March 2021

Ep 10 – Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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David Torkington, author and narrator of this work

Episode 10 – Learning How To Love

James has returned home and begins in earnest, practicing his newfound life of prayer. However, we find him writing to Peter when he feels his prayer is floundering. Peter explains through their correspondence, that James is now finding himself on the threshold of contemplative prayer, and he encourages James to persevere and describes how he should proceed. This episode finishes many years later when Peter meets James again, but this time in his home in the New Forest. Peter has been giving lectures in London and James expresses his gratitude for his mentor in prayer, who changed the direction of his life completely.

You can find more episodes of the series here: Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit w/ David Torkington page.

You can find the book here.

David Torkington, the author of Wisdom from the Western Isles has re-edited and abridged the work for broadcast; he is also the narrator. The book was published originally as three separate spiritual novels: Peter Calvay – Hermit, Peter Calvay – Prophet and Peter Calvay – Mystic. We begin with the first part, The Hermit but including some passages from Peter Calvay – Mystic so as to give an overall view of the spiritual journey for listeners.

David Torkington is an English Spiritual Theologian, author, and speaker, specializing in Prayer, Christian Spirituality, and Mystical Theology. Educated at the Franciscan Study Centre, England, he served as Dean of Studies at the National Catholic Radio and Television Centre, London. He was an extra-mural lecturer in Mystical Theology at the Angelicum, the Dominican University in Rome, and has received invitations to speak to Religious, Monks, Diocesan Priests, and laypeople from all over the world, including Equatorial Africa, where he gave three prolonged lecture tours speaking on Christian prayer.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

The author of the popular Peter Calvay series, his books include Wisdom from the Western Isles, Wisdom from Franciscan Italy, Wisdom from the Christian Mystics, Prayer Made Simple (CTS), and How to Pray by Our Sunday Visitor. His books have been translated into 13 different languages.

Ep 9 – Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 9 – True Christian Contemplation

It is James’ last meeting with Peter before climbing aboard the island plane and returning to the mainland. Peter begins to advise James on what to expect when Christian meditation has led us into Contemplation, true Christian Contemplation. Peter draws on the writings of the two saints that the Church has canonized and made Doctors of the Church, St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila, to explain what the church teaches us about true Christian Contemplation and how to pray when your meditation has led you to the verge of contemplative prayer.

You can find more episodes of the series here: Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit w/ David Torkington page.

You can find the book here.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

SJ9 – A Brief Reflection on Prudence – St. Joseph and His World with Mike Aquilina – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 9 – A Brief Reflection on Prudence

In this final episode, Mike Aquilina and Kris McGregor discuss St. Joseph and the virtue of prudence

An excerpt from St. Joseph and His World:

The prudent way—the way of St. Joseph—begins with self-knowledge. People cannot see reality clearly as long as they have those planks in their eyes. They cannot have radical openness to reality if they harbor fears of the truth.

In his discussion of prudence, Pieper warns of something called falsification of memory. He sees this as the great destroyer of the sense of reality. People tend to mythologize their days. They make themselves out to be heroes. They make their adversaries and rivals out to be villains, just because they want the same things. It is hard not to see life in this way. But there is no doubt that it is a falsification of memory—and it is corrosive to our sense of reality.

The Christian tradition offers remedies for this. A good spiritual director will not permit his charges to hold on to this kind of thought. He will humanize the rivals they demonize.

Anyone can cultivate that attitude, too, by means of a daily examination of conscience and regular confession. Reality is something that must be faced squarely, deliberately, consciously, with the means God has provided—first, the inner reality of one’s self and then the reality of the world.

Joseph can be misunderstood, as prudence is misunderstood. His silence can be mistaken for passivity, but it is not.

Joseph is the prudent man whose thoughts correspond to reality, and whose actions flow from those thoughts. He is the image of God and yet a model for every Christian. He is the one who keeps the constant company of Jesus Christ.

Aqualina, Mike. St. Joseph and His World (pp. 75-76). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in this series visit – St. Joseph and His World with Mike Aquilina page

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

Other Mike Aquilina series’ found on Discerning Hearts:

Roots the Faith

The Resilient Church

Villains of the Early Church

IP#245 Fr. Gary Caster – Joseph – The Man Who Raised Jesus on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

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With Fr. Gary Caster, we discuss “Joseph – The Man Who Raised Jesus”. Thanks to his mother’s encouragement, Fr. Gary received a rich devotion to the “silent” man who witnessed to the faith in an extraordinary way. He shares personal stories, passages from Scripture, and teachings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church to demonstrate what a model of virtue and a protector of the Church and family, St. Joseph is in our lives today. Another wonderful work by Fr. Gary Caster. Good St. Joseph, pray for us!

You can find the book here

From the book description:

Who was St. Joseph? Was he just a passive, incidental figure in the drama of salvation? On the contrary, in every way that Jesus needed a father, St. Joseph was that for him. And how overwhelming it must have been for Joseph to be asked to stand in the Father s place! No man has ever been asked to do so in such an unthinkable way. Every priest, and certainly every man who is a father (biologically or otherwise), should take this to heart.

