Burning Hearts with Rachel Herbeck

This week we dive into 1 Peter 1 and we see Peter communicating what the true end and goal of the Christian life is; the revelation of the Jesus who will come again in glory.

Finally, Jesus’ call to follow him asks for and requires total surrender. That total surrender asks for full gift of self, but in response, Jesus gives us His entire self as a gift.

One of Jesus’ most essential teachings on discipleship is following him to the cross. As we walk with him, we need to grow in our love for the wounded, crucified Christ.

A confusing yet powerful teaching of Jesus is the call to hate your life in this world. Today we discuss truly what it means to be detached from our lives here in a healthy way.

As we continue through Jesus’ teaching about following him, we see that true discipleship first helps us confront in us what is disordered and through encounter with Jesus, He reorders our loves.

This week we dive into Luke 14 and hear Jesus’ convicting words regarding His vision of discipleship. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us respond to Jesus’ words even when they are challenging.

Let’s look at the book of Galatians this week and see what St. Paul has to teach us about the Holy Spirit, freedom, and faith.

In Galatians, St. Paul makes a distinction between the flesh and the Spirit. What are three desires of the flesh particularly prevalent in today’s society?

The fruits of the Spirit need to be grown and experienced by those around us. What are three fruits in particular needed in the Church today?

What does it mean to live by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit? What differences can we expect in our lives when we do?

Galatians 2:20 invites us to be crucified with Christ. What does that mean and how is that expressed in our lives?

Wrapping up the first week of Lent, we read the prophet Isaiah chastising Israel for their heart posture as they fast. The Holy Spirit convicts us today to be truly concerned with the pursuits of God and not just what we desire.

Now that Lent has begun, we hear more from the Prophets, and we read an invitation to delight in God’s law and instruction. We are convicted that obedience is the fruit of love and ask the Lord where He desires us to submit.

As we begin Lent, we see the readings shift from James to the Old Testament prophet Joel. Joel convicts us to rend our hearts in true repentance to the Lord, and we ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of deep repentance on behalf of ourselves and the world.

As we continue going through the Mass readings, we see the first reading is a continuation of James 1. Here we are encouraged to persevere so we may receive the crown of life. We ask God for help on our race as we grow in endurance.

This week we dive into the readings of the day as we prepare for Lent. Today we begin with the letter from James and his intense and convicting to challenge to count each trial as a joy.

As we wrap up this week, we take time to focus on each fruit of the Spirit, what it is, and what are signs that those fruits are at work in our lives.

We continue to examine the things that separate us from God, particularly how our sin affects our communities. Paul tells us that if we submit to these things as our masters, we will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul tells us that our fleshly desires are in opposition to the Spirit of God. We begin today to talk about ways we look for satisfaction in other things and how that separates us from God.

As we continue discussing freedom, Paul tells us that the proof that we are free is we are able to truly love on another in service. We ask ourselves if we are gratfyig the desires of the flesh or serving one another in love.

We begin this week in Galatians 5, focusing on the freedom that we have been given in Christ. What does it mean to be truly free and how do we exercise that freedom?

When we set our minds on the flesh, it produces death in our lives. But when we set our minds on the Spirit, there is life and peace. We ask the Spirit of God to help us set our minds on the Spirit.

Through sending his son into the world, we read that God condemns sin. We see today that God does not condemn Jesus, but he condemns sin in the flesh so that we may walk in newness of life.

Today we read about what the law could not do because of the sin of the human race, but we are awestruck and inspired by the reality that God has done what the law could not do: save us.

We continue in Romans 8 discussing the two laws: the law of sin and death and the law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. We see how Jesus came to set us free from the law of sin and death.

This week we open up Romans 8 as an anchoring passage for us in this new year. We see the proclamation that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and we ask the Holy Spirit to help us believe that reality.

One of the most challenging teachings of Jesus is to rejoice when we are hated and reviled. Today we discuss how we lean into persecution and rejoice in our hardships.

