Inside EWTN

When we give back to the community, the Lord often arranges things so we receive even more than we give. Such was the case at Irondale, Alabama-based EWTN Global Catholic Network’s 10th Annual Service Day at Habitat for Humanity.

Deacon Chuck Kelly, EWTN Viewer Services Manager

“Over the course of the day, individuals who do not know how to work together learn to work together and we accomplish more than we ever could on our own,” said Deacon Chuck Kelly, EWTN Viewer Services Manager. “Today, we settled into natural teams, and we were able to accomplish a great deal. It’s the opposite of the Tower of Babel!”

Brother Pier Giorgio and Advancement Services Director Matt Leonard

Deacon refers to the Biblical story of the Babylonians wanting to build a tower that they thought could reach the heavens. But, in that case, God wanted the work to fail so he confused the language of the workers so they could not understand each other.

This year’s Bessemer, Alabama build included employees who participated in all 10 builds, those enjoying their first build, and everything in between. All had very personal reasons for joining the all-volunteer effort.

HR Manager Cristina Sigafus and IT Project Manager Chad Key

“I like to help somebody trying to get a new start,” said EWTN IT Project Manager Chad Key, who celebrated his 10^th build. “As a young man, I remember how hard it was to get a start. God gives us the opportunity, through EWTN, to help people get that fresh start.”

EWTN Viewer Services Representative Katie Endrey

EWTN Viewer Services Representative Katie Endrey decided to participate in her first build for an even more personal reason. “I’m new to the area. I moved here to work at EWTN. I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet co-workers, and to do something good for Lent.”

Every year, Habitat names one of its builds after Pope Francis and holds it during Lent, 40 days in which Catholic Christians reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us in order to open the gates of heaven. In His Name, they also do good deeds and make atonement for sin through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

(L to E) Deanna Agbay, Fulfillment Services Associate, and Cathy Bailey, Viewer Services Representative

EWTN Chairman & CEO Michael Warsaw makes an annual donation to the Build and encourages employees to attend by allowing them to work for Habitat instead of their EWTN jobs. EWTN also provides breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks for everyone on site, including the Site Supervisor and, frequently, those for whom the house is being built and their family members.

(L to R) Stephen Lunsford, Viewer Services Research Specialist, Friary Postulant Anthony Pouliot,  and Maintenance Supervisor Charles Agby

Anthony Pouliot, who is discerning a vocation as an EWTN Friar, noted that: “It’s important to not just feed people spiritually, but also temporally.”

EWTN television, radio, and shortwave signals traverse the globe spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but Maintenance Supervisor Charles Agby, another employee who has participated in all 10 builds, noted: “It’s important for EWTN to not only do things globally, but locally.”

EWTN HR Manager Cristina Sigafus

At the beginning of the day, Habitat Site Supervisor Eric Click told employees that, contrary to popular belief, Habitat does not give houses away. The organization provides recipients with interest-free mortgages, so they must have jobs to pay for those mortgages, and they must put in many hours of sweat equity to earn their right to homeownership.

“It’s a good mission and it aligns with our values at EWTN,” said EWTN HR Manager Cristina Sigafus.

EWTN Chief of Staff Sue Smeltzer

Perhaps EWTN Chief of Staff Sue Smeltzer summed up the day best when she said: “God calls us to help those in need. This is our way of giving back to the community we live in.”

They were three men whose theories of philosophy, psychology, and politics had a tremendous impact on our world and our Church – so you might think that all three would have lived enviable lives. Yet Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously asserted, “God is dead,” ended his life in an insane asylum. Sigmund Freud was revered for inventing psychoanalysis, yet he believed it merely returned man to a “tolerable level of human misery.” And while Karl Marx didn’t much like socialism, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin built on his theories to justify their atrocities.

It sounds grim, and it is. To understand the influence these schools of thought still wield and what can be done about them, EWTN is proud to announce the television premiere of a three-part series entitled “Wolves in the Fold.” (Each 30-minute episode airs at 5:30 p.m. ET, Monday through Wednesday, Dec. 2-4, on EWTN, with an encore at 2:30 a.m. ET the following day. These episodes are also available to view free On Demand at https://bit.ly/3APXQhY, and are for sale at https://bit.ly/4fRLTHw.)

Episode #3 of “Wolves in the Fold” also discusses the transition from Marxism to Cultural Marxism, which means that the desired Marxist revolution doesn’t need to be bloody; it can come about by transforming cultural institutions and the manipulation of language as seen in the pronoun debate.

While these “wolves,” these enemies of Christ, go about their destructive mission in different ways, their philosophies have several things in common. First, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx were all atheists who rejected the idea of a transcendent God and an afterlife. As a result, they all saw life as miserable and meaningless. Second, these men valued individuals only insofar as they were useful for satisfying one’s base desires or as a productive part of a class. In their minds, happiness or meaning could only be achieved through amassing  power or through the freedom to live however one wants, with violence and sexual power/freedom being the only ways of fleetingly alleviating man’s misery.

Makes you want to jump right on board, doesn’t it? And yet, many of us unwittingly do.

Here, we preview these information-packed programs, which reveal much about the three men and their destructive philosophies.

Friedrich Nietzsche died in an insane asylum at the age of 55, but his influence didn’t. We learn that his philosophy was appropriated by the Nazis, who used it to justify their preoccupation with power and the idea of a master race.

The first episode to air is “Friedrich Nietzsche: Apostle of Nihilism.” Nietzsche lived in the age of the so-called Enlightenment, which had marginalized or even gotten rid of the concept of God. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Ruth Institute, says the philosopher carried the idea of God’s death to its logical conclusion. “Nietzsche basically said, “If God is dead, everything is permitted.”

Dr. Carl Trueman, Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. builds on that assertion. “[W]hat the madman [Nietzsche] does is point this out to the atheists, essentially saying to them, ‘You cannot get rid of God and yet allow your moral and ethical systems to remain in place. Once you get rid of God, you yourself have to rise up and be gods. You yourself have to provide life with meaning.’”

What was the end result of Nietzsche’s efforts to become his own “agent of self-creation?” He ended up going mad.

Says the narrator: “In January 1889, Nietzsche had a mental breakdown while he was in Turin, Italy. After this episode, Nietzsche was unable to speak or write and was institutionalized for the rest of his life.”

Nietzsche died in 1900 at the age of 55,” but his influence didn’t. We learn that his philosophy was appropriated by the Nazis, who used it to justify their preoccupation with power and the idea of a master race.

In addition to her work at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Author Noelle Mering’s books include “Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology.”

“What happens when you relinquish any understanding of objective moral goods and evils…how can we come to agreement on how we should run society? And so what is left but the will to power?” says Noelle Mering, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center where she co-directs EPPC’s Theology of Home Project. “There’s an appeal, I think, of Nietzsche to people who want to sort of disabuse themselves from any sort of call to be subject to a moral code, but who still want to feel that their lives are going to be heroic and meaningful.”

In this episode, you’ll see the influence this philosophy has had on education, on mainline Protestantism, and even on the Catholic Church, where some today want the Church to bend to the will of the people and alter her teachings.

Says Mering: “That’s not how the Catholic Church operates, nor should anyone who understands the identity of the Catholic Church want her to operate. We don’t want her to follow our will. We want to follow the will of God.”

Cardinal Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI, lamented that modern life was ruled by a dictatorship of relativism. “In that phrase, a dictatorship of relativism, we become at the mercy of whoever is the strongman,” Mering says. “It gets back to the will to power.”

Sigmund Freud himself believed that his much vaunted psychoanalysis merely brings about greater awareness of the human condition and “returns the patient to the normal level of human misery.”

The second episode of “Wolves in the Fold” looks at “Sigmund Freud, Architect of Doubt.” We learn that the so-called Sexual Revolution of the 60s, which changed the lives of so many, has its seeds in Freud’s teachings. Freud believed that the reason we have civilization or culture is so men can’t do what they really want to do which is to have sex and commit acts of violence. But that makes us unhappy so we have to engage in psychoanalysis, which brings about greater awareness and “returns the patient to the normal level of human misery.”

Wilhelm Reich took Freud’s grim views of life one step further, arguing that sexual repression causes people to be neurotic and blames families for this repression. Up until 1930, Protestant churches agreed that contraception was an offense against God, but thanks to the emerging culture of sexual freedom it quickly became okay. As Catholics know, Pope Paul VI disagreed. He penned the prophetic document Humanae Vitae. Nevertheless, the genie was out of the bottle and New Age spirituality, the Human Potential Movement, and a greater openness towards LGBTQ issues were the result.

