Sister Liz sits down with Dr. Kristin Witte to discuss global poverty issues through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, charity and justice. She highlights the importance of empowering women because, when equipped with the right resources, they can help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.

Before becoming a deacon, Deacon David Billing never expected his ministry to include prison pods, death row vigils, and rural villages in Guatemala—but each has become a place where he encounters Christ. In this episode, he joins Sister Elizabeth to share how his vocation as a deacon has led him to each of these ministries. Together, they explore how faith calls us beyond comfort and into relationship with those society often forgets.

In this episode, Sister Elizabeth speaks with Heidi Moore, longtime advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and a Catholic convert whose faith was shaped through service to incarcerated men. Drawing on Catholic social teaching, personal testimony, and firsthand experience inside Missouri’s prison system, Heidi unpacks the moral, legal, and human costs of capital punishment. This episode invites listeners to wrestle honestly with mercy, justice, and the Church’s call to protect human dignity—without exceptions.

What is prayer really? In this episode, Sister Liz is joined by Father Jonathan McElhone, TOR, Franciscan friar and vocation director, for a dynamic and practical conversation about prayer as a living relationship with God. Together they explore the difference between reciting prayers and truly entering into dialogue with the Lord, how to listen for God’s voice, and why silence is essential for spiritual growth.

Father Jonathan shares the PRAY method—Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield—as a simple framework for deepening prayer, along with wisdom on distractions, discernment, praying in the Holy Spirit, and cultivating availability to God throughout daily life. Whether you’re new to prayer or longing to go deeper, this episode offers encouragement, tools, and hope for growing in an authentic, heart-to-heart relationship with God.

Welcome to our first Cohost Chat of the season! Today, Sister Elizabeth and Sister Liz look back on the past year and ahead to 2026. While Sister Elizabeth has been embracing a quiet, reflective side approach to faith, Sister Liz has been attending conferences and experiencing the loud and charismatic ways of expression. No matter the form of expression, we touch on the importance of keeping Jesus at the center of the faith and being artisans of hope and peace.

Father Patrick Griffin, CM, is back on the podcast and this time, he's talking about angels. Father Patrick leads us through instances in the Bible in which we hear about angels, explains the significance of these encounters, and even gives examples of times he himself believes he has experienced angels. 

Today, our host, Sister Liz Sjoberg, DC, sits down with her friend and housemate, Sister Cecilia West, DC, to explore a vocation shaped by simple beginnings, unexpected turns, and God’s persistent whisper.

Sister Cecilia shares her story of growing up in small-town Mississippi, discovering the Daughters of Charity through a series of quiet nudges, and spending more than two decades teaching preschoolers despite never wanting to become a teacher. Her path then led her into hospital ministry, where she found deep purpose accompanying people in psychiatric crisis and offering calm in chaos. She even notes some unexpected parallels between calming a classroom of three-year-olds and de-escalating emergency situations.

Throughout the episode, Sister Cecilia reflects on learning her gifts through others, trusting God one step at a time, and the power of small acts of love.

In this episode, Sister Elizabeth welcomes back Father Patrick Griffin, C.M., for a conversation on what it means for the Word of God to be “unchained.” Drawing deeply from St. Paul’s life, conversion, and captivity letters, Father Pat explores how Paul transforms the chains meant to silence him into instruments of proclamation.

Together, they trace Paul’s journey from persecutor to apostle, reflect on the meaning of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, and examine how Scripture continues to break through our modern-day limitations. Father Pat challenges listeners to reflect on where we allow the Word to be chained in our own lives and what it means to proclaim the Gospel fearlessly today.

Sister Elizabeth and Sister Liz are together this episode to welcome Matthew Terry, a man whose life story reveals how God can guide us in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. From a near-death experience as a child to a calling that took him from Chicago to China, Matt shares how faith, perseverance, and the Holy Spirit shaped his path as a teacher, husband, and storyteller.

Listen as he recounts how a simple encounter led him to his wife Pearl, how teaching English in China became a mission, and how moments of hardship revealed God’s grace and purpose. Matt also talks about transforming his journey into a film project, English Corner, created to touch hearts and bring others closer to God.

In this reflective episode, Sister Liz welcomes back Father Patrick McDevitt, C.M., now President and CEO of St. Luke Institute. Drawing from his decades as a Vincentian priest and counseling psychologist, Father Pat explores how healing, faith, and human wholeness are intertwined. Together, they unpack why true growth requires letting go of the fight, embracing pain as a teacher, and recognizing that God is already present in every moment of our lives. With stories of grace, vulnerability, and encounter, this episode invites listeners to see life not as a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.