I'm extremely cynical and it's done nothing but ruin my life. It's funny because it was only early today that I really decided to make a change, and then this video gets uploaded. God is working in my life, I can feel it.
A dental practitioner just recently retired, how happy was I to hear “Cure for Cynicism” using dental analogy. Truly, Bishop Barron, the potential cure for cynicism depends upon our focus and grace to choose rightly. In 40+yrs of practice, those focused on health behaviors sustained health. Those focused on the problems tended to jump from problem to problem. Similarly, may we love rather than focus on the remedy for the alternative!
I find that when I’m being cynical, I close my mind to learning and growing. I see the world as I am in my cynicism not as the world is in reality.I l found the Bishop’s perspective on this topic very helpful. Very timely given current world events.
Your analogy of the mindset you find yourself in when you are cynical is spot on. Thanks for putting it in words. My cynicism comes out more often-likely a result of the COVID Reaction as I call it-and it just feels like extreme apathy. It is forgetting about the Resurrection and I have to recollect myself with my consciousness and my soul. Your commentary and specific definition were on point so thanks .
Dear Bishop Robert Barron, I don’t always agree with you, but I do love you. Thank you for being a Bishop. I’m praying for you. Please pray for me too.
Thank you dear Lord for raising and inspiring a prophet in our millennial generation who seems to take for granted the TRUTH about our faith and purpose of our life...
One of the best advantages of going to morning mass at church is being unplugged and focus on the Eucharist for 30-40 minutes. However I do watch your daily gospel reflection before mass to focus my thoughts.
Dear Bishop: I never miss any of your videos... I deeply enjoy and learn from all of them. But I believe this episode on "the cure for cynicism" should be watched by everyone without exception!
Let’s keep pure hearts. There’s no space for cynicism or negativity in a pure heart. Bless us Father, keep our hearts Yours. Keep the poison away. May only your light enter and fill us full. Thank you, I love you. Amen
This is an eye opener for many of us and I believe I fall into the trap of cynicism more often than not. Right now with the war in Ukraine I realize how tough life is for many but the resilience of the people there have impressed me and they have hope for the future. Thanks Bishop Barron for a wake-up call. I needed it. 💕
Thank you Bishop Barron for this video. I needed this. Everyday I spend time in prayer and reading the bible, and yet im still surrounded by negativity. I hope to learn more from this video. Thanks for all you do! Have a blessed Monday. 💙💚
Thank you for this video. With the 24/7 news cycle, it's easy to get bogged down in cynicism and negativity. However, I do my best to focus on the positive stories and shut off the TV or Internet when it all gets to be too much. Each of us has to do our part to be the change we want to see in the world. God bless you, Bishop Barron! I appreciate your thoughtful and profound words of wisdom.
Interesting talk. Thank you Bishop for emphasizing what I have always found soul soothing which is removing all my social media accounts during Lent and advent. I recall when I started doing it my friends made jokes about it but when I look back I am grateful to God for giving me that courage to sacrifice and get closer to him during those times. I not only gained alot by the simple act of sacrificing. Friends, try it even for a week end, it not only give you inner peace and it teach one a discipline of letting go. Thank you Bishop Baron🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
This is one of the Best talks! :) all your analogies dear Bishop Barron are very helpful! The cavities, the teeth… 👌 this visual helps tremendously in understanding this concept on a deeper level. Thank you also for mentioning to “put love there. When you see a situation where there is no love, we’ll, you put love there”…. Wow. Just what I needed to hear today. :). And every day. Blessings and love and hugs thank yous
I was very glad to see you speak in person on Friday. I have watched everything recorded of yours from various sources. Staying centered is not without enjoyment. The joy is in finding that there is already someone there. Profoundly appreciative.
Its hard sometimes due to being surrounded by negative family members.. I try my best to help out and focus on the good things and listen to positive worship music. I pray for them everyday. They are very helpful and teach me good things, though. Have a blessed Monday. 💙💚
Please pray for me and for my godmother Diane and for all of our families and friends and neighbors...for conversion and salvation and holiness and healing
My two FAVORITE theologians are Bishop Barron and Dennis Prager. I don't listen to anyone as often as them. They both have souls that come thru their words and voices that just feel like love, wisdom and truth.
I love your reference to the good in all things, when they are treated in their proper manner, for their proper purpose. Reminds me of a very simple analogy an older gentleman told me when I was young, 'battery acid is great to start your car, just don't drink it'. God bless, Bishop.
I tend to be pessimistic so it takes real effort to not fallback to that way of thinking. It's a daily struggle. But I think part of our "job" as Christians is "put love there" as Bishop Barron notes and try to "rise above" every day.
Did you notice the Bishop’s remark to Brandon? Almost offhand…”I bet you could answer this, Brandon. You’re so good at this.” 😃A superb affirmation! What a good boss!❤️
I absolutely love to clean things up, make order out of chaos, but recently was told “who was I to judge and “pray for a persons soul”. As I thought, by all my neighbor had told me and the way she spoke of others that she didn’t believe in God, then accidentally it came out to her what I thought and how I felt when she spoke so awfully of others.
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.” “Yeah! That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.” I don't ever want to be the Pharisee referring to the publican. And pray to the Holy Spirit to give me the wisdom to keep my mouth shut when I should. Bishop B is great. But Brandon really has a talent for guiding the conversation on topic
In my view very few people are so balanced that they can look at all the world tragedies in every area of life & can accept it & believe totally in the Lord, in His Love & promises & experience joy
I was a leader in a parish prayer group that had a woman that was older who had no computer. Wow! How could she interract with the world, but she sure seemed to be secure and happy...
Absolutely! Me too. I deleted Facebook and Instagram a year ago and went off of all news for Lent. It has been absolutely life-changing and I doubt that I will ever go back. It is as if I am 10 years old again. This, along with daily Mass, has completely changed my perspective on everything.
I slow down around accidents in case there’s something on the road that I need to avoid. I’m not a voyeur, I’m cautious. Am I the only driver who thinks this way?? And if traffic has sped up, of course I’ll pass by at that speed.
