Day 8 Novena to the Holy Spirit – Discerning Hearts

Novena to the Holy Spirit

Begin be reciting the following prayer…

O Holy Spirit, Divine Consoler!Holy-Spirit-10
I adore you as my True God.
I offer You my whole heart,
and I render You heartfelt thanks for all the benefits You have bestowed upon the world.
You are the author of all supernatural gifts
and enriched the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God,
with all favors,
I ask you to visit me by Your grace and Your love,
and grant me the favor
I so earnestly seek…

State your request here…

O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth, come into our hearts:

DAY EIGHT

O Holy Spirit,
life and light of the Church,pentecost81-236x300
give us thoughts higher than our own thoughts,
and prayers better than our own prayers,
and powers beyond our own powers,
that we may love and live,
imitating Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
Come to us, Holy Spirit,
come with the Father
and the Son
and grant me the favor I so earnestly request in this novena…

State your request here…

Vouchsafe to dwell within our souls
and quickly make our hearts Your own.
Quench in us the fires of hate and strife,
the wasting fever of the heart.
From perils guard our feeble life
and to our souls Your peace impart.
Let voice and mind and heart
and strength confess
and glorify Your name
and let the fire of charity burn bright
and other hearts inflame.

Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Amen.

ROHC-V3 What is Redemptive Suffering– The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Video podcast

ROHC-V3 What is Redemptive Suffering– The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Video podcast from Discerning Hearts on Vimeo.

 

Heart of Hope Part 3 — What is Redemptive Suffering…using love and the energy of love to redirect pain as an intercessory prayer for another…how it makes sense and is no longer meaningless

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “The Heart of Hope”.

This  series explores the work of suffering in the Christian life and how God can use it to transform the heart of the individual and the world.

You can obtain just the audio podcast, if you would prefer

IP#20 Anthony Burke Smith – The Look of Catholics on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

Anthony-Burke-Smith-2

“The Look of Catholics: Portrayals in Popular Culture from the Great Depression to the Cold War” is a fascinating work by Anthony Burke Smith.  In film, radio, print Catholics contributed significantly to the American Imagination during some of the truly toughest years our nation has faced.  It is really interesting how the country turned to the virtuous communal nature of the Catholic identity to lift itself during this time.  From Leo McCarey’s Oscar-winning “Go My Way” to Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Henry Luce (publisher of Life magazine), Anthony covers a vast array of areas in this study.  I loved it, and I bet so will you!

 

You can find Anthony’s book at Amazon.com41KXLYk5qbL._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_

“Smith’s ambitious and exemplary work demonstrates decisively for all time that Catholics were not only integral players in the formation of modern American popular culture but that the role of Catholicism itself in the national popular culture was a major issue in the production of that same culture. . . . A wonderfully exciting book that will be widely hailed as a landmark achievement confirm the author’s stature as the leading scholar of Catholic popular culture, and be consulted by scholars and their students for decades to come.” –James T. Fisher

Day 9 Novena to the Holy Spirit – Discerning Hearts

Novena to the Holy Spirit

Begin be reciting the following prayer…holyspiritdstpeters1

O Holy Spirit, Divine Consoler!
I adore you as my True God.
I offer You my whole heart,
and I render You heartfelt thanks for all the benefits You have bestowed upon the world.
You are the author of all supernatural gifts
and enriched the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God,
with all favors,
I ask you to visit me by Your grace and Your love,
and grant me the favor
I so earnestly seek…

State your request here…

O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth, come into our hearts:

DAY NINEpentecost-5068-mid1 (1)

O Lord, Holy Spirit,
grant me sight to see the wondrous promise of divine love;
insight to see my own weakness;
delight in Your divine presence in my soul
which You have made Your temple through sanctifying grace.
I pray, O Holy Spirit,
that I may be not doubting;
that I be spared the pain of being alone
without trust or hope in Christ;
that my prayer may always be “My Lord and my God!”
I pray that I may acquire a sense of retreat
to prayer and recollection at various times in my daily life;
for prayer is the bond that joins us to Christ.
I pray that I may be aware of the physical needs of the poor
and that I may share what I can with them
in the charitable works of the Church.
I pray, O Holy Spirit,
that You will in Your mercy
grant me the favor I have sought in this novena…

State your request here…

Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Amen

The Gift of the Holy Spirit – A reflection by Dr. Anthony Lilles

Anthony-Lilles

 From Beginning to Pray authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles

Pentecost is a Feast of Love.  It is the feast of the Canticle of Canticles where the Bridegroom comes to kiss his Bride. Today the Church cries out to her Bridegroom for a divine kiss, a kiss from the mouth of God.   It is this kiss entrusted to frail humanity that makes all the difference in the world and in our lives.  It is by this kiss that God discloses the depths of his love, that He surrenders His Holy Spirit to each of us in the most unique and particular way.   It is the kiss God entrusts to humanity from the Cross.

The Holy Spirit is the life of the soul.  He is the great gift that the Risen Lord breaths into the world.   When lovers kiss, it is as if they are trying to breath their spirits into each other.  Each wants the other to completely possess the gift of who they are.   It is by way of a holy kiss that Christ breaths his Holy Spirit into the Church.

