Be Filled

This is the last of 5 re-released episodes before we launch Season 5! Our first episode of Season 5, we will talk about how God has been working in our lives since Season 4! I hope you will join us! Enjoy this episode! 

This episode we continue our study on Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching of the Theology of the Body. We are discussing General Audience 20-22 on “Knowledge” and Procreation.  We discuss what it means that man and woman “knew” each other through the “one flesh” union. We also discuss what Motherhood and Fatherhood reveal to man and woman about their masculinity and femininity. 

Scripture:  

“Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD. (Genesis 4:1) 

Quotes to Ponder:

“A word on this “unrepeatability” of the person: a husband and wife who truly “know” each other have arrived at the irreducible core of the person, and each loves this person-not merely spiritual or physical attributes of the person, but the person himself (herself). At this level, they continually recognize and affirm the unrepeatability of the other; he (she) is utterly unique and cannot be repeated or replaced.” (West, Theology of the Body Explained, p.154)

“...we should observe that in Genesis 4:1 the mystery of femininity manifests and reveals itself in it’s full depth through motherhood, as the text says, “who conceived and gave birth.” Woman’s motherhood reveals to the man the mystery of his masculinity, “that is, the generative and “paternal” meaning of his body.” (TOB 21:2) 

“Despite all the experiences of his own life, despite the sufferings, the disappointments in himself, his sinfulness, and, finally, despite the inevitable prospect of death, man always continues, however, to place “knowledge” at the “beginning” of “generation”; in this way he seems to participate in that first “vision” of God himself: God, the Creator, “saw everything…and indeed, it was good.” And always anew he confirms the truth of these words.” (TOB 22:7) 

Resources: 

Barbie Movie Opening Scene

Christopher West Commentary on the Barbie Movie

Bill Donaghy Commentary

 

We are 2 weeks away from the launch of Season 5! This is a re-release from Season 3 that will help us prepare for Season 5.

This episode we continue our study on Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching of the Theology of the Body. We are discussing General Audience 16.3-19.6 on the Mystery of Original Innocence. With JPII, we are “zooming in” on the Communion of Persons between man and woman. We discover the source of this Original Innocence and it allows man and woman to become a “disinterested gift of self”. 

Quotes to Ponder: 

“This innocence belongs to the dimension of grace contained in the mystery of creation, that is, to that mysterious gift made to man’s innermost [being]—to the human heart—that allows both the man and the woman to exist from the “beginning” in the reciprocal relationship of the disinterested gift of self.”  (TOB 16:3) 

“The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.” (TOB 19:4) 

Reflection Questions: 

1. When have you experienced someone making a gift of themself to you not expecting anything in return?  What response did you have? When have you been a free gift to someone else? How did it feel? 
2. “Grace is God’s self-gift to man.” (Christopher West) Are you open to receive the gift that God wants to give you? Is there any resistance to his grace in your heart? Pray with this and ask God to help you open your heart to Him. 
3. How can you become a gift to those in your life? Think about your family, your Church, your friends, and community. Could you do something today to be a gift? 
4. When someone sees you and tells you the goodness they see, how does that impact you? Has anyone ever seen gifts in you that you didn’t recognize? 
5. How do you see God’s love through your relationships? Can you see how God makes His love known in a concrete way through the love of man and woman?

Resources: 

Commentary 

Rachelle’s Visual Aids 

 

We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are beginning a new section of the text entitled “Man In The Dimension of Gift”. This is the first of two episodes in this section. Today we are discussing General Audiences 13.2-16.2 on The Spousal Meaning of the Body. 

Guiding Quote: 

“The dimension of gift is decisive for the essential truth and depth of the meaning of original solitude-unity-nakedness.” (TOB 13:2) 

Reflections Questions: 

1. What impacted you most in the podcast? 
2. Spend some time reflecting on your existence. Ask God to help you recognize the gift of life He has given you. How can you be a gift to your Creator today? 
3. Do you stop to notice the beauty of creation? Take some time this week to be outside and notice beauty. Put your “Gift Goggles” on! Praise God for all He has given you in creation. 
4. How can you teach your children, grandchildren, friends, and students to look for gifts everyday?  
5. How can you be a free gift today to those God has placed in your life at home, work, school, and in your community? 
6. Reflect on the miracle of you. You are not an accident. How does it make you feel when you consider that you are willed by God? 
7. Who in your life has made themselves available for you? How did this make you feel? Who in your life can you be completely available for? What might that look like? 

Resources: 

Double Rainbow Guy

A Meditation on Givenness by Pope John Paul II 

Wonderfully Made! Babies: A Catholic Perspective on How and Why God Makes Babies (for ages 9 and up) by Ellen Giangiordano

Commentary on Audiences 13.2-16:2

Next episode we will be discussing Audiences 16.3-19.6 on The Mystery of Original Innocence. If you have questions or comments, we would love to hear from you. We can reached by email at befilledpodcast@gmail.com.

This week we are re-releasing an episode from Season 2. This is in preparation for the launch of Season 5 on October 1st! Enjoy!