Pope St. John Paul II countered the sexual revolution with his Theology of the Body, which teaches that sex involves something more profound than just the physical experience, but involves the human soul and destiny, says Dr. D.C. Schindler of the John Paul II Institute.

Pope John Paul II fought back with his Theology of the Body. Dr. D.C. Schindler, Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute at The Catholic University of America  explains the Pope’s revolutionary counter-narrative: “The sexual act … involves something more profound than just the physical experience, but involves the human soul and involves the destiny of the person, and understanding sexuality in light of all those dimensions…far from trivializing the act fills it with an inconceivable…depth of meaning that shows the role that it has in human life…from the beginning of history.”

In Episode Three, entitled “Karl Marx, Prophet of Discontent,” things get even more complicated. Marx contended that “God” is simply people projecting onto a deity their ideal human being. Religion, he said, “distanced individuals from their genuine selves.” Marx lived during the Industrial Revolution, when many people stopped working for themselves and began working for someone else, which he believed made them cogs in a machine. He believed that by helping people understand this, they would rise up and revolt.

Disciples of Marx took this one step further. Instead of a bottoms-up revolution, Lenin believed it was an elite cadre of intellectual activists who needed to violently impose revolution. Ronald Rychlak, Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, explains this philosophy: “Individuals are important as long as they are productive workers for the states…[O]nce they are no longer capable of doing that, they can and should be eliminated.”

Communist dictators Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and China’s Mao Zedong said the greatest obstacles to revolution are family, private property, and religion because the latter “demands ultimate loyalty to something higher than and separate from the state.” Therefore, Christians, especially priests and religious, must be eliminated.

Instead of the bottoms-up revolution advocated by Karl Marx, his disciples Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong believed it was an elite cadre of intellectual activists who needed to violently impose revolution.

Despite the horrors above, we learn that certain groups in the West tried to harmonize Marx’s theories with theology. Some Protestants went with the “social gospel” of Walter Rauschenbush, while some Catholics turned to “Liberation Theology.” These attempts turn social work into a religion with no need for Christ.

“The Marxist influence on things like liberation theology failed to honor the Church’s understanding of justice and the nobility of the human being,” says Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. Assistant Director of The Dominican House of Studies’ Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC., “There is a tendency … to understand the person only contextually…as a class and not as individuals.”

This episode goes on to discuss the transition from Marxism to Cultural Marxism, which meant that the desired revolution didn’t need to be bloody; it could come about by transforming cultural institutions and the manipulation of language as seen in the pronoun debate. “[R]ather than trying to create just a class war, they wanted to create a war between men and women [and] among the races…and antagonize them for the sake of a revolutionary end,” Mering says.

All of this and more has profoundly impacted Western civilization and the Catholic Church, which this episode explains in detail.

However, in the end, Mering says: “Marxist ideology can only break things down, and the Catholic Church, at its very core, is a life-giving institution. It’s in our families. It’s in the call to be fruitful and multiply. … in the way in which it presents a positive life that is in harmony with our humanity, not in contradiction of it.”

This is only a small taste of what is in these important episodes, which you will want to watch more than once so you can combat the evil of these philosophies when you confront them.

Have you noticed that there appears to be an epidemic of sadness in the world today, most especially among the youth? Even though the world tells us to live for pleasure and the satisfaction that comes from having everything we want, people are still unhappy. The pandemic revealed that people today have a hard time handling life when things don’t run as smoothly as all of us have grown accustomed to believing they should.

Should we blame the pandemic or social media or even modern psychology for this epidemic of unhappiness? Is it possible for us to fix ourselves or our loved ones from the curse of feeling that life has no meaning?

You’ll find the answer when EWTN premieres “Acedia – the Diabolical in Disguise,” a powerful one-hour exploration into what is causing this problem and, most importantly, what we can do about it. The show, produced in Spain and dubbed into English, airs at 2 p.m. ET, Saturday, Feb. 17, with an encore at 2 a.m. ET, Sunday, Feb. 18.

