March 20, 2025 • 34 mins
Join us on this episode of the SEEK podcast as we explore the profound concept of being a child of God with Fr. James Brent, a Dominican friar and the author of “The Father’s House.” This discussion delves into the transformative understanding of divine fatherhood and its impact on our identity.
Fr. James addresses the essential questions at the heart of our existence: What is my purpose? Who am I? And how do I find love? He enlightens us on how viewing God as our ultimate Father provides the answers to these questions, encouraging us to see beyond our earthly fathers’ limitations and recognize that they, too, are reflections of the divine Father.
Thank you for joining us this year on the SEEK Podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to he Leadeth Me.
I'm Jessica Focus' Manager ofSpiritual Formation, and today
I'm joined by our friend FrJames Brent.
Fr James is a Dominican friarand he teaches at the Dominican
House of Studies in WashingtonDC and he's a big friend of
Focus.
He's often joined us on oursummer projects and in our
retreats program at our newstaff training in the summer.
(00:41):
So it's a pleasure to have youback today, Fr James.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Thank you, Jessie.
It's great to be here.
I always love coming on theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Now we are recording live today from SEEK Focus's
national conference, and todayis January 1st, the Solemnity of
Mary, the Mother of God.
So in my holy hour today, I wasreflecting on Mary's motherhood
and I was reminded of an icon Isaw where the title of the icon
called Mary, she who Points theWay, and I was thinking that's
such a beautiful title for herbecause she points the way not
just to Jesus, her son, but alsoto God, the Father.
(01:16):
She shows us God's fatherhoodof Jesus and also God's
fatherhood of all of us.
And I know that the fatherhoodof God is one of your passions.
It seems like whenever you joinus in Focus, you start talking
about what you've called thegospel of the Father's love.
So that's what I wanted to talkwith you about today.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Sure Thanks for having me.
It's great.
It's a wonderful mystery theFather's love for us.
We can never say enough aboutit.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And you just wrote a book about the Father's Love.
For us, we can never say enoughabout it.
And you just wrote a book aboutthe Father's Love.
It's called the Father's House.
I read it myself, absolutelyloved it.
Now, the title for this book isthe same as the title of a
focus retreat the Father's House.
You helped write that retreat.
Can you tell me just a littlebit about how that retreat came
about?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Sure, years ago I was traveling on the road with my
confrere, fr Benedict Kroll, andwe were traveling with Focus
and giving retreats and we weredoing some work with you, and
along the way we discovered thatit was time to develop a new
retreat for Focus and we werewondering what it should be, and
(02:25):
I suggested that we dosomething on God the Father.
Why?
Because, as we were travelingand preaching retreats all over
the place, a lot of people werereally asking about God the
Father.
Tell us about the Father, tellus about the Father's love.
Let's say, we hear a lot aboutJesus, but we don't often hear a
(02:45):
lot about the Father, eventhough Jesus is talking about
the Father a lot all the time,and so that was really the
original inspiration.
It was sort of a felt sensethat there was a desire or a
hunger to know more the Fatherand his love for us, to know
more the Father and His love forus, and so we decided to design
(03:11):
a retreat specifically aboutthat theme, and Zach Krieger and
I worked together and wedeveloped the retreat that has
become the Father's HouseRetreat, and now it's been held
all over the country many timesfor many years.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, just recently there was a retreat where the
bishop offered the Father'sHouse retreat for his priests so
that they could experienceGod's fatherhood through him.
That's marvelous.
Now both the retreat and thebook start with the three
questions.
You say that every singleperson asks three questions.
What are those questions?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
So I'm convinced that there arethree questions every human
being carries in the depths ofhis or her heart.
The first one is the purposequestion.
What is the purpose of life?
It's a question we ask from theearliest age and we have to ask
this question.
It's how we sort of get anorientation in life.
What is life all about?
But then there's a secondquestion the identity question.
(04:05):
Who am I?
This is another big question weask, and it really dominates
the conversation on collegecampuses a lot the identity
politics that is everywhere.
A lot of universities takeadvantage of the fact that
students are asking thisquestion and they basically
propose a lot of strange answersto the question.
(04:26):
And then the third question isthe love question.
How do I find love?
And this is something thatevery human being needs.
I mean, we're built forrelationship, we crave
relationship, we need love, andso these three questions are
something we carry in the depthsof our hearts.
These three questions aresomething we carry in the depths
(04:47):
of our hearts, and the gospelof Jesus Christ is an answer to
the three questions.
It tells us what the purpose oflife is—to enter into the life
of the Holy Trinity and toparticipate in the life of the
Trinity.
Who am I?
Thanks to baptism, you and Iare another Christ, each one of
us.
And how do I find love?
(05:07):
Well, st Paul tells us inRomans 5, verse 5,.
So the Spirit of love.
And that's how the gospel ofJesus Christ answers those
questions.
And then, once we have anunderstanding of those answers,
(05:29):
we can then begin the journey tothe Father's house.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's beautiful.
You know I've led this retreatmany times for Focus, probably a
hundred times.
My favorite place to lead thisretreat was when I was in prison
.
So one of our focus chaplainshe was a chaplain for a few
years.
I led this retreat many timeson his campus and he absolutely
loved the effect that it had onthe students' hearts.
(05:54):
But then he felt God callinghim to become a prison chaplain.
So he joined the prisonchaplaincy and I contacted him
later and I said, father, god,put it on my heart that we
should have missionaries andstudents go to the prison and
lead this retreat for theinmates.
And so we got our clearancesfrom the government to go to the
(06:15):
prison.
It was a medium security prison.
The inmates in the mediumsecurity prison, many of them
were there because they hadcommitted violent crimes and so
they had 20 to 30 year sentences, and so I had to go through the
background check and then I hada physical body check and
finally I was in with theseinmates, leading small groups
(06:36):
and giving talks about thefather's love and those
questions that you mentioned.
You know, what is the purposeof life?
Where do I find love?
Those three questions thoseinmates were also asking them,
and it was so beautiful to seetheir hearts breaking open as
they were being led in thesesmall discussion groups by
students and finding the answersto those questions.
(06:58):
But one of the difficultiesthat they had is that we were
talking about how much God theFather loves them, and many of
them in fact I think all of themwho are on the retreat said
that they came from familybackgrounds that weren't good
and they didn't have good imagesof God the Father, and that's
something that is very common,not just with inmates in a
(07:22):
medium security prison, but alsoon our college campuses, in our
parishes.
Many people don't have theexperience that St Therese of
Lisieux had being raised by sucha wonderful father.
Of course, I know that thefather is good because my father
is so good, and so they needhealing.
And yet I also feel that thechurch has focused a lot on
(07:44):
healing in recent years, andI've devoted a good portion of
my ministry to healing.
I pray with people for healing.
I kind of feel like I'm aspiritual nurse, and the
emphasis on healing right now,especially with things called
father wounds, is kind ofconcerning to me, because it
seems like you give a person anappropriate amount of medicine
(08:05):
and they get well, but if yougive them too much medicine then
they get sicker, and so all theemphasis on healing.
I start to kind of wonder arewe talking about it too much so
that people have this hurdle intheir lives?
My father wasn't a good fatherand they get stuck in that.
So I guess I'm wondering, likeI know you've encountered this
(08:27):
as a spiritual director, as aretreat leader, what advice do
you have for people who feellike they just can't identify
with God being a good fatherbecause their own fathers were
not an image of the father'slove to them?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
That's a really good question.
It's a common question.
I think we have to start bysaying there's definitely a way
that people can break out of thebad experience of fatherhood
that they've had in their lives.
If people could not break outof that in any way, then we
really would be sort of stuckright.
(09:02):
Despair would be the reasonablecourse.
But the gospel of Jesus Christis the announcement that you
don't have to live in despairand it is possible to be set
free from the chains, thedistortions, the lies that you
have acquired down through theyears, either because of your
(09:23):
sins or because of the sins ofothers.
So there is a way for people tocome out of a poor understanding
of fatherhood or a horribleexperience of fatherhood, and
it's not simply by trying torelate to fathers as they
understand it or haveexperienced it in their own life
(09:45):
.
They need a new understandingthat comes through considering
the revelation of fatherhoodthat God has given us, and
that's not only the revelationof God the Father, but a
revelation of what fatherhoodreally is.
God the Father, but arevelation of what fatherhood
(10:06):
really is.
That revelation has been givento us all throughout the entire
course of scripture and, ofcourse, sacred tradition as well
.
So it's by immersing ourselvesin scripture and tradition we
can learn first what a fatherreally is, what a real father is
, and also learn what God, theFather, is, and so we're not
(10:26):
limited to just our humanexperience of fatherhood.
That very thing is what theLord Jesus came to heal.
I mean, there have been humanbeings with bad fathers and
broken fathers ever since Adam.
So there's a way out, andthat's precisely what the Lord
has come to reveal to us, andthat's what I spell out at some
(10:46):
length in my book in the chapteron the Father's House.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I like that you're mentioning that human beings in
every single generation, havehad difficulties with their
fathers so often.
It seems like this generationpeople are constantly pointing
out oh, they're so broken,there's so much divorce and
there's bad fathers andtechnology.
They've just been through somuch.
This generation has moredifficulties than any other and
(11:12):
I have to think to myself yes,but they also have the benefit
of the prayers of all the saintswho have gone before them, so
maybe this generation isactually the most blessed that's
ever lived.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Very, it could very well be.
So I mean, the communion ofsaints is now larger than ever
before and they're praying forus and they know what we go
through.
The struggle and the difficultythat is ours upon the earth was
once theirs.
So they're always there prayingfor us and they want us to
receive the light of grace sothat we can come to know God for
(11:48):
who he really is and relate tohim in the right way and learn
to abandon all of our cares andour wounds and our hurts and our
concerns and even our sin, giveit to God and allow him and his
mercy to work in it and to healit radically, which he does.
(12:09):
But it comes by sort ofrelearning what fatherhood
really is.
So, for example, in the letterto the Ephesians, st Paul says
the Ephesians St Paul says I bowmy knee before the Father, from
whom every father in heaven andon earth is named.
So there is a very interestingpassage, because what he says is
(12:32):
that the fathers on earth, theytake their measure from God,
the Father in heaven.
So we tend to think of God, theFather in heaven, in light of
the earthly fathers.
The scripture is telling usit's actually the opposite.
It's the earthly fathers thatsize up or not to the real
Father, which is God the Father.
(12:53):
He's the one.
The more we get to know him,god the Father, the more our
understanding of humanfatherhood can be healed and
renewed.
We can come to understand thewhole truth of fatherhood.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Now Father.
You mentioned that somebody whohas had a difficult
relationship with their fatherand they need to seek God's
healing for that and come to anew understanding of God's
fatherhood that person can lookto fathers in scripture to
better understand that role.
So if we have a listener todaywho wants to better understand
the role of a father inscripture, can you give them a
(13:31):
few bullet points about whatfathers in scripture did, what
role they played in people'slives?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Sure, this is what the whole chapter called the
father's house, is about.
So at the lastpper, the Lordsays in my Father's House there
are many rooms and I go toprepare a place for you.
So that's an important passage,is a Jewish expression and it
(14:02):
really is very expansive and itincludes everything in family
life in ancient Israel.
So what we then need to do islook through the Old Testament
to try to unpack what fathers inthe Old Testament are and what
they do in their houses, andthat will give us a sense of
what God, the Father, is for us,thanks to the work of Jesus.
(14:23):
So when we look through the OldTestament, we find that the
Father in the house has a hugeand very important role.
That's really quite differentfrom anything we experience in
our human families today,because the father's house in
ancient Israel was, first of all, a very large unit.
(14:44):
It would have somewhere between50 and 150 people in it, and
the figure the oldest male isthe father and everyone else is
sort of under his fatherly care,and his fatherly care was very
rich, meaning there's a lot thatwas involved in it.
(15:04):
So one of the things that thefather does is provide temporal
goods, right, the financialresources, so to speak, that we
need to survive.
Only in the ancient world thatcame in the form of land and
livestock mostly.
So the father's house isactually like a huge
(15:25):
agricultural unit usually, andthe way that people received
their care and their financialsupport or network, I guess you
could say is through inheritance.
So every Jewish male had aninheritance coming to him from
(15:45):
his father, the firstbornespecially.
But it was part of Jewish lifeto count on the father for his
care in this way, for hismaterial care.
So that's the first thing.
If you had a father you hadeverything you needed.
If you didn't have a father,you had nothing.
(16:06):
So that's the first thing.
