Church Life Today

More than 8,000 miles separate students at the University of Notre Dame from students at St. Bakhita Vocational Training School in Northern Uganda, but a course in innovation and design thinking brings them together. The creator of that course is Wendy Angst, teaching professor in the Medoza College of Business at Notre Dame, where she also serves as assistant department chair in Management and Organization––she is also a fellow of the Pulte Institute for Global Development. Through a partnership with St. Bakhita’s begun in early 2020, Professor Angst has taught and guided Notre Dame undergraduate students in working with students at St. Bakhita’s and local community members to develop and strengthen this school that helps create opportunities for young girls who otherwise have few opportunities before them.One of the best places to learn about St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training School is on their Facebook page, where you can also link to ways to supporting St. Bakhita students, especially in the form of scholarships.For now, Wendy Angst joins me to talk about the history and mission of the school, the ways in which design thinking is helping her own students serve the St. Bakhita community, and the innovative approach to development that begins with empathy.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

On more than a few occasions on this show, we have hosted experts in media and technology, or education and family life, to talk about young people and the effects of digital and social media on their relationships and development. Today, I want to do something a little different, not in terms of content but in terms of conversation partner. That’s because my guest today is not someone talking about the ubiquity of technology in the lives of young people, but indeed a young adult who is living in this technological environment, and doesn’t like what he’s seen.Isaac Sullivan is a recent high school graduate from Lafayette, Indiana. He has been paying attention to what we have all seen elsewhere when a group of people get together in public: they’re technically together, but not really. They are all separately engaged with their phones. Isaac’s seen this very clearly in his own friend group for years now, and in this show he and I will talk about what he thinks about all that.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

This podcast bridges Advent and Christmas through the powerful sermons of St. John Henry Newman, Fr. Alfred Delp, and St. Oscar Romero. It explores themes of spiritual emptiness and the anticipation that comes with Advent. Delp’s reflections on hope amidst oppression resonate deeply, while the discussion on divine purpose reveals how chaos leads us to seek divine intervention. The message emphasizes compassion during Christmas, urging listeners to focus on helping the less fortunate and embodying generosity.

There is nothing not to like about today’s episode. Advent music, Christmas movies, and obsessive concern with “progressive solemnity,” with both well-reasoned and unfounded opinions mixed in.Joining me today is Carolyn Pirtle, program director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy. She’s going to take us through the sounds Advents, the films of Christmas, and more besides.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

The sin of racism disfigures and hides the truth of the human person. The healthy response to sin is conversion, and conversion begins with begging the Lord for healing. That healing, though, provokes and necessitates change.My guest today is committed to helping to develop a Catholic response to the sin of racism, along these very lines.Gloria Purvis is well-known for in Catholic media in her capacities as radio host, TV series host and creator, and now as the host of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” from America Media. Gloria was recently named as the inaugural Pastoral Fellow of the Notre Dame Office of Life and Human Dignity, in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Through this fellowship she will develop resources for classroom teachers, co-create an online course addressing the theology of racial justice, deliver two public lectures on Notre Dame’s campus, and facilitate a workshop series for pastoral leaders equipping them for dialogue and engagement on issues of social justice. Today she joins me to follow up especially on her first public lecture as part of her fellowship, which bore the title “Racial Justice: Solidarity and the Church’s Call to Action.”Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

“Catholic Christans came into my community and they helped us with education, they helped us with healthcare, they helped us to find our self-respect and to realize our capabilities when the world had told us for so long that we were nothing and would amount to nothing. And I wanted to be part of that effort. That’s radical Christianity, that’s radical Catholicism. How do we find the needs of God’s people? How do we as a Catholic Christian community of believers say that we believe that God is active in our lives, and we want to share the Good News with you?”These are the words of Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman. She encountered the Gospel not just in the words but also in the actions of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who came from Wisconsin down to Thea’s hometown of Canton, Mississippi and created new opportunities for education, for healthcare, for respect and dignity for Thea and other young black people like her in the segregated south of the early 20th Century. She was so attracted to the Gospel she found in these sisters that she joined them. The Word of God took root in the heart and mind, the imagination and the cultural history of Thea Bowman. Now, more than 30 years after her death, her cause for canonization is underway, and she shows a new generation of Catholics and Americans what it means to be fully alive in the Gospel.As part of the annual Saturdays with the Saints lecture series through the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, Kayla August presented on the life and witness of Sr. Thea. Today, Kayla joins me to talk about this remarkable woman, this servant of God, this witness to Christ’s life in an especially American context. Kayla herself is a doctoral student in theology and ministry at Boston College. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she served in Campus Ministry here at the University of Notre Dame, and also as a rector for one of or woman’s residence halls. Kayla is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. You can find the video of her lecture on Sr. Thea on the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Youtube page, or simply by googling “Saturday with the Saints, Thea Bowman.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

