St. Augustine of Hippo Novena Day 4 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Day 4St.-Augustine

St. Augustine has written:

“You are surprised that the world is losing its grip, that the world is grown old? Think of a man: he is born, he grows up, he becomes old. Old age has its many complaints: coughing, shaking, failing eyesight, anxious, terribly tired. A man grows old; he is full of complaints. The world is old; it is full of pressing tribulations. . . . Do not hold onto the old man, the world; do not refuse to regain your youth in Christ, who says to you, ‘The world is passing away, the world is losing its grip, the world is short of breath. Do not fear. Thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle”

Heavenly Father,
we turn to you now with the intentions we hold in our hearts,
as pray as St. Augustine has taught:

Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries
of the universe in relation to eternity.

Spirit of right judgment and courage,
guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision
to follow Jesus’ way of love.

Spirit of knowledge and reverence,
help us to see the lasting value of justice
and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another.

May we respect life
as we work to solve problems of family and nation,
economy and ecology.

Spirit of God,
spark our faith,
hope and love into new action each day.

Fill our lives with wonder and awe
in your presence which penetrates all creation.

Intercede for us, , St. Augustine
That God may favorably hear our plea
And that He may grant us the grace
To accept His will in all things,
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.

Amen.

For the complete 9 Day novena visit the “Discerning Hearts St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Mp3 audio and text page

Day 4 St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Audio and Text

A Novena Prayer to St. Augustine

Day 4St.-Augustine

St. Augustine has written:

“You are surprised that the world is losing its grip, that the world is grown old? Think of a man: he is born, he grows up, he becomes old. Old age has its many complaints: coughing, shaking, failing eyesight, anxious, terribly tired. A man grows old; he is full of complaints. The world is old; it is full of pressing tribulations. . . . Do not hold onto the old man, the world; do not refuse to regain your youth in Christ, who says to you, ‘The world is passing away, the world is losing its grip, the world is short of breath. Do not fear. Thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle”

Heavenly Father,
we turn to you now with the intentions we hold in our hearts,
as pray as St. Augustine has taught:

Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries
of the universe in relation to eternity.

Spirit of right judgment and courage,
guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision
to follow Jesus’ way of love.

Spirit of knowledge and reverence,
help us to see the lasting value of justice
and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another.

May we respect life
as we work to solve problems of family and nation,
economy and ecology.

Spirit of God,
spark our faith,
hope and love into new action each day.

Fill our lives with wonder and awe
in your presence which penetrates all creation.

Intercede for us, , St. Augustine
That God may favorably hear our plea
And that He may grant us the grace
To accept His will in all things,
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.

Amen.

For the complete 9 Day novena visit the “Discerning Hearts St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Mp3 audio and text page

Day 3 St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Audio and Text

A Novena Prayer to St. Augustine

Day 3St.-Augustine-icon

St. Augustine has written:

“The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures–and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of their meaning. Some people read them but neglect them; by their reading they profit in knowledge, by their neglect they forfeit understanding.” (from “On Christian Doctrine“)

Heavenly Father,
we turn to you now with the intentions we hold in our hearts,
as pray as St. Augustine has taught:

Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries
of the universe in relation to eternity.

Spirit of right judgment and courage,
guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision
to follow Jesus’ way of love.

Spirit of knowledge and reverence,
help us to see the lasting value of justice
and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another.

May we respect life
as we work to solve problems of family and nation,
economy and ecology.

Spirit of God,
spark our faith,
hope and love into new action each day.

Fill our lives with wonder and awe
in your presence which penetrates all creation.

Intercede for us, , St. Augustine
That God may favorably hear our plea
And that He may grant us the grace
To accept His will in all things,
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.

Amen.

For the complete 9 Day novena visit the “Discerning Hearts St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Mp3 audio and text page

Day 2 St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Audio and Text

A Novena Prayer to St. Augustine

Day 2St.-Augustine

St. Augustine has written:

“Though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked.” (from “The City of God”)

Heavenly Father,
we turn to you now with the intentions we hold in our hearts,
as pray as St. Augustine has taught:

Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries
of the universe in relation to eternity.

