Living Fullness

In this episode Padre and Stina answer one of the listener's questions starting with outlining what the gifts of the holy spirit are, and how they differ from charisms. Followed by tackling the question 'Why is it, that the gift of tongues, in Catholic circles, is viewed with an element of disdain?' Shout out to Padre's old teacher - Fr. Luke Joseph    T.B.G Padre - 49th Wedding Anniversary of Mr...

Padre opens up about a question he saw online regarding pastors and their friendships. Padre and Stina open up a conversation about what it means to have a friendship and what it means to have a pastoral relationship and whether they can ever co-exist.  Lay people have a wonderful opportunity to engage their pastor/priest in deeper pastoral relationship, but it's not the lay person's role to dicta...

Each month we interview a guest - and this month Grace Ukich, a friend of Stina's and prayer coordinator for the Virtue Ministry team, joins the podcast.  Grace shares with us a bit about herself, what drew her to medicine, whether she was always a Christian, what brought her closer to Christ and her role within the Virtue Ministry team. Our hosts then dive deep into a conversation on Prayer; How...

In this week's episode of Living Fullness, Padre and Stina, talk about The Virtue Challenge created by Sarah Swafford from Emotional Virtue Ministries also found in her Book, Emotional Virtue - a guide to drama free relationships.  Virtue is governed by Love, For Love, and orders our thoughts, desires, and behaviours towards that which is true, good, and beautiful - towards love. It ultimately fre...

How far is too far? is a question, as a Priest, many couples ask Padre. In this episode our hosts suggest that question comes from a problematic place and instead ask a question like 'what does affection in a healthy, God oriented relationship look like?'.  Modern civilisation seems to equate intimacy with the breaking of boundaries as opposed to setting and respecting of them. When in reality, in...

In this episode Padre and Stina talk about Spiritual Direction, Mentorship and Counsel and help the listener determine if they should seek someone, and what to look for, as well as what to do if someone asks you to be their Spiritual Mentor.  A Spiritual Director and Mentor should not be someone who interprets the Voice of God in your life, but instead be someone who helps you hear the voice of Go...

In this week's episode of Living Fullness, our hosts sit down with the current Bishop of Wagga Wagga, Bishop Mark Edwards OMI, to get to know him a bit better and about his faith journey. Here are some of the questions that were covered What does a day in the life of a Bishop look like? How does a bishop do to unwind? What was your upbringing and your faith journey? - Shout out to Mazenod College...

Our hosts explore the 4 temperaments in this week's episode of Living Fullness; Sanguine - Life of the Party Choleric - Natural born leaders Melancholic - Detail focused Phlegmatic - Peacekeepers  The conversation unpacks their natural strengths, tendencies of weakness, spiritual suggestions and a couple of well known examples of people with these temperaments.  Learning to identify our friend's t...

In this episode of Living Fullness, our hosts take a closer look at Self-Knowledge, what it is, and how it serves various relationships including that of friendships, romantic relationships, family and even co-workers. How can we grow in self knowledge and what is it's true purpose?   T.B.G Stina - Baptism reflection on the Presentation in the Temple Padre - Study on Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul...

This episode of Living Fullness is a little unusual as Padre sits down with Stina to talk about the elephant in the room, the undefined turbulence she has mentioned on several occasions before.  After 20years of being in Australia, Stina is facing deportation due to a clerical error not of her own doing, and the outcome of the situation is entirely out of her control. Listen to the episode to find...

On this week's episode, we welcome a young country doctor in the making, who is also one of the writers at Virtue Ministry, Elise Drum.  Padre and Stina talk to Elise about what it was like to move from a country town into the big city, adjusting to a new life style and to making new friends. AND THEN to readjusting back to a country town life when the people around her have essentially moved on i...

In this week's episode, Padre and Stina tackle forgiveness - free act of releasing someone from the debt they have incurred by sinning against us, and by no longer defining them by the act of the sin against us.  If someone has hurt us, it's because we trusted they would not harm us or would not break our boundaries. We need to accept then that trust has been broken. We also need to pay attention...

