The Poco a Poco Podcast with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

Episode 97 - Confronted by the Eucharist, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 8 of 8) When you have a conversion, you live a Eucharistic life, with a gravitational pull to be with Jesus. There, no matter how you feel, you know you're not alone. It's not just about our desire to go to him, though—he is also drawing us to himself. Allow yourself to be drawn. Order Conversion by Fr Haggerty: ht...

Episode 96 - From Fullness For Fullness, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 7 of 8) When we get to know Jesus, our need for "stuff"—for entertainment, for status—is lessened. Besides… we have to stop pretending that stuff and noise and grasping doesn't have an effect on our lives. Really examine it in your own life; the truth is that prayer only works in silence. Being on your phone all the...

Episode 95 - Loving to the End, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 6 of 8)  The first big "yes"—when we originally orient our lives to Christ—is not the most important. It's the later yesses, of a deeper surrender and trust and giving of our lives, that mean a lot more. At some point, it's not enough to be doing the right things; there must still be a desire for even deeper intimacy with Go...

Episode 94 - Thy Will Be Done, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 5 of 8) This is NOT a How to Discern episode. It's much closer to the foundation. What does the "will of God" even mean? What about "surrendering my life to God"? Discernment isn't a calculation or program or roadmap, it's not a "do this and do that and God's mystery in your life will be revealed." It's wanting to trust in th...

Episode 93 - A New Vision, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 4 of 8) There's a simple test of whether a conversion is authentic: do you treat people differently, particularly the poor? Does your spiritual life get reduced to "me"? Or to an exodus from caring about yourself at all? Your prayer is measured in charity. The quality of your Holy Hour can only be measured by how you love people...

Episode 92 - Optimizing Confession, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 3 of 8) Going to confession regularly can become routine—a checklist—instead of what it can be: an encounter with God. Examine not only your sins, but also the one you've sinned against; the Lord. Because there's a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. You receive forgiveness; you're reconciled with a person...

Episode 91 - Healed By His Wounds, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (Part 2 of 8): Chapter 3 Remembering your sin can be uncomfortable. But it's not about the sin—remembering your sin is remembering God's mercy. It's going back to Jesus's presence at that moment, and to the way he changed it. Remembering that is the start of understanding your conversion more deeply, and to living your conversi...

Episode 90 - The Spark of Conversion, Series on Conversion by Fr Haggerty (1/8): Introduction, Chapter 1 There's a reason that this book is required reading for all CFR postulants. It's intense, and we're ready to get into it in this series. Because it's all about Jesus. And conversion is at the heart of the daily experience of saying "yes" to Jesus.  Conversion isn't something that happens "out t...

Episode 89 - Ending the Year Well Our last episode of the year… a time that often means reflecting on the last year and looking forward to the next one. As you look back on 2021, there are probably loose ends—struggles, situations—that haven't been resolved. It's easy to wish that everything would just make sense, but sometimes it just doesn't. And looking forward to 2022, well: it can be hard to...

Episode 88 - Imaginative Prayer (Advent 2021) Maybe you've heard about the nativity scene plenty, and seen it depicted endlessly. Do you really think you've entered as deeply into that mystery as you can? There's more! The Holy Spirit is never exhausted. It's the same with all of Scripture. This isn't a collection of abstract ideas; these are stories of real people, and these stories can bring us...

Episode 87 - The Resourcefulness of God (Advent 2021) Fourth Week of Advent The Lord doesn't need a perfect moment to do what he does. He can use—and has used—all the secular events and moments in history to bring about his plan. The detours and decisions and even things that feel like inconveniences—he'll work with it all. And it's not that he's just done this once or twice… it seems to be his me...

Episode 86 - Our Father is Faithful (Advent 2021) Third Week of Advent As a people and a Church, we have a common patrimony and inheritance of promises kept. Over time, salvation history involves real people and real stories—God breaks into history.  Think Elizabeth and Zachariah. Simeon. Anna. We are part of this story, living in salvation history. We must remember that God has been faithful to u...

