Day 7 Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:28 — 1.3MB) | Embed

Seventh Day – God Loves a Cheerful Giver

Thought for the day:
“Joy is the sign of union with God, of God’s presence. Joy is love, the normal result of a heart burning with love.”

Ask for the grace to find joy in loving and to share this joy with all you meet.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

DC5 St. Basil the Great – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson

Dr. Matthew Bunson discusses the life, times and teachings of St. Basil the Great

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:18 — 19.4MB) | Embed

Born: 330 AD, Kayseri, Turkey

Died: January 1, 379 AD, Kayseri, Turkey

Siblings: Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina the Younger, Theosebia

For more on St. Basil the Great and his teachings

Basil the Great
– De Spiritu Sancto
– Nine Homilies of Hexaemeron – Letters

From Vatican.va, an excerpt from the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI General Audience 2007:

With zeal and courage Basil opposed the heretics who denied that Jesus Christ was God as Father (cf. Basil, Letter 9, 3: PG 32, 272a; Letter 52, 1-3: PG 32, 392b-396a; Adv. Eunomium 1, 20:PG 29, 556c). Likewise, against those who would not accept the divinity of the Holy Spirit, he maintained that the Spirit is also God and “must be equated and glorified with the Father and with the Son (cf. De Spiritu Sancto: SC 17ff., 348). For this reason Basil was one of the great Fathers who formulated the doctrine on the Trinity: the one God, precisely because he is love, is a God in three Persons who form the most profound unity that exists: divine unity.

In his love for Christ and for his Gospel, the great Cappadocian also strove to mend divisions within the Church (cf. Letters, 70, 243), doing his utmost to bring all to convert to Christ and to his word (cf. De Iudicio 4: PG 31, 660b-661a), a unifying force which all believers were bound to obey (cf.ibid. 1-3: PG 31, 653a-656c).

To conclude, Basil spent himself without reserve in faithful service to the Church and in the multiform exercise of the episcopal ministry. In accordance with the programme that he himself drafted, he became an “apostle and minister of Christ, steward of God’s mysteries, herald of the Kingdom, a model and rule of piety, an eye of the Body of the Church, a Pastor of Christ’s sheep, a loving doctor, father and nurse, a cooperator of God, a farmer of God, a builder of God’s temple” (cf. Moralia 80, 11-20: PG 31, 864b-868b).

This is the programme which the holy Bishop consigns to preachers of the Word – in the past as in the present -, a programme which he himself was generously committed to putting into practice. In 379 A.D. Basil, who was not yet 50, returned to God “in the hope of eternal life, through Jesus Christ Our Lord” (De Baptismo, 1, 2, 9).

He was a man who truly lived with his gaze fixed on Christ. He was a man of love for his neighbour. Full of the hope and joy of faith, Basil shows us how to be true Christians.

For more visit Vatican.va

St. Basil the Great Altar at. St. Peter’s in Rome

Dr. Matthew Bunson, Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, is one of the United States’ leading authorities on the papacy and the Church.

His books include: The Encyclopedia of Catholic History; The Encyclopedia of Saints; Papal Wisdom; All Shall Be Well; Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire; and The Angelic Doctor: The Life and World of St. Thomas Aquinas; The Pope Encyclopedia; We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, the first Catholic biography of the Holy Father in the English language; the Encyclopedia of U.S. Catholic History; Pope Francis. His also the editor of OSV’s “The Catholic Answer” magazine.

St. Bridget of Sweden with Teresa Monaghen

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:25 — 46.2MB) | Embed

Once again, Teresa Monaghen brings a saint, who lived over 600 years ago, to vivid life and connects them into our modern day circumstances. St. Bridget of Sweden was an ordinary woman who was open to receiving extraordinary grace because of her great love for Christ. Teresa tells the remarkable story with joy and enthusiasm.

For the 15 prayers of St. Bridget click here

For more on her life and teachings, check out this teaching from Pope Benedict XVI

From the teachings of Blessed Pope John Paul II:

4. The first of these three great figures, Bridget, was born of an aristocratic family in 1303 at Finsta, in the Swedish region of Uppland. She is known above all as a mystic and the foundress of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour. Yet it must not be forgotten that the first part of her life was that of a lay woman happily married to a devout Christian man to whom she bore eight children. In naming her a Co-Patroness of Europe, I would hope that not only those who have received a vocation to the consecrated life but also those called to the ordinary occupations of the life of the laity in the world, and especially to the high and demanding vocation of forming a Christian family, will feel that she is close to them. Without abandoning the comfortable condition of her social status, she and her husband Ulf enjoyed a married life in which conjugal love was joined to intense prayer, the study of Sacred Scripture, mortification and charitable works. Together they founded a small hospital, where they often attended the sick. Bridget was in the habit of serving the poor personally. At the same time, she was appreciated for her gifts as a teacher, which she was able to use when she was required to serve at Court in Stockholm. This experience was the basis of the counsel which she would later give from time to time to princes and rulers concerning the proper fulfilment of their duties. But obviously the first to benefit from these counsels were her children, and it is not by chance that one of her daughters, Catherine, is venerated as a Saint.

But this period of family life was only a first step. The pilgrimage which she made with her husband Ulf to Santiago de Compostela in 1341 symbolically brought this time to a close and prepared her for the new life which began a few years later at the death of her husband. It was then that Bridget recognized the voice of Christ entrusting her with a new mission and guiding her step by step by a series of extraordinary mystical graces.

