ST-Luke-1 – Introduction to Mary – The Gospel of St. Luke – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast


SharonEpisode 1 – An Overview of Mary – The Gospel of Luke

The Virgin Mary is at the center of the beginning of this episode covering Luke 1. The church fathers, including Ambrose and Augustine, realized that Mary’s perpetual virginity was anticipated by the Old Testament prophets.  In Ezekiel 44, we read about the locked eastern gate of the sanctuary, which could only be entered by the messianic prince.  Mary is ever inviolate, even while giving birth to Jesus:  like light passing through glass, Jesus was born of Mary, whose virginal integrity remained preserved.  Mary serves as the gateway to heaven, through which passes Jesus.

Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your everyday life.

“Seeking Truth” is an in-depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net

IP#344 Timothy Muldoon – The Discerning Parent on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

What a great conversation with Dr. Timothy Muldoon, who with his wife, Sue, has written a wonderfully rich spiritual resource for today’s family entitled “The Discerning Parent:  An Iganatius Guide to Raising Your Teen.”  Fr. Timothy Gallagher said it so well, this is “An engaging book for parents who desire that God be the center of raising their teenage children. Applying Ignatian discernment to this specific task–a valuable contribution–the authors offer clarity and hope to all parents.”

You can find the book here

From the book description:

This thoughtful approach shows you how to talk with your children openly about freedom vs. limits, friendships, family time, sexuality, the use and abuse of technology, faith and Catholic practice, recognizing the needs of others, and getting through hard times together. You’ll discover when to be tough and when to be forgiving, when to control and when to give freedom, when to give feedback and when to wait. You will learn the importance of praying for your teens, and the important of praying together as a family.

Daily and weekly prayers, devotions, and meditations will guide you as the Muldoons show how this is a time of discernment for you as well as your teens–and create a way for you to move through these challenging years together. The Discerning Parent offers you an opportunity to pause and consider your life and your teen’s in the light of faith.

BTP- L11 – Letter 214 pt. 2 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray w/Dr. Anthony Lilles podcast

Dr. Lilles continues the spiritual explorations of the Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. This episode is part 2 of our conversation on letter 214, with a special focus on suffering and humility united to Christ in our prayer:

L 214
To Abbé Chevignard
[November 29, 1904]

J. M. + J. T.

“Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo semper; quoniam a dextris est mihi, ne commovear.”

Monsieur l’Abbé,

I am very grateful to you for your feastday wishes, and I am very happy the Church has placed our saints so close to each other, because that gives me the chance to offer you my best wishes today. Saint Augustine says that “love, forgetful of its own dignity, is eager to raise and magnify the beloved: it has only one measure, which is to be without measure.”  I am asking God to fill you with that measure without measure, which is to say, according to the “riches of His glory,”  that the weight of His love may draw you to the point of happy loss the Apostle spoke of when he wrote “Vivo enim jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus.”  That is the dream of my Carmelite soul and, I believe, also the dream of your priestly soul. Above all it is the dream of Christ, and I ask Him to accomplish it fully in our souls. Let us be for Him, in a way, another humanity in which He may renew His whole Mystery.  I have asked Him to make His home in me as Adorer, as Healer, and as Savior, and I cannot tell you what peace it gives my soul to think that He makes up for my weaknesses and, if I fall at every passing moment, He is there to help me up again  and carry me farther into Himself, into the depths of that divine essence where we already live by grace and where I would like to bury myself so deeply that nothing could make me leave. My soul meets yours there and, in unison with yours, I keep silent to adore Him who has loved us so divinely.

I unite myself to you in the emotions and profound joys of your soul as you await ordination and beg you to let me share in this grace with you: each morning I am reciting the Hour of Terce for you so the Spirit of love and light may “come upon” you to bring about all His creative work in you. If you would like, when you recite the Divine Office we could unite in the same prayer during this Hour that I have a particular devotion to. We will breathe in love11a and draw it down on our souls and on the whole Church.

You tell me to pray that you may be granted humility and the spirit of sacrifice. In the evening, while making the Way of the Cross before Matins, at every outpouring of the Precious Blood I used to ask for this grace for my own soul; from now on it will also be for yours. Don’t you believe that, to achieve the annihilation, contempt of self, and love of suffering that were deep in the souls of the saints, we must gaze for a very long time at the God crucified by love, to receive an outflowing of His power through continual contact with Him? Père Vallée once said to us that “martyrdom was the response of any lofty soul to the Crucified.” It seems to me that this could also be said for immolation. So let us be sacrificial souls, which is to say, true in our love: “He loved me, He gave Himself up for me!” A Dieu, Monsieur l’Abbé. Let us live by love, by adoration, by self-forgetfulness, in wholly joyful and confident peace, for “we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s”! . . .

Sister M. Elizabeth of the Trinity r.c.i.

On the 8th, we are going to give our Immaculate Mother and Queen a beautiful feast day in our souls; I will meet you under her virginal mantle.

Catez, Elizabeth of the Trinity. The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel (pp. 179-180). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

 

Special thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for her readings of St. Elizabeth’s letters

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity” with Dr. Anthony Lilles’

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefited from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity.
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“Thy will be done” – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff

Msgr. Esseff shares a recent encounter with a couple he met while traveling home after time with family.  Tom and Mary shared their important encounters with God over the course of their 36 years of marriage.  Each story speaks of our times and how relevant it is for our lives to allow Christ to be King of our hearts…that is how He will reign in this world.  Msgr. Esseff then reflects on how God answers prayers and why we say “Thy will be done”.

Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton.  He was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey, D.D. at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, PA.  Msgr. Esseff served a retreat director and confessor to St. Mother Teresa.    He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the missionaries of charity around the world.  Msgr. Esseff encountered St.  Padre Pio,  who would become a spiritual father to him.  He has lived in areas around the world,  serving in the Pontifical missions, a Catholic organization established by St. Pope John Paul II to bring the Good News to the world especially to the poor.  Msgr. Esseff assisted the founders of the Institute for Priestly Formation and continues to serve as a spiritual director for the Institute.  He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops, priests and sisters and seminarians and other religious leaders around the world.  

 

BTP- L10 – Letter 214 pt. 1 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray w/Dr. Anthony Lilles podcast

Dr. Lilles continues the spiritual explorations of the Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. In this episode, we continue our conversation on letter 214, with a special focus on Heaven as a spiritual reality:

L 214
To Abbé Chevignard
[November 29, 1904]

J. M. + J. T.

“Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo semper; quoniam a dextris est mihi, ne commovear.”

Monsieur l’Abbé,

I am very grateful to you for your feastday wishes, and I am very happy the Church has placed our saints so close to each other, because that gives me the chance to offer you my best wishes today. Saint Augustine says that “love, forgetful of its own dignity, is eager to raise and magnify the beloved: it has only one measure, which is to be without measure.”  I am asking God to fill you with that measure without measure, which is to say, according to the “riches of His glory,”  that the weight of His love may draw you to the point of happy loss the Apostle spoke of when he wrote “Vivo enim jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus.”  That is the dream of my Carmelite soul and, I believe, also the dream of your priestly soul. Above all it is the dream of Christ, and I ask Him to accomplish it fully in our souls. Let us be for Him, in a way, another humanity in which He may renew His whole Mystery.  I have asked Him to make His home in me as Adorer, as Healer, and as Savior, and I cannot tell you what peace it gives my soul to think that He makes up for my weaknesses and, if I fall at every passing moment, He is there to help me up again  and carry me farther into Himself, into the depths of that divine essence where we already live by grace and where I would like to bury myself so deeply that nothing could make me leave. My soul meets yours there and, in unison with yours, I keep silent to adore Him who has loved us so divinely.

I unite myself to you in the emotions and profound joys of your soul as you await ordination and beg you to let me share in this grace with you: each morning I am reciting the Hour of Terce for you so the Spirit of love and light may “come upon” you to bring about all His creative work in you. If you would like, when you recite the Divine Office we could unite in the same prayer during this Hour that I have a particular devotion to. We will breathe in love11a and draw it down on our souls and on the whole Church.

You tell me to pray that you may be granted humility and the spirit of sacrifice. In the evening, while making the Way of the Cross before Matins, at every outpouring of the Precious Blood I used to ask for this grace for my own soul; from now on it will also be for yours. Don’t you believe that, to achieve the annihilation, contempt of self, and love of suffering that were deep in the souls of the saints, we must gaze for a very long time at the God crucified by love, to receive an outflowing of His power through continual contact with Him? Père Vallée once said to us that “martyrdom was the response of any lofty soul to the Crucified.” It seems to me that this could also be said for immolation. So let us be sacrificial souls, which is to say, true in our love: “He loved me, He gave Himself up for me!” A Dieu, Monsieur l’Abbé. Let us live by love, by adoration, by self-forgetfulness, in wholly joyful and confident peace, for “we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s”! . . .