We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are discussing General Audiences 11.1-13.1 on Original Nakedness. We discuss the meaning of “nakedness” and what it meant that the first man and woman did not experience shame. 

Scripture: 

“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25) 

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” (Genesis 3:7) 

Reflections Questions: 

1. What stood out most for you in this episode? 
2. Try to think back to when you first heard the story of creation. How did you respond to the fact that Adam and Eve were naked? What factors do you think have influenced your view of the body and of nakedness? 
3. Do you practice transparency/vulnerability in your relationships? How could being open with others help you to receive those God has placed in your life? 
4. Recall your first experience of shame. Based on your experience of shame, what do you imagine the first man and woman’s experience of not having shame would be like? Pray with this asking God to heal any wounds you may be carrying related to shame. 
5. Have you experienced brokenness in your relationships due to deep shame and insecurity? How did the understanding of the relationship between the first man and woman impact you? What longings are stirred in your heart? Pray with these longings and invite the Lord to be with you there. 
6. How is your vision of men and women? Is there anything that needs the healing touch of God?

Resources: 

Commentary on Audiences 11-13.1

For more information on the Ruah Woods Curriculum click here.

Next episode we will be discussing Audiences 13.2-16.2 on the “Spousal Meaning of the Body.” 

 

 

The first of five "throwback" episodes in preparation for Season 5 on the Sacrament of Marriage. This episode originally aired on February 24, 2024.

Scripture: 

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,  “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24)

Quotes: 

“...one must first recognize that this Genesis torpor (sleep), in which, by the work of Yahweh-God, the man is immersed in preparation for the new creative act…” (TOB 8:3) 

“...the torpor into which God lets the man fall underlines the exclusiveness of God’s action in the creation of the woman. Man had no conscious part in it.” (TOB Footnote 12, p. 158)

“...man falls into this “torpor” with the desire of finding a being similar to himself…the circle of the human person’s solitude is broken, because the first “man” reawakens from his sleep as “male and female.” (TOB 8:3) 

“...man becomes the image of God not only through his own humanity, but also through the communion of persons, which man and woman form from the very beginning….Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.” (TOB 9:3) 

 “...femininity in some way finds itself before masculinity, while masculinity confirms itself through femininity.”(TOB 10:1)

“When they unite with each other (in the conjugal act) so closely so as to become “one flesh,” man and woman rediscover every time and in a special way the mystery of creation, thus returning to the union in humanity that allows them to recognize each other reciprocally and to call each other by name, as they did the first time.” (TOB 10:2) 

“The fact that they become “one flesh” is a powerful bond established by the Creator through which they discover their own humanity, both in its original unity and in the duality of a mysterious reciprocal attraction.” (TOB 10:2) 

Reflections Questions: 

1. Have you ever thought of sleep as a surrender? How do you typically end your day? Are you full of worry? 
2. What are you powerless over in your life right now? Are you willing to surrender it over to God’s care and wait for Him to work? 
3. Imagine yourself in the Garden with Adam and Eve. What do you think it was like for them when they saw each other for the first time? What do you think they discovered about themselves and each other in that moment? 
4. Have you ever thought of the relationship of man and woman as a “communion of persons” and that they mirror the Trinity?  What is your response to this idea? 
5. How do your relationships reflect the love of God? 
6. Are there places you have been wounded in relationships and need healing? Open these places up to the Lord. Do you have people in your life to pray with about these difficult areas?

Resources: 

Human Love in the Divine Plan Print

Commentary on Audiences 8-10 

 

 

Special announcement about the launch of Season 5! Special re-releases of past episodes are coming in preparation for this next part of our study of the Theology of the Body.

Music from #Uppbeat

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Welcome to the final episode of Season 4! We cover audiences 82-86 which will take us to the end of Part 1 of the text.  We start with a section entitled:  “Paul’s Understanding of the Relation Between Virginity and Marriage” which is an analysis of 1 Corinthians 7. We also wrap up the season, as usual, by sharing what has been most impactful for each of us personally this season and how God has been working in our lives. 

Quotes: 

“Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my counsel as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.” (1 Corinthians 7:25) 

“I say this to you, brothers, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none…those who buy as though that had no possessions, and those who make use of the world as though they made no use of it. For the stage of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties.” (1 Corinthians 7:29-32) 

"The unmarried person is anxious about what is the Lord’s, how to please the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:32) 

“...the one who pleases God cannot close himself in himself…”Pleasing the Lord” has love as its background.” (TOB 83:10; 84:1) 

“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain as I am. But if they do not know how to live in continence, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame.” (1 Corinthians 7:8-9) 

“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: It is well for a man not to touch a woman. Still, because of the danger of incontinence, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”(1 Corinthians 7:1-2) 

“I wish that all were as I am. But each has his own gift from God, one in one way and another in another." (1 Corinthians 7:7) 

“The hope of everyday shows its power in human works and even in the very movements of the human heart, clearing a path in some sense for the great eschatological hope tied to the redemption of the body” (TOB 86) 

Reflection Questions: 