Continuing with the blessings and woes, Jesus speaks about those who are mourning and those who are hungry. We examine our own hearts to ask the question – are we spiritually hungry? Or are we filled with worldly things?

Jesus teaches about those who are poor both materially and spiritually. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us lean into a deeper poverty of spirit.

As Jesus dives into the blessings and woes, we learn what He values and are challenged by the values of the Kingdom of God and how different they are from the kingdom of the world.

This week we dive into Luke 6, particularly where Jesus begins to teach his disciples in the form of blessings and woes. We see how Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, bringing the Kingdom of God to invade the kingdom of the earth.

Jesus proclaims to the people that He is the fulfillment of the messianic mission stated in Isaiah 61. Today we discuss how Jesus’ ministry still applies to us today and we ask for the faith to raise our expectations that Jesus can set us free and open our eyes today.

In Luke 4, Jesus famously proclaims the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 61 in the temple. Here we see that Jesus is the anointed one, the one Isaiah spoke of who will come to proclaim good news to the poor.

Today we see that Jesus actually went into the very synagogues that he attended to teach the people, and as he teaches people glorify Him. We begin to reflect on the true power of Jesus’ time of public ministry.

As we seek Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, we see that people knew about Him and had heard about Him. The report about who He was was growing! This begins to show us truly how people responded to Jesus’ divinity throughout His time on earth.

This week we begin to ask the question, how do we seek Jesus? We dive into Luke 4 to see what Jesus was up to during His public ministry and we read that He was anointed in the power of the Spirit.

Jesus gives us the ultimate model of discipleship, that we should have the mindset of humility that He had and become obedient to the Father even to the point of death.

As we desire to grow in humility and imitating Jesus, we are encouraged to stay open to the work that God is doing in us and not close ourselves off to the work of God.

Building on our episode yesterday, today we discuss how keeping our eyes on ourselves does not bear fruit. Paul encourages us to look, to keep our eyes on others, to look at the needs, feelings and desires of others before our own and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

One of the main thing that separates us from Christ and one another is a preoccupation with self. As we receive God’s love, we grow in our ability to see the needs of others.

This week we dive into Philippians 2 where Paul discusses how to cultivate unity within the body of Christ. We receive an encouragement from Paul to love each other, not with our own strength but with the same love of Christ.

The culmination of Jesus’ call to love is not to love those who love us, but to actually love those who persecute us. We ask the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts in regards to the ways we are loving those we struggle with.

A love that is genuine rejoices in hope, is patient in trials and constant in prayer. Today we discuss how we grow in each of these areas.

As followers of Christ, we read today that we are not only called to love each other, but we should have affection and fondness for others. Paul instructs us in this by encouraging the Romans to outdo one another in showing honor.

One of the elements of loving like Christ is to love with a love that is genuine and sincere. Today we are invited to examine our hearts and see how genuine our love is, asking Jesus to purify us.

In Romans 12, we read about the marks of a true Christian. Christ calls each and every one of us to a high standard of love. Jesus fills us with His Holy Spirit so that we can love like he loves.

Stephen’s witness of martyrdom is incredibly inspiring. As we wrap up our week, we reflect on him offering his life to Christ and truly witnessing to the glory of God until the very end.

In his debate with the Jews, Stephen calls out the religious leaders saying they are stiff necked and resist the Holy Spirit. Today we discuss how we discern how bold and direct we should be as we preach the Gospel. As we call on the Holy Spirit, we receive help to say and do what we are supposed to.

Stephen is able to be bold, calm, and unafraid because he is filled with the Holy Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit to fill us in a deeper way and show us where we are called to preach the Gospel.

As Stephen preaches the gospel, the Jews rise up against him and stir up opposition against him. We reflect on what our response is when we are opposed for the Gospel and we ask God for the grace to be unafraid and anchored in Him.