Episode 5 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Charles Dickens

St. Pope John Paul II described Dickens’ books as “filled with love for the poor and a sense of social regeneration . . . warm with imagination and humanity”. Such true charity permeates Dickens’ novels and ultimately drives the characters either to choose regeneration or risk disintegration. In Great Expectations, Pip — symbolic of the pilgrim convert — gains both improved fortunes and a growth in wisdom, but as he acquires the latter, he must relinquish the former — ending with a wealth of profound goodness, not of worldly goods.

That the Dickensian message was a Christian one is unmistakable. Reminiscent of an Augustinian model, one of reflection, conversion, and moral improvement, Pip undergoes an internal change that manifests itself in his profound contrition for his earlier deeds and his equally profound resolution to make amends. As we travel with Pip, we find that Dickens leads us to an acceptance of worldly limitations and an anticipation of final salvation.

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Based on the Ignatius Critical Edition, this series examines, from the Judeo-Christian perspective, the life,the times, and influence of authors of great works in literature .

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

To learn more about the authors and titles available in the Ignatius Critical Editions

“Do not return evil for evil”

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an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:

What makes a disciple of Jesus Christ different from everyone else? What makes Christianity distinct from any other religion? It is grace – treating others, not as they deserve, but as God wishes them to be treated – with loving-kindness and mercy. Only the cross of Jesus Christ can free us from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment and gives us the courage to return evil with good. Such love and grace has power to heal and to save from destruction. The Lord Jesus suffered insult, abuse, injustice, and death on a cross for our sake. Scripture tells us that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and guilt (Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7, I John 1:7, Revelation 1:5). Since God has been merciful towards us through the offering of his Son, Jesus Christ, we in turn are called to be merciful towards our neighbor, even those who cause us grief and harm. Do you know the power and freedom of Christ’s redeeming love and mercy?

“O merciful God, fill our hearts, we pray, with the graces of your Holy Spirit; with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.  Teach us to love those who hate us; to pray for those who despitefully use us; that we may be the children of your love, our Father, who makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  In adversity grant us grace to be patient; in prosperity keep us humble; may we guard the door of our lips; may we lightly esteem the pleasures of this world, and thirst after heavenly things; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Prayer of Anselm, 1033-1109)

for the full reflection visit : Daily Reading and Meditation

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on the life and teachings of St. Padre Pio.  He shares personal stories from his relationship with St. Pio.

Gospel      LK 8:16-18

Dr. Anthony Lilles offers us a tremendous reflection based on a particular passage found in St. Faustina’s diary, #1373.  He shares what it meant when she wrote it in the context of the world in 1937, and what it now means in the  world in 2013.  But more than that, he helps us to see how we can live this out in our everyday lives.

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From the Diary of St. Faustina:

1373 O humdrum days, filled with darkness, I look upon you with a solemn and festive eye. 

This is the scene Dr. Lilles refers to in is talk.

1377 November 5. This morning, five unemployed men came to the gate and insisted on being let in. When Sister N. had argued with them for quite a while and could not make them go away, she then came to the chapel to find Mother [Irene], who told me to go. When I was still a good way from the gate I could hear them banging loudly. At first, I was overcome with doubt and fear, and I did not know whether to open the gate or, like Sister N., to answer them through the little window. But suddenly I heard a voice in my soul saying, Go and open the gate and talk to them as sweetly as you talk to Me.   I opened the gate at once and approached the most menacing of them and began to speak to them with such sweetness and calm that they did not know what to do with themselves. And they too began to speak gently and said, “Well, it’s too bad that the convent can’t give us work.” And they went away peacefully. I felt clearly that Jesus, whom I had received in Holy Communion just an hour before, had worked in their hearts through me. Oh, how good it is to act under God’s inspiration!

The opening prayer from St. Faustina’s diary #1411 offered by Dr. Lilles:

O Divine Spirit, Spirit of truth and of light,
Dwell ever in my soul by Your divine grace.
May Your breath dissipate the darkness,
And in this light may good deeds be multiplied.
O Divine Spirit, Spirit of love and of mercy,
Who pour the balm of trust into my heart,
Your grace confirms my soul in good,
Giving it the invincible power of constancy.
O Divine Spirit, Spirit of peace and of joy,
You invigorate my thirsting heart
And pour into it the living fountain of God’s love,
Making it intrepid for battle.
O Divine Spirit, my soul’s most welcome guest,
For my part, I want to remain faithful to You;
Both in days of joy and in the agony of suffering,
I want always, O Spirit of God, to live in Your presence.
O Divine Spirit, who pervade my whole being
And give me to know Your Divine Threefold Life,
Initiating me into Your Divine Essence,
Thus united to You, I will live a life without end.

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From Vatican Radio –

The pierced and bloodied body of Christ has been taken down from the cross and laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the great rock rolled over its entrance and all is silent..
On Holy Saturday, as we prepare to celebrate the great mystery of the Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday, we are given a gift: a time for silent reflection and prayer, a moment to ask forgiveness and to hope in the joy that only Christ can bring.

To help us enter into the proper spirit of the day, we go to Jerusalem, the city of Our Lord’s Passion, death and Resurrection. From there, Jesuit Fr. David Neuhaus, Patriarchal Vicar for the Hebrew speaking Catholic community, joins us to offer this reflection…

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From Dr. Anthony Lilles’ blog “Beginning to Pray”

There are times when prayer feels wasted.  We cry out from the very depths of our being begging to be heard, sometimes in tears, sometimes in desperate plight, sometimes with an overwhelming sense of personal unworthiness.   Sometimes, when some sign of Divine Providence is most sought, our voices echo in lifeless silence.

In these moments, those who doubted our faith or considered us hypocrites, they feel themselves vindicated – sometimes with glee, sometimes with hidden sorrow.   Here, the seemingly unanswered prayer mysteriously resounds in their hearts too.  Behind the derision one faces for having dared to believe, there is also a painful solidarity with the whole of humanity.   For every prayer that seems unanswered reaffirms a sense of alienation, of rejection, of unbearable misery in the heart of every man and woman since Eden.

In the story of salvation, the most contemporary doubt in the Father’s love is just another manifestation of this primordial reality.   Christian prayer does not avoid this common human condition – it boldly enters this poverty to fill it with something new.  If it humbly accepts all forms of mockery before the mystery of unanswered prayer, it is to offer this too as a living sacrifice to the Living God.

For the Christian, the tired sorrow of unanswered prayer has been made open to an explosive beatitude.  The Word of the Father made this painful cry His own when He implicated Himself in our sin.  In this, the Suffering Servant found a way so that we would not have to suffer our plight alone – our wounds are healed by His.

His last wordless cry of abandonment revealed His life’s project: He dared to offer with love to the Father His every breathe and heartbeat from first to last so that every human hardship might be completely enveloped in divine mercy.   Now, by faith, His project can become our project.  Because His offering to the Father was perfect in love, the Savior of the world fills our dying weakness with the secret freshness of new life whenever we offer it to Him with even the tiniest effort of solidarity.  When prayer seems unanswered, the One who cried to the Father for love of us from crib to Cross is allowing us an opportunity to share in the salvific work of His own prayer.

Like the myrrh, the tears and the kisses that once anointed the feet of Jesus, prayer wasted on God for our brothers and sisters, for spouse and children, and even for ourselves, always takes on cruciform proportions – dimensions that extend from one horizon to the other, from height to depth, from what is visible to what cannot be seen.   If such prayer weeps over abandonment, disappointment, frustration, injustice, inadequacy, failure, voids and weakness – such prayer also boldly cleaves with gratitude to the invincible hope that none of this can separate us from that astounding love revealed by the Risen Lord.

