Series Archives

RN-10 – Value #5 – part 4 – Participation – Regnum Novum w/Omar Gutierrez – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Value 5 – The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity part 4

“Participation.”

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.

Deacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez is an Instructor for the Holy Family School of Faith Institute and Director of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith for 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”

IJCY6- “Your fear is from the spirit against Christ” – The 6th & 7th Spiritual Lesson – Is Jesus Calling You w/ Fr. Paul Hoesing ep 6 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Fr. Paul Hoesing - Is Jesus Calling You? Discerning Your Vocational Call 3

The Eighth Spiritual Lesson: The will of the spirit against Christ is revealed in fear. “This spirit against Christ drives a man by a fear of something false. While the Spirit of Christ draws a man by a peaceful presence to something that is true.”

Questions: Does your fear come when you are desiring to do God’s will and the thought of you choosing not to do His will causes your fear? Or, rather, does your fear come when you are focused on what you want and the thought that God might want something different makes you afraid; if so, identify that as the will of the spirit against Christ and turn away from it, inviting Christ into the situation by repeating a simple prayer like, “Jesus I trust in you!”

The Ninth Spiritual Lesson: You must stand firm in faith in what you received from God. “This is the essential choice. If one does not make this choice, his spiritual life will be the experience of a ping pong ball, bouncing back and forth, believing one desire one day and the opposite one the next. He will be a confused man.”

Questions: Do you have moments in prayer where the next step you are to take becomes quite clear from the experience of the peace of Christ, but then you believe and follow the thoughts, feelings, and desires in the fear flowing from the spirit against Christ, causing you to change your mind and not move forward? Identify those movements and cling to Christ during them by praying, “Jesus, I I trust in you.”

Based on “Is Jesus Calling You To Be A Catholic Priest: A helpful guide,” published by National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Director.

Fr. Paul Hoesing serves at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary as Dean of Seminarians & Director of Human Formation

GWML#10 William Shakespeare (Hamlet and Macbeth) – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 10 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare

Arguably Shakespeare’s finest and most important play, Hamlet is also one of the most misunderstood masterpieces of world literature. “To be or not to be”, may be the question, but the answer has eluded many generations of critics. What does it mean “to be”? And is everything as it seems to be?

Probably the darkest of all Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is also one of the most challenging. Is it a work of nihilistic despair, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”, or is it a cautionary tale warning of the dangers of Machiavellianism and relativism? Does it lead to hell and hopelessness, or does it point to a light beyond the darkness?

Based on the Ignatius Critical Edition, this series examines, from the Judeo-Christian perspective, the life, the times, and influence of authors of great works in literature.

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

To learn more about the authors and titles available in the Ignatius Critical Editions

IJCY5- “Your fear is from the spirit against Christ” – The 6th & 7th Spiritual Lesson – Is Jesus Calling You w/ Fr. Paul Hoesing ep 5 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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The Sixth Spiritual Lesson: “God does not reveal himself through fear, pressure or confusion. This where the spirit against Christ reveals himself.”

Questions: What are your ideas and images of God the Father and how do they differ from what Jesus teaches us about the Father? Do you see the Father as someone who pressures you to do things? Where does fear drive your relationship with the Father? Recall your latest experience of peace, stillness, clarity, and gratitude in God and believe that that is how the Father draws you?

The Seventh Spiritual Lesson: God’s will is found in your will when you are in Christ. “God’s will, His desire for you, is not out there somewhere! It is found in your own desire when you are in Christ! That is the will of God for you!”

Questions: Does the thought of the priesthood come into your thoughts, feelings and desires when you are experiencing the peaceful presence of God?

Based on “Is Jesus Calling You To Be A Catholic Priest: A helpful guide,” published by National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Director.

Fr. Paul Hoesing serves at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary as Dean of Seminarians & Director of Human Formation

BTP- L7 – Letter 169 pt. 2 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray w/Dr. Anthony Lilles podcast

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Dr. Lilles continues the spiritual explorations of the Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. In this episode, we continue our conversation on letter 169, with a special focus on Heaven as a spiritual reality:

