Be sure to subscribe to this podcast or listen to this here – online. You can download this talk on your computer or you can listen on your phone. Share this podcast with a friend.

God’s Love for His People

Episode 1

God’s love for His people will astound and bless you — in the scriptures, He says, “Beloved let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God is revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love. Not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” (1 Jn. 4: 7-12)

“… who remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (v. 16)

We are called into a  love relationship with God in Jesus Christ through the power and life of the Holy Spirit. We live a covenant relationship in Jesus Christ in the New Creation. Those committed to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ live in a relationship with him in the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We have been created for God

We have been created to naturally live this life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and come to completion or perfection as a human being in the dynamic of this triune relationship of love. In the book of Revelation Jesus says “Behold I make all things new”! Jesus is the source of the New Creation

By love, we become a new creation, a new man or woman in Christ. Jesus invites us into the New Covenant of Love through our Baptism in water

(The story of Dianne) — listen to the podcast for more.

God’s love for His people is unending!

The only way we can grow in love is by the power of God’s love Therefore we are called into a relationship where we are willing to embrace a process and journey of changing. Sometimes change is easy sometimes it is hard, “unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains just a seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” (Jn. 12) The story of Jimmy Cohen – a little book entitled Love of God by Charles Colson,  in a chapter entitled “Whatever Happened to Son.”

If God is love and lives in us, we need to love others. The basic call of our vocation is love. A successful and meaningful life is a life of love: giving our life away, giving our love away, and giving our death away! Our transformation and growth in divine love and human love brings spiritual happiness and also human maturity.  (The story of Alex Bombara)

Love is a gift from God, both divine and human love, a fruitful life. A fruitful life lived in the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit brings forth in our transformation generosity and gratitude. In humility we need to be patient, learn to appreciate and accept ourselves as we are, and trust in God’s merciful love to achieve all He has planned for us.

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God’s Will While Living The Gospel Podcast 18

How can we find God’s will while living the gospel? Often when a member of a family receives a threatening or fatal medical diagnosis. The tendency in this situation, especially for the individual, is to devote themselves to putting everything in order.  They may update their will, re-deed their property, even preplan their funeral. All of this is to ensure that their loved ones are well taken care of once they are gone.

Finding God’s will while living The Gospel can be seen in the last supper.

At the Last Supper Jesus does the same with his disciples. In his preplanning to physically leave them, he tells them the following things to remember and do: He tells them to remain in him, if they don’t they will not produce fruit because apart from him they can do nothing. If they remain in him they can ask for what they want and it will be done for them. If they keep the commandments they will remain in his love, especially the great commandment of loving God and loving one another. He tells them that they are his friends and he has given them everything the Father has given him…

“I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them the word and the world hated them.” Then he tells them the world is going to hate them because they do not belong to the world. “because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may be consecrated in truth”, see Jn. 17: 11-19.

God’s will while living the Gospel…

God’s will while living the Gospel shows up in the consecration in this scripture means being set aside for the purposes of being a sacrificial love offering through suffering and death. Hatred here means to resist, plot against, persecute and kill. And they will do this because they do not know him or the Father. The world will hate them without cause. When this happens they will remember that he prepared them and told them that this would happen. However, he will send them the Holy Spirit and he will guide them and teach them all truth. He told them to take courage because he has conquered the world. They are told by him to remain committed, courageous,  and merciful in the face of adversity, struggle, trial, suffering, and persecution. In this consecration, for the sake of the truth of the Gospel, his disciples will discover the will of the Father.

I was speaking to a close friend a short while ago and he, reflecting on the state of the world at the present time, referring to the mayhem in our post-modern world, he said that the world has become a very dangerous place to live. Many people undoubtedly are perceiving these same realities.

The question one may hear occasionally is, why is God allowing these things to take place? How does this situation reflect on the consideration of God’s will in our daily life? When we look at the world around us and take the time to reflect on the beautiful and wonderful world of creation, we can’t help to be deeply moved by the glorious wonder of God’s creating love. And the truth that we partner with God in the unfolding of his creative love.

How many gifts the good Lord has given us. We all have received many tremendous blessings both spiritual and temporal. Just in the recent years the many new discoveries in medicine and the rapid development of modern technologies. Original, personal, and social sin has deeply marred the beautiful world of creation which is an expression of God’s gracious love for us. This is the world of reality in which we live.

To counteract the broken reality of sin in the world, God’s plan is fulfilled in his beloved Son, Jesus, our Lord, and Savior. “We know that no one begotten by God commits sin, rather, God protects the one begotten by him, and so the evil one cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, While the whole world is under the evil one. We know too, that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to recognize the One who is true. And we are in the One who is true, for we are in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”, see I Jn, 5: 18-20.

“Have no love for the world, nor the things that the world affords. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love has no place in him, for nothing that the world affords comes from the Father. Carnal allurements, enticement for the eye, the life of empty show—all these are from the world. And the world with its seductions is passing away but the man who does God’s will endures forever”, see 1 Jn. 2:15.

What does it mean to leave go of the worldliness of modern reality and do God’s will in all things, especially and primarily in my daily life? If we give up our worldly way of life and begin to follow the ways of the Holy Spirit we surrender our own isolated way of life, our own isolated determination of our human life.

