The Suffering of Love – The Heart of Hope with Deacon James Keating Ph.D.
Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor discuss the healing hand of Christ, seeing the will of God, and how we suffer love. Deacon Keating reflects on the tale of the two criminals on the cross next to Christ on Golgotha.
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.
The “Heart of Hope” tackles a very tough subject…the gift of suffering in the Christian life. Deacon Keating guides us well
The Suffering Holy Face of Jesus – The Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
In this conversation, Fr. Gallagher continues to reflect on the letters written by St. Therese to her sister Celine who very much needed the contact given their father’s illness. He also talks about the depths of St. Therese’s devotion to the Suffering Holy Face of Jesus. Fr. Gallagher also reflects on her desire to be a person who loves.
Here are some of the various texts Fr. Gallagher refers to in this episode:
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”. For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: frtimothygallagher.org
The Prayer of St. John Paul II – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles
In this episode, Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor discuss The Prayer of St. John Paul II. Dr. Lilles reflects on “Sign of Contradiction,” the Lenten Retreat preached in 1976 by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla to Pope Paul VI and the papal household.
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. For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles
The Importance of Good Friendships – The Life of St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles
Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they take a deep dive into the life of St. Teresa of Avila, using her autobiography, “The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel”. In this episode, Dr. Lilles continues an overview of St. Teresa’s youth and how her spiritual life strengthened after she met a Nun, who influenced her decision to enter the religious life.
“I began gradually to like the good and holy conversation of this nun. How well she used to speak of God! for she was a person of great discretion and sanctity. I listened to her with delight. I think there never was a time when I was not glad to listen to her. She began by telling me how she came to be a nun through the mere reading of the words of the Gospel “Many are called, and few are chosen.” She would speak of the reward which our Lord gives to those who forsake all things for His sake. This good companionship began to root out the habits which bad companionship had formed, and to bring my thoughts back to the desire of eternal things, as well as to banish in some measure the great dislike I had to be a nun, which had been very great; and if I saw any one weep in prayer, or devout in any other way, I envied her very much; for my heart was now so hard, that I could not shed a tear, even if I read the Passion through. This was a grief to me.
I remained in the monastery a year and a half, and was very much the better for it. I began to say many vocal prayers, and to ask all the nuns to pray for me, that God would place me in that state wherein I was to serve Him; but, for all this, I wished not to be a nun, and that God would not be pleased I should be one, though at the same time I was afraid of marriage. At the end of my stay there, I had a greater inclination to be a nun, yet not in that house, on account of certain devotional practices which I understood prevailed there, and which I thought overstrained. Some of the younger ones encouraged me in this my wish; and if all had been of one mind, I might have profited by it. I had also a great friend in another monastery; and this made me resolve, if I was to be a nun, not to be one in any other house than where she was. I looked more to the pleasure of sense and vanity than to the good of my soul. These good thoughts of being a nun came to me from time to time. They left me very soon; and I could not persuade myself to become one.”
Excerpt from Chapter 3 from “The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel”
Listen Here to the Discerning Hearts audio recording of “The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus” by St. Teresa of Avila
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.
Blessings and blessed objects. Both the blessings that are properly given by clergy (such as those in the Liturgy) and the blessings spoken by lay people as part of their daily lives (such as a table grace) are important sacramentals. They can sanctify our thoughts, our actions, and our surroundings in a way that repels the Enemy. We see their power most clearly when used to remedy the demonic infestation of a building or object through a priestly blessing with holy water. Throughout the centuries, the testimony of many Christians, including a number of saints, confirms that objects blessed by a priest, through the power of the Church’s intercession, can repel demonic powers. Again and again, evil spirits have recoiled in dread, not just from the Sign of the Cross, but also from holy water and blessed oil, crosses, crucifixes, medals, candles, or salt. These can be used by priests in exorcisms as well as by lay Christians in everyday life. So the faithful sometimes keep such sacramentals in their homes. The home itself (as well as other buildings) can be blessed by a priest as well.
Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., is the Editor of TAN Books in Charlotte, North Carolina. An internationally known speaker, best-selling author, and award-winning journalist, Paul has published forty-three books in a wide variety of genres and subjects: history and biography, spirituality and apologetics, anthologies and devotionals, family life and children’s books, study guides and reference works, fiction and collections of poetry and prayers.
Paul graduated from Yale University in 1977 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction in the Major of Religious Studies. He was later awarded the George W. Woodruff Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, where he earned an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1995) in Historical Theology. In 1993 he was named as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the U.S. Department of Education. He has served on the faculty of several universities and colleges.
In 2008 Paul was appointed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to their National Advisory Council for a four-year term. He has served the Church as a theologian, historian, apologist, evangelist, and catechist in a number of settings, speaking frequently in Catholic and secular media broadcasts and at conferences, seminars, parish missions, and scholarly gatherings.
