Church Life Today

In this episode I continue my conversation with Abigail Favale, introducing the new podcast series she created and hosts called “The Gender Accompaniment Project.” If you missed the first part of our conversation, you can link to it in our show notes (or just see the episode that posted immediately before this one in our show’s feed). We are going to talk more now about Abigail’s scholarship and her encounter with the people featured in her new project, and we will eventually end up talking about what is required for conversion in Christ, for all of us.Follow-up Resources:Learn more about The Gender Accompaniment Project and the new podcastThe Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, book by Abigail Favale“The Genesis of Gender, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Sex, Gender, and Feminism, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender,” by Abigail Favale, article via Church Life Journal“Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Transhumanism and Human Nature, with Mary Harrington,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

What do we do with unmet desires? That is a deeply human question, but one that might not be addressed or attended to if we have a view of life that avoids such difficulty and tension. Some would seek to live the kind of life that tries to fulfill all desires, whenever they emerge. Some others might seek to live in such a way that ignores or tries to suffocate desires because that is seen as something like strength or virtue. Others still might just live a life that has no consistent ethic, so that the question of what to do with our desires—especially our seemingly discordant or contradictory desires—has no central theme or reason. But Christianity actually calls us to wrestle with such difficult things as directly addressing and even confronting or living with unmet desires. Christianity is, if nothing else, a call to wholeness, to integration, because Christ is, in the words of St. Irenaeus, “the whole man” who brings his disciples to wholeness—to integration—in him.In the new podcast series created and hosted by Abigail Favale and produced by the McGrath Institute for Church, the venture toward whole and integrated humanity is on offer. “The Gender Accompaniment Project” seeks to both identify a better understanding of the Catholic vision of gender, and attend to the personal stories of Christians who wrestle with gender as they seek Christ. This project is an exercise in encounter: going toward rather than away from points of tension precisely by going toward rather than away from each other in our pursuit of life in Christ.This is the first of two episodes with my colleague Abigail to introduce this project, which consists of 10 episodes, released in batches. The first of these episodes will appear just about the time this episode which you are listening to now is released. Check out our show notes for ways to connect and listen to “The Gender Accompaniment Project” and for other resources that are sure to be of interest to you.Follow-up Resources:Learn more about The Gender Accompaniment Project and the new podcastThe Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, book by Abigail Favale“The Genesis of Gender, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Sex, Gender, and Feminism, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender,” by Abigail Favale, article via Church Life Journal“Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Transhumanism and Human Nature, with Mary Harrington,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch 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 is the second of two conversations I share with Adam Kronk, the director of Outreach and External Engagement for Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. If you missed the first episode, it was released immediately prior to this one. Thanks for listening in again, or for the first time, to my conversation with Adam. As you either already know or will soon discover, he is an excellent conversation partner. Follow up resources:Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good“The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“What is Man that AI is Mindful of Him,” by Jeffrey Bishop, journal article via Church Life JournalChurch 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 University of Notre Dame received a $50 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to work toward developing a faith-based approach to AI ethics. That grant landed in the university’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, which is spearheading this work. My guest today is the institute’s Director of Research and External Engagement—my good friend Adam Kronk.Our discussion is about establishing the kind of practice-based formation for promoting human flourishing in the AI age. It is about education, faith communities, and public engagement. It is about becoming ever more intentional about knowing what our ends are and judging our means accordingly. It is about setting the right conditions for responsible and creative agency.This is the first part of a two-part discussion with Adam, with the second focusing even more intently on issues related to education, under the looming promise of tacos.Follow up resources:Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good“The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“What is Man that AI is Mindful of Him,” by Jeffrey Bishop, journal article via Church Life JournalChurch 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.

If I asked the question “Does literature matter?”, I suspect most people would quickly answer “Yes.” But if I asked “Why does literature matter?”, I think most of us would stutter in response. We probably don’t know how to give an account of the importance of literature, even if we have a sense that it certainly does matter. Jason Baxter helps us respond to that second, harder question. His book, Why Literature Still Matters is both accessible and profound. In the span of some 80 pages, he gives us ways to not just think and speak about the importance of literature, but also to feel and remember why literature matters.For some additional conversations with Jason on our show, please see the show notes for links to an episode about Dante, and a second to an episode about C. S. Lewis in relation to Dante and other Medieval thinkers.Follow-up Resources:Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter“The Heartbeat of Dante’s Comedy, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“C.S. Lewis from Dante and the Medieval World, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch 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.

