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EPISODE #300
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT: SEVEN STEPS OF HEALING

Welcome to another episode of Empowered by the Spirit featuring host Deacon Steve Greco.

Deacon Steve is a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Orange, CA. He is head of Spirit Filled Hearts Ministry, which engages in evangelization and support of the foreign missions. His guest is Katie Hughes, who works with Deacon Steve in Spirit Filled Hearts Ministry. They speak about all the different areas of healing that we can seek in our lives. Join us for this powerful discussion!

 

 

Originally broadcast on 2/20/22

EPISODE #25
SOUNDS FROM THE SANCTUARY: LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH

Episode No. 25: Let There Be Peace on Earth

For this episode of Sounds from the Sanctuary, let us all take time from our daily routines to reflect and pray for world peace. All of the music you hear today are prayers for peace in the world including the timeless Prayer of St. Francis, the Dona Nobis Pacem of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the eternal symphonic cry for peace in the world – Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Prayer of St. Francis – Sebatian Temple

Peace Prayer of St. Francis – Peter Latona

RVW Dona Nobis Pacem – Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/Chorus Robert Shaw

Paul Halley Ubi Caritas – Paul Halley

Peace Like a River Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra Mack Wilberg

Let There Be Peace on Earth – Barbara Berner St. Louis Children’s Choirs

Beethoven 9, last movement, Bernstein in Berlin

 

 

 

Originally broadcast on 3/5/22

EPISODE #287
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT: PILGRIMAGE TO THE HEART OF ST JOSEPH

On today’s episode, Deacon Steve welcomes two members of the Spirit Filled Hearts team to the studio: Katie Hughes and Michael Aimola. This discussion is a follow-up to the recently completed St. Joseph Summit. It was really quite an amazing and successful online summit, that featured about 64 unique speakers. These included all three of our bishops here in the Diocese of Orange: Bishop Vann, Bishop Freyer, and Bishop Nguyen.

Tune in, and be inspired!

 

 

 

 

 

Originally broadcast on 10/17/21

EPISODE #281
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT: ST. JOSEPH SUMMIT PRAYER TEAM

On today’s podcast, Deacon Steve Greco is joined by a dynamic Catholic actress, writer and producer named Christin Jezak. Christin is heading up a powerful prayer team whose primary focus is on the upcoming St. Joseph Summit, sponsored by Spirit Filled Hearts Ministry. Listen in and be inspired by this energetic conversation!

 

 

 

 

Originally broadcast on 8/15/21

EPISODE #262
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT: A FAMILY GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE (PT. 2) WITH KATHLEEN BECKMAN

Welcome to the second of Deacon Steve Greco’s conversation with our very special guest, author and speaker Kathleen Beckman.

Her new book is titled “A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare.”

Part 1 was titled: Strategies for Deliverance and Healing.

Part 2 (this episode) is titled: The Foundational Tripod for Victory.

 

 

 

 

Originally broadcast on 11/22/20

TEACH US TO PRAY — AS STRESSED-OUT PARENTS

Lord, we’re tired.  Overwhelmed. Anxious. Uncertain. 

This year has brought massive changes to our families. Work, school, Church — all of it looks different now. Our kids are struggling to understand, accept and adapt. We’re struggling, too. 

How can we help our families when we need support for ourselves? How can we teach our kids to pray when we’re wrestling with faith right now, too? Where do we start when everything feels like it’s unraveling around us? 

Here is one answer you gave us: 

“He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test’” (Lk 11:1-4). 

Each line of Scripture can speak to us today, Lord. Open our hearts to hear your word. 

“He was praying in a certain place.” 

Remind us that our circumstances and contexts don’t have to be barriers to prayer. Keep drawing us to you in our own particular places, just as you would leave behind the chaos and crisis of the crowds to pray alone. 

“Lord, teach us to pray.” 

Humble our hearts to ask you to teach us. When we don’t know what to do or where to go, nudge us to ask for help. Let us be open to receive and willing to learn. Comfort us to remember we aren’t alone, that we all need your grace and guidance to keep going. 

“When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” 

Help us to start simply. To begin each day and each prayer by calling out to you. To praise your name and put you first. To remember that we are your beloved children. To hope in your goodness, trust in your promise and surrender to your ways. 

“Give us each day our daily bread.” 

Let us see all the goodness of life — even time and food — as gifts from you. Let us ask for enough for today, and trust that tomorrow will take care of itself. Let us be open to receive you: in sacraments, in Scripture and in sustenance for our bodies and minds. Let us pray not just for ourselves and our families, but for all who are in need. 

“Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” 

Guide us to confession and forgiveness. Be merciful with our fumbling, failures and fears. Help us to forgive ourselves, our families and all those we struggle to love. Guide our feet to the path of your healing, and teach us to work and serve each day in the light of your love. 

“Do not subject us to the final test.” 

Have mercy on us. Protect us. Stay with us through the end. 

Bring us back each day to these holy words. Help us teach them to our children, to pray them when we are at home and when we are away. 

Most of all, Lord, be present to us wherever we are — as parents, guardians, grandparents, godparents and all who love, teach or raise young people in today’s tumultuous world. May we trust that we and the children we love are always in your care, that your peace is always only a prayer away. 

Amen. 

FAITH IN ISOLATION

As Catholic families continue to cope with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, isolation threatens us with depression, anxiety, and loneliness. 

Still, more than 300 times throughout scripture, the Lord tells us to not be afraid. He promises to be with us always, abiding by our sides until the end. 

“Faith is what helps us to know and understand God,” observes Father Angelos Sebastian, pastor of St. Kilian Church in Mission Viejo. “When we are isolated, we can always feel the presence of God. And when God is with us, we are never alone.” 

Indeed, our Catholic faith – with its universality, worldwide community, and enduring history – reassures us of God’s always-uplifting presence, Father Sebastian says. “It helps us to know even when we are in the most difficult and challenging times, He is with us.” 

Psalm 23 reassures us that even in the darkest valleys, our Good Shepherd is with us. “Our Catholic faith helps us in isolation because we know we are always connected to our spiritual family. At every Mass we are being prayed for, which is a great source of strength during this time of isolation,” says Father Sebastian. 

Even in the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are only as lonely as we want to be, says Father Scott Borgman, Diocese of Orange judicial vicar, who often posts livestream Masses and inspirational meditations on social media. 

“There are always so many options for reaching out to people, and I know that many parishes are calling the Faithful regularly, especially those who are sick or elderly, in order to check on them, to make sure they are getting the proper care and nutrition, etc.,” Father Borgman says. “This is a great community life especially in the absence of family members close to those who are isolated.” 

As Catholics, he adds, we believe that suffering is not meaningless. “St. Paul writes ‘to live is Christ and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21),” he explains. “So many people are way too anxious by the drama produced through a diet of too much news. They have lost their peace and need to learn to pray, to search for that peace of God which ‘surpasses all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7).” 

Community is one of the main reasons that people are turning to their Catholic faith during this pandemic, Father Borgman says, but even more important is the connection we make directly with God.  

“The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and remains completely faithful today to all the precepts of God’s desire to transmit grace through all the sacraments,” he notes. “There is a significant difference between the scripture-based entertainment offered by so many Christian churches and, on the other hand, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.  

“People turning to God so often want to be in touch with sacramental graces.” 

Catholic families in need of inspiration and comfort can visit the websites of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at usccb.org and the California Catholic Conference of Bishops at cacatholic.org. 

The Tablet, the award-winning newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, at thetablet.org, also offers inspirational content. Dynamic Catholic has free resources at dynamiccatholic.com. And a British site, faithinisolation.com, sponsored by Peter’s Table, also has resources for prayer and contemplation. 

CATHOLICS IN LOS ANGELES INVITED TO PRAYER AND PILGRIMAGE FOR MIGRANTS, REFUGEES

CNA Staff, Sep 16, 2020 / 02:45 pm (CNA) – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is inviting Catholics to join in a novena and to watch Masses online this weekend in preparation for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“This has been another challenging year for our immigrant community, made more complicated
by the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Archbishop José Gomez.

“I am really looking forward to this time for us to come together as one family of God, even if it
can only be virtually this year, to pray and share God’s love and compassion.”

Catholics are invited to participate in a Sept. 18-26 novena meant as spiritual preparation for the 2020 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, observed Sept. 27.

Catholics are invited also to watch Gomez celebrate Masses via livestream Sept. 20, at 7am PT in Spanish and 10am PT in English.

The Masses and prayers in Los Angeles are part of the archdiocese’ Day in Recognition of All Immigrants, which it has held annually since 2013.

Each year, celebration includes a 60-mile walking pilgrimage tracing the path St. Junipero Serra walked as he founded the first nine mission churches of California.

This year, the pilgrimage begins Sept. 21. Because of the pandemic, the pilgrimage leader, Don Antonio, is set to walk the route alone, but the archdiocese is encouraging Catholics to join the pilgrimage virtually.

The festivities will also include a testimony delivered by a 16-year old immigrant who entered the US as an unaccompanied minor to reunite with her mother in Los Angeles. Her family sought asylum in the U.S. due to violent crimes against them in their home country, the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese is urging donations to Catholic Charities Los Angeles to support migrant and refugee aid in the city.

