December 2022 –“A Personalist Defense of the Teaching of Humanae Vitae”
Maria was invited to speak in Rome at the December 2022 Conference “In Response to the Pontifical Academy of Life’s Publication “On Theological Ethics of Life“. The talk is entitled “A Personalist Defense of the Teaching of Humanae Vitae“. Here is the talk she gave.
March 2021 –“The Respective Roles of Mind and Will in Spiritual Growth”
Maria was invited to present the 2021 Aquinas Lecture at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. Here is the talk she gave.
July 2020 — “St. Thomas Aquinas and von Hildebrand on the Heart” (15 min)
Talk Maria gave for the Hildebrand Project 2020 “Summer Seminar on the Heart” (recorded on Zoom)
July 2020 — “The Role of Gender in the Human Person”
Talk Maria gave for the Hildebrand Project 2020 “Summer Seminar on the Heart” (recorded on Zoom). Also on youtube (click here)
July 2020 — “Feeling and Knowing” (31 min)
Talk Maria gave for the Hildebrand Project 2020 “Summer Seminar on the Heart” (recorded on Zoom)
April 2020 –“Discerning Love“
An 80 minute long discussion with student members of the Ave Maria Philosophy Club, recorded from a zoom call.
2019 “Human Sexuality: The Battle for the Human Soul”
This talk, “Human Sexuality: The Battle for the Human Soul”, was presented at the 2019 “Crisis in the Church” Conference at Ave Maria University,
Unfortunately the recording missed the first minute or two of the talk. The text of the missing first few minutes is here: Beginning of Human Sexuality Talk
2018 Newman Institute “Reborn in Wonder” Lecture Series, Lincoln, Nebraska
“Motherhood: Co-Creation with God” (video, 44 min.)
2018 Hildebrand Project “Love, Sex, and the Human Person” Conference:
Talk 1: Marriage as the Union of Man and Woman (video)
Talk 2: Hildebrand’s Unique Vision of Sexuality (part 1, video)
Hildebrand’s Unique Vision of Sexuality (part 2, video)
2018 Catholic University of America Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae:
Von Hildebrand, Love, and Contraception (video)
2018 “Love and Life in Marriage” Conference for the 50th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Dublin, Ireland:
The Centrality of Love to the Teaching of Humanae Vitae (video)
2016 Video made for the Religious Order “Hogar de la Madre”:
A Space That Only God Can Fill (3 1/2 minutes, video)
How in the woman’s heart there is a space that can only be filled by God, in drawing near to the True Fountain of Love
2014 Humanum Conference, Rome:
Dr. Fedoryka’s contribution is only about 2 minutes long. The extract is at:
The Cradle of Life & Love- A Mother & Father for the World’s Children (video)
2013 — 4th Annual Theology of the Body Conference, Fatima, Portugal:
Dr. Maria Fedoryka delivers a subtle yet highly accessible analysis, deeply rooted in the text of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, explaining John Paul’s understanding of spousal love and desire:
The Foundation in the Spirit of of Spousal Desire in the Theology of the Body (video)
2011 — “Theology of the Body as the Foundation of Marriage and the Family” (70 min)
The existence of creatures – and especially of the human person – is an outpouring of divine love from within the depths of the Trinity. Since love is the foundation of his being, man’s life is, in the words of John Paul II, incomprehensible and meaningless unless he participates intimately in love. Dr. Fedoryka explores the significance of love for the life of the human person, showing it to be the origin, end, and meaning of human existence.
Presented at the 3rd Annual Theology of the Body Conference in London, England (2011)
Theology of the Body as Foundation of Marriage and the Family (70 min, audio)
Theology of the Body as Foundation of Marriage and the Family (70 min, video)
2008 Personalist Project Lecture Series:
In this double-lecture “The Person Created in Love”, Dr. Fedoryka analyzes and challenges certain false ideas about the human person, and then elaborates the Christian vision of the person’s creation in love and fulfillment in relation to God and other persons.
TALK 1: “He who created you without you…” (48 minutes audio)
The “pessimistic existentialists” such as Nietzsche and Sartre believe human existence to have no meaningful origin, and thus to be absurd. The Christian conviction, by contrast, is that creation springs from the hand of a loving creator. In this first talk, Dr. Fedoryka reflects philosophically on this love-origin of the human person, and then shows the dramatic implications of this beginning in love for the human person’s vocation and genuine fulfillment.
TALK 2: “…will not complete you without you.” (25 minutes audio)
In the second talk, Dr. Fedoryka considers the human contribution to the original creative act of God. God brings man into existence, but this act of creation is in an important sense radically incomplete. For while the love-origin gives objective meaning to existence, the human person is not able to enter into this meaningfulness without further ado: he must experience his own goodness, and the goodness of the world. But this is possible only if he is reflected back to himself in the loving gaze of another human person. As “one who is loved”, he is thus initiated into the only experience which can give his life meaning.