Life really sucks, but do you ever wonder why? In this episode of "Purified by Fire," we are going to discuss why life sucks, why there is evil and why God allows it. The suffering in this world is made for us to grow in holiness and love. All we have to do is embrace it and allow it to chisal and mold us into the great loving saint that God is calling us to be. Every day we are "Purified by Fire" to become what God wills us to be. This is the final episode "Purified by Fire." David will be on a new show called "Practical Catholic", which will air on WCAT radio on Thursdays at 4:00 PM EST. God bless, David. 15-Feb-2019
Millions of Americans will be celebrating St. Valentine's day this year with candy, flowers, romantic dinners, cards, etc. But does this really help us find true love and deepen our relationships? Those who are married, engaged, or even dating understand that they were at first attracted by something that made them get more intimate with the other person. Maybe it was their looks, or conversation, or some suffering that made the relationship more intimate than "just friends". We often hear of "soulmates" or "love at first sight". All of these are words of intimacy, which are very beautiful. But you cannot base a loving relationship on intimacy alone, as this only leads to a broken heart. True love and relationships are based on both intimacy and commitment, which can bring about even greater intimacy in a time of struggle. 08-Feb-2019
Have you ever been all chained up, either emotionally or intellectually or feel Paralyzed or limited. As Catholics we tend to bottle ourselves up and see the world as a "don’t do this" or "what not do" as opposed, to wow we can do so much, there is so much we can do. God only gave us 10 Commandments of "do nots" and yet most Catholics think the world revolves around millions and million of "do nots". In this episode you will find out that most of our chains are centered in our soul and not physical. That Santan wants us to focus on the "do not's" to paralyze us. But, so many great saints, such as St. Maximilian Kolbe who was imprisoned and beaten in Auschwitz were physically imprisoned, but the soul was free and grew to great heights. We will learn what makes us chained up and how to break those chains to bring peace, love, and joy into our lives and really grow spiritually to succeed here, while growing as a child of God. 01-Feb-2019
Today's episode is about our talents that God has given us. How we can discover them, and how we can use them, in the service of God, even in a hostile environment. We sometimes have this idea that we can only evangelize if we are doing apologetics or preaching about our faith, but our talents whatever they are - music, acting, business, entrepreneurship or leading/managing - can be used to evangelize. I have a guest speaker, Andrea Lynn Cianflone, who has successfully used her musical talents to be a success, even playing at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City. She has started a program to combat depression by bringing joy to people's lives through singing. Her program is called "Be Delighted," and you can get more information on it by going to bedelightedtoday.com AND For those who are lucky to be near Shakopee, Minnesota, on February 1st, 2019, you are welcome to attend her concert at Saints Joachim and Anne Church in Shakopee, Minnesota. (January 25, 2019)
Have you ever been in a crisis situation and just seemed to get paralyzed by fear or became extremely angry and started lashing out at others rather than trying to help others? We have all seen it. The parent who is yelling at his teenage son for getting into a car accident rather than helping the teenager resolve the accident. Or maybe it is the charity organizer who is so overwhelmed with crises that he/she lashes out at others. We almost become bi-polar in these situations. Today's episode is about handling a crisis situation, whether at home, work or church, with grace and love. We will be analyzing a real situation and show where virtue, the intellect, will and passions interact to either exasperate the crisis situation by "allowing our emotions to carry us away" or enable a grace-filled handling of the situation with love. 18-Jan-2019
Today's episode is about helping to cure your identity crises. I think so many people have identity crises that they really do not know who they are. They are either chasing after something, like money or a career, or they want to be something else other than themselves. They might even be running away from something, such as the past or other people. The cure to identity crises is reflecting on life, so you can really discover who you are and know what God's plan is for you. In our high speed, technological world, and our self-absorbed and busy society, we need to take time to reflect and discover ourselves, what God created us for and be the champions for Christ that He is calling us to be, regardless of our faults, weaknesses, strengths, or talents. I have a guest speaker today, Robert Hanley, who will help us with our identity crises. Robert Hanley is a famous celebrity who has been in Hollywood movies and is a singer, author, stand up comedian, game host, and actor in many TV shows. Over all, he is a great guy who loves Christ and others. (January 11, 2019)
Our destiny for greatness and putting meaning into our lives. If I asked you right now what is your greatest attribute or accomplishments, what would it be? Would it be your talent as a musician or actor, your beauty or your intelligence, your career, what is that great attribute or accomplishment of yours? The American Dream says "we can do and be anything and be success with hard work". The problem with all of these attributes and accomplishments is that they are fleeting and unimpressive. But what if you were told that there is a single attribute that would divinize you (literally make you a god) and make you a prince or princess of the kingdom of the Universe? What would you say? This one attribute is what we have, and it was given to us when we were baptized. That one attribute is being a child of God. For many, we chase after a star that will eventually die, but the one star that we need to find is the star that leads to a child in a stable in order to help us really see our greatness. (January 4, 2019)
What makes a really great relationship and how to build one in a family. How many of us really know how to build a beautiful relationship or even identify what a truly beautiful relationship is? I think we have this idea that once we get married, we will instantly have a great marriage and family. I call it the fairy tale syndrome. "And they lived happily ever after….". And then as soon as they don't live "Happily ever after…" and troubles come along and Prince charming is no longer charming and Snow White is no longer nice and beautiful, we look for TV shows or movies to show us how to fix it. And here in America the popular fix for a broken marriage and family is divorce and remarriage and always blaming the other for the breakup. Now, a new trend is to not even get married and have children. So, what can we use to measure and strive our relationships on? All businesses have metrics to see if we are performing well, but you cannot have metrics unless we can measure it and set a goal. So, what is the measure or goal or example in relationships. It is the Holy Family. (December 28, 2018)
Today's episode is bringing peace into our lives; it is the advent season and a season of hustle and bustle where the world pressures us to buy presents and do so much in a short period of time. If you are like me, I tend to wait the last minute to get those items. But how to bring peace into our lives in this season? (December 21, 2018)
Today's episode is an interview with Dominick Pepito about Catholic entrepreneurship and how it plays and important role in evangelization. We are also going to discuss the crises of the Church and how they affect Catholic businesses and evangelization and how Catholic entrepreneurship can help heal the massive heart attack in the Church caused by the scandal. (December 14, 2018)
Today's episode is about sense of belonging, teamwork, and fellowship and how our actions effect those around us. God has given us a desire to belong and be accepted among people. We see that in childhood development where kids will join groups and socialize and don't want to be considered different or unusual. Being ostracized or having a stigma is considered bad. All of us are deeply hurt when our sense of belonging is destroyed, whether in a family, work, or society in general. One of the biggest failures about leaning very heavily on trying to belong to earthly communities is that sooner or later they will let us down. We get old, so we need to retire, neighbors leave, organizations don't fulfill our lives, Family members die, people's personality change. There is one great organization that will never change and never die. (December 7, 2018)
We are going to compare the Marine Corps dramatic change of embracing of maneuver warfare in the 1980's to Vatican II. There are great similarities between the two changes. Both of them greatly impacted how "sub-delegation" and the authority/obedience chain got disrupted, which was a game changer, both negatively and positively. The Marine Corps was able to adapt with a simple but effective sub-delegation method. This method can be applied everywhere, in business, in family, in work, and in the Catholic church. I have used it in my business and family life. It's called the Commanders Intent, and it is described in the best secular book called: Marine Corp Doctrine Publication 1: Warfighting. (November 30, 2018)
Most of the issues of the Catholic Church, government, business, society, and even family is this little to no understanding of "sub delegation". Anarchy in any organization, whether in a family, business, or government, is because of the breakdown in sub-delegation. Sub-delegation gives the purpose or meaning for both authority and obedience. Sub-delegation is the middle layer or life blood between authority and obedience. It helps us to connect the dots. In fact, sub-delegation requires obedient authority. (November 23, 2018)
Today's episode is about giving up. We give up because we don't have the patience or drive to keep going on. We give up on work, marriage, business, our dreams, but more importantly some even give up in becoming a saint. It is so easy to give up because life is difficult. But as Christians, we don't give up, we don't back down, we always move forward, and we have the hope and love of God to carry us on. (November 16, 2018)
What is the meaning of life and why are we born? To answer those questions, we must understand death and what happens to us after death. It's ironic that to put real meaning and purpose to our lives, we must contemplate death. (November 9, 2018)
There so many questions, fears, and hopes about death. Why is there death? What is the meaning of death? What is it to die? How many of us block out the idea of death, until a tragedy occurs or death in a family member. And yet even when we block it out, we flaunt with death, by watching war movies or horror movies, or even dramas like CSI, NCIS or other shows that talk about autopsy. We have plenty of memorials to understand how people have died before us, yet do we think about our own death, which is inevitable. The moment we are born, the clock starts ticking on death. (November 2, 2018)
Today's episode is about a sense of belonging, teamwork, and fellowship and how our actions affect those around us. God has given us a desire to belong and be accepted among people. We see that in childhood development, where kids will join groups and socialize and don't want to be considered different or unusual. Being ostracized or having a stigma is considered bad. All of us are deeply hurt when our sense of belonging is destroyed, whether in a family, work, or society in general. The one biggest failures about leaning very heavily on trying to belong to earthly communities is that sooner or later they will let us down. We get old so we need to retire, neighbors leave, organizations don't fulfill our lives, Family members die, peoples personality change. There is one great organization that will never change and never die. (October 26, 2018)
We sometimes limit Truth as telling the truth or perhaps theological truths that divinely reveled by God through either the Bible or tradition. But Catholics are not gnostics. Knowing the truth is not he objective of our Faith. Truth is more then "telling the truth" or theology, Truth is not a something, but some one. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." So truth is also relationship with God. How can we take the ascent of Truth of God from the Intellect to the Heart? (Guest speaker: Fr. Terrance, FI) (October 19, 2018)
Episode 34: What is trust and why do we trust others and God. Can we really trust God? Why is it so difficult for even pious people to trust God. Many of us want to trust God, but wanting to trust God does not mean we really trust Him. Hopefully, this episode will help identify what the road blocks in trusting God are and how we can overcome them, so that we can truly say "Jesus I trust in You". Guest speaker Fr. Terrance, FL (October 12, 2018)
Episode 33: Mercy is so important to relationships. It is the "buffer" between individuals in a relationship so relationships don't fall apart. Many Families fall under the "spirit of criticism" rather then the spirit of mercy, which can tear down a family or another person self esteem. This spirit of criticism can hit even pious families. Guest speaker Fr. Terrance, FI. (October 5, 2018)