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“Easter—the resurrection of Christ! The feast of feasts! The final proof of Christ’s divinity! Easter—the first feast of the early Church, around which all the other feasts grew like stars around the sun. We celebrate Christ’s resurrection as something absolutely, fantastically beautiful that has happened, and is still happening. The fact that there is an Easter is something to be grateful for. It is such a happy feast. What can be more beautiful than this passage from death to life, real life? Now death has become a passage. A passage to what, to where, to whom? It is the passage of you to God and me to God. You walk into it and there at the end is Christ and Our Lady, the life that lasts forever and that is lived with God and his blessed Mother. Christ’s resurrection is the most joyous feast in the calendar of the Church, the one in which everything comes together. It is the greatest feast.

As you approach the church for the Vigil Mass announcing Christ’s resurrection, you will see preparations for a new fire. The fire is usually lit with a flint as it was in the old days. Ideally, the new fire is a large bonfire lit in the parking lot or other outdoor gathering place. It should be outside of the church on a dark night, because this bonfire celebrates, cries out: “Light! Out of the darkness of the tomb came Light! See! Come here, all you who were mourning. Come, all you who did not believe in God. Come, all you who never were told about God. Come and warm your hands at the fire!” The Light of Christ! This fire is the symbol of light, of warmth, the symbol of the heart of Christ and the love of Christ.”

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (p. 92). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM8 – The Feast of Feasts – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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“Fasting is the song of a soul in the process of liberation. It is a door to that dispossession which allows me to give up my will to God. Fasting is the shepherd’s crook that leads you and me on the road to the real pilgrimage to God. With that crook, one moves faster. Fasting is the following of Christ, not walking behind him, but running as men and women in love run toward him whom they love.

I am the sister of Jesus Christ, who came to do the will of the Father, and so I desire to do the will of the Father. The will of the Father can be difficult, a heavy burden on my selfishness. By fasting from all my appetites—cigarettes, food, and so forth—I finally develop my will to a strength in which I can shoulder the demands of God that seem to be so heavy on me. And I find that they are not heavy at all, because I have given up that which stood between me and God. This is our consolation. And we discover that one of the biggest by-products of fasting is a new freedom.

Here we have to make very certain that we do not think that we are appeasing God by our fasting. We do not say, “Here are my sins, Lord, and here is my payment or atonement for them.” No. We fast to seek the face of our Father. We fast because heaven is taken by violence, violence to oneself, violence to all those things in us that are not of God. A fast is to remove all that is not of God in us.”

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 48-49). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM7 – To Fast, Part Two – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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“Often during Lent, my mind turns to the reading from the prophet Isaiah that ends with the simple question: “Is this not the sort of fast that pleases me?” (Isaiah, ch 58) God evidently wants a broken, humble heart, because he says, “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” God wants not so much a giving up as a simple giving. In order to really have an open and humble heart, to give lavishly of food, love, shelter, tenderness and compassion because of this humble heart, one must give up oneself. To fast the way the Lord wants means a total surrender of self to the other and for the other.

The Lenten season is a good time to examine ourselves. Perhaps food is not our god, yet we can worship our will, which feeds our ego out of all proportion. Perhaps in the depths of our souls we might be unforgiving, hostile, angry. These are shameful things, if directed toward our neighbor. Maybe I am not too concerned with things of the world, but very much with “my thing”, my desires, and very little concerned with other people’s needs. Lent is the time to find out, because when we have broken and opened our hearts, God comes.”

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (p. 42). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM6 – To Fast, Part One – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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Repentance is a powerful word. We should use it not only in Lent but constantly, because daily we commit acts, say words, have inward movements, that we are sorry for, wish we had not said or done, and in some way wish to atone for.

That is good. It is also good to know that sin is not the immediate cause of this or that calamity. Sometimes God sends us sorrow, trials, sadness so that we repent, do penance, and turn our face to him. At times it is very hard to understand that those calamities and tragedies can make us understand the love of God, and his tenderness and mercy shine with a new shine, better than ever. Let us be reassured and let us open ourselves to whatever God sends us. A supposed calamity changes into a benediction, into something we could offer to God. Let us look at things that way; it takes faith, but you pray for faith.

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 33-34). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM5 – Repentance and Forgiveness – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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It came to me that Lent is a sort of sea of God’s mercy. In my imagination, it was warm and quiet, and inviting for us to swim in. If we did, we would be not only refreshed but cleansed, for God’s mercy cleanses as nothing else does.

Then I thought of our reticence. I do not know if it is reticence, or fear to really plunge into God’s mercy. We really want to be washed clean; we want to be forgiven. But these desires meet with something else inside. I say to myself that if I enter into that sea of mercy I will be healed, and then I will be bound to practice what Christ preaches, practice his law of love. And that law of love is painful, so terribly painful. There by that sea I stand and think. If I seek mercy, I have to dish out mercy, I have to be merciful to others. What does it mean to be merciful to others? It means to open my own heart, like a little sea, for people to swim in.

If we stand before God’s mercy and drink of it, that means the Our Father is a reality and not just a prayer that I say.

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 28-29). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM4 – The Sea of God’s Mercy – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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The fall of Adam was a felix culpa, as the Latin used to say, a “happy fault”, for it brought us Christ. Christ has come to take our sins away and reconcile us to his Father. We have a “door” and we have a “way”, and if we pass through that door and we walk along that way, we shall see the Father. Christ is our brother; he is the brother of everybody, and so that makes us all brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ made us brothers and sisters of one another and that is the tremendous essence of this thing called Christianity—we are followers of Christ, baptized into his death and resurrection. We preach the Gospel with our lives, or should, if we are Christian. (We can also preach it with our mouth, but the best way of preaching is with our lives.)

What is that Gospel? To love God with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength; to love our neighbor as ourselves. Do not ever forget the “ourselves’’ business. You cannot love me unless you love yourself. If you despise yourself, if you do not care for yourself, you despise God’s creature. You cannot love God either, if you do not love yourself. To put it another way, if you cannot love God and yourself, then how can you love me, your neighbor?

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 15-16). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM3 – Learning to Love – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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“God speaks to us through the Bible. If you are humble, simple, and direct, and love the Scriptures as something that really comes from the mind of God to bring you to his heart, then the Holy Spirit teaches you to read them. A whole new vista, a new dimension opens before you, and you enter into a world that heals you, cleanses you, washes you, makes you whole.

In repeating the Word of God and praying with it, even when it seems monotonous, there is tremendous light. We are always attracted to something that is exotic, interesting; we do not want to dwell on something that we may not understand, or which bores us. And so we pass by a whole dimension of our own life. We are willing to absorb the Scriptures if they are put before us in a pleasant way. If not, we sometimes go to sleep, don’t we? But man’s heart cannot live in a void. As you are faithful to what at first appears to be a monotony, the Holy Spirit comes and you are silently visited by the Trinity, and they become your teachers of theology—teachers about themselves, that is. For who knows more about himself than God does?”

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 12-13). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM2 – Seek God’s Will – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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“In Lent we approach a threshold where this preaching will make way for pain and surrender. We approach a reality that he has enunciated to us and that we usually take lightly: “Greater love has no man than he lays down his life for his brother.” We are going to enter the moment in which our brother Jesus Christ has laid down his life for you and me, and every human being who has ever lived in this world—for he is brother to everyone.

Each one of us can enter into his own heart and look for that desire for God. It might be a little flame barely visible, or it might already be a bonfire in us. Be that as it may, we are going to see how God loved us. This is what Lent is all about. Like Zaccheus (Luke 19: 1-10) we are going to climb a big tree of faith so as to watch that no word of those last weeks of Christ’s life passes in one ear and out the other. His every act, his every word, must be enclosed in our desire, for if we are to fulfill our desire to see him when the door of death opens (and even before, for the Kingdom of God begins now) we have to imitate him whom we are going to look at.”

Doherty, Catherine. Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter (Seasonal Customs Vol. 2) (pp. 3-4). Madonna House Publications. Kindle Edition.

Catherine Doherty was born into an aristocratic family in Russia in 1896, and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of her father’s work, she grew up in Ukraine, Egypt, and Paris. Many different strands of Christianity were woven into the spiritual fabric of her family background, but it was from the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the living faith of her father and mother, and the earthy piety of the Russian people themselves that Catherine received the powerful spiritual traditions and symbols of the Christian East. Catherine fled to England during the Russian Revolution, and was received into the Catholic Church in 1919. The cause for her canonization has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. More information about Catherine’s life, works, and the progress of her cause can be found at: www.catherinedoherty.org and www.madonnahouse.org.

Discerning Hearts is grateful to Madonna House Publications whose permission was obtained to record these audio selections from this published work.

The post SM1 – Begin with Desire – Season of Mercy: Lent and Easter by Servant of God Catherine Doherty – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.