Episode 11 “What am I to do?” The Discernment of God’s Will in Everyday Decisions w/Fr. Timothy Gallagher.

In this episode with Fr. Gallagher,  there is a brief summary of the First and Second Mode.  Then Fr. Gallagher breaks open the Third Mode, a Ponderousness of Reasons, also know as the 4 columns.

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Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life:  The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.

For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit  his  website:   frtimothygallagher.org

 

For the other episodes in this series check out Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s “Discerning Hearts” page

 

Episode 11 – Blessed John Henry Newman – The University Sermons

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In this episode Dr. Reno examines Blessed John Henry Newman.  We discuss the substance and influence of the “University Sermons” and in particular sermon #4 “The Usurpations of Reason”

Click here to view Sermon #4

 

“Christian Apologetics with Dr. R. R. Reno” explores numerous facets of faith and reason in the life of the Church and the world. Grounded on the work of giants, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Blessed John Newman,  Blessed John Paul II, G. K. Chesterton, Blaise Pascal and Stephen Barr, Dr. Reno helps us to open our minds to make the journey to our hearts.

R. R. Reno is the editor at First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, and Professor of Theology, currently on leave from Creighton University. His theological work has been published in many academic journals. Essays and opinion pieces on religion, public life, contemporary culture, and current events have appeared in Commentary, and the Washington Post. In Fighting the Noonday Devil Reno suggests that putting ourselves at the disposal of what is real is what trains us for true piety. His other recent books include Genesis: Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible.

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The Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Podcast is a reflection on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings presented by LifeTeen.com and hosted by Mark Hart.

Sunday Readings from the USCCB

Reading 1  WIS 3:1-9

Responsorial Psalm PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6

Reading 2  ROM 5:5-11  or ROM 6:3-9

Gospel JN 6:37-40

 

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine;

 

Show 52 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” –   The Poor/Holy Souls and Purgatory

Purgatory

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Few Catholic doctrines are more disputed than that of purgatory.  And yet, if it is properly understood, we see that purgatory is a gift of God’s mercy. 

Jesus did not come to merely forgive the penalty for our sins, but to cleanse us and make us His new creations.

Revelation 21:27 says, “nothing impure will enter heaven.”  Those of us who die in a state of grace—or are “saved”—and still have selfishness and sin remaining on our souls, must undergo a purification before entrance into heaven is possible.

So purgatory is not a second chance at heaven, but simply a final stage of growing in holiness.

Notice that Jesus in Matthew 12 speaks of sins that will “not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.” ¹Â  And in 1 Corinthians 3, St. Paul writes that on Judgment Day there will be some who “suffer loss… [they will still] be saved, but only as through fire.”²

C.S. Lewis, the famous Anglican Christian writer, believed in purgatory and compared it to the burning sensation of mouthwash after having one’s tooth pulled at the dentist’s office.³

Indeed, while purgatory may involve pain, it will not be without joy, for it is the threshold to the gates of paradise.

1 -  12:32

2 -  3:15

3 -  Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, 107-109.

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In this conversation, we discuss the significance of St. John of the Cross and his relationship with St. Teresa of Avila.  For more information visit our page dedicated to pilgrimage at:  www.pilgrimage.discerninghearts.com 

Five hundred years ago, on March 28, a great mystic, founder, reformer, and doctor of the Church was born.  From March 27 to April 6, 2015 you are invited to join Kris McGregor of Discerning Hearts on a spiritual journey through Holy Week and Easter in the footsteps of Saint Teresa of Avila in Spain.  Fr. Giles Dimock O.P. will serve as Chaplain and Dr. Anthony Lilles will be our spiritual guide for this pilgrimage.

 

 

Episode 2 – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI –  Faith and reason in the life of prayer.  Allowing God to effect our minds, as well as our hearts.  If you let God close you will be free…to let him in so close that God prays in you.  Letting God’s love be the norm of our culture…in the other and in the poor.  The role of silence in prayer and posture of kneeling.

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Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

From  Pope Benedict’s 2nd audience on prayer:

A look at recent history reveals the failure of the predictions of those who, in the age of the Enlightenment, foretold the disappearance of religions and who exalted absolute reason, detached from faith, a reason that was to dispel the shadows of religious dogmatism and was to dissolve the “world of the sacred”, restoring to the human being freedom, dignity and autonomy from God. The experience of the past century, with the tragedy of the two World Wars, disrupted the progress that autonomous reason, man without God, seemed to have been able to guarantee.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “In the act of creation, God calls every being from nothingness into existence…. Even after losing through his sin his likeness to God, man remains an image of his Creator, and retains the desire for the one who calls him into existence. All religions bear witness to man’s essential search for God” (n. 2566). We could say — as I explained in my last Catecheses — that there has been no great civilization, from the most distant epoch to our day, which has not been religious.

For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for other material available by Deacon Keating, just click here

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Communion with Christ” , it is one of the best audio sets on prayer…ever!

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

Episode 22 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran -The Miracles of Jesus (PART 2)

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Episode 22 –

The Miracles of Jesus (part 2)

In this lecture, Sharon illuminates the miracles of Jesus in the most beautiful way.

As we learn this week, Jesus demonstrates dominion over the elements as he calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Arriving on the other side of the sea, Jesus then displays his Lordship over Satan as He heals the Gerasene demoniac, driving a Legion of demons into 2000 swine, who then hurl themselves over a cliff into the sea.

The power of these miracles comes alive in Sharon’s presentation, with Old Testament prophecies jumping off the pages as they are fulfilled one by one.

Yet, in the gentle, quiet healings of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage we learn even more of Christ’s plan of salvation for a new Daughter Zion.

In a conclusion that is both rich in scholarly insight and flowing with pastoral mercy, Sharon brings us to the realization that we only have to reach out to receive the abundant healing that God desires to lavish upon us.

Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.

“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net

Episode 10 “What am I to do?” The Discernment of God’s Will in Everyday Decisions w/Fr. Timothy Gallagher.

In this episode with Fr. Gallagher,  we can continue our conservation on  “The Second Mode” of discernment.  In particular, we discuss the role of the spiritual director.  We then begin discussing “The Third Mode”.

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Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life:  The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.

For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit  his  website:   frtimothygallagher.org

For the other episodes in this series check out Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s “Discerning Hearts” page

 

BKL 78 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” – “How can we possibly love as God expects?  Only “through Him, with Him, in Him!”

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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“

Episode 10 – Blessed John Henry Newman – His life, time and influence

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In this episode Dr. Reno examines Blessed John Henry Newman.  We discuss the significance of his conversion and effect on intellectual and spiritual thought in the 19th century and today.

“Christian Apologetics with Dr. R. R. Reno” explores numerous facets of faith and reason in the life of the Church and the world. Grounded on the work of giants, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Blessed John Newman,  Blessed John Paul II, G. K. Chesterton, Blaise Pascal and Stephen Barr, Dr. Reno helps us to open our minds to make the journey to our hearts.

R. R. Reno is the editor at First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, and Professor of Theology, currently on leave from Creighton University. His theological work has been published in many academic journals. Essays and opinion pieces on religion, public life, contemporary culture, and current events have appeared in Commentary, and the Washington Post. In Fighting the Noonday Devil Reno suggests that putting ourselves at the disposal of what is real is what trains us for true piety. His other recent books include Genesis: Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible.

Episode 1 – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI –   “Life without prayer has no meaning or points of reference”.  The relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit  is so essential to our understanding of prayer.  The meaning of the Church.  Suffering the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the face of God.  Do not be afraid, He will teach you happiness.

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Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

From  Pope Benedict’s 1st audience on prayer:

Human life is a fabric woven of good and of evil, of undeserved suffering and of joy and beauty that spontaneously and irresistibly impel us to ask God for that light and that inner strength which support us on earth and reveal a hope beyond the boundaries of death.

In the examples of prayer of the various cultures which we have considered, we can see a testimony of the religious dimension and of the desire for God engraved on the heart of every human being, which receives fulfilment and full expression in the Old and in the New Testament. The Revelation, is in fact purifying and brings to its fullness man’s original yearning for God, offering to him, in prayer, the possibility of a deeper relationship with the heavenly Father.

At the beginning of our journey in the “school of prayer” let us now ask the Lord to illumine our minds and hearts so that the relationship with him in prayer may be ever more intense, affectionate and constant. Once again, let us say to him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1).

For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for other material available by Deacon Keating, just click here

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Communion with Christ” , it is one of the best audio sets on prayer…ever!

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

Episode 21- Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran -The Miracles of Jesus (PART 1)

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Episode 21 –

The Miracles of Jesus (part 1)

In this lecture, Sharon illuminates the miracles of Jesus in the most beautiful way.

As we learn this week, Jesus demonstrates dominion over the elements as he calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Arriving on the other side of the sea, Jesus then displays his Lordship over Satan as He heals the Gerasene demoniac, driving a Legion of demons into 2000 swine, who then hurl themselves over a cliff into the sea.

The power of these miracles comes alive in Sharon’s presentation, with Old Testament prophecies jumping off the pages as they are fulfilled one by one.

Yet, in the gentle, quiet healings of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage we learn even more of Christ’s plan of salvation for a new Daughter Zion.

In a conclusion that is both rich in scholarly insight and flowing with pastoral mercy, Sharon brings us to the realization that we only have to reach out to receive the abundant healing that God desires to lavish upon us.

Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.

“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net

Episode 17- Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez - Pope Paul VI – Gaudium et Spes, Humane Vitae, and the Declaration on Religious Freedom

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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.

Paul VI  born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (26 September 1897 – 6 August 1978), reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it. He fostered improved ecumenical relations with Orthodox and Protestants, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements.

In this episode we discuss  Gaudium et Spes, Humane Vitae, and the Declaration on Religious Freedom, among other works

 

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

You can find Omar Gutierrez’s book here

In The Urging of Christ’s Love Omar Gutiérrez tells the stories of eleven people who lived their lives in pursuit of Christ Jesus. Each Saint, Blessed or Servant of God is considered in the context of Catholic Social Teaching. Then at the end of each chapter a prayer is offered and quotes from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church are provided in order to link the lessons we can learn from the saint’s life to Church teaching. By discovering some new saint friends, and rediscovering some old ones, The Urging of Christ’s Love presents Catholic Social Teaching in an accessible and important way.

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The Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Podcast is a reflection on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings presented by LifeTeen.com and hosted by Mark Hart.

Sunday Readings from the USCCB

Reading 1  IS 45:1, 4-6

Responsorial Psalm PS 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10

Reading 2  1 THES 1:1-5B

Gospel MT 22:15-21

 

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine;