Be Filled

Welcome to the show! This episode we are continuing our study on Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching of the Theology of the Body. Today we are beginning our conversation on Part Two entitled The Sacrament. The Sacrament, as we will find out, is not ONLY referring to marriage. According to JPII, the one “great sacrament” is both the union of husband and wife and the union of Christ and the Church. This episode we will discuss audiences 87-90. This is the beginning of JPII's analysis of Ephesians 5:21-33. 

Quotes: 

“Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, he who is the Savior of his body. And as the Church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be subject to their husbands in everything. And you, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water accompanied by the word, so as to present his Church before himself all glorious, without spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but holy and immaculate. In the same way, husbands have the duty to love their wives as their own body, for the one who loves his wife loves himself. No one, in fact, ever hates his own flesh, but he nourishes and cares for it, as Christ does with the Church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and unite with his wife, and the two will form one flesh. This mystery is great; I say this in reference to Christ and the Church. Therefore also you, each one on his part, should love his wife as himself, and the woman should have reverence toward her husband.” (Ephesians 5:22-33) 

“The reciprocal relations of husband and wife must spring from their common relation with Christ.” (Pope John Paul II, TOB) 

“The mystery of Christ must be “spiritually present in the reciprocal relation of the spouses-penetrating their hearts.” (Pope John Paul II, TOB) 

Christian marriage only happens when it “mirrors the love that Christ, the Bridegroom, gives to the Church, his Bride AND when the Church seeks to give back to Christ in return. This is the redeeming, saving love, the love with which man has been loved by God from eternity in Christ.” (Pope John Paul II, TOB) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Pints With Aquinas: What To Do When Marriage Gets Hard (Jason and Crystalina Evert) 

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/chase-the-sun

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Welcome to Season 5 of the Be Filled Podcast! Today the ladies sit down to share their experiences over the break! Katie went to a healing retreat, Rachelle went to the Theology of the Body Institute for a TOB class, and Patty traveled to the Holy Lands! You do not want to miss this fun and encouraging conversation. There is so much hope in the midst of what can seem to be dark times. Enjoy the episode! 

Quotes to Ponder: 

“Healing is an ongoing encounter with God’s love” (Dr. Bob Schuchts) 

“Behind every unholy, disordered desire there is a longing for God.” 

“If we look at today’s world, we are struck by many negative factors that can lead to pessimism. But this feeling is unjustified: we have faith in God our Father and Lord and in his mercy…God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity, and we can already see its first signs.” (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical on the Mission of the Redeemer) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Healing the Whole Person Retreat- In Person

Online Healing the Whole Person Retreat

Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life  by Dr. Bob Schuchts

Theology of the Body Immersion Course Online: Scholarship Opportunity 

Pilgrimage Opportunities

Music from #Uppbeat

This is the last of 5 re-released episodes before we launch Season 5! Our first episode of Season 5, we will talk about how God has been working in our lives since Season 4! I hope you will join us! Enjoy this episode! 

This episode we continue our study on Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching of the Theology of the Body. We are discussing General Audience 20-22 on “Knowledge” and Procreation.  We discuss what it means that man and woman “knew” each other through the “one flesh” union. We also discuss what Motherhood and Fatherhood reveal to man and woman about their masculinity and femininity. 

Scripture:  

“Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD. (Genesis 4:1) 

Quotes to Ponder:

“A word on this “unrepeatability” of the person: a husband and wife who truly “know” each other have arrived at the irreducible core of the person, and each loves this person-not merely spiritual or physical attributes of the person, but the person himself (herself). At this level, they continually recognize and affirm the unrepeatability of the other; he (she) is utterly unique and cannot be repeated or replaced.” (West, Theology of the Body Explained, p.154)

“...we should observe that in Genesis 4:1 the mystery of femininity manifests and reveals itself in it’s full depth through motherhood, as the text says, “who conceived and gave birth.” Woman’s motherhood reveals to the man the mystery of his masculinity, “that is, the generative and “paternal” meaning of his body.” (TOB 21:2) 

“Despite all the experiences of his own life, despite the sufferings, the disappointments in himself, his sinfulness, and, finally, despite the inevitable prospect of death, man always continues, however, to place “knowledge” at the “beginning” of “generation”; in this way he seems to participate in that first “vision” of God himself: God, the Creator, “saw everything…and indeed, it was good.” And always anew he confirms the truth of these words.” (TOB 22:7) 

Resources: 

Barbie Movie Opening Scene

Christopher West Commentary on the Barbie Movie

Bill Donaghy Commentary

We are 2 weeks away from the launch of Season 5! This is a re-release from Season 3 that will help us prepare for Season 5.

This episode we continue our study on Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching of the Theology of the Body. We are discussing General Audience 16.3-19.6 on the Mystery of Original Innocence. With JPII, we are “zooming in” on the Communion of Persons between man and woman. We discover the source of this Original Innocence and it allows man and woman to become a “disinterested gift of self”. 

Quotes to Ponder: 

“This innocence belongs to the dimension of grace contained in the mystery of creation, that is, to that mysterious gift made to man’s innermost [being]—to the human heart—that allows both the man and the woman to exist from the “beginning” in the reciprocal relationship of the disinterested gift of self.”  (TOB 16:3) 

“The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.” (TOB 19:4) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Commentary 

Rachelle’s Visual Aids 

We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are beginning a new section of the text entitled “Man In The Dimension of Gift”. This is the first of two episodes in this section. Today we are discussing General Audiences 13.2-16.2 on The Spousal Meaning of the Body. 

Guiding Quote: 

“The dimension of gift is decisive for the essential truth and depth of the meaning of original solitude-unity-nakedness.” (TOB 13:2) 

Reflections Questions: 

Resources: 

Double Rainbow Guy

A Meditation on Givenness by Pope John Paul II 

Wonderfully Made! Babies: A Catholic Perspective on How and Why God Makes Babies (for ages 9 and up) by Ellen Giangiordano

Commentary on Audiences 13.2-16:2

Next episode we will be discussing Audiences 16.3-19.6 on The Mystery of Original Innocence. If you have questions or comments, we would love to hear from you. We can reached by email at [email protected].

This week we are re-releasing an episode from Season 2. This is in preparation for the launch of Season 5 on October 1st! Enjoy!

We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are discussing General Audiences 11.1-13.1 on Original Nakedness. We discuss the meaning of “nakedness” and what it meant that the first man and woman did not experience shame. 

Scripture: 

“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25) 

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” (Genesis 3:7) 

Reflections Questions: 

Resources: 

Commentary on Audiences 11-13.1

For more information on the Ruah Woods Curriculum click here.

Next episode we will be discussing Audiences 13.2-16.2 on the “Spousal Meaning of the Body.” 

The first of five "throwback" episodes in preparation for Season 5 on the Sacrament of Marriage. This episode originally aired on February 24, 2024.

Scripture: 

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,  “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24)

Quotes: 

“...one must first recognize that this Genesis torpor (sleep), in which, by the work of Yahweh-God, the man is immersed in preparation for the new creative act…” (TOB 8:3) 

“...the torpor into which God lets the man fall underlines the exclusiveness of God’s action in the creation of the woman. Man had no conscious part in it.” (TOB Footnote 12, p. 158)

“...man falls into this “torpor” with the desire of finding a being similar to himself…the circle of the human person’s solitude is broken, because the first “man” reawakens from his sleep as “male and female.” (TOB 8:3) 

“...man becomes the image of God not only through his own humanity, but also through the communion of persons, which man and woman form from the very beginning….Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.” (TOB 9:3) 

 “...femininity in some way finds itself before masculinity, while masculinity confirms itself through femininity.”(TOB 10:1)

“When they unite with each other (in the conjugal act) so closely so as to become “one flesh,” man and woman rediscover every time and in a special way the mystery of creation, thus returning to the union in humanity that allows them to recognize each other reciprocally and to call each other by name, as they did the first time.” (TOB 10:2) 

“The fact that they become “one flesh” is a powerful bond established by the Creator through which they discover their own humanity, both in its original unity and in the duality of a mysterious reciprocal attraction.” (TOB 10:2) 

Reflections Questions: 

Resources: 

Human Love in the Divine Plan Print

Commentary on Audiences 8-10 

Special announcement about the launch of Season 5! Special re-releases of past episodes are coming in preparation for this next part of our study of the Theology of the Body.

Music from #Uppbeat

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Welcome to the final episode of Season 4! We cover audiences 82-86 which will take us to the end of Part 1 of the text.  We start with a section entitled:  “Paul’s Understanding of the Relation Between Virginity and Marriage” which is an analysis of 1 Corinthians 7. We also wrap up the season, as usual, by sharing what has been most impactful for each of us personally this season and how God has been working in our lives. 

Quotes: 

“Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my counsel as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.” (1 Corinthians 7:25) 

“I say this to you, brothers, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none…those who buy as though that had no possessions, and those who make use of the world as though they made no use of it. For the stage of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties.” (1 Corinthians 7:29-32) 

"The unmarried person is anxious about what is the Lord’s, how to please the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:32) 

“...the one who pleases God cannot close himself in himself…”Pleasing the Lord” has love as its background.” (TOB 83:10; 84:1) 

“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain as I am. But if they do not know how to live in continence, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame.” (1 Corinthians 7:8-9) 

“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: It is well for a man not to touch a woman. Still, because of the danger of incontinence, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”(1 Corinthians 7:1-2) 

“I wish that all were as I am. But each has his own gift from God, one in one way and another in another." (1 Corinthians 7:7) 

“The hope of everyday shows its power in human works and even in the very movements of the human heart, clearing a path in some sense for the great eschatological hope tied to the redemption of the body” (TOB 86) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Maria Talks with Mother Superior

Climb Every Mountain-Sound of Music 

Be Transformed by Dr. Bob Schuchts

Audio: Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/chase-the-sun

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Welcome to the Be Filled Podcast! We are honored to have Father Brian Straus join us as we continue our conversation on “Celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven”. Fr. Brian is a Diocesan Priest in the Diocese of Springfield Cape-Girardeau. He is currently serving as Pastor at St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Joplin, MO. He is also the Chaplain for McAuley Catholic High School, the Director of Campus Ministry at Missouri Southern University, and the Regional Vocations Promoter for the region. He is also a co-host of the Mission Catholic Podcast! (Link Below) Father shares so beautifully and honestly about the life of a Priest. You do not want to miss it!! 

Quotes: 

“In Christ’s words about continence “for the kingdom of heaven,” there is not a hint of “inferiority” of marriage related to the “body” or to the essence of marriage consisting in the fact that man and woman unite with each other in such a way as to become “one flesh”. (TOB 78:1) 

“The perfection of Christian life is measured by the measure of love…Such perfection is possible and accessible for every human being, whether in a “religious institute” or in the world.” (TOB 78:3) 

“It is a characteristic feature of the human heart to accept even difficult demands in the name of love, for an ideal, and above all in the name of love for a person. And so, in this call to continence for the kingdom of heaven, first the disciples and then the whole living Tradition of the Church quickly discovered the love for Christ himself as the Bridegroom of the Church, Bridegroom of souls, to whom he has given himself to the end in the mystery of his Passover and of the Eucharist.” (TOB 79:9) 

“...and therefore acquired the meaning of an act of spousal love, that is, of a spousal gift of self with the end of answering in a particular way the Redeemer’s spousal love; a gift of self understood as renunciation, but realized above all out of love.” (TOB 79:9) 

We have the “awareness of the freedom of the gift, which is organically connected with the deep and mature consciousness of the spousal meaning of the body in the structure of man’s and woman’s personal subjectivity as a whole.” (TOB 80:5) 

“...man (male and female) is able to choose the personal gift of self to another person in the conjugal covenant, in which they become “one flesh”, and he is also able to renounce freely such a gift of self to another person, in order that by choosing continence “for the kingdom of heaven” he may give himself totally to Christ.” (TOB 80:6) 

The choice for celibacy for the kingdom cannot “be made in a free and conscious manner without reference to one’s own masculinity or femininity and to that spousal meaning proper to man…it is made on the basis of the full consciousness of the spousal meaning, which masculinity and femininity contain in themselves.” “In order to be fully aware of what he is choosing (continence for the kingdom), he must also be fully aware of what he is renouncing.” (TOB 80:7) 

The renunciation is an affirmation that “flows from the discovery of the “gift”, that is realizing oneself “through a sincere gift of self”. “..this discovery stands in deep inner harmony with the sense of the spousal meaning of the body connected “from the beginning” with the masculinity or femininity of man as a personal subject.” (TOB 81) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

The Mission Catholic Podcast

Leo XIV Inauguration Homily 

Audio: Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/chase-the-sun

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