Spirit Juice presents The Poco a Poco Video Podcast featuring Fr. Innocent, Fr. Angelus and Fr. Mark-Mary, members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
This weekly podcast offers “Practical Spirituality”. The friars break open the Gospel in light of their years of prayer, communal life, and work with the poor. It is a source of rest, encouragement, refreshment, and renewal for all pilgrims helping them to discern and make the next best step. Poco a Poco, little by little, step by step we’re making our pilgrimage to the Father’s house.
Subscribe below to receive an email whenever a new episode is released. Please note that all fields are required.
Poco a Poco Episodes
Filter By Series
Restoring Communion
What does it mean to be restored, sons and daughters? How do we begin? Jesus was always in prayer, and we are invited to do the same. This is why restoration should start with the gift of prayer and communion with God. We would also need to create a space for restoration and have the sensitivity and receptivity to be in a deeper communion with God. In this episode…
Rebuild to Reconsecrate
What does restoration or reconsecration look like? Why do we need it? Restoration and reconsecration mean finding our lives again in Christ and putting Jesus at the center of our lives. They mean wanting to grow, go deeper, and learn again that God is our Father and that Jesus can lead us to a more profound way of being sons and daughters. If you’re facing the reality…
How to Go to Spiritual Direction
What is spiritual direction really about, and how do we do it? Nowadays, it seems that there is an increasing trend of people seeking spiritual direction; however, there aren’t many spiritual directors to help us with that. In today’s episode, we will try to explain what spiritual direction is, who needs it, and what would be the best way to do it to try and bridge that gap…
On Beauty
How do you experience beauty, and how does it move you? God presents to us the gift of the beauty of the world. Beauty is usually in the eye of the beholder; we all experience and see beauty differently. But at the same time, it is commonly an experience of awe and wonder before the other or the world. We are invited to be more open to the beautiful things in our lives, be moved…
Know Your Heart
If you don’t value something, does it mean it’s not valuable to others or the world? Our life experiences form us, and our hearts respond in different ways, mainly where there are areas of something we didn’t experience or grew up without. We can have a coping mechanism or a defense mechanism of numbing and closing that part of our hearts so that it doesn’t become an open…
San Francesco
What’s your experience of St. Francis? You might know St. Francis differently or have a different experience of St. Francis, but in this episode, we’re going to look at the life of St. Francis through the lens of the CFR brothers themselves and highlight what part of St. Francis’ life stands out in their own lives. This episode gives a deeper insight into who St. Francis is, how he lived…
Discerning God’s Work in You
How does Jesus come alive in you? We are invited to share in the heart of Jesus, who wants to heal the world and do His works even now. There are patterns and consistencies in how He works in our lives that are also personal and particular. These are revelations that are not abstract or different but unique and personal to each one of us. In this episode, we’ll try explaining that…
Discerning God’s Voice
How do I hear and know God’s Voice? God desires to break into our lives and speak with us—to communicate with us. But most of the time, what that looks like can be quite unclear. That is why it’s important that we are able to discern how God speaks. In this episode, we’ll look at some practical ways to hear and know God’s voice and see how we can receive what He speaks to each of us…
Learning God’s Voice
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…
Building on Rock
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…
Emotions and Jesus
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…
Know Thyself
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…
SEEK 2024
What do you do when God comes to you in mystery? We can find medicine if we search for God in the mysteries of suffering, the ordinary, and the hidden sacraments. God uses these mysteries to communicate medicines for our transformation, our holiness, and the things we most deeply need to grow, change, heal, and become the children of God he made us to be. In this special episode with Spoke Street…
He Knows Your Name
Are you able to see God’s goodness? We are invited to trust and surrender that God is good and is always with us, to be rooted in the truth that God is Father, that He knows us, that He is good, and that He loves us. This is the fourth and last episode on the Mysteries & Medicine album, which teaches us how we can call out to Him and ask for the grace to trust Him and to be reunited in our identity, but most…
From Me to You
Have you experienced being confined to self-centeredness? Sometimes, we can have a pretty self-focused approach to our lives where it’s all about what we need or want. But the invitation for us in this Exodus is to always move towards someone else, towards the relationship, towards God—to be totally out of ourselves and make a self-gift back to God and other people. This episode is the third part…
Desire as a Pathway
What do you desire, and how do you respond to it? One reality of our humanity is that we can forever be dissatisfied and expect a different answer to our desires. But we are invited to let this desire, this hunger, become a pathway that brings the Lord closer to us, to offer Him the desire and to be with Him in it. This episode is the second part of our series on Fr. Isaiah’s Mysteries & Medicine, which talks…
Life and Mystery
Would you agree that life is a journey or a pilgrimage? The journey to say yes to what God wants for our life is not just this thing that happens like a contract; we say, “Yes,” it’s a journey. The holiness, the sanctification, the healing, it takes time. The pilgrimage of life is challenging; blindness, poverty, and suffering are often a part of it, but Jesus is with us in this pilgrimage, and he desires to not…
Hot Takes 6
We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in our lives, and we must be attentive. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people’s struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. Many questions will come our way…
Hot Takes 5
We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in our lives, and we must be attentive. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people’s struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. Many questions will come our way…
For Those Not Accepted to Seminary or Religious Life
Have you ever felt rejected by God or the church as you try to enter religious life? This can be an utterly heartbreaking experience. When faced with “No” as a response to the desire to enter religious life, one might feel that they are being rejected by God or the church, that they’re undesirable, or too broken for religious life. But in reality, that is not the case. This decision culminates in carefully assessing…
Hot Takes 4
We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in our lives, and we must be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people’s struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. In our Catholic life, many…
The Good Shepherd
What are you willing to lay down for your sheep as a shepherd? For shepherds nowadays, and even in the time of the Apostle, the sheep are for the shepherd’s sake; they serve him. It’s not like vice versa: sheep are the product, and we get them to pasture so they can grow, so we can slaughter them. But this wasn’t the case for Jesus. He said, “I am the good shepherd, “and I lay down my life for my sheep…
That None Would Be Lost
Can you imagine how it feels for a parent when their child dies? A father and a mother don’t want to lose any of their children, and this is an icon of understanding how God doesn’t want any of his children to be lost—how passionate God is about our salvation. God desires no one to be lost. Today, we’ll discuss how we can walk toward life and away from death as a fruit of sin. We’ll also dive deeper..
