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

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  • Faith Like Falling in Love?

    I’ve often quoted New York Times columnist David Brooks in these blogs because I find his columns unusually insightful. And, unlike many columnists in that publication and others, he doesn’t …

  • Do What We’ve Always Done?

    It may not come as a surprise to most readers of this blog that the presidential election did not go my way. And I’m not encouraged by the choices for …

  • A Religion of Impossibilities?

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  • Figuring the Odds

    Many of you, when studying physics or math, may recall learning about Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian who lived from 1623 to 1662. Pascal came up …

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mm Ted

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Jan 01, 2018

“The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem, and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in a manger.”   May the Force be with you! The latest episode...

mm Ted

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Dec 31, 2017

“… the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” Lk. 2:22   Sacred Scripture is a story book …  a manuscript revealing...

mm Tom Carney

Why We Fail at Being Spiritual OR Religious

Dec 28, 2017

I grew up in a deeply religious family, but neither my parents nor my four older siblings were showy about it. My father was a practical sort of guy...

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Feast of Christmas

Dec 22, 2017

“ … the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in...

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Fourth Sunday of Advent

Dec 22, 2017

“May it be done to me according to your word.” Lk. 1:38   It’s that most special of all times again – that time of wonder and joy and...

mm Tom Carney

Did You Get Your Invitation?

Dec 21, 2017

When I worked as a priest among the Aymara-speaking people of Bolivia, it wasn’t unusual when walking to communities high in the mountains to find remnants of pagan worship....

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Third Sunday of Advent

Dec 17, 2017

“A man named John was sent from God.” Jn. 1:1   Something had to change. Something drastic had to happen. The Jewish world of first century Palestine was awash...

mm Tom Carney

Resilience, and the Search for God

Dec 16, 2017

When I was a kid, starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I believe, my friends and I used to be gone from our houses for...