Overcoming Marian barriers, Reviving a "dead battery" heart, & Navigating the morality of “life-saving sterilization” | ACW378
Ask Christopher West
Theology of the Body Institute
4.9 • 549 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Questions answered this episode:
- I came into the Church about three years ago, and my fiancé is entering this Easter. He quickly came to know Mary, but it has been taking me some time. I buy her flowers and pray the Rosary, but I don’t seem to connect with her. In John, Jesus says, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' Yet there is the saying 'to Jesus through Mary.' How can I know her?"
- The girl who I thought I would marry had suddenly broken up with me. I'm happy to report that the Lord's healing has been present, and He has worked a lot of good in my heart. However, I find that my romantic desire is seemingly broken. After two or three dates, I feel like my heart just gives out. Like a battery in a TV remote—it comes back on for a little while and then it goes back out. How can I cultivate eros again? I know that I’m supposed to feel it.
- My husband and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I am now navigating perimenopause and have been diagnosed with potentially dangerous ovarian cysts, adenomyosis and endometriosis. Doctors have suggested medically inducing menopause to stop ovarian function and potentially stop the progression of these conditions. My husband made the remark that inducing menopause artificially is a way of making me intentionally sterile. I am now torn by the idea that I would be committing mortal sin.
Resources:
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Ask Christopher West is a weekly podcast in which Theology of the Body Institute President Christopher West and his beloved wife Wendy share their humor and wisdom, answering questions about marriage, relationships, life, and the Catholic faith, all in light of John Paul II’s beautiful teachings on the Theology of the Body.
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Transcript
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| 0:26.8 | That's goaddy.com slash aI-R-O. |
| 0:35.4 | From the Theology of the Body Institute, this is the Ask Christopher West podcast. |
| 0:40.3 | Hi, podcast listeners. |
| 0:56.4 | Welcome everybody to another episode. |
| 0:57.5 | We're happy to be with you. |
| 0:58.2 | We are. A couple weeks ago, we were recording. |
| 1:00.7 | And before we hit record, I was like humming a tune from a movie. |
| 1:09.4 | We had listened to the soundtrack. We had listened to the soundtrack. |
| 1:11.4 | It was in my mind and heart, and I was humming it, and you just asked me to sing it into the mic. |
| 1:17.2 | Forgive me for how that sounded. |
| 1:20.7 | But anyway, you said to our listeners, does anybody recognize where that came from? |
| 1:26.2 | Yes, the soundtrack to what movie? |
| 1:28.3 | Yeah, so I want to say, hi, Stephanie. |
| 1:32.6 | Stephanie was the only person who commented on that. |
| 1:36.5 | She said, Christopher and Wendy, your love theme comes from dances with wolves. |
| 1:40.8 | Whoop, who, who, who. |
| 1:41.6 | I love that movie. |
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