1. What did you find most helpful in this episode? 
2. Have you ever been confused by St. Paul’s statements regarding marriage and virginity? What became more clear for you? 
3. What do you find most difficult about married life? In particular, loving as Christ calls us to love. 
4. Whatever your vocation may be, we are all called to seek to please the Lord out of love for him. In what ways are you "anxious to please the Lord”? 
5. As Sister said, celibacy is an invitation and a way to love God. Are you open to whatever God may be inviting you to? In what ways do you strive to remain open? 
6. How do you counsel your children regarding vocation? Challenge: Watch Sound of Music with your “TOB Lenses”. What do you learn from Mother Superior in the way she responds to Maria? How could you apply that to those you come into contact with needing guidance? 
7. Are you able to keep your eyes on Heaven while also loving fully as we are called to love? What does that look like in your life? 
8. How are you sensitive to the Holy Spirit living within you and your spouse or within those you live?  Are there ways in which you could grow in this area? 
9. How do you best learn to love? (“Training Wheels” or “Balance Bike”?) 

Resources: 

Maria Talks with Mother Superior

Climb Every Mountain-Sound of Music 

Be Transformed by Dr. Bob Schuchts

Audio: Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/chase-the-sun

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Welcome to the Be Filled Podcast! We are honored to have Father Brian Straus join us as we continue our conversation on “Celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven”. Fr. Brian is a Diocesan Priest in the Diocese of Springfield Cape-Girardeau. He is currently serving as Pastor at St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Joplin, MO. He is also the Chaplain for McAuley Catholic High School, the Director of Campus Ministry at Missouri Southern University, and the Regional Vocations Promoter for the region. He is also a co-host of the Mission Catholic Podcast! (Link Below) Father shares so beautifully and honestly about the life of a Priest. You do not want to miss it!! 

Quotes: 

“In Christ’s words about continence “for the kingdom of heaven,” there is not a hint of “inferiority” of marriage related to the “body” or to the essence of marriage consisting in the fact that man and woman unite with each other in such a way as to become “one flesh”. (TOB 78:1) 

“The perfection of Christian life is measured by the measure of love…Such perfection is possible and accessible for every human being, whether in a “religious institute” or in the world.” (TOB 78:3) 

“It is a characteristic feature of the human heart to accept even difficult demands in the name of love, for an ideal, and above all in the name of love for a person. And so, in this call to continence for the kingdom of heaven, first the disciples and then the whole living Tradition of the Church quickly discovered the love for Christ himself as the Bridegroom of the Church, Bridegroom of souls, to whom he has given himself to the end in the mystery of his Passover and of the Eucharist.” (TOB 79:9) 

“...and therefore acquired the meaning of an act of spousal love, that is, of a spousal gift of self with the end of answering in a particular way the Redeemer’s spousal love; a gift of self understood as renunciation, but realized above all out of love.” (TOB 79:9) 

We have the “awareness of the freedom of the gift, which is organically connected with the deep and mature consciousness of the spousal meaning of the body in the structure of man’s and woman’s personal subjectivity as a whole.” (TOB 80:5) 

“...man (male and female) is able to choose the personal gift of self to another person in the conjugal covenant, in which they become “one flesh”, and he is also able to renounce freely such a gift of self to another person, in order that by choosing continence “for the kingdom of heaven” he may give himself totally to Christ.” (TOB 80:6) 

The choice for celibacy for the kingdom cannot “be made in a free and conscious manner without reference to one’s own masculinity or femininity and to that spousal meaning proper to man…it is made on the basis of the full consciousness of the spousal meaning, which masculinity and femininity contain in themselves.” “In order to be fully aware of what he is choosing (continence for the kingdom), he must also be fully aware of what he is renouncing.” (TOB 80:7) 

The renunciation is an affirmation that “flows from the discovery of the “gift”, that is realizing oneself “through a sincere gift of self”. “..this discovery stands in deep inner harmony with the sense of the spousal meaning of the body connected “from the beginning” with the masculinity or femininity of man as a personal subject.” (TOB 81) 

Reflection Questions: 

1. What spoke to your heart most in this episode? 
2. What did you learn from Fr. Brian’s experience about the priesthood? 
3. Have you ever thought that those who choose religious life or the priesthood are running away from marriage and family? Did this episode help you have a deeper understanding? 
4. Both the call to marriage and the call to “celibacy for the kingdom” have a “spousal” character. What is your reaction to this idea? 
5. Have you ever thought that marriage is better than celibacy or vice versa? What do you think about this after listening to the show? 
6. Fr. Brian discussed spiritual fatherhood and motherhood as a call for all of us. What did you find most helpful on this topic? What experience have you had with spiritual motherhood or fatherhood? 
7. What is your response to the idea that someone who says “yes” to the call to celibacy is responding to the love of Christ? 
8. How did you feel when Fr. Brian talked about the desirableness of marriage and raising a family? 
9. Do you ever think the “grass is greener on the other side” regarding vocation? How can you take all your desires to God and let him meet you there? 
10. Pray about how you can show your Pastor your appreciation this week. Consider inviting him over for a meal. Make sure you thank him in whatever way you are able. 

Resources: 

The Mission Catholic Podcast

Leo XIV Inauguration Homily 

Audio: Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/chase-the-sun

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