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

  • Should the Church Cause Trouble?

    On the 24th of last month, many Catholics, and perhaps some others, observed the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Many of you may never have …

  • How Does God View Human Failings?

    One of the most embarrassing things that has happened to me occurred years ago when I took my father to his doctor’s office. He was probably in his early nineties, …

  • What We Really Want, and Need

    My wife, Amparo, and I were at a restaurant recently when a family that included a teenaged girl entered. She and family members were walking to their table, accompanied by …

  • Compassion as Weakness

    While in Colombia a week or so ago, I had an interesting conversation with a taxi driver. He was sympathizing with America’s “immigration problem,” comparing it to the onslaught of …

  • Knowing Right from Wrong

    One of my all-time, favorite movies was produced in 1989 and was entitled, “Do the Right Thing.” Produced, written and directed by Spike Lee, “the story explores a Brooklyn neighborhood’s …

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mm Tom Carney

The Fresco Painter

Apr 23, 2020

While he was painting frescoes in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the artist James Thornhill became so excited about his fresco that he stepped back to see it better...

mm Ted

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

Apr 17, 2020

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not...

mm Tom Carney

The Cost of Indifference

Apr 16, 2020

“Whatever,” I said in a recent telephone conversation with my daughter. “Yikes!” I thought afterward. “Did I really use that word?” Fact is, it’s hard to resist the use...

mm Ted

Easter Sunday

Apr 11, 2020

One of the finest gifts I ever received was the opportunity to do graduate work in psychology under the tutelage of psychiatrist, Victor Frankl. His best-selling book, Man’s Search...

mm Tom Carney

Where Is God in All This?

Apr 09, 2020

At this writing, there are 1.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 89,915 deaths, including 434,861 confirmed U.S. cases and 14,814 U.S. deaths. I won’t go into the...

mm Ted

Palm Sunday

Apr 03, 2020

When I was young, I used to spend a lot of time at my grandma’s house. She was a refugee from Ireland who, like so many others, came to...

mm Tom Carney

Satisfied with Your Life?

Apr 02, 2020

As a seminary student in my 20s, my friend, Gerald Waris, and I used part of the money we earned working in a brewery to take a summer’s-end trip...

mm Ted

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Mar 29, 2020

“Untie him and let him go free.” Jn. 11:44 “I’m not okay, you’re not okay, but that’s okay because God’s okay.” Spoken by Rick Warren, pastor of one of...