Okay, guys, we are going to the movies. Spirit Juice Studios has created this original content, a film about Father Flanagan, an absolute rockstar priest and up for canonization. Father Flanagan dedicated his life to protecting children and providing for them, especially those who were orphans and disadvantaged from every race and religion, and he gave of himself totally for them. This is a fantastic…
Defensiveness, denial, rationalization, avoidance. What do these things have in common? It’s what we do when we avoid shame. None of us like to experience shame. None of us like to experience suffering. And we love to avoid. We love to deny. We love to distract ourselves because shame does not feel good. Here is the gospel, though, where Saint Peter does the same thing. He tells Jesus…
How can we bring our feelings to the Lord? Once we have a sense of what we are feeling and why we are feeling that way, this would be the next step that we’re invited to do—to turn to Jesus in prayer in great faith and trust, then relate and bring these feelings to him and let him respond to it. In this episode, we’ll talk about how we can convey our emotions to the Lord and what it would look…
Okay, guys, you have to check out this photo. This photo was taken in 1974 of a little boy named Harold. Harold could not hear anything, so doctors placed a hearing aid in his ear, which is the reaction of Harold hearing sound for the first time. And this picture is so moving, but what we hear in the gospel for this Sunday is even more moving and more incredible. Jesus Christ takes a deaf man away from the crowd…
Why do we feel a certain way? This would be a great question to ask ourselves once we identify and name what we feel. It’s good to learn what’s ultimately at stake in every emotion, test, or situation we encounter and understand why it’s so important to us. This episode talks about some practical examples and applications of how we can dive deeper into that and use it to grow and build…
Okay, so let’s talk about barnacles. And I’m not talking about what SpongeBob says when he’s upset. But barnacles attach themselves to a boat or a large creature like a whale and are foreign entities. They’re not supposed to be there. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus is very clear about us, and how we love to create our human laws and put them in God’s law, but when we do that, we attach barnacles to…
How do you feel? And why do emotions matter? Emotions, far from being mere reactions, have the power to transform us. Valuing the emotional life as necessary; they are an intrinsic part of us. Emotions are neutral, but how we respond to them can be fruitful and dangerous; this is why knowing how to navigate them is vital in our lives. In this episode, we’ll talk about the importance of emotions…
Let’s play the what-if game. In the gospel for the Sunday, what if Peter left Jesus? We wouldn’t have the Eucharist. We wouldn’t have a pope. We wouldn’t have the Catholic Church. We wouldn’t have the sacraments. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift would never have met. But seriously, Jesus Christ stakes everything, all of salvation, on the mere chance that Peter would say yes and stay with Him. That’s how important…
How much do you know about yourself? This might be a good starting point to ask ourselves in our interior life pilgrimage. From self-protection to self-acceptance, to self-possession, and ultimately to self-gift, it’s a journey to know oneself. And the beauty of prayer with the Lord is that we’re growing in self-knowledge and self-acceptance, self-possession with Jesus. In this episode, we’ll discuss the…
I recently took my college kids on a pilgrimage to Orvieto, Italy. Orvieto is the home to a Eucharistic Miracle, and I could talk about the Eucharistic Miracle all day. What is so crazy is that St. Thomas Aquinas lived during the time of this Eucharistic Miracle. St. Thomas Aquinas fell so deeply in love with Jesus and the Eucharist that he wrote “The Tantum Ergo.” “The Tantum Ergo” is sung every day around the world…
