Episodes
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Look! I Am Making Everything New! - 4/9/19
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Friday Apr 12, 2019
As we approach Holy Week we can't forget that all we celebrate and live in these days is about the newness Christ won for us, a newness we share in when we keep our eyes fixed on him.
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Only the courageous can choose compassion. Only the brave can witness within themselves their ego’s demands, consistently breaking open the deeper places of love. I believe in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another, even as I see the fear that makes me tremble, so small of heart. I touch the anguish of the world, knowing it is no different from the love I insist on holding back from the person nearest me.
We can overcome the evils of the world only with the courageous choice by which we, as Jesus, would give our life for our brother beside us, in small decisions that choose compassion over cruelty.
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Finding Your Heart Space in a Turbulent World - 3/25/19
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Monday Mar 25, 2019
It is in our heart space that we receive after deep contemplative listening. That we unfold within the wisdom from God who makes diamonds of our dust. We have been created to hear the voice of God and His word. In a loud and noisy room, we all know we hear little. And if we are doing the talking in that loud and noisy room, we are so full of ourselves we receive nothing. Instead of unfolding, we clamp down in a hardened empty shell of self-importance.
So how do we return to our heart space so that we can live in the turbulence of our age with our heart attuned to the deepest place within us where wisdom is born, where God makes himself visible through us, and where we welcome both our own true voice and God’s Word, so that we can be God’s Voice the world so longs to hear.
Monday Mar 18, 2019
Lenten Secrets for Finding Light in Today's Darkness - 3/18/19
Monday Mar 18, 2019
Monday Mar 18, 2019
The night can be a scary time. As kids we might have been afraid of monsters under our bed or of sleeping in our own room. Even now as adults the “dark night”—whether it slips into our life as depression, breaks our heart with unexpected ruptures of relationships and futures, or quietly takes from us what we had most cherished—still holds hands with its sister anxiety. Just as individuals live through darkness, cultures and periods of history also can be overshadowed by fear and chaos and death. Now is one of those times.
The saints lived through times such as these. The courage of the saints might seem “out of reach” to us, but the Church as a good Mother gives us stepping stones each Lent so we can regain our balance and our strength, knowing truly that this world—even as it is—is still in Christ, and without Christ the world has no meaning.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
The Voices Within Us - 3/11/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Do you ever wonder how to hear God's voice? It is a voice that is so beautiful, leading us to holiness, truth, and peace. Learn how to sort out the various voices we hear around us and within us in order to be guided at last by the voice of the One who loves us forever.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Taking Our Spiritual Temperature - 3/4/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Lent is a time when we traditionally take our "spiritual temperature" to refocus our lives on discipleship and holiness. But in these days there are many other reasons why we might want to take our spiritual temperature. There are symptoms we may struggle with because of the scandal in the Church or problems in our country: symptoms like anger, a general malaise, uncertainty about the future, fear. Join Jeannette and I as we talk about ways we can find true inner peace in these difficult times.
Hello, my name is Sr Kathryn Hermes and I’m inviting you to my free Private Facebook Group. This group is for those who feel the call toward being a part of a community with others who want a more heart-centered and spiritual life, but would like support on the way. The goal is to walk together on a contemplative and healing path to refind the joy that is the gift of God to us.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
If You Can't Fix It, Give It! - 2/25/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Life has a way of gradually leading us deeper and deeper to the point of life—the “height” of the mountain—love. All other reasons for living need to fall away.
The unstoppable circumstances-beyond-our-control are perfectly fit to addressing our deepest sin, our greatest fear, our strongest selfish ambition. The only way to deal with them is to realize we can’t and to simply allow them to do their work in us, a scalpel held in the hands of the Divine Surgeon.
Hello, my name is Sr Kathryn Hermes and I’m inviting you to my free Private Facebook Group. This group is for those who feel the call toward being a part of a community with others who want a more heart-centered and spiritual life, but would like support on the way. The goal is to walk together on a contemplative and healing path to refind the joy that is the gift of God to us.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Choosing the simple way of the smile - 2/13/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
It takes so little to bring joy to another...
