 And plus we have six inches of snow on the ground in New York, so it's really, yeah. We're heading to 85 degrees here, just to rub it in a little bit. Hey, friends, you're watching behind the scenes, Divine Intimacy Radio. In a moment, we're going to be on with Father Matthew McDonald's, otherwise known as Super Dooper, Father Matthew McDonald. And we're going to be talking about spiritual direction and who needs it and why and all that good stuff, what it is. But before we do that, I want to tell you about a couple of opportunities. Eche Homo, oh, it's still spelled wrong on the thing, but I said it right. Prayer in the Paschal Mystery, Free Online Lenten Retreat, March 30th through April 1st. We only have 50 Catholic speakers. Only. Only have 50. And they're all amazing. I mean, gosh, the crew is just insane. Yeah. Father Mitch Pacqua, Father Dr. Anthony Lillis. I don't know why I'm listed here, but a lot of... And a lot of current, those that are like out in the front currently. Yeah, Father Boniface Hicks. Yeah, just really awesome speakers. And I think you and I are speaking. I decided not to. I'm going to do a breakout on spiritual direction. Are you really? To go with the topic today. There you go. Yeah. So spiritualdirection.com forward slash events. And it's free. And it's free. So people are like, why would you do this for free? And how are you funding all of this? Well, here's the thing. We want to change the world. That's why. We want the Catholic church to grow like crazy in the midst of darkness. We want the people of God to be holy and faithful and good and true and just and right and honorable. And so, and we want no one to be denied, to be denied, you know, whether they have the funds or not. But so if you love that idea, help us out. Also spend time and energy spreading the word. I mean, who gets to have 50 speakers? Yeah, it's really amazing. Right. So share it on all of your social media. Yeah. Even if you've, you know, if you've fasted from it for lent, just go throw it on your social media and then run. Don't don't scroll. Just post it and run spiritualdirection.com events page. The next thing I'm going to tell you, and then we're going to jump into the show on spiritual direction with Father Matthew McDonald is he's actually teaching a course coming up here discernment of visions and revelations in the interior life. It's a new course for the Avalon Institute and he'll be talking about private revelation from major apparitions like Lord's Fatima, Guadalupe, Divine Mercy, Sacred Heart, and then lesser fight for revelations and mystical phenomena and using a fantastic. You're using the text we brought back into a print by Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalene, right? Father. Yes. And the Ascent to Mount Cormel as well. Awesome. Ascent to Mount Cormel as well. Don't miss that course. Avaladashinstitute.org. Don't miss Eche Homo, the free Lenten Retreat, spiritualdirection.com. Go to the events page and there's all kinds of stuff. You want to be holy, hang out with us. We'll get you hooked up. That's right. Okay. Are you ready? On your mark, set, go. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome to Divine Intimacy Radio. Your Radio Haven of Wraths. Your Hermitage of the Heart. Your Monastery of the Mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw on the wisdom of the saints to help us to navigate this tumult of life. And today we've got a navigation extraordinary show. Yeah. So today we have joining us Father Matthew McDonald. He is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He is the eldest of three children. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Franciscan ordained by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in 2014. He obtained a bachelor's degree in sacred theology, masters in divinity and a masters of arts in theology from St. Joseph's Seminary Dunwoody in Yonkers, New York. He is currently assigned as parochial vicar at St. Mary's Church in Washingtonville, New York, where they have six inches of snow today. He has written articles on topics dealing with theology, history, spirituality and current events for Catholic World Report, Crisis Magazine and our own spiritual direction. As a priest, he desires to draw people in himself close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary through understanding and living out the basic teachings of the church on prayer and living out the interior life. And today is his birthday. There you go. I mean, that assumes they're listening to the show on his birthday. Or that they're listening on a year that there's a leap year because there's a leap year. Because if you listen on a year that there's not a leap year, then will they hear this podcast? I don't know. He actually was born on a day that doesn't exist this year, which is really kind of crazy. You know, it's kind of like if a tree falls in the forest. Right. You know, who hears it? So the thing I love about Father McDonald is he has two things about him that are exceptional. He has a gigantic brain, like if it was represented physically, it would exceed, far exceed the bounds of his cranium. And he has a gigantic heart, which also would fall far exceed the bounds of his physical heart. Although that's not necessarily, you know, that's a metaphor. But anyway, welcome to the show, Father McDonald. Thank you, Dan and Stephanie. It's an honor and blessing to be with you here again. And yeah, it is part of natural law God's plan. If you're born on February 29th, every leap year baby in between years celebrates it both on February 28th and March 1st. So that is part of, like, divine law. So I'm just following, you know, that. You just fall. I just, I just fixate on this idea like a Twilight Zone episode where you could do a whole show on this where the priest actually disappears on the leap year day where the day doesn't appear and then reappears the next day. Right. Because his birthday is gone. It's gone. So, you know, there you go. Something interesting about me. Yeah. Yeah. My birthday doesn't exist on some years. Well, very good to have you with us, Father. Thank you. Go ahead. Sorry for interrupting. No, thank you very much. So let's talk about spiritual direction before we jump into, you know, who needs it and why. I think we got to talk about what it is. And so maybe once you give us a definition of what spiritual direction actually is. Spiritual direction is basically guiding individual souls along the path to union with Christ in their particular life. You know, Pope Benedict the 16th stated in his address to Thereseon in 2011, today the church continues to recommend the practice of spiritual direction not only to those who desire to follow the Lord closely but to every Christian who wishes to live responsibly, his or her baptism, that is new life in Christ. And it gets to the heart of who is God and who is Jesus? What is the church? What's my place in this world? What does the Lord want me to do with my life? And how do I accept the gift of God? That is me. And I think this is where spiritual direction is so important in the life of every disciple, no matter what your background or vocation is. Very good. Well, and you know, it's important to note then also, so spiritual direction is essentially a process in which a director and a directee come to discern God's will. So there are three actors, if you will, in this play. What's the order of importance of those participants and how do they all fit together? So the order of importance is obviously God moving the heart of the directee and also the director facilitating a place where there can be vulnerability, listening, and reverence to that action that of God in the soul and listening. So there is formation but it's more so just seeing where the person is at and where the Lord is moving in their life and what is he calling them to do? Right. And the spiritual director is the least important in the order, right? Because they're the servant. They're the servant of God to aid the child of God that they're working with and they're the servant of that child of God who is seeking to understand God's will. So it's the order of priority then of God, directee, director, properly understood. You know Pope Benedict in that address at the Tresianum said all who wish to draw near and live responsibly, which implies that you maybe can't draw near and live responsibly without a director. Would you concur with that strong of a statement? In some way, shape or form, you need spiritual direction. But that varies according to each person, what the Lord is doing in their life, how he's calling them to union with him. That varies also according to the different seasons of their life and also what they're dealing with. And some people are called to a more constant, direct, lifelong spiritual direction because they are giving their life completely to Christ in the shape of alright, I'm in seminary formation, I'm in religious formation, I'm a priest, I'm a deacon, I'm a religious sister, I'm a bishop, or I'm a lay person that's working full time within the humanity of the church within a particular apostolate like faith formation, spiritual formation, evangelization, exorcism, deliverance, ministry, leading souls in RCII to understand the basics of the faith. And this is where it's constant, you cannot refute that every disciple of Jesus Christ needs direction and guidance from his church in spiritual direction but needs vary according to season and person. Yeah, I think the, and one of my favorite arguments for why people need direction, you gave a list of kind of categories of activity in state and life and things like that that would indicate it would be helpful but I think at the essential level of our humanity and our brokenness, we all have blind spots and so we have blind spots because of kinkupasinsinsin and then God has also then designed us in such a way as he revealed through St. Catherine of Siena that we are incapable of getting to heaven on our own. And so both, so we have a fundamental design that requires the input of other people and then when you add on that sin and kinkupasinsins, you have blind spots that require others to help you to see those. Do those resonate with you or you want to add to that idea? Yes, absolutely. Everybody is affected by the wounded kinkupasinsins, again which we inherit through original sin. The wounded kinkupasinsins is not sin of itself but it means me towards sin. But another idea that I think is also important is that everybody is called to holiness. Everybody is wounded by sin and needs healing but everybody is called to be a saint and to be a saint is to be another Jesus Christ. And that's why we are disciples. We're not just disciples to follow Jesus we're disciples to allow Jesus to just permeate and fully flower within every aspect of our lives and our humanity as an extension of his own sacred humanity. And I think both there's two quotes that I found that are very interesting. Once from the Second Vatican Council, the holiness of the church is unceasingly manifested and must be manifested and the fruits of grace which the spirit produces in the faithful is expressed in many ways in individuals who in their walk of life tend toward the perfection of charity thus causing the edification of others. Then Pope Benedict and his audience saw the faith of the church states this whoever had and lived the faith in the price risen was called to become a point of reference for all others setting them in this way the message of Jesus reveals the face of the living God this holds true for us a Christian who lets himself be guided and gradually shaped by the faith of the church in spite of his weakness his limitation and his difficulties becomes like a window open to the light of the living God receiving this light and transmitting it to the world and like you said we can't just do it by ourselves Bernard Clairvaux Saint Jerome would also say if you're your own spiritual director you're being guided by a fool but this is the goal of direction help you become the saint that you're meant to be and saint is another Jesus and that may sound Yodish but you look I heard it from Monsignor John Essef and it sounded Yodish first to me but when you