Welcome!

“Do Not Be Afraid … You Are My Dearest Friends”*

Toxic Fear is perhaps life’s greatest hostage-taker. One psychiatrist calls it a “disease of the imagination.” Fear and disabling Worry can start off like a tiny seed and, watered by thoughts that emphasize worst-case scenarios, grow into a virus-like fiend that ends up dominating our mental state. It then holds us back from our ability to enjoy nearly every dimension of our life: our talents, our work, our love, our play, and our approach to a life in the Spirit.

This website is dedicated to three major Defense Systems that can be effective in helping us overcome the insidious nature of fear, as well as other mental health demons like depression. It will also focus on how we can better live out our lives free of those persistent foragers that roam throughout the corners of our minds… relentlessly haunting us.

Those three Defense Systems are: Spirituality, Psychology and Addiction. All three of these provide newly developed means of delving into the root causes of fear and depression and other mental health disorders, and assisting people in finding improved pathways to freedom, joy, and peace.

“Do not be afraid” – a phrase found 365 times in Sacred Scripture!

*Luke 12:32; translation found in The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson

Recent Posts

  • How to Ruin Your Life

    My lifelong friend, Fr. Gerald Waris, about whom I’ve written before in these blogs, used to tell people considering a trip to El Salvador, where he has supported various projects …

  • Thirty – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

    “ … not a hair on your head will perish. By your endurance you will secure your lives.” Lk. 21:19 It’s that time of the church year again – the …

  • A Man and His Daughter at Mass

    It’s no secret that many people have stopped going to church. At most churches, you can observe what national polling data have reported. Many say they get nothing out of …

  • Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

    “he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for him all are alive.” Lk 20:38 After the untimely death of his four-year-old son, Eric Clapton wrote a …

  • Is Kindness Dead?

    I recently came across an online video that moved me. A sanitation worker – among people I’ve noticed who are always in a hurry – shows patience, kindness and affection …

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Past Posts

mm Tom Carney

How to Ruin Your Life

Nov 21, 2019

My lifelong friend, Fr. Gerald Waris, about whom I’ve written before in these blogs, used to tell people considering a trip to El Salvador, where he has supported various...

mm Ted

Thirty – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nov 15, 2019

“ … not a hair on your head will perish. By your endurance you will secure your lives.” Lk. 21:19 It’s that time of the church year again –...

mm Tom Carney

A Man and His Daughter at Mass

Nov 14, 2019

It’s no secret that many people have stopped going to church. At most churches, you can observe what national polling data have reported. Many say they get nothing out...

mm Ted

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nov 10, 2019

“he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for him all are alive.” Lk 20:38 After the untimely death of his four-year-old son, Eric Clapton wrote...

mm Tom Carney

Is Kindness Dead?

Nov 07, 2019

I recently came across an online video that moved me. A sanitation worker – among people I’ve noticed who are always in a hurry – shows patience, kindness and...

mm Tom Carney

How Jesus Became Uncool

Oct 31, 2019

I have a friend who recently posted a beautiful quote online from a famous eastern mystic. I liked it, but it occurred to me that he would never post...

mm Tom Carney

How Faith Is Good for Us

Oct 24, 2019

I have a friend who is the eternal pessimist. His outlook is almost always dismal. He looks at life through the lens of Murphy’s Law – anything that can...

mm Tom Carney

Love, and Hate, of Work

Oct 17, 2019

I was fortunate to have had a career I loved. The pay was not great and the hours were unpredictable. But often during my 25 years as a reporter/editor,...