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April 15, 2025 54 mins

What does it take to transform ourselves spiritually? In this thought-provoking episode, we unpack how spiritual practices shape our souls like exercise shapes our bodies.

The conversation begins with a compelling analogy: a man in his 40s who decided to transform his physical appearance through disciplined diet, exercise, and sleep habits. Similarly, meaningful spiritual growth requires intentional practices that reshape us from the inside out. But as we discover, the motivation behind these practices matters profoundly.

"One of the greatest treasons is to do the right thing for the wrong reason," Father Mario observes, challenging us to examine why we engage in spiritual disciplines. Are we fasting during Lent out of mere tradition or seeking genuine transformation? Are we giving to others for public recognition, or from authentic compassion? These questions cut to the heart of spiritual authenticity.

We explore the value of sanctifying time through religious seasons like Advent, Lent, and Passover. While some find power in these dedicated periods of focus, others prefer consistency throughout the year. Both approaches have merit when driven by the right intentions—becoming the person God designed us to be.

Perhaps most revealing is our discussion of silence as a spiritual discipline. In our noise-filled world, many struggle—or even fear—being alone with their thoughts. Yet silence "exposes the soul" and creates space for divine connection. As Father Mario poignantly notes, we will all face death alone someday, making comfort with solitude an essential spiritual skill.

Whether well-established in your faith or just beginning to explore spiritual practices, this conversation offers practical wisdom for authentic spiritual formation. Start small, be consistent, and continually examine your motivations. The transformation you seek begins with these first steps.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
There's something happening here what it is ain't
exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun overthere.

Speaker 5 (00:20):
Telling me I've got to beware.
I think it's time we stop.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Children.
What's that sound?
Everybody, look what's goingdown.
This battle line's been drawn.

Speaker 6 (00:45):
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Young people speak in their minds.

Speaker 7 (00:56):
Full of garbage like they are Welcome to the show of
faith here on 1070.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
We stop and say what's that sound?
Everybody look at what's goingdown.

Speaker 7 (01:06):
Welcome to the show of faith here on 1070 ANTH.
So, you're ad-libbing now.
Well, you know, when they startsaying, the young people speak
in their minds getting so muchresistance from behind.
The reason they're gettingresistance from behind is
because, they're full of garbage.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:32):
But not all young people, not all all.
Welcome to a show of faith here, where professor, priest,
millennial and rabbi discusstheology and philosophy and
anything else of interest inreligion.
If you have any response to ourtopics or any comments
regarding what we say, we wouldlove to hear from you, and you
can hear our shows again andagain by listening pretty much

(01:54):
where every podcast are heard.
Today we have with us ourbeautiful, wonderful professor,
beautiful, wonderful professorDavid Capes, who is our Baptist
minister.
He is the director of academicprogramming at the Lanier
Theological Library.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Hey, it's great to be with you, Father Mario.
We're missing Stuart tonight.
We'll be missing him tonightbecause it's Passover.

Speaker 7 (02:18):
It's Passover.
Yeah, we are passing him over.
We are Our P, our P, our Piste,our.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Piste.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
That's me.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Piste de resistance.

Speaker 7 (02:29):
Rudy Kong is our millennial.
He is a system engineer and hashis master's degree in theology
from the University of StThomas.
Hello, hello.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Hey, Rudy.

Speaker 7 (02:45):
It says here Rudy says I sound so far away.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
You sound far away.

Speaker 7 (02:50):
Yeah, I mean, the microphone doesn't sound right,
even in my earphones.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's because your ears are just on the wrong side
of each other.

Speaker 7 (02:57):
All right and I'm.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
And you are.

Speaker 7 (03:03):
I'm Father Mario.
I am the retired pastor of StCyril of Alexandria Catholic
Church in Houston, Texas.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
All right, okay, very good.
Now let me say that Stuart, ourrabbi, our resident rabbi, is
at Passover this week.
It's a big holy day for theJewish folk.
It's one of their main holidaysand it commemorates the
liberation from the Jews at thetime of the Exodus.

(03:35):
Why is this night differentthan any other night?
Well, because on this nightthey remember what happened when
they were slaves in Egypt andthey were liberated by by Moses.
So, uh, well, by the Lord, butMoses was the instrument of the
Lord for that.
So, anyway, that's what thisholiday is about.
It's one of the big Holyholidays, it's a pilgrimage

(03:59):
festival.
I had a friend who was here atthe Lanier Theological Library,
a Jewish guy who lives inJerusalem, and he went back.
Here we go.
We're changing out microphoneshere.
He went back to Israel becausehe wanted to be in Israel for
Passover.
So that's part of his religiousobligation is to be in Israel

(04:20):
itself and to be in the city ofJerusalem at the time of
Passover.
Now, I don't think Stuart wentto Jerusalem.

