A new season of "A Bigger Story" is here. Faith, hope, and love abide these three, and the greatest of these is...empathy? To support our work at A Bigger Story, check us out at https://abiggerstory.substack.com/. Thanks!

This is a rebroadcast of the very first episode of A Bigger Story from season 1, "Lost In Translation."

When you were a kid, did you ever play a game called “Telephone?” Maybe it was at a party just for fun. Maybe it was at school because a teacher wanted to teach you and your classmates how easy it is for words or ideas to get lost in translation. Much the same way, it can skew our understanding of religious or spiritual concepts when the words used to describe them get lost in translation. Join Bruce in this episode for a look at how that “lost in translation” can happen and how we can peel back the layers in service of a life-giving spiritual understanding and practice.

We'd love to hear from you: [email protected]. Also, please consider becoming a digital subscriber to A Bigger Story at abiggerstory.substack.com. Or just follow the link. It’s easy to do and it’s the best way to support our work at A Bigger Story. And if you have moment more, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

As the series Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ winds down after 3 seasons, Bruce zeroes in on the second to last episode - Season 3, Episode 11 - to talk about the concept of grace and how stories of forgiveness and redemption lead to transformation and radical kinship.

We'd love to hear from you: [email protected]. Also, please consider becoming a digital subscriber to A Bigger Story at abiggerstory.substack.com. Or just follow the link. It’s easy to do and it’s the best way to support our work at A Bigger Story. And if you have moment more, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

We'd love to hear from you: [email protected]. Also, please consider becoming a digital subscriber to A Bigger Story at abiggerstory.substack.com. Or just follow the link. It’s easy to do and it’s the best way to support our work at A Bigger Story. And if you have moment more, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

To contact Adam Gray at Riverside Church at Park & King in Jacksonville, Florida: [email protected].

A monk...a Buddhist teacher...a silent monastery...a distillery...and a few other pieces come together to help us consider when we might want to speak up on behalf of others, when we might want to be silent, and how we dwell in the paradox between the two.

Show Notes:

• The "A Bigger Story" Community Substack Page for more about the emerging "Bigger Story" Community and how to get updates, more content, and how to support the work.
• The Abbey of Gethsemani
• The Thomas Merton Society
• SGI Buddhism and the teachings of Daisaku Ikeda
• Thomas Merton and Dialogue with Buddhism by John A. Coleman, S.J.
• Martin Niemöller Quote from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website

Here's the link to the amazingly deep, fun, and theologically-nerdy podcast "Homebrewed Christianity." And here's the specific show link to the conversation between host Tripp Fuller and theologian/philosopher Philip Clayton, "Philip Clayton: On the Meaning of Life." I rarely miss an episode of this podcast.

Bruce fills in the blank in the episode tile: "Don't Go to [_?_ ]" and talks about expanding the circle of compassion. Plus, a nod to the incomparable Nina Simone on International Women's Day.

Links to people Bruce credits in the show:

Homeboy Industries and Father Greg Boyle - https://homeboyindustries.org/

The Center for Action and Contemplation to learn more about the work for Father Richard Rohr and mysticism teacher James Finley - https://cac.org/

Cynthia Bourgeault - https://www.cynthiabourgeault.org/

The introductory episode of A Bigger Story Season 2 - "The Sump Pump Sessions." Bruce talks about the different approach to this season from Season 1, who the podcast is for, and the "Why" of this podcast.

Music fans: Every show ends with a rock and roll nugget that some how keys to the episode theme. Just a snippet - not allowed to do more.

Here's a link to Ezra Klein's interview with pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness that Bruce refers to: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-book-changed-my-relationship-to-pain/id1548604447?i=1000600805466

Here's the link to the New York Times "First Person" podcast interview about "the orthodoxy of maximalism" with Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party, a progressive political party known for cross-endorsing candidates through fusion voting. https://nyti.ms/3INMfQr

The 19th-century poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson was somewhat sickly as a child. One night, he was looking out his second-story bedroom window to the street below. He noticed the lamplighter lighting the oil-filled street lamps one by one and exclaimed, “Look, he’s punching holes in the darkness.”

"Tenderness is the strongest thing there is. If love is the answer, community is the context, tenderness is the methodology - the delivery system. Tenderness is the most reflective of the kind of God we have." ~ Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