Ever feel like you're trying to do all the things—show up for your people, take care of yourself, live your purpose—but deep down, you're just tired… or unsure if you're even doing it "right"?
You're not alone—and this episode is here to remind you that you were never meant to do this alone. 💛
This week on Nourished to Bloom, we're kicking off our brand-new Summer with the Holy Spirit series with an invitation: Come, Holy Spirit. We're talking about what it really means to receive the Holy Spirit as your divine helper, guide, and strength—especially in the thick of everyday life and motherhood.
Because let's be honest: the spiritual journey isn't always easy. We wrestle with comparison, doubt, fear, food guilt, insecurity… and sometimes we wonder, Am I even equipped for this mission?
But here's the truth: God doesn't send us into battle without armor. Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we receive supernatural tools that sustain, nourish, and empower us—right where we are.
💡 In this powerful, Spirit-filled episode, you'll hear:
🌱 A beautiful garden metaphor Discover how the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like sunlight, water, and nourishment that grow virtue in our hearts—and bear the fruits of love, peace, patience, and joy.
🛡️ How the Holy Spirit equips you for the daily battles Comparison. Fear. Jealousy. Overwhelm. You are not without help—these gifts are your combat training and battle plan.
💬 The Pentecost story—through a personal lens What happened in that upper room still speaks to us today. Hear how God communicates uniquely to each of us, through the "language" of our personal gifts, callings, and mission.
✨ A reminder you were made to thrive Jesus didn't just come to redeem us—He showed us how to live. And when He ascended, He didn't leave us alone. He gave us the Holy Spirit so we could continue the mission, fully equipped, never abandoned.
🎧 Ready for a grace-filled reset?
Press play on Ep. 65: Come, Holy Spirit — Here's the Spiritual Shortcut You've Been Missing and let this be your permission slip to stop striving in your own strength and start living in step with the Spirit. This summer, let's thrive—not just survive—by walking with the One who empowers us to bloom. 🌸
💌 Know a friend who's feeling worn out or spiritually stuck? Text this episode to her, or screenshot and share it to your stories. Let's spread the good news that we are never alone—and never without help. 💫
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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If you've ever found yourself asking questions like why
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do I keep falling into the same unhealthy habits?
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Or why am I struggling so much to trust God with
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my body or my food choices, or
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struggling with why does it feel so hard to stay
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peaceful and present? If you've ever asked yourself any of
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those questions, then this episode is for you. This
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week we're kicking off something a little special for the summer. It's
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a series I'm calling Summer with the Holy Spirit. So
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over the next few weeks, we're going to be walking through the seven gifts of
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the Holy Spirit. Not just what they are, but what
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they mean for our lives as Christian women
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navigating motherhood, identity, body
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image, wellness and our everyday choices.
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Because here's the truth. The Holy Spirit is for your
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everyday, ordinary, real life
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situations in the kitchen, the carpool line,
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the mirror, and all the messy moments. And today
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I really want to lay the foundation. We're going to talk about
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Pentecost, who. The Holy Spirit is, what these
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gifts. Are, and how they can actually shape your
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mindset so you can change your habits and how you're
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showing up in your life. Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom
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podcast where your faith meets your health. I'm your host,
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Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach, and
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I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your
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spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both. In
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a world filled with noise and confusion about food,
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health and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from
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a Christ centered perspective. Together, we'll untangle the deep
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roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly
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care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind,
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body and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power
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of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith.
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With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights,
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inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your
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relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body
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as a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence and
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courage that can. Only be found in Christ. Join
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me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one
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that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the
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teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
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fulfill. You were made to bloom,
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to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
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for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
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feed your soul and bloom into the Best version of yourself, then
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you're in the right place. And I'm so happy you're here.
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Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
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invitation to thrive. Hey there. Welcome to the
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Nourish to Bloom podcast, all about nourishing your body,
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your soul, and your God given mission. I'm your host,
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Kara Trachta, and I'm so happy to be here with you today and
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kicking off our summer series all about
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spending the summer with the Holy Spirit. And I have to
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say that this is something that's kind of been on my heart for a little
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bit now. See, I'm a catechist for Catechesis of the
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Good shepherd and we always end our our year
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with the Pentecost presentation. And it's
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one of my absolute favorites because if I am being completely
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honest, it wasn't until I went through my formation to be a catechist
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that that I really even understood, maybe even a
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little bit scratched the surface on what the gifts of the Holy
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Spirit actually were and what they meant. And
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it's been on my heart to kind of share some of these, these
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gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can actually access
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them and utilize them in our everyday lives to help us with
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things like healing our relationship with food in our body or,
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you know, really being able to navigate the,
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the identity crisis that comes as we kind of hit that middle motherhood
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transition of life when our kids are going to school and we just
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don't know what to do with our time or with ourselves or who we are.