It's _smart_ to be cautious then. It's not just accidents, either. We do the same thing when it's merely road construction, don't we? Because the usable lanes have been reduced and also because there are people concentrating on doing their jobs, so there's probably a greater chance of accidents.
18:00-18:48 I totally agree. I think the refusal to acknowledge progress is rooted in a demand a lot of people in black communities have from their youth. Because they're born in a low-income area, or they aren't like famous people, or they belong to a race that is not the majority, they feel fate has dealt them a bad hand and owes them. But how can we play hardball with God about changing the past? In my childhood I think it was easy for me to fall into a cynical mindset after I started to witness my peers fall into certain behaviors. I felt alone because it was like I was witnessing mass hysteria and was the only one left who wasn't following self-destructive fads. I was stuck in a loop of analysis because the grief was so close to home, and there was nobody to give me structure through something different. I guess I never fully recovered from that way of thinking.
_I think the refusal to acknowledge progress is rooted in a demand a lot of people in black communities have from their youth._ In America, at least, progress has been far, _far_ too slow. Besides, just look at recent history. A half-century ago, the Republican Party adopted their notorious "Southern strategy" of deliberately wooing which racists. That worked *great* for them. That worked so well for the Republican Party that they _still_ use it, today. And they've branched out to using other forms of bigotry, too, because it _works._ It gets bigots to vote against their own best interests. *It still works!* They've branched out to faith-based thinking in other ways, too. Because people will let them do _anything,_ if they think those politicians are supporting their god, somehow. Even the anti-abortion movement was started because right-wing politicians were trying to find the political power to get tax-breaks for their racially-segregated private schools, and "pro-life" just polled better than what they _really_ wanted. (Admittedly, that was _already_ a position of the Catholic Church - just like their prohibition on divorce and capital punishment. But for the most part, Protestant evangelicals didn't give a crap about abortion until it became _political._ And you don't hear Catholics rallying against divorce, do you? It's become political for most of _them,_ too.) I'm a straight white man in America - not born rich, but otherwise with _every_ advantage. And yet, I'm pissed as hell about this stuff! I'm 71-years-old, and I've been fighting it all my life. I can't even _imagine_ how angry I'd be - and how despondent - if I were black, myself. But I still think that most people _try_ to do the right thing. They might be inherently bigoted, they might believe whatever religion they were taught to believe as a child, they might be ignorant and end up persuaded by people who are just trying to _use_ them,... but they do _want_ to be good people. When I was a kid, I used to accuse my parents of being racist, and they would just _indignantly_ deny it. Then, they would turn around and immediately say something racist! That just drove me crazy. (Note that we lived in a small Nebraska town. _Everyone_ was white in our town, and _everyone_ was Christian - except me - as far as I could tell.) They couldn't even seem to understand what racism _was._ They just knew that it was supposed to be bad. And since they weren't bad people, they _couldn't_ be racist. Heh, heh. As I say, that used to drive me crazy. And yes, they bought into Republican propaganda hook, line, and sinker. My Dad fought in World War II, and he was a huge fan of FDR. I know he voted for John F. Kennedy, too, because I remember asking him in 1960. But when the GOP adopted their "Southern strategy," he immediately switched political parties and bought into every lie they told him. (And as I say, we weren't even in the South.) Sorry about the book! My point is just that cynicism is understandable. But most people aren't as bad as they seem. And if we give up trying, then we'll never accomplish anything. I'm an atheist, and I strongly oppose faith-based thinking, because faith-based thinking is destroying my country and my world. But someone else's religion is their _own_ business, as long as they don't harm anyone else. And I'm happy to work with religious people who agree with me about other things. Just because we disagree about something, that doesn't make them bad people. I'm still convinced that most people _want_ to do the right thing.
We all need to detox from time to time from social media. I don’t post much but I will be on it all day long looking at memes, inspirational quotes and advertisements.
I suggest that you read Matthew 7: 1-5 as the following examples of Yahweh/Jesus slaughtering babies and the unborn: by drowning in (Genesis 7: 22); burning to death in (Genesis 19: 24 ); putting to the sword in (1 Samuel 15:3 & Numbers 31: 17) and putting to death just to show off in (Exodus 11:5) is far worse than anything in that bill.
@@nightyew2160 All I am doing is pointing out the hypocrisy of Christians who read Numbers 5: 11-31 and the verses in which Jesus slaughters babies and the unborn, plus the fact that their god supposedly designed a womb that has spontaneously slaughtered close to a quarter of all the unborn from the dawn of humanity and then dishonestly assert that the Christian God is "pro life". So what's your reason for advocating for a person to have the right to use another person's body for their survival without permission?
There is a “Bishop Barron ‘Bot’ “ spamming this comment stream . I am Trying not to be cynical , but it is a regular occurrence and it is getting rather tedious!
Sometimes I feel as if progressophobia is in the church. So much progress has been made in the church in terms of relationships with protestants, Jews, science, indigenous peoples across the world and there's a plethora of right-wing Catholic and protestant media that sees this as something negative.
Being skeptical when for example it appears that maybe a person in power is becoming divinized in the nation they hold power in is different than being cynical about it. What about having a bit of only healthy cynicism when trusting everyone else in the world not to be cynical. Bishop Barron here must be talking about how that is necessary.
Misery loves company. The moment we are born we are struggling to survive. Complicated. We love our egos. It’s our “ go to” to survive. At 62 I just keep looking up and forward .
I don’t think we can avoid being cynical to a certain extent bc of all the EVIL going on in the world. But as Christians we also have hope in God for He is good and He’s greater than the evil, and we wait for His promises to be fulfilled. We just keep praying and hoping and we leave the rest to God bc God is always faithful to His promises. As the Bishop said, where there’s evil, there’s also a greater good. Similarly, where there’s sin, there’s also grace.
I can totally relate to the "car wreck" analogy. I must confess that I tend to subconsciously relate the size of the pile-up with the spectacle I expect to see, like "I've wasted this much petrol stuck in traffic, I better get a good show (i.e. accident scene) to make up for it"...
Bringing order out of chaos! Sounds similar in a low level way of God's bringing creation from chaos... While there is evil or too much media, perhaps, I've found it so wonderful that I can "attend" beautiful cathedrals & services all over the world, w/out going physically that I can not afford or even do at my age. Also, I'm so pleased & amazed at wonderful Christians worldover.
