S2 Episode 5: LET LOVE FIGHT YOUR BATTLES

[Music] Welcome to Metta, a podcast with the Sisters of Life. We invite you to join us for conversation looking at life through the lens of love. You are loved. You are made in God's image, and your life matters. Let's talk about it.

Warm welcome back to Let Love podcast with the Sisters of Life. This is Sister Annie, stay, and Sister Marie Veritas. Joy to be back with you. And today, we are talking about how to let love fight the battle, your battle, my battle, our battle. Listen, life is a battleground. It is. And I think if we're honest, we can acknowledge it's true. Every day I'm in a battle over something. Where something is. It's with the coffee in the morning. Oh, but being privy to the battles, especially. It's it's visual as a coffee drinker. Yeah, it's devoted and devoted. It's one of my bigger devotions lined up with, you know, Saint Agnes and absolutely as Saints and coffee. But truly, again, in the convent, you've got a number of different coffee drinkers, and I'm sure in every home, you experience this. Yeah. You know, you get people, I like it a little stronger, you like it a little weaker. Yeah. And basically, in the convent, I think the bottom line that I would submit is that you can always make coffee weaker, but you can't make it stronger. And by that observation, I would take you like strong coffee. Yes. It's my, my spoon stands up straight. It's perfect coffee. It's coffee. You know, eggs, heard, hard-boiled, soft-boiled eggs, big battle, I'm sure. Also in every home. It's subtle. Way in the convent, you know, people like, is that the six-minute? Is it the seven-minute? You know, already, do you want the yolk? Should your butter be able to melt immediately or take some time and your egg, if you do such a thing? These are important questions. They are. Or I know you're from Canada. Yeah. Bacon. Love it. Battle bacon. Pedal. What's the big battle? Is it flabby? Gross, flabby or crispy? 150% crispy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have yet to meet a flabby bacon lover. Okay, so we got battles. We've got all of us. But I think again, we are life is is a battle. It is. It's it's a battle. There's a battle within, but there's also a battle being waged over us. Amen. Right. We have an enemy. Yep. So how do we let love fight for us? Great question, Sister. Why don't we kick this thing off with a prayer? Let's do it. Sister. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Lord Jesus. Lord, you are the Lion of Judah. You are the, the Lord who saves us. We ask you, Jesus, to come fill us right now with your Spirit. Lord, we ask you to enlighten us that we might name our battles and surrender them to you, that you might fight them for us. We ask our Blessed Mother, Mother of Life, to intercede for us, to intercede for all our loved ones, and we entrust ourselves to her as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Love it, Sister. Yeah. Gosh, I'm feeling, I'm feeling ready to go here. Ready to fight. Fight well. Even I think it's compelling. And I think people would be surprised to know that the charism of life, so this charism that has been interested to the Sisters of Life, that the Holy Spirit stirred up here just over 30 years ago. Mm-hmm. There were almost 30 years ago, I was born in a sense on a battlefield. Is that amazing? I love thinking about it. Yeah. And well, looks like the fourth of a, we take to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life. That's the battle. And that's the battle. And guess where it was born? Tell me. Well, you know, well, here it is. So Cardinal O'Connor paid a visit to Dachau concentration camp in Germany. You know, this was a place where thousands of people had been tortured and killed during the Second World War. And as he placed his hands into one of the brick ovens where many of the victims of the Holocaust and at this concentration camp were burned, he said he had a profound spiritual experience in which he felt the intermingled ashes of Christian and Jew, rabbi and priest. And he was pierced to the heart and he cried out, "My God, how can human beings do this to other human beings?" And in that moment, he made a promise. He said, really, to do everything in his power to protect human life, its sacredness, its beauty, its glory. That's a powerful, Sister. Its power. And it's it's the question, I think, of our time, of our hearts. You know, because as you're saying, it's this battle for life, for the person. And there's only a battle actually when there's something worth fighting for. And I think, I mean, I'd love to know your thoughts, but that that experience of Dachau, you know, which is profoundly disturbing in a way, but profoundly moving. Mm-hmm. It shows it's like, this is what the battle is being fought over. That every person, not just one, it's not six million Jews that were killing me. Yes, but it's one person killed six million times. Amen. And that's that's what this battle is being waged over. But I'd love to know your. Sister, you hit it on the head because Cardinal Connor said that moment, in a sense, he had many degrees. And he said, he said, you know what? I knew nothing. I knew no real theology until that moment in which that the theology of the dignity, the sacred dignity of the human person came into full color, flooded his senses. And from that point on, he, in a sense, made a personal vow that he would do everything he possibly could from that moment forward to do everything he could to protect the sacredness of him. Which he labored for, preached. It's it's unbelievable. Unfounded us the Sisters of Life. But to think that the charism of life, that we are, you know, have been blessed to kind of chase after the Holy Spirit or try to keep up with the Holy Spirit as he's kind of pushed the walls of the charism since the foundation of our community. It was born in a place of such darkness. You know, this is one of the founding graces that led the Cardinal towards founder community. And to think, right, how life, this cares about life, flourished from the ashes of such of death and destruction. But I think what it reveals and shows is the weight, the victory has been won. Amen. That we can let love win our battles, fight for us. And that love is stronger. Your love is sterner. Your love is gonna overcome. We just have to let it. Yeah. So we have to let love fight our battles for us. And I think I think we get to see this firsthand all the time in our the various beautiful ways that the Lord has blessed us to walk with others and to to serve others. This mosaic of mission, so to speak, that he's given us. Yeah. Definitely. You know, the first thing that I think of when you say that is our visitation mission for women who are pregnant and in some kind of situation that that makes that pregnancy a struggle or a threat. You know, and and just struck by actually the real battle in every situation, be it a woman who's living in a penthouse in New York or a woman who's living in a car on the street. You know, I'm sure you've other examples. But it's like it's the same battle between love and fear. And in the hearts of these women. It is striking, Sister, to see that. Yes, for these women facing unexpected pregnancies, they're coming from so many different backgrounds, so many different dreams that they had for their lives. And yet, at the heart of the battle is this fear, "My life is over. I'm all alone. There's no way I can I can care well for this life." And at the heart of every woman, we want to nourish life. We want to care well for the gift of life. And when that's threatened, it makes it, it makes it challenging. It's terrifying as a woman faces an unexpected pregnancy. So this battle between fear, and all the fears that can flood her mind and heart, and love. Yeah. Letting love lead and guide her. And letting love be the motivation, the end game for her decision. And gosh, it's incredible to see love go to work in the power of love. It really is. It really is. And to shatter the fears. Like I think of, in a way, Dachau was kind of a microcosm of the fears of the human heart. You're not good. You're not worthy. You'll never get anywhere. You know, your life is not worth it. All these things. And a woman who's pregnant, all these fears can flood her mind in her heart. And she sees actually the situation, it's a threat to her as a person because there's a sense of being out of control of my future. I didn't see this in my future. I didn't see myself as a mother. And the devil, I think, throws a lot of lies. Yeah. And actually, part of like you're saying, the fighting the battle is listening to the truth. And actually, I'm so moved just by our mission, our sisters. Because like, I mean, you know better than I, but the first thing we do is listen. Listen to her heart. But then we reflect back to her, but what we're seeing and hearing, her own goodness, her dreams, our desires. And it's like, how truth literally crumbles this fortress of lies. You know, it's really powerful. And and how love prevails. Prevailed. Oh, well, in so many people. Well, say, gosh, what do you do? What do you say? And actually, all you have to do is reflect back to these women their goodness, their strength. Yeah. And and actually, once a woman knows she's good, yeah, she will she will live for the goodness of her of her life in her heart. And that life that she's carrying. Yeah. And it's it's incredible. I can't tell you how many women I have seen claim that victory and and let love win that victory when when confronted with that circumstance. Yeah. And be filled with that joy. You know, and the delight of their their child. Absolutely. No hesitation. But it makes me think, you know, people could say, okay, well, that's nice this term. You know, you have great, beautiful pregnancy help mission. But what about with a woman who suffered? Yeah. You know, what about them? Because that seems like the end of the road. Like, what would you say to them? Amen. Wow. It's a great. We get that question a lot. And that's a great question, Sister. And I think I love asking the