and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. I'm Janet Swanson, Director of Membership and Adult Programs. I'm joined this morning by the Reverend Kelly Crocker, Drew Collins, Heather Thorpe, Linda Warren, Daniel Karnes, Stephen Gregorius, and Leslie Ross and E.B. Rossmore, who will be leading us in our chalice lighting. We're so glad to have you join us virtually this morning. Though not together here in our beloved meeting house, we remain tied together through the bonds of community and affection. In this community, we gather to grow our souls, connect with one another, and live our UU values in our lives, our community, and in the world. We hope you'll join us in the virtual coffee hour immediately following our service. The information for that will be on your screen following the postlude. I invite you now to take a few deep breaths to be present here together and to bring ourselves fully into this time that we share. Bring your broken hallelujah here. Bring the large one that is beyond repair. Bring the small one that is too soft to share. Bring your broken hallelujah here. I know that people have told you that before you can give, you have to get yourself together. They overstated the value of perfection by a lot, or they forgot. You are the gift. We all bring some broken things, songs and dreams and long lost hopes, but here together we reach within. As a community, we begin again, and from the pieces, we will build something new. There is work that only you can do. We wait for you. And now I invite you to light a chalice or a candle at your home as Leslie Ross and Evie Ross Moore lead us in our words of affirmation. Across the distance, the light from within me shine, sending love to all. Across the distance, your light is fuel that warms me and helps to keep my own light burning. Together, we keep the flame of community burning bright. Rise up, O flame, by thy light flow. Fisal man. Sing with us hymn number 354. We laugh, we cry, we'll sing verses one. I'm excited to show you my bowl. My granddaughter made it. It broke on the way here this morning and I don't know what to do. I can't believe I broke it. Do you think we can try and fix it? I think we can try. Oh, I'm so sorry that broke. Hang on, let's see. I have glue. Okay, I've got tape. I've got this kind and I've got this kind. I don't think so. Okay, hang on. I think I have chewing gum. Do you think if we put chewing gum it could stick? Probably not chewing gum. Okay, let me think. I have one more idea. It's called kintsugi. What is kintsugi? So kintsugi is this ancient Japanese art of repairing exactly that broken pottery, ceramics, just like what your granddaughter made. The folktales say that it started in the 15th century in Japan. When this king sent away a broken pot that he loved to have it fixed and when it came back he thought it looked awful. Did he just throw the pot away? No, he called all these Japanese artisans to him and they found a way to take this broken pot and make it even more beautiful than it was before. They mixed gold powder with a lacquer and what it did was it didn't hide the breaks, it highlighted so that the imperfections remained when the pot was repaired. So the point of kintsugi isn't to hide the broken parts but to show that even when it's broken it's still beautiful? Exactly. The gold is used to remind the user over and over every time you see it. That something that was once broken is whole again and now it has this different kind of beauty. In a way, that's what happens when other things break, right? Huh, what kinds of things? Like relationships, friendships. Sometimes we hurt each other's feelings and it's like the thread between two or more, people breaks. But as Unitarian Universalists, we don't ignore that. We try to rebuild the relationship so that it's stronger than it was before. That is so true. The work of healing is all of our jobs no matter how big or how small we are. And when we repair our mistakes with love, when we stick together and do that sometimes really hard work of repair here in our community, we remember that our relationships can be even more beautiful. Once we've acknowledged the herd and we've asked for forgiveness, we've changed. We correct our mistakes. And we make this sacred promise together to do better in the future. I love that about being in community here. Do you wanna help me fix this bowl? I sure do. I invite you into this time of giving and receiving where we give freely and generously to this offering which sustains and strengthens our community within and beyond First Unitarian Society. Outreach offering today will go to Gsafe, an organization that increases the capacity of LGBTQ plus students, educators and families to create schools in Wisconsin where all youth thrive. They do this by developing the leadership of LGBTQ plus students, supporting gay straight alliances, training educational staff, advancing educational justice, advocating for public policy and deepening racial, gender, trans and social justice. You'll see on your screen that you can donate directly from our website, fussmedicine.org. You will also see our text to give information as well. We thank you for your generosity and your faith in this life that we create together. We began our service this morning with the words of Reverend Teresa Soto. Bring your broken hallelujah here. Bring the large one that is beyond repair and bring the small one that is too soft to share. Bring your broken hallelujah here. We were reminded that we all bring some broken things, songs and dreams and long lost hopes, but here together we reach within. As a community we begin again and from the pieces we build something new. I love these words and the recognition within them of all that we bring together, that each time we are with one another, we are carrying with us dreams and hopes, holding all that we love and all that we've lost. I love the recognition that when we gather here week after week, that it is a form of beginning again, a chance to build something new, something beautiful, something strong, something that can be repaired with gold, even if it feels like the only prayer on our lips is a broken hallelujah. We are coming up on one year of living in this pandemic time, one year of loss, of loneliness, of services here in an empty room, of seeing one another's faces only on screens, of so many tears, of feeling like maybe we are living in unending brokenness. Yet over this past year, as we have been building community in new ways, we have also seen healing, we have seen repair, we have seen creativity and innovation, we have witnessed deep connection, we have learned to love each other well through challenge and loss. As I think about the fullness of life that we have shared together, I am reminded of the poem, The Facts of Life by Padre Gotouma, that you were born and you will die, that you will sometimes love enough and sometimes not, that you will lie if only to yourself, that you will get tired, that you will learn most from the situations you did not choose, that there will be some things that move you more than you can say, that you will live, that you must be loved, that you will avoid questions most urgently in need of your attention, that life isn't fair, that life is sometimes good and sometimes better than good, that life is often not so good, that life is real and if you can survive it well, survive it well with love and art and meaning given where meaning is scarce, that you will learn to live with regret, that you will learn to live with respect, that the structures that constrict you may not be permanently constricting, that you will probably be okay, that you must accept change before you die and you will die anyway, so you might as well live and you might as well love, you might as well love. My friends, over this past year, we have learned that life is sometimes good, sometimes so much better than good, and we have learned that sometimes life is often not so good. Through it all, we have remembered that in this life, as long as we might live, we might as well love. That message has been carried through this month of examining beloved community. At the beginning of the month, Zeister Alex Capitan joined us to share a message of radical transformational love. Alex shared the harsh truth that there are many who do not feel welcome in bringing their whole selves into our life here. Alex's message ended with a call for us to create a community of unconditional love, welcome and belonging. Alex called us into the difficult work of becoming, becoming a place where we are broken, open and held, healed and sent back out into the world to keep fighting. Alex recognized that this is messy. This is uncomfortable. This is possible only if we are open again and again to being made new. The next week, Roger shared a message of exploring the power of love by looking at the wide assortment of love that fills our days. He told us that love is so much more than our narrow understandings and asked us to celebrate love in all its forms. The love of family, the deep love of friends, love for ourselves, romantic love, love for all life and this planet we share. Roger called us to open ourselves to the many types of love that we find and asked us to remain open to all the love waiting behind that next door. And last week, Roger brought forth the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King who saw beloved community as something that happens when we enter into an interdependent relationship of love, mutual respect and care. A simple working definition is a community ordered by love. Roger acknowledged that Dr. King was an idealist and he was a realist. He understood that all people, including himself, make mistakes. Communities are made up of people. Therefore, no community completely and perfectly embodies the idea of beloved community. So here we are on this last day of the month at the end of our month of exploration and I am wondering where does all this leave us? First, I believe we have learned that we are the beloved community and we are not. Beloved community begins with us here in this congregation with you and me. It begins with the ways we treat one another, our staff and our larger community. It is in all the ways we show up here. In all the ways we are open to trying again and again to bring the values we espouse into practice. As the Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams would say, we go to church to practice being human. All of this, all we do together is practice and in our practice we help each other be better humans. We help each other live into being the beloved community. Small groups and regular worship shared service both within and beyond the congregation, our upcoming relational covenant work that you'll be hearing more about. All of these are our practice. And this is a big and. Part of our work together is seeing this world and one another with new eyes. We need one another and our community to be a place that can remind us of the harsh realities of the unacceptable truths. Remind us that this is not the world we were meant for. We need to be a place where we can confess our heartbreak and confusion and our vulnerability. We need to be able to let down our walls and our coping mechanisms and begin to call forth the life we wish to create. Because we are not in community to be with people who want to sing the same music or rally for the same cause or attend the same retreats. We are here as we heard Alex and Roger say to learn to love better. And this can only happen when we love past our disappointments and return to a place of acceptance