Episode 30: Modesty, The Full Story – Damon Owens

Thriving in the Trenches a Catholic Podcast

“Every virtue, every firm habit to do good is far more powerful than any vice that pulls us away from the true joy of God. Mercy is giving people more love than they deserve which is exactly what God does for us” -Damon Owens

Episode 13 – Modesty As an Act of Charity with mom of 7 boys, Susan Husband, definitely stirred up some chatter on facebook when it released back in the Spring. Several comments really struck a chord with us in the way that stirred our hearts to keep the conversation going. There are a lot of women out there who have been hurt by this conversation on modesty and it has been causing women to feel as though they are carrying the entire weight of the issue. Men and women really are both truly wounded with all that goes with this issue. Men are bombarded and women are blamed.We were thrilled to have Damon help us dig into the truths of who we are in God’s family and how we can apply these truths into our everyday choices of not only what we are wearing but mostly how we present ourselves and how we feel about ourselves.

Please consider supporting our Podcast Our Guest:

Damon Owens, an international speaker and evangelist for over 20 years, is the founder and executive director of joytob. Following four-years as the first executive director of the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, he served as Chairman of the 2016 International Theology of the Body Congress. In 2002 after 16 years in the technology sector, he sold out of his firm and founded Joy-Filled Marriage New Jersey, and New Jersey Natural Family Planning Association, non-profit organizations dedicated to building a marriage culture through training, seminars, and conferences. Damon and his wife Melanie taught Natural Family Planning (NFP) for 14 years, and served as NFP Coordinators for the Archdiocese of Newark (NJ).

A Certified Speaker for the Theology of the Body Institute, National Trainer for Ascension Press, and presenter at the 2015 World Meeting of Families, Damon keeps a full international speaking schedule at conferences, marriage seminars, universities, high schools, seminaries, and parishes on the good news of marriage, sexuality, Theology of the Body, Theology of the Family, adoption, and NFP.

Damon currently lives outside Philadelphia with his wife Melanie and their eight children.

You can also connect with Damon on Facebook and Twitter

Show Notes:

• Battle for the Body: Exorcising the Manichaean Demon and Reclaiming the Sacred Theology of our Body Podcast by Christopher West
• Integrity Restored Data on Porn: 51% of Americans regularly use pornography and over 80% of 15-17 year olds have been exposed to hard core pornography
• Helen Alvare (from Episode 9)quoted Giusanni about sadness and despair being opposite emotions. Sadness is OK because it is still rooted in hope, despair is not rooted in hope. Communion and Liberation – Luigi Giusanni

SPECIAL MUSIC by Teresa Peterson – pre-order her new Album, Faithful You can see her music video for Faithful here on Youtube

Call to Action –

See the other person’s heart and not their outerwear. Seeing and understanding that mercy is love’s second name. Let us ask the Lord to give us the Grace to see others the way He sees them.

Scripture –

“13 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” – John 4:13-15

Saint Quote –

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” – St. John Paul II