We then take on the supernatural likeness of Christ and imitate the life of Christ, living a life in the Holy Spirit who lives in us and is united to us. Then our nature is transformed so that we are no longer merely human beings, but also sons and daughters of the Father, spiritual human beings by reason of the share we have received in the divine nature. This makes us all one in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We are one in mind and holiness, we are one through our communion in the sacred flesh of Christ and our sharing in the one Holy Spirit, see St. Cyril of Alexandria, Liturgy of the Hours, vol II, p. 873.

It is easily seen in the Scripture, that the Spirit changes those in whom he comes to dwell. He so transforms them that they begin to live a completely new kind of life.

“As we behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, that glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, transforms us all into his own likeness, from one degree of glory to another. 2 Cor. 3: 18.  And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”

What does it mean to leave the world of modern reality and seriously look to change some things in our modern and post-modern life? The goal is being free from “the negative spirit of this world”, as we live our good and wonderful human life in this material world created in God’s love. The key goal is the seeking and doing the will of God.

It is probably one of the most ignored and neglected understanding of the truth of God’s will in our Christian growth. “Through the mercy of God, offer your bodies as a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to the Lord. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed in the renewal of your mind, in order to know what is good, pleasing, and perfect.”, see Rom. 12: 1-3 How can we know God’s will in our lives, if we don’t directly relate to attitudes, choices, decisions, behaviors, in the practical situations of our daily life?

“Just as the truth is in Jesus, “that you should put away the old self of the former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth”, see Eph. 4: 21-24.  A fresh new spiritual way of thinking! Do we run the risk of mistaken opinions, disagreement’s, and criticism from others? Absolutely! Nevertheless, we really need to cut to the chase here. Can we identify the attitudes and the system of negative values which characterize modern thinking and acting? Which things are opposed to the revelation of God and his most precious will for those he loves?

For the sake of honoring God and loving our brothers and sisters, we should humbly try! The first step in this attempt is to identify some of the idols, false gods, and then look at some of the attitudes and behaviors which are antithetical or hostile to God and his will. And follow and obey what he wants for the nations of the world, and specifically for family life in the Church, and for each individual living in the world of our time.

Of course, it would be impossible to cover everything that may need to be mentioned, but I will attempt to identify some things that may stimulate some specific considerations for us. It would also be helpful if you think about some things that may easily come to you which I won’t be mentioning. These things may point out some areas in your own life which may need some attention in regard to, leaving the world. The Lord may give you some wisdom and understanding in growing in spiritual freedom as you attempt to do the Fathers will in your life, and in the lives for whom you may have some responsibility.

Identifying some idols and false gods in our society: St. Pope John Paul II came to the United States a decent number of times even before he became Pope. He really loved the American people and recognized the potential for American Christians to make a tremendous impact on the international scene in terms of proclaiming the Gospel and living by those values. One time a group of Americans were complaining about all the bad stuff on TV, and asked what should we do? His simple answer was, turn it off. He also took the time to warn American Christians that democracy without a religious base could easily become a new Totalitarianism, which he knew well because of his personal experience in the European situations.

These situations characterized a negative philosophical nihilism, a meaningless and emptiness of life without God, violent destruction of peoples, and two world wars. The leaders of this movement abandoned God and designed new false gods of atheistic humanism and abusive murderous control of individuals. As we today in this country remove God and his values from the American scene, we become victims by tolerating violent destructive behavior and obliterating the dignity and value of God-given human life. A recent article about the toxic destruction of being exposed to third degree of smoking which means living in places where people have smoked for years.

The theory is that individuals living there now are absorbing the toxic poison through their skin. Have we, with little thought bought into our societal values a destructive secular humanism, because we just absorb these attitudes and beliefs, as God’s will is ignored in society and in the media? The commercials on television and movies in a very charming manner promote or present a way of life on TV, which highlights the negative values of unbridled materialism, compulsive buying and spending, liberal sexual behavior, immodest dress and behavior, and programs that foster violence, indecency, killing, materialism, indecent exposure, and paranormal forms of the occult etc.

Ingesting these attitudes unconsciously over a period of time actually changes our way of thinking and our value system. It gets us used to ignoring God and his commandments and not feeling guilty about it as we give in to an inordinate and quiet toleration of all things in society. Do we allow our children to have unsupervised access to watch whatever they want, by having televisions in their rooms? And carry their iPhone computers and TV’s all day long and into the night? Democracy without God leads to bondage and the loss of the dignity of the human person. We see many forms and degrees of destructive behavior very evident in the life of our beloved young people. Many feeling lost and abandoned by others, and open to do destructive things to themselves and in some cases to others.

May We Pray!

Dear Lord grant us the grace to love you with our whole heart, mind, and soul. In love and truth, we seek to know and do your will. Help us, oh merciful Lord to leave the “negative spirit of the world” which fosters destructive behavior and darkness of mind. Give us a Spirit-led discernment of the worldliness of modern life, that we may have the light of your Father and the Holy Spirit unfolding your will in our lives. And grant us purity of heart to do your loving will for ourselves and our brothers and sisters for whom you have asked us to serve. In Jesus Name, we pray! Amen.

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Fruits of Human and Spiritual Integration

When we live lives of personal and relational peace, there is abundant fruit on both a human level and in our spiritual lives.  We are actually able to live the “abundant life” in the “peace the world cannot give”.  The overflow of the calm and stillness we experience removes the distractions that vie for our attention and enable us to foster the attraction our souls have for God.  There is more we all naturally long for and the more is the person of Jesus.

Living in the More, we begin to move from the initial conversion of removing big, glaring sin from our lives into living in loving Communion with the Indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit who came to make His home in us at our baptisms.  The freedom to respond more deeply avails us of even greater experiences of joy and freedom.  We move from a downward spiral of confusion, hurt, and brokenness to an upward spiral of freedom, peace, joy, and gratitude.  No longer fearing our powerlessness we are able to be embraced by the loving arms of our infinitely Loving Father in the kingdom of Heaven that is at hand.

Human and Spiritual Integration Series Podcast Summaries
Fr. David Tickerhoof, TOR and Margaret Vasquez, LPCC, CTT, CITTI

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Human and Spiritual Integration Series Podcast Summaries
Fr. David Tickerhoof, TOR and Margaret Vasquez, LPCC, CTT, CITTI

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that what we receive we receive according to the mode from which we operate.  Unfortunately, that mode can be one of fear due to very biological effects of past hurts and woundedness.  However, it does not have to be so.  In any battle, it is key to know who the enemy is.  In the battle for integrating our spiritual lives, fear is the enemy!

In this podcast, Fr. David and Margaret Vasquez discuss how we can break the cycle of fear and hurt and allow ourselves to be more fully embraced by Perfect Love who casts out fear.  Key to doing so is coming to understand the four factors (chosen, known, valued, and boundaries) that foster openness and prepare us for the bonds of unity through the Holy Spirit.

You’ll learn tips for how to foster healthy relationships in your own life and how to avoid common pitfalls.  Applying these tools to growing healthy relationships can help you not only avoid unnecessary hurts and confusion, but instead foster peace and joy in the lives of each one of  of the people you touch.

As we make our default mode one of self-compassion, it begins to become more naturally and consistently how we relate to all and by doing so we become conduits of grace ministering the compassion of the Lord to each other and facilitating their ability to be compassionate with themselves.

In this process, we deepen in our personal and interpersonal wholeness and grow in greater holiness as we imitate the Lord’s compassion.

The post Human and Spiritual Connection appeared first on Ultimate Christian Podcast Radio Network.

Because the particularly hurtful events we endure can become encoded in the brain in a way where they continue to be experienced as current rather than past, we can be effected in a wide variety of ways without even being aware.  We can end up stuck in a fight or flight response that can significantly limit our freedom to act or respond from love rather than fear.  This knee-jerk reaction mode can lead to a breakdown in our sense of connection to our very selves and this most often flows out to others.  As it turns out, “love your neighbor as yourself” is as much descriptive of how we tend to relate as it is prescriptive of how we ought to relate.  That is, we do tend to connect healthily to others to the extent that we are healthily connected to ourselves.

Since the spiritual life is about relationship to the Holy Trinity, the Church triumphant, the Church militant, and the Church suffering those relationships can, too, become quite muddled, unnecessarily complicated, and breakdown when we live out of the emotions and mindsets of painful and threatening experiences.  The good news is that it need not be so!

In this three part series, you’ll come to understand the effects of trauma on yourself and on others, what you can do to lessen or eliminate those effects, and live in the peace, joy, and freedom of the Love who casts out all fear.  Human and spiritual integration is essential to bring those spiritual concepts into our daily lives and relationships.  When we operate from a place of compassion we build the culture we were made for – one of connection, Communion, and personal integration.  Fr. David Tickerhoof, TOR discusses the effects of trauma and what you can do about them with author and veteran professional counselor and trauma therapist Margaret Vasquez.

Human and Spiritual Integration Series Podcast Summaries
Fr. David Tickerhoof, TOR and Margaret Vasquez, LPCC, CTT, CITTI

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Be sure to subscribe to this podcast or listen to this here – online. You can download this talk on your computer or you can listen on your phone. Share this podcast with a friend.

Tools for Growing Spiritually Serving Others

In this episode, we will explore ways to grow spiritually and serving others.

Show Notes: Tools for Growth in Serving Others

In the First Letter of John, the writer speaks of the anointing we who are baptized have from Christ. “But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you have knowledge…As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you everything and is true and not false, just as it taught you, remain in him.” (1 Jn.2: 20-27)

The “anointing” referred to here is the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the baptized, source of wisdom and understanding. The Jerusalem Catechizes, presented in the Liturgy on the Octave of Easter Friday also speaks about the anointing with the Holy Spirit.

“When we were baptized into Christ and clothed ourselves in him, we were transformed into the likeness of the Son of God. Having destined us to be his adopted sons and daughters, God gave us a likeness to Christ in his glory, and living as we do in communion with Christ, God’s anointed, we ourselves are rightly called “the anointed ones.” When he said: Do not touch my anointed ones, God was speaking of us…But we too have been anointed with oil, and by this anointing, we have entered into fellowship with Christ and have received a share in his life.

This year we are now in the midst of celebrating the great season of the Pascal Mystery. It is the heart and core of the life and power of our Christian life. As Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed, during the Vatican Council II,  the Paschal Mystery is the heart and center of the Council’s teaching, and as such is the heart and core of a Christian’s life. How should we view this very clear teaching in relationship to the Church’s Grace of Renewal? In the spiritual renewal movements, the approach is usually a seminar which prepares one to be prayed for “a new empowerment of the Holy Spirit.” There is plenty of evidence of the wonderful things that happen for a person who has had this experience, and if one feels drawn in that direction of renewal, seeking to receive an empowerment of the Holy Spirit, a new special grace of spiritual refreshment, I highly encourage it.

