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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 Ted

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jun 20, 2021

Why are you terrified?” Mk. 4:40  “Do not be afraid.” These are the very first words the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. The Bible seems particularly intent on repeating...

mm Ted

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jun 20, 2021

“… the kingdom of God … is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it...

mm Tom Carney

Seeing Things as They Are, Part II

Jun 17, 2021

My wife, Amparo, and I recently taught a 16-hour course in Spanish for 30 students in the Hispanic Leadership program of the Diocese of Des Moines on the subject...

mm Tom Carney

Can Religion Change Society?

Jun 10, 2021

This blog, Skeptical Faith, is not about politics. I know some of the issues I discuss seem to favor one party over the other, but it’s not because of...

mm Ted

MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Jun 06, 2021

“… he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take it; this is my body … this is my blood.” Mk. 14: 22&24...

mm Tom Carney

Losing Our Memory and Roots?

Jun 03, 2021

While looking for something on YouTube recently, I ran across a video of comedian George Carlin from, probably, 20 years ago. Carlin, who died in 2008 could be crude,...

mm Ted

Pentecost Sunday

May 28, 2021

“On the evening of the first day of the week, when the doors were locked …” Jn. 20:19 Pentecost is the feast of locked doors – doors suddenly blown...

mm Tom Carney

Friendship is Next to Godliness

May 27, 2021

I recently had a three-day visit from my long-time best friend, Gerald Waris. A retired priest from Kansas City, Gerald and I have been friends since he and his...