Sister M. Elizabeth of the Trinity r.c.i.

On the 8th, we are going to give our Immaculate Mother and Queen a beautiful feast day in our souls; I will meet you under her virginal mantle.

Catez, Elizabeth of the Trinity. The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel (pp. 179-180). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

 

Special thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for her readings of St. Elizabeth’s letters

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity” with Dr. Anthony Lilles’

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefited from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity.
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GWML#24 – C. S. Lewis “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce

We discuss “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis.

Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, which has been captivating readers of all ages for over sixty years. This is a stand-alone read, but if you would like to journey back to Narnia, pick up The Horse and His Boy, the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

IP#342 Leila Miller – Made This Way on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast


“Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues” is an important work brought to us by Catholic Answers Press!  It was wonderful to talk about this work with author Leila Miller. It’s contents are so timely and helps parents, as well youth ministers, educators, religious and priests, how to navigate through difficult conversations about moral issues with kids and teens.  Be sure to visit her website is LeilaMiller.net.

You can find the book here

From the book description:

In Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues, Leila Miller and Trent Horn give parents (guardians and teachers, too!) crucial tools and techniques to form children with the understanding they need—appropriate to their age and maturity level—to meet the world’s challenges.
Their secret lies in an approach that begins not with the Bible or Church teaching but with the natural law. In kid-friendly ways, Miller (Primal Loss) and Horn (Persuasive Pro-Life) help you communicate how the right way to live is rooted in the way we’re made. God’s design for human nature is a blueprint or owner’s manual for moral living that any child can grasp through reason and apply to modern controversies over sex, marriage, life… and the quest for human fulfillment.
Topics covered include:
•Sex Outside of Marriage
•Same-Sex Marriage
•Divorce
•Contraception
•Abortion
•Reproductive Technologies
•Modesty
•Pornography
•Transgenderism
•Homosexuality
Silence can no longer be an option. If we’re not teaching our children how to understand tough moral issues, then the world will.

RN-11 – Value #5 -part 5 – Solidarity – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Value 5 – The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity part 5

“Solidarity”

These are the five principles laid out in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. If we understand these principles, then the work of the Revolution can begin. We are made now for a New Kingdom with Christ as our King in all things. Let us discover this place together, and make the devil cringe and know the suffering of defeat.

Urging of Christ's LoveDeacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez is an Instructor for the Holy Family School of Faith Institute and Director of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith for the Archdiocese of Omaha. He’s also the author of “The Urging of Christ’s Love: The Saints and The Social Teaching of the Catholic”

GWML#23 William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Episode 10 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare

Though a staple in high school English classes, Julius Caesar is not a simple play. Seemingly irreconcilable forces are at work: fate and free will, the changeableness and stubbornness of ambitious men, the demands of public service and the desire for private gain. Drawn from history as recorded by Plutarch, the major characters-Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony-are complex, as are the twists and turns of their fortunes. What kind of man rises to power? What price does he pay when he becomes a politician? These questions raised by Shakespeare are relevant in every age, whether ancient Rome, Elizabethan England, or even in our own day.

William Shakespeare

Based on the Ignatius Critical Edition, this series examines, from the Judeo-Christian perspective, the life, the times, and influence of authors of great works in literature.

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

To learn more about the authors and titles available in the Ignatius Critical Editions

IJCY7- “What Now?” – Nurturing the Relationship – Is Jesus Calling You w/ Fr. Paul Hoesing ep 7 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Fr. Paul Hoesing - Is Jesus Calling You? Discerning Your Vocational Call 3

It’s all about relationship.  What to do now?

1. Go to Mass, if possible, daily Mass
2. The sacrament of confession
3. Daily Prayer
4.  Talk to a priest
5.  Read the Gospels
6.  Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
7.  Eucharistic adoration
8.  Live a life of virtue
9.  Spiritual reading
10.  Hang around good people

 

 

Based on “Is Jesus Calling You To Be A Catholic Priest: A helpful guide,” published by National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Director.

Fr. Paul Hoesing serves at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary as Dean of Seminarians & Director of Human Formation