The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a deaf man that couldn’t speak. Jesus took him away from the crowd, put His fingers into his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Jesus sighed and said, “be opened,” and the man was healed.

God can heal your wounds too, but it requires us to “be opened.” The Lord sees you, even if other people don’t see you. Jesus wants to step into your life, take you to the side, and be alone with you.

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When Jesus entered the room where His apostles were hiding after His death, He said, “Peace be with You.” In that moment, Jesus met them in the middle of their unrest and offered peace. He does the same thing for us in our lives.

The peace that Jesus offers is not influenced by the changing tides of this world. Without interior peace, we cannot handle the turmoil around us. We don’t have the ability to control the external chaos, but we can control the interior waters of our hearts. An interior calm helps us to weather the storms.

So, how do we do it? How do we cultivate peace within our hearts? Joel gave us some helpful tips to try.

• Embrace silence daily. Our world is full of noise, and noise stirs up chaos. Can you make yourself internally silent even when there is noise around you?
• Take time at the end of every day to reflect.
  • What are you grateful for in the last 24 hours?
  • Where did you see God show up?
• Audit your social media use. What you do online and how much time you spend there affects your interior peace.
  • How much of your time do you give up to social media?
  • How do you feel when you’re done?
  • Choose times where you are NOT going to be on your phone.
  • Are there accounts you follow that make you unhappy, angry, or anxious? Unfollow them!
• Why do you do some of the things you do – specifically the things that make you feel unrest?
  • Is it something that is healthy or unhealthy for you?

Joel reminded us that, “Interior peace is only possible through relationship with Jesus Christ,” so as we do these practices, do them with and in prayer. Lastly, know that peace in your heart is always possible, but it is only possible through God.

What are you afraid to give fully to God?
How can you live this moment of your life well? What about the next one? Remember, you don’t have to have the full timeline figured out now.

You can watch the live stream video of Joel’s talk by clicking on this link. Enjoy!

Evaluating your prayer life is an objective way to see if you put God first. Have you prayed today? No? Have you eaten today? Did you hang out with your friends? Have you worked? If the answer is yes, then you put those things above your relationship with God. Prayer doesn’t help your relationship with God, prayer is your relationship with God.

When you go to pray, you don’t have to fight for God’s attention – He has been fighting for your attention. Anytime you pray, it’s always a response to a prompting from God. He’s asking for your heart.

One practical way to pray is through mental prayer. Remember the acronym PAL: praise, ask, and listen.

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There’s a difference between believing in God and trusting in God. We might believe that God is real and that He is good, but do we trust Him? What keeps us from giving ourselves fully to Him, and how do we grow in trust? Those are the questions Katie explored in her session this afternoon.

We like to pretend we have control over what will happen next, but we don’t. Giving God the control – trusting Him – is scary because we don’t have control over what will happen when we do. What is He going to want me to do – or stop doing?

One way we can grow in trust of God is to turn to our Blessed Mother. As a baby, Jesus relied on Mary for everything. Making Himself completely vulnerable, He showed us that we can trust Mary to guide us, too. Jesus allowed His heart to be formed by Mary so that we would know that our hearts could be formed by hers.

“Mary is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus.” – St. Louis de Montfort

Mary knows Jesus in a way no one else does. She carried Him with her, and she adored Him daily in her home. As Katie said, “Who better to teach us about Jesus than the one who picked Him up when He fell, who was first to hold Him after He was born, and who held Him in her arms after He died?”

When men pray, things change. And, the world needs your voice.

What does masculinity look like? It’s important for us to understand what masculinity is, because God created it for a reason.

When we want to understand what masculinity is, we need to ask God what His intention was in creating man. God created men in His likeness, and a man reveals something unique about God. God gave Adam the important task of protecting and maintaining the world. But Adam didn’t trust God completely. So often we fall into this sin, “I’m my own man; I make my own way; I know what is right. I don’t need to trust You.”

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