Day 7 A Novena to St. John Paul II – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Day Seven

Reflection by Saint John Paul II:

“Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the ‘light of the world.’”

Prayers for Spiritual Healing with Msgr. Esseff – Mp3 audio prayer and text – Discerning Hearts

The following prayer covers most of the significant areas of forgiveness. Often, such a prayer will bring to mind other areas that need forgiveness. Let the Holy Spirit move freely and guide your mind to persons or groups that you need to forgive. This is especially useful before confession.

Lord Jesus Christ, I ask today to forgive everyone in my life. I know that You will give me the strength to forgive and I thank You that You love me more than I love myself and want my happiness more than I desire it for myself.

DC10 St. Augustine of Hippo (part 2) – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson

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.

DC9 St. Augustine of Hippo (part 1) – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson

DC9 St. Augustine of Hippo (part 1) – The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson

Born: 13 November 354
Died: 28 August 430

From Pope Benedict XVI Wednesday Audience 2008:

“Thus, Augustine followed his reading of the philosophers’ writings by reading Scripture anew, especially the Pauline Letters. His conversion to Christianity on 15 August 386 therefore came at the end of a long and tormented inner journey – of which we shall speak in another catechesis -, and the African moved to the countryside, north of Milan by Lake Como – with his mother Monica, his son Adeodatus and a small group of friends – to prepare himself for Baptism. So it was that at the age of 32 Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan on 24 April 387, during the Easter Vigil.” For more visit post….

ST-Luke Ep 20- The Gospel of Luke – Chapter 9 Part 2 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Join Sharon Doran for the study of the Gospel of Luke – In this episode, Chapter 9 part 2 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

ST-Luke Ep 19- The Gospel of Luke – Chapter 9 Part 1 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Join Sharon Doran for the study of the Gospel of Luke – In this episode, Chapter 9 part 1 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

WM26 – Vatican II – Gaudium et Spes part 3 – Why it Matters: An Exploration of Faith with Archbishop George Lucas Podcast

Join Archbishop George Lucas and Kris McGregor as they continue a conversation on Gaudium et Spes. Discerning Hearts Podcast

ST-Luke Ep 16- The Gospel of Luke – Chapter 7 Part 2 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Join Sharon Doran for the study of the Gospel of Luke – In this episode, Chapter 7 part 2 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

ST-Luke Ep 15- The Gospel of Luke – Chapter 7 Part 1 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Join Sharon Doran for the study of the Gospel of Luke – In this episode, Chapter 7 part 1 – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Christ, the true King of this World – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Msgr. Esseff shares an encounter with a couple he met while traveling home after time with family. Tom and Mary shared their important encounters with God over the course of their 36 years of marriage. Each story speaks of our times and how relevant it is for our lives to allow Christ to be King of our hearts…that is how He will reign in this world. Msgr. Esseff then reflects on how God answers prayers and why we say “Your will be done”.