Today we speak with our Aunt Tam**; a bona fide sister. She talks with us about her decision to take her vows as a Sister of Notre Dame, her work in the church, and how we might be able to navigate where our values differ from church doctrine and teachings.

Referenced:

Vatican II- This NPR article can help outline some of the importance of it

Pope Leo 'Pope of the Worker'

Bishop John Stowe's Op Ed

**Please have patience with our audio as we had to use a recorded zoom session. 

This week we watched a 6 part series on Formed.Org all about the Our Father. The Our Father: A Short Course with Dr. Ben Akers was a 3.5 hour seminar, breaking the original Catholic/Christian prayer into bite-sized pieces to better understand the full meaning and intent.

Amanda gets us off the rails talking about Eucharistic Miracles, and Sara talks about David Koresh as a sympathetic character. The Taylor Kitsch version, that is.

Also Mentioned:

The Wonder by Emma Donahue
WACO (2018) (originally an HBO limited series, now available on netflix here)
American Scandal Podcast  (The Waco Season) hosted by Lindsay Graham (don't worry, it's not THAT Lindsey Graham)

Next time on Saints and Sisters, we'll be discussing Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron

This episode was recorded in June and is the second half of a discussion of the memoir Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler. In reading the book, both Sherri and Sara were disappointed that she changed from being a pro-choice woman investigating Catholicism, to being...not pro-choice. Up to that point there had been a sliver of hope that we could be Catholic and Pro-Choice and be in God's favor.

In talking about our feelings of disappointment, Amanda pointed out that our disagreements with the church largely fall under the umbrella of sexuality in general. (Birth Control, Pro-Choice/Pro-Life, and allyship for, and honor of people in the LGBTQIA+ community) This is obviously a much larger discussion than a one-hour podcast chat, but it's a start.

Some disclaimers: We dig into some of the weeds that usually make conversations about your stance on abortion come to a screeching halt. This is a real-time conversation between sisters, without fact checking, and we all say at least one thing that is not correct, or that we probably wish we could articulate more clearly. We welcome constructive criticism and rebuke, but also felt like this conversation was worth sharing for anyone that is struggling with the same.

For the next episode we're reading:
Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly

This week Sherri and Sara watched the series Reborn on Formed in order to get a better understanding of the historical context of baptism in the Catholic Church, why it's performed in infancy, and the importance of choosing godparents (spoiler: we did some of it wrong).

We also all read the book All Things Reconsidered by Knox McCoy and talked about some of our favorite parts. I highly recommend reading it yourself because it is FULL of a-ha moments. Seriously, I used highlighter and note tabs.

Next time we'll be discussing the practice of prayer, using The Our Father: A Short Course by Dr. Ben Akers .

This week we watched a series of videos by Ascension Press in the Altaration series; specifically Session Five 'The Whys Behind the Whats' explaining the symbolism behind the rites and rituals of the Catholic Mass, and what better understanding that meant to us.

Like most things, when you understand the reasons behind why something happens the way that it does. you can make better decisions about whether or not it works in your life.

Also mentioned:
Kyrie by Mr. Mister (give it a listen, you forgot how good it is, ha ha)
All Things Reconsidered by Knox McCoy -order a copy at your favorite book shop!
Fleabag (Amazon Prime)
Succession (HBO)
Manda wants to make sure you know she knew it was actually Novus Ordo

Next episode, we'll be discussing the Formed Sessions 1-3 (Reborn), which focuses on the rite of baptism. If you're interested in learning more about it along with us, you can find it here and in most cases, if you contact your local parish, they may have access to it to provide for you. 

We took two weeks to read the memoir Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler- we are taking two episodes to discuss the book because there are a host of issues surrounding sex and sexuality that we feel like need a whole discussion (a lifetime of discussions?) to themselves. 

Our audio is still a work-in-progress: we're working on it!

This week we read the book Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly, published in 2002 and reprinted in 2010. Kelly posits that there is nothing so bad about Catholicism that cannot be fixed by that which is good about it.

Sherri and Sara were tasked with reading it for the first time, while Amanda re-read it to refresh her memory. Spoiler: It opens with a story about a worldwide pandemic that feels a liiiittle too close to home right now, but after that, there's a lot to dig into!

Next episode we'll be discussing our assignment to watch Session Five of Altaration in order to understand the why's behind the Catholic mass and then to attend twice...tune in! 

We revisited the 1970 classic Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume as the jumping off point to having a real conversation about where we each are with our relationship to God and religion. Spoiler alert: some of us still feel like a questioning sixth grader! 

Join us as we stumble along on our faith journey to explore issues of faith and the role that God plays in our lives, through discussions of books, scripture, and the current headlines.