🎧 Episode Title: Called to Sing

Guest: Dr. John Flaherty – Director of Liturgy and Music, Loyola Marymount University
Episode: Special Feature for the LMU/CALLED Music Minister Retreat

In this heart-opening episode, Dr. John Flaherty reflects on a lifetime of sacred music, multicultural liturgical service, and the transformative power of voice. From acting as special assistant to the Vice President of LMU, directing choirs and events at Loyola Marymount University to guiding future ministers through the CALLED initiative, John shares his journey as a musical bridge between diverse communities, Catholic tradition, and deeply personal faith expression.

🎶 Themes & Highlights

• Singing as Sacred Vocation
  John’s early calling to music ministry began as a young boy in parochial school and continues as a deep form of embodied prayer.
• Multicultural Liturgical Music
  A leader in developing and directing culturally rich liturgies at LMU, John emphasizes music’s power to unite people of diverse backgrounds through rhythm, melody, and shared prayer.
• Formation Through Beauty
  Liturgical music isn’t performance—it’s formation. John challenges listeners to reflect on how song and ritual shape the inner life of faith.
• The CALLED Initiative
  John reflects on his role as a CALLED cohort guide, emphasizing that every person—regardless of title—is called to participate in the evangelizing mission of the Church. Singing is just one expression of that call.
• Mary, Imagination, and the Heart
  Echoing themes from Marian theology, John shares how music engages the full self—imagination, memory, intellect—and leads us deeper into the mystery of God.
• The Role of Silence and Listening
  Silence between notes. Stillness before song. These too are parts of liturgy, forming space for God to speak and hearts to awaken.

📚 Resources & Mentions

• Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
  Learn more about LMU's programs in liturgy, theology, and music: https://www.lmu.edu

• CALLED Retreats and Formation Cohorts
  Explore how to join a cohort, attend a retreat, or deepen your own faith through storytelling and formation:
  👉 https://www.preachingjourney.com

• Multicultural Liturgical Music
  While not mentioned explicitly, John's work aligns with that of composers and scholars like:
  • Jaime Cortez
  • Tony Alonso
  • Marty Haugen
  • Mary Louise Bringle

• Psalms and Sacred Song
  John often returns to the Psalms in his ministry: “I will sing to the Lord all my life” (Psalm 104:33)

🕊️ Quote Highlights

“Liturgical music is how we form hearts. And it starts with listening.”— John Flaherty

“The first evangelists weren’t professionals. They were people who had encountered Christ and couldn’t help but share it.”— John Flaherty

🔗 Stay Connected

🌐 Discover the CALLED Initiative
Free resources, cohort sign-ups, and event info:
👉 https://www.preachingjourney.com

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📥 Sign up at preachingjourney.com

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In this week’s podcast, Fr John sits down with Mike, a longtime campus minister, parish leader, and now diocesan director of the Diocese of Rochester NY, whose story winds through backroads and retreat houses, late-night factory shifts and unexpected holy moments. Together, John and Mike explore what it means to live the Gospel not just as a message, but as a way of being. It’s a conversation about presence, permission, and the quiet courage to follow the Spirit (sometimes a little off-script!) 

Recorded the day after Pentecost, the episode explores the call to live authentically in a world that is increasingly mediated by institutions, systems, and narratives that often obscure our deepest spiritual needs.

🔊 Quote Highlights

“We are most ourselves when we are most with others.” — Mike

“Jesus didn’t say ‘learn this content.’ He said, ‘follow me.’” — Mike

"The medium is the message in the form of Jesus Christ"

🌟 Topics Covered

• Mass Media as Formation: The influence of Marshall McLuhan (“the medium is the message”) and how mass media shapes not just what we learn, but how we live.
• Ivan Illich's critique of institutional religion: education, healthcare, and even the Church as systems that can alienate rather than liberate.
• Faith as Personal and Incarnational: Preaching and proclaiming the Gospel by telling our real stories—speaking from our own wounds and callings.
• Youth and Authenticity: What today’s high school and college students teach us about resisting systems that don’t serve the soul.
• The Divine Feminine and the Holy Spirit: Drawing from Pentecost and the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, the episode explores how nurturing others and being nurtured ourselves is central to Christian life.
• Preaching from Personal Experience: Referencing the CALLED initiative and Sunday to Sunday’s mission, Mike affirms the power of ordinary people sharing their extraordinary moments of grace.
• The Power of Community and Cohorts: Reflections on being part of the first CALLED cohort, and how lay people can become evangelists through community, vulnerability, and formation.