Following on from love language, Padre and Stina have a closer look at apologies and Apology Language by Gary Chapman. Apologies opens up and makes the path to forgiveness easier. Apologies can be healing an have health benefits. They also recognise there is a rule or and expectation in place that has been broken and should have been upheld. There is also an ongoing conversation in our culture abo...

Note: There were was a phantom mic problem with Stina's mic, for the first 7min. Do not turn the volume too high as it returns to normal at 7min 43sec.  In this episode, our hosts interview one of Padre's friends in Ministry, a brother priest, Fr. Reece Beltrame from the Wagga Wagga Diocese. Fr. Beltrame walk us through some of his testimony, and what his relationship with Jesus looks like at the...

In this week's episode, Padre and Stina talk about their favourite parts of Easter and when the real meaning of Easter sunk in. Some of the questions our hosts cover include:  1. How do you celebrate Easter over all? 2. What are you Holy week Highlights?  (from Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday) 3. What is Easter actually about as the high point of the Christian calendar?...

In this episode Padre and Stina talk about Lenten observances and practices that enriches their preparation for Easter.  Lent comes from spring time and is a period of training and preparation. Common practices include prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Fasting is really powerful and helps us become master of our bodies as we learn there is a hierarchy of goods. Saying no to legitimate pleasures, pre...

Part 3 of the conversation where Padre and Stina tie up the loose ends, including some common arguments that are often presented for why men and women cannot be JUST friends, and their response to this.  Padre outlines that men and women are made for communion/togetherness, but to pretend this is impossible outside of romantic relationship is limiting. There is a unique level of communion in marri...

The conversation continues about whether or not men and women can be JUST friends. In this episode, Padre and Stina, have a look at a few different Christian examples, including Scripture and saints.  These include: Paul and Phoebe in Romans 16; 1 Timothy 5:1-2 'Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sis...

Here at last is the episode most people have been waiting for, can men and women be JUST friends? Padre and Stina tackle this question head on but there is so much to cover it will be split into 3 episodes. They talk about some of the thoughts presented to us by the world around us, our entertainment industry, as well as some Christian perspectives, that strangely enough agrees with what the world...

In this episode the tables have turned, with Padre asking Stina and her friend Caitlin a series of questions on female friendships.  Caitlin is a former teacher and a current public servant in Victoria. She is passionate about religious education and is a Campion College graduate. Caitlin is currently completing her qualifications as a nutritionist and is part of a project called My Daily Rosary,...

In this episode, Stina combined the questions of her women tribe and light heartedly interrogates Padre and his friend, Christopher Gilroy, about male friendships.  Christopher is married to his wife Monika, and together they have a young Son, Jeremiah. Christopher is currently working with the Catholic Schools Youth Ministry Australia, in Canberra and a student of Bachelor of Theology.   Some of...

In this episode of Living Fullness, the hosts tackle ‘friends with benefits’ and the spectrum of thought that people have about this form of relationship. Our climate says it’s no big deal, so why are you making it into a deal? There’s a spectrum. Here it is: Some say Sex is important, has meaning and is intimate, meant for only ‘the special someone’ or ‘special someone’s where the relationship is...

In this episode, Padre and Stina, talk about the dreaded friendzone. What is it? – It's a place where men and women dread going, where we feel trapped with unreciprocated feelings of attraction. A place where we feel disposed of something good, something that should be ours, that we can’t have. Unrequited love - A love or attraction which is not reciprocated This friendzone space can feel like a d...

In this episode our hosts cover Love and Use.  What is love? The goal is willing the good of the other, yet there can be various expressions of love. Padre speaks about 4 types of Love the Greeks use ‘Filius, Storge, Eros and Agape’ and the differences between then. Then they ask the question, Why is the opposite of love note hate, but use? AND What is at the core of Use?  Our hosts suggest that i...

Last week's episode looked at romance from friendship and what to do about it. In this episode, the hosts pull apart the need for and the process of having a DTR - Defining the Relationship Conversation, especially when romantic attraction has formed in one or both people in a relationship. Its not a complicated and daunting concept. Its quite simply 'A Conversation', about addressing what is alre...