Pints With Aquinas - 25 Rules for Spiritual Warfare from Jesus to St. Faustina

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

The following 25 rules for spiritual warfare are drawn from that revelation, recorded in entry 1760 of Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Jesus begins, “My daughter, I want to teach you about spiritual warfare,” and proceeds to offer clear, concrete instructions—commands, warnings, and consolations—meant to strengthen her soul for battle. These words, though given to St. Faustina, speak to all who seek holiness in the midst of trial. Here are the rules: https://mattfradd.substack.com/p/25-rules-for-spiritual-warfare-from 🚨Join Locals: https://mattfradd.locals.com/support 🚨Chesterton Cigars Conference: https://chestertoncigars.com

Okay, g'day, g'day, and welcome to this live stream. I don't do live streams a lot these days, as you may have noticed. Varying reasons for that, but it is good to be live here occasionally to chat with y'all. Today I want to share with you, whoops, 25 rules for spiritual warfare, as was dictated by Saint Faustina, who received these in a revelation from Christ. by Saint Faustina, who received these in a revelation from Christ. And the reason I know about these is I had the honor of interviewing Father Ayla last night, and he referred me to them,

and I think they're really powerful, so that's one of the things that we're gonna go through. Just gonna have a drink of my coffee. You know what it's like when you're really tired, and it's the kind of tired that coffee can't cure? It's like you're so tired that when you have the coffee, it doesn't make you more awake, it just makes you more anxious and jittery.

That's pretty much where I'm at. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry about that ASMR sip. Yes, this is really live. Someone just gave me a thumbs down. I don't know if that was for the ASMR sip or what, but yes, welcome Nick Walker and Gate M27 and Father Khan and everybody else.

So yes, this is live. Look at these glasses that I got. I'm pretty sure that this is anti-social behavior on the same level as face tattoos, but I'm gonna put them on anyway. When I put these on my face, it's like my eyeballs are laying in a hammock, sipping a margarita by a beach.

But I understand that they look terrible to you and to everybody else around me. I started wearing them at night and they feel terrific. They block all blue light. And then I started wearing them as night and they feel terrific. They block all blue light. And then I started wearing them as I drove to the studio. And then I'm getting out to go to a grocery store or something like that.

And I always take them off because I know they look weird, but I can tell that I'm getting less concerned about what other people think about them. So this is how it starts. I don't know how long it'll be before I just start wearing these. As I say, it's not acceptable. It's as bad as wearing, I don't know how long it'll be before I just start wearing these. As I say, it's not acceptable. It's as bad as wearing, I think, almost not as bad,

but I'd say it's almost as bad as wearing pajamas on an airplane flight. Shameful stuff. This is close to that, but I think if I keep this up, I will get to that point. Oh my goodness, see reality just looks way worse with these off. I don't know what to tell you.

Yeah, I guess it looked like Daredevil, that's true. Oh, that's better, I can actually see. Hey, I wanna tell you about two things before we begin. Number one, this is the last month we're giving away this Pints with Aquinas beer stein away for free. So if you're not yet a member of mattfrad.locals.com, click the link in the description, become an annual member. You'll get our episodes one week before they hit YouTube

and we'll send you this free pints with Aquinas Beerstein. You just have to pay for shipping. It's extremely good quality. The reason we don't do this throughout the entire year is it costs so much money and we wouldn't be able to, we wouldn't be able to make it worth it. But April, 2025, if you become a member, please do. And then we'll send you that free Pints

with Aquinas Beerstein. Next thing to tell you about is we have a big Chesterton Cigars event taking place in Steubenville, which you are invited to. There is a link in the description for more information. It's going from April 25th to April 27th. We will be launching the new Pints with Aquinas cigar, as well as our Chesterton cigar.

These are very high quality cigars, and they will be available that weekend for sale. We'll then also have it available online after the event, but they will be in back order. So hope you can make it to the event. We've got all sorts of amazing things planned. Live jazz band, live rock band, Dr. Scott Hahn's gonna come by.

I'll be there for the entire weekend. Right now, I think we've got well over a hundred people who have registered. So it's completely free. We do have elements of the weekend that cost money. For example, we're doing like a cigar tasting portion, and obviously you have to pay for those cigars. So there are some things that you have to pay for,

but it's free to come to the weekend and just to hang out with us. So if you click the link below chestedandcigars.com and then just follow the link and you can sign up on Eventbrite, again, 100% free, hope you can make it. All right, glory to Jesus Christ. Let's do this.

So today on my sub stack, I shared this 25 rules for spiritual warfare from Jesus to St. Faustina. This comes from her diary. It comes from paragraph 1760. And our blessed Lord didn't say to Faustina, here are 25 things to remember, but rather he said,

today I'm gonna teach you about spiritual warfare. But it was written sort of aphoristically, that is to say like short, powerful sentences such that I was able to divide it into 25 pieces of advice. So I wanna go through these and see if I can make any sense of them. I'm sure I'll get to some and go,

I just don't understand that because I'm not advanced enough or because I'm not a religious nun, we'll see. And in the live chat, I would love to see your feedback and we can kind of interact after that in the live chat. So don't go anywhere, thanks for being here. Click the like button, settle in. And I'm gonna apologize in advance

for all of the ASMR coffee slurps that you will hear. But I'm only gonna apologize once. And if you enjoy them, you can apologize to me after. All right, here we go. Number one, never trust in yourself, but abandon yourself totally to my will. What does it mean to abandon ourselves to the will of God?