question, "What does the love look like now?" Mm-hmm. So yeah, when a woman, yes, makes that decision of abortion, and we're very blessed to have our Hope and Healing mission, which we love to prove the victory of love there as well. I remember one woman, I had the privilege of just walking with and walking the journey of healing after abortion. She described to me, because for her, the battle was, "I'm not worthy of forgiveness. I don't deserve forgiveness." And she she couldn't believe that she could be forgiven. And praise God, she took a leap of faith. And and faith precedes miracles. And that's what was incredible to see a miracle happened in her life. She went on one of our days of prayer and healing and was absolutely, her heart was blown open by God's merciful love for her. And that battle of disbelief between, but yeah, being able to believe that she was forgivable, was totally, totally consumed by God's merciful love. And she told me, she said, "Sister, for," and she named it for like 20, she named the years, the days, the hours since her abortion. She said, "Sister, I was dead. And in that chapel, I literally, I felt my heart start to beat again. I felt life come back into my heart." And in and through this experience of forgiveness from God. And she told me how this was on a Saturday. She went back to work on Monday. And she said, "All of her co-workers looked at her and 201, they said, 'What happened to you?'" Wow. She was transformed. Her countenance, or the way she held herself. And it was a big, it was a new beginning for her. So letting love, yeah, fight the battle there. In the places where we've messed up, where we've sinned, where we believe we're not forgivable, where we believe there's no second chances, where we believe there's only a dead end, that that our sin defines us somehow. Giving love a chance right there in the pit of the darkness of our hearts, saying, "Hey, Jesus, hey, love himself, God is love. Mm-hmm. Be with me here. What do you want to do here?" When our energy and strength runs out to save ourselves, which, you know, it sure does. Well, that resonates so deeply with me, Sister, because I think it's not just, you know, women who have suffered abortion who struggle with the believing that they can be forgiven, but actually so many of us are like so many people. And, you know, for different reasons, it's like, maybe even going in confession repetitive times for the same thing because it's like, "How could God possibly forgive me, you know, for this thing?" You know? And just what you're saying about letting Jesus see that place and and fight the battle there, letting his cross and resurrection happen there. That's really powerful. And I think another way that charism that we see this, are the charism just exploding, isn't our retreat mission. We have, we run retreats, you know, a lot at our Villa Maria Guadalupe is a retreat center in Connecticut, also at other locations where our convents are. But the Holy Spirit, because I think our culture, I mean, all of us need God's forgiveness. All of us need that restore button. And just let love come in and dip ourselves in that gift, kind of, you know, fight the demons that we're fighting, you know, whatever it be afflicted us, whether it's shame or fear or guilt or a broken heart. And letting love come into those wounded places of our hearts and and speak to us that we're worth it, that we're. I remember speaking to someone who had just got a confession after a long time. And she came up to me and she said, "Sister, and I, we had known each other for four years." And she said, "Sister, do you recognize me?" And she was asking me sincerely. She was like, in my face, like, "Do you recognize me?" And I said, "Yeah, yeah, I recognize you." Like she looked, but she looked absolutely dazzling, in a sense, full of this spiritual life and light. She's a sister, I just went to confession. I don't even recognize myself. Wow. She felt so new. A new creation in Christ. Wow. The power of confession. It's powerful. We all need it. We do. And isn't it funny, actually, how often are the idea of battle, these battles look different than what we think it looks? You know, like we think of battles like swords and. But actually, this battle, how was it won by letting ourselves be little and come to the fount of life and be weak? And it's like, it's like seems like the furthest thing from battle, but it's actually letting ourselves be cared by Jesus and it's cleansed by him and clothed by him. It's really awesome. Well, it reminds me of one of my favorite lines in scripture. It's Exodus 14:14. "The Lord will fight for you. You need only be still." You need only be still. Yeah. God doesn't want us to do anything. Yeah. But let him. Let him fight. Let him fight. Yeah. Well, it reminds me actually of an account I had on a plane. Hmm. This past year. And this woman gets her friends with her and just started talking by the lavatory. That's a great place to gather. Favorite gathering place. You know, it's actually amazing how many hard talk