Kresta in the Afternoon

Participants in the German synodal way’s final assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a document Friday urging German bishops to permit same-sex blessings officially in their dioceses. They followed this up on Saturday with measures supporting transgender ideology and women's ordination. We get the latest from Matthew Bunson.

Many of us fail to recognize that obtaining the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to getting to heaven. We often block their reception through our own faults. We fail to see how they are passed on or strengthened in the sacraments. And, sadly, we forget to petition God in prayer to bestow these gifts upon us. Dr. Kevin Vost joins us with an introduction to the seven gifts and how we can humbly submit our wills to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit.

A recent Pew survey found that only about a third of parents think it’s “very” or “extremely” important that their kids grow up to share their religious beliefs, and another third say it’s not important to them. Dr. Greg Popcak attributes much of this to our failure to connect faith with relationship. He joins us to explain what he means.

As more Americans leave organized religion, they find themselves looking for spirituality in other places. They look to all sorts of everyday activities--from eating and parenting to dating and voting--for the identity, purpose, and meaning once provided on Sunday morning. In our striving, we are chasing a sense of enoughness. But it remains ever out of reach, and the effort and anxiety are burning us out. We talk about it with David Zahl.

What is beauty? Is it just a matter of opinion or in the eye of the beholder? How can the virtues help us to better perceive and enjoy beauty? We'll talk with John-Mark Miravalle.

On this day in 2003, Fred Rogers – known to millions of children as “Mr. Rogers,” died at age 74 of cancer. He’s well-known for his song "I Like You as you are" and believed that all people deserve love. This conviction wasn’t simply sentimental: it came directly from his Christian faith. God, he insisted, loves us just the way we are. We take a closer look at his spirituality with Shea Tuttle.

It’s been a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians and 200,000 Russians have lost their lives. Billions of dollars have been spent and it will take billions more to repair the damages. And still, Ukraine feels there is something worth fighting for. What is that something? Dan Philpott joins us.

The world claims that the greatest virtue we can have today is to be “Woke.” The term may be new, but its ideology goes back for decades. Fundamentally, it is more than a political movement – it is a pseudo-spiritual one, and it must be reckoned with. But St Paul tell us in Ephesians not to be woke, but to Awake and receive the light of Christ. How do we do this? Renewal Ministries and Ave Maria Radio invite you to join Noelle Mering for her presentation Awake, not Woke. Peter Herbeck gives us a preview.

We get a very dramatic reading in today's Gospel: the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. In today's culture, such a "judgmental" and "exclusive" teaching is very distasteful. Al takes a closer look.

Results are trickling in from Nigeria’s presidential election. The elections took on religious significance after the governing All Progressive Congress party decided to field an all-Muslim ticket, a departure from the usual practice of nominating a Christian and a Muslim. The ticket drew support from prominent Islamic clerics, who encouraged voters to see the election as a “jihad.” We talk more about it with Nina Shea.