Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

This past summer our family lost a beloved uncle, brother-in-law, and husband.  Alicia's uncle passed into eternity at home with his wife, and Alicia and her sister Maria were privileged to be present for his death.  Death is a profound experience and one that we should all think about more.  Many of us are afraid to confront the thought of death though it is (obviously!) a part of everyone's life...

In this podcast we continue to answer some very important listener questions about family life.  Many listeners have spouses who don't share their faith life and forging unity when that is the case can be tricky.  We came up with some creative ideas on how to love your spouse more!  Other questions included disciplining pre-teens and teens and as well as forming their hearts.  Our Discipline Guide...

Listeners send us questions all the time and we try to answer them as best we can via email.  Some of these questions are really great because they bring up subjects that many people struggle with. In this podcast we tackle some questions about in-laws, and we answer from the perspective of a married couple but also from being a mother and father-in-law ourselves!  We also give our advice on navig...

Rituals are an essential part of creating connections with other people, whether that is our spouse, our children, our extended family, our local community, and even our nation.   Rituals connect how we act with what we believe - communicate values can be contrasted with "routines" that create order and address merely physical needs. Both are important but on different levels.  When routines are d...

Looking at the turmoil we are experiencing within our culture, we are becoming more and more convinced that we, Catholic families, have the answer that people are looking for.  People are searching for purpose, belonging and identity. How do we "share" our family with the world? Well, first we need to make sure we have our own house in order.  Examine your family culture, shore up the weak areas,...

Many of us are looking at the events of these days with despair, sadness, and even anger.  It is hard to witness division and hatred in our world and to see the suffering of those who are caught in its crossfire.  We want to respond but many of us don't know how to.  This is such a huge problem with far-reaching consequences and deeply rooted origins.  Parents, do not allow the devil to use that w...

The Play and Pray Challenge is a way for us to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ into every home in a fun, interactive way.  We have learned that if you are going to PRAY with your family, you need to PLAY with them!  This June from the 12th to the 21st, we are challenging families to do three things: Organize and execute an amazing FAMILY DAY, plan and go on a DATE NIGHT, and proclaim Jesus Chri...

Trust is the foundation of any healthy relationship.  When we trust our spouse we can stand before them, just as we are, knowing that we will be accepted.  Full knowledge with full acceptance.  That's the goal, but the road to building trust is not easy for most of us, because we are sinful people dealing with our own shame.  As we work on our relationship with our spouse and with the Lord, we are...

  One "yes" is protected by a thousand "no"s.  If we want our children to have the ability to say "yes", to be responsible, free and, ultimately, loving people, parents need to believe in the power of NO.  When a parent says "no" and defines a boundary for a child, they are helping that child to shape who they are.  Boundaries enable children to "construct" themselves.  This is hard work for paren...

The Church has always made it clear that parents are the primary educators of their children and chiefly responsible for their family's spiritual formation. So what is our advice to you?  First, don't worry if your kid fails this quarter in school and, second, turn off streaming mass and start leading your family in prayer. Be empowered to lead your family and focus on what YOU think is important...

Does this sound like you?  We won't lie - all of the sudden being forced to be with all of our children 24/7 is not easy. We are struggling just like everyone else!  But instead of asking God "why?" we need to ask "what?". What do you want to teach us, Lord? What do you want us to do? What do you want to show us?  We have said many times that parents are the first teachers of their children and le...

Men and women approach sex from two very different standpoints.  This can create tension in your marriage. Nevertheless, sex is a topic that married couples need to talk about.  In this podcast you can expect honesty, humor, and above all some great insight to help you have a more satisfying, fulfilling sex life with your spouse. Listen in and discover how you can be more open with your spouse, be...

This Lent and Easter why not walk on the path of holiness that God has laid out for you already?  We are proposing that couples intentionally embrace their calling as parents and spouses. Since we are called to love and sacrifice first within their own homes, we designed a simple program called Cana90 to challenge families to become more of who God is calling them to be – communities of life and l...

Each of us has a story and we are part of a story.  We are part of the story of the human race, of the Church, of our country, and most importantly, you are part of the story of your own family.  In our modern world we tend to forget this! We also need to be aware that when we engage with our story in a healthy way and then we share that story with our children, we empower them.  When parents are...

Our culture all around us is throwing tough issues into our lives and the lives of our children all the time.  We are dealing today with topics that our most of our grandparents never had to confront, let alone explain to a child.  To guide our children in the way of truth, we must first understand the truth ourselves. Then, before we communicate, we need to recognize that children have specific s...

For some couples, praying together is very natural but for others, it feels awkward or forced.  (You'll have to listen in to hear our experience!). The reality is that there are many different ways to pray with our spouse and every couple is unique!  In this podcast, we discuss how you can engage in speaking to your Heavenly Father as a couple, bound together with Him in a covenant of love. Each t...

We started this topic in our last podcast MFP122, but there was so much to cover we had to continue the discussion! In this podcast, we discuss the different ways boys and girls deal with aggression and why parents need to teach self-control differently to their sons and daughters. Navigating friendships is another way in which parents need to understand gender differences. Don't have the same exp...

In a culture that is proclaiming gender as "fluid" and is encouraging "gender-neutral" parenting, we proudly stand and say boys and girls are defined and different.  Wonderfully different. And did you know those physical variations extend beyond simply the obvious? Boys and girls have distinct wiring in the brain, eye structure, and hearing acuity.  Boys overestimate their abilities, and girls und...

The power of a name, the importance of memory, the responsibility to heal the world, the reality that God dwells with us - all of these are lessons that we as Catholics can learn from the Jewish people. At the end of October 2019, we had the privilege of being guests of the Foundation Stone Institute who hosted us for a trip to Israel and the holy sites there.  We had a powerful experience visitin...

Every parent wants their children to be happy, but it seems children today are more unhappy than ever before! Part of the problem stems from the expectations and pressure on our kids and part of the problem is that most of us don't recognize the path to happiness ourselves. Dennis Prager states, "Happiness is a moral obligation."  We all need to realize that happiness is a choice, not something th...

There are few bigger changes in life than going from having no children to having children. After that the next biggest life change is every child that comes after!  Moms and dads who have newborns need the support of family and friends in a particular way as they make these transitions. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, and even brothers can all listen to this podcast to learn about how they...

We believe there is a conspiracy afoot in the world against marriage and family life, but it is not a conspiracy of earthly powers; it is a spiritual one.  Parents, by raising a family you have entered into this battle, so you need to keep your eyes open and take spiritual authority within your home and within your own life. In this podcast we discuss things like how the Evil One tries to deceive...

There are different types of love, but the love that is exclusive, belonging to husbands and wives is eros, a passionate, romantic love which is an essential part of any marriage. As parents we are concerned with so many things - keeping our families financially afloat, the many needs of the children, feeding and clothing everyone - it is easy to neglect to fan the flame of romance between you and...

St. Francis would tell his followers "Let us begin again for until now we have done nothing."  This is a great inspiration for us because sometimes we feel like we are always beginning again with new habits, plans, and goals for our family.  We are the most consistently inconsistent parents out there! But we have become less stressed out about our inconsistency because we see that it is an opportu...

Our society not only devalues mothers, but also underestimates their importance in the life of a newborn child.  Some biologists believe that humans are born too soon because so much formation happens in the first years of life outside the womb.  The essential element in this formation is the mother. No matter how much time a mother spends with her child vs. being in the workplace, the quality of...