Spirit of right judgment and courage,
guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision
to follow Jesus’ way of love.

Spirit of knowledge and reverence,
help us to see the lasting value of justice
and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another.

May we respect life
as we work to solve problems of family and nation,
economy and ecology.

Spirit of God,
spark our faith,
hope and love into new action each day.

Fill our lives with wonder and awe
in your presence which penetrates all creation.

Intercede for us, St. Augustine
That God may favorably hear our plea
And that He may grant us the grace
To accept His will in all things,
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.

Amen.

RN-5 – Value # 4 – Justice – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez podcast

 Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love part 2 “Justice”

These are the four values of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church as they’re enumerated in the Compendium and as they were laid out by, again, St. Pope John XXIII in Mater et magistra and Pacem in terris. Without these values, the work of social justice becomes an albatross around our necks. It pulls us down, threatening to poison all the work we do, no matter how well intentioned.

Justice requires we know what is due to our neighbor. But even when justice is achieved, it can be cold and impersonal, as Pope John Paul II said. This is why the phrase “social justice” appears so rarely in the Church’s Social Teaching. Justice is the bare minimum, and we are not looking for the minimum.

(Truth, Freedom and  Love are covered in other episodes)

True social justice requires that we drop these paradigms of opposition: management vs. labor; bourgeois vs. proletariat; state vs. individual. We own the great Catholic both/and. It applies to the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church more than ever.

Deacon Omar F. A. Guiterrez, M.A., studied Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and at the Angelicum in Rome. He holds a Master’s of Arts degree in Theology from the University of Dallas. He has worked for the Church in various capacities including as a teacher and administrator. His expertise includes Catholic Social Teaching, and his writings on the subject have appeared in several national Catholic newspapers and periodicals. He’s also the author of “The Urging of Christ’s Love:  The Saints and The Social Teaching of the Catholic”

Also visit Omar’s “Discerning Hearts” page Catholic Social Teaching 101  urging-of-christs-love

Day 1 St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Audio and Text

A Novena Prayer to St. Augustine

Day 1 St.-Augustine-1

St. Augustine has written:

“No one knows what he himself is made of, except his own spirit within him, yet there is still some part of him which remains hidden even from his own spirit; but you, Lord, know everything about a human being because you have made him…Let me, then, confess what I know about myself, and confess too what I do not know, because what I know of myself I know only because you shed light on me, and what I do not know I shall remain ignorant about until my darkness becomes like bright noon before your face.” (from the “Confessions”)

Heavenly Father,
we turn to you now with the intentions we hold in our hearts,
as pray as St. Augustine has taught:

Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries
of the universe in relation to eternity.

Spirit of right judgment and courage,
guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision
to follow Jesus’ way of love.

Spirit of knowledge and reverence,
help us to see the lasting value of justice
and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another.

May we respect life
as we work to solve problems of family and nation,
economy and ecology.

Spirit of God,
spark our faith,
hope and love into new action each day.

Fill our lives with wonder and awe
in your presence which penetrates all creation.

Intercede for us, , St. Augustine
That God may favorably hear our plea
And that He may grant us the grace
To accept His will in all things,
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.

Amen.

For the complete 9 Day novena visit the “Discerning Hearts St. Augustine of Hippo Novena – Mp3 audio and text page

RN-7– Value 5-1 – The Common Good – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez

Omar F. A. Gutierrez
Omar F. A. Gutierrez

Episode 7 – Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Guiterrez – Value 5 The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity part 1

procession 800x600 RN 1 Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez  Episode 1

From episode 7… Point 5: The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity

These are the five principles laid out in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. If we understand these principles, then the work of the Revolution can begin. We are made now for a New Kingdom with Christ as our King in all things. Let us discover this place together, and make the devil cringe and know the suffering of defeat.

In this episode we focus on “The Common Good”.

Urging of Christ's LoveOmar F. A. Guiterrez, M.A. , Special Assistant to Archbishop George Lucas of the Archdiocese of Omaha. He’s also the author of “The Urging of Christ’s Love: The Saints and The Social Teaching of the Catholic”

 

Also visit Omar’s “Discerning Hearts” page Catholic Social Teaching 101

Only the Love of God the Father Can Restore Us by Anthony Lilles – A Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcast

 

Dr. Anthony Lilles reads for us an article he originally published on his Beginning to Pray blog.

Only the Love of God the Father Can Restore Us

The moral and spiritual crisis of our time is a crisis in fatherhood – a refusal to allow the Father to love us and the lack of courage to reveal the Father’s love and concern for the most vulnerable.  We see this reflected in the mentality that Church problems are fixed by money and programs – rather than conversion of heart and prayer. Just as no program can heal the heart of a child as much as the love of father and mother, no committee or policy can heal the Church apart from the love of God the Father. Yet, because so many have been abused or neglected by their fathers, we are afraid to draw attention to God the Father.

We see the Father as neither comfortable or convenient politically, socially or culturally.  We pretend that we do not come from Him and that we are not in His image and likeness. We presume that we have a right to take the blessings that belong to the Father, and to use them for our own social agendas and projects. To live on our own terms rather than His, we distance ourselves from His Love.

Since we will not draw close to our heavenly Father, we ourselves have forgotten how to be fathers.   Afraid to offend against dehumanizing ideologies, we do not speak of the Father’s goodness or wisdom, or offer His blessing to those who most need it. Shamed into silence and afraid to sound unsophisticated, we have allowed heartless jargon to replace what we can only find if we go to the heart of the Father. And fatherless societies beget walking wounded, children whose gaping emptiness torments them … even to the point that to relieve the pain, they abuse themselves and others. These fatherless children become adults — and now we live with generations suffering this nihilistic vacuum in which all that is innocent, good, holy, and true is sucked away. Even those who we trust have become like pigs — and have we not been drawn to their sty?

The love of the Father is so much more, so far beyond, so much more beautiful and tender than the limits of our feeble hearts allow us to feel or know. We are afraid of his paternal affection because we will not allow ourselves to become familiar with it — we are ignorant of just how much we are loved to our own downfall.  If only we would calm the internal rancor of our own thoughts and allow ourselves to listen to the deep movements of tender concern and gentle understanding that live in His Word!

To be kissed by the Father, to be taken into HIs embrace, this is no less than to surrender into a love that at once heals, purifies, reconstitutes, and transforms. This is the Gift of the Holy Spirit – its intensity and power cannot be overestimated. Such loves moves us against presumption to penance; against callousness to make restitution; against arrogance to humbly atone for what unaided human effort can never atone. The sheer immensity of the Father’s love raises us above ourselves — not only in our giftedness and excellences, but in our weaknesses and inadequacies — especially in the painful voids. Yes, there where love seems most absent, the Father is there with us — aching over our humiliation and shame, with life giving tears.

The Father’s heart is pierced by the plight of his children — He is never indifferent or aloof. This is what we read in the story of the Prodigal Son… Luke 15:11-32. The Father is deeply moved when He sees His son coming from a long way off.  The verb in Greek for “to pity, to have compassion” (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη) means that the deepest parts of one’s very being are moved, implicated, in the plight of another. This is the same word used in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is also used when Jesus sees the crowds who have come to follow him.

When applied to God the Father, this means that the mysterious depths of God are implicated in our plight … that like of Father of the Prodigal Son, God the Father has taken our side. He is already running to us, ready to embrace, to kiss us with the affections of His love for us. Anyone who allows himself or herself to become the object of the Father’s love, such a person becomes like the Father, capable of being moved by the plight of those in distress. Such a movement of heart never sees strangers or enemies to be feared or used … only family to be cherished.

We live at a time when all of us need to come to our senses and consider how generous and good the Father is to everyone who serves Him.  Betrayal, denial, abandonment are not more patient than this healing love that both awaits and evokes our contrition. Avoiding responsibility has baptized us in desperate plight – it is time for the courage to face who we are, what we have done and to whom we have done it. No program or policy can  replace humility. No optics or media spin can heal the shame or cure the wounds we have caused. We may not feel that we are worthy to be his sons or daughters — but the One who begets, who loves life, wants us to live life to the full.

