Mother Iliana "The Light of His Eyes" 

I love how she discerned for 12 years. Its now been 12 years since I felt God calling me to marriage and Im still unmarried. I dont know why. But her story gives me hope. If anyone reads this plse pray for me.🙏

Can we please please have more nuns on the show? I loved both her and sister Natalia. As a young woman, it’s nice hearing from such beautiful, godly women.

I learned more from this nun in an hour than in years of self-help videos.

Oh my she is so precious. Lord thank you for this beauty of a person.

46:18 “I don’t want to read about You anymore; I want You.” 😭 I needed to hear this so much.

Everything she is saying about struggling with self and sin and the Devil is EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I've been feeling like God loves all my friends more than me, because He has blessed them greatly, and me...me, He has given me a lifetime of health problems (for context, I'm 37, and I had a stroke last year, the left side of my body has limited range of movement because my spinal cord is pinched by my backbone, and I walk with a cane because I have MS), a career that is failing, a dream that is dying, never had a girlfriend, always have sought one, and it feels like I'm always just one exhausted day away from annoying my church leaders and being asked to not help serve anymore. And so...yeah, for a while, it's felt like God loves my friends more than me. This interview....well, it won't do a 180 for me, but it MIGHT help me towards seeing my struggles in the light of eternity, for God's glory and my good.

Your best shows are those that give us spiritual direction in such a beautiful and real way. "How can the Father not love what He's made? ... How can I take humiliation unless I know that I am lovable."

What I have gotten from this episode is…. Sometimes we have to wait on the Lord. I really needed to hear this. I ordered this book.

Self-loathing is not a victimless crime. It poisons the community well from which we all drink.

I can really relate to Mother Iliana, I grew up in with many different Christian influences. I was baptized Ruthenian Byzantine, grew up in a Melkite parish and also grew up around charismatic Catholics(including my parents)... And lots of beautiful friends and family friends that were Protestant. I can really identify with the way that she talks about God and her relationship with Him... I've spent the last year and a half learning to live a different life after my Mom passed, she had health problems for the better part of 30 years and I was a caregiver in some form or fashion for a lot of that time. It's only been in the last few months I've started to come out of the fog and the last few weeks since my heart has felt a deeper pull towards my prayer life again... I felt like God was really giving me helpful nuggets while they were talking. I loved how child-like she was in one minute and then in the next she's dropping truth bombs on us like, you didn't see that coming did you!?😁😆 She had so many beautiful insights I didn't know I needed. Thank you! 🙌🏻☦️

This is exactly what I needed to hear tonight. Thank you Lord for pints with Aquinas and the beautiful guests! Especially Your lovely brides!!

Mother Iliana, thank you for your talk and thank you Matt. I have been struggling with a call to the priesthood. I am Ukrainian Greek Catholic as well in Georgia and am currently awaiting my letter from the bishop for the diaconate. Your talk though has brought to the surface the truth that my truest desire is to be a priest, that I do feel God calling me to the priestly ministry. Please pray for me that God would give myself, and my wife the strength to answer the Lords calling to further discernment and to follow these pullings on my heart. Most of all, please pray that the Lord will give enlightenment to the Bishop and make His will known. Thank you so much for your talk. CIX!

What a beautiful story. I’m an RN and can relate to her so much

Thank you for having Mother Iliana on the show, this was a wonderful dialogue and it was very spiritually uplifting. I think we all need to hear how much God loves us right now because despair is creeping in everywhere. God bless everyone on earth, Amen.

There's more talk here about the thumbnail, than there is about how wonderful this interview was. God bless

Her openness and obedience to God's Will is inspiring and admirable. ❤

"Humility is a real antidote to anxiety" 💎💎💎💎

My daughter LOVES Mother Iliana and calls she and the other mothers in her monastery “the other Mother Teresa’s”. She (Mother Teresa) must love you as much as you’ve loved her through your life! Thank you for your witness and encouragement of God’s inexhaustible love for His children, I need to be more convicted of this!

That’s beautiful that Mother didn’t presume ♥️. There is such a sense of obedience and taking the long path. I see a long path and I don’t want to take it. I relate to the story of Leonie Martin because she was the black sheep of this holy family.

