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Show Notes

As Lent approaches, many Catholic moms find that growing closer to God doesn’t feel peaceful — it feels harder.

Cravings intensify. Discouragement creeps in. Shame gets louder. Motivation fades. And you start wondering if you’re doing something wrong.

In this episode, I sit down with Denise Jelinek to talk about the spiritual attacks that come when you’re trying to grow in holiness — especially during Lent.
We talk about:

* What spiritual attacks actually look like in everyday mom life
* Why the enemy ramps up when you’re making progress
* How to recognize the difference between normal struggle and spiritual warfare
* Practical ways to fight back with prayer, sacraments, and community

If you liked this episode, you’ll also enjoy:
 Lent for Tired Catholic Moms: A Gentle Plan
 A Holy Week Media Fast: Transform Your Prayer Life
 Walking in the Lenten Desert

If Lent always feels like a battle for you, you’re not imagining things — and you don’t have to fight alone. Inside Mary’s Heart Martha’s Order, we equip Catholic moms with real spiritual tools and walk together through the hard seasons. Join us at catholicmomcalm.com/marysheart

TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW

 Sterling: Today we’re gonna be talking about the five common spiritual attacks that come up when you are pursuing any kind of deeper relationship with the Lord, but in particular, we are thinking about Lent because Lent is right around the corner and often we are giving something up or adding a spiritual practice into our life. And there are these common spiritual attacks that come up. 

So today I am joined by Denise Jelinek. She runs weight loss with the Holy Spirit and has just been helping women really heal the wounds that they have, the emotional wounds that they have that drive them. To overeat and she’s my very special friend, deeply Catholic. We love talking about things like spiritual attacks.

And when I heard that she was teaching this, I was like, I really wanna bring her on the show because I really want everyone to hear about these five things. So welcome Ms. Denise to the show.

Denise: Thank you, Sterling. I was just thinking how fun it was to be here and about how I get to geek out with you about spiritual text and like how many friends do we have that we can do that with?

Sterling: I feel like we are like spiritual best friends. Like we just love talking about Catholic things so much and we both have a very deep relationship with the Lord talking to him, discerning what he wants for us and we really live our lives that way.

And, you know, both of us in our work kind of are leading women to that which is. Get to know him and he will guide you and he wants to bring you healing and he wants to bring you wholeness.

And oftentimes I find that during Lent. We know that we’re living in a way that we shouldn’t be living. We kind of know that, but I think we choose to give up things in this kind of white knuckle our way through it. beat ourselves up. Like, I’ll just use sugar as an example. A lot of women are like, sugar is bad and I shouldn’t have sugar, and I gotta give up sugar. And then they just like, it’s such a horrible experience as they white knuckle their way. Through giving up sugar.

And I think a lot of it is our reason why we’re giving up the thing. It’s not necessarily grounded in what God wants us to give up. And then these five things. So why don’t we start by you just giving us a brief overview of the five things and then we’ll dig into ’em.

Denise: Yeah. And before I do that, I want to just amend what you said about we choose to give up something. We say we’re gonna give this thing up and we don’t even talk to the Lord. And the truth is that you can prevent a lot of the spiritual attacks by first starting with making sure that you’re aligned with what he wants for you this lent.

That, he says, oh, this is something that’s standing in the way of our relationship. Let’s start removing that because when we pick the thing, it’s really easy for the enemy to come in and twist that up because it’s not even from the Lord. We’re not even clear and we don’t have that conviction.

Sterling: And I wanna say I did that for more than 10 years, you guys. So if you’ve done that your whole life and no one’s ever said, oh, you should pray and ask God what to give up, I wanna say, yeah. When I became Catholic, people said, here’s Lent, and we give something up.

And it felt really normal to me to use my logical brain to think about the things in my life that didn’t seem great and to pick it. And it was way into my being Catholic that I first heard someone say, oh, you should discern. What God wants you to give up. So don’t feel bad if this is like the first time you ever heard that, but when you begin doing Lent that way, I think it has a very different tone.