Dr. Anthony Lilles is the author of “Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden”

Here it is…a marvelous Lenten devotional by Fr. R. Scott Hurd, entitled “The Living Gospel: Daily Devotions for Lent 2013“.   In this handy booklet, published by Ave Maria Press, he offers day-to-day pastoral care to nurture each day of our Lenten journey.  Fr. Hurd is a wonderful storyteller, as well as, a insightful leader of prayerful reflection.  An excellent resource no matter the time it is.

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Fr. Hurd is also the author one of my favorite books, “Forgiveness:  A Catholic Approach“. Check out our Inside the Pages discussion on that work as well.

You can find the book here

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“Do you not know I am your Mother?”  Msgr. Esseff reflects on the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy…Our Lady of Guadalupe.  First, he discusses the image itself that was left for all of us.  Then he talks about our relationship with her today!

Ps 1:1Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky;
it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,
and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,
to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.”

[powerpress] Msgr. Esseff reflects on the readings given by the Church at this time of the year which brings us the teachings on the end times.   How are we to understand these readings?  What did it mean to the people of the Church 2000 years ago?  What does it mean for us today?  The Gospel and the words of the Jesus having meaning for the entire world today.  For those persecuted today, this message is for you!

Rv 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9a

I, John, saw another angel coming down from heaven,
having great authority,
and the earth became illumined by his splendor.
He cried out in a mighty voice:”Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.
She has become a haunt for demons.
She is a cage for every unclean spirit,
a cage for every unclean bird,
a cage for every unclean and disgusting beast.”A mighty angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone
and threw it into the sea and said:”With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down,
and will never be found again.
No melodies of harpists and musicians,
flutists and trumpeters,
will ever be heard in you again.
No craftsmen in any trade
will ever be found in you again.
No sound of the millstone
will ever be heard in you again.
No light from a lamp
will ever be seen in you again.
No voices of bride and groom
will ever be heard in you again.
Because your merchants were the great ones of the world,
all nations were led astray by your magic potion.”

After this I heard what sounded like
the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying:

“Alleluia!
Salvation, glory, and might belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great harlot
who corrupted the earth with her harlotry.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

They said a second time:

“Alleluia! Smoke will rise from her forever and ever.”

Then the angel said to me, “Write this:
Blessed are those who have been called
to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”

Gospel Lk 21:20-28

[powerpress]Msgr. Esseff recounts some of his experiences as he directed retreats for the Missionaries of Charity Sisters in Italy and Spain. He speaks of his time in Rome during the Synod for the New Evangelization and the Canonization of the Saints on October 21. Be he also shares his experience of hearing about Hurricane Sandy for the first time at the airport on the way home and the subsequent tragedy that has followed in its wake. Msgr. Esseff offers his insights on this moment and the hope that is found in the teachings of Christ. He guides us through a meditation that helps us to see deeply into the heart of the person next to us.

Fra Angelico's "Annunciation" as described in the broadcast

From Vatican Radio – It is a day to remember the Blessed Virgin’s “yes” to the Lord. On the Feast of the Annunciation, Catholics celebrate the angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she has been chosen to be the Mother of Our Lord. Usually celebrated on March 25^th, the feast can be transferred to another date if it falls on a Sunday in Lent. This year, it is celebrated on Monday March 26th.

In the following reflection, Sr. Toni Harris, Justice and Peace promoter for the Dominican Sisters International, tells us how we, like Mary, can become witnesses to Christ in our every day lives…[powerpress = “Vatican_Radio”]

The Octave Day of Christmas, The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – from the Gospel of Luke the full reading and reflection

“He was called Jesus”

an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:

In fulfilment of this precept, Mary’s newborn child is given the name Jesus on the eighth day according to the Jewish custom. Joseph and Mary gave the name Jesus because that is the name given by God’s messenger before Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb. This name signifies Jesus’ identity and his mission. The literal Hebrew means the Lord saves. Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  In the birth and naming of this child we see the wondrous design and plan of God in giving us a Savior who would bring us grace, mercy, and freedom from the power of sin and the fear of death. The name Jesus signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son who became man for our salvation. Peter the Apostle exclaimed that there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved (Acts 2:12). In the name of Jesus demons flee, cripples walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. His name is exalted far above every other name (Philippians 2:9-11). The name Jesus is at the heart of all Christian prayer. It is through and in Jesus that we pray to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have died with one word on the lips, the name of Jesus. Do you exalt the name of Jesus and pray with confidence in his name?

