MPF 323: Desires, Vices, and Holiness for Parents
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Release Date: 03/03/2025
MPF 324: Moving from Isolation to Unity
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 Summary Unity between man and woman was God’s original plan, but the Fall not only broke our relationship with God, it also broke our relationship with each other. But the good news is that Jesus has given us grace in the sacrament of Matrimony so we can have a oneness in marriage that would be impossible otherwise! With unity, couples can handle anything life dishes out. Without it, even the easy things will seem hard. Couples need to...
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MPF 323: Desires, Vices, and Holiness for Parents
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Vices are our disordered way of fulfilling our God-given good desires. Summary So many of us thought we were good people till we had kids, right? This is because kids expose our weaknesses and we need to be aware of them in order to overcome them. Listen in as we reveal Satan’s plan for you and lay out God’s great plan of using our rightly ordered desires to develop virtues and live according to His plan. The desires that God has put in our hearts for dignity, communion, justice, and peace are all good, but when we try to fulfill them on our own, they...
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MFP 322: Dealing with Mouthy Teens
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
A problem with disrespect from a child always goes back to a dysfunction in the parent-child relationship. Summary When our sweet children enter the teen years and adolescence is upon them, something happens that tends to cause parents stress and dismay - back talk and disrespect. Some of this is immaturity on the part of the child and some is simply lack of training in relationships. It is our job as parents to teach our children how to express their feelings, disagree, and even debate while maintaining an attitude of respect towards us and therefore, other people in their...
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MFP321: Fifty Years and Going Strong!
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
A husband and wife may disagree on many things, but they must absolutely agree on this: to never, ever give up. Summary When we did our listener survey, you asked for interviews of regular families who have raised children through to adulthood with grace and courage. Well, we have a treat for you! A few years ago we met Brian and Joanna Simpson of London ONT who have run the Family Foundations Institute for the past 25 years. They also have 9 children and over 35 grandchildren and they are a witness to the goodness of God despite difficulty and heartache. ...
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MPF 320: Super Habits for the Family
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Summary Have you ever wanted to stop yelling at your kids? Be more courteous to your spouse? Or be more orderly at home? Enter Super Habits! These are not just new things for you to learn to do, these are life-changing actions that will make you happier, healthier and more successful in many areas. In this interview, we spoke to Dr. Andrew Abela, author of the book Super Habits and his wife Kathleen who explained to us how to apply this book to family life. They gave us some great insights and showed us how Super Habits can be the answer to what we all need...
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MPF 319: How Husbands Lead
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:4 In this episode of the Messy Family Podcast, hosts Mike and Alicia Hernon celebrate their 10th year of the podcast and introduce the new studio, setting the stage for a discussion on fatherhood and leadership in the home. They emphasize that while fathers are called by God to lead, many struggle to understand what that truly means in a world that often undermines their role. True leadership is not about domination but about serving, sacrificing, and guiding with love, following...
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MPF 318: Families as Missionaries
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Families don’t just have a mission, they ARE a mission! Summary When we hear “missionary” many of us automatically think of a single person serving in a third world country. Then we think, “not me!” But the reality is that all Catholics are called by their baptism to spread the good news of Jesus throughout the world. We do that first and foremost in our homes, through the pastoral care of our spouse and children, but there are other ways we can spread the Good News to the world. In this podcast, we interview Tim and Maggie Glemkowski, parents with a...
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MFP 317: Who are These Messy Families? 2024 Survey Summary
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
Summary Since 2018 we have been doing surveys of our listeners to find out who you are, how we can serve you more, and what your needs are. We have never shared this information with our listeners until now! Over the years we have had thousands of listeners take this survey and it's interesting to see what has remained the same and what has changed. We thought it would be encouraging to you to hear that you are not alone! The struggles that you have told us about are shared by other moms and dads too. Listen in as we talk about the make-up of most of our...
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MFP 316: A Manual for Catholic Families
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
“Catholic parenting is above all a work of grace” - Fr. Carter Griffin We often say there is no manual for being a parent, but this book comes pretty close! In this podcast, we interview the author of Forming Families, Forming Saints Fr. Carter Griffin. Fr. Griffin has worked for years forming young men into priests in the seminary setting. In doing so, he saw many similarities between what he was doing with young men and what parents were doing at home. The four pillars of formation in the seminary - human, intellectual, spiritual, and apostolic - can be applied in...
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MFP 315: 10 Things to Stop Doing in 2025
Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family
At the beginning of 2025 we want to challenge parents to step back and reassess their approach to family life by diving into 10 Things to Stop Doing in 2025. Are you focusing too much on your kids? Caught up in the frantic pace of life? Trying to "fix" your spouse or juggle it all? Let us give you some heartfelt encouragement to let go of habits that create stress, disconnection, and overwhelm. We guarantee this episode is packed with insights that will inspire you to parent with purpose and peace. Let’s start the year by simplifying, slowing down, and focusing on what really...
info_outlineVices are our disordered way of fulfilling our God-given good desires.
Summary
So many of us thought we were good people till we had kids, right? This is because kids expose our weaknesses and we need to be aware of them in order to overcome them. Listen in as we reveal Satan’s plan for you and lay out God’s great plan of using our rightly ordered desires to develop virtues and live according to His plan.
The desires that God has put in our hearts for dignity, communion, justice, and peace are all good, but when we try to fulfill them on our own, they can lead to vice, or repeated bad habits. We do this because we are all fallen, wounded people! But the good news is that we just need to tap into learning how to satisfy those desires in the best way, which is what God intended for us. This is a snapshot from our video series we are doing for our Cana90 Fellowship this year. In that series, each vice gets its own video where we break it down and show how we as parents are particularly susceptible to falling into it. Join the Fellowship here for the rest of the series!
Key Takeaways
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Vices are our disordered desires. Every vice has a longing or desire behind it and a corresponding virtue to help overcome it.
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Parents struggle with vices in particular ways that may not have been evident before they had kids.
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Envy is the longing for Dignity and it comes from the fear that we will not be seen, known, and acknowledged. We get this from our Heavenly Father!
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Sloth is the longing for Peace and it causes us to choose a “fake peace” that comes from ignoring problems instead of working through them.
Couple Discussion Questions
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Where do I struggle to act? What situations would I rather ignore than deal with? Write down some ideas. Try them each day one at a time.
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What is one thing I can do to make this room/situation/gathering better? How can I be proactive?
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Think of when someone else was kind to you. How did it make you feel?
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List 25 things you can do to make the lives of others around you more pleasant
References
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Bishop Barron’s series on the Seven Deadly Sins
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Broken Gods by Dr. Gregory Popcak
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Cana90 Fellowship