Denise: And before we get into the five attacks, I just want women to know that anytime they’re getting closer to the Lord, they are going to experience spiritual attacks. So let’s just first know it’s a normal thing. Nothing’s gone wrong, and it’s a fabulous sign because the Lord is always pursuing her soul, your soul, whoever you are listening to this. But know that your soul is so precious that the Lord is not the only one pursuing it.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: And so anytime we’re getting holier, anytime we’re getting closer to the Lord, this stuff is gonna kick up. So it’s not a bad thing. Okay?

Sterling: Yeah, I’ve never heard that Denise, by the way. I’ve never thought I say all the time the Lord pursues you because it’s so yummy to say that. But I’ve never thought the devil pursues us too. Like, ’cause pursues sounds like such a positive word, but really it just means goes after like longs for, and the devil longs to take us from the Lord. It’s so interesting.

Denise: And one of the reasons why it kicks up, especially during Lent and fasting or anytime we’re giving up something, is because when we fast from something, whether it’s the screens or food or maybe cussing or whatever it is that we’re fasting from, it’s reordering our life and detaching us from that thing that we get comfort from or living on autopilot.

And the enemy, really, the enemy’s tactics are us living on autopilot, not examining our lives. Attachments, making us feel like we need the thing to get through life and disorder and the enemy disorders our life by putting things above God. And so when we say, oh wait, let’s put God as our God again and let’s move this other thing to the side. It just really thwarts the enemy’s tactics.

Sterling: Absolutely. And that’s why we’re here. We wanna have interior peace, and one of the ways that we lack interior peace, ’cause your soul, you guys, your soul knows when you are living in a disordered way, your soul knows. And then it just feels like hanky in there. And so one of the ways that we have interior peace is just like you said, we’re kind of reordering the things in our lives.

Denise: Yeah, so the five spiritual attacks, and you guys are all gonna think, oh, that’s so normal. Oh, that happens to me all the time, and I love that. Just know that some of these flavors are going to feel so darn familiar.

The first one is intensified cravings and obsessive thoughts. So I want you to think of if you’ve decided to give up screens or, or sugar, or chocolate or coffee or cussing, you’re going to find that your physicalness, your physical body will recognize it’s not doing the thing.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: And so you will have increased cravings. You will think about it more.

Sterling: And just to break that down from a psychological standpoint, your brain wants to go down a neural pathway that is familiar, right? So your brain has these well worn grooves for neural pathways, and it’s like, Hey, it’s 7:30 and we always have a bowl of ice cream at 7:30 after we put the kids down, right? And it’s just like, we wanna do that. And you’ll feel it physically in your body.

And so it is both a psychological thing, but the reason it is also a spiritual attack is because the demons know this, they have been around for a very, very, very, very long time. They’re very smart and usually you will have said out loud ’cause they can’t read your thoughts, but you’ll have said out loud somewhere, I’m gonna give up my 7:30 bowl of ice cream every night that I’m having. And they’re like, great. We’re also gonna, but they can whisper in our ears.

Now we’re gonna also whisper in her ear, don’t you want that bowl of ice cream? We always have that bowl of ice cream. So I feel like the scientists would say. It’s your brain and neural pathways. It’s not spiritual attacks. And I wanna say, I think it’s both. I really think it’s both. And I think that they know that how our biology works, and so they prey upon that and that’s one of the reasons why it feels so strong.

Denise: I’m gonna get to this in a little bit, but I might as well say it right now because I don’t believe spiritual attacks are lost when we eat the bowl of ice cream. Okay. It’s the one two punch that comes from that and the spiritual attack is lost. Not when we do something, but when we start believing who the enemy says we are.

Sterling: Yeah. That’s so good. So obsessive thoughts, totally normal. I think you’re right. And I’ve, I’ve led a lot of women through using their phone less. And it’s so interesting because, I’ll have them take a bunch of apps off their phone and then they will start compulsively checking the weather app.

And they didn’t check the weather before, but their body just wants so badly to like do the thing. And so then they find themselves checking the weather and that is exactly this feeling.

Denise: It’s totally normal, so just notice that your body will probably want to replace it with something else. The weather app or tea or something where it feels like over and it’s fine. Just expect it. Okay.

