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BWPM 10 – Give Us This Day – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass w/ Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. Podcast

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Episode 10 – Give Us This Day – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V.

We continue our conversation with Fr. Gallagher discussing the encouragements given by Venerable Bruno Lanteri in regards to a biblical way of praying the Mass. In this episode, Fr. Gallagher reflects on the Consecration.

Take a moment and pray:

Our Father: Father: ponder the love, the security, and the providential care of the heavenly Father that this word signifies. Our: all of us share this Father; we are all his sons and daughters, one family.

who art in heaven: lift your gaze of faith to the infinite joy of heaven where this Father resides with the Son and Holy Spirit, the communion to which we are called when earthly life is done.

hallowed be thy name: ask, beg, petition that this Father’s name be held in love and reverence in your heart, in your family, in the Church, and in the world. thy kingdom come: pray that the kingdom of God — his love, truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, and peace — grow and be increasingly rooted in this world. Desire this. Ask for this.

thy will be done: with the sentiments and heart of a mendico, seek the grace to do God’s will in your life, in all things, day by day.

on earth: pray that God’s will be done in the Church and in the world. Raise this cry from your heart.

as it is in heaven: contemplate the joy, the harmony, the communion, the peace of heaven, in which God’s will is the single guide. Ask that this joy and communion be granted to our world.

Give us this day: What are your needs this day? What do your family members need this day? The Church? The nation? The world? Ask to be given what you need today.

our daily bread: the material bread we need for our lives and for the sustenance, health, education, and well-being of those entrusted to our care; and the spiritual bread: the Eucharist, Holy Communion.

and forgive us our trespasses: ask for the loving encounter with the Father that is forgiveness (Luke 15:11–32), for healing from the burdens of our hearts.

as we forgive those who trespass against us: Has anyone hurt you? Mistreated you? Misunderstood you? In these deep places of the heart, ask for the grace to forgive. “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Eph. 4:32).

and lead us not into temptation: pray for freedom from all that could cause spiritual harm. Make this prayer for yourself, your family, the Church, and the world.

but deliver us from evil: ask for protection and safety from all evil. Ask this “of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

Gallagher, Fr. Timothy; Gallagher, Fr Timothy . A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass: The Eucharistic Wisdom of Venerable Bruno Lanteri (pp. 75-76). EWTN Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in the A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass with Fr. Timothy Gallagher podcast series, visit here

You can find A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass here

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

For other Discerning Hearts Fr. Timothy Gallagher Podcasts visit here

Episode 3 – The Drama of Atheist Humanism – Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce – FBC Podcast

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Atheism is boring: the lifeless life of Nietzsche. Fr. Fessio, Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro finish chapter 1 of Henri de Lubac’s “The Drama of Atheist Humanism.”

You can find the book here

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.

HSE11 – Rules of the Second Week – The Heart of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola with Fr. Anthony Wieck S.J. – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Consolation, Desolation, and Rules of the Second Week – The Heart of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola with Fr. Anthony Wieck S.J.

Fr. Anthony Wieck and Kris McGregor continue this series centered around the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Fr. Wieck discusses consolation, desolation, and how they impact the Second Week Rules for discernment.

An excerpt from the conversation:

“The first week had 14 rules, and this second week only has eight. So, he says that it’s proper to God and his angels in their movements to give true spiritual gladness and joy. So Satan can’t give us true spiritual gladness and joy. That makes sense. And so it’s only God who can take away all sadness and disturbance, which the enemy brings on.

The evil spirit is always going to fight against this spiritual gladness and true consolation, bringing apparent reasons, subtleties, continual fallacies using false reasonings to get me off track. We hear a resonance to the first rules of our first week. Second of the eight, it belongs to God, our Lord, to give consolation to the soul without preceding cause. This is a little bit trickier.

So if I am reading a book that I really like, it’s very inspiring, a great author, and I’m starting to feel really inflamed with the love of God in consolation. That’s because I’m, there’s a cause in involved, and that is I’m reading a book, or I have some good friends who are coming tonight. ‘They’re going to come visit me. I’m so excited. I haven’t seen them in years!‘ And so there’s a preceding cause. I’m feeling really grateful to the Lord, feeling warm. I am coming back from an amazing encounter or spiritual direction session. I’m feeling really buoyant, a consolation with a cause, which is a good thing.

But only God can give consolation without a preceding cause that, sometimes, God just gives me a consolation with no particular reason and He just … I’m just overwhelmed and filled. This happened to Saint Ignatius so many times in his life, he began to lose some of his eyesight from all of his tears of joy. So a consolation without cause can only come from God. The evil spirit can’t do that.

So whenever cause comes into … whenever a consolation with a cause, so from reading or from an encounter, from something that happened, the good spirit will use that to the opposite means of the evil spirit. So the good spirit will use that consolation of the soul to profit it, to help it grow and rise in the praise and service of God.”

Fr. Anthony Wieck is a Jesuit priest of the Central & Southern province. Sixth of nine children, raised on a farm in Oregon, Fr. Anthony began religious life in 1994, spending his first five years of formation in Rome, Italy, studying at the Casa Balthasar and the Gregorian. The former was under the watchful patronage of Pope Benedict XVI (then-Card. Joseph Ratzinger). Fr. Anthony currently acts as retreat master at the White House Jesuit Retreat in St. Louis, Missouri. He also offers spiritual direction at the St. Louis diocesan seminary for 25 future priests there.

SH4 – The Sacred Heart and Schools – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff

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The Sacred Heart and Schools – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff

Join Msgr. John Esseff as he continues his talk about the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. In this episode, he discusses the importance of the Sacred Heart and schools.

Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton. He was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey, D.D. at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, PA. Msgr. Esseff served a retreat director and confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity around the world. Msgr. Esseff encountered St. Padre Pio, who would become a spiritual father to him. He has lived in areas around the world, serving in the Pontifical Missions, a Catholic organization established by St. Pope John Paul II to bring the Good News to the world especially to the poor. Msgr. Esseff assisted the founders of the Institute for Priestly Formation and serves as a spiritual director for the Institute. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops, priests and sisters and seminarians and other religious leaders around the world.

BWPM 9 – Jesus’ Heart – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass w/ Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. Podcast

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Episode 9 – Jesus’ Heart – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V.

Take a moment and pray:

“This is my body. . . . This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:26–28): a Heart that offers everything, even his Body, even his Blood — all that he is — that our sins may be forgiven and the door to eternal life opened.

“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11): again, a Heart that offers itself without limit, laying down his life for his sheep — for us.

“He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (John 13:1): a Heart that loves without measure, to the end — that is, to the last moment of his life and to the utmost bounds of love.

“He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil. 2:7): a Heart that gives its whole being, totally available to the Father in our service and for our liberation.

“Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39): a Heart in agony, a human Heart that struggles to say yes to the Father and that offers itself without reserve.

Gallagher, Timothy M.. A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass: The Eucharistic Wisdom of Venerable Bruno Lanteri (p. 63). EWTN Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

On the day before he was to suffer (Holy Thursday evening, in the upper room),

he took bread in his holy and venerable hands (in your mind’s eye, contemplate Jesus as he does this and the following actions),

and with eyes raised to heaven, to you, O God, his almighty Father, giving you thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples, saying:

Take this, all of you, and eat of it (“take,” “eat”: the Law of the Gift),

for this is my Body, which will be given up for you (“my Body,” “given up for you”).

In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took this precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands (again, contemplate Jesus as he does this and the following actions),

and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying: Take this, all of you, and drink from it,

for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many (“my Blood,” “poured out for you”: the Law of the Gift)

for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this in memory of me (in the Consecration of the Mass, the Church fulfills this blessed command; in it we find the model and the grace to live by it).

Gallagher, Timothy M. A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass: The Eucharistic Wisdom of Venerable Bruno Lanteri (pp. 67-68). EWTN Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in the A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass with Fr. Timothy Gallagher podcast series, visit here

You can find A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass here

For other Discerning Hearts Fr. Timothy Gallagher Podcasts visit here

BKL-Special “Living in the Sacred Heart of Jesus” with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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In 2011, Paray le Monial, France, I had the chance to speak with Msgr. John Esseff at the First Sacred Heart World Congress. Msgr. Esseff is one of the founders of the Sacred Heart Apostolate, sponsor of this event which brought laity, religious, and priests from around the world. Talks were given by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Robert Herman, Christendom College President Timothy O’Donnell, and EWTN show host and author Fr. Mitch Pacwa, as well as many others Why did they come to this small French community nestled in Eastern France? Because our Lord choice this place and two very remarkably humble saints to communicate the message of his Sacred Heart. He said to St. Margaret Mary:

“My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for mankind … that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its burning charity and must spread them abroad by your means.” She described that His Heart was on fire and surrounded by a crown of thorns. Our Lord told her that the flames represented His love for humanity, and the thorns represented man’s sinfulness and ingratitude. Jesus informed her that her mission was to establish the devotion to His Most Sacred Heart, and He revealed twelve promises that He would bestow upon all those who practice the devotion.

She had three more visions over the next year and a half in which Jesus instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays. Christ also inspired Margaret Mary to establish the Holy Hour and to receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. In the final revelation, the Lord asked that a feast of reparation be instituted for the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.

Blessed Claude de la Colombiere, a holy and experienced Jesuit, arrived as confessor to the nuns, and in him Margaret Mary recognized the understanding guide that had been promised to her in the visions. He became convinced that her experiences were genuine and adopted the teaching of the Sacred Heart that the visions had communicated to her.

Msgr. Esseff talks about that message, what it means for us today, and how we can live it out.

Episode 2 – The Drama of Atheist Humanism – Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce – FBC Podcast

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The return of the gods: When we kill God, something darker takes His place. This week, we take on Feuerbach and Nietzsche as Fr. Fessio, Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro read Henri de Lubac’s landmark study “The Drama of Atheism Humanism.”

You can find the book here

SH3 – The Gifts of the Sacred Heart – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff

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The Gifts of the Sacred Heart – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff

Join Msgr. John Esseff as he continues his talk about the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. In this episode, he discusses the first two gifts of the Sacred Heart.

DC33 St. Anthony of Padua – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom w/ Dr. Matthew Bunson

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Dr. Matthew Bunson discusses the life, times and teachings of St. Anthony of Padua

Born: August 15, 1195, Lisbon, Portugal
Died: June 13, 1231, Padua, Italy
Buried: Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua, Padua, Italy
Parents: Vicente Martins , Teresa Pais Taveira

For more on St. Anthony of Padua and his teachings

From Vatican.va, an excerpt from the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI

From the General Audience on St. Anthony of Padua

With his outstanding gifts of intelligence, balance, apostolic zeal and, primarily, mystic fervour, Anthony contributed significantly to the development of Franciscan spirituality.

In St Anthony’s teaching on prayer we perceive one of the specific traits of the Franciscan theology that he founded: namely the role assigned to divine love which enters into the sphere of the affections, of the will and of the heart, and which is also the source from which flows a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all other knowledge. In fact, it is in loving that we come to know.

Anthony writes further: “Charity is the soul of faith, it gives it life; without love, faith dies” (Sermones Dominicales et Festivi II, Messagero, Padua 1979, p. 37).

It is only the prayerful soul that can progress in spiritual life: this is the privileged object of St Anthony’s preaching. He is thoroughly familiar with the shortcomings of human nature, with our tendency to lapse into sin, which is why he continuously urges us to fight the inclination to avidity, pride and impurity; instead of practising the virtues of poverty and generosity, of humility and obedience, of chastity and of purity. At the beginning of the 13th century, in the context of the rebirth of the city and the flourishing of trade, the number of people who were insensitive to the needs of the poor increased. This is why on various occasions Anthony invites the faithful to think of the true riches, those of the heart, which make people good and merciful and permit them to lay up treasure in Heaven. “O rich people”, he urged them, “befriend… the poor, welcome them into your homes: it will subsequently be they who receive you in the eternal tabernacles in which is the beauty of peace, the confidence of security and the opulent tranquillity of eternal satiety” (ibid., p. 29).

Anthony, in the school of Francis, always put Christ at the centre of his life and thinking, of his action and of his preaching. This is another characteristic feature of Franciscan theology: Christocentrism. Franciscan theology willingly contemplates and invites others to contemplate the mysteries of the Lord’s humanity, the man Jesus, and in a special way the mystery of the Nativity: God who made himself a Child and gave himself into our hands, a mystery that gives rise to sentiments of love and gratitude for divine goodness.

For more visit Vatican.va

Dr. Matthew E. Bunson is a Register senior editor and a senior contributor to EWTN News. For the past 20 years, he has been active in the area of Catholic social communications and education, including writing, editing, and teaching on a variety of topics related to Church history, the papacy, the saints, and Catholic culture. He is faculty chair at Catholic Distance University, a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and the author or co-author of over 50 books including The Encyclopedia of Catholic History, The Pope Encyclopedia, We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, The Saints Encyclopedia and best-selling biographies of St. Damien of Molokai and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

BWPM 8 – Before the Throne of God – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass w/ Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. Podcast

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Episode 8 – Before the Throne of God – A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V.

Take a moment and pray:

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts (yes, lift up your heart in praise).

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God (thanks for so many blessings received).

It is right and just.

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation (to give thanks to God is truly right, truly just, a duty, and a means of salvation),

always and everywhere to give you thanks (always, everywhere),

Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.

For through his Paschal Mystery (his death and Resurrection),

he accomplished the marvelous deed, by which he has freed us from the yoke of sin and death (free, in him, to live without sin, free for life beyond death),

summoning us to the glory of being now called a chosen race, a royal priesthood (we are this race and this priesthood),

holy nation, a people for your own possession (and a holy nation, belonging to the One who loves us),

(proclaim these by our lives, our witness, our words),

for you have called us out of darkness into your own wonderful light (you have given us as our light and guide in this life).

And so, with Angels and Archangels,

with Thrones and Dominions,

and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven (united with the Heavenly Court),

we sing the hymn of your glory,

as without end we acclaim:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory (the vision of Isaiah: “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” [Isa. 6:3]).

Hosanna in the highest (hosanna: a cry of praise and adoration).

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (the crowds call to Jesus on Palm Sunday, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” [Mark 11:9]).

Hosanna in the highest.

Gallagher, Fr. Timothy; Gallagher, Fr Timothy . A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass: The Eucharistic Wisdom of Venerable Bruno Lanteri (pp. 57). EWTN Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

You can find A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass here

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