 How to do so my Yeah, all right. Hey friends is Dan Stephanie Burke you're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio and We're having a little bit of technical difficulty. So bear with us for a second The key right try that. That's way better way. Okay. Great. God provides Thanks to J. White my brother-in-law There you go Stephanie is in Dallas and We're in the normal studio So, why don't we just go ahead and get well before we get started? There's something pretty exciting coming up here October 1st, right? Yep, October 1st the Rosary Crusade. It's online You can sign up at spiritualdirection.com forward slash events and this one is specific before our future priests and Seminarians and it looks like the following seminarians will be joining us or Seminaries will be joining us st. Charles Borneo seminary What was that? Winewood PA st. John Paul seminary Washington, D.C. Kenrick glennon seminary Shrewsbury MO Mount st. Mary seminary Seminarian Emmitsburg sorry, so we have four seminaries joining us with the seminarians a Really cool opportunity to pray with guys who are heading into the priesthood And also I just want everyone out there to remember our fellow Christians in Armenia Unfortunately, the blockade has now turned into military action and if you if any of you had been a part of our Rosary Prayer time of prayer for them a lot has happened since that time of prayer God be praised and in terms of government Petition and you know a lot of media attention, which is really a blessing But our friends are now suffering military action fellow Christians because they're Christians and because they're not gonna convert to Islam They're Surrounded by hostile nations, so please pray For our Christian brothers and sisters in In this area like of the of the country of the world that's Very difficult Okay, we are Ready to roll Yeah, give me two seconds. I'm gonna fix the lighting in here. You don't need to you don't need to Yeah, okay On your mark get set go Welcome to divine intimacy radio. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. You're listening to 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 give us what we need perspective insight To navigate the tumult of this difficult life and today we're in a little difficult different Configuration obviously my voice is a problem, but Stephanie is in Dallas with her parents dad just went through surgery. So she's taking care of him and Our son Jordan is in studio with me Gets my voice disappears, but also we as a big part to play in the show today And what we're talking about today is my latest book Which I'm very excited to have out. I mean I guess I might say that with all of my books, but I do have favorites and The last three are my definitely my favorites But this book is very special and I want to start our time together with Jordan the book is entitled of course finding peace in the storm and the subtitle is Reflections on St. Alfonso's Liguria's uniformity with God's will and The and this is the first book. I've dedicated to Jordan And it's because he prodded me to read and republish St. Alfonso's Liguria's great work Uniformity with God's will so why don't you talk a little bit Jordan about why that book was so important to you? Sure and kind of how this all came about. Yeah At the time it was introduced the uniformity with God's will was introduced to me. I was going through Probably secondary stages of reversion, but also going through kind of a really difficult time a lot of tribulation and persecution in various different ways and Reading that book allowed me to understand the reasoning behind everything that was happening and and As you have titled this book find peace in that storm the storms that I was going through so I wasn't just being Reactive to Everything that was going on it was it was more of a okay this has a purpose and Because it has a purpose and I trust in God then I can move forward and I can be at peace even though Everything is still hard. I can still be at peace in the midst of all that and the peace comes from What's the fundamental truth? behind why Liguria helped you to find peace like what's the one liner? If everything is willed and permitted by God willed or permitted by God and God is a perfect loving father then everything that happens is Okay, I don't know. Yeah, no more articulate way to say it and that it's it's kind of like if a equals b and b You know what? I mean, it's just like if you understand that I Don't know it makes everything a whole lot easier to comprehend and live out If everything is willed and permitted by God if I could summarize and God is good Yeah, and wills only the good for us, right? Then it is in some sense good for us, right? Right and then the hard part though is Is yielding to that right because it's easy to say It's easy to say Did you have to read that text over and over again? I read it a couple of times But the first time honestly was enough because Liguria is so clear He has a gift of clarity and he's also very concise. I mean the original book is only 32 pages I think right and I think we ended up know my book what I did was we ended up with a hundred and 18 pages 114 and What I did was I went through it What so one I didn't want it to be a splint the book is so small the original Right, I didn't want it to be a spline that disappears in a book He's right. I was one because when I read it. I went. Oh, wow. I understand now Why you know, you thought it was amazing. I didn't want it to be so my question then was well, how do I? Make this book more popular, but also when I read it There were real obvious problems with the text In the sense that he wrote in the 18th century, right and he's very hard-hitting the person he wrote this to actually Knew him and so there was already a relationship, right? So You have all these presumptions about The kinds of language he's already hard-hitting anyway, right? And so did you struggle or stumble over any of the? The intensity language and the intensity or no, I loved it You know, I think it was necessary for me because I'm already kind of an intense person as is and so it was is It was as if he was cutting through all the nonsense and speaking exactly what I needed to hear and Again in that concise way that I really appreciate. I mean, he's called the most zealous doctor for a reason But it's just so appropriately or the way that he writes. It's appropriately measured and So yeah, no, I didn't have any issue with it. It was it was very helpful for me Actually, when you read it did was it easy for you to see where people would stumble or it was just all for sure Yeah, yeah, I ended up talking about the book a lot I bought I joked that I almost bought tan out of all their copies because I was giving it away on Instagram and in person and all that kind of stuff but I found that I even I had to I Had to be careful with some of the things that I said, you know one of the first lines in the first chapter, which we'll get to is is Could probably shake people to their core if they just sat on that first line And so you have to figure out a way to think about who you're talking to in the audience and say, okay Well, let's talk about what he actually means by this. Yes, it is true However, you know, you don't need to be distressed because of this reality. Yeah, and that's why I so that's what I did in the book is I gave context examples and used with respect to concepts That would be difficult in language because he used it like older translations of the Old Testament and even some newer ones You know, we know Theologically that God doesn't Will evil, right, you know, directly will evil and But the Old Testament as language like that, but what does it mean? It in it more archaic use of the word evil is just bad We're difficult is even easier So where those things emerge I tried to give some context, but then also Provide some more reflection for application every chapter has questions. So Steph To jump out to you. I know you were excited about this coming out too How has the concepts in this book? You know, I don't know Where you want to go with what what's what's the Lord has in your heart, but what what's what are your thoughts? Yeah, I think what strikes me and this is something that Jordan was talking about about the direct language of it. And you know, how intense it can be For anybody going through a storm, you know So if we think about the image of Peter on the boat, right? And he's surrounded by the waves because that's what this is alluding to finding peace in the storm Pieces a person, you know, it's the Lord. It's Jesus and And so in the midst of that storm we can hardly hear ourselves think The the noise in our head that Everything that's happening around us the intensity of our man our emotions the adrenaline that's pumping through our bodies You know, how do I get out of this mess? How did I get myself in this? What it what's going on? Where is God in this? Oh, you know, it's it's this Crying out, right in the in the noise of that we need the clarity We it's like a beacon of light. It's like a lighthouse that says go this way We don't need a lot of words. We don't need a lot of flowery language. It's like I'm here. I'm here Have faith. Don't take your eyes off me. Keep walking. Don't take your eyes off me have clarity, you know so I I found that to be incredibly powerful in this book and and I Loved Jordan's intensity about it. You know, he's passing them all out. He says you got to read this You got to read this. So, you know, the original version even in its with its antiquated language You know, I read it in an hour. I think on a Sunday afternoon and and it is I you know, I share the passion for it It's incredibly helpful. It's up there with Searching for and maintaining peace, you know, you know, yeah, Father Jacques Philippe and You know Cousades Abandonment to divine providence so but this one, you know, I Think it's going to be really helpful for those who want to just dive in and read those reflections that you've put together on this and it's it's really I Think one of your giftings Dan is bringing clarity and simplicity and not making it complicated making it very accessible to us common folk and And so that's that's really helpful. So it's truly going to help people find peace and prayer So if you come in in the middle of the show, we're talking about My latest book. It's called finding peace in the storm and the sub It's the subtitle is Reflections on St. Alphonsus leguries uniformity with God's will a Little more of the context of why I was motivated to do this Stephanie mentioned two other works which are extraordinary searching for and maintaining peace by Jacques Philippe and Sacrament of the present moment by Jean-Pierre de Cousade and those two actually searching is kind of uses the sacrament of the present moment primarily I Read that over and over and over sacrament of the present moment when I was going through my own hell My own, you know conversion and my own working through junk and sin and all that other stuff And as Stephanie said it did clear the smoke but what I found I needed to do and I that's why I asked you if you read it more than once is I actually had to let I listened to it over and over on audio and Then I read it over and over I found every translation Because I found that the way I thought Was contrary to God's truth, but it was so I mean for me I Thought so contrary and I was so and I think it's part of growing up in abuse where you are Always trying to control your environment and so you become the God of your little universe and Enquishing that to the real one Was incredibly difficult for me We're about to come to a break, but maybe after the break. I don't know some of this is resonating with you or Stephanie you guys could talk about it and how do we I Guess, you know, I'm my instinct is to tell readers be ready to read it more than once and be ready to Do the work at the end of every chapter because that'll help to really solidify it for you Meet in small groups talk it through and you'll get the most out of it. So I'm about to lose my voice so Do late that's for the editor So when we come back from the break more of finding peace in the storm Reflections on St. Alfonso's Liguria's University uniformity with God's will On your markets that go this is Dan Stephanie and Jordan Burke Our oldest son whom we are very proud of Welcome back to divine intimacy radio talking about finding peace in the storm. So I don't know before the break We were talking about how how many times you have to read the book. Yeah, so yeah Yeah, well, and I think that is important because Really truly living out uniformity with God's will is a process that takes place over time In order to perfect uniting your will with God's will which none of us here are perfected, right? But we've been working at it and it becomes easier and that takes a lot of time So I would agree and say that people should probably read it more than once I think you know, I don't I'm sure that I did read the original more than once But I know that the first time was enough to get that nugget in my head that said Everything is either willed or permitted and then I would just meditate on that because it just blew my mind to read it The first time I'm thinking what does that mean? What does that look like? How does that apply to my everyday life and then I'm sitting in, you know, I'm aware I mean, it's it's almost like sacrament at the present moment. You're in the present moment thinking, okay Where's God at in this? So Yeah, it's a process. No one's gonna get it on their first go-round But it is it. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not articulating that well enough, but it's worth reading multiple times Absolutely, and I think you know for for our listeners What does it look like if our will is not in alignment with God's will? You know, what are what are some of the indicators that our will is not in alignment with his fear anxiety Controlling anger outbursts irritation irritation frustrations, you know, you make a list, right? everything that's the opposite basically of Galatians 5 and And so in in that process if if we're going through those things, whatever it is if it's down to you know, trying to get the technology hooked up this morning to Putting gas in my car to try to pay my bills to my the relationship with my kids my spouse my in-laws my My parents whatever it is, right? If there's angst and difficulty in there the Lord's doing something and it's rubbing up against me. I Don't like it and I'm and I'm reacting to it That's an indication that my will is not released to God's will in that because he works in and through The situations the trials in our lives the individuals in our life I mean, there is no mistake that Jordan was you know is in our family There's no mistake that I'm married to Dan. It's all willed by God And so in this relationship this one or a broader family or whatever everybody's families Situations come up that indicate that are challenging us to surrender to God's will You know that are challenging us at every moment to grow in virtue and to die to our own self will So that the Lord can do what he wants to do because why does he want to surrender to his will because his will is perfect and That will is going to bring us in alignment with who he's calling us to be So it's not you know, people think of it as as being weak or caving in or you know Fatalism Yeah, fatalism or I just have to give up or whatever. That's not what that is. It's actually extraordinary docility and meekness Humility to surrender to God's will and to allow his will to be done in whatever Circumstances happening so that we can grow in virtue. So his love can reign so unity can reign and So it's it's just an extraordinary extraordinary gift So it's even more important now, you know, because you I you mentioned it kind of in the introduction to the book But at the time that we're at not to date this podcast But there's a whole lot of stuff going on in the church and in the world as a whole and the reaction that people are having is They're spinning out of control, right. They're getting angry. They're right. They're saying they're saying things I shouldn't say they're you know reacting ways that they should react and You have to believe in the church and doing this and doing that and it's and for us, you know We're sitting here and not that we're perfect examples of this, but we've been living this long enough to say You're not at peace. Yeah, because if you help you right because if you were you wouldn't be responding this way, right? You know, it's just God has willed or permitted this for what we don't know And maybe we don't need to know and maybe it's not our place to know Right, what we do know is that God is perfect and he loves us perfectly And if he's allowing it to happen or permitting it to happen, it's necessary. It's necessary You know one truth related to like the the pivotal idea for you was Willed or permitted, you know, right for me. It's the next step, which was Therefore if I'm angry and I'm not condemning anyone because you listen, you know I've had to go to confession a thousand times for this if I'm angry or irritated. I am actually Angry or irritated ultimately with who God Right, right that one is like a smack in the face for me Yeah, now there's no condemnation in that in a sense with that, right? It's just an opportunity. So when I realize in the moment I'm getting irritated and Then I connect it with that theological truth and then I go, okay, I'm off base. I have a choice Yeah, do I repent and turn to him for mercy, which he's always ready to give Or do I debt you sort of dash myself against those rocks, right? Yeah, yeah, which then just wreck me even more And it just is sort of a stupid fest You know, Dan one of the you used a word that's really important. You said it's an opportunity I use the word invitation, right? So all those trials difficulties storms in our lives all the stuff that's going on in the church in our homes in our Families in our in the government, you know, whatever it is Those are all invitations to us to respond in a way that helps us grow in virtue or helps us to respond to God's will to help