What is Redemptive Suffering – The Heart of Hope with Deacon James Keating Ph.D.
Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor discuss redemptive suffering. Why using love and the energy of love to redirect pain as an intercessory prayer for another. How suffering and intercessory prayer makes sense and is no longer meaningless.
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.
The “Heart of Hope” tackles a very tough subject…the gift of suffering in the Christian life. Deacon Keating guides us well.
The Crucible of Suffering – The Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Episode 5 – In this conversation, Fr. Gallagher reflects on letters written by St. Therese to her sister Celine who very much needed the contact given the suffering that was being endured by the family because of their father’s illness. Celine bore much of the burden of the situation. The emotional suffering, sorrow, and helplessness are aspects of what Fr. Gallagher refers to as the “crucible of suffering.” Also, we discuss the “mother wounds” suffered by St. Therese because of the four separations in her young life from the “mothers” in her life.
Celine (left) and Therese, age 12 & 8
Here are some of the various texts Fr. Gallagher refers to in this episode:
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”. For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: frtimothygallagher.org
What is Christianity’s ANSWER to atheism? Simple: DOSTOYEVSKY. Fr. Fessio, Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro begin part III of “The Drama of Atheist Humanism” by Henri de Lubac.
De Lubac traces the origin of 19th century attempts to construct a humanism apart from God, the sources of contemporary atheism which purports to have “moved beyond God.” The three persons he focuses on are Feuerbach, who greatly influenced Marx; Nietzsche, who represents nihilism; and Comte, who is the father of all forms of positivism.
He then shows that the only one who really responded to this ideology was Dostoevsky, a kind of prophet who criticizes in his novels this attempt to have a society without God. Despite their historical and scholarly appearance, de Lubac’s work clearly refers to the present.
As he investigates the sources of modern atheism, particularly in its claim to have definitely moved beyond the idea of God, he is thinking of an ideology prevalent today in East and West which regards the Christian faith as a completely outdated.
The weapon of sacramentals The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes sacramentals as sacred signs that bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, especially of a spiritual kind, that are obtained through the Church’s intercession. Through sacramentals, we are disposed to receive the primary effect of the sacraments, and they make holy various occasions in life (see CCC 1667).
Exorcism. Since ancient times, Christians have recognized the power of the Church’s intercession as it’s displayed through the use of sacramentals. Most notably, the ministry of exorcism is itself a sacramental. In an exorcism, the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the Devil’s power and withdrawn from his dominion. Just as Jesus performed exorcisms, He has given the Church the power and office to perform them (see CCC 1673).
According to Church law, only a priest with the bishop’s permission can perform a major (or solemn) exorcism— that is, the rite required to free a demon-possessed person. Any priest, however, can perform a minor exorcism in cases other than possession. These involve private prayers and blessings, either spontaneous or as provided by the ritual of the Church. They may be helpful in cases of oppression, obsession, and even infestation. In addition, the Rite of Infant Baptism and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) contain prayers of exorcism.
The Sign of the Cross. St. Athanasius wrote that before the coming of Christ, demonic powers used to deceive the pagans into worshipping them and obeying their oracles. “But now,” he observed in the fourth century, “since the divine appearance of the Word [Christ], all this deception has come to an end. For by the Sign of the Cross, if a man will only use it, their deceptions are driven out.”
Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., is the Editor of TAN Books in Charlotte, North Carolina. An internationally known speaker, best-selling author and award-winning journalist, Paul has published forty-three books in a wide variety of genres and subjects: history and biography, spirituality and apologetics, anthologies and devotionals, family life and children’s books, study guides and reference works, fiction and collections of poetry and prayers.
Paul graduated from Yale University in 1977 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction in the Major of Religious Studies. He was later awarded the George W. Woodruff Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, where he earned an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1995) in Historical Theology. In 1993 he was named as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the U.S. Department of Education. He has served on the faculty of several universities and colleges.
In 2008 Paul was appointed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to their National Advisory Council for a four-year term. He has served the Church as a theologian, historian, apologist, evangelist, and catechist in a number of settings, speaking frequently in Catholic and secular media broadcasts and at conferences, seminars, parish missions, and scholarly gatherings.
The Agony of Emotional Suffering – The Heart of Hope with Deacon James Keating Ph.D.
Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor discuss the agony of emotional suffering and opportunities for deeper union with Jesus; the reason for pastoral ministry.
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.
The “Heart of Hope” tackles a very tough subject…the gift of suffering in the Christian life. Deacon Keating guides us well.
Here are some of the various texts Fr. Gallagher refers to in this episode:
You can find the book 
