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BKLSpecial– The Canonization of St. Teresa of Calcutta – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff

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Join Msgr. John Esseff as he reflects on his experiences with Mother Teresa on the eve of her canonization! Several of the stories he has not shared on any of his previous programs.

Rather than be “admirers” of Mother Teresa, Msgr. Esseff asks all of us to pray to become “imitators” of this little one of God’s children who has now become one of His great saints!

Carrier of God’s Tender Love and Mercy

Lord Jesus, merciful Face of the Father, you came to give us the Good News of the Father’s mercy and tenderness.

We thank you for the gift of our dearest Mother, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who will be canonized in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. You chose her to be your presence, your love and compassion to the brokenhearted, the unwanted, the abandoned and the dying. She responded wholeheartedly to your cry, ‘I Thirst,’ by the holiness of her life and humble works of love to the poorest of the poor.

We pray, through her intercession, for the grace to experience your merciful love and share it in our own families, communities and with all our suffering brothers and sisters. Help us to give our “hearts to love and hands to serve” after the example of Mother Teresa. Lord Jesus, bless every member of our family, our parish, our diocese, our country, especially those most in need, that we all may be transformed by your merciful love. Amen.

Text © Mother Teresa Center of the Missionaries of Charity

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 byvisiting here

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building a Kingdom of Love”

BKL#48 – ” God is All!!!!” – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff

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Show 48 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” – “God is All!!!”

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on the teaching of Jesus:

Gospel LK 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord replied,
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'”

To obtain a copy of Msgr. Esseff’s book byvisiting here

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building a Kingdom of Love”

Day 8 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Novena

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Day 8

St. Bernard you have said:

“Many appear full of mildness and sweetness as long as everything goes their own way; but the moment any contradiction or adversity arises, they are in a flame, and begin to rage like a burning mountain. Such people as these are like red-hot coals hidden under ashes. This is not the mildness which Our Lord undertook to teach us in order to make us like unto Himself.”

“If anyone makes himself his own master in the spiritual life, he makes himself scholar to a fool.”

St. Bernard you have given us this prayer and with you, we pray:

(The Memorare)

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

O God, who made of the Abbot Saint Bernard
a man consumed with zeal for your house
and a light shining and burning in your Church,
grant, through his intercession,
that we may be on fire with the same spirit
and walk always as children of light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The music chant used within this prayer is an excerpt from “Missa pro defunctis – VI. Offertorium” by Giammatteo Asola preformed by Papalin under creative common license

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

Day 7 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Novena

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Day 7

St. Bernard you have said:

“It was love that motivated His self-emptying, that led Him to become a little lower than angels, to be subject to parents, to bow His head beneath the Baptist’s hands, to endure the weakness of the flesh, and to submit to death even upon the cross”

St. Bernard you have given us this prayer and with you, we pray:

(The Memorare)

The music chant used within this prayer is an excerpt from “Missa pro defunctis – VI. Offertorium” by Giammatteo Asola preformed by Papalin under creative common license

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

Day 6 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Novena

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Day 6

St. Bernard you have said:

“Let no one believe that he has received the divine kiss, if he knows the truth without loving it or loves it without understanding it. But blessed is that kiss whereby not only is God recognized but also the Father is loved; for there is never full knowledge without perfect love.”

St. Bernard you have given us this prayer and with you, we pray:

(The Memorare)

The music chant used within this prayer is an excerpt from “Missa pro defunctis – VI. Offertorium” by Giammatteo Asola preformed by Papalin under creative common license

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Fr. Mark Cyza – Discerning Hearts

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Join Bruce and I as we discuss the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the wonderful Fr. Mark Cyza.

From Pope Benedict XVI 2005 found at vatican.va:

I am also thinking of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we recently published, in which the Word of God is applied to our lives and the reality of our lives interpreted; it helps us enter into the great “temple” of God’s Word, to learn to love it and, like Mary, to be penetrated by this Word.

Thus, life becomes luminous and we have the basic criterion with which to judge; at the same time, we receive goodness and strength.

Mary is taken up body and soul into the glory of Heaven, and with God and in God she is Queen of Heaven and earth. And is she really so remote from us?

The contrary is true. Precisely because she is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us.

While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually, “within” all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a “mother” to whom we can turn at every moment.

She always listens to us, she is always close to us, and being Mother of the Son, participates in the power of the Son and in his goodness. We can always entrust the whole of our lives to this Mother, who is not far from any one of us.

On this feast day, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Mother, and let us pray to Mary to help us find the right path every day. Amen.

Day 5 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Novena

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Day 5

St. Bernard you have said:

“Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, Thou fount of life, thou Light of men, From the best bliss that earth imparts We turn unfilled to Thee again. We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still: We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead, And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. O Jesus, ever with us stay, Make all our moments calm and bright; Chase the dark night of sin away, Shed o’er the world Thy holy light.”

St. Bernard you have given us this prayer and with you, we pray:

(The Memorare)

The music chant used within this prayer is an excerpt from “Missa pro defunctis – VI. Offertorium” by Giammatteo Asola preformed by Papalin under creative common license

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

St. Maximilian Kolbe – A Lectio Moment

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St. Maximilian Kolbe from Discerning Hearts on Vimeo.

Day 4 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Novena

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Day 4

St. Bernard you have said:

“Ignorance is brutal, arrogance is devilish. Pride only, the chief of all iniquities, can make us treat gifts as if they were rightful attributes of our nature, and, while receiving benefits, rob our Benefactor of His due glory.”

“Let your prayer for temporal blessings be strictly limited to things absolutely necessary.”

St. Bernard you have given us this prayer and with you, we pray:

(The Memorare)

The music chant used within this prayer is an excerpt from “Missa pro defunctis – VI. Offertorium” by Giammatteo Asola preformed by Papalin under creative common license

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

The Seventh Way – The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic

The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic

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The Seventh Way of Prayer

While praying, he was often seen to reach towards heaven like an arrow which has been shot from a taut bow straight upwards into the sky. He would stand with hands outstretched above his head and joined together, or at times slightly separated as if about to receive something from heaven. One would believe that he was receiving an increase of grace and in this rapture of spirit was asking God for the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the Order he had founded.

He seemed to seek for himself and his brethren something of that transcendent joy which is found in living the beatitudes, praying that each would consider himself truly blessed in extreme poverty, in bitter mourning, in cruel persecutions, in a great hunger and thirst for justice, in anxious mercy towards all. His entreaty was that his children would find their delight in observing the commandments and in the perfect practice of the evangelical counsels. Enraptured, the holy father then appeared to have entered into the Holy of Holies and the Third Heaven. After prayer of this kind he truly seemed to be a prophet, whether in correcting the faulty, in directing others, or in his preaching.

Our holy father did not remain at prayer of this type very long but gradually regained full possession of his faculties. He looked during that time like a person coming from a great distance or like a stranger in this world, as could easily be discerned from his countenance and manner. The brethren would then hear him praying aloud and saying as the prophet: “Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication which I pray to thee, when I lift up my hands to thy holy temple” (Ps. 27:2).

Through his words and holy example he constantly taught the friars to pray in this way, often repeating those phrases from the psalms: “Behold, now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord … in the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord” (Ps. 133:1-3), “I have cried to thee, O Lord, hear me; hearken to my voice when I cry to thee. Let my prayer be directed as incense in they sight; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Ps. 140:1-2). The drawing shows us this mode of prayer so that we may better understand it.

The text was taken from the book St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, edited by Fr. Francis C. Lehner, O.P. The chapter “The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic” was translated by Fr. Andrew Kolzow, O.P.

“The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic” from St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, © 1964 by The Thomist Press.
Nihil obstat: Reverend A. D. Lee, O.P. Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur: Patrick A. O’Boyle Archbishop of Washington
April 29,1964

Gospel LK 17:5-10

For the complete novena visit: The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit: The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit: The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit: The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit: The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic

The Seventh Way of Prayer

The text was taken from the book St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, edited by Fr. Francis C. Lehner, O.P. The chapter “The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic” was translated by Fr. Andrew Kolzow, O.P.

“The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic” from St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, © 1964 by The Thomist Press. Nihil obstat: Reverend A. D. Lee, O.P. Censor Deputatus Imprimatur: Patrick A. O’Boyle Archbishop of Washington April 29,1964

For the complete list visit: The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

For the complete novena visit:
The Nine Day Novena to St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Mp3 audio and Text

“The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic” from St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, © 1964 by The Thomist Press.
Nihil obstat: Reverend A. D. Lee, O.P. Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur: Patrick A. O’Boyle Archbishop of Washington
April 29,1964

For the complete list visit:
The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic