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St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 4 – Discerning Hearts podcast

St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 4

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St. Bonaventure you have said:

I confess before God that what made me love Saint Francis’ way of life so much was that it is exactly like the origin and the perfection of the Church itself, which began first with simple fishermen and afterward developed to include the most illustrious and learned doctors. You find the same thing in the Order of Saint Francis; in this way God reveals that it did not come about through human calculations but through Christ.

Dear St. Bonaventure
Cardinal, Bishop and Doctor of the Church,
you chose a life that embraced mortification and great humiliation.
Choosing to serve those individuals who were rejected and sick you risked illness for yourself.
You made your life a continuous prayer and spent hours meditating on the wounds of Christ.
Please pray for us that we may have a sincere and humble heart.
Pray that we may not lose sight of Jesus’ wounds and thus walk on the straight path to eternal salvation.

All-powerful Father,
may we who celebrate the feast of St. Bonaventure
always benefit from his wisdom
and follow the example of his love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

St. Bonaventure Novena Day 3 – Discerning Hearts podcasts

St. Bonaventure Novena Day 3

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St. Bonaventure you have said:

In beautiful things St. Francis saw Beauty itself, and through His vestiges imprinted on creation he followed his Beloved everywhere, making from all things a ladder by which he could climb up and embrace Him who is utterly desirable. If you desire to know … ask grace, not instruction; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not diligent reading; the Spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness not clarity; not light, but fire that totally inflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections.

St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 2 – Discerning Hearts podcast

St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 2

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St. Bonaventure you have said:

Three things are necessary to everyone regardless of status, sex, or age, i.e., truth of faith which brings understanding; love of Christ which brings compassion; endurance of hope which brings perseverance. No adult is in state of salvation unless he has faithful understanding in his mind, loving compassion in his heart, and enduring perseverance in his actions.

Dear St. Bonaventure
Cardinal, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church,
you chose a life that embraced mortification and great humiliation.
Choosing to serve those individuals who were rejected and sick you risked illness for yourself.
You made your life a continuous prayer and spent hours meditating on the wounds of Christ.
Please pray for us that we may have a sincere and humble heart.
Pray that we may not lose sight of Jesus’ wounds and thus walk on the straight path to eternal salvation.

St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 1 – Discerning Hearts podcast

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St. Bonaventure Novena – Day 1

St. Bonaventure you have said:

The life of God – precisely because God is triune – does not belong to God alone. God who dwells in inaccessible light and eternal glory comes to us in the face of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit. Because of God’s outreach to the creature, God is said to be essentially relational, ecstatic, fecund, alive as passionate love. Divine life is therefore also our life. The heart of the Christian life is to be united with the God of Jesus Christ by means of communion with one another. The doctrine of the Trinity is, ultimately, therefore a teaching not about the abstract nature of God, nor about God in isolation from everything other than God, but a teaching about God’s life with us and our life with each other.

All-powerful Father,
through the intercession of St. Bonaventure
we ask that you hear the intentions we hold in our hearts for this novena
may we always benefit from his wisdom
and follow the example of his love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

For the complete 9-Day St. Bonaventure Novena visit here

St. Benedict Novena – Day 3 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Holy Rule Novena to St. Benedict – Day 3

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

Brothers, the Holy Scripture crys to us saying: “Every one that exalts himself shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted” (Lk 14:11; 18:14). Since, therefore, it says this, it shows us that every exaltation is a kind of pride…

Hence, brethren, if we wish to reach the greatest height of humility, and speedily to arrive at that heavenly exaltation to which ascent is made in the present life by humility, then, mounting by our actions, we must erect the ladder which appeared to Jacob in his dream, by means of which angels were shown to him ascending and descending (cf Gen 28:12). Without a doubt, we understand this ascending and descending to be nothing else but that we descend by pride and ascend by humility. The erected ladder, however, is our life in the present world, which, if the heart is humble, is by the Lord lifted up to heaven. For we say that our body and our soul are the two sides of this ladder; and into these sides the divine calling has inserted various degrees of humility or discipline which we must mount. . (Holy Rule 7)

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbor.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

PoC-14 2nd Tuesday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .In Humility

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask——In what areas of my life do I have the most trouble with pride?

Seek—Pray the Litany of Humility. What parts of the litany do you find it most difficult to say? Take concrete steps to defer to others throughout the day, to die to yourself in little things. For the Litany of Humility, visit here

Knock—

Meditate on Philippians 2:5–11 and pray that God will give you the mind of Christ.

