The Light in Every Thing

Dear Listeners, Please enjoy these two episodes reposted from the very earliest months of The Light in Every Thing ! We will be back next week with a new conversation between Jonah and Patrick. ************ Original Post Date:  May, 2020 We hope this first podcast opens up - or deepens - the theme of Christ's Ascension for you.  Dandelion puffs, expansion and Christ's continued world-tra...

The next episode in our series explores Paul’s understanding of faith. We are familiar with the idea of faith as a belief. The faithful can profess, as many Christian creeds do, “We believe in Christ Jesus.” Paul points us to the reality that this type of faith is only a beginning—a doorway that can lead us into a life in faith. Christ Jesus himself is faithful to the Father; His faith can live in...

In this episode, Jonah and Patrick take us back to the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he introduces himself as “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” With that simple line, they take us on a journey—of Saul taking on the name Paul, of becoming an apostle or ‘sent one’ of God, and of discerning the many ‘wills’ at work in the depths of our beings. In the letter,...

Dear Listeners, If you have a moment to listen to the audio clip above, you will hear a special invitation from Patrick and Jonah to participate in the Seminary Open Course, May 5th - 10th. The Easter liturgy tells us that “in the delight of our devoted soul we find the resurrection forces.”  What does it mean to experience Easter—the risen Christ—in our own beings and in our communities today? We...

In our last couple of episodes, Jonah and Patrick focused on Paul’s call to prayer (Ephesians 6:18). Here, they shift to an earlier portion in the heart of the letter to consider Paul’s own prayer for the community. It is a beautiful example of the kind of prayer Paul is calling us to, and can begin to help us unlock the mystery and work of prayer. What is the activity of prayer? How do we form a...

Our conversations focusing on Ephesians 6:10-20 have delved into the deep question and need that lives in every human heart— with everything that comes at us in this life, where can we turn for true protection? How can we face the attacks of this world, stay standing and cultivate a heart that is still open, whole and capable of generative, loving work?   Once again, Christ shows us the way, demon...

In our next episode, Patrick and Jonah begin to explore Paul’s exhortation to pray—“ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit ” Eph 6:18 (KJV). What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? First, we acknowledge our need, then choose where to turn. Having taken up the sword of the Spirit, and aware of the spiritual battle all around us, we offer our prayers to the true source of wh...

Jonah and Patrick walk us through Paul’s call to “put on the whole armor of God” so that we might stand against the schemes of our spiritual adversaries (Ephesians 6:10-20). Having clothed ourselves in the belt of truth, the breastplate of right relationship, the shoes of peace bringing good news, the shield of faith and the helmet of healing salvation, we earned the right to take up the “sword of...

In this episode of our “Letter to the Ephesians” series, Patrick and Jonah help us reimagine what is meant by the word “salvation.” They work to pinpoint the longing of the human heart that is related to the word—the longing for safety and protection from all that afflicts us. But where can true safety and deliverance be found? The strange power of Christianity is to seek this safety in the person...

What is the protection God offers us, as described in Ephesians 6:10-20? The next episode of our “Letter to the Ephesians” series continues with the discussion of the “shield of faith” as protection against the flaming arrows of the adversary. Jonah and Patrick share examples out of their own experience, pointing to a protection that is established when we turn towards him and begin to sense our t...

The next episode of our series “Letter to the Ephesians” focuses on the spiritual protection offered when we put on the “helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17). Jonah and Patrick explore the nature of salvation, the protective aspects of a helmet, and how our thinking can reflect either the thoughts of God or the thoughts of the adversaries. The spiritual battle for control of human thinking wages...

In this episode, Patrick and Jonah lead us into the next aspect of God’s armor (Ephesians 6:16) — “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” What are the characteristics of a faith that can offer us protection against the flaming darts of the adversary? Paul points towards this earlier in his Letter to the Ephesians (Eph...

The next episode of our “Letter to the Ephesians” series takes us a step further in the practice of putting on the armor of God. Jonah and Patrick delve deeply into Ephesians 6:15, “shoe your feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (translation by Patrick Kennedy). Jonah offers the picture that Christ forged these shoes of protection during his Temptation in the Wilderness (Lu...

In the next episode of our ”Letter to the Ephesians” series, Patrick and Jonah continue to help us understand what it means to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20). Through Christ, we are gifted a belt which separates truth from deception; a breastplate of radiant sun energy that puts us in right relationship with reality, with human beings, and with God, while offering protection desp...

In the fourth episode of our ”The Letter to the Ephesians” series, Jonah and Patrick share with us their reflections on the next element of the “armor of God” from Ephesians 6:10-20. What does it mean to put on the breastplate of righteousness? First, they explore some regular-world usages of righteousness, the self-oriented, “self-righteous” kind, when we proudly stand our ground justifying, prot...

We begin the next episode in the ”Letter to the Ephesians” series (Ephesians 6: 10 - 20) with Patrick and Jonah pointing out that the spiritual forces attacking humanity aim their blows at many different aspects of the human experience: our senses, minds, feelings, will, physical bodies, egos, life forces, etc. In this letter, Paul tells us that our hope against these evil forces, which outrank us...

The second episode in our “Letter to the Ephesians” series stays with Ephesians 6: 10-20, but takes a deeper look at Paul’s description of the true enemy of humankind. If we can expand our consciousness to perceive those beings who are truly against us, we will better understand the spiritual weaponry needed to stand against them. And, even more so, we might begin to sense the wisdom and love that...

In this 5th episode, Patrick asks Jonah to tell us how in the world he came to love sacred scripture or "the Bible." He shares how, despite his strong, direct experience of Christ's presence in his life, it was really hard to relate to the Bible, especially the Old Testament. This remains true until he found a key that unlocked the whole thing for him. At first, Jonah reached out fo...

This episode takes us deep into the relationship dynamics of working with the most difficult and confronting passages of the Bible. Patrick shares first how the study of cultural anthropology prepared him to meet the Other with utmost respect and interest. The willingness to transcend our own likes or dislikes, for even a moment, gives rise to the possibility that the Other could reveal something...

The third episode in our series “Sacred Scripture” takes us a step further as Patrick and Jonah continue to offer details of how their relationship with the Bible evolved through their priesthood. Through them, we are given new pictures of the Gospel and granted the freedom to enter into our own personal relationship at a pace that reflects our own experiences of the Spirit. Where has Grace reveal...

This episode continues our series “Sacred Scripture” with Patrick sharing his relationship to the Gospel. This began for him at a young age with biblical pictures presented in the nativity plays and went on into his early twenties as he discovered other sacred texts, which resonated deep in his soul. Taken together with our last episode, we see how Jonah and Patrick’s early experiences shaped thei...

Our new series takes the goal of the podcast — to find the light in every thing — to something that in modern times has grown quite dark for many people: the Bible. In this first episode, Jonah shares his early relationship with the Bible and how it evolved over a number of years. Ultimately, Jonah’s encounter with the being of Christ Jesus acted as a doorway into the living reality of the Gospel....

Dear Faithful Listeners, This week we have a special message from Patrick and Jonah! They have each been called by the leadership to expand their roles as servants of The Christian Community, a movement for religious renewal. It is very illuminating to hear in their own words how these callings come about, how they are being taken up, and how they will continue to come to fulfillment over the next...

In this final episode of our series “Heaven and Hell,” Jonah and Patrick take up the long held perspective that Christian baptism offers a protection for the soul from hell. To be baptized by water in the spirit of John the Baptist is to reorient ourselves so that we can turn towards and recognize Christ Jesus. But what is the baptism by fire that Christ himself brings to earth? What is the baptis...

In this episode, Patrick raises a common concern:  “Are we somehow perpetuating evil by talking about it? Wouldn’t it be preferable to create a spirituality devoid of evil powers, demonic beings and the powers of darkness? Can we transcend hell?” The reality of evil in ourselves and the world around us can be particularly painful to face and bear. Jonah and Patrick work to articulate the unique wa...