On this the feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

The Fruit of Prayer
The fruit of silence is prayer
the fruit of prayer is faith
the fruit of faith is love
the fruit of love is service
the fruit of service is peace.

If We Pray
If we pray, we will believe;
If we believe, we will love
If we love, we will serve.

Love to pray
Feel often during the day the need for prayer and pray.
Prayer opens the heart, till it is capable of containing God himself.
Ask and seek and your heart will be big enough to receive Him
and keep Him as Your Own.

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The importance of his life and contribution to the Church cannot be overstated. St. Augustine, one of the greatest of the Church Fathers, has not only influenced the Church, but the thought of the world as we know it.  The story of his conversion as chronicled in his “Confessions”, would be enough, but then add the body of his theological work and you have nothing less than a glimpse of what is truly the power of  “grace and mercy”.

Mike Aquilina is one of the best at bringing this great saint’s life into perspective.

For a more detail accounting of St. Augustine’s  life, you can visit  Lives of the Saints

 

 

Spiritual Writings:

- Confessions 
- Letters
- City of God
- Christian Doctrine
- On the Holy Trinity
- The Enchiridion
- On the Catechising of the Uninstructed
- On Faith and the Creed
- Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen
- On the Profit of Believing
- On the Creed: A Sermon to Catechumens
- On Continence
- On the Good of Marriage
- On Holy Virginity
- On the Good of Widowhood
- On Lying
- To Consentius: Against Lying
- On the Work of Monks
- On Patience
- On Care to be Had For the Dead
- On the Morals of the Catholic Church
- On the Morals of the Manichaeans
- On Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans
- Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichaean
- Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental
- Reply to Faustus the Manichaean
- Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans
- On Baptism, Against the Donatists
- Answer to Letters of Petilian, Bishop of Cirta
- Merits and Remission of Sin, and Infant Baptism
- On the Spirit and the Letter
- On Nature and Grace
- On Man’s Perfection in Righteousness
- On the Proceedings of Pelagius
- On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin
- On Marriage and Concupiscence
- On the Soul and its Origin
- Against Two Letters of the Pelagians
- On Grace and Free Will
- On Rebuke and Grace
- The Predestination of the Saints/Gift of Perseverance
- Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount
- The Harmony of the Gospels
- Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament
- Tractates on the Gospel of John
- Homilies on the First Epistle of John
- Soliloquies
- The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

For me, out of all the St. Augustine’s work,  this is the piece that deeply touches my heart and is one of my all-time favorite prayers:

Late Have I Loved You
A Prayer of Saint Augustine

Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I rushed headlong into the well-formed things that you have made.

You were with me, and I was not with you. Those outer beauties held me far from you, yet if they had not been in you, they would not have existed at all.

You called, and cried out to me and broke open my deafness; you shone forth upon me and you scattered my blindness.

You breathed fragrance, and I drew in my breath and I now pant for you.

I tasted, and I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

This prayer is from his book, “Confessions.”

                                                  

From the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary:
Main Entry: ¹mar·tyr
Pronunciation: \ˈmär-tər\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin, from Greek martyr-, martys witness
Date: before 12th century

1 : a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion
2 : a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle

On this day, August 9, 1942,
Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) became a martyr for the faith in the Auschwitz death camp.  She continues to witness today.

 

Bruce and I discuss with Dr. Janet Smith “The Right to Privacy” .  In her book she presents a critical look at the meaning of the “right to privacy” that has been so often employed by the Supreme Court in recent times to justify the creation of rights not found in the Constitution by any traditional method of interpreting a legal document.

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Dr. Smith shows how these inventions have led to the legal protection of abortion, assisted suicide, homosexual acts, and more. As Judge Bork says it shows that “morals legislation now seems constitutionally impermissible”, and that the counterfeit right to privacy belongs to the genre of the indecipherable and incoherent that no one who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would have contemplated.

At the heart of Catholic Social Teaching is the fundamental principle of the dignity of every human life.  Understanding and appreciating that, and then assessing the laws of the land of our country, will help us to navigate and discern our service and response as Catholic Americans living in the world.  We are called to defend the “Gospel of Life”, Dr. Smith helps us to do just that.

“The Right to Privacy” can be found at www.ignatius.com

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross.
No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
– St. Leo the Great

How do you stop a barbarian invader like Attila from sacking your town?  Pray, pray, pray…just ask St. Leo the Great.

