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Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor explore the why, how, and what of “prayer”.  In this episode, they explore the healing nature of prayer.  They discuss how the role of forgiveness in our daily prayer.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Okay. One of the things that often kind of holds people back is their own sinfulness, and sinfulness can be quite embarrassing in life. You know where they say that things that happen in secret, in the dark places, we often don’t want to see in the light. You know? And our own broken sinfulness can make us blush at times and can cause us to step back from prayer and step back from God and say, “Well, God’s not interested in me.” I just want you to know that there is nothing that you can’t share with God. There is no weakness, brokenness, sinfulness that can’t be shared with him, because he is not going to judge us in prayer. He’s going to just love us in prayer.

So whatever is holding you back, whatever is causing you to step away from prayer, that’s what you need to bring to God in prayer. So don’t let there be any barriers between yourself and God or any secrets between yourself and God. And if you can share the secrets, the wounded, broken, embarrassing secrets of our life with God in prayer, then your life is at rights. You know? You have nothing to fear, so don’t hold back. Start today.

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland, and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

The post HP4 – Prayer and Forgiveness – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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In this series Fr. Donald Haggerty and Kris McGregor discuss the depths of prayer as explored by St. John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor of the Church.  In this episode, conversation leads to the experience of the Dark Nights often associated with St. John of the Cross

An excerpt from St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation 

What can be the reason for this experience in prayer? Saint John of the Cross affirms that supernatural faith, inasmuch as it places us in an immediate contact with God, affects the intellect in a strangely painful way with the onset of contemplative graces. The truths of revelation that the intellect embraces in faith now seem to surpass comprehension in a manner unlike any previous experience in prayer. A deeper understanding of theological faith can explain why this occurs. It is inadequate to conceive of our faith as simply an assent by our mind to truths that are then held securely with personal conviction. This is not at all the full picture. On a very personal level, in our relations with God himself, faith is a kind of real conduit into the actual mystery of God. As a theological virtue, it unites the intellect quite directly and immediately to the mystery of God. The effect of this union, depending on a soul’s closeness to God, is to stretch the intellect beyond what it can assimilate in its natural capacity. The result in the time of interior prayer is a painful experience of obscurity within the intellect toward the God of ultimate mystery known personally in faith. This is not an experience of dark doubts about God. Rather, it is as though a light has begun to shine too brightly, preventing our eyes from seeing what is there in front of us. The closer we approach the light of God, the more his presence blinds us. The ordinary act of comprehension in regard to natural objects of knowledge does not function in this way. But when the knowledge is of God himself in his immediate personal presence to the soul, the consequence is vastly different.

Haggerty, Donald. Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation (pp. 67-68). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in this series visit Fr. Haggerty’s Discerning Hearts page here

You find the book on which this series is based here

The post SJC3 – Contemplative Faith: Certitude in Darkness – St. John of the Cross with Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer”.  In this episode, they explore the healing nature of prayer.  They examine the many wounds we can bring to our prayer and the Father’s great desire to heal our pain.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Kris McGregor

Prayer requires a soul to be vulnerable in order to ask the Lord to help enlighten you about areas that He sees that we’re kind of closing our eye. It’s not something that we’re maybe intentionally doing, but again, just asking the Lord, “Okay, help me. Help me to see what you see to help me to understand how you understand me.”

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Oh, I think so. I think even making that prayer your own. Like, “Lord, help me to see myself as you see me.” Because one thing we can become used to our sin and our brokenness that we don’t even notice that it’s having an effect in our lives and our sinfulness can really affect the way we live our life each and every day. We can sometimes get used to, I go out to meet my friends, I can be a bit ratty and a bit snappy or that kind sort of actually look, that’s me. Or I should be making a cup of tea for someone doing a job, but look, I’m used to my own kind of comfort and that kind of stuff. Or I really find it hard to stand up in front of people and talk and like that’s just me. I can’t do that because no one will want to hear me or whatever it is that we’re really grappling with.

