Category: Behold Vancouver

What does it look like to turn a paycheck into purpose? In this episode of Called, Father Mike Schmitz sits down with Chris Green, President of Humanitarian Hotels, to explore how the hospitality industry can become a mission field. 

With over 35 years of experience, Chris shares how true leadership is about seeing people, creating meaningful culture, and using every gift for something greater. Discover how entire hotels are giving 100% of their profits to charity, why authentic service transforms both staff and guests, and how you, too, can step fully into the person God made you to be.

What does it mean to be a missionary in everyday life? 

During the 2024 Good News Conference, Harvard professor and social scientist Arthur Brooks described the work of an ordinary missionary, called not to knock on doors, but to share a faith that is public, normal, and magnetic.

As we discover the lives of the saints, it seems they endured quite a bit of suffering before receiving their eternal reward. It begs the question, is it worth it? 

Fr. Mike reminds us that in this life, we will have suffering. The question is not, can you avoid suffering by avoiding Jesus? The question is, can your suffering be transformed by embracing Jesus?

In this episode, we talk about what it means to weather the storms of life well. Everyone experiences difficult moments throughout their lives and these storms come in all shapes and sizes. In each one, we have the opportunity to respond from a place of truth and peace instead of fear. We share practical ways we’ve learned to weather the storms in our own lives, from simplifying life to immersing ourselves in Scripture. We also explore how pain, though difficult, can lead us into deeper healing and communion with God. No matter what you’re facing, you are not alone—He is near, and so are we.

Brett’s low this week leads to an extended conversation about the internal critic, a diminishing voice that tends to show up when we least want it: during a work meeting, right before an important exam or in an important conversation with a loved one. Where does the diminisher come from and how can we tell the voice of the enemy from the voice of God? Brett and Jake share their reflections and offer suggestions about how we can react maturely in ways that draw us back to reality and our sonship in the Father.

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Guiding Quote

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. – 1 John 4:18

Key Points

• Brett’s low leads into a discussion about the diminisher voice

• How self-awareness helps us identify the diminisher voice 

• Unhelpful behaviors that we might have in reaction to the voice of the diminisher

• Brett’s shares about fog in Saskatchewan and why this is a great analogy for the inner critic

• Jake and Brett share their definitions of the inner critic or diminisher

• The diminisher viciously attacks our sonship and identity in Father

• The diminisher voice feels so real in the moment, how can we tell what’s from God and what’s not?

• Helpful practices for working against the diminisher in the moment

• How vulnerability with trusted brothers can help you through the fog 

Discussion Questions

1. What stood out to you in this episode?

2. What’s an experience you can recall when you felt the impact of the diminisher voice? What allowed you to recognize it for what it was, either in the moment or later?

3. How long does it take for the effects of the fog to pass? 

4. The next time you feel yourself in ‘the fog,’ what’s a method you can use to prevent you from spiraling? Ideas from the episode are: talk to a trusted brother or friend, affirm someone else, journal the feelings and bring it to the Lord. 

In this episode of the Way of the Heart, we host special guest Bishop Scott McCaig, CC. We dialogue about discerning the internal critic and what voices belong to the enemy, the self, and the Holy Spirit. We discuss how the enemy and the self often condemn us, whereas the Holy Spirit lovingly convicts us of the truth that brings about good fruit in our lives. We distinguish that condemnation leads to shame, but conviction leads to repentance and hope. We also focus on the need to experience the deep love that the Father has for us and His desire for us to lead us into our glory.

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Guiding Quote

“We have to be rooted deeply in a place of sonship, in a place of understanding the father’s love for me. Then I can understand and receive both his affirming voice and his voice of discipline.” – Bishop Scott McCaig

Discussion Questions

1. What stood out to you in this episode?

2. What types of things does the voice of condemnation (whether from yourself or the enemy) say to you personally?

3. Share a moment where you felt that God gave you loving correction.

In this episode, we explore: 1) How anger at God is far more common and intense that you realize; 2) Why you need to work through your anger at God; 3) Your hidden reasons for your anger at God; 4) Why your anger at God is so frequently banished to your unconscious; 5) 16 defense mechanisms that drive your anger at God outside of your awareness; 6) How your anger at God is so often overpowered by your fear of God; and 7) The signs and symptoms of your unacknowledged anger at God.

Be still and know that I am God.   -Psalm 46:10

How much time do you spend in your mind, lost in world of racing thoughts concerning anything and everything but the present moment?

Do you find yourself habitually living in a state of anxious deliberation fueled by past ponderings or future fears— instead of being fully present to God, yourself and others?

Such unbridled thinking—which 12 Step Programs refer to as “stinking thinking’” and Buddhists call “the monkey mind”—literally keeps us “beside ourselves”—instead of resting with a centered awareness of both God’s within, and all around us.

Lately, I’ve become increasingly aware of how difficult it is to stay present to the present, of how quickly one can drift into a no man’s land of fearing, fretting, and fantasizing. This point was driven home last Sunday morning as I sat on the front porch of my sister’s Mississippi bungalow gazing contentedly at the sugar white beach and sparkling Gulf waters before my eyes. All was well with my soul as I enjoyed a contemplative moment of silence basking in the majesty of God’s creation and the hush of his calming presence.

