Several years ago, Rosa Pualoa’s life changed when she said ‘yes’ to putting her career on hold and become a parent. What makes her decision particularly rare was that becoming a mother also meant supporting her sister who had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Rosa’s story is one of vulnerability, courage, the depth of family bonds and a powerful reminder for what we can be for each other, especially when we recognise how we can share the gift of our life with those around us.

*This podcast was recorded in the days leading up to Rosa's award ceremony on Wednesday 30th November, where she was nominated for the Admin Community Advocate award, through the Australian Admin Awards 2022. For more info, see: https://www.australianadminawards.com/2022-finalists

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

What does the baptismal call of all Christians look like? For Mark O’Connor, his life experience and formation as a Marist brother has allowed him to discover that growth in the Christian life goes hand-in-hand with growth in our fullest humanity. he articulates that our fullest humanity is best expressed in our capacity to share our lives with each other – to be self-gift is the universal Christian vocation. It is in this way that Mark sees all vocations, religious, married or lay, as mirrors of the ministry that Jesus invites his followers to embody in ordinary life.

Some of Mark's 'must try' restaurants when in Melbourne:

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

Remembrance day for Alison Ryan is a day close to her heart. Generations within her family have had different levels of involvement serving in the context of war. Whilst she honours the experience of her family, she has found it difficult hold the tension with that of her own Christian pacificism and the circumstances that call for war. This puts her in touch with the theme of memory that sits at the core within the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

There is a particular joy in life that comes from otherness. It’s a gift that often comes from our openness to share our time and genuine interest in others, which in turn becomes a recognition of the gift they are to us. Taylor Coutinho has known the joy of this gift in her life. Currently, she experiences it through her active involvement with her parish community of John XXIII in Stanhope; as well as through her work with Catholic Religious Australia. It’s through such spaces that Taylor intentionally chooses to bringing the best of herself with the people she encounters.

Catholic Religious Australia: https://www.catholicreligious.org.au

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

There's so much potential in being authentically in touch with our life-giving passions. For Mary Brazell, her passions connected her to spaces of community and places of purposeful work. Her love of gaming, particular table top role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons have afforded her some of the most meaningful conversations to date. Her joy for building community and appreciating people's stories have naturally fuelled her search for careers in communication and storytelling - a search that's unfolded into her current role in the Diocese of Parramatta as a Communications Officer.

Mary Brazell's Australasian Catholic Press Association Awarded articles and other Catholic Outlook Features

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

Whilst affirming that the experience of family may vary for different people, Karina, as someone who has recently married, acknowledges the importance of her family in shaping her identity. For Karina, knowing who you are enables an openness to the other, allowing for genuine relationships to form and develop, which creates space to ponder together the tough questions of life, faith and action in the world.

Watch Karina's story via Youtube

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

For more works by Pastoral Formation, visit www.pfparra.org.au

Music Track: "Love of my Life" by Boxcat Games (From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Geoff Officer is a lover of history. To him, history is a great teacher of self. In pondering his own story, it is the witness of his father’s capacity for leaning into mystery and his mother’s reflective practical faith that formed the earliest foundations for Geoff’s own openness to mystery, wonder and awe. These seeds were further nurtured by his Marist schooling, accompanied by exposure to management roles across the globe.

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

Kim Chong is the Media & Community Liaison for the Columban Centre for Christian Muslim Relations (CCCMR). She is also one of the three conversation partners in The FaithFeed podcast, the spiritual predecessor of the Soul Food Podcast. Through the work of the interfaith centre led by Rev Dr Patrick McInerney, Kim combines her gift of taking interest in the other with the principles of dialogue so that she can contribute to the building of bridges across peoples with different faith and belief backgrounds. More recently, Kim's work through CCCMR, in collaboration with many of the religious groups that make up the Australian population, produced The Sydney Statement: An interfaith charter for building bridges between believers from different religions. A media launch was held at Sydney Town Hall on 11 March 2021. For more info see: https://www.thesydneystatement.org.au/

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

For more works by Pastoral Formation, visit www.pfparra.org.au

When you hear the word ‘vulnerability’, do you hear it as a weakness or a strength? From a Christian perspective, Alison observes that vulnerability is precisely how Jesus’ earthly life began and ended. Taking this further, Alison observes that the Jesus story as the salvation of the whole world comes through the upside-down example of an ultimate act of vulnerability on the cross. What’s something of yourself that you can share with someone that you trust as a way of being more mindful of this theme of vulnerability in your life?

Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation wants to deliver through the episodes on the Soul Food podcast.

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

For more works by Pastoral Formation, visit www.pfparra.org.au

Joann Loko knows firsthand what it means to lean into the stories of the people around her. As someone who was accompanied herself by community volunteers, she now accompanies the stories and lives of others in a way the empowering way she experienced herself. Her stories offer wisdom for many faith communities and volunteer spaces on the difference that empathy, presence and simple acts of kindness can make. Here's to trust in each of our own potential to bless those we encounter day-to-day by leaning into the sacred story of their lives!

Come along with the team on this journey of storytelling, listening & discovery! Everyone has a story!

For more works by Pastoral Formation, visit www.pfparra.org.au