In this special episode of Inside the Pages, Kris McGregor interviews the late Fr. John Horgan about his book His Angels at Our Side: Understanding Their Power in Our Souls and in the World. Focusing on the role of angels in the spiritual life, Fr. Horgan explains how they guide, protect, and inspire us.

It’s important for us to understand angels as spiritual beings who reflect the majesty of God rather than projecting our human traits onto them. Fr. Horgan discusses the relationship between humans and their guardian angels, noting that these angels are given by God to guide and protect every soul, not just the baptized. He advises against naming angels, as their names and missions come directly from God.

Angels are models of prayer and adoration, constantly gazing upon God. They can teach us how to deepen our relationship with God, especially through prayer, obedience, and silence. While angels don’t usually communicate with us through mystical experiences, they offer daily guidance and inspiration; encouraging a spirit of openness to the guardian angel’s influence through prayer and attentiveness to their subtle promptings.

They also cover the role of angels in the Mass, where they worship alongside us, and how we can invite them into our prayer life, especially during the Eucharistic Prayer. Fr. Horgan explains that angels help us align our wills with God’s and overcome temptations, and reflects on the angels’ relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary and their role in leading us closer to her and her perfect acceptance of God’s will.

Meet the mighty spirits sent by God to enlighten and guide us, defend us from harm, and lead us on the path to eternal life. Learn how angels are invisibly present at every moment of your life, and how they can pray with you and for you, amplifying your praise by reflecting it directly to God face-to-face.

Angels do not form a separate universe they are an integral part of our own world sent forth for the sake of our salvation. They are pure spirits who communicate to us God’s grace, His goodness, and His truth.

In these pages, Fr. Horgan unveils the surprising role of the angels in our lives and what you must do to gain their help. You’ll learn how to imitate the angels in prayer and how they offer you the enlightenment and the encouragement God so desperately wants to give you. By praying with the angels, you will be strengthened for what lies ahead, better able to discern and do the Lord’s will in all your actions. You ll also learn:

Father John G. Horgan was a priest of the Archdiocese of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, and the pastor of St Pius X Parish. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard, as well as the Angelicum in Rome, before being ordained by St. John Paul II in 1986. He lectured and consulted on questions of moral theology and healthcare ethics in Canada and the United States. Fr. Horgan had a life-long interest in the Angels and Saints and was credentialed through the Vatican’s special training course for those involved in the process of “saint-making” in 1997. He served as a vice-postulator for the cause of Blessed Marie of Jesus Deluil-Martiny and has advised on several other causes. Fr. Horgan was involved with EWTN, the Eternal Word Global Television Network, since the early 1990s; he made several appearances with Mother Angelica, and has filmed two television series. He entered into eternal rest in October of 2022.

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Fr. Basil Nortz and Kris McGregor continue their discussion the book Holy Silence: A Practical Guide to Recollection in God. It explains the significance of silence in deepening one’s spiritual life, particularly through the concept of liturgical memory, where the events of Christ’s passion and the Eucharist become present realities. He also highlights the necessity of interior silence, noting how distractions, internal conversations, and self-directed thoughts can hinder true prayer. Fr. Nortz stresses that silence enables a deeper union with God and facilitates a more attentive and recollected state in daily life.

The book covers various types of silence, such as the silence of judgment, self-love, emotions, and the will. Fr. Nortz discusses the importance of surrendering to God’s providence, embracing purification, and practicing humility, especially in an era of constant opinions and digital noise. He also addresses the role of sacraments, particularly confession and the Eucharist, in attaining inner peace. The ultimate goal of these practices is to cultivate a profound silence of union, where one experiences God’s presence beyond external circumstances.

“Fr. Basil Nortz masterfully builds upon the classic reflections of Sr. Marie-Aimée de Jésus, a nineteenth-century spiritual mystic and Carmelite nun, on the twelve degrees of silence. By cultivating these types of silence, you will find out how you can — even amid your busy days filled with chatter, commotion, and noise — listen to the voice of God.