Well, we know that when we speak of God's will, we can talk of his perfect will or his permissive will. His perfect will is that which he positively intends. His permissive will includes even the sins of others or even our own sins. These aren't things that he positively wills, but he permits them and so they are part of his will. So there are a lot of things that take place in our life that are unfair, that are unjust, that make us grieve people that we've been hurt by or things like that. So in all of this we're being told to abandon ourselves to the good God and this reminds me of one of my favorite

Bible verses, I nearly said verbal vices, Bible verses, 1st Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxieties upon him because he cares for you. How do we do this practically? I think we have to be really in touch with our own heart, with our own grief, with our own hopes and joys, with our own anxieties and fears. And it's easy to kind of go around

not being attentive to them. You just have to throw yourself headlong into a myriad of distractions. And I think in doing that, we can successfully, as it were, separate ourselves from ourselves. We can find distance from ourselves. But this distance isn't a good thing. This distance isn't recreational leisure. This distance is what we would call, I think, dissociation, where we just try not to exist for a while, if that makes sense to you.

If you've lived longer than five minutes, it probably does. The analogy I use is, you know, if you go to a party and you're at the snack table and you see somebody approaching you who you don't really wanna speak to, well, if they haven't seen you yet, you might just sort of get out of there. Okay, so it's easy to maybe separate yourself

from other people. How do you separate yourself from yourself? Like what if you're the one you don't like being with? And again, I think it's the constant doom scrolling, it's the Netflix binging. You know, it's just what are we doing? And you spend like 20 minutes scrolling through Instagram re the Netflix binging, you know, it's just what are we doing? And you spend like 20 minutes scrolling through Instagram reels or TikToks and that is a fire engine. And we pray

for whoever might be in trouble. And at the end of that scrolling, you're not recreated, you're actually scattered. Yeah, so I think being in touch with our own all the things that I just said and then abandoning that to the good Jesus who knows us and who loves us personally, that's hard to realize, eh? Because we don't understand how it's possible. Like, how is it possible that the good God could be as attentive to me as He is to you and to everybody else and to everything else that he is currently holding in existence. How is that possible when you and I cannot even be attentive to two people at the same time? Sometimes we're not even good at

being attentive to one person. And so we think of that and think, well it just doesn't make sense. And here I think we're in danger of anthropomorphizing God, reducing him to our level. But of course, God is omnipotent, He's omniscient, He's intimately present to you, and it's important that we realize that. That God doesn't love humanity the way a man loves a hive of bees, you know, as a sort of collective, but He's personally attentive to each of us. And that's really good news. So rather than trying to understand that, I think just sort of surrendering to that truth that has been revealed by the church,

you know, in the same way that the sparrows outside of my studio here understand nothing of Wi-Fi, and yet Wi-Fi exists. This is maybe not a very good analogy. I'm thinking of this on the spot. But we don't have to understand the intricacies of God and His relating to us before we submit to it. So submitting ourselves to the good God and saying, Jesus, I surrender myself to you. I release everything to you. I put my trust in you because you are trustworthy. See, that's the beauty of the spiritual life. It's recognizing that when we say God loves you

or God is a refuge, we have to somehow move away or move deeper from the theological general abstraction and then deeper into the heart-to-heart relationship where we realize that the good Jesus saved you, is saving you, is present to you now. Anyway, that's what I think. So abandoning ourself. All right, number two, in desolation, darkness, and various doubts have recourse to me and to your spiritual director. This is good.

Why is this good? It's good because in times of desolation, darkness, and various doubts, we often don't have recourse to the good Jesus who is our only refuge. I'm reminded of that verse in scripture where the good God says, my people have committed two evils. They've abandoned me the font of living water, and they've created cisterns for themselves. Broken cisterns which don't hold water. Those broken cisterns are the doom scrolling, the pornography, the gossip, the hatred of self or of others, the judgmental attitude towards everyone we encounter.

Whatever the thing you turn to, to sort of bring relief to your anxiety that isn't the good God, I think is part of what Christ is warning us not to do when He says, no, no, no, in desolation, in darkness, in various doubts, don't have recourse to these things because they don't work. He says, have recourse to me and to your spiritual director. Now there's gonna be more about spiritual directors, which you might have to get into sooner than later. Here's the third rule for spiritual warfare.

He says that the spiritual director will always answer you in my name. So, alright, so here maybe we're running into something that we can't relate to one-for-one because as a spiritual, as a nun who is assigned and a spiritual director and out of obedience must go to him, she can be assured that whatever the spiritual director gives of her is essentially, since she's placed under obedience, can be taken as the will of God. All right, so I'm gonna just transform this a little bit.

I know that this is gonna apply to lay people in certain circumstances as well, but I'll just apply this to my life, all right? So if you're married, which I'm married, So if you're married, which I'm married, we can be sure that the sufferings that we endure and the anxieties that we endure within marriage are not to be abandoned. Our spouse, our husband or our wife,

our children are not to be abandoned. So if our children have some serious disorder or if they have some serious health ailments or if our spouses do, right, we can trust that this is my path to heaven. And we'd rather it not be. And I think it's important to be honest about that. It's like, no, I'd really rather my path to heaven

just to be about marital intimacy and date nights and a clean house and children who always behave. I thought that's what marriage was about, you know? No, it's not actually. There's a lot of crosses that come with marriage or whatever your vocation is. And so we can trust that this is our path to heaven.

I've said this before. If the Lord Jesus said to me, all right, here's what I need you to do to be saved. I'm going to need you to listen to the Bible in a Year podcast. I'm going to need you to pray the rosary three times a day and to attend Holy Mass every day. I'm not saying these are required. I'm just saying if the good Jesus said that to me, I would be thrilled. I'd be like, awesome, I can do that. But I often think to myself, if the good Jesus tells me,

and of course he does tell me this, I want you to go home and just, here's what I want you to do. Don't cause any unnecessary grief to your wife and children. Don't be moody, don't be critical, don't be in a bad mood. Be kind and ease their burdens. That's what I need you to do. I've said this before, I almost despair because I know how wretched I am. I can have the best of intentions when I walk through that back door and then I just I start

criticizing, I start whining I'm no longer a joy. God have mercy on me a sinner, you know in the Summa Theologiae Aquinas talks about the virtue of playfulness and He actually says that there is a vice in not being playful because it's unreasonable Aquinas says to be a burden an unnecessary burden upon those around us. And he says, those people are rightly called boorish and rude.

I don't wanna be that for my family. What is the point of all this? It's just to say that we can sort of entrust ourselves to the difficulties of our vocation and trust that it's our Lord's will that we abide with him in them. How is that, how could that not be true? All right.

And by abandoning that, we abandon the path of reason. Really? Okay, let's keep going. Number four, do not bargain with any temptation. Lock yourself immediately in my heart. By the way, if you click the link below to my sub stack, you can read along with me. Do not bargain with any temptation.

Lock yourself immediately in my heart. Here again, we see this truth that the good Jesus is our refuge. Aquinas talks about this in his commentary on Good Friday. He talks about how the wounds of Jesus, St. Anthony of Padua does the same thing, are a refuge for the people of God where we can be safe from demonic attack. And we get this backwards when we deny the existence of the demonic, when we fail to realize that there is an enemy who hates you intensely and wants you to be in hell with him for all eternity.

And we ignore that truth, then we end up, I think unintentionally, attributing something to God that is false, namely, he's against me. He's the enemy to my freedom, eh? But this isn't true. He's the only chance we have for consolation and the fulfillment of all our desires and for true joy. So when we're tempted, what are we tempted to? I think, what are temptations? They are promises of relief. Yeah, like you can be powerful. You can be wealthy.

You can be attractive. You can have this immediate gratification. Yeah, it's almost like if we could give speech to the temptation, that the temptation would say, come, come, let me relieve you. I don't know, something like that. But our relief is really only found in the good Jesus. So when we are tempted,

our blessed Lord is saying, don't bargain with it. Don't talk with the temptation the way Eve spoke with Lucifer in the garden. Rather, lock yourself immediately in my heart. Okay? Number five, at the first opportunity, reveal the temptation to the confessor. Okay, this is so crucial. Some things can only be healed by the antiseptic light of truth.

And when we don't reveal them, they fester. and here comes the enemy who lies to us and he says if people knew this about you they would be astonished like I knew you were bad I didn't know you were this depraved so you better just keep this to yourself there's no need to reveal this. You won't be loved. You won't be respected. You'll be looked down upon and your poverty will be revealed. And you'll see in that revelation that you're unworthy of the Father's love, right? This is what the enemy says. I mean, here's a truth you can take to the bank. The Father knows your sin and calls you by your name, but our enemies, the demons, know our sins,

sorry, know our name, but they call us by our sin. So I think just like when we say the creed, we're bringing our will into alignment with truth. Yeah, credo means I believe. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? I do, right? We're assenting to truths that aren't immediately evident to us, but which we need to acknowledge and bring our wills in alignment to, okay? The demons are trying to do the same, right? Our disordered passions that aren't governed by reason

are trying to do the same. The world which tells you, you only live once, you know, enjoy yourself, abandon your wife, abandon your children, is trying to do the same, right? The world, the flesh and the enemy are trying to get you and me to agree with lies. And one of those lies is you're not lovable. If people knew the sort of things you thought or did,

you and they would realize that, that you're somehow different to every other person on the planet. It's funny, isn't it? I mean, if you hear about, suppose you got into a conversation with a witch or a, I don't know, an abortionist or a pornography performer and they were genuinely like repentant and they just hated what they were doing and they wanted to come to Christ but didn't think themselves worthy. Oh, wouldn't you just remind them that it actually is not true that they're beyond the forgiveness of God? I mean isn't that the whole point of Christianity? But it's almost like the

demons try to convince us that we're the one exception. Alright, so why am I saying all this? Because here's the fifth point, at the first opportunity, reveal the temptation to the professor, to the professor, sorry, to the confessor. And so that's true, I think. It's also true of those in our lives that are walking the Christian walk with us.

I have someone in my life who I love, who I talk to almost every day, and I share my struggles with this person very honestly. Anyway, all right, so we'll leave it at that, because we have a lot to get through. day and I share my struggles with this person very honestly. Anyway all right so we'll leave it at that because we have a lot to get through. Number six, put your self-love in the last place so that it does not taint your deeds. Self-love is such a deceptive sin. Whenever you're criticized or whenever somebody says something to you snarky online, or maybe

you have a public platform like I do and so there's people who publicly criticize you, man that's when you get to see just how arrogant you are because it bothers me and it bothers you. And if you didn't love yourself in that negative sense of the word, right? Where you tried to present yourself in a way that you aren't, then it wouldn't bother you. I've often said, and I'm asking for the grace to grow in this, that the beautiful thing about growing in self-knowledge

is that no matter what anybody else says about you, that's negative, it will pale in comparison to the truth you already know. All right, so I think that's negative, it will pale in comparison to the truth you already know. Alright, so I think that's right. But why, what do we mean by self-love, this negative self-love? It's seeking self-esteem, it's putting ourself in the center, it's trying to raise our self above everyone else, including God. But okay, we don't want self-love, which leads to hell. We want God's love, because

God's love leads us to humility. We know who we are. We know that we're dependent. We know that we are broken and still struggle with sin, but that we can trust in the good God, right? And that He doesn't love us because we're worthy. Right? That must be clear, right? He loved us and died for us while we were still sinners, so we can trust Him. Number seven, listen to this my friends, because you need to hear it. hear it. Bear with yourself with great patience. Just sit there. Just sit there. Sit with that. The blessed Lord Jesus Christ who revealed this to Saint Faustina. Remember what we're talking about. We're talking about 25 rules for spiritual warfare. Did you really expect bear with yourself with great patience to be one of them? We don't do that well. We often

try and fail to be patient with those around us, our co-workers, the barista, the Uber driver, our sister, our mom, our friends, right? Our family. We know we're supposed to be patient with them, meek with them, but very often, we're not that way toward ourself. And why is that? I really think it has to do with the sin of self-love.

We're embarrassed to see just how poor we are and it makes us angry and it makes part of us a kind of taskmaster, right? We're gonna get ourselves in line, we are gonna sort ourselves out, we are not gonna take excuses. We're hard on ourselves in a way that wouldn't be appropriate for anyone else and you might hear that and say,, but isn't that how you should be? Like, isn't it the case that you should be motivated to grow in virtue and relinquish sin? Yes, yes, yes, that's all true.

But not with a sort of severity that's born out of an embarrassment at our own poverty. I think that just makes it, you know this, don't you know this from experience it makes you worse? If you can bear with yourself with patience, if you can go, yeah, that sounds like something I would do. Yeah, I'm poor and wretched. What will I do? Will I sort of become impatient with myself or will I just entrust myself to the good Jesus and say, Father, you're gonna have to do something here because I'm having trouble here. To be able to see ourselves as God sees us. And it's important, I think, that we realize that, you know, if

you've ever looked at a child trying to walk, how sad you would be if the child was embarrassed and felt terrible because it fell over while trying to walk. You'd be like, little children shouldn't feel that way. This is no, you're a little child, you're trying. There is an infinite difference between you and God. So it's infinitely different to the child and us. And the Father, you know, He's a just God, yes. But part of His justice is surely taking into account your poverty. I mean, He's aware of your poverty. The fact you're not aware of your poverty,

which is why you're so anxious and angry with yourself, but if you were aware of your poverty and then would entrust yourself to Jesus, hide yourself within his sacred heart in a peaceful way, this is a godly way, I think, to grow in virtue with peace, yeah, trusting in the loving gaze of the heavenly father. But to get angry, frustrated, embarrassed, this is fleshly, this is fleshly, it seems to me. If you wanna learn more about this, I just interviewed John Eldridge,

and he does a better job of explaining it than I just did. It was a long form discussion. It's here on the channel, go check it out. Excuse me. All right, number eight, do not neglect interior mortifications. All right, so we know what exterior mortifications are. You put a pebble in your shoe, you wear a hair shirt,

you deprive yourself of certain foods and things like this. What are interior mortifications? I mean, here's what I think of when I think of interior mortification. Suppose I'm in conversation with somebody. Actually, this happened to me yesterday. I wanted to speak badly about somebody. Actually this happened to me yesterday. I wanted to speak badly about somebody and not badly in a way that if you were overhearing it you would think wow Matt's a really bad guy but just in a sort of like oh why did he

say that like what's what's up with that why would he do that to a friend I wanted to do that why? I don't know it's that. Why? I don't know, it's comforting in a way. I don't know if it's about comradery, like hey, me and this guy are like bonding over like criticizing this guy. But by God's grace, I didn't do it. And honestly, if I hadn't have called myself out right here and now, I probably would have done it

sometime today or tomorrow. So hopefully I won't do that. That's an interior mortification. I think another interior mortification is choosing not to speak when you don't have to. How many times have you been at a party or in a conversation where you just fill the conversation with your own thoughts?

And how many times does it occur to us to just not speak unless we have something important to say? Or unless it would be rude not to speak? I'm not saying that we should make everyone feel awkward by going to a party and being silent the whole time. That would clearly be unreasonable and therefore sinful, I would say. But I mean, you know what I mean. Like there are times I'll be in a group and I just feel this need to keep inserting myself into the conversation. Why do I do that? And I think a way to to kind of interiorly mortify myself is to just hold back and abide

in the good Jesus. So that's what I think. All right, number nine, always justify to yourself the opinion of your superiors and your confessor. All right, so if there are people over us in our spiritual life, I think it's saying give deference to their opinion over your own. All right, number seven, oh sorry, number 10, shun murmurs like the plague. Shun murmurers like the plague. Shun murmurers like the plague.

By murmurers, I think we're talking about those who would slander, gossip, detract, there are all sorts of words for it, backbite. I mean, that's pretty wild. That's pretty wild. To shun them like the plague. I mean, if we're gonna take this seriously, then it would follow that the fella

I was gonna speak to yesterday and criticize this other guy too, he should have shunned me like a deadly disease. It's so tempting to tear everybody down. I know that, you know that. A lot of Catholic YouTubers I mentioned in my last livestream is filled with that. We just, we criticize, we condemn, we, and we cloak it in religious language that makes it appear like we're doing it for the glory

of God. And maybe I'm wrong, and maybe people are doing this for the glory of God, maybe there are things that for the glory of God. Maybe there are things that ought to be called out publicly. Certainly there are. I'm not denying that. But I just think it's sort of analogous to our Lord's anger in the temple. We too quickly justify our irrational anger by pointing to his rational anger. Not realizing that we're wretched and very quickly do we fall into sin. Yeah, so I think likewise,

we acknowledge the reality that certain public scandals and falsehoods have to be corrected. That's a truth. But I think because of our poverty, when we try to address these things, we realize, oh, hang on, I'm doing this, I'm doing this for clicks, like I'm doing this because I know it'll do well in the algorithm. Or we just, we fall into a sort of, we take a joy in criticizing others publicly. It's really

dangerous. And I fall into it, and may God have mercy on me a sinner. So shun murmurers like the plague. Can I tell you one thing I've tried to do to people who are very critical of others? And I, you know, I hope they do this to me too. If someone, and this has happened, if someone comes to me and they'll start going off about some Catholic personality, like some author, it's quite public, and they just like, they're just sort of, you can sense that they're sort of taking delight and like, what does he,

who does he think he is? And like, what's this about? So this one time someone was doing that and they knew each other. So what I said was, I think this is a great way to shut down murmuring. I Said to him. Oh wow. And so what did he say when you brought this up to him? I Wasn't sure if he had or hadn't I hoped he had But I suspected he hadn't so maybe it was a little a little Crafty of me to phrase it that way but

so whatever but I said what did he say when you brought this up to him and he I could tell he immediately saw his murmuring for what it was and I pray that people do that to me as well it just exposes you like ah yeah fair enough like I'm I'm being a coward here yeah I'm just taking delight in criticizing other people but I'm not actually bringing it to him directly So number 10 is shun. Sorry. They're just stop streaming for a moment. I Thought that was gonna happen because we're having some Wi-Fi issues But even this I surrender to the good God and his permissive will all right. I

Like this one, this is the 11th rule that we are given for the spiritual life. Okay, let all act as they like, you are to act as I want you to. Oh my goodness, there's so much wisdom in this. Let all act the way they like, you are to act as I want you to. I sometimes walk around as if it's my job. like I've been deputized by the good Jesus to go around judging everybody. It's so stupid. You know, I'll go to like some hipster coffee shop and I see someone who's very immodestly dressed or has face tattoos and in my head, I start, like I start judging them.

And I don't know, why am I doing this? Do I think the good Jesus is asking me to do this? Like what, you know? And I do it in these like syrupy spiritual ways to even hide what I'm doing from myself. I'll say things like, how sad this person doesn't know their dignity. Shut up Matthew. Like you have no idea what this person has been through and if you had gone through what they'd gone through you'd probably be way

worse. So just you know it's like Mother Teresa said if I judge people I don't have time to love them. So I like that. Let all act as they like. Now that isn't to say if we have authority over others, like I do with my wife and my children, I don't sort of educate them, love them, advise them. Or if you run a business and you need to kind of correct people,

or if you run a religious order, you need to correct people. Or if you're a spiritual father, okay, fair enough. I get it. But too often, we are just so concerned with everybody else. And we're not at all concerned with ourself. I think that's part of the trick. If I'm not concerned about you,

and sorry, if I am concerned about you, then it takes the spotlight off my own poverty. So I think that's really good. All right, number 12, observe the rule as faithfully as you can. Okay, so obviously this doesn't apply to us directly because St. Faustina had a religious rule that she was to follow.

But I mean, I think it's important that we all have a prayer rule and it might be something as simple as I'm gonna pray the Rosary every day or I'm gonna do morning prayer and night prayer or I'm gonna go to Holy Mass every day like there should be some commitment there and Then you should observe that as faithfully as you can All right Next one number 13 if someone causes you trouble think what good you can do for the person who caused you to suffer.

Isn't that good? That's really good. If someone causes you trouble, think of what good... We don't often do this. If someone causes us trouble, we complain about the burden that they are or we seek to pay them back somehow. We don't think about how we can repay them with love, but this is what we should do This is good number 14. Do not pour out your feelings What does that mean? I'm not really sure but I think if I had to guess it has something to do with an irrational a fusion of emotion that isn't guided and collected by reason it's

The way I would apply this to myself is as I engage with other people Am I still kind of in control of myself? Am I abiding in the good Jesus or have I sort of like let myself go? And now I'm just saying all sorts of things but I'm not really carefully choosing my words or I'm not saying it without reason? Maybe you can teach me in the comment section what you think that means or if you think that applies to you, do not pour out your feelings. Like have some have some guard to yourself. Don't don't give way to your feelings and emotions. Alright number 15. Be silent when you're rebuked. Be silent when you are rebuked. Yeah now here's what we're all gonna do

when we hear things like this, okay? When we hear things like this, when I hear things like this, I come up with a million exceptions. Yeah, okay, fair enough, but if someone publicly says something slanderous of me and I have to defend, yeah. Yes, yes, fair enough.

Like there are exceptions where you have a right to your good name and if someone publicly slanders you, responding to that, fair enough. I understand that there are these exceptions, but it also doesn't mean there's no truth to this. So I think instead of trying to find the loophole, like I just said earlier about not judging

and someone in the comments complained about that, all right, fair enough, yeah, okay. Yeah, fine. Like there is, there are exceptions and but what if just for a moment you tried not to find a loophole and you asked how could I be faithful to that? And what good would that do for me and my spiritual life that if someone like rebuked me instead of me having to pay them back or to justify myself, I just went, all right, thanks, I'll think about that. Come on. Number 16, do not ask everyone's opinion, but only the opinion of your confessor. This is really, this is really good, really good.

And of course, in your situation, it may not just be your confessor, it might be those who are further along the Christian journey than you are. And you're getting all sorts of pushback at work or in family life, or even in the parish or online. I tell you what, man, if you, I mean, I run a big YouTube channel. I have a lot of people who have a lot of opinions about me and conflicting opinions not just about me But the sort of things I say if I was to listen to all of them, I would just be running around chasing my tail So I know in my own life giving way

more attention to my kind of close advisors to my spiritual father to my good wife advisors to my spiritual father to my good wife And and because they know me they love me they know my heart They know what I'm trying to do they see when I fail and because they know me they can see that it is in fact A failure or something like that. I like that. I think that's right. Don't ask everyone's opinion You know because you're gonna get all sorts of contradictory opinions, but listen to your confessor, yeah, or your spiritual father, or by extension, those who are further along

in the spiritual journey than you and who know you. All right, number 17, be as frank and simple as a child with him. So, with him meaning the confessor. Yeah, isn't it tempting when you go to confession to sort of obfuscate your sin or to justify it? I've even been to confession where I take delight in saying, hey, it's been like a month since my last confession

because I want Him to know that the sin I'm about to confess, you know, I only confessed it once in a month. It's like, my gosh, the self-love going on here. The ways we obfuscate what we try to share is, uh, it's remarkable. Be frank, be direct, don't hide. I like that. Number 18, do not become discouraged by ingratitude. Do not become discouraged by ingratitude. Isn't it amazing? Like we think of spiritual warfare and all sorts of things come to mind.

We don't realize that this is all part of it. This is, look at this, this is one of the rules for spiritual warfare that Christ wanted to teach Faustina. Do not become discouraged by ingratitude. Number 19, do not examine with curiosity the roads down which I lead you. I mean, this is awesome. I think often our fear of suffering

does more to agitate us and bring sadness to us than the possible suffering. Because the potential suffering, oh my goodness gracious, suffering is a deep hole. There are a lot of ways you could suffer. And so we fret over this. Yeah. When these things may not never even enter our soul. I mean, they may just be sort of imaginary

and never come to fruition. And so maybe you're in a stage of life right now where you've just lost your job or, you know, your fiance just broke off the engagement or your wife is desperately ill and no one knows what's going on or, you know, your child just committed suicide, God have mercy. I mean, to give ourselves over to the will of God,

even when it breaks our heart, trusting that he loves us, that's what the saints did. Don't examine with curiosity the roads down which I lead you. Like, for what good reason could this possibly be? Why would he permit it? What's he trying to do with this? I mean, like you don't know. You just know that it's happening.

And so I surrender to you, Jesus. It's my only option. You're my only hope. All right, 20, when boredom and discouragement beat against your heart, run away from yourself and hide in my heart. Come on, that's so beautiful. Oh, that's so beautiful.

When boredom and discouragement beat against your heart. What do we do often? Like, that's a good question. Tell me in the live chat what we do. I wanna hear from you. What do you do when boredom and discouragement beat against your heart? I just get, I get agitated. I just seek to relieve it. I seek to relieve the boredom. I seek to get a quick fix to quote unquote, heal the discouragement.

In other words, I go out of myself. Part of me goes out of myself and tries to medicate. Yeah. Or as Andrew just said, just try to push through 100%. Kelly says distractions. Yeah, just, and again, what is distractions? It separates me from me, as it were. Yeah, oh my gosh, you guys are so beautiful.

This is really lovely. Walking with the Savior says a lot of self-doubt and start questioning everything. Oh, my beautiful friends, I love you. Thank you for being honest. No one's ever, okay, it's rare that people are vulnerable in comment sections because it opens yourself up to brutal assault.

And if the internet has to choose between empathy and brutal assault, it will always choose the latter. So it takes great courage for you to say what you're saying right now. It's beautiful. I love vulnerability. Gosh, it's beautiful. Thank you, say what you're saying right now. It's beautiful. I love vulnerability. Gosh, it's beautiful Thank you. Thank you. Thank you friends

Yeah, when boredom and discouragement beat against my heart. I just get frightened. Oh I get frightened and agitated Alright, yeah, and then I just seek a relief. I just want relief. I just want relief I don't want those things but But the blessed Lord Jesus says, run away from yourself and hide in my heart. Yeah, Jesus is the answer. I mean, come on, that's like a t-shirt. That's like a bumper sticker.

But it actually is deeply theologically accurate that Jesus is the answer to our anxieties because He's concerned about us. He knows us. I mean, think about that line that our blessed Lord says about the Father in the Gospel of Matthew. Even the number of hairs on your head are counted. I don't know how many hairs we lose a day. Let's have a look. How many hairs does a human lose a day? All right, check this out. Let's have a look.

Apparently, according to this, according to AI, a person sheds between 50 and 100 hairs a day. All right, now you're not shedding 100 hairs all at once. So over the course of a day. According to the good Jesus, the Father knows the number of hairs on your head. This is like, this is an ongoing knowledge that the Father, he's like so, look, he has not removed his attention from you

since the moment of your conception. His ear is at your lips. He loves you. Come on, it's too good to be true, you say to me. This, I don't, this is a fairy tale. I've been told that things will help me and they don't. I've believed salesmen and I've believed advertisements and I've believed the promises of loved ones

and they have all let me down. I really think it's not that Christianity is too good to be, it's sorry, too hard to be true, too hard to believe. It's really not, actually. We've got excellent arguments for God's existence, for the reliability of the Gospels, for the historicity of the person and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have miracles by the truckload, not truckload, oceanload, that have taken place throughout history within the Catholic Church, right?

It's not too hard to believe. It's too bloody good to believe. It's too good to believe. We won't be let down again, and so we set up walls around our heart to protect ourselves, because we just don't want to be heard again. My golly, my golly, my golly.

My golly. But he's the one person we can trust. Run away from that part of yourself, you know, that just wants to push through and distract yourself to death and to medicate and come to the good Jesus. Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Jesus, you know how weak I am and you know that in 10 minutes from now I'll be doing who knows what, distracting myself with who knows what, but right now I think I can do it. I think just in this moment I can do it. So friends, watching, let can do it. I think just in this moment, I can do it. So friends, watching,

let's do it together. Since the good Jesus is always present to us individually, even though we don't understand that, look, stop trying to understand it. Kids don't need to understand how snow works to play in it, and you don't need to understand the personal attention the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have in you, toward you right now to release yourself to it. So let's do it. Just now, just now, because in ten minutes you won't be able to do it and you won't be able to maintain it because you're not a saint. But for now I think we can do it. Father, I Surrender everything and everyone to you. Oh Good father

I surrender everything and everyone to you. You know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, our blessed Lord uses the term Abba for the father. Now, sometimes people will say that this means daddy. Daddy is not a good translation because, you know, it's it's it's Papa is the actual translation. That is to say, it's an affectionate way that children speak toward their father. If you're if you have trouble using that term of affection, Papa, then I think it's it what that highlights within you

and me is that we have trouble believing that our father is affectionate towards us and that we can speak to him with affection. But, but maybe just now you can get over yourself and say with me, Ah, Papa. Papa, I surrender everything and everyone to you. Look, as I'm doing this to you in this YouTube thing, I'm aware that I'm getting emotional and I'm aware how that might come across.

I'm aware that it looks like I'm trying to drum this up for whatever. And that's awkward, because who the hell knows? Maybe I am. I don't think I am, but I'm wretched anyway. But I just, the Father wants this deep relationship with us. He wants this ongoing, personal, intimate relationship with us. If it's not worth getting emotional over that there is a loving God who's intimately associated with you and all of your concerns, I don't know what is. So let's do it one more time. Papa, just sort of I relax my shoulders and I'm trying to be real and Frank Papa I release

Everything and everyone to you I release myself Oh my golly all the ways that I get in my own way The ways I seek not only to deceive you and those I love but myself The heart is a wretched thing who can understand it. Well you can So Papa I release and surrender and abandon myself to you. I trust in you. I release everyone to you.

I release everything to you. And even as I do that, I'm aware that I can't really somehow let go of things. But I'm gonna let go of that. I let go of my inability not to let go. Because you've told me to be patient with myself, and so alright, I'll do that. But Father, listen to me.

Listen to me, Father. I, um, I can't do the things that I want to do, and I don't know why. So, since you're so good, I can't do the things that I want to do and I don't know why So since you're so good Do them for me I Trust that you will do them for me I trust that you are that good. Amen All right.

I command those who work for me not to turn that part into a clip. But I pray that despite however awkward it was, it'll bless you somehow. Or if it just serves to my own embarrassment, then that's a good thing too. All right. Number 21. Do not fear struggle.

Courage itself often intimidates temptation. No it doesn't. Is that what it says? I can't see now. Do not fear struggle. Oh my gosh, don't we fear it? I totally fear it. I just want a life of ease, man. I just want a hammock and a margarita. I just want no sickness.

I just want, I want ease, man. I don't want difficulty. Courage, coraggio, God have mercy. Okay, 21, do not fear struggle. Courage itself often intimidates temptations. Okay. And they dare not attack us. I see what he's saying.

Okay, so this happened to me yesterday. This happened to me yesterday. I was walking and praying the Holy Rosary because I had this interview that I had to do and I was really nervous about it because I didn't want to look like an idiot because I'm arrogant and filled with self-love. And as I was walking I felt this oppressiveness and I so I started to

rebuke it and it left. It was weird man, it was like I was under a dark cloud and I knew it was spiritual attack and I said this, these are the words, in the name of Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary, I bind the spirit of discouragement and I send it to the foot of the cross for Christ to do with it as he wills. That's really important. That's bringing ourselves into alignment with the truth that we are children of the King and need not fear the accusations and attacks of the enemy.

So do not fear struggle, courage itself often intimidates temptations and they dare not attack us. All right, number 22, always fight with deep conviction that I am with you. This is what we've been saying the entire live stream. So deep conviction that you are protected, loved, guarded by the good Jesus.

All right, number 23, do not be guided by feeling because it's not always under your control, but all merit lies in the will. Okay, as I'm reading these, I'm thinking to myself, I really have to read the diary of St. Faustina again. By the way, there is a link in the description to this article that I have on Substack.

It's free, you don't have to pay. I mean, just click it, you can read these along with me. You can read them now, you can read them later. But man, this is something worth reading. This is so profound. Don't be guided by feelings because it's not always under your control. How true is that?

You know, like, you know, you just think I'm so irritated with my spouse or my children or my friends or myself or my God or the people. You know, it's like, all right, just, you don't, don't trust yourself. Don't, don't trust your feelings. Like yesterday, right, I had that discouragement come upon me and I just felt intimidated was the word.

That's what I bound in the name of Jesus was this spirit of intimidation. I didn't even know where, it didn't even make sense. Like where is this coming from? Why am I intimidated, you know? So I bound that and sent it to the cross. So, So I bound that and sent it to the cross. So,

don't be terribly concerned about your feelings, right? Rather bring your will in alignment with the truth, I think is what we should say. All right, there's two more and then I'll take your questions in the live chat, okay? 24, always depend upon your superiors even in the smallest things. That doesn't really apply to me.

I don't have a superior, but if I apply that to myself, Just depend upon your superiors even in the smallest things. That doesn't really apply to me. I don't have a superior. But if I apply that to myself, I guess I would say be deferential to the opinions of those who are clearly no more than you. You know? And even like, you know, there's times I'm just deferential to my good wife. You know, there's times where I'm discouraged and I'm processing things with her

and I know that she loves me and knows me and because she's not in it, I'm like, okay, I know she can see clearer than me. Just like I can see clearer than her if she's going through something. It's almost like I wanna say to her, oh, look at me, stop, stop it now. What you're thinking is true is not true, so listen to me. You

know, it's like that. Alright, number 25. This is the final one and this is so beautiful. Know that you are now on a great stage where all of heaven and earth is watching. Fight like a knight so that I can reward you. Fight with great courage. Fight with great courage. Glory to Jesus Christ. All right, we're gonna take some questions

in the live chat. Two things before we do. This is the last month we're giving away this pints with Aquinas beer stein for free. Please join us over at matfrad.locals.com. There's a link in the description. When you become an annual supporter, you'll get my episodes one week early.