Take a listen to Mike Aquilina (the “great” son of the Fathers) talk about St. Leo the Great:

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CNA –Pope Leo the Great is the first Pope whose sermons and letters, many of which were on faith and charity, were preserved in extensive collections. He served as pontiff from 440 until his death in 461. His writing on the Incarnation was acclaimed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. –

Prior to his pontificate, Leo was a deacon and active as a peacemaker in the Roman Empire. He is most remembered for having successfully persuaded Attila the Hun not to plunder Rome. He was not as successful during another attack three years later, however. Nevertheless, he managed to save the city from being burnt. He stayed on to help the people rebuild Rome.

He was made a Doctor of the Church in 1754-CNA

This is the chapel/altar area with the tomb of St. Leo in St. Peter’s in Rome.  It was restricted to the public for some reason. But I was able to get close, because I went to confession in that area (a very interesting story I’ll share some day).

  Here is the “great” painting by Raphael that is in the Vatican Museum of St. Leo imploring Attilia to back off and change his ways (and he did, go figure)

Spiritual Writings –

 - Sermons
- Letters

For they are ministering spirits, sent for service, for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Heb 1:14)

O holy Guardian Angel, my dear friend and solicitous guide on the dangerous way of life, to thee be heartfelt thanks for the numberless benefits which have been granted me through thy love and goodness and for the powerful help by which thou hast preserved me from so many dangers and temptations. I beg of thee, let me further experience thy love and thy care. Avert from me all danger, increase in me horror for sin and love for all that is good. Be a counselor and consoler to me in all the affairs of my life, and when my life draws to a close, conduct my soul through the valley of death into the kingdom of eternal peace, so that in eternity we may together praise God and rejoice in His glory. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
O Angel of God, make me worthy of thy tender love, thy celestial companionship and thy never-failing protection!

For He will give His angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.  (Ps 91)

The Holy Angels, and in particular our Guardian Angels, are such a wonderful gift to us from the Father!  Let us give thanks to Him for his generosity and to our Guardian Angel for their presence in our lives!

It’s really important to understand  the difference in the angels beyond all the New Age silliness.  There are the Holy Angels (we love them and they love us) and the fallen angels (bad, bad, bad)…it’s what discernment and spiritual warfare, on many levels, are all about.

Bruce and I, thanks to Fr. Damien Cook, had the opportunity to speak to Fr. Titus Kieninger of Opus Sanctorum Angelorum about the role of Holy Angels.  Be prepared…you’ll have to listen a couple of times to this discussion;  Fr. Titus Kieninger gives so much information about their mission that you’ll need hear a few times to get it all.

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Be sure to visit Opus Sanctorum Angelorum

Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide. ~ St. Bernard of Clairvaux

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”  – St. Therese of of Lisieux

Sometimes words are not full enough to describe someone.
Therese  is a melody.
A melody of grace lofting lyrically around our hearts in prayer;
a sound which invokes joy and sorrow, smiles and tears,
trust, hope and…love.
I’m not a musician, but I know a beautiful song when I hear it.
Her melody is one you wish never would end,
with Therese, “you hear the song”.

 

[powerpress]Bruce and I had a chance to speak with Brother Joseph Schmidt about St. Therese. He wrote about her in “Everything is Grace”.

This is  my VERY favorite book about St. Therese…it’s wonderful

MY ONLY OCCUPATION IS LOVE

“I do not desire either suffering or death, although both are appealing to me;
it is love alone which really attracts me…
I can ask for nothing with any enthusiasm
except the perfect accomplishment of the Divine Will in my soul,
unhindered by any intrusion of created things.
I can say, with the words of our father, St. John of the Cross,
in his Spiritual Canticle,
‘I drank in the inner cellar of my Beloved, and when I went forth into the meadow
I forgot everything and lost the flock which I used to drive.
My soul has employed all its resources in His service;
now I guard no flock, nor do I have any other duties.
Now my only occupation is love.’
Or again: ‘I know love is so powerful that it can turn
whatever is good or bad in me into profit,
and it can transform my soul into Himself.”
~ St. Thérèse

A MORNING PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESE

O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.

O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity.

Amen.

PRAYER TO ST. THERESE

 

O little St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own – speak a word for me to our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were – to that Queen of heaven “who smiled on you at the dawn of life.” Beg her as the Queen of the heart of Jesus to obtain for me by her powerful intercession, the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment, and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life. Defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity.