and affirmation. This leads me to our next learning. This work is a deep spiritual practice that requires us to have a lived theology. As the Reverend Gretchen Haley wrote, sustained openheartedness requires feeling connected to something greater than ourselves. Call it what you will. A greater love, the interdependent web, the universe, the spirit of life, God. And sustained waking up requires meaning making around this something greater. We need constructive, positive theology, not just the stuff we know we don't believe. We need to know the words we want said at our bedside or at the bedside of the one we love and we need to have a sense of how and why we keep going in the face of loss and disappointment. And then we need to tell each other about these things, share with one another what it is that brings our lives meaning in a world of beauty and pain because we're gonna need to be reminded a lot. And this brings us to our last learning. Beloved community is all about relationship. From a position of companioning, we are invited to walk alongside one another, unlearning the dehumanizing patterns of racism, classism, ableism, sexism, dehumanizing patterns for us all and establishing new habits and patterns of collaboration and partnership, hearing each other's stories, discovering who we are and what we love rather than what we think we know about one another, widening and widening our circle time and again until it truly includes everyone. And then we will find that radical transforming love Alex called us to create. Remembering what Audrey Hepburn said, people, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed, never throw out anyone. This relational foundation means beloved community does not compete for resources but collaborates towards more for everyone. Simply put, the beloved community paradigm causes us to strengthen our ties, help each other out, offer the unique gifts we have, never throw anyone out and rejoice in the working together. This is complicated and messy work. Years ago in our new UU class, a tradition started. First, when Jean Sears was our coordinator of member programs and this tradition continues now with Janet Swanson, toward the end of each session, they will look at me and they will say, go ahead, give them the disclaimer. I felt like this was a good moment to give everyone the disclaimer. And the disclaimer starts with a story. Once upon a time, there was a man stranded on a desert island for many, many years. One day while strolling along the beach, he spotted a ship in the distance. This had never happened and all the time he was on the island, so he was so excited about the chance of being rescued. Immediately he built a fire on the beach and he generated as much smoke as possible and it worked. Soon the ship was heading his way and when the ship was close enough to the island, here came rescuers. And after some preliminary conversation, one of the rescuers asked the man on the island, how did you survive for all of these years? And the man replied by telling them about how he found food, how he was able to make a house to live in. And he said, in fact, look up there on the ridge, there's my house. And they looked in the direction of his house and they saw three buildings and they inquired about the building next to the man's house. And he said, that's my church. I built that so that I can go there and worship on Sundays. And when they asked him about the third building, the man replied, well, that's where I used to go to church. We tell this tale time and again to point to a very real truth in this work of building beloved community. We will disappoint one another. We will fail each other and ourselves and we will need to choose to come back time and again. We will have our hearts broken, you, me, all of us. And when those moments happen, we will have a choice to lean into the discomfort and stay, doing the hard work of repair or to leave. And what I want to invite you to do here in community is to consider the possibility of opening your heart and coming in closer. There is really only one choice between imperfect community and no community. Again and again, we are all called to choose to commit ourselves to building something beautiful, something with the power to transform ourselves and our world, something that is the ever messy and imperfect beloved community. We all bring some broken things, songs and dreams and long lost hopes. But here together, we reach within. As a community, we begin again and from the pieces, we build something new. May we be brave enough to make it so. Each day, we are greeted by the life that arrives at our doors. Some days we are greeted by great joy and celebration, a reminder of all the goodness that we are blessed to share. Other days, we are called to welcome in grief and sadness, pain and loss, a reminder of all we carry and the need to surround ourselves with others who can help us carry these loads when we are so very tired. We bring these joys and these difficulties here, sharing them with one another in love and in trust. Today we light a candle of strength and hope for Lea Sinclair after a recent hospitalization. We send Lea our love and prayers for healing and our hopes that she is feeling stronger and more like herself every day. And we light a candle of sorrow and loss for the life of Dennis Collins. Dennis passed away this past Thursday surrounded by his family. We send them our love as they mourn this great loss and we hold Dennis's gentle spirit and warm smile in our hearts. And we light a candle of lamentation in the recognition of the grim milestone of passing 500,000 deaths to COVID-19 here in the United States. We hold in our hearts these many lives lost in the devastation and deep grief this has caused in families and communities. We give thanks for all those healthcare workers who give of themselves day after day in love and in service to us all. May we pause for a moment to hear these words of hope from Jennifer Pratt-Walter. See how the winds have shaped her hands to hold hope. So tenuous it trembles like a hummingbird's heart. She gently carries hope to a nest in the midst of the maelstrom and tilts it into the bowl of tiny feathers and mosses. Hope is so hard to hold. She might need your help. You can help when it seeps through the cracks of her fingers. Place your hands around hers. Together it can be done. And when it hatches, when the nest is no more, may you watch the wind pick up hope and lay it softly into the welcome of your upraised palms. Blessed be and amen. I say ours is a story of faith and hope and love I say it is our need for one another that binds us together, that brings us laughing and limping into relationships and keeps us at it when we might otherwise despair at the fix we are in. I say it is the holy we need, the eternal beyond our comprehension and one place we can find it is here in this life we create together. And I say that there is a transcendent value worthy of our loyalty upon which we may set our hearts and it lives here among us as love. Blessed be, go in peace and know that you are loved.


Welcome to Nicole's Review. Nicole's Review, we feature talk that matters. At Nicole's Review, we took a break last year. We are back, people in Arlington. We are back. I know you've been waiting for this for the longest time, and we are back for you. Arlington, ACMI, we are back. And this third episode today, we have two special guests. It is such a great honor to have my two very, very first guests for my third episode. I have David Sellers and Maya. Help me with your name. Nitzberg. Nitzberg. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show for my very first episode and the third season. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you. So, let's start. Tell me a little bit about both of you. Who wants to start first? I know I have two of you. Yeah. My name is Maya Nitzberg, and I am the development and communications coordinator at The Possible Project. And my name is David Sellers. I'm the makerspace education coordinator for The Possible Project. Very good. I am so excited to have both of you on the show today. We have so much to talk about. Should we start? Yes. Okay. Let's do it. All right. Tell me a little bit about what your project do with your organization's day four. Yeah. So, The Possible Project is an entrepreneurship program. It's a non-profit and after-school program located in Cambridge. And we teach high school students how to start and run their own business. Wow. Anything, David? Yeah. So, our, let's see, we're a start-up. We're in our 50-year now. FIFT. Yeah. Our program has a, let's see, four major components to it. So, we have an entrepreneurship curriculum that we teach to our students. We're, I think you mentioned, we're a three-year program. The students start with us their sophomore year and they stay with us through their senior year. And so, for about a year and a half, we have a fairly structured curriculum where they're learning various types of business concepts. And then the latter year and a half is more independent driven, where they're working on their own business operations. So, that's the second component is all of our students are running their own businesses. And so, about every other month or so, we have a marketplace for our students to sell their wares. Wow. So, we've got students who are, let's see, they've got businesses where they're making soaps. We've got students who are selling hair care products, candles, jams, custom iPhone cases. Whole range of products. Yeah. That's amazing. Now, what are the range of the ages for the students? So, these are high school students. They start in their sophomore year. They come to the program, whether by word of mouth. We have a lot of students who come and they're like, I want to join this program. It sounds like we have a really beautiful space you walk in. It feels like a professional work environment, but it's also, it feels like a shared work environment as well. So, it's very bright and colorful. And teenagers love coming to our space. So, they talk about it with their friends. So, we have high school students coming in asking to join our program. But then also, teachers and counselors and people at schools nominate students to be in the program. So, they come in, as David said, in their sophomore year and they're with us for three years through a sixth level program. That's interesting. Now, anything special that you're working out at this moment that you'd like to share with us? Yeah. So, we are currently in, as David said, in Central Square. Oh, yeah. So, we're right between Harvard and MIT. Okay. And we are currently serving about 150 students. And in a year, we're able to serve 220, but that's just not enough. We need to, we want to serve more students. So, we're looking to expand to another site that's larger. So, in from a 5,000-square-foot space to a 9,000-square-foot space. So, now we'll be able to serve over 350 students, which is really exciting. That is exciting. Now, where exactly the address? Where are you located at? Right now, we're located at 955 Massachusetts Avenue. Oh, you're in Mass Ave. Mm-hmm. Okay. Wow. Yeah. But we also have a maker space, which is located at 107 Portland Street in Kendall Square. Okay. Now, the project called The Possible. That's it. The Possible Project. Now, tell me about this. Now, why The Possible Project? Why you picked the name? What's the meaning of that? Oh, no. He's laughing. So, yeah. Well, when our program was started, we had the, we wanted to make sure that students felt like anything was possible. Okay. The students that