However, I am proposing a different approach to a similar reality, which I have called the spiritual experience of the Church’s Grace of Renewal and Reform. The basic scriptural reference that I suggest is the Easter Sunday night experience of the disciples gathered in the upper room, recorded in St. John’s Gospel (Jn.20: 19-23). The heart and core of this approach is the full gamut of the Paschal Mystery, which includes the sending of the Spirit by the Father and Jesus. Certainly, we would need a preparation program including a series of teachings. The prayer of spiritual anointing and commissioning at its conclusion could be termed, the Baptism of the Spirit in the Paschal Mystery. The starting point of the threefold empowerment of the Resurrection, the Cross, and the Spirit would be the experience of the Glorified Risen Lord and Savior. It would also certainly include the empowerment of the Spirit and the Spiritual Gifts.

It is with this understanding in which I am presenting four opportunities to provide for others some tools for growth. In a previous reflective teaching, I presented some tools that focused on spiritual growth for individuals. Now in this teaching, I want to present a few tools that focus on group opportunities for others who may be seeking a relational program that is ongoing and growth producing in holiness of life. This reflective podcast teaching is going to concentrate on four opportunities which the podcast sponsors or supports for serving the spiritual growth of other brothers and sisters. In outreach, to others, this teaching is going to review the possibilities of serving a person or a group of individuals, who may want to be in relationship with others for the ways and means of spiritual growth and/or service to others. These four opportunities are ways of doing Evangelization.

The first tool which we want to consider is Power Focused Intercession. This means of growth, healing, and empowerment for others is looked at in some of the other podcast presentations. (The Path to Spiritual Freedom) Some of us may feel a real disconnect when we pray for others, or In the “Universal Prayers of the Faithful,” when it is hard to connect with the petitions. So we may settle for a dry cerebral or a disconnected prayer. We don’t seem to have a dynamic connection with the individual or group we are praying for.

This doesn’t mean that our intellectual prayer recitations for others are not blessed by God, they are! But what we want to try and do is proclaim and promote that we can have a connected grace-filled experience when we pray for others, which comes from our hearts and is experientially based. Where real change and miraculous results in the lives for whom we pray are happening.

Recognizing that in this approach we are exercising the beautiful truth that we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and Jesus wants to give to us an invitation to join him in ministering a powerful happening in grace for the benefit of others. The key is in knowing how to connect up with the powerful working of the glorified Lord’s grace for the specific needs of an individual or group.

The simple formula: I am sorry for all the hard, painful, and difficult things that have happened to you. I take limitless responsibility for all that has happened to you! Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. Now before we are tempted to begin a rationalization that finds some difficulties, let’s take a look at how this formula is prayed in a direct union with the Lord himself.

We are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, by virtue of our water Baptism. We are in a dynamic personal relationship with the glorified Lord Jesus and one another. We are all the Body of Christ. This truth is the foundational truth in which we begin our intercession for another person or group.

The night of the Resurrection the glorified Jesus, who had already ascended to the right hand of the Father appears and says, Peace be with you! (Shalom!) It is done! I have accomplished it all! It is over and done with! Jesus gives the disciples and us the full experience of the Paschal Mystery. He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit…”, and commissions them to do also with others what he has accomplished and gives to them, and he will do it in them! In Romans chapter 8 it says, that both Jesus and the Spirit do intercession for us.

When we express our sorrow for the person we are praying for, we immediately leave our mere human desire and place ourselves in the heavenly plane; in total union with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have just entered the supernatural realm. We then picture the person or group we are praying for and we enter into union with our glorified Lord and all that this means in light of that event, the Lord does the actual intercession, reparation, atonement prayer in which we are with him for he has accomplished it all!

So when we take limitless responsibility we are doing so in union with the Lord. So we should never take on the negative or destructive attitudes of the one we are praying for. So as we say, “please forgive me” it is the Lord who is acting in power. When we say I love you we are doing so truly with our human ability but now joined with the love of the Lord for that person. In this is the power we have of sharing in a miraculous power of love to change and heal another human being. And when we say “I thank You” we are “divinely” acting to affirm and identify the full purpose in which God has created that person.

This prayer of “power focused prayer” is a ministry and mystery of Love! When this procedure is a Spirit-led Experience and performed primarily with the heart, one will actually feel the powerful presence of the Lord working in a mysterious manner. Now, this is so good! When one does this prayer of cleansing, the individual will also feel the cleansing and healing going on in oneself. Therefore, while we are doing this mission of love for another person, the Lord is doing a work of tender healing and cleansing in the one praying. “Two sides of the same coin” The way to really learn the experiential truth of all this is by practice, practice, practice! The more we do this the more we are drawn into the power and the more we experience the cleansing power in our own life.

Unbound Ministry: An approach to healing and deliverance that fits well in Catholic Life: The approach to healing and deliverance which seems to fit best in the ambient of the Catholic Church is the ministry developed by Neal and Janet Lozano entitled “Unbound Ministry.”