To approach the Father, we must follow the way of His Son – empty ourselves of our projects and ambitions, humble ourselves about our need for salvation, die to ourselves and our hubris. We approach Him in penance, fasting and prayer, realizing that in the immensity of His generous love, we are not worthy to be his slaves for His Son took the form of a slave… and, on this very cross road that His Son trod, the Father runs to meet us with the same love that He bears “the One in whom I am well pleased”. And in a silent fullness, we feel at once the comfort of His embrace; and the overwhelming goodness of His kiss. Healing and restoration await in the tender touch of those wetted cheeks and in those tears, divine and human, mingled through that hoped for, but surpassing, joy.

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.

RN-6 – Value # 4 – Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love part 3 – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez podcast

 Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love part 3 “Love”

These are the four values of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church as they’re enumerated in the Compendium and as they were laid out by, again, St. Pope John XXIII in Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris. Without these values, the work of social justice becomes an albatross around our necks. It pulls us down, threatening to poison all the work we do, no matter how well intentioned.

We are seeking to build a civilization of love. Love is an encounter with God. Love begets love, and the experience of love can heal many more wounds than can socio-economic trivialities.

(Truth, Freedom and Justice are covered in other episodes)

True social justice requires that we drop these paradigms of opposition: management vs. labor; bourgeois vs. proletariat; state vs. individual. We own the great Catholic both/and. It applies to the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church more than ever.
Urging of Christ's LoveOmar F. A. Guiterrez, M.A. , Special Assistant to Archbishop George Lucas of the Archdiocese of Omaha. He’s also the author of “The Urging of Christ’s Love: The Saints and The Social Teaching of the Catholic”

SJ1 – Holy Listening – The Spiritual Journey with Kris McGregor – A Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcast

“Let’s start at the very beginning, because it’s the very best place to start…”

“Holy Listening” is the lead topic of this first episode of “The Spiritual Journey Podcast with Kris McGregor.”  Appreciating the presence of God in the Word (capital W) and the challenge of truly listening to the voice of God are the primary topics for this podcast.  Before we can really move forward in the spiritual journey, we need to learn to listen to God.  How is that done?

The Gospel of John (RSVCE)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life,a and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Psalm 1 (Jerusalem Bible)

1 Happy the man who never follows the advice of the wicked, or loiters on the way that sinners take, or sits about with scoffers,

2 but finds his pleasure in the Law of Yahweh, and murmurs his law day and night.

3 He is like a tree that is planted by water streams, yielding its fruit in season, its leaves never fading;

4 It is nothing like this with the wicked, nothing like this! No, these are like chaff blown away by the wind.

5 The wicked will not stand firm when judgment comes, nor sinners when the virtuous assemble.

6 For Yahweh takes care of the way the virtuous go, but the way of the wicked is doomed.

From the Holy Rule of St. Benedict:

Prologue:
1. Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is the advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice.

 

Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts mentioned in the podcast:

LOH2-V2 Praying with the Psalms- Praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Fr. Timothy Gallagher

HR17 – The Value of Listening and Silence – The Holy Rule of St. Benedict with Fr. Mauritius Wilde O.S.B

HR37 – Listening to the Word of God – The Holy Rule of St. Benedict with Fr. Mauritius Wilde O.S.B

 

Other Links:

IP#221 Dr. Scott Hahn – Consuming the Word on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

IP#54 Dr. Scott Hahn – Verbum Domini part 1 on Inside the Pages

IP#57 Dr. Scott Hahn – Verbum Domini part 2 on Inside the Pages

IP#49 Dr. Matthew Bunson – Pope Benedict – Verbum Domini part 1 on Inside the Pages

IP#52 Dr. Matthew Bunson – Pope Benedict’s Verbum Domini part 2 on Inside the Pages

 

Resources:

For the Liturgy of the Hours:  Universalis    and  iBrevary

From Vatican.va:

Dogmatic Constitution of Divine Revelation – DEI VERBUM

Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy – SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

 

Kris McGregor Founder and editor/producer/executive director of “Discerning Hearts ®. To learn more about Kris visit here