we target are, so we seek out students who we believe have untapped potential, sort of the silent middle. So we feel like there's a lot of resources out there for students who are really, really struggling and for students who are really excelling. But those who are, you know, getting Cs, maybe some Ds who are kind of coasting through without some special help, whether from their families or community organizations, they can kind of end up falling through the cracks and not get the help that they need to really get them to where they could be. Wow. Our program, we target students who are low income, who are on individualized education plans and who are recent immigrants. It's very touching. And so we want to, you know, we want our students to know that anything is possible and to sort of, yeah. By starting these businesses, we're teaching them entrepreneurship. And we're saying that, you know, through entrepreneurship, we're providing the tools for the students to be able to get into the vehicle so that they're gaining that toolbox of skills so that they compete in the 21st century economy. So anything is possible. That's such a great tool to have, you know, mentally for the student to know that they can learn that and go out there and be something and do something. Yeah. So a lot of these students, like, they don't feel, you know, that they have the ability to go in and, you know, they'll graduate from high school, but then what? What are they going to do after they graduate from high school? Right, college, a training program. Are they going to go into a job? What job would that be? But through the program, they're able to augment those skills like leadership and teamwork and resilience and then be able to take those skills and really, you know, succeed later on after they graduate from high school. Okay. Now describe one of your greatest accomplishments that you, anyone? Can you just describe what you're so proud of? You like to share with me today. And the viewers. All right. And the makerspace. The makerspace. Oh, yeah. So the makerspace is probably the newest addition to our program. This is our first term really operating from outside, out of the makerspace. Yeah. And so far it's been going really well. So the intent behind the makerspace was, well, there's a few different parts to it. So programmatically, we have a lot of students who are making products. And so we wanted to enhance that. So originally we had students who want to do things like make a custom T-shirt, but then they'd order, like they'd create an image and they'd upload it online and then they'd wait for it to be delivered and they'd mark that up to like $20 and try to sell that. It's very expensive. And so we wanted, since our students were already trying to create stuff to sell themselves, we wanted them to be closer to that manufacturing process so they got a more comprehensive understanding of the design and production process as it pertains to entrepreneurship. So at the makerspace we have a laser cutter. We've got 3D printer. We have a vinyl cutter and heat press and spray booth. And these are all tools that allow our students to create products that kind of are not too above what they'd be able to do just on their own. Right. And it's also a space where, you know, there's a concrete floor, there's wooden tables that are easy to sand down and so they can feel free to get more messy and experiment and prototype without worrying about scuffing up the tables and spilling stuff on the carpet. Also we want our students to have, with the students that we're working on with, we want them to have skills that will separate them from their peers. And so at the makerspace they're able to learn 21st century skills like engineering and design and digital fabrication using professional design software like the Adobe Creative Suite or SOLIDWORKS. And so that way where they can add those to their resumes and they'll have a portfolio that they can use to apply to colleges to apply to internships after they finish with us when they graduate from high school. Right. Now, how do you feel about the community? How are the responses that you get from the communities? Well, I mean, one of our biggest achievements has been our relationships with the schools. So we are working with the three high schools in Cambridge. So that's Cambridge and Gillette and Community Charter School of Cambridge and Prospect Hill Academy. And we work really closely with those skills, with those schools. And, you know, it's really important for us to keep that communication going. So, you know, we have a lot of students coming from those schools. We are reaching 45 percent of the target demographic of sophomores in Cambridge. It's huge. And so, you know, we think or we hope that, you know, they see us as a positive organization in the community that we're bridging, you know, the Cambridge residents or the greater Boston community with the tech and innovation hub that's happening in Cambridge.  But we want to bridge the gap between, you know, the populations that we're serving and the companies, like, you know. Yeah, and so I'd say that that works definitely being recognized. So we have a partnership with the Cambridge Housing Authority and that's actually the property that the maker space is running out of is the Cambridge Housing Authority. Right there. And so they want to partner with us specifically for that reason because they want to create more of a bridge between the Cambridge residents and the tech hub that's right across the street. Right. And actually, so Biogen and Cambridge Housing Authority. Oh, Biogen's right there. Oh, you have it all there. Yeah, they both sponsored the renovation of our maker space. So you're getting a lot of responses from different people that I want to involve. We have various events throughout the year.  It's part of the whole critical thinking process. It's part of being an entrepreneur, you know. And that's a big part of our organization as well. Really trying to connect our students with local professionals, local businesses and, you know, get them to network with those people, get exposure to those professional settings and the professionals themselves. That's good. So it's a really big, you know, proponent of our program to connect with the community. Wow. Now, who are your targets? Who are our targets? Our students. So the demographic is our high school students who are recipients of IEP, who are recent immigrants. We have a lot of students who are coming from Haiti after the earthquake. Wow. Students like David said that are in that quiet middle. So these are students who are getting season D's in school who will most likely graduate from high school, but they're not sure what comes next. And so we're helping them to, you know, see that anything is possible. Wow. Yeah, along those lines. So a lot of our students are like the first ones in their families to go to college. And so a lot of them aren't necessarily thinking that college is a place, like it's just not part of their thought process, that that's what they would do after high school. Exactly. And so one of the core components of our program is pathways. And so we want, we have it integrated within our program to help our students start thinking about what are they going to do after high school? Is it going to be college? Is it going to be a training program? Is it going to be an internship? Is it going to be a job? And then we help them find the resources that they need in order to make that happen. And so we've gotten a lot of scholarships for our students. Yeah. We've gotten them into many colleges. Yeah. And there's a lot of students in our program who never believed they would go to college. And they had people at schools or in their communities who were saying, you don't have the grades to go to college. And so they come to our program and we're saying the complete opposite. We know you can get in. And it's ultimately what you want. That's what's positive. Yeah. And these are students who got in. We have one student who's a recent immigrant from Haiti who didn't believe that he would ever go to college. Now he's at Ben Franklin Institute and he's doing amazingly. He's been driving throughout that year. And now he just got a job. He was promoted as a sales associate at Home Depot. That's amazing. This is one of the many stories of our students really achieving success. Now, how do you communicate with a bilingual student? Do you? Well, it's just, I mean, sometimes it's difficult. But they're with us for three years in the program. And a lot of the program is for them to articulate their business ideas. Yeah. And writing a business plan and providing the business, the deck. Yeah. Where they're pitching their businesses in front of people. And it's a lot of public speaking. So they're learning English and... Second language. Yeah, exactly. And they know that, you know, when they come in. Now, where do people get all that information? You have a website. Oh, everywhere. We don't have it. Where can you share with the viewers? Where is Wiccan? Somebody get the information. You know, if somebody want to apply or if we have student in Allington that like to get involved. Sure. You like to share with the viewers. Sure, yeah. So you could... One of the best places is to go to our website, which is possibleproject.org. Okay. We're also on Facebook and Twitter. On Twitter, we're at the POSPRAGE, P-O-S-S-P-R-O-J. Okay. And on Facebook, you can just search for the possible project. Okay. And we're always looking for volunteers. Okay. And we have events all the time. So we published that on our social media platforms. One event is a marketplace where our student businesses will put out all of their products on a table and invite the community to come and interface with our student businesses. So anybody's welcome to that. And we've got two marketplaces coming up. We've got a marketplace coming up on June 11th and... June 26th. Yep. June 11th and June 26th. I keep trying to pull that. Sticker. Right? But it's like sticky. The possible project, everyone. Excellent. I am so pleased to have both of you on the show. And anything you'd like to share with us? Anything possible? Anything that you'd like to say at all? The student in Arlington that'd like to get involved in the program? Like anything that you'd like to share that make them come up to see you guys? If you have a vision and if you're passionate about something and if there's a problem that your community is facing, you can be a part of solving that problem. David? Yeah. That's great. Yeah. I think in our students it's been really inspirational to see just how much the program means to them. There's a just by virtue of us saying to them, you know, we require them to start their own business and just see, like, I don't know, it's not like, oh, I can. It's like, oh, I have to.  And having that, the resources to make that happen I think is really empowering and definitely shows in their confidence, their motivation. They start walking a little taller. Yeah. It's really interesting. It's nice to see them grow over three years with us. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate having you both. Thank you for having me. Such a wonderful project. And I thank both of you. And I thank your father for referring me to you. And I thank ACMI for allowing me to come back to have my third episode. The Nichols Review always love to have great guests. And stay tuned for more Nichols Review. We have great guests coming. We'll see you next time. Thank you for watching. Nichols Samarko, your host, The Nichols Review. Thank you.