Speaker 7 (04:26):
No, I think he's in Bel-Air.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
I think he is too.
But if he could be in Jerusalem, he probably would, he probably
would, he probably would.
And Rudy, you're not inJerusalem, I take it.

Speaker 8 (04:40):
I would love to go sometime, but I am not.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, maybe we all should go.
All four of us should go toIsrael someday.

Speaker 8 (04:49):
That would be cool.
I might have to bring my wife.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, yeah, that would be a good thing.
And I would probably bring mineas well.

Speaker 7 (04:56):
So there would be six of us.
I can't bring mine, you can'tbring your wife.
Look, I don't have one.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Well, that's true, I'm celibate, that's that.

Speaker 7 (05:06):
that's true, you know you can bring your dog there's
a song about that.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
What's the song?

Speaker 7 (05:10):
celibate, celibate.
Then to the music oh, I thinkthat's celebrate.
I think that's celebrate.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, I thought it was celibate, yeah not everybody
who is celibate wants to dance,I think.
Or do they have anybody todance with?
I don't know.
I don't know.
But you love your dog, youcould take your dog with you.

Speaker 7 (05:30):
Oh, no, no, no, thank you.
My dog, I love my dog, is itCharlie?
Charlie, charlie, okay, Charlieis a toy poodle and he is
wonderful.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Keeps you company, doesn't he?
Hey, tonight on the show we'regoing to be talking about
spiritual practices, and let meset it up this way I have a
friend who is in his mid-40s andhe has never really worked out
much in his life, but he justdecided that he was going to
change his body, his physique,his conditioning, Okay.

(06:05):
So he has started a number ofpractices.
Okay, they're not spiritualpractices, necessarily, but
they're practices, and thesepractices involve things like
eating certain kinds of food andcertain kinds of diet and not
eating certain kinds of food andcertain kinds of diet, of diet
and not eating certain kinds offood and certain kinds of diet.

(06:26):
They include giving up sometime doing one thing that he
might like to do in order tomaybe work out one to two hours
a day building upper body, lowerbody, that kind of thing.
Now he's sculpting his body.
He's changing his bodysignificantly.
He has a new practice now aboutsleep.
Okay, what is it?

(06:47):
Well, I mean, he sleeps more.
Basically, he has a little bitmore discipline when it comes to
sleep.
Now, my point in all this is tosay that if you ever want to
change something about yourself,you ever feel a sense of
needing to change.
It's going to take a new set ofpractices, a new set of habits,

(07:11):
maybe a new diet, maybe a new,whatever it might be, to begin
to shape yourself in a way thatyou so desire.
And he's getting good results.
I mean, he's getting good, goodresults.
It's not without a lot of work.
Now, here's the thing.
The analogy I want to try tobring is that if we have certain

(07:33):
goals that are spiritual goals,that are goals about
righteousness and aboutself-integrity and about peace
in your life and about beingaware of kind of what you're
doing and defining peace andmeaning and satisfaction those
kinds of things.
It might well take a new set ofpractices in order for you to

(07:58):
achieve that, and so there'sthis in all of our faiths,
stewards as well, if you're here.
There are certain practicesthat we follow in order to begin
to shape ourselves spiritually,mentally, emotionally, into a

(08:20):
different kind of person, aperson like we would like to
believe, and those practicesinvolve a variety of things, and
so what I wanted to do tonightis to spend a little bit of time
talking about spiritualpractices, the things that we do
in order to bring out adifferent kind of outcome, a

(08:41):
different kind of person, to bea person of more integrity, a
person of more faith, a personwho is more trustworthy, a
person who maybe doesn't sufferfrom some of the kind of health
and depressions and things likethat that certain people have
right.
Okay, so I'd like to do thattonight, and I want to begin

(09:05):
with where we all are right now.
Stuart's at Passover, in aholiday, we are entering into
Holy Week as Christians.

Speaker 7 (09:16):
First day is Passion Sunday.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Today is Passion Sunday, so I want to talk a
little bit about sanctifyingtime, setting aside time.
About sanctifying time, settingaside time Because, as a child,
you have all this time, but theolder we get, the less and less
time we have, right?
So, as a result, what are wegoing to do with the time that

(09:38):
we have, the little bit of timethat we have, or, if we have?
If you're a young man, youngwoman, you may have lots of time
ahead of you.
Yeah, but you may not.
Yes, you never know, you don'tknow.
So I want to talk initiallyabout sanctifying time, I want
to talk about seasons and I wantto talk about the calendar,
talk about day, maybe even dailyprayer.