Her testimony is so powerful and loving. Her witness to God's love, and how she discerned her calling for 12 years, is I think, something many of us can identify with. Seeking God's will. Asking, Praying, Searching, and continuing in that process until the Way is made clear. I needed to hear this today! Great guest! God love her! Thanks Matt!

I adore this lady. Protestant here. Please pray for me..

She is absolutely darling! What a precious bride of Christ! God bless

I know it's Divine Providence that prompted me to listen to this episode. Been struggling with burnout, financial anxiety, and fear that I won't be able to maintain work and provide for myself. Mother Iliana's observations were clearly God trying to shine a light on how my own pride and desire to shore up my own safety above all else (because of the fear of imminent disaster and abandonment from others) is getting in the way of my ability to pray and fulfill the duties of my state in life, because I'm too focused on how "incompetent" I am instead of how powerful He is and all the things He has already given me that I forget to be grateful for. Also loved the excerpt Matt read, I almost cried because it was clearly divine timing...can't seem to find much encouragement in my situation, and I keep thinking my neurological conditions/disabilities are insurmountable, and my childhood trauma, (despite how much God has healed of it in the last few years), will never go away and it'll make me incapable of getting better or become a saint. I have only vague ideas of what my vocation might be, and fear all the paths because I know they're all so difficult. It feels like my wounds have broken me to the point where I can't show up even for myself in my boring ordinary life, let alone for God or anyone else. Of course I'm familiar with the concept that we will never be perfectly healed or sinless until we reach heaven, but to hear it rephrased like that was powerful.

I have Mother Iliana’s book. She’s a lovely artist, not only reflected in her poetry and iconography, but her writing style as well. It’s a wonderful book, so I’m looking forward to this discussion.

Her laughs makes my heart warm. 😊 I am a new subscriber. I stumbled upon your channel yesterday, and now I am binging on your playlists. I am a daughter of Anglican priests (both) in the Philippines. Ironically, I am not very active in the church especially when I was younger. Now as an adult and experiencing a lot of hardships, heartbreaks and grief. I have dabbled in a lot of beliefs, now I am enjoying your podcasts and it's lighting a little fire in me and asking my mother (my father has passed away 10 years ago) to have a discussion about deep diving in the topic of catholicism.. Pray for me 🙏

Mother Natalia has the best laugh in the world!

Love these sisters, God bless them 🙏🏻

Matt, I don't agree with you on many things, but I absolutely love that you're bringing Byzantine spirituality into the consciousness of many RCs.

This is simply beautiful. Mother Iliana has such a depth of spirituality. There is so much to take away from this talk. It’s just what I needed. I don’t generally listen to an podcast more than once but I will definitely be listening to this one again.

I'm listening to this podcast today, when the gospel is that of the good Samaritan and in the middle of the podcast I ended up discovering this. And it's a topic I've been struggling with for a few days, especially yesterday until this morning. What a good coincidence! The encounter between misery and Mercy is a strange and loving encounter with God, and we are left with thanksgiving and loving in return! Wonderful, amen!

Thanks for this. I came across this three months after it aired and have now ugly cried in prayer for an hour contemplating the nature of love and forgiveness

She is a precious treasure. So uplifting and encouraging. Thank you!

I'm so saddened to here "this is the end" - i dont want this talk to end 😊 Looking forward for the Part 2 of this talk. Such words of Wisdom here! ❤ God Bless to all❤

She is so beautiful! God knows who shall serve the Lord! What a calling.🙏

Always hype when Matt gets nuns on.

I LOVE HER!

One of the best PWA episodes ever! She’s awesome.

This one is precious

i listened to this episode on spotify just yesterday and i have never teared up so much on an episode before thinking about how much God really does love us. this video really helped me to see past my self hate and see myself being loved through my life.

I agree with everyone else about Mother Iliana. I have been encouraged and challenged by her while listening. I just really wanted to acknowledge one thing that Matt said that brought me to tears. He said that if one of his children wanted to change themselves, to look different or be different, he would wonder, "Who told you that?" My beautiful daughter is taking testosterone right now. I can barely look at her because I love her so much; it's so difficult to see what she is doing to herself. She thinks she needs to be someone different. I cry and think of Matt's question. "Who told you that?"

Thank you, Matt, for running this on YT. It was a blessing to me. ❤️💙

She is soooo adorable!

