To the Heights

It's here!!! Olivia had the amazing opportunity to record an episode live at this year's FOCUS conference in Phoenix, #SLS20. Fr. Cassidy Stinson (@TheHappyPriest) and Olivia sat down to chat in the Media Feed–– a turquoise Volkswagen van hollowed out into a podcast studio. They asked on social media for your questions about consuming media as a Catholic and how to evangelize using media.

This epsiode is sure to be a favorite. Tune in for lots of Pauline love, #goats, thoughts on using social media as Catholics, how to pick a patron, what the deal is with gluten-free Catholics, Catholic Twitter shoutouts, talk of St. Therese, and so much more. Enjoy the first To the Heights episode recorded with a live audience!

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Welcome back & happy New Year, To the Heights friends! Season 2 is here, and we're kicking it off with CatholicTV's own Director of Social Media and Marketing, Kelsey Cronin. Without her this podcast would not be a podcast–– and neither would any of CatholicTV's new podcasts on our new podcast platform, which launched today: Grexly. Go check out grexly.com for more of this podcast and seven others, including our podcast friend Tommy Tighe's St. Dympha's Playbook on Catholicism and mental health. Kelsey and Olivia chat about the idea behind the name Grexly, why it started, and the details of each of the 8 podcasts.

In this episode, Olivia asks Kelsey questions from young Catholic women on the transition from college to the adult working world as a young adult Catholic. They touch upon how working a 9-to-5 can change your faith life, the gift of working somewhere with daily Mass, how a BU Catholic Center sticker changed things for her in college, and how to juggle being faihtful in a secular world.

No vague answers in this episode! We're answering the big questions on being a young adult Catholic in the 21st century.

Links:

What did you take away from this episode with Kelsey's story of reaching to the heights? Let us know at @ToTheHeightsCTV!

P.S. If you're at #SLS20, come listen to us record live at the Media Feed Booth tomorrow, Jan 2, at 5:30PM! And if not, tune into that episode next Monday morning. Keep on reaching to the heights!

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Welcome back, To the Heights friends! We have another in-between season special epsiode–– and this time, it's #AskOliviaTTH! Listeners sent in questions via emails, DMs, Twitter, and Instagram throughout Season 1 and in response to a social media ask, and Olivia and our lovely Director of Marketing & Social Media, Kelsey, sat down to answer the questions.

Listen in to hear Olivia's thoughts on almond butter, liturgy, how the podcast has impacted her faith life, her favorite things to do in Adoration, what she would want to be the patron saint of, and lots of silly stories from Olivia's life!

Links:

-CTV blink episode on using talents: https://youtu.be/TZeLEiF46BI

-A Rite of Passage, a story of baptism in the early Church: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JeY8JB24IKdPmGRJkIDkEBaWjBf0kdrr/view?usp=sharing

-https://www.rootsandshoots.org/projects-landing/

Have any other questions? Let us know @ToTheHeightsCTV! See you Jan. 1 with Season 2, and if you're at #SLS20, we'll see you at our recording at 5:30pm on Jan 2!

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In this in-between season special, we sit down to talk with Karen Kiefer, director of Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center. Olivia and Karen chat about her role in the C21 Center, how she made it back to working at BC after graduating, her faith journey, and what she’s working on now, bringing faith to a college campus and beyond.

Lots of exciting announcements in this episode, so here they all are!

That’s all we have for now, but we hope you enjoy this super special and heartfelt episode with Karen Kiefer. Talk to you soon!

What did you take away from listening to Karen’s story of reaching to the heights? Let us know @ToTheHeightsCTV!

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It’s the last episode of season 1, and we certainly have a special guest in store! So far this season we’ve heard from youth ministers, priests, pro-life speakers, youth activists–– and in this episode we have another beautiful religious sister to share with you.  Meet Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart.

Often called the “Mother Teresa of Boston,” our guest today is a beloved and well-known face in the Boston Catholic community.  She is the Mother Servant of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, an eight-year-old order in Quincy, MA which Mother Olga founded with Cardinal Seán O’Malley.

Mother Olga was raised in Iraq in the Assyrian Church of the East, and became a religious sister after seeing the devastation in her home country.  She tended to the abandoned, orphaned, and dying. Eventually she came to the United States, became a Roman Catholic sister, was a beloved campus minister at Boston University, and now leads her sisters in caring for the poor and vulnerable of Boston. 

