The Poco a Poco Podcast with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

What's your experience of St. Francis?

You might know St. Francis in a different way or may have a different experience of St. Francis, but in this episode, we're gonna look at the life of St. Francis through the lens of the CFR brothers themselves and highlight what part of St. Francis' life stands out in their own lives.

This episode gives a deeper insight into who St. Francis is, how he lived and followed Jesus, and what his interior life looked like. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Purchase tickets for Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story here: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/heart-of-a-servant/

Watch the Heart of the Servant: The Father Flanagan Story trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoftAcHYQVI

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Purchase tickets for Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story here: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/heart-of-a-servant/

Watch the Heart of the Servant: The Father Flanagan Story trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoftAcHYQVI

How do I hear and know God's Voice? 

God desires to break into our lives and speak with us—to communicate with us. But most of the time, what that looks like can be quite unclear. That is why it's important that we are able to discern how God speaks. In this episode, we're gonna look at some practical ways to hear and know the voice of God and see how we can receive what He speaks to each of us.

You can get a copy of the Monk Manual x CFR Collaboration Resourse and the Mysteries & Medicine Prayer Journal at: https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

How can we bring our feelings to the Lord?

Once we have a sense of what we are feeling and why we are feeling that way, this would be the next step that we're invited to do—to turn to Jesus in prayer in great faith and trust then relate and bring these feelings to him and let him respond to it.

In this episode, we'll talk about how we can relate our emotions to the Lord and what it would look like to let Him speak His words into those feelings.

You can get a copy of the Monk Manual x CFR Collaboration Resourse and the Mysteries & Medicine Prayer Journal at: https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Why do we feel a certain way?

This would be a great question to ask ourselves once we identify and name what we feel. 

It's good to learn what's ultimately at stake in every emotion, test, or situation we encounter and understand why it's so important to us. This episode talks about some practical examples and applications of how we can dive deeper into that and how we can use that to grow and build our lives on rock of what it means to be beloved children of God.

You can get a copy of the Monk Manual x CFR Collaboration Resourse and the Mysteries & Medicine Prayer Journal at: https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

How do you feel? And why do emotions matter? 

Valuing the emotional life as important, they are an intrinsic part of us. Emotions are neutral in nature but how we respond to them can be both fruitful and dangerous, this is why knowing how to navigate them is vital in our human life.

In this episode, we'll talk about the importance of emotions, the right word and place for them, and how they integrate with the spiritual life.

You can get a copy of the Monk Manual x CFR Collaboration Resourse and the Mysteries & Medicine Prayer Journal at: https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

How much do you know about yourself?

This might be a good starting point to ask ourselves in our interior life pilgrimage. From self-protection to self-acceptance, to self-possession, and ultimately to self-gift, it's a journey to know oneself. And the beauty of being in prayer with the Lord is that we're growing in self-knowledge and self-acceptance, self-possession with Jesus. 

In this episode, we'll talk about the importance of self-knowledge and self-acceptance and how we can identify what we need to grow and/or accept throughout our interior life pilgrimage.

You can get a copy of the Monk Manual x CFR Collaboration Resourse and the Mysteries & Medicine Prayer Journal at: https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

What do you do when God comes to you in mystery?

If we are willing to search for God in the mysteries of suffering, the ordinary, and the sacraments, hidden somewhere in there, we can find medicines.

God uses these mysteries to communicate medicines, for our transformation, our holiness, the things we most deeply need to grow, change, heal, and become the children of God he made us to be.

In this special episode with Spoke Street at SEEK 24, we'll talk about, reflect, and dive deeper into Fr. Isaiah's "Mysteries & Medicine" album by Fr. Isaiah and what it means to find God through the mysteries.

You can get a physical CD copy of Mysteries & Medicine and the prayer journal at https://monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "Mysteries & Medicine" by Fr. Isaiah, CFR (Part 4)

Are you able to see the goodness of God?

We are invited to trust and surrender that God is good and is always with us, to be rooted in the truth that God is Father, that He knows us, that He is good, and that He loves us.

This is the fourth and last episode on the Mysteries & Medicine album which teaches us how we can call out to Him and ask for the grace to trust Him and to be reunited in our identity, but most importantly, first and foremost, His identity—a deeper dive into our life journey, our pilgrimage with the one who is always with us, loves us and knows us by name.

You can get a physical CD copy of Mysteries & Medicine and the prayer journal at https;//monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "Mysteries & Medicine" by Fr. Isaiah, CFR (Part 3)

Have you experienced being confined in self-centeredness?

Sometimes we can have a pretty self-focused approach to our lives where it's all about what we need or what we want. 

But the invitation for us in this Exodus is to always move towards someone else, towards relationship, towards God—to be totally out of ourselves and make a self-gift back to God and to other people.

This episode is the third part of our series on Fr. Isaiah's Mysteries & Medicine which talks about the nature of our desires and how we can transform them from being self-centered to being outer-centered.

You can get a physical CD copy of Mysteries & Medicine and the prayer journal at https;//monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "Mysteries & Medicine" by Fr. Isaiah, CFR (Part 2)

What do you desire and how do you respond to it?

One reality of our humanity is that we can forever be dissatisfied and expect a different answer to our desires. But we are invited to let this desire, this hunger, become a pathway that brings the Lord closer to us, to offer Him the desire and just to be with Him in it.

This episode is the second part of our series on Fr. Isaiah's Mysteries & Medicine which talks about our desires—the holy, the unmet, and the sinful desires and how we should respond to them.

You can get a physical CD copy of Mysteries & Medicine and the prayer journal at https;//monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "Mysteries & Medicine" by Fr. Isaiah, CFR (Part 1)

Would you agree that life is a journey or a pilgrimage?

The journey to say yes to what God wants for our life, it's not just this thing that happens like a contract and we say, "Yes,", it's a journey. The holiness, the sanctification, the healing, it takes time. 

The pilgrimage of life is tough, blindness, poverty and suffering are often a part of it, but Jesus is with us in this pilgrimage and he desires to not just walk along with us but to be the way that we walk to the Father's heart. 

This episode is the first part of our series on Fr. Isaiah's Mysteries & Medicine, which talks about life as a pilgrimage, the experience of mystery, and the response of Jesus to this experience.

You can get a physical CD copy of Mysteries & Medicine and the prayer journal at https;//monkmanual.com/friars

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in each of our lives and we have to be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. 

As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people's struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. 

In our Catholic life, there will be a lot of questions that will come our way and in this episode, we'll try to answer a few of them.

Here is another one of our Hot Takes episodes that talks about some essential topics that most of us can relate to. In this episode we'll be going through the following topics: 

1️⃣ A Perspective on Differences Between Men and Women 2️⃣ Free People, Free People 3️⃣ Stuff Matters

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in each of our lives and we have to be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. 

As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people's struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. 

In our Catholic life, there will be a lot of questions that will come our way and in this episode, we'll try to answer a few of them.

Here is another one of our Hot Takes episodes that talks about some essential topics that most of us can relate to. In this episode we'll be going through the following topics: 

1️⃣ The Experience of Saul: Aging and Transition 2️⃣ Our Love for Home Through the Quirky and the Positive and How It Relates to God 3️⃣ The Confusion About What Is Sin or Not

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Have you ever felt rejected by God or the church, as you try to get into religious life?

This can be an utterly heartbreaking experience. 

When faced with "No" as a response to the desire to get into religious life, one might feel that they are being rejected by God or the church, that they're undesirable, or too broken for religious life. But in reality, that is not the case.

This decision is actually a culmination of careful assessment of one's discernment, capacity, and the call they felt into religious life. This episode speaks more about that in hopes of explaining the reasons behind those decisions and encountering the hurt and vulnerable in these situations.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in each of our lives and we have to be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. 

As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people's struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. 

In our Catholic life, there will be a lot of questions that will come our way and in this episode, we'll try to answer a few of them.

Here is another one of our Hot Takes episodes that talks about some essential topics that most of us can relate to. In this episode we'll be going through the following topics: 

1️⃣ The burden of learning new rules and prohibitions 2️⃣ A healthy consumption of media 3️⃣ The experience of priesthood

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 11)

As a shepherd, what are you willing to lay down for your sheep?

For shepherds nowadays, and even in the times of the Apostle, the sheep are for the shepherd's sake, they serve him. It's not like vice versa, sheep are the product and we get them to pasture so they can grow, so we can slaughter them. 

But this wasn't the case for Jesus, He said that "I am the good shepherd "and I lay down my life for my sheep."

Jesus loves us this way. He wants to be so close and hold us so intimately and he doesn't want us to be lost. He doesn't want us to be far away, but he wants to feed, protect, clothe, and hold us. 

In this episode, as we bring our series on the book The Father to a close, we will be reflecting upon Jesus as the Good Shepherd and what this reveals to us of the heart of God as we talk about a story of a Father who freely lays down his life to save his son, and in doing so, loses his own life.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 10)

Can you imagine how it feels for a parent when their child dies?

A father and a mother don't want to lose any of their children and this is an icon of understanding how God doesn't want any of his children to be lost—how passionate God is about our salvation.

God desires none to be lost.

Today we'll talk about how we can walk towards life and away from death as a fruit of sin. We'll dive deeper into how we can keep the life of grace and the heart of God fully alive in our souls.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 9)

Do you trust God's mercy?

We are invited to bring to light those things that we are keeping in the dark, things that are tough, and trust that God in his mercy will love and care for us there.

When we bring something to the Lord, it's forgiven and it's gone, He no longer sees us with that. He doesn't define us as a son or daughter who did this bad thing. To the Father's eyes, we are not defined by our sin and our weakness but by His love and our capacity to live like His son or daughter. But at the same time, sin still can seriously hurt us and the Father is also zealous to crush it and the things that lead us to them.

Today we're looking at God and His Mercy and try to understand that a little bit. We'll take a look at both the merciful God and the God who is indifferent to sin.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 8)

What's your initial response to difficulty?

Difficulty and suffering is something that's part of the world we live in and to move forward with the Lord we have to live in this reality, even though it's hard. 

God is with us in it!

One of the things a father also has to do is to teach their children and equip their children to do hard things. God the Father equips us and prepares us for what we need to have fulfillment and happiness in salvation, which includes learning how to carry and share in the suffering on the cross. 

In this episode, we'll talk about how to persevere in doing hard things for an extended period of time and how to stay steady with the Lord amidst the difficulty.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 7)

What's the role that rules and laws play?

Rules create boundaries and usually define the best way to do things. However, following rules can also NOT lead to freedom, this is why we need to learn to find the right balance in following the rules.

In this episode, we will talk about the spirituality of laws and rules and how we can find balance to be safe, secure, and free in following them. 

We are also invited to look at some of these rules that we have established, these etiquettes or cultures that we've put on ourselves, our neighbors, or our pastors. 

Let's do some discernment of whether or not these are from God or not. And to also, go deeper and see what's at the heart of why we do that and ultimately, bring that to the Lord.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 6)

What does it mean to be safe?

Safety is not the absence of suffering, it's not like we're not going to struggle with anything but it's the recognition that when we are vulnerable, we don't have to escape it, because someone wants to be with us and provide for us and that is our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the safety that we are proposing.

In this episode, we're focusing on the necessity of having sufficient resources and true expectations as we unpack what it really means to be truly safe.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 5)

What does it mean to be loved and celebrated?

We are favored sons and daughters worthy of celebration—of being served. We are worthy and loved by God and this episode talks about a step in the right direction on what it means to be loved and celebrated.

This is a gentle call to conversion and repentance, an invitation to allow ourselves to be loved sacrificially and give God and others permission to love and celebrate us.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 4)

What does it mean to be made for freedom?

We are all called to live in freedom as sons and daughters of God. The reality is we are seen, loved, and chosen by God the Father and there's freedom when we experience that.

In this episode, we're going through the mechanics of freedom and learn more about how the experience of home and trust can help us understand that a little bit deeper.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 3)

Can you imagine how you would gaze upon your newborn baby for the first time?

This is the way the Father loves everyone. He's constantly looking at us and is constantly delighting in us.

The Father always looks at us with the same delight, love, and rejoicing as a father looks at his newborn for the first time. This is how our Heavenly Father looks at us, delights in us, rejoices in us and contemplates us right now. 

When we feel things that we feel far away, or we think we feel that there's such darkness or separation or walls, it's an illusion, it's not true. We are always gazed upon with love and intimacy.

In this episode, we're discussing the intimacy the Father wants to invite us into. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 2)

Do you know how much your heavenly Father delights in you?

The part of the heart of the Father is to care for his children in whatever shape or form that would take. It might feel a lot or even tiresome but because of the uncalculated love of the father, the time when he gets to take care of and be with his children in this special way can be the best part of the father's day.

In his children's poverty, in this exchange, and despite the challenges, there are still many things about them that allow the father's heart to well up with delight. The inabilities and imperfections that we have, delight the Father because they are occasions of intimacy and closeness to Him.

This is the purity of the delight we're talking about in today's episode. This is a reminder that God delights in all of us even more than an earthly father delights in his earthly children. The heavenly Father is not burdened by you, but He profoundly delights. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 1)

How are you affected by the wounds you had from your earthly father?

The life of St. Francis is a good example of how the wounds we have from our earthly father can be an access point to the heart of God. His wounds led him to embrace the heart of the Father through Jesus Christ. 

It is a good reminder for all of us that Jesus is the way to the fatherhood of God, He is the interesession between the Father and our wounds and He wants us to know the presence of the Father, save us, and heal us from those wounds.

This episode is an invitation to hope that we can all experience the goodness of the fatherhood of God.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 7)

This holy week, how do you intend to receive Jesus' total gift for you?

The fast during Lent is not to show Jesus how tough we are, it's to show him how poor we are. It's to be in the space of utter poverty and to trust that receptivity, that He will come.

And what we are celebrating in this holy Triduum, this Holy Week, is Christ, giving himself to us as the bridegroom and espousing himself to us, His bride. We are celebrating Jesus' love and total gift of self that is given to each of us in his passion.

This episode is all about receptivity. As we go through this last week of Lent, we continue to dive into how Jesus is the bridegroom to us and talk about being open to receiving Jesus' love and His total gift.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 5)

Does it have to end in just being able to receive God's unconditional love?

Like Lazarus, the guy beat up on the side of the road. We who have been loved in such messiness are also invited to go into the mess, and love. This is a sign that God is alive in us.

We now have the dignity of His beloved sons and daughters, of not just being the recipients of His unconditional love, but now being able to love, not only from our own strength but in response to God being alive in us.

In this episode, we'll talk about the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and its relation to the other parables discussed in the previous episodes.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 6)

Our expectations and what God is doing can be totally different, so how should we respond to that?

In the raising of Lazarus, the response of the Pharisees was to have Jesus killed. This was the tragic response of the heart when they were not open and unable to receive the mysterious and unconditional love of God.

We can sometimes share the same humanity as the Pharisees too. We sometimes prefer to have Jesus out of our lives completely because of the changes, experiences, and difficult things that are happening in our lives that weren't what we expected them to be.

We want it to be a certain way but then it's not that way.

But despite all that, we are invited to stay in relationship with Jesus through any difficulty, change, or experience. In this episode we're gonna do a recap on the raising of Lazarus and dive into its mysterious reality and our response to that.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 4)

If you were the prodigal son would you receive the Father's unconditional love?

The conversion that the Father wants us to have is to move on from a conditional, perfectionistic way of experiencing God to a place of just being unconditionally loved by Him.

But we can sometimes hold onto shame for security, what is asked of us is to leave behind that shame—let the shame and self-contempt crumble.

We don't need to "pay rent" to be loved by the heavenly Father. Our sonship/daughterhip is not to be paid but is freely given to us. The invitation for all of us is to remain in the forgiveness and mercy of the Father. Let the relationship we have with Him restore and heal us from the place of shame and insecurity that we put ourselves into.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 3)

Are you familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan?

When we're beat up, when we're in this place of difficulty and shame, He's there, at the side of the road looking at us, desiring to pick us up and saying, "Come with me.". That's Jesus for all of us.