conversations we have by the lavatory, waiting in line. Yes. But um, it was really powerful cause she started just sharing her heart very deeply. Which was very, it's always very moving and humbling. And you realize that privilege of that when someone doesn't open stuff like that. And she was just sharing how she really was suffering in her life, really for many years, from an experience of real evil and things kind of happening in her life, strange things, very dark things, and feeling completely stuck in that, not being able to get out. And tried everything she could, you know, like different wearing different charms and like, you know, reciting these different things, and nothing worked. She was completely stuck, you know. And we just shared with her about Jesus and the power of his his love and mercy to cast out darkness and evil. And she, as we were speaking, you could see her eyes starting to like glimmer with hope and like her head race and, you know, your tears kind of coursing down her cheeks. And we really just, yeah, spoke about his love and truth and mercy and encouraged her. And by the end of the conversation, she had made commitments. Like she was so compelled by the truth that Jesus wanted to fight for her, that she didn't have to figure it out, she didn't have to do it, she wasn't strong enough to fight this real evil. And by the end of the conversation, she had torn off her her charm that she was wearing and had made a plan to get rid of it. She had made a plan to start praying to the Lord, reading these books. And the hope that filled her eyes, we all got big hugs. This was before, before any pandemic. We got big hugs and cheers. Deeply moved. And it's like, for me, that was an experience of watching someone realize that "I am worth fighting for. God isn't interested in me. He's interested in my life. He's not leaving me alone." And yeah, I can't fight this battle by myself. Yeah. But he's gonna do it for me. And and the reality, we're the middle of a cosmic battle, right? And I mean, scripture talks about us all the time. It's good. I mean, it's there is good and there is evil. There is Satan and there is God. And our souls are in the middle of it. You know, and that really, that conversation really brought that to light a lot. Amen. Yeah. What I think it is, it's like we have an enemy. You know, and the enemy, again, I would, it's a good reflection. It's a good thing to to kind of ponder. The enemy is always going to attack what what's worth fighting for, our identity, who we are. And who are we? We are God's beloved sons and daughters. It seems it's like it's the most essential thing for us to remember. And what does that mean? We have a Father who's gonna fight for us, the best of fathers, who's gonna provide for us, who's gonna protect us, who is going to shelter us, who's going to, he has dreams for us for happiness, for the good, to pull us through difficult circumstances, to to help us through our challenges. And what do we have to do? Be. Yeah. Be still. Beloved, be a beloved daughter. Be a beloved son. And he's been doing this. He's been doing it for ever. Every thousands of years. Okay. I just wanna, I wanna, I wanna reference parting the Red Sea. The Israelis are escaping from slavery in Egypt. Mm-hmm. They need to cross this huge body of water. They can't do it. Can't do that. What does God do? He, through Moses, he parts the Red Sea. They walk through the Red Sea. It says it like water like walls. It's down. It's astounding. And then he causes to swallow up their enemies. He's fighting for them. That's incredible. And it's so creative. That's what I love about it. Yeah. It's the last thing you think could happen. No. Yeah. I would be scratching my head on the shoreline being like, "What's what's going on?" And God's answers. Yeah. It's the part the entire sea. Yeah. It's like, "Watch this, kids." Amazing. Amazing. It's amazing. Or even, um, David and Goliath. Danny Bennett, Goliath. It's one of my favorites. It's one of my favorites because it also shows, I think, the strength that comes to us when we depend. Mm-hmm. On God. This Goliath is feared among men. Feared. He's huge. And this kid steps forward to fight him. And then they tried to put armor on him. He can't even walk in this stuff. And then they're like, "Okay, what's what's your what's her weapon gonna be, little guy?" And he goes and picks up stones. Yeah. And he has a slingshot. Yeah. And I love this image. And I love thinking about it. It's like, if we but go and allow the Holy Spirit to to pick up, to guide our picking up of the small, small stones. What are those things? These these little weapons in our life. Maybe it's hope needs feet. Faith. Maybe it's love. Maybe it's courage. These little stones of virtue, faith. And that we just let the Holy Spirit guide our little slingshot, launch those little puppies, and split our enemies, fell our enemies down, yeah, overcome our enemies. But all tucking ourselves beneath the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Which again means I depend. I