The Late to Church Podcast

Wow. What a call to spiritual and emotional awakening! Our GOOD friend Megan Copeland challenges us to reframe our suffering and to see the heart of a God who wants real intimacy with us. One of the founders of the His Beloved of Texas Apostolate, Megan is a Catholic Christian wife, mom, podcaster, speaker, and all-around disciple of Jesus. She walks with Christ with real intention and she invites others to seek Christ in our own journey by embracing and finding meaning, joy, and conversion in every moment. This is a powerful, exciting, and fun episode! Join us!

It's uncomfortable how long we goofed around before really getting to the conversation this week! However, that's not exactly the kind of discomfort we're discussing in this week's episode. All joking aside, this week we're taking a look at the uncomfortable result of Easter. The truth that Jesus died for our sins and rose again to set us free from them demands our growth. More often than not, growth is painful. If you've ever gotten through Lent, celebrated Easter, only to be left thinking, "Now what?", you may be being called to something greater. Greater than the Resurrection? Certainly not. But just maybe greatness beyond your wildest imaginings.

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32Freedom is simultaneously attractive, mysterious, and elusive. These three qualities alone demonstrate freedom's importance in our lives. However, most of us find ourselves living decidedly un-free lives for several reasons. Sin and its consequences keep us from being free, as do the harsh human behaviors of judgment, comparison, and shame. What can Jesus' actions during the last week of His life teach us about freedom? Jesus wasn't free in a worldly sense, so what did He mean when he promised us the freedom that's found in truth? Let's unpack the concept of freedom from Jesus' perspective, and start living in His freedom right now.

Look up... and down... and all around. Signs of God's love and majesty are everywhere - especially in the Church! Today we're talking about how the art and architecture of churches can provide us with landmarks in our relationship with God. These can be especially helpful during Lent when our 40-day journey can sometimes feel very isolating. Join us as we reflect on the realities represented by crucifixes, sacred vessels, and even the tabernacle!

Ashes, dust, doom & gloom... Or not? One of our favorite liturgical seasons is right around the corner! We've talked about Lent and all it entails before, but in today's episode, we peel back the layers even further to reveal a season of... glory? That's right. Lent can and should be GLORIOUS! Repenting, growing, and learning in this season are all ways in which we journey closer to God. So even when all that work might be painful, it's helpful to remember the grace and glory that we find in the God who works and journeys with us. Plus a grandma story and much more!

Sit down with us for a "Porch Conversation" as we continue to peel back the layers on the Beatitudes! This week, we're reflecting on how our willingness to let God clear out some space in our hearts helps us to grow closer to Him and "see His face." It's a pretty radical concept, but one that's meant for us to experience "alone together." Join us for that and more on community, weddings, new iPads, and the perils of aging!

What if we told you that God wants you to be happy? And what if we told you that he set up this life so that true happiness leads us to true holiness (and vice versa)? Pretty radical, right? Well, Jesus was a radical, and he gives us the keys to happiness in the Beatitudes. Today we're taking a look at following God's path and reaping the great feelings and satisfaction that come along with it. Plus, refrigerators, crab tacos, and lots more!

We're back and as ordinary as ever! ...Wait. That can't be right, can it? Jesus loves the ordinary, and the Church spends most of Her liturgical energy celebrating the life of Christ during Ordinary Time. In today's episode, we're talking retreats, big and little Sundays, and God's desire to encounter us right in the middle of the mundane. We're both sick, but if you can get past the raspy voices, this episode just might be for you!

Whoa. Mike Patin, the "Engagin' Cajun" turns our Advent experience on its head this week. Mike reminds us that we're not alone as we wait for the Lord and encourages us to make space in our spiritual lives for Jesus' presence and work. The necessity to let the Lord have some leeway in our lives is fundamental to turning our encounter moments into a sustainable and productive relationship with God. Plus, Nickie tells us all about that time she had an ongoing conversation with God through Prince. Yes. That Prince. Join us for a good one!

Advent, from the Latin for "coming forth" is a time of holy anticipation, holy transformation, and, for many of us, stress over the impending Christmas season! When we look at Sacred Scripture, and particularly the actions of Mary and Joseph, what can we learn about the power of patience? So too the Israelites, who had been waiting on the Messiah for about 4,000 years before Jesus' birth can teach us a bit about preparing and waiting. So whether Advent is your jam or not, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and let's dive into the sometimes agonizing, but always fruitful practice of waiting on God.

Sometimes the call can be overwhelming. Whether we're new to a relationship with God, or if we've been working on it for a while, feelings of isolation, confusion, and frustration are very common as we attempt to grow with the Lord. This week, Dr. John Osman, an expert on evangelization (and your computer!), explains how our communities and our interdependent nature play a vital role in sustaining our relationship with God and enable us to invite others to encounter Him too.

Ever feel like your encounter moments (or maybe the lack thereof) haven't really amounted to a total transformation? You're not alone. Today we have the great pleasure of welcoming Youth Pastor Eric Palmer on the podcast. Eric's story tells us that for most of us being transformed by God is a process that God "teases out" over a lifetime. If you've ever experienced a retreat-high, epiphany, or radical encounter with God (or even if you haven't!), and you're wondering why it didn't "stick" this is the episode for you.

This week, we invite our friend Caroline Wills to share her story of being raised a "cradle-catholic" in small town, Texas. Caroline reminds us that God orders our lives to work in seasons - chunks of formative time - where he sustains and nurtures us in unique ways for our unique situations. This episode is especially hopeful for parents who may be struggling to keep their teen motivated in the faith. Plus, more about TEC and a special invitation for you to join us for TEC 23 in January, 2022

What does the kindness of God look like? How does that kindness compel us to be kind? Better yet, do your struggles, sufferings, and failures inform your kindness? In today's episode, we're talking to Krista Wilbur, one of Nickie's best friends and a sister in Christ with a very interesting perspective on kindness. We're sure that Krista's story will inspire you to choose kindness on a daily basis! You don't want to miss today's episode.

We're still on the road to Mystery as we dive into the powerful lesson found in the story of Martha and Mary. Is Jesus the "one thing" or "better part" that you choose daily? If that's a scary question, have no fear! You're not alone. This can be a tough ask. In today's episode, both Nickie and James share their struggle to keep Jesus in focus and some simple things we can all do to keep Jesus centered in our lives. Plus, we'll take a look at how pride factors into that focus, and what the Gospel offers as a remedy.

Today's episode is one we recorded a few weeks ago and didn't really know what to do with. Turns out, it's a great segue into the next phase of our conversation about Mystery. God is found in Communion, in both the liturgical and social senses. Today we're talking about staying tuned in to our humanity as a way to experience the presence of God. Maybe one day we'll get that coffee sponsor.

I today's episode, we find ourselves lost in discussions about life, cookies made with butter, the power of consistency, and most importantly, the Eucharist. The Eucharist (Greek for Thanksgiving) is a largely misunderstood piece of Catholic life. Even among Catholics. In our conversation, we look at the mystery of the Consecrated Bread and Wine, and try to pull out a few lessons on the mystery of God Himself. Join us!

Late to Church? What does that even mean? On Today's episode, we dig into the intentions behind the name of our little show. From there, it's an easy segue into parenting, letting God's love come first, and what it means to "take up your mat and walk." Plus, Nickie thinks it's really funny that James' grandpa used to call him "Jimmy."

Season 2 is here! Today's episode equal parts recap of summer and observations about life and society. Nickie and James talk about being focused in prayer, letting God take over your life and ministry, and the challenges of a tired and frustrated society. The GOOD NEWS is that God wants to be the remedy for our many ills. When we allow Him to take control, life becomes a beautiful journey of discovery, peace, and encounter with the Lord. Thank you for joining us for Season 2!