Speaker 7 (10:01):
Now I'm going to ask you to give me, because this is
a very sensitive topic for me.
Not how you might think it.
Okay, but since you know theBible much more than I do, Well,
maybe I mean, you know I cangive you a quote from the Bible
and normally you can kind ofsteer me as to where it is.

(10:21):
Where I would have to look itup.
St Paul says something.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
This Some observe times and seasons kind of steer
me as to where it is yeah, whereI would have to look it up.

Speaker 7 (10:25):
All right, right, st paul says something this some
observed times and seasons, andto to others one day is the same
as the next yeah, yeah, romans,uh, 14 romans 14, 14 wow, okay,
yeah, I happen to fall in thenot the Catholic Church observes

(10:46):
a lot of times and seasons.
Okay, I have never found themprofitable Myself, myself, to me
.
I have always felt that ifsomething was worth doing, it
was worth doing all the time.
Okay.
So you know, like, for example,when I was younger, like for
example okay, we've been in Lentright now, and in Lent it's

(11:10):
typical to perform.
You know, catholics do littlesacrifices and stuff like that,
which I have disagreements interms of the understanding that
most Catholics have of practicesof Lent, but, for example, when
I was growing up, it was always, if you ask most Catholics,

(11:32):
they'll say to you well, you'vegot to give something up for
Lent.
Giving something up for Lent,and I'll never forget it I used
to give up my tremendouslychocolate attic and I used to
give up chocolate and I wouldsuffer and suffer during Lanto
and I'm sure God was looking atme and going oh, look at Mario,

(11:54):
he is whining and pining forchocolate and he's offering the
sufferings to me.
And then on Easter Sunday Iwould go to CBS or Walgreens and
I would find the largest solidchocolate bunny that I could
find and then I would eat it andthen I'd get sick and sometimes

(12:18):
I'd even throw up.
And I'm sure God was theresaying, oh, look at Mario
vomiting in my honor.
So to me, once I understoodthat the purpose, see, there's a
saying that I really enjoy, andthat's called doing.
One of the greatest treasons isto do the right thing for the

(12:42):
wrong reason, and so, for me,lenten practices and all kinds
of practices are excellent,unless you don't have the right
reason for them.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
And if you don't?

Speaker 7 (12:54):
have the right reason for them, then you are
literally subverting the faith,because ultimately, for example,
the scribes and Pharisees inthe Gospels were practicing the
law, but they were doing so forthe wrong reasons.
And so and I'm always awarewhen Jesus says you scribes and

(13:17):
Pharisees should travel land andsea to make a convert, and when
you're done with them, they'retwice as fit for hell as you are
yourselves.
So the spiritual practices,without doing them for the right
reason, can actually do youharm.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
But as a 12-year-old boy.
I mean, you're giving upchocolate, let's say for Lent.
How could a 12-year-old boysort of understand the
ramifications?
So you don't.
But is there any value to it if?
If you are not mature enough tosort of?

Speaker 7 (13:50):
I think it.
I think it's the whole issue isbeing taught, not not with a
lot of profundity as to themeaning of you know you should
have the meaning of thesacrifice that you're doing
behind it before you do thesacrifice.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
I see what you're saying.

Speaker 7 (14:07):
Yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
And I think a part of this is the challenge of
education.
A part of it is to come backand to say look, let's talk
about why we sanctify time.
That's right.
Why is it important to sanctifytime in this way?
Why is it important to spendsome time in reflection and
repentance?
Yes, Before as we approach theseason of the cross.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
I'm in agreement.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
When we come back— I want to hear from Rudy on this,
because Rudy's the youngster,he's the one with all the time
left.

Speaker 7 (14:37):
He's wet behind the ears.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, what does he know?

Speaker 7 (14:40):
Okay, we will come back.
This is KNTH 1070.
You're listening to the Show ofFaith and we'll be right back
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Take me by my little hand.
It goes like this Welcome backhere to the show of faith.
Okay, Rudy.
I love that, rudy, you want toget into this.

Speaker 8 (17:20):
Yeah, I'm reminded of a when I was in—a long time ago
when I was doing my master's.
We had to read early churchfollowers and actually one of
the things that struck me was wehave actually pretty good
records of St Bernard ofClairvaux, okay, and he has this

(17:45):
kind of list of sermons that hewrote in the 11th century.
I think I'm pretty sure Iforget exactly what year.
I think Dr Gibson can probablycorrect me if I'm wrong, but
anyway, he gave this sermon.
It's called On the Deceptionsof this Life.
And to sum it up and it'ssomething I think that Dave was

(18:07):
kind of alluding to before isthat when we're young we take
time for granted.
We almost kind of see thingsweb and kind of ebb and flow of
time is so much different.
It's almost like the dilationof it.
Right, we haven't experiencedmuch.
When you talk now to a 15, ateenager, right, a 15, 16, 17

