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

Episode 130 - Prayer Battle Tactics There's great wisdom to having some structure or intentionality to our prayer life because not having a plan for it can lead to the death of it. The truth is, killing your prayer or spiritual life is not only limited to doing violence to it, but also not nourishing it. There might be a lot of reason for us not to make time for prayer. But we need to make a commitment to the Lord and schedule some time for our prayer life. In our life, whether we realize it or not, we're making commitments, we're scheduling things. The only question we need to ask ourselves is, "Am I making the Lord a priority?" This episode is the fifth part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin that talks about some concrete ways and examples how we fight and win our prayer battles—may it be to about creating time and space for it or persevering in staying within 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!

Episode 129 - Stay Where the Grace Is 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!

Episode 128 - The Me in "Our" Father 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!

Episode 127 - Define the Relationship Being in relationship with God looks like we're sitting down in front of a big table with Him, and what a deeper conversion and deeper healing means is that we are willing to be at this table and we are willing to lay out everything here for the Lord to see. He sits us down and He wants all our weapons, all of our distractions, all the things that keep us from Him, all the obstacles, and He's gonna keep calling us out until we lay them all out on the table. Jesus has so much more to give us, but he's waiting for us to take this step—to surrender everything to Him rather than trying to be the Lord of our own lives. Those parts of our hearts that we'd rather keep quarantined or closed off, the Lord is now sitting saying "I want to be the Lord of that as well." This is how He is inviting all of us. This episode is the second part of a series on Hungry For God by Dr. Ralph Martin that invites us to define our relationship with Jesus and fully commit to his Lordship. 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!

Episode 126 - Authentically Awesome 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!

Episode 125 - Heaven Within 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!

Episode 124 - Dryness in Prayer 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!

Episode 123 - Sons of the Church Obedience is rooted in God, it is lived trust and lived surrender in His pastoring and fatherhood—that's where we want to be. It can be really difficult but as sons and daughters of the church we are invited to stay in obedience, not only to our religious superiors but ultimately to God. We need to be able to listen to the voice of God amidst all the ups and downs of the church. This episode talks through some great insights about what the Catholic appreciation for obedience actually means. 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!

Episode 122 - Hot Takes 2 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!

Episode 121 - A Really Good Episode 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!