me back to that place But yeah, it's Stephanie. It's not But this isn't for everyone this what he's prairies talking about right? Oh, no, no, no It is for all and I and I'm I'm just so grateful that he brought up kind of the rhythm of life that we live here because it's it's just so So very important for people to understand, you know, what father jesse said is people don't understand how much we actually need to pray You know, it's it's do it's by justice and by love Can can I just change a phrase and I want you to I know I'm sorry I interrupted you but I it's important How much we need to pray if I could reword that how much we need to be With the one we claim is our salvation. How much we need to be with jesus Yeah, no, I and and we have this beautiful phrase in apostole v a Where we say that everything for god begins before god on our knees And and so we go to this place of prayer and and you know, when we talk about peter In the midst of the storm I can I can hear so many people out there going That's me right now That's me. What do I do? What do I do? You know, how do I? Reorient my heart my mind my soul my spirit my body to the lord as he's standing out on the water And he's saying come to me come to me come to me Don't get lost in the storm Don't take your eyes off me and that's that place of prayer You know, I was I was in this terrible spiritual warfare this morning And I mean it was just intense and I felt Like peter in the midst of the storm all this but lord you said this and lord and lord and you know I you know all this old stuff coming up in me And then I had a moment of clarity of the lord is purging me once again Even deeper. It's just another layer This is purgation one more time one more burning away And so in that entering into that place of prayer to say Okay, I'm gonna keep my eyes on the lord And I'm gonna draw near to the source the summit my life my beloved my all And say lord, I'm coming to you Take all of this from me burn it from me Fill me with you so that when I rise from this place I will be who you are called me to be so this is beautiful, right? So we get to be Diagnosed this So she describes a moment where something triggered a wound Right, uh The way that you process that wound in this today How different was it when the way that you process a wound 10 years ago? Oh 10 years ago. No in fact I listen I I knew all about it father jesse and I've been talking about it You know because I was thinking I don't I don't want to do what I've done in the past So I had this moment of I have a choice to make yeah, right But the more we spend time in prayer the more the lord teaches us I love this idea of Prayer being a school of prayer. Yeah When we're at the at the feet of the lord, he's teaching us. He's forming us He's giving us the graces that we need to think properly to discern properly through him Through him not in and of ourselves It's never we can never do anything outside of him But as he does that then he helps us to then Learn from each one of these challenges each one of these trials each one of these storms And I think that's what's most important for us to understand Is that when the lord puts us in the midst of a storm? It's another invitation to a greater Level of virtue like he wants he's doing something. He's not absent. He's not He's not asleep in the boat. He's standing out there saying come to me. Keep your eyes on me I will if you will surrender to me in this I will give you everything you need to step out of that boat and walk to me And you know, you know the the key difference to me and it is captured in one phrase two words look up Hmm, you know when you're in the storm look up because this when you look horizontally all you see is the chaos Yeah, but when we look up what happens you're a Dominican you understand grace, you know better than any of the other Orders well, you know the franciscans might argue but But what happens when a person in the midst of the storm looks up instead of staring at the storm? when I think If I can rephrase this whole discussion is like what we're talking about in terms of contemplation, yeah Okay, because what happens is everybody's called to contemplation everybody Universe and universal call to holiness was one of the best things that happened in the second Vatican council Amen, and that and the pre-runner of that in many ways was the great school in the Dominican school of gary gulagrange um and his predecessor Venerable iron taro and they wanted to promote this idea that contemplation and the call to sanctity Was for everyone. Yeah, and not just spiritually leads not just religious and okay, so one of the things I have to point out something I'm sorry, but the carmelites already knew that just I'm glad you guys discovered it. No, that's true, but then you do Let me apologize now for my husband Well, the carmelites got it from the dominicans in the first place in their in their theology, you know, since john studied with the dominicans In salamance. Yeah, so, you know putting that aside. Yeah God be praised. Yeah, so putting The thing is is that this contemplative life is is framed by divine providence By trials by the trials god chooses to send us. So jesus Knew very well ahead of time that they were going to be in a storm. Yeah, that depends on the gospel accounts You know, there are two two times, you know the time where he sent them ahead Yeah, and the time when he was in the boat as well, you know, so he he knew he allowed them to go into this storm I think One of the words there I think in greek or hebra for the waves is the same word you reduce the temptation. Yes It is. Yeah, it's powerful But the point is that this life of holiness could only grow in us through temptation and through trial This is god and his providence. He's not a sadist. He's not like they're trying to torture us But he's trying to stretch our hearts and our minds so that we could receive more of him But that happens to trial and through opposition friend of mine is a pilot And he says very simple a plane could only take off and ascend against the wind It's a beautiful image. It's it's the same thing in the spiritual life And we see that in the wisdom of the calm like shine of the cross to reserve avala, you know great great Sense of of the church, you know, it's clear like in the writings of gargoyle grunge And he speaks about, you know, the early stages like in the purgative and illuminative, you know People are greatly tried on patience and chastity In the towards the life of you know contemplation So what I would say is that to stretch the life of contemplation They're based on three fundamental virtues faith open love. Yeah, so paul's always on about them and and they're the foundation of our spiritual life Aka our con our which are our spiritual life is the seed of contemplation that is growing in us So the more faith grows the more god will come in sight The more more god comes inside our hope will grow and our love will grow But those three have unique trials They're trials of faith trials of hope and trials of love Yeah, so sometimes people are going through nearly trials of despair or hopelessness. Look at center is trials But that don't be discouraged if that's happened don't feel like something's wrong with you that something's in your feet Now you need to assess your situation. Are you in that situation because you're in mortal sin Are you in that situation because you have gone off the path of the gospel? But if you you're really trying and you're on you're living the gospel you're going to the sacrament and you find this thing It's an invitation. Yeah, as you say in your book on spiritual warfare It's an invitation that I love that that you said the lights on the dashboards are blinking The lord is saying Come come. Yes. I'm here and I'm going to give you a greater hope than you can imagine A greater faith than you can imagine a greater love than you can imagine It's how it grows so we should not be too surprised and I think knowledge is key right knowing this part of the spiritual life Will give us to approach it with a bit of distance A bit of peace a bit of calm that when this storm hits we could actually step back a bit and say, okay This is part of the journey. So I hope you guys are excited because what we're going to do is In the next show that follows this which will be out on spiritualdirection.com's youtube page and facebook page I think is We're going to continue the conversation and define contemplation for folks and talk a little more about practical like how do you live this reality But uh, also this is contained in my new book. Uh, it is called finding peace in the storm reflections on st. Alfonso's lageries. Um Oh gosh, what is it jordan? Why am I forgetting? Uniformity with god's will but uh, you can find that out at spiritualdirection.com shop eventually to be at the end of tn Uh, um Religious catalog as well. So stephanie with that until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord Jesus christ, so don't take us off yet. So just to remind you guys head out to What's the best place for them to go? Does it matter jordan? Yeah, so spiritualdirection.com youtube page make sure when you go there, too, you like and subscribe So you get updates i'd say probably 10 of our subscribe or people who hit the page subscribe and uh, and they like it and they watch it But you don't know that it keeps coming because you're you're not subscribed to it or you don't you don't get the updates So anyway, uh, we'll look forward to seeing you over that in a few minutes