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

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mm Ted

Paul: Jesus the Crucified One

Jul 17, 2015

The cross stands as the centerpiece of Paul’s whole approach to understanding Jesus and his relationship with the Father. Every time Paul mentions the cross – which he does...

mm Ted

Paul: Which Letters, or Epistles, Did Paul Really Write?

Jul 17, 2015

In my previous article entitled The Importance of Paul the Apostle, I posited five different areas I would be emphasizing in our effort to understand this great transformative figure...

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The Importance of Paul the Apostle

Jul 17, 2015

  One scholar summarizes the position of Paul the Apostle in the minds of most people in the world of today in one sentence: “Paul is second only to...

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Messing with Political Agendas

Jul 16, 2015

Pope Francis’ recent document on the environment, “On the Care of Our Common Home,” elicited interesting reactions from many American politicians, including some announced and presumed presidential candidates of...

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Depression/Suicide

Jul 13, 2015

At the time of the writing of the Gospel of Mark, sometime in the 50’s A.D., the world was seen by most people as dark, brutal, and violent. The...

mm Ted

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jul 13, 2015

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” Mk. 6:7 In one of her most edifying poems,...

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Do We Really Need a God like Us?

Jul 09, 2015

When I worked as a priest in Bolivia, I was told that the Aymara-speaking people in my parish would do anything short of murder and mayhem to get their...

mm Ted

Anxiety Disorders

Jul 08, 2015

“Toxic worry is a disease of the imagination.” Edward Hallowell, MD Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a free floating worry with no distinct object; characterized by a continual feeling of anticipated...