Hey everybody. Welcome to the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit Podcast. Today, I think the Lord has something really special for you, and I know it’s not from me and it’s from him because I had this beautiful idea. I’m currently recording this while I am on a vacation with my husband in Mexico and I had previously recorded a podcast for you guys, all about how to handle food pushers.

And it just wasn’t ready. The team said, Hey, I don’t think this is really what you wanted to put out. You said when you recorded it, you wanted to change it. To make a long story short, I said, alright, let me think about this. And when I woke up this morning, the Lord gave me this idea that I have zero times had in my life.

And I think it’s a message for you, and it’s all about the spiritual journey of your work. And getting food and your weight and those struggles out of the way so that the Lord can really draw you close. And when he put on my heart, today was the very beautiful work of St. Teresa of Avila and the interior castles.

You know, yesterday the Lord mentioned something to me about that and I thought, oh, that’s interesting. And I thought he was just sort of. I don’t know, maybe saying this is interesting to you, Denise. Look into this more. And so this morning I looked into it more and I thought, oh my gosh, this is exactly the journey that he’s taking these women on.

Holy cow, this is it. This is the podcast that she needs to hear. This is how she needs to know that this work isn’t about her dropping a few pounds on the scale. This is truly about. Her ultimate calling, which is to be a hundred percent united with the Lord and living with him. And so today I wanna take the writings of St. Theresa of Avila and the interior castle.

And I want you to just sit back and listen and see where you are. See how the Lord has already taken you on this journey. And I love how she calls this, the map of the soul. And so if you aren’t familiar with St. Theresa of Avila’s, interior Castle. Welcome to the Club, because neither am. I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I’m just not a reader.

I love writing. I love reflecting. I love researching. I love taking concepts and thinking about them, but to pick up a book and read it, cover to cover has probably happened. I don’t know. I don’t know how many times in my life, not that many, and maybe one book a year. Really? Like I’m so jealous of people who are really great readers. I wanna be a reader, but I’m not.

I think I’m just recognizing that my brain is a thinker. I am a thinker, I’m an analyzer. I’m a put the pieces together kind of gal, and I like to take bits and pieces and I’ll tell you I just love chat, GPT, that it can give me sort of the essence of this piece like St. Theresa of Avila, interior castle. It can give me the essence of that and I can just trust that the Lord is revealing to me what I need to hear from that.

And so if I’m getting some of the facts mixed up on this, I’ll be a hundred percent transparent that I asked chat GPT to tell me more about this. And then I would ask chat GPT to tell me even more. And I can sense when it’s of the Lord and when it’s not. And so if you aren’t familiar with this work, I have a very brief 1% understanding, and it comes from Chat, GPT. 

And I think this is the beautiful way that AI can inform us. And when we have an informed conscience, we can clearly see what is of the Lord and what is not. And you’re going to hear, as you hear me talk, what resonates with you and you, your soul will know, oh, that’s the Lord, or it’s not.

First, I wanna give you a brief overview of what this writing is. It was written in the 1500s, which just is incredible to me that something that’s written over 500 years ago is still very applicable today. I also wanted to do this podcast, so you see that our work here is 100% Catholic. We’re not taking secular ideas and sprinkling in Catholicism, and it’s not just the catechism.

And it’s not just what the Bible tells you this is, and this work is meant to bring you into a deeper personal relationship with the Lord. I want you to see that he cares more about you and your soul than you knowing anything that he cares more, that you know that you are loved, 100%. 

There’s nothing you can do that would make him love you more, and there’s nothing that you could do that would make him love you less. He wants you to know that more deep in your core than he wants you to be able to recite scriptures or know your catechism. He wants you to know that he knows you.

He knows you because he created you. He’s protecting you, he’s walking with you. And if you take nothing away from what you hear today, is that he’s using this journey to bring you back to him, to help remove everything in your life that isn’t helping you be close to him. That’s it. You can stop listening to this podcast right now, but that’s all he wants from you.

He doesn’t want you to try harder. He just wants you to pursue him more. It’s hardened this world friends, and I think that’s the coolest part of this writing, is she recognizes where temptation and where the devil is acting on us and where he has his foothold in us, depending on what mansion you’re in or the level that you’re in.

