freedom Archives

FA2 – Fight the Right Battle – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Fight the Right Battle – Episode 2 – Freedom from Anxiety with Sonja Corbitt

Fight the right battle.

You feel like you’re spinning your wheels, laboring till you’re exhausted but seeing little permanent fruit. You’re depressed that certain relationships are a perpetual painful morass. You’re frustrated that the numerous “prescriptions” of faith that you’ve tried are not working. I get it. We expend a lot of energy fighting the wrong battles, and such futility is an underlying cause of anxiety.

This episode explores how to fight the right battle: how to work with the Holy Spirit for lasting peace rather than against Him. Our focus is on temporary relief, while His is on our permanent rest in Him. So we must determine to lean into the difficulties He allows and “suffer creatively,” as St. John of the Cross says.

For other episodes in this series, visit the Discerning Hearts Sonja Corbitt page

Be sure to visit Bible StudyEvangelista webpage at: https://www.biblestudyevangelista.com

LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice.

Listen (Receive the Word.)

Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)

Did a particular relationship or repeating pattern come to mind during this show? What do you need to say to the Holy Spirit about that?

Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.

Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)

Heavenly Father, I ask that Your love flow upon me. May the Blood of Christ cover all wounds and restore all in me to wholeness and life. May the fire from Our Lady’s heart now enter me and anoint everything with the Holy Spirit and blind Satan. May St. Joseph wrap me with blessings and peace, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Click here for a written transcript of this episode.

Visit here for more on Sonja’s “LOVE the Word” journal

Also:

O Clavis David:“O Key of David” – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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O Key of David,

O royal Power of Israel controlling at your will the gate of Heaven:

Come, break down the prison walls of death for those

who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death;

and lead your captive people into freedom.

Isaiah had prophesied, AI will place the Key of the House of David on His shoulder; when he opens, no one will shut, when he shuts, no one will open.” (22:22), and “His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over His kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever.” (9:6).

For greater text and musical credit visit

the Discerning Hearts O Antiphon page

FG#5 Interior Freedom episode 5 – Fountains of Grace with Donna Garrett

FG#5 – Interior Freedom episode 2- Fountains of Grace: reflections on contemporary spiritual classics with Donna Garrett

Join host Donna Garrett, with Fr. Daniel Brandenburg, LC, as they discuss the spiritual classic “Interior Freedom” by Fr. Jacques Philippe a priest of Communaute des Beatitudes, an international association of the faithful of Pontifical Right founded in France in 1973. The members of the Community, which has a contemplative vocation based on Carmelite spirituality, are actively engaged in the service of the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel.

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Discussed in this episode, among other topics, from “Interior Freedom” page 81

Donna Garrett is joined in this particular series by Fr. Daniel Brandenburg, LC

“One of the essential conditions of interior freedom is the ability to live in the present moment. For one thing, it is only then that we can exercise freedom. We have no hold on the past— we can’t change the smallest bit of it. People sometimes try to relive the past events considered failures, (I should have done this.. I should have said that…”) The only free act we can make in regard to the past is to accept it just as it was and leave it trustingly in God’s hands,

We have very little hold on the future either. Despite all our foresight, plans and promises it takes very little to change everything completely. We can’t program life in advance, but can only receive it moment by moment.

All we have is the present moment. Here is the only place where we can make free acts. Only in the present moment are we truly in contact with reality.”

You can find “Interior Freedom” here

FG#8 Interior Freedom episode 8 – Fountains of Grace with Donna Garrett

FG#8- Interior Freedom episode 8 – Fountains of Grace: reflections on contemporary spiritual classics with Donna Garrett

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Discussed in this episode, among other topics, from “Interior Freedom” page 112

“Instead of following the impulses of the Spirit, people give themselves up, under a pretext of freedom, to their passions to selfishness and sin and sin in all its forms: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness carousing and the like. St Paul reminds us of a classic teaching worth repeating in these confused times; licentiousness is not freedom. It s slavery in which people are trapped by what is most superficial in humanity selfish desires, fears weaknesses and so on. We must wage an unceasing fight against the tendencies described by St Paul and must remain permanently open to the healing graces that come from the Cross of Christ. Then we become truly capable of accomplishing good.”

