The Faith of the Irish

In this episode, Marcy Youngster shares a deeply personal moment that stirred something unexpected in her heart—one that left her both emotional… and completely affirmed in her identity.

A simple question led to an answer she wasn’t expecting… and what she heard may change the way you see your faith, your prayers, and even your spiritual influence.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your quiet devotion really matters—or if Heaven is actually listening—this conversation will stay with you.

marcy@marcyyoungster.com

Thank you for listening to The Catholic Whisperer™ with Marcy Youngster.

If this episode blessed you, please  follow the show and leave a review. It helps more souls discover the beauty of the Catholic faith.

You can connect with Marcy or share questions at
 marcy@marcyyoungster.com

For more information about Marcy and future episodes, visit:
 www.MarcyYoungster.com

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the Catholic Whisperer Podcast. Coming to you from Tampa, Florida. I am your host, Marcy Youngster, cradle Catholic, mother of 10 children via a blended Catholic marriage. I'm a lifelong entrepreneur and creator of the Queen of Your Ship Program for Women. I bring to you stories of faith, inspiration, and hope. My desire is to ignite and reignite faith in every one of my listeners. If you were baptized, you have inherited Christ's mission of priest, prophet and king. Please subscribe and listen to my future episodes as I explain how I translate this calling into my daily life as a Catholic woman. Today, I. Greetings, my friends. It's been a minute since I've been here with you, but I wanted to jump on and connect with you because I have a number of things burning in my heart. You might not know this about me, but I have a lot of Irish blood. Do any of my listeners have any Celtic blood? You might notice that the way you view your faith is a little bit different than say someone who's German or Spanish or French or Italian. Now my grandmother was a very, very devout Irish Catholic, and in doing our family research, we discovered that five generations back from her. So that would be a what a great, great, great, great, great grandmother. Her name was Hannah and she came from Ireland when she was only four years old to New York City. Now what I find very beautiful is that she apparently was a noteworthy Catholic of her day because there are accounts in two to three of the New York papers of that time describing her funeral. And the account of her funeral is so beautiful, and especially what is beautiful is the way they spoke of her. They did say she was 84 years old and they refer to her as the oldest resident of New York City. But the phrase in the newspaper clipping, which really caught my eye, was when the author described her as an angel. That she had the face of an angel in spite of her 84 years. The clipping also went on to say that many people came to the funeral, rich and poor alike, to pay their respects because according to the clipping, she had been the person to found some big Catholic organization in New York City. I'm not sure if the article said. Catholic action. It was some important ministry or apostate of the day, but I found it was, I thought it was beautiful. And the description of the covering for the coffin was that it was like a black ade trimmed in gold. I don't have the description in front of me, but it, all I can say is it filled me with awe and the way the author described her. Left me feeling nothing but admiration. Now, why do I bring this up? I bring this up because this past Sunday at Mass, there was a priest there who has been a priest in Ireland for two years. He is actually a French priest, but he's commissioned, or his assignment is in Ireland. So I was really eager to go speak with him because I really, really, really want to find out. Secrets to my heart. I wanna find out what about me is Irish or whatever. So I went up to him. I was a little bit nervous. He's a very powerful looking priest. But I thought, Marcy, just, just get your pluck and go ask him. So I introduced myself and said, I have a question. Could you please tell me, in your opinion, what do you think is the mission? Of the Irish soul, what would you say is the distinguishing Catholic mark that you've noticed in the Irish spirit? He looked at me very interestingly and he remarked, well, actually, currently Ireland in terms of the Catholic faith is not in a very good state. He said, in fact, there are only 12 seminarians in the entire country. He said there are more bishops than seminarians. So I said, how many bishops are there? He said, about 40. And I said, are, are there any really on fire ones? And he said, no, not really. And he said to me what I think would be especially important and a good thing to do. Would be for American priests with Irish lineage who are fervent and on fire for the faith to be sent to Ireland. This makes me feel very emotional. It makes me feel emotional because Ireland is the country that for centuries sent evangelists and missionaries out from that country to spread the faith. You see, you can probably hear, I'm getting choked up as I speak, but it is because my faith, my faith was instilled in me from the earliest years and it caught fire and it's never gone out. So back to my story. So I said, what are the two distinguishing things? And he looked at me and he said, faith, my heart. Nearly leaped