“Whenever we open up our hands and don’t grasp at our plan, but are open to God’s plan, then we can receive the great gift he has in store for us. The gift he has for other people may not be good for our salvation.”

Fr. Josh shares a story about the power of intercessory prayer.

Hi Fr. Josh! My name is Noah from Toronto, Canada and I love listening to your podcast! I have a quick question for you. As Jesus was growing up as a child, how did he know that he was the Son of God? I understand he was preaching in the synagogues at a very young age, but how did he truly and faithfully know that he was the anointed Son of God? Also could he have been skeptical or question that he was during his discernment. Thank you so much and may God continue to bless you in your ministry.

-Noah

I have gone through annulment proceedings and the annulment was finalized a few years ago. I really don’t know what to think about the time that I lived in what was a now unrecognized/annulled marriage—I discussed it briefly with a canon lawyer during confession BUT was the time in a marriage (that is now annulled) really time living in a state of sin? It seems like it would be but I don’t know how to seek penance on it or if I should because it seems like a confusing question to me. I’m not really sure if I should seek reconciliation for it or if I need to or what…

-Chris

Hello Fr. Josh, First of all thanks for your great podcast, I listen to the episodes in the train and it is a wonderful way to start the day! I have a question about dating. There's a girl at my church whom I quite like. She seems very serious in her faith and after talking to her on a few occasions I think she may like me too. Now, I have heard many times that ambiguity isn't a good thing and that the best thing to do is to clearly ask a girl on a date if you're interested in her. I think that's excellent advice and so I was planning to do just that. However, I'm not sure about how well one should know a girl before asking her on a date? Also, I may be wrong but I feel like a date is the way forward because "normal" chat isn't going to help much with getting to know the important things that would tell me whether I can potentially look for a spouse in her. Would you have some advice about how to make normal conversation useful at the "before asking someone on a date" stage? Are there red flags or things to look for, etc.? Looking forward to your answer. Keep up the good work and God bless.

-Anonymous

Annulled Marriages - It depends on the circumstances.

Asking a Girl on a Date - Virtue says that the man will take on the risk of being rejected.

This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man", and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a slave".

But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person. "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God." Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.

By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.

Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ's human will "does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will."