It is Thanksgiving week and we want to celebrate that here on Church Life Today. I am going to do different kind of episode to mark the occasion. This episode is called “Eucharist Means Thanksgiving” and what I want to do is share with you quotes, passages, even a poem that invite us to deepen our appreciation for and wonder about the gift of Christ in the Eucharist as an exchange of thanksgiving. Now I know, of course, that the holiday Thanksgiving is not itself about the Eucharist. But this civic holiday is probably the closest in character to our religious holidays, and all the more because it is a feast of dedicated to giving thanks. For those who revere and adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we know that being transformed by that particular and unique “thanksgiving” should shape and transform our entire lives. So I hope you will spend the next half hour with me and a few guests who aren’t joining us by phone or in the studio, but rather through their meditations and prayer about the Eucharist meaning Thanksgiving.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Praying for the dead. This is a spiritual work of mercy, but does it really do anything? Do our prayers matter to the dead? Do the dead matter to us?I wanted to find us some help in understanding this practice of the Christian faith, and so I have invited Prof. John Cavadini to talk with us about his own practice of praying for the dead, the love of Christ poured out for us, and our communion with the dead in the Eucharist. Yes, these are theological matters, but they are also matters of devotion, of grieving, of longing, and of hope. I think that what we are about to talk about will matter to you. I think it will matter to me, too.If you’ve been listening to our show for some, you know that I am working on a project between my own McGrath Institute for Church Life and Ave Maria Press about our relationship with our beloved dead. This is part of a book I am writing on this topic. As part of the project, I’ve been talking with people about their memories of and their hopes for their beloved dead. I’ve asked a few of those people if they would be willing to record an episode for our show so you can listen in, too. This episode stands in that line, and there were three previous episodes where I hosted, first, https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=cbab65ed7bc87dfe8ddbbc4c5ad79c7a (Laura Kelly Fanucci), then https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=41036ec763c281f66445a4c88d8be772 (Stephanie DePrez), and finally https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=3bbfed57c695430c36e1ca5729d22b0b (Robert Cording). You may want to check out those episodes on our podcast if you like this one.By the way, John Cavadini is professor of theology and McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, which makes him my boss.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

It is easy to bemoan the problems in the Church; it is harder to take the initiative to heal and renew the life of the Church, and to sacrifice for that renewal with all your own creativity and passion. But that is exactly what the Our Sunday Visitor Institute for Catholic Innovation is calling forth from leaders in the Church today. They want to help visionaries become the innovators who discover new means of evangelization and who revitalize the faithful’s responsibility for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.Dr. Matt Smith directs strategic alliances for the OSV Institute for Catholic Innovation, and today he joins me to talk about the tradition of innovation and its timeliness in the life of the Church today, while also highlighting some of the specific initiatives he and his team are working to develop to foster a culture of innovation for the Church.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Meg Hunter-Kilmer has no time for bland, stale stories of saints. She is too busy reveling in the wild and diverse beauty of holy people. When their stories have not been told well, she seeks after the heart of their story and waits to see the drama, the glory, the full-fledged humanity that others have missed. And then she tells their stories. Meg tells the stories of the saints with passion, with care, with personality, with joy.Friends, I have read a lot of books about sanctity. I have read a lot of stories about saints. I have read a lot of books of stories about saints. But the book that Meg Hunter-Kilmer wrote stands apart. It is an education in true holiness, which depends on a willingness to see and accept the whole human condition. Her stories of saints are filled with piety and grace, but also with the afflictions, failures, abuses, and unrespectability of these very flesh and blood people who received and responded to the love of God in Christ.The book is Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness. The author, Meg Hunter-Kilmer, joins me today in the studio from her travels around the country where she speaks and teaches everywhere as a full-time missionary evangelist. Believe me, you’re in for a treat in listening to her.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.