(18:32):
year old, and you talk abouttime and you tell them you know,
I remember my grandpa used totell me when I was in college he
would say you know, it's just afew years, it'll fly by quick.
I remember thinking, oh my God,a couple years, this is crazy,
that's a crazy amount of time,right.
But I mean, and I ask you guysthis If I were to tell you, oh,

(18:56):
that's going to be in threemonths, you know, to you and
even now to me, that's nothing.
Three months goes by in a snapof a finger.
We're already in April.
I mean it seems like yesterdaythat we were, you know, just

(19:16):
kind of getting by Christmas.
But anyway, the point of thesermon and why I brought it up
is because there's this kind ofdeceit, right, that especially
that I think, kind of gets toyouth that we're sort of
impermeable, that we're sort of,you know, immoral, that we're
going to live 100 years.
And when we think about 100years it just seems like such a

(19:38):
long time.
So we take all these risks andwe do all these things.
And of course, sternard waswriting in a time where the life
expectancy I mean only aboutone out of four children ever
made it past childbirth, right.
So, um, and even then lifeexpectancy was maybe 35.

(19:59):
But young people still sufferfrom the same thing.
And I think, you know, I have acouple gray hairs now and I tend
to be a lot more purposeful, ifyou will, about my day.
And what do I gauge in and Iused to be a lot more careless,

(20:19):
especially when it came to DrHiss was using the thing of the
things that I would eat, of thethings that I would watch, the
things that I would put into mybody, not just from a sort of
physical perspective, you know,but sensory altogether.
Right, I mean, these are theimages that I would look at.

(20:39):
So I definitely see myselfbeing more and more and more
careful because, you know, maybeit comes with age and it's just
kind of one of these things,right, but I want to be way more
careful in this.

Speaker 7 (20:55):
Do you yourself find because you heard me say that I
kind of belong to the camp of tome, one day is the same as the
next.
I kind of belong to the camp ofto me, one day is the same as
the next?
Do you find yourself, as Davidsaid, doing practices that
sanctify and demarcate time intospecial times and stuff like

(21:16):
that?
Now that you have thatawareness of time?

Speaker 8 (21:20):
Yes, I do, I definitely do.
I'm definitely more purposeful.
I do, I definitely do.
I'm definitely more purposeful.
For example, when I go to Mass,or during this time that we're
preparing, while we're preparingfor the Resurrection at 3 pm,
with my wife, we say a rosaryand we try to meditate and we

(21:42):
try to think.
It's a very guided andpurposeful.
And sometimes you know anotherthing, and I know I'm talking a
lot, but we want to make allthese changes physically,
spiritually, but we don't wantto be uncomfortable or we don't
want to change really what we'redoing.
It's like we have all this hope.
You know, I want to be inperfect shape, or I want to be

(22:03):
this kind of holy person.
I want to, okay, but that meansthat you have to stop doing the
things that are preventing youfrom that right.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Exactly yeah.

Speaker 8 (22:13):
Most often than not, it means you're going to be
uncomfortable, like you have togo out and cut the forest and
replant things if you wantdifferent fruit to grow, right,
and I think a lot of peopledon't understand, especially
young people.
I think a lot of young peoplejust want to complain about
things, but even the oldergenerations do right.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Well, you know, I used to do a sermon and I'll be
real quick about this, sorry,here we go A couple of minutes.
We used to do a sermon where Iwould bring somebody up on the
podium with me and I would sayyou know, I really want a
chocolate cake.
I mean, I've just had this h, Ireally want a chocolate cake.
I mean, I've, I've got, I'vegot.
I've just had this hankeringfor a chocolate cake all this

(22:58):
time, and and I want to bake it.
Can you help me bake a cake?
I usually would choose a younglady with somebody that I
thought had some, some knowledgeof of food preparation, not
some guy that's, you know, skateskater guy, but anyway, uh,
would do that.
And and then so I would beginto reach down to the bag and I'd
pull out all the wrongingredients, everything.
So I just, oh, I just lovethese peanuts, these, these are

(23:19):
some of my favorite things, andI pulled them out.
And I would begin to pull otherthings out that I love, oh, I
really love, you know this, uh,uh, these ice cream bars.
I would, I would bring thingsout that I really love, but none
of it were ingredients thatwould make a chocolate cake.
The point of that was to saythat you have to choose what
kind of life that you want, butyou have to fill the bag with

(23:47):
the right ingredients in orderto get there.
You can't say I want achocolate cake and not have any
flour and any chocolate and anymilk and any eggs and anything
like that that goes in there.
You've got to have all theright ingredients to put it
together.
So that's about what Lent isabout.
To me is putting together.
It means, yeah, it meansleaving off some things, but

(24:07):
also taking on some things.
I like to think of Lent not somuch as what are you giving up
for Lent, but what are youtaking on for Lent that is going
to bring you to the place thatyou need to be?

