Episode 4- Communion with Christ – Practical Prayer – Deacon Keating continues his reflections on the last things said by Jesus on the Cross and Mary as a teacher of prayer. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the wellspring of interiority because she held all the mysteries in her heart. Deacon Keating discusses God’s longing for us and allowing God to pray in us. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”…is it more that we have abandoned God? Sin looks like crucifixion. The final words.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The book addresses their mutual dedication to remain with Christ in prayer even in the service of parishioners. Once prayer finds a place in the heart, compassion grows for those who look for God “like sheep without a shepherd.” Through interior prayerfulness, clerical unity in ministry can be better ensured Remain in Me is for priests and deacons to use as prayer, on retreat, or during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
Dr. Matthew Bunson discusses the life, times and teachings of St. Catherine of Siena
Born: March 17, 1347, Siena, Italy
Nationality: Italian
From Vatican.va, an excerpt from the teachings ofPope Benedict XVI
From the General Audience on St. Catherine of Siena
A true and authentic spiritual family was built up around such a strong and genuine personality; people fascinated by the moral authority of this young woman with a most exalted lifestyle were at times also impressed by the mystical phenomena they witnessed, such as her frequent ecstasies. Many put themselves at Catherine’s service and above all considered it a privilege to receive spiritual guidance from her. They called her “mother” because, as her spiritual children, they drew spiritual nourishment from her. Today too the Church receives great benefit from the exercise of spiritual motherhood by so many women, lay and consecrated, who nourish souls with thoughts of God, who strengthen the people’s faith and direct Christian life towards ever loftier peaks. “Son, I say to you and call you”, Catherine wrote to one of her spiritual sons, Giovanni Sabbatini, a Carthusian, “inasmuch as I give birth to you in continuous prayers and desire in the presence of God, just as a mother gives birth to a son” (Epistolario, Lettera n. 141: To Fr Giovanni de’ Sabbatini). She would usually address the Dominican Fr Bartolomeo de Dominici with these words: “Most beloved and very dear brother and son in Christ sweet Jesus”.
Another trait of Catherine’s spirituality is linked to the gift of tears. They express an exquisite, profound sensitivity, a capacity for being moved and for tenderness. Many Saints have had the gift of tears, renewing the emotion of Jesus himself who did not hold back or hide his tears at the tomb of his friend Lazarus and at the grief of Mary and Martha or at the sight of Jerusalem during his last days on this earth. According to Catherine, the tears of Saints are mingled with the blood of Christ, of which she spoke in vibrant tones and with symbolic images that were very effective: “Remember Christ crucified, God and man….. Make your aim the Crucified Christ, hide in the wounds of the Crucified Christ and drown in the blood of the Crucified Christ” (Epistolario, Lettera n. 21: Ad uno il cui nome si tace [to one who remains anonymous]). Here we can understand why, despite her awareness of the human shortcomings of priests, Catherine always felt very great reverence for them: through the sacraments and the word they dispense the saving power of Christ’s Blood. The Sienese Saint always invited the sacred ministers, including the Pope whom she called “sweet Christ on earth”, to be faithful to their responsibilities, motivated always and only by her profound and constant love of the Church. She said before she died: “in leaving my body, truly I have consumed and given my life in the Church and for the Holy Church, which is for me a most unique grace” (Raimondo da Capua, S. Caterina da Siena, Legenda maior, n. 363). Hence we learn from St Catherine the most sublime science: to know and love Jesus Christ and his Church. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, she describes Christ, with an unusual image, as a bridge flung between Heaven and earth. This bridge consists of three great stairways constituted by the feet, the side and the mouth of Jesus. Rising by these stairways the soul passes through the three stages of every path to sanctification: detachment from sin, the practice of the virtues and of love, sweet and loving union with God.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn from St Catherine to love Christ and the Church with courage, intensely and sincerely. Therefore let us make our own St Catherine’s words that we read in the Dialogue of Divine Providence at the end of the chapter that speaks of Christ as a bridge: “out of mercy you have washed us in his Blood, out of mercy you have wished to converse with creatures. O crazed with love! It did not suffice for you to take flesh, but you also wished to die!… O mercy! My heart drowns in thinking of you: for no matter where I turn to think, I find only mercy” (chapter 30, pp. 79-80).
