Christian Spiritual Counseling

Other resources:

Christian Counseling Training: The Theology of the Incarnation

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

 Christian Counseling Training : The Theology of the Incarnation

Christian Counseling training should include a solid understanding of the Incarnation.  This way Christian Counselors can not only counsel but inform their spiritual children of the awesome nature of the Incarnation.  Through an understanding of it, one can appreciate the gift of Christ and his humble birth for our eventual salvation.

There are two aspects to the great mystery of the Incarnation of Christ.  First, one of soteriology and second, one of love.  Soteriology or the study of Redemption points out that after the sin of Adam, man a finite creature owed an infinite debt for sin.  Justice demanded this payment.  Until it was paid, man would be under the spell of Original sin and Lucifer.  This payment was a paradox though.  Man could not pay an infinite debt.  He was incapable.  The debt required a perfect sacrifice and victim but man had to offer it and he was far from perfect.  The answer was the Incarnation of the Logos.  God out of pure love and no obligation paid our debt for us.  He did this by becoming man.  The second person of the Divine Trinity, retaining his divine nature, took upon a human nature to redeem us.  In the Incarnation, a divine nature and a human nature become fused together without tainting the other.  Christ is both man and God; as man he becomes our representative high priest and as God offers the perfect sacrifice.   The second element of the Incarnation is love.  While many believe the Incarnation was merely a reaction to Adam’s sin, many also contend that the Incarnation regardless of sin was inevitable because of God’s love for us.  Because God is immutable, he cannot change or emotionally interact with us.  Through the human infusion into the Logos, Christ is also a human person who can love us as a fellow brother.  He can suffer with us, share emotions and love us.  God wanted to love us at every level and via the Incarnation he was able to accomplish this.

 Through the Incarnation we see a logical step to resolve a paradox but also an ultimate gift of love.  In it, we understand a very important dogma that the early councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon and Constantinople taught against the various heresies of Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism and Monothelitism—-namely that Christ through the Incarnation is fully God and fully human, a Divine intellect and a human soul and body.  In this way Christ is truly Emmanuel or “God among us”.  Christ is Born–Glorify Him

If you are interested in learning more about Christian Counseling Certifications or learning more about Christ, please review the program in Christian Counseling Training.

Mark Moran, MA

Christian Counselor Training: Joyous Giving and Joyous Receiving

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counselor Training and Joyous Receiving

Christian Counselors many times encounter the reluctant taker.  The person who denies any help or who feels guilty if they accept any gift.  These individuals enjoy giving and are sincere but they forget the joy that others may feel when giving.   As Christians we must be joyous givers, but we also must learn how to joyously receive as well.
Our faith is based upon the greatest gift.  That gift is Jesus Christ taking the form of a slave and dying for us.  If we cannot learn to joyously accept that gift, then how we can joyously give that message to others?
During the Advent season, we see two key figures who help us accept this gift.  First, Mary who unselfishly shares her son with the world, giving up her only son for the redemption of the world.  Second, we see St. John the Baptist.  While Mary offers us Christ, St. John directs us to Christ.  He was among the first to rejoice when, as a fetus, he lept with joy in St. Elizabeth’s womb.  From that day forward, he prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah.
From this, we must spiritually accept the great gifts of God with joy and thanksgiving.  Let us also this Christmas year, accept the gifts of others with joy and gratitude.  Ultimately may we all share the gift of Christ and then spread it to others.
If you are interested in Christian Counseling Courses, please review the program.  Christian Counselor Training is available for qualified professionals.

Mark Moran, MA

Christian Counseling Certification and the Faith of the Centurian

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counseling Certification : Not Worthy That You Should Come Under My Roof

The faith of the centurion was the greatest faith that Christ had witnessed in all of Israel.  Upon meeting our Lord and begging for a cure of his servant, his faith  was illuminated by the mere words, “merely say the word”.   He did not require that our Lord should come to his home, nor grace his unworthiness by entering his lowly home, but his faith only required Our Lord’s word of healing.   His humility and faith earned him the cure he so desperately sought for his servant.
Christian Counselors should try to cultivate such faith in their spiritual children.  Our faith in God’s love for us should be so strong that it does not require visions, heavenly visits or spiritual favors.  The words of Our Lord should be enough, as they were for the centurion.

Liturgical Application of the Centurian’s Faith

In Catholicism and maybe some denominations of Protestantism, the centurion’s faith is memorialized before communion, when the faithful recite, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed”.  This phrase reiterates one’s faith and humility before reception of the Eucharist.  It acknowledges one’s unworthiness but also one’s faith that Christ can spiritually and physically heal our weaknesses.
While all who are baptized are infused with the gift of faith, we still must cultivate it on this earth.  This supernatural virtue will cease to exist in the next life when our faith is realized, but in the meantime, we need to strengthen it with ferventacts of faith, as the centurion did.
If you are interested in Christian Counseling Courses, please review the program.  Our Christian Counseling Certification is granted to qualified professionals who complete the required course work.

Mark Moran, MA

Christian Counseling Certification : Don’t Forget the Poor During Christmas

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counseling Certification : Care of the Poor During Christmas

While care of the poor is vocation all Christians must undertake the whole year, it is especially important to remember the poor during Christmas.  Christian Counselors should lead and partake in various ministries that alleviate the suffering of the poor during Christmas.  There are a multitude of ways this can be accomplished.
First, donating various articles.  Clothes, coats, and other articles of use can be donated to various charities in your community.  One should take the time to go through old and unused materials that could be useful for a poor family.
Second, donation of food is critical.  Many shelters have Christmas dinners.  One can volunteer or donate various canned goods or even donate a Christmas Ham.
Third, toys give great joy to children.  Be sure to sponsor a child or give to an organization that finds toys for poor children.

Christ Had A Special Ministry For the Poor

Christ’s love for the poor was a large part of his ministry.  Many of his parables and deeds correlate with a message to care for the poor.  Christ’s first and foremost purpose was our spiritual salvation, but he also understood the need of our physical well being.
When he fed the thousands, he was concerned for the people’s hunger.  He had already satisfied their spiritual hunger with his words, but through an act of charity, he also satisfied their physical hunger by multiplying the bread and fish.  This miracle would later foreshadow the Last Supper where Christ gave us His Body and Blood to feed our spiritual hunger.
This Christmas, let us try to spread the message of the Incarnation to spiritually feed others but let us also physically feed the hungry and care for the poor via acts of charity.  Remember, when you do a charitable act for a least of your brethren, you do it for Christ.
If you are interested in Christian Counseling Certification, please review the program

Mark Moran, MA

Christian Counselor Education Training : Christmas Giving: St. Nicholas or the Richman?

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counselor Education Training: Those to Give

Who will you emulate, not just during Christmas, but your entire life–the richman as found in the Gospel of Luke or St. Nicholas?  With the feast of St. Nicholas approaching and the happen chance reading of the passage in Luke about the richman, I found many interesting correlations for Christian Counseling.
Luke 18:18-27 tells the story of the richman who hoped to impress Christ with his adherence to the Law of Moses.  The richman had kept all the commandments and continued to press Christ on what made someone “good” or worthy to attain eternal salvation.  Christ quickly offered him the rhetorical question of what makes someone good?- And then very quickly reminded him that no one is good but God himself.  This did not pertain to Christ denying his divinity, but asserting that all goodness flows from God and any finite creation cannot attain salvation without that source of God.  Hence, in keeping the commandments, we are not earning heaven, as Pelagius would contend, but instead by the grace of our cooperation, being given the gift of salvation.
Christ, however, pushes the question further to the richman because he knew the man’s heart.  He told him to become closer to God, one must give up their possessions and give to the poor.  These corporal works of mercy greatly distressed the richman for he had much to lose.  His attachment to material things exposed his sin of greed.
Does this mean that Christ is against private ownership or personal possessions?  No, but it does emphasize the dangers of greed and materialism in our spiritual life.  If material things are more important than sharing, giving and eternal life then we have a serious obsession with finite things.  An obsession that could cost us our spiritual life.  This is why Christ firmly states, that it is easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle than a richman to enter into heaven.  This was not a marxist class warfare statement, but an observation of those who hold to material things before their spiritual welfare.
In contrast to the richman, we see the kindness and giving of St. Nicholas.  The true and historical St. Nicholas was an Eastern Bishop of the early church.  His love and compassion for his fellow man was unequaled in his time.  He gave everything he had to his city and people.  His giving became so well known that history to this day associates him with the greatest gift, the Incarnation of Our Lord.
St. Nicholas understood the meaning of spiritual treasure.  He also followed the command of Christ to give to the poor and share one’s gifts.  Do we behave more like the richman or St. Nicholas?

