Maria Morera Johnson Interviews Chris A. Sariego, PR & Marketing Director at Family Theater Productions, at the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta.

Chris Sariego is the award-winning PR & Marketing Director at Family Theater Productions. Over a 30-year career, Chris developed deep experience in documentaries, feature films, and TV production, as well as in positions as a PR, communications, and marketing director. Previously, Chris was PR & Marketing Director for St. Vincent de Paul of Los Angeles, a Catholic charity serving the poor and homeless of Southern California, where he won a Gabriel Award for a documentary on the Society. Chris was also co-chair of the National St. Vincent de Paul Communications Task Force, implementing best practices at the charity nationwide. At Family Theater Productions, Chris is part of a team winning Gabriel and Christopher Awards for PRAY: THE STORY OF PATRICK PEYTON and an Emmy® for The House That Rob Built. At Vermont PBS, he won two Emmys and was nominated for a third for his documentary work as a producer, writer, and director. Chris has a B.A. in Journalism from St. Michael’s College in Vermont and early in his career worked as a journalist. He is married with several children.

Links in Show:

• Family Theater Productions
• Holy Cross Family Ministries

Maria Morera Johnson and Heidi Hess Saxton have an intimate conversation about faith and prayer around St. Catherine of Siena's writings, particularly on the subject of light.

Links in Episode:

- Heidi's Author Page - Stories of the Eucharist - Maria's Author Page

 

Marie Miller is an accomplished singer/songwriter whose music has played on both Christian and pop radio through the years. Among her accomplishments, she has played for Pope Francis, opened for the Backstreet Boys, and toured with Five For Fighting.   Her new album The Way of Love dropped on May 31st.  The album includes a total of five songs. Four songs are written by Marie with the addition of her own folk-pop rendition of the classic Take Lord Receive that will help listeners surrender to God with a joyful spirit. The title song of the album, The Way of Love, was Inspired by the little French nun, St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s theology of the Little Way. Links in Show:

• Marie Miller Music
• Marie Miller -- The Way of Love

Maria Morera Johnson interviews Cecilia Cicone, award-winning author of Jesus in Space: A True Story That's Out of This World, from the floor of the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta.

Cecilia Cicone is the award-winning author of Jesus in Space: A True Story That's Out of This World, the true story of astronaut Tom Jones and his journey into space with the Blessed Sacrament, participating in a Communion service in space! Cecilia earned a degree from the Catholic University of America and currently works in ministry in Northwest Indiana. 

Links in Show:

• Jesus in Space: A True Story That's Out of This World by Cecilia Cicone
• Cecilia Cicone's website

Maria Morera Johnson and Heidi Hess Saxton interview Inés Huber Mersch, a faithful Catholic wife, mother, and grandmother in love with the Lord and sharing her joy.

Inés Huber Mersch is a faithful Catholic wife, mother, and grandmother residing in Mobile, Alabama. Her strong attraction to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament led to her being invited to participate in the steering committee that brought Perpetual Adoration to the Archdiocese of Mobile and continues as one of the schedulers. She has also been a guest writer at Catholic Mom.

Maria Morera Johnson interviews Paulina Kuzik, international editor for OSV, about her work as a journalist from the floor of the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta.

 Paulina Guzik, is an award-winning journalist and a professor at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow. she is currently the international editor for Our Sunday Visitor (OSV).

Links in Show Notes:

• Paulina's recent articles

Maria Morera Johnson interviews Catholic Mom contributor Sr. Margaret Kerry, FSP, about vocations, writing for Catholic Mom, and praying through her painting.

A Daughter of St. Paul for 50 years, Sr. Margaret continues to pursue new ways to proclaim the Gospel: sharing the Pauline Charism with the laity, writing books (St. Anthony of Padua: Fire & Light; Strength in Darkness: John of the Cross; Prayers for the New Evangelization), and through direct evangelization. She is available for workshops on the Vocation & Mission of the Laity, Media Literacy, and The New Evangelization. 

