Raised Catholic

In this week's episode, we're exploring what it means to be hospitable as people of faith.  In this traditional season of gathering, let's consider creative ways that we can welcome, care, and make space for others, even those who are different from us.  Here are some resources which I hope will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own.

1. Book: Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, by Christine D. Pohl

2. Book: Extraordinary Hospitality (for Ordinary People) - Seven Ways to Welcome Like Jesus, by Carolyn Lacey

3. Podcast: Biologos with Shauna Niequist - Let's Sit Here a Little Longer

4. Book: Taste and See: Discovering God Among Butchers, Bakers and Fresh Food Makers, by Margaret Feinberg

5. Podcast: The Next Right Thing with Emily P. Freeman and Shauna Niequist - Make Soup and Eat It, Too

6. Song: All Are Welcome (All Belong), by Jesse Manibusan and Ken Canedo - cover by Chris Brunelle

7. Song: The King Is Coming, by Christy Nockels

8. Song: We Gather Together, arr. S. Paulus

9. Song: Make Room, by Casting Crowns featuring Matt Maher

10. From the Vatican - Synod on Synodality - I pray there's more to come from this beautiful opportunity in every area of the world for the Church to be hospitable in prayerfully listening to God's people.

In this season, our minds turn toward giving, and in this episode we'll talk about the what, where, when, how, and why we give as people of faith. Let's be intentional to give well this year in a way that benefits the recipients of our giving as well as ourselves.

1. As promised, "Christmas Morning" from Saturday Night Live, 2020

2. Song: Simple Gifts, Traditional - Yo-Yo Ma

3. Song: Simple Gifts from Appalachian Spring - Aaron Copland, John Williams, Boston Pops Orchestra

4. Look at (and research using a service such as Charity Navigator) charities that resonate with your talent, interest, and resources and give to them directly, as gifts, or in honor of loved ones. If you're local to me - My Brother's Keeper is a good place to give at this time of year and year-round.

5. A short piece I wrote in 2015 about listening to our inner voice to direct our giving, divine reciprocity, and about finding God in a grocery store (which I do all the time): Pineapples, Orange Soda, Chicken Salad

6. All about St. Nicholas, Gift Giver, from St. Nicholas Center

7. Song: Give a Little Bit, by Supertramp (How does knowing we're all "on our way back home" affect how you give?)

8. Journal prompts:

As I look back on my life, how does my own lived experience inform how and to whom I give?

If I've suffered hardship (as we all have), how can I turn that experience for the good by investing in and helping my community in a specific way?

How can I care for myself well in this season so that my giving comes from a place of health and not depletion this year?

What am I good at? What do I have? What do I know? How could I use these things to make the life of someone else better?

9. Video: The Joy of Giving: effects of giving on our brains, by Big Think

10: Song: In the Bleak Midwinter - Worcester Cathedral Choir, Christina Rossetti, Gustav Holst

This week it's all about Advent. Here are some ways we can look for and abide in light as the shepherds did, to make space for Jesus to grow and to share Him as Mary did, and to give out of what we have just like the wise men did!  Advent is a beautiful season of expectant joy, so let's enter in together!

1. The Advent and Christmas music video we made for our chapel community.  Hope it's a blessing to you!

2. Video: Handel's Messiah: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion (Behold Your God)

3. Mary's Magnificat with a reflection from the Kairos Center

4. She Reads Truth free daily Advent Bible study online or printed copies of the study available here

5. Album: Handel: Messiah, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Symphony Orchestra

6. Song: Advent Hymn, Christy Nockels

7. Song: The Wexford Carol, Alison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, Natalie MacMaster

8. Children's Book: Jesus' Christmas Party, by Nicholas Allan

9. Serve: In your community, with your gifts. Local to me, I'll be spending some time at My Brother's Keeper this Advent.

10. Have a look (via your computer's search engine) at how the Annunciation or the Visitation is depicted in art across cultures and generations.

11. Journal prompts (write in the company of a candle):

What does it say about God that Jesus came to Earth as a human baby? Why would that make a difference in my own life?

What comes to mind when I remember my most cherished Christmas memory?  What does that memory speak about me? My family? God?

How can I allow Jesus to grow in me this Advent? Who is the person God is calling me uniquely to share my faith with at this time? 

12. WONDERFUL free family Advent resources from the Church in the 21st Century at Boston College: Drawing God for Advent, Breakfast With God (30-minute faith formation program on zoom), Faith Feeds (faith discussions with friends). Subscribe to C21 for updates!

In this week's episode, we're talking about what it means to have freedom in our faith. Spoiler: it might be different from what you think.  Here are some resources that will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own.

1. Song: O Freedom, by the Golden Gospel Singers

2. Song: Free, by Ginny Owens

3. Song: Known, Seen, Loved by MORIAH

4. Song: Give Me Jesus, by Fernando Ortega

5. Book: You Are Free: Be Who You Already Are, by Rebekah Lyons

6. Book: The Way of the Heart, by Henri Nouwen

7. Podcast: That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs: guest: Mike Donehey (I loved this conversation about the unlikely roads that bring us unexpected freedom to be who we are.)

8. Art: One of my favorites from Scott Erickson (read the caption!)

9. Song: Open My Hands, by Sara Groves

10. Podcast: Be The Bridge - a great starting point for perspective on using one's own freedom to advance the freedom of another

11. Video: On detachment as a source of freedom from Fr. Mike Schmitz and Ascension Presents

This week we're contemplating our deaths and by doing so, we're clarifying just how it is we want to live.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own.