So without further ado, let’s just dive in and I think I’ll just be able to say all the things that I wanna say as we get going. And so St. Teresa of Avila, interior Castle, it is one of those great spiritual masterpieces in our Catholic tradition, in that she describes the soul, our soul, your soul, as a magnificent crystal castle that has many rooms or what she calls many Mansions. 

And each represents a stage in our journey towards deeper union with God. And so, don’t think of it as your house. It’s not like all of the rooms are on one level, and I’m not saying that they’re not on one level, but they’re a progression. So just know that the mansions are a progression.

And she teaches that every soul is created with the center of it being the Lord of him, God himself dwelling inside you. And that’s at the center. But that many of us live in this world in the outer rooms. We’re distracted, and we’re unaware of that deep connection the Lord wants to make in her deepest soul. 

And she says that the spiritual life is just a gentle movement inward from the noisy exterior parts of our life, or dieting and food and weight culture. All of that shenanigans towards that interior quiet center where the Lord is waiting to connect with us and dwell with us. 

I would like to just go through the first five mansions, and I’m not doing Mansion six and seven because Mansion six and seven are about this mystical marriage that truthfully, I don’t think are necessarily applicable until we get past the first five mansions and I think mansion number five. Is enough for us to say, wow. Alright, I’m gonna progress.

So I’m gonna go through each mansion. I want you to be able to identify where you are. I wanna tell you some of the common ways that the devil will start to work on you in that mansion, and a few reflection questions that you can have that will help move you to the next mansion.

So let’s begin. I really think the first mansion is you and that diet culture, it’s you before you come to weight loss with the Holy Spirit work, it’s you. Before you come to 63 surrendered. And in the first mansion, this is where you were living. This is where your soul first enters the castle. It’s where you have a relationship with the Lord. 

You know he’s there. You know that he loves you, but you are still distracted by diet culture, by weight culture, by the Instagram gurus, by all of the things that you have learned for decades and decades and decades of dieting, of not feeling comfortable in your own body.

You may have, like I had what I considered a very rich prayerful life, but I just had no idea how to invite the Lord into this area of my life, into my food and weight struggles. And how the devil works on you in this area is that he pulls your soul into that noise. 

You really believe that? That’s the truth. For you to be happy, for you to be healthy, your body has to look a certain way. You have to eat certain foods. There’s just all of this worldly beliefs. He also works on you by discouraging you, telling you, well, you’ve tried all these things, you are not good enough. You don’t have enough discipline, you don’t have enough self-control. 

Another way is that he uses sensory temptations and addictive behaviors. So that’s like what we do. We are very much drawn to food for all of the fun in our lives, and I’m using that as a broad, general statement, but I think a lot of you would realize that we celebrate with food, we soothe ourselves with food, and that’s that addictive pattern. It’s all roads lead to food. 

We have this restlessness. Unless we’re feeling that life is the way it should be and when life isn’t the way it should be, then we’re using food for that comfort. But what he’s doing in that castle, even though you’re out there and you can see it in your friends, and you can see it in yourself before you came here. He’s continuing to pull you closer. He’s awakening that desire for him and that’s why a lot of you were attracted to this work. 

You said, yes, I see the Lord in that. I want that. He gives you that grace of repentance. A lot of us have been going to confession and we see ourselves confessing the same sins over and over and over, and that’s not a problem, gang. He’s so grateful that we continue to turn to him for that. And he’s continuing to draw you into prayer. 

Now for you, for that person who’s out there and you guys, I get requests all the time for people who say, well, how do I share this with my daughters? How do I share this with my friend? Actually, a lot of you say, how do I share this with my daughters? I want you to just know she’s on her own journey.

And what is necessary and helpful for her. Are you sharing podcasts like this or just the wait list with the Holy Spirit podcast in general, but for her to also create her own. System of regular prayer, of noticing that she doesn’t like her relationship with food, that she wants to choose a different way. 

Okay. So if you find that you’re here, if you’re not in this community yet, or maybe you are in this community, but you kind of feel like you’re right there, a couple questions you can ask yourself. Am I showing up regularly for prayer with the Lord? Am I actually doing the work in the weight loss with the Holy Spirit program? 

Which just means no matter where I am, whether I’m in the lifetime community of Restore, or I’m in 63 surrendered, or we’re doing celebrate not sabotage. Am I pulling out my daily sheet? Am I connecting with the Lord in the morning? Because if you’re not, that’s wonderful. That’s exactly where you should be starting. 

