Journeying With The Saints

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. We are back to learn more and reflect more on how we can better live a devout life.

The point of this book is not for us to just listen and then think, "That's nice. I sure do agree." The point of the book is for us to put into practice what we are reading about here. Obviously, we can't put all of these into practice all at once and 100% perfectly, but we do need to be actively thinking about what St. Francis is teaching us. If somethings he says makes us uncomfortable, well, that's probably an area we need to work on.

Today, St. Francis gives us a short reading where he just gives a few more pointers to think about when it comes to having conversations with people. So, let's open our book to Chapter 30 of the Third Part.

Welcome, fellow Pilgrims, to another reading from our wise St. Francis.

One day, I was thinking about our current political circus and I thought to myself, "If my husband ran for president or if I did, what dirt would they try to dig up in my past to ruin my reputation?"

Thank God, I grew up before cell phones, but there are still things that people could dig up about my past that would cast a dark shadow over me. In our cancel culture today, people wickedly relish in digging up embarrassing and ugly things from people's past so that they can say, "See! See! This person once said this! Or look at this picture of them from when they were 15! Look! Look how bad they were!"

Then the internet mob descends like a female black widow from her lare, ready to strike and kill her prey. Nobody checks to see if they've changed as a person. Nobody is forgiving in any capacity. Nobody asks any questions. It's just, "We see this bad thing from long ago and now we will destroy your reputation."

It's horrible and such an grave sin, because it has quite literally ruined people's careers, families, their good name, their safety, etc.

Today, St. Francis is going to talk to us about avoiding detraction, which is the sin of purposely seeking to destroy someone's reputation with malicious intent. So, let's turn to Chapter Twenty-Nine of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thanks for hitting play and joining me.

Today, we are going to be talking about rash judgment. Boy, oh boy, is judgment a hot topic. On the one hand, you will have people tell you that we can never judge. And then on the other hand, we have the internet mob that will judge you right, left, up, down, and sideways.

You wouldn't believe the lengths I have to go to sometimes to make sure people don't judge me in my pictures on my page because I don't veil, or I don't wear skirts to my ankles, or I wear jeans now and then.

I'm a huge rock and roll fan and a band I like a lot is Rush. I remember years ago, I was talking about my favorite Rush song on my Catholic Pilgrim page and this lady showed up and scolded me for listening to "Satanic music" and she said, "Isn't Rush a bunch of drug users and womanizers?"

I had to laugh, because clearly she was making rash judgment and knew nothing about them. Rush is a clean band. The late drummer, Neil Peart, lost his wife and she was so beloved by him that when she died, he took a very long time off from the band to travel the country by motorcycle and mourn her death. Hardly a womanizer. The band is not just some typical sex, drugs, and rock and roll band, but she quickly judged them as such.

I think what is important is that we understand that we all judge, we must or we would put ourselves and our children in danger. But, I think what we need to do is focus in on the word rash. Rash judgment is bad and there's a few more things I want to flesh out on the other side of the readings.

So, let's open our book to Chapter Twenty Eight of the Third Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having a good day.

When I was a teenager, I pretty much watched, read, and listened to whatever I wanted. Because I am naturally draw to beautiful expressions of art—be that music, movies, or books—for the most part, I entertained myself with mostly okay things.

However, I still engaged in whatever entertainment I wanted and it negatively affected me. I spoke like a sailor and I was crude. Entertainment influenced me whether I would have admitted it or not.

When I was 18, my then boyfriend and I rented the movie "Faces of Death." If you don't know what that is, they are a series of movies that document real life death situations. You see a person get shot. You see a person get hit by a train. It's truly a horrific thing to have out there and it sickens me that I ever watched it.

My dad happened to see that we were going to watch it and he said to me, "Amy, this isn't something you want to feed your mind with." I brushed him off, but deep down I knew he was right. The intent of the show was to desensitize death and make money off of people's tragedies. It was and is poison.

St. Francis is going to talk to us today about modesty in conversation and making our lives reverent. Let's open our books to Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back. Today is a super short reading, but a good one nonetheless.

One of the things about being on social media that is extremely important to me is that I never sound different than how I really speak. I'm not a "keep it real" potty mouth, but I'm also not someone that sounds like a cheesy TV evangelist. If you were to ever talk to me in person, you'd find that my writing style aligns fairly well with the way I speak to people.

I don't think you need to set a low bar in how you talk about God in order to appeal to the "unchurched" or younger generations, plus, that's just not me. I, also, cannot stand when people act like they are always caught up in rapture with the way they talk about God. It's disingenuous even though its meant to convey a deep faith life. You know the people I'm talking about: The ones that speak breathily and have a "praise Jesus' after everything you say.

St. Francis is going to talk to us today about conversations concerning God. How should we talk to others about God? Let's hear what he has to say as we open our books to Chapter Twenty-Six of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. What a great day to read St. Francis together. I truly love meeting you hear to read his words.