Father of Mercies
Do you trust God’s mercy? We are invited to bring to light those things that we are keeping in the dark and tough and trust that God, in his mercy, will love and care for us there. When we bring something to the Lord, it’s forgiven and gone; he no longer sees us with that. He doesn’t define us as a son or daughter who did this bad thing. To the Father’s eyes, we are not defined by our sin and our weakness…
Love and the Cross
What’s your initial response to difficulty? Difficulty and suffering are part of our world, and to move forward with the Lord, we have to live in this reality, even though it’s hard. God is with us in it! One of the things a father also has to do is to teach their children and equip their children to do hard things. God the Father equips us and prepares us for what we need to have fulfillment and happiness…
Law and the Father
What’s the role of rules and laws? Rules create boundaries and usually define the best way to do things. However, following rules can also not lead to freedom; this is why we need to learn to find the right balance. In this episode, we will discuss the spirituality of laws and rules and how we can find balance to be safe, secure, and free in following them. We are also invited to look at some of…
On Being Safe
What does it mean to be safe? Safety is not the absence of suffering; it’s not like we’re not going to struggle with anything, but it’s the recognition that when we are vulnerable, we don’t have to escape it because someone wants to be with us and provide for us and that is our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the safety that we are proposing. In this episode, we focus on having sufficient resources and…
Loved and Celebrated
What does it mean to be loved and celebrated? We are favored sons and daughters worthy of celebration—of being served. We are worthy and loved by God, and this episode discusses a step in the right direction regarding what it means to be loved and celebrated. This is a gentle call to conversion and repentance, an invitation to be loved sacrificially and give God and others permission to…
Made for Freedom
What does it mean to be made for freedom? We are all called to live in freedom as sons and daughters of God. We are seen, loved, and chosen by God the Father, and there’s freedom when we experience that. In this episode, we’ll explore the mechanics of freedom and learn more about how the experience of home and trust can help us understand that a little bit deeper…
The Father’s Gaze
Imagine the way you would gaze upon your newborn baby for the first time. This is the universal way the Father loves everyone. He’s constantly looking at us, delighting in us, and rejoicing in our existence. The Father’s gaze is always filled with the same delight, love, and rejoicing as a father’s first look at his newborn. This is how our Heavenly Father looks at us, delights in us, rejoices, and contemplates us right now. Even when we…
The Father’s Delight
Do you truly grasp the depth of your heavenly Father’s delight in you? A significant aspect of the Father’s heart is to unconditionally care for his children, in whatever form that takes. This love may seem overwhelming or even exhausting at times, but it’s because of this uncalculated, unending love that the moments when he gets to care for and be with his children in this unique way can be the most cherished part of Father’s Day…
The Father and The Father Wound
How are you affected by the wounds you had from your earthly Father? St. Francis, a man who bore the wounds of his earthly Father, provides a powerful testament to how these wounds can become a gateway to the heart of God. His journey led him to embrace the heart of the Father through Jesus Christ, a path we can all follow. Let us not forget that Jesus is the bridge to the fatherhood of God. He stands between the Father and our…
Holy Week and Total Gift (Lent 2024)
How do you intend to receive Jesus’ total gift for you this holy week? The fast during Lent is not to show Jesus how tough we are; it’s to show him how poor we are. It’s to be in the space of utter poverty and to trust that receptivity that He will come. And what we celebrate in this holy Triduum, this Holy Week, is Christ, giving himself to us as the bridegroom and espousing himself to us, His bride. We are celebrating Jesus’ love and total…
Resurrection and the Reproaches (Lent 2024)
Our expectations and what God is doing can be totally different, so how should we respond to that? In the raising of Lazarus, the response of the Pharisees was to have Jesus killed. This was the tragic response of the heart when they were not open and unable to receive the mysterious and unconditional love of God. We can sometimes share the same humanity as the Pharisees too. We sometimes prefer to have Jesus out of our lives…
The Rich Man and Lazarus (Lent 2024)
Does it have to end in just being able to receive God’s unconditional love? Like Lazarus, the guy beat up on the side of the road. We who have been loved in such messiness are also invited to go into the mess and love. This is a sign that God is alive in us. We now have the dignity of His beloved sons and daughters, of not just being the recipients of His unconditional love, but now being able to love, not only from our strength but…
The Prodigal Son (Lent 2024)
Would you receive the Father’s unconditional love if you were the prodigal son? The Father wants us to convert from a conditional, perfectionistic way of experiencing God to a place of just being unconditionally loved by Him. But we can sometimes hold onto shame for security. What is asked of us is to leave behind that shame—let the shame and self-contempt crumble. We don’t need to “pay rent” to be loved by the heavenly Father…
The Good Samaritan (Lent 2024)
Are you familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan? When we’re beat up, when we’re in this place of difficulty and shame, He’s there, at the side of the road, looking at us, desiring to pick us up and saying, “Come with me.”. That’s Jesus for all of us. The invitation of this episode is to allow the Lord to get close into our deepest places of darkness and shame so he can help us and love us there. Jesus comes into our messiness…
Christ the Bridegroom (Lent 2024)
How does a bridegroom love his bride? That is how Jesus loves each one of us. He meets us wherever we are in life to be our beloved and for us to be His. The Lord meets us in the desert, our place of poverty, where He betroths us to Him, and He betroths Himself to us. In this way, Jesus, as the bridegroom, reveals a quality of love, the way God loves. In this episode, we aim to understand better what it means to have Jesus…
Lent is About Jesus (Ash Wednesday)
What does Jesus desire for you and Him this Lent? The temptation during Lent is to make the Lenten journey about us. We can do hard things during Lent fueled by our desires and distractions, but Lent isn’t supposed to be about ourselves. Lent is also not simply about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those disciplines help us to focus on what we need to focus on. This season is about a person, and that person is Jesus…
Remember Like Mary
Do you remember Jesus and what he did? The most consistent word Mary spoke to Fr. Jeremiah was “remember. ” When we don’t know what to do or how to act, Mary tells us to remember her son, Jesus’ actions. That was the case for Fr. Jeremiah, and this is an invitation that extends to all of us. There is a richness and importance that Mary plays for us not to have her be a part of our spiritual life. This episode invites us…
Marian Posture
Is your prayer and your life two separate realities? Mary gives us a ton of hope that the grace of God and the Holy Spirit meet us in reality. At its core, the Marian posture is about the reality of God’s fullness. Mary teaches us that the best place to live your spiritual life is in reality—where you are right now. It’s about living one reality in the presence of God. This episode invites us to have confidence in the daily bread…
Mary: A Real Mom