Dr. Matthew E. Bunson is a Register senior editor and a senior contributor to EWTN News. For the past 20 years, he has been active in the area of Catholic social communications and education, including writing, editing, and teaching on a variety of topics related to Church history, the papacy, the saints, and Catholic culture. He is faculty chair at Catholic Distance University, a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and the author or co-author of over 50 books including The Encyclopedia of Catholic History, The Pope Encyclopedia, We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, The Saints Encyclopedia and best-selling biographies of St. Damien of Molokai and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.
Episode 3- Communion with Christ – Practical Prayer – Jesus is the primary teacher of prayer. How can we pray “always”? How do we become “prayer”? Jesus was conscious that all things flow from the Father. He teaches us how to pray to the Father. Deacon Keating speaks of praying in the name of Jesus and “receiving” God in our hearts.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The book addresses their mutual dedication to remain with Christ in prayer even in the service of parishioners. Once prayer finds a place in the heart, compassion grows for those who look for God “like sheep without a shepherd.” Through interior prayerfulness, clerical unity in ministry can be better ensured Remain in Me is for priests and deacons to use as prayer, on retreat, or during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
Episode 2-Communion with Christ – Practical Prayer – We have lost are fear of going astray and being unfaithful within. We must be aware of the spirits, personal or impersonal, that can get into us. We can get tangled up in many different influences in prayer. That is why it so important to have a director, a guide, to help us navigate in this journey and to test those spirits. Jesus is the model of prayer. “He learns to pray from His mother”. (see below). The witness of the community. His prayer springs from a secret source and He wishes to share it with us. All prayer is foretaste of heaven.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The book addresses their mutual dedication to remain with Christ in prayer even in the service of parishioners. Once prayer finds a place in the heart, compassion grows for those who look for God “like sheep without a shepherd.” Through interior prayerfulness, clerical unity in ministry can be better ensured Remain in Me is for priests and deacons to use as prayer, on retreat, or during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
Episode 1 -Communion with Christ – Practical Prayer –The most powerful principle of prayer is that God desires us. Prayer is a response to a presence who has entered our reality. Distractions, an enemy of prayer. Recovering the prophetic consciousness. The highest fruit of prayer to be someone who is so transparent to God, that God reveals His acts in our lives…the person has become prayer.
God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The book addresses their mutual dedication to remain with Christ in prayer even in the service of parishioners. Once prayer finds a place in the heart, compassion grows for those who look for God “like sheep without a shepherd.” Through interior prayerfulness, clerical unity in ministry can be better ensured Remain in Me is for priests and deacons to use as prayer, on retreat, or during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
David Torkington, author and narrator of this work
Episode 10 – Learning How To Love
James has returned home and begins in earnest, practicing his newfound life of prayer. However, we find him writing to Peter when he feels his prayer is floundering. Peter explains through their correspondence, that James is now finding himself on the threshold of contemplative prayer, and he encourages James to persevere and describes how he should proceed. This episode finishes many years later when Peter meets James again, but this time in his home in the New Forest. Peter has been giving lectures in London and James expresses his gratitude for his mentor in prayer, who changed the direction of his life completely.
David Torkington, the author of Wisdom from the Western Isles has re-edited and abridged the work for broadcast; he is also the narrator. The book was published originally as three separate spiritual novels: Peter Calvay – Hermit, Peter Calvay – Prophet and Peter Calvay – Mystic. We begin with the first part, The Hermit but including some passages from Peter Calvay – Mystic so as to give an overall view of the spiritual journey for listeners.
David Torkington is an English Spiritual Theologian, author, and speaker, specializing in Prayer, Christian Spirituality, and Mystical Theology. Educated at the Franciscan Study Centre, England, he served as Dean of Studies at the National Catholic Radio and Television Centre, London. He was an extra-mural lecturer in Mystical Theology at the Angelicum, the Dominican University in Rome, and has received invitations to speak to Religious, Monks, Diocesan Priests, and laypeople from all over the world, including Equatorial Africa, where he gave three prolonged lecture tours speaking on Christian prayer.
Episode 1 The Discernment of Spirits: Setting the Captives Free – Serves as an introduction to the coming series and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
The Discernment of Spirits: Setting the Captives Free – Serves as an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.