It's been 30 episodes! Thank you for listening, Ragamuffins! In this season one finale episode we talk about some beautiful things we've learned in season 1, the ever-important "Encounter" moment, and we look ahead to season 2 coming in Summer of 2021. Encounter is still at the top of our list of the things we need to make us both holy and happy. Come along as we continue to contemplate the many ways that God calls us to be present to Him.

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” - St. Pope John Paul IIEaster is a season of joy, hope, and radical love. Much more than a day on a calendar, Easter is the central reason that the Christian becomes a Christian. Believing in and celebrating Easter means believing in and celebrating that Christ rose from the dead in a complete victory over death. He became our sin, bore our punishment, conquered death, and invites us to reap the rewards of this feat. Yet for many of us, Easter is a solitary event; a single Sunday that looks more and more secular every year. What if we lived as though Easter was the central event and theme of our lives?. Through His resurrection, Jesus redefined death as a doorway to eternal life. He gives us the opportunity to live in the glory of the resurrection every day.

Triduum! The celebration of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection doesn't begin and end on Easter Sunday. The Church has always memorialized and emphasized the beautiful events leading up to Easter morning's empty tomb. So what can we learn from Holy Week - and especially the three days before Easter Sunday - that can help us better understand the Resurrection story and our place in it? What was Jesus's experience in His final hours? How does His experience in this crucial time influence our conversation with God this week? Join us as we take a look at some Holy Week basics and seek to discover our story in the greatest story ever told.

Guilt, perhaps the most misunderstood - along with its close cousin, shame - doesn't have to leave you feeling bad. In fact, guilt in the Christian sense is intended to indicate when we've strayed from God's plan and are in need of God's grace to come back to Him. Yet so many of us struggle with guilt. We allow it to infect and sometimes rule our lives. This skewed relationship makes it nearly impossible to have authentic relationships with anyone or anything else, including ourselves and God. Join us as we look at what a healthy relationship with guilt looks like in the Christian context and discuss what God intends for this often misconstrued emotion.

Authority... or some such. This week's episode is hard to describe, but despite the noise of cookie wrappers, we found ourselves contemplating God's place in our lives and what we can do to more effectively recognize Him as Lord. This episode is about giving God the privilege of being our God and allowing Him to take a place in our lives that accurately reflects who He is. We have to be vulnerable if we're going to allow God to reign in our hearts. Join us as we contemplate this dynamic, and hopefully invest in our relationship with Him more deeply.

Words have power. We learned just how much power when we attempted to unpack the influence and gravity that words hold in our lives. Never dismayed, we're exploring some cultural observations about the effect of words as well as sharing some personal experiences with those effects. In the end, however, our life is all about our understanding and openness to the Word of God, both in Scripture and in the Person of Christ. Join us as we discuss the messages we're willing to receive and transmit, and how we can use the power of words to seek out and glorify God.

How's your spirit doin'?!?!? What about the spirits of those you encounter every day? Like our physical bodies, our spiritual souls need exercise and care in order for us to flourish. The Spiritual Works of Mercy highlight both our need and our ability to connect with God and others in profound ways. This week we're talking about flexing that spiritual muscle and manifesting God's mercy in this world and beyond.

Mercy manifests itself in ACTION and Lent is all about taking action in an effort to grow in your communion with Jesus! You are called to be the vehicle for mercy this Lent and always! Jesus gives us specific instructions on how to physically distribute His mercy to those around us. The Church calls these actions the Corporal Works of Mercy. Join us as we take a look at the ways you may already be showing Christ's mercy to others and explore some new ways to be merciful.

Ash Wednesday and Lent can be challenging times in the life of the Church, and maybe they should be. Although, probably not for the reasons we may think. Lent is intended to be a time of growth and discovery in addition to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This week, we're encouraging you to dig into Lent by dialing back the pressure and dialing up the intentionality. When we work on small changes with big energy, God shows up and amplifies our efforts into incredible results.