In these profound pages you will find ways to overcome your fear of silence and discover:

You will learn the one sinful attitude that cuts us off from the merciful forgiveness of God and will acquire ways to stop passing judgment against others. Additionally, you will learn the most important attitude that disposes us to God’s plans and allows us to enter into His love and converse with Him affectionately throughout the day. Moreover, you will find practical techniques for overcoming distractions in prayer and advice from the saints on methods of meditation to develop silence of the spirit.

Above all, you will glean how to maintain peace of soul and live free from anxiety and despair, regardless of temptations or life’s battles. By relying totally on God, you will fearlessly rise after falls and begin again. You will begin to see the loving hand of God in all things, contemplate the light of His presence, and “be still” in the silence of His love.

“Holy silence is what helps the soul acquire the strength necessary to bear the presence of the all-pure God, who is ipsum esse subsistens (subsistent being itself),” explains Fr. Nortz. “The intensity of that fullness, far from inspiring languid inaction, produces a vibrant joyfulness that St. John expresses in the book of Revelation in terms of the saints singing with full voice.” “

About the Author: Reverend Basil Nortz, O.R.C., is a priest in the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross. He graduated from Christendom College in 1986 with a B.A. in theology. His seminary studies were at the Insitutum Sapientiae in Anapolis, Brazil.

The post IP#498 Fr. Basil Nortz – Holy Silence, Part 2 on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Fr. Basil Nortz discusses his book Holy Silence: A Practical Guide to Recollection in God, showing how silence is an active and positive disposition that opens the soul to God. Inspired by a 19th-century Carthusian nun’s list of 12 types of silence, he developed this framework over years of retreats and pastoral work. True silence is not merely an absence of noise but a means of deepening one’s attentiveness to God’s voice. Drawing from the wisdom of the saints, he explores different forms of silence, such as those of speech, body, senses, imagination, and memory. Each serves to protect interior peace and foster recollection in a world filled with constant distractions. Cultivating holy silence helps believers grow spiritually, recognize God’s will, and resist the unnecessary noise that can drown out divine guidance.

Fr. Nortz also discusses the role of angels in guiding the soul and the need for discipline in speech and media consumption. He warns against the dangers of defamation, excessive communication, and sensory overload while encouraging engagement with sacred art, quality literature, and uplifting music. Monastic wisdom, such as reciting the Sanctus before activities, provides practical ways to maintain awareness of God’s presence. By practicing silence properly, believers create an inner sanctuary where God dwells, leading to a deeper life of contemplation and union with Him.

“Fr. Basil Nortz masterfully builds upon the classic reflections of Sr. Marie-Aimée de Jésus, a nineteenth-century spiritual mystic and Carmelite nun, on the twelve degrees of silence. By cultivating these types of silence, you will find out how you can — even amid your busy days filled with chatter, commotion, and noise — listen to the voice of God.

In these profound pages you will find ways to overcome your fear of silence and discover:

You will learn the one sinful attitude that cuts us off from the merciful forgiveness of God and will acquire ways to stop passing judgment against others. Additionally, you will learn the most important attitude that disposes us to God’s plans and allows us to enter into His love and converse with Him affectionately throughout the day. Moreover, you will find practical techniques for overcoming distractions in prayer and advice from the saints on methods of meditation to develop silence of the spirit.

Above all, you will glean how to maintain peace of soul and live free from anxiety and despair, regardless of temptations or life’s battles. By relying totally on God, you will fearlessly rise after falls and begin again. You will begin to see the loving hand of God in all things, contemplate the light of His presence, and “be still” in the silence of His love.

“Holy silence is what helps the soul acquire the strength necessary to bear the presence of the all-pure God, who is ipsum esse subsistens (subsistent being itself),” explains Fr. Nortz. “The intensity of that fullness, far from inspiring languid inaction, produces a vibrant joyfulness that St. John expresses in the book of Revelation in terms of the saints singing with full voice.” “

About the Author: Reverend Basil Nortz, O.R.C., is a priest in the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross. He graduated from Christendom College in 1986 with a B.A. in theology. His seminary studies were at the Insitutum Sapientiae in Anapolis, Brazil.

