Kresta in the Afternoon

What is the role of beauty in drawing us to God? How important is it to have excellence in how church buildings are built and designed? Dan Rigali’s family has a proud tradition of designing churches to be beautiful and holy places. He joins us.

We've all been wronged by people we love, and by people we are less than fond of. Have you ever been mad at a person and told you need to "just forgive them?" Forgiveness can certainly release us from pain, but that doesn't mean it's easy. And when it comes to the biggest hurts in life, it can seem impossible. We discuss the challenge, and the promise, of forgiveness with Fr. Thomas Berg.

For centuries Christians have wondered why God allows suffering and how they should respond to suffering in their own lives. The answer can be found by looking closely at Christ's Passion. As we prepare for Holy Week, Gary Jansen takes us on a step-by-step tour of the Way of the Cross. By pondering on Jesus' response to his own suffering, we are challenged to react similarly in our lives. Gary joins us.

We tend to think of the Enlightenment in a negative light – a time when the Church in France was violently dethroned in the name of “Reason.” But it also ushered in a wave of genuine Christian inspiration. We’ll talk with Joseph Stuart about the three strategies Christians employed during the Enlightenment and how they can be employed in our own anti-Christian age.

Cancer touches all of us in some way. It’s a devastating diagnosis, but that doesn't mean hope is lost. Ron Avery joins us with daily inspirations for anyone who faces cancer.

Sarah Williams had a successful career, a happy marriage and two loving daughters. Her family was overjoyed when they learned another baby was on the way. But they soon received a tragic diagnosis: their daughter had a lethal skeletal disorder and birth would be fatal. Her doctors and colleagues recommended she terminate the pregnancy. But during those nine months Sarah discovered new things about love, her faith and herself. She joins us.

The photo of Phan Kim Phuc, better known as the Napalm Girl, has become an iconic image of the Vietnam War. Since that horrible day, she has forgiven her attackers, stating that forgiveness cleansed her and freed her from hatred. Al looks at this and other striking examples of forgiveness.

Despite signs of a crisis in the Church, there are many great things going on. Lay Catholics are expressing new interests in intense forms of prayer and the spiritual life, including contemplative prayer. Fr Donald Haggerty has developed a blueprint for this type of prayer life and he joins us.

As Catholics, we are called to find more effective ways to bring Christ to the world. How can we do that in a way that focuses on nourishing the seeds of faith rather than lamenting why the land is barren? Can we find the answer in positive psychology? We’ll talk about it with Dr. Greg Popcak.

In an interview published last week in a German magazine, Cardinal Marx was asked about how LGBTQ people could be accommodated in Catholic teaching. In his response, he mentioned that The Catechism is not set in stone. One may also doubt what it says.” Is he right? We talk with Matthew Bunson, who also reports on Pope Francis’ trip to Malta.