L 169
To Canon Angles
[ July 15, 1903]
Dijon Carmel,

J. M. + J. T.

Monsieur le Chanoine,

My dear Mama, whom I saw last week, brought me your good letter, and I assure you that I can indeed sympathize with the suffering your eyes are causing you, and I am praying fervently for you. I was wondering a little what had become of you, but you find your little Carmelite close to God, don’t you? And that is where she finds you too; then no more distance, no more separation, but already, as in Heaven, the fusion of hearts and souls! . . . How many things have happened since my last letter! I heard the Church say “Veni sponsa Christi” [Come, bride of Christ]; she consecrated me, and now all is “consummated.” Rather, everything is beginning, for profession is only a dawn; and each day my “life as a bride”3 seems to me more beautiful, more luminous, more enveloped in peace and love. During the night that preceded the great day, while I was in choir awaiting the Bridegroom, I understood that my Heaven was beginning on earth; Heaven in faith, with suffering and immolation for Him whom I love! . . . I so wish to love Him, to love Him as my seraphic Mother did, even to dying of it. We sing “O charitatis Victima” on her feast day, and that is my whole ambition: to be the prey of love! I think that in Carmel it is so simple to live by love; from morning to evening the Rule is there to express the will of God, moment by moment. If you knew how I love this Rule, which is the way He wants me to become holy. I do not know if I will have the happiness of giving my Bridegroom the witness of my blood [by martyrdom], but at least, if I fully live my Carmelite life, I have the consolation of wearing myself out for Him, for Him alone. Then what difference does the work He wills for me make? Since He is always with me, prayer, the heart-to-heart, must never end! I feel Him so alive in my soul. I have only to recollect myself to find Him within me, and that is my whole happiness. He has placed in my heart a thirst for the infinite and such a great need for love that He alone can satisfy it. I go to Him like a little child to its mother so He may fill, invade, everything, and then take me and carry me away in His arms. I think we must be so simple with God!

I am longing to send you my good Mama; you will see how God is working in this beloved soul. Sometimes I cry for happiness and gratitude; it is so good to be devoted to your mother, to feel that she, too, is completely His, to be able to tell her about your soul and to be completely understood! . . . You really are the great attraction of the trip, I assure you; I love to remember those vacations at Saint-Hilaire, then at Carcassonne and Labastide, they were the best ones I had. With what fatherly goodness you received the confidences I so loved to make to you; I would be happy if one day they could be made once again through my dear grilles. Won’t you come to bless your little Carmelite and, quite close to her, thank Him who “has loved her exceedingly,” for, you see, my happiness can no longer be expressed. Listen to what is being sung in my soul and all that is rising from the heart of the bride to the Heart of the Bridegroom for you whose little child she will always be. Send her your best blessing; at Holy Mass, bathe her in the Blood of the Bridegroom; it is the purity of the bride, and she is so thirsting for it! A Dieu, monsieur le Chanoine, affectionately and respectfully yours,

Sr. Elizabeth of the Trinity r.c.i.

Catez, Elizabeth of the Trinity. The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel (pp. 110-111). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

Special thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for her readings of St. Elizabeth’s letters

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity” 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.

BKL268 – “When did you encounter Lazarus”? – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts podcast

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on his experience with St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and his experience of “the poorest of the poor”. He asks the question, “When have you encountered Lazarus?”.

Gospel Lk 16:19-31
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.’”

RN-9– Value #5- part 3 – Subsidiarity – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Value 5 – The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity part 3

Subsidiarity

RN-8 – Value #5 part 2 – The Universal Destination of Goods – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez podcast

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Value 5 – The Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Subsidiarity, Participation, Solidarity part 2

The Universal Destination of Goods

IJCY4- Your Peace is Found in Jesus – Is Jesus Calling You w/ Fr. Paul Hoesing ep 4 – Discerning Hearts

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The Fourth Spiritual Lesson: It Takes Time. “The Father simply wants you to trust him enough to take the next step, not the 10th or 20th step. He wants you to focus on going from A to B, not ongoing from A to Z. When you take that step, Jesus will reveal the next one.”

Questions: What is the next step God is asking of you? Are you afraid to take it? If you are, ask him into the situation or reality that causes you fear. Are you focusing too far down the road?

The Fifth Spiritual Lesson: Your Peace is Found in Jesus. “Christ’s presence is enjoyable; it gives us peace, stillness, clarity, and gratitude. Our job is to desire it.”

Questions: Where do you experience peace, stillness, clarity or gratitude in God? Wherever that is happening in your life, you need to do two things: (1) realize that this is the presence of Christ and ; (2) desire it throughout your day…above all thins. Relish his presence, enjoy his presence, long for his presence, keep coming back to his presence, adore his presence and express gratitude for his presence.

Based on “Is Jesus Calling You To Be A Catholic Priest: A helpful guide”, published by National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Director.

Fr. Paul Hoesing serves at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary as Dean of Seminarians & Director of Human Formation

GWML#16 Charles Dickens and “A Tale of Two Cities” – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Discerning Hearts podcast

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In this exciting novel set during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens expresses sympathy for the downtrodden poor and their outrage at the self-indulgent aristocracy. But Dickens is no friend of the vengeful mob that storms the Bastille and cheers the guillotine. As with all of his stories, his passion is for the unforgettable and unrepeatable individuals he creates.

The sorrows of the suffering masses, their demands for justice, and the indiscriminate fury they unleash take flesh in Madame Defarge, while the self-sacrifice that is the truest means of atonement and rebirth manifests in the unlikely hero Sydney Carton. In A Tale of Two Cities, humanity does not show its best side in the mean streets of Paris or even London, but in the intimate circle of loyal friends that gathers around the honorable Doctor Manette and his lovely daughter, Lucie.