And then there was also thefather would provide protection
and all of the men in thefather's house would form a
military unit so they would gooff to war and fight and the
father would sort of direct theprogram and direct the campaign.
We see this in the Book of theMaccabees and other places.
(16:30):
So if you had a father you hadprotection, and if you didn't
have a father you didn't haveprotection.
So father meant safety.
So it meant financial support.
It meant safety.
But fathers were also judges intheir families.
So when there was a disputebetween sons in the family, they
would bring their disputebefore the father and they would
(16:52):
make their claims and thefather would judge the case.
But that meant that everyJewish male knew that he had
someone kind of looking out forhis interests and basically when
these cases were being judged,the person who was judging them
had his own interests at heart.
So there was like a sense offairness in the whole thing,
(17:15):
right.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's an incredible thought, just to apply to God,
the Father, that we often thinkabout God being a just judge and
that kind of scares us like no,please don't judge me, but when
you think of the judge beingyour father, just like you said,
he has your best interests atheart.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
For sure.
And actually St John Chrysostomhas a wonderful analogy for
that very point.
He describes the judge, god, asa judge like.
He compares God to a referee ina sporting competition where he
sees both athletes in thecompetition sort of going at it
with each other.
(17:52):
But only in this competition.
When one of the players isstruck and goes down, the
referee actually leans over andhelps him get back up.
Because in this competition, stJohn Chrysostom says, the
referee is on your side.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Oh, that's beautiful and that's why people shouldn't
be afraid to go to confession.
Because, yes, you areconfessing that you've done
wrong.
And yet I remember once apriest asked me why do you think
it's called the Sacrament ofConfession?
And I was like because I'mconfessing my sins.
And he says but then why is thepriest called the confessor if
it's named after you confessingyour sins?
(18:29):
I said well, I don't know.
And he said it's because it'snot named after you confessing
your sins.
It's named after the priestconfessing God's mercy.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, there's many, many things we could say about
that.
The sacrament of penance is amarvelous revelation of the
merciful love of God the Fathercoming to us through Jesus
Christ and the gift of theSpirit, of course, but it
ultimately originates from theFather, and it's a marvelous
(18:59):
thing to consider.
That's what God is like.
So if you want an example ofhow we today could learn what
God the Father is really like,go to the sacrament of penance,
confess your sins, receive themercy and go forward with a
whole new sense of freedom.
And that's what God the Fatheris like.
That's what he does for us.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
That's beautiful.
Okay, so you said that God, theFather, provides protection,
yes, and he provides justice,yes, and financial security.
That's right.
What else does the Father do?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So another important thing that he does is he
provides truth.
In the Jewish family, in theFather's house, that's where
they learned the saving historyof Israel and that's where the
story of the covenants and thelaw and the prophets came down
to them.
The Passover was celebrated infamilies and it was the father
who would tell the story.
(19:50):
And in the Psalms it talksabout how, of the things that
God did in the days long ago,our fathers have told us the
story of the things you did intheir days, the days long ago.
So in Israel, in the father'shouse, it was very standard for
the father to be the one whohands on the tradition and who
(20:12):
teaches the truth of God and ofthe covenants and the law and
the prophets the covenants andthe law and the prophets.
And we know today from studiesof various kinds that in a
family when the father practicesthe faith and is very open
about that and obviouslycommitted to the faith and
(20:34):
openly practices it, 85% of thetime the children will grow up
to practice the faith too.
But when the father does notpractice and he sort of kind of
shirks away from the faith ormaybe even openly denies it,
very often the statistics arevery high.
People will grow up and theywill not practice the faith.
(20:56):
So the father has an incrediblerole in conferring credibility
on the gospel.
And the father says you cancount on this with your life.
People take that seriously.
Because he then says I have, Ibet my life on this.
Because he then says I have, Ibet my life on this.
(21:19):
And we know that Israel hadreally an amazing record of
perpetuating the faith.
They've been around forthousands of years beyond, you
know, before the birth of Christeven and it's the fathers
(21:39):
passing on the truth withinfamily life.
That has really been a powerfulsustaining force.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
That's amazing and I suppose that with the passing on
of the traditions and thetruths of the faith, they were
really passing on the identityof the people, the identity of
that child telling, telling themthis is who you are.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, and so yeah, you mentioned, and we are the
chosen people.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, you mentioned earlier that identity is such an
important question today, andthat's what a father does.
A father passes on youridentity and tells you who you
are.
So you said it so well when yousaid that for the ancient
peoples, if you had a father,you have everything.
And that's true of us today.
We do.
We have a father and so we haveeverything.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
We cannot omit maybe the most important thing the
father does in his house inancient Israel he supplies love.
The fathers love their children, and social scientists and
archaeologists and others havebeen amazed, actually, at the
difference between therelationship between fathers and
(22:48):
sons as is recorded in the OldTestament and relationships
between fathers and sons as it'srecorded in the literature of
surrounding pagans, pagansocieties.
It's very, very different.
The pagan literature is full ofhatred between fathers and sons
and it's filled with stories ofmurder and patricide and all
(23:11):
those horrible things.
The Old Testament is virtuallyfree of all of it and there's an
amazing peace and bond of lovebetween fathers and sons, as
it's revealed in the OldTestament and scripture.
Scholars have asked well, why isthat?
(23:31):
I mean what's so different?
And it's because that inancient Israel there's many
ceremonies or rituals writteninto the law that helps to bond
fathers and sons together.
But one of the most touchingwould hand the boy over and the
(24:01):
priest would take the boy andsay is this your son?
And the father would say, yes,this is my son.
And then the priest would say,well, then pay the price.
And he would hand over.
The father would hand over acertain sum of coins right, it
was different measures.
(24:22):
And then the priest would handthe son back to the father and
in this way, through thisredemption ceremony which is
described in the Old Testamentand it's still practiced to this
day, actually among some of theJews, each Jewish son knew that
(24:42):
he had been claimed at a priceby his father.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And so it established this incredible bond of love
between fathers and sons.
That's really unprecedented inancient literature.
And when we put all thistogether, right these various
roles that the father played inthe father's house in ancient
Israel, it can start to give usa portrait of what a father is
supposed to be.
And I have gone and given thistalk to many men's groups and
(25:14):
the men appreciate it.
They love it because they sayno one has ever really explained
to us what a father is supposedto be like this.
I mean, there's so much we cangather from the scriptures.