If you can, get into a distraction-free environment and prepare to pay attention because this program will surprise you and maybe even make you a little uncomfortable before providing you with an incredible amount of hope. This article covers only one small part of the problems (perhaps the one that will most surprise you) and one of the solutions because we’d have to provide you with a transcript of the entire documentary to do more. You’ll have to watch the entire show to understand all of it, and you may have to watch it several times, which is why we recommend either recording it or going to https://ondemand.ewtn.com after it airs to view it at your leisure. But it’s worth every moment you spend absorbing its wisdom.

Martin Echavarria, PhD, Dean of Psychology, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU

Those who are familiar with, say, the old Baltimore Catechism may think they know the definition of acedia, which used to be called sloth, which we think of as laziness. But Martin Echavarria, PhD, Dean of Psychology, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, tells us people today are likely to give it another definition: “Acedia is not the same as depression although, since Acedia is fairly unknown, it’s possible that some things diagnosed as depression have acedia as their root cause.”

Before getting into the definitions of acedia [there’s more than one kind] and how to combat it, the program helps us understand the many societal beliefs that are causing so much unhappiness. Here’s just one of the beliefs you’re unlikely to think has negatively affected your happiness or that of your loved ones.

“Positive Psychology or the Science of Happiness, tells us that happiness is a decision that each of us can make, independent of the external circumstances that affect us,” says Diego Albarova Blanco, researcher, writer, and TV Producer, and the man who wrote and directed this documentary. “I decide how to react to this event before me. But it also means, what? It means that if I suffer, if I can’t turn that bad thing into something good, maybe I haven’t tried hard enough, or I haven’t known how to do it. …And that’s what causes so many people today to feel so deeply miserable. Why? Because the person who suffers is, in a way, someone who hasn’t tried hard enough, someone who hasn’t known how to turn the bad into good.”

Angel Barahona, PhD, Dean of Humanities, University of Francisco de Vitoria, Spain

But that’s only one of the many problems human beings encounter in the present day. There’s the existential crisis that all of us will eventually face without the solution to all of this, which we’ll reveal in a moment. “[A]s we burn through life’s stages and see that none of them is satisfying, discomfort is generated inside of us. …We only find disappointment. And that is lethal for the human psyche and also for the soul,” says Angel Barahona, PhD, Dean of Humanities, University of Francisco de Vitoria, Spain.

Before you get ready to throw in the towel with even this brief discussion, Msgr. Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria, Spain, rescues us by saying: “Consolation and desolation are languages of God. Desolation doesn’t have to be a curse. On the contrary, if a young person is leading a disastrous, a dissolute, and nocturnal life, etc., and finds himself waking up, deeply sad, in a very bad state, it’s a blessing. This means that he needs to review his decisions. He has a longing for joy, for happiness, for blessedness that God has put in his heart. That’s the sign of discernment.”

And now the program moves into the heart of this discussion. If we can’t find happiness in the usual places, where can we find it? And if Acedia is the problem, what in the world is it?

“If we were to define Acedia, it would be “the evil of our times,” says Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and Seminary Advisor Mercedes Palet, PhD. “If we look around, we would realize that one of the main signs or symptoms of it is sadness. Acedia is a kind of sadness, but it’s a very special kind of sadness because it’s a sadness for the divine good. …So in order to understand Acedia, first, we have to understand that good thing that makes me sad.”

We’re sad because we are void of the joy of God’s Presence. However, as Echavarria explains, “No one can stay sad for long…[so] the person is forced to flee. Flee from what? …The person flees from things that have to do with God and falls into the vice of despair.”

Msgr. Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria, Spain

We also flee from God when we flee from the cross. We flee because we don’t understand “that the cross in us, in our history, is a divine good. …Because the cross comes to someone who doesn’t understand it or doesn’t accept it, or the devil deceives him…And so, a good for him because a sadness,” says Blanco.

Barahona picks up the thread of this thought saying something we rarely hear: “Marriage is suffering. Having a family is suffering. A child is a suffering. And we miss the best in a kind of permanent Peter Pan Syndrome. All this fear of suffering. And so, the tranquilizers, the drugs, the alcohol, the weekends, but now, sex or the attractions to suicide, are nothing more than symptoms of the same soft disease.”

This is one of only several types of acedia that are discussed, and we’ll leave you with one of the remedies this program offers.