I feel like when I’m being cynical I’m trying to pretend that I don’t care, trying to be less vulnerable. The cost of cynicism is turning away from Christ.
Media consumption tends to make people more cynical. If you haven't been watching TV for the last 40 - 45 years, you might not fit into the world, socially. Basically, since 1980, the baseline of morality made major shifts. The center of gravity, it's drifting wildly. Yet, plate tectonic shifts occurred in the 1800's Industrial Era even before the 1920's and continue until now.
What one learns from watching movies. The expressions, "make me an offer I can't refuse" becomes "don't make me an offer I can't accept" Is that being cynical? Soldiers in battle cannot be bothered when things get messy. It becomes, situation normal, all fouled up (SNAFU). Is that cynical? What one learns when backpacking. Always on the move, one takes all the essentials, only the essentials and about the essentials everything has its place. Everything else is dispensible. Taking time for personal cleanliness is critical, taking time for anything else could cost precious time, cause critical timing to be disrupted. Long distance hikes are risky and minimizimg risk, life saving. Summit timing is critical, descents are more difficult than expected. Everything goes slower in the dark. Is that cynical or well disciplined, seasoned? What one learns from long distance racing. Don't ask where the others are. It is your race against time and space. Don't take congratulations until the race is finished, it robs your edge. Don't skip a training workout. Nothing makes up for missing training. Run safely within your ability. You cannot win or finish if you are seriously injured or dead. Don't get lost. Study the course maps, train on the course, and stay focused not only on performance. Yet, also on the terrain. Learn the race internally by mapping your mind using visualization. Plan, keep to the plan and don't experiment. Only experiment when training. Not to be cynical, Remember that you have a life outside of racing. Don't forget life is not all about adventures.
This is a time to progress and Ascent Mt. Carmel. Rather than take assurances in past victories, we must press on or we will fight the same battles again, beginning again and again as the Ven. Bruno Lanteri would say. Admittedly, I thought it was time to recover, was hoping that the worst was behind us with seeing some early signs of hope about Covid & after two funerals and a wedding. Still, how I long to be free again like Jonathan Livingston's Seagull. Soon.
Oh brother, I could write paragraphs on this. No one is good, not one of us. We’re all selfish, self-centred, cruel, liars, cheats and evil. Turning yourself off from media whatever format it is only blinds you to the truth of what we really are. And trying to find good is a fools gambit, when you live in a sewer and you say to yourself “I’ll look for a sweet piece of candy” you’re going to find a lot of things and you might fool yourself into thinking it’s candy but deep down you know it’s not. We all live in that sewer, quit looking for that candy cause it’s not real.
_No one is good, not one of us. We’re all selfish, self-centred, cruel, liars, cheats and evil._ Bullshit! Someone really did a number on you - I suppose as a child - to convince you of that, and I'm sorry to hear it. I might suspect that it was religion, but I'm an atheist, so I don't want to let my own biases lead me astray. (I've heard religious apologists say such things, though.) But it's nonsense. People are actually better than they act. They _want_ to be better than they are. And relatively few of us even _act_ that way.
Please help me i can't stop being cynical, towards myself and others. I hate going into public, the women don't dress modestly or respecfully anymore not even for church. I want to die a lot. But i have failed to truly live or even love. And my disgust towards men's thoughts makes me want to divorce the world and marry God.
You are not alone. It is so easy to become discouraged as you view the many disorders in this world. I try to cope by praying the rosary, which is very meditative. I also say simple prayers often and read the Bible. Listening to great spiritual leaders like Bishop Barron also helps. Your instinct to draw closer to God is wonderful . God bless you.
If you are feeling suicidal because of the loss of modesty in the world, you should seek a good Catholic mental health professional. Yes, these problems should be disappointing or even saddening, but if you want to die there is something else wrong. Achieving good mental health can be a good step toward the full and loving life God made you to live.
Cara, please see a mental health professional. Not a _Catholic_ mental health professional, but just a mental health professional. (For a professional, their personal religious beliefs are irrelevant.) Mental health is at least as important as physical health. This is _serious._ And you need to go to someone who is trained to diagnose real illnesses. There isn't anything "wrong" with you, no more than if you caught cancer or something. You _can_ get help. You can't change men's thoughts, though we're not all _that_ bad. And it's really none of your business how other women dress - or other men, for that matter. Dress however you like, and let other people dress they way _they_ want. You don't have to marry _anyone,_ if you don't want to. And you don't have to go out in public very _much,_ at least. Some of us are just introverts. There's nothing wrong with that. But you _do_ need to get professional help to get right in your head, again - whether or not you're religious, whether or not you go to church. This is something that can happen to _anyone_ - of any religion or none at all. It's just a human thing. I urge you not to assume that nothing can be done about it. Mental health professionals have heard similar things from many different patients. And if they can't help _everyone,_ they can still help many, many people. Please try.
I think large urban cities play a role as well. Humans weren't meant to live in giant apartment buildings cramped together like ants. Most buildings are function-over-form and tend to either be brutalist or just plain boring. There's very little manmade beauty in big cities (at least in America), and even less natural beauty. Forests and meadows are paved over and replaced with strip malls and office buildings. That sort of environment is bad for our mental, spiritual _and_ physical health. A couple months after the lockdowns started, I started seeing a bunch of articles and social media posts being written by people who lived in big cities. Due to the lack of noise and human traffic, animals were starting to come into cities. Hearing birds sing was an actual novelty for these people, they'd never experienced it before and they were all amazed by it. As someone who's always been surrounded by nature, it was baffling and almost hilarious to me. But more than anything it was just sad. Humans are part of nature, but we've completely removed ourselves from it.
The older I get, the more I get to know human nature, the more cynical I become. Smiling faces sometimes they don't tell the Truth,smiling faces pretend to be your friend Smiling faces don't show a trace of the evil that lurks within....,etc.
The church is a hospital for sinners. Maybe that is why the church always focuses on the sin, especially when you go to confession and there is a line. Some priests will come out and say “I can only hear your sins.” This may seem cynical, but you need to look at intent. The intent is to heal the sinner. Doctors of the Church have been noted to be cynical, or hard, but retrospectively, their intent was to help and heal. It is good to look at intent.