📚 Deeper Dive Resources & References

• Ivan Illich
  • Deschooling Society
  • Rivers North of the Future (interviewed by David Cayley)
  • David Cayley's work on Illich
• Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the message” and “The medium is the massage”
• Wendell Berry: Used in Mike’s campus ministry writing courses
• William Blake: Referenced for his visionary theology and poetic influence
• Daniel Andreev: Russian mystic and author of The Rose of the World
• Rudolf Steiner & Owen Barfield: Philosophers/theologians discussed in relation to imagination and mystery
• Simone Weil, John Milbank, William Cavanaugh: Referenced for further theological engagement
• Jordan Peterson: Noted for contemporary cultural critique and appeal to youth searching for answers and faith, de facto apologist
• First Things: Mike’s article on the Immaculate Conception featured there. 
• Dioceses of Rochester, NY

🔗 Links

🌐 Learn More About the CALLED Initiative
Discover retreats, workshops, courses, and join the digital community:
👉 https://www.preachingjourney.com or www.callcommunity.com

📣 Join the CALLED Newsletter
Receive weekly inspiration, workshop invites, and formation resources.
📧 Subscribe at preachingjourney.

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Also check out the new Work Your Values Podcast from Sunday to Sunday Productions

🎁 Support Our Work
Share this episode, rate and review us, and invite a friend into the CALLED journey.

In this episode of The Attentive Heart, Fr. John Gribowich and guest Ryan Pemberton explore how faith, suffering, and embodiment intersect in the journey toward wholeness. Drawing from personal experience and thinkers like C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton, they reflect on how listening to our wounds, our bodies, and one another opens us to God’s healing love.

✨ Episode Overview

In this deeply moving conversation, Fr. John Gribowich sits down with Paul Fahey, a counselor, catechist, and founder of Third Space, to discuss what it means to stay rooted in Catholicism while lovingly confronting its failures.

From the experience of spiritual abuse to the hope of reconstructing faith, Paul shares how healing, nuance, and honesty are not enemies of the Church—but vital signs of life.

This episode is for anyone who has ever struggled to reconcile their love for the Catholic tradition with the pain caused by instances of institutional brokenness.

👤 Guest Bio: Paul Fahey

Paul Fahey is a limited licensed professional counselor, retreat leader, and catechist who serves those who have been spiritually and sexually abused within the Catholic Church. Through his platform Third Space, Paul offers tools, reflection, and workshops for people who desire to remain Catholic while having the freedom to call out dysfunction. He is a voice of compassionate reform—a true preacher proclaiming the Gospel not just from the pulpit, but from the pew. (as one who yearns for the Church to become who She is—the healing Body of Christ).

🔗 Mentions & Resources

• Paul’s site and podcast: catholicthirdspace.com
  
  
• The Name of God Is Mercy – Pope Francis

  
  

• Fratelli Tutti – Encyclical on human fraternity

  
  

• On Job – Gustavo Gutiérrez

• Learn more about Sunday to Sunday’s CALLED community and programs: preachingjourney.com

💡 Key Themes

• How to walk with those who have been hurt by the Church

  
  

• Why nuanced Catholicism may be the future of evangelization

  
  

• The spiritual power of holding contradiction without coercion

  
  

• Letting go of possessiveness and control in ministry

• Seeing Christ in the wounded and marginalized

What does it really mean to preach with power and presence in today’s world?

In this deeply inspiring episode of The Attentive Heart, host Fr. John Gribowich welcomes Capuchin Father Edward Foley—a prolific scholar, preacher, and teacher whose work fuses theology, neuroscience, and the art of storytelling.

👤 About the Guest: Fr. Edward Foley, OFM Cap.

Fr. Foley is a Capuchin Franciscan, Catholic priest, theologian, and internationally renowned speaker on liturgy and preaching. A recipient of a Lilly Endowment grant for his work on compelling preaching, he teaches at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and has authored numerous books, including Preaching as Paying Attention. His current research explores the intersection of neuroscience and homiletics.

Their conversation explores:

• What makes preaching compelling across generations

• Why "attention" is the foundation of all effective ministry

• How neuroscience is helping shape better homilies

• The evolution of Catholic liturgy and its impact on preaching

• Why we must meet people in their humanity, not just with doctrine

Fr. Foley offers a wise and pastoral voice—showing us how liturgy, storytelling, and lived experience can become deeply transformational, especially in today’s distracted, digital world.

