We have this tendency that we want to fix or clean-up certain things first before we let the Lord in. We are afraid that our place, our lives are messy—that it can be too much for anyone even for God to handle. But God is NOT panicking, he’s completely in control. He’s not afraid or scandalized of how messy our lives are, he actually comes for the mess. He isn’t waiting for us to get it together, he wants to come and the way we get things together is by Him coming to our lives, we just have to let him in.
This episode is the third part of the series on Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional that talks about how we can ask the Lord to take our panic and give His us peace. An invitation for us to let God in to our lives regardless of the mess. If you want to follow along with our current advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM.
You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!
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Make a Home
What is the place of home? It’s where we are safe, loved, known, seen, well-received, and can be ourselves. Brokeness may significantly affect our home experience, but ideally, home is a place of joy, laughter, and communion. In this episode, we’ll talk about hospitality, what home is, what it can be, and how we can make it a place where we can joyfully…
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You Need Community
We have some pretty strong feelings on this topic, and it shows in this week’s episode. Passing through purgatory is the experience that prepares us for heaven. There’s no greater insight into what purgatory is like than family life or community life. The most important thing you’ll bring to your vocation — whether that’s religious life or family life…
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Silence of Interior Conversations
How much of your day is spent talking to yourself?
Replaying a difficult conversation. Planning what you should have said. Criticizing yourself for a mistake. Imagining what might happen next. Running through the same fears, judgments, and to-do lists again and again. In this episode, the friars explore the constant interior monologue that can fill our minds with noise and leave us anxious, distracted, or stuck within ourselves.
But we were not made to live inside a closed loop. We were made for communion. The invitation is to notice when that interior conversation has turned inward and begin directing it toward God. Instead of merely thinking about a struggle, we can bring it to Jesus. Instead of endlessly processing what happened, we can let Him meet us there. The monologue becomes a dialogue.
The friars offer practical examples of what this can look like in everyday life: after falling into sin, before or after a difficult conversation, when anxiety takes over, or when loneliness and discouragement begin shaping the way we see ourselves. Sometimes the movement toward prayer can be as simple as stopping, looking toward Jesus, and remembering: I am not alone. We are doing this together.
This kind of silence does not mean having no thoughts at all. It means allowing the noise within us to find its proper end in relationship with God. As our interior life becomes less about endlessly speaking to ourselves and more about being with Him, we make room for His presence, His truth, and His peace.