With lightning speed, my thoughts turned to the day’s news of hurricanes, earthquakes and a potential war with North Korea, and just that fast — as though a switch had been flipped — a wave of adrenaline-fueled unrest washed over me. I was instantly aware that I had surrendered a beautiful moment of gratitude and peace-filled joy to a more familiar (and less healthy) state of mind: the anxious preoccupation with something external to me—something that pulled me off center and away from resting in God’s holy presence.

As the week went on, I began to take note of how much time I was spending off-kilter and outside of myself via chronic negative thinking, and how little time I was resting in God from moment to moment.

Glancing at the culture around us, it’s pretty apparent that I’m not alone in this problem.

So why is letting our thoughts run amok such a bad habit?  Because it keeps us living beside ourselves, instead of in what St. Paul called the “inner self”—the inmost center of our being that is made to “be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:16,19). It is only in the inner self, which Jesus called our “inner room” (Mt. 6:6) that we can truly come to know “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” and experience the “breath and length and height and depth” of that love (Eph. 3:18).

Everyone wants that, right? So why do we avoid our inner room?

Because going into the inner self also means that we will go to the places that are weak, poor, wounded, and sinful—the painful places we need to enter with God, so he can save us, heal us, and fill us with his love and mercy.

The well-known Orthodox priest Fr. Josiah Trenham made waves on social media recently with a powerful message about what it means to live out one’s Christian faith in a broken world. Fr. Trenham is a father of 10 and the founder of Patristic Nectar, an outlet that aims to “bring the wealth of Sacred Tradition to a generation attuned to listening rather than reading.” 

Every person has a portion of the world given to them by Christ

to make beautiful.

For some, that portion might only be a cubicle, but that’s the cubicle where Jesus’ name must be glorified. And if you do that, you can change your world.

If people know that when they go by that cubicle, there’s a person there who loves them, who will stop what he’s doing to listen to them, and who will pray for them, the world around that cubicle can be radically changed. 

So, this is what I want my sons to do: I want them to be human beings … to be a human being means to live with God in everything. That’s what human beings were created to do.

Looking back, looking forward

I wish I had heard Fr. Trenham’s advice years ago when I worked in a cubicle. Back then, life often felt void of meaning. I’d like to think his wisdom would have inspired me to make my cubicle a warm, welcoming place with some cool artwork on the walls, perhaps a scented candle or two … maybe even a cozy chair in the corner. 

But most importantly, this ideal cubicle would have had me in it — fully present with a prayerful attitude, working hard, and welcoming my coworkers with a smile (and even a hug when appropriate). 

Sadly, I look back on my years in a cubicle as a time when I wasn’t in tune with all the beauty that was available to me. I shirked work and complained about my boss and coworkers. I also gossipped. A lot.

I look back on those years as a sad, wasted time when changing my ways and following Fr. Trenham’s advice would not only have had a positive impact on those around me, it would have made me happier and more fulfilled too. 

We live in an extroverted world, and as an introvert and a writer, I love the idea of shutting out the rest of the world for several hours each day to write about faith. I often find it beneficial to remember what the Prophet Elijah experienced in 1 Kings, 19:12 when he found God’s presence not in earthquake or fire but in “a light silent sound.” 

God speaks to us in those silences, which, in all the bustle and noise of modern life, can be hard to come by. As Catholics, our faith brings us to an experience of God through communal worship in the liturgy, as well as through parish life and the Works of Mercy. But for a Catholic introvert like me, it can be a challenge to find the balance between that active engagement with the world and the quiet contemplation I need to sustain me.

Fortunately, our faith connects us with the great Communion of Saints — all those holy souls who have gone before us and still offer us their wisdom and guidance in living a holy life. Whether or not any of them were true introverts is a question lost to history, but the saints can teach us valuable life lessons about how to be our best introverted, spiritual selves.

RELATED: How to Make Friends With a Saint

Saint Clare of Assisi

Clare lived an introverted expression of one of the more extroverted of religious orders, the Franciscans, who were actually among the first orders to reject the cloistered life. They begged in the streets, preached in the towns, and made themselves living examples of the Christ-centered life.

But Saint Clare and the sisters of her order (commonly known as the Poor Clares) lived in a cloister. This was more in keeping with the tradition of the day for all religious orders, men and women. Francis and his brothers were considered eccentric for the public nature of their lifestyle; for Clare and her sisters, it would have been scandalous. They were able to live out the Franciscan charism from within the cloister walls.

The Poor Clares, like their Franciscan brothers, were an order devoted to being public examples of a Gospel-centered life. And like Francis, Clare rejected the idea of the cloister as protection against the evils on the outside. It was a spiritual refuge – a place, as Jesus said, to withdraw to her inner sanctum, close the door, and pray to God in secret. For this Catholic introvert, my prayer time can be like that cloister — a place of quiet, solitary retreat when I need spiritual rejuvenation.

Saint John the Baptist

A fiery, outspoken prophet might seem like an odd example of an introverted saint.