catholic prayer Archives

Day 7 Novena to the Holy Spirit – Discerning Hearts

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Novena to the Holy Spirit

Begin be reciting the following prayer…

O Holy Spirit, Divine Consoler!
I adore you as my True God.
I offer You my whole heart,
and I render You heartfelt thanks for all the benefits You have bestowed upon the world.
You are the author of all supernatural gifts
and enriched the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God,
with all favors,
I ask you to visit me by Your grace and Your love,
and grant me the favor
I so earnestly seek…

State your request here…

O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth, come into our hearts:

DAY SEVEN

Come, Holy Spirit,
creator of all things:
come visit our hearts with Your power.
Fill with grace, friendly guest,
the hearts which You have created.
You are called the Consoler,
gift from the hand of God,
source of life, light, love, and flame, highest good.
You are the pledge of sevenfold grace,
finger of the Father’s hand,
promised us by Him,
and You make our tongues speak the truth.
Cast light on our senses,
pour love into our hearts.
Grant our weak bodies strength
that they may never grow weary of doing good
and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena…

State your request here…

Keep the enemy far from us,
give us peace always,
let us willingly follow in Your footsteps
that we may be far removed from sin.
Grant that through You
we may grow in knowledge of the Father and of the Son,
and that we may ever strongly believe in You,
the Spirit of both.
Praise and honor be forever to the Father on the highest throne,
in the risen Son of God,
in the Consoler.

Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Amen.

Day 8 Novena to the Holy Spirit – Discerning Hearts

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Novena to the Holy Spirit

Begin be reciting the following prayer…

State your request here…

O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth, come into our hearts:

DAY EIGHT

O Holy Spirit,
life and light of the Church,
give us thoughts higher than our own thoughts,
and prayers better than our own prayers,
and powers beyond our own powers,
that we may love and live,
imitating Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
Come to us, Holy Spirit,
come with the Father
and the Son
and grant me the favor I so earnestly request in this novena…

State your request here…

Vouchsafe to dwell within our souls
and quickly make our hearts Your own.
Quench in us the fires of hate and strife,
the wasting fever of the heart.
From perils guard our feeble life
and to our souls Your peace impart.
Let voice and mind and heart
and strength confess
and glorify Your name
and let the fire of charity burn bright
and other hearts inflame.

Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Amen.

ROHC-V3 What is Redemptive Suffering– The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Video podcast

ROHC-V3 What is Redemptive Suffering– The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Video podcast from Discerning Hearts on Vimeo.

Heart of Hope Part 3 — What is Redemptive Suffering…using love and the energy of love to redirect pain as an intercessory prayer for another…how it makes sense and is no longer meaningless

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 “The Heart of Hope”.

This series explores the work of suffering in the Christian life and how God can use it to transform the heart of the individual and the world.

You can obtain just the audio podcast, if you would prefer

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IP#20 Anthony Burke Smith – The Look of Catholics on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

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“The Look of Catholics: Portrayals in Popular Culture from the Great Depression to the Cold War” is a fascinating work by Anthony Burke Smith. In film, radio, print Catholics contributed significantly to the American Imagination during some of the truly toughest years our nation has faced. It is really interesting how the country turned to the virtuous communal nature of the Catholic identity to lift itself during this time. From Leo McCarey’s Oscar-winning “Go My Way” to Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Henry Luce (publisher of Life magazine), Anthony covers a vast array of areas in this study. I loved it, and I bet so will you!

You can find Anthony’s book at Amazon.com

“Smith’s ambitious and exemplary work demonstrates decisively for all time that Catholics were not only integral players in the formation of modern American popular culture but that the role of Catholicism itself in the national popular culture was a major issue in the production of that same culture. . . . A wonderfully exciting book that will be widely hailed as a landmark achievement confirm the author’s stature as the leading scholar of Catholic popular culture, and be consulted by scholars and their students for decades to come.” –James T. Fisher

Day 9 Novena to the Holy Spirit – Discerning Hearts

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Novena to the Holy Spirit

Begin be reciting the following prayer…

State your request here…

O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth, come into our hearts:

DAY NINE

O Lord, Holy Spirit,
grant me sight to see the wondrous promise of divine love;
insight to see my own weakness;
delight in Your divine presence in my soul
which You have made Your temple through sanctifying grace.
I pray, O Holy Spirit,
that I may be not doubting;
that I be spared the pain of being alone
without trust or hope in Christ;
that my prayer may always be “My Lord and my God!”
I pray that I may acquire a sense of retreat
to prayer and recollection at various times in my daily life;
for prayer is the bond that joins us to Christ.
I pray that I may be aware of the physical needs of the poor
and that I may share what I can with them
in the charitable works of the Church.
I pray, O Holy Spirit,
that You will in Your mercy
grant me the favor I have sought in this novena…

State your request here…

Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Amen

RC#1 – History, with Arms Upraised – The Resilient Church w/ Mike Aquilina

Episode 1 – History, with Arms Upraised

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The Resilient Church with Mike Aquilina, offers a fascinating look at the trials and triumphs of the Catholic Church over the past two thousand years. Fast-paced sketches of critical periods in church history give readers perspective on the challenges faced by the church today. Mike Aquilina does not shrink from the realities of the past, including badly behaved leaders and those who betrayed the Lord. Yet he also leaves us all with well-founded hope for the future: God remains faithful in every circumstance and fulfills his promise to remain with his church always.

Pick up a copy of Mike’s book.

Also visit Mike’s “Discerning Hearts” page for more audio downloads and information!

IP#164 Fr. Robert Spitzer – Cosmic Origins on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

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It is always a delight to talk with Fr. Robert Spitzer! His sure brilliance, combined with his infectious joy and good humor, is so engaging that any topic he leads us on becomes an adventure. With “Cosmic Origins”, a soon to be released DVD, Fr. Spitzer and a group of physicists and academic heavyweights exploring modern scientific theories about how the universe came to exist. I would call this a “mathematical apologetic”, which is so beautifully points to the greater “purpose” of our creator, that I couldn’t help but smile through the entire presentation. Stunning, wonderful…and so much fun!

To learn more about this film and how you can arrange screenings for your parish or group go here
Cosmic Origins explains what we know about the beginning and nature of the universe, as well as its transcendent implications in clear, easy-to-understand terms. The 49-minute film weaves together a compelling narrative from academics and credentialed scientists pointing toward a very Catholic understanding of how the universe came to exist.

Cosmic Origins is distributed by Ignatius Press.

BTP#7 Heaven In Faith Day 4 Prayer 1 – Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity w/Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Episode 7 Beginning to Pray: “Heaven in Faith” Day 4 Prayer 1 – “We will come to him and make our home in him”

From “Heaven in Faith” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

13. “Dues ignis consumens,” Our God, wrote St. Paul, is a consuming Fire, that is a “a fire of love” which destroys, which “transforms into itself everything that it touches.” “The delights of the divine enkindling are renewed in our depths by an unremitting activity: the enkindling of love in a mutual and eternal satisfaction. It is a renewal that takes place at every moment in there eternally, and this is the silence in which, somehow, they have lost themselves.” “Freed from their prison, they sail on the Ocean of Divinity without any creature being an obstacle or hindrance to them.”

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefited from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity.

BTP#6 Heaven In Faith Day 3 Prayer 2 – Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity w/Dr. Anthony Lilles

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Episode 6 Beginning to Pray: “Heaven in Faith” Day 3 Prayer 2 – “We will come to him and make our home in him”

From “Heaven in Faith” found in The Complete Works vol 1:

11. “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” St. Paul comes to bring us a light to guide us on the pathway of the abyss. “You have died”! What does that mean but that the soul that aspires to live close to God “in the invincible fortress of holy recollection” must be “set apart, stripped, and withdrawn from all things” (in spirit). This soul “finds within itself a simple ascending movement of love to God, whatever creatures may do; it is invincible to things which” pass away, “for it transcends them, seeking God alone.”

We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for providing for us “the voice” of Blessed Elizabeth for this series

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

The First Meditation – Introduction to the Devout Life: Chapter 9 by St. Francis de Sales audio mp3 edition – Discerning Hearts

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Catholic Devotional Prayers and Novenas - Mp3 Audio Downloads and Text 10

Introduction to the Devout Life
By
St. Francis de Sales

Chapter 9 – The First Mediation

read by Omar F. A. Guiterrez

For the pdf containing the complete text and footnotes click here

Other audio meditations from the Introduction of the Devout Life

Of Creation.

Preparation.
1. PLACE yourself in the Presence of God.
2. Ask Him to inspire your heart.

Considerations.
1. Consider that but a few years since you were not born into the world, and your soul was as yet non-existent. Where wert thou then, O my soul? the world was already old, and yet of thee there was no sign.
2. God brought you out of this nothingness, in order to make you what you are, not because He had any need of you, but solely out of His Goodness.
3. Consider the being which God has given you; for it is the foremost being of this visible world, adapted to live eternally, and to be perfectly united to God’s Divine Majesty.

Affections and Resolutions.
1. Humble yourself utterly before God, saying with the Psalmist, O Lord, I am nothing in respect of Thee—what am I, that Thou shouldst remember me? O my soul, thou wert yet lost in that abyss of nothingness, if God had not called thee forth, and what of thee in such a case?
2. Give God thanks. O Great and Good Creator, what do I not owe Thee, Who didst take me from out that nothingness, by Thy Mercy to make me what I am? How can I ever do enough worthily to praise Thy Holy Name, and render due thanks to Thy Goodness?
3. Confess your own shame. But alas, O my Creator, so far from uniting myself to Thee by a loving service, I have rebelled against Thee through my unruly affections, departing from Thee, and giving myself up to sin, and ignoring Thy Goodness, as though Thou hadst not created me.

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