Caster s book will provide a unique, in-depth presentation of Joseph from the perspective of the evangelical counsels and the theological and cardinal virtues. Each section will begin with an explanation of what each counsel or virtue means and then show how Joseph models it for us.

The descriptions of St. Joseph s life and character found in this book, while rooted in the Scripture passages that mention him, are chiefly inspired by Jesus, who spent the majority of his life at home with Joseph and Mary. For years, the three of them lived, prayed, celebrated, studied, and shared, all the while uniting their lives more intimately with God s own. Those years in Nazareth were a real preparation for the foundation upon which Jesus would build his saving ministry. And as much as Joseph and Mary offered Jesus, he offered them an ever-expanding awareness of the God that had changed both their lives. The reciprocity of love that perfectly defines the home in Nazareth is the very pattern for all family life—and therefore of the Church itself.

Ep 8 – Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 8 – True Christian Meditation

Peter was surprised to hear that James had been introduced to the practice of Indian meditation and had been unsuccessfully trying to adapt it to Christian prayer. He explained to James that his experience will help him to understand the meaning of true Christian meditation. The new form of meditation that Christianity introduced, grew out of reflecting and ruminating on the life and teaching of Jesus, which depicted the most loving and loveable person, who has ever lived. Peter explained that this is why all authentic Christian prayer begins, not by flinging oneself into obscure transcendental states of awareness, but by trying to get to know and love Jesus Christ.

You can find more episodes of the series here: Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit w/ David Torkington page.

You can find the book here.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

SJ8 – Handing on the Passover – St. Joseph and His World with Mike Aquilina – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 8 – Handing on the Passover

In this episode, Mike Aquilina and Kris McGregor discuss St. Joseph and the role he had in Jesus’ religious formation. Also, Mike offers a deeper insight on the scene popularly known as “the finding in the Temple.”

An excerpt from St. Joseph and His World:

A father has no idea what his son will make of the lessons of boyhood—the small and large skills passed from one generation to the next. It was Joseph who taught Jesus how to conduct the Passover seder. It was Joseph who showed him how to bless the bread and break it—how to bless the cup and share it. It was Joseph who taught him to make thanksgiving by means of the Haggadah, the ancient story of salvation. It was Joseph who read the poem that predicted the night of the messiah.

It was Joseph who gave Jesus the fundamental form that would later come to be filled by the Eucharist.

Aqualina, Mike. St. Joseph and His World (p. 70). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in this series visit – St. Joseph and His World with Mike Aquilina page

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

Mike Aquilina’s website is found at fathersofthechurch.com

Other Mike Aquilina series’ found on Discerning Hearts:

Roots the Faith

The Resilient Church

Villains of the Early Church

Episode 5 – Chance or the Dance – Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce FBC Podcast

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Thomas Howard teaches us the meaning of bawdy humor and the glory of everyday life. We finish our discussion of Howard’s masterpiece, Chance or the Dance.

You can find the book here

Contrasting the Christian and secular worldviews, Dr. Thomas Howard refreshes our minds with the illuminated view of Christianity as it imbued the world in times pastshowing that we cannot live meaningful lives without this Christian understanding of things. An inspiring apology for Christianity, and a stirring critique of secularism.

Ep 7 – Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 7 – A Blueprint for Prayer: FATHER

When Peter arrives from Calvay for their next meeting, James immediately asks him to continue explaining his blueprint for prayer, using the second part, FATHER. Peter starts with the letter F explaining that our Faith is not firstly a belief in a body of truths, but in a body full of love that was filled to overflowing on the first Easter Day. He continues to use each letter of Father to explain our need for total abandonment to God and again incorporates the Mass, and introduces James to ancient prayers used by the Desert Fathers

You can find more episodes of the series here: Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit w/ David Torkington page.

You can find the book here.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

SJ7 – Joseph and His Work – St. Joseph and His World with Mike Aquilina – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 7 – Joseph and His Work

In this episode, Mike Aquilina and Kris McGregor discuss St. Joseph and his family’s trade as a carpenter and the holiness found in “work.”

An excerpt from St. Joseph and His World:

He was a silent man. And one of his titles in modern devotion draws further attention to his silence: St. Joseph the Worker. The Catholic Church remembers St. John of Antioch as “Golden Mouth” (Chrysostom) and St. Peter of Ravenna for his “Golden Words” (Chrysologus). But we remember Joseph for getting things done. Among all who have labored, in all of human history, he is the one known as “the Worker.”

In the Gospels, Joseph’s identity is bound up with his relationships and his labor. He is the son of Jacob. He is the husband of Mary. He is the earthly father of Jesus. He is the companion of angels.

He is a son, a husband, a father. And he is a tekton—a craftsman, an artisan. An ancient tradition tells us more specifically that his craft was carpentry, a trade in which he apprenticed his son Jesus. When people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching, they asked: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 13:55).

Aqualina, Mike. St. Joseph and His World (p. 59). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.