In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus: His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Try to imagine what it was like for Jesus to take upon himself our humanity, with all its limitations. What must it have been like for him to suffer the humiliations of the cross? Now think about your own situation. Are you more like Christ, or our first parents, seeking to “be like God”?

Transform Your Life—Jesus tells his disciples that those who humble themselves will be exalted! Humility is the surest path to real success in the kingdom of God. Pray for humility throughout every day.

For the Litany of Humility, visit here

The author of The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ in Your Life, Michael Dubriuel, passed away in 2009. His wife, author Amy Welborn, has made his book available as a free e-book! We HIGHLY encourage you to download this exceptional work.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-13 2nd Monday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .Those Divided by Sin

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—Whom do I treat as an outsider in God’s kingdom?

Seek—As you go about your daily activities, think about how often you see someone else as “one of them” rather than “one of us.” Of course, people are all unique and different. However, the gospel calls us to break down artificial barriers that prevent us from expressing the unity God desires.

Knock—Meditate on 1 Peter 2:21–24 while holding a crucifix in your hands.

This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put his trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Think of the example of Jesus on the cross. How might you concretely imitate and model your life on Jesus?

Transform Your Life—Make discernment rather than judgment the goal of your life’s decisions. Ask yourself, “What does God want me to do at this moment?” and, “What is God trying to teach me through this?” Strive to be open to his guiding presence. Learn from all whom you meet this day and every day.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-11 1st Saturday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Teaches Us. . .How to Love

The-Cross Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask——Do I allow God to love through me?

Seek—Keep before you the image of Jesus forgiving those who nailed him on the cross and see everyone with whom you come into contact through Christ. Think about how Christ died for those people and how precious they are as children of God, the same God who loves you

Knock—Meditate on 1 John 4:11–12.

My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.

Are there people whom you do not love? Ask God to fill you with his love. What does the Father see in these people that you don’t? Ask God to heal you of any painful scars that you still suffer from what others might have done to you. Ask Jesus to touch his wounds from his crucifixion to your own woundedness, that it may become a source of blessing.

Transform Your Life—Put God first in your life. Realize that you can love your spouse, your children, your friends, and your enemies only to the degree that you keep God first. We tend not to expect others to be perfect if we worship the only One who is perfect.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-10 1st Friday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Teaches Us. . .Reconciliation

The-Cross Steps to Take as You Follow Chris

Ask—Is there anyone I do not love? In what way can I allow the love of Christ to control me?

Seek—Allow the image of the cross of Christ, the price Jesus paid to redeem all creation, to dominate your thoughts when you find yourself growing angry at someone. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to be reconciled to those who have hurt you.

Knock—Meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:14–15.

The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.

What controls you? What motivates you from the moment of your rising to the point when you take your rest at night? Dwelling on Paul’s words, ask the Lord to fill you with his love so that it may be the controlling force in your life.

Transform Your Life—Jesus told his disciples to be reconciled before coming to the altar with their sacrifice. If we carry anger or sin we need to be reconciled to Christ before coming to receive him in the Eucharist. This may mean making contact with people whom we have hurt and asking their forgiveness. We should also go to confession regularly, so that Holy Communion is a true sign of communion with God and all his creatures.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

St. Anthony of the Desert Novena – Day 7 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

St. Anthony of the Desert Novena – Day 7

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Day 7

From the Sayings of St. Anthony of the Desert:

The brothers praised a monk before Abba Anthony. When the monk came to see him, Anthony wanted to know how he would bear insults, and seeing that he could not bear them at all, he said to him, “You are like a village magnificently decorated on the outside, but destroyed from within by robbers.”

A brother said to Abba Anthony, “Pray for me.” The old man said to him, “I will have no mercy on you, nor will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.”

Dear God,

St Anthony of the Desert accepted your call to renounce the world and to love you above all things.
He faithfully served you in the solitude of the desert by fasting, prayer, humility and good works.
In the Sign of the Cross, he triumphed over the devil.
Through his intercession, may we learn to love you better; with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, all our strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
St Anthony, great and powerful saint, intercede for us also for this special request (mention your request).
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen
St. Anthony of the Desert, pray for us.

For the entire 9-Day St. Anthony of the Desert Novena Mp3 audio and Text Page