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
4 Habits for Calming the Tempests of your Spirit - 2/6/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Ever-happening transition and the need to keep up with the changing expectations around us, as well as the not-so-peaceful world we live in can create tempests in our spirit. I call it verbal pollution when I feel harmed by the disrespectful words and attitudes and reactions of people in both the social conversation and in my own personal space. Sometimes I myself don't respect and truly love others into profoundly gifted relational bonds through unending kindness myself. So here are four habits that might help to calm the storms that rage within no matter what their source. Let me know if you find them helpful.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Three Ways to Avoid Being a Workaholic - 1/28/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
I have many inner struggles around the work I do. Some of the things I have been asked to do in mission required long hours. Sometimes I have gotten angry about the amount of work expected of me; other times I know I could give more but am holding back. On the one hand, I feel like I need to always be available; on the other hand, I can use work as an escape. I look at others working more, working less, and in both cases I feel guilty. I want what I do to flow from who I am, and the integration — when it happens — feels wonderful! How complicated is the human heart!
Reflecting on my own experience, over the past months I have identified three guides that help me in unraveling the motivations of my heart; to connect my "doing" with my "being" so that my work flows not from workaholism but from something deeper.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Reclaim Regret: Interview with Sr Germana Santos, FSP - 1/22/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Sr Germana and I have known each other for many years, and I'm really grateful for her sharing her expertise as a spiritual guide and counselor with us.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
A 3-step tool to turn stress into grace - 1/15/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
We all face surprises, pressures and difficult situations. The good news is that by making a few small changes to the way we work through them, we can shift from angry assumptions to intentional love.
In this podcast I offer a three-step tool I use when I'm angry or frustrated may be helpful.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Reclaim Regret: Healing Comes as God Walks With Us - 1/5/19
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
This is our last conversation, Jeannette and I, on the book Reclaim Regret... I'm sharing some of my experiences and dreams which were part of my healing and I pray will be part of yours. It has been a blessing to share these conversations with you.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Be the Christmas you celebrate - 12/17/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
"See how they love one another!" From the origin of Christianity, people were so attracted by the joy they saw in the followers of Jesus that they eventually felt they no longer could tenably hold to their viewpoints and prior beliefs. This joy and this love then spills over into legal and social action, ministries of justice, and service to the most vulnerable.
Pope Benedict XVI stated in his book Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures: "Our greatest need in the present historical moment is people who make God credible in this world by means of the enlightened faith they live. ... We need men who keep their eyes fixed on God, learning from him what true humanity means ... so their hearts can open the hearts of others"
So here are some suggestions for this Christmas and holiday season.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Advent is a time for online watchfulness - 12/10/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
The end of the liturgical year, the anything-but-quiet waiting weeks of Advent filled with the tug between the contemplative and commercial, the awesome birth of Christ in hearts anew on Christmas night, the first day of the brand new year and the World Day of Peace. . . . There has always been something almost magical about the turn of the year. Children with their excited hope for what Christmas morn will bring and cloistered nuns with their contemplative immersion in the mystery of all Christmas is — and everyone in between — are swept up by something fresh and exciting and innocent in these weeks.
I've been thinking about how much we need this gift particularly at this time, this year. Our hearts have been so beaten and tainted by the mainstreaming of aggressive and violent language. It has infiltrated our hearts and minds through social and news media on our computers and television screens. Then like an unwanted blot of dark ink it has soaked into our conversations and relationships and thoughts and desires and dreams....
How can I keep a deep spiritual sensitivity of mind and heart so that I live as a citizen of heaven while yet on this Earth? (Philippians 3:20) The ancient practice of cleansing our thoughts holds a key. This is how I've started practicing this watchfulness in these end-of-year weeks.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Can God Be Trusted? - 12/6/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Big questions. Is God reliable? Is life reliable? It makes me think of when I was 21 and had a stroke. How can God be trusted when something goes wrong in life: an illness, a failure, a betrayal. How do we recover from these situations? Does God really love us?
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
How to Live with Greater Love - 11/18/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
God created the human heart to be like a large box vast enough to hold God himself. When we hate ourselves for what we’ve done or who we think we are, our hearts become smaller and smaller until our spirits have no more room to breathe. Sometimes we don’t think we can bring our shame into the open before God. Perhaps you believe that God won’t forgive you. You hide from God just as you hide from others when you are afraid to reveal your true self. At the root of this unhealthy behavior is the reality that you have rejected yourself. Do you love yourself in all your vulnerability and imperfection? When we refuse to allow ourselves to be held by God in the midst of our struggles, we deprive ourselves of God’s tenderness toward us.
