Come Away By Yourselves
"Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." These words of Jesus Christ are an invitation to personal and intimate prayer. The meditations offered in this podcast are intended to help the listener enter into his own prayerful relationship with God. By reflecting on scenes from the Gospel, on other passages from Scripture, and on the insights of saints and spiritual writers, we can strengthen our faith in Jesus and our love for God. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I have called you my friends." By regular meditation and dialogue with Our Lord in prayer, our life can be transformed into an ever deepening and loving friendship with God.
Episodes
The Holy Spirit is all about peace. As consoler and the Spirit of Christ, the working of the Holy Spirit and his seven gifts always establish peace in our hearts and our lives. Peace is a consequence of having God as our Father, and it is the Spirit of the Son that establishes this reality in our hearts.
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Pentecost Sunday commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The Holy Spirit is an agent of conversion and purification for our life. God wants us to be "on fire" as Christians, quick to love and to do his will. Jesus promises that those who ask for the Holy Spirit will receive him, and that those who receive him receive him abundantly.
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Follow up to the class on suffering. Question and answer session.
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Suffering is an unavoidable reality in life. What light does the Christian Faith shed on the meaning of suffering? In this class we will examine the origin of suffering, its relationship to God, and how to make the most of our personal suffering in living the Christian vocation.
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Our Lady is a perfect model of holiness and love. Heading towards Pentecost, we can reflect on her relationship with her Divine Spouse, the Holy Spirit. To have God's Spirit is to have Christ's own motivation, to be inspired by the same spirit that he was. We see this in Mary, who says "Be it done unto me according to your word." The Spirit is a renewer of the soul. To have the Spirit as our spirit pays off...
Jesus encourages us to respond to our troubled hearts with trust in him and in his Father. To see Jesus is to see the Father, to know Jesus is to know the Father. Jesus's love and mercy reveal what God is truly like even more than a vision of God's power and majesty. Jesus's miracles show us that the same God who is the all powerful creator is also our savior and loving father. Our trust in God's goodness i...
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. This reality fills us with confidence in following Christ. Jesus is also the gate into the fullness of life and into eternal life. Entering this gate entails conversion. We need to leave behind whatever keeps us from following Christ. Conversion demands courage, however, because the gate to life is narrow and the path is difficult. We need courage to fight against sin, to recognize it in the firs...
"He who eats this bread will live forever." "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." In the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus makes wonderful claims about Eucharistic Communion. In Communion, we share in Jesus' resurrection and are intimately united with him. This should change the way we think about Jesus. He is not a merely figure from the past or a distant model to imitate,...
Originally published in 2021.
On Divine Mercy Sunday, we reflect on Jesus's message of peace to the Apostles in the upper room on Easter Sunday. He brings them peace and joy when they are afraid and sad. He gives them and us the means to return to peace, the sacrament of confession. God's Mercy is powerful and enduring, only our pride can keep us from experiencing its marvelous effects.
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Originally published Easter 2021
Jesus's Resurrection is the culmination of his victory over sin and death. In his death and his rising to new life Jesus defeats Satan, the great enemy of God and humanity. The Resurrection proves that God's love for us is undefeated and truly invincible. In any battle that God wants us to fight, we can be fully confident of eventual and joyful victory. Happy Easter!
The Cross of Christ is "folly to the Gentiles and a scandal to the Jews." The Crucifixion contradicts our normal expectations of who God is and how he should act. In speaking against us the Cross reveals God as radical love and sin as radical evil. The Cross even contradicted Jesus, who asked that "this cup might pass" during his prayer in the garden. Our crosses will thus also be difficult to understand an...
Jesus's death on the cross is the supreme revelation of God's love. St. Paul tells us that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ. Christ's death shows us how much he loves us and what the Father's love for Him, and for us, is like. This is a reliable love, upon which we can firmly plant all of our problems and our whole life. The cross fills us with confidence in God and our own crosses ar...
Almsgiving (charity) is one of the three traditional practices of Lent. When preaching about almsgiving, Jesus focuses on purity of intention. We should love others for their sake and for the glory of God. St. Paul paints a portrait of the Christian heart in his letter to the Ephesians. Christian charity is especially imbued with understanding of others and selflessness in service.
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On the Feast of St. Joseph, we reflect on his courage in accepting the unique responsibilities entrusted to him by God. This courage was bolstered by his trust in God and in God's plan. Joseph didn't have to understand everything to be faithful to God's will. His determination to love and protect Mary and Jesus is tied to his flexibility and detachment with respect to his own plans.
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While Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving are the three traditional practices of Lent, prayer should take priority. We learn from the example of Jesus who put prayer in the first place in his day. Like Our Lord, we should make sacrifices in order to find time to pray. Mental prayer is especially fruitful and important. To raise our minds and hearts to God is restful and reminds us that God is our father and our great friend. Lacki...
St. Paul's letter to the Romans connects justification with a state of spiritual peace. God's love for us should be a source of continual peace even amidst problems and turbulent times. This takes an effort to grow in our faith and to evaluate everything in the light of faith. Hope depends on the reality of God and his love. Paul also sees God's love for us as a source of inner and resilient joy. Knowing that G...
At twelve years of age Jesus takes initiative and responsibility for his mission. To be a man is to take life seriously. Pleasure seeking and love of comfort will keep us from being true men. Boredom is a symptom of selfishness and indifference to others. Jesus invites us to join him in his work of redemption. This takes growth in our own sense of maturity, self-control, responsibility, and initiative.
Some of the ...
A theology class given for parents at Montrose School in January 2023.
If God is good and all of his creation is therefore good, what can "evil" possibly be? The mysterious nature of evil and its connection to nothingness are important topics for Christian reflection. By understanding evil's strange relationship with goodness and the true source of moral evil, we will be better equipped to recognize and re...
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Lent is a season of penance and prayer. Voluntary denial of our bodies, souls, and our very selves strengthens our spiritual life. Without silence, deep prayer is impossible. Without mortification of our habitual distractions, interior silence is unattainable. Above all, we should practice the denial of our ego. Self-satisfaction, vanity, and pride can all coexist with other forms of mortification. For Jesus to live in us an...
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