Recent Archives

IP#133 Greg and Julie Alexander – Marriage 911 on Inside the Pages

In “Marriage 911: How God Saved Our Marriage (and can save yours, too!)”, we meet Greg and Julie Alexander, a great and courageous couple. They candidly share the trials of what they felt was a lifeless, loveless marriage on the verge of divorce. Married in the Church, they began the process of seeking a way out of their union. Unexpectedly they encountered a faithful caring priest, who shared with them the Church’s understanding of marriage, and through incoporating those truths, revived and revitalized their sacramental relationship and their family as well. Now married over 20 years, they offer emergency hope and guidance to couples struggling in a similar conditions through their “Alexander House” non-profit marriage and family life enrichment apostolate. Visit their outstanding website http://www.thealexanderhouse.org/

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Their breakthrough work in marriage has been featured on EWTN and talk radio, as well as in many publications, including Patrick Madrid s Surprised by Truth 3, Envoy, Catholic Herald, Denver Catholic Register, and Our Sunday Visitor.

You can find the book here

IP#132 Kevin Lowry – Faith at Work on Inside the Pages

Faith at Work: Finding Purpose Beyond the Paycheck is fantastic…a remedy for spirituality seekers in the workplace (and in the home as well)! You have to love a work that begins with conversion as a goal. Kevin Lowry offers concrete helps which assist all of us deepen our relationship with Christ and His Church, and live authentic lives as Catholics in the world. Great for individuals and for group study as well.

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“Too many Christians treat ambition and success as if they’re four-letter words…. For a Catholic in business, they can be touchstones of sanctification.”— Scott Hahn, Ph.D., professor of biblical theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Be sure to visit Kevin Lowry’s website at Grateful Convert

Check it out here

“What can separate us from God?” – Reflections from Msgr. Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on the major area that separates us from God…it’s sloth. What is the truth about sloth? What does laziness really look like? To depend on oneself more than on God….”that I can do anything”, “I can do it”….the man of faith says “God can do it”. Jesus said without the Father, he could do nothing. That He does only what the Father tells him. The solution to sloth is

obedience…the obedience to the will of the Father.

Msgr. Esseff takes a strong look at King David and his actions after he becomes king…a leader who became consumed with himself. Then he looks at a true leader…Jesus. Msgr. has a strong message and challenge for families, our country, the world and our Church.

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

Pope Benedict on Prayer 19 – The Prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper

VATICAN CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS)

Jesus’ prayer during the Last Supper was the theme of Benedict XVI’s catechesis during his general audience, which was held this morning in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 4,000 faithful.

The Pope explained how the emotional backdrop to the Last Supper, in which Jesus bade farewell to His friends, was the immanence of His approaching death. Moreover, in the days in which He was preparing to leave His disciples, the life of the Jewish people was marked by the approaching Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of Israel from Egypt.”It was in this context that the Last Supper took place”, the Holy Father said, “but with an important novelty”. Jesus “wanted the Supper with His disciples to be something special, different from other gatherings. It was His Supper, in which He gave something completely new: Himself. Thus Jesus celebrated the Passover as an anticipation of His Cross and Resurrection”.

The essence of the Last Supper lay in “the gestures of breaking and distributing the bread, and sharing the cup of wine, with the words that accompanied them and the context of prayer in which they took place. This was the institution of the Eucharist: the great prayer of Jesus and the Church”. The words the Evangelists use to describe that moment “recall the Jewish ‘berakha’; that is, the great prayer of thanksgiving and blessing which, in the tradition of Israel, is used to inaugurate important ceremonies. … That prayer of praise and thanks rises up to God and returns as a blessing. … The words of the institution of the Eucharist were pronounced in this context of prayer. The praise and thanksgiving of the ‘berakha’ became blessing and transformed the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus”.

Jesus’ gestures were the traditional gestures of hospitality which a host would extend to his guests, but in the Last Supper they acquired a more profound significance, Pope Benedict explained. Christ provided “a visible sign of welcome to the table upon which God gives Himself. In the bread and the wine, Jesus offered and communicated His own Self”. Aware of His approaching death, “He offered in advance the life that would shortly be taken from Him, thus transforming His violent death into a free act of the giving of Self, for others and to others. The violence He suffered became an active, free and redemptive sacrifice”.

“In contemplating Jesus’ words and gestures that night, we can clearly see that it was in His intimate and constant relationship with the Father that He accomplished the gesture of leaving to His followers, and to all of us, the Sacrament of love”, said the Pope. During the Last Supper Jesus also prayed for His disciples, who likewise had to suffer harsh trials. With that prayer “He supported them in their weakness, their difficulty in understanding that the way of God had to pass through the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection, which was anticipated in the offer of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the food of pilgrims, a source of strength also for those who are tired, weary and disoriented”.

Benedict XVI went on: “By participating in the Eucharist we have an extraordinary experience of the prayer which Jesus made, and continues to make for us all, that the evil we encounter in our lives may not triumph, and that the transforming power of Christ’s death and resurrection may act within each of us. In the Eucharist the Church responds to Jesus’ command to ‘do this in remembrance of me’, she repeats the prayer of thanksgiving and blessing and, therewith, the words of transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord. Our Eucharistic celebrations draw us into that moment of prayer, uniting us ever and anew to the prayer of Jesus”.

“Let us ask the Lord that, after due preparation also with the Sacrament of Penance, our participation in the Eucharist, which is indispensable for Christian life, may always remain the apex of all our prayers”, the Pope concluded. “Let us ask that, profoundly united in His offering to the Father, we too can transform our crosses into a free and responsible sacrifice of love, for God and for our fellows”.

At the end of his catechesis the Holy Father delivered greetings in a number of languages to the pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall, inviting them to participate with

“faith and devotion” in the Eucharist which, he said, is indispensable for Christian life as well as being the school and culmination of prayer. Addressing young people, the sick and newlyweds, he pointed our that last Sunday’s Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord is an occasion to reflect upon our own Baptism. “

Dear young people”, the Pope exclaimed, “live your membership of the Church, the family of Christ, joyfully. Dear sick people, may the grace of Baptism ease your sufferings and encourage you to offer them to Christ for the salvation of humanity. And you, dear newlyweds, … base your marriage on the faith which you received as a gift on the day of your Baptism”.
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Faith Check 30 – Persecution of Catholics in England

Persecution of Catholics in England

You’ve heard how the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England, but have you ever heard how Catholics were persecuted there?

Recent scholarship such as Eamon Duffy’s book The Stripping of the Altars show that the vast majority of the English people did not freely choose to leave the Catholic Church, but were coerced into it. In fact, prior to King Henry VIII’s break with Rome, England was known throughout Europe as “Mary’s Dowry” because of its great piety. But under King Henry, Queen Elizabeth I, and others, failure to outwardly conform to the new state religion resulted in fines or imprisonment. Hiding a Catholic priest was considered a treasonable act punishable by death. Many suffered dearly, including famous martyrs like Sir Thomas More, or the 40 English martyrs that Pope John Paul II canonized.

Those openly professing Catholicism were barred from important positions in government and society well into the 1800s, and English law to this day prohibits a monarch from being Catholic.

Convincing evidence also shows that William Shakespeare was one such underground Catholic and that his plays included veiled appeals to the Queen for religious toleration.

So let us thank God that we can freely and openly practice our Faith, and honor all those who could not.

Pope Benedict on Prayer 18 – The Holy Family is the model for the School of Prayer

VATICAN CITY, 28 DEC 2011 (VIS) – Prayer in the Holy Family of Nazareth was the theme of Benedict XVI’s catechesis during today’s general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 7,000 pilgrims.

“The house of Nazareth”, the Pope explained, “is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus”.

“Mary is the peerless model for the contemplation of Christ”, he said. She “lived with her eyes on Christ and treasured His every word. … Luke the Evangelist makes Mary’s heart known to us, her faith, her hope, her obedience, her interior life and prayer, her free adherence to Christ. All of these came from the gift of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon her just as it descended upon the Apostles according to Christ’s promise. This image of Mary makes her a model for all believers”.

Mary’s capacity to live by the gaze of God is “contagious”, the Holy Father went on. “The first to experience this was St. Joseph. … With Mary, and later with Jesus, he began a new rapport with God, he began to accept Him into his life, to enter into His plan of salvation, to do His will”.

Although the Gospel has not preserved any of Joseph’s words, “his is a silent but faithful presence, constant and active. … Joseph fulfilled his paternal role in all aspects”. In this context, the Pope explained how Joseph had educated Jesus to pray, taking Him to the synagogue on Saturdays and guiding domestic prayer in the morning and evening. “Thus, in the rhythm of the days spent in Nazareth, between Joseph’s humble dwelling and his workshop, Jesus learned to alternate pray and work, also offering up to God the fatigue by which they earned the bread the family needed”.

Benedict XVI then turned his attention to the pilgrimage of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, as narrated in the Gospel of St. Luke. “The Jewish family, like the Christian family, prays in the intimacy of the home, but it also prays together in the community recognising itself as part of the pilgrim People of God”, he said.

Jesus’ first words – “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house” – pronounced when Mary and Joseph found Him sitting among the teachers in the Temple, are a key to understanding Christian prayer. “From that moment, the life of the Holy Family became even richer in prayer, because the profound significance of the relationship with God the Father began to spread from the Heart of the boy (then adolescent, then young man) Jesus to the hearts of Mary and Joseph. The Family of Nazareth was the first model of the Church in which, in the presence of Jesus and thanks to His mediation, a filial rapport with God came to transform even interpersonal relations”.

“The Holy Family”, Benedict XVI concluded, “is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth”.
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“Rachel weeping for her children…” – Reflections of Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff not only laments the horror of the massacre of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem

2000 years ago, but the tragedy of the continued holocaust of children within their mother’s womb that occurs

today. He reflects on the passage from Revelation which recounts the hatred the devil has for the womb of the woman: The enemy HATES life. Msgr. Esseff reminds us of the VICTORY of Christ and discusses the forgiveness and hope found with God. He shares the stories of two seperate women named Maria, both of whom touched his life and who can help show us the way.

“Allow God to gaze upon you” – Reflections from Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff shares some of his challenges, and yet, through it all God has been his strength. Allow God to gaze upon you. Ask the Father when He has found delight in you. Rest

with that. He shares a story of when he was a young boy, 10 cents, and the meaning of Christmas.

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

IP#128 Brandon Vogt – The Church and New Media on Inside the Pages

“The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet” is a must have for anyone who ventures on the internet. Brandon Vogt offers us a fascinating exploration of the many aspects of New Media; opening our eyes to the exciting opportunities and many of the dangers which occupy those who travel the “digital sea”.

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“The Church and New Media is the best kind of reading: timely, vivid and rich in valuable information. For anyone seeking to understand and use today’s new technologies in advancing the Catholic faith, this book is an unsurpassed resource.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput,Archbishop of Philadelphia

Be sure to visit Brandon’s website: The Thin Veil

ST13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

Episode 13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

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Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion forscripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.

Episode 13 – Sharon and Bruce discuss “Doubting Thomas”. John Chapter 20. Why Thomas was allowed to touch Jesus and Mary Magdalene was not. The significance of the actual wound in Jesus’ side and implications for the Church. Why this interaction between Jesus and Thomas is more important than what we think. What is ahead for Thomas, but also what is ahead for the Body of Christ.

“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net