Love is ultimate freedom within another person. It is not forming all these opinions. It is not judging them. It is loving them and nurturing them for every part of them, for everything that they are. If you are judging someone, if you're forming opinions on someone that you claim to love, well, then that isn't love. Wanting to change someone, that's not love. Watching someone change and loving them every step of the way and through those changes, that's your love.


Today we find out which set is better, Ghost from the Past, or Ghost from the Past 2? What's up guys, we're back with another epic video and Ghost from the Past has not even officially dropped yet. So this is our second video on Ghost from the Past 2. We're doing Ghost from the Past, the original first edition, versus Ghost from the Past 2, which will release this Friday or a little bit earlier at your OTS local store if you want to grab some there. And if you guys want to buy some Ghost from the Past 2, my link with Saseado is down below. Just use my code ruxandgftp to get 5% off anything you order on there that's displays. So you can buy 10 displays and get a full case if you want that. Check that out if you guys want some. And in today's giveaway, we will be giving away every pull in this video. So as we did yesterday, we gave away every single pull. We pulled two Ghost shares. Let's see if we can do that again. So we have 25 total packs, well 25 packs of each. Ghost from the Past 1 has got 25 total packs and then Ghost from the Past 2 has 25 as well. So let's see which one can win. Let me know in the comments, which do you think will win? Ghost from the Past 2 or Ghost from the Past 1? I think I know what you guys are going to pick, but you never know. Ghost from the Past 1 has evenly matched, which is a very expensive card. So boom, good start for Ghost from the Past 1. You guys can win this card. And if we pulled like a Dark Magician, that card's still like five, six hundred bucks. So that could win it for him as well. So I really don't know what's going to win. So far, evenly matched for Ghost from the Past 1 is definitely a good start for them. We got a rookie warrior lady. We've got the dramaturge of Despia, mystical sand. We've got the false fusion and the malefic cyber end dragon. And if you're seeing this Monday tomorrow, we should be opening more of this live on YouTube. Yeah, we're going to be going for the Dark Magician girl or the SDK blue eyes. Why do I have to decide which one we're going to go for first? Call it the SDK blue eyes. Maybe Dark Magician girl. We got the Rocha, the Sunvine healer and the Neshadol genius. That's a pretty good card as well. Ghost from the Past 1 is looking nice. That's all I got to say. Ghost from the Past 2, can you do anything? Can you live up to your previous predecessor? Yeah, predecessor. There we go. And Caliuga, very nice. And as I said yesterday, and with all new sets, this set has not officially released to everyone in terms of non TCG player stores. So you can only sell on there if you are an official OTS store. That's what I couldn't remember yesterday. So the prices are going to be all good cards and Ghost from the Past 1 so far. This is crazy. But yeah, only OTS stores can post. So the prices are going to be higher. So it's going to look like Ghost from the Past 2 has more value than it actually does because when a lot of these come out, there's not going to be so many four and five dollar cards because when I was doing the prices yesterday. Hockey Fibrex. I can't even talk because we keep getting amazing pulls. Crystron Hockey Fibrex. This was around 12, 13 bucks. I feel like this one could stay around in that range. Might go down a little bit maybe because it seemed like there's not a lot of short prints or maybe any at all in Ghost from the Past 2, which is really good to see. So yeah, keep that in mind. The prices are going to be a little bit higher for Ghost from the Past 2 because there's not a lot of competition yet. So let's just see what we can do. Mass change, very nice. Time for the double barrel. I mean, even though Ghost from the Past 1 right now currently has the lead. This is pretty amazing. Ghost from the Past versus Ghost from the Past 2. This is really fun. Hopefully we can pull a Ghosture from each. That'd be pretty amazing. Tindy Spirit, Chaos Graff. We've got the Plunder Patrol brand and the Chorus in the sky. Very nice. Very nice. I'm so excited to be opening this. Probably, this is probably going to be called like Ghost from the Past week or something because we're going to be opening a lot of Ghost from the Past 2, I should say. A little bit of Ghost from the Past 1 remiss. Very nice. This might be all the Ghost from the Past 1 that we open actually, but that remiss, that's literally been a good card in every single Ghost from the Past pack so far. That's pretty insane. We got the Go. This card was worth like five bucks. It might be one that's going to come down, but we'll see. Despot 001 in the 2. Man, same Ghost from the Past 1 and 2. I'm just going to call them 1 and 2. How about that? That's going to make it a little bit easier on me. Backup Secretary, Metaphos Gold Drive. We've got the Time for the Flyback and the Hyretic Sky Dragon Overlord of Helopolis. That's the first time. Helopolis. Helopolis. That's the first one we pulled that wasn't like amazing. So that's pretty good. Stein. We got the, it seems like it's the fifth card in Ghost from the Past 1. It's the third card in here. Interesting. Fossil Warrior Skull Knight. Okay, that's a very good card for Ghost from the Past 2. Zombie World's also good and the Yang Zing. Wow, this is a good opening, guys. So remember, if you just want to enter that giveaway, guys, you can win all this stuff. I will be announcing winners on the community tab in a week or two. Something like that. Photon Thrasher. Admission. I thought yesterday was going to be the best giveaway ever. Let's check this one out. Okay. The back of it. Oh my goodness. Talk about giving away some good cards, guys. The back of it does have some scuffing on it, but overall, let's see. Whoa, a little bit of a nick up there. Wow, we're giving away Ghost from the Past 1. Okay. Well, I'm regretting this a little bit. Not going to lie. Ghost from the Past 1. We already have one though, so I can't really complain. Beautiful.  So yeah, not perfect condition, but I'm sure you guys won't mind if you win it. Good luck winning this one, Ghost from the Past 2. This is not going to be easy. Let's go. We've got the Red Dragon Archfiend. Ghost from the Past 1. Sin, let's talk about Ghost from the Past 1 coming in clutch. We've got evenly matched, the best non-Ghost Rare. And then we've got Dark Magician, the best Ghost Rare. Un-be-lievable. Insane rookie warrior lady. That's crazy. Diameter of Despia. That's good. Dragon Overlord because of Doom. And the Rare Fish. So we just pulled like a $600 card. Woo, all right. We are on fire with our pulls from Ghost from the Past this week. It is hopefully we're going to have that good of luck when I actually open packs for myself. Because whenever I say, oh, we're giving away all the packs, I pull everything. I pull the amazing stuff for you guys. So yeah, that's pretty cool. Metaphos counter. We've got the Miracle Synchro and Raid Wrapper. You guys remember how long we went without pulling a Ghost Rare out of Ghost from the Past 1? And now we've pulled two in like the last week. That's insane. We pulled the Firewall recently. That was nuts. The Quintet Magician, the Masterflare Hyperion. That was good. Visionary Vion and the Brute Enforcer. This is our, yeah. Just into that giveaway, guys. I know you guys won it, yeah. So keep an eye on the community tab. Make sure to turn on your notifications if you want to win that thing. Geertown with the Mine Mole. Look at the Emergency Teleport. Very good guard. And Hierotic Sky Dragon of Lord of Helipopolis. Helipopolis. I cannot say that name right. All right, Dark Magician Girl Pack. Will the Sapsling Amazing Salamangreat Blaze Dragon. Poison year. We've got the Reptia Dragon. The Plunder Patrol List. And the duo, Dawn King Galliuga. Can't believe we pulled a Dark Magician, guys. Don't worry. I'm totally happy about giving that away. Don't worry. I'm not salty about having to give that away, Gardner. I'm actually kind of happy because I've always wanted to pull that one, Legatus. Another good card from Ghost of the Past One. These packs are crazy. I've always wanted to pull that one in a giveaway video, and we just never did. And it just took a year. We did it a year later. Vampire Kingdom Advanced Ritual Art. What an opening! A luber! A luber! And Crystal Hockey Fibrex. And Ghost Red Dark Magician. And evenly matched. This is like an even better giveaway than yesterday. I think this is more value. Because with that Dark Magician covering so much. Oh my goodness.  