I would argue that conventional news has been prioritising and amplifying bad news and negativity, perhaps even more so than social media. The problem with the latter is the cognitive bias and/or toxicity ( especially for certain "liberal" topics!)
I get a lot of flack for coming onto Catholic posts and, in a friendly way, challenging Catholics on what they believe. It is so difficult for me to do! Yet, the Apostle Paul said, "Whoever preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed." That means that at least one of us has a false gospel! Moreover, Jesus said that those who are condemned will go to the same place as the devil and his angels, that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I love Catholics and do not want them to wind up in hell. That said, I am not here to merely present the Word of God, but to listen. If I am wrong, may the Lord lead me into all truth. May the Lord lead US into all truth. Amen? That said, the Catholics I have conversed with seem to be highly intelligent, yet not one of them seems to understand the concept of 'contradiction.' For example, suppose I were to offer you $50 for mowing my lawn and you completed the job. Yet, instead of paying you, I told you that you must also wash my windows. That would be a contradiction. By comparison, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10.13)." Yet, Catholics teach that, call all you want, you will not be saved unless you are baptized. In fact, they have all kinds of Bible verses that 'demonstrate' how baptism is necessary. Yet, they will never deal with that concept of a contradiction. So which is it, beloved Catholic: whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved or whoever calls and is baptized shall be saved? Both cannot be true. One Catholic was at least honest - though heretical! She wrote, "No, it is not true that whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." Frankly, I have more faith that she will eventually arrive at the truth over the Catholics who are so dishonest. For example, one said that to 'call' is the same as being baptized, so I gave an analogy, "I thought of an old friend, so I thought I would give him a baptism (i.e. call)." How about, "I tried to get ahold of you last night, but I guess you missed my baptism (i.e. call)." No, the Bible means what it says: if you call upon the Name of the Lord, you shall be saved. That is, Catholics simply misinterpret verses that, supposedly, claim the necessity of baptism for salvation - either that, or the Bible is contradictory. If so, should I believe the verse that you share or verses like Romans 10.13? Eternity is speeding at us all, like a Mack truck. Where will you be? Do you know Christ? You can know Him - just by calling on the Name of the Lord! Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
Come do my dishes? Lol , I get it I’m the same. Brandon , please talk Bishop into a sit down with Bill Maher! It would be so very interesting! Love you both , thanks.
I think its important to distinguish between cynicism and discernment. Its wise to look at the world and see through its nonsense, not to be caught up in it. And I've seen people who can view the world as it is, seeing all the wickedness and fakeness and they seem to be drawn into cynicism and pessimism. All of us, who have turned to God and have had the veil removed and see the truth, have to be very careful not to become cynical. I guess the goal is to see the truth, to see the world as the wicked place it is, but not allow yourself to become discouraged by what you see, to retain a pure and hopeful attitude. To become like a child.
Sensational news sells advertising. Negativity creates sensational news. Glass is half empty. Good news and good works are overlooked. Just my opinion.
People born with a congenital neurological condition causing severe depression are prone to cynicism. If a person is raised in a comfortable middle class family, say in a lovely Chicago suburb, and is healthy, loved and cared for, he or she will most likely enjoy an optimistic perspective. Conversely, if a single mother living in abject poverty in say, McDowell County, West Virginia, is unable to properly feed and care for her children, she probably will not enjoy the optimism of a middle class mother. It is true that if you grow up in a comfortable middle or upper class bubble and have never faced FIRST HAND the horrors that countless millions have faced and are facing, you will see things in a favorable light. Ignorance is bliss.
Respectfully, there is a distinction between cynicism and valid criticism; and in the case of public statements, it is necessary to make a correction to a statement that can lead others to sin.
I'm extremely cynical and it's done nothing but ruin my life. It's funny because it was only early today that I really decided to make a change, and then this video gets uploaded. God is working in my life, I can feel it.
May God grant you hope and peace on the journey 🙏
Keep on fighting! Surrender, and keep the battle, every day as a new day!
@@charles3964 Thank you.
@@Arckaro Thank you.
God bless you! I am cheering for you 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻
A dental practitioner just recently retired, how happy was I to hear “Cure for Cynicism” using dental analogy. Truly, Bishop Barron, the potential cure for cynicism depends upon our focus and grace to choose rightly. In 40+yrs of practice, those focused on health behaviors sustained health. Those focused on the problems tended to jump from problem to problem. Similarly, may we love rather than focus on the remedy for the alternative!
I find that when I’m being cynical, I close my mind to learning and growing. I see the world as I am in my cynicism not as the world is in reality.I l found the Bishop’s perspective on this topic very helpful. Very timely given current world events.
Your analogy of the mindset you find yourself in when you are cynical is spot on. Thanks for putting it in words. My cynicism comes out more often-likely a result of the COVID Reaction as I call it-and it just feels like extreme apathy. It is forgetting about the Resurrection and I have to recollect myself with my consciousness and my soul. Your commentary and specific definition were on point so thanks .
Dear Bishop Robert Barron, I don’t always agree with you, but I do love you. Thank you for being a Bishop. I’m praying for you. Please pray for me too.
Thank you dear Lord for raising and inspiring a prophet in our millennial generation who seems to take for granted the TRUTH about our faith and purpose of our life...
Another great episode. God bless Bishop Barron and Word on Fire ministries 🙏🏻
One of the best advantages of going to morning mass at church is being unplugged and focus on the Eucharist for 30-40 minutes. However I do watch your daily gospel reflection before mass to focus my thoughts.
I do the same... : )
Dear Bishop: I never miss any of your videos... I deeply enjoy and learn from all of them. But I believe this episode on "the cure for cynicism" should be watched by everyone without exception!
Yoy can't 'cure' cynicism any more than you can 'cure' Science.
