Raised Catholic

In this week's episode, we're exploring what it means to be hospitable as people of faith.  In this traditional season of gathering, let's consider creative ways that we can welcome, care, and make space for others, even those who are different from us.  Here are some resources which I hope will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own. 1. Book: Making Room: Recovering Hos...

In this season, our minds turn toward giving, and in this episode we'll talk about the what, where, when, how, and why we give as people of faith. Let's be intentional to give well this year in a way that benefits the recipients of our giving as well as ourselves. 1. As promised, "Christmas Morning" from Saturday Night Live, 2020 2. Song: Simple Gifts , Traditional - Yo-Yo Ma 3. Song: Simple Gifts...

This week it's all about Advent. Here are some ways we can look for and abide in light as the shepherds did, to make space for Jesus to grow and to share Him as Mary did, and to give out of what we have just like the wise men did!  Advent is a beautiful season of expectant joy, so let's enter in together! 1. The Advent and Christmas music video we made for our chapel community.  Hope it'...

In this week's episode, we're talking about what it means to have freedom in our faith. Spoiler: it might be different from what you think.  Here are some resources that will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own. 1. Song: O Freedom , by the Golden Gospel Singers 2. Song: Free, by Ginny Owens 3. Song: Known, Seen, Loved by MORIAH 4. Song: Give Me Jesus , by Fernando Ortega 5...

This week we're contemplating our deaths and by doing so, we're clarifying just how it is we want to live.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own. 1. Song: When I Get Home , by Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell 2. Song: House of Gold , by Patty Griffin 3. Song: Laudate Dominum, by Mozart 4. Song: Carry Me Home, by The Sweeplings 5. Song: We Shall A...

In this week's episode we're comparing the life of faith to a race we want to run well and with intention.  I hope these resources will help you to do just that! 1. Song: We Will Rise Again , by David Haas, cover by Chris Brunelle 2. "Hero's Journey" , at My Little Epiphanies, about my first half marathon 3. "Unlikely Holy Ground" , at My Little Epiphanies, about my experience with God runnin...

This week's episode is about messengers of God, the human and angelic variety, and how prophets or messengers are still very much a part of how God works in the world today.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic in a deeper way on your own. 1. Get yourself to a Tatte Bakery location and enjoy their beautiful food and environment.  2. Twenty Bible instances of angels as...

Today we're reaching way back to January of 2021 to episode 4: Is It Okay to Question? We center in on three areas in this episode: 1. Is it okay to question the Church's teachings? 2. Is it okay to question the Church's clergy? 3. Is it okay to question God? This is an important brick in the rebuilding of our faith foundation, so I hope you'll give it a listen! Here are some resources that will h...

Today, we're talking about the transcendentals of beauty, truth and goodness and how these can serve as guideposts toward the lives we want to be living in these chaotic times.  I hope these resources will help you explore this topic further on your own! 1. Video: O My Soul , by Audrey Assad 2. Podcast: Things Above with James Bryan Smith 3. Podcast: Drink With a Friend , with Tsh Oxenreider...

Today we're talking about intercessory or petitionary prayer, some scriptural references to this form of prayer, and the open-handed posture we can take while praying, whether or not we 'get' what we ask for. Here are some resources which I hope will help you explore this topic in a deeper way for yourself. 1. Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) , by Kate Bowler 2. Podcast:...

Today's episode is all about retreats; why we retreat, the many varieties of them, and why this time in history when we so badly want to move forward is actually the perfect time to retreat. Here are some resources I hope will help you explore this topic for yourself. 1. My retreat home: Holy Cross Retreat House in Easton, Massachusetts - information on cursillo programs may be found here. 2. To f...

In today's episode, we're talking about our responsibility and practical ways to pass on our faith to others, even if we're not sure, even if we feel it's incomplete, and even if it's imperfect, because we're all members of the Body of Christ and we are designed to share good things with each other. Here are some resources I hope will help!  Find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites to engage...

In today's episode we're talking about signs, wonders, interpretation, and divine intervention, and answering the question of whether everything really does mean something.  Here are some resources to help you engage this topic in a deeper way.  1. The Eggs and the Farmer, a piece I reference today as narrated by Amanda Whiting on her beautiful podcast, Holy Ordinary .   2. The foll...

In today's episode, we're talking all about water, the many religious and Biblical references, and the ways in which we can engage with water to further our spiritual lives. I hope these resources will help you to engage this topic in a deeper way. 1. Weston Priory , the Vermont monastery I reference in today's episode 2. Remembering God's Gift of Water , an article by Leadership Education at Duke...

Today we're looking at the spiritual implications of the time of transition, when things aren't the same as they were but they're not yet what they will be.  Here are some resources I hope will help as you explore this topic further for yourself. Correction: I misspoke when I said that the woman who broke the jar of perfume to anoint Jesus was Mary Magdalene.  In fact, she is unnamed.&nb...

Hi friends, As I continue my construction on the podcast (listen to last week's episode 'Under Construction' for more details on that), I offer you a repeat of our very first episode (the re-recorded version, of course), Notre Dame.  I hope you'll give it a listen, as it presents the central theme of what we're doing here at Raised Catholic: authentically acknowledging the beauty, history and...

Today's episode is a short update on some work I'm doing on the podcast, plus some lessons I'm learning along the way.  Here are some resources I mention in today's episode. Blessings on your holy rebuilding process today, friend! 1. My 2015 piece on the renovation at St. Patrick's Cathedral and how it was a metaphor for the work God was doing in me: Renovation . 2. My 2014 piece on how the s...

In today's episode, we're talking about holy places and why it's worth the effort to go to one, even if it's rediscovering the holy ground beneath your own two feet.  I hope these resources help as you prayerfully explore this topic on your own! 1. The Way , a movie about the Camino de Santiago made by Martin Sheen 2. Video: Why Pilgrimage , by Tweeting With God 3. Article: One person's exper...

In today's episode, we're considering a few angles on the Church and kids.  (Yes, this is a challenging one.)  Here are some resources, plus links to the articles and studies I quoted in the episode. 1. Study by 538 on millennials and church. 2. Book: From Politics to the Pews , by Michelle Margolis 3. Gallup poll about American church membership falling below 50% for the first time 4. N...

You don't have to be an actively practicing Catholic to see that the much of the church seems divided into 'camps' these days.  In today's episode, we'll talk about that unfortunate reality and offer some ways that we can approach our next chapter of faith even in the chaos of a divided church.  I hope these resources will be helpful as you explore this topic. Find me on instagram or on...

In today's episode we're exploring some practices which may seem a bit 'out of the box' or even a little scary for some cradle Catholics: yoga, meditation, and the enneagram.  I'll talk about my own experience, how these practices have enriched my Catholic Christian faith, and about how we can approach and discern new ideas or practices in our life of faith.  Here are some resources I ho...

Today we're talking all about saints, who they are, some of my favorites, how we can be saints, and about some of the process of the canonization of saints.  I hope this episode helps you to identify and to get to know your Heavenly friends and how they help and inspire us, until the day when we meet them face to face. Here are some resources I hope will help you explore this topic in a deepe...

Today we're leaning a bit toward the philosophical with the question of what faith really is.  Is it a list of teachings or practices?  A way to be a better person or a better-than-other-people person?  We'll get into some metaphors of what faith is and is not, and I hope these resources are helpful as you figure out faith for yourself. 1. My Brother's Keeper : the faithful organiza...

On today's episode we're remembering in gratitude the people who have been light bearers in our lives, the ones who showed us Jesus by their presence, care, words and actions.  As we consider them, may we be inspired to be salt and light in our world as well!  Here are some resources that I hope will help you explore this topic in more depth: 1. Journal Prompt: As I look back on my...

In the wake of this week's overwhelming decision by the USCCB to pursue a document on the Eucharist which may include guidelines for reception by Catholic public officials, our conversation this week is a primer on the Eucharist: what it is, its value and history, and precisely what Jesus had to say about both it and the priesthood as He instituted both on Holy Thursday. I hope these resources are...