Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts Archives

IP#219 Fr. Kenneth Baker S.J. – The Will of God on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

“The Will of God: Finding and Fulfilling Your Purpose in Life” is a great book which uses the great Psalm 119 to help us in the area of discernment. Taking a lifetime of steeped in prayer and sound theology, Fr. Baker gives us a unique and penetrating resource to aid in our growth in the areas of contemplation and discernment. Father Baker was the editor of Homiletic & Pastoral Review for more than 40 years, and currently serves as Editor Emeritus of the online edition. He was a joy to talk with and to learn from….not to be missed for the discerning heart!

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You can find the book here

“Father Baker helps us to discover God’s will and, what is even more, important how to live God’s will! He uses the Holy Scriptures,the teaching of the Church and the saints to help us become holy and transformed into the saints that God created us to be. Read this book and discover what God wants you to do!” —Fr. Larry Richards, Author, Be a Man!

RN17 – Regnum Novum – Bl. Paul VI – Gaudium et Spes, Humane Vitae, and the Declaration on Religious Freedom

Episode 17- Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez – Bl. 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.

MIL#2 – “Mystery of Personal Loving Communion” – Marriage in the Lord w/ Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

Episode 2 -Marriage in the Lord with Deacon James Keating –
Deacon James Keating, PhD, explores the theological and spiritual meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a touchstone, Deacon Keating challenges listeners to go to the depths of what it means to be married in the Lord.

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From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2331 “God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.”¹¹⁵

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Marriage in the Lord”

For other episodes in this series visit here

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

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Marriage in the Lord” ,it is one of the best audio sets on the Sacrament of Marriage…ever!

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

USCCA16 – Confirmation: Consecrated for Mission – U. S. Catholic Catechism for Adults w/ Arch. George Lucas

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USCCA16- Episode 16- Confirmation: Consecrated for Mission

Archbishop Lucas offers insights on the US Catholic Catechism for Adults Chapter 16:

“When we are responsive to the grace of Confirmation and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we begin to bear the fruits of the Spirit. The tradition of the Church names twelve fruit is of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity”

The Most Reverend George J. Lucas leads the Archdiocese of Omaha.

For other episodes in the visit our Archbishop George Lucas page

This programs is based on:

More information can be found here.

We wish to thank the USCCB for the permissions granted for use of relevant material used in this series.
Also we wish to thank Omar Gutierrez, Teresa Monaghen, and Bruce McGregor for their vocal talents in this episode.

Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady … In Conversation with the late Fr. Joseph Langford

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There are endless collections of reflections on the life, teachings, and works of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta…all wonderful and worth exploration. One however stands out for me, and that is the writings of the late Fr. Joseph Langford, co-founder with Mother Teresa of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. In particular, “Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady”

Join Bruce and I as we talk with Fr. Langford about Mother Teresa and Our Lady

“Stay very close to Our Lady. If you do this, you can do great things for God and the good of people.” –Mother Teresa of Calcutta

As it was for Mother Teresa, so it can be for the rest of us. By standing close to Our Lady we can find the grace and courage to overcome our own personal trials and crosses. Summon the same powerful presence and aid of Our Lady by following the example of Mother Teresa. From dawn to dusk, decade to decade, Mother Teresa’s life had been spent, in every sense of the word, in the shadow of Our Lady. Our Lady helps us, as Mother Teresa found in her vision, to become contemplatives at the foot of the cross–to discover God’s presence and love, even in the midst of our trials and dark nights. Nothing was impossible for Mother Teresa while she clung to Our Lady, and as Mother Teresa tells us, “nothing is impossible for all who call Mary mother.”

“Sitting with Mother Teresa, watching her tend to the sick and the dying, feeling the aura of holiness around her person, seeing her bent in prayer, lost in God–how often I asked myself if I was not seeing something of Our Lady, experiencing a glimpse of the Virgin of Nazareth” –-Author and co-founder of Mother Teresa’s priests’ community, Joseph Langford, MC

This is a very special book, check it out!

Episode 16 – St. John XXIII and Pacem in Terras (Peace on Earth) and an understanding of the Natural Law – Regnum Novum

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Episode 16 – Regnum Novum: Bringing forth the New Evangelization through Catholic Social Teaching with Omar Gutierrez – St. John XXIII , Pacem in Terras (Peace on Earth) and the Natural Law

Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) was a papal encyclical issued by Pope John XXIII on 11 April 1963.

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

Day 6 Novena to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

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Sixth Day – True Love is Surrender

Thought for the day:
“Allow God to use you without consulting you.”

Ask for the grace to surrender your whole life to God.

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

MIL#1 “The Intimate Partnership” – Marriage in the Lord w/ Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

Episode 1 -Marriage in the Lord with Deacon James Keating –
Deacon James Keating, PhD, explores the theological and spiritual meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a touchstone, Deacon Keating challenges listeners to go to the depths of what it means to be married in the Lord.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:00 — 25.6MB) | Embed

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2364 The married couple forms “the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent.” Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

For other episodes in this series visit here

Marriage-in-the-Lord For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for oth er material availabl IPF_logo-small e by Deacon Keating, just click here

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Marriage in the Lord” ,it is one of the best audio sets on the Sacrament of Marriage…ever!

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

USCCA15 – Baptism: Becoming a Christian – U. S. Catholic Catechism for Adults w/ Arch. George Lucas

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USCCA15- Episode 15 – Baptism: Becoming a Christian

Archbishop Lucas offers insights on the US Catholic Catechism for Adults Chapter 15:

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5). Christ commanded his disciples to preach the Gospel, draw people to faith in him, and baptize those who come to conversion. The Church does not neglect the mission she has received form Christ to ensure that all be baptized and reborn of water and the Spirit.

The Most Reverend George J. Lucas leads the Archdiocese of Omaha.

For other episodes in the visit our Archbishop George Lucas page

This programs is based on:

More information can be found here.

We wish to thank the USCCB for the permissions granted for use of relevant material used in this series.
Also we wish to thank Deacon Chuck Adams for his vocal talents in this episode.

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

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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.