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

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  • Between Belief and Faith?

    Many people think that either you’re a believer or you’re not. If you’re a believer, they may say, you must adhere to a faith that is expressed in dogma and …

  • “Thoughts and Prayers?”

    On social media, and in person, many people seem to dislike the phrase, “You’re in our thoughts and prayers,” used when someone discloses a tragedy such as a death in …

  • “She Who Is?”

    I’ve mentioned several times in these blogs that I had a sort of awakening in my early 30s about my image of God. A homily by a young priest declared …

  • Does God Have Favorites?

    Five years ago, I wrote a blog called “What’s So Great about Being Poor?” “Nothing,” I wrote, “unless being among God’s favorites counts for nothing.” It’s true that poverty, in …

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mm Ted

Richard Rohr: Turning toward the Good

Feb 20, 2016

Published by Center for Action and Contemplation:   Christianity is not a moral matter; it’s a mystical matter. Yet we turned the Gospel into “Monday washing day” and neglected...

mm Ted

Second Sunday of Lent

Feb 20, 2016

“While Jesus was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.” Lk 9:29 What if … What if … the Transfiguration, so powerfully described in...

mm Ted

NYTimes: Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain?

Feb 20, 2016

Article published by the New York Time Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain?

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NYTimes: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

Feb 20, 2016

Article published by the New York Times: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

mm Tom Carney

Courage: A Vital Ingredient in Faith

Feb 18, 2016

Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds stared down the barrel of his Nazi captor’s pistol in a German prison camp 71 years ago and refused to say which of his fellow...

mm Ted

First Sunday of Lent

Feb 16, 2016

A reflection on the First Sunday of Lent by Sr. Rachel Bergschneider: “Don’t tempt me!” Without thinking, these words pop out of the mouth of dieters who are offered...

mm Ted

Richard Rohr: Cosmos Instead of Churchiness

Feb 14, 2016

Once you are in an authority position in any institution, your job is to preserve that institution, and your freedom to live and speak the full truth becomes limited....

mm Ted

First Sunday of Lent

Feb 14, 2016

“Jesus … was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” Lk 4:1 Temptation. Even the word itself is enticing, alluring....