Insane video. Backup Secretary, make sure you guys subscribe to the channel if you guys want to see more awesome content, more awesome giveaways, Arm Dragon Level 10. Hopefully we'll be pulling some amazing stuff that you guys can win in the future as well. Because we got some great luck for the giveaways recently. Mathematek Edition, the Eshuna, the Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon. I didn't even mention this in the first video. We pulled this, and I completely went over it. When I was in the editing, I was like, wow, that's actually a good card. I just completely ignored it. We got a Monju as well, and Mystical Shine Ball. Very nice. All we need now is to pull a Ghosthroud of Ghosts from the past two, because then we'd have one on each. Could we pull the Dark Magician roll and the Dark Magician in the same video? Ojama Country, Madolche Fresh, just start the mass change too. Dragoonity, I don't even have a hair. Very nice. The hair. Let's see if we can get the Dark Magician girl. I was going to say her hair, and then I was like, that's really creepy. Let's not say that. Deku Tagur Hitzel, another incredible card. We were pulling really good stuff. Chimerite Attack, Vampire Domination. This has been one of the best Ghosts from the past openings I've ever done. Like in terms of number one. So that's pretty crazy. Sunvine, the Tackle Crusader, Buster Dragon, and then of course we have two, which is just the better set in general. Wow. Ghosts from the past one. Actually going to be Ghosts from the past two right now. It's way ahead, because the Dark Magician, unless they get a Ghostrare, they're going to lose. Sunnovellandrius, even with that Eluber and with that Christiane Halkofiberax, they're not even close. It's going to take a Ghostrare and like a good one, like a really good one, because even some of the good ones are not that expensive. Like Dad was only 200 bucks, I think, which is not going to bring you back in this matchup. Dark Magician is just that good. So you're going to need like a blue eyes, a Dark Magician girl, red eyes, I think are the level of Ghostrare you need. Cosmo Tinker and the Time Thief Hack, Hierotic Sun Dragonlord of Helipolius. Oh, and the Star Knight arrived. I thought that was an evenly matched again. I was like, man, this is insane. Next pack, 50 packs of Ghosts from the past total. We got Paladin, we got Fawesome Machine, Skull. We got the Yang Zing, Prana, and the Ghostrick, Jiangxi. Wow. Wow guys. What a video. Back to back days, insane Ghosts from the past pulls. Ark Brave, we got the Metallic. I got some of them, I threw out the Fogblade, and Time Thief Double Barrel. Fogblade's very good. Next pack, this one is the Red Dragon Archfiend artwork. We've already pulled that one, so we got seven more we need. We pulled that, and Dad, we need to pull seven other Ghost shares to have pulled them all. Shell Knight, number 60. The Vampire Takeover, cool, cool. Now what will be inside? Regular Ghosts from the past, so far, insane pulls. Sun Avalon, Hierotic Seal, Resonator Engine, Hierotic Seal, Galaxy Eye Cypher X Dragon, a pretty good card. I think it's over a dollar, so therefore a good card in terms of the money. We got the Yang Zing. I don't really know if it's actually very good in advance for a while. I guess it's pretty good if it's still a dollar at this point. Fossil Fusion, and Didi Lamia, very cool. What can we pull in the next pack? This isn't gonna be too long of a video, I don't think, because I didn't, I took all the packaging out beforehand, which is a good idea. It takes so long. Cosmojo, we got the Metapholes, Stealing, Majolche Printing Sist, and the Red Superdiver Dragon, literally every good card from Ghost of the Past. I think we've pulled, besides, of course, the other four Ghost Trairs, but besides those, we pulled everything. Sanctuary in the Sky, the nine pillars. We got the Time Thief Timber Wall, with the Didi Necro Slime, and the brand. Who remembers when we were pulling Necro Slime as comments, and we were looking for them? The Necro Slime and the Fluffle Wings. You guys know what set that was from? Let me know in the comments if you remember that. All those openings. Dark Weapon, Xyz, the Tin Can. We got the Time Thief Hack, and the Lavalval Salamanda. What a video, guys. This is gonna be pretty awesome. Nirvana High Paladin, we've got the Flint Craggar, Elemental Hero, Nios Kluger, the Prana, and we've got Ghost Trick, Jiangshi, yet again, very cool. Still have maybe like eight, 10 packs left, out of our 50 total, so we've kind of gone through these pretty quick. There's only five cards, so it's pretty easy to fly through them. They're really easy to open to. Start up Sunseed Twin, we got the Sun Avalon Bloom, and Time Thief Adjuster, literally. That was the last one. I keep thinking that's all the cards, and there's one extra card, and we pull it. Every single card from Ghost of the Past, we've got Rookie, Warrior Lady, the Spectre, the Necro World Banshee, I think was pretty good. The Ddu-du-du, Ddu-du-du, different card. Ddu-du-du, Ddu-odan, King Kaliuga, and the Fa-shula Fusion, very nice. Let's see what we can do with this final pack. Can we pull something amazing? The Sun Avalon Bloom, Hieratic Seal of Reflection, the Resonator Engine. Hieratic, wait, this isn't the last pack, did I see what was the last pack? I feel like I said it was the last pack. We're not even close to the last pack. Wait, we have more packs than I thought. I always think there's less packs left than there really is. Okay, the Tatsun Necro, we've got the Shipwright, we've got the Agent of Life Neptune, the Leftic Cyber End Dragon, and Code X Porter, very cool. Okay, now we have eight packs left. Now I've double-checked, I've triple-checked, we have eight packs left. I've got it this time. I can't wait to pull the Dark Magician, guys. Resonator Engine, Hieratic Seal, amazing. Petting Cessor, and the Legatis. Can we already pull this? But that's the second one, that's also good. Very good. Good, very good, very nice. As I would say, all those things that I say way too much. Domain of the True Monarchs, Box of Friends, Ghost String Mary, we've got the Talkback, or the Trackback, and the Shadow of the Empire. I just want to say Talkback for some reason. I don't know why. That's like I'm a parent of like a 10-year-old. Okay, Metapholes, we've got the Recover of the Molten, and the Starry Night Sky. I've seen that one quite a bit in our day. Five total packs remaining. Dark Magician Girl pack, bring us the luck for Ghost from the Past, too. It's been pretty good mini-box, to be honest. No Ghost, but like everything else has been good. Back to ya. From the case, so okay. I'm hearing crazy stuff about the ratio, so people are telling me, no, it's just two. I think it's anywhere from zero to three at this point, because I've heard of cases with zero. People are getting zero, which is scary. We've pulled three in our first case, and I've heard people with two, so who knows what the ratio's are. We just pulled another Dark Arm Dragon. If you don't get the one from yesterday, you can get the one from today. Dark Arm Dragon, this is like a $1,000 giveaway. 1,000 bucks, but Ghost from the Past one is still winning. It's still pretty close, but let's just take a look at these. Ghost from the Past one versus Ghost from the Past two. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. We beat yesterday. We officially definitely beat yesterday with two Ghost Rays as well, but one, you know, being the dark magician.  One of each time, Thief. I did not expect that, to be honest. I was like, well, maybe we'll pull one, you know. I was hoping for two, but you know, it's just unrealistic. Only 50 packs? There's no way you're gonna pull two, go. Well, I was wrong. Two Ghosts were pulled. We got a pond, we got a Reptia Egg. We got the dark contract and the Pendulum area.  They're gonna be really upset, but let's hope it's two to three. That's what we're hoping for. I think two to three would be great. And Vampire of Vovode, not too many, but also a lot. Oh my gosh, guys. Final pack, Cyber Dragon. We have pulled two dark armed dragons now. Dad really loves us. Woo, let's go. Let's see if we can pull another Ghost shirt in. Let's go and pull three. I mean, we can do it. That's being commented, it's still like this. That gross line, you'll love to see that guy. We got the Dotscaper. Here we go. Final card, don't forget, you guys can enter the giveaway for all of these cards in this video. All you have to do is like the video, be subscribed, turn on notifications, leave a comment down below. Here we go. Mystical Sand. All right, we see a lot of Mystical Sand. That card is not gonna be very expensive. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to subscribe to the channel for more epic content like this. Shoutouts to ZZ, Trusted Cards, Toe & Foe Show, Tomato Juice, Stanley and Mike Nats, Mimic Echo, Daxja, Emus, and Junior Barney, and on this high show, JT Cho, David FJ, and Josh Evans. Thank you guys for supporting the channel, and I'll see you guys next time. Peace.