The whole Church and each of us as members of this mystical Body, through this same Gift, want to give everything we have to Christ and find in ourselves the power to do so and the inner conviction that we do not want to have it any other way.  This is because with the Gift of the Holy Spirit we realize this is exactly the way God has loved us in Christ Jesus.

Wherever the Spirit blows, the most beautiful affections are ignited in our humanity.  The Spirit of the Father and the Son moves us with a passion so sacred that it raises us up above ourselves.  Such holy desires caused by the Fire of God in us allow us to participate in the very life of God.

The more humble we are, the more the kiss of Christ permeates the deep places of our hearts.  He won the right to enter into these deep places, to breath his Holy Spirit into these depths, by emptying Himself until he became like us.  In solidarity with our humanity, having embraced this most frail work of his creation to his Uncreated Nature in his Divine Person, He allowed himself be completely vulnerable to us – like a lover who attempts to disclose his love to the beloved.  Spurned and rejected from the beginning, He would not give up on the friendship He yearned to share with us.  He offered his kiss to a distrustful humanity by humbling Himself in the face of our pride and overcame our hostility to Him by his death.  When we gaze on Him who died for us, always we see His arms are wide open, ready to embrace us.  He waits to kiss us with the Gift of His Spirit whenever we allow our hearts to be pierced by his love.

Will we surrender to his kiss?  Will we allow ourselves to be caught up in his love?  True, the more we offer ourselves in love, we find ourselves dying to our old way of life. It is the pathway of surrender and trust. We are afraid of this — abandoning our old way of life leads somewhere with which we are not familiar. But the kiss of Christ is so beautiful, so life giving, it is worth this death a thousand times over.  Let Him kiss you with the Kisses of his Mouth!

RC#1 – History, with Arms Upraised – The Resilient Church w/ Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina - Fathers of the Church and so much more... 5Episode 1 – History, with Arms Upraised


The Resilient Church with Mike Aquilina, offers a fascinating look at the trials and triumphs of the Catholic Church over the past two thousand years. Fast-paced sketches of critical periods in church history give readers perspective on the challenges faced by the church today. Mike Aquilina does not shrink from the realities of the past, including badly behaved leaders and those who betrayed the Lord. Yet he also leaves us all with well-founded hope for the future: God remains faithful in every circumstance and fulfills his promise to remain with his church always.

 

Resilient-Church-1-1Pick up a copy of Mike’s book.

Also visit Mike’s “Discerning Hearts” page for more audio downloads and information!

MM3 – A Marian Moment – Reflections on the Blessed Virgin Mary

Sassoferrato_Madonna_And_Ch

From the writings of St. Louis de Montfort

If we’re establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it’s only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we’d have to reject it as an illusion of the Devil. But this is far from being the case. This devotion is necessary, simply and solely because it’s a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully.

Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us your Blessed Mother to be our mother. Holy Mary, thank you for always leading us to your divine Son

 

IP#164 Fr. Robert Spitzer – Cosmic Origins on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor


It is always a delight to talk with Fr. Robert Spitzer!  His sure brilliance, combined with his infectious joy and good humor, is so engaging that any topic he leads us on becomes an adventure.  With “Cosmic Origins”, a soon to be released DVD, Fr. Spitzer and a group of physicists and academic heavyweights exploring modern scientific theories about how the universe came to exist.   I would call this a “mathematical apologetic”, which is so beautifully points to the greater “purpose” of our creator, that I couldn’t help but smile through the entire presentation.  Stunning, wonderful…and so much fun!

 

To learn more about this film and how you can arrange screenings for your parish or group go here
Cosmic Origins explains what we know about the beginning and nature of the universe, as well as its transcendent implications in clear, easy-to-understand terms. The 49-minute film weaves together a compelling narrative from academics and credentialed scientists pointing toward a very Catholic understanding of how the universe came to exist.

Cosmic Origins is distributed by Ignatius Press.

ROHC-V2 The Agony of Emotional Suffering – The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Video podcast

ROHC-V2 The Agony of Emotional Suffering – The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. from Discerning Hearts on Vimeo.

Heart of Hope Part 2 — The agony of emotional suffering and opportunities for deeper union with Jesus; the reason for pastoral ministry

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “The Heart of Hope”.

This  series explores the work of suffering in the Christian life and how God can use it to transform the heart of the individual and the world.

You can obtain just the audio podcast, if you would prefer

MM2 – A Marian Moment – Reflections on the Blessed Virgin Mary

Sassoferrato_Madonna_And_ChFrom the writings of St. Louis de Montfort

 

Every day from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary! The nine choirs of angels, men of all ages, sexes, conditions and religions, the good and the bad—even the demons themselves, willingly or unwillingly—are compelled by the force of truth to call her “blessed.”

Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori:

I love you, Mary, my Mother, and I wish I could speak with a thousand tongues, so that all might know your greatness, your holiness, your mercy, and the love with which you love all those who love you.