Bible Study Evangelista Show

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  There’s a word for that Jesus-confusion you’re feeling that's keeping you stuck: it’s called spiritual bypassing. It's pretty rare to see or hear about spiritual bypassing in Catholic clerical or professional circles. It’s often completely unheard of and/or misunderstood by those of us with faith who are trying to heal, and this is part of why we get stuck and confused in trying to make sense of what is love and what is not, when to erect a boundary and when to just "offer it up." It's also sometimes called over-spiritualizing. Spiritual bypassing is a very real issue that prevents change when we refuse to work through natural causes that we can actually do something about. “Offer it up!” can be a major spiritual bypass: used this way, it dismisses your own and others feelings and experiences. The whole idea of redemptive suffering can be, and is often, twisted to mean God wants you to suffer because it’s good for you! or the Kingdom

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  These stages of prayer and faith can save your sanity throughout your spiritual life. When you feel lost in darkness and dryness and like God has suddenly "left the building" after an extended time of fruitful prayer; when you don't understand your neighbor's rude rigid faith and she is criticizing your Christian freedom; when you wonder how the road looks up ahead, the Stages of Prayer and Stages of Faith will help you find secure footing and understand others better throughout the rest of your spiritual life. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Karin S, Mary M, and Antonia R for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content and access to our monthly Bible study!  What are you waiting for? Come join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John!  LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s me

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  Benedict XVI said healing is the entire content of redemption. John Paul the Great told us, "In treating the human person as a psychological and physical 'whole', the Old Testament often links 'moral' sufferings with the pain of specific parts of the body: the bones, kidneys, liver, viscera, heart. In fact one cannot deny that moral sufferings have a 'physical' or somatic element, and that they are often reflected in the state of the entire organism" (Redemptive Suffering, II.6). In order to love God with all our strength, we learn to love ourselves and our neighbor in an ordered way. Learning to accept ourselves and our bodies as intrinsically good helps heal "moral sufferings" - dark emotions and disordered thoughts (stress); outdated coping mechanisms; and subconscious projections and conflicts that affect and accumulate in our bodies. Thoughts and emotions are energy - signals that trigger cascading effects across bodily systems.

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  Notice the word "think" in the title?  Your mind is the battlefield, and if you don't fight the lies you came to believe about yourself in your suffering - if they reign unchallenged - God will let you keep them. Yes, He is that respectful of your free will. Your mind is the battlefield, and if you don't fight, the lies win. You will never have peace. Your body cannot heal in a mental soup of distorted thinking, in a disease-ridden cockroach nest of lies. If you think God has abandoned you, He is not Lord of your mind; the enemy is. The truth is: Jesus bore all your abandonment on the Cross and says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Why are we so deaf to the truth of God's love for us? Because we do not know and believe (live from) God’s Word. In commenting on blind Bartimaeus' healing, the Church Fathers say that listening to and speaking evil makes one deaf and mute; a deaf person cannot hear the words of God nor open h

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  In Love Heals I state, "You don't need to be fixed; you just need to be healed." What's the difference? Freedom. Gentleness. Patience. Peace. Love.Don't you need that? It seems too obvious to state, but machines and organisms differ fundamentally. We don’t “heal” machines, we “fix” them. Living things heal according to their nature; “healing” is organic. Take a look at some of these differences, and notice how inherently mechanical, forced, rushed, and harsh our modern ideas and methods for healing are. 1. Nature of Healing Organisms: Healing in living things is a biological process, involving inter-related systems. In humans, healing involves spiritual and emotional processes and systems as well as biology. Machines: Machines don’t heal; they are “fixed” or repaired. Repair is an external process requiring outside intervention, such as replacing parts. A broken gear in a machine doesn’t "grow back" but must be manually fixed or r

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  If 80-90% of all physical issues have emotional and spiritual roots as research indicates, then it's imperative to address those in healing the whole person. Besides unforgiveness, judgments are - in my opinion - the biggest block to healing, because they blind us to inherent contradictory truths in ourselves and others that need acceptance and illumination. They lead to hypocrisy and can make us forfeit heaven altogether, as the Pharisees illustrate. Projections block healing by distorting reality and preventing us from addressing our true emotions, thoughts, or experiences. Psychologically, projection is a defense mechanism where someone attributes their own unwanted feelings, traits, or impulses to another person or external situation, often unconsciously. Every human being projects, but judgments hinder healing in several ways: Avoiding Self-Awareness: By projecting negative emotions (like anger, shame, or fear) onto others, we

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  Ever wonder what your purgatory and heaven will be like, assuming you'll get there? Where we end here limits and determines our "there..." (Eccl 11:3). Bracing against and ignoring pain does not protect you from it. It simply delays and compounds the inevitable confrontation and makes the struggle more difficult. In the meantime, we stay trapped in hurt and fear, missing most everything Christ suffered and died to give us and limiting our heaven. Healing isn’t an abstract application—it’s about living lighter, loving and being loved deeply, and experiencing true joy and freedom.  A listener asked why anyone would want to undertake more healing if it only involves more suffering? It's such an excellent question I'm dedicating an episode to inspiring you to "take up the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord" so that your purgatory is as painless as possible and your heaven is maximized. Thank you with all my heart to my n

