Spirit Morning Show Archives

Pope St. Leo the Great…father of the church, doctor of the church, and so much more – Discerning Hearts

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross.
No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
– St. Leo the Great

How do you stop a barbarian invader like Attila from sacking your town? Pray, pray, pray…just ask St. Leo the Great.

Take a listen to Mike Aquilina (the “great” son of the Fathers) talk about St. Leo the Great:

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CNA –Pope Leo the Great is the first Pope whose sermons and letters, many of which were on faith and charity, were preserved in extensive collections. He served as pontiff from 440 until his death in 461. His writing on the Incarnation was acclaimed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. –

Prior to his pontificate, Leo was a deacon and active as a peacemaker in the Roman Empire. He is most remembered for having successfully persuaded Attila the Hun not to plunder Rome. He was not as successful during another attack three years later, however. Nevertheless, he managed to save the city from being burnt. He stayed on to help the people rebuild Rome.

He was made a Doctor of the Church in 1754-CNA

This is the chapel/altar area with the tomb of St. Leo in St. Peter’s in Rome. It was restricted to the public for some reason. But I was able to get close, because I went to confession in that area (a very interesting story I’ll share some day).

Here is the “great” painting by Raphael that is in the Vatican Museum of St. Leo imploring Attilia to back off and change his ways (and he did, go figure)

Spiritual Writings –

– Sermons
– Letters

The Feast of the Guardian Angels – Discerning Hearts Podcasts

Angel of God,
My Guardian Dear,
to whom His love commits me here,
ever this day be at my side,
to light and to guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen.

For they are ministering spirits, sent for service, for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Heb 1:14)

O holy Guardian Angel, my dear friend and solicitous guide on the dangerous way of life, to thee be heartfelt thanks for the numberless benefits which have been granted me through thy love and goodness and for the powerful help by which thou hast preserved me from so many dangers and temptations. I beg of thee, let me further experience thy love and thy care. Avert from me all danger, increase in me horror for sin and love for all that is good. Be a counselor and consoler to me in all the affairs of my life, and when my life draws to a close, conduct my soul through the valley of death into the kingdom of eternal peace, so that in eternity we may together praise God and rejoice in His glory. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
O Angel of God, make me worthy of thy tender love, thy celestial companionship and thy never-failing protection!

For He will give His angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. (Ps 91)

The Holy Angels, and in particular our Guardian Angels, are such a wonderful gift to us from the Father! Let us give thanks to Him for his generosity and to our Guardian Angel for their presence in our lives!

It’s really important to understand the difference in the angels beyond all the New Age silliness. There are the Holy Angels (we love them and they love us) and the fallen angels (bad, bad, bad)…it’s what discernment and spiritual warfare, on many levels, are all about.

Bruce and I, thanks to Fr. Damien Cook, had the opportunity to speak to Fr. Titus Kieninger of Opus Sanctorum Angelorum about the role of Holy Angels. Be prepared…you’ll have to listen a couple of times to this discussion; Fr. Titus Kieninger gives so much information about their mission that you’ll need hear a few times to get it all.

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Be sure to visit Opus Sanctorum Angelorum

Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide. ~ St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Therese “the little flower”…In Conversation with Brother Joseph Schmidt

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” – St. Therese of of Lisieux

Sometimes words are not full enough to describe someone.
Therese is a melody.
A melody of grace lofting lyrically around our hearts in prayer;
a sound which invokes joy and sorrow, smiles and tears,
trust, hope and…love.
I’m not a musician, but I know a beautiful song when I hear it.
Her melody is one you wish never would end,
with Therese, “you hear the song”.

https://media.blubrry.com/discerninghearts/www.discerninghearts.com/Morning_Show/Brother-Joseph-Schmidt-Everything-is-Grace.mp3
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Bruce and I had a chance to speak with Brother Joseph Schmidt about St. Therese. He wrote about her in “Everything is Grace”.

This is my VERY favorite book about St. Therese…it’s wonderful

MY ONLY OCCUPATION IS LOVE

“I do not desire either suffering or death, although both are appealing to me;
it is love alone which really attracts me…
I can ask for nothing with any enthusiasm
except the perfect accomplishment of the Divine Will in my soul,
unhindered by any intrusion of created things.
I can say, with the words of our father, St. John of the Cross,
in his Spiritual Canticle,
‘I drank in the inner cellar of my Beloved, and when I went forth into the meadow
I forgot everything and lost the flock which I used to drive.
My soul has employed all its resources in His service;
now I guard no flock, nor do I have any other duties.
Now my only occupation is love.’
Or again: ‘I know love is so powerful that it can turn
whatever is good or bad in me into profit,
and it can transform my soul into Himself.”
~ St. Thérèse

A MORNING PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESE

O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.

O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity.

Amen.

PRAYER TO ST. THERESE

O little St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own – speak a word for me to our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were – to that Queen of heaven “who smiled on you at the dawn of life.” Beg her as the Queen of the heart of Jesus to obtain for me by her powerful intercession, the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment, and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life. Defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity.

Amen

Mike Aquilina – The Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist – Discerning Hearts

When you listen to Mike Aquilina express the mystery and beauty of the Eucharist, you know it is truly coming from someone who has been deeply touched in his depths of his own heart by this tremendous sacrament of love. I love talking with Mike, he strengthens and encourages my own faith so much…he is such a gift to the body of Christ! In “The Fire of God’s Love” he passes on insights on the Eucharist to inspire us all. Saints and popes are represented in this collection, but also reflections from folks representing in our own time, like J.R.R. Tolkien, Maria Montessori, Conrad Hilton, and George Wiegel.

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Fr. Thomas Dubay, Rest In Peace and May God’s Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him! – Discerning Hearts

While my heart sings for joy because I know he must be with Lord in heaven, it’s also so sad knowing the Church Miltant no longer has one of it’s greatest contemplative teachers in its temporal midst. Fr. Thomas Dubay died, September 26, 2010. Fr. Dubay led me to St. Teresa of Avila. His work on “Fire Within” and all the programs he gave us on EWTN were instrumental in my spiritual growth. In those early days, he was like having a distant spiritual director who guided me, as well as the rest of us, toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

He told me once, “Kris, the best theology books are the lives of the saints; you study them and you won’t be led astray.” Fr. Thomas Dubay, in a very real way, helped inspire the work of this blog and it’s mission.

It was an INCREDIBLE blessing to have had the chance to speak with Fr. Thomas Dubay about his book “Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer”…I was SO nervous, because I was so awe struck, but he made it so easy.

I’m leaving now to light a candle for Fr. Dubay at our church…it doesn’t seem like much given the fact he was such an important part of my spiritual growth, but then again I think it would make him happy knowing I was offering that “prayer” from the depths of my heart. I can’t wait to meet him in person one day. Fr. Thomas Dubay, pray for us.

What does an anti-pope and a confessor have in common? They’re Fathers of the Church. Today, St. Hippolytus and St. Maximus, it’s you’re feast day! – Discerning Hearts

An anti-pope (and a great liturgist…it figures doesn’t it) who is considered a father of the Church and a saint. God’s great mercy knows no bounds! How does someone who was a self proclaimed pope (and considered the first anti-pope in Church history) become a saint? The story of St. Hippolytus is a fascinating one. A greek-speaking priest who who lived in the late 100’s – early 200’s; his writings on the Eucharistic liturgy are some of the most beautiful of all time. Check him out Mike Aquilina’s great blog The Ways of the Fathers

And take a listen as we talk about St. Hippolytus with Mike

St. Maximus the Confessor lived approx. 500 years after Hippolytus. He is one of last fathers of the Church and is consider one of the first of her doctors. A beautiful writer and homelist he said this once:

The sun of justice, rising into the clean mind, reveals Himself and the reasons of all that He created and will create.

Love defeats those three: self-deception, because she is not proud; Interior envy, because she is not jealous; Exterior envy, because she is generous and serene.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are inside our hearts hidden.

Faith without love does not act in the soul the illumination of the divine knowledge.

When the mind receives the ideas of things, by its nature is transformed according to each and every idea. If it sees the things spiritually, it is transfigured in many ways according to each vision. But if the mind becomes in God, then it becomes totally shapeless and formless, because seeing Him who has one face it comes to have one face and then the whole mind becomes a face of light.- taken from Speech on Love

He too, like St. Hippolytus, suffered a martyrs death. St. Maximus the Confessor, a remarkable man who Mike Aquilina tells us about.

Mike Aquilina’s excellent book “the Fathers of the Church” is a great introduction to the First Christian teachers.

It’s important I think to hear the stories of these great thinkers of the Church, who when the time came in a crazy world, had the courage to speak truth and surrender to God’s great love…if they can do it, why can’t we?

J. S. Bach – Rest in Peace (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)

J. S. Bach died on this date 260 years ago. I just couldn’t let the date pass without a small tribute to the great talent the Lord blessed him with. From the “Sanctus” in the Mass in B minor, to the Toccata and Fugue in D minor…oh you name it, who can possibly pick from his legacy a favorite? But I have to say, it always makes me sigh when I hear “May Sheep Safely Graze”, so for all you lambys out there a little reflection:

Also here is a conversation Bruce and I had with R. J. Stove on the importance of Western Classical Music

IP#11 Joan Wester Anderson – Where Miracles Happen on Inside the Pages

Sometimes you just smile through an entire interview wishing it wouldn’t end…that’s what it is like talking with Joan Wester Anderson. What a truly lovely woman! She seems to have a very special mission for the Father in Heaven – to make known the glory of those special messangers of the Lord, the Holy Angels of God, and to relate the heavenly miraculous moments which occur in the everyday around the world. Joan is a beautiful story teller both in print and on the air. I know you will enjoy our conversation….

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Visit Joan’s website at http://joanwanderson.com/
It’s really inspirational!

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Here is another conversation with Joan on the Angels

IP#9 Benjamin Wiker – “10 Books Every Conservative Must Read” on Inside the Pages

It’s always great fun to talk with Dr. Benjamin Wiker. Intelligent and disarming, Dr. Wiker has a way of helping us see past the sound bite of the day to the heart of the matter…to the heart of the Church…to the heart of Truth.

Do you think you know what it means to be a “conservative”? Do you really? Read this first, and then let’s talk….

Visit Dr. Benjamin Wikers’s site: www.ameaningfulworld.com

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Here are just some of the conversations Bruce and I have had with Benjamin:

Dr. Benjamin Wiker 10 Books That Screwed Up the World.mp3
Dr. Benjamin Wiker Darwin Myth.mp3
Dr. Benjamin Wiker Meaningful World .mp3
10-04-07 – Dr. Benjamin Wiker – Reason.mp3

IP#6 Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer – “Exorcism and the Church Militant” on Inside the Pages

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer is one of the most courageous men I know. He proves that ones again with the release of his book “Exorcism and the Church Militant”. It is a subject that we shouldn’t fear. Why is it we are afraid to talk about this? No one would question the need to talk about tornados and to actually have drills to warn of their arrival and the ways to seek protection; of course we do this, it’s common sense. And yet with this very real spiritual reality, we hide it away, thereby giving the evil one WAY too much power in the darkness. Fr. Euteneuer helps us to “flip on the light” of Christ and the teachings of the Church, to reveal the triumphant victory of the Almighty over the forces of darkness.