The invitation of this episode is to allow the Lord to get close into our deepest places of darkness and shame so he can help us and love us there. Jesus actually comes into our messiness and He loves us unconditionally.

This Lent, let Jesus unconditionally love you, and let the healing begin.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 2)

How does a bridegroom love his bride?

That is how Jesus loves each one of us. He meets us wherever we are in our life to be our beloved and for us to be His. The Lord meets us in the desert-our place of poverty where He betroths us to Him and He betroths Himself to us.

In this way, Jesus as the bridegroom reveals to us a quality of love, the way that God loves.

In this episode, our aim is for us to better understand what it means to have Jesus as the bridegroom and the desert as the place of betrothal. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 1)

What does Jesus desire for you and Him this Lent? 

The temptation during Lent is to make the Lenten journey about us, we can do hard things during Lent that are fueled by our own desires and distractions but Lent isn't supposed to be about ourselves. Lent is also not simply about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those disciplines help us to focus on what we need to focus on. This season is about a person and that person is Jesus.

In this episode, we'll talk about the reality of Lent and how we can orient ourselves to our relationship with Jesus as we enter this year's Lenten season.

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on "Mary and the Interior Life" by Fr. Jeremiah Shryock (Part 3)

Do you remember Jesus and what he did? 

The most consistent word Mary had spoken to Fr. Jeremiah, was "remember". When we don't know what to do or how to act, Mary tells us to remember her son, Jesus' actions, that was the case for Fr. Jeremiah and this is an invitation that extends to all of us.

There is a richness and importance that Mary plays, for us not to have her be a part of our spiritual life. 

We are invited to remember Jesus' constant presence, love, and grace in this episode. Let's allow Mary to teach us to remember Jesus and what he did—to remember Him as Mary did.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Series on "Mary and the Interior Life" by Fr. Jeremiah Shryock (Part 2)

Is your prayer and your life two separate realities? 

Mary gives us a ton of hope that the grace of God and the Holy Spirit meet us in reality. 

The Marian posture at the core of it is about the reality of the fullness of God. Mary teaches us that The best place to live your spiritual life is in reality—in where you are right now in this moment. It's about living one reality in the presence of God.

This episode is an invitation for us to have confidence in the daily bread and the grace given to us here and now. Let's not spend our time fantasizing about the change out there but try and respond as best as possible to what's currently there. Let's engage every part of our reality with the Lord while having a deep sense of his love and attentiveness as we respond in those moments. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Series on "Mary and the Interior Life" by Fr. Jeremiah Shryock (Part 1)

How important is Mary, Our Lady, in your spiritual life? 

Our Lady is a real woman, a real mother to all of us and Mary's intercession is actually more real than we realize. 

The gift of Our Lady is that she looks upon us, she knows our hearts, and her gaze can be the first safe and secure place in a world of filled insecurity. At this same moment, Mary wants us to look upon her and it is in this exchange where we find safety and security in our lives through a contemplative experience with her.

In this episode, as we start our mini-series on Fr. Jeremiah's book, we are going to talk about Mary—a real mom, an invitation to gain a different understanding of Mary and learn about the importance of viewing the world through her eyes.

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Do you actually believe and have hope that prayer does something?

Doing things over and over again can lose the awe and wonder of what's going on in our prayer life. There can come a point when we're no longer coming to prayer expecting to hear God's voice or expecting anything at all. 

This results in boredom or discouragement—a loss of hope.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about how we can pray for a supernatural hope as the remedy for discouragement and boredom.

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How much focused are you toward yourself?

There can be times when we struggle with perfectionism, control, and activism, and this can sometimes rub off on our spiritual life. 

Jesus does not demand great actions from us; rather, the invitation is simply to live in surrender and gratitude to Him.

At times, we can take a more Pelagian approach where more emphasis is given to our efforts, initiatives, and self-improvement—our achievement of holiness rather than the primacy being given to God and it being His work.

This gift of grace is the sweet way of love that Jesus sets before the little and the poor and that's what we're gonna talk about in this episode.

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Are you worried for 2024? 

Worry is a lack of confidence and we can be worried about a lot of stuff.

The invitation from St. Therese and from our Lord is to have confidence in Him. We who run in the way of love shouldn't be thinking of suffering that can take place in the future. That's a lack of confidence.

The complete confidence that becomes an abandonment in love sets us free from obsessive calculations, constant worry about the future, and fears that take away our peace. 

If we are in the hands of a Father who loves us without limits, this will be the case come what may. We will be able to move beyond whatever may happen to us. And in one way or another, his plan of love and fullness will come to fulfillment in our lives.

This episode talks about how we can go into the year 2024 with confidence. And with's God grace, return to the present moment, and be in relationship with Him, with confidence and hope of what he will do in the time to come. 

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What was Jesus like for you this year?

As we end the year, let's do a poverty and identity check and put Jesus in the center as we look back to this past year and look forward to the coming year

For this episode, a proposal to reflect on where Jesus have been, how He has been with you, how He loved you, and how He is loving you into this year.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Series on "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR. (Part 4)

How often do you say Yes, without understanding or knowing the outcome? 

Sometimes we have to see and understand the plan before we say Yes, that's not our Lady's experience.

She didn't understand but she knew what was proposed to him by God, and despite that, she said Yes. She trusts; she surrenders in this whole experience of her life without knowing what's gonna happen.

This is the fourth part of this year's Advent series where we talk about Mary and her radical littleness and dependence on grace and God. An invitation to how we can become more and more dependent, more and more empty but with the confidence that we can be more and more full of God's grace. 

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You can get a copy of "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR from Ave Maria Press through this link: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/prepare-your-heart

Series on "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR. (Part 3)

What's the best thing you learned from St. Joseph? 

Advent teaches us that God has a different way of doing things and St. Joseph is an amazing example and witness of that.

Throughout his life, St. Joseph should've had the opportunity to grasp human comfort or control, but instead, he chose to enter into humility, into silence, he didn't overthink, he didn't overtalk, but rather he trusted and was obedient to God while being completely attentive to Mary and Jesus. 

This Advent, just like St. Joseph, we are invited to be radically open to what God wants us to do. Advent is not about evaluating everything but being with those who are most important and anchoring ourselves to God like St. Joseph did.

This is the third part of this year's Advent series where we continue to look into the lives of different saints of Advent and for this episode, we're talking about the heart and experience of St. Joseph.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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You can get a copy of "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR from Ave Maria Press through this link: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/prepare-your-heart

Series on "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR. (Part 2)

With what's currently happening in the world, can you believe that God is working??

As exemplified by St. Juan Diego, during this Advent and throughout the year, we are invited to live in relationship with the Lord through Mary, our Mother, our Lady. We can do that by beginning with a humble Yes. Let's say Yes and allow ourselves to be interrupted by her intercession and have confidence in the love and trust she has for all of us—to trust that she is here and very much alive. For as Mary comes, she is with Jesus.

Despite the discouragements in various parts of the world, there's also the truth that in the humblest places, God is working and we are always invited to keep crying out to Him.

This episode is the second part of this year's Advent series, where we begin to look into the lives of different saints of Advent.

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You can get a copy of "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR from Ave Maria Press through this link: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/prepare-your-heart

Series on "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR. (Part 1)

What does Nazareth look like for you and how does it compare to how you encounter Advent? 

Nazareth is a place where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived—a place of beauty, simplicity, and stillness. Meanwhile, Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of Jesus; For most of us, it is usually one of the busiest times of the year. So how can Advent be an experience of Nazareth during this busy time?

For this first part of this year's Advent series, we will talk about Nazareth and what we can learn from this place as we celebrate the Advent season.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

You can get a copy of "Prepare Your Heart" by Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR from Ave Maria Press through this link: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/prepare-your-heart

What is driving your life? What's the reason you do what you do?

Life can sometimes become a series of boxes to check-we can tend to do things because we should or we have to as opposed to actually living life and doing things because our hearts want to. 

What we are proposing in this episode is for us to be more present in the moment and to particularly live from the Trinity dwelling within our hearts. Today, we're gonna talk about how much are we supposed to live from "the outside-in" vs. "the inside-out".

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Have you encountered prophets in your life? 

Prophets are people who have a profound conviction and clarity about a particular component of the faith and those who practice it. Being a prophet is not about opinions, it is an experience or power that you have, given by God to be a prophetic witness in the world. It's about communicating something about who God is through ourselves.

In this episode, we will talk more about what a prophet is. We're gonna dive into how we can take this gift from God—this prophetic call and use it to build up the Kingdom as opposed to something that is a source of division, judgment, and conflict.

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Are you HUNGRY for God? 

One of the foundational struggles that we have is that we're just not hungry for Him.

Part of the path, if not the path, is we're going to have to experience this hunger. A "stepping away" from the noise, distractions, and self-reliance and entering into a place of vulnerability and a sort of dependence on God, and being able to live and pray from that place. 

Today we're going to talk about the change of passions and desires and dive into how we can develop a taste for silence and ultimately grow in hunger and thirst for God.

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How can we live and create a space for contemplation, for silence, to be able to hear the voice of God in our lives?

God is always there. He's always giving himself to us and always longing to speak to us, but living in the constant influx of noise and immediate gratification profoundly affects our contemplative experience—our ability to sit in prayer for long periods to wait and sit for God.

That is why it's so important to retrain our hearts and our minds to receive Him.

This episode talks about strengthening the will and how we can create a lifestyle that actually supports and strengthens the will to grow in discipline, freedom, and our ability to make a free and total Yes to the Lord and his invitation.

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What stands in your way to go deeper with the Lord? 

We believe that growing in silence and our ability to contemplate is of supreme importance, but to actually respond to that is undoubtedly gonna be very very hard as well. So, how do we do this practically? 

Today, we're going to talk about how actual behavior change happens and how we can set ourselves up for success to truly grow in silence and make our contemplative spaces.

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Do you wonder about Mary's firsthand memory or experience of God? 

We can relive Mary's memory and experience of God through the rosary. Rosary is like experiencing God with Mary—in her heart, her hospitability.

Mary is the most perfect Christian, the most perfect woman who's all about Jesus, and on this month of the Rosary, we are invited to take time and be with Her more and be able to love Jesus a lot more through her.

In this episode, we're gonna dive deep and talk about the Rosary, Mary, and Marian Devotion and how we can open ourselves up to receive the hospitality of Mary.

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Series on Silence Vs. Noise (Part 2 of 2)

What's the most prevalent voice that you hear in your life? Is it God's or someone's/something else?

We long to teach people how to pray and contemplative silence, inner recollection, and interior stillness are ways we can live in a relationship with God. But, there's a silver bullet to make people live in chaos and noise whether exteriorly or interiorly. 

Every single day through general media we are bombarded with chaos and noise and there's this turmoil all the time both internal and external that's a direct attack on how God speaks and how He wants to give Himself.

Today, in the next part of this mini-series, we'll dive deeper into the importance and experience of silence and attempt to stir people's hearts to recognize that this silence is under direct attack and identify ways to defend against these attacks.

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Series on Silence Vs. Noise (Part 1 of 2) How are you able to receive and communicate with God?

Silence is the divine language. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love and communicate in eternal silence and if we want to look at and learn about God, we have to let ourselves be moved by that.

However, the world has become a place of radical noise, trying to rob us of the experience of God and there's always been an inner battle to stay in contemplative silence.

Today, we'll talk about the realities and dynamics of silence as God's language and how we can win the battle and be able to stay in this silence with Him.

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Do you set a time in the day to pray? Do you stay in relationship with the Lord throughout the day?

Turns out, we should be doing both! We have an opportunity and even an invitation to remain in this relationship with the Lord throughout our day.

But to be able to do that, we have to make prayer important, make prayer a priority, and formally make God a part of our lives.

In this episode, we're going to talk about how we can sanctify our day by praying without ceasing and some practical examples of how to have ongoing conscious contact with God throughout the day. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Do you think God is calling us to be perfect or just to be pretty? Personally, I think not.

I believe what we're called to is not pretty or perfection but perseverance. 

Sometimes it's much easier to have a very happy-looking social media feed than to have a happy heart and home in reality. But we're not going for things to look good, instead what we're going for is to be good and to persevere in this goodness.

In this episode, we are going to highlight the importance of perseverance and how we can practice it in our lives. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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A person who lives in a place of gratitude usually focuses on what they have. On the other hand, the person who struggles with greed and lives in that place usually focuses on what they don't have. 

Both can have or do not have the EXACT same thing but one person can have an experience of fullness and gratefulness while one person, has an experience of emptiness, and disappointment, discouragement. 

So in our lives, what are we focusing on—what are we paying attention to?

In today's episode, this is what we'll try to unpack. We're gonna talk about how we can cultivate this life of gratitude and how a spirit and a heart of gratitude can permeate our lives.

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What is the place of HOME? 

It's a place where we are safe, loved, known, and seen—a place where we are well-received and can be ourselves. 

Brokeness may significantly affect our experience of home but ideally home is a place of joy and laughter, a place of communion. 

In this episode, we'll talk about hospitality, what home is, what it can be, and how we can make it a place where we can joyfully experience living in relationships with love.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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What is that SEEK episode, what happened in there? 

In the previous episodes, you might have heard that we referenced a SEEK episode a few times.

Today's episode is pretty unique—a throwback episode that we wanted to share with you to give you an idea about our SEEK episode but at the same time we're gonna talk about following Jesus. We're gonna talk about what you want and how you want to get it.

Holiness, happiness, and fullness of life are possible, but it doesn't happen by accident. 

We truly believe that it happens when we follow our hearts and allow the Lord to reveal our hearts to us to be able to fulfill them.

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 8 of 8)

What happens when we deeply give ourselves to the lives of prayer and the experience of God?

The Fire Within series has been quite intense but it's actually the reality of the depths of the gospel truly lived. It goes beyond the ordinary simply because living out the Gospel wholeheartedly is NOT ordinary—but extraordinary.

And little by little, Poco a Poco, it's the place that we want to be.

This is the eighth and last episode of our Fire Within series, an invitation:

🔥To be the ones who say, "Yes" to the Lord.  🔥To be the ones who live differently.  🔥To be the ones who risk everything, who hold nothing back, and give themselves, in all they are. 🔥To be the John of the Crosses and the Teresa of Avilas for the next generation. 

Which ultimately, can happen through the radical living of the Gospel, loving God and our neighbors.

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 7 of 8)

Solitude is not just quiet time for ourselves. It is not running from people, isolation, nor hiding from or avoiding our problems by going off and being by ourselves.

But rather it is avoiding certain behaviors, worldviews, curiosities, and distractions that take our focus on the Lord.

According to Fr. Dubay, authentic solitude is the healthy turning towards one's beloved. It is an authentic pursuit of the one we love, our beloved—a pursuit of the Lord with the desire to be in a relationship with Him. 

This is the seventh episode of our Fire Within series which talks about detachment and solitude—an encouragement to find and pursue authentic solitude and grow in our spiritual life.

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 6 of 8)

Humility is a lowliness—lowliness not for its own sake but rather a right understanding of who we are and who we are not.

It's a place where you know more about what everybody is saying in a room, but don't always have to say anything or don't need to be someone who wants to seem smarter than everybody else.

In this sixth episode of our Fire Within series, we're gonna talk about the importance of humility and some of its practical applications in our journey for growth in our spiritual lives. 

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 5 of 8)

In reality, suffering's out there, in many ways, and in most ways, it's unavoidable.

So, "Okay, what do we do with it?". This is the question that we'll try to unpack in today's episode.

We are invited to unite our suffering with Jesus and offer it to Him. As we suffer generously and give that to the Lord, one of the fruits of it is that it creates the space and cultivates the soul for profound union with God Himself.

In this fifth episode of our Fire Within series, we'll dive into and talk about suffering, prayer, and growth in the spiritual life and discuss the close correlation between suffering and growth in prayer.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 4 of 8)

We are all invited to a profound, mystical union with God. 

But in order to grow in our spirtual life, Fr. Dubay mentioned in his book that there are certain conditions that we need to understand for our growth in the mystical or spiritual life. 

