The Empowered Catholic Podcast

Empowered Christian. Empowered Catholic. Empowered Person. Yes. Yes. Yes. Empowered is a state of being that addresses the whole person. Because God acts on the whole person. The Spirit leads us and prompts us, as Christians. Yet we have a huge role to play in seeing, hearing, feeling, and responding to these prompts. Grace builds on nature. If you are being prompted to improve your health, you wi...

We are now The Empowered Catholic Podcast. Why? And Why "empowered"? These are big questions! We have increasingly been aware that we are being called on to breathe some bigger themes into the Church and the world. We started seeing patterns and key themes in our work and podcast. We are on a journey of empowerment as persons and as Christians and invite you to join us. Empowerment is just one wor...

Revelations 21 beautifully and dramatically describes a new heaven and a new earth, with the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and God coming to dwell with His people.  "Behold, I am making all things new."  Our ideas of the end-game, the point of it all, the final-final Where All This Is Going matters because it has a big impact on how we live now. You are destined to live in eternity in a...

St. Paul and the writers of the gospels make some cultural assumptions when talking about FAITH and when talking about GRACE. We miss a lot of what they are writing about because modern people are oblivious to these cultural assumptions that were common in the ancient world but are absent from the modern mindset. The patron-client relationship is one of these cultural assumptions. This relationshi...

The Bible makes assumptions about what you know because in the ancient world, there were some things that everyone knew and took for granted. They were so basic, it was hard to explain. That's why Westerners and modern people often misread the Bible. It's because we are importing our own cultural assumptions into our reading. Think about stories you've heard where a traveler dealing with another c...

What are some positive signs that Boundaries are working for you? Did you know that resentment is sometimes a good sign? What about viewing boundaries as a very positive way to help you build relationships with family, friends, and the groups that you belong to? Karen and Curtis wrap up the podcast season on boundaries with some signs or steps that help you see how you are making progress with hea...

"What? You can't do that! Change back, right now!" is an almost inevitable response that you get when you change your boundaries in a relationship. The push-back might be small or large however it's almost always there. We all resist change. It's natural. When someone's changing things up, our default reaction is to resist that change. When you are consciously setting a boundary, you could anticip...

Yikes!  It's time to set a boundary! How do you know what boundary to set? What do you need to avoid when communicating the boundary? What if people don't seem to respect the boundary? Let's get together in this episode and talk through key boundary issues. . . because boundaries are good. They serve you, and they serve the Lord. Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife podcast: 612-208-9150. Em...

When you get right down to it, it can be hard to define a boundary.  What is it, anyway?  What would a good boundary sound like? How do I know if I'm setting a good boundary? Join us for this week's episode as we dig deeper and give some great examples to get you thinking. Remember, you have to do the work to set the boundary. . .but we can help you!   Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife po...

There's quite a few wrong ideas about boundaries, especially when it comes to our desire to be generous as part of our identity as Christians. How can creating healthy boundaries help us serve more and better? Join the discussion.    Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife podcast: 612-208-9150. Email us: TheCatholicMidlife@gmail.com Facebook: The Catholic Midlife Podcast   Instagram:  https://...

You want to be really good at having healthy boundaries. Sometimes they are your bottom-line boundaries that are non-negotiable. Other boundaries you negotiate with other people. Often, however, your boundaries are semi-conscious and don't become an issue until they are crossed. What are the signs that you should reconsider some boundaries? What's a healthy boundary?    Contact Info Text us: The C...

Did you know that you love having and enforcing boundaries? Did you? Well, you do. Think about the last time someone's repeatedly annoying behavior made you blow up. Heh. That was not fun, was a bad look for you, and probably shifted the focus from their poor behavior onto you with the double-lose result that you look bad and their poor behavior continues. If you were expert at making and enforcin...

What could you do with your list of values? Do what? That's a valuable list that will motivate you and others, make decisions easier, help you navigate relationships and keep yourself pointed to the things that you actually want. Karen and Curtis talk about what to do with your values list and give some examples.    Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife podcast: 612-208-9150. Email us: TheCat...

Curtis was working on a breakthrough session and was asked to define his values in the area of work/career. This process made for an interesting discussion. What are your values in the area of work/career? Getting a handle on your values and bringing them up into the conscious level is helpful in many ways, not the least of which is being better able to honor them or to solve situations where you...

Part II: We often let our left hemispheric brain doubt the transcendent. It simply lacks the tools. We continue our discussion of philosopher-neuroscientist -doctor-psychiatrist  Iain McGilchrist and his research on the connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. It turns out, how these hemispheres interact influences culture, religion, human society, work, and pretty much eve...

HI! It's Curtis and Karen and we are super intrigued by philosopher-neuroscientist -doctor-psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist and his research on the connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Sounds abstract, right? Well. . not entirely.  It turns out, how these hemispheres interact influences culture, religion, human society, work, and pretty much everything about how we experie...

Obstacles come in lots of different shapes and sizes. And flavors and colors and… you get the idea. Sometimes they are even stowaways in our minds. Limiting beliefs are like that. These are usually semi-conscious assumptions. Listen to yourself talk! There's some language you use that might point the way to spotting your favorite limiting beliefs. It's one thing to make reasonable and achievable,...

We've been talking about goals this podcast season. Now what comes with every goal? Hmmm. Yes! Obstacles! Hooray for obstacles. These are the change-makers and change-markers for your goals. We are always so surprised when our plans run into an obstacle. Yet that's what happens every time. Let's talk about EMBRACING obstacles. Yep. Embrace the goal, embrace the obstacles.    Contact Info Text us:...

What would you discover by modeling the behavior of people who are very successful in the same way that you want to be successful? You would find many philosophies, approaches, habits, opinions, and ways of being. Yet you would find some things that they all had in common. One key thing is that they all had great mindsets in the areas of life where they were successful. Today's episode offers you...

This week Karen and Curtis discuss how the Four Requirements for Change might apply in real life. We mostly talk about how it applies to physical health because it's full of concrete details that make it easy to see how they work. Please send us your comments, we are always interested to hear your thoughts!    Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife podcast: 612-208-9150. Email us: TheCatholicM...

Do you want to change how you show up in a major area of life like spirituality, family, personal growth, or physical health? Or would it be better to simply keep running life like an obstacle course, jumping, ducking, and more or less weaving around the problems until you get to the end? There are FOUR requirements for any kind or REAL change in your life. The kind of change that takes more than...

Your unconscious mind is always listening to what you have to say and will work to make things turn out the way you say. Do you like achievement? Accomplishing things? Improving? Then using positivity in your language is a big help for you! LISTEN to yourself this week. You might be surprised by what you hear. We discuss the possibilities and some limitations of being positive. Get your rational o...

What have we been talking about? The last several episodes have been about the Disciplines of a master. We discuss why these are important, give examples from our own lives, and do some wrapping-up of the whole discipline topic. You could pick one and spend a week working with it, how cool could that be??  Contact Info Text us: The Catholic Midlife podcast: 612-208-9150. Email us: TheCatholicMidli...

We can be tempted to think of religion as a personal project of seeking holiness. That's our age of individualism breaking everything down to me: my role, my task, my burden, my initiative. In this age of individualism and atomization, we can easily forget the importance of seeking connection with other people, nature, and our own inner lights. Yet being CONNECTED is crucial to being human, to thr...

Confidence energy. When you remove fears that are useless and put some trust into the process (remember that episode?), confidence energy can start to show up. Decide to choose it. It's about the power you have to create the change - you believe that YOU have the power to create the change. It's the CRUCIAL difference. It does not look at the problem, it sees opportunities and solutions. It focuse...