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Father Len helps us grapple with tough times in our lives and understand the virtue of hope. What is it? Where does it come from? Why it’s essential for peace and joy in our lives.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

• Paula D’Arcy Theologian of Hope
• “Gift of the Red Bird: The Story of a Divine Encounter” by Paula D’Arcy
• Faith, hope and love are different aspects of one spiritual reality.
• Hope is illogical. It’s not a matter of sitting down and rationalizing with people why they should have hope. If you have some rational reason for hope, that’s not hope. That’s logic.
• Fear is logical. Depressed people are not irrational. They’re just excessively logical and obsessed with their current state of life.
• “Notes from the Underground: The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Wealth, comfort and safety don’t bring hope.
• Poverty and abuse don’t take away hope.
• Hope is a theological virtue. It comes from God alone, not the circumstances of your life.
• Hope obliterates the idea that life should be easy.
• Hope is uncertain, it believes in possibilities.
• Hope takes work to participate in. It comes from this relationship with divine love and life.
• The Book of Revelation reveals the struggles we have on earth and tells us how the story ends with a huge victory party in heaven.
• “Optimism and pessimism are twins. Both are blind to possibilities and lock you in to your current state of life. Optimism believes you will always be happy and beautiful, with a full head of hair. Pessimism believes life will always be crap.” – Father Len
• Hope is not optimism.
• We live better in the United States than any human beings in history. We live in such incredible comfort. Yet, our young people have the highest rate of suicide and the highest use of prescription pharmaceutical drugs to deal with depression. If circumstances give hope, our children should be thriving.
• “We live in a culture of hopelessness because we keep telling people, you need the right circumstances to be happy. Unless you’re a Kardashian, with tons of money and social media likes, unless the world treats you a certain way, you’re a victim.” – Father Len
• Hopelessness suffocates hope.
• “Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity” – Jamil Jivani
• It’s a myth to tell people if they have the right circumstances, they’ll be happy, they’ll be hopeful.
• A sense of meaning to your life is oxygen for hope.
• You have to suffocate the things that kill hope. Suffocate anger. Suffocate victim mentality. Suffocate the propaganda that circumstances give you happiness.
• Characteristics of people who have hope.
  • They can endure higher levels of pain.
  • They enjoy competition, win or lose.
  • They believe life is good, no matter their circumstances.
  • They can survive in humble circumstances.
  • They turn out happier.

We welcome your questions and comments:

• Email: irish@wwgproductions.org
• Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738

Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions

• Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org
• A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/