The second question you can say is, what small, consistent step could help me commit more fully to that. Maybe I wake up five minutes earlier, maybe I make sure that I have an alarm on my phone that says, check in with the Lord in the morning. What can I do to create that daily habit so I’m not distracted? 

Notice what’s distracting you and how can you overcome that. I know one woman who said, I get my coffee and I sit right away down to do my daily sheet. If you’ve got the journal, oh my gosh, it makes it so easy. Or you can just open up the app right away. All right, so that’s Mansion number one. 

The second mansion, though, is where you have said yes to 63 Surrendered. You said yes to celebrate, not sabotage. You’ve said yes to the Restore program. You are in this community. You are protected. This is where you are now. Doing the morning sheet consistently, you’re making it easy to stick to meal plan consistently. You are uniting that with the Lord.

But you are also noticing that although you are pulled towards the Lord, you still look over your shoulder and you of course will still be falling into some of your old patterns. You guys, you’re sort of like right on the fence there, so because we’re coming out of our old patterns.

Our brain doesn’t know to automatically flip a switch. And just because we make one decision to follow the Lord, we can’t undo those years and years and years of old brain patterns. So we’ll still be falling into them sometimes. And again, that’s not a problem. This is part of the journey. 

You will still feel the Lord call you. Forward into this community. You will still hear my voice. Say things like, you have unconditional permission to eat all you want and you will still question it. It’s one of the hallmarks of this second mansion is that you are drawn to this new truth, and yet your brain is still used to really believing the old stuff.

A lot of the temptations in here are inconsistency. Of course, because your brain isn’t trained totally to this new way of life, know that this isn’t a problem. This is just where you are. You’ll be overthinking this. Is it really true that I have unconditional permission? Well, what if I schedule? 

I coached a woman the other day and she wanted to plan cheese and bread. And by the end of our coaching, she was starting to feel calm with planning cheese and bread. On her easy to stick to meal plan, but prior to that, she was really resisting giving herself unconditional permission to eat cheese and bread because she labeled it a chaos food. 

Well, it might be a chaos food, but you’re gonna know that if you plan it and then you overeat it, so you’re just gonna be overthinking these new ideas, and that’s okay. Your brain’s just trying to make sense of it all. Know that your friends do not understand what you’re doing and when you listen to their voices, again, it will create doubt in you. 

So that’s why it’s very important to stay in this protected community and to just do what the Lord is directing you to do now for you in this journey of your life. Another hallmark that women see is feeling overwhelmed by this effort. Feeling like this is too much, it’s too different. There’s too many sheets, there’s too many things to fill out. I don’t even know what a Slack community is. I don’t know this. I don’t know that. 

Yeah, overwhelm is part of this mansion because the temptations, or the way that the devil works in this mansion is through discouragement. Is making you believe and tempting you with the belief that what we have in this community is unrealistic. You can’t do it. You’re not holy enough. You fail too many times. It’s too much for you.

It creates an interior restlessness. Isn’t that interesting, which I just think it just means overthinking and distraction instead of simply looking forward at the work and the weight loss with the Holy Spirit program, your brain is doing that and yet still doing all the old diet stuff.

And so instead of that interior silence, you’re feeling this restlessness, you’re feeling a sort of tug between two different worlds. Isn’t that amazing to know that that’s the devil trying to work on you and pull you outta this program. I love being able to call it out and be like, oh, that’s sneaky tactic. I like to call it the ploy. That’s a cheap trick. That’s a cheap trick there, Mr. Harry legs, as my friend calls him.

And the devil also encourages comparison here. Isn’t that interesting? Well, I’m better than I was, which yes, I want everyone to see their progress. And I think comparison means that we are using other people who we’re saying are further along in this progress to feed into that discouragement that we’re not, who enough good enough can do this and feed into that overwhelm. 

And one of the tactics in the ploy is that comparison. But where the Lord is helping you in this mansion is he is giving you those moments of clarity and peace and you know, you feel it. I was coaching a woman the other day, the same bread and cheese lady, and she goes, you know what? I don’t care if the scale leaves or changes.

