Love Means More

Fresh off their talk at the 2022 World Meeting of Families in Rome, Soren & Ever Johnson join to talk about discernment in family life, how it's oriented toward communion, and their ministry with Trinity House Community. Later (23:15) Kara joins to continue our trek through Richard Linklater's "Before trilogy" with its exciting midpoint, Before Sunset. Episode Notes

Before Sunrise came out 27 years ago. Its sequel, Before Sunset, came out 18 years ago. The finale in the trilogy, Before Midnight, came out 9 years ago. Today, Kara Bach joins to kick off our series on the trilogy, starting with Before Sunrise. It follows a couple meeting, falling in love, and asking the big questions about love, God, and the world… all in one day. Episode Notes

Friend of the podcast, Dr. Abigail Favale, returns to talk about her new book, The Genesis of Gender! We visit disparate sources like Plato, Stranger Things, and Simone de Beauvoir, but we promise you one thing: by the end we will arrive at stable definitions of “man” and “woman”. Later (29:40), Kara joins for even more Stranger Things! We wrap up season 4 and conclusively answer whether this is a...

We're heading to Rome! The Tenth World Meeting of Families is happening and we are going to be there. That's great, but... what does that mean? The USCCB's own Julia Dezelski joins us to answer that question and more! Then (18:45), Stranger Things returns! Kara Bach joins to chat about the entire show up through Season 4, volume 1, with spoilers! Is Stranger Things secretly a Catholic show inspire...

Abortion doesn’t have to tear the country apart. It doesn’t have to be the option women turn to in crisis. With the upcoming Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson likely overturning Roe v. Wade, we have to be part of a quantum leap in caring for mothers. We can do it, because Tiffany Farley and Dan Miller of Gabriel Network already have been doing it. They join us for the entire episode to prov...

Concluding our series of episodes on vocations, Fr. Dan Hanley (Associate Director of the USCCB's office for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations) joins us to run the gamut of the various ways God calls us to love. For anyone who might be confused about the scope of vocational options, his insight goes a long way toward making sense of the whole. Then Kara Bach joins (30:20) to celebrate the 40...

What's the best way to love God? The answer can vary a bit from person to person, and impacts who we care for, what we do, where we live, and how we act. You know, minor stuff. Having formed priests for over a decade, Fr. Carter Griffin joins to provide insight on how to respond to God's call. Then (24:35), Kara jumps in to talk about The Children of Men, both the novel and the film based on it. W...

Happy Easter, Christ is Risen! Fr. Timothy Gallagher is back for the second half of our interview, taking us deeper into the world of spiritual discernment. Then, Kara returns (15:55) to finish our chat about The Prince of Egypt. Topics covered include: finding a spiritual director, BattleCrocs, and the Eucharist as the new Passover.  Episode Notes

For decades, Fr. Timothy Gallagher has been spreading the spiritual wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his predecessors- wisdom that can help answer questions like "why am I here?" and "is this desire to follow a certain path from God?". We had a lot to talk about, so naturally we had too much to fit into one episode. Later (16:30), Kara joins to chat about The Prince of Egypt, a sensational and...

Leah Libresco Sargeant is here to help us better understand the spiritual and theological side of being a mother or father. How do kids empty us of our false selves in their radical dependence? How does that dependence reveal our own, even more radical, dependence on God? That, Broadway musical nerddom, and a chat with Kara about the 2019 film Weathering with You to come in today's episode.   Epis...

It's too late to stop us now. We're talking about Bruno. And the rest of Encanto. That follows another topic people don't always enjoy talking about: wedding planning. Catherine Boizelle is here to make the process easier, so that engaged couples can focus on what matters most in the sacrament. Episode Notes

Newlywed life is always challenging and exciting, but in a pandemic it can be more the former than the latter. It doesn’t have to be that way though, as Alessandro DiSanto’s experience shows. The co-founder of Hallow joins to chat about life as a newlywed, continuing our miniseries on marriage. Kara joins (19:50) to talk about the Oscar contender King Richard, starring Will Smith, and what it has...