You'll get to be part of a very encouraging and troll-free Catholic community. There's also Protestants and atheists over there, but they're all looking into the Catholic faith. You also get this free pints for the Aquinas Beer Stein, but this is the last month we're giving it away for free. That's why you should, if you would like, to support the channel and also just become a member

of all the extra content we do over there, matphrad.locals.com because May 1st, we're no longer giving this away for free. So matphrad.locals.com slash support, click the link below. You just have to pay for shipping and we'll send it to you. The second thing I want to tell you about is that we have a big event going on in Steubenville, Ohio.

That's in 13 days from now, April 25th through 27th. It's gonna be an unforgettable weekend of cigars, conversation, music, and meaningful reflections at Chesterton Cigars, which is a cigar shop that I co-own with a couple of friends. We have live bands. And when I say live, I'm talking incredible bands. We've got amazing live jazz music.

My sisters and her husband will be playing. They're incredibly talented. We have different talks. Dr. Scott Hahn will be there. We have other special guests. And it's the launch of the new Pints with Aquinas Cigar. We've got all sorts of things going on and it's all day long. Like even one morning we're doing like oysters.

If you're into oysters, I don't know why that would be a selling point, but yeah, we've got like these, these brunches, these breakfasts, you know, like, yeah, whiskey tasting. It's going to be really beautiful, really beautiful. So click the link below, Chester and cigars.com. It's a free, it's a free weekend. So we're not charging you money to come to the weekend. We do have a couple of things that are ticketed events just because we have to give away free cigars for cigar tasting and things like that. But I'll be, this is gonna be the launch

of the new Pines with a Coin of Cigar and things like that. So anyway, that's that. Please check it out. I think it's gonna be an amazing weekend. So make sure you go to ChessandCigars.com and you click the links and just say you're coming so we know how many people are going to be there. And we'd be really grateful. Alright, glory to Jesus Christ. Let's look at some people's comments. In the live chat. Alright, before we do that, let me look at a couple of questions

from our local supporters. Gates says, what advice can you give for finding a solid spiritual director? I've just recently moved to a new area, don't know anyone here and I'm professing my faith and being confirmed on ESO, that's beautiful. I mean, I would speak to your priest and say, do you know of any good spiritual directors

in the diocese that I could reach out to? Well, as you get to know other serious Christians, ask them if they have a spiritual director or call the diocese and ask for a list of potential spiritual directors. Reach out to them, see if they're willing to meet with you and let that first meeting be a decision time. After that meeting, do we click?

Is this gonna work or is this not gonna work? I think you'll have an idea pretty quickly. Okay, let's see. Can it be the case, says Tom, where you are steeped in the sacraments, confession, mass, and adoration on the regular, but be blinded to your own sin in a way that keeps you, keeps you,

keeps something God's graces, despite what you think is your best effort, perhaps due to the devil's influence. Yeah, I mean, I think it's clearly the case that people can be living the sacramental life, but it not bear fruit. I mean, we have countless examples of this. I mean, think of certain cardinals who have been accused

and being guilty of certain evil things who were presumably celebrating Holy Mass every day. So I mean, yeah, it can be, but I think there's a, you know, Lord, give me Holy Spirit, give me the light to know my sin and let me confess them and let me flee from the near temptation. And so I think so long as you're doing that, you shouldn't be afraid. Ryan Hogg says, what practically can I do to begin to engage in spiritual warfare on behalf of my wife and children?

Pray for them. That's what you can do. And you should bless them with holy water at night if you want. You could do that. Pray the Holy Rosary. I mean, I've got a wife and four kids. That's five people.

And turns out there are five decades in one of the mysteries of the Rosary. And so I dedicate one mystery to each of them. So that's what I do. And now I'm looking in the live chat here, okay? Chase says, Mel Gibson, can you get him on? I don't know. I don't Gibson, can you get him on? I don't know. I don't know if I can get him on.

Embracing Tradition says, after suffering a miscarriage and almost losing my life, this has been a blessing. I have felt abandoned by God and afraid to run to the good Jesus. Oh, you're beautiful. Thank you for reminding me that God loves me. Amen, he does, whether you want him to or not,

which is really nice, you know. Iconic Blink Army says, Hey, I'm turning 18 on Good Friday. Really happy that my birthday is in with a special day. What is the wisest advice you would give an upcoming adult on being consistent in the Catholic faith? I mean, there's so many things I would say, but you need to pray daily,

and you need to be more serious about your prayer than the ways you entertain yourself. So look, pray the Holy Rosary every day. Do that. Since you're asking me, do that. And don't make excuses. And do it on your knees. And then ask the blessed mother to help you

because she's certainly a lot wiser than anything I could say, or M. Also, by the way, I mean, we have Holy Week coming up, so it's probably a good thing to double down on all of your commitments. Yeah, so I'm going to do extra things for Holy Week. And when I say extra things, I guess what I'm saying is I wanna turn away from false refuges and fill them with Jesus. That's what I wanna do.

So it's not extra things for the sake of, you know, being like cool or based or something. It's like, there are things in my life that I know I need to start dialing back on and turning myself over to Jesus. So. Chase says, the shroud of Turin has re-energized my faith. Yeah, good.

Check out my interview with Father Andrew Dalton over three hours. It has over three million views. It's pretty wild. Check that out if you haven't already. Tim Paul from Locals says, how's your family with the move? It's good. We're glad to be here, but my good bride is still suffering a great deal.

So if you want to pray for her, you could do that. Different stuff, but it's pretty bad. She's such a trooper. Alright friends, I'm gonna go. But bless you, thank you for being here. And please pray for me. Why don't you do that? You just got to watch a free video, the least you can do is pray for me. So that's what I'm I tell you to do.

Offer a rosary for me. Well, however you want to pray, would you please pray for me and my family in pines with Aquinas and all who watch. I'd be greatly appreciative. God bless you.