The second one is pride and being glory, and that is the, oh, look how awesome I am. I have gotten through 14 days of no sugar. I’ve gotten through 14 days of no screens and. It’s just a twisting and sterling, I know you’ve said this before, is the devil cannot create anything. He just twists it.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: So he is twisting our virtue and sort of putting it back on us where we say, wow, look how amazing I am. The easiest way is to spot that you’re thinking that and to say, oh, by the grace of God, all glory to God.

Sterling: Yes. Because he wants us to celebrate with him. He’s not against us celebrating. It is something worthy of celebrating. He just wants us to do it with him, like, thank you Lord. That’s so great that you have given me the grace to do this

Denise: Right. I love thanking him for the grace to partner with him. Thank you for the grace that gave me the willingness to do this with you.

Sterling: Yeah, which also I want you guys to pray for at the beginning of Lent. Say, God, send me the grace to do this. Like it’s just gonna be by your grace that I do it. So actively praying for that grace is really helpful. I’ve been saying that more Denise in front of my kids, Lord, gimme the grace to, you know, get through today or to get through this moment or something. And just having them hear that language more that I’m asking God to give me grace to do the things.

Denise: Yeah, I love that. The third one is discouragement and loss of motivation. This is you guys, not your physicalness noticing the emptiness or not having the thing, but it’s more of the emotional piece where I used to turn to my phone and check facebook or whatever because I needed a break or I needed an escape.

So what this means is you start to lose motivation because you have been white knuckling so much that now you’re depleted and that you’re exhausted and you sort of think what’s the use? Or it feels dry or you’re just going through the motions. And the real thing is that since we’ve removed whatever’s standing in the way of us being closer to the Lord. That thing that we were using was actually meeting some sort of emotional need.

And so if we don’t learn how to meet that emotional need in the way that the Lord wants us to, learning how to care and support for ourself, maybe when we’re overwhelmed or need a break or we’re stressed or lonely or tired or sad or angry, we are going to get to this place of, I can’t take this and lose motivation to even fast. ’cause we’re not being cared for, intended to.

Sterling: That’s so good. And I think that is what all of us are longing for. In every relationship, in every hobby or kid activity that we sign up for, we are all trying to meet some emotional need that truly at the end of the day can only be met. From the Lord.

And so I think it’s worth really slowing down and saying, you know, what kind of emptiness do I feel? Do I just wanna be held? Do I wanna be understood? Do I wanna feel cherished? I’ve noticed personally, I do so many things. In motherhood.

There isn’t really like a cheering squad where you get to the end of the day and someone says, oh my gosh, you did such a great job today. Good job. And that is often what I’m looking for, and I have just allowed the Lord to do that. I’ve just invited him in and said, Lord, tell me about me today. Tell me what you saw. Tell me what you’re proud of.

And it’s amazing how one, he will do that every time. He’s never like. Again, Sterling, you need to tell me again. You need to, yeah, you need me to tell you again and that it does meet this need that the other things that I was coping with, I was searching for there.

So do not be afraid to just directly ask him, Hey, I need you to hold my heart right now. I need you to bring me some sort of emotional relief. And he’s always there. You guys, he’s always there waiting to do that.

Denise: Yeah, agreed. The fourth one is despair and self-hate. So if we lose motivation and we have the bowl of ice cream at seven 30 and we start telling ourselves all of the horrible things that the enemy wants us to believe.

Sterling: We just do it so fast. We’re like, oh, you’re terrible. Oh, you’re awful. We’ll never make it. You’re never gonna fix this. You’re always gonna blah, blah, blah. Like it’s so fast that our brain turns to that ruminating and that somebody just emailed me and called it the hateful dungeon. In my mind I was like, that’s pretty good. That’s a pretty good description. The hateful dungeon in my mind.

Denise: I wanna give everyone hope because the minute that I’ve talked to women about this and said, let’s just start looking at the way you’re talking to yourself, I’ve found that in very short amount of time, they can undo decades of the way they’ve talked to themselves. In under two weeks when they start noticing and saying, whoa, we don’t have to do that anymore.

Sterling: And that’s exactly how I do it to you guys. I’ll go, whoa, whoa, honey. And I come in like so surprised, like, why are you talking to yourself like this? Like, hey, that’s not how we talk to ourselves.

And you’re right Denise. It happens pretty quickly. ’cause we both do that in our programs, helping women just to speak to themselves differently in their mind and. Such a life changing practice to just notice when that mean girl voice comes out and to just go, we are not gonna do that anymore.

Denise: Yeah. I think that is the one where, I think that is the one, number four guys. Number four is where the enemy can truly win when we start believing the lies and who he says we are, instead of who the Lord says we are. And when we start believing who the Lord says we are, we speak to ourselves differently. You’re precious, you are loved, you are chosen. You’re cherished.

Sterling: And one way you’ll know that is would you talk to your one of your kids that way, right? You just wouldn’t talk to your kids even when they’re totally messed up. You don’t talk to them the hateful way that the spiritual attacks want you to talk to you.

You talk to them like a warm and loving parent and so you know how to do it already. It’s very natural. We’ve just been kind of tricked and poisoned and programmed to be so mean to ourselves and lots of reasons, not just spiritual attacks, but it is well worth the effort you guys, of learning how to stop doing that.

Denise: Absolutely. And the final one is ungodly self-reliance. And you know, with women, we are taking care of so many things, and I work with women who have dieted their whole life and they struggle with food and weight.

And what I find, and I think everybody in your audience can relate to this, is that diet culture, or maybe the way that we’ve grown up is we believe that it’s all up to us, especially in motherhood because it’s not like you have a lot of little people helping you out to do things.

Sterling: Right.

Denise: What happens then is we believe that this area is all up to us, especially with the area of food and weight. It’s one of those areas that we don’t even talk to the Lord about is that we never surrender that to the Lord. And I think whether it somebody says, I’m gonna give up screens, or I’m going to give up food, or sugar, or whatever it is, we believe it’s up to me to do it. I’m the one who decides what goes in my mouth. You know, all the things that we say to ourselves.

Sterling: Yes.

Denise: And then what happens is that we see that we fall, we feel that shame and despair again, and then the cycle just continues. And we believe that it’s all up to us at this point. I do wanna pause for a second. You guys.

If you’re going through Lent and you find yourself going back to the thing that you said you wouldn’t, we can get out of that shame cycle by asking two questions. Those two questions are, what do I know now? Or like, what did I learn? So I had the bowl of ice cream at 7:30. I said I wasn’t gonna have.

Okay, what do I know now? And how can I care and support for myself going forward? Because if we go back to the screens and we put Facebook back on our phone or whatever, we’re, whatever we’re fasting from. What do we know now and how can I support myself? We only go back to the thing because there was a lack of support that we needed.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: So if we can support ourselves and learn that a little more each time we go back to the thing. ’cause we’ll fall many times. I’m sure. Then that’s how we say, Lord, you’re coming with me. Help me. Help me do this. It’s not all up to me. I’m a very weak human. I need your grace.

Sterling: And I really did just experience this, you know, probably six weeks ago, I was cleaning up my food and I just noticed on, and you have to fall in order to notice. I find a lot of the time to really go like, what happened there?

And it was really this. Feeling really seen like that someone would see all the things that I put into the day. Like I just put so many things into the day and I don’t get a ton of encouragement from my husband a little bit. He’s just kind of an engineer and so he just. Isn’t necessarily wired to throw a lot of verbal compliments. And he’s also busy doing a bunch of stuff.

And so I just, I got to the end of the day and just wanted some acknowledgement and I was giving it to myself by giving myself a treat. Right. So I’d be like, I see what you did, and here’s this treat to kind of mark this moment and to see how hard the day was and all the things that you got done.

And as soon as I really realized the emotional need that I really wanted was just recognition, and I gave it to myself. I literally, I just, in the evening, I spent five minutes with the Lord and I’m just like, tell me about me today, Lord. Like, what did you see? And, he would just tell me like, I’m so proud of you and I see how well you showed up here and this.

And sometimes he would even say like, let’s clean this up tomorrow. Right? It wasn’t always all the wonderful things. But then my desire for any kind of like chocolate at night really just went away because it wasn’t about the chocolate.

And like you always say, Denise, like, chocolate isn’t bad. You can have chocolate, but I didn’t want chocolate. What I wanted was some sort of acknowledgement, some sort of recognition, and as soon as I filled that, I just don’t actually find that I want chocolate every night anymore.

Denise: Yeah. And I think what you’re also pointing out is the problem isn’t the chocolate, the problem isn’t the screens. The problem is that we’re using that to meet a need. That chocolate and the screens were never meant to meet.

Sterling: Right. Or even husbands, by the way, I always say you guys like, you know, a husband cannot fill a God-sized hole in your heart. He just can’t. And I love husbands. I’m a team husband, right?

And there’s so many things we can look to them for, but they are human. They will never meet all the deep needs, the God size needs that you have because they were created by God and for God. He is the one that wants to fill them on that deep, deep level.

And so often I think we just forget that. We just forget that whatever we’re truly longing for. You know, we can really get that from him anytime we want. And once you realize that, it’s quite exciting, by the way, it’s quite exciting to realize that it’s almost like a faucet in your kitchen.

And you could just turn the handle anytime you want and receive, you know, feeling cherished or held, or really seen and understood. You know, he’ll give you those experiences, those feelings anytime that you ask him for it.

Denise: And that’s exactly why before you start Lent, you want to ask him, Hey Lord, what is preventing me from turning the faucet? And it’s not that we don’t know, we can turn the faucet on. It’s were distracted.

Something in this earthly life is distracting us and it’s personal. For every woman who’s listening to this, whether she listens now or in 10 years, it’ll always be something that the Lord says, Hey, this is what’s distracting you. This is what I’d like to decrease in your life. Your reliance on that thing. And when we talk to him, we are very clear that this is the thing. And there’s just, it makes lent so much more deeply profound and more simple.

Sterling: I just did an episode on how I don’t think every person for Lent is necessarily called to give something up. I think that our default assumption is that we have to give something up. But when you talk to the Lord, I think some of you are gonna hear like, Hey, you’re already in a really painful season and I’m just asking you to carry that really well.

I’m asking you to carry it. Well, we don’t need to add another hard thing. I’m asking you to carry this thing. Maybe with less resistance, maybe with less. Bitterness or complaining, like just to do the thing that I’ve already given you. Well, pregnancy comes to mind.

Maybe dealing with a very extreme health problem. Like maybe there’s something already painful in your life and you’re like, I just can’t add something else. Consider asking the Lord you know what he wants you to do.

And he might say, carry the thing you’re already carrying. Well, or the other thing I often hear women after I teach them this say is he wants your time. He wants you to spend time with him. And so it’s not a thing necessarily that we’re giving up, but he’s saying, I want you to spend 30 minutes with me talking with me, and we’re adding in a spiritual practice.

So part of the discernment is being open really to whatever he tells you, and then just trusting that it is enough, it is enough, even if it doesn’t sound like it’s hard enough, if that’s what he’s asking you to do, it is enough and you can trust that.

Denise: That I love that you said that because one of the things that we fast from in our community, and I have a challenge that we do is a simple, fast, but it’s so profound in women’s lives, is fasting from not stepping on the scale.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: ’cause that’s the thing that’s distracting them. That’s where the enemy is talking to them and telling them who he thinks she is.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: And if we can set the scale aside, that creates space for the Lord’s voice to come in. And it’s crazy because it’s not a hard thing to do.

Sterling: Yeah. That’s how long do you have them? Not step on the scale.

Denise: The challenge is for 63 days. So we started with Lent, but it continues on after that to really capture how the Lord has changed them. And I always like to say how the Lord has created you new now. ’cause you wake up resurrected with him on Easter. A new woman.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: And you’re a new woman. Because what has been, what I call a false or a mini God for decades of your life has now been reordered and God’s become your God. So now let’s see who you are. Who does he say you are? So we do it for 63 days. Another reason it’s 63 days is because it’s based on the surrender novena. And the surrender novena nine days, but we do it seven times.

Sterling: That’s beautiful.

Denise: We’re supported through the whole thing, so it’s just a really beautiful practice. We fast from the scale. We have a couple other spiritual practices that we do every day during Lent to allow the Lord to speak to us, to remove the obstacles to keep. I always like to say, just turn our face to him because we’re so distracted.

Sterling: Yeah. I love that. That’s so beautiful. I love. if you guys have not done the Surrender novena. Well, I’m gonna record it and put it on this channel so you guys can listen to it, um, if you want.

But it is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve done it so many times since finding it, and it is one of the very few Novenas that was. Given to one of the saints by Jesus. Like Jesus was like, Hey, here are the words I want you to put in this novena. Most novenas are kind of like prayerfully created by lay people, or priests, maybe even.

But this one was given by Jesus. And you can just tell. You can just tell the difference in the words. They are words that just are so powerful. They’re so beautiful. So I love that you guys go through that seven times. So do they not weigh themselves the entire 63 days?

Denise: Correct.

Sterling: Nice. That’s really cool.

Denise: Yeah.

Sterling: And it is interesting. Notice your brain, you guys, for those of you that are thinking about losing weight, just notice already what your brain kicks up when you’re like, Hey, we’re just not gonna wear ourselves for 63 days. And like Denise said, that’s the most simple thing ever. Like it’s so simple to understand, and yet the brain will just like throw a big fit over it.

Denise: Because people want to weigh. And when I find, well, we’ve done this for several years now. And the reason they want to weigh is because they want that validation. They want that affirmation. They want somebody to say, you’re doing the right thing. Just like anything else we’re turning to.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: You’re worthy, you’re good. And that’s why the Lord says, Hey, it’s time to put that little metal box somewhere else and let me be your God again. Let me tell you who you are.

Sterling: I love that. Is there anything else you want them to know about spiritual attack? So they’re heading into Lent. I love all of those five. I’ll put them in the show notes, you guys so you can just see them. My brain really likes to read things and they’re not in order. Since Denise, talk about them. You’re gonna dance. You’re gonna dance all over those five, right?

As you try to grow closer to the Lord. And I agree in any way that we try to grow closer to the Lord. But I think especially in Lent, because I think the devil knows how powerful Lent is whenever we do something as a Catholic community in the Universal Church and we’re all doing something, oh boy does that make them so mad. And so then I think they really kind of redouble their efforts to get us to think these things.

Denise: Yeah, I think, you know, a couple other things that come to mind that I want women to know about spiritual attacks is how to kind of prevent them in a way, kinda get in front of them. Of course expecting them.
But the first one is especially during the Lent, you guys talked to the Lord. I mean, I know we’ve said this 15 times, but truly say, Lord, what’s standing in the way of me being closer to you and work on that thing?

I don’t, I mean, if you wanna lose weight and you wanna give up sugar, then just know you’re choosing to give up sugar because you want to lose weight. Don’t say it’s ent. Does that make sense? Let’s just be really clear on what he wants for you.

Sterling: I’ve never heard the Lord tell me to give up sugar. I’ve never heard him say that, but I have heard him say, I want you. To turn to me emotionally instead of food. And so it’s like he doesn’t even care about the food. ’cause we’re so obsessed with food, right? We’re so obsessed with what we can’t eat and what we can’t eat and all the food rules.

And I’ve just never heard him be like, Sterling, you gotta give up gluten sterling. You gotta have a high protein diet. Like he’s just never said that to me. But he’s just like, he has said many times, I want you to turn to me instead of food.

Denise: The Lord does not care about what we’re using to move away from him. He only cares that we are moving away from him and he wants us to move toward him. And so if that means, potentially removing the what, the screener, whatever it is, the scale, then that will return us to him. That’s all he wants is us to be with him. Return to him.

The second thing is, whatever he reveals to you that he wants for you, see how you can care and support yourself more. With that, I mean, I know you’ve got the Screen Less program, Mary’s Heart, Martha’s Order.

I think community is really fabulous, especially with other Catholic women who want, who are going through the same journey as you. Whether it’s 63 surrendered. I find any community just makes it more beneficial because all of the women are struggling with the same thing.

Sterling: Yes.

Denise: And all of them are going to point you back to the Lord and tell you why it’s worth it to keep doing.

Sterling: Yeah. Especially in our programs. In our programs, we really train when you come in, we both say to them like, Hey, this is not a complaint fest. We are not here to roll around in everything that’s hard in life. I think some like Facebook groups end up being like that.

We really say, Hey, hold each other’s hearts and then point each other back to the Lord, point each other back to discernment, because that is the point. Of what we’re doing. And I agree in this world right now, we’re so isolated and we’re so lonely. I don’t even think you guys realize how bad it is.

