Today on Kresta - October 21, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Oct. 21

4:00 – An Economic Crash: One Year Later. What Have We Learned?
October 2008 was an extraordinary month for the stock market and an exhausting one for investors and traders, who had to stomach extreme market volatility nearly every day during the month. As a matter of fact, six of the Dow’s top ten point changes in 2008 were in October alone. One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press poll. Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. George Schwartz has the analysis.

4:20 – Discerning the Will of God: An Ignatian Guide to Christian Decision Making
Drawing from the timeless methods of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Fr. Timothy Gallagher offers a thoughtful meditation enriched with examples and stories that offer practical and profound wisdom for aligning personal desires and goals with God’s will. With guidance on recognizing God’s infinite love, opening the heart to what God wants, making use of silence, the Eucharist, scripture, spiritual direction, finding clarity, and understanding discernment as part of the overall spiritual life in Christ, this discussion addresses questions asked by many Christians throughout life, such as What does God want for my life? Is it time to change jobs? And Should I marry? Focusing on major life decisions such as marriage and career, these insights can be adapted to any of life's decisions, helping the thoughtful Christian find a spiritually inspired mission.

4:45 – Exploring the Ministry of Life
The Guadalupe Partners for Life invite you to an evening of dinner, prayer and reflection. Since the work of the Partners is trans-diocesan, the dinner will be graced by the presence of two bishops: Bishop Earl Boyea of the Lansing diocese, and Bishop Daniel Flores, auxiliary bishop of Detroit. The purpose of the evening is to simply show the pro-life movement a quiet yet near-miraculous method of rescue and transformation. Should the pro-life movement be more present to the poor? Should it be more active on the sidewalks? Is the struggle political or spiritual? These questions will be tackled and more. We hope you will be able to join us and perhaps help open a new window of possibility for the pro-life movement. Co-founders Edmund Miller and Alecia Wong join us.

5:00 – A Catholic View of Literary Classics – Part 5 of 10: King Lear
We continue our 10-week series examining Classic Literature from a Catholic perspective. Acclaimed literary biographer Joseph Pearce is the editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions and will be our guide. We will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer choice, enabling educators, students, and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism. Today, we examine Shakespeare’s King Lear.

5:20 – Mary, Mother of the Son (Part 3 of 3)
Mary, Mother of the Son takes the reader on a tour de force exploration of the Marian dimension of Catholic thought, life, prayer, and practice. In Volume One: Modern Myths and Ancient Truth, we discover the fascinating way in which Mary emerges with profundity, beauty, and love from the pages of Scripture in the light of apostolic teaching. We probe how the gospel of Christ crowns and perfects, not only the Old Testament, but the deepest insights of the great non-Christian philosophies, religions, and myths. We learn how to read the Bible as the earliest Christians did and find out how Mary safeguards the deepest truths about Christ and his Church. Mark Shea, author of the trilogy is here for part three in our three-day series on Mary, Mother of the Son.

5:40 – The Vatican’s Investigation of Women Religious in America
In recent weeks, a number of angry voices have been raised to protest the Vatican’s initiative to investigate communities of American nuns. To give just one example, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin strongly critiqued the move, arguing that it represents just another example of an out of touch, patriarchal church persecuting those who refuse to cooperate with it. “These investigations,” Marin argues, “are about dissent in the Catholic church and how to stop it.” Now, one could certainly argue that this represents only one person’s opinion. Perhaps, but Fr. Robert Barron thinks that’s precisely what the Vatican quite rightly wants to determine. He join s us.