In this fourth episode of our series on the Fire Within, we'll try to reflect upon and respond to the 8 conditions for spiritual growth. This also is an invitation to spiritually "get our ducks in a row", leave behind sin, and live the Gospel with generosity.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 3 of 8)

The medicine for wanting to pray is learning to live in the reality that's most true-God wants to be in communion with us.

Meditation, contemplation, and infused prayer are things that can help us live in this reality and this is what we're gonna talk about in this third episode of our series on the Fire Within. 

This episode also aims to present before us, an authentically Catholic understanding of experiences of God and give witness through what we see in scripture and the lives of the saints.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 2 of 8)

Growth in spiritual life is never easy.

In the beginning, it's gonna take a LOT of effort. But as it goes on, you'll notice that it becomes more and more the Lord's work and less and less contingent on our human work.

This is the second episode of our series on the Fire Within that talks about how St. Theresa sees the "giftness" of advanced prayer and the relationship between prayer and the profound growth in the spiritual life.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Series on Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Part 1 of 8)

We are anointed with the power of the holy spirit and this is the fire that we've been given.

With this fire, all of us are called to live a deep union with God—not just to live in mediocrity with our spiritual life but to set ablaze with love for the Lord.

This is the first episode of our series on the Fire Within which reminds us of the importance of being given to prayer and the importance of being "on fire" in a profound union with the Lord.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Jesus dying on the cross is the symbol of God's victory but is also the consequence to sin. 

This is one of the most striking examples that there are things that we can do that are gonna have real concrete consequences in our lives and the lives of others. 

As Christians and Catholics, we try to memorialize this consequence through the crucifix. But in reality, there's still a real struggle in surrendering to the fact that our actions have real consequences. 

So in this episode, we will talk about the importance of our actions and consequences and attempt to make sense of why it is important for all of us. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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How do we respond to the serious sins in our lives? 

For many of us, there is a temptation to be overly critical of ourselves and we let that define us. But, our spiritual life should not be defined by these serious sins. 

We are invited to be with the Lord and let him teach us about our hearts in the place of sin. 

In this episode, we'll unpack and attempt to answer this question. A reminder that you are more than your sins.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Loneliness can make us feel that we're not chosen, it can give us a sense that we are totally in isolation.

And sometimes it's so easy to forget BUT we have to remember what's true—we have a God who loves us and chooses us. 

In this episode, we will dive deep into the idea, experience, and desire of being chosen—a reminder that despite the difficulties in our life experiences, we are chosen, desired, and pursued by God.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Do we still know deep within ourselves, how amazing the gift of the Eucharist is?

Sometimes, we can forget and take that for granted, but it's awesome how Jesus gives Himself to us, in the form of bread and wine through the Eucharist. In the most humble way, the Lord wants to offer himself to us and be with us ALWAYS.

In celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi, we're going to dive deeper into the Eucharist and its importance—an attempt to remind ourselves of the beauty and essence of this amazing gift.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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The Scripture is one of the Lord's best ways to talk to us, a way for us to converse with God.

It is also a good reminder of who Jesus is and who we are to Him.

Most of us say that praying with scriptures is something that's good to do, but how do we actually do that?

In this episode, we're going to offer some initial guidance on praying with scriptures and provide some good practices that might be helpful for us to have a more fruitful relationship with God through the scriptures.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

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Not every relationship is the same, so not every fraternal correction will be the same. 

This may vary between a parent and a child, between friends, between a boss and his subordinates, between strangers, or between a formator and the people their forming. 

In today's episode, we will discuss essential distinctions when it comes to fraternal correction and try to shed some light on what would be our responsibilities or what we are supposed to do when we encounter people in our daily walks of life and we would like to engage in fraternal correction.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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Loneliness is a common experience that we all share. 

Whether you're in crowds of people or constantly with other people who are not peers. Maybe you're in a marriage surrounded by kids all day, or you could be in isolation and feel you have not been chosen by people.

Either way, at times we can experience loneliness at some point.

Instead of trying to escape it or fill that void with other things, what exactly do we need to do with that loneliness? This is what we are going to unpack and attempt to answer in this episode. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

What do you do after Easter Sunday?

We are invited to be overwhelmed with paschal joy during the Easter season, but instead, we usually resolve to our daily grind like everything isn't transformed by our encounter with the risen Lord. 

So many of us return to our normal ways shortly after the resurrection—we can sometimes take comfort in that.

In today's episode, we're gonna talk about the importance of Easter and how we can allow the liturgy to break into our everyday lives.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

How much do you know about the hosts of the Poco a Poco Podcast?

Some people have been along with the Poco a Poco journey for some time now and may already know certain things about them. On the other hand, some people might also be new to this podcast and may want to know more about our beloved brothers.

So in today's episode, the Poco a Poco squad is going to share a little bit of their stories—their testimonies about what God has done to their lives and how they got to where they are now.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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"How is Jesus calling you to serve the poor?" This is the question we'll attempt to answer in this episode.

Jesus loved the poor and like Him, we are called to be a lifeline for a person in need.

God sees the poor but we are called to intercede on their behalf—to be somebody who's able to bring them to Him.

This episode talks about the importance, necessity, and beauty of having hearts that are mindful of those who are most in need. An invitation to live how Jesus lived and loved those in need.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

As we continue with our journeys through life, we constantly encounter our own and other people's struggles, flaws, weaknesses and even sins. But we have to understand that we are going through different journeys.

God is doing something completely different in each of our lives and we have to be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as they may seem. 

Here is another one of our Hot Takes episode that talks about some of the most essential topics that most of us can relate to. In this episode we'll be going through the following topics: 

1️⃣ Should I write down my sins for confession? 2️⃣ How to make a better confession. 3️⃣ Thoughts on fraternal correction. 4️⃣ Theraphy, Yes or No? 5️⃣ Chapel Etiquette

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Do we live our lives believing—having faith in the ressurection? 

In this ongoing journey of stripping the things we clothe ourselves with, Jesus wants us to give him the things that hold us back and desires to give himself in return. 

We have sins that isolates and causes us to go into hiding, but the gift of the resurrection breaks it all open. 

This episode focuses on the importance of the resurrection. An invitation to allow the hope of the resurrection to enter into all of our darkness and all of the different areas of our lives, in this Valley of Tears as we continue to journey through it.

This Easter season let's pray to have an increase in faith in the Lord and his resurrection.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Can we allow oursleves to be exposed before the Lord in prayer? 

Are we able to be before the Lord as we are and not holding anything back of ourselves or hiding ourselves in any way? 

These are the questions that we are attempting to unpack in this seventh part of our Lenten series. 

In this episode we are talking about how we can be stripped of all the things we cloth ourselves with—to be clothed with the dignity of the Father's providence and our identity.

An invitation to be naked without shame and give the God everything—to be able to surrender the fullness of our past, our lives to Him and firmly trust that he can take it all on himself and let us begin again.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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How does Jesus have authority? It is through His obedience to the Father.

But one incredible reality of Jesus is that, in His authority He takes all the stench to the cross where it will be killed in His crucifixion.

His authority is not one that lords it over us. It's not one that forces us to bow down and tremble before Him. But it's one that allows Himself to be emptied and clothed with all the messiness, struggles, confusion and pain so he can take it to his death at the cross.

And in His authority he conquers sin and death, upon his resurrection.

This episode is the sixth part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion that reminds us that we should not take lightly that God comes and let himself be stripped and crucified for all of us—an invitation to allow Jesus to have authority to live his life in obedience and in surrender to his Father, within ourselves.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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"Have I told Jesus all of my story?" That's the question that we are going to unpack in this episode.

Most of us have confessed and have sought healing in particular places of our lives, but there are still parts of who we are now that we keep in the dark—the stench. 

The reality of that stench is that it is discouraging and it is despairing, but Jesus comes and He's not afraid of that.

This episode is the fifth part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion. An invitation to have the radical vulnerability and trust to say "Jesus here is everything." and let Him see all of the death and stench in our lives.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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There's this simplicity that when we encounter Jesus, our lives become different. We may not understand it and it might not look the same for each of us, but our lives becomes different.

Just like the story of the man born blind, before he met Jesus and hoped in Him, he was living in darkness unable to see. After his encounter there had been healing and he was finally able to see. Things changed.

We know that there's an absolute vulnerability and struggle with physical blindness and it is similar to the vulnerability and struggles that we have in the desires we can't give ourselves.

That is why we need to receive this gift of acceptance and surrender for us be comfortable in being uncomfortable.

This episode is the fourth part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion, a beginning of a journey of surrender. An invitation to make space for the Lord, ask Jesus for help with the crosses we carry and to trust and hope, not for outcomes but in Him.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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In one form or another we can sometimes live in isolation and hiding. Because of shame and sin we clothe ourselves with shadows, we hide. These lies that we hide behind keeps us stuck and paralyzed—Jesus wants to call us out of that.

The places of hiding don't have to defeat us, but they can become these intimate places where the Lord desires to be.

This episode is the third part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion that talks about the Well not only as a place of shame but intimacy as well. This episode shows us the reality of the renunciation and what it means to leave the shadows behind.

An invitation to say "no more lying and hiding", an invitation to be honest that the shadows affect us, an invitation to name our struggles or sins, an invitation to remember that the brokenness never defines us. 

A reminder that God is always in search for us, that we are pursued even as sinners and He wants to shed light to our darkness.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

What going up the mountain offers is an opportutiy to come face-to-face with God. 

It provides a perspective where we can see what's actually important. Up there we are invited to embrace the experience and the beauty of childlike wonder and awe, it's a place of intimacy with and revelation of God.

But the challenge as we go up the mountain is that we have to let go of things. And it's difficult because most of us have surrendered theophany for dopamine. We have been used to this constant consumption of "dopamine kicks"—the consumption of these things that makes us feel good. 

As we go up the mountain, we need empty ourselves, and allow God to lead us there. So that we can have His eyes look upon us, which is the purest, the truest, the tenderest, the most loving, and the most hope-filled.

This episode is the second part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

There are a number of practices that we are preparing to do during this Lent. But this time of year shouldn't only be a project that we need to fulfill but rather an opportunity.

Lent is an opportunity to exercise a posture of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and surrender. Surrendering to someone, to a relationship that matters, to God.

This episode is the first part of our Lenten series on Fr. Mark Toups's Lenten Companion. In this episode, we're gonna talk about about how we transform what's being taken from us to something that is offered, how we can make our sacrifices and circumstances, holy. 

A reminder and an invitation to relinquish control and to entrust everything to the Lord when we cannot control or we don't like the things happening around us. A proposal to trust that the Lord can make something good and beautiful out of it.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

The first of the nine beatitudes of Matthew said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

The world is constantly trying to define us—it tries to tell us who we are. Our successes, belongings, talents, people in our lives, our jobs, culture and technology, all these things tends make us who we are. We beclothed ourselves with these things and we are tempted to find our identity in them.

But again, "Who Is God and Who Am I?". To understand what it means to be truly free and live in freedom as sons and daughters of God, we have to keep this question before us.

We have to let go of other worldly things and not be afraid of staying in the place of spiritual poverty before the Lord.

This episode is the fourth and last part of our series on Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacque Philippe that talks about freedom in spiritual poverty. An invitation for us to remain in this place of poverty and let God define us, give us everything and ultimately lead us to the kingdom of heaven.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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We cannot grow in freedom unless we grow in faith, hope and love—that's the recipe for freedom.

Faith, hope and love are the three theological virtues that connect us to God. As Christians, we are people who believe in God, hope everything from Him, and want to love Him with all their hearts and to love their neighbors.

This episode is the third part of our series on Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacque Philippe that talks about the key role of theological virtues in acquiring internal freedom with a particular focus on the importance of Hope.

An invitation to freedom for those who feel defeated and those who might've lost a sense of hope in the Lord.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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We think we're most free when we can kind of be in control. 

"I'm free when I get to get up every day and just have control over my life and my circumstances." 

That's not a Catholic freedom according to Jacque Philippe, but it is actually being able to accept reality as it is.

We struggle with freedom because it's hard to accept our weakness. It's quite difficult to accept our sinfulness—it's hard to accept these different parts of our lives. But if we don't accept ourselves, our realities, we either live in memories or fantasies where Jesus can't reach us.

This episode is the second part of our series on Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacque Philippe that talks about and the importance of acceptance towards being truly free.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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What makes us most free, is this submitting to God and this dependence on Him. 

Yes, freedom is actually dependent on obedience rather than kind of doing whatever I want.

When we fall in love with God and we experience that love, this deep interior freedom takes place and it becomes the most important thing of our lives—even to a point that is greater than our circumstances.

This episode is the first part of our series on Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacque Philippe that talks about what it means to live in freedom as sons and daughters of God and how this freedom can become greater than the circumstances of our lives.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

How do we reconcile being strong and weak at the same time?

There has to come a healthy recognition that we're just unable to do things. 

And it's in this weakness, in recognizing that we have a lack, that Christ is then able to come in and actually be the one who moves us through that weakness into a place of strength.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about and attempt to reconcile how we are supposed to be strong but weak at the same time.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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A habitual and firm disposition to do good, not just for ourselves but for everybody—this is how virtue is defined.

Virtue allows the person, not only to perform good acts but to give the best of themselves for the greatest good of everybody.

But why do we do it? Who's it truly for and how do we exactly do it right?

In this episode, we'll attempt to answer these questions as we talk about what virtue is along with some insights and practical examples on how we might get it wrong and how we can get it right.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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"Who Is God" and "Who am I?"

This is what we're attempting to answer when we talk about living in the proper order of relationship, identity, and mission.

We are living in a time where we're going through an identity crisis. In the very foundation, a lot of us are forgetting who we are. We forget that we are sons and daughters of God and that we are made for relationship with Him.

We've allowed the world, our successes, brokenness, and weaknesses to define us. We've allowed all these things on the outside to define us instead of starting in the right place.

This episode talks more about relationship, identity, and mission-what these are about and why are they important. A reminder that our relationship with God tells us the truth about who we are and how that can help us live our mission.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com! 

Why do we need to go deeper into our spiritual life? What does that actually mean?

Going deeper into our spiritual life means recognizing that we are not the ones in control anymore. It is accepting this place of poverty that we cannot only rely on ourselves, to fabricate everything and make it work. It is having that absolute trust and confidence in the presence of God.

Yes, life will be hard, there will be poverty, there is real suffering, there will be death and there will be sin. But what do we do with that? Do we get discouraged and face our weakness over and over again or do we allow God to make the foundation of our hearts, our faith, our relationship, unshakeable.

In this episode, we'll be talking about the choices we make in our lives that is geared towards formation along with some practical examples on how the presence of Jesus-the peace he gives us becomes more real than the circumstances that we have.

An invitation to be able to say that "Jesus I trust you, I know you're here and I know you're real." even when it's hard. To be in a place where we can be utterly poor and can utterly rely and trust in God as we face our limitations.

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com! 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Mary wants the Holy Spirit to come to our life, as the Holy Spirit came for her. When we're struggling, when we don't understand, when we're having deep desires and longings of our hearts, the Holy Spirit will come. 

God is good, God will send and He will give us everything, we just need to have the openness to received Him and say Yes.

We might not know the answers, but we know Him. In the unknown, let's rely on our relationship with Him. That's what's Advent is about and that's where we want to be.

This episode is the fourth and last part of the series on Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional that talks about the Annunciation and an invitaion to say Yes to the grace of the Holy Spirit as Mary did—not just a one time 'Yes' but an ongoing, abiding and persevering Yes.

✝️ If you want to follow along with our upcoming advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com! 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

We have this tendency that we want to fix or clean-up certain things first before we let the Lord in. 

We are afraid that our place, our lives are messy-that it's too much for anyone even for God to handle. 

But God is NOT panicking, he's completely in control.

He's not afraid or scandalized of how messy our lives are, he actually comes for the mess. He isn't waiting for us to get it together, he wants to come and the way we get things together is by him coming to our lives, we just have to let him in.