Speaker 7 (24:22):
But here my argument is still when we have 30 seconds
, we'll talk about it more.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
It'll come back when we come back.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (24:28):
But the whole issue is if that is what you really
want for your life, shouldn'tyou be doing that 24-7, 365?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (24:37):
So then, why a special?
Every month, I mean every year,do this special time, and then
you get the impression that whenthe time is over, then you quit
and you don't have to go backto it again.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
What the hope is, I think, is that you develop new
habits, new practices.

Speaker 7 (24:55):
I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
The new practices are the things that you set in
motion by doing them for the 40days.

Speaker 7 (25:02):
That is correct, but it should be a continuing.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
It should go on Absolutely Well.
We can't continue without goingto a break.
We've got to go to a break.

Speaker 7 (25:09):
This is 1070 KNDH and we'll be right back.

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I think it's entirely okay to do my wife, for example
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She insists on putting avocadoin virtually everything she eats
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Are you seeking intelligent,conservative conversation on FM
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Chris DeGaulle, Mike Gallagher,Charlie Kirk, Hugh Hewitt,

(27:08):
Larry Elder, Jay Sekulow andDennis Prager are right here on
FM 1033, the Answer FM.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
The Answer the.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Answer.

Speaker 7 (27:34):
They don't make songs like that anymore.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
They don't, they really don't, they really don't.

Speaker 7 (27:41):
Miranda is just feeding us this 60s and 70s
stuff.
Okay, all right, we weretalking about sanctifying time.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
We're talking about the practices that we do about
sanctifying time.
We're talking about thepractices that we do.

Speaker 7 (27:54):
Oh, sanctifying time.
I want to make sure you knowI've been very heavily
influenced by that saying that Imentioned.
One of the great treasons is todo the right thing for the
wrong reason, because it takesyou to the wrong place.
If you're doing it for thewrong reason, Now thinking, for
example, I am thinking of, let'ssay, christmastime, advent and

(28:17):
Christmas, and also the Lent andEaster season, the way that I
would see doing it the correctway is not for me.
Anyway I would want to.

(28:38):
In the Catholic Church and inculture in general, those
specially sanctified times arefilled with symbols, especially,
for example, christmas, withsymbols especially, for example,

(28:58):
christmas, whenever I amcelebrating Christmas in the
Catholic tradition, and notChristmas but Advent, because
I'm a priest and I have to be atchurch all the time, but I have
a real sense around me of therescue mission of Christ coming
in history and coming at the endof time and the incarnation and

(29:21):
all of that.
So it's not that I'm.
I find that the sanctificationof that season draws my focus so
that my focus of my faith isactually focused on the history
of salvation, on being rescued.
Lent does another thing itfocuses my attention on the

(29:47):
paschal mystery, in other wordsthe coming death and
resurrection of Jesus.
So to me, it's the publicobservance of those times and
seasons, at least in theCatholic tradition, that draws
my focus and it intensifies myfocus on specific areas of my
faith and I find that profitable.

(30:10):
But just because, for example,it's Lent, oh, I've got to make
a.
It's lent, oh, I gotta make asacrifice.
I gotta make a sacrifice to meagain if I'm doing it for the
right reason, if I find, forexample, let me give you a quick
example.
You know, I I have a very goodfriend who struggles a lot with

(30:30):
food and she belongs toovereaters anonymous and I've
gone to several overeatersanonymous meetings, especially
online, and it really isinteresting because it focuses
on fasting and on eating well.
But the reasoning is that youthey force you to confront how

(30:54):
you may be abusing food and youcome to the understanding of how
God wants you to use food andhow God wants you to take care
of your body.
And there you use the OA method, overeaters Anonymous method,

(31:14):
but I'm doing it not because Iwant to lose weight.
I'm doing it because I reallythink I'm doing something right
when I take care of my body,because I think it's wrong for
me to misuse my body, and soit's a moral quality, and it's a
moral quality that influencesme my entire year.

(31:36):
So, for example, I know thatnow, periodically, when I'm
lonely, I may go to therefrigerator.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
And just eat.

Speaker 7 (31:47):
But now I'm aware that what I'm hungry for is not
food my heart is hungry, thatwhat I'm hungry for is not food,
it's my heart is hungry.
And so what OA has done and hashelped me to understand much
better my because I took that OApractice and I transferred it

(32:10):
and linked it to my hunger forGod and I finally figured out oh
, the reason why I'm doing thisis so that I can be truly what
God wants me to be in terms offeeding my body, the way God
wants me to feed my body.
And the sin or the imperfectionthat I was committing was
running away from God and goingto the refrigerator.
Yeah, so to me that's apurification of the motive for

(32:35):
doing that, right?
Anyway?