I really, because like since we used to live as tribes or as people in tight-knit communities where you could walk to someone’s house and you saw them all the time. We haven’t lived like that in a long time and we really don’t realize how weird it is that we are so isolated now and how starving we are. For seeing other people.

And then in community, particularly Catholic communities, you’re gonna see the god’s wisdom start to emerge. Because when we are together, like you said, we’re like, I’m not the only one experiencing these five spiritual attacks, because that’s another form of spiritual attack is it’s just you. It’s just you who can’t hack it. It’s just you who can’t figure, he wants to divide you away from the group.

And when we’re together, we’re like, oh no, this is just everyone. And then together, let’s pray and fast together and be strong and repel these things and choose the Lord. And then you will also see the fruits of it, ’cause people will share the fruits. And that’s really special to see too.

Denise: The final thing is that I think targeted use of the sacraments is very important during Lent. And what I mean by a targeted use is to go to mass with the intention, asking for the graces to do whatever the Lord has asked you to do. This Lent, offer communion for that and a targeted use of the sacrament of reconciliation.

And in our community we have an examination of conscience for women who struggle with food and weight issues because women who struggle with food and weight tend to fall into certain sins that I believe in general. Examination of conscience doesn’t really dig up and like kick up the dirt so that you can get it out of you.

Sterling: Yeah.

Denise: And so that’s like by making our food or our body, or God, and I just think that if we really start looking at this, the sins that we’re falling into, with whatever it is that we’re clinging onto for Lent or deciding to do with Lent, it’ll just give us even more grace. Just clean us up a little bit more.

Sterling: I love that. I mean, I was raised with no religion, you guys, and I was Protestant for two years before becoming Catholic and, but just this year my kids have started participating in a Christian homeschool co-op. So I’ve just like been hanging out with more Protestants lately.

And this is so much of it. Like, they’re so, they love the Lord and they pray and they read their bibles like, they’re just beautiful families. I really love them. But the thing I’m just like, you just don’t have the sacraments and the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And I just cannot imagine, like, to me that feels like my armor.

Like I’m going into the world and like that’s my sword and my shield and my armor. And I just dunno how you would do life without those things. So yes, I think it’s really important to keep bringing yourself to, to those beautiful gifts that God’s given us. I mean, they’re just treasures and we can use them whenever we want, which is amazing.

All right, Ms. Denise, spiritual attacks, the things that we can do to get ahead of them, even though we can expect them, but I do think we can mitigate some, and make them a little bit smaller by discerning with the Lord ahead of time. Like, Hey, what is it that you want me to do? And trusting that he will give you the grace to do that. So for those of you that wanna tackle your disordered attachment to food, then where can they find this amazing program of yours?

Denise: Yeah, you can just go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com.

Sterling: Nice weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com. This has an awesome podcast. You guys can check that out too. I’ll just link up all her Linky links in the show notes so you can find her. And then what we’re doing on the catholicmom.com side is we’re doing Mary’s Heart Martha’s Order, which is a six week program that’s really designed to help you pray for 10 minutes and plan for 10 minutes.

And some of you, that is what the Lord is gonna call you to just to ordering your. Your mind once a day. It’s not even at the beginning of the day. It’s whenever it works for you to pray and to plan.

And so both of these things I think are really worthwhile and you will know. You won’t be like, which one should I do? What’s our answer for that? Go pray about it. Go ask the Lord what he wants your focus to be this lent and trust him. I say that a lot too, Denise. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. I just say that a lot. Any last things that you wanna say to them?

Denise: I think just that we, Sterling and I are praying for you guys all of the time, all of you women, we pray for you. For the women who don’t even know our work yet, for the women who will be in our programs and for the women who may never be in our programs, just know that we are always covering you in prayer and we love you so much, and he does too.

Sterling: And he does too. The faucet is there. You guys, you can turn the faucet and get the yummy feelings that you want from the Lord. Anytime you want. It’s so funny that you say that because I do. I end every episode saying, I’m praying for you. Please pray for me, and thank you so much for listening. So thank you, Denise, for being on the show.

And I just love this topic and I think it’s so timely and I hope that this. Touch your hearts as well. So I’ll say it one more time ’cause it is very true. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Thank you so much for being here and have a blessed day.

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