Episode 85 - Give God Time (Advent 2021) Second Week of Advent God doesn't make empty promises. But for many people… there are promises they won't see fulfilled in their lifetimes. In receiving his promises, we also have to receive his timeline. What does it look like to let God take his time? Start with stillness; sit in it; talk to him about it; think about when God has fulfilled his promises in...

Episode 84 - Hope for a Hard Life (Advent 2021) First Week of Advent The lived experience of most people is: life is hard. We're still in this valley of tears. We live it, but might not be relating it in a way that's helpful… we just drag it around. Enter: Advent. A season of hope and of promises fulfilled. Expectant hope, with confidence that the Lord is good and is at work for our good in our li...

Episode 83 - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!, A series on King David: Part 4 of 4 Are we good at repenting? When someone notices our stuff and points it out… are we open to it? To repenting wholeheartedly? Or do we hold onto it? We need help repenting and finding healing, so God constantly sends prophets to speak into the lives of his chosen people. David's a really good example of how to be formed; how to b...

Episode 82 - A Father's Faithfulness, A series on King David: Part 3 of 4 David sinned when he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing; when he had pulled back from God's calling. We have to be careful of comfort and of being distracted, because it leads to a place of being unfaithful. Instead, we have to keep moving forward in God's will, which can regularly take us to less comfortable plac...

Episode 81 - The Good Shepherd: Tender and Fierce, A series on King David: Part 2 of 4 David is tender to his sheep, and also willing to fight for them. And he'll be the same in his future vocation—the way that he was shepherd is the way he will be king. As he fights Goliath, he reveals something to us about the heart of God: God will go to battle against our giants. Though David wasn't skilled or...

Episode 80 - We Are Not Self-Defined, A series on King David: Part 1 of 4 There's always some mystery involved in an anointing. God doesn't select the person we expect; this happens throughout the Old Testament and with the Apostles. There's a mystery of who God calls and how God calls. God still calls really talented people, but not because they're talented. We are not our skills. God sees beyond...

Episode 79 - Believe That God Is Enough "I haven't believed enough that he is enough." That's what Br Angelo says as a guest on this episode, and how true is it for each of us? Even when we experience God's goodness, repeatedly and in big and small ways, it can be a struggle to keep believing that God is enough. He is LORD. He is enough, and we only have to give him permission to work. It sounds s...

Episode 78 - Trust Is Hard for Everyone, Week 4 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/ Trust is hard for everybody. The grace to trust—especially for the long haul—is always given to us by the Lord. There's always human effort in the spiritual life, but it's all gift; all grace.  It can f...

Episode 77 - Trust That Mercy Is Greater, Week 3 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/ There are some sins that we just can't seem to shake—habitual sins that keep us coming back to the confessional over and over (and over) again. But no matter how consistent this sin seems, there's one...

Episode 76 - Trust God With Your Past, Week 2 of a series on A 30-Day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust, by Sr. Faustina Maria Pia, S.V., available here: https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/ Grace is in the present; there is no grace in the past or in the future. The challenge, though, is that we're all professional escape artists. We can get antsy and we don't know how to be present, which m...

Episode 75 - Trust Comes From Relationship, This episode kicks off a four-part series on a new retreat based on the Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life. You can get yourself a copy of the book at https://stpaulcenter.com/trust10/ There are some virtues we can work on and grow in—but trust isn't like that. It's not your own project. You don't work on it directly, because it's the fruit of rela...

Episode 74 - A Holy Hiding For 30 years, Jesus lived quietly in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph; his "hidden" years. Through his normal day-to-day living of going to school and having friends and putting in a hard day's work, Jesus made sacred the hidden space. That hidden space is where most of us live most of our lives—out of the public eye, going about our everyday without much notice by others....

Episode 73 - The Father's Blessing Affirmation feels different when it's public, out loud and in front of everyone—as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son. That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation of the heart of God. The hearts of the sons and da...