If we sit down and listen tothe word of God and study it
with care, it gives us aportrait of fatherhood.
That's really amazing, Reallyamazing.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's incredible, and it really teaches us who we
are and who God is to us.
Now, the last thing that Iwanted to talk about today was
filial adoption.
Sure, now, here's what I'munderstanding.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ithink this is true that when St
Paul wrote his letters and hetalked about filial adoption, he
was really relying on thesocial context of Roman adoption
(25:58):
laws and, from what Iunderstand, if a child was born
naturally and given to thefather, the father could choose
to keep the child or if, forwhatever reason, the baby didn't
please him, he could expose itto die.
But if you adopted someone, youcould never exclude them, you
could never make them not partof your family.
(26:20):
You could never take theadoption back, because I think
the thinking was, you didn'tknow what you would get into or
come out with with this childwho was born to you.
But if you chose to adoptsomeone, that was your choice
and so you can never go back onit.
And St Paul is telling us thatGod will never go back on his
adoption of us.
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
God never takes back the adoption of us.
I mean, once a person isbaptized, you have the seal of
baptism on your soul forever andGod does not erase that.
That's indelible.
It's possible for us to runaway.
You and I can become runaways,but God does not abandon us
first.
He doesn't.
This is a very clear principlethat's enunciated, certainly, by
(27:06):
St Augustine.
And so, yeah, god doesn't justtake back the adoption.
No way, that doesn't happen.
There's lots of comparisons wecould draw between human
adoption and the filial adoptionthat's ours by Carice in
baptism.
But there's also differencestoo.
(27:26):
So in a natural adoption or alegal adoption, the adoptive
parents, they have this childthat they assume responsibility
for.
There's a legal bond betweenthem and the child and there can
develop in time an emotional ora bond of affection between
(27:50):
them and the child, but therewill never be the same blood.
There just won't be the bloodrelation.
It's just not there.
So that's natural adoption orhuman legal adoption.
When it comes to supernaturaladoption, or the adoption that
(28:11):
is ours into God, when we'readopted into the Holy Trinity by
grace, yes, there's a kind oflegal adoption there, but it's
really, and there's certainly abond of love there.
But there's something even more.
There's something similar tothe bond of blood.
(28:34):
We're like when a natural, whena husband and wife naturally
give birth to a child, the childhas the same blood they have
when we are baptized.
There's a way in which somethingof the very life of God, a
share, a participation in thevery life of God, is
(28:54):
communicated or transmitted toour souls by grace.
That's what baptism does and asa result, we have not simply a
legal bond with God, nor simplya bond of affection or a
psychological bond.
We have like a real, you couldsay metaphysical bond, which is
(29:16):
this life, the supernatural life, supernatural and divine life
of God is communicated to oursouls and so we belong to the
house of God in a way that'smore than just legal and more
than just full of psychologicalaffection.
It's metaphysical, it's real,but it forms and shapes your
(29:41):
very being.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Well, Father, to wrap things up today, can you give
our listeners some advice on howthey can experience God's
fatherly love for them?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Well, this is a question that always comes up.
When we would give the retreats, we would talk about God the
Father and his great love for usand His compassion and kindness
and the way he takes us intoHis life and how we become
members of His house.
But people would always end bysaying that all sounds wonderful
, but I want to know God theFather like personally,
(30:13):
personally, really, for myself.
And if someone's asking forthat, what they're really asking
for is contemplative prayer.
That's what contemplativeprayer is.
It's the form of prayer thatunfolds in our soul by virtue of
the Spirit's gift of wisdom,and the Spirit's gift of wisdom
(30:33):
gives us an experience, anexperiential knowledge of God.
So if you want to grow in thisfamiliar knowledge of God and
come to experience Him foryourself, what you and I need to
do is first set off on the roadof prayer.
(30:54):
We always begin as beginners,but we grow towards
contemplative prayer byfollowing Jesus Christ and doing
as he taught us to do.
But the other thing we need todo is ask for the Spirit's gift
of wisdom and ask for the graceof contemplative prayer and as
we make our way down the road ofmetanoia and the road of
(31:15):
conversion, following the pathof Beatitudes.
I outline that in the book aswell.
I have a whole chapter on theBeatitudes.
As we live the Beatitudes andlive according to the law of
love, slowly, slowly, as we pray, our prayer will become
increasingly more contemplativeand we can come to sense, taste
(31:35):
and see the goodness of theworld for ourselves and we can
come to know God the Father inthat very personal way.
That's precisely what JesusChrist came into the world to
offer us the knowledge of God ina whole new way that's
unprecedented.
That's ours by virtue of thegift of the Holy Spirit.
So contemplative prayer is whatyou're seeking if you really
(31:59):
want to know God the Father.
And really in contemplativeprayer what you do is you come
to know God the Father, and he'sthe one you'll be seeking.
The other thing is in theEucharist.
When we go to Mass, we have onthe altar the man of heaven, the
eternal Son of God, jesusChrist.
(32:19):
His body, his blood, his soulis divinity.
He's actually there with us.
So there's a way in which, inevery Mass, heaven and earth
meet.
The Father's house is in ourmidst because Jesus Christ is
right there, and when JesusChrist is there, he's not there
without the Father or withoutthe Holy Spirit.
(32:41):
He's there with the Father andwith the Spirit.
So the entire Holy Trinity theFather, son and Holy Spirit, is
there.
The Father's house is there inevery Mass, and when you and I
go to Mass and participate inthe Mass, we really do go to the
Father's house.
It's just that's a mystery offaith.
(33:04):
You don't see that with youreyes or you hear it with your
ears.
It's something that transcendsour senses.
It's a mystery, a mystery offaith.
But it's the truth and you andI, once we hear that and believe
that by faith, then we canreally begin to enter into the
(33:25):
mystery of the Mass more deeplyand come to know the Father in
and through the sacrifice of theMass.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
That's an incredible thought that every time we go to
Mass we enter into the Father'shouse and we can experience his
love for us.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, father James, it's been such a pleasure to
talk with you today, so I justencourage all of our listeners
to believe in the love that God,the Father, has for you and
also check out Father James'sbook, the Father's House
Discovering Our Home in theTrinity.
