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BTP-LR17 The “Last Retreat” Day 12 St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 12 ” – “God has said: “Be holy, for I am holy.”

From “Last Retreat Day 12” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

29. “Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.” 171 God has said: “Be holy, for I am holy.” 172 But He remained hidden in His inaccessible [light173] and the creature needed to have Him descend to it, to live its life, so that following in His footsteps, 174 it can thus ascend to Him and become holy with His holiness. “I sanctify myself for them that they also may be sanctified in the truth.” 175 Here I am in the presence “of a mystery hidden from ages and generations,” the mystery “which is Christ”: “your hope of glory,” 176 says St. Paul! And he adds that “the understanding of this mystery” was given to him. 177 So it is from the great Apostle that I am going to learn how I may possess this knowledge which, in his expression, “surpasses all other knowledge: the knowledge of the love of Christ Jesus.” 178

30. First of all he tells me that He is “my peace,” 179 that it is “through Him that I have access to the Father,” 180 for it has pleased this “Father of lights” 181 that “in Him all fullness should dwell, and that through Him He should reconcile to Himself all things, whether on the earth or in the heavens, making peace through the Blood of His Cross. . . .” 182 “You have received of His fullness,” the Apostle continues, “you were buried with Him in Baptism, and in Him you rose again through faith in the working of God. . . . He brought you to life along with Him, forgiving you all your sins, cancelling the decree of condemnation which weighed on you: He abolished it by nailing it to the Cross. Despoiling Principalities and Powers, He victoriously led them away as captives, triumphing over them in Himself . . . ,” 183 “to present you holy, pure, and without reproach before Him. . . .” 184

31. This is Christ’s work in every soul of good will and it is the work that His immense love, His “exceeding love,” 186 is eager to do in me. He wants to be my peace so that nothing can distract me or draw me out of “the invincible fortress of holy recolletion.” 187 It is there that He will give me “access to the Father” and will keep me as still and as peaceful in His presence as if my soul were already in eternity. 188 It is by the Blood of His Cross that He will make peace in my little heaven, so that it may truly be the repose of the Three. He will fill me with Himself; He will bury me with Him; He will make me live again with Him, by His life: “Mihi vivere Christus est!” 189 And if I fall at every moment, 190 in a wholly confident faith I will be helped up by Him. I know that He will forgive me, that He will cancel out everything with a jealous care, and even more, He will “despoil” me, He will “free” 191 me from all my miseries, from everything that is an obstacle to the divine action. “He will lead away all my powers,” 192 making them His captives, triumphing over them in Himself. Then I will have wholly passed into Him and can say: “I no longer live. My Master lives in me!” 193 And I will be “holy, pure, without reproach” in the Father’s eyes.

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for 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 Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity. After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, he completed licentiate and doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2012, he published Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: a theological contemplation of prayer by Discerning Hearts. Married with two young adult children pursuing their careers and a teenager still at home, he has settled in family in Oxnard, California.

BTP-LR18 The “Last Retreat” Day 13 St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 13 ” pt 1 – “Be rooted in Jesus Christ.”

From “Last Retreat Day 13” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

32. “Instaurare omnia in Christo.” 194 Again it is St. Paul who instructs me, St. Paul who has just immersed himself in the great counsel of God195 and who tells me “that He has resolved in Himself to restore all things in Christ.” So that I may personally realize this divine plan, it is again St. Paul who comes to my aid and who will himself draw up a rule of life for me. “Walk in Jesus Christ,” he tells me, “be rooted in Him, built up in Him, strengthened in faith, growing more and more in Him through thanksgiving.” 196

33. To walk in Jesus Christ seems to me to mean to leave self, lose sight of self, give up self, in order to enter more deeply into Him with every passing moment, 197 so deeply that one is rooted there; and to every event, to every circumstance we can fling this beautiful challenge: “Who will separate me from the love of Jesus Christ?” 198 When the soul is established in Him at such depths that its roots are also deeply thrust in, then the divine sap streams into it199 and all this imperfect, commonplace, natural life is destroyed. Then, in the language of the Apostle, “that which is mortal is swallowed up by life.” 200 The soul thus “stripped” of self and “clothed” 201 in Jesus Christ has nothing more to fear from exterior encounters or from interior difficulties, for these things, far from being an obstacle, serve only “to root it more deeply in the love” 202 of its Master. Through everything, despite everything, the soul can “adore Him always because of Himself.” 203 For it is free, rid of self and everything else; it can sing with the psalmist: “Though an army encamp against me, I will not fear; though war be waged upon me I will trust in spite of everything; for Yahweh will hide me in the secrecy of His tent” 204 and this tent is nothing else but Himself. I think that is what St. Paul means when he says: “be rooted in Jesus Christ.”

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP-LR20 The “Last Retreat” Day 14 pt. 1 St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 14 ” pt 1 – “Be rooted in Jesus Christ.”

From “Last Retreat Day 14” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

36. “It seems to me that all is loss since I have known the excelling knowledge of my Lord, Jesus Christ. For love of Him I have forfeited everything; I have accounted all else rubbish that I may gain Christ, so as to be found in Him, not with my own justice but with the justice that comes from God through faith. What I want is to know Him, to share in His sufferings, to become like Him in His death. I pursue my course, striving to attain to what Christ has destined me for by taking hold of me; my whole concern is to forget what is behind and to strain forward constantly to what is ahead; I run straight to the goal . . . , to the prize of the heavenly vocation to which God has called me in Christ Jesus.” 212 The Apostle has often revealed the greatness of this vocation: “God,” he says, “has chosen us in Him before the creation of the world that we might be holy and immaculate in His presence in love. . . . We have been predestined by the decree of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we may be the praise of His glory.” 213

37. But how do we respond to the dignity of this vocation? This is the secret: “Mihi vivere Christus est! . . . Vivo enim, jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus. . . .” 214 We must be transformed into Jesus Christ; again it is St. Paul who teaches me this: “Those whom God has foreknown, He has predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” 215 It is important then that I study this divine Model so as to identify myself so closely with Him that I may unceasingly reveal Him to the eyes of the Father. First of all, what did He say when He came into the world? “Here I am, O God, I come to do your will.” 216 I think that this prayer should be like the bride’s heartbeat: 217 “Here we are, O Father, we come to do your will!”

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP-LR21 The “Last Retreat” Day 14 pt. 2 St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 14 ” pt 2 – “My food…is to do the will of Him who sent Me.”

From “Last Retreat Day 14” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

38. The Master was truth itself in this first oblation! His life was as it were but the consequence of it! “My food,” He liked to say, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” 218 It should also be that of the bride, and at the same time the sword that immolates her. . . . “If it is possible, let this cup pass me by, yet not as I will but as You will.” 219 And then she will joyfully go in peace to every sacrifice with her Master, rejoicing to “have been known” by the Father since He crucifies her with His Son. “Your decrees are my inheritance forever; they are the joy of my heart”: 220 my Master sang this in His soul, and it should echo resoundingly in that of the bride! It is by her constant fidelity to these “decrees,” whether exterior or interior, that she will “bear witness to the truth” 221 and will be able to say “He who sent me has not left me alone. He is always with me because I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.” 222 And by never leaving Him, by remaining in closest contact with Him, she will radiate “this secret power” 223 which saves and delivers souls. Stripped and set free of self and all else, she can follow the Master to the mountain224 to pray there with Him in her soul, “a prayer of God.” 225 Then, still through the divine Adorer, He who is the great praise of glory to the Father, she will “ceaselessly offer a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name” 226 (St. Paul). And, as the psalmist sings, she will praise Him “in the expansion of His power, and for the immensity of His grandeur.” 227 we could find no other way to express the force of the text” (p. 205).

39. Then, when her hour of humiliation, of annihilation comes, she will recall this little phrase, “Jesus autem tacebat”; 228 and she will be silent, “keeping all her strength for the Lord”; 229 this strength which “we draw from silence.” 230 And when the hour of abandonment, of desertion, and of anguish comes, the hour that drew from Christ this loud cry, “Why have You abandoned Me?” 231, she will recall this prayer: “that they may have in themselves the fullness of My joy”; 232 and drinking to the dregs “the cup prepared by the Father,” 233 she will find a divine sweetness in its bitterness. Finally, after having said so often “I am thirsty,” 234 thirsty to possess You in glory, she will sing: “Everything is consummated; into Your hands I commend my spirit.” 235 And the Father will come for her to “bring her into His inheritance,” 236 where in “the light she will see light.” 237 “Know that the Lord has marvelously glorified His Holy One,” David sang. 238 Yes, the Holy One of God will have been glorified in this soul, for He will have destroyed everything there to “clothe it with Himself,” 239 and it will have lived in reality the words of the Precursor: “He must increase and I must decrease.” 240

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP-LR22 The “Last Retreat” Day 15 pt. 1 – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 15 ” pt 1 -“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”

From “Last Retreat Day 15” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

40. After Jesus Christ, doubtless at the distance that there is between the Infinite and the finite, there is one who was also the great praise of glory of the Holy Trinity. She responded fully to the divine election of which the Apostle speaks: she was always “pure, immaculate, and without reproach” 241 in the eyes of the thrice-holy God. Her soul is so simple. Its movements are so profound that they cannot be detected. She seems to reproduce on earth the life which is that of the divine Being, the simple Being. And she is so transparent, so luminous that one would mistake her for the light, yet she is but the “mirror” of the Sun of Justice: “Speculum justitiae!” 242

“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: 243 her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the Gospel “that Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” 244 to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like Him, her prayer was always this: “Ecce, here I am!” Who? “The servant of the Lord,” 245 the lowliest of His creatures: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The Almighty has done great things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me blessed.” 246

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP-LR23 The “Last Retreat” Day 15 pt. 2 – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 15 ” pt 2 -“This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs”

From “Last Retreat Day 15” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

41. This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart that the sword pierced, 247 for with her everything took place within! . . . Oh! How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene, enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness. . . . She learned from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the great work of redemption, those whom He “has foreknown and predestined to be conformed to His Christ,” 248 crucified by love.

She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage, and here my Master says to me: “Ecce Mater tua.” 249 He gives her to me for my Mother. . . . And now that He has returned to the Father and has substituted me for Himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in His passion for the sake of His body, which is the Church,” 250 the Blessed Virgin is again there to teach me to suffer as He did, to tell me, to make me hear those last songs of His soul which no one else but she, His Mother, could overhear.

When I shall have said my “consummatum est,” 251 it is again she, “Janua coeli,” 252 who will lead me into the heavenly courts, whispering to me these mysterious words: “Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi; in domun Domini ibimus!” 253

Complete-Works This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP-LR24 The “Last Retreat” Day 16 – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 16 ” pt 1 -“ My soul thirsts for the living God! ”

From “Last Retreat Day 16” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

42. “As the thirsty doe longs for the springs of fresh water, so my soul longs for You, O God! My soul thirsts for the living God! When will I appear before His face? . . .” 254

And yet, as “the sparrow has found a home,” and “the turtledove a nest in which she may lay her young,” 255 so Laudem Gloriae has found while waiting to be brought to the holy Jerusalem, “beata pacis visio” 256— her retreat, her beatitude, her anticipated Heaven in which she begins her life of eternity. “In God my soul is silent; my deliverance comes from Him. Yes, He is the rock in which I find salvation, my stronghold, I shall not be disturbed!” 257 This is the mystery my lyre sings of today! My Master has said to me as to Zacchaeus: “Hurry and come down, for I must stay in your house today. . . .” 258 Hurry and come down, but where? Into the innermost depths of my being: after having forsaken self, withdrawn from self been stripped of self in a word, without self.

This the text we are using to discuss “Heaven in Faith” you can find it here and order from the Carmelite Sisters

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to
Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

The Prinicipal and Foundation of Prayer and Discernment: a teaching from Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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I had the opportunity to speak with Msgr. Esseff, who is conducting a spiritual retreat for the Sisters of the

Missionaries of Charity in Sydney, Australia. He shares with us the teachings from the first day, which is on the principal and foundation of prayer as taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Msgr. Esseff begins by reflecting on the Awe of God and the difference between “being” and “becoming”. He shares a special memory of an experience that helped him to understand this which occurred when he was a young boy on his grandfather’s farm. Many years later, he would learn this was a basic teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas on the nature of God and creation. God is being and creation (including man) is becoming.

With that foundation, Msgr. Esseff proceeds to teach us that all of our are becoming therefore because mankind has a soul and has the capacity for reflection, we have the power to glorify God. That is the first call we have, to glorify God. To often we focus on our selves and what serves our needs. St. Ignatius would say, that instead when faced with a decision or direction, each human being is called to discern, to ask whether if this is what God wants or is this is what I want. The key is to take ask the Father “What do you want us to do?” This is discernment at its basic level.

To obtain a copy of Msgr. Esseff’s book byvisiting here

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building a Kingdom of Love”

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: reflections by Msgr. Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on Blessed Mother Teresa whom he met in 1984 in Beruit, Lebanon.

Msgr. Esseff worked alongside Blessed Mother Teresa in Calcutta, Lebanon, West Africa, Haiti and elsewhere and would go on to serve as a spiritual director and confessor for Mother Teresa and her sisters. (The last few minutes of the reflection are particularly poignant)

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building A Kingdom of Love”

“HALT” – The Danger of False Generosity with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff discusses HALT and how it is the response to False Generosity. False Generosity can be destructive…we don’t even realize we are doing it.

When you find yourself:

H – Hungry, A- Angry,
L – Lonely, T – Tired

We must take care of ourselves! Msgr. Esseff first gives a checklist to attend to our physical needs and then he addresses our prayer lives. When you become the source of others feeding off you, you will become drained! You cannot give to your brothers and sisters what you do not receive from Him. Discernment is key! When you get exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, or run down it is your body saying you are doing things that are none of your business. God is not asking you to do what is not in your ability. Serving God Jesus-follow may involve suffering, fatique, and even moments of great physical or emotional pain, but none of this pull you away from your deepest self or from God. Those who want to be helpful to their community must ask themselves, “What do I need to be present to and what is it that I need to refrain from?

From the NAB St. Matthew Chap 11

28^* “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,^* and I will give you rest.29^* ^p Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.30For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 12 ” – “God has said: “Be holy, for I am holy.”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 13 ” pt 1 – “Be rooted in Jesus Christ.”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 14 ” pt 1 – “Be rooted in Jesus Christ.”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 14 ” pt 2 – “My food…is to do the will of Him who sent Me.”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 15 ” pt 1 -“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 15 ” pt 2 -“This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Beginning to Pray: “The Last Retreat – Day 16 ” pt 1 -“ My soul thirsts for the living God! ”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

H – Hungry, A- Angry, L – Lonely, T – Tired

H – Hungry, A- Angry,
L – Lonely, T – Tired