34: To nurture what binds us together

Episode 34: Podcast host Theresa draws together some of the threads weaving through the conversations so far. What are the experiences and values that bind us together as Catholics? With excerpts from those conversations - and one or two new voices.

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Transcript

 You are listening to All Kinds of Catholic with me, Theresa Alessandro. My conversations with different Catholics will give you glimpses into some of the ways, we're living our faith today. Pope Francis has used the image of a caravan. A diverse group of people travelling together. On a sometimes chaotic journey together. That's an image that has helped shape this podcast. I hope you'll feel encouraged and affirmed and maybe challenged at times. I am too in these conversations. 

I'm presenting a different kind of episode for you today, listeners. I wondered if it's time to stop the roller coaster of a new voice every week and just pause this one time to try and gather up some of the thoughts that have brought us to today. There's lots and lots of things that stand out in my mind when I look back at all the conversations I've had. There'll be different things that come to mind for you, I'm sure. But I thought I'd try and navigate a little path through the voices that we've heard so far, and we're gonna revisit some of the things people have said today. And there are 1 or 2 new voices as well in little snippets. I found it really hard to try and have a narrative thread through this episode.  But one of the things that I am thinking about a lot at the moment is a phrase in the final document from the synod, which asks us to nurture that which binds us together as Catholic communities. And I just think there's so much that I feel when I'm in conversations with people. There's so much that I feel is binding us together as a Catholic community. So I'm gonna try and pick out some of those things in this episode today. And just as a place to start, one of the things that I really appreciate about the conversations I have with different Catholic people, and that I've always appreciated, is just the huge cultural diversity of the Catholic church.  I just think it's a wonderful thing that we come from all over the world, and that the church is present in so many parts of the world, and that people bring so much of their own heritage into their spirituality. So we're just gonna have a glimpse at some of the different heritages that have been featured so far in conversations, and I know there'll be lots more in the year ahead. Here's Peter talking about an important celebration in the Philippines every year. 

It's a May devotion where we have the Flores de Mayo, that's a Spanish influence, flowers of May. 

Peter featured in the very first episode of the podcast if you want to go back and check a bit more about that celebration. But here's Matthew talking about block rosary among the children of Nigeria when he was growing up. 

It was every street to have their own block rosary centre where all the Catholic children gathered between 6 and 6:30 to say the rosary. So if you're driving around from one street to the other, you hear different block rosary children gathered in one place saying the rosary. 

And in another thread, Shantel was telling us something about her Keralan heritage. 

So I'm originally from Kerala, which is a state in India. It's like a southern state. There's kind of like different divisions. One of them is the Syro- Malabar church. We're also called Saint Thomas Christians and it's important because in I think it was 52 AD, Saint Thomas came to Kerala where he evangelised, you know, prophesied, kind of showed miracles to the people that were there. It kind of caused that conversion. And it's very important in India, you know, to be Catholic. 

And Karen spoke about her support for the traveller community and the ways in which that has supported her own faith too. 

Working particularly with some of the younger children, their joy and their knowledge, I suppose, that's the other thing, their knowledge about their faith and belief. I just feel very privileged, I suppose, to sort of see that deep commitment and desire to want to be part of the church. 

Some guests on the podcast so far, you'll have noticed, talk about spiritual reading or spiritual practices in a particular tradition that have helped them. So Ignatian spirituality, Dominican spirituality, remember these bits of conversations. Here's Colette first. 

But I'm actually very rooted in Ignatian spirituality, so the work of Saint Ignatius Loyola, which is finding God on all things. That's really at the heart of it. It's finding God in those biggest scales of the universe and in the smallest as well, but also finding God in each other and in the events of our lives.

And this is what Mark had to say about being a Lay Dominican. 

Yes. When we meet monthly, we, have prayer together first, which is the morning prayer of the church, the Divine Office. And then we always have a time of study. We have an ongoing formation. It might be biblical study. It could be the lives of the Dominican saints. We have a time of fellowship and just community socialising together, which is really helpful because we have a similar spirituality, and we want to support each other and encourage each other. 

A number of guests have spoken about the relationship between their prayer life and the action they may take. Maybe the way they relate to other people or the way they operate in the world or specific social action that they get involved in. And I found this really difficult to try and draw out for you today, listeners, because that spiritual inwardness and the outwardness is so bound together in the conversations that I've had. So one of the things that I think is a good starting point is what Sue is telling us about Father Richard Rohr, a Jesuit. Father Richard Rohr's work on action and contemplation, you might remember. 

And you can listen to his homilies on the Center for Action and Contemplation it is. Contemplation calls you to action. Action calls you to contemplation. And you need both. It's not - we don't live in a world of either or, which we've made it, a dualistic world. We're in this where it's both and. 

And more recently, Father Gerry spoke about this too.

It was that marriage, if you like, of contemplation and action. I think that meant a lot to me. And I had read when I was in Maynooth, apart from reading, the theology books that we were supposed to read, I was reading an awful lot about what was happening across the pond, reading books by Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. Where it came from. It came from a very strong and very deep prayer life.

And a number of guests have talked about the beauty of creation being something that brings them into the presence of God. And I particularly remember a really early episode with Martin about Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit priest, and his writing. Remember this. 

He was a scientist. People still try and take a lot at the beginning of the bible very literally, but he had a much wider vision all through time and space. And he could see God as a kind of burning heart of love, not part of the universe, but the creator of the universe. 

Lots of guests at one time or another have mentioned being on retreat or spending time in quiet reflection in that beautiful nature. Peter, who hasn't had a full episode on the podcast to himself, is sharing some of the spaces that help him feel the presence of God in his life. Retreats or just being alone? 

The times where I've been really confident, I suppose, of God’s presence in my life and feeling that sort of closeness to God, having that relationship, has been for me really when I've been able to sit back and reflect, kind of stop. I think the pace of life, we all know, can get a lot. And having that time to step back, it's a bit like that sort of footprint in the sand. Only when I kind of sit back if I go on a retreat or maybe a pilgrimage or  even just in my living room, sit down with a cup of tea and have 10 minutes of just kind of silently thinking about things.  It's kind of in those moments that I can kind of go, oh, retrospectively, I can look back and say, oh, actually, God has been there. God has been guiding me. If I don't get into that space, then I'm just consumed with all the things that are happening, and God doesn't feature very much in that at all. 

One of the reasons I started this podcast was because was because I recognised that in my life, conversations with fellow Catholics or fellow Christians or fellow human beings have helped to shape my faith journey and have been really important to me at different times.  And so this retreat experience was busier and more social, capturing that kind of spirit of us helping each other in our faith. 

I actually love going to retreats because most importantly, it's like a place where I can talk to my friends that I haven't seen in ages, first of all. Every time I went to a retreat, I always come back feeling, like, just energised, and I feel, you know, my faith's been almost topped up. 

And for Giuliana, some more about that faith sharing and how valuable that's been in her life. 

Especially thanks to a group of people which I've been working with and praying with since after the pandemic. The CLC, Christian Life Community, so it's like Jesuit groups of people that come together in a very small group. They really taught me to look back and try to find the past. I’m a person that tends to look a lot at the future, what's in front of me, and making a right choice in a sort of rational way, I would say, mental more than emotional, about what's coming. But they really taught me about looking back, and, thanks to their help and the meetings and the meditation we have done together over the last now 3 years, I was able to see a sort of a path. So to look back and see where God had been in the past.

We've already heard the names of some people who have influenced guests in the way they find God in their lives. I'm not sure we've mentioned today John Henry Newman, but he has certainly had a mention in a number of episodes, and Pope Francis. And then there are family members and chaplains and friends and people much closer to home who may have an influence on the way we find God working in our lives. This is what Michael had to say about the Franciscan father, Tom Herbst. 

One of the people that I feel has had the most impact on me is actually my first chaplain at university. He actually passed away in my final year, and that's what led me to re-find my faith or find my faith in the first place. He was, of course, a really great chaplain, but it was really and I hate to say it, it was him passing away that I feel had a great deal of impact on my life. Because he was a Franciscan friar. I remember hearing the news and thinking about it for a couple of weeks. And all I kept thinking about was how this person could dedicate his entire life to what he believed in to the point where, you know, he'd taken vows of poverty and he didn't even own a mobile phone. Those kinds of thoughts kept going round and round in my head. And I thought he could do all of this. He could dedicate his life to God and to serving others. And, you know, I can't even pray every single day. I feel like that had such a huge impact, and it was the first kind of turning point for me that maybe I should dig a bit deeper. Maybe it's not all about just saying the responses at Mass. Maybe it's not saying to people, I'm a Catholic, and then not actually knowing what that means and not trying to dive into what that means too. I think I could safely say that my first university chaplain, Father Tom Herbst, he's had the most impact on my life. 

And here we are again, listeners, where prayer and study is bound together very closely in someone's experience. Yemisi mentioned being encouraged to study in the early days of being a Catholic.

You know, during COVID, that was an interesting time. I was encouraged by Sister Catherine to study. So I went through Maryvale Institute. I'm actually currently doing my Master's in Catholic applied theology, specialising in marriage and family, and that has been an incredible journey. 

Lots of guests have been involved with some kinds of formal study and also bible study. And this is Karen explaining… making some kind of connection with her prayer life.

I suppose I've always said I'm not really good at praying. I do pray, but I don't have any particular prayers. In recent years, I've been able to read more, and there's a little book with snippets from Pope Francis, which I really like. It talks about  - we need saints that wear trainers and hoodies, which I find absolutely right, you know, we do need that revolution in our faith.  The one thing that probably also that stayed with me a lot is, I did A-level religious studies, theology, and it was a very eclectic group. So the teacher was a Quaker, there was somebody who was Greek orthodox, somebody who was Muslim, somebody who was Sikh, somebody that just chose it because he didn't know what else to do. And then there was a couple of younger born-again Christians and myself as Catholics, and we read the Gospel of John. So John is one of my favourite gospels. I guess when I do 7 Steps now, that when it's that gospel, the imagery that comes through.

You do use the 7 Steps scripture sharing? 

Yeah. I do that with a group of people about once a week. That has been really a useful way of both having social time, but also sort of a social network, you know, reading the gospel of that Sunday, and then having time to reflect using the 7 step method. 

I haven't used the word encounter so far today, but Phil did when he was speaking about pilgrimage and how meeting a stranger can also be an important way of finding God in your life.

I think it's also a sort of spirituality which leads you to encounter other people. So you're often on your own. You might be on your own for many hours, but then you have some unusual encounter and the time to reflect on it. So it's a bit like breathing in and breathing out. You sort of you have time to look within yourself, but also you have time to look without to the world around you, but also to encounter other people.

And before I begin to draw this episode to a close listeners, I ought also to draw your attention back to the many, many examples of Catholic people giving their time and their skills in the service of others. There's just a couple of the many examples we could revisit here, and I know there'll be many more examples in the conversations yet to come. Here's Andy, and he also mentions the importance of the parish, which we haven't even touched on today. 

But it's always been important to us to be able to connect with the parish. Parish that we're in at the at the moment, the priest is actually, he actually invited us to lead a course. It's called Life in the Spirit seminars, and he invited us to run that in his church. He just made it so welcoming. It was lovely and warm. There was tea and coffee. There was you know, thank God for that. What a lovely way of serving and just involving us in that parish. 

And you might remember Gerry? 

My prayer was action. As I told you at the beginning, I'm a practical Catholic. So service, fixing a generator or a water pump in the middle of the Luanga Valley in Zambia, or helping out during COVID vaccination and helping people get through that period, working with Catholic Peoples Week or the National Justice and Peace Conference.

And then there was Yvonne in New Zealand. 

I oversee a peer support group for people just new to younger onset dementia. So we meet in a cafe in town and have a chat, and then go and do some exploring. Light hearted, but with people who understand what's going on. 

Okay, listeners. I hope there's something from this week's different kind of episode which has spoken to you and brought back into your mind some of the conversations you might have heard already, and maybe inspired you to go back and listen to some of those conversations that you might not yet have heard first time around. I said at the beginning that I've been thinking about how the podcast might nurture the things that bind us together. I hope there's something among people's thoughts that is nurturing for you. I'm conscious that we are now in this Jubilee year, and that while there is something about a jubilee, which is about a reset, we spoke about this in the Three Wise Women episode. There is an element of rebalancing justice around the jubilee. But the theme of the Jubilee year is Pilgrims of Hope. I wanted to finish on a hopeful note, so I'm going back to Yemisi here. I often ask guests about scripture. When Yemisi spoke about the piece of scripture that continues to inspire and encourage her, I found it very interesting, and also I think there's a lot of hope in it. And so I'd like to finish with that today. Thank you for listening. Here's Yemisi. 

Yes. So Matthew chapter 25 verse 29 is a scripture that I really hold very close to my heart. And it says, To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. For me personally, you know, my journey of faith, I think, is anchored to the scripture because I remember starting my journey really trying to decipher what my faith will look like and how it will flourish. I knew that I love God. I knew that I loved young people. I knew that I wanted to make a difference in my parish community. And the scripture rings so true to me because I genuinely feel like the Lord's saying that I've given you this now. So, you know, I've led you here. This is where I want you to be. This is where I've planted you, and I'm gonna bless you. Keep going, and I'm gonna bless you. And I've held on to that. I've held on to that scripture for a long time because I want to know more. My attitude is to do my best to say yes, to let God's will be done really. 

Thanks so much for joining me on All Kinds of Catholic this time. I hope today's conversation has resonated with you. A new episode is released each Wednesday. Follow All Kinds of Catholic on the usual podcast platforms. Rate and review to help others find it. And follow our X, Twitter and Facebook accounts, @KindsofCatholic. You can comment on episodes and be part of the dialogue there. You can also text me if you're listening to the podcast on your phone, although I won't be able to reply to those texts.

Until the next time.