Afleveringen

  • Habemus Papam, with John Cavadini

    Habemus Papam, with John Cavadini

    · Church Life Today

    “Habemus Papam.” We have a pope. We have a papa. We have a father.

    The announcement of a new pope is a startlingly joyous and even spellbinding moment, when not just the faithful but also many who seemingly have no interest in the Church stop and cheer together. What is being proclaimed? What is the significance of the pope for the Church and, through the Church, for the world? What are we all struck by when the announcement echoes through the arms of St. Peter’s square to every corner of the world?

    John Cavadini joins me today to talk about the announcement of the election of Pope Leo XIV. We hope this conversation offers you something a little different than what the typical news commentary on this historic occasion offers.

    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.

  • Public Relations for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers, with Christie Kleinmann

    Public Relations for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers, with Christie Kleinmann

    · Church Life Today

    Have you ever thought about becoming a brand expert for C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien? On the one hand, these seem like authors who need no introduction. On the other hand, how many people today really know the work of these towering 20th Century authors, beyond what made its way onto the silver screen? And what about one of the authors closely associated with them – Dorothy Sayers – who is far from well known in the general public but whose work is of similar creative and literary quality with her more famous friends and interlocutors?

    Maybe you haven’t ever thought about launching a public relations campaign for one of these authors for the sake of a modern audience of young adults, but my guest today has. She is Christie Kleinmann, Professor of Public Relations at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Professor Kleinmann is one of a dozen fellows in our second annual cohort of the Inklings Project, run out of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Along with the other eleven fellows who come from colleges and universities across the United States and in four foreign countries, Professor Kleinmann developed and offered a new course this spring that draws the work of the Inklings into her own area of expertise: strategic public relations. The students in her course were divided into three semester-long groups, which each took as their “clients” one of these three Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien, and Sayers.

    Today, Professor Kleinmann joins me to talk about the project of her course, the relevance of the Inklings, and the creativity of her students.

    This is the first of a two-episode set. The second episode will feature three of Professor Kleinmann’s students, one from each of the three Inklings groups.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Learn more about The Inklings Project. Interested in applying as a fellow for 2026–26? Check out the call for applications here (due July 1, 2025). Check out the Dorothy Sayers Instagram account from the Sayers group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.Check out the C. S. Lewis Instagram account from the Lewis group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.Check out the J. R. R. Tolkien Instagram account from the Tolkien group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.Find syllabi from Inklings Project fellows in our free syllabus repository.

    Read and subscribe to the “Inklings Quarterly.”

    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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  • The Evangelizing Brilliance and Errors of Matteo Ricci, with Anthony Clark

    The Evangelizing Brilliance and Errors of Matteo Ricci, with Anthony Clark

    · Church Life Today

    When we say the name “God”, have we assumed too quickly that we know what we mean? We use that word quite regularly, without much strain or prolonged consideration, as if the meaning of the word were self-evident. But what if you had to explain – indeed, translate – the word “God” into a language that had no such concept? That would force you, I think, to really reckon with what you mean and what you assume when you use that word: the name, “God”.

    That is not merely an intellectual exercise; that was in fact the experience of the 16th and 17th Century Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci. His primary mission was to China, where he strove to bring and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who often had not only a different language but also a different imaginary landscape than that which European Christians were accustomed to.

    In our episode today, the eminent scholar of the Sino-Western Exchange, Professor Anthony Clark, talks with me about Matteo Ricci, evangelization, inculturation, and the legacy of dialogue. Anthony Clark is Professor of Chinese History at Whitworth University, where he also holds the Edward B. Lindaman Endowed Chair, and he directs the Oxford Lewis-Tolkien Program, the Rome History and Culture Program, the area of Asian Studies, and the Study in China Program. He joins me today, in studio, while visiting Notre Dame to deliver a lecture titled “In the Footsteps of Dialogue: China and the Legacy of Matteo Ricci.”

    Follow-up Resources:

    Find out more about Professor Anthony Clark at his website: https://anthonyeclark.squarespace.com/China's Saints: Catholic Martyrdom During the Qing (1644–1911), by Anthony Clark“China’s Religious Awakening after Mao,” by Ian Johnson, article in Church Life Journal“Religion in China, with Ian Johnson,” 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.

  • Healing Wounds, with Bishop Erik Varden

    Healing Wounds, with Bishop Erik Varden

    · Church Life Today

    By his wounds. His wounds are the source of healing. Our wounds are the wounds that are healed by his wounds. Our wounds may even become the source of healing for others because we have been healed by his wounds. What an unimaginable mystery. Wounds heal. Healing from wounds. Have we considered the magnificence or the near-unbelievability of this reality?

