LISTEN ON ITUNES

LISTEN ON ANDROID

Hey there, friends.

Today, we are tackling the Vice that I have been dreading since the beginning of this series: Gluttony. For some reason, the idea that food can lead to sin is just a little bit hard for me. It is hard for me to understand and hard for me to look straight in the face. I LOVE FOOD, and, like many of you I would guess, I have lots of food issues, coming from a variety of different sources.

I have a huge sweet tooth that is a constant struggle for me.  I have been pregnant or nursing or both for most of the last 8 years, and that has created all sorts of weird eating habits, most of them bad and addicting. And finally, I have been “chunky” my whole life. My family was always very kind, and I had a couple of sisters that were also chunky, so I don’t really have a complex about this, but it’s still left me with a few issues.

But, none of these issues are really the topic of today’s episode on Gluttony. Instead, the fact that we all obsess about our food issues is more on point.

Fulton Sheen, who once again provides all of the wisdom for this episode in his incredible book, Victory Over Vice, makes the startling statement that once people forget about their souls, they begin to obsess about their bodies. Maybe that means overeating. Maybe that means just plain obsessing over what they are eating. Once we forget our souls we also start to DIET and not FAST. Dieting is done for the body, while fasting is done for the spirit.

Ugh, that’s hard to hear.

All of the lessons on Gluttony come from Christ’s words on the cross, “I thirst.” Fulton Sheen agrees with Mother Teresa in that Christ is thirsting for our love. He encourages us to mortify our body through fasting so that we might feel how our soul longs for Christ–how we indeed also thirst for Him.  Mortification will also give us the ability to control the urges of our body, and no longer be mastered by the flesh.

The topic of food and gluttony is such a big, touchy one, and I’d love to hear you chime in on all of this once you listen to the podcast. Do you agree? Do you have anything to add?

Up next week is the topic of Sloth. Another topic hard (and so important) for us Americans to hear. I’ll see you then!

Your sister in Christ,

LISTEN ON ITUNES

LISTEN ON ANDROID

Hello dear friends!

Well, based on the HUGE response to last week’s podcast, I have a feeling I’m not the only one that struggles with vices!  Thank you to all of you that wrote such encouraging and vulnerable emails and Facebook messages to me after listening to last week’s podcast on Anger! Confronting the vices in our lives is sometimes painful, but always fruitful and I feel so blessed to be doing this good work with so many wonderful sisters in faith at my side.

This week we are moving onto what is, quite possibility, the ugliest vice: ENVY. Where anger can be just or at least justifiable, there is no good side to envy. Envy is evil.

Envy is sadness at another’s good, or joy over another’s suffering. Envy is the enemy to relationships and kills love.

Envy is the complete disorder of love. When envy grabs your heart you feel that someone else’s honor is your disgrace, or someone else’s gift is only a reminder of what you have been denied. And therefore, one of the chief causes of envy is selfishness. We are so consumed with our own pain that we can’t see or think about anything other than that pain.

This episode is, once again, based on the wonderful book, Victory Over Vice by Venerable Fulton Sheen. In his chapter on Envy, Fulton Sheen pulls out two powerful lessons from the discourse Christ has with the 2 thieves crucified on either side of him shortly before His death.

From the first thief we learn that envy is the source of our wrong judgement and envy encourages us to be consumed with ourselves. We also learn that envy leads to damnation.

From the second thief, the “good thief” as we call him, we learn that the only way to overcome envy is to show pity. The good thief looks on Christ and has pity. Where we deserve this punishment, he says, he has done nothing. This pity leads to the mercy of God, and ultimately salvation when Jesus responds, “this day you will be with me in paradise.”

In the podcast we dig deeper into each of these thoughts and discuss, in detail, how envy affects us specifically as Catholic Women. I talk specifically how we can fall into envy in our female relationships, and how I have been guilty of this.

Often envy grows out of places where we have suffered real loss and pain. Infertility, loss of a baby, weight and health issues, broken relationships, death of loved ones or even lack of ability.

So, is it wrong to continue to hurt? Is it wrong to morn and weep over these losses?

No. That is not the sin of envy.  It is okay to be sad and hurt.

God often hands more suffering to those closest to Him. He never ask us to deny the pain or ignore it, or even “get over it”.

He simply asks that we don’t let our pain kill the love we feel for others.

Instead, our suffering is actually an opportunity to love others more.  Our greatest example of this: Jesus on the Cross.

So much more goodness in the podcast.  Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Hope you are having a blessed Lent!

Your sister in Christ,