Okay, I'm here at the dollar zone. Look what I found. You talk about having a great eye for quality being and being an educated consumer. I just want to give a shout out to Commodore Jeff Sanbello and Mr. Kent these in Anthony Laura McFawn Raven the whole gang Look what I found steel just for a dollar each drain de-clog rod Drain de-clog.  Well, this can certainly break through. There's the end Okay, beautiful, you know, I mean Only James the Wizard here has an eye for quality. This is where I got myself and near dear Natalia the heavy steel compass Look at this. What is this? It's a wrench. It's a wrench Practi look at that. It's a wrench I'll be done. Well, they don't have the steel compasses. They don't have the plastic one And they got some fishing tackle sometimes You never know what you're gonna find In Not the corporate owned dollar tree, but the individually franchise owned Larger dollar stores, okay All right, here you got LED baseball cap light You really and here we have a whole host of winter hats Whatever's left of the winter stock got some scarves Think I'll get a scarf mother needs a wide scarf Yeah, let me get it. We get a wide scarf for my mother Hopefully this will be a wide one You know what you know what the problem is she has a problem with scarves to be honest with you They wrap around her neck and it's won't be safe here's a Kind of a patriotic hat Which is interesting. I mean, of course, I couldn't wear this hat. I look silly Here's a pretty one. I Look too silly wearing that The guys will be making fun of me All right, I'm gonna walk around sometimes you get LED bulbs here Bombay is as they say in Spanish Bombay I'm looking for the soldering iron 40 watts Soldering iron that plugs in I have not seen it Yet and this is what all happens is you'll see something once in a big while and You have to take advantage of it. You have to grab more than one because Often management does not know when it will return Okay There's a whole host of Cables, you know for the computer or whatever Super sponge This is not a contraceptive sponge. I don't want you to get the wrong idea Okay, but maybe Maybe one of Donald Trump's girlfriends. Could you use it? Oh, I'm sorry. I said something risque mix mix company. Oh boy, okay Oh These are the best by far the best Traps for any sink that money can buy It never gets clogged because of the nature of the holes Because it's not like a fine mesh like that or like that that gets clogged, right? You notice there's there's steel in between the holes It never gets clogged you just lift it up This and you just flip it upside down into the garbage can and everything just goes falls right out. I Bought several of them for myself and my sister Excellent value Talk about having a sharp eye for quality I'd be in the educated consumer And then we got some kitchen supply items. I don't see any egg separators You got some mom No, this is similar this lemon Juicer sister's juicer is very similar to the one eyes I Sent in Natalia you have one of these in I believe in the box Okay Just gonna walk around Don't see any stainless steel egg separators, but I'm just gonna Walk around the store. I guess if you had to I suppose you could separate eggs with that And here a whole host of look at that metallic Kitchen supplies for a dollar each. How about that spaghetti scooper? I Mean, I don't need any now, but look at them all look at them all Unbelievable Just I'm sorry for taking you out on a tour of a dollar store, but I had to These are the best garbage bags. I've ever bought my life You know, you know how when you you lift up garbage bags, they're so thin that your fingers pass right through the bag Well, not these these are very strong very strong very strong and durable I Buy them here when I need them right now. I'm all stocked up Yeah, I gotta love these Got one for my sister one for myself. I have another one a drink the clogger, but it's plastic Okay You know they all now have frozen foods many of these dollar stores Look at us Punjabi a taste of Punjabi Akari paneer a real taste of Punjab Really spicy Indian cottage with a Ting of pickle flavor. What's the team or a tinge maybe they meant Don't know what that is. It's only ten ounces. Huh? Now if I if I try this Well, I get sick Taste of Punjabi. I taste the Punjabi. I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna try this I taste the Punjabi All right, you know what I'm gonna try this Hopefully I won't throw my guts up it's this Vangana, I wonder if a professional wrestler of Jinder Mahal is this on the road Travels throughout the WWE Right Kent Jason the taste of Punjabi How about that? All right, so we got here coffee mugs. I Notice is a long video, but yeah, whatever It is what it is Taste of Punjabi. I hope I don't throw my guts up.    What do you think? There's turtles. There's beetles. I know wait a minute. This one is better Look at this This one is nicer For one of my my herbs Oh this guy. Look at this guy Look at this guy, man Hey, Mr. Pete Klosson from Bugs of and cyberspace Isn't this be gorgeous For your for your garden for your veggies. Look at this.  I'll take a look at this All right Some frogs There's a giant grasshopper Giant grasshopper. I really hope I don't get sick from this food Is the um the garden supplies? Various kinds Here's some bamboo sticks that I wouldn't make a a god or a mace out of it, but they're not that secure Sandals a bunch of pagan Easter toys Pagan Easter supplies As you can see various pagan Easter supplies. Oh, that's an old-fashioned jump rope there. Look at that with the wooden handles Hmm interesting Maybe I should get one do do some aerobics. That's if I could do it It's only a buck though. Maybe maybe it'll be worth it. What do you think Jeff Zanbello? Let me take a look at this Let me take a look at this It never fails every time I come to this store. This is such a great dollar store This is such a great dollar store And yeah, well these are I wouldn't go snorkeling with these masks and goggles. That's for sure Here you go.   I'm not very good at it. I'll let it go taste Of Punjabi The taste of Punjabi. Oh, I think that's it Let me check on the vases No, no fancy vases No, here you go. Here's the religious section Crystal crystal crucifix Right over here. You got all these various rosaries costume jewelry from the dollar zone Right by near my favorite buffet on the side of book more rule 46 west side of book New Jersey the dollar zone Look at them all. Here's a black one I guess I guess that's it. That's enough


I always hey friends this Dan Stephanie Burke. Welcome to behind-the-scenes Divine it's me to radio today. We're gonna be talking about marriage spirituality Marriage spirituality, so if you're interested in that the hot topic hang in with us before we jump into the show as usual, I want to give you an opportunity for spiritual growth and There's a course the Abilance to called introduction to spiritual theology So it's a disciplined expert exploration of the sacred doctrine proposed to induce the To you know what? I'm not going to read the formal thing. It's about how to become holy But this is for a website for a church for a school not for radio Anyway introduction to spiritual theology taught by St. Alfonso's Pinto Graduate course at the Abilat Institute Abiladesh Institute org Alfonso Pinto, sorry Did I say so Saint Alfonso? Wow, maybe he's the Saint the making he's a Saint maybe Dr. Alfonso Pinto, so wow I think it's I was thinking Alfonso somebody or something. Wow, okay. Well Today, yeah, so let's just go ahead and jump into the show on marriage spirituality Okay, yeah markets that go this is Dana Stephanie Burke Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mine where we lift their Mights parts and minds to heaven to draw on the wisdom of the saints to help us to navigate this tumult of life and Today we're talking about marriage spirituality and what we have are a bunch of questions sent in to us by Folks who are married? Because they have to be married to talk about marriage spirituality, right? About how to deal with marriage spirituality or how to start it or how to fix it or how to solve problems and all that Yeah, yeah, you ready? Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll give you the first one How do so this is about marriage spirituality and spiritual warfare related, right? Okay, so how how do the husband and wife spiritually protect each other specific prayers question mark rosary question? Oh, okay. So how do I husband only spiritually protect each other? Yeah Um Well, it's interesting, you know, we we're blessed to get to do this these marriage retreats and This is a lot of what we teach. You mean divine intimacy marriage retreat. Yeah. Yeah Um, which will tell everybody a little bit more about coming up. Yeah within the show But there's a lot of ways, you know, I think the primary way when I look back at our journey and how we have grown in oneness with First with God and then with one another that's like the primary way that you Protect one another say that one more time. What is the primary way growing in oneness with the Lord individually and then together, right so growing independently spiritually right and then Say the right. I mean, this is really important. It is growing in oneness with one another, right, right? so Right, so it's we're not like Two ships that pass in the night. We're not roommates when we became one in the church when we exchange that sacrament, which is the only sacrament That's can that the husband and wife or the the bride and the groom confer upon each other It's not done by the priest, but it's actually done by the couple We became a new creation and a lot of people don't really Understand that they think it's like a contract or something like that But we actually became a new creation And so in that new creation We need to grow in holiness. We need to nurture that we need to uphold it and strengthen it and work Towards one another constantly in becoming that reality, you know in growing in that reality so It's really important, you know, a lot of people say well, what do I do about my my spouse? They're