Anthony Lilles Archives

BTP-IC29 – Sixth Mansions Chapter 8 – The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles Podcast

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In this episode, Dr. Lilles discusses the Sixth Mansions Chapter 8 of the “Interior Castle” which covers:

SPEAKS OF THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD COMMUNICATES WITH THE SOUL BY INTELLECTUAL VISION AND GIVES ADVICE UPON THE SUBJECT. OF THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THIS VISION WHEN GENUINE. SECRECY ABOUT THESE FAVOURS IS ENJOINED.

1. Our Lord’s presence accompanying the soul. 2. St. Teresa’s experience of this. 3. Confidence and graces resulting from this vision. 4. Its effects. 5. It produces humility. 6. And prepares the soul for other graces. 7. Consciousness of the presence of the saints. 8. Obligations resulting from this grace. 9. Signs that this favour is genuine. 10. A confessor should be consulted. 11. Our Lord will enlighten our advisers. 12. Cautions about this vision.

For the Discerning Hearts audio recording of the “Interior Castle” by St. Teresa of Avila you can visit here

For other audio recordings of various spiritual classics you can visit the Discerning Hearts Spiritual Classics page

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Interior Castle with Dr. Anthony Lilles”

BTP-IC28 – Sixth Mansions Chapter 7 part 3- The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles Podcast

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In this episode, Dr. Lilles discusses the Sixth Mansions Chapter 7 part 3 of the “Interior Castle” which covers:

DESCRIBES THE GRIEF FELT ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR SINS BY SOULS ON WHOM GOD HAS BESTOWED THE BEFORE MENTIONED FAVOURS. SHOWS THAT HOWEVER SPIRITUAL A PERSON MAY BE, IT IS A GREAT ERROR NOT TO KEEP BEFORE OUR MIND THE HUMANITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST AND HIS SACRED PASSION AND LIFE, AS ALSO THE GLORIOUS MOTHER OF GOD AND THE SAINTS. THE BENEFITS GAINED BY SUCH A MEDITATION. THIS CHAPTER IS MOST PROFITABLE.

1. Sorrow for sin felt by souls in the Sixth Mansion. 2. How this sorrow is felt. 3. St. Teresa’s grief for her past sins. 4. Such souls, centered in God, forget self-interest. 5. The remembrance of divine benefits increases contrition. 6. Meditation on our Lord’s Humanity. 7. Warning against discontinuing it. 8. Christ and the saints are models. 9. Meditation of contemplatives. 10. Meditation during aridity. 11. We must search for God when we do not feel His presence. 12. Reasoning and mental prayer. 13. A form of meditation on our Lord’s Life and Passion. 14. Simplicity of contemplatives’ meditation. 15. Souls in every state of prayer should think of the Passion. 16. Need of the example of Christ and the saints. 17. Faith shows us our Lord as both God and Man. 18. St. Teresa’s experience of meditation on the sacred Humanity. 19. Evil of giving up such meditation.

For the Discerning Hearts audio recording of the “Interior Castle” by St. Teresa of Avila you can visit here

For other audio recordings of various spiritual classics you can visit the Discerning Hearts Spiritual Classics page

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Interior Castle with Dr. Anthony Lilles”

BTP-IC27 – Sixth Mansions Chapter 7 part 2 – The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles Podcast

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In this episode, Dr. Lilles discusses the Sixth Mansions Chapter 7 part 2 of the “Interior Castle” which covers:

For the Discerning Hearts audio recording of the “Interior Castle” by St. Teresa of Avila you can visit here

For other audio recordings of various spiritual classics you can visit the Discerning Hearts Spiritual Classics page

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Interior Castle with Dr. Anthony Lilles”

BTP#31 St. Bernard and the 12 Steps to Humility and Pride – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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BTP#31 St. Bernard and the 12 Steps to Humility and Pride – The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints. In this episode, Dr. Lilles begins the discussion on St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his teachings found in “The 12 Steps to Humility and Pride.”

Dr. Lilles offers 4 key points we should keep in mind as we move forward in this series

1. The Search for God
2. Listening to God – Lectio Divina
3. Conversion to God – Conversatio Morum
4. Living with oneself and letting God fashion one into His image

THE TWELVE DEGREES OF HUMILITY

XII. A permanent attitude of bodily; and spiritual prostration.
XI. The speech of a monk should be short, sensible and in a subdued tone.
X. Abstinence from frequent and light laughter.
IX. Reticence, until asked for his opinion.
VIII. Observance of the general rule of the monastery.
VII. Belief in and declaration of one’s inferiority to others.
VI. Admission and acknowledgment of one’s own unworthiness and uselessness.
V. Confession of sins.
IV. Patient endurance of hardship and severity in a spirit of obedience.
III. Obedient submission to superiors.
II. Forbearance to press personal desire.
I. Constant abstinence from sin for fear of God.