Amen

WHAT A LIFE…

St. Helen was born in the middle of the third century, in what is now Great Britain; she was a good wife and mother. Life was pretty good.  And then she was dumped by her ambitious husband for another woman in order to advance in rank (she was definitely done wrong!), and vanishes from history.  Things look bad for Helen, UNTIL her son becomes emperor of Rome.  Constantine, her son (yes, THE Constantine),  brings her to Rome and sits her at his right hand, naming her “Augusta”, which means essentially, empress of all Rome (take that husband).  What a good son he was! He made up to his mom what bad dad did to her!

OK, so far the story has gotten much better for our saint don’t you think, but wait it gets even better.

Her faith becomes so fervent that we are told by one of the Fathers of the Church, Eusebius, that  her son the emperor finances a complete pilgrimage for Helen to the Holy Land (what a good son). Now remember this IS the early 300’s and you can’t just hop on a plane or train. No sir,  if you’re now traveling royality, you have to have soldiers, priests, and whole lot of others to help you on your way.  Helen, because she is the “Augusta”,  establishes countless churches all along that way.  She also  finds the places where Jesus lived and preached, and she establishes churches in those places too.  In her travels she finds the True Cross and brings that, along with the steps of Pontius Pilates’ Staircase (which you can climb today in a building just outside St. John Lateran’s in Rome, but do it on your knees and make sure, ladies, your shirts have sleeves,otherwise you will get yelled at by this little old guy in a suit, but I digress…)

 

OK, now where was I… oh yes, St. Helen brings all those things (along with a huge boat load of Holy Land dirt) back to Rome.  So thanks to the pilgrimage of St. Helen, when you and I go to Rome, we too can venerate the True Cross in the Church of the Holy Cross, which is just down the street from St. John Lateran (this is to say nothing of all the little pieces of the Cross that have been given away and are now all over the world).  We can also visit the Holy Land in Rome, because of the “holy” dirt she brought back.

 

It’s all kind of neat when you think of it.  Just when life seemed to hit rock bottom for Helen, it all turned around in an extraordinary way.  An abandoned wife in England,  becomes the empress of the known world of her time.  So try to remember when you think you have hit rock bottom and can’t possibly get back up, ask St. Helen…all things are possible with God.

What ever happened to St. Helen after her wonderous pilgrimage? She died a devout and pious woman, the mother of the emperor, living into her 80″s, embracing the cross literally and figuratively.  Wow, what a life.  She is considered by many  the patron saint for those divorced or divorcing!

 Evelyn Waugh, the author of BridesheadRevisited, wrote a wonderful novel centered on St. Helen.  It’s really a fantastic  read.

 

Take a listen to Thomas Craughwell suggest that  St. Helen could be a patron saint for anyone who is divorced or divorcing (she’s been there).

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Bruce and I talk with Thomas about Helen, along with a host of other marvelous members of the Cloud of Witnesses who become patron saints for us as we journey on our pilgrimage to heaven.

So many find it fashionable to quote her…how many have the courage to truly read her?  Someone asked me once why I love Flannery O’Connor?   At first, I wasn’t sure how to answer.  She is a challenge.  I suppose she islike your favorite fitness trainer; when you’re done you feel something has changed.  Reading Flannery causes you to look in the mirror; watch out you may not like what you see.  She causes you to practice the virtues in a way you may never have thought; so that when you encounter a moral challenge in life, you’ve already “flexed your virtue muscles”.  And isn’t that the key to great literature anyway?  “A Good Man Is Hard

To Find” was the first short story I read by Flannery…it was the first serious short story I had ever read (what a piece to cut your teeth on).   I was 13…I didn’t get it.  I read “Wiseblood” at 16…I didn’t get it.  At 48, do I get it?  I think I’ll leave that to God to answer.
Do I think she is a saint?  Yup, no doubt in my mind.  Will the Church ever declare her a saint…I don’t know, and in the end does it really matter what we think…God’s got her.

Here’s a little piece I found on her life…not great, but not bad..

