Pentecost: “Come Holy Spirit” – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Msgr. Esseff reflects on the great gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples 2000 years ago and what it means for us today!

BTP-L1 – Letter 111 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles – Discerning Hearts Podcast

BTP-L1 – Letter 111 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Ep. 9 – A Sister of St. Thérèse: Servant of God, Léonie Martin – Bearer of Hope with Fr. Timothy Gallagher – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Ep. 9 – A Sister of St. Thérèse: Servant of God, Léonie Martin – Bearer of Hope with Fr. Timothy Gallagher – Discerning Hearts Podcast

IP#504 Dan LeRoy – Why We Think What We Think on Inside the Pages w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Dan Leroy and Kris McGregor discuss philosophy’s role in understanding and solving modern issues.

CTD6 – The Oasis of Lent – Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Communal worship speaks to this need. We usually imagine worship as a break in our secular lives, or sometimes even an obstacle to achieving other goals. With this attitude, worship is sometimes simply seen as “time out” from what is really important. Without denying the importance of secular realities for the laity, could we look at worship in another way? Worship is not an obstacle to daily living; it is not time off from more vital realities. Worship is, in fact, the great doorway into all that is both secular and holy. It is our way into real living. In worship, we find the great integration of the simple, ordinary, and plain (people, bread, wine, words) with the holy and transcendent (paschal mystery, incarnation, grace, transformation, salvation). The call of the laity is to carry into each day of work and domestic commitment the truth that the ordinary and the holy are not opposed. Only sin and the holy are opposed. Lenten worship services help us bring this truth to the world.

The more we come to see the presence of Christ in worship as a presence that permeates our being in the world, the more we will hunger to participate in worship as the source of our moral witness in everyday life. The Eucharist primarily is our participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery, which is his self-offering to the Father, both in his life and upon the cross, and is also the Father’s response in raising him from the dead. Christ came to us; he came to dwell upon Earth and take on created goodness so that all in creation that is not good (sin) may be transformed by his presence, by grace. We too, in communion with him through the grace of the sacramental life, fill the ordinary world with his presence and become witnesses to this salvation through virtue and grace cooperating in moral activity.

PoC-39 5th Saturday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

The Cross of Christ Restores. . .Justice

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—Do I see myself as a child of God?

Seek——Focus on the crucified Christ as you meet him throughout the day. Stand up for your brother or sister, always appealing to the brother or sister who might seek to harm him or her.

Knock—Meditate on Micah 2:12–13.

I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. He who opens the breach will go up before them; they will break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king will pass on before them, the LORD at their head.

Micah prophesies that the Lord will lead his sheep out of their captivity. In the violent journey of Christ out of the walled city of Jerusalem, we see a lit- eral fulfillment of this prophecy. Are you one of the followers of Jesus on his way of the cross?

Transform Your Life—Realize that you are a child of God, reborn in Baptism when you shared in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Live out your Baptism, dying to yourself whenever you find yourself tempted to be a child of something other than the one true God.

CTD4 – The Desert of Sin – Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts Podcast

“Any moral conversion, if it is to be real, must work its way into our minds and hearts. The conversion we undergo is one that transforms our entire person, and so our thought processes, habits, perceptions, and affections all become realigned to a new way of seeing good and evil Patience with ourselves, as well as with ohters who are also in the midst of conversion, becomes the key virtue to cultivate. God knows we are on the right track once we embrace such a conversion, and so being gentle on ourselves is not a sign of laxity or weakness of will, but a sign of wisdom.

Of course, the start of a moral conversion can be dramatic and jumpstart a change, but over the long haul of life, the heart of a person must be fully cooperative; otherwise, the person will not adhere to the moral truth for long.”

BTP3 Heaven In Faith: Day 2 Prayer 1 by St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

Episode 3 Beginning to Pray: “Heaven in Faith” Day 2 Prayer 1 – “The Kingdom of God is Within You”
From “Heaven in Faith: Day 2 Prayer 1” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

6. The same saint also says that “God is the center of the soul. So when the soul with all” its “strength will know God perfectly, love and enjoy Him fully, then it will have reached the deepest center that can be attained in Him.” Before attaining this, the soul is already “in God who is its center,” “but it is not yet in its deepest center, for it can still go further. Since love is what unites us to God, the more intense this love is, the more deeply the soul enters into God and the more it is centered in Him. When it “possess even one degree of love it is already in its center”; but when this love has attained its perfection, the soul will have penetrated into its deepest enter. There it will be transformed to the point of becoming very like God.”

LSB6 – Dealing with Serious Temptation – The Life of St. Benedict – The Holy Rule of St. Benedict with Fr. Mauritius Wilde O.S.B – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Dealing with Serious Temptation – The Life of St. Benedict – The Holy Rule of St. Benedict with Fr. Mauritius Wilde O.S.B – Discerning Hearts Podcast

We continue our conversation on the life of St. Benedict by using the biography penned by St. Gregory the Great. In this episode St. Benedict deals with serious temptation. If God calls you to restrain from something for the sake of His Kingdom, for the greater Love, this can include suffering and tension. We often try to avoid that. St. Benedict desires to be free and detached. So Benedict takes action in order to be open to grace and the love of God. His method in this story may seem archaic to some, but it shouldn’t stop us from examining how we deal with temptation.

The First Sunday of Lent – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcast

Msgr. Esseff reflects on the First Sunday of Lent and the need in our lives for true prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.