Fr. Eamonn Bourke Archives

HP6 – Prayer and Healing from Sin – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP6 – Prayer and Healing from Sin – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor explore the why, how, and what of “prayer”. In this episode, they explore the healing power of prayer against sin and the role the Holy Spirit plays in it as well.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Speaker 1 Remember, Sin has damaged us. It’s damaged our beauty. It’s damaged the way we look at ourselves, the way we view the world, our relationships with each other, and God will never do any damage to us. That’s one thing to remember. So when He heals us, He heals us the most precious, beautiful and loving and gentle way, and slowly but surely reveals that dignity to us in a really profound way,. That’s why, I suppose for some, sins that are particularly invasive or addictive, that’s why we need to come to confession regularly,. Because God will never, as I said, force us to do anything, but He gently leading us and that the damage that is overcome is overcome sometimes gently, so it’s just never give up because “Oh, I went to confession and I did grand for a couple of days and then I fell into temptation again. I’m the worst person in the world.”

No, you just pick yourself back up with God’s grace. Allow God to pick you up and you go back to Him and you ask Him for his grace about that gentle, loving, merciful, healing will eventually, in your life, transform your life. God does not do any violence to us, but gently, lovingly restores our dignity back to its uniqueness.

Confession for me, as a priest, is just an incredible encounter with the merciful Jesus, and one of the examples or the results of a really good, decent confession from someone who really gives their heart to the Lord is often tears, and that freedom of being… Actually I was embarrassed by this and I had no reason to be, because I was encountering the merciful Jesus at a retreat recently for students that were discussing the apparition at Knock, County Mayo in Ireland of Our Lady in the 1850s, and one of the beautiful aspects of the apparition there, which has no words, is the lamb of God present on the altar as a delicate lamb. And I think, really, that’s who we approach in confession, so we’ve no need to be afraid or embarrassed by approaching a lamb, because we’ve got nothing to fear from the gentleness of a lamb, and so we should never be, “I’m too embarrassed, I’m too afraid, I’m too upset, too anxious.”

Never allow that to become a barrier, because we’re approaching the lamb of God who wants to take away the sins of the world, and not just the sins of the world, our sin as well.

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland, and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

⇨For more episodes in the series visit: The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

HP5 – Prayer and Confession – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP5 – Prayer and Confession – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor explore the why, how, and what of “prayer”. In this episode, they explore the sacrament of confession in conjunction with prayer. They discuss how confession can affect and even strengthen our prayer life.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

We’re living in a world of temptation. We’re living in a world of distraction. We’re living in a world that doesn’t want to delay gratification and wants everything today and now. And we want our own way and we want things to go the way we want them to go. And our plans to unfold the way we want them to go. So we’re bogged down at times in our own sinfulness. And especially when our sin, maybe, has accumulated from lack of confession. Particularly because confession, probably universally, has lessened and especially attendance has. So, if people haven’t been going to confession regularly and the sin mounts opened their life, they can actually feel themselves to be in a state of being unloved and unlovable. Like, “how could God love me now, after all that I’ve done? And why would God be interested in me because of my sinful life?”

And “you know, I’ve done too much damage to my spiritual life that I’ve blown it almost with the Lord“, you know? So, it’s even coming into the recognition that look, nobody, is finished with God’s love. God is love. God can’t stop loving us. That’s just the bottom line. And, especially as we are his children and He sees our pain, He’s actually moved with more compassion than we can imagine. I’m not saying that the greater the sin, the greater compassion, because God has always equally compassionate of all His children, but it means that He definitely does see the extent of our pain and He doesn’t reject us or draw back from us. If anything, He just wants to enter into the mystery of our pain and to heal it and to remove it from our soul, so that we can be free again.

⇨For more episodes in the series visit: The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

HP4 – Prayer and Forgiveness – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP4 – Prayer and Forgiveness – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor explore the why, how, and what of “prayer”. In this episode, they explore the healing nature of prayer. They discuss how the role of forgiveness in our daily prayer.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Okay. One of the things that often kind of holds people back is their own sinfulness, and sinfulness can be quite embarrassing in life. You know where they say that things that happen in secret, in the dark places, we often don’t want to see in the light. You know? And our own broken sinfulness can make us blush at times and can cause us to step back from prayer and step back from God and say, “Well, God’s not interested in me.” I just want you to know that there is nothing that you can’t share with God. There is no weakness, brokenness, sinfulness that can’t be shared with him, because he is not going to judge us in prayer. He’s going to just love us in prayer.