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well, there's a lot of people who struggle with that
, who abuse food or for whomfood has become a substitute for
other needs, necessities,relationships.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
If you're the kind of person who says well, I just
want to lose weight because Iwant to look great, you know,
and stuff like that.
To me that's a very shallowmotivation.
It may be okay for a while, butit doesn't seem to be any kind
of a transcendent motivation tobe the person that God wants you
to be.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
I mean God has given us food as a place of
celebration.

Speaker 7 (33:15):
But you abuse it sometimes.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
That's exactly right, that's right, exactly right.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
So that's a great kind of lesson to think about
why we do sometimes the thingsthat we do and these spiritual
disciplines providing a spaceand a time when we can refocus.

Speaker 7 (33:38):
I think the whole idea of refocus is really a good
.
At least for me, it is very tofocus, because I try to do all
things good all year long, butperiodically culture ecclesial
culture also can refocus yourattention on something.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
And I think you're right about the idea about the
treason.
I've never heard it put exactlythat way, but I've described
the teaching Jesus' teaching onrighteousness, particularly in
the Sermon on the Mount as thatwhich is urging us to do the
right thing for the right reason.
In other words we can do theright thing for the right reason
.
In other words, we can do theright thing for the wrong reason
and we end up getting tangledup and we don't end up getting

(34:20):
the benefit.
For example, we can and Jesusdiscussed this.
He said practice yourrighteousness before God's eyes,
and God's eyes only because ifyou do it for the praise of men
and women and other people,that's a reward in itself, but
that's not going to make its wayto me.

(34:42):
Do it for the right reason.
The right reason to do it isbecause God wants us to do it.
So, for example, the very firstexample was giving to the poor,
and I describe that assanctifying our resources.
If we sanctify time, time is aresource, obviously, but
sanctifying our resources isgiving to the poor.
But we don't do it because theIRS gives us a kickback, or we

(35:05):
don't do it because somebodymight think oh wow, he must have
a lot of money or he's reallygenerous.
We do it because we do it forGod's eyes, do it for god's
pleasure and it's the rightthing to do it's the right thing
, it's just you do it you do itfor the reason that it is right.

Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yeah, it is not to up to case any personal benefit.
In fact, to my way of thinking,the personal benefit is doing
the right thing and becoming theperson that God wants you to be
.
That is the benefit.
So, rudy, you want to get in onthat?

Speaker 8 (35:39):
Yeah, I was thinking this quote the act of obedience
forms the will.
The repetition carves out apathway for grace.
Pathway for grace, and I'mthinking of this passage in

(36:02):
Jeremiah woe to those who do thework of God negligently.
And so there's a lot to be saidabout doing something.
And I kind of go back to StBernard here, but he says that
many times people startsomething for the wrong reasons.
Right, Now, the wrong reasonisn't necessarily wrong in
itself.

(36:23):
It could be, Salmar, you couldsay you know what?
I want to have a six-pack, andthat's why I want to go to these
things.
And you want to look better Now, at a sort of how do I say,
fundamental level.
Right, the desire for you tolook good isn't necessarily bad,

(36:43):
right, it's not somethingthat's kind of rooted in evil.
Now, you could start something,maybe for the wrong reason, but
if your heart is open, if youhave this kind of type, what I
say, this, this desire to dogood, then god, through that

(37:05):
path, is going to correct youand it's going to, it's going to
kind of mold you into into theright path of love for him, if
you will, to understand that,okay, I don't really care about
having a six-pack.
What I really care about is mybody is a temple right, and I'm
created in the image of life andself-go and I want to be better

(37:29):
and I want to be healthy, maybebecause when I feel good I can
give better sermons, or I cangive you know, or as a dad right
, my brother tells me this allthe time.
He's like I used to work out,you know, because I wanted to be
strong, but now what I reallycare about is I want to be able
to throw, you know, a baseballwith my kid when he's older.

Speaker 7 (37:51):
You know I want to be able to do active things with
him when he's older.

Speaker 8 (37:52):
You know I want to be able to do active things with
him when he's older, so I thinksometimes we can start something
for let's call them the wrongreasons, but God in his infinite
mercy and grace can mold us, Iagree.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
I think that's right.

Speaker 7 (38:13):
I think I agree with you.
I find the example of thePharisees some of the Pharisees
not all but some of the.
Pharisees so compelling becausethey were intensely doing the
right thing.
And Jesus said the Phariseesoccupy the seat of Moses, so

(38:34):
don't obey them but don't dowhat they do.
So to me, it's the purificationof the reasoning behind what
you're doing and I think thatyou're right.
God's grace can come in andpurify the background of why you
do what you do so the purifyingof our resources, the giving

(38:55):
that we give, the opportunitiesthat we have.
For example, we talked about thedifference in compassion,
compassion, sentimentalcompassion and effective
compassion.
Sentimental compassion is avery good thing.
You can practice almsgiving tothe poor, but you're doing it
because it makes you feel good.