I've been told that I'm an old soul. If I had to pick a decade from the 1900s that best suits me it would be the 1940s. I love the dresses that the ladies wore. I love the way men wore suits everywhere. I like the music, the aesthetics, in general, I like the vibe of the 40s.

When I look at pictures of my grandparents from that time period, I'm always captivated by how put together everyone is. Women went out with their hair done, their make-up on, and clothes that were dignified. Men were groomed and well-dressed. I know not everyone was this way and I know that there were very poor people that couldn't dress to the nines, but there was still a sense of dignity in the way that people presented themselves.

We all know that, as Catholics, we should dress modestly. In our day and age, modest dress is unpopular, but so is being well-groomed and that is what we are going to talk about today after we hear St. Francis speak on propriety in dress. Grab you book and open to the Twenty-Fifth Chapter of the Third Part.

Fellow Pilgrims, welcome back. Today, we hit 70 episodes for this season which is amazing. I have felt that this season is flying by and before we know it, we will be starting season five. Five seasons. That's crazy.

I do know who I'm reading for next year, but I'm not ready to disclose yet. I'll just let your curiosity drive you nuts. :)

The other day I saw a video of a new restaurant in, I think Japan, could be Korea, but, anyway, the point of the restaurant was to appeal to introverts. Patrons would come in, seat themselves in like a telephone booth-styled box, order food on a screen, and then a train thing delivers the food. You are closed off from other people who are dining. This was praised as a great restaurant for introverts, but, no, this is weird. This is called being socially awkward and having a disdain for fellow humans and we should not encourage it. Full-up solitude forevermore is not good.

Then I listened to another video where people were dogging on people who just sit in silence on airplanes. They ask, "How can they do it? What kind of weirdo just sits there and doesn't watch a movie, play on their phone, or listen to music?" In a world filled with constant noise, drama, entertainment, and constant interaction (usually over devices), we can get to the point where we don't know how to be in silence. This isn't good either and we shouldn't encourage constant distractions.

What is better is to cultivate a healthy life that is balanced by society and silence. That's what St. Francis is going to talk about today. Let's open our books to Chapter Twenty Four of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today as I read St. Francis' words. We've moved out of the section on friendship which was excellent and today we are reading about external mortifications.

This is a longer reading, but an important one as a lot of people are freaked out by external mortifications and in a world that preaches self-indulgence, mortifications are utterly foreign to many.

My daughter was recently in Miami for just a bit and she said to me, "Mom, I've never seen so much plastic surgery in my life. It's insane."

What's interesting is that we have, on the one hand, in our culture, an obsession with getting all kinds of plastic surgeries to stave off old age and enhance certain parts of the body and then, on the other hand, we see people over-indulge in food. I know it isn't popular to say but our country has a real problem with obesity.

External mortifications—fasting, labor, abstinence, sacrifices—are ways that we try to correct vanity and gluttony, but we must remember that the health of our soul—the internal part of us—must be full of Christ, for any mortification to be effective.

So, let's hear what St. Francis has to say by opening our books to Chapter Twenty-Three of the Third Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to our last reading on friendship. Today, I'm going to say some hard things to hear, but I think they must be said.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say, "Yes, but Jesus ate with sinners." I get this in response to people trying to defend abortion, LGBT ideology, and the like. They are trying to make the point that since Jesus ate with sinners, we should ipso facto eat with them, too. They take it a step further because what they really want to say is that we should eat with them and tolerate the choices and lifestyles of those engaging in those particular sins.

It irritates me because they neglect to remember that Jesus didn't eat with sinners because He wanted to encourage them in their sin or pat them on the back and tell them that He was an ally. No, He called them to repentance and transformation. He calls us all to holiness. And so, yes, we may need to "eat with sinners," which means literally anyone we eat with, but if we are a good friend, we should never, ever watch them perish in their sin.

St. Francis is going to give us just a few more thoughts about friendship today, so let's turn to Chapter 22 of the Third Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Friendship is our topic again for today and today we are focusing solely on evil friendships. (Dracula laugh in the background.)

Why is so hard for us to give up a friendship or even a romantic relationship that is not good for us?

I think a big part of it is that we all think that we are a good judge of character and we just can't imagine that we would pick a bad friend. So, that's part of it.

Another part is that we all struggle with letting people go…because there is the "what if" in the back of our mind. What if they get better? What if they change? What if I'm overreacting?

One more reason to touch on is that in our day and age, the judging police have done a sufficient job in making people think that they can never judge another person's character whatsoever. If you do, you are labeled a moral snob or some equivalent of that label. We think that maybe we are ungrateful for the friend and we are just judging them wrongly.

Nope! God gave us a moral compass for a reason and if we can't use it to judge bad character and bad actions then what the heck is it for?

St. Francis wants you to drop bad friendships like a hot rock and we will hear about it as we turn to Chapter 21 of the Third Part.