You could just feel the relief on her face of how much peace and clarity she felt by allowing herself to eat cheese and bread. And to stop adding layers of guilt and shame on eating cheese and bread on top of the already challenge that she was enduring with parenting struggles that was just so incredible.

So you will get moments of clarity and peace. And as you go along, he’s continuing to strengthen your desire and commitment, and that happens the more you touch this program. So the more you come to coaching calls, the more you listen to replays, the more you listen to podcasts. I believe those are human tools.

Those are the earthly ways that he is strengthening your commitment. He is doing that, all right? You work in cooperation with him, but he is doing that. And he’s allowing struggle. He’s allowing struggle so that you can continue to persevere and build that virtue. 

Now, what’s necessary for you to move to the next level out of that mansion two? is for you to persevere. Isn’t that just like always the answer? Keep going, persevere. It may not be easy to make an easy to stick to meal plan. It may not be easy to do the morning sheets, but continue to solve for the obstacles. 

Continue to notice that you are being called to this work and he will help you overcome that problem. Solve. Bring this stuff to coaching. Being consistent. So perseverance, consistency, choosing his will over comfort. You will want to give up, and I want you to not make that a problem. 

I want you to say, of course, my brain wants to give up. This is unfamiliar, of course, and keep going. continuing to notice the old diet thoughts. They’re distracting. the Instagram gurus. Turn ’em off. The typical diet conversation. Don’t engage in it. Don’t believe it. It’s not his truth. 

So detaching from that old diet culture, I mean, I really feel like this is the biggest jump, guys, this mansion two. I want you to hear yourself in it, and I want you to know that you are in it. You’ve been called, and this is where the Lord says. I’m with you. Stay with me. I’m with you. Stay with me. You know what to do. 

And it feels so weird because you’re coming out of the world. This is the biggest transition, this feels like the biggest one, and this is where I coach women so often. This is why we have 63 days. This is why. Our 63 surrendered is nine weeks long. It takes a while to come out of this second mansion. This is why celebrate, not sabotage is eight weeks. You need to be surrounded by a whole community for that long, for this to come out of. 

So to move to number three, ask yourself, where am I avoiding consistency with God? What feels hard? How can I make this easier? How can I persevere more? What do I need to solve for? to make this easier? That’s your work, my friend, is to not believe it’s too hard. It just means there’s something that needs to be solved for, and we can do that. 

And the second question is what worldly belief, thought, voice, habit, whatever you want to say is interrupting me. What’s that? Nagging, intrusive thoughts. All right. I want you to just ask your brain, what is it? Is it this won’t work? I’m afraid it won’t work. I’m afraid I’m gaining weight. I have a friend who says all the time, I just won’t lose weight if I eat what I want. 

This is the stuff we coach on in the community. Bring it, bring it to us, and in all of our communities, we teach you how to identify what that is and how to solve for it yourself. But you don’t have to because we have our Slack community, we have coaching. There’s no reason for you to ever feel like you’re alone in this journey. 

The third mansion, this is where the magic happens. This is where you are making your easy to stick to meal plan. You are sticking to it. And yet something may feel amiss. So it’s really integrating the virtuous living of this program and all of the virtues, and yet you are limited by a spiritual trap, a spiritual trap of believing that it’s you on your own trying to figure it out.

So let’s look at the third mansion. This is where you’re making that easy to stick to meal plan. You are disciplined, you are committed. This is part of your way of living. You’re making the easy to stick to meal plan and you know how to stick to it. Most of the time. 

You have a very thriving prayer life. You’re practicing your virtues. You find that you are very infrequently emotional eating. You feel very spiritually mature and connected with the Lord. And the one trap is that we’re believing that it’s our effort that makes this possible.

The main temptations that are going to limit you from progressing in this mansion is what’s called self complacency. And this  St. Teresa of Avila says, is the biggest warning she wants to make for people in this mansion.

Self complacency is something that I’d never heard that term before. But I can totally relate to it. It’s that inner reliance on my own virtue, my own discipline, and my own goodness. I’m making all of this possible. This is all possible because of my effort. She calls it a quiet spiritual pride. And that self complacency is the belief that I’m doing fine because I’m doing all the right things. I’m the one doing all the right things.

And then when I’m not doing all the right things, I am like really thrown off when I see my humanness come up, or I emotionally eat, or I overeat, or I don’t make a plan, or I skip a day or something happens, I just fall apart and I just am like flabbergasted and very offended. How could this happen to me that I’m finding my peace and my comfort and satisfaction and my routine. Rather than in my connection with the Lord himself.

