Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 8 – Endurance and Patience In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on St. Benedict’s call to endure hardship and bear injuries patiently. Chapter 4 does not promise relief from suffering. Instead, it forms a heart capable of remaining stea...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 7 – Guarding the Tongue In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on St. Benedict’s teaching in Chapter 4 regarding the discipline of speech. Words are never neutral. They reveal what lives in the heart and shape the relationships around us....

I've Lost My Peace – Struggles in the Spiritual Life with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V. Fr. Timothy Gallagher and Kris McGregor continue their discussion on struggles in the spiritual life by revisiting the story of Paul, a character who experiences both spiritual and non-spiritual desolation. Initially, Paul's situation improves after he slows down his studies, rediscovers his love for teaching, a...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 6 – The Tools for Good Works In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on Chapter 4 of the Holy Rule and the “tools for good works.” St. Benedict moves from desire and invitation into daily Christian practice, beginning with the command to l...

In this First Sunday of Lent episode of Building a Kingdom of Love, Msgr. John Esseff reflects on the universal story of humanity’s fall and redemption, beginning with Genesis and culminating in the Gospel of Matthew’s account of Jesus's temptation in the desert. He reminds listeners that every human person shares a common origin in God’s breath of life and a shared inheritance of sin, temptation,...

The Power of the Cross, applying the Passion of Christ to your life Episode 2: The Cross of Christ teaches us… – Ash Wednesday through Saturday of that week. In Episode 2 of Power of the Cross, Michael Dubruiel guides listeners through the First Week of Lent, inviting a deeper engagement with the Cross as teacher and guide. Building on the foundations laid in the opening episode, this reflection t...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 5 – The Delight of Love In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on St. Benedict’s promise that perseverance leads to joy. As the Prologue draws toward its close, Benedict speaks of running on the path of God’s commandments with hearts over...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 4 – The Sweetness of the Lord’s Voice In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on St. Benedict’s striking question: “What is sweeter to us than this voice of the Lord inviting us?” As desire becomes clarified, the heart grows capable of rec...

The 1st and 2nd Stations – Stations of the Cross with Deacon James Keating Deacon James Keating reflects on the Stations of the Cross as a profound meditation on Christ’s suffering and its connection to human woundedness. Through this devotion, believers unite their burdens with Christ, allowing His love to transform their struggles into a path of salvation. The first station, Jesus' condemnation,...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 3 – Desiring True and Everlasting Life In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on how St. Benedict speaks directly to desire. Not desire as impulse or restlessness, but as the quiet force that directs a life. Drawing from the Prologue of t...

Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce Joseph Pearce and Kris McGregor explore Wuthering Heights as a profoundly Christian novel that has often been misread as a sweeping romance. Pearce argues that Emily Brontë, the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, remained rooted in orthodox Christianity, and that her novel critiques—not celebrates—the self-in...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 2 – Obedience as Deep Listening In this second episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor reflects on obedience as it emerges naturally from deep listening. Drawing from the Prologue of the Holy Rule, St. Benedict presents obedience not as pressure or perform...

The Power of the Cross, applying the Passion of Christ to your life Episode 1: The Preliminary Lenten Days – Ash Wednesday through Saturday of that week. In this opening episode of Power of the Cross, Michael Dubruiel introduces the spiritual foundation of Lent as a journey into reality rather than escape. Drawing from the Church’s ancient understanding of Lent as a time of formation and renewal,...

The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor Episode 1 – Beginning the Way In this opening episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor introduces the Benedictine path as a way of attentiveness rather than achievement. Drawing from the opening line of the Holy Rule, listeners are invited to rediscover what it mea...

The Power of the Cross Daily Lenten Reflections begins Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

Saints in Heaven – Roots of the Faith with Mike Aquilina Mike Aquilina discusses the communion of saints and the practice of seeking their intercession. Scripture and archaeology both show early Christians believed the faithful departed are alive in Christ and active in prayer. In the Roman catacombs, inscriptions ask Peter, Paul, and other holy ones to pray for the living. Biblical scenes such as...

I Can't See – Struggles in the Spiritual Life with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V. Fr. Timothy Gallagher and Kris McGregor explore what St. Ignatius of Loyola calls spiritual desolation. After previously discussing physical and emotional factors that can affect prayer, they now focus on difficulties that arise directly within one’s relationship with God. Using the example of “Julie,” a woman who had...

Wilderness Within by Sr. Josephine Garrett on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Sister Josephine Garrett and Kris McGregor discuss Wilderness Within, a Lenten journal designed to guide individuals in deepening their spiritual journey. Sister Josephine explains that the book is not for the faint of heart but for those willing to reflect on their implicit beliefs about God, faith, and themselves....

From the Scriptures to the Bible – Roots of the Faith with Mike Aquilina Mike Aquilina explores how early Christians encountered Scripture in a world without printing presses, widespread literacy, or personal copies of the Bible. Most Christians, including many Church Fathers, did not own biblical books; instead, they received Scripture primarily through the liturgy, where it was proclaimed and ex...

Marlene Watkins – Everyday Miracles of Lourdes on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor In this episode of ‘Inside the Pages', Marlene Watkins shares her deep connection to Lourdes through her work with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers and her new book Everyday Miracles of Lourdes. Marlene Watkins recounts how the Blessed Mother revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception...

St. Scholastica – In Conversation with Teresa Monaghen Kris and Bruce McGregor, along with Teresa Monaghen of the ProSanctity movement, reflect on St. Scholastica and her relationship with her brother, St. Benedict, presenting their sibling bond as a window into holy friendship. Drawing from the account preserved by St. Gregory the Great, Teresa Monaghen describes how the twins influenced one anot...

I Can't Go On – Struggles in the Spiritual Life with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V. Fr. Timothy Gallagher walks through a detailed case study of a high school teacher named Paul to show how non-spiritual desolation can arise from ordinary human limits rather than from prayer itself. Paul begins with renewed prayer, Mass, and family harmony, but gradually overloads his life by taking on graduate stud...

Fr. Ed Broom, O.M.V. – From Humdrum to Holy on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor In his book, "From Humdrum to Holy", Fr. Ed Broom frames the Christian life as a real struggle that takes place amid competing influences: temptation, disordered desires, and a culture that offers shallow versions of happiness. Drawing from St. Ignatius of Loyola, he explains how spiritual discernment grows through...

Confession: The History of Mercy – Roots of the Faith with Mike Aquilina Mike Aquilina traces how mercy and confession developed in the early Church, showing that while there were no tidy ritual manuals, the practice itself was woven into ordinary Christian life from the start. Drawing on Scripture and the Fathers, Christ entrusted forgiveness to the apostles and how confession quickly became a re...

The Light at the End of the Tunnel – The Heart of Hope with Deacon James Keating Deacon James Keating reflects on how suffering often feels unbearable precisely because it touches innocence and faithfulness, which can make pain seem like punishment. Rather than avoiding those questions, they lead directly into the mystery of Christ, whose own innocent suffering on the Cross draws human pain into t...