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  We're talking about emotions, especially for those of us who tend to push them down or ignore them. As Catholics, we know that God gave us our hearts and our emotions for a reason. But what do we do when those dark, negative feelings bubble up, especially in a pop quiz when they're super strong? . Eruptions? Vomit? Pretending? How do we really feel our emotions and process them in healthy ways so they don't accumulate in our bodies and make us sick over time, or explode all over other people? . We're exploring the six main emotions, how to spot them in our bodies, and how to process them well through a Catholic lens so they don't wear us down over time.   Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Beth L, and Trish F for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content and access to our monthly Bible study!  What are you waiting for? Come join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  Feelings and thoughts are energy that affect the body and vice versa. When confronted with difficult emotions, most people employ maladaptive ways for coping with undesirable feelings, such as self-medicating or denial.  Although maladaptive coping mechanisms offer relief in the moment, they lead to illness; they do not facilitate the long-term improvement of addressing the actual source of discomfort. What if, instead, we leaned into these unpleasant feelings as messages between our bodies and our spirits? Allowing undesirable emotions to exist, rather than banishing or denying them, prevents them from accumulating in the body. They are allowed to flow through us harmlessly. The body becomes "full of light" (Matt 6:22-23). Here's how love heals the mind and body.  Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Theresa Ann DeB; Diana Von G; Amira B; Jennifer D; Wendy McC; Elizabeth K; Theresa M; Rochelle P; and Deborah

Get your copy of Love Heals here and participate with us in the Book Club.  Love saves us. We are healed by love; we are healed for love. Healing is your rightful inheritance as a child of God through Jesus Christ. We must learn to receive and give authentic love--heart, soul, mind, and strength--the first and greatest commandment according to Jesus in Mark 12:30. "Healing is an essential dimension of the apostolic mission and of Christian faith in general. When understood at a sufficiently deep level, this expresses the entire content of redemption" (Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI). Here's how God loves and heals your heart and soul. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Theresa Ann DeB; Diana Von G; Amira B; Jennifer D; Wendy McC; Elizabeth K; Theresa M; Rochelle P; and Deborah W, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content and access to our monthly Bible study!  What are you waiting for? Come join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel

In order to finally and fully heal from pain and illness we must all become consciously aware of various issues in our personal development, subconscious conflicts, and how we have learned to deal with stress. Thoughts and emotions are energy. If they aren’t processed and able to flow freely through us, they accumulate. And where they accumulate in the body is the message in our pain. Here are a few specific illnesses and parts of the body and how they can express pain. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Judi D; Julie F; and Ben G, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content and access to our monthly Bible study!  What are you waiting for? Come join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John!  LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary.   L | Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.) O | Observe (Conne

Let me guess. You terrorize yourself with this type of catastrophizing thought on a frequent or regular basis: I’m going to feel this way forever. I will never be out of pain/fatigue/sickness. The pain will never end. I have GOT to figure this out. I’ve tried everything and nothing works. What is my pain level? Is it worse or better? What about now? I feel a little better, but what about tomorrow? Is that a new symptom? When will my next crash or flare be? Is it imminent? Healing is biblical. It’s a promise, in some measure, always. Jesus never told anybody who was suffering to just “offer it up.” He always healed. He still always heals, but He knows our problems are deeper than bones and organs and other physical structures, so everyone He healed in the Bible – even Lazarus who was resuscitated – was sent back into their lives to learn to love and heal some more. Here's how to get permanent relief. For real. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, Diane K; Cherie T; Rosema

Peace, in biblical terms, is a steady progression of intimacy with the Father through deliverance after deliverance. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it" (Is 9:7). This is Isaiah’s Messianic creed. It stands behind the Messiah and all Messianic blessings, their exhaustless origin and their boundary-less expansion.Whatsoever man’s sin and darkness be, the Everlasting Father lives, and His zeal is infinite. Therefore it is a fact eternally true, that whatsoever Deliverer His people need and can receive will be sent to them, and will be characterized by the names and titles their hearts can best appreciate. The "Prince of Peace" attracts their hope and their homage; He delivers them from wrath unto the peace that transcends all boundaries, all time, and all understanding. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friend of the Show, James McN, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content!  Want to join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John? LOVE the Wo

This verse from Jeremiah 31 reveals that the Almighty and Everlasting seeks humanity not because He is our Father, but because He longs to be.   God reveals Himself to man within the space-time continuum of our universe. Creation reveals His essence in all things as Almighty and Everlasting. The Son reveals the Everlasting Father. But His Fatherhood is reserved in grace for those who will trust in and adjust to It. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friends of the Show, Jeff B; Kimberly Y; Pamela B; and Leanne J, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content!  Want to join us for our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John? LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary.   L | Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.) O | Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.) Is it surprising that God is only our Father by grace

