Raised Catholic

This week, we're exploring Jesus' upside down kingdom, and comparing His actual teachings to some of what we're hearing from some of the more public Catholic Christian voices in America.

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1.  Jesus' Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5-7

2. Podcast: Upside Down Podcast, Conversations on Spirituality, Culture and God's Upside Down Kingdom

3. From Here Media, encouraging the love of God, Neighbor and Self through print, online and in-person offerings

4. Article: Ye's Trump Dinner is a High Point for Catholic Nationalists' Influence Campaign, by Religious News Service

5. Community: Smart Catholics - an online community for Catholic millennials, creators, and learners who want faithful conversations that are unafraid of doubts and questions. Find quality content, insight and connection here.

6. Music performance: Kingdom of God, by John Guerra

7. Song: Come, O Light, by Ginny Owens and the Geneva School of Manhattan

8. Audio series: Sermon on the Mount reflections by Fr. Richard Rohr

Second Week of Advent, a reading from Matthew's Gospel

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea

This week we celebrate our 100th episode with a look at vocation: how do we discover the work of our hands in our one precious life, and how do we do it well?

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. My Brother's Keeper, the charity I mention in today's episode.

2. St. Anthony's Free Market, the parish food pantry my Mom started and which continues today, ten years after her passing.

3. Video: What's My Vocation?, from Fr. Mike Schmitz

4. Book: Let Your Life Speak - Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker Palmer

5. Meditation: Vocation, by Frederick Buchner

6. Film: The God Who Sees You with Rachel Held Evans - series by The Work of The People

7. Song: If You Want Me To, by Ginny Owens

8. Song: Establish the Work of Our Hands, by Porter's Gate, Aaron Keys, Urban Doxology

9. Journal Questions (be still with God and ask): 

What suffering or problem that exists in the world does my particular past experience lead me to see?

What are my gifts? Strengths? Challenges? Where are these pointing me?

What is one small step I could take this week in the direction of my work?

Am I ready to ask God to help me walk this out, one step at a time?

This week we're exploring Biblical references to light amid the darkness in an effort to enter into the holiday season with intention and joy. Let's meet Jesus who is light by naming the spaces that need light and inviting God in. 

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Raised Catholic episode 49 - Advent: Behold Your God (check out the show notes for ideas on specific Advent practices)

2. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

3. Song: You Are The Light, by Sarah Hart

4. Song: Lead, Kindly Light, by Audrey Assad

5. Video: Handel's Messiah Part 1, performed by the Handel and Haydn Society

6. Article: Become the Light, by Michael Simone at America Magazine

7. Daily Podcast: The Examen, with Fr. James Martin

8. Practice: light a candle and journal with these questions: 

Where is the darkness in me? What is a small step I can take to address it?

Where is the darkness in the places, spaces and groups I'm a part of?

How can I bring more light to the places and people around me?

This week we discuss disturbing revelations coming out of the French Church, along with continued clericalism and politicization here in the US. When it comes to the future of the Church (and our own faith lives), maybe it's past time we wake up to some important realities.

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Podcast: Inside the Vatican: What a Prominent Cardinal's Admission of Abuse Means for the Catholic Church in France, by America Magazine

2. Article: Diocese Confirms French Bishop Disciplined by Vatican for Sexual Abuse, by Catholic News Agency

3. Article: French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard Admits to Abusing 14-Year Old Girl 35 Years Ago, from The Guardian

4. Article: New Allegations Charge Franciscan University Cover-Up, by Pillar Catholic

5. Biblical references to 'born again': John 3: 1-21, more citations here

6. Song: Open My Eyes, by Jesse Manibusan

7. Song: Open The Eyes of My Heart, by Audrey Assad

8. Song: Common Ground, by Matt Maher, featuring Dee Wilson

9. Journal prompts (write a question, then listen prayerfully and write as you're led): God, bring light to what is dark within me. In what way am I complicit in the suffering of a brother or sister? What am I blind to today that you in mercy could help me see? 

10. Series: Developing Compassion for the Sexually Abused, by Beth Moore (Part One)

Today's episode is a short reflection on a particularly holy three days I'm observing this week. I hope it's a blessing to you. 

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Last Day - an imagined conversation between God and my Mom about how she would want to spend her Last Day from me at kerrycampbell.org

2. Basics on the Paschal Triduum, by Busted Halo

3. Quote: "This too shall pass." - my Mom (and probably yours, too)

4. Song: Make Me An Instrument, by Craig Courtney, Beckenhorst Singers

This week we will look at religious icons - what they are, how to pray with them, and how to avoid making an icon into an idol. 