THE TWELVE DEGREES OF PRIDE TAKEN DOWNWARDS

I. Curiosity, when a man allows His sight and other senses to stray after things which do not concern him.
II. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk unseasonably joyous and sad.
III. Silly merriment exhibited in too frequent laughter.
IV. Conceit expressed in much talking.
V. Eccentricity attaching exaggerated importance to one’s own conduct.
VI. Self-assertion holding oneself to be more pious than others.
VII. Presumption readiness to undertake anything.
VIII. Defense of wrong-doing.
IX. Unreal confession detected when severe penance is imposed.
X. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren.
XI. Liberty to sin.
XII. Habitual transgression.

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Here is the bibliography that Dr. Lilles spoke of in this episode:

The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints

Saints, other figures, dates and bibliographic information

St. Benedict of Nursia – b. 480 – d. 547.

St. Benedict. The Rule. Edited by Timothy Fry, O.S.B. New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1981, 1998.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux – b. 1090 – d. 1153

St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Selected Works. Trans. G.R. Evans. Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 1987.

Faith Contemplates the Advent Mystery Because He Leads into Captivity All Powers by Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Faith Contemplates the Advent Mystery Because He Leads into Captivity All Powers

From Anthony’s “Beginning to Pray” blog. A reflection from 2014 before the canonization of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity!

Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity helps us open our hearts to the coming of Christ. On the twelfth day of her Last Retreat, she offers a reflection on “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus has come to give us peace through opening up access to the Father’s house.

Whoever sees Christ sees the Father, and to see this love is to find that for which our hearts most long. This seeing, this contemplation, this knowledge is by faith. Here, faith is no mere assent to a body of information but a contemplative reality that seeks the saving truth and savors it. Faith is an encounter with the One whom the truths of our faith bear to us, and we believe what the Church proposes to us because we want to know Him. Whoever has surrendered his personal existence in response to the surpassing totality of love revealed by Christ crucified, this soul has gained access to the Father’s house, the freedom to go to our real spiritual home, the liberty that leads to our true peace.

Blessed Elisabeth sees the peace of Christ through the eyes of Saint Paul. Through the Blood of the Cross, the Lord leads all oppressive “Principalities and Powers” away “as captives, triumphing over them in Himself” (Col 2:15). Without the knowledge of Christ’s love, our dignity is vulnerable to all kinds of dehumanizing forces. But with the surpassing love we know in Christ Jesus, we are free from every form of irrational oppression — indeed, rather than rob of us dignity, the Lord permits all kinds of spiritual hardships only so that we might know the full extent of the greatness He calls us to and makes possible in our lives.

What the Apostle beheld in terms of oppressive cosmic forces, the Mystic of Dijon applies to our psychological powers. Our interior battle with ambiguity and darkness in terms of our own patterns of thought and behavior is part of a cosmic struggle where evil powers attempt to overcome the light. Just as Christ has taken diabolical powers captive, He also takes our psychological powers captive so that the ambiguity and confusion the emerges from them no longer robs us of our dignity as long as we persevere in believing in His love. Her application sees beyond the darkness of our interior frustrations to see the limitlessness of His mercy.

Beholding the unsurpassable love of the Lord, she understood how our limited powers of imagination, emotion, intuition, cognition and volition often hold us back. Without the Word of the Father, these powers subject us to a labyrinth of fears, anxieties, false judgments because they are subject, not to the truth, but to sin and disintegration. Left to their own, the powers of our soul frustrate that peace for which our hearts truly long.

Blessed Elisabeth also knew that Christ has the power to captivate, to hold even our own psychological powers captive. He does not lead our psychological powers by oppression and He is never violent. He attracts. He fascinates. He captivates – because in Him is the fullness of God, in Him all that is good, holy and true about humanity is revealed. His love is that beautiful and she knew this and longed for her friends to see it too. To see this love is to be freed from sin, to be raised up, to be capable of true praise.

Techniques and methods rooted primarily in our own powers lack the freedom to achieve moral rectitude and cannot access the peace of the Father’s house. Instead, Blessed Elisabeth invites us this Advent to allow our hearts to be drawn into a greater silence and solitude. The surpassing love of Christ is known in our weakness, poverty, and thirst. By humbling accepting this poverty of heart, the beatitude of His presence is ours.

Our faith truly accesses God. Instead of attempting spiritual feats of devotion, Blessed Elisabeth invites us to simply surrender to His presence breaking in all around us. To turn our thoughts to His great love is already to lift up our hearts. To waste time thinking on what He has done for us by humbly entering our human poverty, this is already to begin to taste eternity.

He is the light in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome Him. So in the inconvenience and difficult of our poverty and lack of love, He remains, waiting for us so that we, each of us, is awaited by an uncommon love. She invites us to allow ourselves to be captivated: this Word, the Word made flesh, does not disdain humble humanity but cherishes his own birth in its frail freedom.

