Saint In Progress

It’s not uncommon to have thoughts like this enter your mind: “Why must I suffer?” “Why is God allowing this suffering?”

A morning walk and a conversation with a neighbor inspired this week’s episode, where Mike discusses three types of suffering—penitential, transformative, and redemptive—and how God uses each.

Resources

Why Must I Suffer? by Fr. F. J. Remler

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If you presume holiness or are disheartened thinking that the Spirit isn’t in you, then you’re approaching the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the wrong way.

Many people confuse “gifts” and “fruits” and don’t understand how the Holy Spirit operates on our souls. So this episode, Mike uses a simple analogy to help explain the concept, and wraps it up with a few excerpts from spiritual masters.

Note: We are measuring audience reach over the next few months. This post is the podcast version. The text version will follow sometime next week. If you prefer to listen to the podcast, please like, subscribe, or share so we can keep track of how many people the podcast reaches versus the text version.

Our work on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

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This week, Mike takes a trip down memory lane. Join him as he talks about the beauty of the Rosary, tattoos (both visible and invisible), the Ascension of our Lord, the Sacraments of Confession and Baptism, and more.

Resources

* Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary

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This week Mike retells the story of the Battle of Lepanto, from where we get the Month of the Rosary as well as the Marian titles “Our Lady of the Rosary” and “Our Lady of Victory”. He also explores the life of St. Bartolo Longo and how he lost his faith in college, became a satanic priest, returned to the Church, and became a champion for the Rosary as well as a canonized saint.

Also this episode, an urgent message from Bishop Burbidge from Arlington, Virginia, asking Catholics to fast and pray the Rosary this month for the defeat of two crucial ballot items in November. See catholicsvoteno.com for more information.

Our work on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

This week, Mike talks a little philosophy as a backdrop for how some “armchair theologians” are leading people to sin… and why it makes him cranky. It ends upbeat, though, with a simple reframe that can re-orient a wayward heart.

Resources

* Mike “Gomer” Gormley on the Catching Foxes podcast episode “Rethinking How We Apply the Church’s Teaching on Birth Control”

* Modesty isn’t about you - the Substack post that dared to present Church teaching

Our work on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

This first regular episode back from the break, Mike briefly chats about on a few summer visits to shrines with saints’ relics before reflecting on five things necessary to have a successful marriage.

References:

* Catechism of the Catholic Church: The Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony

* Gaudium et spes, Paragraph 48

* Familiaris consortio, Paragraph 56

* Casti connubii, Paragraph 11

Our work on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

http://www.honorthywife.com

Before returning to the normal Saint in Progress material next week, Mike takes a few minutes to talk about the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and reflect on where our hearts are today.

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

In this last podcast before summer hiatus, Mike touches on a very important issue: the impending collapse of Christendom as the dominant force in our society. We’re on the brink right now. How do we reverse course? How do we re-claim our society, our neighborhoods, and even ourselves?

Show Notes & Extra Info

* Mike’s show notes for St. Gabriel Radio, AM820 in Columbus Ohio (available May 25, 2026)

* Tune in live: St. Gabriel Radio or listen later on the Café podcast page

* Are you loving your neighbor? Or are you their near occasion of sin? As we surge into summer with the heat wave and that, it’s time for us to consider what we do that gets people hot. (A post from 2025 on modest attire and the giving of scandal.)

* The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

This episode wraps up the 4-part series on “hobo evangelism.”

Previous episodes (here, here, and here) covered the concept of and how to share the true and the good. Which begs the question: If you’re not in a beautiful church and you’re not walking the cobblestone streets of Italy… how are you going to share the beauty of the Catholic Church?

Spoiler: It’s not about art… it’s about you.

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

People are drawn to the Catholic Church because of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. After explaining the concept of “Hobo Evangelism” in Episode 64 and how to share the True in Episode 65, this week Mike talks about how we “hobos” on the road home to the Father’s House can share the Good. (He also finds a “God wink” moment with the episode number, the topic, and one of the greatest hockey players to ever play the game.)

Fair warning: This might be a challenging episode for some listeners, as tough self-reflective questions are asked.

Additional Episode Information

In memoriam: Christino Damo 1961-2015 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dispatch/name/cristino-damo-obituary?id=11828685

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.