PS-4 Eucharistic Amazement – A Personal Plan for Holiness – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts



Discerning Hearts

Episode 4 – Eucharistic Amazement

Join Teresa Monaghen, of Pro Sanctity, as she offers a “Personal Plan for Holiness”.  Listen along with these short, but beautiful meditations which encourage us to continue on our journey as “saints in the making”!


Pro Sanctity Mission Statement

The Pro Sanctity Movement is a Catholic organization dedicated to promoting the universal call to holiness by seeking to address the needs of the mind with theology, the heart with spirituality, and the hands with ministry.

It is open to all, especially to those who wish to deepen their commitment to God and to share the message of holiness with others.

Learn more about Pro Sanctity at www.prosanctity.org

Also, you may wish to visit the Pro Sanctity Retreat Center in Fullerton, CA.  Learn more at  Pro Sanctity Movement West

FA2 – Fight the Right Battle – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

Fight the Right Battle – Episode 2 – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt

Fight the right battle.

You feel like you’re spinning your wheels, laboring till you’re exhausted but seeing little permanent fruit. You’re depressed that certain relationships are a perpetual painful morass. You’re frustrated that the numerous “prescriptions” of faith that you’ve tried are not working. I get it. We expend a lot of energy fighting the wrong battles, and such futility is an underlying cause of anxiety.

This episode explores how to fight the right battle: how to work with the Holy Spirit for lasting peace rather than against Him. Our focus is on temporary relief, while His is on our permanent rest in Him. So we must determine to lean into the difficulties He allows and “suffer creatively,” as St. John of the Cross says.

For other episodes in this series, visit the Discerning Hearts Sonja Corbitt page

Be sure to visit Bible StudyEvangelista webpage at: https://www.biblestudyevangelista.com


LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice.

Listen (Receive the Word.)

 

Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)

Did a particular relationship or repeating pattern come to mind during this show?  What do you need to say to the Holy Spirit about that?

Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.

Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)

Heavenly Father, I ask that Your love flow upon me. May the Blood of Christ cover all wounds and restore all in me to wholeness and life. May the fire from Our Lady’s heart now enter me and anoint everything with the Holy Spirit and blind Satan. May St. Joseph wrap me with blessings and peace, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Click here for a written transcript of this episode.   


Visit here for more on Sonja’s “LOVE the Word” journal

Also:


BTP-IC29 – Sixth Mansions Chapter 8 – The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles Podcast

In this episode, Dr. Lilles discusses the Sixth Mansions Chapter 8 of the “Interior Castle” which covers:

SPEAKS OF THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD COMMUNICATES WITH THE SOUL BY INTELLECTUAL VISION AND GIVES ADVICE UPON THE SUBJECT. OF THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THIS VISION WHEN GENUINE. SECRECY ABOUT THESE FAVOURS IS ENJOINED.

1. Our Lord’s presence accompanying the soul. 2. St. Teresa’s experience of this. 3. Confidence and graces resulting from this vision. 4. Its effects. 5. It produces humility. 6. And prepares the soul for other graces. 7. Consciousness of the presence of the saints. 8. Obligations resulting from this grace. 9. Signs that this favour is genuine. 10. A confessor should be consulted. 11. Our Lord will enlighten our advisers. 12. Cautions about this vision.

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


St. Teresa of Avila Interior Castle Podcast Anthony Lilles Kris McGregorFor 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.

 

ST-John Ep 39 – John 19 – Crucifixion and Death of Jesus – The Gospel of St. John – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Episode 40 – John 19 – Crucifixion and Death of Jesus Part 1

The Gospel of John reaches a crescendo in Chapter 19:  the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.  The cosmic battle between good and evil, life and death reach its climax on the cross.   The prince of light and life triumphs over the prince of darkness and death.  Banished to a life of darkness with the fall of Adam and Eve, mankind is brought back into the kingdom of light as Jesus crushes the head of Satan.  Yet, we are surrounded by a culture of darkness and death that can only be dispelled by the Christ through the sacraments of the Church.

John’s Gospel is dripping with irony, especially during the trial and crucifixion of Christ.  Pilate asks:  “What is truth?” as he looks upon the source of all truth, Jesus Christ.  Satan suppresses truth, and as we hear in Romans 1, the suppression of truth leads us to go against our very nature.  Sharon then teaches us some facts about the torture that Jesus experienced.  Crucifixion was the preferred method of execution used by the Romans in the first century.   It was often preceded by flogging, which by itself could bring about the death of a victim.  Jewish law forbid more than 40 lashes, but Roman law had no such restrictions.  The shroud of Turin demonstrates that Jesus likely received more than 100 strikes with the whip, weakening him to the point he could not carry his cross unassisted.  The victims of crucifixion experienced a slow, agonizing death, with asphyxiation as the ultimate cause.

