January 2021

BTP-IC24 – Sixth Mansions Chapter 6 part 1 – The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles Podcast

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In this episode, Dr. Lilles discusses the Sixth Mansions Chapter 6 part 1 of the “Interior Castle” which covers:

DESCRIBES AN EFFECT WHICH PROVES THE PRAYER SPOKEN OF IN THE LAST CHAPTER TO BE GENUINE AND NO DECEPTION, TREATS OF ANOTHER FAVOUR OUR LORD BESTOWS ON THE SOUL TO MAKE IT PRAISE HIM FERVENTLY.

1. The soul longs for death. 2. The soul cannot help desiring these favours. 3. St. Teresa bewails her inability to serve God. 3. Fervour resulting from ecstasies. 5. Excessive desires to see God should be restrained. 6. They endanger health. 7. Tears often come from Physical causes. 8. St. Teresa’s own experience. 9. Works, not tears, are asked by God. 10. Confide entirely in God. 11. The jubilee of the soul. 12. Impossibility of concealing this joy. 13. The world’s judgment of this jubilee. 14. Which is often felt by the nuns of St. Joseph’s. 15. The Saint’s delight in this jubilee.

For the Discerning Hearts audio recording of the “Interior Castle” by St. Teresa of Avila you can visit here

For other audio recordings of various spiritual classics you can visit the Discerning Hearts Spiritual Classics page

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Interior Castle 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.

Episode 6 – A Short Primer for the Unsettled Laymen – Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce FBC Podcast

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Fr. Fessio, Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro discuss how Hans Urs von Balthasar explains what obedience means in the Church.

You can find the book here

Hans Urs von Balthasar addresses the critical issues that have been unsettling the Catholic laity since the Second Vatican Council. In a clear and readable manner, he focuses on the core elements of the faith: the Word of God; the life, death, and resurrection of Christ; the sacraments; the structure of the Church; and Mary.

Speaking plainly about the polarization within the Catholic Church, he also discusses the various ideological trends—such as liberalism, progressivism, and traditionalism—that have undermined the confidence and the unity of the faithful.

“In this Primer, Balthasar addresses today’s faithful laity who feel that [the] solidity of the Church is shifting beneath their feet. He speaks to those who fear that the Church has done what she ought not to do: that she is in fact relaxing her demands in order to win favor, not from God, but from man. Into this situation, Balthasar re-proposes the ‘form’ of Jesus Christ as revealed in his Church. This form is ‘only the whole’: the whole, concrete reality of Christ, conveyed within Catholic tradition. This form is ‘spun from three strands’ of Word, sacrament, and ecclesial authority. These three provide the Church with the ability to remain on course despite the winds blowing through history.”
— Angela Franks, Ph.D., From the Foreword

IP#281 Vivian Dudro - Meriol Trevor's "Shadows and Images" on Inside the Pages 1 — Vivian Dudro

BBFA1 – The significance of Jesus’ baptism – Baptism: Born from Above with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 1 -Baptism: Born from Above– The significance of Jesus’ baptism. The ministry of parenthood. The role of the father.

Deacon Keating takes a careful look at the Baptismal Rite and offers prayerful reflection and insight to help us live out the faith and nurture the domestic church.

From the Baptismal Rite for Children:

From the earliest times, the Church, to which the mission of preaching the Gospel and of baptizing was entrusted, has baptized not only adults but children as well. Our Lord said:

‘Unless a man is reborn in water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God.’ The Church has always understood these words to mean that children should not
be deprived of baptism, because they are baptized in the faith of the Church, a faith proclaimed for them by their parents and godparents, who represent both the local Church
and the whole society of saints and believers: ‘The whole Church is the mother of all and the mother of each.’

To fulfill the true meaning of the sacrament, children must later be formed in the faith in
which they have been baptized. The foundation of this formation will be the sacrament
itself that they have already received. Christian formation, which is their due, seeks to lead
them gradually to learn God’s plan in Christ, so that they may ultimately accept for themselves the faith in which they have been baptized.

How can this be accomplished? What is the role of the parents, the godparents, the minister of baptism, the Church? These and other questions are reflected upon in “Baptism: Born from Above with Deacon James Keating”.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.

More episodes of Baptism: Born from Above with Deacon James Keating Ph.D.

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

Deacon Keating is also the author of:

You can find the book here.
(A great gift for clergy)

From the book description:

Deacon James Keating’s book Abiding in Christ: Staying with God in a Busy World is a how-to-pray resource. This book helps readers to find a quiet space wherein they can be present to God and offers suggestions of how they can be more open to God s movement within them.

VEC11 – Julian the Apostate – Villains of the Early Church with Mike Aquilina – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 11 – Julian the Apostate – “Villains of the Early Church: And How They Made Us Better Christians“

In this episode, Mike Aquilina and Kris McGregor discuss Julian the Apostate, an emperor of Rome who was disillusioned by how his family who claimed to be Christians, yet acted counter to what they professed. He would embrace paganism and tried to eliminate Christian influence in the Roman Empire.

An excerpt from Villains of the Early Church:

Christians remembered Julian as “the Apostate”—the one emperor who tried to turn back to paganism. There would be no others. From 363 to 1453, when Constantinople finally fell, the Roman Empire would be Christian.

But what can we say about Julian the man? He might have been a very good emperor if he had had better relatives. In spite of his retrograde religious views, he was personally moral—in fact, puritanical—and a competent administrator when the problem was limited and solvable. Perhaps the best tribute to him comes from the Christian poet Prudentius, who neatly summed up Julian in one line:

Faithless he was to God, though not to Rome.7

Aquilina, Mike. Villains of the Early Church: And How They Made Us Better Christians . Emmaus Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in the Villains of the Early Church podcast visit here – Villains of the Early Church – Discerning Hearts Podcast

You can find the book on which this series is based here

Mike Aquilina is a popular author working in the area of Church history, especially patristics, the study of the early Church Fathers.^[1] He is the executive vice-president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, a Roman Catholic research center based in Steubenville, Ohio. He is a contributing editor of Angelus (magazine) and general editor of the Reclaiming Catholic History Series from Ave Maria Press. He is the author or editor of more than fifty books, including The Fathers of the Church (2006); The Mass of the Early Christians (2007); Living the Mysteries (2003); and What Catholics Believe(1999). He has hosted eleven television series on the Eternal Word Television Network and is a frequent guest commentator on Catholic radio.

Mike Aquilina’s website is found at fathersofthechurch.com