Here is an “Inside the Pages” discussion with Amy Welborn about Flannery O’Connor
[powerpress url=”http://discerninghearts.com/interviews/Inside_the_Pages-Amy_Welborn_Flannery_O_Connor.mp3″]Download (right click & choose “Save Link As”)

Fr. Solanus Casey…what an incredible life of humilty and faith.  “When Father Solanus Casey died in Detroit in 1957, all he left after 86 years on this earth were a small crucifix, an old pair of sandals, several religious pictures, a wooden statue of St. Anthony, some dog-eared religious books, a knot of heavily darned socks and a framed, 40-year-old picture of his family. But he left another rich legacy — a long list of curious “favors” to an equally long list of devoted believers.

Father Solanus Casey had come to Detroit to be a Capuchin friar. During his years as a priest he spent time in other states, but he began and ended his career in Detroit.”

To discover more about this ordinary man who did extraordinary things with the grace of God…just visit the Father Solanus Guild

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Also you may want to take a listen to the interview Bruce and I had with Joel Schorn who wrote about Fr. Solanus, Padre Pio and Blessed Andre  in “God’s Doorkeepers”

 

Mark begins our study of the works of St. Paul by answering –

Who was St. Paul?  What was his background, his beliefs and why was his conversion so important? What did he write?  Where did he travel?  How did he witness to the “Truth”?

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Mark Hart is an author, speaker, director and teacher, Mark’s work both written and spoken, is known across the country and world. While he serves as the Vice President of LIFE TEEN, he is known to tens of thousands simply as the “Bible Geek ®” Mark passionately echoes the gospel to all he encounters. He is as deep as he is funny, and his love for his wife and daughters is second only to his immense love for Jesus Christ.

Visit Mark at www.lifeteen.com

When you listen to Mike Aquilina express the mystery and beauty of the Eucharist, you know it is truly coming from someone who has been deeply touched in his depths of his own heart by this tremendous sacrament of love. I love talking with Mike, he strengthens and encourages my own faith so much…he is such a gift to the body of Christ!  In “The Fire of God’s Love” he passes on insights on the Eucharist to inspire us all.  Saints and popes are represented in this collection, but also reflections from folks representing in our own time, like J.R.R. Tolkien, Maria Montessori, Conrad Hilton, and George Wiegel.

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Mark answers –

1. Five tangible things people can to do to start reading the Bible.  Which translation is best for you?  Best times to study and how long?  Journaling?  Other resources?
2. What is a “good” teen bible?

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Mark Hart is an author, speaker, director and teacher, Mark’s work both written and spoken, is known across the country and world. While he serves as the Vice President of LIFE TEEN, he is known to tens of thousands simply as the “Bible Geek ®” Mark passionately echoes the gospel to all he encounters. He is as deep as he is funny, and his love for his wife and daughters is second only to his immense love for Jesus Christ.

Visit Mark at www.lifeteen.com

Mark answers –

1. Why do we celebrate Advent? What does it mean and what’s it all about?
2. What is the significance of the Advent Wreath, the nativity set, the different colors, etc. we see in Church?

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Mark Hart is an author, speaker, director and teacher, Mark’s work both written and spoken, is known across the country and world. While he serves as the Vice President of LIFE TEEN, he is known to tens of thousands simply as the “Bible Geek ®” Mark passionately echoes the gospel to all he encounters. He is as deep as he is funny, and his love for his wife and daughters is second only to his immense love for Jesus Christ.

Visit Mark at www.lifeteen.com

While my heart sings for joy because I know he must be with Lord in heaven, it’s also so sad knowing the Church Miltant no longer has one of it’s greatest contemplative teachers in its temporal midst.  Fr. Thomas Dubay died, September 26, 2010.  Fr. Dubay led me to St. Teresa of Avila.  His work on “Fire Within” and all the programs he gave us on EWTN were instrumental in my spiritual growth.  In those early days, he was like having a distant spiritual director who guided me, as well as the rest of us, toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

He told me once, “Kris, the best theology books are the lives of the saints; you study them and you won’t be led astray.”  Fr. Thomas Dubay, in a very real way, helped inspire the work of this blog and it’s mission.

It was an INCREDIBLE blessing to have had the chance to speak with Fr. Thomas Dubay about his book “Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer”…I was SO nervous, because I was so awe struck, but he made it so easy.

I’m leaving now to light a candle for Fr. Dubay at our church…it doesn’t seem like much given the fact he was such an important part of my spiritual growth, but then again I think it would make him happy knowing I was offering that “prayer” from the depths of my heart.  I can’t wait to meet him in person one day.  Fr. Thomas Dubay, pray for us.