Deep in Christ

This week on Deep in Christ, coming out of a busy summer break, we’ll take a few minutes with our good sister in Christ, St. Edith Stein (feast day August 9th!) to consider contemplative prayer amidst a busy life, and how the peace and fruitfulness of the latter depends on our commitment to the former.

Just as we need a Sabbath every week, we should be making and guarding a “Sabbath moment” every day, to make space for prayer and to see God present in our lives.

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As a way of previewing the next "season" of Deep in Christ, brothers JonMarc & Fr. Peter Grodi take some time to reflect on their spiritual journeys and the nature of our walk with Christ as a journey of continual conversion.

They look back on their own family's story of continual conversion, including their memories of what it was like to be small children when their father, Marcus Grodi, left his role as a Presbyterian pastor to enter the Catholic Church.

As JonMarc and Fr. Peter discuss, the Christian journey is “continual” on many levels: our individual need for ever greater personal surrender, growth, and transformation; our journey of receiving and passing on faith in the context of family and community, and finally, our faith as a Church, wounded by sin, weakened and ever in need of renewal, but still, mysteriously the holy “bride of Christ” that we must not abandon.

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In this episode of Deep in Christ, JonMarc Grodi wraps up the the study of the Cardinal Virtues, looking at how they establish a powerful framework and paradigm for understanding Our Lord ’s example.

In His witness, and in the witness of the saints, we have ample testimonies of those who show us what it means to come to grips with what Jesus desires for us and is calling us to, and for more concretely translating what we believe into a plan of life and practical action.

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In this episode of Deep in Christ, JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi look at temperance with regards to one of our most common and basic human desires: food.

We don’t “live to eat”, but God has indeed designed us to seek out and eat good food for the nourishment of our bodies and to “break bread” with others for the nourishment of our souls.

Temperance is the habit of soul by which we submit our natural human desires and drives — disordered, as they are, by original and personal sin — to reason and to grace, so that we can love God and neighbor better. By cultivating the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance, we open ourselves to the necessary grace to order our desires in a way that honors God.

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In this episode of Deep in Christ, JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi dig a little deeper into the fourth cardinal virtue of Temperance, which Aquinas describes as “serenity of spirit” arising from man’s inner order.

Unlike the other virtues, Temperance turns inward toward man’s inner life of drives, desires, and passions. These powers of human nature are fundamentally good and purposeful, as they were created by God, but they have been disordered by original and personal sin.

Through Temperance — in the context of the other virtues of Prudence, Justice, and Courage — we discover how we are to properly work to restore this primordial order, and how we are to authentically “love” and care for ourselves not egoistically or self-referentially, but rather as an act of Justice and obedience to our creator.

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In this episode of Deep in Christ, JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi press on in their discussion of the Cardinal Virtues, looking now to Temperance, which Aquinas calls “Serenity of Spirit”.

Temperance is often associated with the merely negative, restraining aspects of the practice of this virtue.

But this emphasis can keep the focus too much on our own human efforts, rather than God’s grace, and also leave out a right vision of the point and purpose of Temperance: inner order, a serene spirit, and a heart more purified and open to total love of God. Join us as we kick-off this new study!

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This week on Deep in Christ, JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi wrap-up the discussion of the virtue of Fortitude, looking at its "vital, moral, and mystical" levels in our life and turning to a practical discussion of how we can practice and grow.

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After spending time talking about how the virtue of Fortitude teaches us to endure, in this episode, JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi look at how Fortitude equips us for right action, to be proactive and of singular purpose when facing difficulty.

At times, Fortitude calls us to have the patience to bear our sufferings, but at other times, Fortitude means stepping forward in boldness and attacking evil where we encounter it. JonMarc and Fr. Peter also discuss how the virtue of Prudence helps us to discern when and how to employ these various aspects of Fortitude.

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“He who endures to the end will be saved.” -Matthew 10:22

JonMarc and Fr. Peter Grodi continue discussing the virtue of Fortitude, looking this week at the first of two main aspects: endurance and attack. Patient endurance of difficulty and evil is part and parcel of the Christian life. But there is a whole lot more to patience than we commonly think...

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On this episode of Deep in Christ, hosts JonMarc Grodi and Fr. Peter Grodi continue discussing the virtue of Fortitude, or “courage”, the cardinal virtue by which we do the hard, right thing, even though it’s hard, because it is right.

This week they look a little deeper at the ways in which courage is often tempted to — but must NOT— rely on itself for direction or strength. Courage must always refer back to true discernment of reality — and hence to the exercise of Prudence — in order to ensure that it is working toward the realization of the good (Justice) and not, in a moment of passion, merely pursuing selfish ends.

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