    Let’s put that question another way: “By what means may I understand and experience Christ’s wounds not just in juridical terms, as the providential means by which God chose to ‘take away’ sin, but as the living source of a remedy by which sin is cured and humanity’s wounds, my wounds, are healed?” By what means may I understand and experience that? Indeed, that is the central question in the book my guest today has authored. The book is Healing Wounds, and the author is Bishop Erik Varden, a Cistercian monk who is bishop of Trondheim, Norway.

    In addition to Healing Wounds, Bishop Varden is author of other works like Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses and The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance. Bishop Varden joins me today in studio during a longer teaching and lecturing visit to the University of Notre Dame.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Healing Wounds, by Bishop Erik VardenChastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, by Bishop Erik VardenThe Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance, by Bishop Erik Varden

    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.

  • Edge of Belief: UFO’s, Technology, and the Catholic Imagination, with Brett Robinson

    Edge of Belief: UFO’s, Technology, and the Catholic Imagination, with Brett Robinson

    · Church Life Today

    How should Catholics think about UFOs? How can the Church respond to evolving scientific discoveries? What are the boundaries for Catholic belief?

    These are the kinds of questions at the heart of a new documentary short film produced by The McGrath Institute for Church Life. "Edge of Belief: UFOs, Technology & The Catholic Imagination," explores the outer limits of belief.

    Today, the film’s producer, who is also my friend and colleague, Professor Brett Robinson, joins me to talk about this project: its aims, its audience, and its intrigue.

    Follow-up Resources:

    "Edge of Belief: UFOs, Technology & The Catholic Imagination," “The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“A Very Short Introduction to the History of Catholic Debates about the Multiverse and Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” by Paul Thigpen, article at Church Life Journal“What Can Catholic Theology Say about Extraterrestrials,” by Chris Baglow, article at 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.

  • Marian Preaching Competition, with Msgr. Michael Heintz

    Marian Preaching Competition, with Msgr. Michael Heintz

    · Church Life Today

    The McGrath Institute for Church Life, together with the John S. and Virginia Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics, is hosting a homily contest on preaching the Blessed Virgin Mary. We invite ordained Catholic bishops, priests, and deacons to submit a five-to-seven-minute homily (in either English or Spanish) for one of three Marian solemnities: the Annunciation (March 25), the Assumption (August 15), or the Immaculate Conception (December 8).

    Winning homilies will draw on a homiletic methodology that brings together careful treatment of Scripture (including the lectionary and the various propers of the Mass of the day) with a spiritual exegesis that unveils the meaning of the Marian feast for the lives of the faithful today. We have more information about this competition and means for submitting homilies in our show notes for this episode.

    Today on the show, Msgr. Michael Heintz of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and Notre Dame’s Department of Theology joins me to talk about the craft of preaching, the importance of Mary in the life of the Church, and renewing the sacramental imagination of the faithful.


    Follow-up Resources:

    Announcing the Preaching Mary Homiletic Competition. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected] no later than March 25, 2025. The Marten Program at the University of Notre Dame.Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness, by Richard B. Hays (mentioned in the episode)“On the Formation of Future Priest, with Msgr. Michael Heintz,” 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.

  • True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture, with Abigail Favale

    True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture, with Abigail Favale

    · Church Life Today

    Thirty years ago, in both Evangelium Vitae and his Letter to Women, John Paul II issued a clear call for the genius of women to be “more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church” (Letter to Women 10). Throughout his papacy, in fact, JPII emphasized women’s “prophetic character,” calling on them to be “witnesses” and “sentinels” — guardians of the sacred gift of life and the order of love (Mulieris Dignitatem 29; Homily at Lourdes 2004).

    This vision for women, clarified and proclaimed in the late twentieth century especially, has yet to be fully realized. Catholics in contemporary America face distorted narratives about women from both poles of our divided culture. By revisiting and extending John Paul II's thought we come upon the opportunity to offer a positive countervision to, on the one hand, the growing anti-feminism in some Catholic circles and, on the other hand, the widely-held perception that the Church is anti-woman.

    The McGrath Institute for Church Life is hosting a conference that aims to help develop that positive countervision.

    “True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture” will take place March 26 to March 28, 2025, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. It boasts a stellar roster of speakers, including Helen Alvare, Sr. Ann Astell, Erika Bachiochi, Angela Franks, Sarah Denny Lorio, Sr. Theresa Alethia Noble, Leah Libresco Sargeant, and my guest today, Abigail Favale. Abigail and I are colleagues in the McGrath Institute, and she is the conference convener and orgranizer.

    Registration for the “True Genius” conference is now open, and we have links to more conference information and registration available in our show notes.

    Show Notes:

    “True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture” conference information and registration “Can the Feminine Speak?” by Abigail Favale, article in Church Life Journal “Hildegard of Bingen’s Vital Contribution to the Concept of Woman,” by Abigail Favale, article in Church Life Journal“No Woman Is Only Woman: Distilling the Feminine Genius from Stereotypes,” interview with Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble on The Catholic Woman

    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.

  • Church Life Today Rewind: C.S. Lewis's ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

    Church Life Today Rewind: C.S. Lewis's ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

    · Church Life Today

    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)

    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.

  • Praise Her in the Gates: Telling the Pro-Life Story, with Brian Kennedy

    Praise Her in the Gates: Telling the Pro-Life Story, with Brian Kennedy

    · Church Life Today

    “The Gospel is not some vague palliative, it’s a man raised from the dead.” The Pro-Life Movement has, for several decades now, remembered the dead, principally those children lost to abortion, with a hope for a new culture of life raised from those tragedies. And yet the story of the Pro-Life Movement is primarily told by its enemies, who regularly reduce the movement to caricatures and sound-bites, leveling into a collection angry objections and hostile tactics. The story of the pro-life movement––both its past and its present unfolding into the future––has not really been told as a coherent and full narrative. And so my guest today and his collaborators have set out to chronicle America in the age of abortion and emphasize the response of the pro-life movement as an unparalleled model for social and political resistance. It is a work that seeks to reckon with our dead in obedience to the man raised from the dead.

    Praise Her in the Gates – Dispatches for a Pro-Life Nation is a longform (multi-episode, multi-season) audio journal released on January 22, 2025. Its creator, the artist Brian Kennedy, joins me today to talk about the original work and what it offers to us, whether we count ourselves as members of the pro-life movement or not. It is a work arising from the Catholic imagination, with which things otherwise neglected or forgotten are perceived, revered, mourned, and praised.

    Follow-up Resources:

    Lydwine Substack, home of Praise Her in the Gates (first episodes released January 25, 2025)“The Ghost Outside,” essay by Brian Kennedy“Vandals at the Golden Gate, Part One,” essay by Brian Kennedy“How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 1, with Tricia Bruce,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 2, with Tricia Bruce,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Mary O’Callaghan on Disability Selective Abortions,” 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 Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez

    The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez

    · Church Life Today

    Agentic AI is a term that will be new to many people. If we were to think of artificial intelligence in waves, the first wave was about making predictions and the second wave was about generating content. This third wave, known as Agentic AI, is far more sophisticated. It is about AI agents performing complex tasks and making decisions. That might sound like the beginning of a dystopian novel or an apocalyptic film, but in reality it has much more to do with how we engage in the consumer marketplace or with service providers, or really just about how we go through our day-to-day lives doing our day-to-day tasks.

    Our episode today is the beginning of a conversation about what is taking place with the increasing integration of AI into our society and, in light of this, what is important for our own human and interpersonal development. My guest is my longtime friend who has been on our podcast before, Stephanie DePrez. For the past couple years, Stephanie has been working for a company investing heavily in Agentic AI, while also continuing to pursue her career in opera and comedy in Germany. She reached out to me after listening to our recent episodes on the encyclical Dilexit Nos, which is of course all about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to talk about what the growth in Agentic AI means for our humanity.

    Follow-up Resources:

    “Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today “In Search of a Full Life: A Spiritual and Practical Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Life is changed but something ended, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayFind out more about Stephanie DePrez’s work in opera, comedy, voice coaching, and writing at stephaniedeprez.com. “What is Man that AI Is Mindful of Him?”, by Jeffrey Bishop, essay via 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.

  • How Many Students Are Studying Theology?!, with Anthony Pagliarini

    How Many Students Are Studying Theology?!, with Anthony Pagliarini

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Rethinking Sex, with Christine Emba

    Rethinking Sex, with Christine Emba

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Saints Who Flew, with Carlos Eire

    Saints Who Flew, with Carlos Eire

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson

    Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella

    Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • The Catholicity of Montessori Education, with Beth Capdevielle

    The Catholicity of Montessori Education, with Beth Capdevielle

    · Church Life Today

    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, with Andrew Goldstein

    The Vigil Project, with Andrew Goldstein

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

    Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • What Young Adults Are Seeking in Faith and Life, with Jeff Keuss

    What Young Adults Are Seeking in Faith and Life, with Jeff Keuss

    · Church Life Today

    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.

  • Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, with J.P. De Gance

    Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, with J.P. De Gance

    · Church Life Today

    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.

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