So whatever is holding you back, whatever is causing you to step away from prayer, that’s what you need to bring to God in prayer. So don’t let there be any barriers between yourself and God or any secrets between yourself and God. And if you can share the secrets, the wounded, broken, embarrassing secrets of our life with God in prayer, then your life is at rights. You know? You have nothing to fear, so don’t hold back. Start today.

⇨For more episodes in the series visit: The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

HP3 – The Healing Nature of Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP3 – The Healing Nature of Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer”. In this episode, they explore the healing nature of prayer. They examine the many wounds we can bring to our prayer and the Father’s great desire to heal our pain.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Kris McGregor

Prayer requires a soul to be vulnerable in order to ask the Lord to help enlighten you about areas that He sees that we’re kind of closing our eye. It’s not something that we’re maybe intentionally doing, but again, just asking the Lord, “Okay, help me. Help me to see what you see to help me to understand how you understand me.”

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Oh, I think so. I think even making that prayer your own. Like, “Lord, help me to see myself as you see me.” Because one thing we can become used to our sin and our brokenness that we don’t even notice that it’s having an effect in our lives and our sinfulness can really affect the way we live our life each and every day. We can sometimes get used to, I go out to meet my friends, I can be a bit ratty and a bit snappy or that kind sort of actually look, that’s me. Or I should be making a cup of tea for someone doing a job, but look, I’m used to my own kind of comfort and that kind of stuff. Or I really find it hard to stand up in front of people and talk and like that’s just me. I can’t do that because no one will want to hear me or whatever it is that we’re really grappling with.

Honesty around that helps us to recognize, “Well, actually, Lord, what’s stopping me from doing this? What’s the blockage that’s in my life that’s causing me to maybe think of myself or to wallow in self-pity or to think of myself before others. Like what’s broken and wounded in myself that’s causing me to act in this way? Because I really want to be a generous person. I want to be a loving person. I want to be a person of joy and hope in the world, but there’s something holding me back and I’m just not really sure what’s holding me back. So please enlighten me to the area of my life that’s causing me to be weighed down so that I can allow you in to heal.”

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

⇨For more episodes in the series visit : The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

HP2 – Creating Space for Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP2 – Creating Space for Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer”. In this episode, they explore a creating space for prayer. They also reflect on the witness of Servant of God Dorothy Day.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Absolutely God constantly speaks to the human heart at certain times. Do we stop and listen that God is always prompting us? God will never give up on us. Always drawing us back to life and to love. And sometimes if we can just allow his presence in, he can inspire greatness in the midst of a kind of mediocre in our life. You know, when things are just sometimes even a mess, you know, but he will never give up on us. So if you are listening today and you think that God has given up on you or that there is no hope for me or I can’t, this, what we’re talking about here is for somebody else or it’s for the theologians, for the, the Saint, spirituality and, and holiness and sainthood is open for all of us and God is constantly calling us so we can become holy in the midst of all wherever your family life is, or your work life is, or your school life is that her called a holiness there.

And he called Doorothy Day into something incredible. And she had the courage to stop herself and say, okay, I’m not sure what this is, but I’m want to go with it. And one thing I often think of people , especially young people. I think they’re often afraid to enter into the misre prayer or to enter into holiness or enter into the spiritual life because they feel they’re gonna miss out on something or it’s gonna cramp prompt their style, or, you know, they’re going to look foolish among their friends and that kind of stuff, but actually God never takes away. He always gives. So when we enter into the mystery prayer, we don’t lose anything, we actually gain an abundance. So if you can realize that we have nothing to lose by stilling ourselves and entering to the mystery of prayer because God wants to give us the kingdom abundance more than we can ask or imagine.

What I love about Dorothy Day is her spirituality and her faithfulness brought her to recognize God, not just in herself, but in the people around her and even in people that other people had written off. I love this story where the elderly man had gone to live in the home that they’d set up in a, his language wasn’t particularly, um, suitable for children. If you know what I mean, and he was a bit abusive and that kind of, and people were saying, no, you must throw this man out on the street. He’s causing problems here. And she didn’t. She said, we must love this man. And it turned out the man was in the early stage of Alzheimer’s. So he was actually struggling mentally, which was causing him to act in this way. But her love and her patience with this man helped him to die with dignity. So she was able to see the presence of God. And I think that’s what happens when we entered to mystery of prayer. We begin to see the presence of God, even in the midst of our problems, even in the midst of the people around us who get on our nerves, even in the midst of the worries of life. But as we know, the world is full of beautiful people and beautiful things as well. So it’s about recognizing that.

⇨For more episodes in the series visit : The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

HP1 – What is Prayer? – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast

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HP1 – What is Prayer? – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke

Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer.” In this episode, they explore the nature of prayer and responding to the call of relationship with God.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

We pick up messages from our upbringing, from our surroundings, from the people around us that robs of our peace and developers of that dignity. No human person is perfect. And the way they relate to us will always be imperfect. And the way we relate to other people will be imperfect. But the beautiful thing is that we have a Father who is perfect and who relates to us in a most perfect and beautiful way, and that who we can relate to. And I suppose the beginning point for me in prayer is really recognizing that which we’re carrying, which is vulnerable and weak, and which is weighing us down. And that’d be the beginning point of our prayer. We often think when we go to pray after like put on a smiling face and my life have to be perfect. And I have to say nice words.

Some of the greatest prayers, the prayer that comes from the heart, and, and even to say to God, look, Lord, I’m a frail and vulnerable person. I I’ve picked up a message in my life that I’m overweight and that, that there’s something wrong with me or I’m too shy or I I’m, I’m no good as a person. This is what I’ve picked up from the world. And I’m, I’m just really sharing that with you this morning and the pain that that brings me and the energy it saps for my life. And it, it makes me look at myself and, um, that’s my gift to you this morning, my frail broken, vulnerable weakness. And I’m offering to you as a gift. And I know you as a perfect loving father can transform this broken, frail, weak part of myself, into something beautiful that handing this gift over to God, God can bring something incredibly beautiful from even the most broken wounded state in life. I’ve complete confidence in this. So in some ways we don’t have to put a perfect face on before God when we pray, because he wants to see us and hear his words and all he wants to, in some ways, the broken, weak, vulnerable, embarrassed parts of our life, the stuff that we’re embarrassed to share with anyone else God has already in there. And he’s literally inviting us in to, to open it up, to share it with him so that he can pour his grace into or hurts.

Kris McGregor:

Another important aspect of the why we should pray to him is that sometimes we carry an anger. There may be something that has made us so darkened, anger that even though it’s red hot, sometimes it’s like red, and yet it may be at a person or at parents or something. But oftentimes when you go even deeper, you’re angry with God. Why should I pray to him? And I’ve prayed and he hasn’t answered me. Or why should I do that? Because he’s only going to punish me if I open myself up to him, that can be a real concern for some can’t it Father.

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Absolutely. It can be a very deep concern for people because as I said, human life is not easy. And we have, uh, problems and trials. We have times of illness, we have times of bereavement and that can affect us on the physical level, on the emotional level. And most importantly, on the spiritual level. And it can create can anger in our hearts. Remember, my, my own mother died this time last year. And even just coming to terms with the grief for loss, I began to realize myself that there was an anger myself towards God,, that he’d taken her and she’d suffered quite a lot in her life. And just realizing that that anger was there was in a self, a beautiful gift that God enlightened me to see that, okay, I am. So what do I do with this anger? I tell God, I’m angry. I can bring this to the God who loves me and I can share it with him. And I can tell God I’m angry with you, or I’m disappointed with you, or I feel, I feel abandoned by you at times, you know, so we can be completely honest with him in this, whatever is really holding us back and that deep anger within ourselves. Often when we’re upset or anxious, we can bury things down and we can, we can try and cover it up and we can try to force it down, but it doesn’t go away. The wound is still there and unless we can really bring it into our, into light and bring it out to God and share it with them, it’s going to become like a festering wound within our hearts. It’s always going to rob of our peace. You know, they always say to error is human and to forgive divine. So the forgiveness is really a gift from God and a grace from God. And if we pray for that gift of being free, to be able to forgive and to allow anger to go, from his heart flows, that beautiful gift of the energy and the grace.