“One of the most common characteristics of a depressed person is what psychologists call rumination,” says Blanco. “That means that you have a thought…for example, my father doesn’t love me…. And you don’t stop thinking [about it.]. And that drives you totally crazy. So, the most effective remedy to put an end…to these obsessive thoughts and the disease itself that the devil himself can plant within you…is the Word of God. …Not trusting your own thoughts is very hard. …[S]ometimes, we can’t even trust ourselves because we don’t tell ourselves the truth. As Saint John says, ‘God is greater than our conscience, even if our own conscience accuses us, even if we have a repetitive thought that’s really harming us, God is greater.’ That thought, however correct it may seem, however sensible, doesn’t have to be real.

“[So we turn from] own thoughts, to do what? To get support from the Word of God. That’s why it’s so important for a Catholic who’s suffering this sadness to read the Bible, to study it, to do Lectio Divina. Because that’s where they’ll truly find adequate help against those destructive thoughts that a person with depression has.”

Bet you haven’t heard that before. And there’s a lot more where this comes from. Please, for yourself, for your children, for anyone you love, tune into this show and absorb its wisdom. You don’t have to suffer from acedia any longer.

He has counseled a man in a local jail who had been on suicide watch twice because he believed he had no future.

Listened to the tears of a grandmother who needed reassurance as she struggled to help her drug-addicted grandson.

Consoled a family whose child died from an overdose.

As a priest and the founder of the Birmingham area Cenacolo Community for those with addictions, retired Birmingham Bishop Robert Baker has “been there” for thousands of people for more than 20 years. And because he himself has had to face the death from cancer of not one, but two of his brothers, he well understands why many of those he has counseled ask the question: “Why Lord?”

That was the impetus behind his new book, “Prayers of Desperation: A Questioner’s Prayer for Answers in our Darkest Moments,” http://bit.ly/3ESgtkh.

“The Bible tells you that you can take that dilemma and that struggle to God,” he says. “’How will I come out of this situation? Where are You when I need You?’ When all is said and done, that may be the best prayer I can ever utter. Psychologists make a lot of money, but Jesus wants us to bring those problems to him too. We want to allow Him, in faith, to answer.”

What does that last sentence mean? How do we allow God to answer us in faith?

The Bible itself is full of questions that people asked Jesus. The Bishop points out that the prophet Zachariah and the Blessed Mother asked the Archangel Gabriel the exact same question, but only one asked in faith. As you may recall, when Gabriel appeared to the elderly Zachariah and told him that his elderly wife would conceive a child, he asked “How can that be?” Bishop Baker says Zachariah asked this question because he was doubting that the Lord could make this happen. That’s not asking in faith. However, when Gabriel told Mary she would conceive and bear the Son of God, her “how can it be?” question was directed at understanding how she, a woman who had been vowed to virginity, could become pregnant. What was the Lord asking her to do?

The Bishop says Mary essentially said, as we all need to say: “I believe in you Lord. I don’t know how this is going to be answered, but I bring this to you.”

All the Lord asks of us, even in the darkest of nights, is that we bring Him our questions, trusting that He will answer them in His time and in His perfect way. Bishop Baker’s book was written to show us how to turn our questions into prayers. He tackles six questions: Why, Lord?; How, Lord?; When, Lord?; What, Lord?; Where, Lord; and Who, Lord?

To those who feel they can’t ask the Lord such questions the Bishop writes this:

“To some people, questioning God suggests a lack of faith; when they have questions for God, no matter what the problem or dilemma causing the question, they wonder if that means that they don’t believe in God anymore. These reflections attempt to point out just the contrary: it’s failing to ask God a question when one is dealing with a difficulty in life that may reflect a lack of faith. Jesus makes it clear that ‘for everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who searches, finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:10).

If you’re one of those people who worries about asking such a question or who would like some examples of how to do this in faith, pick up a copy of Bishop Baker’s “Prayers of Desperation,” available now from EWTN Religious Catalogue, http://bit.ly/3ESgtkh.

As Bishop Baker tells us in the preface of his book: “[I]t is my intention to help you give voice to the questions you have for God in prayer – from a perspective of faith.”

You may think you know all there is to know about Our Lady’s famous appearances to a peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France in 1858. But unless you’re a scholar who has gone back to the earliest sources concerning the 18 apparitions, as Writer/Director/Producer Stefano Mazzeo did to craft this EWTN original docudrama, you are going to be surprised, inspired, and completely riveted by this compelling account of one of the greatest Marian apparitions in the history of the world.

This two-hour EWTN original docudrama, filmed on location in France and England, airs 3:30 p.m. ET, Thursday, Dec. 8.

Before he began his research into the story that would become “The Message of Lourdes,” Mazzeo said he felt he knew a fair amount about the apparitions. After all, he had visited Lourdes, read various accounts of the apparitions, been surprised by some of the strange online theories about what “really” happened at Lourdes, and watched many excellent films on the apparitions. Those films included the big budget Hollywood film of the 1940s, known to audiences worldwide as “The Song of Bernadette.” While the latter was a very well-done and interesting film, Mazzeo said the filmmakers “took a few liberties with the truth,” implying a romantic relationship between Bernadette and another character, “which never happened.” Mazzeo’s challenge was to take all the information he uncovered and still make it entertaining.

The result is nothing short of stupendous! In addition to all of the superb acting in this film, Mazzeo was able to tuck in a lot of information by having the actor who portrays Father Dominque Peyramale – the Catholic priest who was in Lourdes at the time Bernadette Soubirous received her apparitions and who was extremely skeptical in the beginning of the apparitions – make short comments on the story as it unfolds.

“He tells the story in the past tense, but you can see his character development,” Mazzeo said. “He was cruel to Bernadette when the message first came out. He was angry with her for involving him. The Church had just gone through the French Revolution 50 years before. The persecution was finished, and he didn’t want something that couldn’t be verified making the skeptics turn on the Church again. He thought she was making it up. The public prosecutor, the police commissioner, the mayor, her priest, and even her parents were against her. Modern France was industrializing. They didn’t want Lourdes to be seen as a parochial medieval place. But because Bernadette was so pure, so innocent, so truthful, she won everyone over.”

As viewers will see, Mazzeo was also able to include short but important comments from the most important people in Lourdes at the time this was filmed. The lineup includes the Bishop of Lourdes, the Rector of the Shrine at Lourdes, the doctor who verified the miracles, and the promoter general of the rosary for the Dominican order since the rosary is such an integral part of the apparitions. The result, coupled with superb acting, especially by the lead actress, and stunning cinematography, is a cinematic tour de force that should not be missed.

What most surprised Mazzeo?

“What I didn’t know was that there were demonic attacks during the apparitions,” Mazzeo said. “No one has mentioned this. Our Lady silenced the demons with just one look. She hardly moved her head and it all stopped. She frightened them all away.”

Mazzeo also discovered that the 18 apparitions line up with the Rosary’s Joyful Mysteries (Apparitions 1-7), Sorrowful Mysteries (Apparitions 8-11), and Glorious Mysteries (Apparitions 12-18). While Bernadette had mystical conversations with Our Lady that no one could hear most of the time, occasionally they could.

“Only 10 sentences are recorded,” Mazzeo said. “Our Lady doesn’t actually say all that much, but what she says is so fundamentally important that it’s really stunning.”

Mazzeo hopes all who view the film will be inspired.

“I think it’s important to listen to poor and lowly people like Bernadette,” he said. “She was very faith-filled, very devout, and very orthodox. That’s why Our Lady appeared to Bernadette. Although she was un-catechized, she had an instinctive orthodoxy. She knew what the faith was all about. She often said if Our Lady could have found a more ignorant person than she, she would have appeared to her. Yet Bernadette was not ignorant. She was intelligent, yet she had a poor mind for memorization, for study. Our Lady knew Bernadette’s innocence, natural orthodoxy, inner beauty, and purity made her the right one to convey the message.”

If you want to know what really happened at Lourdes, if you want to immerse yourself in the messages Our Lady conveyed during her 18 apparitions, you will definitely want to tune in or record the world premiere of “The Message of Lourdes” at 3:30 p.m. ET, Thursday, Dec. 8.

Fun Side Note: While all of the music in this film is original, don’t miss the song that plays during the ending credits. Mazzeo wrote the lyrics, in which he tried to sum up the whole message of Lourdes. He says viewers will hear only two of the four verses. However, he has partnered with a composer, who did a stunning job on all of the music in the film, and he is hoping to put out a music video of this final song complete with all four verses.

