“Full of Grace”: The Power & Purpose of the Immaculate Conception
While I love it now, I didn’t always embrace the the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. In fact, before becoming Catholic, I didn’t even understand what it was. I thought the dogma referred to something about Jesus, and how Mary gave birth to him while remaining a virgin. But it doesn’t. It has nothing to […]
085: Discerning God’s Will with St. Ignatius of Loyola
<scroll to bottom for podcast> Decisions, decisions… Life holds a lot of options and it’s often hard to know which way to go, especially when it comes to serious, life-changing matters. Thankfully, we’ve got help. St. Ignatius of Loyola penned his famous Spiritual Exercises to enable people to discern the spirits – discern God’s will […]
The Secret to Permanent Focus on God
A lot of people don’t believe me. Can’t say I blame them. But it’s true. There actually does come a point in time when a person learns how to focus on God in a way that transcends everything else…and I mean everything. They’ve discovered the secret to the spiritual life. As you know, prayer is […]
Why “Mother of God” is Mary’s Most Crucial Title
It’s no coincidence that we begin every year with the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Along with her Immaculate Conception, Our Lady’s Divine Maternity is one of the two fundamental truths about Mary. Everything else we believe about her revolves around these two teachings. But interestingly, the consensus of most theologians is that Mary’s identity as Mother of […]
084: Heresy or Holy? The Question of Marian Consecration
<scroll to bottom for podcast player> “‘Slaves of Mary?’ Are you kidding me?” That was my first (second, third…tenth) reaction to the words of St. Louis de Montfort in True Devotion to Mary, the classic text on our topic. The whole idea of consecrating yourself to anyone other than Jesus Christ made zero sense to me. […]
How To Achieve Constant Prayer
Did you know that every part of our life is meant to be powered by prayer…everything! Is that even possible? Since “with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26) , the answer is a resounding “Yes!” How? Well it starts with what we call “finite prayer.” A finite prayer is one that has a beginning and […]