get small. I lean on the other thing greater than me. Hmm. Which is God. And if we step back from our battles, from the front lines, just to remember God. Again, Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you. You need only be still." We gotta pull back and talk ourselves beneath that great wing. Yeah. Of our Father above. That, Sister. Yeah. It's so powerful. And it, I mean, it even makes me think as you're saying, then I let the Holy Spirit kind of split our enemies. But it's even the phrase "divide and conquer." We so often use that wrongly, but it's actually "divide the enemy and conquer." Yeah. And so the the evil seeks to divide us, cause division in our hearts, our minds, separate us from our identity, separate us from the relationships in our lives, all that. And it's like to turn that on its head, the Holy Spirit, the few small stones are, you know, the little. And to actually that the Holy Spirit divides the enemy. So it's like, whatever that lie that's being spoken to me right now, whatever that thing I believe about myself that's not true. And it's like the Holy Spirit, he'll take our little, our little offerings, our little acts of faith, and he will split them in half. And it's like, and then you see it's like, "Oh, I have nothing to fear." Yes. I have nothing to fear. Yes. Yeah. It's I love it, Sister. Yeah. Uh, you speak so powerfully. No, no. And what you see is that God is creative. Yes. And I love what do we do as we seek to to conquer as well? As far as I think the flip side, come, you know, and conquer. So it's Camino, as in pulling into communion with Father, Son, Holy Spirit, with others of faith. Camino and friendship, friends that can help us, virtuous friendships that can push us towards Christ, building a fortress of that allows love then to fight battles for us. But we can't do it alone. No. And I think I think it is praying for the grace of a good friend. Yeah. Whether heavenly or earthly, right? Because there's something so powerful, I think we both experienced this, but to be able to go up to someone whom you trust and love and say, "Hey, mm-hmm. This is what's going on in my heart right now. This is what's being told to me in my heart. It could be whatever, like, you're not good, you're gonna feel this and feel that, this and feel this." And and see like, "This is what I'm thinking and hearing. Can you speak into this?" And a good friend, they're gonna know you, they're gonna love you, then I see you with the eyes of truth and love and say, "You know what? Some bunch of lies. Big fat lies." And they're gonna split up. It's really powerful. It is. Having to really bring them to light. Yeah. It's it's one of the rules of discernment of spirit. Right. If you bring it to light to the right person. Yeah. And so you do, you want a good spiritual director, you want a good friend too. So these lies can be cast out because the enemy loves to sow his his ill in silence and secrecy. And and again, just allowing the light to shine on you. Yeah. I think I think what I realize, you know, as we do engage the spiritual battles within and without, and as we labor, you know, they have the privilege of Lee bringing the Lord's vineyard in fighting the battle. It reminds me actually, I'm no martial arts expert, but it's, you know, you learn something on the playground at school. But I know one move. You do this. This is the most dangerous move in the world. That's what my teacher taught me. No one can see it, but it may affect you. But no, I think I think it's called something like Aikido potato. And basically, okay, so it's, I know that it's like, it's this, it's more you are peaceful, actually. And rather than being aggressive or attacking, you actually use the energy, the aggression of your opponent against them. Cool. It's not powerful. Awesome. And often it's by just like neutralizing it. It's allowing it to pass by. And I think so often when we want to let love fight the battle, mm-hmm, it's a matter of just staying in that place of love. So it's almost like the image of Helm's Deep comes to me. Right. Lord of the Rings. Yeah. I know I've probably used this before because it's one of my favorites. And it's one that I continually come back to because I think the temptation a lot of times is to leave the fortress to go fight the battle. And in this case, at Helm's Deep, there's thousands and thousands of orcs out there. And if you go out there, unless you're Aragorn, you're gonna get destroyed. Toast. And so it's like, if you stay in that fortress of love, just stay there, stay over there with the Lord, let him fight for you, stay in that the safety, in that refuge. So it's like almost like, "Not my monkeys, not my circus." Don't pick up that fight. Yeah. Don't even listen to it. Let it just pass. And actually, in letting it pass, it's almost like when Mom told you when you're in the backseat of the car and your brother was annoying you, like, "Just ignore him." Mm-hmm. Actually, it works. It really works. Just ignoring. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Wow. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Stay in the fortress of love. Wow. Let him do it. I'm doing that. Reminds me of something a priest I remember hearing a priest say. He said, "When you're like facing like temptations or like wanting to think these things about yourself or whatever, and you notice that, and then you don't even, don't even engage. You say, 'Jesus, temptations knocking at the door. You answer it.'" Love it. It's like letting letting him do it. Love it, Sister. You don't even, don't even give it time, your time of day, because as soon as you give him an inch, he'll take a mile. Devil. Yeah. And it's like, don't even, don't even go there. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Well, gosh, before we go fight our battle, Sister, and you thought, I do, you know, one thing I think is very, very, very, very effective is gratitude. Actually, whenever you're stuck in any kind of battle of whatever nature, there is nothing like taking a moment of gratitude to dispel the darkness and lies and to literally neutralize the enemy because the devil hates gratitude so much. And in gratitude, actually, it breathes, loves the Lord to like breathe his, remember like the remembrance of God into you. I'm at his life. And it's, I can attest in my own life, it is so powerful. So I just, I guess I want to encourage you, not this week, but for the rest of your lives. I just want to say, it's been bold. I'm gonna be really bold. But truly, when you are stuck in darkness or thoughts or whatever, just think of five things that you're grateful for and thank the Lord for them. Yeah. And I'll say, I'm so thankful that I have shoes on my feet, that it was sunny today, that we get to do this podcast, that I had a piece of chocolate, and that it's Sunday tomorrow. Amen. Pretty sweet. Again. Yeah. No, what about you? I really love it. Well, then actually, it kind of inspires a fun challenge. Okay. Is I know three things that the enemy can't stand. Laughter. So if you can get giggling or laughing or like just laugh at yourself or get outside of yourself, it actually creates incredible perspective. You can slay the devil with your laugh. Second is whistling. Okay. If you can whistle. Right. Right. So even trying, actually, if you try to whistle and you can't, then you start laughing. So whistling, right? Because it does, it just kind of, I've tried it. I like, I can't be grumpy and whistle. And lastly, is to find, like, regardless of the voice that you have, is to have kind of like a go-to song that will lift your spirits. I know it sounds so silly, but I have, I mean, I have a little song that I always sing when in a sense, you know, you're like, "Oh, you're about to, you're about to like jump out of the plane into this spiral into discouragement or whatever it is." And it's like, "No." And it kind of ties in with your challenge with gratitude. We all love trying to be Bing Crosby, don't we? Or if you ever seen White Christmas? I have. It's a classic. The classic. And when I was a little girl, I watched this White Christmas, and this song has sung in my heart like from my earliest years. And can you sing it? I'll be so grateful to sing, give back to God my my little voice. So the song goes like this. And I would highly encourage you to look it up on YouTube because Bing Crosby does a much better job. But it goes like this: "And now I can't sleep. I count my blessings instead of sheep. And I fall asleep counting my blessings. When my bankroll is getting small, I think of when I had none at all. And I fall asleep counting my blessings." I love that, Sister. Listen, even if you hum it, you'll go to bed with a smile on your face. It makes you feel better instantly, doesn't it? Actually, doesn't look so. A little song, a little gratitude. Thank you. That was a gift. Well received. What I have, I give you, Sister. Well, praise be to God. Imagine. Joy to be with you and with you. And go. Should we close down with a price? Yeah, it'd be great. Okay. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus, we thank you that you have won the victory over sin, over death, over all things. That you have come to dwell in the heart of our hearts, in the heart of our pain, in the heart of all that we carry. We give you permission to come and be with us, especially in those places where we most need you to fight for us, where we most need you to anoint us with your love, where we most need you to speak your words of love, your victory into our lives. And we just ask to be vulnerable to your love as you desire to come. And we think thank the Father ahead of time for sheltering us, loving us, and keeping us in the palm of his hand as we say, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. God bless all of you. It's so much fun to be with you. It is. Praying for you. Take care. This was Let Love podcast for the Sisters of Life, a religious community of women consecrated for the protection of the sacredness of human life. Be assured of our prayers and learn more at Sisters of Life dot org. [Music]