“[Remedy for atheism is] achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master them….this faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer’s entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love…” GAUDIUM ET SPES

Blessed John Paul II was a master communicator and a shining witness to the love and mercy of God. How can his example help us to proclaim the Gospel effectively in the 21st Century?

In this episode of Living the Legacy, Sister Bernadette explores:

•  The role of language in building relationships and proclaiming the Gospel

•  The importance of personal witness in the work of evangelisation

•  Our need to be people of courage and faith

•  How confronting the reality of our own weakness can allow God to work through us

•  The role of Mary in the life of faith

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Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post Giving Witness to Christ in the 21st Century appeared first on Cradio.

Many of us have been there: trying to explain Church teaching to someone with a different view, only to get a bit emotional and cause them to shut off completely.  How can we help people make the right choices while respecting their freedom? How can we achieve dialogue without compromising the truth?

Blessed John Paul II was called a ‘master of creating dialogue’. He had discovered that dialogue was essential in being a true missionary of the Gospel.

In this episode of Living the Legacy, Sister Bernadette explores:

•  The importance of learning to affirm others and recognise commonalities

•  How building unity can help us share our faith more effectively

•  Why all dialogue must lead to evangelisation

•  The critical difference between proposing the truth and imposing it.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save)(25 mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post How to Achieve Dialogue Without Compromising Truth appeared first on Cradio.

“In the weakness of the sick I saw emerging ever more clearly a new strength: the strength of mercy”.

It’s not easy to be with someone who is suffering. You might find yourself lost for words, feeling guilty, frustrated or uncomfortable. What can we learn from Blessed John Paul II on how to approach these situations?

In this episode of Living the Legacy, Sister Bernadette explores:

•  How to listen and be present without trying to find a solution

•   Learning to enter into the other person’s suffering by reflecting on our own experiences

• Respecting the freedom of the other: not trying to make their decisions for them, but trusting in God and helping the person to exercise their free will.

•  Accepting that you don’t have all the answers and that you always have something to learn from the person you’re with.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (25 mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post How to be Present to Your Suffering Friend appeared first on Cradio.

How well do you love each person the Lord puts in front of you? Think of the person at the train station asking for change, or the door knocker who turns up at the most inconvenient time… do you see a person or a problem?

In this second part of Sister Bernadette’s exploration of attention to the other we look at:

• How Blessed John Paul II challenges us to affirm each person as unique and unrepeatable;

• Our tendency to neglect the person by overemphasising the problem;

• How we can follow Blessed JPII’s example and make ourselves truly available to others,  and

• The importance of prayer in achieving this.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (24:50 mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post Learn to Love Like JPII appeared first on Cradio.

Do you find yourself avoiding eye contact with that person in the elevator? Or passing by strangers on your morning walk without so much as a ‘hello’? How is it possible that we live in a world with unprecedented connectivity, yet we suffer an increasing inability to truly make connections?

In this episode of Living the Legacy, Sister Bernadette starts to bring the charism of Blessed John Paul II into the concrete, challenging us on how we can truly be present and attentive to others; after all, each time we welcome one person we welcome Christ.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (22:40 mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post How to Ditch Distractions and Focus on Friendships appeared first on Cradio.

“St John of the Cross knew how to introduce people to familiar conversation with God by teaching him to discover His presence and His love in all circumstances, whether favourable or unfavourable, in moments of fervour and in apparent abandonment alike.”

– Blessed John Paul II

Blessed John Paul II had a particular gift in helping others to know and love Christ- what was it? In the 5th episode of Living the Legacy, Sister Bernadette Pike looks at the importance of relationship in the work of evangelisation. She gives practical examples of how we can tap into other people’s experiences to proclaim the Gospel. She also speaks on the crucial role of dialogue, prayer and knowledge of Scripture.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (24mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post How You Can Lead Your Loved Ones to Christ appeared first on Cradio.

“It is not good that the man should be alone. ” (GEN 2:18)

Each of us at some point in our lives would have experienced the pain of loneliness and isolation. This experience is a reflection of the original solitude of Adam and shows us that man was not made to live alone, but is intended for relationship with others and with God.

In this fourth episode of Living the Legacy with Sister Bernadette Pike we explore man’s call to communion which was core to much of Blessed John Paul II’s thinking and teaching. Sister Bernadette draws from Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s The Person and Community  essays, Love and Responsibility, and the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes to deepen our understanding of this call to communion.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save)(25mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

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The post Made For Love: JPII & Our Call to Communion appeared first on Cradio.

“When Karol Wojtyła ascended to the throne of Peter, he brought with him a deep understanding of the difference between Marxism and Christianity, based on their respective visions of man. This was his message: man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man. With this message… John Paul II led the People of God across the threshold of the Third Millennium, which thanks to Christ he was able to call “the threshold of hope”.  

– Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

In this third episode of Sister Bernadette’s Living the Legacy series we explore Blessed John Paul II’s message, ‘man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man’.

Sister Bernadette looks at how the Holy Father’s experience of Nazism and Communism formed his thought, what it means to be truly human and how we can allow Christ to reveal to each one of us who we are.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (26mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

The post Blessed John Paul II and the Study of Man appeared first on Cradio.

“The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ.”

– Blessed John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis

In this second part of the introduction to Sister Bernadette’s Living the Legacy series we look at the context of Blessed John Paul II’s theological anthropology – or simply, how Blessed John Paul II has helped us to rediscover who we are in the light of Christ.

Sister Bernadette explores:

• How materialism has obscured our view of God and man

• The consequences of contemporary philosophical views such as reductionism in justifying the objectification of others

• Where man actually derives his dignity and how our understanding of this guides our decisions

• How the Second Vatican Council is helping the Church to communicate its message more effectively in the contemporary world

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (23:30mins)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

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The post Who is Man, Why Should We Care? appeared first on Cradio.

Blessed John Paul II has often been called the Thomas Aquinas of our times, a bold statement indeed! When we understand the philosophies that have underpinned contemporary thought we can see the Holy Spirit truly at work in the life and teachings of  this great Pope.

In this introductory episode of our brand new Living the Legacy series Sister Bernadette sets the scene for the contribution and charisms of the late Pontiff, answering questions such as:

• What is a charism?

Sister Bernadette outlines the major philosophical influences from the 17th Century onwards that have done serious damage to how we view God and man. She also looks at how we can share the faith in light of the example that Blessed John Paul II has given us.

DOWNLOAD (Right click to save)

Please feel free to send questions and feedback to Sister Bernadette via [email protected].

Sister Bernadette Pike MG is founding member of the Missionaries of the Gospel, a new community inspired by Blessed John Paul II. The community was founded under the guidance of Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2007, incoporating both the John Paul II Sisters and lay members. More information is available at www.mg.org.au.

The post A Pope for Our Times: Blessed John Paul II & Contemporary Thought appeared first on Cradio.