(39:15):
Okay, that's nice.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
That's a pretty shallow reason.

Speaker 7 (39:19):
It's a shallow reason to do it.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
You do it for them, for their sake, for them.

Speaker 7 (39:23):
Effective compassion is you want to help that person
to be what God wants them to be,to give them that chance.
But it's that purification ofthat reason.
A person who goes on a fastbecause they want to lose weight
and they want to look great onthe beach in a bikini well, you
know that's nice.
But I think that's even thewrong reason, because you

(39:46):
shouldn't be having that muchattention on your body, on how
you look on your body, so I'mjust focused very much on that.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Yeah, all right, let's take a break, come back.
I want to talk about aspiritual practice that some
people don't even think is aspiritual practice.

Speaker 7 (40:05):
We shall come back after this message.

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(43:38):
will see how lovely heaven willbe welcome back here to the show
of faith, where we're talkingabout spiritual practices
spiritual practices sound of theright and the wrong of them,
the, the way to get the bestbenefit.

Speaker 7 (43:53):
Now I want bring up that one that you wanted to
bring up.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Here's one that a lot of people may not be aware of.
We're aware of prayer and goingto worship maybe and celebrating
holidays and holidays and thiskind of thing, but talk about
the spiritual discipline ofsilence, which is not one that
people think too much about.
Right Silence.

(44:17):
There's a passage in thescripture, psalm 46, says be
still and know that I'm God.
A part of the challenge ofmodern life is the busyness that
we fall into, the noise that'saround us, and I think the

(44:44):
challenge for us is to find thatquiet place.
We used to call it having aquiet time.
That's one of the spiritualdisciplines of being Protestant.
Protestantism, having a quiettime meant that you would
silence, you kind of get into aquiet place.
You'd have a time of prayer andmaybe a time of Bible reading

(45:04):
and a time of journaling, and itcould last five minutes, 15, 20
, 30 minutes.
Yes, those kind of things,having a quiet time and the
whole idea of being quiet andthe whole notion.
The purpose of it is to reducethe external noise and the
internal noise that begins tohappen to us as people.

(45:28):
I remember reading I think itwas Martin Luther said that
whenever I kneel to pray, it'sas if 50 demons kneel around me
to try to stop me in my prayerbecause all sorts of other ideas
would rush in.
He would try to preach what wewould call silently, silent

(45:49):
prayer, which means that it'ssort of an internal thing.
Yeah, right Now.
Silence doesn't necessarily meannot having speaking at all, but
it just means entering into aplace where the connection with
God can be deepened, assumingthat there's a connection to God

(46:14):
to begin with.
But that connection can bedeepened and we do so by
silencing the outer noise.
We do so by silencing the outernoise, we do so by silencing
the inner noise and we do so byfocusing in upon God, and it's a
beautiful spiritual disciplinethat I think a lot of people

(46:34):
struggle with today.
One of my first encounters withthis was through the Taizé
movement.
The Taizé movement is kind ofalmost like a Protestant
monastic movement from Franceand a part of their services.
They'll have services that arevery quiet and contemplative and
meditative, but almost alwaysthere's about a 15 to 20-minute

(46:57):
period in that service whennothing is said, when no music
is played.
Maybe there's a focus you know,a cross to focus on, maybe
there's a symbol to focus on,but it gives you an opportunity
and I just think that's such animportant discipline these days

(47:18):
because there is so muchdistraction so much busyness so
much noise.
Rudy as a youngster as muchbusyness, so much noise.

Speaker 8 (47:29):
Rudy, as a youngster, as a millennial, does that ever
resonate with you?
Oh gosh, yeah, I feel one ofthe things that I struggle with
the most is just being alone,not looking at my phone, not
looking at something emails.
You know, especially in thecities that I remember I used to

(47:52):
be in the Boy Scouts and wewould go camping and it's kind
of this weird feeling.
But I don't know if you guyshave ever been kind of like in
the forest at night when it'squiet, there's no cars, there's
no.
You know, it just feels awesome.
It's just this kind of feelingof just kind of solemn silence.

(48:20):
It just makes your thoughtslouder, if that makes any sense
at all.
It just kind of emboldenswhatever's kind of going on.
And I found that the more, forexample, I try to go at least
once a week and a lot ofchurches they do or they'll have

(48:42):
kind of like a holy hour ofworship, adoration, eucharistic
adoration, where they just kindof have most bombarded with all
the sort of questions of the dayof what's going on with the

(49:08):
project and my dad and my wifeand my family, and this person's
sick, and this and that, and itjust kind of turns into
everything else, except for whatI was there to do, which is
just kind of adore, admiration,worship, right, and it's just so
.
I struggle with that a lot, alot, a lot, a lot really.

(49:29):
It's really one of the mainthings that I try to focus on
and this is why I told my wifetoo.
We have to pick a time Sometimesand it's going to be
uncomfortable, right, and thisis about building habits.
Okay, every day at 3o'clockclock, we're going to
stop what we're doing and we'regoing to say a rosary.
Okay, we're going to just takea little bit of time In the

(49:51):
morning, as soon as I wake up,just take two or three minutes
and just say thank you to Godfor another day and another
opportunity.

Speaker 7 (49:59):
You know, the question that I have is and this
is a related question is haveyou ever encountered people who
cannot be alone, who cannot bealone and cannot be silent,
because having somebody in yourspace constantly is an intrusion

(50:21):
on silence to some degree andso there are people who are
actually unable to be alone, andsometimes they are actually
afraid of being alone, afraid ofthe quiet.
Yeah, and the interesting thingis, you know how would you
diagnose that, the fear of thesolitude, because I think that

(50:50):
that's a real spiritualcondition.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Yeah, I think it is a spiritual and I was reading
today just some things frompastors about this discipline
and one of them said I can'tremember his name exactly but he
said silence exposes the soul,that the idea that silence, when
you seek silence, it reveals toyou the state of your soul.

(51:17):
And if you find yourself I'vegot to have that phone, I've got
to have it, I've got to have itit just shows you into
dependence or whatever.
I've got to have a conversation, or I've got to turn on the
television, or I've got to turnon the radio.
If you do it should be K&THright.
But if you're going to do that,you better have the right radio

(51:38):
station on.
But there are folks, I know,that just can't be in silence.

Speaker 7 (51:44):
Yeah, especially silence and solitude.
Right right, because I think itdoes expose your soul and when
you are there it makes you focuson your internal.
It's interesting, the worddistraction, it takes you off
track, distract, the worddistraction, it takes you off

(52:10):
track, distract andentertainment to be, uh, to be
maintained in between that'swhat the background.
Oh, I see, yeah, yeah toentertain and and it's it's
interesting because that's whatyou're dealing with is people
who are afraid to confront theirown souls yeah and to enter
into that, and it can be aterrifying experience for one of
the first times you start doingit.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Right and very unsettling, but it is something
that can be a very good gift tothe soul.

Speaker 7 (52:36):
Not only can be, it has to be.
Let me tell you the day thatyou are going to die, you're
going to do it alone and youhave to be ready to be alone and
face God.
If you've not done that, you'vegot to get used to it.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Yeah, because that's a great word.
Yeah, yeah, you've got to.
You're not going to do thatwith a bunch of people.
No, you know you're going to dothat all by yourself.

Speaker 7 (53:02):
Yeah, All by yourself .
You know you're going to dothat all by yourself.
All by yourself, so you mightnot get used to it.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Yeah, exactly, so I mean this is a great spiritual
discipline to find a space forGod to speak to us.
Yeah, no TV, no music, no radio, no expressive conversation, a
quiet place.
And what it does for you is itwill begin to put your mind at
rest.

Speaker 7 (53:26):
There might be a lot of struggle at first, but it
will begin to put your mind in aplace of rest and openness to
God and reflecting on Scripture,Even if you can do it 15, 20
minutes at a time or somethingfive minutes at a time, but do
it yeah three minutes, fourminutes, just build up a little

(53:46):
time, just like you're going torun a marathon.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
You wouldn't do all that in one day.
You would build your way up toit.
Rudy, I wish we had time tokind of get you back in on this,
but I know our time is slippingaway.

Speaker 7 (53:57):
He's got 15 seconds.
Our time is short.

Speaker 8 (54:04):
It is, it's good.
Is it your turn next time Is?

Speaker 7 (54:06):
it my turn.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
I think it is.

Speaker 7 (54:10):
I think it is, I will be the show director and I will
lead it in a direction.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Without distraction.

Speaker 7 (54:18):
Without distraction.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Will it be entertaining?

Speaker 7 (54:21):
though I know.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
It will be focused, it will be in between, all right
, yeah.

Speaker 7 (54:28):
Well, thank you for listening to the show of faith
here on 1070 KNTH.
Please, during this week, keepus in your prayer.
Go to church.
This week it's Holy Week.
Keep us in your prayers becauseyou know what you are going to
be in ours, happy Find us atam1070theanswercom.

Speaker 9 (54:47):
Download.
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