Chris Stefanick Catholic Show

What if Santa Claus wasn’t just a character… but a calling? In this unforgettable episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Eddie Cotter, Jr.—a longtime Catholic youth minister who unexpectedly took on the role of Santa Claus and eventually ended up appearing as Santa at Rockefeller Center in New York City! What starts as a fun conversation turns in...

As we draw close to the mystery of Christmas, we don’t just discover who God is—we discover who we are...and what we're worth. When you look at the face of the Christ child in the manger, you’re not just seeing Emmanuel, God with us. You’re seeing your own value reflected back at you. Your worth is revealed by what God was willing to pay for you. And the price wasn’t silver or gold...It was the pr...

Picture a football stadium full of 80,000 people. Research indicates that you will influence that many people during the course of your lifetime. (even if you don't have your own YouTube channel) But who is in your stadium? And what does it sound like in there? Are people cheering for the ways you positively affected them? Are they booing for all the terrible things you did? Or are they silent bec...

It’s beautiful to want good things and to build a great life in our time on earth. But here’s where it all gets twisted: When the dream stops being about God and the blessings He’s given us, and quietly becomes all about me—my security, my reputation, my legacy. I’ve seen it in family life. I’ve seen it in ministry. I’ve seen it in my own heart. This is where John the Baptist becomes a perfect mod...

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But what if the hardest person for you to love…is you? In this profound new episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with Dr. Peter Malinoski, Catholic psychologist and founder of Souls & Hearts, to unpack one of the most misunderstood teachings of Jesus: the command to love yourself. Because here’s the thing no one tells you: You can’t love...

What can you learn from a preacher who wore a camel's hair cloak while eating locusts and wild honey? Plenty. In this week's Gospel, John the Baptist gives us the perfect playbook for entering into Advent...and for taking our spiritual lives to the next level. His ascetic appearance and way of life might seem crazy to us, but his intensity had the goal of stripping away life's distractions to clar...

Why does marriage hurt—and why is that actually a good thing? In this powerful and incredibly vulnerable episode, I sit down with Dr. Christopher West, the world’s leading communicator of Theology of the Body, for one of the deepest conversations we’ve ever had on this show. Christopher doesn’t just teach TOB…he lives it. And today he opens up about the most intimate parts of his story—the childho...

What story is dominating the headlines of your life? As we enter the Advent season, we are preparing our hearts to receive the ONLY headline that matters: Jesus is our savior. And this headline should change EVERYTHING. In this reflection, I introduce a word most Christians have never heard: kerygma. In the ancient world, a kerygma was a headline delivered by a herald—news that was so big it rewro...

Michael Miley is one of the best rock & roll drummers in the world. In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss secrets to his outlier excellence that can help you in your own life, the wild road to his conversion to Catholicism, and what it's like to witness as a Christian sharing the stage with legendary rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Guns 'n Roses. We cover everything from the state of popul...

In this on-the-road Sunday Reflection, I'm talking about the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (how's that for a title?!) along with Fr. Burke Masters of St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Hinsdale, Illinois, where we held a sold-out REBOOT event a couple weeks ago. Jesus is king. Full stop. And it's not the typical kind of kingship. He doesn't take more when he has everything. He gives more...

As a 10-year-old, Sister Marilyn of the Sisters of Mary watched her father murdered by family friends—then grabbed his gun to take revenge and had her finger on the trigger. Something stopped her in that moment, but the trauma of that experience hardened her heart with thoughts of anger and revenge. She felt like a failure and couldn't trust anyone. In front of the Blessed Sacrament years later, J...

Are you afraid it will get instantly awkward around the water cooler if you mention Jesus or talk about your faith? Yeah, it might. And Jesus told us it would be this way! His message is uncomfortable because he claims divinity. If he is who he said he was, then it has to change everything. We have to change EVERYTHING about the way we are living. And a lot of people don't want to do that. But you...

