Chapter 3 – The School of Love – How to Pray with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Chapter 3 – The School of Love

“Repent and be baptized every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Saint Peter (Acts 2:38)

Most people give up before they have started because they think that distractions make prayer impossible. The truth is we would never learn to pray without them. Each time we turn away from a distraction to turn back to God, we perform an act of selflessness and a habit of selflessness is gradually formed.

You can find the book here.

This little book How to Pray – A Practical Guide to the Spiritual life by David Torkington, was published by Our Sunday Visitor. It was written for those prepared to restructure their daily lives to make time for the prayer where they can be transformed by the love that only God can give.

In the foreword to this new book from OSV, “How to Pray: A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life,” Sister Wendy Beckett wrote,

“There are no hideaways here, no excuses, but no alarming demands, either. Instead, Torkington seeks only to show us the truth, that truth that sets us free and convinces us that the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden light. All we need is to understand and to choose. This book offers us the help we need to understand, and then the choice is ours.”⁠

This is not your standard “prayer book” – it is not a compilation of Catholic prayers for you to just read. Rather, this is a series of 40 reflections on prayer intended to open you up to the transformation that is possible through prayer, through the love that God can give us through prayer.⁠

Endorsement

“From here to eternity! For those drawn to contemplative prayer, David Torkington offers compelling clarity and common sense. Gentle kindness guides his practical counsel, and he is careful to help us see the solid principles in which he roots his insights. An authentic and reliable guard against counterfeits, his wisdom points to the heights and grounded-ness of the Catholic mystical tradition at a time when it is most needed.”

Dr. Anthony Lilles, STD: Associate Professor and Academic Dean of St John’s Seminary in Camarillo, as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the diocese 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.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

The author of the popular Peter Calvay series, his books include Wisdom from the Western Isles, Wisdom from Franciscan Italy, Wisdom from the Christian Mystics, Prayer Made Simple (CTS), and How to Pray by Our Sunday Visitor. His books have been translated into 13 different languages.

What it means to “put on Christ” – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff Discerning Hearts podcast

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians Chapter 4 v. 20 -24:

22 Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. – RCVCE

Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton. He was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey, D.D. at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, PA. Msgr. Esseff served as a retreat director and confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. 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 St. Pope John Paul II to bring the Good News to the world especially to the poor. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops, priests and sisters and seminarians, and other religious leaders around the world.

SP3 – Leaves Fall But They Do Not Die – In Search of the Still Point with Dr. Regis Martin – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 3 – Leaves fall but they do not die…

Discerning Hearts is honored to host the reflections of Dr. Regis Martin. Filled with profound insights, wisdom, and joy, he is one of the most trustworthy guides one can have on the spiritual journey.

For years Regis Martin, STD, has been regaling audiences about the mysteries of God and Church, most especially his students at Franciscan University of Steubenville where he teaches theology. Author of half-dozen or more books, including The Suffering of Love (Ignatius, 2006), The Last Things (Ignatius Press, 2011), Still Point (Ave Maria, 2012), The Beggar’s Banquet (Emmaus Road, 2012), Witness to Wonder (Emmaus Road, 2017) his work frequently appears in Crises and The Catholic Thing.

Chapter 2 – The Little Back Room – How to Pray with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Chapter 2 – The Little Back Room

We should keep for ourselves a little back room, all our own, untouched by others, in which we establish our true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude. Montaigne

It is time to start again by setting up that little back room so that we can retire into it every morning and evening to find there the inner freedom to receive and experience the love that inspired Jesus and transformed everything he did, enabling us to love those we already love more deeply, and even those we have never loved before.

You can find the book here.

In the foreword to this new book from OSV, “How to Pray: A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life,” Sister Wendy Beckett wrote,

Endorsement

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

SP2 – Love and Forgiveness – In Search of the Still Point with Dr. Regis Martin – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 2 – Love and Forgiveness…

Chapter 1 – Transforming Love – How to Pray with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Chapter 1 – Transforming Love

There is only one way to perfection and that is to pray; if anyone points in another direction then they are deceiving you. Saint Teresa of Avila

Prayer is the place where we freely choose to receive God’s love despite the unwanted thoughts, fantasies, and daydreams that try to distract us from receiving it. It is by daily trying to raise the mind and heart to God in prayer, that God gives us the only love that can transform us into the image and likeness of Jesus.

You can find the book here.

In the foreword to this new book from OSV, “How to Pray: A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life,” Sister Wendy Beckett wrote,

Endorsement

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

SP1 – Prologue to the Still Point – In Search of the Still Point with Dr. Regis Martin – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Episode 1 – Prologue to the Still Point…

Introduction – How to Pray with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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Introduction

“Although people go on crying out for solutions they become angry when they are told that the restoration of society must come from within and not from without.” Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful

The message is so simple that it needs the simplicity of the child to see what cynics can only scoff at. We are not helpless; we can do something to combat the evil that we see in the world around us if we are only prepared to go like Saint Catherine into the inner room.

You can find the book here.

In the foreword to this new book from OSV, “How to Pray: A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life,” Sister Wendy Beckett wrote,

Endorsement

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.

