Series Archives

GWML#11 William Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice and King Lear) – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Discerning Hearts

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Episode 11 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare part 2

The Merchant of Venice is probably the most controversial of all Shakespeare’s plays. It is also one of the least understood. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is the meaning behind the test of the caskets? Who is the real villain of the trial scene? Is Shylock simply vicious and venomous, or is he more sinned against than sinning?

One of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear is also one of the most thought-provoking. The play turns on the practical ramifications of the words of Christ that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s. When confronted with the demand that she should render unto Caesar that which is God’s, Cordelia chooses to “love and be silent”. As the play unfolds each of the principal characters learns wisdom through suffering.

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

USCCA25 – Sacramentals and Popular Devotions – U. S. Catholic Catechism for Adults w/ Arch. George Lucas

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Archbishop Lucas offers insights on the US Catholic Catechism for Adults Chapter 22:

Sacramentals dispose believers to receive the chief effects of the Sacraments. They are sacred signs that resemble the Sacraments in the sense that they signify spiritual effects that are obtained through the intercession of the Church. Sacramentals include blessings, actions such as processions, prayers such as the Rosary, and objects such as holy water, palms, ashes, candles, and medals.

The Church instituted sacramentals to sanctify certain ministries, states of life, and the variety of situations in which Christians are involved. Their use has been guided by bishops’ pastoral decisions in responding to specific needs that are particular to a given period of history or locality. They include a prayer, usually with a gesture such as the Sign of the Cross or the sprinkling of holy water.

The Most Reverend George J. Lucas leads the Archdiocese of Omaha.

For other episodes in the visit our Archbishop George Lucas page

This program is based on:

More information can be found here.

We wish to thank the USCCB for the permissions granted for use of relevant material used in this series.

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“Teach Us How To Pray” – Lent and the Importance of Fasting and Almsgiving in our Prayer – A series on prayer with Msgr. John Esseff Episode 4

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Msgr. Esseff teaches the importance of the Liturgical year and in particular the season of Lent. He also shares his experience of fasting in a desert found in Peru. From this he learned the importance of FASTING and PRAYER. Msgr. Esseff challenges us to discern what the Father in Heaven is asking us to do this Lent through fasting, so we can purely and perfectly follow His Holy Will. And he describes ALMSGIVING, and story from an experience he had with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity Sisters.

The Church prepares a spiritual retreat for all of us during Lent. The Holy Spirit is transforming you in a radical way so that you become more like Jesus Christ…the day by day exercise of Morning Prayer, the Eucharist and Evening Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, and the other moments of contemplative prayer aids in the transformation…our ego decreases and Jesus increases in our minds and in our hearts.

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

Pray the Liturgy of Hours

Morning PrayerMid-morningPrayerMid-dayPrayerAfternoon PrayerEvening PrayerNight PrayerOffice of Readings

GWML#7 Harriet Beecher Stowe and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce

Episode 7 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few options open to nineteenth century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge, enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of millions of her contemporaries. Uncle Tom’s Cabin paints pictures of three plantations, each worse than the other, where even the best plantation leaves a slave at the mercy of fate or debt. Her questions remain penetrating even today: “Can man ever be trusted with wholly irresponsible power?”

First published more than 150 years ago, this monumental work is today being reexamined by critics, scholars, and students. Though “Uncle Tom” has become a synonym for a fawning black yes-man, Stowe’s Tom is actually American literature’s first black hero, a man who suffers for refusing to obey his oppressors. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a living, relevant story, passionate in its vivid depiction of the cruelest forms of injustice and inhumanity-and the courage it takes to fight against them.

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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 .

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

St. Thomas Aquinas, “the poet laureate of heaven” with Mike Aquilina

January 28 is the day the Catholic Church honors St. Thomas Aquinas. The Italian saint was a priest and is widely recognized as being one of the most influential figures in the study of theology. Mike Aquilina who he refers to him as the “poet laureate of heaven”.

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Check out Mike’s wonderful site “The Way of the Fathers”

From the Pope Benedict’s audience (from Vatican.va) reflecting on St. Thomas Aquinas….

The life and teaching of St Thomas Aquinas could be summed up in an episode passed down by his ancient biographers. While, as was his wont, the Saint was praying before the Crucifix in the early morning in the chapel of St Nicholas in Naples, Domenico da Caserta, the church sacristan, overheard a conversation. Thomas was anxiously asking whether what he had written on the mysteries of the Christian faith was correct. And the Crucified One answered him: “You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What is your reward to be?”. And the answer Thomas gave him was what we too, friends and disciples of Jesus, always want to tell him: “Nothing but Yourself, Lord!”

Mike’s book can really help us to pray with St. Thomas. You can find it here

This is the poem spoke about in our conversation:

O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore Thee,
Who truly art within the forms before me;
To Thee my heart I bow with bended knee,
As failing quite in contemplating Thee.

Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived;
The ear alone most safely is believed.
I believe all the Son of God has spoken :
Than Truth’s own word there is no trucer token.

God only on the Cross lay hid from view,
But here lies hid at once the manhood too :
And I, in both professing my believe,
Make the same prayer as the repentant thief.

