Mountains Made Low

Coffee (and Tea) Talk - Candid Conversations on Living as Disciples of Jesus

For this episode, Christine and Dennis have candid conversations about a variety of questions pertaining to living a life of discipleship.  We discuss some misperceptions about Catholicism, share how and when we feel closest to God, what we struggle with the most in our relationship with God, our favorite Biblical figures, and even the pros and cons of cry rooms at church and Gregorian Chant vs. Christian Rock.  We hope listeners will benefit from some of the insights and sharing from our candid exchange with each other, and find something helpful in their own walk of discipleship.  The spirituality quiz Dennis references may be found online at https://vocationnetwork.org/en/articles/show/63-find-your-spirituality-type.  The quiz looks at four different paths, but there are many other paths of spirituality that are not a part of this quiz like Benedictine, Carmelite, Dominican, Redemptorist, and Servite to name a few.  

Marian Devotion - What's Not to Love?

As we enjoy the beauty of the month of May, a month traditionally devoted to honor Mary, Christine and Dennis delve into how we, as Catholics, truly honor Mary.  We explore the meaning behind some of the doctrines and beliefs about Mary, and delve into four unique but relatively unfamiliar titles of Mary using meditations based on the writings of St. John Henry Newman.  Listeners will not only come to see the beauty and importance of Mary and her role in the life of Christ, the life of the Church, and in our life as disciples, but also how these four unique titles can inspire us to model our lives after her in our attempt to live as intentional disciples of Christ Jesus.  When it comes to Mary, the model of perfect holiness, of what's not to love?

The Problem of Evil & Suffering

Suffering is real.  Evil is real.  Yet, how do we reconcile the existence of both with a God whose very nature is Love?  How can an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-benevolent God allow suffering and evil to exist? These age-old questions are challenging because the existence of evil and suffering is used to disprove the existence of God or at the very least it is used to show that God isn't who he claims to be.  Join Dennis and Christine as they delve into the nature of God and his relationship to evil and suffering.  We hope to lead listeners to experience a paradigm shift in how they perceive suffering and evil in their lives that will enable them to see where God is in the midst of it all, and to live in the assured hope that he is doing something about it.

What Is the Bible and Why Does It Matter?

The Bible is many things to many people, and how we understand the Bible impacts everything we claim to be true in our faith and in revelation.  It even influences our relationship with God!  So, ensuring that we have a solid understanding of what the Bible is and is not, and of how we can be certain that what it contains is true and accurate is of paramount importance to living out authentic discipleship.  In this episode, Christine and Dennis discuss the nature of Sacred Scripture, what makes it Holy, and how we can claim that it is the Living Word of God.  We also delve into the doctrines of Divine Inspiration and the Inerrancy of Scripture in order to help listeners understand what these doctrines actually claim, how they work, and how they enable us to experience a more profound encounter with God.  Listeners will not only come to understand these concepts more fully, but also see more clearly the truth, beauty, and power of Sacred Scripture, especially as it pertains to their own lives. 

The Exodus and The Resurrection

The Resurrection event is the culmination of God's story of salvation, but this wasn't the first time God saved his people.  The Exodus event and the Passover have deep ties to the Eucharist and the Resurrection, and they prefigure God's saving action through the Cross, but what does this have to do with us today?  In this episode we talk about the name of God revealed in Exodus and what it says about him.  We'll examine the saving action of God in the not only in Exodus Event and the Cross, but also in our everyday lives, and we'll discuss the importance of understanding what a memorial is and its implications for us when we gather for the new Passover - the Eucharist.  Listeners will hopefully come to a deeper understanding of how the God who is the Great I AM is very much acting in our lives today, just as he was during the time of the Exodus and early Church following the Resurrection, and how God continues to save us through Christ Jesus in the Church, especially in the Eucharist, which is our new Passover. 

The Resurrection of Jesus...Our Eternal Hope!

In our last episode we had a little fun discrediting some of the alternative theories that try to explain away the resurrection of Jesus as a lie, legend, or hoax.  Now, we delve into the truth of the Resurrection and its implications for how we are to live as disciples of Christ Jesus!  The Resurrection allows us to live in hope, but what do we mean by hope? What exactly is the "resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come" that we profess to believe when we proclaim the Nicene Creed?  How does belief in the Resurrection of Jesus and our own body impact how we treat and regard the body in death?  Listeners will come to understand the answers to these questions, the difference between our secular usage of hope vs. the Theological Virtue of Hope, and how this virtue of Hope impacts our worldview of this life and life after death.  Join us as we break open the eternal Hope of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Was the Resurrection a Hoax?

Jesus rose from the dead!  The tomb is empty!  Alleluia!  This is the central claim of Christianity and without it Christianity is a lie.  Yet, rumors that Jesus never resurrected from the dead have abounded for millennia, and they have intensified during our time where secularism tries to explain away the miraculous and relativism reduces faith to an ethical choice.  In this episode, Christine and Dennis have a little fun debunking many of the popular theories used to claim that the resurrection of Jesus was nothing more than a hoax, a myth, or a legend.   We try to help our listeners see the truth of the Gospel accounts as we set the stage to explore why the resurrection is central to our faith and its implications for us as Christ’s disciples. 

Expand Your Prayer Life

Having defined what prayer is, the obstacles we face when trying to pray, and offering practical suggestions for overcoming those obstacles in our previous episode, we now delve into how to pray.  Have you got something you wanna say to God but aren't sure how to say it?  Is it really possible to “pray without ceasing” as Paul urges?  What are different ways to pray and what are the benefits of praying with others? These are some of the questions we dive into in this episode.  Listeners should come away feeling encouraged to deepen their prayer life, eager to try a few new forms of prayer, and feel better equipped to experience the love of God in prayer while also feeling confident in expressing their love for him.  We're all in the same boat when it comes to prayer and it's great to know we're not alone.