DC37 St. Catherine of Siena pt 2 – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom w/ Dr. Matthew Bunson

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Dr. Matthew Bunson discusses the life, times and teachings of St. Catherine of Siena

Born: March 17, 1347, Siena, Italy
Nationality: Italian

From Vatican.va, an excerpt from the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI

From the General Audience on St. Catherine of Siena

A true and authentic spiritual family was built up around such a strong and genuine personality; people fascinated by the moral authority of this young woman with a most exalted lifestyle were at times also impressed by the mystical phenomena they witnessed, such as her frequent ecstasies. Many put themselves at Catherine’s service and above all considered it a privilege to receive spiritual guidance from her. They called her “mother” because, as her spiritual children, they drew spiritual nourishment from her. Today too the Church receives great benefit from the exercise of spiritual motherhood by so many women, lay and consecrated, who nourish souls with thoughts of God, who strengthen the people’s faith and direct Christian life towards ever loftier peaks. “Son, I say to you and call you”, Catherine wrote to one of her spiritual sons, Giovanni Sabbatini, a Carthusian, “inasmuch as I give birth to you in continuous prayers and desire in the presence of God, just as a mother gives birth to a son” (Epistolario, Lettera n. 141: To Fr Giovanni de’ Sabbatini). She would usually address the Dominican Fr Bartolomeo de Dominici with these words: “Most beloved and very dear brother and son in Christ sweet Jesus”.

Another trait of Catherine’s spirituality is linked to the gift of tears. They express an exquisite, profound sensitivity, a capacity for being moved and for tenderness. Many Saints have had the gift of tears, renewing the emotion of Jesus himself who did not hold back or hide his tears at the tomb of his friend Lazarus and at the grief of Mary and Martha or at the sight of Jerusalem during his last days on this earth. According to Catherine, the tears of Saints are mingled with the blood of Christ, of which she spoke in vibrant tones and with symbolic images that were very effective: “Remember Christ crucified, God and man….. Make your aim the Crucified Christ, hide in the wounds of the Crucified Christ and drown in the blood of the Crucified Christ” (Epistolario, Lettera n. 21: Ad uno il cui nome si tace [to one who remains anonymous]). Here we can understand why, despite her awareness of the human shortcomings of priests, Catherine always felt very great reverence for them: through the sacraments and the word they dispense the saving power of Christ’s Blood. The Sienese Saint always invited the sacred ministers, including the Pope whom she called “sweet Christ on earth”, to be faithful to their responsibilities, motivated always and only by her profound and constant love of the Church. She said before she died: “in leaving my body, truly I have consumed and given my life in the Church and for the Holy Church, which is for me a most unique grace” (Raimondo da Capua, S. Caterina da Siena, Legenda maior, n. 363). Hence we learn from St Catherine the most sublime science: to know and love Jesus Christ and his Church. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, she describes Christ, with an unusual image, as a bridge flung between Heaven and earth. This bridge consists of three great stairways constituted by the feet, the side and the mouth of Jesus. Rising by these stairways the soul passes through the three stages of every path to sanctification: detachment from sin, the practice of the virtues and of love, sweet and loving union with God.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn from St Catherine to love Christ and the Church with courage, intensely and sincerely. Therefore let us make our own St Catherine’s words that we read in the Dialogue of Divine Providence at the end of the chapter that speaks of Christ as a bridge: “out of mercy you have washed us in his Blood, out of mercy you have wished to converse with creatures. O crazed with love! It did not suffice for you to take flesh, but you also wished to die!… O mercy! My heart drowns in thinking of you: for no matter where I turn to think, I find only mercy” (chapter 30, pp. 79-80).

For more visit Vatican.va

Dr. Matthew E. Bunson is a Register senior editor and a senior contributor to EWTN News. For the past 20 years, he has been active in the area of Catholic social communications and education, including writing, editing, and teaching on a variety of topics related to Church history, the papacy, the saints, and Catholic culture. He is faculty chair at Catholic Distance University, a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and the author or co-author of over 50 books including The Encyclopedia of Catholic History, The Pope Encyclopedia, We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, The Saints Encyclopedia and best-selling biographies of St. Damien of Molokai and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

Ep 10 – Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit with David Torkington – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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David Torkington, author and narrator of this work

Episode 10 – Learning How To Love

James has returned home and begins in earnest, practicing his newfound life of prayer. However, we find him writing to Peter when he feels his prayer is floundering. Peter explains through their correspondence, that James is now finding himself on the threshold of contemplative prayer, and he encourages James to persevere and describes how he should proceed. This episode finishes many years later when Peter meets James again, but this time in his home in the New Forest. Peter has been giving lectures in London and James expresses his gratitude for his mentor in prayer, who changed the direction of his life completely.

You can find more episodes of the series here: Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Hermit w/ David Torkington page.

You can find the book here.

David Torkington, the author of Wisdom from the Western Isles has re-edited and abridged the work for broadcast; he is also the narrator. The book was published originally as three separate spiritual novels: Peter Calvay – Hermit, Peter Calvay – Prophet and Peter Calvay – Mystic. We begin with the first part, The Hermit but including some passages from Peter Calvay – Mystic so as to give an overall view of the spiritual journey for listeners.

David Torkington is an English Spiritual Theologian, author, and speaker, specializing in Prayer, Christian Spirituality, and Mystical Theology. Educated at the Franciscan Study Centre, England, he served as Dean of Studies at the National Catholic Radio and Television Centre, London. He was an extra-mural lecturer in Mystical Theology at the Angelicum, the Dominican University in Rome, and has received invitations to speak to Religious, Monks, Diocesan Priests, and laypeople from all over the world, including Equatorial Africa, where he gave three prolonged lecture tours speaking on Christian prayer.

Visit his website: www.davidtorkington.com.