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Article: An Introduction to Iconography and iconographic analysis, by Dr. Lauren Kilroy Ewbank at smarthistory.org

2. Visual prayers by artist Scott Erickson

3. Modern icons by artist Gracie Morbitzer

4. Article: How to Pray with Icons - A Brief Guide, by Philip Kosloski at Aleteia

5. Activity: Make an ofrenda with images of loved ones who have passed and pray for them during the month of November.

6. Search: St. Joan of Arc icons (check these out!)

7. Article: The Importance of Religious Icons in Christian Faith, from the Art of the Icon blog

8. Collection: Icons by artist Cecilia Lawrence

This week, we're taking stock of where we are on our faith journey today. As we walk with God in the wilderness of deconstruction, prayerfully discerning where we actually are will enable us to know what step to take next, and to have clarity around where we want to be. 

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

Song: Who Am I?, by Casting Crowns

Song: Sing Over Your Children, by Matt Maher

Song: Drawn to You, by Audrey Assad

Song: The Way God Sees, by Ginny Owens feat. Mike Weaver

Journal prompts:

How am I engaging with my faith today? 

What am I learning? 

How is my prayer or study life going? 

Have I considered trying a faith community of some kind, either online or in person? 

What does the living out of my faith look like these days? 

What do I believe? 

Where am I?

This week we are pondering our experience of time through a spiritual lens. We will look to Jesus as a great example of someone who marked and discerned His time, and who used it with intention and purpose.

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Article: Time's Passage is Probably an Illusion, from Scientific American

2. Video: Carpe Diem scene from Good Will Hunting

3. Article: St. Augustine's Relativistic Theory of Time, from Church Life Journal

4. Song: Who Lives, Who Does, Who Tells Your Story, from Hamilton Original Broadway Soundtrack

5. Song: Seasons of Love, from Rent Original Broadway Soundtrack

6. Quote: "Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for granted that this Time series--this arrangement of past, present, and future--is not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many learned men do not agree with that. Almost certainly God is not in Time. HIs life does not consist of moments following one another...

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all around, contains the whole line, and sees it all." 

7. Journal prompt: What time is it?

-within myself

-in my family

-in my community

-in our church

-in the world

This week we explore what faith looks like in the midst of a big personal shift. Stepping over a threshold from 'what was' to 'what will be' can be exciting and scary and it's good to know that we are not stepping alone.

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Instagram follow: Pamela Henkelman, Midlife Mindset Coach

2. Life allegory: Muppet Movie: Closing Scene

3. Bible verse: Jeremiah 1:5 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

4. Bible verse Isaiah 43:19 

See, I am doing a new thing!

5. Raised Catholic ep. 14: What's Your Story?

6. A Blessing for When Love Makes Us Afraid, by Kate Bowler

7. Podcast: Parenting from an Empty Nest, with Kelly Corrigan and Susan Orlean

8. Song: My Beloved, by Crowder

9. A piece of my writing from 2017 - Trust - an allegory of life as a house, the trust needed to walk through doors when you don't know what's on the other side

This week, I'm bringing you a repost of an earlier episode which aired originally in May of this year. I pray it's a relief to you to remember that when it comes to plans, God's ways really are higher and better than ours. We can trust him.

_______________________________

This week, we're looking at planning with a spiritual lens, and about how to begin to accept or embrace a pivot or shift when life doesn't go as we planned.

If you'd like to connect with me, find me on Instagram or on my blog.  If you'd like to help support this podcast financially, there's now a way to do just that, and thank you - visit me on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks as always for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow!

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week's topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Edinburgh actor Sean Kane reads Burns' To A Mouse in Edinburgh Central Library.

2. Podcast: The Next Right Thing, with Emily P. Freeman

3. Book: The Next Right Thing: A Simple Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

4. Lyric Video: The Voyage, by Amanda Lindsey Cook

5. Lyric Video: Unanswered Prayers, by Garth Brooks :)

6. Practice: Sit at a beach, watch waves come in and go out, breathe, reflect on how this is how life comes to us, in moments

7. Practice: Break apart of a bunch of flowers and put them in small clusters in different parts of your home, enjoy them naturally as you meet them through your day, reflect on the reality of the beauty of life in small bits

8. Video: Ten Minute Breathing Meditation to help ground you in the day/moment you're given

9. Song: The Detour, by FAITHFUL

10. Song: Brighter Day, by Kirk Franklin

11. IG Post: Beautiful words and images from Morgan Harper Nichols