This episode is the third part of the series on Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional that talks about how we can ask the Lord to take our panic and give His us peace. An invitation for us to let God in to our lives reagardless of the mess,

If you want to follow along with our current advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at http://www.pocomerch.com/

The gift of Advent is God proposing himself to us.

He comes not just to command us to do something and watch from a far. He comes to sing with us, dance with us, BE with us.

With that said, it would be tragic if the Lord comes knocking in our door and we don't open it—that we miss Emmanuel, God with us. Let us receive him and respond to him in the proper way during this Advent.

This episode is the second part of the series on Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional, which talks about how we can have the hearts to be open and available to receive God—to keep our focus on the gift of Emmanuel above and beyond everything else. It is also an invitation to ask Mary to teach us the purity of heart that she had, to see God as she did.

If you want to follow along with our current advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Sometimes we lose hope, wondering, does He really want to come and be with us in our sickness, addiction, our family brokenness, our difficulty, our struggles, or anxieties? 

Advent is a time that God speaks a definitive word into our exiles, "Yes, I do"—He comes and desires to be with us.

This episode is the first part of the series on Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional which talks about what Advent is all about. A reminder that God is pursuing us and that in our brokenness, He comes to be with us.

If you want to follow along with our current advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com

Jesus not only loves us—he thirsts for us.

Why does He say "I thirst"? What does it mean? It's something so hard to explain in words. I thirst is something much deeper than Jesus just saying, "I love you". 

Mother Teresa tells us how much love Jesus has for each of us—beyond all that we can imagine. 

In her words "Not only He loves you, even more, He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy".

This fourth and last part of this series talks about Jesus's experience of us and our first step to begin to know who He wants to be for us, or who Jesus wants us to be for Him.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

If you want to follow along with our upcoming advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com

Sometimes, we may feel that we are only able do the little things—that what we do is insignificant.

Things may seem so small, but in reality no matter how little or insignificant something may seem, nothing is little. It's because God makes them and because He makes them, they are great and infinite in value.

The Saints, like Mother Teresa did amazing things, but they were faithful to the little things and through that God did the huge things in their lives. Even Jesus himself came to us small, hidden and lowly and not in the most grand way.

This third part of the series on Mother Teresa reminds us that everything is an opportunity to be holy when we allow God to enter into it. A reminder that if we are faithful, even the little things matter.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

If you want to follow along with our upcoming advent series, you can get your copy of Emmanuel: An Advent Devotional (by Fr. Angelus Montgomery, CFR, and Sr. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM,) at  https://ydisciple.shop/products/emmanuel

You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com.

Could you imagine being woken up in the middle of the night because of a great desire to be with someone? For Mother Teresa, it was her desire to be with Jesus. 

She had a deep, supernatural union with God that gave her the experience of divinely-inspired thirst for Him. A living relationship with Jesus that brings her to this mystical state of ecstasy.

This episode is the second part of the new series on Mother Teresa that talks about the beauty of the relationship Mother Teresa had with Jesus, and how it relates to all of us. 

It is also an invitation for us to recognize this desire that Mother Teresa had and the desire that God has for her and for all of us.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

As we mentioned on our previous episode, we need to be in this place where we are able to both worship and adore Jesus and at the same time be in relationship with Him and our neighbor with compassion and warmth.

This episode talks about an exceptional example of that-Mother Teresa of Calcutta. 

A person who embodied and lived the fullness of the gospel life and who was such a great steward of the grace the she received that it influenced millions of people in a very good way. 

A saint who gave us a glimpse of who Jesus is and how He loves us.

This is the first part of the new series on Mother Teresa wherein the CFRs shares a little bit about their experience of Mother Teresa and what it meant to them.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

In our faith we sometimes find ourselves in the extremes. We become either strict and liturgical or warm and casual but the truth is our faith should not be "either, or" but "both, and".

We need to be in this place where we are able to both worship and adore the Lord and at the same time be in relationship with Him and our neighbor with compassion and warmth.

When that becomes our reality, we can make a difference—that's why it's important for us to discern where we are in this mix.

This episode talks about, how we can assess where we are in this regard and how we can integrate worship and warmth to our faith and our relationship with Jesus.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

We allow our hearts to agree with the truth of who God is—that's what adoration means. 

And as we become more familiar with the truth of who God is through adoration, we start to see more clearly who God is to us and what is given to us by Him. 

Everything that we have is a gift from God and for most of us this is an overwhelming truth where Praise is the only just response.

This episode is the sixth and last part on the series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin which talks about what praise is and its' importance.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

This episode is the fifth part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin. The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Life is difficult—our life is a valley of tears. And the ability to remain in faith, hope, and love with God as Father is impossible if we do it ourselves. 

If we want to be able to experience God's closeness and his presence and to cry out "Abba, Father" in the midst of our darkness, difficulties, crucifixions, sufferings and loss, we need grace to do it.

With the help of the Holy Spirit we can the Lord for greater commitment and resolve to receive and to stay in grace at all times.

This episode is the fourth part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin which talks about how we persevere to be in relationship with God the Father in the midst of these lived experiences and provide some amazing insights on how we stay where the grace is.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

There is no denying that there can be many circumstances to dismiss fatherhood, both from our earthly and our Heavenly Father. 

But despite what we've experienced, God is your Father and my Father who intently listens and cares for us—a Father who delights in his sons and daughters.

We all need to have a personal relationship with God. Aside from praying "Our" Father in a communal way, You and I also need to pray to "My" Father in a personal way.

God provides concrete expressions and revelations of fatherhood every day of our lives. What we need is to be more open to receive that gift of every moment that He gives us and be able to see again how the He truly cares for us in reality.

This episode is the third part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin which talks about the personal fatherhood of God to each one of us. An invitation to the possibilities and responsibilities of sonship or daughtership to The Father.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

When we were kids, we were usually amazed and awed about something that was new, grand or magnificent, but as we grew older we became more indifferent towards those things. 

As Christians and Catholics, we are in love and fascinated with Jesus. But as we've sat with the Lord for longer periods of time, we too sometimes become indifferent to our Faith and His life as well.

We need to keep seeing our Faith with fresh eyes—to be excited and eager to grow in relationship with the Lord. 

Let's ask for the grace to continue experiencing a child-like awe and wonder towards God.

This episode is the first part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin. An invitation for us to return and authentically stay in awe and wonderment before all the mysteries of God.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Life and circumstances are undeniably hard, but we are not alone in this. 

The beautiful reality is that even when we leave prayer and go into the world, we may leave God but He never does. God is still always with us—within us.

Knowing that the Lord is dwelling within us, it does change how we navigate through whatever is happening in our lives. It doesn't mean that our problems will go away instantly or that it will fix it immediately, but there can definitely be a drastic change on how we approach and live our lives. 

This episode talks about this gift of the Holy Trinity dwelling in us, its' importance and how we can access that.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

Probably the most important relationship in our life is our relationship with God, and we are building that through prayer.

Prayer is real—it's for everyone, but we know that prayer is not always easy. Sometimes it can even be really hard.

Growing in relationship with God is a journey, there are ups and downs along with some twists and turns. 

There are good days when you just feel really close to God—days when you feel that you can hear the voice of God and there's so much joy, peace and consolation that goes into that. But in some days, there may be a lot of struggles where we feel far away from God.

This episode talks about what happens when prayer is hard and how we go about it. It also serves as an encouragement to be more aware of what's happening in our hearts when we pray.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

As we go through life we encounter our own and other people's struggles, flaws, weaknesses and even sins. But we have to understand that we are going through different journeys.

God is doing something completely different in each of our lives and we have to be attentive to that. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as they may seem. 

This is another one of our Hot Takes episode that talks about some of the most essential topics that most of us can relate to.

1️⃣ "To tell someone the truth that they are not ready to receive, does violence to the person" 2️⃣ Can you miss your vocation? 3️⃣ Praying for healing for other people 4️⃣ "Life is a struggle, make sure you pick your battles" 5️⃣ A little bit about shopping ( "Checks and Balances on Impulsive Buying" )

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! 

Because of fear and insecurity that is ruling our life, we tend to control everything and self-protect. We look inward and we really don't see what God is doing—we don't really trust anyone around us.

We don't have to be afraid anymore.

There will be pain and suffering on our healing journey and the wounds won't just go away, but that's okay.

We got to stop running from our woundedness and stay rooted. Let us allow the vulnerability to happen at the source of healing and give the Lord permission to meet us, loves us and heal us in these deepest places in our hearts. 

This episode invites us to let the Lord come into those vulnerable place and break down those walls that we've put up to protect ourselves.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

The brokenness that is present in our culture deforms us.

We have been taught a certain way of living that somehow cultivated the sins of self-reliance, self-protection, fear and insecurities.

Because we're afraid of being weak or being poor and failing, we put-up walls and put on armors to protect ourselves from being hurt—this in turn makes us live with a high level of anxiety.

It doesn't have to be that way. We can be reformed and refashioned but we need to do that with the Lord and this episode provide some amazing insights and talks about how we go about doing that.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

One might often think that growth is gonna happen in a particular way that we usually perceive as a huge experience or something flashy, but growth might actually look different. 

What does the Lord want to teach us and how does He teach us these things?

We don't grow by having everything altogether all the time. We also cannot expect to grow while staying self-protected in our comfort zones. Instead it's when we actually experience poverty.

In reality we can be uncomfortable from the challenges of our lives and realize that this is what we need to help ourselves to grow in love and in holiness.

This episode looks back on how most of us perceive, encounter and experience growth. An invitation for us to reflect on what does it really mean and how can we make it happen.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

There is the undeniable temptation to achieve and perform in order prove that we are good enough. But, it shouldn't be all about that.

We are gifts to the Lord not because of our perfection but only because of who we are.

We can get caught up in the little things that we do and detach them from the overall goal. It's not just about being perfect on all virtue, discipline or devotions—it should all be geared towards Love.

The love of God and growing in love with him, that's the ultimate goal.

This is a supplementary episode to close the series on The Practice of the Presence of God, that talks about experiencing love, learning to be and being loved and from that being able to love.

You can find the Presence of God challenge in the Hallow App or this link https://app.hallow.com/challenges/51, where you can join in and reflect with Fr. Mark-Mary on The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on The Practice of the Presence of God (Part 4 of 4)

There's a lot happening in the world we live in, and nothing much we can do about it.

During this difficult time we need to pay attention to the Lord—to be immersed in the mystery of God, his goodness and his mercy.

It's good to understand what is and what's not in our circle of influence even though it might be in our own country, group, family or even in our own life. Let's discern with the Lord, what's His and whats ours to deal with together.

The beauty and grace of it is that we have the freedom to surrender all the things we cannot control, and bring it God.

Let's not fall to the pattern of distraction, discouragement, despair. We need to find a way to encounter the light to push back the darkness. There's hope to find peace amidst chaos.

You can find the Presence of God challenge in the Hallow App or this link https://app.hallow.com/challenges/51, where you can join in and reflect with Fr. Mark-Mary on The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on The Practice of the Presence of God (Part 3 of 4)

We can't do anything more to earn God's love, we have it already!

We can be weak, we can be poor, and we can be sinners—and that's okay. We can bring all that to the Lord and that's where we start.

Jesus doesn't want us to give him the good things alone, but the bad things as well. What the Lord wants is for us to invite Him in that space for Him to be with us on that.

What we need to do is to surrender every bit of who we are, surrender our desires to control and give it all to God.

This episode talks more about some great points in the practice of presence of God. An invitation to reflect back on who we are, understand or accept our weaknesses and sins. While at the same time, recognize who God is as we surrender everything to Him.

You can find the Presence of God challenge in the Hallow App or this link https://app.hallow.com/challenges/51, where you can join in and reflect with Fr. Mark-Mary on The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on The Practice of the Presence of God (Part 2 of 4)

What does a good prayer look like? We don't know.. Everyone has the freedom on how they pray.

But thinking about God, reading a book about God and just saying words about God is not praying. Praying is the relationship that brings us in to a conscious living contact with God himself.

Everything is at the service of relationship with Him.

There's a real person looking back at us in prayer—who loves us and wants to draw us close to his sacred heart. Jesus wants to meet us in that contemplative space and experience his heart there.

In relation to Brother Lawrence's Book, this episode talks through some amazing insights on the relational aspect of prayer as well as some logic and application of prayer. An invitation for us to re-evaluate our prayer life which is meant to put us in relationship with God.

You can find the Presence of God challenge in the Hallow App or on this link https://app.hallow.com/challenges/51, where you can join in and reflect with Fr. Mark-Mary on The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on The Practice of the Presence of God (Part 1 of 4)

With the abundance of noise in our world, there can be a lot of interruptions to our ongoing conversation and relationship with the God.

The habitual, silent and secret conversation we all dream to have with God, all seems to be very difficult to achieve. There's going to be a cost, sacrifice and perseverance.

We need to drive away from our minds everything that is capable of interrupting our thought of God. It doesn't overnight nor does it happen easily.

Like any dream that we have, we do need to put some work into it in order to make it happen.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Whether we feel it or not—believe it or not, this is our identity. We live as beloved sons and daughters of God.

There's a temptation to believe the we have to do something amazing or special to be able to bring the Gospel and Christ to people. But the reality is, the same spirit and the same gifts are given to us in our baptism as Christians and Catholics.

All of us are called to bring the Gospel and Christ to people and by participating in this mission we are just being who we are supposed to be.

This episode talks more about our identity, the inheritance we have and our mission. A beautiful reminder that the power of Christ is already in us, we just have to embrace it—have faith in it!

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

We don't have to be all-put-together or be perfect in order to bring healing to ourselves and to other people. We are all incomplete and despite that God wants to work through us—right now.

There might be times that we can revert our eyes from our Jesus, or get stuck within ourselves or maybe distracted by the world. At times like this we need to fight a continuous battle to keep looking at Jesus and feed our faith.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on The Twelve Steps (Part 3 of 3)

God wants to go back into our lives and our stories—and start speaking light, redemption and truth over that.

There's the need for us to have a radical opening of our hearts and honesty to what really is happening in our lives. We have to be searching and fearless to admit what's inside our "junk room" and bring that to the Lord.

Whatever that makes our lives unmanageable is just a symptom of something else.

We not only need to look at the things that make our lives unmanageable but also we look at the things that drives them and the ripple effect that it had caused. This episode focuses on the gift and highlights of the remaining step.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

In our poverty, there's the need to admit we're powerless—that life is not okay anymore and figure out what do we do with that.

And as we are brought to our knees—utterly defeated. We can let go of ourselves as our own authority and give ourselves to a greater power, to Christ.

Only then we can make a daily decision to turn our will to the care of God—say Yes to the connection we have with Him everyday even with all the craziness that's going on.

This episode talks about the first three steps of The Twelve Steps that allows the foundation of our lives and our hearts to be set in experiencing renewal and recovery. And it is a reminder that tells us when we can't, Jesus can. We just have to let him.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on 12 Step Wisdom (Part 1 of 3)

At some point, our lives are unmanageable and we need help.

When we want to turn away from sin and our struggles, we turn to God to save and heal us. 

We are given clarity to open our eyes and see our life in a new or different way. And while we're accepting reality as it is, we recognize what we can and cannot control, we realize what is asked of us everyday. 

When we live that reality one moment at a time, that's the time we can accept life in a particular way and enjoy it!

This episode talks about the Serenity Prayer and what it means to be in recovery and seek healing and conversion.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

There are multitudes of struggles that we are experiencing day to day.

As we see our own and other people's struggles, weakness and even sins, we have to understand that we are going through different journeys.

God is doing something completely different in each of our lives.

Relative to this truth, this episode talks about some of the most essential topics that most of us can relate to. Here are some of our hot takes. The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

It is easy to fall into the temptation and believe that we can't do it, that we can't live a holy life.

Although the ordinary life is simple, hidden, and seems kind of normal, there's so much sanctity in our vocations that are being lived faithfully. It might not be flashy or spectacular but it's one of the most real ways we can grow in holiness.

