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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

“Godless”

Aug 02, 2018

Besides sports and some “reality adventure” shows, about the only TV I watch is on Netflix because I’ve become intolerant of commercials. I haven’t, however, brought myself to watch...

mm Ted

Charles Curran lays foundation for social justice action

Jul 29, 2018

Article posted in the National Catholic Reporter: https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/charles-curran-lays-foundation-social-justice-action

mm Ted

Addressing abuse, church must address the betrayal of community

Jul 27, 2018

Article posted in the National Catholic Reporter: https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/editorial-addressing-abuse-church-must-address-betrayal-community

mm Tom Carney

You Don’t Want Your Brain Surgeon to Have a Hobby

Jul 26, 2018

My life as a young Catholic was pretty tribal. Our family had a Catholic doctor, went to a Catholic-owned cafeteria (on the few occasions when we didn’t eat at...

mm Ted

#MeToo, Your Excellency

Jul 23, 2018

Article published in the National Catholic Reporter: https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/just-catholic/metoo-your-excellency

mm Ted

Vatican expert: To fight sex abuse, the Catholic Church must invest in women

Jul 22, 2018

Article posted in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/07/20/vatican-expert-fight-sex-abuse-catholic-church-must-invest-women

mm Ted

Father James Martin: Tracing the causes of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Jul 22, 2018

Article posted in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/12/20/father-james-martin-tracing-causes-sexual-abuse-catholic-church

mm Ted

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jul 22, 2018

  “ … his heart was moved with pity for them” Mk. 6:34   Bertrand Russell, the Nobel Laureate and philosopher, summed up his entire life with these words:...