Loving to the End
The first big “yes” — when we originally orient our lives to Christ — is not the most important. It’s the later yesses, of a deeper surrender and trust and giving of our lives, that mean a lot more. At some point, it’s not enough to be doing the right things; there must still be a desire for even…
Thy Will Be Done
This is NOT a How to Discern episode. It’s much closer to the foundation. What does the “will of God” even mean? What about “surrendering my life to God”? Discernment isn’t a calculation or program or roadmap, it’s not a “do this and do that and God’s mystery in your life will be revealed…
A New Vision
There’s a simple test of whether a conversion is authentic: do you treat people differently, particularly the poor? Does your spiritual life get reduced to “me”? Or to an exodus from caring about yourself at all? Your prayer is measured in charity. The quality of your Holy Hour can only be measured…
Optimizing Confession
Going to confession regularly can become routine — a checklist — instead of what it can be: an encounter with God. Examine not only your sins, but also the one you’ve sinned against; the Lord. Because there’s a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. You receive forgiveness; you’re…
Healed By His Wounds
Remembering your sin can be uncomfortable. But it’s not about the sin — remembering your sin is remembering God’s mercy. It’s going back to Jesus’s presence at that moment, and to the way he changed it. Remembering that is the start of understanding your conversion more deeply, and to living your…
The Spark of Conversion
There’s a reason that this book is required reading for all CFR postulants. It’s intense, and we’re ready to get into it in this series. Because it’s all about Jesus. And conversion is at the heart of the daily experience of saying “yes” to Jesus. Conversion isn’t something that happens “out there”; it’s not a personal…
Ending the Year Well
Our last episode of the year… a time that often means reflecting on the last year and looking forward to the next one. As you look back on 2021, there are probably loose ends — struggles, situations — that haven’t been resolved. It’s easy to wish that everything would just make sense, but sometimes it just doesn’t…
The Nativity of the Lord
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem…