In this first episode of Season 2, Stacy & Stacy discuss the Scripture, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof" and how the drive to use more contraception after the overturning of Roe vs. Wade is because women do not know how loved they already are.

00:11 Announcer

It is time to dig deep with Stacy and Stacy, a podcast for anyone hungry for God and willing to tackle today's relevant issues with authentic conversations inspired by holy scripture, prayer, and devotion to the sacraments. Hosted by two Texas gals who went to the same country Baptist church as little girls, had crazy lives, and found each other again decades later as Catholic convert wives and moms. Get ready, y'all. They are fixing the get real.

00:48 Stacy F

I'm Stacy Farquharson.

00:50 Stacy T

And I'm Stacy Trasancos.

00:52 Stacy F

Welcome back to season two of Stacy and Stacy. We're so glad to be back and back with you and doing this again. And we've had a little break so that we can enjoy the summer with our family and Stacy. I didn't go anywhere. Did you do anything this summer? Exciting.

01:12 Stacy T

Yeah, we had a very busy summer. I started out taking the kids to Galveston and then spent a lot of time getting ready for the East Texas Pro Life Team Leadership Camp. Which you were there to help with.

01:25 Stacy F

Yeah, I was there. You did such a fantastic job on that. You had such a great turnout, and, you know, the kids were just so hungry. They were little sponges. And it was an honor to be there with you guys.

01:38 Stacy T

We had fun. I'm so glad, though, that we've moved on. I'm glad that we got it done. I didn't know if we were going to be able to do it. Thanks be to God; the whole thing came off. 80 teams were there, and I know they felt the Holy Spirit and learned a lot of things about the human person. So that was one reason we put the podcast on hold. We also wanted to take a look at what we're doing and just see what does season two need to look like. This season, we're doing things a little differently.

02:09 Stacy F

Yes. So we're going to have more segments, I guess, kind of divide it up a little bit. So we'll have a topic discussion, top headlines, relevant topics that are happening in the world. And then we're actually going to have where we discuss daily readings and we'll just kind of talk about what jumps out at us when we read the daily reading.

02:35 Stacy T

Because Stacy loves Scripture. We also started, like, both of us, 50-year-olds, 50 something year old women. Grandmas started with education. Say a little bit about what you're doing, Stacy, with your program. I love that you're doing that.

02:53 Stacy F

Yeah, well, I started a four-year biblical studies program at the University of Dallas, and I love Scripture. I mean, if you ask me what I'm passionate about Jesus. Yes.

03:07 Stacy T

You have the scripture for everything. Like, the way you remember Scripture, I'm blown away. It's like you got them in your back pocket. No.

03:18 Stacy F

Being a convert, I am excited to see and to study Scripture through this new lens and just study it through the Catholic lens. There's some differences there. And I'm learning so much and I love it. I'm so excited.

03:34 Stacy T

There's a big Catholic word for that. It's called exegesis.

03:38 Stacy F

Oh, my goodness.

03:39 Stacy T

I know. I had to look it up when I converted. I'm like, what are they talking about? They keep saying exegetes. I'm like, I don't know what that means. It's scripture scholar. Stacy started Scripture studies, and I threw a turn of events that I didn't even see coming just because it's something I wanted to do and I got the opportunity. So I went running through that door. I started a systematic philosophy master's degree program this fall as well. So we're both students again. You're committed to a long-term program at University of Dallas. That's amazing because that's an excellent school and a four-year program diving into Scripture. So you'll get to avail yourselves of our scholarly pursuits here.

04:26 Stacy F

I'm just starting. It's going to get good here before.

04:29 Stacy T

Long, but I'm just starting. What we're going to do this season, too, is that we're going to have more episodes. So what we really needed to do, you all got to understand, starting a podcast, anybody that's done it, it's a little daunting. And we wanted to tell you about who we are in the first season. We spent a lot of time talking about ourselves, our lives, who we are, because we felt like we needed to do that. But we're not going to always just talk about ourselves like we intended to get to know you in the first season, and that was hard because it's really hard. It's not so hard to talk about other events and other people, but it's hard to talk about yourself. We were constantly like, are we oversharing? We don't want to overshare.