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And maybe, you know, how we can utilize these gifts as
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we're really trying to uncover and discover and discern
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what our God given mission is. And
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that's why I thought it'd be so fruitful to spend this
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summer with the Holy Spirit. I think it's something
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that I get to the summer and it's like, oh, I'm gonna have all this
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time to do all these different Bible studies and read all these different
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books. And the reality is, is that is usually not the way that it works.
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And so I really wanted to take this time, this summer to
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go deeper and to explore a little bit more about
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these gifts of the Holy Spirit and exactly how we
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can access them and utilize them in a practical way.
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And so I'm inviting you on this, this journey with me.
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And so over the next few weeks, we're going to unpack
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each of these gifts and explore how they can really
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transform your daily life, especially as
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we're women trying to navigate today's culture and society
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that often works on distracting us from God's truth.
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And so today, we're going to start at the beginning. We're going to start with
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Pentecost and the Holy Spirit and really
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look at that connection, that beautiful connection between
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the gifts of the Holy Spirit, human virtue, and the
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fruits of the Spirit. And so, to begin, we're going
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to go to the upper room. I invite you to enjoy
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me in the upper room. I want you to imagine the
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scene, everything that has taken place in that upper room. Jesus
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sharing the last supper with his disciples. And now
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the disciples are gathered in this upper room
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alone, probably confused,
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maybe a little bit afraid, unsure of
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what's next, what they're supposed to do.
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Jesus has ascended and is no longer with them.
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But before he left, he gave them a mission, but not
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the means. So they're sitting there in the upper room,
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and then, like it comes the Holy Spirit. Not
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quietly, not subtly, but like wind and fire.
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And suddenly everything changes.
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It's literally the birth of the church.
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Acts 2, verse 4 tells us they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
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and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to
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proclaim y' all. This was the moment that the church was
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born, but it was also the moment ordinary people
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were empowered to live extraordinary lives.
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Ordinary people became bold witnesses.
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The fears that they had became fire and fuel for their
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convictions. Their confusion became clarity.
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And any human limitations that they may have been struggling
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with became divinely empowered.
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And that same spirit is available to you and to me
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right now. Not just for ministry or
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big decisions, but for our daily walk, our daily struggles,
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our daily lives, our daily missions.
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The Spirit is your divine helper. I mean, like, think about
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this. You could even think about as, like, your divine personal assistant. What is the
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mark of a great personal assistant? And wouldn't it be great if
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every woman had one? But they. They can predict your needs,
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right? They're almost two steps ahead of you, knowing exactly how you
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operate, exactly what you need, all the ideal conditions that
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you need in order to thrive. The cool thing
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is it's there, that divine help, the Holy
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Spirit, is there to guide us in our thoughts, in
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our choices, and the way that we see ourselves
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and the world. Now, I don't know about you, but
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sometimes I think that the Holy Spirit can feel a little
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mysterious, right? We can talk a lot about God
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the Father and Jesus the Son, but the Holy Spirit
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can kind of leave us in a question mark. How does this all work?
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Well, the catechism calls the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. And
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if we kind of dig into the layers of what that means, it's the Holy
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Spirit is our advocate, our helper,
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our counselor and comforter,
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right? We can think of him as our divine assistant, always
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present, always ready, offering that guidance and grace
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exactly when we need it. It's like that holy
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whisper in your heart that says, this is the way, walk in it.
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And when it comes to the work we're doing together here,
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healing our relationship with food in our body and learning to
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live well and reclaim our peace, our purpose
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to embody and embrace our God given mission,
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you need that helper. We were never meant to
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fulfill our missions alone. When Jesus
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ascended and in love, he sent us the Holy Spirit
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to accompany us, to equip us and empower
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us. Isaiah 11:2,
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verse 3 outlines these seven gifts that the Holy Spirit brings to
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us. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, a
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spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and
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strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord, and his
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delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Y' all, these
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aren't just poetic phrases, they're powerful spiritual
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tools. The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1830
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states that the moral life of Christians is sustained by
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the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are permanent
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dispositions which make humans
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docile and following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
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So these seven gifts, complete and perfect, the virtues
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and virtues are that habitual and firm
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disposition to do good. It's the habits and the
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attitude and this like state of being that we
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embody to do good. Its consistency,
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the, the. The human virtues are stable, consistent
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dispositions of the intellect and of the will
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that govern our actions, our passions, and they
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guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith.