🔍 Themes

• Preaching as Pastoral Presence: The homily isn’t about giving content—it’s about inviting transformation.

• Attention as Ministry: To preach well is to listen deeply—to the community, to culture, to God.

• Science & the Soul: Fr. Foley's current research explores how neuroscience can inform and strengthen homiletics.

• Catholic Identity in a Postmodern World: A moving discussion on engaging “eavesdroppers” at weddings, funerals, and other moments of grace.

• Hope in the Next Generation: Why Gen Z may be the spiritual catalyst we’ve been waiting for.

🔗 Resources & Mentions

• Learn more about CALLED and SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter at: preachingjourney.com
  
  
• Follow Sunday to Sunday on Instagram & Facebook

• Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

• Communities of women religious like the Sisters of Victory

🕊 Final Reflection

“I don’t want to start with scripture—I want to start with the human condition. That’s where Christ enters.” — Fr. Edward Foley

Empowering the Next Generation of Preachers

This week on the Attentive Heart Podcast, host Fr. John Gribowich sits down with Susan McGurgan, a high school educator, theologian, and spiritual formation leader. They unpack what it means to train teenagers to tell their faith stories—and why that matters more than ever in a noisy, digital-first world.

Their conversation dives into:

• How storytelling helps teens find their voice

• The neuroscience of preaching and narrative memory

• Why Eucharistic adoration is the antidote to digital distraction

• The evolving meaning of “evangelization” in a postmodern age

• Susan’s own powerful moment of personal transformation

Whether you're a teacher, parent, youth minister, or just someone curious about how to reach young people with authenticity and love—this episode offers deep inspiration and actionable insight.

 About the Guest: Susan McGurgan

Susan is a spiritual educator and researcher who bridges neuroscience, youth formation, and Catholic preaching. A recipient of the Lilly Endowment Compelling Preaching Grant, she works closely with high school students to help them explore and share their faith through lived testimony. Susan's work blends tradition with innovation—offering new ways for young people to encounter Christ in the everyday.

🔗 Resources & Mentions

• Learn more about CALLED and SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter: preachingjourney.com
• Follow Sunday to Sunday on Instagram & Facebook for updates
• Pope Francis's autobiography Hope 
  
  

Imagine this...our wounds and our suffering are so important that God became one with them in the person of Jesus Christ.
If that is true, then our stories–from the brightest moments to the darkest–suddenly matter more than we ever imagined. They become parables that only we can tell.

In this special episode, host Father John, program director of CALLED, is joined by guests Kathy Lorentz (CALLED Curriculum Team), David Plisky, (DeSales Media/CALLED Alumni) and Jesse Manibusan, (professional musician and CALLED Special Facilitator) to discuss the upcoming Attentive Heart Retreat this October 10-13, 2024 at Thomas Berry Place, Queens NY.  At this inaugural retreat, attendees will have a chance to to pause, journey inward, and bravely embrace the wounds, victories and joys that may very well fill the chapters of a story YOU are meant to share.  A few spots are still available for resident and local commuters: REGISTER HERE.  For details on the concert (open to the public by RSVP) contact us at [email protected].

For this special podcast edition we feature the music of guest Jesse Manibusan whose incredible faith filled music can be found at https://jessemanibusan.com/music . 

In this week's episode Father John meets with his good friend and colleague Father O'Shea, a priest of the three hundred year old order the Passionists. Together they discuss the state of how we "church" in the twentieth century and how they intend to launch a new program called CALLED to help lay people, seminarians, nuns, priests - you name it- find time in our busy lives to find time for God in our lives, to recognized our lives as the homily it is, and to invite listeners to join the CALLED community and register for the CALLED program for this Fall and next Spring!

TO REGISTER FOR CALLED: More about Called!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CALLED PROGRAM

Michael McCord is a Buddhist priest based at the San Francisco Zen Center.  In this conversation, Michael and John discuss the vocational call to priesthood, the similarities found within the Christian and Buddhist mystical traditions, and how to best address the “shadow side” in one’s life.  

In this episode, John talks with Julie Larkin, the founder and executive director of Girl Talk, an organization committed to walking with high school and college-age female students who may be experiencing loneliness and the lack of self-worth.  Based on personal experience and storytelling, Julie and the Girl Talk team offer hope to those struggling in an age of mental and emotional anxiety.