Perhaps you've heard or seen this John Muir quote on a t-shirt or mug, "The mountains are calling and I must go." Muir is known as the "Father of National Parks." Born in Scotland, he later moved to Wisconsin to become an inventor and quality control guy by trade. But his love for adventure, wild landscapes, and rugged crags and cliffs continued as he “botanized” at every opportunity.   When an industrial accident left him temporarily blind, the result was a new seeing: “I made haste with all my heart, bade adieu to all thoughts of inventing machinery, and determined to devote the rest of my life to studying the inventions of God.”  The Almighty called.  Muir felt His breath stirring through the Sequoias, and heard His voice in the "sound of many waters" roaring over the 2,500-foot Yosemite Falls. As he dangled precariously over the top in order to observe the motion of the water, it is said that he exclaimed, “Where could a mountaineer find a more glorious death!”  Calling the wild dangers of wilderness "san

The downward pull of the world and its ways might be called "self-consciousness," or darkness, wherein we focus on all that's dark, negative, and painful in ourselves and the world around us. But the spirit of this season is LIGHT: God-consciousness - His ways of thinking, speaking, and acting - are so different than what we’re used to, that learning to live in the Wonderful Counselor's light is supremely difficult at first. But in order to experience His promises, we must adjust to Him, not vice versa. He’s already done the monumental adjusting to us in the Incarnation. Now we have to do the difficult work of learning His voice and ways, so that He can draw us out of the downward pull of the world and it’s voice and ways.   Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friends of the Show, Missy P; Abbey F; Mildred C; Antonia R; and Cynthia C, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content!  Our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John is December 11 at 6:30 PM Central in the Com

I'm really asking. Can the smell of rain be too wet? Are a baby's toes too fat? Is spring too fresh, ice cream too cold, grace too amazing? Is football too competitive, or a bass too big? The ocean too noble? What could be so wonderful that it's "too wonderful"? Have you ever experienced anything that you would describe as "unbearably glorious"? Would you want to? If your suffering seems to obscure the face of God, this episode is an invitation to look deeper, to push through the veil to the wonder beyond. Thank you with all my heart to my newest Friends of the Show, Michelle M; Thelma A; Tracy N; and Deborah W, for loving and lifting me! Friends of the Show get all Premium Content!  Our Monthly Meetup Bible study in the Gospel of John is December 9 at 6:30 PM Central in the Community. You coming? LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary.   L | Listen (Receive the Word via

Why do you feel so invisible and spiritually depleted? You need a daily LOVE encounter with Jesus. You need daily nourishment from the "one table of the Lord" (CCC 103).  “You are invited to an encounter with Jesus, Word of God made flesh, as an event of grace that runs through the reading and the hearing of the Sacred Scriptures” (The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church). L - listen: Reading seeks for the sweetness of a blessed life, O - observe: meditation perceives it, V - verbalize: prayer asks for it, E - entrust: contemplation tastes it. L - listen: Reading, as it were, puts food whole into the mouth, O - observe: mediation chews it and breaks it up, V - verbalize: prayer extracts its flavor, E - entrust: contemplation is the sweetness itself which gladdens and refreshes. L - listen: Reading works on the outside, O - observe: meditation on the pith, V - verbalize: prayer asks for what we long for, E - entrust: contemplation gives us delight in the sweetness which we have found. Ad

NOTE: The new 2025 Mary journal I spoke about in this episode will be out in a few weeks at Advent. Until then, you can download a free 2024 journal and guide page in the margin to the right. The book I mentioned in the podcast that I wrote with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Ignite, Read the Bible Like Never Before, is also available in the right margin.  This is a re-released, vintage podcast from 2017, but the complete resource on LOVE the Word® is How to Pray Like Mary, available in the right margin, in which you'll learn to approach Scripture and lectio divina with a more open and receptive disposition versus a checklist mentality. ___ Prayer is about relationship, not technique. St. Jerome said ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. We pray Scripture, daily, in order to nurture a relationship with Him, to know Him, His purposes, and His ways; to experience Him. From beginning to end, prayer is about LOVE. If you've never experienced God's love, here's how to begin. Mary shows you how. Thank you

NOTE: The new 2025 Mary journal I spoke about in this episode will be out in a few weeks at Advent. Until then, you can download a free 2024 journal and guide page in the margin to the right. I mentioned Unleashed in this re-released, vintage podcast from 2017, but the complete resource on LOVE the Word® is How to Pray Like Mary, available in the right margin, in which you'll learn to approach Scripture and lectio divina with a more open and receptive disposition versus a checklist mentality. ___ Pope Francis called Mary the “mother of listening,” because she didn’t just hear God's word (in our case read, also), she understood how to interpret it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits. Pope Benedict XVI called Mary the "mother of prayer." She is our model for listening to God by praying with Scripture in a way that incarnates it within us.   Modeled on the Annunciation, LOVE the Word® is lectio divina (sacred reading) without the Latin, a prayer method with Scripture that invites our Ble