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“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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Past Posts

mm Tom Carney

The Value of Perspective

Jan 06, 2022

Despite being fully vaccinated and boosted, and being what I thought was “careful,” I recently tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fortunate to have relatively good health, despite my age,...

mm Ted

Epiphany of the Lord

Jan 03, 2022

“We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” Mt.  2: 1 A brilliant star in the sky. Magi from the east. Camels laden...

mm Tom Carney

Humility: The Most Counter-Cultural Ideal?

Dec 30, 2021

I try to watch a limited amount of TV, but when I do, I try to avoid commercials. In my opinion, they often show the worst of society: rampant...

mm Ted

The Feast of Christmas

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mm Tom Carney

An Antidote to Indifference and Helplessness

Dec 23, 2021

The bizarre storm that spawned December tornadoes and raged across the upper Midwest recently followed an equally freakish series of December tornadoes that 10 days before cut a devastating,...

mm Ted

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Dec 18, 2021

“Blessed are you among women.” Lk. 1:4 “Mary: The Most Powerful Woman in the World.” These are not the words of some Catholic newspaper. They are instead the title...

mm Tom Carney

From a Distance

Dec 16, 2021

I don’t know how old I was, but I recall that when I learned the earth was round and continually spinning I wondered why we aren’t thrown off, or...

mm Ted

The Second Sunday of Advent

Dec 13, 2021

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say itagain!” Phil. 4:4 Many years ago, I served as an assistant parish priest. One certain Sunday, the Gospel scheduled that day...