‘Therapy’: ‘Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.’ (Oxford Dictionary)
This website and the service provided is dedicated to helping people to relieve or heal their disorders. This is partly achieved by pointing out the flaws and errors in other therapies, particularly those provided by psychologists and psychiatrists today. It highlights how psychological and psychiatric theories are built on sand and shows how their disciplines and the vast majority of these professionals are detached from reality. These professionals can not relieve or heal disorders as they do not understand what order is. In essence, they cannot give what they do not have. Various blogs on this website have attempted to show this.
Truth and freedom therapy offers an alternative therapy to these flawed and dangerous approaches. It is a therapy that is grounded in reality. Yet, the more I have reflected on the work I do and the blogs I post the more I realise ‘therapy’ does not quite capture what this service offers nor does it capture the focus or end goal of this service.
This service is based on the reality that we have immortal souls that are destined for either eternal happiness or eternal damnation. This reality cannot be ignored or minimised. Truth and freedom therapy tries to offer people information that will help them to save their souls and attain eternal happiness. It tries to draw people away from the errors of the world which attempt to deceive people into believing that this life is all we have. It points out the delusions of those who believe that a loving relationship with God is not essential for true happiness. It guides people toward God, His Divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Blessed Mother. It attempts to point out how sanctity and sanity are intimately intertwined. It highlights how happiness and holiness cannot be separated. It tries to give some guidance on how to sanctify ourselves. Essentially, it is pointing to the practice of the one true faith, i.e. the Catholic faith, as the means to sanctify ourselves. This is the means of maintaining peace of soul and mind as we traverse through this valley of tears. And, more importantly, it is the only means of attaining eternal happiness for eternity. So, while this service may qualify as a therapy given the definition above, at its core it really is an apostolate. Its end goal is to bring people closer to the truth so that by accepting and following Truth Himself one can be truly free.
Given the emphasis and focus of this service it appears insincere and slightly deceptive in calling this service a therapy when really, at its core, it is an apostolate. I have engaged in an attempt over the last two years to draw people away from the errors of psychology and psychiatry toward the truth of the Catholic Faith. It has been designed in a way to draw people to Truth Himself. In this process, He has drawn myself closer to Him and He has helped me to realise that the solution to the difficulties of this life is much simpler and more straightforward than some of my long-winded blogs have made them out to me. It is essentially loving Him who is Love Himself. This is the royal path to true liberty. Yet, this liberty is not the freedom that the world understands or promotes. This path is rejected by the world as the world knows that this path involves captivity. As Fr Faber explains in his excellent book on the interior life, ‘Growth in Holiness’: ‘Grace is the opposite of nature; nature everywhere cries liberty, grace cries captivity.’ God calls us gently to this captivity by revealing to us how much He loves us. He leaves it in our hands whether to accept His invitation to love Him in return. ‘It is true that love may lead to surrender of its freedom, indeed this is usually the goal of great love, nevertheless it is a free surrender, or it is of no worth.’– Archbishop Goodier (‘An Introduction to the Study of Ascetical and Mystical Theology’). In our world today, especially with the draconian measures being used against us in this manufactured ‘pandemic’, many people are crying for ‘liberty’. On this website, I have continuously emphasised the spirit of liberty. I have realised that on this website and, most certainly, in the world the graceful cry for captivity is rarely heard. Those who do cry for captivity go against the world’s maxims. They are the ones who are swimming against the current of false ‘liberty’, i.e. licence to do what you want. These souls are given the graces and strength to keep swimming by their submissive and obedient adherence to Truth and Love Himself. Yet, in all this effort, these are the ones who are really free – ‘Liberty of spirit consists in exemption from cares, from remorse, from attachments; and captivity is the only road to this royal liberty.’ – Fr Faber (‘Growth in Holiness’) (See footnote).
‘To know and serve God is the only freedom’ – Don Sarda y Salvany (‘Liberalism Is A Sin’)
So, the end goal of truth and freedom therapy (or really this Catholic apostolate) is helping people to become captive to the good God so that they can be truly free. There is no other route to true liberty. While tyrannical governments restrict natural liberties more and more today, they can never stop us from knowing, loving and serving God. God gives everyone sufficient grace so that they can choose to serve Him. It is a voluntary choice to do otherwise. How sad for those who choose worldly illusions of ‘freedom’ over true freedom! ‘[Sinners] prefer to be ‘free’; that is, they prefer not to be obliged to free themselves from some slavery.’ – Archbishop Goodier. How sad it is for those who abuse the gifts God has given them! – ‘How can one be free who is separated from the Most High? What harder or more miserable captivity is there than for the soul to have escaped from the hand of its Creator? How happy are they who find themselves laden with the strong fetters and chains of the gifts of God’s mercy, so that they are unable to gain the power to set themselves free…O free will, thou are the slave of thine own freedom, unless thou be pierced through with the fear and love of Him who created thee!’ (St. Teresa of Avila).
Sin has produced the disordered times we find ourselves in. The enemies of Christ hold the reigns of worldly power and the conciliar church led by pope Francis are aiding the devil. Yet, the Catholic Faith still remains the shining light of faith, hope, and charity, in a world where these virtues are forgotten about or distorted. These complicated times call for a return to simplicity and Tradition if we are to remain captive to Our Lord and free. The Latin Mass, the Sacraments, Our Lady and the Rosary are key here. The anxiety, the depression, the fear that many of us are experiencing in these dark times can only be lifted by the light of faith and a more childlike trust in the goodness and love of our Heavenly Father who knows our needs before we even ask Him (Matthew 6:8). No therapies can do what a deep, sincere, devoted, and voluntary captivity to Love Himself can do. And the vast majority of therapies today only confuse people more or wrap them further in chains.
So, with this in mind, I am changing the focus of this service/website. It will be focused on apostolate work rather than therapeutic work. I will not be providing counselling or therapy sessions. Rather, I will write occasional blogs, focused on guiding people toward Catholic books, literature, and devotions that will help them develop their spiritual life. I will encourage people to get to the Sacraments wherever they can and find good traditional Catholic priests for guidance and spiritual direction. I, as a layman, might be able to provide some good reading material and some general advice but I cannot provide what good priests can and neither can any other psychological professional. We cannot fill the void left by Catholic priests, bishops and popes abandoning the flock to the wolves of the world since the Vatican II council. I have given my critique of modern psychology, psychiatry, and other therapeutic approaches over the last two years to show that these professionals are doing far more damage than any good in their attempts to fill this void. I invite readers to assess these claims for themselves. Instead of looking for answers to the problems of life from deluded and disordered psychological professionals it is far safer and surer to return to the truth and the simplicity, beauty and majesty of the Catholic Faith. Hopefully, you will see through the illusionary promises of happiness that the world and its slaves offer and by doing so, you will then become captive to the truth.
‘No man can serve two masters’ – Matthew 6:24
The great English martyr, St. Thomas More, served the right Master. He was captivated by Our Lord and His religion. St. Thomas described this life as a prison and we who traverse it as prisoners. He composed a prayer longing to be released from this prison and to attain Heaven where he would be free to love God for all eternity: ‘Give me, good Lord, a longing to be with Thee, not for the avoiding of the calamities of this wretched world; nor so much for the avoiding of the pains of purgatory, nor of the pains of hell neither, nor so much for the attaining of the joys of heaven in respect of mine own commodity, as even for a very love of Thee.’ (‘Sir Thomas More (The Blessed Thomas More)’ by Henri Bremond – p. 146). In his glorious martyrdom, in which he loyally remained captive to Our Lord, his prayer was fulfilled and he was released from this prison. We now have recourse to him so we too may have strength and faith like his to remain loyal captives to Our Lord.
Finally, I will leave you with three quotes from three books I highly recommend, ‘Self Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, ‘The Imitation of Christ’, ‘How to Be Happy, How to Be Holy’ by Fr Paul O’Sullivan (available through TAN books) which emphasise the way to true freedom and give advice on how to conduct ourselves in this life to attain this freedom. May they inspire you to a holier and happier life.
St. Thomas More, pray for us
‘Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
‘God assures to the souls who are faithful to him a glorious victory over the powers of the world and of hell’:
‘All these monsters [Lucifer and his slaves] come into the world only to exercise the courage of the children of God, and when these have learned enough, God rewards them with the pleasure of killing the monster, and calls new athletes to the arena. And so this life is a continual spectacle which is the joy of heaven, the training of the saints on earth and the confusion of hell.
Thus, all that is opposed to God’s order does but result in making it more adorable. All who freely serve iniquity become the slaves of justice, and the divine action builds the Heaven Jerusalem with the ruins of Babylon.’ – p. 160
‘The Imitation’: Book 3, Chapter 38:
On How to Govern Ourselves and on Having Recourse to God in Danger:
‘Christ: My child, strive diligently for perfect interior freedom and self-mastery in every place, in every action and occupation, so that you be not the slave of anything, but that all things be under your control.
You must be lord and ruler over your actions, never a bondsman or a mercenary. You must be a free person – similar to a righteous Hebrew – one who is transferred to the rank and the liberty of the children of God. Children of God stand above present things; they contemplate those that are eternal.
They look upon transient things with the left eye; with the right eye they look at heavenly things. They do not allow temporal things to attract them, nor do they cling to them; instead they make those earthly things serve the end and purpose for which God made and ordained them. For the Divine Artist did not leave anything in all His creatures but what is orderly and governed by laws.’
‘How to Be Happy, How to Be Holy’ – Fr Paul O’Sullivan
‘If we only thought of Heaven, it would console us in our bitterest sorrows. This is what St. Paul means when he says: ‘What are the sorrows and tribulations of this life in comparison with the glory that awaits us?’
We act like prisoners and slaves content with their miserable lot, who do not long for and sigh for their freedom. We are content with this vale of tears, this poor life with all its miseries, pains, and sorrows.
The happiness of Heaven should be our aim. It is perfect, complete, absolute. There we shall have no pains, no sorrow, nothing but infinite, immense, complete and perfect happiness. There all our desires shall be satisfied. Our joy will be full.
Mother of God, help us to understand what Heaven is.’ – p. 167
Footnote:
Extended passage from Fr Faber on this ‘spirit of captivity’ which he describes as one of the weapons to combat the rebellious human spirit found in all of us:
‘The first [weapon] must be what ascetical writers often call the spirit of captivity. Grace is the opposite of nature; nature everywhere cries liberty, grace cries captivity; and without a resolute good will to take ourselves captive, we shall never beat down the human spirit. The spirit of captivity consists, as an eminent mystical writer tells us, sometimes in submission to a written rule, parcelling out our daily actions so far as our state of life will allow, sometimes in subjection to our director, even against our own judgment, and without feints or wiles, sometimes in conformity to the law of Providence, especially where it thwarts and mortifies our natural liveliness and inclinations, and sometimes also in submission to that attraction of the Holy Spirit which is to many of us like a special revelation. There is also a captivity to frequently recurring, though not daily or obligatory, practices of devotion, a captivity to interior recollection with all its difficulties, trials, and repressions of natural activity; and all mortification is itself but a shape of captivity.’ – p. 190-1
Truth and Freedom Therapy (TFT) 