How important is Mary, Our Lady, in your spiritual life? Our Lady is a real woman and mother to all of us, and Mary’s intercession is more real than we realize. The gift of Our Lady is that she looks upon us and knows our hearts and her gaze can be the first safe and secure place in a world filled with insecurity. At this same moment, Mary wants us to look upon her, and in this exchange, we find safety and security…
Hope Is Personal
Do you believe and have hope that prayer does something? Doing things repeatedly can cause us to lose the awe and wonder of what’s happening in our prayer life. There can come a point when we’re no longer coming to prayer expecting to hear God’s voice or expecting anything at all. This results in boredom or discouragement — a loss of hope. In this episode, we’ll talk about how we can pray for a supernatural…
The Sweet Way of Love
How focused are you on yourself? Sometimes, we struggle with perfectionism, control, and activism, which can sometimes rub off on our spiritual life. Jesus does not demand great actions from us; instead, the invitation is to live in surrender and gratitude to Him. At times, we can take a more Pelagian approach where more emphasis is given to our efforts, initiatives, and self-improvement—our achievement…
C’est La Confiance
Are you worried for 2024? Worry is a lack of confidence, and we can be worried about much stuff. The invitation from St. Therese and our Lord is to have confidence in Him. We who run in the way of love shouldn’t be thinking of suffering that can take place in the future. That’s a lack of confidence. The complete trust that becomes an abandonment in love sets us free from obsessive calculations…
End of Year Identity Check
What was Jesus like for you this year? As we end the year, let’s do a poverty and identity check and put Jesus in the center as we look back to this past year and look forward to the coming year. For this episode, a proposal to reflect on where Jesus has been, how He has been with you, how He loved you, and how He loves you into this year…
Little Like Mary (Advent 2023)
How often do you say “yes” without understanding or knowing the outcome? Sometimes, we have to see and understand the plan before we say “yes,” but that’s not our Lady’s experience. She didn’t understand, but she knew what God had proposed to him, and despite that, she said “yes.” She trusts; she surrenders in this whole experience of her life without…
Good St. Joseph (Advent 2023)
What’s the best thing you learned from St. Joseph? Advent teaches us that God has a different way of doing things, and St. Joseph is a fantastic example and witness. Throughout his life, St. Joseph should’ve had the opportunity to grasp human comfort or control, but instead, he chose to enter into humility, into silence; he didn’t overthink, he didn’t overtalk, but…
God is Working (Advent 2023)
Can you believe that God is working with what’s happening in the world? As exemplified by St. Juan Diego, during this Advent and throughout the year, we are invited to live in relationship with the Lord through Mary, our Mother, our Lady. We can do that by beginning with a humble Yes. Let’s say Yes and allow ourselves to be interrupted by her intercession and have…
Learning from Nazareth (Advent 2023)
What does Nazareth look like for you, and how does it compare to how you encounter Advent? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in Nazareth—a place of beauty, simplicity, and stillness. Meanwhile, Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of Jesus. It is usually one of the busiest times of the year for most of us. So, how can Advent be an experience of Nazareth…
Living Life Not Checking Boxes
What is driving your life? What’s the reason you do what you do? Life can sometimes become a series of boxes to check; we can tend to do things because we should or we have to, as opposed to actually living life and doing things because our hearts want to. In this episode, we are proposing that we be more present in the moment and live from the Trinity…
Guidance For The Prophet
Have you encountered prophets in your life? Prophets have a profound conviction and clarity about a particular component of the faith and those who practice it. Being a prophet is not about opinions; it is an experience or power that you have, given by God to be a prophetic witness in the world. It’s about communicating something about who God is through…
Hunger for God
Are you hungry for God? One of our foundational struggles is that we’re just not hungry for Him. Part of the path, if not the path, is that we will have to experience this hunger. A “stepping away” from the noise, distractions, and self-reliance, entering into a place of vulnerability and dependence on God and being able to live and pray from that place. Today, we will…
(Contemplative) Gains Don’t Sleep
How can we live and create a space for contemplation, for silence, to be able to hear the voice of God in our lives? God is always there. He’s always giving himself to us and always longing to speak to us, but living in the constant influx of noise and immediate gratification profoundly affects our contemplative experience—our ability to sit in prayer…
Contemplative Spaces
What stands in your way to go deeper with the Lord? Growing in silence and our ability to contemplate is highly important, but responding to that will undoubtedly be very hard. How do we do this practically? Today, we will talk about how actual behavior change happens and how we can set ourselves up for success to grow in silence and make our…
Receiving Mary’s Hospitality
Do you wonder about Mary’s firsthand memory or experience of God? We can relive Mary’s memory and experience of God through the Rosary. Rosary is like experiencing God with Mary—in her heart, her hospitality. Mary is the most perfect Christian, the most perfect woman who’s all about Jesus, and on this month of the Rosary, we are invited to take time and be…
The Asceticism of Silence
What’s the most prevalent voice that you hear in your life? Is it God’s or someone’s/something else? We long to teach people how to pray, contemplative silence, inner recollection, and interior stillness are ways to live in a relationship with God. But, there’s a silver bullet to make people live in chaos and noise, exteriorly or interiorly. Every day, through general media…
The Battle
How are you able to receive and communicate with God? Silence is the divine language. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love and communicate in eternal silence; if we want to look at and learn about God, we must let ourselves be moved by that. However, the world has become a place of radical noise, trying to rob us of the experience of God, and there’s…
Pray Always
Do you set a time in the day to pray? Do you stay in a relationship with the Lord throughout the day? We should be doing both! We have an opportunity and even an invitation to remain in this relationship with the Lord throughout our day. But to be able to do that, we have to make prayer important, make prayer a priority, and formally make God a part…
Perseverance Not Pretty
Do you think God calls us to be perfect or just to be pretty? I think not. What we’re called to is not pretty or perfection but perseverance. Sometimes, having a very happy-looking social media feed is much easier than having a happy heart and home in reality. But we’re not going for things to look good; instead, we’ll be good and persevere in this goodness…
Gratitude vs Greed
People who live in a place of gratitude usually focus on what they have. On the other hand, those who struggle with greed and live in that place typically focus on what they don’t have. Both can have or do not have the same thing, but one person can experience fullness and gratitude. In comparison, one person has an experience of emptiness, disappointment…
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…
SEEK Episode – Holiness is Possible
What is that SEEK episode? What happened there? You might have heard that we referenced a SEEK episode a few times in previous episodes. Today’s episode is pretty unique—a throwback episode that we wanted to share with you to give you an idea about our SEEK episode, but at the same time, we’re going to talk about following Jesus. We will discuss…
Detest Sin, Love Your Neighbor
What happens when we sincerely give ourselves to the lives of prayer and the experience of God? The Fire Within series has been quite intense, but it’s the reality of the depths of the Gospel truly lived. It goes beyond the ordinary simply because living out the Gospel wholeheartedly is not ordinary—but extraordinary. Little by little, Poco a Poco is the…
Mind Your Business
Solitude is not just quiet time for ourselves. It is not running from people, isolation, or hiding from or avoiding our problems by going off and being alone. But instead, it is avoiding certain behaviors, worldviews, curiosities, and distractions that take our focus on the Lord. According to Fr. Dubay, authentic solitude is the healthy turning towards one’s…
Humility, Obedience, and Prayer
Humility is a lowliness — not for its own sake but rather a proper understanding of who we are and who we are not. It’s a place where you know more about what everybody is saying in a room but doesn’t always have to say anything or don’t need to be someone who wants to seem smarter than everybody else. In this sixth episode of our Fire Within…
Suffering and Prayer
In reality, suffering’s out there in many ways, and in most ways, it’s unavoidable. So, “Okay, what do we do with it?”. We’ll unpack this question in today’s episode. We are invited to unite our suffering with Jesus and offer it to Him. As we suffer generously and give that to the Lord, one of the fruits of it is that it creates the space and cultivates…
Conditions for Growth
We are all invited to a profound, mystical union with God. But to grow in our spiritual life, Fr. Dubay mentioned in his book that there are certain conditions that we need to understand our growth in the mystical or spiritual life. In this fourth episode of our series on the Fire Within, we’ll reflect upon and respond to the 8 conditions for spiritual…
Experiencing God
The medicine for wanting to pray is learning to live in the reality that’s most true-God wants to be in communion with us. Meditation, contemplation, and infused prayer can help us live in this reality; this is what we will talk about in this third episode of our series on the Fire Within. This episode also aims to present before us an authentically…
Prayer and Repentance
Growth in spiritual life is always challenging. In the beginning, it’s gonna take a LOT of effort. But as it goes on, you’ll notice that it becomes more and more the Lord’s work and less and less contingent on our human work. This is the second episode of our series on the Fire Within that talks about how St. Theresa sees the “giftedness” of…
Serious Prayer and Serious Joy
We are anointed with the power of the holy spirit, which is the fire we’ve been given. With this fire, all of us are called to live a deep union with God—not just to live in mediocrity with our spiritual life but to set ablaze with love for the Lord. This is the first episode of our series on the Fire Within, which reminds us of the importance of being…
Actions and Consequences
Jesus dying on the cross symbolizes God’s victory but is also the consequence of sin. This is one of the most striking examples that there are things that we can do that are going to have real concrete consequences in our lives and the lives of others. Christians and Catholics try to memorialize this consequence through the crucifix. But in reality…
More Than My Sin
How do we respond to the serious sins in our lives? Many of us are tempted to be overly critical of ourselves, and we let that define us. But, our spiritual life should not be limited by these serious sins. We are invited to be with the Lord and let him teach us about our hearts in the place of sin. In this episode, we’ll unpack and attempt to answer…
On Being Chosen
Loneliness can make us feel that we’re not chosen; it can give us a sense of isolation. And sometimes, it’s so easy to forget, BUT we have to remember what’s true—we have a God who loves and chooses us. This is the first part of our series on Fr. Dubay’s The Fire Within, where we dive deep into the idea, experience, and desire of being chosen…
The Body and Blood of Christ
Do we still know deep within ourselves how amazing the gift of the Eucharist is? Sometimes, we can forget and take that for granted, but it’s incredible how Jesus gives Himself to us in the form of bread and wine through the Eucharist. Most humbly, the Lord wants to offer himself to us and be with us ALWAYS. In celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi…
Praying With Scripture
The Scripture is one of the Lord’s best ways to talk to us, a way for us to converse with God. It is also a good reminder of who Jesus is and who we are to Him. Most of us say that praying with scriptures is something that’s good to do, but how do we actually do that? In this episode, we’re going to offer some initial guidance on praying with scriptures…
My Brother’s Keeper?
Not every relationship is the same, so not every fraternal correction will be the same. Connections may vary between a parent and a child, between friends, between a boss and his subordinates, between strangers, or between a formator and the people their forming. In today’s episode, we will discuss essential distinctions when it comes to…
Dealing with Loneliness
Loneliness is a common experience that we all share. Whether you’re in crowds of people or constantly with other people who are not peers, maybe you’re in a marriage surrounded by kids all day, or you could be in isolation and feel people have not chosen you. Either way, at times, we can experience loneliness at some point. Instead of…
Prayer, Presence, Party
What do you do after Easter Sunday? We are invited to be overwhelmed with paschal joy during the Easter season. Still, instead, we usually resolve our daily grind like everything isn’t transformed by our encounter with the risen Lord. So many of us return to our normal ways shortly after the resurrection—we can sometimes take comfort in that…
Our Stories
How much do you know about the hosts of the Poco a Poco Podcast? Some people have been along the Poco a Poco journey for some time now and may already know certain things about them. On the other hand, some people might also be new to this podcast and want to know more about our beloved brothers. So in today’s episode, the Poco a Poco…
The Option’s Not Optional
“How is Jesus calling you to serve the poor?” This is the question we’ll attempt to answer in this episode. Jesus loved the poor; like Him, we are called to be a lifeline for needy people. God sees the poor, but we are called to intercede on their behalf—to be somebody who can bring them to Him. This episode talks about the importance, necessity…
Hot Takes 3
We must understand that we are going through different journeys, and God is doing something completely different in each of our lives, and we must be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people’s struggles…
I Am The Resurrection
Do we live our lives believing—having faith in the resurrection? In this ongoing journey of stripping the things we clothe ourselves with, Jesus wants us to give him the things that hold us back and desires to give himself in return. We have sins that isolate us and cause us to go into hiding, but the gift of the resurrection breaks it all open. This episode…
Surrender It All
Can we allow ourselves to be exposed before the Lord in prayer? Can we be before the Lord as we are and not hold anything back from ourselves or hide in any way? We are attempting to unpack these questions in this seventh part of our Lenten series. In this episode, we talk about how we can be stripped of everything we clothe ourselves with…
Surrender Authority
How does Jesus have authority? It is through His obedience to the Father. But one incredible reality of Jesus is that in His authority, He takes all the stench to the cross, where it will be killed in His crucifixion. His authority does not lord it over us and does not force us to bow down and tremble before Him. But it allows Himself to be emptied and clothed with…
Surrender the Stench