1. Song: When I Get Home, by Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell

2. Song: House of Gold, by Patty Griffin

3. Song: Laudate Dominum, by Mozart

4. Song: Carry Me Home, by The Sweeplings

5. Song: We Shall All Be Reunited, by Patty Griffin

6. Song: Deep River, Traditional, Chanticleer

7. Book: Memento Mori: Prayers on the Last Things, by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble (an atheist-turned-nun)

8. Video: Memento Mori, by Fr. Mike Schmitz with Ascension Presents

9. Instagram Follows: Penny the Nurse and hospicenursejulie: hospice nurses with an open, sometimes funny, and sometimes profound take on death and dying

10: Book: A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, by Dr. BJ Miller (a hospice and palliative medicine physician)

11. Podcast: Everything Happens with Kate Bowler - Dr. BJ Miller, palliative medicine and hospice doctor on Loving What Is

In this week's episode we're comparing the life of faith to a race we want to run well and with intention.  I hope these resources will help you to do just that!

1. Song: We Will Rise Again, by David Haas, cover by Chris Brunelle

2. "Hero's Journey", at My Little Epiphanies, about my first half marathon

3. "Unlikely Holy Ground", at My Little Epiphanies, about my experience with God running around a track

4. Rescue, by Lauren Daigle

5. Video: A concise explanation of the Prodigal Son story from the Bible Project

6. Song: On My Way, by Louis Armstrong

7. Song Video: Softly and Tenderly, by Audrey Assad and Sandra McCracken

8. Song Video: Home, by Phillip Phillips

9. Beautiful art/caption from Scott Erickson on Instagram

10. Beautiful homily from Fr. Matt Williams in Quincy, MA on All Saints Day, 11/1/21: "Begin With the End in Mind"

11. Journal prompts: 

What am I running toward today?

What do I want to be able to say on my last day that will reflect a life well lived?

If I look at how I spend my time, my thoughts and my resources, where are these steering me?

What are my life goals or my after-life goals?  

In terms of intention in life, am I walking, meandering, jogging, running, staying put, or some combination of these today?

What was the best funeral I ever attended?  How did I know that that person lived a 'good life'?  What was the evidence?

Angles are everything: what small decision could I make today to pivot a bit closer to where I want to be heading on my life's journey? 

This week's episode is about messengers of God, the human and angelic variety, and how prophets or messengers are still very much a part of how God works in the world today.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own.

1. Get yourself to a Tatte Bakery location and enjoy their beautiful food and environment. 

2. Twenty Bible instances of angels as God's messengers

3. Song: Sun, by Sleeping At Last

4. Song: A Message, by Coldplay

5. Story of modern-day prophet Rachel Held Evans, Prophet With a Pen, by Jonathan Merritt

6. Journal prompts: when might I have encountered a messenger from God in my lifetime?  What happened?  How did it make me feel?  How did that encounter change my path or my thinking? 

7. This video from BibleProject explaining part of the Book of Isaiah does a good job of explaining the work and role of a prophet in the Old Testament - Isaiah gives judgment, predicts trouble, and gives clarity, hope and a path. He speaks for God to religious leaders/community who have gone astray.

Today we're reaching way back to January of 2021 to episode 4: Is It Okay to Question? We center in on three areas in this episode:

1. Is it okay to question the Church's teachings?

2. Is it okay to question the Church's clergy?

3. Is it okay to question God?

This is an important brick in the rebuilding of our faith foundation, so I hope you'll give it a listen! Here are some resources that will help you explore this topic for yourself. Blessings on you as you do the holy work of questioning.

1. Open up that “Conversations with God” notebook we’ve talked about and write out your questions or concerns about our faith’s teachings, practices, and public personalities. You don’t have to tackle them all in one sitting (or ever) but getting them out there in writing is a good start.

2. Searching for Sunday, by Rachel Held Evans

3. The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen

4. Miracles and Other Reasonable Things, by Sarah Bessey

5. Podcast: More Than Small Talk with Holley Gerth, Suzanne Eller, and Jennifer Watson

6. Podcast: Evolving Faith with Sarah Bessey and Jeff Chu

Today, we're talking about the transcendentals of beauty, truth and goodness and how these can serve as guideposts toward the lives we want to be living in these chaotic times.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic further on your own!

1. Video: O My Soul, by Audrey Assad

2. Podcast: Things Above with James Bryan Smith

3. Podcast: Drink With a Friend, with Tsh Oxenreider and Seth Haines

4. Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table, by Shauna Niequist

5. Chef's Table: visually beautiful storytelling about beautiful food and the chefs who make it. This series will slow you down and help you learn to see and experience beauty for sure.

6. Journal prompts: 

Where did I find beauty today?

How can I be more impeccable with my words?

Who has been an example for goodness for me lately?

7. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

8. How Beautiful, by Twila Paris

9. Goodness of God, by Israel & New Breed, Cristabel Clack

10. What a Wonderful World, by Eva Cassidy

Today we're talking about intercessory or petitionary prayer, some scriptural references to this form of prayer, and the open-handed posture we can take while praying, whether or not we 'get' what we ask for. Here are some resources which I hope will help you explore this topic in a deeper way for yourself.

1. Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved), by Kate Bowler

2. Podcast: Terrible, Thanks for Asking

3. Podcast: Everything Happens

4. Praying the Scriptures for Your Life, by Jodie Berndt and Ann Voskamp 

5. Take Heart: 100 Devotions to Seeing God When Life's Not Okay (mine is essay #100!)

6. Video: What is Intercessory Prayer? by Rethink Church

7. Song: Even When It Hurts (I'll Praise You), by Hillsong

8. Song: God With Us, by All Sons & Daughters

9. From Handel's Messiah: Comfort Ye My People/Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted

10: Song: Open My Hands, by Sara Groves (video live version)

11. Help Thanks Wow, by Anne Lamott

12. Remember God, by Annie F. Downs