What if your calling isn’t something you have to chase… but something God already wrote into your soul? In this new episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, Dr. Bob Rice—Franciscan University professor, deacon, and joy-filled Catholic dad—joins me for a deep dive into how to discover your unique charisms, live out your personal vocation, and find meaning in being the one-of-a-kind person God made you...

On the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Jesus reminds us: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking of his Body—and by baptism, you are joined to that Body. That means the Church is a living temple right now: the Church Triumphant (in heaven), the Church Suffering (in purgatory), and the Church Militant (us!). As a member of the Body of...

What happens after we die? If the answer is "nothing," then what are we doing here? The good news is that we ARE headed somewhere. Our Christian hope changes everything—we have our eyes fixed on heaven as a final destination. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote, our entire story can be redeemed by a good ending. Jesus won that victory for us, so death becomes a comma instead of a period. This hope also gra...

Remember when making friends was simple? Somewhere between adulthood, social media, and COVID…we forgot how. In this new episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with Maggie Craig—speaker and author of Friendship Reset—to talk about the loneliness pandemic that is eating away at society and how we can turn the tide in our own lives and relationships. We unpack why we’re more connected than...

We all know it's impossible to avoid suffering. But what if there was a way to respond to the suffering in your own life—from serious tragedies to everyday difficulties—in a way that ultimately led to peace? In this powerful episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with Dave VanVickle, a husband and father who’s walked through some of the deepest suffering imaginable. From raising multiple...

I’m so excited for you to watch this week’s Sunday Reflection that I filmed on a recent pilgrimage to Mexico City while literally climbing up Tepeyac Hill—the place where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531. The story of Juan Diego ties in perfectly to what Jesus tells us in the Gospel: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."...

As we celebrate St. John Paul II's feast day on October 22, it's the perfect opportunity to revisit his life and legacy—especially his efforts to free Poland from communism through a peaceful revolution grounded in the public witness of deep faith. In this episode of the Chris Stefanick Show, I discuss all things St. John Paul II with Drs. Peter and Kasia Drag, professors at the Pontifical Univers...

Are you waiting to find "the one?" The perfect job? Maybe just a general feeling of contentment in your life? God's timing is often (usually!) not our timing. So what can you do? Meet Blessed Sebastian of Aparicio—a man who built roads, made a fortune, and waited decades for his deepest prayer to be answered, but it didn't go quite like he envisioned it. His story is a powerful reminder that what...

He was a practicing satanist. A successful comedian. And totally lost. Then one day, while sitting in the back of a Catholic church, comedian Shayne Smith had a vision of the Virgin Mary that changed his life forever. In this 100th episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, Shayne opens up about his journey from abuse, violence, and satanism…to freedom, faith, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. He shares...

We love to overcomplicate things—especially when we're trying to make a lasting change in our lives. But in reality, the road to healing and holiness is paved with a commitment to small, simple steps. Want a better marriage? A deeper prayer life? Better health? Freedom from a bad habit? Don’t overthink it. What is the simplest step toward your goal? And why aren’t you taking it yet? In this reflec...

Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the Hallow prayer app. This wildly popular platform has grown exponentially over the past few years to help millions of people to pray—not to mention making a life of prayer more attractive and mainstream. It’s a simple idea with profound results: use a smartphone app to guide people into a habit of daily prayer. Through monthly pr...

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.” But you can't have faith unless you know what it IS. And even a great mind like Jordan Peterson seems to be missing something in his definition. Faith can't be reduced to a moralistic view of obeying the rules and it demands that we let go of any skepticism about the existence of God. Our relationship with God is not condition...

The world tells you that dependence is weakness, but it's actually what makes us human. The truth is, you can’t live without being dependent. From the moment we’re born to the moment we die, we’re relying on other people. And that’s OK! In fact, it’s the way God intended. In this episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with Catholic writer Leah Libresco Sargeant, to discuss her new book "T...