I'd say that all the Mothers visiting PWA studio are really cool!

We love you!!!

Thank you, Thursday, for staying a little more in the background in this episode. A conversation between two people can be very intimate. A conversation between three people has a very different dynamic. Sometimes I have felt recently that your big , bold , and fun personality was too much on display and was a distraction for the main interview. I felt that way recently with the Jeff Cavins interview. So thank you for pulling back and letting this be primarily a sharing between Matt and Sister. I mean no disrespect., Thursday. I can tell you are an extremely intelligent, fun and knowledgeable person. I can see that you have a great love for Christ and his church. May God bless you for all you do in the background to make Pints with Aquinas successful.

Our Lady says in one of Her messages in Medjugorje: 'Humility is truth.'

This and she is so incredibly beautiful. Thank you so much for this episode!!! I have just started reading the book, and it is exactly what I am needing right now. So grateful!!!

Sr. Della Marie is now the mother of the TOR sisters! Love to hear about how she has witnessed to others!

One of the best interviews I have seen! It answered so many of my unspoken questions and doubts.

Here in jolly old England we pronounce it “Norrich”.

I needed to hear this. Thank you mother Iliana❤ Sometimes it can be hard to let be loved by our Heavenly Father🥹

This was so great👍. Thank you for having Mother Iliana on the podcast. So good.

This was an uplifting conversation! Thank you Matt for being such a great host!

I loved her!!! She is a beautiful soul💐

What an awesome show, and she is absolutely a beautiful person! I’m definitely going to buy her book.

Wonderfully close to my heart

One of the best if not the best interview I listened to on here! She was so bubbly and heart warming, I really enjoyed so thank you and God Bless!!!

Brilliance and beauty. It’s why we all flock to this podcast. Thank you Matt and Mother. Peace and blessings

Matt, you have a beautiful way of offering a calm and comfortable space for your guests to open up in a real way spiritually. Some of your guests, I see on other podcasts and it's different. Good but not as intimate or something? So, good job. Bless you.

Beautiful! Extremely powerful especially from 1hr 22 to 1hr 34! Wow that put me into prayer. Thank you both.

Great podcast the people you have on are awesome

I've cried/choked up at almost all of your episodes, for one reason or another, but this one struck me for some reason. Floodgates. What a beautiful calling. I grew up in a catholic school environment, but I had NO idea how complex this process is. ❤

beautiful soul.

In the 70s we'd never have believed it if someone said that in 40 years everyone will talk like Shaggy.

I just have to share a story of mine. I was just listening to this at Spotify and her story of becoming a nun filled me with a sense of familiarity. Before I became a Catholic and way before I came to Jesus, as a child, I wanted to become a nun. I looked up how to become a nun so many times. But always, I had a feeling of "Not now. Wait." Always. Later, 2022 I married my wonderful husband who I had prayed for, and he is truly a man from God for me. I still want to become a nun but now I understand what God meant with "Wait". I will have a wonderful husband and children and when my husband had passed on its my time to become a nun. I think it is a very reassuring thought that I will never be alone. God gave me a husband and later on he will gift me with many sisters. I am sure of it. I am so thankful for our Lord 🙏🏻❤️ It a overwhelming feeling of being loved by our heavenly father❤❤❤❤❤

I live meeting everyday holy people like mother Iliana

Amazing.

Thank you Mother Iliana, for sharing your journey. I received so much from you explaining your experience of self contempt as being poison. I never would have thought that it is what I was doing, because it was hidden behind my false humility of pride that I ought be better than I am without the grace of God. It is the very stumbling block stopping me from receiving the Father’s love for me. I love how you explained the infant dependency before the Father makes space for a true relationship. Mat you were wonderful in sharing your thoughts on this also.

Wow! I didn't know your mother objected! :) I remember her being excited, telling me you were entering!

Love her ❤

Bring Fr Columba Jordan from Called to More!

1:01:20 Beatiful thought about wounds, being abused and abusive. My wounds are part of my identity.

I went to a Catholic school run by nuns. Some of them had a joy just like hers and she made me remember them fondly and admire them now that I’m mature. Loved her story and humor

I'd like to talk to the guy who decided to change the thumbnail fonts

if you’re ever at a loss for a guest on your show, just bring on one of the ladies from this convent. They are all spellbinding in their storytelling. Are they putting something in the water in that convent? These ladies are just superstars.