read into the mystical patrimony of the church it makes 100% sense yeah absolutely and we have about a minute left father but one of the things that you said in those definitions is that we're called to be other Christ in the world and essentially what that means is our life is not about us that each one of us was individually created by God for a particular purpose he has a design for us he has a will for our lives he has a divine plan that should be lived out through us in order for us to become saints and if we don't have someone helping us and navigating this journey to see where our blind spots are to see where we need to draw near to help us discern what's happening in and around us we're going to miss that we're going to miss that mission and in our narcissistic society we tend to go well I want to do my own thing but there's a huge price to pay for that I always think about how devastated so many of us will be when we stand before God and he says if you had followed me look what I would have accomplished through you look how many souls would have come with you I may have accomplished through you had you cooperated with me but you chose not to and so department from me I never knew you and I just I really want to encourage folks to lean into this understanding that our life is not about us and there's this beautiful invitation to love God and love others according to the way God desires us to that is never boring it is the grandest adventure of our lifetime and the world cannot offer anything to even remarkably compete with that so we're going to take a break when we get back from the break I also want to give people a list of resources where they can learn more about spiritual directions spiritual direction schools for priests help for men discerning the priesthood so we'll give you a bunch of resources after the break and join us with father Matthew McDonald on spiritual direction okay so we'll go to 12 in the next segment so 12 resources will go and seek direction okay father do you want to go after I give the list do you want to go a specific direction sure maybe just talking about different scenarios where direction is especially needed okay we'll do that welcome back this is divine intimacy radio and you're listening to Dan and Stephanie Burke and father Matthew McDonald talking about spiritual direction before we jump back in this always piques the interest of listeners and there's a handful of resources we have that are just head and shoulders above anything else out there primarily because it's all orthodox but extraordinary professors extraordinary people so let me just give you a handful of things the most important one the one I'm most excited about is we have a program to help young men who are discerning the priesthood and a website dedicated staff dedicated we work with 40 plus dioceses around the country to help guys discern the priesthood one major seminary coming up here this year but it's myhighcalling.org myhighcalling is it .com or .org .com sorry myhighcalling.com and you can see it on the live screen screen there the next thing I want to tell you about is if you're looking for a director and you're in any state in life seekdirection.app which is unusual seekdirection.app is a website we developed in concert with some friends of ours to get how people connect to directors and all of the directors in seekdirection.app go through orthodox schools in the United States the last educational institutional mention is Avala Institute and the heart of Christ spiritual direction program so if you think you may be called to spiritual direction we have an exemplary program the heart of Christ is for anyone and then we have a priestly program where we form priests on how to be spiritual directors but specifically dedicated to helping young men discern the priesthood so all of that can be found out at Avala.institute.org and then the last one I will say is I wrote a bestselling book on this topic in 2011 which still sells very well called navigating the interior life spiritual direction for me to God so there's a handful of good resources for you you can get that at spiritualdirection.com shop but let's jump back to Father Matthew Father let's talk about the kind of stages in life where spiritual direction might be a little more important than in other stages okay so two of these stages right off the back after one's confirmation into young adulthood when one's still discerning their primary vocation from God my call to the priesthood, religious life, married life and also after a major conversion in which I returned to following Jesus in his church after living a life of hardened sin ignorance and unbelief and in these stages these two areas something that's at the heart relationship of faith or just questions regarding basic discipleship who am I, who is God who is Jesus, what is the church what is my relationship to Jesus through his church supposed to look like what are my individual gifts talent, strengths and interests what are my sins mortal sins, venial sins root sin, what are my wounds addictions and areas of growth how is Jesus asking me no love and serve him in his church in my life and how do I accept the gift of God that is me in love and I think especially the last one today and this is a consequence of original sin and I think this has always been a stream that has affected every age of history but especially today we see both within the church and in the world a lot of self hate and that's a big sign of the evil one I think spiritual direction is a very key area where you learn how to accept God's love for you and learn how to accept yourself as a gift of love from God absolutely along those lines I think one of the very key parts of spiritual direction is discernment is the gift of the director and the directed listening to the Holy Spirit in the conversation to see where the enemies that work and where the Lord is calling and being able to discern what's God's voice what is the enemy's voice how to reject that what's my own voice how to reject the enemy's work in my life where he is sowing those seeds of self loathing self hate that cause our own self destruction because we're following the path of the enemy rather than God's path and how beautiful God's love is tender and good and healing he is to his people that he's constantly calling us back to himself and to help us navigate that to figure out where that where we may have stepped off and we're listening to that wrong voice and get right with the Lord you know another place Father maybe you can comment on it and you mentioned it actually categorically but I think when you have a new con conversion it's sick of being mired individuals and maybe talk a little bit about the power and how important spiritual direction is to breaking out of habits and cycles of sin and addiction it's so important because when you just come back to Christ you may have a lot of grace move in your life but you don't know how to process and integrate it fully in your life and this is where spiritual direction can help healthy habits of Christian discipleship so identifying where my sin is what's the common thread that's behind all my mortal and venial sins what are wounds and lies and developing a rule of life that helps me to combat sin through proper acesis and we're focusing in on that right now a lot because it's the Lenten season but also develop moments of intimacy with the Lord by learning what prayer is going on basic definitions like vocal prayer is so important but transitioning from that to mental prayer and from mental prayer to the contemplative life where you can really be attentive to the Lord His movements, His love for you and being in a position to love Him back and to discern like Stephanie was saying earlier I think somebody can hear this is completely new to this conversation and say well that sounds wonderful and beautiful but I don't have time for this and I think part of the discernment process of working with a spiritual director is finding how to rightly order our lives so we can find those moments where we can pray and listen to the Lord and allow Him to love us and love Him and return to receive that grace that He wants to give us and that's a beautiful thing because when we draw near to the Lord He'll meet us there He has not abandoned His people He wants to reach all of us He wants to save all people and draw them all to Himself and so I think this is just so important that we understand how necessary this is of whatever stage in life we're in Father you've written a three part series if I remember right for spiritualdirection.com it's funny I didn't mention that as a resource but it's the largest website, Catholic website in the world with respect to the number of articles, videos and resources related to how to grow spiritually but also specifically on spiritual direction itself. Tell us a bit about the articles you've recently written for us. So I wrote three articles one is why is spiritual direction needed what are the seasons of life where I have a need for spiritual direction and when do I need lifelong, vocationally based spiritual direction Yeah, so if you want to if this show has been interesting to you, especially if you're discerning the priesthood head out to spiritualdirection.com and just type in McDonald and M-A-C-D-O-N-L-A A-L-D-D-O-N-A-L-D and spiritual direction you'll find that they're easy to find. Also don't forget to head out to myhighcalling.com for some specific personal care if you're discerning the priesthood but I want to just be careful because I though I am excited about what we're doing for the priesthood now spiritual direction is really for everyone as we open the show and in the quote, of course, of Father Matthew, even provided from Pope Benedict regarding the Tresiana began my book in navigating the interior life because I thought it encapsulated so clearly that priest-religious laity deacons if you got a pulse and you want to make progress in the interior life you've got to have somebody to walk with you. One of the things that we talked about in the last segment was blind spots and that sort of thing but I think also blind spots plus our fundamental design which requires others and in our sin all of those together equal, the equation equals we have an infinite capacity for self-delusion and it is just beyond powerful to have someone dispassionately walking with us through prayer and through decision-making and through all of this Father, maybe you could just as we're wrapping up the show we've got two minutes what's been the biggest impact in your personal life regarding spiritual direction like who's, maybe, how has it affected you personally? So one of the biggest influences on my vocation besides my parents and my maternal grandfather was my high school guidance counselor, I went to Kellanburg Memorial High School in Neune-Dale and he was just a real spiritual father to me and he helped me understand, you know, the beginning of what the church's patrimony is not only in general but also what is the interior life and throughout seminary I've met various priests my own director, Father Donald Hagerty Monsignor John Assef who I was blessed to go on canonical retreat for five to six years and I owe a lot to him on my priesthood they were kind of supports for that especially Monsignor Assef, he was like God wants you to make spiritual direction appeal your priesthood when somebody with his caliber says that you kind of take a moment and pause and you listen and you don't say no to that so and and I've guided a bunch of people and some people are constant throughout your life some people you guide for a particular period some people you can do more than others but it's not about the director it's about God it's about serving the Lord and his plans for the soul and not just imposing my own ideas on them but at the same time giving them solid formation that the Lord is asking me to give them not just what I think but how the Lord is moving and reverencing that. Amen, awesome great way to end the show. Yeah so head out to spiritualdirection.com and look up Father McDonald's articles there if this is interested you and so 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. Amen Amen