Internally displaced persons are the topic of Pope Francis’ message for the 2020 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, published May 15, in which the pope said the situation of internally displaced persons is an “often unseen tragedy that the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated.”

POPE ASKS PRAYERS FOR THE UNEMPLOYED, FOR DIALOGUE, PEACE

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Even while enjoying a summer break, people should not forget those who are suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis said Aug. 16 after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square. The pope’s call for prayers for those who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic was just one of several public appeals the pope made Aug. 15-16. Marking the feast of the Assumption of Mary Aug. 15, the pope also prayed with pilgrims gathered at midday in a sweltering St. Peter’s Square. Referring to Mary under the title “Mother of Hope,” he encouraged people to “invoke her intercession for all the situations in the world that are most in need of hope: hope for peace, for justice, hope for a dignified life.” The pope drew attention to the people of northern Nigeria suffering because of “violence and terrorist attacks” both by suspected members of Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups and by gangs of “bandits” who are terrorizing villages and farms, stealing cattle and murdering people.

POPE FRANCIS: EVEN IN TIMES OF DARKNESS, GOD IS THERE

Vatican City, Aug 9, 2020 / 05:59 am (CNA) – When caught in difficult moments or trials, turn your heart to God, who is near even when you do not search for him, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.

“Having faith means, in the midst of the storm, keeping your heart turned to God, to his love, to his tenderness as a Father. Jesus wanted to teach this to Peter and his disciples, and also to us today, in moments of darkness, moments of storms,” the pope said Aug. 9.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he said “even before we begin to seek Him, He is present beside us lifting us back up after our falls, He helps us grow in faith.”

“Perhaps we, in the dark, cry out: ‘Lord! Lord!’ thinking that he is far away. And He says: ‘I’m here!’ Ah, he was with me!” Pope Francis continued.

“God knows well that our faith is poor and that our path can be troubled, blocked by adverse forces. But He is the Risen One, do not forget this, the Lord who went through death to bring us to safety.”

In his message before the Angelus, the pope reflected on the Gospel reading from St. Matthew, when Jesus asks the apostles to get in a boat and cross to the other shore of the lake, where he will meet them.

While still far from shore, the disciples’ boat gets caught in some wind and waves.

“The boat at the mercy of the storm is an image of the Church, which in every age encounters headwinds, sometimes very hard trials,” Francis noted.

“In those situations, [the Church] may be tempted to think that God has abandoned her. But in reality, it is precisely in those moments that the witness of faith, the testimony of love and the testimony of hope shines the most,” he said.

He pointed to the Gospel: In this moment of fear, the disciples see Jesus walking to them on the water and think it is a ghost. But he reassures them and Peter challenges Jesus to tell him to come out onto the water to meet him. Jesus invites Peter to “come!”

“Peter gets off the boat and takes a few steps; then the wind and the waves frighten him and he begins to sink. ‘Lord, save me!’ he cries, and Jesus takes him by the hand and says to him: ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’” Francis recounted.

This episode “is an invitation to abandon ourselves with trust to God in every moment of our life, especially in the hour of trial and turmoil,” he said.

“When we feel strong doubt and fear and we seem to sink, in the difficult moments of life, where everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out, like Peter: ‘Lord, save me!’”
“It is a beautiful prayer!” he noted.

“And the gesture of Jesus, who immediately reaches out his hand and grasps that of his friend, must be contemplated for a long time: Jesus is this, Jesus does this, it is the hand of the Father who never abandons us; the strong and faithful hand of the Father, who always and only wants our good,” he said.

After praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis noted the presence of a group of pilgrims holding the Lebanese flag in St. Peter’s Square and said his thoughts have been with the country since the deadly explosion in Beirut Aug. 4.

“The catastrophe of last Tuesday calls everyone, starting with the Lebanese, to collaborate for the common good of this beloved country,” he said.

“Lebanon has a peculiar identity, the result of the meeting of various cultures, which has emerged over time as a model of living together,” he noted. “Of course, this coexistence is now very fragile, we know, but I pray that, with the help of God and the loyal participation of all, it may be reborn free and strong.”

Francis invited the Church in Lebanon to be close to her people during this “Calvary,” and asked the international community to be generous in helping the country.

“And please, I ask the bishops, priests and religious of Lebanon to stay close to the people and to live a lifestyle marked by evangelical poverty, without luxury, because your people suffer, and suffer so much,” he concluded.

The pope also noted the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

“While I remember with emotion and gratitude the visit I made to those places last year, I renew my invitation to pray and to commit ourselves to a world totally free from nuclear weapons,” he said.