We examine the conversion of Saint Augustine as he describes it in Books 8 and 9 of his Confessions.
Series I – Keynotes of an Authentic Catholic Spirituality
St. Stephen’s new Mystagogy Program kicks off with a focus on prayer as the fundamental underpinning of the life of the Catholic disciple.
Week XIV – Saint Augustine’s Confessions, III: Books 5-7
We continue exploring the Confessions of Saint Augustine – “the Doctor of Grace” – by discussing Books 5, 6 and 7.
Week XIII – Saint Augustine’s Confessions, II: Books 3-4
We continue exploring the Confessions of Saint Augustine – “the Doctor of Grace” – by discussing Books 3 and 4.
Week XII – Saint Augustine’s Confessions
We conclude our summer spirituality series with the work that has arguably meant more to more people than any other written work in human history, except only the Scriptures.
Week XI – Aquinas on Suffering: A Call and Response
This presentation is a consideration of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on suffering from his Literal Exposition of the Book of Job. All-but-forgotten today, this monumental text was considered the greatest work of biblical exegesis in its time. For 200 years, it was the definitive interpretation of Job’s story and a template for scholarly commentary on Scripture. We…
Week X – The Spirituality of the Mass (Part 2) and the Blessed Sacrament
We continue our spiritual tour through the Holy Mass and give particular emphasis to Jesus’ gift of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament.
Week IX – The Spirituality of the Eucharist and the Mass (Part 1)
This talk is the first part of a two-part consideration of the spirituality of the Mass and Holy Eucharist.
Week VII – The Stages of the Spiritual Life
This week we consider Catholic spirituality in the contemporary moment by discussing chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the book Spiritual Passages by Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR.
Week VI – The Third to Seventh Mansions in St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle
This week we complete our brief introduction to St. Teresa of Avila’s writings on prayer, picking up where we left off this past Monday with the Third Mansion in The Interior Castle and continuing to the Seventh Mansion.
Week V – St. Teresa of Avila and The Interior Castle
Our topic for the evening continues our consideration of the spiritual metaphors of St. Teresa of Avila, the Church’s Doctor of Prayer. We turn to her most famous spiritual work, The Interior Castle, and discuss the levels of prayer.
Week IV – St. Teresa of Avila on Prayer as Watering the Garden
This week we launch a month in the company of the Church’s great Doctor of Prayer, St. Teresa of Avila. We will begin by reading the famous metaphor of the soul as a garden from her autobiography.
Week III – Marian Hour of Adoration
We will be having a Marian Hour of Adoration on May 20th.
Week II – Elements of Catholic Prayer
This week, we will be considering the nature and elements of Catholic prayer from The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), and also a short passage on the four ways to God from the book Psychology and Spirituality by Fr Benedict Groeschel, OFM.
Week I – Sayings of the Desert Fathers
This summer, we will be considering and practicing keynotes of Catholic spirituality, accompanied in our journey by some of the Church’s great saints, mystics, and scholars.