Thy wounds, as Thomas saw, I do not see;
Yet Thee confess my Lord and God to be.
Make me blieve Thee ever more and more,
In Thee my hope, in Thee my love to store.

O Thou, memorial of our Lord’s own dying!
O living bread, to mortals life supplying!
Make Thou my soul henceforth on Thee to live;
Ever a taste of heavenly sweetness give.

O loving Pelican! O Jesu Lord!
Unclean I am, but cleanse me in Thy Blood :
Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,
Can purge the entire world from all its guilt.

Jesu! whom for the present veiled I see,
What I so thirst for, oh, vouchasafe to me :
That I may see Thy countenance unfolding,
And may be blest Thy glory in beholding. Amen.

RN25 – “The Human Person as the Image of God” the Compendium of Social Doctrine Chap 3 Section 3 & 4 – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez

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Episode 25- Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez – We begin the study of the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” Chap 3 Section 3 & 4

CHAPTER THREE
THE HUMAN PERSON AND HUMAN RIGHTS

III. THE MANY ASPECTS OF THE HUMAN PERSON
A. The unity of the person
B. Openness to transcendence and uniqueness of the person

a. Open to transcendence
b. Unique and unrepeatable
c. Respect for human dignity

C. The freedom of the human person

a. The value and limits of freedom
b. The bond uniting freedom with truth and the natural law

D. The equal dignity of all people
E. The social nature of human beings

IV. HUMAN RIGHTS
a. The value of human rights
b. The specification of rights
c. Rights and duties
d. Rights of peoples and nations
e. Filling in the gap between the letter and the spirit

We live at a very special time. The confluence of many things has brought forth the clear need to be able to articulate the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church in a way that is accessible and applicable. This is not to be an effort where high-minded theories are to be bandied about. Rather, this is a time of opportunity wherein we can apply the Social Doctrine to the concrete so as to bring about a New Kingdom, a Revolution. – Omar G.

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

RN23 – “The Human Person as the Image of God” the Compendium of Social Doctrine Chap 3 Section 1 & 2 – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez

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Episode 23- Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez – We begin the study of the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” Chap 3 Section 1 & 2

CHAPTER THREE
THE HUMAN PERSON AND HUMAN RIGHTS

I. SOCIAL DOCTRINE AND THE PERSONALIST PRINCIPLE

II. THE HUMAN PERSON AS THE “IMAGO DEI”
a. Creatures in the image of God
b. The tragedy of sin
c. The universality of sin and the universality of salvation

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

IP#288 The Heart of the Diaconate – Deacon James Keating on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

“The Heart of the Diaconate” is an another outstanding work by Deacon James Keating, PhD. It focuses on the interior life and how important the disposition of our interiority is to our vocational call. While directed primarily to those in diaconate formation and those who have been ordained as deacons, the fundamental principles addressed in this book could be applied to all living the lay vocation. Don’t miss!

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You can find the book here

From the book description:

Through the three areas of Calling, Formation and Ordination, and Ministry, The Heart of the Diaconate explores the creative tension of the diaconate vocation and what the diaconate for the future will look like. The book outlines what those who are considering the diaconate must possess if it is truly going to be an effective and vibrant ministry within the church. With a focus on availability to both prayer and ministry, the future of the diaconate must be both mystical and youthful and address one important question: Where has the gospel yet to reach in my diocese?

RN22 – “The Nature of the Church’s Social Doctrine” the Compendium of Social Doctrine Chap 2 Section 2 – Regnum Novum w/ Omar Gutierrez

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Episode 22- Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez – We begin the study of the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” Chapter 2 Section 2

CHAPTER TWO
THE CHURCH’S MISSION AND SOCIAL DOCTRINE

II. THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH’S SOCIAL DOCTRINE
a. Knowledge illuminated by faith
b. In friendly dialogue with all branches of knowledge
c. An expression of the Church’s ministry of teaching
d. For a society reconciled in justice and love
e. A message for the sons and daughters of the Church and for humanity
f. Under the sign of continuity and renewal

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

USCCA22 – Holy Orders Part 2 – U. S. Catholic Catechism for Adults w/ Arch. George Lucas

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Archbishop Lucas offers insights on the US Catholic Catechism for Adults Chapter 20

A bishop is given the grace to teach in the name of Christ; to sanctify the Church through the celebration of the Sacraments; to guide, govern, and defend the Church; and to be a sign of the unity of the Church.

A priest is given the grace to proclaim the Gospel and preach, to celebrate the Sacraments (except Holy Orders), and to shepherd the people entrusted to him.

A deacon in the Latin Church is ordained to proclaim the Gospel and preach, to baptize, to assist the bishop or priest in the celebration of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages, to preside at funerals, and to serve the community through works of charity.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

The Most Reverend George J. Lucas leads the Archdiocese of Omaha.

For other episodes in the visit our Archbishop George Lucas page

This programs is based on:

More information can be found here.

We wish to thank the USCCB for the permissions granted for use of relevant material used in this series.
Also we wish to thank Matt Willkomb for his vocal talents in this episode.

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