Links in Show:

• Read all articles by Sr. Margaret.
• Sr. Margaret's Art on Pinterest
• St. Anthony of Padua: Fire & Light
• Strength in Darkness: John of the Cross
• Prayers for the New Evangelization

 

Theoni Bell has been fascinated with Our Lady of Champion for a decade. Her historical fiction novel The Woman in the Trees: a novel about America's first approved Marian apparition was published in 2021 by TAN Books. In 2024, Theoni was added as a “witness” to the Libellus requesting permission from the Vatican to initiate the cause for the canonization of the seer Adele Brise. Theoni has spent years sifting through archival documents and corresponding with members of the shrine staff, historians in Belgium, and descendants of the community in which the apparition took place. She collects the stories of people who have experienced miracles — even minor ones — through Our Lady of Champion’s intercession, in hopes that these will draw people to the shrine to encounter Our Lady there.

This whole venture started in 2013 with two answered petitions after a visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

Theoni also writes and speaks about baby loss. Her baby loss picture book Jellybean: a baby’s journey to God came out April 2024 from Holy Heroes. She sells baby loss memorial prayer cards and prints on Etsy.

Theoni has a master's in international journalism and studied religion and culture in 9 countries. She came to Catholicism in college. She writes from Houston where she lives with her husband and three children, never forgetting to ask aid from their four children in heaven.

Links in Show:

• www.theonibell.com
• Jellybean: A Baby's Journey to God – Holy Heroes
• www.holyheroes.com/loss
• www.etsy.com/shop/visionsofthegoodhelp

Additional Resources for Families:

• Miraculous - a boy catalogues the miracles in his community while dealing with the loss of a newborn sibling.
• A Whale of the Wild - a girl whale anticipates the birth of her sibling and it is stillborn. She flees with her baby sister to lay her to rest in the burial place of her ancestors.
• The Woman in the Trees - a Belgian girl loses her sister while immigrating to Wisconsin with her family and learns to lean on the faith against the harshness of pioneer life and the grief and bitterness of her mother. (Strange enough, I wrote this book before I lost Sloane, but the death of this sibling is the main struggle of my characters and they eventually integrate it into the faith with the help of the apparition seer. God definitely prepared me for this huge loss.)
• Sursum Corda - Eileen Tully Ministry for grieving mothers
• Red Bird Ministries - large national organization with retreats, conferences, online talks, support groups, and more. Laypeople and clergy have started Red Bird groups in their own parishes.

Maria Morera Johnson and Heidi Hess Saxton interview Emily Jaminet, author of The Secrets of the Sacred Heart.

Emily Jaminet is a Catholic author, speaker, radio personality, wife, and mother of seven children and Executive Director of the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network (www.welcomeHisHeart.com) and co-founder of www.InspiretheFaith.com. 

She co-authored the award-winning book, Divine Mercy for Moms and The Friendship Project, PrayFully, and Our Friend Faustina and her most recent book is  The Secrets of the Sacred Heart. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference and The John Paul II Preschool and writes on a regular basis for www.catholicmom.com and www.Diocean.com.

Michele Faehnle and her recently started a Podcast called Inspired by Faith which is also aired on St.Gabriel Radio.

Links in Episode:

- Emily Jaminet website - Holy Habits from the Sacred Heart and other books

Hosts Maria Morera Johnson, Sarah Reinhard, and Barb Szyszkiewicz make an exciting announcement about Lisa Hendey's new role as Catholic Mom Ambassador, and then go all fan-girl.

 

Lisa Hendey founded Catholic Mom in 1999 when she discovered there were few resources for Catholic Moms on the internet. She created a website where she could post activities to help other moms with small children who were looking for resources, too. Eventually, it grew into a kind of crowd-sourced resource, where Lisa invited other moms to share their strategies and resources, and the beautiful Catholic Mom Contributors team was born. Lisa envisioned not just a great place to gather resources and create community, but also a space for Catholic women writers to practice their craft while providing both practical and spiritual resources for moms and families.

 

In 2017, Holy Cross Family Ministries acquired CatholicMom.com, and it gave this beautiful platform a wider audience and a stronger reach to provide spiritual support to Catholic moms and families. You might also see that we have dads and religious sisters and priests writing for us, too. We so very much love and appreciate the 140 Catholic Mom contributors that make up our writing team!

 

Lisa has taken on a new role as Catholic Mom Ambassador, and we thought we’d do a little retrospective as a big thank you to Lisa for first of all, founding this awesome resource, but also, from the bottom of our hearts, for being a true Catholic Mom to us all, walking this faith journey of our vocation as mothers through all the seasons with littles, teenagers and young adults, and for many of us, into the golden age of being grandmothers. Thank you Lisa, and God bless you in your new role!

 

Links for Today Show:

• Lisa Hendey website
• Lisa Hendey's articles at Catholic Mom