Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts

Ninth Day – Holiness is Jesus Living and Acting in Me Thought for the day: “Charity for each other is the surest way to great holiness.” Ask for the grace to become a saint. The post Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – Day 9 appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Kris McGregor introduces The Spiritual Journey for the Discerning Heart, a Catholic reflection series offering practical help for recognizing God’s grace, discerning his guidance, and drawing wisdom from Scripture, the saints, and the great spiritual masters of the Church. The post A Great Cloud of Witnesses – The Spiritual Journey for the Discerning Heart Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Born: 540 AD, Rome, Italy Died: March 12, 604 AD, Rome, Italy For more on St. Gregory the Great and his teachings From Vatican.va, an excerpt from the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI General Audience 2008 Today I would like to present the figure of one of the greatest Fathers in the history of the Church, one of four Doctors of the West, Pope St Gregory, who was Bishop of Rome from 590 to 604, and who earned the traditional title of Magnus/the Great. Gregory was truly a great Pope and a great Doctor of the Church! He was born in Rome about 540 into a rich patrician family of the gens Anicia, who were distinguished not only for their noble blood but also for their adherence to the Christian faith and for their service to the Apostolic See. Two Popes came from this family: Felix III (483-492), the great-great grandfather of Gregory, and Agapetus (535-536). The house in which Gregory grew up stood on the Clivus Scauri, surrounded by majestic buildings that attested to the greatness of ancient Rome and the spiritual strength of Christianity. The example of his parents Gordian and Sylvia, both venerated as Saints, and those of his father's sisters, Aemiliana and Tharsilla, who lived in their own home as consecrated virgins following a path of prayer and self-denial, inspired lofty Christian sentiments in him. But the cloistered withdrawal of Gregory did not last long. The precious experience that he gained in civil administration during a period marked by serious problems, the relationships he had had in this post with the Byzantines and the universal respect that he acquired induced Pope Pelagius to appoint him deacon and to send him to Constantinople as his "apocrisarius" - today one would say "Apostolic Nuncio" in order to help overcome the last traces of the Monophysite controversy and above all to obtain the Emperor's support in the effort to check the Lombard invaders. The stay at Constantinople, where he resumed monastic life with a group of monks, was very important for Gregory, since it permitted him to acquire direct experience of the Byzantine world, as well as to approach the problem of the Lombards, who would later put his ability and energy to the test during the years of his Pontificate. After some years he was recalled to Rome by the Pope, who appointed him his secretary. They were difficult years: the continual rain, flooding due to overflowing rivers, the famine that afflicted many regions of Italy as well as Rome. Finally, even the plague broke out, which claimed numerous victims, among whom was also Pope Pelagius II. The clergy, people and senate were unanimous in choosing Gregory as his successor to the See of Peter. He tried to resist, even attempting to flee, but to no avail: finally, he had to yield. The year was 590. The post St. Gregory the Great, pt. 1 – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time - A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart - Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For at least the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart “Jesus, I Trust In You…You Take Over” Become aware that He is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within in your heart... The post Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time – A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time - A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart - Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For at least the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart “Jesus, I Trust In You…You Take Over” Become aware that He is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within in your heart... The post Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time – A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time - A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart - Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For at least the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart “Jesus, I Trust In You…You Take Over” Become aware that He is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within in your heart... The post Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time – A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Fr. Gallagher explains Rule Thirteen of the Discernment of Spirits and how breaking spiritual silence brings freedom. The post The Thirteenth Rule – Discernment of Spirits w/ Fr. Timothy Gallagher – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time - A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart - Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For at least the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart “Jesus, I Trust In You…You Take Over” Become aware that He is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within in your heart... The post Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time – A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Fourth Day – Our Lady Will Help You Thought for the day: “How close we must keep to Our Lady who understood what depth of Divine Love was being revealed as she stood at the foot of the Cross and heard Jesus cry out: ‘I thirst.’” Ask for the grace to learn from Our Lady to quench Jesus’ thirst as she did. 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. The post Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – Day 4 appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Third Day – Hear Him Say to You: “I Thirst” Thought for the day: “Just think! God is thirsting for you and me to come forward to satiate His thirst.” Ask for the grace to understand Jesus’ cry of thirst. The post Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – Day 3 appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

St. Augustine of Hippo (part 2) - From Pope Benedict's audience: After his Baptism, Augustine decided to return to Africa with his friends, with the idea of living a community life of the monastic kind at the service of God. However, while awaiting their departure in Ostia, his mother fell ill unexpectedly and died shortly afterwards, breaking her son's heart. Having returned to his homeland at last, the convert settled in Hippo for the very purpose of founding a monastery. In this city on the African coast he was ordained a priest in 391, despite his reticence, and with a few companions began the monastic life which had long been in his mind, dividing his time between prayer, study and preaching. All he wanted was to be at the service of the truth. He did not feel he had a vocation to pastoral life but realized later that God was calling him to be a pastor among others and thus to offer people the gift of the truth. He was ordained a Bishop in Hippo four years later, in 395. Augustine continued to deepen his study of Scripture and of the texts of the Christian tradition and was an exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral commitment: he preached several times a week to his faithful, supported the poor and orphans, supervised the formation of the clergy and the organization of mens' and womens' monasteries. In short, the former rhetorician asserted himself as one of the most important exponents of Christianity of that time. He was very active in the government of his Diocese - with remarkable, even civil, implications - in the more than 35 years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of Hippo actually exercised a vast influence in his guidance of the Catholic Church in Roman Africa and, more generally, in the Christianity of his time, coping with religious tendencies and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in the one God, rich in mercy. And Augustine entrusted himself to God every day until the very end of his life: smitten by fever, while for almost three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal invaders, the Bishop - his friend Possidius recounts in his Vita Augustini - asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large characters, "and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant hot tears" (31, 2). This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life. He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet 76. We will devote our next encounters to his work, his message and his inner experience. The post St. Augustine of Hippo, Part 2 – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Second Day – Jesus Loves You Thought for the day: “Do not be afraid - you are precious to Jesus. He loves you.” Ask for the grace to be convinced of Jesus’ unconditional and personal love for you. 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. The post Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – Day 2 appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Joseph Pearce explores St. Augustine’s Confessions, his restless search for truth, conversion to Christ, and the faithful prayers of St. Monica. The post GWWL14 – St. Augustine and The Confessions – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.