For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: www.frtimothygallagher.org
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.
For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: www.frtimothygallagher.org
In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.
Fr. Timothy Gallagher highlights the spiritual journey of St. Augustine as an example of the first rule of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Augustine’s story illustrates the battle between sensual temptations and moral conscience. As a young man, Augustine indulged in sensual pleasures, leading a life far from God. This period was marked by restlessness and moral conflict.
Fr. Gallagher points out that the “enemy” tempts with apparent pleasures, while the “good spirit” strikes back by stirring the conscience. Augustine’s moment of conversion in a garden, influenced by the Holy Spirit and the words of Scripture, exemplifies this struggle and transformation. Fr. Gallagher stresses that understanding this spiritual dynamic is essential to recognizing and overcoming temptations, leading to deeper communion with God. The dialogue underscores the importance of awareness and action in the spiritual life, especially in today’s media-saturated culture.
Discerning Hearts reflection questions for this episode:
Contrasting Temptations and Conscience: Reflect on your experiences with temptation. How do you recognize when you are being drawn toward ‘earthly pleasures’? How does your faith-informed conscience respond to these temptations?
St. Augustine’s Transformation: Consider St. Augustine’s spiritual journey. What aspects of his story resonate with your own spiritual experiences? Have there been moments in your life where you felt a significant shift in your faith or moral understanding?
Role of Media and Modern Influences: In today’s world, filled with various forms of media, how do you discern which influences bring you closer to God and which ones draw you away? What steps can you take to align your daily media engagement with your Catholic values?
Recognizing the ‘Good Spirit’: How do you identify the action of the ‘good spirit’ in your life? Can you recall instances where you felt your conscience was actively guiding you back to the right path?
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: How familiar are you with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius? Considering the insights from the discussion, how might these exercises benefit your spiritual growth, especially in understanding the interplay between temptation and conscience?
The Discernment of Spirits: Setting the Captives Free – Serves as an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.
For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: www.frtimothygallagher.org
In the persons who are going on intensely cleansing their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord, it is the method contrary to that in the first Rule, for then it is the way of the evil spirit to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on; and it is proper to the good to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing, and putting away all obstacles, that one may go on in well-doing.
Father Gallagher revisits previous discussions on how the enemy facilitates a person’s movement away from God, using imagination and sensual images, while the good spirit endeavors to hinder this movement. The second rule flips this scenario, examining the dynamics when an individual earnestly strives to eliminate sin and draw nearer to God. It is here that the enemy employs tactics to disrupt – biting, saddening, placing obstacles, and disquieting with false reasons, all designed to prevent spiritual progress.
Listeners are treated to insightful examples and detailed analysis, offering a clear understanding of these spiritual dynamics. The episode also emphasizes the importance of recognizing and rejecting the enemy’s tactics, highlighting how discernment plays a crucial role in spiritual growth.
This profound discussion not only illuminates the struggles of the spiritual journey but also offers hope and guidance for overcoming these challenges. It’s a must-listen for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of their spiritual life and the forces that influence it.
Discerning Hearts reflection questions:
Recognizing Spiritual Dynamics: Reflect on a time in your life when you felt hindered in your spiritual journey. Can you identify if these obstacles were a result of the enemy’s tactics, as described by St. Ignatius in the second rule? How did you respond to these challenges?
Discernment in Action: How can you apply the principles of discernment, as discussed by Father Gallagher, to differentiate between the disquieting actions of the enemy and the comforting presence of the good spirit in your daily life?
The Role of the Good Spirit: Consider a moment when you felt uplifted, encouraged, or found unexpected strength in your faith journey. How do you see the role of the good spirit in these instances as described in the second rule of St. Ignatius?
Personal Struggles and Growth: Reflect on the concept that through trials and tribulations, as mentioned in the podcast, we grow closer to God. Can you recall a personal struggle that, in hindsight, brought you closer to your faith and strengthened your relationship with God?
Application of Ignatian Spirituality: How can the teachings of St. Ignatius, especially the second rule, help you in making everyday decisions that align with your faith? Consider an upcoming decision or current dilemma and apply the rule to see how it might guide your choice.
The Discernment of Spirits: Setting the Captives Free – Serves as an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.
For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: www.frtimothygallagher.org
You can find the book here.
