In our final episode of Season 12, we dive deep into how the Lord has been working in our lives since we began the season in January. We acknowledge how easy it is to get caught up in the struggles of life and forget to take time to stop, pause, and remember the blessings we have received. We open up about the seeds the Lord has planted in our hearts, the areas in our lives He is re-awakening, and the spiritual fruit we have seen blossoming. Through our vulnerability, we hope you are inspired this summer to reflect on how the Lord has been working in your life and share it with someone you’re close to. Friends, we have enjoyed every moment of season 12 and are excited for where the Lord takes us next. Thank you for being on this journey of life with us. We hope you join us for our summer study that begins July 17 and our next season beginning in September.

In this episode we welcome Sr. Josephine Garrett, a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth, to talk about family systems. As a licensed counselor both in private practice and schools, Sr. Josephine shares the insights she has learned from working with children and parents to heal their relationships with each other and with themselves. We chat about the pain parents feel when their own wounds impact their kids, practical ways we can find hope and restoration, and how the sanctification within families contributes to the sanctification of the Church.

In this episode, we welcome Jill Simons as our guest to talk about Charisms. A charism is a grace from God we are called to use to build up His Kingdom here on earth. We acknowledge a deep lie that many people believe they don’t have anything special to offer our communities or the Church, but the truth is that charisms are given to every person by God. Jill offers practical tools to help discern your charisms, the theology behind charisms, and how charisms work within our vocations.

In this episode, we discuss Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil homily about the hope that comes from remembering Jesus, our first love. We reflect on his meditations about how the women in scripture are grieved to find Jesus’ empty tomb, and like these women, we all too often become hopeless and see joy as belonging to the past. We discuss moments of personal encounter with the love of Jesus that has healed us and offer an invitation to a renewed hope in Jesus by remember the great joy and power that comes through relationship with Him. Let us allow our ‘sealed tombs’ to be opened and restored by hope this Easter season.

In this episode, we chat about helping children cultivate a deep relationship with God. In today’s culture, with entertainment and distractions at our fingertips, this can seem like a difficult task. We discuss the importance of being a good witness to our children and living out daily what you want them to learn. We also share examples of what we have done well, what we need to improve upon, and the amazing power of intercessory prayer.

In this episode, we dive into the power of prayer. Prayer is the language we use to talk to God, the Lover of our souls. Many times, it can be easy to approach prayer haphazardly, forgetting that we are meant for intimacy and speaking heart to heart with each Person of the Trinity. When we remember that prayer is really about two hearts connecting, our prayer can be transformed. Join us as we share about our prayer lives and how the different seasons of our lives have changed how we pray.

In this episode, we discuss how easy it is to settle for less than what God offers by clinging to earthly idols and loving other things more than Him. We share about some of our own idols and how turning to God instead has transformed our hearts. We admit how easy it is to accept less than the fullness of life in Jesus and turn to something or someone else in our sorrows. The truth is that Jesus is the only One who can truly satisfy us and bring real comfort in the broken places.  

In this episode, we reflect on how “humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong (Pope Francis)”. We discuss how we as Christians are called to cultivate a posture of humility and tenderness in a culture that is quick to criticize and condemn. We also chat about how often we forget that we belong to each other and end up picking sides, which results in more division and hostility than relationships that are filled with vulnerable love and truth. Today let us ask for the tenderness of God to be a gift that He gives us in our own hearts first, so that we can then give it to others.