It follows a similar approach to the general basics of praying with individuals for healing and deliverance. However, its uniqueness consists in the fact that the ministry operates from a position of “non-confrontational deliverance,” and the recipient of the ministry does the renunciation and takes personal authority of the specific aspects of personal evil. It uses common sense and the exercise of practical wisdom, which does not permit one to fight with evil spirits, but ministers truth in love to the recipient. In short, it is a ministry of evangelization, which provides deliverance from personal evil, and also aids the recipient in receiving spiritual healing and the gift of genuine freedom. Essentially it involves the “five keys to spiritual freedom”:

1. The first key is to stand in the experience and truth of faith and practice life-giving repentance.
2. The second key involves forgiveness: seeking forgiveness from God, forgiving others, and forgiving oneself. It also means giving forgiveness to others in all situations of life where I have been hurt or offended. The follow through in this key is after forgiveness then let things go and surrender them to the Lord, the icing on the cake is praying for those who have sinned against and hurt me. The fourfold features of completed forgiveness. Because all four are exercised it brings closure in the process of forgiveness.
3. The third key is the acknowledging and renouncing in the name of Jesus, the identified attitudes and the spirits of darkness, which have been oppressing, harassing and working in one’s life.
4. The fourth key is taking authority in the name of Jesus over these entities and commanding them to leave.
5. The fifth key is finally praying with the recipient for the Father’s love and blessing. This blessing confers grace for the recipient in which they experience that they are a beloved son or daughter of the Father, and they are especially loved by God.

Fire Groups: A source for helping people make changes in their life, and living the Christ-Life.

Fire by its very nature has the ability to make changes in things. However, it is primarily used symbolically in Scripture. One may recall Moses seeing the bush on fire but not burning up; representing God’s awesome holiness. It purifies one from the dross of sin. It illuminates the mind and enables one to see what is pleasing to God. In the human person, the symbol of fire illuminates the mind, energies of the will, and gives strength to the soul. In relationship to personal holiness, it inflames us with love.

In the recent past in this country FIRE was used as an acronym to identify changing ones life and living a new life in Christ. At this time it is useful to identify a flexible small group opportunity that meets occasionally to help one another grow more deeply in the Lord.

A salient feature in a small fire group is this:

F stands for Faith; I stands for all the forms of Intercession. R stands for life-giving Repentance. E stands for Evangelization and doing mercy work. These four topics are joined as one, and they represent a process of opportunities for growing in Christian maturity. So FIRE represents a small group fellowship. These groups could be made available to those who are interested. These groups would be useful for spiritual growth, formation, and transformation

Merciful Christian Fellowship Groups: Fields of Compassion.

I served at Franciscan University of Steubenville from 1968 until 1990. In those years the Friars, members of the faculty, students, and members of the lay community worked together to develop spiritual renewal. Individuals at that time were trying to grow in holiness and serve others to grow in holiness and human maturity. Many were talking about “eating right” and losing weight and bemoaning the frustration of consistent failures in their sincere attempts. Someone mentioned about a group program started in the Boston area that claimed to be very successful in achieving the goal of weight loss. It was called, “Diet, Discipline, and Discipleship.”

Some decided to research and then provide the opportunity for those who desired to develop this approach of small groups, where individuals kept track, openly reported results and failures, and were held weekly accountable. The results were amazing! Individuals lost weight easily and consistently. The success of this communal relational endeavor was quite impressive. One of the lessons of this group centered accomplishment was the huge success that happened when individuals quit trying on one’s own and joined in a group effort.

The Church in this country is just beginning to appreciate the value of small fellowship groups developed to aid one in growing in Christian holiness and maturity. “Evangelizing Catholic Culture” Podcast will eventually be providing two types of small group fellowships for the purpose of growth and support in the Christian life. The first one is FIRE Growth Groups mentioned above, and the second one is Merciful Christian Fellowship Groups. The Merciful Christian Fellowship Groups are designed to help individuals grow in living a committed Gospel form of life. The MCFG’s are designed to provide a flexible formation experience as a modern penitent, to assist individuals to grow and share one’s faith, and training to do some type of evangelization or mercy service. Who may want to take a look at this opportunity?

1. Anyone who has a personal relationship with Jesus, and feels called to deepen their skills in prayer and outreach to others.
2. Anyone who wants to grow in the use of the spiritual gifts and qualities of mercy by practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
3. Anyone who enjoys prayer and desires personal transformation, and formation in the life of grace.
4. Anyone who wants to grow more comfortable and skilled in sharing their personal faith story.

May We Pray!

Lord, we trust in your abundant Mercy and ask that you would fill our hearts with the desire to grow in holiness. May the Holy Spirit move us to become aflame with a desire to bring your love and mercy to those we serve. As missionary disciples give us a willingness to reach out to those who are suffering and struggling to live a happy life in this post-modern world. Let the joy of the Gospel and our humble acts of mercy bring your goodness and love to others. We ask this prayer of our Father who is ever ready to lead us more deeply into a union with Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. Amen,

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Renewal Of The Mind – Episode 44

Following Christ takes the renewal of the mind, and this is harder to do in today’s culture. In this podcast, Father David shares a personal testimony as well as how the Lord showed him the missing piece in his life, regarding faith.

Evangelizing Catholic Culture – The Book.

This inspiring book by Father David Tickerhoof, Third Order Regular (TOR), on the role of Merciful Penitents in the Renewal and Reform of the Church

Father David’s book is available! “Evangelizing Catholic Culture,” get your copy today.

In my first year at the College of Steubenville now Franciscan University in 1968, and after one year of Ordination to the Priesthood, I was teaching theology. In those days when the students got sick, it was only a matter of time until the faculty got what the kids got. In looking back, I realized that I was very personally unsettled. I knew there was something missing in my life and I wasn’t sure what it was. However, whatever it was it was interiorly very painful. In one of those episodes of poor health, I went out to the hospital for a double shot of penicillin. On the way home I realized I was going into shock. I just got into the doors of the hospital when I collapsed.

When in my weakened condition I returned back to my dorm I sat in my chair in a depressed state and wondered if I had made the right decision in my life. Several nights later in the middle of the night, I awoke to experience the presence and peace of the Lord in a most profound way. The thought that went through my mind was this “you are trying to run your own life! Why don’t you let me run your life?” I saw the radical roots of sin in my life so I repented and fell back to sleep. Two weeks later after listening to a talk on the Church’s Grace of Renewal, I had some folks pray with me for that gift of grace and transformation, and I experienced a major powerful change in my life.

Immediately I was attracted to the healing ministry, so I studied and practiced it in the following years, the key two or three major healing methods available. Usually, in these methods, the concentration was in the repentance and emotional healing of the heart, with some exception, usually with a fair amount of success. In this last year, I related here at Franciscan to a woman who is a trauma therapist. One day she mentioned that she would do treatment with me if I wanted it. After a little struggle with pride and self-revelation, I consented. The ministry took the better part of the week. On Saturday morning as I arose from sleep, I felt tremendous freedom in my mind, like I was a new person. I experienced new freedom to discern and choose God’s will and the joy that comes from that.

I realized that the healing of the mind was very important because the mind is the rational power center of the human person. In retreat talks on mind renewal, Margaret (the retreat leader) gives a talk on the physical activity of the brain, which sheds light on how trauma affects and damages the operation of the brain. After a person receives healing about this matter, there is further healing necessary, which entails the process mentioned by St. Paul (Rom.12:1-2). The real issue is personal transformation, which involves a connection overview of the specific features of the process from the false self to the true self. Namely, we all need to understand and feel the reality of being called, chosen, known, valued, right personal boundaries, etc. Let’s talk about them!

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What Is A Penitent? Episode 43

Does any want to be a penitent? What does this mean to a Christian in a life that seems to be full of all types of hardships? Tune in as Father David works us through this difficult concept but will bring you closer to Christ.

Evangelizing Catholic Culture – The Book.

This inspiring book by Father David Tickerhoof, Third Order Regular (TOR), on the role of Merciful Penitents in the Renewal and Reform of the Church

Father David’s book is available! “Evangelizing Catholic Culture,” get your copy today.

The goal of the culture of compassion is to provide for an individual to become a modern Catholic penitent. The penitential life is characterized as a life of evangelical conversion and penance lived out in some kind of pattern, in order to bring forth the fruits worthy of penance.

In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus asks us to abide in him as he abides in us. Those who do such bear much fruit, and fruit that will remain, because apart from me you can do nothing, the Father is glorified by you bearing much fruit and becoming my penitent disciples. Being fruitful depends on the indwelling of the divine life in my heart, and our fruitfulness increases the quality and degree of this precious life within us.

The starting point of a life of penance is overflowing gratitude for the gifts and benefits which the mercy of the Father has bestowed on us in his Son Jesus the gift of Crucified Mercy. A life of penance does not depend on willpower alone for doing various types of penances and devotions. But a life of penance depends on the action and power of God bestowing his mercy, and for our part humbly and openly receiving. It is necessary to be humble and poor to receive the divine life of the Kingdom.

In the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord trains us to live lives that are self-controlled upright, and godly, and we develop attitudes that produce fruit in our personality and character. The power of grace in natural abilities and acquired skills bring forth fruit. This experience initiates an action of purification which accompanies a life of virtue for the penitent. The penitential life is a graced call within which one lives a life of penance. This is the time of fulfillment repent and believe in the Gospel (Mk.1:14-15). The penitential life is a process of conversion that completes us in Christ with overflowing love, gratitude, glory, and praise. The call and mission of a merciful penitent draws its transforming power from the passion of Jesus Crucified in the life of the Holy Spirit. The call to be merciful penitents is a distinct counter-culture stance to be sure. Francis of Assisi arrived at a definite point in his early conversion where he concretely recognized a call to do penance. A penitent in the way of conversion is a permanent dynamic reality.

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Culture of Connection In Christianity ~ Episode 42

What is the culture of Connection? Have you heard about this as related to Christianity? In this podcast, Father David takes us through the importance of connection in regard to faith.

Evangelizing Catholic Culture:

This inspiring book by Father David Tickerhoof, Third Order Regular (TOR), on the role of Merciful Penitents in the Renewal and Reform of the Church. This book discusses the culture of connection as well.

Father David’s book is available! “Evangelizing Catholic Culture,” get your copy today.

The traditional Catholic culture that great-grandpa and grandma knew about, is based on stable and supportive relationships. Unfortunately, this is almost gone: disintegrated and still dissolving. The replacement for many Catholics and other Christians is the new neopagan religion in society called Secularism Humanism; its is all about me, we don’t need God or religion. In short, we need to develop a new Catholic Culture of Connection. The question is what should this new Culture look like?

What does this mean to us as Christians?

Faith cannot exist if it is not rooted in the culture. Culture is used here to mean a way of living. The last Popes have all maintained in one way or another that God is about a new work of Mercy. This new culture needs to be built on that experience of God’s current revelation and work in the Church, which highlights the reality of relationships that engender connection. Relationships survive only if they are rooted in connection. The foundation of a new culture of connection entails a threefold connection: a connection to self, God, and to others, what does this mean? Divine Mercy is the context within which the goal needs to be a Culture of Compassion.

Culture of Connection:

The threefold focus of connection to self, God, and others occurs by highlighting personal transformation. The key objective is the healing of the whole person! In our attempts to do this we have emphasized the healing of the heart; even to the extent of neglecting the healing of the mind. Now the vector has shifted to the mind; we see this clearly illustrated in trauma therapy. Since not everyone can take trauma treatment, we need to transfer some of the features of this ministry into retreat and workshop formats: “Through the mercy of God offer your bodies to the Lord as your spiritual worship; do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that you may know what is good, pleasing, and perfect, the will of God.” (Rom.12:1-2).

In the threefold connection of compassion, we relate first to “self-compassion”; secondly receiving the compassion of the Father through the pierced heart of Christ; thirdly when these two are alive in our minds and hearts, then one can give compassion to others. The vehicle for developing a new culture of compassion is the renewal of the mind. In this personal transformation, we pass from our false self to our true selves. We experience becoming calm and holding the peace of Christ in our hearts; confident, and compassionate, our true self.

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New Life & Power of Grade ~ Episode 41

We all want a new life power of faith and grace that is given by God. But how do we go about doing this? In this episode, Father David goes deeper into the heart of the matter that there is power in prayer and the graces of God are just waiting for us!

Check out Father David’s Book!

This inspiring book by Father David Tickerhoof, Third Order Regular (TOR), on the role of Merciful Penitents in the Renewal and Reform of the Church

Father David’s book is available! “Evangelizing Catholic Culture,” get your copy today.

In this podcast, I am continuing the themes and harmony of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. However, we cannot pass this day by without mentioning that this is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Most Catholics probably do not know much about this day. I would like to lead in by presenting a brief explanation of Our Lady of Lourdes, a universal shrine for healing near Lourdes, France.

New Life Power of Grace

In 1858 the Virgin Mary Immaculate appeared to Bernadette Soubirous near Lourdes, France within the cave of Massabielle. Through this humble girl, Mary called sinners to conversion and enkindled within the Church a great zeal for prayer and charity, especially service to the sick and poor. The following is what Bernadette briefly tells us: “I had gone down one day with other girls to the bank of the river Gave when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river Gave, but the trees seemed quite still, and the noise was evidently not coming from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale, yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads. The Lady asked Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners…after a while in her time she told me that she was the Immaculate Conception”.

Conversion and life-giving repentance truly bring about new life and power. The Church as an ecclesial body needs to do repentance for numerous things, no repentance no restoration: sexual abuse both sacerdotal and laity, excessive institutionalism, clericalism, materialism, buying into the neopagan social religion of secular humanism and all its moral abuses, allowing the abuse of modern technology (all members of the Church), mistrusting the leadership of women, very poor pastoring of the clergy for the laity. You may have a few other issues in mind. In listing these concerns I am not trying to bring condemnation, but an honest and open look at our sin, and then doing what is necessary to travel the path of change in order to experience the blessing of Restoration.

There are at least three important things to embrace, in addition to life-giving repentance, in order to move along the path of change toward restoration: all three are interrelated.

1. We as the Church (all segments of the Church) need to bring the spiritual power of the New Covenant in the new creation out of the dry dock and place the practical theology and spirituality of the New Covenant at the heart and center of all spiritual and pastoral growth and formation in the life and relationships of all the segments in the life of the Church, including the teaching about the Sacraments. The notion of the Covenant exists in the scriptures and office books for sure, but in catechesis and in individual formation it seems to be ignored. The New Evangelization is almost impossible without making this change. The teaching of the New Covenant is what places the Scriptures as the foundation for living the Gospel.
2. The Second Vatican Council II is the tremendous work and the overflow of grace of the Holy Spirit for our time. I am not speaking about the many goofy interpretations of the Council that emerged after its close in 1965. You may hear a good number of people criticizing the Council, and some have gone so far as to try and remake the Church like it was before the preparation and promulgation of the Documents of the Council, and some who believe this are among the Episcopal leaders in the Church, and many priests have ignored preaching about the content of the Council in their homilies. Here is the litmus test: when you ask individuals who are critical of Vatican II, have you read the documents? You will hardly find any person who has or even read a few of them. How can your criticism be legitimate, if you do not know what the Vatican Council teaches?
3. The impartation of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the practical lives of members of the Church. In the years following the close of Vatican Council II, there were spiritual renewal movements and programs, which promoted a new life in the Holy Spirit, and anointed teaching that made a notable positive difference in the spiritual lives of many individuals within the Church and other Christian groups as well. This powerful actual grace led to many endeavors of corporal and spiritual works of mercy as well as groups of prayer, praise, and community relationships. Many years have passed since the close of the Council, individuals have gotten older and some have moved on to a life of glory in heaven. There are many young people searching for something more than those graces of the recent past because naturally, they are distant from the youth. Those who are still involved with the spiritual journey of life have had many experiences. Modern life is a very demanding and complicated existence. Many of those who started well have tired out and lost momentum, enthusiasm, and zeal. If God so chooses, it may be time for a second refreshing outpouring of the Holy Spirit; a new conferral, bestowal, impartation of the actualizing grace of the Holy Spirit centered in the Churches Grace of Renewal and Reform. In addition to various groups and communities celebrating life-giving repentance satisfying the Lord God’s expectations, it would be necessary to design a program or some type of structured experience that would hold and promote the necessary elements of transformation that could move us forward in a grandiose yet humble and grateful manner. What do you think? May we hear from you! What kind of a program would you design?