BTP#33 St. Bernard and “On Loving God” – Beginning to Pray with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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St. Bernard and “On Loving God” – The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints

In this episode Dr. Lilles continues the discussion on St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his teachings found in “On Loving God”.

Dr. Lilles’ continues his discussion on St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Loving God”. Dr. Lilles offers 4 key points we should keep in mind as we move forward in this series

1. The Search for God
2. Listening to God – Lectio Divina
3. Conversion to God – Conversatio Morum
4. Living with oneself and letting God fashion one into His image

Here is the bibliography that Dr. Lilles spoke of in this episode:

The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints

Saints, other figures, dates and bibliographic information

St. Benedict of Nursia – b. 480 – d. 547.

St. Benedict. The Rule. Edited by Timothy Fry, O.S.B. New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1981, 1998

St. Bernard of Clairvaux – b. 1090 – d. 1153

St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Selected Works. Trans. G.R. Evans. Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 1987.

St. Hildegard of Bingen – b. 1098 – d. 1179

St. Hildegard of Bingen. Scivias. Trans. Mother Columba Hart and Joan Bishop. Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 1990.

Erasmus – b. 1469 – d. 1536

St. Ignatius of Loyola – b. 1491 -conversion 1522- d. 1556

St. John of Avila – b. 1499 – d. 1569

St. John of Avila. Audi, filia – Listen, O Daughter. Trans. Joan Frances Gormley. Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 2006.

Melchior Cano – b. 1509 – d. 1560

St. Teresa of Avila – b. 1515 – conversion 1554 – d. 1582

St. Teresa of Avila, Collected Works, Vol. 1. Trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Washington, D.C: ICS, 1987.

St. John of the Cross – b. 1542 – d.1591

St. John of the Cross. The Collected Works. Trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilio Rogriguez, O.C.D. Washington: ICS, 1991.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face – b. 1873 – d. 1897.

St. Therese of Lisieux. Story of a Soul. Trans. John Clarke. Washington: ICS, 1976, 3^rd ed. 1996.

St. Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament b. 1905 – d. 1938.

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Trans. Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 1987, 3rd ed. rev. 2010.

St. John Paul the Great b. 1920 – d. 2005

St. John Paul II. Rich in Mercy, (papal encyclical). Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 1980, new trans. 2010.

St. Hildegard and “Conversatio Morum – the Conversion of Life and the Iron Mountain” – The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints with Dr. Anthony Lilles

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St. Hildegard and “Conversatio Morum – the Conversion of Life” – The Mystery of Faith in the Wisdom of the Saints

Benedictine Spirituality and Lectio Divina…a “way of being”. In part one of this particular teaching, Dr. Lilles discusses the life St. Hildegard of Bingen and her expression of Benedictine teaching, in particular her vision of the “Iron Mountain.”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP#26 “The Face of Christ: Radiance of Mercy and Sign of Hope” Beginning to Pray Special w/ Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Dr. Lilles’ continues his Day of Recollection offered in April 2013.

In an age of great confusion and rejection of God, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elisabeth of the Trinity and St. John Paul II find in Christ the reason for our hope. Starting with St. Therese’s devotion to the Holy Face expressed in living her life as an offering to merciful love, we will see how the pathway she pioneered was followed and further developed in the spiritual missions of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity and St. John Paul II. In particular, we will contemplate the relationship of mercy and hope that the Face of Christ helps us to see when hope and mercy are most needed so that we too can follow the path of mercy.

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. After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, he completed licentiate and doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2012, he published Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: a theological contemplation of prayer by Discerning Hearts. He is the author of the “Beginning to Pray”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP#25 “The Face of the Bridegroom: Source of Mystical Prayer” Beginning to Pray Special w/ Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Dr. Lilles’ continues his Day of Recollection offered in April 2013.

The renewal of mental prayer in 16th Century Spain is characterized by a rediscovery of the face of Christ in contemplation. Using passages from her life, we will consider how St. Teresa’s contemplation of the face of Christ developed during her conversion. We will compare this with the way St. John of the Cross pondered the face of Christ in the Spiritual Canticle. These saints help us see the mysterious Face of Christ, hidden in suffering and reflected in the secret of our faith, as the threshold and source for mystical prayer.

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

BTP#24 “Gazing on the Face of Christ with the Saints” Beginning to Pray Special w/ Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Dr. Lilles continues his Day of Recollection offered in April 2013.

Here is the continuation of the first presentation which focuses on the Mystical Saints who can help us to gaze on the Face of Christ:

Anthony will introduce the saints who will guide us through our reflections: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elisabeth of the Trinity and St. John Paul II. He also answers questions about methods of prayers, teaching others to pray, and how can one help restore the sense of the sacred to the mass and Eucharistic adoration.

St. John of the Cross

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

St. John Paul II

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 Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity. After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, he completed licentiate and doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2012, he published Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: a theological contemplation of prayer by Discerning Hearts. He is the author of the “Beginning to Pray”

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles