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St Philip Neri in the 16th century would gather those each day who were desirous of seeking Christian perfection. He would read from a spiritual book and then discourse on the meaning of what was read. This podcast (and the nightly prayer group from which it springs) seeks to carry on St Philip’s method of helping people become holy, even saints, in their own homes.
Episodes
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
What comparison did Mother use for understanding our sufferings?
A kiss. She said that the sufferings that Christ allows are signs of his love. They are like kisses from him that show us how much he cares for us.
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
How did Mother handle the increasing number of crowds that wanted to see her?
With prayer. She felt the crowds in places like Philadelphia were a huge cross. She did not enjoy the publicity, the police, the speeches. But she begged God to give her the grace to accept everything with a smile. She even compared these smiles at Jesus to the difficulties spouses have in dealing with the trials of their marriage.
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Episode 132 -- Come Be My Light ch 12.5 -- Keep the Light Jesus Burning
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
To what did Mother like to compare herself in relation to Christ?
An oil lamp. He is the light of the world. She never wanted to think of herself as an independent light. Her light was from Him. But she did think that she would be able by her fidelity to keep oil in the lamp so that Christ could shine through her.
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
What did her life in the 1970s look like?
Incredibly peaceful and serene. In the 1960s she had especially made her peace with her darkness and isolation. But in the 1970s her forgetfulness of self, her complete focus on the Lord grew and grew. Peace of soul is the result of being one with God.
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Episode 130 -- Come Be My Light ch 12.3 -- So Helpless, So Empty, So Small
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Where did Mother Theresa keep all her awards and special honours?
In a cardboard box. She won the noble prize. She was honoured by so many countries. But the awards did not matter to her except insofar as they helped her serve the poor.
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Episode 129 -- Come be My Light ch 12.2 -- Remember my Face before Jesus
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Monday Jul 31, 2023
How did Mother react when she met a new person?
It depends. Mother lived in the presence of God. She could assess a situation very quickly. She could form a judgment of a person’s good qualities with little time spent. With the help of the Holy Spirit, she tried to treat each person as God wanted her to do so.
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Monday Jul 31, 2023
What was her prayer like?
Uncompromising. Full of intercession. Mother Teresa was incredibly faithful to her times of prayer, especially her holy hour. She could be flexible with the time and place. But she knew He wanted her there. And so she answered His call. Her prayer was sometimes simply the bringing before Him of the faces she had met on the streets.
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Episode 127 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.20 -- She Had Found Her Way
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
How did Mother Teresa described the year 1967?
She said it was a “hard and sad time of fight for the faith.” Even though the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) was meant to enliven the faith of the whole Church and urge the Church on in her missionary work, the years after the Council, like the years after many Councils, were times of great controversy. Mother saw these years as one of purification. She counselled clinging to the living Christ. But where? In the Eucharist.
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Episode 125 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.18 -- A Deep Longing for God and Death
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
In 1969, what did Mother feel?
As confusion in the Church seemed to grow, Mother’s zeal burned brighter. Zeal is an effect of divine love. Love becomes zeal when it sees obstacles in its way. Zeal wants to remove obstacles to the growth of divine love. And Mother wanted to light the light of divine love in every human heart.
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Episode 124 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.17 -- Be the One who will Satiate His Thirst
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Can Christ’s thirst be satiated?
Yes. He thirsts for human persons to love Him. Christ is the head of the Church. He is our God and Lord. He thirsts for us to be happy. Our happiness is found only in Him. And Mother Teresa wanted to please Christ by bringing others into friendship with Him. But Christ also thirsts for love in his body, the Church. Christ is present in his members, the members of the Church. Mother wanted to quench the thirst for love and being cared for and being wanted in the souls in whom Christ dwells. And this calling to satiate Christ’s thirst is something that each of us can respond to with love. What if we are the only one doing so? What if others are not doing so. Then let us be the one! How many people were quenching Christ’s thirst for love Nazareth after the annunciation? One! Mary.
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Episode 123 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.16 -- I Have Never Had Doubt
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Did Mother have doubts?
She never doubted God. She never doubted his goodness. But why then was she in such darkness? She doubted her own response to His goodness. She had difficultly knowing whether she loved Him. She was feeling unloved by Him. But her own state of soul is not revealed to us in the Revelation of Christ. Her own spiritual state was a matter of conjecture from the fruits she experienced. Mother Teresa had rock solid faith in the Lord. She had trouble discerning her own response. This was very painful to one who loved Him so deeply and who knew Him to be infinitely loveable.
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Episode 122 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.15 -- I Know this is Only Feelings
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
What kind of advice did Mother Teresa sometimes ask for?
What books to read. The Missionaries of Charity are required to do spiritual reading each day. They had many books in their library. But Mother Teresa often found it hard to know what to read. And so she asked advice. Spiritual reading is important!
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Episode 121 -- No Reason to Be Sad -- Come Be My Light ch 11.14
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Why did Mother Teresa not want people to be sad for her?
God was doing something great. As her spiritual fathers grasped her interior suffering, they sometimes expressed sorrow for her state. Mother Teresa was very firm. Do not be sad for me, she insisted.
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Where was the first house opened outside India?
Venezuela. Mother Teresa now was friends with the Papal nuncio, the official representative of the Holy Father. She wrote him about the events in Venezuela. She told him of two men they found eaten up with worms. As they nursed the men back to health, one man asked for a cigarette. Mother reached in her bag and produced two packs of the finest cigarettes! A rich man had given them to her in the morning. This event made Mother very happy at God’s providential love for his poor.
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
How did the Lord treat Mother Teresa when the Society was officially approved by the Pope?
With profound interior pain. The Lord seemed to Mother Teresa to pour out his mercy on her Society while withdrawing from her his holy hand of sweetness. There seemed to be some proportion between his mercies to the sisters and Mother’s own sense of being unloved. As she shared in Christ’s thirst on the Cross, God was doing great things through her.
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Episode 118 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.11 -- How Terrible it is To Be Without God
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Episode 117 -- Come Be My Light ch 11.10 -- The Good God Called and I said Yes
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
How did Mother react when the Vatican asked for the historical origins of the Society and how did react to Sisters leaving the Society?
With humility. When the Missionaries of Charity applied for pontifical status as a worldwide religious order directly under the Pope, Mother Teresa did not put her own call forward in detail. She did not want to be the centre of consideration. She always wanted the Society to be judged by the work they were doing for Christ and His poor.
With deep pain. Mother Teresa loved all the Sisters who were part of this Society. She loved them with a supernatural love. She loved them with a motherly love. As a mother suffers when she sees her children hurting, so Mother felt great sorrow when two sisters left the Missionaries of Charity. We do not know the circumstances. Mother seems to have thought that a mistake was made somewhere. Perhaps they were not treated well. Mother not only felt sorrow, she wanted to learn from this painful event.
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023