Let’s keep pure hearts. There’s no space for cynicism or negativity in a pure heart. Bless us Father, keep our hearts Yours. Keep the poison away. May only your light enter and fill us full. Thank you, I love you. Amen
Thank you Bishop Barron and Brandon. I enjoy listening to both of you on Word on Fire show. GOD bless you both. Stay safe. ➕❤
This is an eye opener for many of us and I believe I fall into the trap of cynicism more often than not. Right now with the war in Ukraine I realize how tough life is for many but the resilience of the people there have impressed me and they have hope for the future. Thanks Bishop Barron for a wake-up call. I needed it. 💕
Thank you Bishop Barron for this video. I needed this. Everyday I spend time in prayer and reading the bible, and yet im still surrounded by negativity. I hope to learn more from this video. Thanks for all you do! Have a blessed Monday. 💙💚
Thank you for this video. With the 24/7 news cycle, it's easy to get bogged down in cynicism and negativity. However, I do my best to focus on the positive stories and shut off the TV or Internet when it all gets to be too much. Each of us has to do our part to be the change we want to see in the world. God bless you, Bishop Barron! I appreciate your thoughtful and profound words of wisdom.
Interesting talk. Thank you Bishop for emphasizing what I have always found soul soothing which is removing all my social media accounts during Lent and advent. I recall when I started doing it my friends made jokes about it but when I look back I am grateful to God for giving me that courage to sacrifice and get closer to him during those times. I not only gained alot by the simple act of sacrificing. Friends, try it even for a week end, it not only give you inner peace and it teach one a discipline of letting go. Thank you Bishop Baron🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
I will never stop watching/listening to your sermons.
Bishop Barron, God bless you.
🙏🙏🙏
21:10 "Where you don't find love, put love." Thank you for that.
This is one of the Best talks! :) all your analogies dear Bishop Barron are very helpful! The cavities, the teeth… 👌 this visual helps tremendously in understanding this concept on a deeper level. Thank you also for mentioning to “put love there. When you see a situation where there is no love, we’ll, you put love there”…. Wow. Just what I needed to hear today. :). And every day.
Blessings and love and hugs thank yous
I was very glad to see you speak in person on Friday. I have watched everything recorded of yours from various sources. Staying centered is not without enjoyment. The joy is in finding that there is already someone there. Profoundly appreciative.
Can't wait! God bless Bishop Barron and Brandon Vogt!
Your, approach to the evening dishes, was enlightening. A prince of the Church enjoys the mundane tasks of life. 😀👍
I remembered Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical with this episode: Spe Salvi. We are truly saved in Hope!
Thank you Bishop Barron for this episode!
Amazing talk. Thank you Our Lady of Sorrows for answering my prayer
Learning to ignore and let go negativity or negative distractions, and move on toward the goals that the Lord has set. Conversion everyday 🙏
Its hard sometimes due to being surrounded by negative family members.. I try my best to help out and focus on the good things and listen to positive worship music. I pray for them everyday. They are very helpful and teach me good things, though. Have a blessed Monday. 💙💚
Please pray for me and for my godmother Diane and for all of our families and friends and neighbors...for conversion and salvation and holiness and healing
Simply stated, there is always a choice… to choose the perspective of hope.
Or delusion.
My two FAVORITE theologians are Bishop Barron and Dennis Prager. I don't listen to anyone as often as them. They both have souls that come thru their words and voices that just feel like love, wisdom and truth.
This is so good. Needs to be seen by so many more!
I love your reference to the good in all things, when they are treated in their proper manner, for their proper purpose. Reminds me of a very simple analogy an older gentleman told me when I was young, 'battery acid is great to start your car, just don't drink it'. God bless, Bishop.
I tend to be pessimistic so it takes real effort to not fallback to that way of thinking. It's a daily struggle. But I think part of our "job" as Christians is "put love there" as Bishop Barron notes and try to "rise above" every day.
I'm on negativity overload. Cant wait for this.
I love this show. Even the opening credits are uplifting.
Did you notice the Bishop’s remark to Brandon? Almost offhand…”I bet you could answer this, Brandon. You’re so good at this.” 😃A superb affirmation! What a good boss!❤️
I absolutely love to clean things up, make order out of chaos, but recently was told “who was I to judge and “pray for a persons soul”. As I thought, by all my neighbor had told me and the way she spoke of others that she didn’t believe in God, then accidentally it came out to her what I thought and how I felt when she spoke so awfully of others.
Thanks!
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.”
“Yeah! That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.”
I don't ever want to be the Pharisee referring to the publican. And pray to the Holy Spirit to give me the wisdom to keep my mouth shut when I should.
Bishop B is great. But Brandon really has a talent for guiding the conversation on topic
In my view very few people are so balanced that they can look at all the world tragedies in every area of life & can accept it & believe totally in the Lord, in His Love & promises & experience joy
*"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."* - ST. PAUL (Romans 12:21)
Thank you, Bishop Barron.
I really needed to hear this. Thank you.
Thank for visiting my state of Louisiana.
I was a leader in a parish prayer group that had a woman that was older who had no computer. Wow! How could she interract with the world, but she sure seemed to be secure and happy...
Outside of the occasional TH-cam video I cut out social media a few months ago. The positive effect I’ve experienced cant be understated.
Absolutely! Me too. I deleted Facebook and Instagram a year ago and went off of all news for Lent. It has been absolutely life-changing and I doubt that I will ever go back. It is as if I am 10 years old again. This, along with daily Mass, has completely changed my perspective on everything.
So desperately needed at home, work, the neighborhood, church, the world.
I'd given up all the mess media outlets for Lent. What a renewal of the heart and really listening to the Lord's voice.
A good word for the algorithm: I get word on fire on my list without looking. Sometimes i forget but there it is. What a joy.
😮 😮! Evil is a parasite opportunistic! I like the cavity analogy!😆
Evil is not a person, it is a force we deal with inside. Good is always far greater.
I love the parasite comparison, a cavity indeed! Thank you!
I slow down around accidents in case there’s something on the road that I need to avoid. I’m not a voyeur, I’m cautious. Am I the only driver who thinks this way?? And if traffic has sped up, of course I’ll pass by at that speed.
I think another reason traffic tends to slow down is because often the useable lanes have been reduced.
It's _smart_ to be cautious then. It's not just accidents, either. We do the same thing when it's merely road construction, don't we? Because the usable lanes have been reduced and also because there are people concentrating on doing their jobs, so there's probably a greater chance of accidents.