May We Pray!

Holy Father in each age of the Church’s existence you have been most faithful in pouring out your graces and power. We know and believe that you love us, and you desire us to experience a mystical transformation in this time by the direction infusion of your love in the power of the Holy Spirit. For this divine impartation, we are hungry and thirsty. While living in this earthly reality we desire to rise above the challenges that beset us, but through this empowerment may we continue to know, love, and serve you with our whole heart. We pray this prayer through the intercession of Mary our mother and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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The Gift of the New Covenant Episode 40

The tremendous grace of the gift of the new covenant comes to us each and every day and Father David once again gives a clear and concise podcast on the topic, to renew our faith!

Check out Father’s book!

This inspiring book by Father David Tickerhoof, Third Order Regular (TOR), on the role of Merciful Penitents in the Renewal and Reform of the Church

Father David’s book is available! “Evangelizing Catholic Culture,” get your copy today.

The scripture in the Old Testament that is most quoted which declares God’s promises for his people is Jerimiah 30:31-34. Since it is the foundation that declares restoration for God’s people it is worth quoting: The days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts, says the Lord; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. “No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” This wonderful promise is all about restoration! However, that is not where we are as a people at this present time of crisis, which is suffering in a pandemic, which shows no sign of conclusion. It seems there is more purification which is ahead. What will it take for the human community, and specifically the Christian community, to satisfy our Lord?

In the recent past we Catholic Christians have over-emphasized the Church as an institution, and narrowly presented a singular picture of the Sacraments as the only path to living in grace. There certainly is the truth about all this, but we just assume that devotions will somehow to pick up the rest. All awhile not really explaining to our people how this all works in the realm of the practical realities of daily life. Rarely, in our catechetical and homiletic presentations is the word Covenant mentioned. Viewing all this from a spiritual and biblical point of view it seems we need to go back to the experience of the Covenant and seek the elements of the meaning of the New Covenant as the heart of our Christian way of life. A solid balanced spirituality is not just built on praying devotions and prayers that other people have written. These things are good but clearly incomplete. Through and in the New Covenant we need to go to the heart of the matter in the personal experience of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Covenant of the New Creation, and the root of it all is a profound personal experience and relationship with Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Before this recent pandemic broke into the life of the human community we experienced some concern that so many of our churches were closing or being amalgamated with other worshiping bodies. Our Catholic members who go to church did not seem to realize just how drastic this process is because it happened so gradually. Our Catholic communities in the United States, for the most part, are comprised of older people. I saw a statistic recently, and I hope it is not true, that seventy percent of our youth who have been raised in Catholic families leave the practice of their religion by the age of twenty-seven. I am also very aware that there are many young people who are experiencing a wonderful renewal of their Christian life. Still this pandemic has shut the churches down. Some people have not been to Mass for almost a year, and some have not seemed to have missed it. The lengthy process of this pandemic crisis has many people bewildered! Pope Francis mentioned recently in his new book “Let Us Dream”, the path of a better future, that the human community is going to come out of this extended crisis for the better or worse. We certainly hope for the best!

We find in Hebrews seven that Jesus became the guarantee of a better covenant. He is the mediator of the New Covenant. Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, just as he is the mediator of a better covenant. Jesus tells his disciples that he did not come to set aside the Old Covenant, but he came to fulfill it, and establish a new covenant of power and life. God’s goodness and graciousness is an expression of the Covenant. God is our Father because of the covenant relationship. The messenger of the Covenant whom you desire is like a refiner’s fire and he will purify his sons and daughters. As we are called by a transforming, grace we are called to offer a response of faith and love. Christ instituted the New Covenant in his blood and water which poured forth from his side. He has joined each member of his Body in an everlasting covenant. Therefore, the Church as the New Covenant People of God, and each member is alive and in the union in a covenant relationship with the glorified Christ.

This mysterious union is entitled the Paschal Mystery, a New and Everlasting Covenant, and the action of the Holy Spirit is at work continually in the People of the New Covenant. This mystical covenant between God and his people prepared the way for the new and everlasting Covenant in which the Son of God by becoming Incarnate and giving his life has united to himself in a certain way all humankind saved by him, thus preparing for “the wedding feast of the Lamb”. The entire Christian life becomes the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Christian marriage becomes a beautiful and endearing and efficacious sign, the sacrament of the Covenant of Christ and the Church. The spouses celebrate a true sacrament of the New Covenant.

May We Pray!

Dear Lord, the struggles and trials of Christian marriage at times become hard and challenging. We know you will not abandon us when these trials occur. For we have received the covenant grace of Christian marriage. The vision given to us by the grace of the Sacrament, an everlasting assurance that you will lead and guide us in our vocation within the New Covenant Church community. With this assurance, we pray for a special charism of renewal and refreshment of the espousal grace. When we hunger for a deeper love with you. May this special charism be given to us at times when we desire to pass from a good Christian marriage to a more mystical experience of the Divine union of love. We pray this prayer in the spousal relationship of Mary and Joseph, as we thirst for a deeper union with our God who is Eternal Love. Amen.

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