Walking the Way of the Cross for Caregivers

How to Cope Practically, Emotionally and Spiritually When a Loved One Has a Serious Illness

By Michelle Laque Johnson

Maria Teresa Publishers, 2022

237 pages, $15.95

To order: EWTNRC.com or (800) 854-6316 (Item: 91400)

Life is easy when the news is good — but oh, when storms arise, our faith in God needs to hold us up. Aside from the usual human ups and downs, there is our health and that of our loved ones. When all is well, we tend to deflect this topic — don’t bring me down, at least not yet, while it’s not something to worry about.

I get it. But I also get the beauty of Walking the Way of the Cross for Caregivers by Michelle Laque Johnson. I only wish I could add a neon sign above the title to shout, “This is for you now, not later!”

Why now? Because it’s a good read — and a spiritual one, with practical advice, resources and prayers for an intimate walk with Jesus. Certainly, this can be a lifesaver and a comfort for caregivers.

But the personal story of Johnson’s care of her husband, Stu, who fought cancer for eight years, is an engaging and dramatic love story, with glimpses inside EWTN, where Johnson began working in the middle of the journey.

Johnson, director of communications for EWTN, has already navigated the course of a caretaker, so her advice is strong and calming. In every chapter she opens with a Scripture verse, shares part of her journey and offers a “Lesson Learned,” such as,

“Make the decision to walk with God throughout this illness. When you lose your peace, renew that commitment. You will never be sorry.”

Each chapter ends with a prayer and some reflection questions to make things personal. In between chapters is one of the Stations of the Cross, with deep meaning for someone carrying the cross of a loved one.

Throughout the book, Johnson is a sister in Christ, holding readers’ hands. “Let me state this unequivocally: DO NOT LET ANYONE TAKE AWAY YOUR HOPE,” she directs firmly — and often doubles down on it.

She cites the example of doctors who treated Stu’s death as imminent when the couple still had eight more years of life together. “Doctors are not God,” says Johnson. She gives reasons for hope, regardless of the situation, and points out all the good that comes through having hope, such as exploring different courses of treatment, making better choices, enjoying a better quality of life, finding a greater purpose in life and being more fun to be around.

Understanding what it’s like to shoulder so much, Johnson warns of trying to go it alone without reaching out for help — especially by seeking support from others and turning to faith and prayer.

Johnson also reveals how to go about getting second and third opinions and how to distinguish a good hospital from a bad one, as well as how to handle well-meaning family and friends who inadvertently can add to your burden or take on too much of it. Sharing her own experience, she encourages caregivers to carefully evaluate each situation and speak up when necessary, while also being gracious so as not to hurt feelings or lose the support that can still help.

One unique aspect of being a caregiver is nurturing yourself spiritually, Johnson explains. It’s easy to tell someone to deepen their faith, but she shows readers what that can look like. In the chapter on “How to Put on the Armor of God,” Johnson suggests befriending one’s guardian angel, praying a Morning Offering, praying novenas and spiritual warfare prayers to keep up spiritual strength, journaling, frequenting the sacraments, using sacramentals and making time for good spiritual reading.

In the chapter on “Making the Best of Hard Times,” Johnson writes, “Working together to defeat a common enemy — your loved one’s illness — can forge an even stronger bond with your loved one. That’s just one more potential blessing in the hard times.”

Practical advice is included on things that might seem mundane, like paperwork and coordinating medicine, and a primer on preparing for the funeral and the final moments of life is surely a Godsend for those facing life without a loved one on this side of the veil.

Movingly, Johnson also shares her last moments with her husband. “How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to watch my husband die?” she cried out to Our Lord.

When she surrendered her husband to God and asked for Stu’s heart to turn completely to him, “so that he can receive the highest degree of glory possible,” Johnson witnessed the grace pour out upon him as he prepared for a Mass that would be offered in his room.

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• book picks
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Patti Maguire Armstrong Patti Maguire Armstrong is host of the TV talk show Ladies of Another View and an award-winning author and journalist. She was managing editor and co-author of Ascension Press’ bestselling Amazing Grace series. Her latest books are What Would Monica Do? and Holy Hacks: Everyday Ways to Live Your Faith & Get to Heaven. Patti and her husband, Mark, live in North Dakota where they raised their 10 children.

https://www.ncregister.com/features/the-way-of-the-cross-for-caregivers