The Bridegroom Speaks

Laura talks with Hope's Garden Spiritual Advisor, Father Michael Stalla about the faithfulness of God, despite the repeated unfaithfulness of His people (including you and me). They begin with a look at the historical and religious context surrounding the writing of The Song of Songs in the Old Testament. The Song was written during the time of King Solomon, which was Israel’s greatest time of prosperity. Yet, as prophesied by Hosea, the time comes when they lose it all, due to their unfaithfulness to God. Then as now, God call to us, return to Me with all your heart! 

Laura concludes this episode with a beautiful Act of Contrition that she wrote, which professes our repentance and desire to reconcile our hearts once again, to our One True Eternal Love.

Laura shares reflections and a meditation around verse 2:14 of The Song of Songs: "My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful." Jesus sees how we hide the hurting or sinful parts of ourselves and He gently calls out to us...Come my love, you are safe with Me.

In His longed-for shade I am seated and His fruit is sweet to my taste. - The Song of Songs 2:3. We can rest in our Bridegroom's shade and protection no matter the season we find ourselves in. Listen to Laura share beautiful poetic explanations of this verse of The Song of Songs, with excerpts from St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

Hope's Garden Spiritual Advisor, Father Michael Stalla, shares beautiful truths of Jesus' presence and love during our times of trial and suffering.

The Bridegroom of our souls desires to heal us, to sanctify our memories and our stories, to restore all the has been stolen from us. He turns our ashes to beauty! He awaits our coming to Him for He is the Perfect Gentleman and restrains His desire to come to us until we have given our free consent and invited Him into the heart of our hearts. Listen Now!

On Friday December 11, 2020, Hope's Garden held the first Bridegroom Prayer Service and Public Consecration, followed by the celebration of Mass. Father Michael Stalla, Pastor of Ss. Cosmas & Damian Parish in Twinsburg Ohio hosted the evening. In episode 10 of The Bridegroom Speaks Podcast, we share Father's amazing homily with our listeners. Listen Now!

In this episode, Laura and De chat about journeying through the desert of Advent. How is the Advent desert different from the Lenten desert? And what happens when we spend time with Jesus, barren of distraction and noise, and come up out of the desert leaning only on our Beloved? Listen now!

In this episode, Laura leads a small group of women into a discussion of God's Divine Love Song, The Song of Songs.

In this episode, Laura reminds us that to be authentic means to mirror the original. Therefore, authentic love must imitate Original Love, which is God. To give love authentically in any of our own relationships requires that we first come to know Love Himself and let Him love us.  Come, sit at the Bridegroom's feet and experience the true love He has for you.

In this episode, Laura explains the rich and beautiful meaning of each line in the first poem of The Song of Songs. What a beautiful duet being sung between our souls and our One True Eternal Love, Christ the Bridegroom.

One of the features here at Hope's Garden is our Brides of Christ groups, which are heart-led studies into The Song of Songs to come to know Christ our Bridegroom. In these studies, we use a guidebook called, The Cantata of Love, a Verse by Verse Reading of The Song of Songs, by Blaise Arminjon, S.J. (available at Ignatius Press).