us to respond in a way that's going to help others to help the situation because What you were talking about this, you know having to repeatedly take something to confession like anger wrath Whatever it is our pride If we react contrary to God's will we're contributing to Satan's plan Yeah, we're contributing to all the chaos and the the destruction the division the the hurt and the pain We don't want to do that. We want to do the opposite and we want to provide those bridges of peace and love and calmness If we become who he's calling us to be completely submitted to his will we become beacons of light we become Other Christ in the world, which is what Christian means Christian means little Christ So if I'm to be a little Christ in the world then I'm he's inviting me in those challenges To surrender to to allow myself to be crucified to allow myself to be scourged to allow myself to act to Submit my agony to to the Lord to allow myself to be crowned with thorns To ultimately allow myself to take on that Storm that that and then I make it an offering to the Lord through my suffering And when I make it an offering to him he can do something powerful in that And it really becomes something extraordinary I want to add, you know to counteract this the fatalism thing related to exactly what you said What in essence we're doing is joining with him in his work of salvation and redemption of us in the world Yes, we're saying Okay, my plan is not good because my plan is to act like a little baby in this moment because you know I Just to contrast two funny Incidences on our property here at the home base of the Avala Foundation One day I was trying to get a pipe from a place that they sent me an email and said it was there I had very little time. I'm heading out of town and I find and I'm heading there and I thought I better call and and it's for a drainage system and It's they said it the email said it was there. They can't find it on the phone. I start getting mad. I didn't treat them poorly But my anxiety went from a three to like a seven. I had to pull over After like my guardian angel or something said to me you know Permitted or caused, you know, just like you said Which caused me to pull out now. I repented. I said, sorry Lord, you know, I'm trying to get too much done I'm racing around whatever Please help me to come to peace. It didn't I didn't For hours because I got to worked out The other day a contrasting situation Is one of the wheels fell off of my side-by-side out here in the property and I was in a much better place Yeah, and I just and I had a whole day planned and it wrecked my whole day and it was in the morning But I didn't come off when I was going 20 miles an hour thing Came off when I was going like two. Yeah, I was turning a corner So it's a great contrast one was total peace. Okay, that it's not your will I get all this done that I had planned today. The other was a lack of peace which took me hours and That the problem when we don't submit is we leave his presence And I think that's the biggest issue. So instead of the day that my tire fell off. I joined with him The day that I couldn't get my stupid pipe, which is inconsequential as anything and dumb to be irritated about That day I wasn't joining with him and I you know, thankfully I did think to offer it up, which is helpful to do Yeah, and and one comment on that Unjoined, you know stepping out of God's will and out of his presence is when we voice through cursing frustrations Whatever that is the stuff that comes out when we're upset and we step out of God's will The enemy actually feeds on that He feeds on it and we've heard that from exorcists, you know and and through our studies We don't want to do that We don't want to we we want to stay in a place of peace Where we're veiled under our lady and and we're in this place where the Lord can then actually do something Extraordinary through our offering of that suffering that frustration, whatever it is. So Well, it's not even just the small things, you know, like a tire falling off I thought that that's a small thing or the pipe which was a smaller thing But if people can apply this kind of this this truth this theological truth to even the the major hurts divorce Right cancer diagnosis objectively painful Objectively evil things that have happened to people when you're victimized It's really hard to wrap your head around but I've been there and when you can finally understand Okay, God is working through this somehow That is the only way That you're going to start in my opinion that you're going to start experiencing any healing with regarding what you're going through Amen 100 so as we're coming to the end of the show today Please uh, go pick up a copy of finding peace in the storm. What's very cool about this book Because God has graced me with selling hundreds of thousands of books Barnes and noble and books a billion and picked it up So you can find it there, of course, btm's religious catalog is always the best place to find anything catholic um spiritualdirection.com as well, but I'd strongly recommend it's it's It's for our time. Yeah to resurrect Liguri's wisdom That you pick it up and start a small group We even have free training out at apostoleva.org and somebody who spends all their time Helping people to start small groups with a small group guide and videos and all of that Please help others in the church Find peace Find the lord in the midst of all this struggle because if we don't we're gonna lose people We don't need to do that and we can know his peace And with that Jordan, why don't you take us out? Until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body or approachable at the coming of our lord Jesus christ All right, don't forget. Are we still live? Yeah, don't forget the uh the rosary crusade august or october august with four seminaries And spiritualdirection.com forward slash events and also the summit Out of the summit the avala summit, which is Sometime go to spiritualdirection.com forward slash events. Yep. All right. God bless you guys. Take care. Bye everybody