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Fr. Quan Tran joins Kris McGregor to discuss his book The Imitation of Mary: Keys to Growth in Virtue and Grace and his ministry, Fullness of Grace. Drawing on Scripture and the saints, he distills twelve Marian qualities—beginning with humility and confidence in God—and shows how grace always invites a free, active response. Each chapter ends with short, concrete practices so the teaching becomes lived: conforming our will to God’s, cultivating sacrificial love (Aquinas’ “to will the good of the other,” elevated to agape), practicing self-forgetfulness and acceptance, and removing everyday obstacles to holiness (phone habits, unguarded media, poor boundaries). He urges steady prayer and deep union with the Lord, noting that the fruits of the sacraments—especially the Eucharist and Confession—depend partly on our interior disposition.

Fr. Tran presents Mary as mother and model who faced real trials yet responded with a continual “yes.” He addresses hesitation about Marian devotion by returning to Christ’s gift of His Mother and to her role in leading us closer to Him. The book, suitable for personal use or group study, synthesizes classic spiritual themes—abandonment to Providence, docility to God’s will—into a practical path for daily growth in holiness, one intentional choice at a time.

“Our Lord is constantly pouring out graces upon mankind, yet only a few — those closest to His heart — know how to receive them. Sadly, countless graces are left unclaimed (likely many by you!) and are thus never allowed to further God’s will on earth.

How different our lives would be if we accessed God’s grace more intentionally!

Thankfully, God in His compassion gave us a perfect model for disposing ourselves to His graces and responding to them: the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In The Imitation of Mary, Fr. Quan Tran shows you how to imitate the twelve essential qualities of Mary in order to unleash a torrent of graces in your life. He explains that, like any gift, grace must be received, opened, and used. As you learn how, you’ll begin to acquire the temperaments, dispositions, and qualities that are most pleasing to God — and you’ll serve as a channel of God’s grace for others.

You’ll also learn:

Fr. Quan Tran is a Roman Catholic priest for the Diocese of Orange in California. Father Tran is currently a Parochial Vicar at St. Bonaventure parish in Huntington Beach. He is also the Secretary to the Pastoral Provision for Bishop Kevin Vann.

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In this episode, Kris McGregor and David Scott discuss his book The Love That Made Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa’s life reveals that God is love, not in abstract terms but through tangible works of mercy. Anecdotes highlight her care for the sick, the dying, and the forgotten, showing love expressed in small but profound acts. Scott notes that her childhood—marked by her mother’s openness to the poor—helped shape this vision, and her vocation was further clarified through her “call within a call.” Mother Teresa’s “little way,” akin to St. Thérèse’s spirituality, demonstrated how holiness is lived through daily acts of generosity rather than grand gestures.

The book explores her toughness and courage, her kinship with figures like Dorothy Day, and the hidden sufferings she endured, including spiritual darkness. Scott frames her witness as God’s response to a century dominated by ideologies that devalued the human person—she embodied a “revolution of love” that countered worldly powers. Her legacy continues through the Missionaries of Charity and her enduring example of Matthew 25 lived out: feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, and recognizing Christ in those most difficult to love. The takeaway is simple yet demanding: to “do little things with great love,” allowing even small sacrifices in everyday life to transform hearts and the world.

The countless sweet photos of her smiling at babies showed Mother Teresa to be a single-minded advocate for the poor. But she was a woman with a will whose strength has been matched by few souls in history. Mother Teresa broke death’s stranglehold on the poor of Calcutta, and she showed us how to conquer the sin and darkness in what she called the “slums of the hearts of modern man.”

Part biography and part spiritual reading, these pages bring to light little-known stories from Mother Teresa’s life that will help you to grow in your love of God. You will learn her approach to reading Scripture, what enabled her to persevere through agonizing nights, and the remarkable — some would say mystical — events that led her to start the Missionaries of Charity.

In considering Mother Teresa, her private visions, and her secret sufferings, David Scott has discovered scores of early episodes and chance encounters that point to later, larger meanings. These remarkable patterns, he suggests, show that Mother Teresa’s life was choreographed from above, as if a divine script had been written for her from before her birth.

In these pages, you will meet for the first time the Mother Teresa who challenged the ancient Goddess of Death and became the first saint of our global village. You will read her long-secret letters describing the dark nights of her soul. The woman you will meet is one that God Himself sent to you as a clear sign that despite pain and suffering in our lives and in our world, God’s good love will prevail . . . beginning in the slums of our hearts.

We are all called to holiness, and the saints are sent to us as “real life” examples of God’s love. With Mother Teresa as your guide, you’ll learn how to follow God’s call and find holiness in a world marked by the shadow of death and growing indifference to God. Indeed, you’ll learn how to be an everyday missionary of Christ’s love in the ordinary activities of your daily life.

David Scott is the current Vice Chancellor of Communications in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and former Editor of Our Sunday Visitor. Scott has published several books, including studies of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Dorothy Day. Hundreds of his essays and articles have appeared in journals and periodicals throughout the world, including the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, as well as National Review, Commonweal, Crisis, Inside the Vatican, National Catholic Register, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Beliefnet.com and elsewhere. Scott holds a master’s degree in religion and scripture from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

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Susan Conroy reflects on her friendship with Mother Teresa, which began when she was 21 and traveled to Calcutta to volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity. She recalls the joy and peace that radiated from Mother Teresa’s presence, describing it as an encounter with holiness that overflowed into her own service among the poor and suffering. Susan highlights Mother Teresa’s humility, noting that despite global recognition and awards, she lived with deep self-forgetfulness, seeing herself only as a simple instrument in God’s hands. This humility revealed a profound truth about sanctity: greatness is found in becoming small, gentle, and surrendered to God’s will.

The discussion also explores the themes found in Susan’s book Praying with Mother Teresa, which shares the prayers and spiritual practices Mother Teresa lived daily. Mother Teresa taught that the first vocation of every person, including her own sisters, is to belong to Christ, and from that relationship flows the mission of serving others. She invites us to see their own “Calcutta” in family, home, and community, where acts of love, patience, and kindness are most needed. Through stories and insights, Susan conveys that Mother Teresa’s legacy is not merely admiration but imitation—living a mission of love rooted in humility, prayer, and closeness to Christ.

Praying with Mother Teresa brings us into the heart of Mother Teresa’s prayer life! Author Susan Conroy, a personal friend of Mother Teresa, gives us a meditative look at Mother Teresa’s insights on suffering, joy, peace, humility, and poverty, and brings us right into the prayer life of one of the most beloved women of our time, Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Each prayer has been carefully, and prayerfully, selected for use in daily prayer. Mother Teresa gave Susan her blessing and approval to share these words and prayers with others “to bring them peace and joy too.”

In the summer of 1986, 21-year-old Susan Conroy journeyed to Calcutta alone to help the Missionaries of Charity. She developed a personal friendship with Mother Teresa that lasted throughout the course of 11 years, until Mother Teresa was called home to God. Susan is the author of nine books, including bestselling Mother Teresa’s Lessons of Love & Secrets of Sanctity, and lives in Portland, Maine.

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Dr. Peter Kreeft joins Kris McGregor to discuss his book I Burned for Your Peace: Augustine’s Confessions Unpacked. He describes St. Augustine as both passionate and brilliant, a rare union of heart and intellect. This blend makes the Confessions timeless—deeply personal yet profoundly theological. The book is written as a prayer, which gives it burning honesty, since St. Augustine is speaking directly to God. The famous line, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” is its central theme, showing how St. Augustine’s restless search for truth, meaning, and joy ultimately led him to God through divine grace. His journey of confronting sin, wrestling with doubts, and being guided by his mother St. Monica demonstrates both his humanity and his uniqueness, while also reflecting the universal struggles of every person.

As a guide through St. Augustine’s work, Dr. Kreeft compares the Confessions to a Christmas tree that he helps decorate without obscuring its beauty. St. Augustine’s humility, honesty, and recognition of suffering is essential for spiritual growth. Augustine shows that life is a story with a beginning, middle, and end directed toward God, and his conversion reveals that no one can reach this destiny without grace. His mystical experiences, struggles with evil, and deep relationship with God illustrate both the darkness of sin and the light of divine love. For Dr. Kreeft, reading St. Augustine is not just encountering a saint of the past but a companion for today, someone who reveals what it means to be fully human and fully oriented toward God.

Popular author and philosopher Peter Kreeft delves into one of the most beloved Christian classics of all time–Augustine’s Confessions. He collects key passages and offers incisive commentary, making Confessions accessible to any reader who is both intellectually curious and spiritually hungry.

The Confessions is a dramatic personal narrative of a soul choosing between eternal life and death, an exploration of the timeless questions great minds have been asking for millennia, and a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. I Burned for Your Peace is not a scholarly work but an unpacking of the riches found in Augustine’s text. It is existential, personal, and devotional, as well as warm, witty, and thought-provoking. With Kreeft to guide them, readers of the Confessions can overhear and understand the intimate conversation between a towering intellect and the God whose peace he at last humbly accepts.

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, is one of the most respected and prolific Christian authors of our time. His books cover a vast array of topics in spirituality, theology, and philosophy. They include Doors in the Walls of the World, The Greatest Philosopher Who Ever Lived, How to Be Holy, Because God Is Real, You Can Understand the Bible, and Summa of the Summa.

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Sarah Park-McLaughlin and Kris McGregor centers on McLaughlin’s book Praying with St. Augustine, a collection of the saint’s prayers drawn from his sermons and writings. McLaughlin shares how she began gathering these prayers decades ago after being moved by hearing them at a retreat. Despite initial rejections from publishers, she felt guided to persevere, and Sophia Institute Press eventually published the collection. St. Augustine’s prayers are timeless, personal, and deeply moving, often combining Scripture with heartfelt cries for mercy, praise, and understanding. McLaughlin highlights how Augustine’s humility and honesty about his struggles make him relatable, not a distant “plaster saint.”

The book explores St. Augustine’s life and impact: his conversion through the prayers of his mother, St. Monica; his role as bishop in North Africa; his defense of the faith against heresies; and his enduring influence on the Church through writings like The City of God and Confessions. McLaughlin notes that his prayers are varied—ranging from praise to petition to meditations on divine mysteries—and can serve as guides for anyone seeking a deeper prayer life. She stresses that the book is both devotional and instructional, accessible to those new to Augustine as well as lifelong students of his work, offering prayers that draw us into a more intimate relationship with God.

“For years, there have been no books of St. Augustine’s prayers available. Finally, in this treasure trove, you will find select prayers from his works — some of the most potent prayers ever composed. As you read the innermost thoughts of the greatest Church Father, you will be transported in time and learn how to pray with the heart of a saint. St. Augustine’s timeless words will help you encounter the “Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new” face-to-face and experience the relationship between praying and believing.

As Dr. Kreeft explains, “No Christian writer, perhaps no writer at all, has ever been as eloquent as St. Augustine. Few have been as philosophically and theologically profound, or as passionately in love with God…. No passages in Augustine’s writings are more eloquent than his prayers, or more profound than his prayers, or more saintly than his prayers, for prayer is the very lifeblood of sanctity.”

These precious gems are uplifting and accessible to all. Covering a range of topics and styles, they include praise and petition for health, docility, forgiveness, restoration, and salvation. You will also find prayers glorifying the Trinity’s attributes, such as wisdom, light, goodness, mercy, and truth, as well as intimate prayers of adoration to the Incarnate Word.

Offering these magnificent prayers will ready you to behold glimpses into the mystery of God. St. Augustine will teach you:

The three valuable lessons Jesus taught us about prayer

When you pray these prayers fervently you will join forces with the entire company of Heaven in a litany of endless worship and praise. St. Augustine taught that prayer makes you ready to receive God’s blessings. As you pray with St. Augustine, be prepared to be blessed!”

Sarah Park McLaughlin, Former humor columnist, author of My Humor Writing Journal [Amazon] and retired university English teacher, love Catholicism, apologetics, C. S. Lewis. Her blog can be found here.

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In this episode of “Inside the Pages”, Fr. Paul Hamans discusses with Kris McGregor his book Edith Stein and Companions on the Way to Auschwitz, which chronicles the lives of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and 113 other Catholic Jews who were martyred by the Nazis in retaliation for a pastoral letter written by Dutch bishops protesting the Nazi regime.

Fr. Hamans, a Church history professor in the Netherlands, reminds listeners of the importance of remembering these martyrs, whose sacrifices were both an act of faith and a stand against Nazi atrocities. He highlights the deep spiritual significance of these lives, their willingness to suffer for their faith, and the ongoing legacy of their witness. In addition, he addresses the impact of the Dutch bishops’ resistance, the persecution faced by Jewish converts to Catholicism, and the profound example set by Edith Stein and others who embraced their crosses in service to God and the Church.

“On the same summer day in 1942, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and hundreds of other Catholic Jews were arrested in Holland by the occupying Nazis. One hundred thirteen of those taken into custody, several of them priests and nuns, perished at Auschwitz and other concentration camps. They were murdered in retaliation for the anti-Nazi pastoral letter written by the Dutch Catholic bishops.

While Saint Teresa Benedicta is the most famous member of this group, having been canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998, all of them deserve the title of martyr, for they were killed not only because they were Jews but also because of the faith of the Church, which had compelled the Dutch bishops to protest the Nazi regime.

Through extensive research in both original and secondary sources, P.W.F.M. Hamans has compiled these martyrs’ biographies, several of them detailed and accompanied by photographs. Included in this volume are some remarkable conversion stories, including that of Edith Stein, the German philosopher who had entered the Church in 1922 and later became a Carmelite nun, taking the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Several of the witnesses chronicled here had already suffered for their faith in Christ before falling victim to Hitler’s “Final Solution”, enduring both rejection by their own people, including family members, and persecution by the so-called Christian society in which they lived. Among these were those who, also like Sister Teresa Benedicta, perceived the cross they were being asked to bear and accepted it willingly for the salvation of the world.”

Fr. Paul Hamans is a diocesan priest in Roermond, Netherlands, where he teaches Church history at the seminary there. He has a doctorate in history from the University of Augsburg, Germany, and is an expert on the Dutch martyrs of the twentieth century. His other publications include History of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands.

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In this episode of “Inside the Pages”, Kris McGregor and Anne Costa discuss Anne’s book, Embracing Edith Stein: Wisdom for Women from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, which aims to introduce Edith Stein’s rich spirituality to a broader audience and her significance for women today.

Describing Edith Stein’s life, from her birth in Germany as the youngest of 11 children, through her rise as a prominent philosopher, to her eventual conversion to Catholicism inspired by the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and the example of devout Catholics; Edith’s intellectual journey was marked by a deep pursuit of truth, which eventually led her to Catholicism and a vocation as a Carmelite nun.

Edith’s writings, particularly on the nature and mission of women, are highlighted as deeply relevant today. Her thoughts on the complementarity of men and women, the importance of self-possession for women, and the need to balance intellectual and spiritual life resonate strongly in contemporary times. The podcast underscores how her wisdom, grounded in both personal experience and profound faith, offers practical guidance for modern women.

“Embracing Edith Stein shows how the different aspects of the life and teachings of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross can serve as a guide for women and their unique vocation today. Written in a friendly, conversational style, this is one woman sharing the story of her friendship with this saint with her readers.”

Anne Costa is a Catholic author and speaker with five books published including Embracing Edith Stein: Wisdom for Women from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Servant) and Refresh Me Lord! Meditations to Renew a Women’sSpirit (The Word Among Us Press). She works with two apostolates: Sacred Heart Apostolate, Inc. as communications officer and the John Paul II Center for Women, Inc. Anne is a wife and mother, and enjoys traveling, painting and Eucharistic adoration.

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