You can find this book whereveryou buy your Catholic books,
and also he has a new podcastcalled Contemplata, and you can
(34:03):
check that out on the DominicanFriars YouTube page.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Wonderful Well, thank you so much for joining us
today, father, all right.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
My joy and thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
joining us today.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Father, all right, my joy and thanks everyone for
listening.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode recorded live at SEEK.
Miss the conference or want torelive your favorite moments?
Seek Replay has you coveredAccess, powerful keynotes,
inspiring talks and exclusivecontent to take your faith
deeper, anytime anywhere.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to he Leadeth Me.
I'm Jessica Focus' Manager ofSpiritual Formation, and today
I'm joined by our friend FrJames Brent.
Fr James is a Dominican friarand he teaches at the Dominican
House of Studies in WashingtonDC and he's a big friend of
Focus.
He's often joined us on oursummer projects and in our
retreats program at our newstaff training in the summer.
(00:41):
So it's a pleasure to have youback today, Fr James.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Thank you, Jessie.
It's great to be here.
I always love coming on theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Now we are recording live today from SEEK Focus's
national conference, and todayis January 1st, the Solemnity of
Mary, the Mother of God.
So in my holy hour today, I wasreflecting on Mary's motherhood
and I was reminded of an icon Isaw where the title of the icon
called Mary, she who Points theWay, and I was thinking that's
such a beautiful title for herbecause she points the way not
just to Jesus, her son, but alsoto God, the Father.
(01:16):
She shows us God's fatherhoodof Jesus and also God's
fatherhood of all of us.
And I know that the fatherhoodof God is one of your passions.
It seems like whenever you joinus in Focus, you start talking
about what you've called thegospel of the Father's love.
So that's what I wanted to talkwith you about today.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Sure Thanks for having me.
It's great.
It's a wonderful mystery theFather's love for us.
We can never say enough aboutit.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And you just wrote a book about the Father's Love.
For us, we can never say enoughabout it.
And you just wrote a book aboutthe Father's Love.
It's called the Father's House.
I read it myself, absolutelyloved it.
Now, the title for this book isthe same as the title of a
focus retreat the Father's House.
You helped write that retreat.
Can you tell me just a littlebit about how that retreat came
about?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Sure, years ago I was traveling on the road with my
confrere, fr Benedict Kroll, andwe were traveling with Focus
and giving retreats and we weredoing some work with you, and
along the way we discovered thatit was time to develop a new
retreat for Focus and we werewondering what it should be, and
(02:25):
I suggested that we dosomething on God the Father.
Why?
Because, as we were travelingand preaching retreats all over
the place, a lot of people werereally asking about God the
Father.
Tell us about the Father, tellus about the Father's love.
Let's say, we hear a lot aboutJesus, but we don't often hear a
(02:45):
lot about the Father, eventhough Jesus is talking about
the Father a lot all the time,and so that was really the
original inspiration.
It was sort of a felt sensethat there was a desire or a
hunger to know more the Fatherand his love for us, to know
more the Father and His love forus, and so we decided to design
(03:11):
a retreat specifically aboutthat theme, and Zach Krieger and
I worked together and wedeveloped the retreat that has
become the Father's HouseRetreat, and now it's been held
all over the country many timesfor many years.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, just recently there was a retreat where the
bishop offered the Father'sHouse retreat for his priests so
that they could experienceGod's fatherhood through him.
That's marvelous.
Now both the retreat and thebook start with the three
questions.
You say that every singleperson asks three questions.
What are those questions?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
So I'm convinced that there arethree questions every human
being carries in the depths ofhis or her heart.
The first one is the purposequestion.
What is the purpose of life?
It's a question we ask from theearliest age and we have to ask
this question.
It's how we sort of get anorientation in life.
What is life all about?
But then there's a secondquestion the identity question.
(04:05):
Who am I?
This is another big question weask, and it really dominates
the conversation on collegecampuses a lot the identity
politics that is everywhere.
A lot of universities takeadvantage of the fact that
students are asking thisquestion and they basically
propose a lot of strange answersto the question.
(04:26):
And then the third question isthe love question.
How do I find love?
And this is something thatevery human being needs.
I mean, we're built forrelationship, we crave
relationship, we need love, andso these three questions are
something we carry in the depthsof our hearts.
These three questions aresomething we carry in the depths
(04:47):
of our hearts, and the gospelof Jesus Christ is an answer to
the three questions.
It tells us what the purpose oflife is—to enter into the life
of the Holy Trinity and toparticipate in the life of the
Trinity.
Who am I?
Thanks to baptism, you and Iare another Christ, each one of
us.
And how do I find love?
(05:07):
Well, st Paul tells us inRomans 5, verse 5,.
So the Spirit of love.
And that's how the gospel ofJesus Christ answers those
questions.
And then, once we have anunderstanding of those answers,
(05:29):
we can then begin the journey tothe Father's house.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's beautiful.
You know I've led this retreatmany times for Focus, probably a
hundred times.
My favorite place to lead thisretreat was when I was in prison
.
So one of our focus chaplainshe was a chaplain for a few
years.
I led this retreat many timeson his campus and he absolutely
loved the effect that it had onthe students' hearts.
(05:54):
But then he felt God callinghim to become a prison chaplain.
So he joined the prisonchaplaincy and I contacted him
later and I said, father, god,put it on my heart that we
should have missionaries andstudents go to the prison and
lead this retreat for theinmates.
And so we got our clearancesfrom the government to go to the
(06:15):
prison.
It was a medium security prison.
The inmates in the mediumsecurity prison, many of them
were there because they hadcommitted violent crimes and so
they had 20 to 30 year sentences, and so I had to go through the
background check and then I hada physical body check and
finally I was in with theseinmates, leading small groups
(06:36):
and giving talks about thefather's love and those
questions that you mentioned.
You know, what is the purposeof life?
Where do I find love?
Those three questions thoseinmates were also asking them,
and it was so beautiful to seetheir hearts breaking open as
they were being led in thesesmall discussion groups by
students and finding the answersto those questions.
(06:58):
But one of the difficultiesthat they had is that we were
talking about how much God theFather loves them, and many of
them in fact I think all of themwho are on the retreat said
that they came from familybackgrounds that weren't good
and they didn't have good imagesof God the Father, and that's
something that is very common,not just with inmates in a
(07:22):
medium security prison, but alsoon our college campuses, in our
parishes.
Many people don't have theexperience that St Therese of
Lisieux had being raised by sucha wonderful father.
