Wrestling with God Show Wrestling with God Productions

Father Len grapples with the alarming rate of depression and suicide among kids these days and the challenges and choices facing parents.



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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom



Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Father Len exposes the scam of judgmentalism and reveals the value of critical and objective judgment of our own attitudes and behaviors.



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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom



People are often harsh on other people for the very sins that they themselves commit.

“In 33 years of priesthood, I’ve observed that those who love to condemn and love to be judgmental really are the worst sinners. The reason they are so judgmental is really a scam. It’s a shtick of misdirection to get a whole group of people to condemn others and to portray themselves as good and rigidly moral in hopes nobody examines them and discovers their sins.” – Father Len



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Father Len explains how all the big problems in our nation are soul problems.



Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Father Len helps us recognize and grapple with decisions we make that control the trajectory of our lives and determine our happiness.



Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions



Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom



The Most Important Decision in Life – College commencement speech by Bishop Robert Baron that inspired this episode

The most important question in this life is what kind of soul you will have.

“To love is to be vulnerable.” – CS Lewis

“What you do with your soul really is a map to your future.” – Father Len

Your soul is not your mental ability or your psychological profile. It’s a thing that contains all the virtues of God and the spirit of God.

The Old Testament describes heaven as a place of true relationship where people relate to each other soul to soul.

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur Brooks

Happiness comes down to care of your soul, not success in the world.

“Everybody worships something. Everybody adores something. Everybody has something that gives their life meaning and worth. Everyone lets something capture their imagination. That thing will control the direction of your life. If you worship money and things, then you’ll never feel like you have enough. If you worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, in time, you’ll be resentful because you’ll never be beautiful enough. You’ll feel ugly. And, as time and age starts to show, you will die a million deaths. If you worship power, you’ll end up feeling threatened and afraid. Read any biography of a dictator. You will need evermore power to numb you against the fear of being afraid. If you worship intellect, being seen as smart, you’ll end up feeling stupid and a fraud and on the verge of being found out. The most insidious thing is, that for most people, it will remain unconscious, but it’s their true religion.” – David Foster Wallace

Whatever you worship shapes your soul and controls your life.

Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman

Meditation is one of the best ways to care for your soul and good for your health.

Not all worship is good. Worshiping or calling on the name of God can be a way of manipulating evil.

Good worship is supposed to lead you to self-sacrificing love.

What will what you worship do to your soul?



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Father Len grapples with the causes, effects and solutions to the anger and division present in our country, our churches, and our families.



Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions



Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom



Dividers are often inspired and motivated by their own psychological needs.

Dividers are judgmental.

People with a deep desire for division make up their own rules and condemn others for not following their made-up rules.

In the Bible, the Pharisees made up hundreds and hundreds of rules. They condemn Jesus and others for not following the rules they made up. They love to proclaim how much more religious and holy they are than everyone else.

People who seek division are the enemies of Christ and true religion.

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks

Father Len shares the story of a guy who lived much of his life as a divider though he was very religious. His sense of religion was very legalistic and judgmental, critical of everybody. Remarkably and unconsciously, at the age of 50, he experiences a remarkable deep conversion to his faith and becomes a disciple of love with a desire to unite everyone.

Some people accidentally and unconsciously end up working for division in a community out of their own sense of anger, insecurity, or pain.

Division or unity is a fundamental choice. At some point in life, we must decide between division and unity, hatred and love.

Father Len tells the story of a woman who experienced an awful childhood of rape and incest, yet she devotes her life to helping the wounded and broken of the world to reject shame, heal their souls and feel loved.

It’s not what happens to you in life that matters. It’s how you react to what happens that matters.

Saint Paul warned people to keep away from those who cause division and put obstacles in their way because they don’t serve the Lord.

Satan loves division. Satan loves to dress up as something good, but the only fruits he offers are not good, just more division.

Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam

Social capital is a sense of unity and solidarity, the need to take care of others and build up an entire community or nation.

The United States was built on and succeeded because of social capital.

Division is where injustice and hatred grow.

Higher social capital tracks with more justice, more societal success, and more happiness.

Societies that are more narcissistic, about me, me, me, are less happy and have more crime, corruption, and injustice.

Social capital is connected with holiness.

“Let’s move away from the current plague in our country and our church that we need to attack each other. We can build a great country and church with social solidarity. We can’t build anything putting each other down constantly.” – Father Len



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Father Len helps us grapple with what it means to truly listen and why God calls us to be professional listeners.



Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions



Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom



Shema Prayer: "Listen O Israel, the LORD your God is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself."

Shema means listen, but it really means pay attention.

The Shema is the central prayer of Judaism and Catholicism.

The Bible says, ears that Shema will discover God and what God has made known.

Our society is not trained to listen, but to overpower each other with counter accusations.

God meant us to become professional listeners, listening to the word of God and the voice of God in other people.

Listening forms community.

Not listening or paying full attention destroys community.

Marriage is a type of community.

The gift of hospitality is your full attention.

We can become what we listen to so we must be careful what not to listen to.

“First seek to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R Covey

“The only commandment I ever obeyed – ‘Consider the lilies.’” – Emily Dickinson

“The number one sin that people are confessing these days is anger.” – Father Len

“All morality comes down to attentiveness, attentiveness to God, attentiveness to other people. The essence of immorality is not to be attentive to others or God, not to see or hear other people.” – Iris Murdoch, Irish philosopher

“Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again” by Johann Hari



We welcome your questions and comments:



Email: irish@wwgproductions.org

Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738



Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions



Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org

A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/