05:10 Stacy F

Right.

05:11 Stacy T

That is behind us now.

05:12 Stacy F

I know it was I mean, I was kind of second guess some of the things that I said because I didn't want to uncover I didn't want to say something that maybe one of my kids didn't want me to say.

05:22 Stacy T

Right. That's a real thing. I mean, we were constantly checking with them, but the great thing is a lot of our relatives were listening, and I think that was a blessing because I didn't expect it. We still keep hearing from people who are listening in, and we appreciate that.

05:39 Stacy F

And we had a lot of support. We had a lot of family and.

05:42 Stacy T

Friends that were very supportive. Yeah. So we're going to turn more now to commenting on things that are happening. Stacy being the scripture, the exegetress that she is, she is going to do her thing each episode and talk more about Scripture, and I'm going to do my thing. I like to keep up with current events and think about how to apply dogmatic theology, science, and also now philosophy to what's going on, to just try to figure out what's going on in our world and what we can do as women to make it better. So we're going to focus on that more getting into this season too. So take it away.

06:36 Stacy F

Yeah. Well, today I wanted to start out by reminding you of a quote that you've probably heard before. Actually, St. Augustine have both been credited with this quote, but it's something that really speaks to me. They said, Let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture so that God and man may talk together. For when we pray, we speak to God, but when we read the Holy Scriptures, he speaks to us. So that's why we want to do a daily gospel reading, because we want to hear from God, we want to speak to God and we want to hear from God. So let's just say a quick little prayer and we'll get started. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, we just ask that just as you open the eyes of your disciples in the Bible, that you would open the eyes of our understanding that we might comprehend the Scriptures. Give us fresh eyes to see and ears to hear what you would say to us. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

07:47 Stacy T

Amen.

07:48 Stacy F

Okay, so the gospel reading for today is in Luke and we're going to read this, discuss a few things. But I just encourage you and I'll do this every time I'll encourage you to go back and read it for yourselves. Spend a few moments praying and reading the Scriptures so that you can talk to God and he can talk to you. Okay? So this is a reading in the Book of Luke Seven, one verses, one to10. When Jesus had finished all his words to the people, he entered Caperna. A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die and he was valuable to him. Now when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. And they approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying he deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us and Jesus went with them. But when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, lord, do not trouble yourself, for I'm not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and let my servant be healed, for I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, go. And he goes, and to another, Come here. And he comes, and to my slave, do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turning said to the crowd following him, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. And then when the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. Okay, now for unpacking, unpacking, unpacking the Scriptures, we can go in so many different ways. I mean, discussing Scripture is kind of an eye beholder because you're going to discuss what it means to you. And that's why I'm encouraging you to go back and read it for yourself so that you and God can discuss it. Because I always say that Scripture is, and this is a Stacy made up word, but it's multirvelational. What I mean by that is God can take one Scripture, and he can talk to me about my children. He can talk to Stacy about healing. He can talk to someone else about their kids, someone else about their family. He will meet you where you are. God knows exactly what you're dealing with on any given day, at any given moment, and he can meet us right there in the middle of it, and he can take one Scripture and talk to us about what's going on in our lives. So having said that, there are a few things that jumped out at me when I read the Gospel for today. One thing was, this is really a story of intercession. They're intersecting for someone. The Jews went to Jesus and said, please heal this man. He's been great to us. The centurion is a good person. Please heal this person. And then the centurion said, my servant, I care for Him. I see value in him. I like him. He's a good guy. Please heal him. So when Jesus the Scriptures that really if I narrow it down to what really speaks to me, it's verses six and seven. Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent princess say to Him, lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to come to you, for you to come under My roof. Therefore, I did not presume to come to you, but only speak the Word and my sermon will be held. I know you've all heard that. I know that it's something we say every time we go to Mass. As matter of fact, when Pat first took me church, very first, very humbling, oh, my goodness. And that's why I love it, because when Pat first took me to church, he gave me a little book so that I could read along and follow along what was being said. I mean, I was so new, I knew nothing about the Mass or the order or anything that was being said. And when we left, we started talking about what I liked, all the questions that I had, and I had so many questions, but we talked about what my favorite part was. And I immediately said this Scripture, lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. Now, this, of course, was before I understood what the eucharist, the impact and the value and what that was all about. But this was my favorite part, because everyone in the church knelt down humbly and said out loud in unison, I am unworthy. I'm not worthy. I just felt like that was beautiful and it impacted me and it still impacts me today, every time, every single time, only say the Word that jumped out at me, because it reminds me of another scripture, actually, in Luke Five, a couple of chapters before this, where Peter and they were fishing all night. And Peter was a professional fisherman and he knew what he was doing. He knew where to fish, when to fish, how to fish, how deep to fish. But that particular night, no matter what he did, the fish were not biting. I mean, they were gone. So he did what most of us would do, he called it or not. He said, I'm done no more. Pulled his nets in heavy nets, cleaned them, washed them off, rolled them up, put them away. And then Jesus comes up and after Jesus talk for a little, a bit, little bit, he told Peter, he said, hey, why don't you take your boat back out, unroll those heavy nets, take your boat back out, recast your nets. And I can just hear Peter. I'm a professional fisherman. I know what I'm doing.