not in the church. I've had a conversion. He's not in the church She's not in the church or whatever because we hear it from both sides And the first thing is we we individually need to become holy Right, we need to chase after the lord not to the expense of our marriage. We don't leave them behind We don't abandon them. We don't check them off as being a lost cause and just it's me and jesus. It's never that but as I go deeper with the lord my my Desire to be holy and the graces that I receive Then spill out in and through me towards you To help bring you to holiness and the more that you seek after the lord the grace the lord gives you Throat flows in and through you towards me and then we become holier together I remember one of the most beautiful movements of prayer that That it just really changed my life is when the lord first Gave you to me and brought you into my life I was so profoundly grateful That I remember praying to the lord being inspired to pray this prayer right because it's not like it's something that You just kind of grab out of the air But but I prayed to the lord and I said Thank you for my husband Please love him through me please Grant him all the graces that he needs. Please Bring him to the holiness that you desire for him. Please bless him Profoundly through me And I think that's one of the greatest prayers you can possibly pray because what does that do it? It changes you as a as a spouse And then you're giving god permission to love your spouse Towards heaven, right? Yeah, so you answered the question. I think So the so the question was How do husband and wife spiritually protect one another? So You answered the question assuming like blank slate, which is fine And you gave you know important principles That are foundational Um, so I think then we can come up the next level and say, okay husband and wife are both practicing And they both, you know go to mass Weekly their confession monthly. Let's say they're What we might call authentic disciples of jesus. They're Living their life for the lord. I think what you provided is the is the foundational answer. I think to expand on that One when you sin You allow the enemy space in your heart mind and life Yes, when you're a maya when you're the husband and the father Your sin doesn't just affect you It actually provides a doorway into your whole family because You are the the The spiritual head of the family and this is revealed, of course in In scripture and Ephesians 5 and other other passages Where the where the husband is is the one who's going to be held accountable primarily For the for the well-being of the of the marital relationship and thus the family so the the husband in particular The first concern is get sin out of your life And I you know, I'd imagine some people are thinking what how do you do that? Like who does that? You know, but the church assumes presumes that you're doing that for instance We just came through a holy week And then of course divine mercy Sunday and the I mean this show might be heard at a different time, but the principles that still applies That there are great indulgences and things like that that that you can gain through holy week but Only if you are no longer attached to sin and you got a confession and mass and for the intentions of the holy father So the church presumes Constantly that we're fighting against sin and and eventually get free of habitual sin And so if you're a husband and you want to protect your family or provide spiritual cover The most important thing is to get rid of habitual sin because you're you're letting the enemy have space in your heart mind and soul And therefore in it will reverberate to your family sin is never individual never ever ever ever There's not a single sin that anyone commits That doesn't affect the you know, I think Father Bartunek and one of his books talked about the cosmic Effect of sin, it's you know the ripple effects of sin. It it just doesn't because It's just not possible to sin in isolation. You affect others. You affect god. You affect the demonic realm You know, and which which has its ongoing consequences Yeah, it's really really profound And you know, you said if you want to provide spiritual coverage for your family The thing is is that for for husbands And and I you know, I say this with all compassion Whether you like it or not You're the spiritual coverage for your family for good or for ill, right?  Yeah, right And and so it's really really important To get right with the lord so that you provide that coverage over your family. It's invisible You can't see it, but you will see the fruits of it So let's this is good. So let's just keep building on this because it's not okay. There's more so so then let's say that the foundations are in place what I just said was in place in terms of Legitimate pursuit by the way, I just want to say really quickly This is a divinacy radio. We're talking about marriage spirituality You made reference to an idea that's very clearly articulated in an amazing book. We recently helped bring to print by father Robert Altier Do you remember the title off the top of your head? God's plan for your marriage And it's amazing and it's published by Sophia press. Yeah, and you can I think you can find it at EWTN's religious catalog Yeah, or you can also pop out spiritualdirection.com and hit the shop button. Yeah Okay, so the next level is Those foundations are taken care of now. Let's talk about okay We've closed all the doors and the windows in our home to protect our family from the enemy because we're we're In a healthy sacramental marriage. We are pursuing holiness all of that Beyond that a daily rosary with the family is I think probably the next level of activity so Praying the rosary invokes Course to blessed mother Who is also terror of demons along with st. Joseph? And she will provide Just abundance of protection for the family through her presence your intercession for her and the enemy hates her Above all creatures because she is their their primary nemesis in terms of just humanity, right Aside from Jesus who's fully god and fully man So daily rosary with the family is an entire rosary damn No, no, i'm just talking about one of the mysteries I know but but what i'm i'm being a bit facetious because I think for a lot of catholics unfortunately because You know, I was one of them um This idea of oh just sunday mass And doing grace before meals means you're a good catholic. Oh, yeah, right, right like that's sufficient And it's not sufficient giving a nod to jesus. Come on winking the nods all it's required Yeah, we like you jesus Yeah, no it doesn't work like that. No, we get we and and our lady every time she appears In those private revelations that have been approved that every single time she holds up that rosary She's saying this is your weapon. Yeah, you must pray this it will protect you Um, and it helps to draw your heart and mind to the to the mysteries of christ Yeah, you know why is it powerful because our lady said so because it has grace behind it But it also reminds us who's we are. Yeah, it reminds us who's we are and what the lord did for us Yeah, so we need to fill our hearts and minds and the hearts and minds of our children Um with the truths of the faith, okay when we get back from the break I'm going to give you another book title that is fantastic spiritual warfare and the family I think it's the title of it Or but i'll check in during the break and we'll let you know about that book because that's a whole another level of um awesomeness in terms of Husband and wife i'm providing spiritual cover for the family and the children. So we'll be right back um Kathleen Beckman's look. Yeah, are you looking? I think it's on the shelf You're gonna check Yep, while she's checking. Let me tell you about another opportunity. Well, it's actually related to what we're talking about in the show Divine intimacy and marriage retreat november 3rd through the 5th of 2023 Shrine of the most blessed sacrament handsville alabama. It's divine intimacy and marriage retreat You can go sign up go to spiritualdirection.com check the events page Yeah, uh So go to spiritualdirection.com check out events and divine intimacy and marriage retreat november 3rd to the 5th Shrine of the most blessed sacrament amazing place handsville alabama, right right and amazing fruit Yeah, amazing fruit, you know this last one Um, we had a hundred couples Then we ended up with I don't know like 60 couples in our follow-up course after that on spiritual warfare and marriage and just the transformation and marriages we heard folks that were you know all all levels of Stability in their marriage from we had some engaged couples. We had some young couples We had couples who had been married 60 years. We had everybody in between We had those that were strong and wanted to get stronger and we had those that were on the brink of Falling apart and they came and got back on the right track. We actually had two that came to us We don't know about everybody, but we had two that came to us specifically and said I was going to leave and because of this it was been so Transforming gave me hope it gave me hope and I've moved back into the bedroom or I've decided not to leave And things are are changing and moving the right direction So there's just so much goodness there and it's not like anything else that you've done We didn't model it on anybody else's marriage retreats. This is purely the fruit of Our own experience deep prayer um The interior castle Just all of these really um deep truths about what it means to be one Uh and to grow in oneness. So it's called divine intimacy and marriage retreat Ascent to oneness this little play in words. Do you find the title of the book? Okay, let me try this down family guide to spiritual warfare Okay All right, let's head back into the show and your markets that go welcome back. This is dan and stephanie berk You're listening to divine intimacy radio. We're talking about marriage spirituality before the break I mentioned a book that I wanted to make sure I got the title right to We bring it to all of our events