Keep going Bishop..you keeps inspired
Thanks Brandon.
18:00-18:48 I totally agree. I think the refusal to acknowledge progress is rooted in a demand a lot of people in black communities have from their youth. Because they're born in a low-income area, or they aren't like famous people, or they belong to a race that is not the majority, they feel fate has dealt them a bad hand and owes them. But how can we play hardball with God about changing the past?
In my childhood I think it was easy for me to fall into a cynical mindset after I started to witness my peers fall into certain behaviors. I felt alone because it was like I was witnessing mass hysteria and was the only one left who wasn't following self-destructive fads. I was stuck in a loop of analysis because the grief was so close to home, and there was nobody to give me structure through something different. I guess I never fully recovered from that way of thinking.
_I think the refusal to acknowledge progress is rooted in a demand a lot of people in black communities have from their youth._
In America, at least, progress has been far, _far_ too slow. Besides, just look at recent history. A half-century ago, the Republican Party adopted their notorious "Southern strategy" of deliberately wooing which racists. That worked *great* for them.
That worked so well for the Republican Party that they _still_ use it, today. And they've branched out to using other forms of bigotry, too, because it _works._ It gets bigots to vote against their own best interests. *It still works!*
They've branched out to faith-based thinking in other ways, too. Because people will let them do _anything,_ if they think those politicians are supporting their god, somehow. Even the anti-abortion movement was started because right-wing politicians were trying to find the political power to get tax-breaks for their racially-segregated private schools, and "pro-life" just polled better than what they _really_ wanted.
(Admittedly, that was _already_ a position of the Catholic Church - just like their prohibition on divorce and capital punishment. But for the most part, Protestant evangelicals didn't give a crap about abortion until it became _political._ And you don't hear Catholics rallying against divorce, do you? It's become political for most of _them,_ too.)
I'm a straight white man in America - not born rich, but otherwise with _every_ advantage. And yet, I'm pissed as hell about this stuff! I'm 71-years-old, and I've been fighting it all my life. I can't even _imagine_ how angry I'd be - and how despondent - if I were black, myself.
But I still think that most people _try_ to do the right thing. They might be inherently bigoted, they might believe whatever religion they were taught to believe as a child, they might be ignorant and end up persuaded by people who are just trying to _use_ them,... but they do _want_ to be good people.
When I was a kid, I used to accuse my parents of being racist, and they would just _indignantly_ deny it. Then, they would turn around and immediately say something racist! That just drove me crazy. (Note that we lived in a small Nebraska town. _Everyone_ was white in our town, and _everyone_ was Christian - except me - as far as I could tell.)
They couldn't even seem to understand what racism _was._ They just knew that it was supposed to be bad. And since they weren't bad people, they _couldn't_ be racist. Heh, heh. As I say, that used to drive me crazy. And yes, they bought into Republican propaganda hook, line, and sinker.
My Dad fought in World War II, and he was a huge fan of FDR. I know he voted for John F. Kennedy, too, because I remember asking him in 1960. But when the GOP adopted their "Southern strategy," he immediately switched political parties and bought into every lie they told him. (And as I say, we weren't even in the South.)
Sorry about the book! My point is just that cynicism is understandable. But most people aren't as bad as they seem. And if we give up trying, then we'll never accomplish anything.
I'm an atheist, and I strongly oppose faith-based thinking, because faith-based thinking is destroying my country and my world. But someone else's religion is their _own_ business, as long as they don't harm anyone else.
And I'm happy to work with religious people who agree with me about other things. Just because we disagree about something, that doesn't make them bad people. I'm still convinced that most people _want_ to do the right thing.
We all need to detox from time to time from social media. I don’t post much but I will be on it all day long looking at memes, inspirational quotes and advertisements.
terima kasih bapa uskup. deo gratias
Bishop Barron you NEED NEED NEED to speak on the new Maryland abortion law that says you can let your baby die due to neglect
I suggest that you read Matthew 7: 1-5 as the following examples of Yahweh/Jesus slaughtering babies and the unborn: by drowning in (Genesis 7: 22); burning to death in (Genesis 19: 24 ); putting to the sword in (1 Samuel 15:3 & Numbers 31: 17) and putting to death just to show off in (Exodus 11:5) is far worse than anything in that bill.
🙀🤯
@@downenout8705 I oppose laws that legalize wiping out the earth with floods, the deaths of all firstborn, AND abortion.
@@nightyew2160 All I am doing is pointing out the hypocrisy of Christians who read Numbers 5: 11-31 and the verses in which Jesus slaughters babies and the unborn, plus the fact that their god supposedly designed a womb that has spontaneously slaughtered close to a quarter of all the unborn from the dawn of humanity and then dishonestly assert that the Christian God is "pro life".
So what's your reason for advocating for a person to have the right to use another person's body for their survival without permission?
@@ilsekuper3045 Yep, that's what tends to happen when you read the Bible with an open mind.
Blair's Barlow's work is so beautiful. I just looked her up ❤
There is a “Bishop Barron ‘Bot’ “ spamming this comment stream . I am Trying not to be cynical , but it is a regular occurrence and it is getting rather tedious!
Cynism has been the major fault of my life. My Lord Jesus I was wrong, I am so sorry. ❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏
I’ll have to listen to this couple times
Word.
Wonderful I love it thank you both and God bless you always 💖
Sometimes I feel as if progressophobia is in the church. So much progress has been made in the church in terms of relationships with protestants, Jews, science, indigenous peoples across the world and there's a plethora of right-wing Catholic and protestant media that sees this as something negative.
Totally agree.
Being skeptical when for example it appears that maybe a person in power is becoming divinized in the nation they hold power in is different than being cynical about it. What about having a bit of only healthy cynicism when trusting everyone else in the world not to be cynical. Bishop Barron here must be talking about how that is necessary.
Very interesting important topic.We are prone to jump to conclusions and are ffilled with negativity.
Misery loves company. The moment we are born we are struggling to survive. Complicated. We love our egos. It’s our “ go to” to survive. At 62 I just keep looking up and forward .
Absolutely, agreed.
I have given up social media. Try it now; don’t wait for Lent. You will be instantly happier!
