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  • When people hear about the undergraduate theology program at the University of Notre Dame they are genuinely astonished. They had no idea that that many students were choosing to study theology. Each year, the number of students grows. What is going on? Why are students so interested? What does this tell us about evangelization, and hope for the Church, in the Church?

    My guest today is my friend and colleague, Professor Anthony Pagliarini, who is the director of the undergraduate theology program at Notre Dame. In this capacity, not only does he teach hundreds of students annually in the classroom, he also meets with, learns from, and advises all the students who declare theology majors or minors at Notre Dame. He’ll help us learn about what is going on in Notre Dame’s theology program and why it is happening.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Notre Dame Theology Department website“What happened to these Catholic college students after they took a required theology course,” article in Aleteia by Leonard DeLorenzo“Encouraging students to ‘Take a Second Look’ at Notre Dame,” about a new initiative with Notre Dame theology to re-propose the Catholic faith

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • For years now, modern-day sexual ethics has held that “anything goes” when it comes to sex—as long as everyone says yes, and does so enthusiastically. So why, even when consent has been ascertained, are so many sexual experiences filled with frustration and disappointment, even shame?

    The truth is that the rules that make up today’s consent-only sexual code may actually be the cause of the sexual malaise—not the solution. In Rethinking Sex, reporter Christine Emba shows how consent is a good ethical floor but a terrible ceiling. She spells out the cultural, historical, and psychological forces that have warped the idea of sex, what is permitted, and what is considered “safe.”

    Reaching back to the wisdom of thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Andrea Dworkin, and drawing from sociological studies, interviews with college students, and poignant examples from her own life, Emba calls for a more humane philosophy, one that starts with consent but accounts for the very real emotional, mental, social, and spiritual implications of sex.

    With a target audience that clearly includes sexually active young adults, Emba tries to help us imagine what it means to will the good of others and thereby discover greater affirmation and fulfillment.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine Emba“In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, with J.P. DeGance,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Letter to a Young Catholic: How to have sex,” article by Leonard J. DeLorenzo in Our Sunday Visitor“The End of Friendship, with Jennifer Senior,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

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  • Flying is impossible. Well, not strictly impossible, because we fly in airplanes and hot air balloons, but you know what I mean: human beings can’t fly. It’s impossible.

    Except here’s the thing: a good number of people –– hundreds, maybe thousands –– have sworn, upon penalty of damnation, that they have witnessed people flying, or at least levitating. People like Teresa of Avila and Joseph of Cupertino. About saints like these, a nearly overwhelming number of testimonies say the same thing over and over: “they flew”.

    If flying is impossible, then the history of saints who flew is a history of the impossible. And that is the book my guest wrote. The book is They Flew: A History of the Impossible. The author and my guest is the esteemed scholar Dr. Carlos Eire, the T. L. Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University.

    Professor Eire joined us at the University of Notre Dame to deliver a lecture in our Saturdays with the Saints series, and a link to the recording of that lecture is included in this episode’s show notes.

    Follow-up Resources:

    They Flew: A History of the Impossible, by Carlos EireSaturdays with the Saints lecture.“The Trouble with Levitation and Bilocation,” by Carlos Eire, journal article in Church Life Journal

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Notre Dame professors Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson join me today to talk about Pope Francis’s new encyclical, Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. This is the second of two conversations on the encyclical that we are featuring on Church Life Today, each with faculty colleagues of mine from the McGrath Institute for Church Life. In this episode, we will talk about poetry and symbolism, artificial intelligence and algorithms, the importance of memory, the human person as a living union, and more.

    Abigail Favale is Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame, where her academic expertise brings her to the intersection of theology, literature, and women’s studies.

    Brett Robinson is Associate Director of Outreach and Associate Professor of the Practice in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He leads a number of initiatives in our institute, especially ones related to Catholic media studies.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus ChristPart 1 of the conversation on the new encyclical, with Melissa Moschella and Joshua McManaway, podcast episode via Church Life Today“The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical,” by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay in Church Life Journal “Some Human Beings Carry Remnants of Other Human Beings in Their Bodies,” by Kristin Collier, essay in Church Life JournalOn the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Sisters of Carmel

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Notre Dame professors Melissa Moschella and Joshua McManaway join me today to talk about Pope Francis’s new encyclical, Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. The encyclical is a call to renew our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, thereby, to become more fully, more completely, more authentically human, especially in our love for God and love of neighbor. This conversation is the first of two that we will host on our show with my faculty colleagues in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, each of whom has a distinct area of expertise.

    Melissa Moschella is the newest member of our McGrath Institute for Church Life faculty, where she is Professor of the Practice. She is a philosopher whose work spans the fields of ethics, political philosophy, and law, as well as natural law theory, biomedical ethics, and the family.

    Josh McManaway has joined me on several episodes before. He is Assistant Professor of the Practice in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where he is also the program director of the Savoring the Mystery preaching program, and academic director of the “Take a Second Look” initiative, which helps young adults rediscover the beauty and riches of Catholicism. A theologian, Josh is an expert on the Early Church and is currently finishing up a book on the Apostles’ Creed.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ"The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical," by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay in Church Life Journal“Praying into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with Fr. Joe Laramie,” podcast episode via Church Life Today Five-part series on the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Leonard DeLorenzo, via Our Sunday VisitorPart 1: “Contemplating the Mysteries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”Part 2: “Five Ways to Foster Devotion...”Part 3: “How to Conform to the Love of Jesus”Part 4: “Meet the Saints Devoted to...”Part 5: “What Is Behind the Theology of the Sacred Heart?”“Are Jansenists Among Us?” by Sean Blanchard in Church Life JournalOn the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Sisters of Carmel

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • In her 1936 book, The Secret of Childhood, Maria Montessori writes that “We must wake up to the great reality that children have a psychic life whose delicate manifestations escape notice and whose pattern of activity can be unconsciously disrupted by adults.” The approach to education that Montessori established sought to remove such unnecessary disruptions while cultivating a fruitful environment wherein children could discover the world, grow toward the maturation of their God-given capacities, and experience the wonder and responsibility of real freedom.

    Montessori schools have since been established all across the United States and indeed across the world, including here in my own hometown of South Bend, Indiana. The conversation on our episode today will focus on one such school, Saint Joseph Montessori, which is in fact a Catholic Montessori school for children ages 2.5 to 6.

    My guest is Dr. Elizabeth Capdevielle, who is a board member of Saint Joseph Montessori, and who, as a trained Montessori educator, will help us learn more about the Montessori approach, the anthropological underpinnings of this education, and the correspondence of Montessori education to a Catholic vision of the world and the human person.

    In addition to serving on the board at Saint Joseph Montessori, Beth is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches in the University Writing Program.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Saint Joseph Montessori, South Bend, IN“Joy and Parenting,” by Claire Fyrvquist, Co-founder of St. Joseph Montessori, journal article in Church Life JournalThe Secret of Childhood, by Maria MontessoriThe Absorbent Mind: A Classic Education and Child Development for Educators and Parents, by Maria Montessori“Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, with Mary Mirrione,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    The episode is sponsored by Saints Mary’s Press, smp.org/bibles.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • The Vigil Project is a nonprofit Catholic apostolate and collective of musical artists dedicated to leading people to an encounter with God through music. Their work stretches from the liturgy to everyday life, from Sunday worship and Feast Days to Tuesday afternoons waiting in a carpool line. Their goal is to offer and support excellence and reverence in music in all of these moments. The Vigil Project has ten albums available, they create communities for Catholic musicians, and they offer retreats and courses for musicians and music leaders.

    Today the Vigil Project’s Director of Mission Advancement joins me to talk about the work of their apostolate and the people they serve. Andrew Goldstein is himself a Catholic musician who, for ten years, served as a church music director. Before coming to the Vigil Project, he co-founded Seattle’s critically acclaimed chamber music series, Emerald City Music. He has also led chamber music festivals, and worked to guide orchestras and opera houses.

    After our conversation today, stick around till the very end of this episode so you can hear one of the devotional songs that Andrew shared with us from The Vigil Project, one which appears on their album “True Presence.”

    Follow-up Resources:

    Visit The Vigil Project online at thevigilproject.com.The Vigil Project’s monthly newsletter is available at thevigilproject.com/subscribeLearn about the Catholic Musician Community at catholicmusician.org.The song at the end of this episode comes from the album, “True Presence.” Stream that album on any service, here. Their full catalog of music is available at thevigilproject.com/listenLearn more about the Catholic Musician Retreat at thevigilproject.com/catholic-musician-retreatLearn more about the Meaning of Music film project at thevigilproject.com/meaningofmusic

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • College students really love The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. Both Josh McManaway and I have taught this book in undergraduate courses, with great success. Josh has used this book in a theology course on “Conversion,” and I have used it in a course on “The Catholic Imagination.” Since Josh and I really enjoyed creating an episode earlier this year about C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, we wanted to create this episode about another book we both love, and our students love, too. So here’s our discussion on The End of the Affair.

    Follow-up Resources:

    “C.S. Lewis’s ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Quantity and the Politics of Prayer,” by Chase Padusniak, essay via Church Life Journal (dealing, in part, with The End of the Affair)

    The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), which Josh and Lenny cite in this episode.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Purpose and meaning, healing and growth, community and fellowship—these values have traditionally been found in church. Though they are leaving the pews in droves, young adults are still seeking these spiritual benefits. Based on five years of qualitative and quantitative research,Defiant Hope, Active Love offers practical recommendations for making faith communities more hospitable to the next generation. The editor of the book and lead researcher in the project joins me today to talk about his team’s findings and where to go from here.

    Jeff Keuss is a professor of Christian ministry, theology, and culture at Seattle Pacific University, where he also previously served as director of the University Scholars Honors Program and associate dean of graduate studies for the seminary.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Defiant Hope, Active Love: What Young Adults Are Seeking in Places of Work, Faith, and Community, edited by Jeff KeussPivot NW Research, where you can find more about the study, the book, and additional resources.“In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Rethinking Work, with Paul Blaschko,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationship, with J.P. De Gance,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the most current social science research discovered not some new and unheard-of things but rather ancient and even biblical truths? The nonprofit organization Communio is reporting that this is indeed what is happening. Through their Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, they have found that family structure is the most important indicator for the religious commitment of those raised in that home. Alongside that, of course, we regularly find people who do better in school, who are more successful in work, who are healthier, and who can manage relationships better on their own. It is as if we humans were created for stable, committed relationships and called to procreate from this marital commitment.

    J.P. De Gance, the founder and president of Communio, joins me today to discuss the work he and his team have been doing and how their work can help equip churches to evangelize through healthy relationships and marriage. J.P. is also the co-author of the book, Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America. You can find out more about J.P. and Communio at their website, communio.org.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationship from CommunioEndgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America by John Van Epp and J.P. De Gance.“The State of the Family in America, with Brad Wilcox,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • “The call to parenting will never be an easy one. To have your heart walk around outside your body means that your heart will be bumped and bruised along the way. It is not a vocation to be pursued in isolation. What parents need is a network of support, a village.” So begins the epilogue of Holly Taylor Coolman’s new book, Parenting: The Complex and Beautiful Vocation of Raising Children. What she presents in her wise, practical, and spiritually enriching work is a vision for cherishing children as a gift and guest. To do this, we must learn how to depend on and draw life from others, while creating a community where we share in the responsibility for one another’s wellbeing. Holly joins me today to talk about this call to parenting, the ongoing discernment necessary for responding to that call, and the challenges and blessings of raising children and caring for other peoples’ children in today’s day and age.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Parenting: The Complex and Beautiful Vocation of Raising Children, by Holly Taylor Coolman.“The Church’s Call to Foster Care, with Holly Taylor Coolman,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.“Amid Plagues: The Church’s Call to Foster Care and More,” by Holly Taylor Coolman, article in Church Life Journal.“The Invention of Parenting,” by Holly Taylor Coolman, article in Church Life Journal.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • In this special episode, we share nine practical tips for how to prioritize faith when you go off to college. This is different than just trying to “keep your faith,” which is itself possibly a losing proposition. Rather than trying to “keep” something you are afraid of losing, focus on stretching, enriching, and building on what you already have, just like you stretch, enrich, and build on what you learned in high school classes when you go into college classes.

    While this episode is directed specifically to young adults who may be going off to college (either for the first time or returning for a new year), it is also beneficial for young adults who are doing something other than college, or for not-so-young-adults who live in the world in other ways.

    Follow-up Resources:

    “Nine Ways to Kickstart Your Faith in College,” by Leonard DeLorenzo. This is the essay on which this episode is built, which also includes interviews with college students and alums.In Search of a Full Life: A Spiritual and Practical Guide, by Leonard DeLorenzo. “Forming an Intentional College Culture, with Joe Wurtz,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.“Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be given to you besides.” When the Lord speaks to his disciples about anxieties, about busyness, about the hustle and bustle of the world, he does not lead them to abandon everything and run away; rather, he leads them to put the first thing first, and allow everything to come into the proper place thereafter. The life of integration, of wholeness, indeed of true holiness is rooted in putting God first and giving Him the authority to form you, guide you, and send you on mission. The monastic tradition has long offered pathways to this ordered, harmonious, rightly prioritized life, building communities where God is pursued first and in all things, while work and play and rest and learning and daily needs are organized with this first and truly necessary thing. But for those of us who do not enter monastic life, who live in the midst of the world with worldly anxieties and busyness and the hustle and bustle, we might think ourselves cut off from that wisdom.