Honesty around that helps us to recognize, “Well, actually, Lord, what’s stopping me from doing this? What’s the blockage that’s in my life that’s causing me to maybe think of myself or to wallow in self-pity or to think of myself before others. Like what’s broken and wounded in myself that’s causing me to act in this way? Because I really want to be a generous person. I want to be a loving person. I want to be a person of joy and hope in the world, but there’s something holding me back and I’m just not really sure what’s holding me back. So please enlighten me to the area of my life that’s causing me to be weighed down so that I can allow you in to heal.”

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

The post HP3 – The Healing Nature of Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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In this series Fr. Donald Haggerty and Kris McGregor discuss the depths of prayer as explored by St. John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor of the Church.

Here is the excerpt from the The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross that Fr. Haggerty references in the podcast:

Songs of the soul in the intimate communication of loving union with God.

We encounter the importance of seeking a contentment with nothing other than God in many places in Saint John of the Cross’ writings. Shortly after introducing the image of the faculties as “deep caverns of feeling” in The Living Flame of Love, for instance, he affirms that a primary impediment to contemplation occurs when attachments cling to us and are repeatedly sought instead of our seeking God himself. These attachments are always contrary to accepting a contentment with having nothing: “Any little thing that adheres to them in this life is sufficient to so burden and bewitch them that they do not perceive the harm or note the lack of their immense goods, or know their own capacity” (LF 3.18). The words are a strong admonition. It takes very little to upset and block the proper dynamism of a holy pursuit of God in or out of the life of prayer. We can end up living unaware of the harm inflicted by very common tendencies that, in effect, keep us from being content with having nothing, that is, nothing but God. We have a capacity for greatness, for being filled with the love of God in our prayer. Yet we may live our hours of prayer like restless marauders in a search for prizes or enjoyments worth very little, seeking for delights that satisfy us only in negligible and fleeting ways. Without an awakening by which God becomes a passionate pursuit engaging our life’s entire intensity, our soul can descend easily to a dull caricature of its actual potency. As Saint John of the Cross writes:

It is an amazing thing that the least of these goods is enough so to encumber these faculties, capable of infinite goods, that they cannot receive these infinite goods until they are completely empty, as we shall see. Yet when these caverns are empty and pure, the thirst, hunger, and yearning of the spiritual feeling is intolerable. Since these caverns have deep stomachs, they suffer profoundly; for the food they lack, which as I say is God, is also profound. (LF 3.18)

Haggerty, Donald. Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation (pp. 48-49). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in this series visit Fr. Haggerty’s Discerning Hearts page here

You find the book on which this series is based here

The post SJC2 – Caverns of Longing within the Soul – St. John of the Cross with Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer”.  In this episode, they explore a creating space for prayer.  They also reflect on the witness of Servant of God Dorothy Day.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

The post HP2 – Creating Space for Prayer – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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In this opening episode of St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation, Fr. Donald Haggerty introduces St. John of the Cross as one of the Church’s greatest guides to the interior life, not only for mystics, but for every soul called to deeper union with God. He explains that St. John’s teaching is not meant to discourage or intimidate, but to illuminate the path of prayer, purification, love, and contemplative grace. Through this conversation, listeners are drawn into the mystery of God’s hiddenness, the indwelling presence of the Trinity within the soul, and the longing for the Beloved that deepens authentic prayer.

Guided by questions from Kris McGregor, Fr. Haggerty reflects on the Spiritual Canticle, the suffering and beauty of longing for God, and the remarkable witness of St. John composing luminous poetry in the darkness of imprisonment. He shows that contemplation is not a technique to master, but a relationship of love in which the soul is quietly drawn toward God through desire, silence, sacrifice, and grace. This first episode offers a rich introduction to St. John of the Cross and an invitation to seek God more deeply in prayer and daily life.