For other episodes in the this series click here “Fountains of Grace w/Donna Garrett”

You can find “Interior Freedom” here

RN-4 – Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez Episode 4

Episode 4 – Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Guiterrez – Value 4 Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love part 1 “Truth and Freedom”

Discerning Hearts is blessed to present Omar F. A. Guiterrez, M.A. , Special Assistant to Archbishop George Lucas of the Archdiocese of Omaha, in a groundbreaking series which breaks open the heart of Catholic Social Doctrine.

We encourage you to visit “Regnum Novum – A New Kingdom: A Revolution” Omar Guiterrez’s blog site

We live at a very special time. The confluence of many things has brought forth the clear need to be able to articulate the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church in a way that is accessible and applicable. This is not to be an effort where high-minded theories are to be bandied about. Rather, this is a time of opportunity wherein we can apply the Social Doctrine to the concrete so as to bring about a New Kingdom, a Revolution. – Omar G. from Regnum Novum

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From episode … 4. Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love part 1 “Truth and Freedom”

These are the four values of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church as they’re enumerated in the Compendium and as they were laid out by, again, Blessed Pope John XXIII in Mater et magistra and Pacem in terris. Without these values, the work of social justice becomes an albatross around our necks. It pulls us down, threatening to poison all the work we do, no matter how well intentioned.

When charity lacks truth, as Pope Benedict XVI states, it can be filled with every whim and agenda and becomes the opposite of itself. Truth is the truth of the fundamental dignity of the human person, a dignity we can only fully appreciate in the encounter with Christ.

A freedom that requires self-destruction is no freedom at all. Authentic freedom is the ability to do what is good, but this requires that we know the truth about the good.

(Justice and Love covered in proceeding episodes)

Also visit Omar’s “Discerning Hearts” page Catholic Social Teaching 101

IP#162 Ruben Quezada – For Greater Glory on Inside the Pages

“For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada The Cristero War and Mexico’s Struggle for Religious Freedom” is meant as a companion book to the film of the same name, but it truly be considered a stand alone in its own right. Ruben Quezada does a fine job of outlining a horrific persecution which occurred just south of our border a little over 80 years ago, yet many of us know little or nothing about. The Mexican government brutally killed men, women and children in an attempt to snuff out the life of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920’s. Bishops and priests were martyred, Churches descrated, along many other atrocities. “Vivo Christo Rey” became the prayer triumphantly proclaimed by the Church Militant…this the story of their fight for religious freedom

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You can find the book here

“For Greater Glory is a top-flight production whose message of the importance of religious freedom has particular resonance for us today.”
— Most Reverend José Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles

“For Greater Glory is ‘must-see’ viewing for all those who care about faith and liberty today.”
— Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus

As you read you’ll discover:

• Who were the Cristeros?
• What drove the Mexican government to ruthlessly persecute Catholics?
• Can a priest “wage war”
• What role did groups like the Knights of Columbus play in this armed resistance?
• Why did thousands of Catholics – priests, religious, lay people – willingly give their lives in the Cristiada?
• What role did the U.S. play in ending this bitter conflict?
• What did the Pope do to support the Church in Mexico?
• Which characters in the movie went on to become Catholic saints and blesseds in real life?
• Why is this dramatic episode of history so little known today?
• What is the lesson of the Cristiada for those struggling for religious freedom today?

The Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots Novena Day 9 – Discerning Hearts

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Click here for the complete text and audio for the Mary, Untier of Knots Novena

Sign of the Cross
Act of Contrition

Nineth day:

Bible reading:

« 14 All of these together gave themselves to constant prayer. With them were some women and also Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers…» and »when the day of Pentecost arrived, all were filled with the Holy Spirit.» (Acts 1:14 and 2:1-4)

Brief Reflection:

Our Father sends the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost , that will feed us in our faith. This is the same faith that with Mary’s maternal help, will remove the bonds that keep us prisoners. With the light of the Holy Spirit we see in meridian clarity which of our anguishes had our spirit trapped. The guidance of Saint Michael the Archangel has always been certain, Saint Gabriel the Archangel will announce my freedom and Saint Michael the Archangel, will protect me from any attack. The Evil one (the serpent), overpowered by the presence of Mary, lies at her feet, made into a useless knot, unable to touch us.

( Brief meditation: meditate with one decade of the Holy Rosary: One Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, One Glory be and the Prayer to “The Virgin Mary untier of Knots”)