If you are interested in Christian Counseling Courses, please review our Christian Counselor Education Training.

Mark Moran, MA

Christian Counseling For Avoiding Christmas Time Burnout

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counseling for a Joyous Christmas

The secularization of Christmas causes burnout.  When we strip Christmas of its spiritual value and turn it into a “Holiday” season of gifts, shopping, and over stretching ourselves mentally, physically and financially, then we can only expect a time of peace to become a time of chaos.  How many people lose this peace in their attempts to micromanage every event, instead of focusing on spiritual preparation for the Lord?  Christian Counseling emphasizes the importance of spiritual preparation and a sharing of Christ’s gift with our family, friends and even strangers.
One of the first types of burnout may be an over zealous attempt to give.  There are many Christians who go to church or give just during the Holidays and they find themselves running a marathon with a minute to go.  True Christian giving is year round.  Many to their own agony, go store to store, hoping to get gifts for everyone just to “get a gift” or feel the need to help anyone and everyone to share the “Christmas Spirit”.   We must stay within our energy and budget!  If one has paced themselves the whole year with helping the poor, aiding friends, and showing affection to family, then perhaps the stress to go overboard in the final month of the year would not be necessary?   Are you there for your family all twelve months, or just at the end?
I do not want to lessen the spiritual urge to give, what I want to emphasize is the necessity of not just saving it all for Christmas but giving to our neighbor year round within our energy and budget.  If one attempts to do every good deed, buy every single gift and donate every cent at the end of the year, then that person will experience burnout.  We must also as Christians distinguish between giving and being used.  The saints gave everything to God, but they helped those truly in need.  When our good intentions not only help others but fulfill their own obligations, then we are no longer helping them but being a crutch for them.  Many people need help, but let us help those who truly need it.  Establishing boundaries and having a little for you and your family in regards to time and savings is not against the Gospel, especially when your vocation is first to your family!
Yet there are those who exist on the opposite end of the spectrum who never give.  These “Uncle Scroodges” make it a year round habit of hoarding for themselves without sharing or giving to the least of their brethren.  They are absorbed in self love and the secular values of Christmas.  These people will defintely experience burnout as they jump from party to party, worrying ‘who gets what and who did not get that’.  These individuals will also begin to experience post holiday depression as the festivities die down and the grind of the new year sets in.  This is because their Christmas season is during the time of spiritual preparation and not after Christmas.  Their depression will result due to a lack of spiritual joy that Christ gives via his Incarnation.  They will not dwell upon Christ’s love to become a slave and eventually die for us, but they will dwell on what they need next or what they did not get or the emptiness of no time off from work or the lack of parties this weekend.  The secularism will choke them during the Christmas season as their energy is drained and it will also depress them when the post celebration is over and they have no energy left nor anything to look forward to.
So to avoid these burnouts, enjoy the traditions but primarily focus on Christ.  During the Advent season and the St. Phillip Fast, prepare yourself spiritually with sacrifices for Christ.  Understand the giving nature of Christ and how we can emulate that but within our own capabilities.  Keep this season peaceful with prayer, spiritual exercises and attendance at Church.  And most importantly meditate on Christ’s Incarnation!

If you are interested in Christian Counseling Certifications, please review the program.  The program offers a variety of courses for those interested in christian counseling certifications.

