The Normal Christian Life

12. Objections to the Charismatic Renewal, Part 1: Common Misconceptions

Christians seeking to live their faith more radically encounter many roadblocks, especially as they develop an interest in the spiritual gifts. In this challenging episode, our hosts attempt to address some of the common misconceptions that needlessly discourage Catholics in particular from embracing the charismatic renewal and spiritual gifts. Some objections addressed here include:
It's just weird.
What if it's fake, and I get deceived?
What if it's dangerous or demonic?
The saints weren't charismatic, why should I be?
Isn't it prideful to ask for supernatural things or talk about them?
We're Catholic, and this stuff seems more Protestant/Pentecostal...
Charismatics are into progressive music (even "demonic rock music")
Don't charismatics believe in a prosperity gospel?
If all this crazy stuff is real, how come I haven't heard about it before?
 

11. God's Faithful Love: Testimony by Fr. Tony Cecil

Fr. Tony Cecil is a close friend of Fr. Chris who was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky in 2019. In his disarming and powerful testimony, Fr. Tony describes his early years growing up with a single father who modeled God's faithfulness to him; his first year as a priest, when anxiety and suffering compelled him to seek inner healing; and finally, a miraculous physical healing and an encounter with Jesus that would redefine his sense of his priestly identity and transform his ministry.

10. New Wineskins: The Purpose of Fasting (Lenten Special)

Why do we fast, practice self-denial, and learn to say “no” to ourselves? This episode offers a perspective on asceticism that is challenging, yet also profoundly positive. We Christians are called to pursue a radical lifestyle of fasting and self-denial – not to punish ourselves or earn God’s love, but to be freed from earthly attachments and to become “new wineskins”, ready for an infilling of the new wine of the Holy Spirit.

9. Vocation: Calling, Not Identity (w/ Mary Bielski)

If you are struggling in the discernment and pursuit of your vocation, this episode is for you! Mary Bielski joins our hosts to address the difficulties that sincere Catholics, young and middle-aged, face today in pursuing or fully embracing God's calling. In particular, they discuss the discouragment and fear that arises when we conflate our baptismal identity with our vocation to a particular state in life. Finally, they offer encouragment through testimony and Scripture for the uplifting and renewal of our minds in this regard.

8. Purity of Heart w/ Mary Bielski

In our times of division and sifting, many Christians share the sense that God, far from abandoning his Church, is calling her members to a renewal of authentic purity of heart today. Mary Bielski (national Catholic speaker; founder, All4Him Ministries) shares her powerful testimony, and then joins our hosts to discuss purity of heart through both biblical and experiential lenses: its pivotal role in the spiritual life, and how it enables us to live the life of Heaven now.

7. Is Jesus Healing People Today? Physical Healing and the Gospel

What role - if any - should physical healing have in Christian life today? Using Scripture and personal testimony, our hosts explain why we should press in for physical healing in prayer: to manifest the compassion of Jesus and demonstrate the power of the Gospel to a world mired in skepticism and unbelief. Supernatural healing makes the Kingdom tangible! Additionally, our hosts address how an expectation for healing fits with a balanced theology of redemptive suffering.

6. Becoming the Beloved: Embracing Our Baptismal Identity

Should baptized people see themselves differently? At baptism, our identity is radically transformed from that of a loved creation of God, made in His image, to that of His own adopted son or daughter. But for many Christians, this does not translate to a radical awareness of their adoption by the Father. Our hosts share their insights on being a child of God (and how everything else in Christian life flows from this identity), and on becoming more deeply aware of the sonship/daughterhood we already possess.

5. Fear of Man w/ Laura Shoulders

One of the greatest snares set before us in our Christian journey is what Scripture calls "the fear of man". Laura Shoulders from Owensboro, KY shares her testimony of encountering God, before jumping into the topic with our hosts: what "fear of man" is, why it's so powerful, and the Lord's remedy which offers us true freedom.

4. The Role of Supernatural Experience

Do you expect the supernatural in your life? In this episode, the hosts share reasons why concrete experiences of God and the supernatural have been from the beginning, and should still be today, a normal and necessary part of lived Christianity. In addition, they discuss the vitally important role that our feelings and emotions play in living an abundant life that glorifies God and brings his light to others. 

3. ”Baptism in the Holy Spirit”: The Divine Solution

In our time, God has addressed the crisis of faith by reawakening his Church to his presence, through a grace called "Baptism in the Holy Spirit". After explaining the theology behind this term and some characteristics of the grace itself, the hosts share testimonies of how they have each experienced baptism in the Spirit within their own lives, and how God became "real" to each of them in a new way as a result.