If you have a question, comment, or response for Fr. Josh, email us at askfrjosh@ascensionpress.com. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

Snippet from the Show
“God, help me to see myself the way you see me. God, help me to love myself the way that you love me. God, help me to forgive myself the way that you forgive me.”

SHOWNOTES

Glory Story (1:03)
Fr. Josh is writing another book! Stay tuned for more details :)

Listener Feedback (4:53)
Prayer from Thomas Merton: "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Baptisms with Same-Sex Parents (9:59)
I love your podcast! I look forward to listening every week. I've always been very fond of how you truly try to respond with the love of Christ while still remaining aware of your broken human nature. I pray for you, my man. (Pray for me too!) On to my question, this last Sunday my parish held a baptism for a child of a same-sex couple. While on the one hand, obviously it's not the child's fault that their parents are living in a sinful relationship, and they deserve the sacrament just as much as any other child. But, I do really wonder how our response as a community should be. Certainly these men should be allowed in our church and should be welcome to listen to the liturgy of the word so they may be touched by Jesus, but they partook of the Eucharist. How do I respond like Jesus here? I want to love them as Christ loves them, but what does that look like? I'm really struggling with how to process this and could really use some guidance.
-Daniel

Helping Family Understand Church Teachings (22:14)
First, I heard you speak in Houston at Cafe Catholica, and I have to thank you because you spoke about focusing on God's mercy when it comes to our vices, rather than focusing on our anxiety and why we're not conquering our sins. I've been seriously struggling with my anxiety about that recently, and you help reorient my attention to the Lord, rather than being distracted by Satan. Second: My husband is a Catholic convert; he converted right before we got married. He comes from a completely nonreligious family. I'm not sure what, if anything, they believe. So my husband struggles with some of the Church teachings because it is so far from what he experienced for most of his life. He struggles, in particular, with Jesus' presence in the Eucharist and the teachings on sexuality (every sexual act must be unitive and procreative). He also doesn't understand the big deal about skipping Mass occasionally. So I guess my question is two parts. One, how do I encourage my husband to embrace Church teachings without lecturing him and making him feel inadequate? And two, how can I encourage my husband's family to be open to the Lord, also without lecturing them?
-Anonymous

Overwhelming Guilt (27:50)
Father Josh, Thank you so much for your podcast. I’m enjoying listening frequently. I’m new to the faith and currently in RCIA and will be baptized this Easter vigil. I’m really new to any faith. I was an atheist since around the age the of 13. Unfortunately I let people turn me off to faith including my own father who claimed to be a man of faith but had no love for me. After God blessed me with my daughter 4 years ago I felt a love that I knew had to come from somewhere greater than myself. I began to study different religions and found myself coming to Catholicism through reason and now by faith. My family and I have been going to Mass for almost two years and thanks be to God I’ll able to receive the Eucharist this Easter along with my wife. Often times I have an overwhelming feeling of guilt for decisions I made as a nonbeliever and for denying God for so long. I know that God has forgiven me but how do I manage this guilt? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it and your ministry is in my prayers. God Bless.
-Todd

Resources
Want to browse the previous resources Fr. Josh has recommended in his show? Go to ascensionpress.com/askfrjosh select an episode and view the shownotes.

• Fr. Josh's book - Broken and Blessed
• The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God's by Colleen Carroll Campbell
• I Will Follow video

Support Ask Father Josh (Your Catholic Question and Answer Podcast)

If you have a question, comment, or response for Fr. Josh, email us at askfrjosh@ascensionpress.com. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

Snippet from the Show
“Sometimes it takes a while to accept the difficult teachings that come from Christ. Many of the disciples who were with Jesus in John 6 left when he gave them the bread of life discourse … the ones who stayed did not really understand the teaching but they loved Jesus and over time Jesus gave them the grace to believe.”

SHOWNOTES

Glory Story (1:15)
This past week, Louisiana experienced a few really bad storms. A tornado actually touched down in a few places near Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Praise be to God, Fr. Josh and his parishioners were unharmed. However, his brother’s family wasn’t so lucky and their house was destroyed by the tornado. By the grace of God, the entire family happened to be in an area of the house that wasn’t completely destroyed and they walked away with cuts and bruises.

Fr. Josh asks for your prayers for his family. He also wants to thank everyone who has been praying and those who have financially helped his family.

Listener Feedback (6:49)

TV Mass on Sunday (12:07)
When does Mass on TV fill Sunday Mass obligation? We missed Mass this past Sunday due to severe weather conditions in our area. So we watched Mass on TV. Do I need to go to confession, or is that OK?

-Erin

Finding Happiness (15:58)
[This question has been edited for length] Hi Fr Josh, I found your podcast from Abiding Together. I love it and I love how you answer questions. I started binge listening to all your podcasts.

I was sexually assaulted a few times while growing up: by family, by my doctor, and my swimming instructor. I kept this all to myself, afraid to tell anyone. I kinda forgot about it; or so I thought. In addition to this, my siblings and I were so scared of dad, we would tiptoe around and only talk in whispers. He was physically and verbally abusive. As I grew older, I started to hate him despite mom telling me and my siblings not to because he is our father.

I was diagnosed with depression earlier this year. I thought I was just tired. But when I started crying out of the blue while grocery shopping, and thinking about ramming my car into trees or anything while driving, sleeping or lying in bed from Friday to Sunday - waking up only for Mass - I realized this is not just tired. Dad passed away in 2017 and mom told me that he asked for a priest and had his confession and his last sacrament after so many years of being away from the Church.

I love my family, so I try to do everything I can to help. They ask me for help whenever they're short on cash so I started doing part time jobs - 4 at the same time, plus my full time job. But it wasn't enough. I kept pushing myself, telling myself to be strong and this will pass. But I’ve started to have suicide thoughts.

I often ask myself, how strong does God want me to be? I’ve reached out to members of my church and family but they don’t seem to care. I also don’t want to talk about my family’s secrets or open myself up to be vulnerable. I can't sleep. I don't even sing anymore, I don't clean my house. My days don’t have any meaning. I still pray but the peacefulness doesn't last long. I did get help medically but I’m still falling deeper. I also joined a meditation workshop by The World Community for Christian Meditation.

Why Fr. did those things happen? Where was God when it happened? He can't stop people from doing bad things, but why can't God help me to forget or give me strength to fight or to scream when that happened?

Is it really me? Is it my fault that I'm depressed and have anxiety? Should I be strong? I hate the word strong because I felt that I have been as strong as I can all these years. And now I need help but people are expecting me to ignore my feelings. They say that there are people out there that have it worse and I need to just move on. I am so sorry if my email is all over the place and doesn't make any sense. And I'm sorry if I'm taking so much of your time reading this. Help me Father Josh. I'm in so much pain and I don't know how to help and heal myself.
-C.

Cafeteria Catholics (30:08)
Dear Fr. Josh, I am writing because I think I messed up! To summarize, my question is how to talk with "cafeteria Catholics," those who pick and choose which parts of the faith they will follow, without sounding like you are right and they are wrong. The bottom line is I accidentally offended a good friend and a recent Catholic convert and made her feel unwelcome in the church! Yikes! All our lives we have been a case of opposites attract: Her family was very liberal politically and on social issues and not religious and mine was politically conservative and Catholic. Knowing that she's always been pro choice (she's had an abortion) and pro gay marriage I asked her if she considered herself still liberal in social issues or more Catholic. She still thought that they should be able to be legally married and that she didn't see what religion had to do with it. She also said she regretted her abortion but didn't want to take that choice away from women. I kind of pushed back by asking, if she talked about this in RCIA? she said, "No". In the end, she felt that I thought she shouldn't be Catholic (even though I told her she belongs in the church but just missing out on some of the beauty of the faith). We essentially agreed to disagree and it just left a sour feeling to the reunion.

Should I follow up with her in some way, share some other insights with her? and how should I have handled it? I wouldn't ask that of most people but I felt our long history gave me special permission. How do we talk with "cafeteria Catholics" without pushing them away? Thanks so much for your insight in this matter. I am so appreciative of your podcast and of you!
-Please Don't Use My Name!

Universal Call to Holiness (38:43)
Lean into Jesus. Christ and his grace are enough for all of us.

Resources
Want to browse the previous resources Fr. Josh has recommended? Go to ascensionpress.com/askfrjosh to select an episode and view the shownotes.

• Broken and Blessed book by Fr. Josh Johnson
• Abiding Together Podcast

Support Ask Father Josh (Your Catholic Question and Answer Podcast)