Here is the excerpt from the Spiritual Canticle by St. John of the Cross that Fr. Haggerty references in the podcast:

SONG OF THE SOUL AND THE BRIDEGROOM

I

Where have You hidden Yourself,

II

O shepherds, you who go

III

In search of my Love

IV

O groves and thickets

Where have you hidden,

I went out calling you, but you were gone. This initial stanza of “The Spiritual Canticle” unlocks the bolt of a door, allowing us a first glimpse at the soul of Saint John of the Cross and his intense love for God. In these opening lines of a lengthy poem, we hear the agonized voice of a lover tormented by her solitude, in a terrible suffering after the departure of her Beloved. The piercing lament of the bride, wounded in the depth of her soul, is an image of the lover of God who seeks for his return after earlier enjoying his close presence. The mood of loneliness in the poem will shift over the course of its forty stanzas to a recognition of the Beloved’s presence even in his concealment. But for now, as the poem commences, the pain is strong and irremediable. Many of the stanzas of this exquisite poem, full of lush natural images, were composed by Saint John of the Cross without pen or paper, the stanzas kept in his memory, while he was locked in a windowless, six-by-ten-foot converted closet, with only a thin slit of light high up in a wall. That room served as a makeshift prison cell in the Calced Carmelite Friars’ monastery in Toledo, Spain, for nine months of his life, from December 1577 until August 1578. Only in the very last period of the nine months did he receive pen and paper from a sympathetic friar serving as his jailer and write down verses. He later recounted to Carmelite nuns that another important poem, “The Dark Night”, was completed before he left that prison cell.

Haggerty, Donald. Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation (pp. 18-19). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

For more episodes in this series, visit Fr. Haggerty’s Discerning Hearts page here

You can find the book on which this series is based here

The post SJC1 – The Hiding Place of the Beloved – St. John of the Cross with Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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Fr. Éamonn Bourke and Kris McGregor discuss the why, how, and what of “prayer.”  In this episode, they explore the nature of prayer and responding to the call of relationship with God.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

We pick up messages from our upbringing, from our surroundings, from the people around us that robs of our peace and developers of that dignity. No human person is perfect. And the way they relate to us will always be imperfect. And the way we relate to other people will be imperfect. But the beautiful thing is that we have a Father who is perfect and who relates to us in a most perfect and beautiful way, and that who we can relate to. And I suppose the beginning point for me in prayer is really recognizing that which we’re carrying, which is vulnerable and weak, and which is weighing us down. And that’d be the beginning point of our prayer. We often think when we go to pray after like put on a smiling face and my life have to be perfect. And I have to say nice words.

Some of the greatest prayers, the prayer that comes from the heart, and, and even to say to God, look, Lord, I’m a frail and vulnerable person. I I’ve picked up a message in my life that I’m overweight and that, that there’s something wrong with me or I’m too shy or I I’m, I’m no good as a person. This is what I’ve picked up from the world. And I’m, I’m just really sharing that with you this morning and the pain that that brings me and the energy it saps for my life. And it, it makes me look at myself and, um, that’s my gift to you this morning, my frail broken, vulnerable weakness. And I’m offering to you as a gift. And I know you as a perfect loving father can transform this broken, frail, weak part of myself, into something beautiful that handing this gift over to God, God can bring something incredibly beautiful from even the most broken wounded state in life. I’ve complete confidence in this. So in some ways we don’t have to put a perfect face on before God when we pray, because he wants to see us and hear his words and all he wants to, in some ways, the broken, weak, vulnerable, embarrassed parts of our life, the stuff that we’re embarrassed to share with anyone else God has already in there. And he’s literally inviting us in to, to open it up, to share it with him so that he can pour his grace into or hurts.

Kris McGregor:

Another important aspect of the why we should pray to him is that sometimes we carry an anger. There may be something that has made us so darkened, anger that even though it’s red hot, sometimes it’s like red, and yet it may be at a person or at parents or something. But oftentimes when you go even deeper, you’re angry with God. Why should I pray to him? And I’ve prayed and he hasn’t answered me. Or why should I do that? Because he’s only going to punish me if I open myself up to him, that can be a real concern for some can’t it Father.

Fr. Éamonn Bourke:

Absolutely. It can be a very deep concern for people because as I said, human life is not easy. And we have, uh, problems and trials. We have times of illness, we have times of bereavement and that can affect us on the physical level, on the emotional level. And most importantly, on the spiritual level. And it can create can anger in our hearts. Remember, my, my own mother died this time last year. And even just coming to terms with the grief for loss, I began to realize myself that there was an anger myself towards God,, that he’d taken her and she’d suffered quite a lot in her life. And just realizing that that anger was there was in a self, a beautiful gift that God enlightened me to see that, okay, I am. So what do I do with this anger? I tell God, I’m angry. I can bring this to the God who loves me and I can share it with him. And I can tell God I’m angry with you, or I’m disappointed with you, or I feel, I feel abandoned by you at times, you know, so we can be completely honest with him in this, whatever is really holding us back and that deep anger within ourselves.  Often when we’re upset or anxious, we can bury things down and we can, we can try and cover it up and we can try to force it down, but it doesn’t go away. The wound is still there and unless we can really bring it into our, into light and bring it out to God and share it with them, it’s going to become like a festering wound within our hearts. It’s always going to rob of our peace. You know, they always say to error is human and to forgive divine. So the forgiveness is really a gift from God and a grace from God. And if we pray for that gift of being free, to be able to forgive and to allow anger to go, from his heart flows, that beautiful gift of the energy and the grace.

Father Éamonn Bourke is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland and served as Vocations Director for the diocese, as well as Pastor in a number of its parishes. Trained as a spiritual director in the contemplative style, he now serves as Chaplain to University College, Dublin, the largest University in Ireland.

The post HP1 – What is Prayer? – The Heart of Prayer with Fr. Éamonn Bourke – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Episode 6 St. Catherine of Siena: Her Life and Teachings with Fr. Thomas McDermott

In this episode, Fr. McDermott aids in our understanding of St. Catherine’s teachings on the “Blood of Christ” and its context from Sacred Scripture and Medieval sensibilities.  He discusses “The Christ Bridge” as a central image in St. Catherine’s writings and one’s spiritual journey.  The flowering of baptismal grace is exemplified in this teaching.

Fr. Thomas McDermott, OP is Regent of Studies for the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great and is the author of “Catherine of Siena: Spiritual Development in Her Life and Teaching” (Paulist, 2008) and “Filled with all the Fullness of God: An Introduction to Catholic Spirituality”. He obtained a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Angelicum and taught for several years at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. He currently serves as pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer, in Chicago, IL.

The post SCS6 – “The Precious Blood”, “The Christ Bridge” and other topics – St. Catherine of Siena with Fr. Thomas McDermott O.P. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

This is a special edition of the reflection offered by Fr. Timothy Gallagher on the “Contemplation to Attain the love of God” by St. Ignatius of Loyola as found in the “Spiritual Exercises.” What we original provided to you as two separate episodes, we now combine into a single extended episode without interruption. We hope this will enhance your experience of this Ignatian exercise.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, [1914], at sacred-texts.com

Note. First, it is well to remark two things: the first is that love ought to be put more in deeds than in words.

The second, love consists in the interchange between the two parties; that is to say in the lover’s giving and communicating to the beloved what he has or out of what he has or can; and so contrary, the beloved to the lover. So that if the one has the knowledge, he gives to the one who has it not. The same of honors, of riches; and so the one to the other.

Prayer. The usual Prayer.

First Prelude. The first Prelude is a composition, which is here to see how I am standing before God our Lord, and of the Angels and of the Saints interceding for me.

Second Prelude. The second, to ask for what I want. It will be here to ask for interior knowledge of so great good received, in order that being entirely grateful, I may be able in all to love and serve His Divine Majesty.

First Point. The First Point is, to bring to memory the benefits received, of Creation, Redemption and particular gifts, pondering with much feeling how much God our Lord has done for me, and how much He has given me of what He has, and then the same Lord desires to give me Himself as much as He can, according to His Divine ordination.

And with this to reflect on myself, considering with much reason and justice, what I ought on my side to offer and give to His Divine Majesty, that is to say, everything that is mine, and myself with it, as one who makes an offering with much feeling:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my intellect, and all my will — all that I have and possess. Thou gavest it to me: to Thee, Lord, I return it! All is Thine, dispose of it according to all Thy will. Give me Thy love and grace, for this is enough for me.

Second Point. The second, to look how God dwells in creatures, in the elements, giving them being, in the plants vegetating, in the animals feeling in them, in men giving them to understand: and so in me, giving me being, animating me, giving me sensation and making me to understand; likewise making a temple of me, being created to the likeness and image of His Divine Majesty; reflecting as much on myself in the way which is said in the first Point, or in another which I feel to be better. In the same manner, will be done on each Point which follows.

Third Point. The third, to consider how God works and labors for me in all things created on the face of the earth — that is, behaves like one who labors — as in the heavens, elements, plants, fruits, cattle, etc., giving them being, preserving them, giving them vegetation and sensation, etc.

Then to reflect on me.

Fourth Point. The fourth, to look how all the good things and gifts descend from above, as my poor power from the supreme and infinite power from above; and so justice, goodness, pity, mercy, etc.; as from the sun descend the rays, from the fountain the waters, etc.

Then to finish reflecting on myself, as has been said.

I will end with a Colloquy and an OUR FATHER.

Be sure to check out Fr. Timothy Gallaghers latest book

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:   frtimothygallagher.org

The post SPECIAL EDITION – The Contemplation to Attain the Love of God – complete/without interruption w/ Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

In this compelling conversation with Deacon James Keating, a spiritual master of the highest order, we discuss those things that block us from having a closer relationship with God. We also discuss the importance of making time for Lectio Divina, living in the liturgy of the Church, and the danger of letting prayer become too complex.

Abiding in Christ: Staying with God in a Busy World is a wonderful how-to-pray resource. This book helps readers to find a quiet space wherein they can be present to God and offers suggestions of how they can be more open to God’s movement within them. We highly recommend this book to those souls seeking a deeper relationship with God.

You can find the book here

Here are excerpts from our conversation in the podcast –

Sin, to some extent, possesses us, usually at the level of pleasure. Even if you think about the sin of anger, it always seems like it’s mayhem, but it’s actually pleasurable. People get a rush out of being angry. They get a rush out of being greedy. There’s a pleasure in sloth, in daydreaming, in fantasizing, in not doing the duty or the work we’re supposed to do right in front of us. There’s a pleasure in sloth.

And so that pleasure is the glue, the adhesive that keeps us in love with our sins. And that’s what God is alwaying fighting. He’s trying to displace that false love that we have set up by the way of pleasure.  God knows that pleasure is not the deepest reality of existence. And so he’s not going to play the game back and like trump the pleasure of sin. He is going to attract us away from the pleasure of sin, by the beauty of truth.

As Joseph Ratizinger used to say, “The face of God, is the beauty of God’s face.” What’s that mean? That means that the truth, the radiance of truth will eventually win us over even against the strong undertow of sin’s pleasure. If we give him a chance, spend time with him, open our hearts to be affected by him, then over time, this beauty of his own face, the truth of who God is will move us away from the immediacy, the gratification of the pleasure that’s hiding within all of our sins. And that’s what salvation is. Salvation is finally surrendering to truth and its beauty over and against the fleeting pleasure of self-involvement

also

The liturgy is your participation in being loved and loving back. Catechesisis not learning in a classroom style. It’s learning how to pray. If we don’t learn how to pray, we won’t even be interested in the catechism. Why would you be interested in the catechism if you don’t know the person whose voluminous beauty fills the catechism? Why would you want to open that book?

The Catechism at its heart is learning how to be with Him, to receive Him. And then your intellect is a flame to want to know Him. We do it backwards. We’ve always done it backwards. I don’t know for how long, but since my birth, we’ve done it backwards. Reducing the mystery to academics. And that’s inherently boring because to study anybody you don’t know, to study anyone that you have no motivation to learn about, is boredom. So we have to let them be burned by the fire first. This is why to some extent, parishes have to be remodeled. Maybe God is doing this by making our parishes so much smaller.

People are leaving. They’re not saying this. They’re leaving because they’re bored. They’re leaving because they haven’t encountered. They’re leaving because they don’t know God. And they’re looking for God, but maybe we have to make our parishes more like retreat centers than some type of bureaucratic paperwork center where you go through and get certified to receive this sacrament or that sacrament. It has to be more of a retreat encounter so that people will want to know God because they’ve met to God.

The post IP#484 – Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Abiding in Christ on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.