She says it’s a spiritual stagnation disguised as maturity. It’s sort of that belief that, Hey, I’ve arrived. Look, I’m doing all the right things on the outside and I don’t think this is a bad place to be, and I think your earthly life will be fantastic here and you will get to your healthy weight. But there will be a feeling of discontent, like something is missing. 

And the devil works here because he encourages pride, masqueraded as humility. So this is so interesting, and this is something you’re gonna take with the Lord. I can’t tell you whether this is happening or not, but this is where we’re doing all the right things and we feel like we’re surrendered to doing all the right things. But we’re still gripping to them. 

The soul is satisfied by the routine, by the goodness, by the checking off the box instead of doing this for true love for the Lord. Instead of doing this because he called you to that. This indeed does please him. And there’s this fear of total surrender. 

Saint Teresa of Vallas says, the devil allows them to do good so long as they never abandon themselves to God. It’s so crazy the temptations in this mansion or self complacency of judging or comparing myself to other people. Well, I’m better than them, or I’m better than I used to be, so this is good enough.

And a fear of deeper surrender because life feels pretty manageable. Things are going pretty well, you guys. Oh my gosh. Just when this happens, that’s when I feel like the Lord. Throw the wrench some things to really uncover that we truly aren’t surrendering things like allowing your 19-year-old son to move back home. Maybe I’m speaking for myself.

So although the devil is acting on us, of course there’s always those temptations where we are being protected by the Lord and where he’s working in our life in this mansion. He’s allowing you guys listen to this. He is allowing dryness and trials and frustrations. 

Why? So he draws us closer to him so that we see we cannot do this on our own, that we do need him, that we do need to surrender. This is where I feel like trials and hardships and crosses are honestly such a gift. They are course corrections. He’s saying, Hey, you’re trying to do this on your own and I didn’t mean you to. I love you too much to allow you to believe that. 

So he throws a little wrench in our lives. That’s his work. It’s where he invites us to surrender to a deeper trust, to humility, and this is where he’s truly inviting you to the next mansion, to what’s called infused contemplation.

And for you to move to that next mansion. Humility. Just realizing, gosh, I can’t keep this going. This is all because of his grace. I want you to start loosening your grip a little bit and letting him show you his might. You’ll also need a deeper surrender rather than spiritual performance. It’s more like letting him guide you instead of gripping your to-do list.

He is bringing you into a flow. He’s guiding you. He’s giving you a sense, I want this for you, I want this for you. I want this for you. He will do that in ways where I hear women say. You know, if I do get still and quiet, the Lord does make my easy to stick to meal plan for me.

This is where we’re moving away from some of our human tools as reliance, which are things like the go-to meals, which is amazing, and we definitely need that stuff, but now we just sort of start to get a sense of what he wants for us.

And all of those things in your life, whether it’s the scale, whether it’s some of your family trials, whether it’s your marriage. Whether it’s your job struggles, whether it’s the things that you see in the world, we’re starting to let go of them and true surrender, letting go, recognizing that he’s our God that we are not. 

And guess what? All those people that we love, he’s their God too. it’s hard to remember that when they’re living in the same house as you. Isn’t it? He’s also asking for you to move to the next level, to just continue to persevere through the dryness and the trials.

So the questions you’ll ask yourself before you move on to this fourth mansion is, where am I relying on my own strength and routines instead of relying on God. your own strength? And I don’t think that’s a bad place to stay here. What area of my life, especially with food and weight, is the Lord inviting you to surrender more fully. So that he and not your own effort can lead you deeper. 

If you see yourself in any of these first three mansions and you’re saying, gosh, Denise, I don’t wanna waste time. I am really wanting to come out of the fold. I feel like I’ve been here for decades. I’ve tried 63, surrendered. It’s amazing. I’ve tried celebrate, not sabotage. I love it and I want to progress even further. And you are willing to devote one whole year of your life. 2026. 

I do have a program for you. I’m gonna talk about it at the end of this podcast, but know it’s called The Breakthrough Program. It’s the Catholic Weight Loss Breakthrough. I have restructured it in a way that is designed for the who is ready to come out of the fold, who does not want to be lost in a group. Who wants to have weekly accountability with her own coach.

Who, yes, you will be surrounded by other Catholic women, but this will be a personal journey with you and the Lord, and you will be seen by another human who loves you and who knows this journey and who knows your life. That breakthrough program we have early bird pricing. It’s opening December 12th. You’ll go to weight loss with the Holy spirit.com. Find out more about that. 

But let me talk about mansion number four. The fourth mansion is the beginning of an infused contemplation. What’s contemplation? And I think a lot of us here want to get there. I will spend a lot of time here, but I just think it’s so fun and dreamy to think that this is where we could be and give us contemplation is a divine gift. It’s a quiet, resting place in the Lord. 

More of a loving awareness of him without your own effort. And the Lord is doing this for you. It’s the beginning of mystical prayer. Your soul will become more passive and receptive instead of active. 

And with pursuing effort, you’ll know you’re here because you just feel this gentle quietness in your interior. It’s a piece that you can’t make that comes only from him, and he’s drawing you inward. 

Now, where the devil can influence you is not in the depths of the soul, is where the Lord lives. No, he can’t influence you there, but where he still can influence you is he can disturb your senses, your sights, your surrounding.

He can still come into your imagination, your thoughts and your emotions,  the words and the sentences that are going through your brains, your judgments. Of yourself, the world, other people of God, and you can also try to disrupt your external circumstances. 

I dunno if you’ve ever heard this, but when you feel so much peace, the devil can even act on the people around you to create disturbances in them to try to upset your internal peace. Isn’t that crazy? But he cannot enter where God is in your soul. 

This is why St. Theresa says in the fourth mansion, the devil can make noise, cause agitation and disturb your faculties or your senses, but he cannot interfere with the interior work God is doing. God is working in you and so your external, your humanness might be a little ruffled, but interiorly it’s not.

So you might have distraction and prayer. You might have thoughts that aren’t aligned with the Lord. You might have ups and downs in your life. Fear or anxiety, emotional disturbances, confusion. But your union with the Lord in your interior remains untouched. Your deepest communion with God is safe, untouchable, and uncorrupted, and knowing that brings you so much confidence.

In this castle, just know that you will have temptations. But that the Lord is transforming your will, he’s drawing you into deeper surrender, and it begins with a deeper purification. some of the temptations that you’ll encounter. 

Are you maybe suspicious of spiritual things? You may be questioning your own experiences? You might be comparing yourself with others either who seem like they’re be ahead of you, spirituality or behind you spiritually. There may be that judgment and you may be wondering, is this even real? Is this even possible? Am I this chosen now? Is this special? 

And I wanna say, no matter what mansion you are, yes you are that special. And so to move on, I’m not going to go through the rest of the mansions, but its radical openness to whatever the Lord is doing, accepting whatever he permits in your life, trusting in his ways, even when they’re unfamiliar and continuing to grow in detachment.

I think some of the best reflection questions are just, am I willing to let the Lord leave my weight loss? Am I willing to believe that I could be at my healthy weight right now, even if the mirror doesn’t say what I want? Can I allow my body to be as it should be right now? Can I speak so kindly to myself and the way that the Lord wants?

I think that might be in one of the earlier mansions, but just to let go of control. Control of myself, the world God, and always asking, where is God inviting me deeper? What does he have as my next step? Where is he asking me to trust him more?

And so I know this has been a long podcast, but I hope it’s been helpful for you to hear that this is a journey. That this is a journey, and I hope you can see how your food and weight struggles are actually leading you closer to the Lord. I hope you can see how he is leading this entire process for you.

So I know there was one or two things that the Lord wanted you to hear today. I want you to hear how much he loves you. I want you to hear how much you are called to this work, and I think he probably revealed to you something that you needed to hear. One tiny thing that he  wants you to receive from him.

And so just take some time to allow him to reveal whatever it is he wanted you to hear today, because I promise you this was not a podcast I thought I was gonna make. I am not at the pool with my husband. Because I wanted to record this for you. God wanted to record this for you, and I’m gonna head over to the pool. 

I know that he’s holding you. I know that he loves you. He needs you to feel that. And if you are interested in the breakthrough program, stay tuned to this podcast. You’ll get to all the details on where to find out more.

Okay everybody, have a blessed day.