Read more

Chap 4 & Appendix – The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila – Mp3 audio

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
By
St. Teresa of Avila

Chapter 4 & Appendix

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.2MB) | Embed

For the pdf containing the complete text and footnotes click here

Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and names three things which are important for the spiritual life. Describes the first of these three things, which is love of one’s neighbour, and speaks of the harm which can be done by individual friendships

Appendix

For other audio chapters of
“The Way of Perfection”

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
by
ST. TERESA OF AVILA
Translated & Edited by
E. ALLISON PEERS
from the Critical Editon of
P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.

Chap 6 – The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila – Mp3 audio

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
By
St. Teresa of Avila

Chapter 6

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:34 — 10.6MB) | Embed

For the pdf containing the complete text and footnotes click here

Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun.

For other audio chapters of
“The Way of Perfection”

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
by
ST. TERESA OF AVILA
Translated & Edited by
E. ALLISON PEERS
from the Critical Editon of
P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.

Chap 7 – The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila – Mp3 audio

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
By
St. Teresa of Avila

Chapter 7

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:43 — 15.3MB) | Embed

For the pdf containing the complete text and footnotes click here

Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain counsels for gaining it.

For other audio chapters of
“The Way of Perfection”

THE WAY OF PERFECTION
by
ST. TERESA OF AVILA
Translated & Edited by
E. ALLISON PEERS
from the Critical Editon of
P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.

Sobornost – Catherine Doherty “The falling in love with God”

Catherine Doherty addresses the Eastern Catholic Charismatic Renewal conference in 1979. Her subject is sobornost, a Russian term, translatable as "unity".

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:29 — 5.0MB) | Embed

“Faith is the father of love, faith is the father of hope also, and its in faith, and faith alone, that we can plunge ourselves, like in a warm sea, to swim the strange currents that will come our way.”

On the beginning of unity “…you become a prayer…you contemplate God, because He always contemplates you…see how simple it is?”

To learn more about Catherine Doherty visit www.madonnahouse.org

St. Nicholas, who are you? The Saint and the origin of Santa Claus…In Conversation with Thomas Craughwell

Who is St. Nicholas…it’s a beautiful story of a life that transcends time, becoming a full blown witness to total giving in Charity. St. Nicholas, pray for us who desire and need the authentic understanding and practice of self-giving love.

Here’s the wonderful Thomas Craughwell talking about St. Nicholas and other Saints who are great witnesses to the child in each of us.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:36 — 32.6MB) | Embed

Here is a fantastic site as well on St. Nicholas

St. Jerome, father of the Church (and “the great name-caller”) with Mike Aquilina – Discerning Hearts

Learn more about St. Jerome in our fascinating discussion with Mike Aquilina

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:09 — 27.7MB) | Embed

Spiritual Writings:

– Letters
– The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
– To Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem
– The Dialogue Against the Luciferians
– The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk
– The Life of S. Hilarion
– The Life of Paulus the First Hermit
– Against Jovinianus
– Against Vigilantius
– Against the Pelagians
– Prefaces
– De Viris Illustribus (Illustrious Men)
– Apology for himself against the Books of Rufinus

Prayer to St. Jerome

For Insight

Through your anger and confrontations you remind us that we all have a duty to confront others from time to time. You also remind us that we have a duty to examine ourselves and confront our own weaknesses and harmful behaviours. Your life teaches that I must accept others for who they are. You taught of the danger of self-righteousness; of the importance of reflecting upon one of Jesus’ most insightful teachings: “Let the man who has no sin on his conscience throw the first stone.” In the light of your teachings, Saint Jerome, help me to see my own self clearly. Help me to confront my own biases and to act to change others only out of love. If I see that I have the duty to confront another, I ask you to be with me during those necessary but unpleasant moments of confrontation. Help me to remember that love alone can make changes for the good.
Amen.

The Thunderer

God’s angry man, His crotchety scholar
Was Saint Jerome,

The great name-caller
Who cared not a dime
For the laws of Libel
And in his spare time
Translated the Bible.
Quick to disparage
All joys but learning
Jerome thought marriage
Better than burning;
But didn’t like woman’s
Painted cheeks;
Didn’t like Romans,
Didn’t like Greeks,
Hated Pagans
For their Pagan ways,
Yet doted on Cicero all of his days.

A born reformer, cross and gifted,
He scolded mankind
Sterner than Swift did;
Worked to save
The world from the heathen;
Fled to a cave
For peace to breathe in,
Promptly wherewith
For miles around
He filled the air with
Fury and sound.
In a mighty prose
For Almighty ends,
He thrust at his foes,
Quarreled with his friends,
And served his Master,
Though with complaint.
He wasn’t a plaster sort of a saint.

But he swelled men’s minds
With a Christian leaven.
It takes all kinds
To make a heaven

by Phyllis McGinley, from “Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades with Seventy New Poems”, (Pulitzer Prize Winner).

BKL#67 – Pentecost Sunday – Be Not Afraid!!! Peace Be With You!!! – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff

BKL 67 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” – Pentecost Sunday – Be Not Afraid!!! Peace Be With You!!!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:54 — 25.6MB) | Embed

Gospel JN 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton. He was ordained on May 30th 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 Blessed Mother Teresa. 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 Bl. 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 continues to serve 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. To obtain a copy of Msgr. Esseff’s book by visiting here Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building a Kingdom of Love”