To see who we really are is to see ourselves as God sees us. We need to expose ourselves to the messages, the Voice, the Words of God to know ourselves and others in truth.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
God Loves the Wildflowers, the Mystery of Repentance - 11/11/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
When I lead people through the journey you have been experiencing in this book, I often find that at a certain moment—a sacred moment—something wells up deep within a soul: repentance. Your regrets may be a mixture of things you have done, sins you have committed and things that have happened to you. But all of us have done things we look back on with regret. In this journey of life, we experience regret around things we could have done differently, ways we have hurt others, words or actions we can never take back, and relationships that have ended. As you explore your regrets, do not feel surprised if you begin to feel the bubbling waters of a cleansing sorrow that are as different from burning shame as day is from night. This sorrow is pure gift, but we can ask God for this spiritual sensitivity.
Repentance is a step into the mystery of our salvation. It does not always feel good but it ultimately leads us to wholeness and healing. Our human nature is frail and we know from experience that we are dust, weak, and prone to sinful passions and desires, even when we know better. But God himself took up our struggle as his own. Christ came, as Healer and Savior, to heal the sickness of our human nature. When Christ was conceived in Mary’s womb, he received from her his human nature. God became incarnate. In Christ the Word, his human nature was united to the divine nature in the unity of the second Person of the Trinity. Because he is divine, Jesus exalts our human nature and transforms it. Jesus became man, journeyed to Calvary, and rose from the dead so that we might become partakers of his divinity through faith and baptism (see 2 Peter 1:4). By dying on the cross, Jesus took our sins upon himself and by his resurrection he clothes us anew in the garments of his glory.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
How to Live without Masks - 11/4/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Many of us excel at putting up a facade to protect ourselves. We embrace our pretenses, defenses, games, ploys, or idealized self-images as though they were real. We convince others and even ourselves that they are real. But if we look closely at the masks we wear, we discover that they often project the opposite of the secret we are seeking to cover up. For instance, if my secret is that I am unable to accept my own hostility to others, I might create a mask that is sweet and kind. I may fool others for a while, I may even fool myself, but eventually the deception ends up bankrupting me. In time, my bitterness and hostility will come out in public, in a way I can’t hide.
If my secret is that I regret having missed opportunities for advancement, I might cover my anger with a passive meekness. But beneath my humble words, a raging inner victim resents that others have what I don’t. Or perhaps my secret is that I have seriously injured a relationship by something I did—maybe I had an affair, stole from someone, or lied. I may cover my guilt by denying that I did anything wrong or had any part in injuring another. I blame someone else. But once I have the courage of truth, I stop denying that what I did was truly wrong. I accept my part in the situation, and admit my fault. I accept that something needs to be confessed.
Secrets can distort our entire lives without our being completely aware of it. Often a part of our psyche tries to hide the truth, but secrets can cause emotional and physical illness until they are faced, admitted, and, when necessary, repented. So take the courageous step to admit and repent your secrets. Only an interest in the truth that is stronger than your interest in feeling good about yourself will unbind your heart and free you. Commitment to the truth enables you to show absolute respect to the present moment in all its joy or pain, trusting it to unfold in God’s timing, not your own. The more open you are to your experiences as they come, and the more time and space you give yourself to live through what is happening without being pushed, hurried, or judged, the more you will discover the truth about yourself.
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
How to get power over the power of your thoughts - 10/31/18
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Have you ever awoken in the night with terrible thoughts about things you've done in the past, even when you were a child? Thoughts can go around and around like a hamster in the wheel. The Evil One can instigate over and over again our returning to memories of past weakness and faults, so that we never entirely move on. Thoughts can keep us intent upon looking at ourselves. God asks us to look at what he is doing, what he is saying, what he is desiring. God says, "Look at my wounds. Look at my love for you." That is what is true. That is what is real. We explore the thought of Elder Thaddeus on how our life depends on the kinds of thoughts we nurture.