What is the documentary about Mother Theresa that she is talking about?

Wow shE is amazing

I love Mother Natalia & Mother Gabriela. Thank you, Matt Fradd, for having Mother Iliana on your podcast. The thought of entering a life as nun, I was really intrigued with the info that Mother Natalia gave about the Christ the Bridegroom community's life. I have attended a Byzantine Catholic Church for about 12 yrs though I was raised as Roman Catholic. I loved the Byzantine's Divine Liturgy. Now, I'm back in a Roman Catholic church because there's no Eastern rites near where I live now. Anyways, I have a question, if I were enter Christ the Bridegroom would they allow me do rosary as part my daily devotion? I found a Byzantine Catholic form of the rosary. Their version of "Hail Mary," goes like this, "Rejoice, O virgin Theotokos Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women, blessed the fruit of your womb for thou borne Christ the Savior and Redeemer of our souls." from Byzantine Nebraska on RU-vid.

Protestant here - what is the difference between an "active religious community" and a "monastic order"? Edit: sorry, commented too soon. For anyone else curious, listen around 22:39.

@pintswithaquinas ... what happened to the "Zelensky’s Moral Sellout and Putin’s Spiritual Fallout w/ Fr. Jason Charron" episode? I really enjoyed the first half of this episode, but did not get a chance to finish it, and now I cannot find it on any platform. What happened?

Did anyone note an author named Catherine something that Mother Iliana mentions? I didn't catch but am interested more in reading this person. I thought I'd ask before I rewatch thought it's tempting to rewatch!

Great video! I especially love to analogy of a plane dropping bombs. But I just had a thought, wouldn't it be better to forget ourselves than to love ourselves? I don't think that we should equate the love from the Father with a need to love ourselves. I have always thought of loving one's neighbor as putting the neighbor's desires and needs before one's own. How is this possible with ourselves? Please let me know if I am wrong, I'd love to hear other opinions on this!

Great

I think the Dominican seminarians in the eastern province are there just because the capes make them look like superheroes. ;-) 15:25

"I'm a nun because of pizza and the Dominicans." Great T-Shirt. : ) Is it Domino's Pizza? Miracle Kitteh 🐈 25:43

🙏🏽💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙🙏🏽

Hey, pizza is powerful stuff.

Silver spring!

Matt and Thursday need to make a show similar to "The Office" about what goes on behind the scenese where they spend all of their time trying to torture each other. There would be a scene where they are at a restaurant and Matt insists on ordering so he can instruct the cashier not to put ice in Thursday's drink so he can't crunch it in his teeth. Later in the episode Matt finds Thursday eating ice out of a full cooler and Thursday remarks "Did you know you can just buy ice at the store?"

1:22:35 now I'm confused, aren't we supposed to work on ourselves, be more like Christ, but here it saying don't be someone someone your not, and working on yourself is bad and to never conquer our faults, and ik asking for grace is a big thing for being able to do things, and I guess I know that I'll never be perfect and the race won't end until we meet Jesus, but isn't that what we as Christian are supposed to be doing, doing better with the grace of God, being more like God than ourselves, being better people? Does this mean that as Christians what we are really supposed to do is rely on God for literally everything and not try to better ourselves but let God do this us by prayer and asking for these things and asking the saints to intercede for us? Is this what we should be doing, coming to God and being in God's presence as toddlers, not being able to do anything but relying on God for everything, is this correct or am I still off ? Please help me to understand if I am mistaken. Also we need to be gentle with ourselves as well ?

The electric socket 1:29:47 🤣🤣💜💜💜

Not loving yourself can be a form of pride..

As a great friend said to me, upon meeting Mother Iliana, "She's a bean!"

"There shall be scarcely any virgin souls in the world. The delicate flower of virginity will seek refuge in the cloisters...Without virginity, fire from heaven will be needed to purify these lands..." Our Lady of Good Success" tfpdahtorg

Eastern catholic you say 🧐 tell me more.

Ah. Ok. Someone else writes that one, Mother. :))

24:44 sounds like God was saying “Dominican” lol

The thumbnail is off-putting.

Buddhism is for people that seek things.

The thumbnail font is sus