“Have I told Jesus all of my story?” That’s the question that we are going to unpack in this episode. Most of us have confessed and have sought healing in particular places of our lives, but there are still parts of who we are now that we keep in the dark—the stench. The reality of that stench is that it is discouraging and despairing, but Jesus comes, and He’s…
Surrender the Script
There’s this simplicity that when we encounter Jesus, our lives become different. We may not understand it, and it might not look the same for each of us, but our lives become different. Just like the story of the man born blind, before he met Jesus and hoped in Him, he was living in darkness, unable to see. After his encounter, there had been healing, and he…
At The Well
In one form or another, we can sometimes live in isolation and hiding. Because of shame and sin, we clothe ourselves with shadows and hide. These lies we hide behind keep us stuck and paralyzed—Jesus wants to call us out of that. The places of hiding don’t have to defeat us, but they can become these intimate places where the Lord desires to be…
Up The Mountain
Going up the mountain offers an opportunity to come face-to-face with God, providing a perspective where we can see what’s important. Up there, we are invited to embrace the experience and the beauty of childlike wonder and awe. It’s a place of intimacy with and revelation of God. But the challenge as we go up the mountain is to let go of things…
Into The Desert
There are several practices that we are preparing to do during this Lent. But this time of year shouldn’t only be a project we must fulfill but rather an opportunity. Lent is an opportunity to exercise a posture of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and surrender. We surrender to someone, to a relationship that matters, to God. In this episode, we will talk…
Blessed Are The Poor
Matthew’s first nine beatitudes said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The world constantly tries to define us and tell us who we are. Our successes, belongings, talents, people in our lives, jobs, culture, and technology all make us who we are. We beclothed ourselves with these things and are tempted to find…
Hope For Everything
We cannot grow in freedom unless we grow in faith, Hope, and love — that’s the recipe for freedom. Faith, Hope, and love are the three theological virtues that connect us to God. As Christians, we believe in God, hope for everything from Him, and want to love Him with all our hearts and love our neighbors. This episode is the third part of…
Realities Not Fantasies
We think we’re most free when we can be in control. “I’m free when I get up every day and have control over my life and circumstances.” That’s not Catholic freedom, according to Jacque Philippe, but it is accepting reality as it is. We struggle with freedom because it’s hard to accept our weaknesses, and it’s pretty difficult to accept…
Freedom Greater Than Circumstances
What makes us most free is this submission to God and this dependence on Him. Yes, freedom is dependent on obedience rather than doing whatever I want. When we fall in love with God and experience that love, this profound interior freedom takes place, and it becomes the most important thing in our lives — even to the point that it…
Strong But Weak
How do we reconcile being strong and weak at the same time? There has to come a healthy recognition that we’re just unable to do things. And it’s in this weakness, in recognizing that we have a lack, that Christ is then able to come in and actually be the one who moves us through that weakness into a place of strength. In this episode…
Getting Virtue Right
A habitual and firm disposition to do good, not just for ourselves but for everybody — this is how virtue is defined. Virtue allows the person, not only to perform good acts but to give the best of themselves for the greatest good of everybody. But why do we do it? Who’s it truly for and how do we exactly do it right? In this episode…
Relationship, Identity, Mission
“Who Is God” and “Who am I?” This is what we’re attempting to answer when we talk about living in the proper order of relationship, identity, and mission. We are living in a time where we’re going through an identity crisis. In the very foundation, a lot of us are forgetting who we are. We forget that we are sons and daughters…
Formation First
Why do we need to go deeper into our spiritual life? What does that actually mean? Going deeper into our spiritual life means recognizing that we are not the ones in control anymore. It is accepting this place of poverty that we cannot only rely on ourselves, to fabricate everything and make it work. It is having that absolute…
I Know Him
Mary wants the Holy Spirit to come to our life, as the Holy Spirit came for her. When we’re struggling, when we don’t understand, when we’re having deep desires and longings of our hearts, the Holy Spirit will come. God is good, God will send and He will give us everything, we just need to have the openness to…
Peace Not Panic
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…
Don’t Fumble The Bag
The gift of Advent is God proposing himself to us. He comes not just to command us to do something and watch from a far. He comes to sing with us, dance with us, BE with us. With that said, it would be tragic if the Lord comes knocking in our door and we don’t open it — that we miss Emmanuel, God with us. Let us…
Gentle But Uncompromising
Sometimes we lose hope, wondering, does He really want to come and be with us in our sickness, addiction, our family brokenness, our difficulty, our struggles, or anxieties? Advent is a time that God speaks a definitive word into our exiles, “Yes, I do” — He comes and desires to be with us. This episode is the first part…
Step One
Jesus not only loves us — He thirsts for us. Why does He say “I thirst”? What does it mean? It’s something so hard to explain in words. I thirst is something much deeper than Jesus just saying, “I love you”. Mother Teresa tells us how much love Jesus has for each of us — beyond all that we can imagine. In her words…
Little But Infinite
Sometimes, we may feel that we are only able do the little things — that what we do is insignificant. Things may seem so small, but in reality no matter how little or insignificant something may seem, nothing is little. It’s because God makes them and because He makes them, they are great and infinite in value…
The Ecstasy Episode
Could you imagine being woken up in the middle of the night because of a great desire to be with someone? For Mother Teresa, it was her desire to be with Jesus. She had a deep, supernatural union with God that gave her the experience of divinely-inspired thirst for Him…
Our Holy Aunt
As we mentioned on our previous episode, we need to be in this place where we are able to both worship and adore Jesus and at the same time be in relationship with Him and our neighbor with compassion and warmth. This episode talks about an exceptional example of…
Worship and Warmth
In our faith we sometimes find ourselves in the extremes. We become either strict and liturgical or warm and casual but the truth is our faith should not be “either, or” but “both, and”. We need to be in this place where we are able to both worship and adore the Lord and…
We Speak Praise
We allow our hearts to agree with the truth of who God is — that’s what adoration means. And as we become more familiar with the truth who God is through adoration, we start to see more clearly who God is to us and what is given to us by Him. Everything that we have…
Prayer Battle Tactics
There’s great wisdom to having some structure or intentionality to our prayer life because not having a plan for it can lead to the death of it. The truth is, killing your prayer or spiritual life is not only limited to doing violence to it, but also not nourishing it. There might be…
Stay Where the Grace Is
Life is difficult — our life is a valley of tears. And the ability to remain in faith, hope, and love with God as Father is impossible if we do it ourselves. If we want to be able to experience God’s closeness and his presence and to cry out “Abba, Father” in the midst of our …
The Me in “Our” Father
