Happy Thanksgiving! I pray that this week may be filled with wonderful memories with your family and friends.
But let me ask you, how has 2025 been for you? Was it a good year? Or are you ready to shake the dust off your feet and get 2026 rolling? For me, it was hard but overall a really great year. I’m grateful for my wife’s continued love and seeing my boys take new steps towards the men God wants them to be. This year brought some highs (like speaking at SEEK and having my first video to cross 4k views on YouTube), but this year will forever be marked by my breakthrough with anxiety and coming to peace with my journey.
So how has it been for you? What’s been good? What’s been rough? Where could you use a little help? Would you consider joining us for a virtual retreat to help guide those reflections? (According to all the marketing language, here’s where I’m supposed to drive up the emotional pain points and then create a compelling promise statement about how my product will solve those problems, but I’m going to resist that tactic and simply invite you to be reflective with me.)
I have been a therapist for 20 years and committed to my Catholic-Christian faith for 27 years, but this summer, things clicked for me in a new way and I’m eager to share them with you. I believe that they will help you grow in greater mastery of your thoughts and emotions and guide you to a greater place of peace. I’m really excited about this advent virtual retreat, Let There Be Peace, because it is my first attempt to synthesize these breakthroughs and operationalize them.
This is also the first time that I’m doing a cohorted course. I’m eager to walk and grow with folks this Advent, giving space for prayer and conversation. I’ve mentioned before that my goal is to take care of my listeners in a more intentional way and this Advent retreat is a new attempt at it. I don’t want it to be huge, because I want to preserve the hiddenness and quiet of Advent. I would love for you to join us! (If money is a hindrance, please email me and I’ll give you a discount code.)
We all have our crosses, face temptations, and hold on to regrets. I want to show you a way to let that stuff go. The process I’m proposing is rooted in the Hesychast tradition, an ancient form of Christian prayer and contemplation, while integrating modern science and counseling theory. I pull from what works. And all I can say is that it’s working for me.
Register here:
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This week’s podcast is all about peace, too. The content of the episode touches on the themes that we explore in greater detail in Let There Be Peace. It’ll help you see how God uses surprising moments (like colonoscopies) to help us grow in greater peace. Listen to it while your driving to visit family today, we can road trip together!
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I look forward to seeing you in the virtual retreat! The course opens on Saturday, the Vigil of the First Sunday of Advent. Have an amazing Thanksgiving Day and start to Advent!
Peace,
Mario
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