She is a light to this world through her “yes” to the Lord, and I couldn't stop smiling our whole conversation–– if you want a smile and if you want some advice about how to evangelize in the real world, this is it. Evangelize with that smile.

Let us know what you took away from this conversation @TotheHeightsCTV! Thank you, Mother Olga!

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Meet Fr. Sinisa Ubiparipovic and Fr. Matthew Conley. Hobbies include bringing teens to Christ and riding donkeys. 

In this ninth episode of season 1 of the To the Heigths podcast, we are so excited to introduce you to this dyanmic duo.  Throughout season 1, listeners may have noted that these two priestly friends have been mentioned several times: Mickayla is Fr. Sinisa’s youth minister, Sarah Ryan has been on retreat with them, and Gavin & Max are some of their core youth ministry leaders. 

Olivia sits down with them in a humorous and encouraging dialogue to chat about their real vocation stories, how their youth minsitry programs got where they are now, and the real deal on becoming saints. 

Let us know what you took away from this conversation @TotheHeightsCTV! Thank you, Fr. Sinisa & Fr. Matthew!

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We’re eight episodes into the first ever season of To the Heights!  In this eighth episode, we talk to our furthest away guest--- 4,094.215 miles away in Rome to be exact. 

Fr. Damian Ference is a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland, studying for his doctorate in philosophy in Rome.  He recently published his first book, “The Strangeness of Truth: Vibrant Faith in a Dark World” with Pauline Books & Media earlier this year.  He writes for Bishop Barron’s Word On Fire, runs a summer academy for teens, teaches, and is an avid lover of Flannery O’Connor and Bruce Springsteen. 

Fr. Damian and Olivia chat over the phone about his vocation, priestly anniversaries, why we study philosophy, AP Catholicism, suffering, prayer, and the inner workings of Catholic academia. 

Let us know what you learned @ToTheHeightsCTV! Thank you, Fr. Damian, and thank you for tuning in! 

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Every Tuesday, our host Olivia spends her evenings––and sometimes into the late night and early morning–– with this special crew.  

Ever wonder what the process of publishing a newspaper is like? In this seventh episode, we hear from members of Boston College’s Catholic newspaper, The Torch, staff including Editor-in-Chief Adriana Watkins,World News Editor Patrick Stallwood, former Editor-in-Chief Gjergi Evangelli, and our host and Campus News Editor Olivia Colombo.

Tune in to hear how the paper goes from ideas to print, our favorite articles, tips for staying Catholic on campus, our vision for the purpose of a Catholic newspaper…. and who the bishop of the Moon is?

Let us know what you think @TotheHeightsCTV! What did you take away from listening to the inner-working of a Catholic newspaper staff? And be sure to check out The Torch and stay up to date with their newsletter: thetorchbc.com.

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This sixth episode is bound to be a favorite! This week we get to sit down with Tommy Tighe & Steve the Missionary, #CatholicTwitter friends and co-hosts of CatholicTV’s hit show Repent & Submit. Tommy (@theghissilent) is a dad and a marriage and family therapist, and Steve (@stevemissionary) is a Youtuber/new evangelization Jedi— and they stopped by the To the Heights studio while they were in town recording their second season of Repent & Submit.

Tune in to hear how they survived college as Catholics, the inside scoop on having a CatholicTV show, and so much more.

Let us know what you think of this super fun episode on @TotheHeightsCTV social media! Thank you, Tommy and Steve!

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In this fifth episode, and one of Olivia’s all-time favorites episodes, we get to hear from *the* Sr. Bethany of the Daughters of St. Paul.  Sr. Bethany, a young media nun living in Alexandria, Virgina, discusses her vocation story, what formation in the Daughters of St. Paul looks like, Catholic Twitter, and her daily life, joys, and struggles of being a sister.

Tune in for such a sweet conversation about having joyful love of God, as well as discussion on goats, Christmas concerts, and McDonald’s French fries. Oh, and! Olivia reveals how Sr. Bethany was one of the reasons the To the Heights podcast was started.

Let us know what you thought of this super special episode @ToTheHeightsCTV! Thank you, Sr. Bethany!

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