We may not be in the chapel or church making a eucharistic holy hour, but no matter what our day-to-day experiences look like or what daily lives we are accustomed to, God is there.

There's something extraordinary in our ordinary experiences.

It is possible to be in relationship with God, amidst everything that we do. We just need to make the space and time no matter how small and let Him enter into our lives.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

A special shout-out to all the moms out there who are totally in it, Happy Mother's Day to you all!

We are made to live in relationship wherein two or more people speak to one another.

As we have the desire to talk to God, He also has the desire to speak and to come close to His people. He is speaking to us.

We have to grow in sensitivity to what God's voice sounds like, what our voices sounds like, what the voice of the world sounds like, and what the voice of the enemy sounds like.

There are times we already know the voice of who we're talking to simply because we've been with them, we've spoken to them, we said things back and forth with them, same is true with God.

Discernment is not a mathematical equation but it is a tool for us to become more sensitive to how God speaks in our lives.

This episode talks about how we recognize the different voices around us and lays out some building blocks which are extremely helpful for our own discernment.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

This whole Lenten journey has a been about identity. In this journey, we again receive the gift of who we are as sons and daughters of God and every other identity along the way.

But this identity pilgrimage will not make sense without the resurrection. Life will be incomprehensible if it's just suffering and brokenness.

Jesus risen from the dead is the truth that changes everything.

The gift of the resurrection shows us a new way to love. It gives us a new way to look at things and a new light to have a brighter hope. Ultimately, it helps us to have a new way of living.

This episode talks about the transformation that happens in our hearts when we experience the new life of Jesus in us and what it means to live as new men and women.

As we finish working through the Born of Fire book and enter into the Easter season, we invite you to look at and receive what the resurrection of Jesus mean to your personal life.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Life of prayer is worth going "all-in" on.

In this mystical identity, there's an invitation to let go of ourselves. Prayer is not authentic if we are stuck or focused on ourselves. Prayer changes as we let go of our own notion of what it should be.

We are constantly invited for our hearts to be attentive and open to become mystics—to become men and women of prayer. It anchors us in the reality that we are made for relationship, we're made for prayer, and we are made to live in intimacy with God every single day of our lives.

As we enter the Holy week, we're inviting everyone to let the truth be true and let God, be God.

This Lent, we continue to work through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

If you want to go and support Ali Hoffman and get some cool Catholic merchandise, you can go to https://www.alihoffman.co/

We come in as sons and daughters, then we graduate from sonship and daughtership.

When we fall in love and receive the gift of the beloved, we have this deep desire to bear fruit and to let this love overflow. In this love, sons and daughters become spouses and from there we mature to become mothers and fathers.

What we want is to live with the Father's heart—to give unselfish and sacrificial love. It is definitely not easy. But we are invited to become fathers and mothers after the heart of God.

This episode tackles this topic through the most challenging moments in the desert.

This Lent, we continue to work through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

The world is a crazy place. There's always the temptation to hide, run away or to fear Love. There are distractions and lies—the lie that we cannot do it, that we may lose ourselves, that our love won't be reciprocated.

But we are made to be in love.

First and foremost with the Lord, Jesus the bridegroom, who comes to save, to love, and to die for us, His bride. And from this love we are called to lay down our lives and give ourselves fully for a bride or bridegroom.

This Lent, we continue to work through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Love demands everything. Not only carrying the cross—dying on it. We do hard things, but not for the sake of doing hard things. When modeled after the way that Jesus did hard things, it’s a stepping stone that leads to the cross. This episode goes through all this by one of the desert’s more intense moments: a helicopter rescue. Listen to what that experience was like… and how, afterwards, the journey continued. This Lent, we’re working through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/ The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

The fraternal life is not accessory to life. We’re coming to the desert together, which constantly challenges each of us to give ourselves to the Lord and to each other. We belong to one another.  

Then there are times where the hardest part isn’t giving… but receiving. We absolutely have to choose to be a brother, and we also have to choose to receive the brotherhood. We have to accept help and service and love.

Either way, we have to keep learning more and more: life isn’t about me. 

This Lent, we’ll be working through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Being a son means that you have a Father.

The first and most important identity: son. This is the foundational identity that the Father gives us—everything else builds on this.

We’re not talking about the Father as an idea or a concept. Because you can’t have a relationship with an idea. An idea can’t rejoice in you. This is a real relationship, with a real Father.

We’re inviting everyone into the desert because we all have a longing to know who we are. And once you’ve been given the gift of yourself, and are able to say strongly, “Lord, I’m a Son/Daughter,” you come alive.

This Lent, we’ll be working through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Sometimes Lent is a missed opportunity. We focus too much on what we’re going to give up, what we’re going to do, etc. This year, focus on our desire to have a Lent that brings us into contact with Jesus.

Where are we going, and why are we going there?

Jesus doesn’t go into the desert for himself; he doesn’t have some personal need. He does it for us.

And in a real way, we get to go into the desert as Jesus did. We go with him into the desert because he absolutely wants us to experience what he experiences with the Father. That relationship is everything.

But it takes work. It takes tough decisions. And this world, as we know it, doesn’t form us to say “yes” to that.

There is a mark on our souls from baptism, and we go into the desert so Jesus can remind us what that means. To claim our inheritance: direct access to God, in everything. But we have to let everything else go to receive this gift.

It’s time to choose to step into the desert.

This Lent, we’ll be working through Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now (including digital copies) at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 8 of 8)

When you have a conversion, you live a Eucharistic life, with a gravitational pull to be with Jesus. There, no matter how you feel, you know you’re not alone.

It’s not just about our desire to go to him, though—he is also drawing us to himself. Allow yourself to be drawn.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

Starting next week… Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. Order now at bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

When we get to know Jesus, our need for “stuff”—for entertainment, for status—is lessened.

Besides… we have to stop pretending that stuff and noise and grasping doesn’t have an effect on our lives. Really examine it in your own life; the truth is that prayer only works in silence. Being on your phone all the time or watching hours of tv every day, well, those things impact your interior life.

You have to make the small spaces where you let go of things and be simple, and then God can come in and fill that space.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

The first big “yes”—when we originally orient our lives to Christ—is not the most important. It’s the later yesses, of a deeper surrender and trust and giving of our lives, that mean a lot more. At some point, it’s not enough to be doing the right things; there must still be a desire for even deeper intimacy with God.

Over time, it’s easy to slowly start compromising on little things; to lose the initial enthusiasm and excitement and energy of conversion. This is when sacrifice comes in—when maybe there’s not as much consolation, and no novelty, and it’s all about choosing to sacrifice for the relationship. It’s about a love that perseveres.

If you’re looking for this deeper intimacy, there’s a revealing question to ask yourself. Where am I still hiding?

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 5 of 8)

This is NOT a How to Discern episode.

It’s much closer to the foundation. What does the “will of God” even mean? What about “surrendering my life to God”?

Discernment isn’t a calculation or program or roadmap, it’s not a “do this and do that and God’s mystery in your life will be revealed.”

It’s wanting to trust in this relationship with God, and, through that, wanting to let go of our own preferences. It diminishes our selfish desires.

After all, fascination with the will of God is fascination with the heart of God. Why does he have a plan? Because he is Father. And you are his beloved son or daughter. His heart for you is one that wants to bring joy and happiness and fulfillment.

God gives us complete freedom to live our plans. But when we stop to ask for his plan, there’s a deeper freedom and a deeper joy. It’s what we’re made for.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 4 of 8)

There’s a simple test of whether a conversion is authentic: do you treat people differently, particularly the poor?

Does your spiritual life get reduced to “me”? Or to an exodus from caring about yourself at all?

Your prayer is measured in charity. The quality of your Holy Hour can only be measured by how you love people when you leave your Holy Hour. It’s not only about your experience.

The end of all formation, of any vocation, is self-gift. The end is the cross—the mystery of loving Jesus and loving like Jesus.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

Born of Fire by Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR. bornoffirebook.com/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 3 of 8)

Going to confession regularly can become routine—a checklist—instead of what it can be: an encounter with God.

Examine not only your sins, but also the one you’ve sinned against; the Lord.

Because there’s a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. You receive forgiveness; you’re reconciled with a person. This shift in approach can shift what you receive from a sacrament that’s not only about forgiveness but also about healing.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 2 of 8): Chapter 3

Remembering your sin can be uncomfortable. But it’s not about the sin—remembering your sin is remembering God’s mercy. It’s going back to Jesus’s presence at that moment, and to the way he changed it. Remembering that is the start of understanding your conversion more deeply, and to living your conversion more sustainably. A conversion based solely on feelings just doesn’t last.

After all, we don’t graduate from being poor; from being one who is saved, from needing a saviour. Being poor is a permanent posture of the disciple.

There’s only one place our sin makes sense: at the foot of the cross. Take the crucifix off the wall and bring it close. Study it. Spend time with it. Make the sacrifice of Christ personal. Does his suffering matter to you?

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (1/8): Introduction, Chapter 1

There’s a reason that this book is required reading for all CFR postulants. It’s intense, and we’re ready to get into it in this series.

Because it’s all about Jesus. And conversion is at the heart of the daily experience of saying “yes” to Jesus. 

Conversion isn’t something that happens “out there”; it’s not a personal project or a formation program. There’s nothing abstract about it. It’s a real encounter with the living person of Jesus Christ, and realizing we must turn away from ourselves and towards Christ. It can be terrifying, but we have to make a decision to allow Jesus in and change our lives.

A life of fidelity starts with the spark of conversion drawing us near to Jesus, and then us choosing to stay near to him, despite any temptation to remain in other things.

Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Our last episode of the year… a time that often means reflecting on the last year and looking forward to the next one.

As you look back on 2021, there are probably loose ends—struggles, situations—that haven’t been resolved. It’s easy to wish that everything would just make sense, but sometimes it just doesn’t. And looking forward to 2022, well: it can be hard to know what is in store.

There’s great mystery in it all. But we have a great model in sitting before mystery: Mary, Mother of God.

Mary experienced incredible mystery in her life, and throughout it all, she sat before this mystery and pondered these things in her heart. Like Mary, we have the chance to trust the Lord and say “yes” to the new year, even without knowing what is to come or fully understanding the last year.

There’s a lot we don’t know… but we know that God loves us. And as long as we’re with him, it’s going to be ok.

Starting next episode, we’ll be going through Conversion by Fr Haggerty. https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Maybe you’ve heard about the nativity scene plenty, and seen it depicted endlessly. Do you really think you’ve entered as deeply into that mystery as you can? There’s more! The Holy Spirit is never exhausted.

It’s the same with all of Scripture. This isn’t a collection of abstract ideas; these are stories of real people, and these stories can bring us into real relationship.

How can these stories become personal? A type of lectio divina emphasized by St Ignatius of Loyola: imaginative prayer. Meditating on Scripture this way, using human imagination and with God’s grace, can lead to encountering these stories on a different level.

Put yourself in the nativity scene. Pray with Mary and Joseph and the wise men. Let God reveal more to you.

This is the final episode with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

Starting in the new year, we’ll be going through Conversion by Fr Haggerty. https://www.ignatius.com/Conversion-P341.aspx

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Third Week of Advent

The Lord doesn’t need a perfect moment to do what he does. He can use—and has used—all the secular events and moments in history to bring about his plan. The detours and decisions and even things that feel like inconveniences—he’ll work with it all.

And it’s not that he’s just done this once or twice… it seems to be his method. God works through the stuff. It’s all very incarnational.

Never doubt that any situation is beyond God’s reach.

Right now, we’re going through Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Second Week of Advent

As a people and a Church, we have a common patrimony and inheritance of promises kept. Over time, salvation history involves real people and real stories—God breaks into history. 

Think Elizabeth and Zachariah. Simeon. Anna.

We are part of this story, living in salvation history. We must remember that God has been faithful to us, and use that memory to stay. God can’t fulfill his promises to us if we leave.

The saints we look to had their own struggles and their own trials, and the Lord was faithful to them. It was a faithfulness that satisfied something in their own lives, but there’s also a way in which it bore fruit such that we’re recipients of the fruitfulness of these people. There might be something that the Lord’s doing in our lives that is also going to be fruitful for other people we meet. Other people will inherit this.

We’re going through Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Second Week of Advent

God doesn’t make empty promises. But for many people… there are promises they won’t see fulfilled in their lifetimes. In receiving his promises, we also have to receive his timeline.

What does it look like to let God take his time? Start with stillness; sit in it; talk to him about it; think about when God has fulfilled his promises in your life. He hasn’t abandoned you before, and he won’t abandon you now.

Start off with what we know is true. Either the Father is good, or he’s not. Either the Father is present, or he’s not. We have to evangelize ourselves with the truth that is more real than suffering.

We’re going through Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press for the next few episodes. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

First Week of Advent

The lived experience of most people is: life is hard. We’re still in this valley of tears. We live it, but might not be relating it in a way that’s helpful… we just drag it around.

Enter: Advent. A season of hope and of promises fulfilled. Expectant hope, with confidence that the Lord is good and is at work for our good in our lives—the ultimate hope of heaven and of tears being wiped away.

Whatever you’re experiencing—God’s coming. God’s response to our struggle is the gift of himself. He doesn’t promise to solve any problem now and make everything okay, but he promises to give us himself. He wants us to experience peace here and now, not only in the future.

We’re going through Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press for the next few episodes. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

A series on King David: Part 4 of 4

Are we good at repenting? When someone notices our stuff and points it out… are we open to it? To repenting wholeheartedly? Or do we hold onto it?

We need help repenting and finding healing, so God constantly sends prophets to speak into the lives of his chosen people. David’s a really good example of how to be formed; how to be led.

Look at Psalm 51 for a model of repentance. The orientation is totally towards God; it’s not about turning in on ourselves. It is God who creates a new heart in you. We can choose to make sure that repentance takes place in relationship with God, who loves us. Even in the repentance of Psalm 51, there’s a hope for restoration and reconciliation, and a recognition that God is still a giver of good gifts. Let us repent well.

Coming up: we’re going to prepare for Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

A series on King David: Part 3 of 4

David sinned when he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing; when he had pulled back from God’s calling. We have to be careful of comfort and of being distracted, because it leads to a place of being unfaithful. Instead, we have to keep moving forward in God’s will, which can regularly take us to less comfortable places. We’re called to lay down our lives—to endure the crosses of life and get to heaven.

It’s not easy… but God’s faithfulness far outweighs our unfaithfulness.

Remember: there are certain things the Lord does that he doesn’t take back, like free will. The same is true with anointings. Keep choosing to do what you’re supposed to be doing, and be faithful to the Father who is always faithful to you.

Coming up: we’re going to prepare for Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

A series on King David: Part 2 of 4

David is tender to his sheep, and also willing to fight for them. And he’ll be the same in his future vocation—the way that he was shepherd is the way he will be king. As he fights Goliath, he reveals something to us about the heart of God: God will go to battle against our giants.

Though David wasn’t skilled or qualified like everybody else was, he was aggressive in his confidence before the Father. As if to say, “I am anointed, and now this anointing is bearing fruit.”

There’s something about David going into battle without the armour. It’s symbolic of his poverty and dependence. His attempt to wear Saul’s armour and sword is our attempt to grasp at an identity that isn’t ours. If I could just be like that person doesn’t work.

David goes into it poor, and himself. So should we, in a way that allows the Lord to be powerful.

Coming up: we’re going to prepare for Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

A series on King David: Part 1 of 4

There’s always some mystery involved in an anointing. God doesn’t select the person we expect; this happens throughout the Old Testament and with the Apostles. There’s a mystery of who God calls and how God calls.

God still calls really talented people, but not because they’re talented. We are not our skills. God sees beyond that, even when we’re really focused on what we can bring. In David’s case, he was the only one who wasn’t caught up in it all; he had the posture and disposition to be king. 

And while intention is really important, it’s not enough to make a person good. The world idolizes intention, but it’s necessary to actually be obedient and faithful—to put that intention into practice.

As for us? Well, we might not become kings of Israel, but we will have some kind of calling. And as we respond to that call, we have access to the same grace that David did, and we can be as confident as he was in the anointing that God has put on our lives.