out of my chest. I said, faith, really faith. Because that's the burning passion in my heart. To love the faith. Live the faith. Learn the faith. Spread the faith to be the faith. That's what, that's what my heart burns to do. And I said, is there anything else? And he said, yes, there is another distinctive mark of the Irish soul. Though it's not as common or as prevalent as it was in a previous generation. And I said, what? What? He said, personal piety. Personal piety. Oh my goodness. I've got that one too. My friends. You might think I'm just a little bit too excitable, but I can't help it. My heart, my heart is like a little child. When I hear things like this, I just get so euphoric, excited.'cause that's my identity. Those two things are who I am. Faith and personal piety. And what do I mean by personal piety? For me it's, it's the desire. To love the faith. Live the faith. Learn the faith. Spread the faith, and be the faith. But it's also personal devotions. It's also those intimate quiet moments of prayer. It's praying the rosary with my husband. It's going to mass and receiving the Eucharist. It's praying Novenas. It's praying ardently for my my children. Personal piety. It's, it's that personal love of God that you get to do intimately one-on-one with heaven. Your prayers. My prayers, they're really make a difference. They really, really, really make a difference. And how do I know that? Well just put it on a human level. If you were to go to your mother, your living mother, and you had a good relationship with her assuming, and you said, mom. I really, really, really would love it if you could do this for me. Now, if she's a good and loving mother like I am, I would do next to anything for my children. How much more would Mother Mary do that for you? And for me, that's personal piety. We get to go ask, and we know we will receive. We might not see the result in the moment, but we know without a shadow of a doubt. That Mary is working on it, and she has probably dispatched a lot of angels. One of my favorite little stories from the Old Testament, which I learned only recently was the account where, I think it was in the book of Daniel. Daniel was in great trouble, great distress, as you can imagine, in the den, and he cried out to God, but it wasn't until 21 days later. That an angel appeared to him to help him. And the remarkable thing is what the angel said to Daniel. And please listen to this carefully because this should give you hope. The angel said to Daniel, you must know that the instant you sense your cry to God for help. He dispatched us. The problem is we had to fight off enemy spirits to get here. It took them 21 days, my friend. That means that the good angels are seeking to help us, but there could be interference. What do I mean? Well, you've probably heard about spiritual warfare. I think that's what the angel is referring to. When he told David, I mean Daniel, that they had been dispatched 21 days ago, but they had been fighting. They had been fighting for 21 days to get through this, my friends, is why we must pray the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel every single day and pray it especially. If you are feeling sad or oppressed or depressed or hopeless, or you just can't get your motivation, because remember, if you're sad, that's the time to pray. Do you know this ain't Michael Prayer? I'm gonna say it for you here in case you don't. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him. We humbly pray and do thou prince of the heavenly host by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan and all of the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, my friend. I pray that prayer for my children long distance. I pray that prayer. Every night with my husband during the rosary. Do not ever, ever, ever doubt the power of your prayers by virtue of your baptism, by virtue of the blessed trinity residing in your soul. When you speak Heaven really listens. Heaven really listens. So my friend, I just wanted to share that little anecdote. From the French priest from Ireland, in which he confirmed to me that in his opinion, the two distinguishing marks of the Irish soul are love of the faith and personal piety. If you have a different opinion, I'd love to hear it. And if you are from another country, I would love to hear what you believe are the distinguishing marks of your country's soul. I think all of these things make the fabric of the Catholic Church exquisitely beautiful and interesting and powerful and picturesque and these sorts of details just light my faith up. My friends, I intend to come and do a podcast every week. It's just I have a lot of other projects on my plate and I have gotten distracted. But I'm, I am making a commitment that I will, I will, I will commit to doing one podcast per week moving forward. Please subscribe to this podcast if you found any value and please share it. I need to know if what I'm saying finds any resonance in any hearts. I don't know. If you're like me, I just know I can't keep quiet. So until next time, I'm Marcy and God bless you. I. Thank you for listening to the Catholic Whisperer Podcast. I hope you will subscribe and share this episode with your friends. Please email me any comments or questions at Marcy, MAR y@marcyyoungster.com. Until next time, I hope you will love your faith. Live your faith. Learn your faith, spread your faith, and most importantly, be your faith. Thank you again.