13:25 Stacy T

Thanks, Jesus. I know what I'm doing.

13:29 Stacy F

I've been out there all night long. I'm the one that knows what I'm doing. And I'm telling you, those fish are on vacation. They're not out there. But then he says something that just left off the pages, just jumped off and has stuck with me. Nonetheless, Lord, at your command OK, but if you say the Word, I'll cast my net. Even though I think I know what I'm doing, I'm going to submit to you, because, Lord, if you say the Word, I'll cast my net. And I guess the reason that this really spoke to me so loudly is because I had found myself in a parallel situation to Peter where I felt like I had done everything I could do. I had stood, I had fasted, I had prayed, I had done every marching order I felt like the Lord gave me. And nothing was happening, nothing was changing. It was to no avail. And I was like, I'm done. I'm packing up, rolling up my nets, and I'm out of here. But when I read this passage in the Bible, it was like, okay, nonetheless, Lord, if you tell me to stay, I'm going to stay. If you tell me to keep fighting, I'm going to keep fighting. I think I know what's going on, but I'm going to humble myself. I'm going to submit to you, and I'm going to keep fighting. So every time I kneel in Mass, I think about that. Nonetheless, lord, at your word. Whatever you tell me to do, I'm not worthy, Lord. But if you just say the Word, if you just say the Word, my soul will be healed. If you just say the Word, you tell me what to do, I follow you. I choose you this day whom I will serve. I trust you, Lord. So again, I just encourage you to go back and to read the Scriptures to see what the Lord would say to you.

15:20 Stacy T

I love how you say that because my big problem sometimes is like, I'm here, Lord, I'm listening. You can talk now. And I don't hear. But that's also because I don't listen to Christ the way Christ wants to be listened to. I really don't shut my mind down long enough to hear anything. I don't sit and look at the Scripture and read the Scripture and wait to hear the voice of God. I'm like, okay, I read it. Close the Bible, let's move on next.

15:49 Stacy F

And, you know, so many people do that. And I don't mean this to be ugly. I've done it so many times. It's like, check that box off. I've done daily readings. I'm done there. Is that quieting yourself? Is that a word? Quieting? But just being quiet before the Lord.

16:09 Stacy T

Shut your mouth, shutting your soul's mouth.

16:14 Stacy F

That's right. I mean, how will we know what he is speaking to us? How will we know to obey or how to submit or where to cast our net? We want to know these things so that we and the ones we love and the ones that we're praying for might be healed again. St. Ambrose and St. Augustine had the answer to that question. He speaks to us when we read Holy Scriptures. So I just want to say one more thing. I just want to say that if it is hard to read the Scripture, if you find it difficult to read the Scripture each day, or just maybe you haven't gotten into the rhythm of it, maybe you want desperately to do it, you want to hear God, but you just haven't gotten into the rhythm of it. You know, I just invite you to start each day with us. Let us unpack the daily readings together.