    Enter my guest today: John Cannon. He knows his way around the world, but he was significantly and definitively formed in a Carmelite monastery, where he was a monk for seven years. His mission now is to bring the order and harmony of the monastery, the fruits of that integrated life lived for and with the Lord, into the world. In particular, he serves and works with Catholic CEOs, founders, and investors to help them grow their ventures and their faith. He also launched Monk Mindset, which offers all of us, regardless of our jobs or stations in life, the opportunity to incorporate the simplicity, order, and harmony of the monastic life into our everyday lives.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Learn about SENT Ventures, which helps you lead your business with the collective wisdom of a faith-aligned community.Find information about the SENT Summit 2024, which will take place September 3–6, 2024, in Dallas-Fort Worth.Visit Monk Mindset, where you can sign up for a weekly newsletter, find a guide for building your daily and weekly schedule in alignment with monastic wisdom, and begin to seek greater order, harmony, and simplicity.“Monastic Life and Human Ecology, with Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“You Gotta Confront Who You Are!” by Travis Lacy, article in Church Life Journal

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit” (John 15:5).

    Disciples are Christ’s branches. We grow from him. His life courses through us. The fruit we bear is the sign of his love.

    As the Eucharistic Revival in the United States reaches its culmination this summer, we at Notre Dame are marking the occasion in a special way, with the performance of an original, three-act musical called “Behold God’s Love.” The first of the three acts is “Root”, which draw us into the Book of Exodus, where we encounter the Passover and the Manna in the Desert. The second act is “Vine,” which focuses on the Last Supper and Jesus’ meal ministry. And the third act is “Branches,” where we join the early Christian community at Corinth to receive the Eucharistic teaching and gift.

    Today, the creator and composer of this new musical joins me to talk about what we can expect and how we will benefit, in our faith and reverence, from enjoying this work of art. Carolyn Pirtle is Program Director of the Center for Liturgy, here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. She and her cast are preparing this musical now, which will be performed twice on July 6, 2024, both at 1pm and at 7pm in the O’Laughlin Auditorium at Saint Mary’s College. It is a free but ticketed event, and you can get your tickets before they run out at the link in our show notes.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Find more information about and tickets for “Behold God’s Love” “Eucharistic Beliefs among Adult Catholics, with Tim O’Malley,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Preparing for First Communion, Part 2: The Passover and the Last Supper,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement, with Jem Sullivan,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“The Passion, with J.J. Wright,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    This episode is sponsored by Catholic Charities USA. Help Catholic Charities serve your neighbors in need. Join us at www.WeAreThere.US

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • The Lord gives us what we cannot make or do for ourselves. Our first task in life is to receive. And from what we receive, we are to be changed. The mystery of the Eucharist abides in that exchange: receiving, becoming.

    In a new book titled Eucharist: The Real Presence of Christ, my longtime friend Tania Geist presents twelve substantive Eucharistic reflections that help small groups discover, discuss, prepare for, and respond to the gift and mission of the Eucharist. Our conversation today will touch on the meaning of the Eucharist, the gift of peace, God sustaining us with simplicity and joy, and the movement from possessiveness to gratitude.

    About today's guest: Tania M. Geist has worked as an editor and writer of Catholic books, newspapers, journals, and other media. Her reflections in these pages have been especially shaped by her time studying theology and philosophy at Blackfriars of Oxford University; her years translating and editing Pope Benedict XVI’s preaching for L’Osservatore Romano newspaper inside Vatican City, and the decade during which her young family was part of the community at the University of Notre Dame. There, she received a master’s degree in systematic theology and served as an editor for Church Life Journal.

    Geist currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island, with her scripture-scholar husband and their four spunky young children. As a small business owner, she runs Book Pocket, LLC, which provides editorial and audio event services.


    Follow-up Resources:

    Eucharist: The Real Presence of Christ by Tania Geist“The Folly of Mine” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal“Matter Matters: One the Need for a Pastoral Theology of Radical Particularity” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal“Motherhood and the Paschal Mystery” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal“Eucharist Beliefs Among Adult Catholics, with Tim O’Malley,” podcast episode on Church Life Today“Augustine on the Eucharist, with Elizabeth Klein,” podcast episode on Church Life Today

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Jessica Bross helps people find their stories, craft their stories, and tell their stories. In fact, she usually writes out other people’s stories in their own voice. Jessica ghostwrites memoirs. She listens to people, she listens more, she helps them find the desire that shapes a story or theme in their lives, then she writes that story for them and with them, creating a memoir that contains that story for themselves and others. You could say that she is in the business of helping people grasp and communicate the meaning, uniqueness, and importance of their own lives’ stories.

    Jessica is the founder and owner of Cider Spoons Stories, an Austin-based company that specializes in ghostwriting, editing, teaching, and coaching. Today Jessica joins me to talk about the memoir writing process, the impact it has on the memoirist, her skill and responsibilities as the ghostwriter, and the effect deep listening can have for all of us.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Cider Spoons Stories online at ciderspoonstories.com.Follow Jessica Bross on LinkedIn

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • It’s hard—and getting harder—to discern the proper relationship between our Catholic faith and American political life. Perhaps it is time to reset the framework for how we engage politics as Catholics, even by broadening our understanding of our duty to public life beyond merely politics. In his new book, Citizens Yet Strangers, Kenneth Craycraft challenges Catholics to move away from individual liberal impulses of American political identity. He seeks to set out a vision for how we orient our moral and civic lives based on the dignity of the human person, through the practices of solidarity and subsidiarity, and toward a true and worthy vision of the common good.

    Kenneth Craycraft is the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology, the seminary for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He writes a monthly syndicated column for OSV News, a weekly column for Our Sunday Visitor (“Grace is Everywhere”), and monthly columns for The Catholic Telegraph and the U.K.-based Catholic Herald. Dr. Craycraft is also the author of The American Myth of Religious Freedom. He is a licensed attorney in Ohio, who holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Citizens Yet Stranger: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America (OSV, 2024), by Kenneth Craycraft“‘Say my name’: Self-Deception, Transparency, and Redemption in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Ken Craycraft,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • You can’t take a souvenir from Hell into Heaven; likewise, you can’t fit the realities of Heaven into Hell. That is Gospel truth for C. S. Lewis, especially as he imagines the separation between Heaven and Hell, vice and virtue, corrupt loves and the fullness of joy in his brief, brilliant eschatological novel, The Great Divorce.

    As we make the turn from Lent and Passion Week to the glory of Easter, Josh McManaway returns to the program to share a conversation with Leonard DeLorenzo about a book they both love.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Learn more about The Inklings Project, a new intercollegiate initiative that invites people to pursue meaning and joy by entering the world of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings at inklingsproject.org.“Giving Up Descartes for Lent,” by Josh McManaway, essay in Church Life JournalThe Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis, edited by Leonard J. DeLorenzo (Ignatius Press, 2022)

    This episode is sponsored by the NCEA: Find out more about NCEA Rise at www.ncearise.org

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Because of Christ, the spiritual life is practical, and the practical life is spiritual. The Incarnation guarantees that. In this special episode, Leonard DeLorenzo shares some of the fruits of his newly published work, In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide. This book is especially well suited for young adults, perhaps upon Confirmation or graduation from high school or college. It also bears promise for those who are unsure about their spiritual life, who are seeking direction and bearings. It is also useful for not-so-young-anymore-adults, who are either involved in mentoring younger people, or who are looking for new bearings or fresh perspectives for their own lives.

    Follow-up Resources:

    In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide (OSV 2024) by Leonard DeLorenzo

    This episode is sponsored by Saint Meinrad Seminary.
    Register for the Saint Meinrad Summer Chant Workshop and find other workshops, concerts, and programs at the Institute for Sacred Music by scrolling down under “Events” at www.saintmeinrad.edu/ism.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

  • Suffering is universal. But how do we understand suffering? Does it have meaning? Can it have meaning? And most of all, what is the meaning of suffering in Christian life? Questions like these inform the work of my guest today, Dr. Mark Giszczak, author of the new book Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. Dr. Giszczak is Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, where he teaches a course on the Theology of Suffering that gave rise to this new book. In our discussion today we will talk about whether and how God suffers, how Christians might suffer well, obstacles to suffering well, and the importance of confronting rather than perpetually running from death.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know, by Mark GisczakSalvici Doloris, Apostolic Letter by John Paul II“The Mystery of Love and the Redemption of Suffering,” by Lorenzo Albacete, essay in Church Life Journal

    This episode is sponsored by Saint Meinrad Seminary: Register for the Saint Meinrad Summer Chant Workshop and find other workshops, concerts, and programs at the Institute for Sacred Music by scrolling down under “Events” at www.saintmeinrad.edu/ism.

    Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.