fatherfladerblog

Dec 08 2024 100 ep. 359

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Meditations and mutterings from a Catholic priest

Religion & Spirituality

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Journey to Bethlehem

In this season of Advent we can learn much about how to focus our spiritual life from Our Lady, as she makes her way to Bethlehem with St Joseph. Among the lessons Mary teaches us are: Docility to the will of God Self-giving to others Bearing hardships without complaining Purifying our soul through penance Life […]

The hope of Heaven

As we know from children’s catechisms, the reason why we exist is to know, love and serve God on earth in order to be happy with him forever in heaven. We know it but we tend to forget it in the busyness and distractions of everyday life. In this meditation, we consider how we can […]

One in the Communion of Saints

One of the most consoling truths of our faith is the reality of the Communion of Saints – the Church triumphant in heaven, the Church suffering in purgatory, and the Church militant on earth, all helping one another. In this meditation we use texts from Scripture, the Catechism, St Bernard, St Therese of Lisieux and […]

Humility

One of the most fundamental virtues is humility. Many of the saints, among them St Augustine and St John Vianney, stress how important it is. In this meditation, we use texts of Sacred Scripture, St Augustine, St John Vianney and St Josemaria to consider how: Humility is the foundation of the other virtues Our Lady […]

The spiritual Olympics

Athletes go through a rigorous training regime in order to achieve their goal of winning a medal in the Olympic games. Our goal is much higher: eternal life with God in heaven. We too need a training regime. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture, especially of St Paul, and of saints like Augustine, […]

Heart in God, not in goods

The Scriptures invite us to love God above all things. But in an affluent society, where goods abound, it is easy to put our heart more in goods than in God. In this meditation we draw on texts of Scripture, Popes Paul VI and Francis, and Fathers of the Church, to consider how: We must […]

Loving with the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is love and, as St Paul writes, love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Since God has loved us first, we should love God with our whole heart, and love one another. In this meditation we use the Scriptures and a letter […]

Hope in the Resurrection

When the women went at dawn to anoint the body of Christ on Easter Sunday, they didn’t know how they would remove the huge stone that closed the tomb. To their surprise, they found the stone already removed. In this meditation we use the homily of Pope Francis in the Easter Vigil in St Peter’s […]

The Light of Easter

The resurrection of Christ brings light into a world in darkness. That darkness may be of unbelief, of sin, of lack of hope. In all cases, Christ is the light who can dispel the darkness with the light of his Resurrection. In this meditation we consider how we can respond to this light of Christ […]

Lessons from Holy Week

Holy Week should be holy not only in its name and in the events we commemorate, but in the way we live it. In this meditation we consider the numerous lessons we can learn from this week and how we can put them into practice. We will consider: Palm Sunday – praising God by our […]