because it's it's that good family guide to spiritual warfare by cathleen beckman Family guide to spiritual warfare and that's published by sophie and suppress as well And you can find that at uh, awtn religious catalog. I believe spiritual director.com shop Yeah, either one. Um, and she really knows what she's talking about. She she's deep in the spiritual warfare warfare realm warfare So anyway, she really knows crazy wabbit. Uh, so she's she's um She's the head of uh, deliverance ministry or in orange county. Yeah the organizer of deliverance ministry for the prohibition van in Orange county, so she knows the this world inside and out So I think um, so back with the question we've been talking through is how to husband-wise spiritually protect one another specific prayers rosary There's one that'll be a surprise to people and I think you should talk about it Oh, okay, and that is how is it? So the so you and I were Asked to be a part of exorcism ministry and the priest who invited us asked he said that He wanted us there because he knew about our life of faith, but also the strength of our sacramental marriage So when in marriage your strength against the enemy For one another, you know to do the right thing It occurs You are strengthened when sacramental graces increase Right. How do they increase? Yeah Well, there's a number number of ways. Yeah, you know and and so I I appreciate the question because I just think it's so important and I I work with women in this area through deliverance and healing ministry through direction We talk about it at the spiritual At the divine intimacy and marriage retreats that we do Each year we do a couple of years so check out our our site to make sure you stay in touch with when we're offering those and get involved because you it'll change your life, but There's two ways and I'm going to talk about the one that probably everybody hates the most and it's this idea of being subject to one another Ephesians 5 And and I just cannot express how How incredibly powerful this is I don't talk about it a lot with the end, but You know, I'm a very strong woman scale of 1 to 10 37 Probably 37 million, right? Um, I I'm not a wallflower Um, even though I'm I'm kind of a mixed of introvert and extrovert Um, I do have a very strong strength strength of will And plenty of opinions, right? You know when my when my daddy raised me Um, and unfortunately, you know, I've already gone through healing when I when I'm about to say What I'm about to say I've already gone through healing for this, but He wanted a boy. He told me that so he raised me In strength like stand up for yourself and be strong and have opinions and all of those things, right? so Being married to someone who is also very strong and has plenty of opinions and everything I had to learn how to die to myself To allow you to be the spiritual head of our home And that doesn't mean that I always I mean not just the spiritual head just the head of our home just in the day to day the You know that and it's not that we don't collaborate a lot It doesn't mean that we don't talk and you don't ask my opinion But in the end the the lion's share of the responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders And if I circumvent that and if I manipulate and emasculate you and And crush you and make sure that what I want gets done I'm destroying our family I'm destroying our marriage from within and the fruit of it is disaster It's just happens over and over again in marriage. You see it Men capitulate because they want peace in the home and they want peace in the bedroom and women are manipulated and by fear primarily I think And and certainly the culture doesn't help of thinking well I've I've got to get all this under control because nobody else is doing it So it's left to me, right? So the enemy just gets right up in the middle of a couple And divides them and destroys their intimacy their their goodness their oneness From the inside when we get that out of order, right? My peace my joy There's so much fruit in allowing you to be head of the household And it allows me to feel safe And I cannot express that enough my heart feels safe by allowing you to lead my heart My spirit my mind all that I am Feels safe and in right order when I allow you to lead and it doesn't mean I agree with everything But it just brings a peace in between the two of us That allows us to then come together in peace as well, which is the second part of this The second part of this is in the bedroom and It is true It is theologically true That when a husband and wife are in a state of grace And they engage in the marital act There are sacramental graces that flow between the husband and the wife that strengthen the marriage because The marital act is both unitive and procreative. It's not just for babies And it's not, you know, just to have fun It actually brings you together as one And creates a stronger bond between the two of you and the two of you and god And the two of you and god and it is it's remarkable What it does it's it's just remarkable when you're in a state of grace when you're Truly given over to god as individuals And then as one together understanding this is a gift that he's given us and he desires us to be Um close to one another he desires us to engage in this activity that's the way he's designed us, right? I mean the the enemy and society has told you it's dirty. It's bad. It's xyz, right? That's why pornography is rampant. That's why um You just see all the the junk out there that's meant to destroy the unity of a husband and wife in holy matrimony So I love this and I'll I'll kind of close out this this question with this but there's this Beautiful priest that's passed father Lambert and he was being cared by by a bunch of Beautiful holy nuns up in the Birmingham area. He said this to you when he was 90 years old Yeah, but he used to tell other couples he didn't just tell me but Um, he what he said was in marriage there should be sex and lots of it And I would extend that with in a state of grace. Yeah, you know And in service to the to the other it's not about use or abuse. Yeah, right, okay We probably have time for one or two more And maybe I can speak to this next question Do you do you want to talk about? You know praying over one another the sure, you know, I think that's important in this too Yeah, we probably shouldn't shouldn't leave out happen this week, right? Both of us actually. Yeah, both of us and and so do you want to explain about what the realities are there about? The the coverage or I don't know what you're getting at. Okay, so if you have a more specific question or you can just dive into it And I can add okay, so so the thing is is that As one You have authority over me, right? And as one I have authority With you not to circumvent you but your body is my body in a spiritual in a spiritual reality warfare sense in particular We are one person. Yeah And therefore your body, you know, I have authority there and you have authority with my body and my soul and my spirit, right? Right. Yeah, spiritual rights and authority, right? And so when I'm struggling I can go to you and I can say dean I'm in desolation or I'm in spiritual warfare or I'm feeling Stressed and anxious. I'm feeling fearful. You know, I'm hearing Thoughts in my head that are that are telling me that I'm never gonna amount to anything or I'm never gonna be a good mother Or you know, we're never gonna get out of the situation or our children are lost Whatever it is, right that the enemy likes to whisper in our heads I can recognize that that's spiritual warfare. I can come to you and say You know, beloved spouse Dan Burke come will you pray over me? And you can lay hands on me and you can pray over me And you've done it many many many times and every time that I surrender to that and I request it and you provide that coverage and you Command in Jesus name that anything that's affecting me leave me now And go to the foot of the cross and you pray a blessing over me That desolation has lifted that warfare has lifted. I've been strengthened. I've been brought to peace, right? The opposite is also true. You know and and this week you were struggling You'd had a terrible night. Yeah, I just to be really specific so people know. I mean I I had some pretty horrifying things happen to me as a child and Rarely now but occasionally a memory will come back or um, I don't even know what to call it a feeling it feels like You know the same demonic presence is there and it's not fun Yeah, it's not a minor thing. It's not fun. And so it happened this week And so I asked Stephanie If she would pray over me and she did. Yeah, because we were both up early for prayer Yeah, and you said hey, you know when you get your coffee would you mind coming and so I and and I want to I wanted to talk about what a beautiful moment it was for us because You know, I asked you what's going on.  We were running out of time, but I think we have a little bit to cover that I'm just saying, you know, what are you feeling? What's coming up? Oh, it's a type of fear or anxiety or whatever is so we said in the name of jesus And you repeated it. I renounce all spirits of fear all spirits of doubt or despair or narcissism Which is the opposite of love, you know, so we went down that road And we renounced any lies and we replaced them with the truth all in jesus's name and in the power of our oneness And you felt relief and it got better. Oh, yeah, absolutely was relieved and it did get better Pretty quick there. So that's just another way Of providing spiritual cover and is doing is essentially engaging in spiritual warfare Yeah on behalf of our spouses. So with that we're out of time If you're interested in going deeper in your marriage or improving your marriage or saving your marriage Go to go to spiritualdirection.com We do a couple of retreats a year at our events page on our events page spiritualdirection.com forward slash events divine intimacy and marriage And uh, you'll I have no doubt that you'll be blessed Okay, so with that until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ amen perfect timing