Mark Moran, MA

Education Program in Christian Counseling: Our Lord Teaches Us the True Meaning of the Sabbath

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counseling Must Counter Secular Society’s View of Sunday

Secularism has distorted the true meaning of Sunday.  Sunday has become another day of the week for sales, overtime hours, secular entertainment, and odd jobs around the house.  Certified Christian Counselors, pastors, priests and religious  need to overcome this alarming trend with a strong condemnation in private and public discussions.
In the time of Our Lord, the Sabbath was Saturday and not Sunday.  Yet the same sacredness within the Jewish religion was applied to the original Sabbath.  Overtime though, the Sabbath entered into a completely opposite orbit of extremism than we see today.  The Pharisees and their many man made regulations corrupted the essence of the Sabbath and reduced it to a book of rituals and rules.  Some rules were completely and totally humorous in what was deemed necessary and unnecessary work.   The Sabbath became a burden instead of a blessing.
Christ understood the corruption and over bureaucratic manipulation of the Sabbath and challenged it.  On multiple times, Christ healed on the Sabbath and allowed his disciples to perform necessary servile deeds.  In essence, Our Lord understood three things.  First, our duty to God and our neighbor is never in contradiction to the Sabbath.  Second, he understood the corruption of the Pharisees and how they had distorted His Father’s day and finally, he understood the true nature of the Sabbath and hoped to restore it to the people.
With these things in mind what are we required of regarding the Sabbath?  The Commandment itself seems vague, “Thou Shalt Keep Holy The Sabbath”.  What falls under “keeping Holy”? Christianity has little disagreement in the first element–worship of God.  Most mainstream Christian denominations find it essential to attend Service, Mass, or Liturgy.  Only due to sickness or some unforeseen issue, can one miss Sunday services.  This is not always a common consensus among all denominations, however, and some consider it not a prerequisite.  I would contend personally it is since Sunday remembers the Holy Resurrection and also the necessity of Christ’s Mystical Body to worship Christ together.
Another objective element of “keeping Holy the Sabbath” involves physical labor.  Obviously labor is forbidden on Sunday, but there is some debate as to what constitutes labor and whether the labor is necessary or unnecessary.  As we know, this question has been around for a long time.  As noted, the Pharisees were quite critical of any labor, even the healing of another person.  So obviously, Christ would expect, if our ministry presented it, to perform corporal works of mercy that involve labor for the least of our brethren.   The problem becomes more when Christian Counselors are presented with unnecessary labor that may become necessary due to weekly schedules.  One example.  Shoveling snow on Sunday so your driveway is clear in the morning for work.  Should we do it during Sunday or wake 2 hours earlier on Monday?  These are hard things to decipher.  Obviously, unnecessary servile work should be condemned as well as any unneeded shopping but as one can see there are many gray areas.  I feel, if gray, to allow the person to make the decision because as our Lord said, the Sabbath is not to burden us but to bless us!
The final element of “keeping Holy the Sabbath” involves the very definition, keeping it holy!  Sunday should be a day of rest and worship but also of continued worship.  Christian Counselors can encourage their spiritual children to set aside extra time after Services to pray, read the Bible or perform other charitable acts.  Sunday should become a day where Christians worship God beyond the Church but also into the marketplace and home.  We do not simply show up for one hour a week and then return to the world, but we take it with us.   Our worship of God should be a Monday through Saturday prayer that reaches its culmination and exclamation on Sunday.
Does this mean we cannot on Sunday have secular fun?  Not in the least.  God expects us to rest from our labors and enjoy life.  Is this not why he rested on the Seventh Day of creation?  So, as long as we have put spirituality first and the needs of the church first, then by all means, enjoy a few secular activities with family and friends.  I definitely enjoy my football games even though my Browns usually make me cry!
With that, let us all attempt to worship God more perfectly on Sunday and understand the gift of Sunday and to utilize this gift properly for God’s glory and our own sanity.
If you are interested in Christian Counseling Certifications, please review the program.  The Education Program in Christian Counseling includes taking core courses by qualified professionals for certification.

Mark Moran, MA

Corporate America and Its Battle for the American Soul on Thanksgiving and How to Become a Certified Christian Counselor

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

 Materialism over Christianity: Where Have Our Values Gone?

Christian values are becoming more and more eroded in this country.  One sign of it is the lack of thanks we show on Thanksgiving by going and fighting each other for mere objects on Black Friday.  If that was not bad enough, the greed of corporate America and the upper 3 percent now push these sales during the sanctity of Thanksgiving!  This emergence of a ‘Grey Thursday’ should be very alarming and a line we should all draw where we tell the barrons of this country that enough is enough.  While retail workers are stripped of their time with their families, greedy CEOs dine with theirs and earn more money than they know what to do with.  And as for the materialistic individuals who indulge these sales, especially on Thursday–shame on you!

Dominic Rushe of the Guardian, writes in his article, “Black Friday Slips into ‘Grey Thursday’ as Retail Giants Face Staff Backlash” about the growing greed and unchristian values of uncontained capitalism in the United States during the holiday season.

“Jackie Goebel has worked for Walmart for 24 years, but this year, for the first time, she will spend the Thanksgiving holiday working at the retail giant. Like many of her colleagues, she is not happy. “Walmart has become a company so obsessed by the bottom line and greed that it no longer values the importance of the people and families that work for it,” she said.”

If you would like to read more about this article, click here

If you are interested in certifications in Christian Counseling, please click here

In the meantime, if you would like to learn how to become a Certified Christian Counselor, then please review our program.  We can guide qualified professionals through the steps on how to become a Certified Christian Counselor.
Mark Moran, MA

Certified Christian Counselors: Black Friday and the Cult of Materialism

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Certified Christian Counselors Need to Condemn Black Friday

Thank you God on Thursday, give me more on Friday.  Christian love on Thursday, Neo-Pagan hate on Black Friday.  The materialism seen here is alarming as so-called Christians attempt to balance their act of good Christian with greedy heathen.  Certified Christian Counselors need to emphasize to their spiritual children the dangers of the Cult of Materialism.
Black Friday brings out the worst in America.  Shoving, pushing, name calling, and capitalistic greed are all on display for the world to see.  As people trade their human dignity away and become like rats in a race, they are whistled forward in a surge of human cattle as the commercial doors open.  People have historically been injured and died in these races for a mere object.
This sickening display only a day withdrawn from Thanksgiving is an insulting to what we celebrated the day before.  The day before, we solemnly thank God for what he has given us, but on Black Friday how many of us covet more, more, more and more?  It is fine to desire something, but when it becomes a sick obsession void of Christian charity and that places spirituality second to materialism, then this vice becomes a true problem.  And Black Friday displays this vice oh so well.
Christ in the Gospel of Luke spoke of the parable of the rich man who instead of thanking God, hoarding his material goods.  He continued to collect and collect, with no regard for others or his spiritual needs.  Do we resemble him at times?
If we do go out on this pagan feast of Black Friday, let us with Christian love, kindness, and an understanding that material goods are second to spiritual ones.  Please, let us also remember how thankful we should already be for what we possess.  If possible, try to boycott this day and let the capitalists of three percent America understand that Christians do not play this twisted “game”.
If you are interested in becoming certified in Christian Counseling, please review the program.

Mark Moran

How Loving God Properly Disposes Us To True Love On Earth

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Christian Counseling, Love and God

People constantly yearn to meet the love of their life.  They go to Christian Counseling sessions for guidance, meet with friends and go on dating sites.  Ultimately, even with the greatest advice, one cannot find one’s soul mate without first finding oneself.
The only way to find oneself is to establish a relationship with God.  God who is the source of all goodness and love can fill the lonely soul with the grace necessary to carry out his will.  As one perfects himself in the peaceful bliss of the Lord, they attract what is intended and Our Lord sends them the one.
Yet while there are many who seek too hard, their are those who cannot love at all and desire a relationship for the benefits instead of love.  Their narcissistic self love is incapable of giving or sharing in a relationship.  The relationship exists in itself for their own pleasure and once it does not work, then it can become disposable.  So many marriages end because of one or both partners being infected with such false notions of love.
Jesus told the apostles and the people that one must love God with their whole heart, mind, soul and strength.  He also reminded them that they must put God first in everything.  Our Lord understood the nature of love.  While justice also demanded that a creation love its creator, Jesus was also trying to teach our selfish nature to love beyond ourselves.  If we can put God before everything, then we are truly manifesting love.
This manifestation of love then can be transferred to our fellow creatures.  By our experience with God, we will understand the nature of sacrifice and putting others first.  We also will have a more mature perspective in how two people share a life with one another.  This understanding of love will benefit us in relationships of every type, whether romantic, parental or merely friendship.
If you are interested in  Online Christian Counseling Courses, please review the program.  Our Online Christian Counseling courses involve a text book and open book exam.  Mentorship is given as needed.  After completing the online Christian Counseling courses, one can become eligible for certification.

Mark Moran, MA