Drawing from Matthew’s account, Sharon then teaches us about Claudia, the wife of Pilate, who warned him to have nothing to do with Jesus’ death.  Returning to John’s account, Sharon highlights additional examples of irony.  Pilate sits in judgement of Jesus, who is the final judge of the living and the dead.  Also, the Jews proclaim they have no king but Caesar, which puts them in violation of the Lord’s prohibition against idolatry as the emperor was the focus of worship in Roman culture.  The Jews crucify Jesus on the charge of blasphemy, yet they declare allegiance to the false god of the Roman emperor.

A final example of irony is Pilate’s inscription placed on Jesus’ cross:  the king of the Jews.  Jesus is truly king of king and lord of lords.  Sharon then gives us an interesting teaching about Dismas, the “good thief” who joins Jesus in paradise on the day of the crucifixion.  The hour of the crucifixion is the hour of a new creation.  God is the universal Father, Mary the universal mother and Jesus the universal brother of all humanity.  The Holy Spirit is the universal language and John represents the universal priesthood established by Christ.

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.

For more in this series, visit the Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran Discerning Hearts page.

“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

Episode 8 – In Defense of Sanity – Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce FBC Podcast


Ugly churches and bad poetry. We discuss three more essays by G.K. Chesterton—on architecture, Shakespeare, and free verse poems—as we move through the collection In Defense of Sanity.

This discussion is part of the FORMED Book Club—an online community led by Fr. Joseph Fessio, Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro that reads and discusses a different book each month.


You can find the book here

G.K. Chesterton was a master essayist. But reading his essays is not just an exercise in studying a literary form at its finest, it is an encounter with timeless truths that jump off the page as fresh and powerful as the day they were written. The only problem with Chesterton’s essays is that there are too many of them. Over five thousand!

For most GKC readers it is not even possible to know where to start or how to begin to approach them.  So three of the world’s leading authorities on Chesterton – Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Aidan Mackey – have joined together to select the best Chesterton essays, a collection that will be appreciated by both the newcomer and the seasoned student of this great 20th-century man of letters.

The variety of topics are astounding: barbarians, architects, mystics, ghosts, fireworks, rain, juries, gargoyles, and much more. Plus a look at Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, George MacDonald, T.S. Eliot, and the Bible. All in that inimitable, formidable but always quotable style of GKC. Even more astounding than the variety is the continuity of Chesterton’s thought that ties everything together.

A veritable feast for the mind and heart. While some of the essays in this volume may be familiar, many of them are collected here for the first time, making their first appearance in over a century.


Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J.
Vivian Dudro
Joseph Pearce

 

SP6 – The Goodness of Creation – In Search of the Still Point with Dr. Regis Martin – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Episode 6 – The Goodness of Creation…

Dr. Regis Martin

Discerning Hearts is honored to host the reflections of Dr. Regis Martin.  Filled with profound insights, wisdom, and joy, he is one of the most trustworthy guides one can have on the spiritual journey.

For years Regis Martin, STD, has been regaling audiences about the mysteries of God and Church, most especially his students at Franciscan University of Steubenville where he teaches theology. Author of half-dozen or more books, including The Suffering of Love (Ignatius, 2006), The Last Things (Ignatius Press, 2011), Still Point (Ave Maria, 2012), The Beggar’s Banquet (Emmaus Road, 2012), Witness to Wonder (Emmaus Road, 2017) his work frequently appears in Crises and The Catholic Thing.

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FA1 – Anxiety is Not from God – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

Anxiety is Not from God – Episode 1 – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt

It may seem like an oxymoron, but rest is a discipline.

The number one thing you need to know in battling anxiety is that it does not come from God. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7). Anxiety is an attack of the enemy, therefore we must close the doors of vulnerability that our unresolved experiences in life have left open. What are those doors? This episode explores the open doors and how to close them once and for all.

For other episodes in this series, visit the Discerning Hearts Sonja Corbitt page

Be sure to visit Bible StudyEvangelista webpage at: https://www.biblestudyevangelista.com


LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice.

Listen (Receive the Word.)

 

Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)

During the section of forgiving mom and dad, people with whom you have soul ties, self, and God, did a particular person or memory come to mind? What do you want to say to the Holy Spirit about that?

Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.

Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)

Heavenly Father, I ask that Your love flow upon me. May the Blood of Christ cover all wounds and restore all in me to wholeness and life. May the fire from Our Lady’s heart now enter me and anoint everything with the Holy Spirit and blind Satan. May St. Joseph wrap me with blessings and peace, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen + (Prayer for Inner Healing, Deliverance Prayers for the Laity, Fr. Ripperger)

READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Click here for a written transcript of this episode.   


Visit here for more on Sonja’s “LOVE the Word” journal

Also:


PS-3 The Maximum – A Personal Plan for Holiness – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts


Discerning Hearts

Episode 3 – The Maximum

Join Teresa Monaghen, of Pro Sanctity, as she offers a “Personal Plan for Holiness”.  Listen along with these short, but beautiful meditations which encourage us to continue on our journey as “saints in the making”!


Pro Sanctity Mission Statement

The Pro Sanctity Movement is a Catholic organization dedicated to promoting the universal call to holiness by seeking to address the needs of the mind with theology, the heart with spirituality, and the hands with ministry.

It is open to all, especially to those who wish to deepen their commitment to God and to share the message of holiness with others.

Learn more about Pro Sanctity at www.prosanctity.org

Also, you may wish to visit the Pro Sanctity Retreat Center in Fullerton, CA.  Learn more at  Pro Sanctity Movement West

ST-John Ep 39 – John 18 – Christ’s Passion part 2 – The Gospel of St. John – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Episode 39 – John 18 – Christ’s Passion  part 2

The arrest and trial of Jesus marks the beginning of his “hour” of glorification.  He was aware of the impending suffering, yet gave full consent to the Father’s plan.  Sharon sets the stage for this dramatic event with a detailed description of the Kidron valley, the deep chasm dividing the Temple from the Mount of Olives.

Solomon’s portico was the highest point on the Temple mount and overlooked the Kidron valley, which contains to this day the pillar of Absalom.  Sharon recalls the story of Absalom, son of King David, who was banished by David after killing his half-brother, Amnon, for raping his sister, Tamar.  Absalom died a violent death in the Kidron valley:  as he was riding a mule, his hair became entangled in a tree, allowing David’s soldiers to spear him to death.

Facing the Kidron valley, the eastern gate of the Temple was particularly significant.  Jewish tradition held that the divine presence of God would appear at the eastern gate, and it was through this gate that Jesus entered Jerusalem as the passion unfolded.  Returning to Chapter 18, Sharon focuses on the details of Jesus’ arrest.  Judas arrived with a cohort of soldiers; these 500 or more men fell to the ground in response to Jesus’ declaration: “I am he”, the one they were looking to arrest.  Betrayal never comes from an enemy; only from someone close.  Yet on the very night of his betrayal, Jesus offered his own life in forgiveness for sin.   Jesus was taken first to Annas, who was the rightful high priest, but had been replaced by Rome with his son-in-law Caiphas.

Next, Peter’s three-time denial fulfills Christ’s prediction.  Finally, the chapter ends with Jesus before Pilate, who attempted to free Jesus through the Passover tradition of releasing one prisoner.  However, the Jews picked Barabbas, which is translated “son of the father”, choosing an insurrectionist over Jesus, the true “Son of the Father.”

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.

For more in this series, visit the Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran Discerning Hearts page.

“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

Chapter 5 – The Parousia – How to Pray with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast


Chapter 5 The Parousia

The Mass should so form us that the whole of our lives becomes the Mass, the place where we continually offer ourselves through Christ to the Father. Josef Andreas Jungmann, SJ

Saint Peter sees the time between the first coming in history and the final coming in majesty as a time for repentance, or a time for repeatedly turning to receive the Christ who continually comes to us in mystery through love. That is why prayer is so important.


You can find the book here.

This little book How to Pray – A Practical Guide to the Spiritual life by David Torkington, was published by Our Sunday Visitor. It was written for those prepared to restructure their daily lives to make time for the prayer where they can be transformed by the love that only God can give.

In the foreword to this new book from OSV, “How to Pray: A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life,” Sister Wendy Beckett wrote,

“There are no hideaways here, no excuses, but no alarming demands, either. Instead, Torkington seeks only to show us the truth, that truth that sets us free and convinces us that the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden light. All we need is to understand and to choose. This book offers us the help we need to understand, and then the choice is ours.”⁠

This is not your standard “prayer book” – it is not a compilation of Catholic prayers for you to just read. Rather, this is a series of 40 reflections on prayer intended to open you up to the transformation that is possible through prayer, through the love that God can give us through prayer.⁠


Endorsement

“From here to eternity! For those drawn to contemplative prayer, David Torkington offers compelling clarity and common sense. Gentle kindness guides his practical counsel, and he is careful to help us see the solid principles in which he roots his insights. An authentic and reliable guard against counterfeits, his wisdom points to the heights and grounded-ness of the Catholic mystical tradition at a time when it is most needed.”

Dr. Anthony Lilles, STD: Associate Professor and Academic Dean of St John’s Seminary in Camarillo, as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the diocese 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.


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.