Hearing With The Heart: Conversations Over Coffee

Our Catholic faith teaches us to deny ourselves - a counter-cultural idea for our modern world. Janet & Bridgett discuss how the concept of dying to self can lead to spiritual fulfillment and make space for all that God has in store for our lives.
Resources:

• Fifth Sunday of Lent Gospel
• Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament
• Kreeft, Peter. Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle B. Word on Fire, 2023.
• Unless a Grain of Wheat by Tim Reidy
• Fifth Sunday of Lent-Unless We Become Grains of Wheat by Carl E. Olson

Baby Steps:

• Needing God is not a weakness - we are made to draw close to him!
• What does it mean to you when we say "deny yourself" or "offer it up"? If this is difficult for you, talk to God about it.
• No matter what you do this Lenten season, allow God to be with you and help you through it!
• If your Lenten journey has not been what you hoped, it's not too late for a reset.

Email us: [email protected]
Additional episodes: https://hearingwiththeheart.buzzsprout.com
Church of the Ascension: www.ascensionvb.org/podcast

Send us a text

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed day!

Jesus asks blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" even when the answer seems obvious. How do things change when we take time to deepen our conversation with Jesus and not only tell him what we need, but also ask him what he wants us to do for him? Bridgett and Janet both share personal experiences of doing just that.
Resources

• Mark 10:46-52
• John 15:16 - It’s not you who chose me but I who chose you to bear much fruit.
• Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good work, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 439: Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic “Son of David,” promised by God to Israel. Jesus accepted his rightful title of Messiah, though with some reserve because it was understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a sense, as essentially political.
• Quote from Saint John Henry Newman: “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.” (learn more about Saint John Henry Newman here)

Baby Steps:

• Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" Answer him.
• Then ask Jesus: "What do you want me to do for you?"

Email us: [email protected]
Additional episodes: https://hearingwiththeheart.buzzsprout.com
Church of the Ascension: www.ascensionvb.org/podcast

Send us a text

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed day!

Part 2 in the series on the Theological Virtues is all about hope. Janet and Bridgett explore hope and how, from their perspective, it is the most "abstract" of the three virtues. Hope, like faith and charity, is given to us by God. Hope allows us to look toward eternity with confidence because of Christ's death and Resurrection.
Resources
Bishop Barron Comments on Faith, Hope, and Love

Father Mike Schmitz Day 341: The Theological Virtues: The Catechism in a Year

The Catechism of the Catholic Church The Theological Virtues

Cantalamessa, Cardinal Raniero. Faith, Hope, & Love. Word on Fire, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, 2024.
Baby Step: Pray with this Scripture

1 Peter 1: 3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Send us a text

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed day!

As we prepare for Ash Wednesday, Janet discusses her favorite liturgical season, Lent, with Bridgett. Together, they share both the #funfacts and the reverent aspects of the season and remind us to just breathe!
Resources:

• CCC 2849 Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony. In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is "custody of the heart," and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name." The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch. Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake."
• Romans 8:28 “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to his purpose.”
• Pope Francis: The Joy of the Gospel. Paragraph 1
• Phelps, Laura Mary: Sweet Cross: A Marian Guide to Suffering, page 142
• Saunders, Rev. William: “History of Lent”

Baby Steps:

• Just breathe! Remember that prayer is the oxygen to your soul.
• Ask God how he wants you to approach this Lenten season. Lent is a journey to bring you closer to the Lord!

Email us: [email protected]
Additional episodes: https://hearingwiththeheart.buzzsprout.com
Church of the Ascension: www.ascensionvb.org/podcast

Send us a text

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed day!

Janet & Bridgett discuss sainthood and holiness - can you see yourself as a saint?
Resources:

• "Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or the particular monk they are intended to be by God. They never become the man or the artist who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint...They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems." (Thomas Merton)
• Letters to Myself from the End of the World: Emily Stimpson Chapman
• Favorite Saint Teresa of Calcutta books:

1. A Simple Path: Mother Teresa
2. No Greater Love Mother Teresa and Thomas Moore
3. Come Be My Light: Mother Teresa

• Catechism of the Catholic ChurchReference links: 823, 828, 946, 363, 366

Definition links (via Catechism Glossary):

• Saint
• Canonization
• Soul
• Holiness
• Purgatory

Baby Steps:

• Remember that God loves you! You are a saint and you are holy, so live your life today as if you believe it!
• Pray for the dead, especially your deceased family members, and ask for their intercession.

Email us: [email protected]
Additional episodes: https://hearingwiththeheart.buzzsprout.com
Church of the Ascension: www.ascensionvb.org/podcast

Send us a text

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed day!