17:01 Stacy T

That's one reason I'm glad we're doing the podcast again and that we're going to be doing it five days a week. That's our goal. Five days a week. I get to talk to you every morning because I am like that. It's just my personality. I've learned. I've taken the strength finder thing and whatever. I am one of those people that will ask a question and then keep talking. I don't even let the other person answer because I'm not really in the mood to listen. And I hate saying it out loud. That's so ugly. But I have worked very hard to calm down and to listen and to try to hear the voice of God because sometimes God's, like, it seems like he's not talking because I'm not letting Him. I'm praying, but I'm praying because I think I have it all figured out. I'm telling God what we're going to do.

17:55 Stacy F

How many times works well, you know, when we want a certain answer, like we want to hear Him say a certain thing. And so I have done that so many times where I know the answer that I want. Right. And so I would pray to God to show me in a way that I can't reason myself out of. Let me know that I know that I know. And I'm telling you, sometimes he's talked to me, and I know that. I know that. I know that it's Him, and it wasn't what I wanted to hear.

18:29 Stacy T

Yeah. So you're like, oh, that wasn't the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Stacy. I'm looking forward to doing that, to talking with you about the scripture every morning, because I am one of those people who reads it moves on. So we also want to talk about current events, too, because it's a lived life of faith. And I'm not real big into listening to News24/7, but I do like to pay attention to what's going on. Obviously, one huge, enormous thing that happened this summer was the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I don't think anybody happened right before we had the Pro Life Team leadership camp. And that was amazing because we titled it for a Time such as this, and we were helping the kids to realize their moment in time. Roe v. Wade just got overturned. Well, bear with me. It's the chemist in me. But I think like this, and I think it makes sense, though. So I'll teach you a little bit of chemistry here. But Roe v. Wade happened in chemistry. When we have chemical reactions going on. Think of your body. Like if you're at homeostasis, you're at equilibrium. Everything is functioning the way it should if there's a stress to the system. So whether it's a chemical reaction that's at equilibrium with the forward and the reverse rates, or it's your body, if there's a stress to the system, there's turmoil and chaos for a while as your system, your body or the chemical system establishes a new equilibrium under the new stress. So the stress is something that caused a change. There's turmoil. A new equilibrium is reached. Like if you're dieting or you're exercising. That exercise is a stress to the system. And it takes a few days for the muscles to respond and the soreness to go away. But you establish a new equilibrium. And I think of our country like that right now. There was this way things are like, all my life, abortions legal now. It's overturned. Abortion is not just a given. Legal everywhere. And now there's going to be a period of turmoil as states figure out their new equilibrium. Does that make sense?

20:48 Stacy F

Yeah, it's simply figuring out the new normal.

20:52 Stacy T

22:29 Stacy F

Okay?

22:30 Stacy T

So that's a point all in and of itself. Most women use contraception. As a Catholic woman who went to even Catholic doctors constantly having contraceptions shoved down my throat because I had four babies in five years, they're like, lady, you need to be on contraception. I'm like, Doctor, I'm Catholic and so are you, and we're not supposed to do that. And I had to explain it to him. But it's the norm.

22:54 Stacy F

It's the norm.

22:55 Stacy T

24:09 Stacy F

Well, I know that I came into the church later on in life, so natural family planning NFP was not a part of my life. This does kind of obviously many women use abortion as birth control.

24:27 Stacy T

Yeah, that's proof that they did.

24:29 Stacy F

That's proof that they did. I mean, I personally know someone who had repeated abortions, and it became her norm. It became the normal thing for her to do and make a phone call, schedule it. I mean, we talked last season. My daughter knew someone that suggested scheduling an appointment, and she made the comment that it was just as casual as going to make up an appointment to get your nails done.

24:55 Stacy T

I never forgot that.

24:57 Stacy F

25:36 Stacy T

I do, too, and I think that's why I think I know a lot of prolife people are revisiting all the abortion arguments because now it's time to really pull them back out and teach people, because in the stress that's been applied, they're listening. And I just want to say really quick, we're going to wrap up in about four or five minutes, but just real quick, what does the church and we'll talk more about this. I wrote about it in the20 Answers booklet I wrote for Catholic Answers, but it always struck me as a convert, too. Like you, Stacy. The church's teaching on contraception isn't just like, oh, you can't use it. It's unlawful, it's unethical, you can't use it. The why of it is actually so beautiful. But you have to wipe all of the cobwebs of a contraceptive culture away from your head. You have to forget everything. Being a convert is hard in some of these respects. You have to forget everything you thought you knew. You have to intentionally shove it all out of your head and start over. And when you start over logically, the Church's teaching on contraception comes from the revealed truth that God is love. God is love. And you have to get your head around God loves you. God loves you so much that in his plan, you deserved to be conceived in the womb of a woman who was beloved by her husband, the man. And then at that moment when you were conceived, god knew. God would know the way it's supposed to be. When those parents heard about your existence, they would be overjoyed with love. That two became one. And see, that's just heartbreaking, because how many of us actually can say, that's how we came into existence, right? There's so much the mom's working and now she's freaking out, or parents aren't even married, or there's trauma and tragedy involved in the conception, like we're dealing with in our own family. And so it's not that ideal. But understanding what the ideal is really helps. And contraception is because if you say, okay, well, you don't need love. You don't need to love yourself. You don't need to know that God loves you. You don't need to expect a man to love you, woman as beloved. And you don't need to conceive that child in perfect union and love to becoming one. You don't need all of that. Just make babies because you want to have sex whenever you want to have sex. So take a pill, shove an IUD up yourself, get yourself sterilized, whatever. Do whatever just so you can have sex. When you start with love, then you understand why it's so freaking backwards, right?

28:21 Stacy F

Because without that, without the heart behind it, god's heart behind it, his love for us, it's just self-serving. It's so fleshy. It's just in the moment. It's almost like a self-medicating. You just do what feels good. Nike always just do it. And now I'm sure that people are stocking up on the Plan B.

28:47 Stacy T

They are, yes.

28:49 Stacy F

I'm sure that and at the end of the day, for Planned Parenthood, it is a business. They push their scenario. They push their narrative. And that narrative right now is so loud to the next generation, our kids and the kids that are their kids. I mean, it's this narrative that's being pushed out there is so loud. And like I said, it's fear that motivates them and their choices. Yes.

29:22 Stacy T

And you know what, Stacy, to tie that back to what you were saying in the scripture reading today, people who use contraception, they're doing it for the same reason we're saying we don't always listen to God. We don't you know, you're not going to hear very many 50 year old women say that the cure for contraception is to open your Bible and read it and sit there long enough to listen to God speak back to you. But that's exactly what we're saying. Like, if you spend time listening to God, you'll find that love and that clarity about the problem you're actually trying to solve. Because for a woman using contraception, the problem to solve is not, oh, I can't have babies because I need my career. I learned this. I left my career. The problem to solve is to realize there is nothing more important in your life than love. Nothing more important. If you're going to be with a man, there needs to be love, commitment, marriage, beauty, all the two becoming one. If you're going to raise children, they need to be raised in a home. And so all we fall short of that in some way. But I hope this will be a chance for us Catholics to teach more women about what the Church says here, because they're kind of freaking out. And what they need to hear is not or find a more intense form of device or drug to. Put in your body. Get in touch with God, who is love is crazy, right?

30:47 Stacy F

Yeah. I think, coming in the next few episodes, I think we're going to have a lot more to say about how God is the way, the truth and the life and submission is scary. I know that it is. But there's so much security and safety. When we submit to God and his way of doing things, we are protected. He protects us. So that is beautiful and wonderful. Also. Everything he does is with our best interest at heart.

31:23 Stacy T

Always. We just have to give them a chance.

31:25 Stacy F

Yes.

31:26 Stacy T

All right. Well, I'm Stacy Trasancos.

31:28 Stacy F

And I'm Stacy Farquharson. Until next time.

31:34 Announcer

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