AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

The American essayist and novelist Marilynne Robinson may not be Catholic, but her writing reveals a deeply sacramental imagination. Through five books of fiction and dozens of essays, Robinson trains her readers in the art of spiritual attention. Where is God’s grace operating in nature and in the ordinary ways humans love, disappoint and forgive one other? In her essay “Psalm 8” she writes, “I have spent my life watching not to see beyond the world,” but “merely to see, great mystery, what is plainly before my eyes… With all due respect to heaven, the scene of miracle is here, among us.” Robinson is best known for her novel “Gilead,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. It has three sequels, each installment following a different protagonist in the fictitious Iowa town. The last of those, “Jack” (2020), traces the wanderings of a Prodigal Son who has difficulty recognizing a place in his family, church, and hometown. We all know a Jack or two, and Robinson helps us understand their plights with empathy. In March 2024, she released a new book, "Reading Genesis," which is a long meditation on the first book of Hebrew Scripture. She defamiliarizes old stories that we thought we understood – of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel, of Abraham and Sarah. She challenges easy clichés – Old Testament God: bad! Jesus: good! – to show us how God’s faithfulness to humanity starts right there…in the beginning. Which is why today’s interview with guest host Fr. Joe Simmons, SJ, starts with Genesis, and branches out into philosophy, science, poetry and fiction, and back to theology. Fr. Simmons, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the work of Robinson and Virginia Woolf, even talks with our guest on Ignatius Loyola and his contemporary, John Calvin – and the miseries of studying in 16th-century Paris! – which made Fr. Simmons laugh out loud. You won’t want to miss that. More about Marilynne Robinson: https://us.macmillan.com/author/marilynnerobinson "Reading Genesis": https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Genesis-Marilynne-Robinson/dp/0374299404 More about Fr. Joe Simmons, SJ: https://www.marquette.edu/theology/directory/joseph-simmons.php AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

In honor of National Poetry Month - which is currently underway during April 2024 - author and editor Gary Jansen returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, "Meditations at Midnight: Poetry and Prose." Gary lives at the intersection of faith and art. He’s worked in publishing a long time—both at secular publishing houses editing Catholic authors, and now at Loyola Press, acquiring and mentoring authors that are writing for a Catholic publisher. Gary is an author himself; he’s been on this podcast before talking about his ghost-ridden memoir, “Holy Ghosts,” and his self-help book called “MicroShifts.” In 2023, he won the Christopher Award for the children’s book “Remember Us With Smiles,” that he co-wrote with his wife. And those are just a few of his books. He’s back today to talk about his latest book and to reflect on the lasting impact that good writing can have on our souls. If you want to learn more about Gary, visit garyjansen.com.

You might be familiar with the American Catholic novelist, Flannery O’Connor. You might have read her short stories in a class, maybe “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” or “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” to name a few. You might have even read one of her novels, an essay or two or some of her letters. You might know that she spent much of her relatively short life in Georgia. And, if you know her work well, then you also know that she died in 1964. And so, you might be really surprised to learn that she published her third novel, “Why Do the Heathen Rage?” earlier this year. Well, to be clear, the renowned O’Connor scholar and Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University and today’s guest, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson did. Dr. Wilson has been working on this project—uncovering O’Connor’s notes and drafts—for several years now. And the final result is quite stunning: While the book isn’t really a full and final novel—O’Connor died before she could finish it—what Jessica Hooten Wilson gives us is a literary excavation of Flannery’s life, legacy and the story that might have been. Now, if you are familiar with O’Connor, you likely are also familiar with recent discourse about her thoughts and writing on race. Dr. Wilson does not shy away from addressing this sordid legacy head-on. In reflecting on this final, unfinished novel, Dr. Wilson notes that we really see Flannery coming up against her own limitations in understanding race in the American South. And yet, we also see her struggling to reconcile the clear racism of her day with her own Catholic faith. It’s not an easy conversation, but Dr. Wilson walks us through with care and grace. If you are interested in learning more about her work, visit jessicahootenwilson.com and be sure to pick up your copy of “Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heaten Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress,” now available from Brazos Press.

There’s an old saying in Jesuit circles: If you’ve met one Jesuit, you’ve met one Jesuit. A fun list to make is all the different careers guys had before joining the Society of Jesus. We have actors and comedians, doctors and lawyers, astronomers and one former lieutenant governor. Shane Liesegang, SJ, today’s guest, is the only Jesuit host Mike Jordan Laskey has ever met who was a video game developer. Before entering the Jesuits in 2015, Shane worked for over a decade in video game development for several different studios. He worked on hugely popular games like the Fallout Series and Skyrim. Shane was living his dream. But then he felt called to something more. Today, Shane is a Jesuit scholastic studying Theology at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry. He didn’t leave his entire gaming life behind when he entered the Jesuits, though. In fact, one of Shane’s former employers, a hugely influential studio called Bethesda Game Studios, brought him back into the fold to work on a game called Starfield that was released in 2023. In this deeply complex space exploration game, the studio wanted to create a fictional religion that certain characters in the game would profess. So they asked Shane to write this religion’s core texts, which are featured in several places in the game. Shane argues that creating video games is an art form. The combination of visual aesthetics, interactivity and storytelling, not to mention the incredibly detailed and vast universes game developers make, all combine to elevate video games to something more than a mere time waster. If you’re skeptical about this claim, let Shane try to convince you in this conversation. Shane also talked about his unique vocation story and how game design is not dissimilar from Ignatian imaginative prayer in some crucial ways. This was an utterly fascinating conversation and we think you’ll really enjoy meeting Shane, whether you love video games or not. Clip from the game that features the religion Shane wrote: https://youtu.be/hrPhQSP7no8?si=Fig5KmRuQjozJ_w_&t=93 Learn more about Shane: https://shaneliesegang.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Fr. John P. Foley, SJ, spent 34 years as a missionary in Peru -- a full career in most lines of work. But then, in 1995, he was missioned back to the United States to start a high school for Latino students from low-income backgrounds in Chicago. Despite immense challenges -- like not knowing where the school would be even at the press conference announcing there would be a new school -- Cristo Rey Jesuit High School was founded in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood in 1996. Centered on an innovative corporate work study model, through which students spend a day a week working with partner companies, low-income students were able to access a high-quality Catholic prep school education. The idea spread like wildfire and the Cristo Rey Network was born, which today includes 39 schools around the country. Fr. Foley led the network after eight years as the first school's president. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Fr. Foley to share the stories of those early days and how they found such incredible success despite the odds. Learn more about the Cristo Rey Network: https://www.cristoreynetwork.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

While Fr. Daniel Hendrickson, SJ, president of Creighton University, is excited for both his women's and men's basketball teams' March Madness journeys, today’s episode isn’t about basketball at all. (Well, it makes an appearance for a couple minutes at the end.) It’s about the roles of Jesuit colleges and universities in our world today. Host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke with Fr. Hendrickson a couple months ago about his book “Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age,” which explores how Jesuit education can help students create meaningful connections in our highly self-centered, transactional era. Mike asked Fr. Hendrickson about the book’s primary intellectual influence, the peerless contemporary philosopher Charles Taylor. They also talked about the history of Jesuit education and how its vision of educating the whole person stands in contrast to the epidemic of siloed academic departments. Fr. Hendrickson is an incredibly thoughtful leader and it was a lot of fun to pick his brain about the past, present and future of Jesuit higher ed. More about Fr. Hendrickson: https://www.creighton.edu/leadership/president/presidents-biography His book: https://www.amazon.com/Jesuit-Higher-Education-Secular-Age/dp/1647122333 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Ever since the Jesuits in the United Kingdom launched the daily prayer project “Pray As You Go” (PAYG) in 2006, the creative team behind the resource has shared fabulous audio prayer programs that are spiritually nourishing in their beauty and simplicity. Each day combines music, Scripture from the lectionary, and short spoken prayer prompts that always invite you to reflect on the Scripture in a new way. PAYG will slow you down and invite genuine contemplation, making it so different from almost any other smartphone app or podcast program out there. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world love PAYG, especially here in North America – maybe you’re one of them. For years, host Mike Jordan Laskey – a huge fan of PAYG – has been curious about the team behind the app. How does an episode come together? What inspired the format and why does it work so well? How do they want to grow? So Mike invited Emma Holland onto the show, who serves as PAYG’s director. She has worked for the Jesuits in the UK for almost a decade and has advanced from an audio producer to the leader of the project. Mike asked Emma to take us behind the scenes of PAYG and to share what she loves about her work. It was such a fun conversation and if you haven’t prayed with PAYG before, we really hope you’ll give it a try. You can find it in your smartphone’s app store or download daily episodes using your podcast player of choice. Pray As You Go: https://pray-as-you-go.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

The basic details of Father Walter Ciszek life sound like a movie: An American Jesuit priest ministering in Eastern Europe around the time of World War II, he was arrested by the Soviet Union and falsely accused of being a Vatican spy. He spent time in a KGB prison and more than a decade in Siberian labor camps. His family and his Jesuit brothers back in the U.S. assumed he was dead. During his captivity, Fr. Ciszek secretly heard confessions, celebrated Mass, baptized, comforted the sick, and ministered to the dying. His unwavering faith sustained him through solitary confinement, torture, and violent interrogations. The John F. Kennedy administration negotiated his release, and he returned to the United States in 1963. In the years following his release, Fr. Ciszek wrote two books, “With God in Russia” and “He Leadeth Me.” The latter book, a spiritual memoir, shot up to the very top of Amazon’s bestseller list recently, decades after its publication. Why? The extremely popular Catholic prayer app Hallow, which just ran a Super Bowl commercial a few weeks ago, picked “He Leadeth Me” to anchor their Lenten prayer program this year. It’s safe to assume thousands of folks are meeting Fr. Ciszek for the first time. So we thought we’d take the chance to introduce him to AMDG listeners, too. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Jim Keane to come on the show to talk about Fr. Ciszek and his legacy. Jim is a senior editor at America Media, where he oversees the book reviews, literary essays, the Catholic Book Club and the "Faith and Reason" section. Jim is a fantastic writer and storyteller and he has written several great pieces on Fr. Ciszek over the years. So Mike asked Jim to share some of his favorite Fr. Ciszek stories and reflect on why the biggest Catholic smartphone app around might have picked “He Leadeth Me” to read this Lent. America Media's coverage of Fr. Walter Ciszek: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/return-russia https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/06/08/little-known-story-behind-father-walter-ciszeks-god-russia https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2024/02/16/walter-ciszek-soviet-prison-247340 https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/article/chained-free https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2022/05/10/cbc-column-walter-ciszek-242962 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

When you hear the word “Lent,” what is the first thing you think of? Maybe it’s purple or giving up social media or chocolate. Or maybe it’s trying to build better prayer habits or abstaining from meat on Fridays. Or famous Lenten Scripture passages like the Transfiguration. For Margaret Felice, today's guest, one thing that’s always near the top of her mind when it comes to Lent is music. Margaret is a professional singer and liturgical musician with an absolutely stunning voice. She’s also a terrific writer and a first-year doctoral student in theology at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry. She taught religion and directed a liturgical choir at Boston College High School for 18 years. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Margaret to pick two of her favorite Lenten hymns that we could discuss. She picked “Again We Keep This Solemn Fast” and “Were You There.” And as a totally surprising gift, Margaret went ahead and recorded herself singing both these hymns along with accompanist Chris Rakovec on piano. We’ll include excepts from both hymns in the episode. Margaret and Mike also talked about the role of the Lenten season without our spiritual lives, and what opportunities this yearly observance gives us to grow in faith, hope and love. Margaret Felice: https://margaretfelice.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Today's guest has an incredible amount of experience of the truly "catholic," global nature of the church. Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, today serves as the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. This school is one of the two Jesuit “theologates” in the United States, which means it’s a place where Jesuits in formation from all over the world pursue theology studies alongside lay students. Before arriving at JST last August, Fr. Orobator spent seven years as the president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, leading the Jesuits on the continent where the order is growing fastest. A theologian originally from Nigeria with a doctorate from the United Kingdom who specializes in ecclesiology, the study of the Church, he is the author of a number of books, including “Theology Brewed in an African Pot” and “The Pope and the Pandemic: Lessons in Leadership in a Time of Crisis.” In the first few months of his tenure at the JST, Pope Francis invited Fr. Orobator to attend the Synod on Synodality in Rome, where he was a voting member. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked him about that experience, about synodality at work in the Church in Africa, and what his goals are for his leadership at JST. You’ll see from his thoughtfulness and deep faith on display in this conversation why Fr. Orobator has been tapped for big leadership roles within the Society of Jesus and beyond over and over again. Learn more about Fr. Orobator: https://www.scu.edu/jst/about/faculty/orobator.html AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/