David was not the author of his own destiny and identity, and neither are we. We’re not self-defined. 

Coming up: we’re going to prepare for Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. Monthly donations are particularly helpful for our future planning. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

“I haven’t believed enough that he is enough.” That’s what Br Angelo says as a guest on this episode, and how true is it for each of us? Even when we experience God’s goodness, repeatedly and in big and small ways, it can be a struggle to keep believing that God is enough. He is LORD.

He is enough, and we only have to give him permission to work. It sounds simple, but it can be tough when we’ve faced rejection in other areas of our lives. How do we believe? How do we find the courage and take the risk—to learn he always shows up?

Surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. It can be a struggle, but while we might have many struggles, this is the right one.

Coming up: we’re going to prepare for Advent with Finding Your Place in the Advent Story from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/rejoice-finding-your-place-in-the-advent-story

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Week 4 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

Trust is hard for everybody. The grace to trust—especially for the long haul—is always given to us by the Lord. There’s always human effort in the spiritual life, but it’s all gift; all grace. 

It can feel like we’re never going to be able to trust; that we’re so “bad” at trusting, particularly in the beginning, that we’re just never going to be able to let go, no matter how badly we long to do exactly that. We think to ourselves, “I’m powerless.” But here’s the thing: he is not.

There is someone looking back at us at every moment of the day. And through concrete experiences, sometimes very little ones, he invites us to trust. We’ve got to lean into those little moments of trust.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Week 3 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

There are some sins that we just can’t seem to shake—habitual sins that keep us coming back to the confessional over and over (and over) again. But no matter how consistent this sin seems, there’s one who is more consistent: the Lord.

His mercy and grace are greater than our sins and failings.

Maybe you’re discouraged. Frustrated. Worn down. That experience is real, but it’s not who you are; it’s not your identity. The truest, most real thing about your experience is his mercy.

So don’t settle for your sin. Don’t believe that well, this is the way it’s going to be. No! Return to the confessional, where the grace that’s poured out is restorative to that specific wound, and begin again.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Week 2 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

Grace is in the present; there is no grace in the past or in the future. The challenge, though, is that we’re all professional escape artists. We can get antsy and we don’t know how to be present, which means we don’t know how to receive God’s grace.

We’ve got to give up the hope of a better past—it has happened and there’s nothing we can do about it. We also have to stop living in a fantasy future that doesn’t exist—there’s no grace there, either.

Jesus is Lord of our lives; the past, the present, the future. Trust him, and allow yourself to embrace today and all the grace he is waiting to give you here.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

This episode kicks off a four-part series on a new retreat based on the Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life. You can get yourself a copy of the book at https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

There are some virtues we can work on and grow in—but trust isn’t like that. It’s not your own project. You don’t work on it directly, because it’s the fruit of relationship with the Lord. If you want to develop more trust, focus first on that relationship; on conversion, on healing, on experiencing his goodness alive in you.

Because the more you get to know God, the more you find that he is good and worthy of your trust. When you have a chance to trust him (you know the kind of moment), hear him speak gently to you through this line from Sr Faustina: “I don’t want you to give you ‘yes’ to a set of circumstances, but to me.”

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

For 30 years, Jesus lived quietly in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph; his “hidden” years. Through his normal day-to-day living of going to school and having friends and putting in a hard day’s work, Jesus made sacred the hidden space.

That hidden space is where most of us live most of our lives—out of the public eye, going about our everyday without much notice by others. Hidden from the world, but absolutely seen by the Father in that uniquely silent space that is set apart. In our busyness, we need to follow Jesus into that place with his Father.

It’s different than running away. It’s not hiding from our problems… it’s hiding with the Lord. It’s a holy kind of hiding.

What does this mean for mission? During those private decades, Jesus knew his mission and was patient in waiting for it. He didn’t rush. And so for us, Nazareth gives us permission to let the Lord lead; to let the Lord form us. It’s ok that this takes time.

Starting next week: a series on the Litany of Trust (from the Sisters of Life). If you want to follow along, you can buy the book here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Affirmation feels different when it’s public, out loud and in front of everyone—as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son.

That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation of the heart of God.

The hearts of the sons and daughters of God long to hear the Father speaking a blessing over them—a blessing that allows them to flourish and give of themselves unto death. This authentic flourishing comes from the grace of knowing who they are.

The Father is consistent in his message. Are we consistent in our response?

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You see a different side of someone when you see what makes him or her cry. Seeing a person weep, and knowing why—the thing he or she cares about so deeply as to be moved to tears—is a deep insight.

Lazarus. Jerusalem. Sin.

Jesus weeps at these.

That tells us something important, for a man who weeps in the face of suffering is a man who loves deeply, who is profoundly affected by what is happening. It’s deeply personal. He’s not far away or abstract.

He wants to cry with us. He wants to mingle his tears with us.

Think of your suffering; the situations that bring tears to your eyes for yourself or your loved ones or even for those you’ve never met. Now, if you need to, pray against any idea of a disinterested or stoic God. Accept permission to grieve. Let the Lord weep with you.

Prepare for our next series on the Litany of Trust by the Sisters of Life; check out this retreat book by Sr. Faustina SV: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO episode on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel at

“Nobody has ever been for me like this before.” 

That’s the difference it can make to receive someone as gift.

Jesus looked at the disciples and thanked the Father for the gift of them. He looked around at the faces of people he loved and received each of them and all of them as a gift. In their goodness and brokenness, even in times that didn’t feel quite as much like gift. 

The Son is always receiving from the Father; the Father is always giving. And so for each of us. The Father always wants to bless us. During all the joys and the sorrows of our lives, our constant refrain can be “Father, they’re your gift to me.”

Jesus always chose his words carefully. There was great meaning and intention behind each word, part of which we can only begin to understand by listening carefully.

How much more, then, should we pay attention to Jesus’s very last words? The ones he painfully uttered as he was dying on the cross?

What do these words reveal about the heart of God? Jesus’s whole life was about the Father’s business, and his last words begin and end with “Father.”

Meditate on these words—let them tell you the truth about God, and about your relationship with him. Let Jesus restore you, a son or daughter, to the Father.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO episode on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRQJUs3fqnI&feature=youtu.be

There’s an intense vulnerability to letting people into your most tender moments. Allowing someone to witness a private, cherished part of life is no small thing, and being a witness to one of these moments is an honour.

There’s a particular part of Jesus’s life for which we get to be these witnesses only a few times: his experience of prayer. In these rare instances, we are privileged to see him as he sees the Father look upon him with love and delight. 

Teach us to pray. When the disciples saw Jesus pray, that’s what they asked him. They were totally captivated by the sight of him rejoicing in the presence of the Father.

Scripture invites us to be witnesses to this only a few times, but Jesus constantly experienced the Father looking at him with love and delight. We can, too, if we look to the Father. 

Let the prayer of Jesus inspire you; let him teach you to pray.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P586wY2HI

Sometimes we need someone to fight for us. To respond forcefully to injustice in our lives. Jesus does this, as he did in the temple—He’s not afraid to clean house.

The Divine Physician heals us, though the medicine isn’t always tender and gentle. The medicine that’s needed is tougher, and the only way to remove obstacles and create space for him to heal.

And doesn’t that teach us a new approach to our sin? We should feel strongly about it, not accept a pattern of sin as “the way it is.” Time to stop compromising or settling with our sin and reject it. Intensely.

Some things are worth fighting for.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Compassion; it means “to suffer with.” Recall those times when you’ve been suffering, alone, and someone has come into that isolation with you. It’s powerful! 

Now… don’t skip the fact that God became man so he could suffer with us. God is the prodigal son’s father, spending every day looking at the horizon with longing even though his son hurt him in such a concrete and direct way.

Want to be a more compassionate person? It’s really hard to love and accept others without first being able to love and accept ourselves. First, get to know God’s compassionate heart for you—then you’ll be able to show true compassion for others and have the grace to respond to a person in need.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Full video episode on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/IrBkvpCn_MI.

This episode starts a new series: The Heart of God. The Sacred Heart.

This is a series about the goodness of God—not only the reality that he is, but that he is good, with a human face and a human heart that rejoices.

A deeper encounter with his heart; that it may be the remedy that heals the wounds of our hearts.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Watch the video episode at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTdYcXMbcaw

We’re called to be prophets. Real, recognizable prophets in our day to day. How does that hit you?

What does your life look like? Do people around you see it and think, This guy’s living it. He communicates in the depths of who he is that Jesus is alive and he’s real and he’s risen from the dead and this means something for us. He’s a prophet.

We have to live provocative lives—lives that provoke people to ask questions. We can’t be shy about it.

At the same time, we have to be the first to ask questions, always quick to be interested in someone, to genuinely listen in a way that makes him or her feel undeniably heard.

In this episode, we discuss many aspects of living a prophetic life.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Watch the full video episode at https://youtu.be/i_yYtqgwdb4

To sacrifice is to make holy. Most of us are given enough suffering in this world that if we were to offer it fully and freely to the Lord, that would be enough. We need only to accept—well—the penances that life gives us.

Any additional sacrifices—ones that we choose—should be chosen carefully; intentionally, and after checking in with someone else, and always looking toward freedom.

We sacrifice to seek always greater freedom to be totally given again to the Lord.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Full video episode available at: https://youtu.be/14_MowgxTyQ

The fullness of the mission of Christ includes a heart for the poor. This is pretty central, actually, but somehow doesn’t always get a lot of airtime.

This isn’t just something we do, but who we are. It’s not just a Christian thing—this is being like Jesus.

And even once that heart is developed and the desire is there… the how can be unclear. How do we live the Gospel this way? 

In this episode: examining our heart for the poor, and how to live this out in everyday life. How to love like Jesus.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO: Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfhPsn_uF30

In our world of wanting more and of endlessly upgrading, we have to get good at saying, “Ok, that’s enough.” There’s a game of constant consumption and if we’re not careful, it’s going to take advantage of us. Don’t get played!

Simplicity isn’t about getting rid of everything. It’s saying “no” to things you need to say “no” to—creating a space where you’re not controlled by things.

How? A poverty check. A regular practice of examining everything to see what really needs to stay and what can go; a regular challenge to take an honest look at what we’re clinging to and what we can let go of.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Watch this video episode at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbtZV0z_is0

Ever try to connect with the person right in front of you… but he or she is staring at a phone, totally preoccupied? You want to jump in and say, “Look up! Look at me.”

How often are we those preoccupied people in prayer?

We have to be real about attachment. Whether we like it or not, our humanity is into stuff. In our weakness, we can get attached to stuff, which can serve us or not serve us. It’s a burden.

Instead: lean into the freedom of simplicity, at the service of intimacy.

We only have so much emotional and spiritual energy throughout the day. And after all—the lilies don’t get up in the morning and have to pick out their nicest dresses. Can we give God our full attention by being less cluttered in our thinking or our environments?

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO now available! Watch on Spirit Juice’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wJgfHG1sI

As Christians, what does our free time look like? Do we prioritize the same things as the world? Is there any difference in how we spend our time and money and attention?

Those who know Jesus live differently. In important things, and in ordinary, everyday things. We’re talking about the kind of mindset that changes the most important thing about Friday from "End of the Work Week!" to "The Day Our Lord Suffered and Died For Us."

It can be a struggle to feel like everything is ordinary… but God wants to encounter us in that ordinary and make it extraordinary.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO now available! Watch on Spirit Juice’s YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/dZ78lBznd_s

Love your enemies. 

AND love that one person who embodies every single one of your pet peeves and always seems to find the fastest way to most intensely annoy you.

Each person’s personality—our most and least favourite parts—is gift, and it’s all about how we receive the uniqueness of each person in his or her personality. Each trait speaks an aspect of God’s heart.

Accepting everyone as they are isn’t always easy… but it’s easier than being surprised and rattled every time they do that one thing over and over and over again. It’s more than that, though; when we accept people, they have the freedom to be themselves. After all, unity is not uniformity.

It’s scary to give people permission to be themselves. Maybe the Lord is asking you to expand your heart to fit them in it.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

VIDEO now available! Watch on Spirit Juice’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFruaMSgbdc

We have some pretty strong feelings on this topic… and it shows in this week’s episode.

The most important thing you’ll bring to your vocation—whether that’s religious life or family life—is your capacity to be a man or woman of communion.

Passing through purgatory is the experience that prepares us for heaven. There’s no greater insight into what purgatory is like than family life or community life.

This applies directly to mission, too. We can be obsessed with mission at the cost of communion… and that’s when your mission will dry up because it’s no longer connected to the vine.

So what does it mean to be a man or woman of communion? What does a life like that look like? We get into all of it in this conversation.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Now with video! WATCH the podcast on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Hg26S_bDo

Discipleship is a team sport. Family—both through our natural families, and our supernatural family through baptism—and communion with others is an essential ingredient to the Christian life.

Not that it will be easy… it won’t be. It is simple, but not easy. An encounter with family lived well is redeeming not because it’s perfect, but because there’s love and sacrifice in the midst of the mess. That’s where healing is, especially if your experience of family has been painful in some way.

And truly, if the mention of “family” is painful for you, know this: God wants to break through and redeem that. The bond through baptism is real and deep—this family is not second best; not a consolation prize. Blood is thicker than water, but grace is thicker than blood.

“Lord, help me to see today how you’re going to reveal yourself in my family.”

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

Now with VIDEO! Watch this episode on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FteWNKQD8wM

It’s key to commit to prayer; to schedule it and keep honor it through intention and discipline. But, then, how do we maintain prayer as an intimate relationship and not let it become a routine?

The answer to one question: where’s your heart in it?

Going through the motions to get it done is not the point. You know… when you finish your prayer time, look up, and think what just happened? It’s better, even, to do less with a whole heart than to try to do more while totally disconnected.

Even if you’re not in a good place to pray—tired, hungry, whatever—be honest about that and bring that to prayer. Because just like you can tell when somebody’s totally checked out of a conversation (nodding, “uh huh, yup”), the Lord knows our hearts. He can tell. Talk to him instead about why you’re distracted or angry or not in it; that’s where he wants to be.

Simply be still, and with your whole heart, say “Jesus, look at my heart.”

Now with VIDEO! Watch this episode on Spirit Juice's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbgj8IU-ogg.

Do you know anybody who wants to work out *every* time? Unlikely. But nobody who gets in that workout says afterwards, “That was a waste of time. Why’d I bother?”

Even more with prayer. When you take the time, it’s always, “I’m so glad I did that.”

Eternal perspective changes how you use your time. What are we made for? To live forever. Our decisions now have an effect on that. We’re made to be fully alive starting now.

When you grow in prayer, your heart grows in capacity. And you take that capacity—an expansive heart with deep desires—with you to heaven. Let God expand your heart.

Get your copy of Habits for Holiness (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR!) at https://ascensionpress.com/habits

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco. Thank you!

You crave conversion and real change; to receive the healing and hope that God wants to give you. How does that lasting, long-term change happen?

It happens when we accept some truth or let go of some lie. Each step forms our will, either strengthening it or weakening it. And the stronger our will, the more we’ll be able to choose the good even when it’s hard and resist the evil even when it’s tempting. 

This change can start in an instant, but the long-term forming of the will happens slowly, over time and over many, many choices — choices that might seem small, but matter. Deeply.

Because we’re not kids anymore. Choices have consequences and all those moments make up the battle for our hearts and our minds. Our lives. This is it!

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of generous donors like you. You can give at spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco

We’re all really interested in what God can do for us; the healing, the restoration, the gifts of the Father. Are we as interested in committing to the long term relationship that allows us to receive all of that?

It’s all too easy to spend the inheritance while overlooking the relationship.

As sons and daughters of God, we’re meant to live from the inside of Jesus’ heart. Not as outsiders or coworkers or bystanders, but within, where we can experience being known and seen and loved by the Father. That’s discipleship.

Because life is demanding, and the only thing that makes your vocation and your ministry sustainable is through a receiving relationship with the Father. That relationship transforms you into an instrument of God. Without that relationship, it’s just too hard.

