Book of the Month, Mar 2022, Part 9

+JMJ+ Welcome to part 9 of our current Catholic Book of the Month, Introduction to the Spiritual Life, by Brant Pitre. I’m on a Quest to become a saint and I’m using this book as my guide.  Come along with me and let’s become saints together! We’ve learned that Jesus gave us three spiritual exercises that not only will help us on our journey, but are actually necessary for salvation. That’s right: necessary. I have the impression that a lot of us don’t get to hear things like this being preached from the pulpit/ambo. But that’s no excuse. The truth is out there! (Couldn’t help it. Sorry, not sorry.) We’ve learned about the first two exercises and remedies for the three temptations: fasting and almsgiving. This week, the third exercise and remedy: prayer.

Continue reading “Book of the Month, Mar 2022, Part 9”

Book of the Month, February 2022, Part 6

+JMJ+ Welcome to part 6 of our Catholic Book of the Month, Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus, by Brant Pitre. We didn’t finish with the book in January, so we’re continuing now in February. There’s more in the book than I can cover in these posts. You can get a copy of your own in hardcover or Kindle ebook format using the links at the end of this post. View other parts of the series on the annotated Table of Contents page. In this installment: the Three Temptations.

Continue reading “Book of the Month, February 2022, Part 6”

Update on the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Retreat via Podcast

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Retreat via Podcast began tonight (also see earlier post) and I found out a bit more about how this is going to work. The audio will be available at 8pm Eastern and 7pm Central Monday through Friday nights via BlogTalkRadio. You can listen to or download the file at BlogTalkRadio (here’s the link to the Spiritual Exercises Kickoff Show), subscribe to the show’s RSS feed, or subscribe to the iTunes podcast. But the audio will be available immediately at BlogTalkRadio;  it’ll show up on the iTunes feed generally about a day later. (Of course, after I posted this, I found that iTunes does have the first show up already at 9:48pm CT. Oy.) Gary keeps the file size small enough to make it easy to download but large enough for pretty good quality. (It’s spoken word so you can get away with that.)

I listened to the first part of the retreat while grabbing a quick dinner (at a place with wifi) on the way home from a few hours out on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood today. Now I’m home and as soon as I post this update, I’m going to finish listening and do the meditations, which aim at helping us discern God’s will in and for our lives. And, as they say, that’s just what the doctor ordered. Doctor of souls, that is.

After that, it’s beddie-bye time for me. I promised the dogs we’d go to the park in the morning before Mass, then it’s back to the sidewalk and 40 Days for Life. (Good thing I got new walking shoes today. My feet feel so much better!)

Treat Yourself to an Ignatian Retreat During Lent via Podcast

Saint Ignatius of LoyolaI’ve been wanting to make a retreat for some time now with the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, but have not been able to be away from home for as long as a month or even a week. And I just missed a weekend Ignatian retreat in a nearby town, didn’t find out until it was over. Plus there’s that little matter of not being able to afford to give even a small stipend to the retreat center for the great gift of the Exercises. But I really want to do this. I’ve never made a retreat of any kind and I know I need to do it.

Gary Zimak to the rescue! Gary, of Following the Truth, has decided (and was prompted by the Holy Spirit) to offer the Spiritual Exercises through his podcast via iTunes or BlogTalkRadio during Lent, starting Monday, Feb. 27, through Good Friday. (See promotional YouTube video below.)

Problem solved! And no excuse either. I don’t need to go anywhere, I can just download the podcast and listen on my iPod or computer, any time and as many times as I want to. For free. And I can keep these podcasts and make a retreat a month from now or next year or five years from now.

This is a God-send. A real God-send! Thank you, Gary! I’m looking forward to this. God is so good!