There is no denying that there can be many circumstances to dismiss fatherhood, both from our earthly and our Heavenly Father. But despite what we’ve experienced, God is your Father and my Father who intently listens and cares for us — a Father who delights in his…
Define the Relationship
Being in relationship with God looks like we’re sitting down in front of a big table with Him, and what a deeper conversion and deeper healing means is that we are willing to be at this table and we are willing to lay out everything here for the Lord to see. He sits us down…
Authentically Awesome
When we were kids, we were usually amazed and awed about something that was new, grand or magnificent, but as we grew older we became more indifferent towards those things. As Christians and Catholics, we are in love and fascinated with Jesus. But as we’ve…
Heaven Within
Life and circumstances are undeniably hard, but we are not alone in this. The beautiful reality is that even when we leave prayer and go into the world, we may leave God but He never does. God is still always with us — within us. Knowing that the Lord is dwelling…
Dryness in Prayer
Probably the most important relationship in our life is our relationship with God, and we are building that through prayer. Prayer is real — it’s for everyone, but we know that prayer is not always easy. Sometimes it can even be really hard. Growing in relationship…
Sons of the Church
Obedience is rooted in God, it is lived trust and lived surrender in His pastoring and fatherhood – that’s where we want to be. It can be really difficult but as sons and daughters of the church we are invited to stay in obedience, not only to our religious…
Hot Takes 2
As we go through life we encounter our own and other people’s struggles, flaws, weaknesses and even sins. But we have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in each of our lives…
A Really Good Episode
Because of fear and insecurity that is ruling our life, we tend to control everything and self-protect. We look inward and we really don’t see what God is doing—we don’t really trust anyone around us. We don’t have to be afraid anymore. There…
No More Self-Protection
The brokenness that is present in our culture deforms us. We have been taught a certain way of living that somehow cultivated the sins of self-reliance, self-protection, fear and insecurities. Because we’re afraid of being weak or being poor…
Rethink Growth
One might often think that growth is gonna happen in a particular way that we usually perceive as a huge experience or something flashy, but growth might actually look different. What does the Lord want to teach us and how does He teach us…
Learning To Be Loved
There is the undeniable temptation to achieve and perform in order prove that we are good enough. But, it shouldn’t be all about that. We are gifts to the Lord not because of our perfection but only because of who we are. We can get caught up…
Finding Peace In Chaos
There’s a lot happening in the world we live in, and nothing much we can do about it. During this difficult time we need to pay attention to the Lord—to be immersed in the mystery of God, his goodness and his mercy. It’s good to understand…
Give It To God
We can’t do anything more to earn God’s love, we have it already! We can be weak, we can be poor, and we can be sinners—and that’s okay. We can bring all that to the Lord and that’s where we start. Jesus doesn’t want us to give him the…
Prayer: Pure and Simple
What does a good prayer look like? We don’t know. Everyone has the freedom on how they pray. But thinking about God, reading a book about God and just saying words about God is not praying. Praying is the relationship that brings us in to…
Unceasing Prayer
With the abundance of noise in our world, there can be a lot of interruptions to our ongoing conversation and relationship with the God. The habitual, silent and secret conversation we all dream to have with God, all seems to be very difficult to…
Under Open Heavens
Whether we feel it or not — believe it or not, this is our identity. We live as beloved sons and daughters of God. There’s a temptation to believe the we have to do something amazing or special to be able to bring the Gospel and Christ to people…
Words, Works, and Wonders
We are all beloved sons and daughters of the Father and through our baptism we are all anointed and empowered. We don’t have to be all put together or be perfect in order to bring healing to ourselves and to other people. We are all incomplete…
Searching and Fearless
God wants to go back into our lives and our stories — and start speaking light, redemption and truth over that. There’s the need for us to have a radical opening of our hearts and honesty to what really is happening in our lives. We have to be…
I Can’t He Can
When we struggle it can be really difficult and sometimes we even face impossible situations that may feel like there’s no answer. In our poverty, there’s the need to admit were powerless—that life is not okay anymore and figure out what do we do…
12 Step Wisdom
At some point, our lives are unmanageable and we need help. When we want to turn away from sin and our struggles, we turn to God to save and heal us. We are given clarity to open our eyes and see our life in a new or different way. And while we’re…
Hot Takes
There are multitudes of struggles that we are experiencing day to day. As we see our own and other people’s struggles, weakness and even sins, we have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in each of our lives. Relative to this truth, this episode talks about some of the most essential topics that most of us can relate to. Here are some of our hot takes.
Ordinary But Extraordinary
It is easy to fall into the temptation and believe that we can’t do it, that we can’t live a holy life. Although the ordinary life is simple, hidden, and seems kind of normal, there’s so much sanctity in our vocations that are being lived faithfully. It might not be flashy or spectacular but it’s one of the most real ways we can grow in holiness. We may not be in the chapel or church making a eucharistic holy hour, but no matter what our day-to-day experiences look like or what daily lives we are accustomed to, God is there.
Discernment Basics
We are made to live in relationship wherein two or more people speak to one another. As we have the desire to talk to God, He also has the desire to speak and to come close to His people. He is speaking to us. We have to grow in sensitivity to what God’s voice sounds like, what our voices sounds like, what the voice of the world sounds like, and what the voice of the enemy sounds like. There are times we already know the voice of who we’re talking to simply because we’ve been with them, we’ve spoken to them, we said things back and forth with them, same is true with God.
New Light New Life
This whole Lenten journey has a been about identity. In this journey, we again receive the gift of who we are as sons and daughters of God and every other identity along the way. But this identity pilgrimage will not make sense without the resurrection. Life will be incomprehensible if it’s just suffering and brokenness.
Made for Mysticism
Life of prayer is worth going “all-in” on. In this mystical identity, there’s an invitation to let go of ourselves. Prayer is not authentic if we are stuck or focused on ourselves. Prayer changes as we let go of our own notion of what it should be. We are constantly invited for our hearts to be attentive and open to become mystics — to become men and women of prayer. It anchors us in the reality that we are made for relationship, we’re made for prayer, and we are made to live in intimacy with God every single day of our lives.
A Father’s Heart
We come in as sons and daughters, then we graduate from sonship and daughtership. When we fall in love and receive the gift of the beloved, we have this deep desire to bear fruit and to let this love overflow. In this love, sons and daughters become spouses and from there we mature to become mothers and fathers. What we want is to live with the Father’s heart — to give unselfish and sacrificial love. It is definitely not easy. But we are invited to become fathers and mothers after the heart of God.
Intimacy with the Bridegroom
The world is a crazy place. There’s always the temptation to hide, run away or to fear Love. There are distractions and lies—the lie that we cannot do it, that we may lose ourselves, that our love won’t be reciprocated. But we are made to be in love. First and foremost with the Lord, Jesus the bridegroom, who comes to save, to love, and to die for us, His bride. And from this love we are called to lay down our lives and give ourselves fully for a bride or bridegroom.
We Do Hard Things
Love demands everything. Not only carrying the cross — dying on it. We do hard things, but not for the sake of doing hard things. When modeled after the way that Jesus did hard things, it’s a stepping stone that leads to the cross. This episode…
Get Over Yourself
The fraternal life is not accessory to life. We’re coming to the desert together, which constantly challenges each of us to give ourselves to the Lord and to each other. We belong to one another. Then there are times where the hardest part isn’t giving…
This Is My Beloved Son
Being a son means that you have a Father. The first and most important identity: son. This is the foundational identity that the Father gives us — everything else builds on this. We’re not talking about the Father as an idea or a concept. Because you can’t have…
Rending the Heavens | Lent 2022
Sometimes Lent is a missed opportunity. We focus too much on what we’re going to give up, what we’re going to do, etc. This year, focus on our desire to have a Lent that brings us into contact with Jesus. Where are we going, and why are we going there? Jesus…
Confronted by the Eucharist
When you have a conversion, you live a Eucharistic life, with a gravitational pull to be with Jesus. There, no matter how you feel, you know you’re not alone. It’s not just about our desire to go to him, though — he is also drawing us to himself. Allow yourself to be drawn…
From Fullness For Fullness
When we get to know Jesus, our need for “stuff” — for entertainment, for status — is lessened. Besides, we have to stop pretending that stuff and noise and grasping doesn’t have an effect on our lives. Really examine it in your own life; the truth is that prayer only works in silence…
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…
Imaginative Prayer
Maybe you’ve heard about the nativity scene plenty, and seen it depicted endlessly. Do you really think you’ve entered as deeply into that mystery as you can? There’s more! The Holy Spirit is never exhausted. It’s the same with all of Scripture. This isn’t a collection of abstract ideas; these are stories of real…
The Resourcefulness of God
The Lord doesn’t need a perfect moment to do what he does. He can use—and has used — all the secular events and moments in history to bring about his plan. The detours and decisions and even things that feel like inconveniences — he’ll work with it all. And it’s not that he’s just done this once or twice…
Our Father is Faithful
As a people and a Church, we have a common patrimony and inheritance of promises kept. Over time, salvation history involves real people and real stories—God breaks into history. Think Elizabeth and Zachariah. Simeon. Anna. We are part of this story, living in salvation history. We must remember that God…
Give God Time
God doesn’t make empty promises. But for many people…there are promises they won’t see fulfilled in their lifetimes. In receiving his promises, we also have to receive his timeline. What does it look like to let God take his time? Start with stillness; sit in it; talk to him about it; think about when God has fulfilled…
Hope for a Hard Life
The lived experience of most people is: life is hard. We’re still in this valley of tears. We live it, but might not be relating it in a way that’s helpful…we just drag it around. Enter: Advent. A season of hope and of promises fulfilled. Expectant hope, with confidence that the Lord is good and is at work for our good…
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!
Are we good at repenting? When someone notices our stuff and points it out… are we open to it? To repenting wholeheartedly? Or do we hold onto it? We need help repenting and finding healing, so God constantly sends prophets to speak into the lives of his chosen people. David’s a really good example of how…
A Father’s Faithfulness
David sinned when he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing; when he had pulled back from God’s calling. We have to be careful of comfort and of being distracted, because it leads to a place of being unfaithful. Instead, we have to keep moving forward in God’s will, which can regularly take us to less…
The Good Shepherd: Tender and Fierce
David is tender to his sheep, and also willing to fight for them. And he’ll be the same in his future vocation—the way that he was shepherd is the way he will be king. As he fights Goliath, he reveals something to us about the heart of God: God will go to battle against our giants. Though David wasn’t skilled…
We Are Not Self-Defined
There’s always some mystery involved in an anointing. God doesn’t select the person we expect; this happens throughout the Old Testament and with the Apostles. There’s a mystery of who God calls and how God calls. God still calls really talented people, but not because they’re talented. We are not our skills…
Believe That God is Enough
“I haven’t believed enough that he is enough.” That’s what Br. Angelo says as a guest on this episode, and how true is it for each of us? Even when we experience God’s goodness, repeatedly and in big and small ways, it can be a struggle to keep believing that God is enough. He is LORD. He is enough, and we only…
Trust Is Hard for Everyone
Week 4 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V. Trust is hard for everybody. The grace to trust — especially for the long haul — is always given to us by the Lord. There’s always human effort in the spiritual life, but it’s all gift; all grace. It can feel like we’re never…
Trust That Mercy Is Greater
Week 2 of a series on a 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V. Grace is in the present; there is no grace in the past or in the future. The challenge, though, is that we’re all professional escape artists. We can get antsy and we don’t know how to be present, which means we…
Week 3 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V. There are some sins that we just can’t seem to shake — habitual sins that keep us coming back to the confessional over and over (and over) again. But no matter how consistent this sin seems, there’s one who is more…
Trust God With Your Past
Week 2 of a series on a 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V. Grace is in the present; there is no grace in the past or in the future. The challenge, though, is that we’re all professional escape artists. We can get antsy and we don’t know how to be present, which means we…
Trust Comes From Relationship
This episode kicks off a four-part series on a new retreat based on the Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life. There are some virtues we can work on and grow in — but trust isn’t like that. It’s not your own project. You don’t work on it directly, because it’s the fruit of relationship with the Lord. If you want to develop more…
A Holy Hiding
Affirmation feels different when it’s public, out loud and in front of everyone — as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son. That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation…
For 30 years, Jesus lived quietly in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph; his “hidden” years. Through his normal day-to-day living of going to school and having friends and putting in a hard day’s work, Jesus made sacred the hidden space. That hidden space is where most of us live most of our lives — out of the public eye…
The Father’s Blessing
Affirmation feels different when it’s public, out loud and in front of everyone — as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son. That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation…
The Tears of God
You see a different side of someone when you see what makes him or her cry. Seeing a person weep, and knowing why — the thing he or she cares about so deeply as to be moved to tears — is a deep insight. Lazarus. Jerusalem. Sin. Jesus weeps at these. That tells us something important, for a man who weeps…
Jesus Receives You as a Gift
“Nobody has ever been for me like this before.” That’s the difference it can make to receive someone as gift. Jesus looked at the disciples and thanked the Father for the gift of them. He looked around at the faces of people he loved and received each of them and all of them as a gift. In their goodness and…
Last Words of Christ
Jesus always chose his words carefully. There was great meaning and intention behind each word, part of which we can only begin to understand by listening carefully. How much more, then, should we pay attention to Jesus’s very last words? The ones he painfully uttered as he was dying on the cross? What do…
A Father And Son Moment
There’s an intense vulnerability to letting people into your most tender moments. Allowing someone to witness a private, cherished part of life is no small thing, and being a witness to one of these moments is an honor. There’s a particular part of Jesus’s life for which we get to be these witnesses only a few times…
House of Prayer, Not Den of Thieves
Sometimes we need someone to fight for us, to respond forcefully to injustice in our lives. Jesus does this, as he did in the temple – He’s not afraid to clean house. The Divine Physician heals us, though the medicine isn’t always tender and gentle. The medicine that’s needed is tougher, and the only way to remove…
The Compassion of God
Compassion: it means “to suffer with.” Recall those times when you’ve been suffering, alone, and someone has come into that isolation with you. It’s powerful! Now, don’t skip the fact that God became man so he could suffer with us. God is the prodigal son’s father, spending every day looking at the horizon with longing…
The Heart of God
This episode starts a new series: The Heart of God. The Sacred Heart. This is a series about the goodness of God; not only the reality that he is, but that he is good, with a human face and a human heart that rejoices. A deeper encounter with his heart; that it may be the remedy that heals the wounds of our hearts…
A Prophetic People
We’re called to be prophets. Real, recognizable prophets in our day to day. How does that hit you? What does your life look like? Do people around you see it and think, “This guy’s living it. He communicates in the depths of who he is that Jesus is alive and he’s real and he’s risen from the dead and this means something…
The Art of Sacrifice
To sacrifice is to make holy. Most of us are given enough suffering in this world that if we were to offer it fully and freely to the Lord, that would be enough. We need only to accept; well, the penances that life gives us. Any additional sacrifices — ones that we choose — should be chosen carefully, intentionally, after checking…
Learning to Love Like Jesus
The fullness of the mission of Christ includes a heart for the poor. This is pretty central, actually, but somehow doesn’t always get a lot of airtime. This isn’t just something we do, but who we are. It’s not just a Christian thing — this is being like Jesus. And even once that heart is developed and the desire is there, the how can…
Christian Contentment
In our world of wanting more and of endlessly upgrading, we have to get good at saying, “Okay, that’s enough.” There’s a game of constant consumption and if we’re not careful, it’s going to take advantage of us. Don’t get played! Simplicity isn’t about getting rid of everything. It’s saying “no” to things you need to say “no” to…
Your Stuff is Holding You Back
Ever try to connect with the person right in front of you, but he or she is staring at a phone, totally preoccupied? You want to jump in and say, “Look up! Look at me!” How often are we those preoccupied people in prayer? We have to be real about attachment; whether we like it or not, our humanity is into stuff. In our weakness, we can get…
“Stuck” in the Ordinary?
As Christians, what does our free time look like? Do we prioritize the same things as the world? Is there any difference in how we spend our time and money and attention? Those who know Jesus live differently. In important things, and also ordinary, everyday things. We’re talking about the kind of mindset that changes the most important thing…
Loving The Person Who Has All Your Pet Peeves
Love your enemies, and love that one person who embodies every single one of your pet peeves and always seems to find the fastest way to most intensely annoy you. Each person’s personality — our most and least favorite parts — is a gift, and it’s all about how we receive the uniqueness of each person in his or her personality. Each trait speaks…
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…
Discipleship Is a Team Sport
Discipleship is a team sport. Family—both through our natural families, and our supernatural family through baptism—and communion with others is an essential ingredient to the Christian life. Not that it will be easy…it won’t be. It is simple, but not easy. An encounter with family lived well is redeeming not because it’s perfect, but because…
Jesus, Look At My Heart
Do you know anybody who wants to work out all of the time? Unlikely. But nobody who gets in that workout says afterwards, “That was a waste of time. Why’d I bother?” Even more with prayer. When you take the time, it’s always, “I’m so glad I did that.” Eternal perspective changes how you use your time. What are we made for? To live forever.
It’s key to commit to prayer; to schedule it and keep honor it through intention and discipline. But, then, how do we maintain prayer as an intimate relationship and not let it become a routine? The answer to one question: where’s your heart in it? Going through the motions to get it done is not the point.
You’ll Be Glad You Prayed
Do you know anybody who wants to work out all of the time? Unlikely. But nobody who gets in that workout says afterwards, “That was a waste of time. Why’d I bother?” Even more with prayer. When you take the time, it’s always, “I’m so glad I did that.” Eternal perspective changes how you use your time. What are we made for? To live forever.
We’re Not Kids Anymore
You crave conversion and real change; to receive the healing and hope that God wants to give you. How does that lasting, long-term change happen? It happens when we accept some truth or let go of some lie. Each step forms our will, either strengthening it or weakening it. And the stronger our will, the more we’ll be able to choose the good even when…
You Are Not an Outsider
We’re all really interested in what God can do for us; the healing, the restoration, the gifts of the Father. Are we as interested in committing to the long-term relationship that allows us to receive all of that? It’s all too easy to spend the inheritance while overlooking the relationship. As sons and daughters of God, we’re meant to live from the inside of Jesus’ heart.
The Rich Man Who Didn’t Turn
St. Francis is the rich young man who didn’t turn away sad. God invited St. Francis, and his response was even more than his heart burning for the Lord — he was consumed. There was no going back. He became more like Jesus, but without being less like Francis. He became more like Francis; not losing himself in God, but finding himself in God.
God Is Looking for You
We have a God who’s always on the move, always pursuing. In our busyness, we’re distracted — we miss things. We miss people. But God is constantly seeking, constantly encountering what is broken, and seeing the wholeness. Christianity is different: it’s about God becoming Man and coming to us.
True Masculinity and Femininity
What does being sons and daughters living true masculinity and femininity mean? In a world that has kind of a broken understanding of masculinity and femininity, it seems that our identities as sons and daughters of God—the idea of masculinity and femininity, have been hijacked and somehow misunderstood. This is why it’s so important to understand our hearts and…