Of course, I know that thefather is good because my father
is so good, and so they needhealing.
And yet I also feel that thechurch has focused a lot on
(07:44):
healing in recent years, andI've devoted a good portion of
my ministry to healing.
I pray with people for healing.
I kind of feel like I'm aspiritual nurse, and the
emphasis on healing right now,especially with things called
father wounds, is kind ofconcerning to me, because it
seems like you give a person anappropriate amount of medicine
(08:05):
and they get well, but if yougive them too much medicine then
they get sicker, and so all theemphasis on healing.
I start to kind of wonder arewe talking about it too much so
that people have this hurdle intheir lives?
My father wasn't a good fatherand they get stuck in that.
So I guess I'm wondering, likeI know you've encountered this
(08:27):
as a spiritual director, as aretreat leader, what advice do
you have for people who feellike they just can't identify
with God being a good fatherbecause their own fathers were
not an image of the father'slove to them?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
That's a really good question.
It's a common question.
I think we have to start bysaying there's definitely a way
that people can break out of thebad experience of fatherhood
that they've had in their lives.
If people could not break outof that in any way, then we
really would be sort of stuckright.
(09:02):
Despair would be the reasonablecourse.
But the gospel of Jesus Christis the announcement that you
don't have to live in despairand it is possible to be set
free from the chains, thedistortions, the lies that you
have acquired down through theyears, either because of your
(09:23):
sins or because of the sins ofothers.
So there is a way for people tocome out of a poor understanding
of fatherhood or a horribleexperience of fatherhood, and
it's not simply by trying torelate to fathers as they
understand it or haveexperienced it in their own life
(09:45):
.
They need a new understandingthat comes through considering
the revelation of fatherhoodthat God has given us, and
that's not only the revelationof God the Father, but a
revelation of what fatherhoodreally is.
God the Father, but arevelation of what fatherhood
(10:06):
really is.
That revelation has been givento us all throughout the entire
course of scripture and, ofcourse, sacred tradition as well
.
So it's by immersing ourselvesin scripture and tradition we
can learn first what a fatherreally is, what a real father is
, and also learn what God, theFather, is, and so we're not
(10:26):
limited to just our humanexperience of fatherhood.
That very thing is what theLord Jesus came to heal.
I mean, there have been humanbeings with bad fathers and
broken fathers ever since Adam.
So there's a way out, andthat's precisely what the Lord
has come to reveal to us, andthat's what I spell out at some
(10:46):
length in my book in the chapteron the Father's House.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I like that you're mentioning that human beings in
every single generation, havehad difficulties with their
fathers so often.
It seems like this generationpeople are constantly pointing
out oh, they're so broken,there's so much divorce and
there's bad fathers andtechnology.
They've just been through somuch.
This generation has moredifficulties than any other and
(11:12):
I have to think to myself yes,but they also have the benefit
of the prayers of all the saintswho have gone before them, so
maybe this generation isactually the most blessed that's
ever lived.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Very, it could very well be.
So I mean, the communion ofsaints is now larger than ever
before and they're praying forus and they know what we go
through.
The struggle and the difficultythat is ours upon the earth was
once theirs.
So they're always there prayingfor us and they want us to
receive the light of grace sothat we can come to know God for
(11:48):
who he really is and relate tohim in the right way and learn
to abandon all of our cares andour wounds and our hurts and our
concerns and even our sin, giveit to God and allow him and his
mercy to work in it and to healit radically, which he does.
(12:09):
But it comes by sort ofrelearning what fatherhood
really is.
So, for example, in the letterto the Ephesians, st Paul says
the Ephesians St Paul says I bowmy knee before the Father, from
whom every father in heaven andon earth is named.
So there is a very interestingpassage, because what he says is
(12:32):
that the fathers on earth, theytake their measure from God,
the Father in heaven.
So we tend to think of God, theFather in heaven, in light of
the earthly fathers.
The scripture is telling usit's actually the opposite.
It's the earthly fathers thatsize up or not to the real
Father, which is God the Father.
(12:53):
He's the one.
The more we get to know him,god the Father, the more our
understanding of humanfatherhood can be healed and
renewed.
We can come to understand thewhole truth of fatherhood.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Now Father.
You mentioned that somebody whohas had a difficult
relationship with their fatherand they need to seek God's
healing for that and come to anew understanding of God's
fatherhood that person can lookto fathers in scripture to
better understand that role.
So if we have a listener todaywho wants to better understand
the role of a father inscripture, can you give them a
(13:31):
few bullet points about whatfathers in scripture did, what
role they played in people'slives?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Sure, this is what the whole chapter called the
father's house, is about.
So at the lastpper, the Lordsays in my Father's House there
are many rooms and I go toprepare a place for you.
So that's an important passage,is a Jewish expression and it
(14:02):
really is very expansive and itincludes everything in family
life in ancient Israel.
So what we then need to do islook through the Old Testament
to try to unpack what fathers inthe Old Testament are and what
they do in their houses, andthat will give us a sense of
what God, the Father, is for us,thanks to the work of Jesus.
(14:23):
So when we look through the OldTestament, we find that the
Father in the house has a hugeand very important role.
That's really quite differentfrom anything we experience in
our human families today,because the father's house in
ancient Israel was, first of all, a very large unit.
(14:44):
It would have somewhere between50 and 150 people in it, and
the figure the oldest male isthe father and everyone else is
sort of under his fatherly care,and his fatherly care was very
rich, meaning there's a lot thatwas involved in it.
(15:04):
So one of the things that thefather does is provide temporal
goods, right, the financialresources, so to speak, that we
need to survive.
Only in the ancient world thatcame in the form of land and
livestock mostly.
So the father's house isactually like a huge
(15:25):
agricultural unit usually, andthe way that people received
their care and their financialsupport or network, I guess you
could say is through inheritance.
So every Jewish male had aninheritance coming to him from
(15:45):
his father, the firstbornespecially.
But it was part of Jewish lifeto count on the father for his
care in this way, for hismaterial care.
So that's the first thing.
If you had a father you hadeverything you needed.
If you didn't have a father,you had nothing.
(16:06):
So that's the first thing.
And then there was also thefather would provide protection
and all of the men in thefather's house would form a
military unit so they would gooff to war and fight and the
father would sort of direct theprogram and direct the campaign.
We see this in the Book of theMaccabees and other places.