I need this I'm so negative person my nerves get control of me
I don’t think we can avoid being cynical to a certain extent bc of all the EVIL going on in the world. But as Christians we also have hope in God for He is good and He’s greater than the evil, and we wait for His promises to be fulfilled. We just keep praying and hoping and we leave the rest to God bc God is always faithful to His promises. As the Bishop said, where there’s evil, there’s also a greater good. Similarly, where there’s sin, there’s also grace.
I can totally relate to the "car wreck" analogy. I must confess that I tend to subconsciously relate the size of the pile-up with the spectacle I expect to see, like "I've wasted this much petrol stuck in traffic, I better get a good show (i.e. accident scene) to make up for it"...
Cynicism, the log in our (my) eye that blinds us to the splitter in our neighbors
Bringing order out of chaos! Sounds similar in a low level way of God's bringing creation from chaos... While there is evil or too much media, perhaps, I've found it so wonderful that I can "attend" beautiful cathedrals & services all over the world, w/out going physically that I can not afford or even do at my age. Also, I'm so pleased & amazed at wonderful Christians worldover.
I feel like when I’m being cynical I’m trying to pretend that I don’t care, trying to be less vulnerable. The cost of cynicism is turning away from Christ.
Wow, Bishop Barron agreeing with Bill Maher, the world truly is upside down!!
Find a Traditional Mass! The one eternal Sacrifice; and unite to Christ on the altar of the Cross as He offers Himself to the Father.
Media consumption tends to make people more cynical. If you haven't been watching TV for the last 40 - 45 years, you might not fit into the world, socially. Basically, since 1980, the baseline of morality made major shifts. The center of gravity, it's drifting wildly. Yet, plate tectonic shifts occurred in the 1800's Industrial Era even before the 1920's and continue until now.
“Cynicism is weakness I cannot afford.” - Henry Rollins
What one learns from watching movies. The expressions, "make me an offer I can't refuse" becomes "don't make me an offer I can't accept" Is that being cynical? Soldiers in battle cannot be bothered when things get messy. It becomes, situation normal, all fouled up (SNAFU). Is that cynical?
What one learns when backpacking. Always on the move, one takes all the essentials, only the essentials and about the essentials everything has its place. Everything else is dispensible. Taking time for personal cleanliness is critical, taking time for anything else could cost precious time, cause critical timing to be disrupted. Long distance hikes are risky and minimizimg risk, life saving. Summit timing is critical, descents are more difficult than expected. Everything goes slower in the dark. Is that cynical or well disciplined, seasoned?
What one learns from long distance racing. Don't ask where the others are. It is your race against time and space. Don't take congratulations until the race is finished, it robs your edge. Don't skip a training workout. Nothing makes up for missing training. Run safely within your ability. You cannot win or finish if you are seriously injured or dead. Don't get lost. Study the course maps, train on the course, and stay focused not only on performance. Yet, also on the terrain. Learn the race internally by mapping your mind using visualization. Plan, keep to the plan and don't experiment. Only experiment when training. Not to be cynical, Remember that you have a life outside of racing. Don't forget life is not all about adventures.
This is a time to progress and Ascent Mt. Carmel. Rather than take assurances in past victories, we must press on or we will fight the same battles again, beginning again and again as the Ven. Bruno Lanteri would say. Admittedly, I thought it was time to recover, was hoping that the worst was behind us with seeing some early signs of hope about Covid & after two funerals and a wedding. Still, how I long to be free again like Jonathan Livingston's Seagull. Soon.
Oh brother, I could write paragraphs on this. No one is good, not one of us. We’re all selfish, self-centred, cruel, liars, cheats and evil. Turning yourself off from media whatever format it is only blinds you to the truth of what we really are. And trying to find good is a fools gambit, when you live in a sewer and you say to yourself “I’ll look for a sweet piece of candy” you’re going to find a lot of things and you might fool yourself into thinking it’s candy but deep down you know it’s not. We all live in that sewer, quit looking for that candy cause it’s not real.
_No one is good, not one of us. We’re all selfish, self-centred, cruel, liars, cheats and evil._
Bullshit! Someone really did a number on you - I suppose as a child - to convince you of that, and I'm sorry to hear it. I might suspect that it was religion, but I'm an atheist, so I don't want to let my own biases lead me astray. (I've heard religious apologists say such things, though.)
But it's nonsense. People are actually better than they act. They _want_ to be better than they are. And relatively few of us even _act_ that way.
Please help me i can't stop being cynical, towards myself and others. I hate going into public, the women don't dress modestly or respecfully anymore not even for church. I want to die a lot. But i have failed to truly live or even love.
And my disgust towards men's thoughts makes me want to divorce the world and marry God.
You are not alone. It is so easy to become discouraged as you view the many disorders in this world. I try to cope by praying the rosary, which is very meditative. I also say simple prayers often and read the Bible. Listening to great spiritual leaders like Bishop Barron also helps. Your instinct to draw closer to God is wonderful . God bless you.
I relate to this a lot!
If you are feeling suicidal because of the loss of modesty in the world, you should seek a good Catholic mental health professional. Yes, these problems should be disappointing or even saddening, but if you want to die there is something else wrong. Achieving good mental health can be a good step toward the full and loving life God made you to live.
Cara, please see a mental health professional. Not a _Catholic_ mental health professional, but just a mental health professional. (For a professional, their personal religious beliefs are irrelevant.)
Mental health is at least as important as physical health. This is _serious._ And you need to go to someone who is trained to diagnose real illnesses. There isn't anything "wrong" with you, no more than if you caught cancer or something. You _can_ get help.
You can't change men's thoughts, though we're not all _that_ bad. And it's really none of your business how other women dress - or other men, for that matter. Dress however you like, and let other people dress they way _they_ want.
You don't have to marry _anyone,_ if you don't want to. And you don't have to go out in public very _much,_ at least. Some of us are just introverts. There's nothing wrong with that. But you _do_ need to get professional help to get right in your head, again - whether or not you're religious, whether or not you go to church.
This is something that can happen to _anyone_ - of any religion or none at all. It's just a human thing. I urge you not to assume that nothing can be done about it. Mental health professionals have heard similar things from many different patients. And if they can't help _everyone,_ they can still help many, many people. Please try.
I think large urban cities play a role as well. Humans weren't meant to live in giant apartment buildings cramped together like ants. Most buildings are function-over-form and tend to either be brutalist or just plain boring. There's very little manmade beauty in big cities (at least in America), and even less natural beauty. Forests and meadows are paved over and replaced with strip malls and office buildings. That sort of environment is bad for our mental, spiritual _and_ physical health.
A couple months after the lockdowns started, I started seeing a bunch of articles and social media posts being written by people who lived in big cities. Due to the lack of noise and human traffic, animals were starting to come into cities. Hearing birds sing was an actual novelty for these people, they'd never experienced it before and they were all amazed by it. As someone who's always been surrounded by nature, it was baffling and almost hilarious to me. But more than anything it was just sad. Humans are part of nature, but we've completely removed ourselves from it.
God even uses algorithms to bring us back to him. 🙂 I have been just giving up on discourse lately and not being that charitable on TH-cam comments.
It also comes very easily to us.
👍0:12 the resurrection
triumphs over the cross
I don’t know if he would be down, but it would be really cool to have Bill Maher on the show, or for Bishop Barron to go on Real Time.
with expectation
The older I get, the more I get to know human nature, the more cynical I become.
Smiling faces sometimes they don't tell the Truth,smiling faces pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces don't show a trace of the evil that lurks within....,etc.
The church is a hospital for sinners. Maybe that is why the church always focuses on the sin, especially when you go to confession and there is a line. Some priests will come out and say “I can only hear your sins.” This may seem cynical, but you need to look at intent. The intent is to heal the sinner.
Doctors of the Church have been noted to be cynical, or hard, but retrospectively, their intent was to help and heal.
It is good to look at intent.
i could really use this talk. but i hope it does not require building blind spots to reality.
I would argue that conventional news has been prioritising and amplifying bad news and negativity, perhaps even more so than social media. The problem with the latter is the cognitive bias and/or toxicity ( especially for certain "liberal" topics!)
I get a lot of flack for coming onto Catholic posts and, in a friendly way, challenging Catholics on what they believe. It is so difficult for me to do! Yet, the Apostle Paul said, "Whoever preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed." That means that at least one of us has a false gospel! Moreover, Jesus said that those who are condemned will go to the same place as the devil and his angels, that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I love Catholics and do not want them to wind up in hell. That said, I am not here to merely present the Word of God, but to listen. If I am wrong, may the Lord lead me into all truth. May the Lord lead US into all truth. Amen?
That said, the Catholics I have conversed with seem to be highly intelligent, yet not one of them seems to understand the concept of 'contradiction.' For example, suppose I were to offer you $50 for mowing my lawn and you completed the job. Yet, instead of paying you, I told you that you must also wash my windows. That would be a contradiction.
By comparison, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10.13)." Yet, Catholics teach that, call all you want, you will not be saved unless you are baptized. In fact, they have all kinds of Bible verses that 'demonstrate' how baptism is necessary. Yet, they will never deal with that concept of a contradiction.
So which is it, beloved Catholic: whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved or whoever calls and is baptized shall be saved? Both cannot be true. One Catholic was at least honest - though heretical! She wrote, "No, it is not true that whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." Frankly, I have more faith that she will eventually arrive at the truth over the Catholics who are so dishonest.
For example, one said that to 'call' is the same as being baptized, so I gave an analogy, "I thought of an old friend, so I thought I would give him a baptism (i.e. call)." How about, "I tried to get ahold of you last night, but I guess you missed my baptism (i.e. call)." No, the Bible means what it says: if you call upon the Name of the Lord, you shall be saved. That is, Catholics simply misinterpret verses that, supposedly, claim the necessity of baptism for salvation - either that, or the Bible is contradictory. If so, should I believe the verse that you share or verses like Romans 10.13?
Eternity is speeding at us all, like a Mack truck. Where will you be? Do you know Christ? You can know Him - just by calling on the Name of the Lord! Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
Come do my dishes? Lol , I get it I’m the same. Brandon , please talk Bishop into a sit down with Bill Maher! It would be so very interesting! Love you both , thanks.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
One's HATE feels very securing after awhile.
I think its important to distinguish between cynicism and discernment. Its wise to look at the world and see through its nonsense, not to be caught up in it. And I've seen people who can view the world as it is, seeing all the wickedness and fakeness and they seem to be drawn into cynicism and pessimism. All of us, who have turned to God and have had the veil removed and see the truth, have to be very careful not to become cynical. I guess the goal is to see the truth, to see the world as the wicked place it is, but not allow yourself to become discouraged by what you see, to retain a pure and hopeful attitude. To become like a child.
Sensational news sells advertising. Negativity creates sensational news.
Glass is half empty.
Good news and good works are overlooked.
Just my opinion.
Where is the link to that painting commissioned for Bishop Barron?
People born with a congenital neurological condition causing severe depression are prone to cynicism. If a person is raised in a comfortable middle class family, say in a lovely Chicago suburb, and is healthy, loved and cared for, he or she will most likely enjoy an optimistic perspective. Conversely, if a single mother living in abject poverty in say, McDowell County, West Virginia, is unable to properly feed and care for her children, she probably will not enjoy the optimism of a middle class mother. It is true that if you grow up in a comfortable middle or upper class bubble and have never faced FIRST HAND the horrors that countless millions have faced and are facing, you will see things in a favorable light. Ignorance is bliss.
Hope give one the ability to forget about the traumas of the past.
@Via message➕⓵⓸⓵⓶⓸⓵⓽⓵⓻⓼⓷ About what?
@Via message➕⓵⓸⓵⓶⓸⓵⓽⓵⓻⓼⓷ how
@@Barbaramamato ? ? ?
Social media is good
Gluttony is bad (we consume media)
This is how I try and look at things to keep me from giving absolutes about certain things
Respectfully, there is a distinction between cynicism and valid criticism; and in the case of public statements, it is necessary to make a correction to a statement that can lead others to sin.
I wish he could’ve stayed there where it’s so lovely. Now you’ve gone to Minnesota. Cold. But I bet he brought his dog.