So we've learned a bit about who the Saints are important and what the Church believes about how we interact with them. This week we're getting a little bit personal. Nickie shares her love for St. Don Bosco, and James tells us about St. Martin de Porres! The radical encounters we've had with these unique Saints point us to God and reveal His glory in equally unique ways. This episode was a lot of fun! Join us, and make some new friends in Heaven!

We all need a hero - someone to emulate, honor and look up to. We need forerunners who show us the way and inspire and encourage us to be our best selves along the way. The Communion of Saints and Sainthood itself are both widely misunderstood teachings of the Church. In this first of a special 2 episode series, we try to distill some complex and uniquely Catholic beliefs into a simple and hopefully very practical conversation. The Saints are here for you! AND you get to be one if you want! Join us! Let's be Saints together!

As beautiful and as ugly as the human experience can be, it's in the totality of our humanness that God wants to reveal His heart to us. In the depths of our true stories, God calls us, meets us, heals us, and transforms us. This week, James tells His story. If you've ever wondered what it might be like to hit rock bottom, and need God's help to turn your life around, this episode is for you. Thank you for listening. This one is even more personal.

When you think about the future, are you anxious or hopeful about the possibilities? Most of us would probably say both. In today's episode, we're diving into the power of the virtue of hope in our lives. When it's utilized, hope sustains and nurtures us in the midst of extremely difficult struggles, and keeps us grounded in times of great success. Join us as we explore how to take advantage of this great gift.

Our God is a God of "Clean Slates!" He loves new beginnings. The New Year offers us the chance to reorient our lives and maybe even make a few resolutions to improve our lives in new ways. But what should we really expect from our resolutions? How can we know that our resolutions are really helping us grow? Today we're talking about making changes in your life in healthy, Christ-focused ways.

Rejoice! Christmas is here! Join us as we get a little silly talking about JOY! This episode was truly a labor of love! Despite their best efforts, technical issues couldn't steal our joy! Even though it took 3 TRIES to get this episode successfully recorded, the end result is a conversation about experiencing the Joy of Jesus that we're extremely proud of! Choose JOY and Merry Christmas!

Advent is drawing us closer and closer to a radical encounter with Jesus in the manger. Despite the fact that we've celebrated one liturgical version of Christmas or another for at least 1700 years, God intends for Christmas to radically change us every year and throughout our lives. Fr. Will Rooney, a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Austin, reminds us of the tremendous gift found in our vocation and relates that to the ultimate gift of the Christ-child in the manger. So make some room for HIM! It's not too late to prepare your heart for Jesus' coming to rescue you.

All creation is infused with the grace, love, and very PERSON of Christ! Sr. Renee Daigle, MSC, brings her uniquely joy-filled spirituality in an effort to encourage us to seek Jesus in places we might not normally think to look. She reminds us that the myth of comfort often hinders true discipleship, and Advent is the perfect time to get used to God pushing us in extraordinary and unexpected ways. Her impressive resumé of jobs within consecrated life has graced her with incredible wisdom. Plus, she loves nature (especially her new dog, Millie!), and has maybe the coolest accent James has ever heard!

As we continue to move towards Christ during Advent, it's entirely likely we will recognize some areas of our lives that need attention. Vulnerability is a scary thing for all of us, but the payoff is huge. This week Esther Caswell, a funny, and joy-filled former Dominican sister who is now simply "somebody who belongs completely to Jesus," brings her unique spirituality to help galvanize all of us ragamuffins. When we're vulnerable with Christ (and when we allow Him to be vulnerable with us!) the results are undeniable. This Advent season is the perfect time to give Jesus room to work in the most intimate places in our lives.

Ah Advent, that magical time of year where it seems like Christmas is either just out of a hopeful reach, or looming like storms on a dark horizon. However, Advent isn't really just about looking ahead at Christmas. It's actually a time for us to focus on our every-day experiences with Christ. Christ is always Advent-ing into our lives, even when we may not realize it. In this week's episode, Fr. Karl Romkema - a newly-ordained Holy Cross priest, reminds us that it's the small, mediated moments of encounter that provide the bedrock for a deep relationship with Jesus.

You've DIEd and RISEn, so what now? Let's GO! The Paschal Mystery prepares us for and propels us into the mission of discipleship. A relationship with Jesus requires that we make an effort to emulate Him, and share His love with the world. By going out into the world, and leading and loving one another, we enter into the sacred relationship of holiness. Our going forth is an understanding and an acceptance of God's continued love for us, and a covenant in which we agree to live in His grace.

No matter where you are in your life, growth is hard. Jesus intimately understands this concept through His human experience and models the powerful potential of our ability to grow most notably in the resurrection. So what can we expect when God prunes us and then calls us to RISE? In today's episode, the focus is on seeing the opportunities to grow in our lives. Becoming who God created us to be means we have to RISE daily. We can only do this by leaning on a loving God who welcomes our struggle and gives us the abundant grace we need to persevere.

What if we told you that the first of three keys to your happiness isn't the latest self-help book or ultra-immersive retreat experience? What if we told you the first step seems like it should really be the last? Death sets us free. Dying to the things and situations that distract us from God is an everyday practice that is essential to living a life with God. Death requires mindfulness, intention, humility, and trust. Jump in with us as we explore letting go of the things that hold us back and looking forward to Jesus.

Ah, the great Lost Episode 5: Sacraments! It was never really lost, so much as it was put on the shelf for a bit. In today's episode, we revisit Encounter, and explore the need for liturgical (religious) encounters with God that are curated by the Church. If you have a problem connecting in a "religious" way, or often find yourself going through the motions of your faith out of a sense of obligation, this might just be the episode for you!

Are you carrying around some stuff? Like, STUFF STUFF? Recovery from our sin - the STUFF that separates us from God - requires intentional work in order for us to experience the freedom of God's forgiveness. We have to be willing to accept God's forgiveness by reconciling ourselves with Him. In order to do that effectively, we have to be willing to let God be in control. Today we're talking about seeing our struggle through Jesus' eyes, in order to stay connected to our worthiness and to live in the freedom He offers.

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of trying to win someone else's approval? Maybe you're the one who finds yourself doing the approving or disapproving? How about both? Any takers? In today's episode, we're talking about how it's the unique responsibility of each of us to accept one another as we are. After all, that's how God wants to encounter us - right where and how we are. We can't really approach Him or love our neighbor any other way.

"Do not be afraid." We've heard it a million times, and we all know it's so much easier said than done. In this week's episode, despite our higher-than-usual level of silliness, we're being real about the one obstacle we all face: Fear. No matter where you are in life, odds are that fear has played and continues to play a big role in the decisions you make, how you treat others, and especially your relationship with God.

Join us for this special episode as we discuss some things that have burned within us recently. The world is at a crossroads, and lately, life has been tough. That toughness doesn't absolve us from the responsibilities of faithful discipleship. In fact, it calls us to lead in love of God and neighbor, even when our neighbors disagree with us.

You might not know it, but stillness with the Lord is a form of self-care that the Church has been prescribing since early in Jesus' ministry. In fact, throughout Scripture and the history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, God has called us to encounter Him in the "stillness" time and time again. So how do we find stillness in our lives? This week we'll talk about finding still moments and inviting God into them.

We're all looking for that sweet spot between holy and worldly. We all want a comfortable balance of life and liturgy that doesn't make us squirm too much. Therein lies the problem: we're not really made to be comfortable. We're made to be holy. This week we're talking about bringing Jesus home with us.

Welcome to the Late to Church Podcast! Nickie and James are here to welcome you, say "like" a lot, and talk about the beauty of encounter. Encountering Jesus is a radical thing. It changes us and gives our lives purpose beyond our wildest dreams. Join us as we talk bout fostering encounters with God and letting those experiences fuel our lives.