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And virtues can grow through education,
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deliberate acts and perseverance. And then that
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divine grace poured out upon us
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purifies and elevates them. So let's talk about this
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in a really practical kind of way, because
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we've learned through many podcast episodes that so much of how we live,
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the habits we formed, the choices we make, even the emotions
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that we feel, are all shaped by our thoughts. So
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living a Christ centered life starts with these gifts of the Holy
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Spirit because when we access them, they
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shape our thoughts and our reason and our responses.
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They kind of allow us to put on that mind of Christ and offer
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that Christ centered perspective so we can choose
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what is good, holy and truly fulfilling.
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Romans 12:2 tells us, do not be conformed to this
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world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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And that's exactly where the gifts of the spirit come in,
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they don't allow us to be conformed to the world. In fact, they kind of
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rebel against those worldly views. They help you
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renew your mind to think rightly, to
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see clearly and respond faithfully. Because
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so often we operate out of fear, out of
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scarcity or perfectionism, or trying to
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grasp onto control in the thoughts that we're thinking. Like,
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if I don't eat clean today, I failed or I'll never
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feel good in my body, body unless I lose weight, or if
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I'm not productive, I'm falling behind, or if
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I'm not bringing home a paycheck, I'm not worthy.
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The work that I do isn't meaningful because I have nothing to show for
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it. Those are those lies.
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But the gifts of the Holy Spirit can help you see the bigger
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picture, to show you how deeply God
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delights in you right now and give you the clarity
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to make choices in peace,
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not panic. These gifts
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first start by changing your mindset. And once
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your mindset shifts, your habits and your actions are going
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to follow. And you begin to live life from a place of
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freedom, not fear, from abundance and
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not lack. So here's how I like to picture it. How
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the, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and virtues and the fruits of the
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Spirit work together and how they're all interconnected.
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So your life, your faith and your habits can be seen as like
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this garden. And the seed that is planted
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is God's life. That's planted in us at baptism.
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And it's often referred to as the seed of faith. It
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carries the full potential for growth,
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holiness and fruitfulness. Just like a
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seed contains everything needed to become a flourishing
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plant. This seed of faith contains all that
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we need to become saints if it's nurtured.
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So the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like these, these
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inputs that nourish and sustain that garden. They're
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like the sunlight, the water, the rich soil, the
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fertilizer, everything your spiritual life needs to grow
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healthy and strong. And these gifts aren't earned,
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they are freely given. But they do
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require our cooperation. They do require us to have a
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buy in to access them. Right? And so this
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is the virtue, it's that consistency, it's the daily tending
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of the garden and it's showing up with intention.
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It's the pruning, the, the watering, the choosing to align
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your heart and mind with God's will over and over.
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It's the daily prayer. It's rooting yourself
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in God's truth through scripture. And virtue doesn't grow
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overnight, but with steady effort
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and grace, it becomes that spiritual muscle memory for
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us. And then over time,
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and sometimes when we least expect it, you begin to see the
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fruit. Galatians 5, 22, 23
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tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
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peace, patience, kindness,
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generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
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self control. These are those
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outcomes. This is the fruit, that visible transformation
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that happens when we live in step with the gifts of the
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Holy Spirit. It's not about just doing good things.
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It's really about becoming a person so rooted in God that love
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and peace are going to naturally flow. I think sometimes we
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get so focused on trying to have our behaviors
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be these fruits of. Of the Spirit, and we're
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so focused on the behavior and changing that behavior
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when we need to go back and start with changing that whole disposition. Who we
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are being, right? And who we are being is
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influenced by those gifts of the Holy Spirit and
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the virtues, right?
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So to sum it up, at baptism, God plants the seed of
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faith in each one of us. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, then nourish
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it. Virtue is how we tend to it. And the fruits of the
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Spirit, that's what grows when we live with him,
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when we live with the Holy Spirit. But, y' all,
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here's the catch. Because just like a garden needs a water
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source, your soul does, too. And there's a
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business coach, her name is Sterling Jacques. She puts it so well.
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She says that the Holy Spirit is the water, but we have to
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turn on the tap. And that tap, that access,
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that thing that we are turning to allow that water
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to. To. To quench our thirst, right? To have
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access to that water, we have to turn the tap. We have to open that
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valve. That tap might look like prayer.
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It might look like surrendering or asking for help
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or just simply whispering, come, Holy Spirit.
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It's choosing to invite him into your thoughts,
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into your meals, into your parenting moments,
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your body.