The marriage crisis in the United States will deepen if we don’t do something to help, and JP DeGance knows how. In honor of National Marriage Week, part 2 of our interview with him dives deeper into concrete ways parishes are helping couples to stay together. Speaking of families in crisis, our second segment (19:45) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the greatest movie ever made: The Godfather....

JP DeGance knows how parishes can help married couples stay together. His organization Communio proved it in Jacksonville, where the divorce rate dropped 28%, largely as a result of their work. As part of our ongoing series leading up to National Marriage Week, JP tells us how to enrich marriages, no matter how stable they are, which in turn strengthens the Church. There was definitely a lot to co...

Marriage prep varies widely from place to place. The marriage catechumenate is changing the way formation works for couples as they prepare to live out their life in Christ together. This responds to a call from Pope Francis, echoing JPII, in reforming sacramental catechesis. Richard Budd from the Diocese of Lansing is here to help explain what that means, how the kerygma plays into it, and how so...

Lucia Luzondo of the Person and Identity Project weighs in on aspects impacting Hispanic/Latino family life. Kara joins to talk about Pixar's film Coco (28:00) which definitely did not make us cry multiple times. Topics covered include: ideological colonization, machismo vs. manhood, abuelita shoe combat, loving family across generations, rethinking "parents just don't understand" narratives.   Ep...

Struggles with body image don’t get a lot of attention in our culture, but Dr. John Acquaviva is here to help with that. He walks us through the ways which JPII’s Theology of the Body catecheses and scripture can resolve those struggles so they don’t stand in the way of loving relationships. Then, Kara rejoins (29:48) for the second half of our coverage of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce.   Episode...

The vaunted birds and the bees talk. April Readlinger of CanaVox offers tips to make it easier to have successful conversations with your son or daughter about sex. Later (29:47), Kara joins for part 1 of our chat about C.S. Lewis’s novel The Great Divorce. Topics covered include: the obliviousness of teenage boys, how the love of neighbor relates to the meaning of all human life, and Sonny Corleo...

Ann Koshute and Kimberly Henkel of Springs in the Desert wrap up our discussion on infertility, then we pit Beauty and the Beast against Shrek (21:10) on the occasion of their 30th and 20th anniversaries respectively. Topics covered include: deep-fried Shrek memes, love and appearances, postmodernism, and surprise weddings. Episode Notes

Kimberly Henkel and Ann Koshute of Springs in the Desert join us to talk about their ministry to those who experience infertility. We had a lot to talk about, so the conversation will pick back up next episode. Later in this episode (21:05) Kara joins to talk about the surprisingly fun and encouraging I’m Your Man, a new German film about a robot husband. Episode Notes

We're back with lots more Lord of the Rings and its significance for fantasy and family! First, the founder of Tea with Tolkien joins us to share her mission of spreading the author's wisdom and world. Then, Kara joins to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film release of Fellowship of the Ring. Topics covered include: the Immaculate Conception, Frodo paying off his student loans, Tom Bombadil'...

Kara and Andrew go on a journey with Sir Gawain to see if he’s up to the Green Knight’s challenge. Honestly, though, traveling with Bilbo or Frodo would be a more enjoyable experience. Topics include: Memento Mori, humanity’s relationship with nature, talking foxes, and random giants. Episode Notes

Our journey through Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love concludes with the book’s author, Dr. Edward Sri! Join us as he gives the inside scoop on the book’s background and where it leads. Topics covered include: doing it for the gram, the scourge of event maybes, Jesus is enough, and the point of virtue is to give us the freedom to love. Episode Notes

We had too much to say about When Harry Met Sally! We’re back with the second part of our chat about this endlessly entertaining, and at least somewhat edifying, look at relationships. Topics include: Gerald Ford, 80’s hair, the disputed nature of “chick flicks”, and the applicable ideas from Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love. Episode Notes

We finish up our two-part interview with Eden Invitation’s Anna Carter BUT we also start another multi-parter with the first of (at least) two episodes on When Harry Met Sally, the classic romcom from 1989. Seriously, we had way too much to say about this movie, even more than we thought going in. Episode Notes