Be courageous in making time for prayer, for the Word of God — making time for the beloved.

We're able to produce the Poco a Poco podcast because of generous donors. If you'd like to join us, go to https://spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco

St Francis is the rich young man who didn’t turn away sad. God invited St Francis, and his response was even more than his heart burning for the Lord — he was consumed. There was no going back. 

He became more like Jesus, but without being less like Francis. He became more like Francis; not losing himself in God, but finding himself in God. The unique man that he is in the eyes of the Father, not just repeating the works of other saints.

Our hearts have such a capacity that we want more and more… which means that at some point, you leave behind some lesser goods. You develop a taste for a love that’s greater, and that’s a good thing. Francis didn’t settle for anything less — and neither should you.

This podcast is possible because of generous supporters like you. Interested in helping us? Go to https://www.spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco/

We have a God who’s always on the move, always pursuing. In our busyness, we’re distracted — we miss things. We miss people. But God is constantly seeking, constantly encountering what is broken and seeing the wholeness.

Christianity is different: it’s about God becoming Man and coming to us.

He’s looking for you. Let yourself be found.

For the next few episodes, we’re focusing on Habits for Holiness, a new book written by our own Fr Mark-Mary. You can find it at ascensionpress.com/habits

We now have video! Watch this full episode on facebook.com/spiritjuice, instagram.com/spiritjuice, youtube.com/c/SpiritJuice.

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Jesus has a wounded human heart; he allowed himself to be fully wounded this way. If it had only been his hands or feet, he would’ve survived.

How do we allow ourselves to be wounded for him? My sacrifices thus far are survivable. I could still be intact on my own. He gave us everything; we can’t turn back.

Evangelical chastity is the full, total gift of your heart, which is set on fire with love for God and for one another.

Jesus teaches us a new way to love on the cross — one that lines up with our desires. We want to love differently, but we’re tempted to settle. There’s a real fear in getting our hopes up. 

The Father wants you to get your hopes up.

Set your hopes high for intimacy — for the union and the love that is possible.

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Obedience isn’t something being snatched from you; it’s about willingly offering the gift of your freedom. It comes from great humility, a bold statement that “I’m not in charge of my life. I’m not God.” It’s recognizing that we don’t have all the answers, and God really knows what is best for us.

So wherever Jesus is, wherever he’s leading you: go there. Stay there. Choose to go there... don't get dragged! Don’t back off, don’t fill it with other things. Stay focused on him on the cross.

We’re so grateful to be able to connect with you. If you’re able, consider making a donation to this podcast and community at spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco

The last few weeks, we’ve been in the wilderness for Lent… but you can only stay in the desert so long. And when the Lord came out of the desert, he was very focused on his mission, with one moment in mind: going to the cross, and ultimately giving his life. 

As we move towards Holy Week and the Triduum: stay focused. Look at Jesus on the cross.

For three episodes, we’re going to ponder the wounds of Christ and relate them to the three evangelical counsels: poverty, obedience and chastity.

(People might think these are just for consecrated religious. And yes, we take vows. But the Catechism, St JPII, St Bonaventure—and more—all propose that these are for every disciple to grow in imitation of Jesus.)

Today’s episode is all about poverty… but we don’t talk about possessions. Look at Christ’s wounded hands, nailed to the cross; they’re a manifestation of Jesus’ own poverty. He can’t grasp at anything, but can only receive anything from the Father. His hands and wide open arms are all receptivity.

At the culmination of his life, he has given everything; let go of everything, for the sake of love. Absolute and total surrender.

What about when we grasp? Try to control things? Think we know what will fulfill us, or others? This week, examine where you might be grasping—not receiving—the good gifts that the Lord is offering.

Want to share in the work of this podcast a little? Donations gratefully accepted at spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco

Sometimes, in the heart of the wilderness, your step that was a strong march slows down. Then turns into a limp after rolling an ankle, and finally ends up looking more like a crawl by the end of the day.

And that’s fine. Because the only rule is we don’t stop. 

When there’s a choice between struggling and stopping, we always want to err on the side of going for it. 

That means that at the beginning of each day, the ones who “win”, spiritually, aren’t necessarily the most gifted, the most talented, the capable. It’s not the ones who look most promising on paper.

The most faithful are the ones who persevere. So just keep going. Be faithful.

Fr Mark-Mary's new book, Habits for Holiness, available now from Ascension Press. Check it out here: https://ascensionpress.com/products/habits-for-holiness-small-steps-for-big

After trying to go it alone day in, day out, you start to realize you can’t do it alone. That’s miserable. In the desert, you’re radically dependent: on the Lord, and on people who surround you.

Relationships are not accessory. They’re essential.

This breakthrough happens humanly and spiritually. All the physical sufferings start to purify you and you can experience what’s most important. It’s in our weakness that the only comfort, relationship, comes alive.

Once you lean into that, you can find joy in struggle because you’re in it together. It’s when all the distractions are taken away that you can focus on the gift of relationship. 

But being left with nothing except relationship can be a scary moment. You can put off that moment for a long time. You can run from it.

So… don’t. Instead, embrace the built-in grace of Lent: to not have another option. To willingly remove all the other comforts in life and to see relationship for what it is: a consolation. Let this consolation be consoling.

The desert isn’t about struggling for the sake of struggle. There’s a wrong kind of struggle; one that’s self-reliant, self-focused, worldly. It’s difficult for the Lord to do anything for us there.

In the desert, the reality of the wilderness slams against pride and ego. Against “I know what’s best” and “I’m strong.” You get to the desert and it punches you in the face because everything’s so heightened. You figure out real quick how self-focused you are.

And that wake-up call is good, because we all have a temptation to turn in to ourselves. To fix ourselves. To fix the people around us. To control. We’re so stuck in ourselves. Getting after this temptation? Now that’s the right struggle.

Don’t get dragged through the desert, kicking and screaming and resisting the whole time. Use your will to choose the desert, whatever that desert looks like for you. It doesn’t matter whether you see what God is doing in the suffering or know where He’s leading you. You don’t have to like it or even understand it. You only have to pray, “Lord, I trust you and I receive this.”

Because that safety you’re trying to force with all your self-reliance? That safety is an idol. Let go. God’s got you.

We’re kind of tired of mediocre Lents. You?

This Lent, we’re going for it: into the wilderness. Accepting God's invitation into the desert, with all its dangers and hazards and risks.

Why does a loving Father, through a loving Church, invite us into a wild unknown?

Because it’s not unknown… to him. He’s the one who initiates the invite every time.

Jesus’ journey into the desert began immediately after his baptism—after receiving his anointing and identity from the Father. He goes into the desert for us; truly, he doesn’t need reminders of who he is. But he goes, and he’s tempted. He struggles. He’s hungry. And it’s in this experience—as he responds to temptations with the truth of who he is and who the Father is—that Jesus receives his identity in a deeper way.

We can have that desert experience, too. In the wilderness, the Father creates a sacred place to more deeply give each person his or her identity; for him or her to receive it over and over again. 

This journey often means leaving what’s comfortable and not being afraid to suffer. After all, the desert can be dangerous… if you go alone. If you’re standing at the edge of the desert, feeling a nudge to go for it: beg for the courage to go. God is waiting for you there.

Want to see some beautiful photos from the wilderness? Check out www.franciscanfriars.com/pocoapoco

If you want to be healthy, happy and holy—and truly, these things are possible!—you have to live intentionally. It’s not going to happen by accident.

The small things are the foundation for that kind of life; getting out of bed on time, showing up to that planned workout, cooking the healthy groceries sitting in the fridge instead of firing up that food delivery app (again).

Because things fall in order when you’re living in order.

This consistency is often hidden… boring, even. It’s often anything but flashy. But there’s grace in these small, simple, hidden acts—they build our hearts and allow us to sacrifice ourselves.

What’s one thing you can do that will move you towards being holier, healthier and happier? Seriously… take a second. Bet something came to mind. Right?

Sometimes we overcomplicate the plan. When there’s a lot to change, or the change is going to be rough, it’s tempting to bail on starting. It’s easy to avoid doing the hard things, even the little hard things. Maybe especially the little things—but that’s how holiness happens. Choosing to do the small hard thing, for Jesus, over and over and over again.

You got this! With God’s grace, you can totally do hard things. That realization—that we're capable of persevering—gives us the confidence that we have what it takes to gladly do what needs to be done.

So stay simple. Keep the main thing the main thing. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” All of all three. Because keeping Christ firmly in the center of your life—the focus of all your energy and the motivation for all your choices—is the only sustainable way to live radically for him for a whole lifetime.

This week, we welcome a special guest for the first in a three-episode series: Jackie Mulligan of Reform Wellness.

“It’s ok to not be ok… and it’s also ok to want to be ok.”

God loves and accepts us as we are, in all the messiness of our weakness. And his love also draws us to renewal; to real change that leads to real holiness, happiness, and a life that’s abundant.

Life-changing renewal is possible and it’s what God wants for us. But it doesn’t happen by accident.

It takes intention. It takes risk. It takes very honestly asking yourself, But, really… how am I doing? If the answer demands an overhaul of your life, there will be temptation to put it off—don’t give in! Fight through that resistance. This is God’s initiative.

Because if you don’t, well, as a very honest friend of Fr Angelus’ once told him, “If they wrote a book about your life, this would be a really boring chapter.”

And a life that’s a little too safe and comfy and boring is an enemy of holiness. So let God change it. Let him change you.

We welcome a pretty special guest this week... Br Kolbe, of "He likes cars" renown!

Let's get right to it: interior poverty. Facing our own brokenness, weakness, failings. Not the first place we want to go, right? But here’s the thing… there’s no way around it. The “secret” way to following Jesus is coming to terms with our poverty—with him, as he gives us the grace to be able to see it and not be overwhelmed by it. Getting to that place of emptiness allows him to fill us with peace and trust.

There’s a divine efficiency to poverty. The Lord can work more directly when we are depending solely on his grace and not on any false securities that get in his way.

It’s the only way. And that might not sound like good news, but that’s because we have worldly ears. Hear it this way: this only way is hard, but it’s with Jesus, he who brings sweetness to difficulty.

So go there. Don’t avoid your spiritual poverty—Jesus meets you there.

If you live community life well, if you live family life well, people are going to see your sins and weakness and failures. That can be a hard place. But if you can stay there, and people can stay there with you: that’s the good stuff. That’s the place of abundant fruit.

Real fraternity—the love of brothers and sisters—is powerful.

There can be a real infection in our hearts today that comes from experiences of rejection. We need spaces where we can rejoice in one another despite our weaknesses: moments of welcome and mercy that redeem our life experiences. 

This has to start somewhere. Where does this happen? In intentional relationships where we decide to have mercy on each other. 

People who keep choosing community, keep choosing to be patient with each other and have mercy on each other. To keep saying, “yeah, it’s hard, but I’m here and I’m not going to leave you.”

“There are so many voices telling me I’m not good enough, not worthy of that love. And lots of voices saying that this kind of freedom doesn’t matter or isn’t possible. That I can’t experience true forgiveness or true healing or true conversion. That’s where the battle is fought.”

We hear a lot of voices. And the gift of prayer is a space where we can hear the one voice that matters. Blessed are those who root out the distractions in their lives, for they will know God.

As baptized Christians, we are made for prayer. Everyone is called to open up Scripture, encounter Jesus, and live the Gospel.

We want to follow Jesus—and the way to follow Jesus is prayer. Our lives only make sense in the context of relationship with Him. And it’s only when we get rid of anything that is blocking or distracting or interfering with this relationship that our interior life can be what it’s supposed to be; an interior life that gives life new meaning.

This could be your breakthrough in discernment, too. It will transform discernment from a calculation to a chance to give yourself away in love.

To embrace sacrifice and boldly say to the Father, “Lord, I give you permission to take what I’m not strong enough to give.”

Mentioned in this episode...

The Godsplaining Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/godsplaining

A Work of God by Vianney Vocations, now available for pre-order.

https://www.vianneyvocations.com/product/a-work-of-god/ 

Even when we’re actively trying to trust God in all things, there’s a constant temptation to take back control. To just do it ourselves. To bail out of surrendering to Him, and keep things from Him to try and “make sure they get done.” We forget, over and over, that God takes initiative, does things, takes care of us. We overlook the ways He’s doing that right now.

What’s opposite that temptation? God’s constant invitation to let go, to trust, to forget about ourselves, to get over ourselves. To find that balance of letting God do everything while our fiat also provokes us to action.

SO. If you want to live differently; if you crave renewal, restoration, conversion in your life; it’s possible. It’s real! Most of all: it’s a work of God. 

This episode kicks off a new series moving through a collection of images and essays of the CFR community called A Work of God by Vianney Vocations, now available for pre-order.

Sometimes we need to stop and take a real look at what’s going on in our hearts and our lives. What has power in my life? Who has influence over me? And if God isn’t the first authority—by a mile—then it’s time to reorder. It’s time to get back to relationship with Him above everything else.

Because Jesus isn’t meant to be one priority among many. We can’t balance our pursuit of Him with other things, even good things. The only way to living intensely with the Lord—the only way to become a saint—is to accept sacrifice. It’ll cost you something, perhaps even a good thing that you’d really rather not give up. But it’s worth it. 

Living this way, with Christ, protects us from being tossed around in whatever storms are raging. (And it’s been a stormy year.) With Christ, the world and its storms no longer dictate our mood or determine whether we feel unsettled or unsafe. God alone is in control of our peace.

So if you’re sensing distractions or attachments or clutter in your life that are keeping you from God; if you’re holding on to one thing that’s actually holding you back from Him; if you’ve been thinking about letting go of something that’s keeping you from being all in with God… now’s the time. Drop it and return to God. Return to your first love.

Isaiah 25: “The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”

We face suffering in this world; trials and hardships and pain that can leave us feeling so alone.

In Advent we wait to celebrate Jesus coming to us in the Incarnation, and for him to come at the end of time, when he will definitively wipe away all tears.

But he also comes to us today. Wherever we are, whatever we're feeling; he gently comes near to us and wipes away our tears. When we cry out to God, he hears us. He sees our suffering. He does not pass by or overlook us. Whether we’re publicly begging for him or privately weeping to him, each day can be a mini Advent in our hearts, welcoming the Savior who comes to us.

Our hope is sure. The Lord comes to comfort us, and we can experience that breakthrough in prayer, even today.

Let’s take an honest look at our expectations of God. Specifically, how our wounds and weakness can make us expect so little of him. The times when we feel threatened by others, insecure about ourselves, anxious about life—these are all fruit of a small heart with small expectations of what our mighty Father will do.

Jesus says he will come. So do we believe him? And when he comes to us—at Bethlehem, at Mass, every day—are our eyes open to see him?

Our hearts are meant to be bigger. Advent is a time for our hearts to expand with Christ’s own heart. Jesus shows us how to have joyful expectations and real confidence that the Lord has revealed his goodness throughout history, continues to work today in our lives and the lives of all those around us, and will continue to work in the future.

God has promised that he will come. Now’s the time to pray with filial boldness and be available to him, awaiting his promise with joyful expectation.

Where do you feel most "at home"? When are you most free to be yourself? Ultimately, our hearts can only fully experience this  through a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. He's the one who settles our insecurities and gives us the sense of belonging which we crave.

If you're feeling a sense of exile, of not feeling seen and known and loved... maybe it's time to discern if that's due to trying to make your home in other places. As Henri Nouwen pointed out, sometimes we know we have a home, we just don't choose to live there.

Let's choose home! Let's decide to live there. Because that's where we belong—and if we're not home with the Father, it's very difficult to find home in the world.

Today's episode continues with Blessed is She’s Advent Devotional, Maranatha.

Also recommended (thanks Fr Angelus): Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944 by Fr Alfred Delp, S.J.

Advent is here! In these days leading to Christmas, we all have the chance to look at the places where we need Jesus to break in and bring light and hope.

In this week’s episode:

• We start our 4-week exploration of Blessed is She’s Advent Devotional, Maranatha
• Recommendation from Fr Angelus: Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944 by Fr Alfred Delp, S.J.
• Martin Jernberg (instagram: @martin.jernberg), Mike Kearney (instagram: @atmikekearney)
• Advent and Lent have similarities. Consider this: St Francis fasted before both Easter (during Lent) and Christmas (during Advent).
• Do you struggle to get “into” Advent?
• Fr Mark-Mary is publishing a book with Ascension Press, set for release in March 2021.
• Fr Mark-Mary talks about praying maranatha (“Come, Lord Jesus!) in a particular situation as an example of how we can invite the Lord into our lives.
• The “recipe” for Jesus to come: embracing our poverty.
• Jesus doesn’t always come with the remedies we hope for—He comes with himself.
• The world before the advent of Christ needed a Savior; it was broken, lost, dark. Christ brought healing, purpose and light to the world, and He wants to do the same for our world, now; for our lives.
• We don’t have to wait for the “big” things to happen before we involve God; He wants to enter into the ordinary, everyday things with us.
• The Church has set aside holy, consecrated times like Advent as a gift for us.
• Jesus not only wants to come, but also wants us to ask, even beg, for Him to come.
• Servant of God Marcel Văn, in prayer, hears Jesus say to him, “It brings joy to me to hear you call my name.” Jesus has a desire to hear us cry out to Him.
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel… one of the greatest Advent songs, right?
• Reflecting on the experience of Megan Hjelmstad (instagram: @positively__imperfect) of longing for children after a hysterectomy, and how so many of us can relate to that suffering of longing.
• Megan feels the Holy Spirit invite her to pray for Our Lady’s intercession to conceive Christ in her life so that she might bring His light into the world.
• When we’re consumed by our suffering, we need to let God break in. We need to turn away from ourselves and to the Lord, and let Him work.
• Fr Innocent talks about struggling with depression in high school and feeling the pressure as a varsity athlete, even while appearing totally fine and happy on the outside. 
• This depression and experience of anxiety leads to a profound Eucharistic encounter.
• Healing is made possible through hope.
• Your Advent season can be real and concrete. What are areas in your life that are barren and burdened and in need of Christ?

Peace on the outside comes from knowing God on the inside.  This week we discuss the Prince of Peace who is Christ crucified.  Through the cross, Jesus has made a way for us to have peace with the Father in this world.

Peace WITH God will bring the peace OF God. Jesus promised peace in our hearts. So, we remain in His presence.  It’s in Him alone that you can find real peace…

In this week's episode we talk about the reality of our heavenly Father. The God of heaven and earth is passionately pursuing you right now. No matter how close you are to him, he is knocking on the door of your heart, asking to come in and meet with you once again. He’s not knocking just to fix you. He’s not knocking just to make you do something for him. He simply wants to meet with you. He simply wants to love you.

In this week’s episode:

• Blessed is She podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/blessed-is-she 
• Abiding Together podcast https://www.abidingtogetherpodcast.com/ 
• Want to send a sticker for Pro the donkey? Address: St Joseph Friary 523 W 142 St New York NY 10031
• Isaiah 9:6: Father Forever (Alternate translation: Everlasting Father)
• Why is Jesus called “Father forever”?
• Rembrandt’s The Prodigal Son 
• Parables Referenced:
• • The Prodigal Son
  • The Lost Sheep
  • The Good Samaritan
• The Father’s desire to be a friend to sinners.
• Fr Innocent tells a personal story of searching for a friend who has recently died. The Holy Spirit moves our hearts to seek out His sons and daughters.
• How the Father pursues us and longs to be with us forever; for eternity.
• St Francis of Assisi’s example as someone who seeks the forgotten; being with the forgotten always reminded St Francis of who the Father is and of his own mission. God always pursues the forgotten.
• Mission gives us experiences of the Father. Seeking the lost and the broken not only gives us a chance to love and serve others, but also gives us privileged insight of how God loves us as well.
• Hosea 11; reread this passage and replace Israel with your name. God is drawing each of us out of exile.
• Fr Innocent talks about how sometimes Jesus is our safe space. We say, “ok, I just want to stay with Jesus.” And he asks us, “How’s your relationship with the Father?” Jesus is not satisfied just revealing Himself. Jesus doesn’t want to keep the Father hidden away.
• Our inheritance is not an orphan spirit of insecurity. We have an everlasting Father who pursues us.
• Referenced Books by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis: Fire of Mercy (Vol. I, II, III), The Way of the Disciple
• Upcoming episodes will feature Blessed Is She’s Advent Devotional Maranatha. Order it now if you want to use the resource with the podcast: https://blessedisshe.net/product/maranatha-advent-devotional/ .

This week we discuss the title, "Mighty God" and the way in which God shows his might by making himself small, by forgiving us, by coming to us in the Eucharist.  God is great and omnipotent but he chooses to become small to us so we can respond to Him in love. He made himself fragile to give us his strength. He became vulnerable so we could finally open our hearts in love, without fear. He is with you. He is for you. And he is enough.

Are we fascinated by God or merely interested?  God wants His creation to be fascinated with Him and His ways. In this week's episode we talk about what it means to put aside our worry and to trust in the Wonderful Counselor.  The truth is this: If we are fascinated with anything in life other than Jesus then we don’t really know Him intimately!  If  we allow ourselves to be captivated with Him and seek Him more, then we will experience a heart consumed by and filled with God!

In this week's episode Fr. Angelus talks about his favorite Icon, Our Lady of Tenderness and how Our Lady teaches us how to surrender everything that keeps us from loving Jesus with all we have. Through her example Our Lady teaches us how to have hope in seemingly hopeless moments, and what it means to really be seen by the Father.  We uncover how Mary desires to mother us in our poverty so that we can go before Christ fully alive.

As the Father sent me, so I send you.  In this week’s episode we talk about the real share that we have in Jesus's own mission and the urgent need to bring Jesus to the world. God uses our gifts and talents to touch the people that God brings into our lives. God is not waiting for somebody else. God want to use you.  No matter what our vocation in life God calls us to mission.

The Holy Spirit, who worked in and through Christ during his life on earth, now works in and through us. In this week’s episode we discuss how the Holy Spirit wants to move in our lives. Just as the Spirit enabled Christ to bring glory to his Father, so now the Spirit enables us to glorify both the Son and the Father.  The Holy Spirit can help us greatly, but only if we let it.  

We look at Jesus and the Samaritan woman with an emphasis on they way in which Jesus thirsts to love her.  We also mention Mother Teresa's relationship with the thirst of Jesus and how important it is for us to know that God thirsts for our love.  We're wanted and pursued by God.

Our first guest!  Our long time arch nemesis, Michelle Benzinger from the Abiding Together Podcast, joins Fr. Innocent and Fr. Mark-Mary to talk about tangible grace for tangible trials, seeking first the Kingdom of God lest you go about your day spiritually hangry, and praying when there's no time to pray.  Also, we learn about Fr. Innocent's cheap shot on Fr. Mark-Mary and his failed tinkerbell charade. (N.B. by "arch nemesis" we mean dear friend, source of inspiration, mentor, and much loved.)

We take a look at two ways to live: The way of Simon the Pharisee (boring!!, empty, vanilla) and the way of the sinful woman who bathes the feet of Jesus with her tears.  Her love is desperate.  Her love makes others uncomfortable. But, her love is real!  Her love is beautiful. 

Why does she love the way she loves and lives the way she lives?  She knows she's a sinner in need of the savior, and the savior is within reach.  Let's love lavishly people!  Let's live like sinners in need of a savior who know where to find him!

We take a look at the story of Bartimaeus. One major theme is the way in which a blind person feels very vulnerable in the world and has a lot of fear/anxiety because of it. If we go about life without faith, it's like we're walking the streets of NYC blind. Faith gives us absolute security, it allows us to see who we are and that God's with us.

Have you ever noticed how “going for a walk” helps to calm you down when you are stressed?    God wants to walk with us before He works through us. Our daily encounter with Him becomes our training ground for a life that is rooted and grounded in love.  In this week's episode we talk about how to allow God to walk with us in the midst of our mess. God is always trying to draw us closer to him.  He wants your life to be transformed into a joyful relationship with him regardless of the circumstances we live in. Teach us Lord to walk with you!   Invite God to walk with you in those hard places so that we can be fully alive.     

Could God be prompting you to leave the boat -to take a radical break from your routine to get some rest and enjoy silence, so you can hear God’s whispers and hear his nearness again?  In a culture where the world wears busyness as a badge of honor, how can we live in God’s stillness?  This week we explore how Christian rest comes from living from our identity and sharing in Christ's own rest -because he knows the Father.

Sometimes it takes greater faith and courage to admit we’re tired and we need to reassess why we’re doing what we’re doing. God welcomes soul searching. He loves being with us on that intimate journey.

What does a good movie, our desire for the best job, and that perfect picture we just posted on Instagram have to do with each other?  None of these things is wrong in itself. But when we begin to allow the things of the world to control us, we miss out on the joy of God's call for deeper intimacy in our hearts.

In this week’s episode we discuss the battle for our hearts which is also a battle for our time.  We want to learn to pray well because that's how we give God authority over our lives.  But part of praying well is stepping away from distractions, even good ones.  

God calls us to transform our half-hearted, distracted, disconnected prayer life into a vibrant, meaningful, intentional way of communicating with our Father.

Grounding their discussion in Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis's book, The Way of the Disciple, the friars take a look at the battle of prayer. This is the principle place where we battle for grace, where we battle to receive the truth of our identity and the riches of our identity. But it takes work! It's hard!

The good news is, with God's grace, we're capable of hard things! May this episode encourage us all to be renewed in our commitment to prayer!

God has spoken, but he wants the Word to continue to echo through you! The Word became flesh, dwelt among us and revealed to us the heart of the Father. But the Word mission is not complete! In this week’s episode the friars take a look at how different saints have heard the Word, been transformed by it, then echo it by their lives.. becoming a living word; And God wants to do the same through you! Take a listen to learn what in the world this all means and looks like.

Prayer is like oxygen; we can't live without it. If you're not praying, you're dying. Prayer is not optional in our lives but it's essential.   Prayer is our lifeline to God, and with it, lives are changed for eternity!  God invites us into an intimate relationship with Him.  Prayer is your relationship with God if we are living without prayer, we are living without God.  As with any relationship, we need to put in the desire, effort, and time to seek intimacy and seal that bond that involves finding intimacy with God in the midst of our everyday busy lives. 

Blessed are the peacemakers! Peace comes from knowing your identity, but also knowing who God is.  Knowing who you are and Whose you are changes everything.  God is the only One who knows the depth of your struggle, and therefore He is the only One who could offer the exact reassurance of peace we so desperately need to hear.   Are we confident in our spiritual inheritance as children of the Father?  God promises us that if we stick with Him, He will give us peace that surpasses all understanding.

God doesn't call us by our sin, He calls us by our name. Our dignity is based on the fact that we are His children.  In this episode week's episode the friars dive into what "blessed are the merciful" really means.  God loves us even in our sinfulness and wants to restore what sin has taken away.  We are called to come face to face with our brokenness so that we can experience true healing and mercy so we no longer act as orphans but as children of the Father. 

"Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God." Journey from the cry of the heart expressed in Psalm 80, "Show us your face and we shall be saved," to the tragic loss of the rich young man who went away sad because he missed the answer to who he is and what he's made for as it was revealed to him on the face of Jesus who looked at him and loved him, to the world transforming conversion of St. Francis of Assisi who was able to find in the face of the leper the sacred face of his Savior.

It's satisfaction guaranteed people! "They shall be satisfied." Not, they might be satisfied or 9/10 times those who hunger and thirst for righteousness claim to be satisfied. Satisfaction is guaranteed to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness! It's a promise and the Father always keeps his promises!

But...you gotta want it. You have to burn for holiness. You have to burn for the infinite depths of his love and burn through all lesser goods. Let's get after it together!

Fr. Lloyd has experienced a whole lot of life over the past 98 years. In his own words, what has he learned, "The Father thinks I'm hot stuff."  That's his friendly, New Yorker, way of saying the Father is well pleased with him.  The Father loves him and rejoices in him. And it's for you as well!  In this week's episodes the friars take a look at the true meaning of "meek."  Being meek doesn't mean you're soft, it's the strength that comes from already receiving the inheritance of your identity and knowing that all the Father has is yours.  Or in short, it means living in touch with the reality that the Father thinks your hot stuff, too.

"Love is an exodus from me to you" (Pope Benedict XVI). Oftentimes the spiritual life can be focused on." Am I growing? Am I getting after it? Am I, am I, am I... Of course, each individual's particular growth is important, and there is a place for examining our own lives, but discipleship is a team sport and it's in losing ourselves that we authentically find ourselves.  In the latest episodes, the brothers take a look at how poverty of spirit helps us do the hard work of staying in communion.

Beggars and Beast Mode.  Taking another look at the "Franciscan Sweet Spot," poverty of spirit, the friars reconcile our poverty and dependence with the call to scale the heights of sanctity.  Fr. Innocent, Fr. Angelus, and Fr. Mark-Mary, looking at their own life experience, proclaim with conviction, that our poverty is not an obstacle to Christian excellence, but when it is properly brought to the Lord, our poverty becomes the very fuel for holiness.

It's time to go Holy Spirit-Anointed-Beast Mode.  It's time to give God permission to make us saints.

Join Fr. Angelus, Fr. Innocent, and Fr. Mark-Mary, members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, in a deep dive into the "Franciscan sweet spot": Poverty of Spirit and The Kingdom of Heaven where our dependence meets the Father's providence.  For this reason, the friars truly consider themselves, "Rich Kids." They are rich in intimacy with the Father and it's possible for you too!

Punctuating everything the friars discuss is the witness of Fr. Innocent, who as a 24-year-old friar, had what he calls a "conversion" moment after he woke up paralyzed from a routine back surgery. In was in that moment, he experienced the Lord's love for him not because of his gifts or abilities, but because he is truly his beloved son.

IT'S ALL ABOUT JESUS! In the latest episode of The Poco a Poco Podcast, Fr. Innocent, Fr. Angelus, and Fr. Mark-Mary take a totally fresh look at the Beatitudes.  And what do we discover in the beatitudes?  We discover the face of Jesus and the invitation to become authentically, and overwhelmingly, fascinated with Jesus.  

IT'S ALL ABOUT JESUS! Jesus offers us the Beatitudes as a reminder of what it means to be truly blessed.  We are invited to be blessed like Jesus, and that is very good news. But don't get caught on the first half of the beatitude (the hard or uncomfortable part).  In each beatitude is also a promise, and we all know, we worship a Father who always keeps his promises.  

Intimacy with the Father is for you!  FACT! Get it!  

This is the first episode of The Poco A Poco Podcast in which all three hosts are present: Fr. Innocent, Fr. Angelus, and Fr. Mark-Mary of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.  After an extended introduction to their community, themselves, and the story behind "Poco a Poco" the friars proclaim with absolute conviction, rooted in lived experience, that radical relationship and intimacy with God IS POSSIBLE.  

Join the friars in climbing to the heights of holiness by first entering into the depths of the interior life where the King of Glory and the fulfillment of every desire dwells.

Learn more about the friars, signup on their email list, and get a transcription of the podcast at www.franciscanfriars.com

Patience! It's the name of the game. During this third, and final, of the "Pandemic Episodes," Fr. Mark-Mary reminds us to be still and know that he is God! We can be sure that God is at work in our situation even though we don't know where he's leading and when we'll arrive.

In this second episode of the Poco a Poco Podcast, Fr. Mark-Mary gleams from the wisdom of Jesuit Spirituality as practiced by Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ during his years of "Quarantine" in Soviet prisons and labor camps. Learn how to pick your battle and so win the war!

Our First Episode! Join Fr. Mark-Mary is the first episode of the Poco a Poco Podcast, the new podcast of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Fr. Mark-Mary pulls from the wisdom of Catholics who have lived in "quarantine" to give some tips for thriving in faith during this uniquely difficult time.