“Lord Jesus Christ, I exalt your name above every other name. For in you I have pardon, mercy, grace and victory over sin and death. You humbled yourself for my sake and for the sake of all sinners by sharing in our humanity and by dying on the cross. Help me to always praise your holy name and to live for your greater glory.”

for the full reflection visit : Daily Reading and Meditation

“The tax collectors and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you”
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an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:

Jesus makes his point clear: Good intentions are not enough. And promises don’t count unless they are performed. God wants to change our hearts so that we will show by our actions that we respect his will and do it. God offers each of us the greatest treasure possible – unending peace, joy, happiness, and life with him in his kingdom. We can lose that treasure if we refuse the grace God offers us to follow in his way of truth, love, and righteousness. Jesus encourages us to think – to think about the consequences of our choices, especially the choices and decisions that will count not just for now but for eternity as well. The choices we make now will affect and shape our future, both our future on earth as well as in the life of the age to come. Are you ready to obey your heavenly Father and to choose for his kingdom of righteousness and peace?

“Lord Jesus, change my heart that I may desire to do whatever is pleasing to you. Help me to respect your will and give me the strength, joy, and perseverance to carry it out wholeheartedly.”

for the full reflection visit : Daily Reading and Meditation

Second Sunday of Advent Cycle A – from the Gospel Matthew the full reading and reflection

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”

an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:

John the Baptist’s life was fueled by one burning passion – to point others to Jesus Christ and to the coming of his kingdom. Who is John the Baptist and what is the significance of his message for our lives? Scripture tells us that John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15, 41) by Christ himself, whom Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth John lept in her womb as they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41). The fire of the Spirit dwelt in John and made him the forerunner of the coming Messiah. John was led by the Spirit into the wilderness prior to his ministry where he was tested and grew in the word of God. John’s clothing was reminiscent of the prophet Elijah (see Kings 1:8). John broke the prophetic silence of the previous centuries when he began to speak the word of God to the people of Israel. His message was similar to the message of the Old Testament prophets who chided the people of God for their unfaithfuless and who tried to awaken true repentance in them. Among a people unconcerned with the things of God, it was his work to awaken their interest, unsettle them from their complacency, and arouse in them enough good will to recognize and receive Christ when he came. Are you eager to hear God’s word and to be changed by it through the power of the Holy Spirit?

Jesus tells us that John the Baptist was more than a prophet (Luke 7:26). John was the voice of the Consoler who is coming (John 1:23; Isaiah 40:1-3). He completed the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah (Matthew 11:13-14). What the prophets had carefully searched for and angels longed to see, now came to completion as John made the way ready for the coming of the Messiah, God’s Annointed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. With John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to the human race of the “divine likeness”, prefiguring what would be achieved with and in the Lord Jesus. John’s baptism was for repentance – turning away from sin and taking on a new way of life according to God’s word. Our baptism in Jesus Christ by water and the Spirit results in a new birth and entry into God’s kingdom as his beloved sons and daughters (John 3:5). Jesus is ready to give us the fire of his Spirit that we may radiate the joy and truth of the gospel to a world in desparate need of God’s light and truth. His word has power to change and transform our lives that we may be lights pointing others to Christ. Like John the Baptist, we too are called to give testimony to the light and truth of Jesus Christ. Do you point others to Christ in the way you live, work, and speak?

“Lord, let your light burn brightly in my heart that I may know the joy and freedom of your kingdom. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower me to witness the truth of your gospel and to point others to Jesus Christ.”

for the full reflection visit : Daily Reading and Meditation