(16:30):
So if you had a father you hadprotection, and if you didn't
have a father you didn't haveprotection.
So father meant safety.
So it meant financial support.
It meant safety.
But fathers were also judges intheir families.
So when there was a disputebetween sons in the family, they
would bring their disputebefore the father and they would
(16:52):
make their claims and thefather would judge the case.
But that meant that everyJewish male knew that he had
someone kind of looking out forhis interests and basically when
these cases were being judged,the person who was judging them
had his own interests at heart.
So there was like a sense offairness in the whole thing,
(17:15):
right.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's an incredible thought, just to apply to God,
the Father, that we often thinkabout God being a just judge and
that kind of scares us like no,please don't judge me, but when
you think of the judge beingyour father, just like you said,
he has your best interests atheart.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
For sure.
And actually St John Chrysostomhas a wonderful analogy for
that very point.
He describes the judge, god, asa judge like.
He compares God to a referee ina sporting competition where he
sees both athletes in thecompetition sort of going at it
with each other.
(17:52):
But only in this competition.
When one of the players isstruck and goes down, the
referee actually leans over andhelps him get back up.
Because in this competition, stJohn Chrysostom says, the
referee is on your side.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Oh, that's beautiful and that's why people shouldn't
be afraid to go to confession.
Because, yes, you areconfessing that you've done
wrong.
And yet I remember once apriest asked me why do you think
it's called the Sacrament ofConfession?
And I was like because I'mconfessing my sins.
And he says but then why is thepriest called the confessor if
it's named after you confessingyour sins?
(18:29):
I said well, I don't know.
And he said it's because it'snot named after you confessing
your sins.
It's named after the priestconfessing God's mercy.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, there's many, many things we could say about
that.
The sacrament of penance is amarvelous revelation of the
merciful love of God the Fathercoming to us through Jesus
Christ and the gift of theSpirit, of course, but it
ultimately originates from theFather, and it's a marvelous
(18:59):
thing to consider.
That's what God is like.
So if you want an example ofhow we today could learn what
God the Father is really like,go to the sacrament of penance,
confess your sins, receive themercy and go forward with a
whole new sense of freedom.
And that's what God the Fatheris like.
That's what he does for us.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
That's beautiful.
Okay, so you said that God, theFather, provides protection,
yes, and he provides justice,yes, and financial security.
That's right.
What else does the Father do?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So another important thing that he does is he
provides truth.
In the Jewish family, in theFather's house, that's where
they learned the saving historyof Israel and that's where the
story of the covenants and thelaw and the prophets came down
to them.
The Passover was celebrated infamilies and it was the father
who would tell the story.
(19:50):
And in the Psalms it talksabout how, of the things that
God did in the days long ago,our fathers have told us the
story of the things you did intheir days, the days long ago.
So in Israel, in the father'shouse, it was very standard for
the father to be the one whohands on the tradition and who
(20:12):
teaches the truth of God and ofthe covenants and the law and
the prophets the covenants andthe law and the prophets.
And we know today from studiesof various kinds that in a
family when the father practicesthe faith and is very open
about that and obviouslycommitted to the faith and
(20:34):
openly practices it, 85% of thetime the children will grow up
to practice the faith too.
But when the father does notpractice and he sort of kind of
shirks away from the faith ormaybe even openly denies it,
very often the statistics arevery high.
People will grow up and theywill not practice the faith.
(20:56):
So the father has an incrediblerole in conferring credibility
on the gospel.
And the father says you cancount on this with your life.
People take that seriously.
Because he then says I have, Ibet my life on this.
Because he then says I have, Ibet my life on this.
(21:19):
And we know that Israel hadreally an amazing record of
perpetuating the faith.
They've been around forthousands of years beyond, you
know, before the birth of Christeven and it's the fathers
(21:39):
passing on the truth withinfamily life.
That has really been a powerfulsustaining force.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
That's amazing and I suppose that with the passing on
of the traditions and thetruths of the faith, they were
really passing on the identityof the people, the identity of
that child telling, telling themthis is who you are.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, and so yeah, you mentioned, and we are the
chosen people.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, you mentioned earlier that identity is such an
important question today, andthat's what a father does.
A father passes on youridentity and tells you who you
are.
So you said it so well when yousaid that for the ancient
peoples, if you had a father,you have everything.
And that's true of us today.
We do.
We have a father and so we haveeverything.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
We cannot omit maybe the most important thing the
father does in his house inancient Israel he supplies love.
The fathers love their children, and social scientists and
archaeologists and others havebeen amazed, actually, at the
difference between therelationship between fathers and
(22:48):
sons as is recorded in the OldTestament and relationships
between fathers and sons as it'srecorded in the literature of
surrounding pagans, pagansocieties.
It's very, very different.
The pagan literature is full ofhatred between fathers and sons
and it's filled with stories ofmurder and patricide and all
(23:11):
those horrible things.
The Old Testament is virtuallyfree of all of it and there's an
amazing peace and bond of lovebetween fathers and sons, as
it's revealed in the OldTestament and scripture.
Scholars have asked well, why isthat?
(23:31):
I mean what's so different?
And it's because that inancient Israel there's many
ceremonies or rituals writteninto the law that helps to bond
fathers and sons together.
But one of the most touchingwould hand the boy over and the
(24:01):
priest would take the boy andsay is this your son?
And the father would say, yes,this is my son.
And then the priest would say,well, then pay the price.
And he would hand over.
The father would hand over acertain sum of coins right, it
was different measures.
(24:22):
And then the priest would handthe son back to the father and
in this way, through thisredemption ceremony which is
described in the Old Testamentand it's still practiced to this
day, actually among some of theJews, each Jewish son knew that
(24:42):
he had been claimed at a priceby his father.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And so it established this incredible bond of love
between fathers and sons.
That's really unprecedented inancient literature.
And when we put all thistogether, right these various
roles that the father played inthe father's house in ancient
Israel, it can start to give usa portrait of what a father is
supposed to be.
And I have gone and given thistalk to many men's groups and
(25:14):
the men appreciate it.
They love it because they sayno one has ever really explained
to us what a father is supposedto be like this.
I mean, there's so much we cangather from the scriptures.
If we sit down and listen tothe word of God and study it
with care, it gives us aportrait of fatherhood.
That's really amazing, Reallyamazing.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's incredible, and it really teaches us who we
are and who God is to us.
Now, the last thing that Iwanted to talk about today was
filial adoption.
Sure, now, here's what I'munderstanding.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ithink this is true that when St
Paul wrote his letters and hetalked about filial adoption, he
was really relying on thesocial context of Roman adoption
(25:58):
laws and, from what Iunderstand, if a child was born
naturally and given to thefather, the father could choose
to keep the child or if, forwhatever reason, the baby didn't
please him, he could expose itto die.
But if you adopted someone, youcould never exclude them, you
could never make them not partof your family.
(26:20):
You could never take theadoption back, because I think
the thinking was, you didn'tknow what you would get into or
come out with with this childwho was born to you.
But if you chose to adoptsomeone, that was your choice
and so you can never go back onit.
And St Paul is telling us thatGod will never go back on his
adoption of us.
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
God never takes back the adoption of us.
I mean, once a person isbaptized, you have the seal of
baptism on your soul forever andGod does not erase that.
That's indelible.
It's possible for us to runaway.
You and I can become runaways,but God does not abandon us
first.
He doesn't.
This is a very clear principlethat's enunciated, certainly, by
(27:06):
St Augustine.
And so, yeah, god doesn't justtake back the adoption.
No way, that doesn't happen.
There's lots of comparisons wecould draw between human
adoption and the filial adoptionthat's ours by Carice in
baptism.
But there's also differencestoo.
(27:26):
So in a natural adoption or alegal adoption, the adoptive
parents, they have this childthat they assume responsibility
for.
There's a legal bond betweenthem and the child and there can
develop in time an emotional ora bond of affection between
(27:50):
them and the child, but therewill never be the same blood.
There just won't be the bloodrelation.
It's just not there.
So that's natural adoption orhuman legal adoption.
When it comes to supernaturaladoption, or the adoption that
(28:11):
is ours into God, when we'readopted into the Holy Trinity by
grace, yes, there's a kind oflegal adoption there, but it's
really, and there's certainly abond of love there.
But there's something even more.
There's something similar tothe bond of blood.
(28:34):
We're like when a natural, whena husband and wife naturally
give birth to a child, the childhas the same blood they have
when we are baptized.
There's a way in which somethingof the very life of God, a
share, a participation in thevery life of God, is
(28:54):
communicated or transmitted toour souls by grace.
That's what baptism does and asa result, we have not simply a
legal bond with God, nor simplya bond of affection or a
psychological bond.
We have like a real, you couldsay metaphysical bond, which is
(29:16):
this life, the supernatural life, supernatural and divine life
of God is communicated to oursouls and so we belong to the
house of God in a way that'smore than just legal and more
than just full of psychologicalaffection.
It's metaphysical, it's real,but it forms and shapes your
(29:41):
very being.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Well, Father, to wrap things up today, can you give
our listeners some advice on howthey can experience God's
fatherly love for them?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Well, this is a question that always comes up.
When we would give the retreats, we would talk about God the
Father and his great love for usand His compassion and kindness
and the way he takes us intoHis life and how we become
members of His house.
But people would always end bysaying that all sounds wonderful
, but I want to know God theFather like personally,
(30:13):
personally, really, for myself.
And if someone's asking forthat, what they're really asking
for is contemplative prayer.
That's what contemplativeprayer is.
It's the form of prayer thatunfolds in our soul by virtue of
the Spirit's gift of wisdom,and the Spirit's gift of wisdom
(30:33):
gives us an experience, anexperiential knowledge of God.
So if you want to grow in thisfamiliar knowledge of God and
come to experience Him foryourself, what you and I need to
do is first set off on the roadof prayer.
(30:54):
We always begin as beginners,but we grow towards
contemplative prayer byfollowing Jesus Christ and doing
as he taught us to do.
But the other thing we need todo is ask for the Spirit's gift
of wisdom and ask for the graceof contemplative prayer and as
we make our way down the road ofmetanoia and the road of
(31:15):
conversion, following the pathof Beatitudes.
I outline that in the book aswell.
I have a whole chapter on theBeatitudes.
As we live the Beatitudes andlive according to the law of
love, slowly, slowly, as we pray, our prayer will become
increasingly more contemplativeand we can come to sense, taste
(31:35):
and see the goodness of theworld for ourselves and we can
come to know God the Father inthat very personal way.
That's precisely what JesusChrist came into the world to
offer us the knowledge of God ina whole new way that's
unprecedented.
That's ours by virtue of thegift of the Holy Spirit.
So contemplative prayer is whatyou're seeking if you really
(31:59):
want to know God the Father.
And really in contemplativeprayer what you do is you come
to know God the Father, and he'sthe one you'll be seeking.
The other thing is in theEucharist.
When we go to Mass, we have onthe altar the man of heaven, the
eternal Son of God, jesusChrist.
(32:19):
His body, his blood, his soulis divinity.
He's actually there with us.
So there's a way in which, inevery Mass, heaven and earth
meet.
The Father's house is in ourmidst because Jesus Christ is
right there, and when JesusChrist is there, he's not there
without the Father or withoutthe Holy Spirit.
(32:41):
He's there with the Father andwith the Spirit.
So the entire Holy Trinity theFather, son and Holy Spirit, is
there.
The Father's house is there inevery Mass, and when you and I
go to Mass and participate inthe Mass, we really do go to the
Father's house.
It's just that's a mystery offaith.
(33:04):
You don't see that with youreyes or you hear it with your
ears.
It's something that transcendsour senses.
It's a mystery, a mystery offaith.
But it's the truth and you andI, once we hear that and believe
that by faith, then we canreally begin to enter into the
(33:25):
mystery of the Mass more deeplyand come to know the Father in
and through the sacrifice of theMass.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
That's an incredible thought that every time we go to
Mass we enter into the Father'shouse and we can experience his
love for us.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, father James, it's been such a pleasure to
talk with you today, so I justencourage all of our listeners
to believe in the love that God,the Father, has for you and
also check out Father James'sbook, the Father's House
Discovering Our Home in theTrinity.
You can find this book whereveryou buy your Catholic books,
and also he has a new podcastcalled Contemplata, and you can
(34:03):
check that out on the DominicanFriars YouTube page.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Wonderful Well, thank you so much for joining us
today, father, all right.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
My joy and thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
joining us today.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Father, all right, my joy and thanks everyone for
listening.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode recorded live at SEEK.
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