Josh McManaway joins me again for the second of a two-part conversation on reading Scripture. This time, we focus on St. Augustine as reader and preacher of the Psalms. Josh teaches us Augustine’s principles for reading the psalms, which Augustine discovers throughout the Psalter, and what motivated Augustine’s engagement with the psalter from the beginning of his priesthood to his final day.Follow-up Resources:Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”“The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“Augustine’s Homiletic Meteorology” by John Cavadini, article via Church Life JournalChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

What would it mean to read Scripture well? At minimum, it would mean reading it as a whole. That sounds like a tall task when you think about it, because there are a lot of pages and many of them feature seemingly uninteresting prose. We might prefer to pick-and-choose our favorite passages, while avoiding other passages or entire books all together. But when we do that, we hear and see far less than is actually there––not merely in terms of just encountering fewer words, but in terms of encountering less of the mystery of Christ on each and every page.My colleague Josh McManaway both teaches people how to read Scripture well and forms preachers to preach on Scripture well through his Savoring the Mystery program. He joins me today to talk about how to approach the Old Testament, how to read the New Testament more fully, and how to begin to regard the Psalter in all its wondrous variety. Follow-up Resources:Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”“The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today“What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch 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 saints reveal the fulfillment of Christ’s promises. As I promised a couple episodes back, we want to treat you to a series of reflections on the particular witness of particular saints through a series of episodes on our podcast. These episodes follow from the wildly popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series we host each year on Notre Dame’s campus. For one hour on the morning of Notre Dame home football games, a scholar typically from Notre Dame delivers a public lecture on a saint. We’ve been hosting this series for 15 years now, and this year we focused on “Saints of the Sacred Heart.”I myself delivered the first lecture this year on St. Margaret Mary and the rebirth of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The lecture that followed was delivered by friend and colleague, Tim O’Malley. His lecture was on St. Claude de Colombiere, which is especially fitting because St. Claude is the one who made St. Margaret Mary’s visions of the Sacred Heart known to the world. But as Tim taught in his lecture, it matters very much that St. Claude was himself a Jesuit, as was our late Pope Francis who dedicated his last encyclical to the Sacred Heart. And so our conversation about this saint is also about the Spiritual Exercises, daily obedience to God’s will, and the shock of Christ’s personal and particular love for each of us.Follow-up Resources:“Providence and Obedience: Colombière, the Jesuits, and the Sacred Heart,” by Tim O’Malley via Church Life Journal“St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Devotion to the Sacred Heart,” podcast episode via Church Life TodayLearn more about the “Saturdays with the Saints” series: https://mcgrath.nd.edu/events/saturdays-with-the-saints/“Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Brett Robinson and Abigail Favale” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch 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.

I’m really tempted to open by saying that this episode it is about teaching your children how to die. Now I’m not saying that; all I’m saying is that I thought about saying that so you know it was an option. Why might I have said that? Because, as my guest will share, guiding your children toward the rest and surrender of sleep is, in the grand view, a preparation for death, and even more, of placing your whole self into the hands of God. So maybe I should start again by saying this episode is about teaching your children to place themselves into the hands of God. That sounds nicer. It is also true because this episode is about introducing children to the basic rhythm of the Church’s night prayer, known as compline. And my guest has written for us a profoundly abbreviated and developmentally appropriate little book for just that purpose. My friend Bo Bonner is a teacher, speaker, radio host, poet, husband of one and father of five, but he is also a Benedictine Oblate at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. What he and his artist collaborate have created is a book for children to pray with that brings them into the wisdom and the discipline of Church’s life, as it is mostly subtly and brilliantly expressed in the monastery, in the keeping of liturgical hours. That’s what this episode is about … but it is also really does have to do with teaching your children how to die because it is shaping them in how to live in Christ.Follow-up Resources:A Very Little Office of Compline: Night Prayer for Children, by Bo Bonner, illustrated by Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs“You Gotta Confront What You Are!” by Travis Lacy, article via Church Life JournalThe Church Communications Ecology Program (CCEP) from the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where Bo was a participant in 2022Church 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.

Every fall, the McGrath Institute for Church Life hosts the wildly popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series. For one hour on the morning of Notre Dame home football games, a scholar typically from Notre Dame delivers a public lecture on a saint. The room is always full and, in fact, there are auxiliary rooms to hold the overflow crowd. People who gather on campus for football games apparently also really want to learn about the saints. We’ve been hosting this series for 15 years now, and this year we focused on “Saints of the Sacred Heart.”I want to offer you, our dear listeners, a little taste of this series through our humble podcast. In episodes to come, I’ll talk with some of the lecturers from the 2025 series about the saint of the Sacred Heart that they themselves spoke on. But it is hard to do that with the presenter from the first lecture in this year’s series because that lecturer is me. So, here’s what I’m doing today. I am going to deliver my lecture here, on our podcast. I’ll link in the show notes the few slides I included, but otherwise you will hear what the audience at Saturdays with the Saints heard. My saint was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, specifically as the saint who ushered in the rebirth of the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern world. I hope you enjoy.Follow-up Resources:The slides that accompanied this lecture are available here.Learn more about the “Saturdays with the Saints” series: https://mcgrath.nd.edu/events/saturdays-with-the-saints/“Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Brett Robinson and Abigail Favale” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch 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.