The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

Fr. James Martin, S.J., welcomes Susan Stabile, a spiritual director and retreat leader in the Ignatian tradition onto “The Spiritual Life” podcast. Susan was raised Catholic, but spent twenty years practicing Buddhism (and was ordained a Tibetan Buddhist nun) before returning to Catholicism. She now serves as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the University of St. Thomas, as well as adjunct instructor in Theology at St. Catherine’s University, where she is also Co-Director of a Contemplative Practices initiative. Susan offers retreats, spiritual direction, and adult faith formation programs nationally, and is the author of Growing in Love and Wisdom: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation.

Together, Susan and Fr James discuss:

Her journey through Buddhism and back home to Catholicism

Having a personal relationship with Jesus

Spiritual direction as part of her return to the Church

Timecodes:
0:00 The difference between ‘talking about’ and ‘talking to’ Jesus
08:09 The pivotal experience in Susan’s spiritual life
17:28 What does a personal relationship with Jesus mean?
19:17 Engaging the senses in Ignatian contemplation
22:56 What Bible commentaries can do for our faith
30:50 How do I know this isn’t just in my head?
36:45 What happens in spiritual direction?
42:39 Key qualities in a good spiritual director
45:16 Overcoming spiritual hurdles
54:17 Audience Question: How do I discern whether an experience is coming from God or my ego?

Check out Susan's book:
Growing in Love and Wisdom: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation

Maggi and Fr. Jim’s spiritual reflection article.

Spiritual Directors International website.

Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: ⁠thespirituallife@americamedia.org⁠

Become a subscriber today at ⁠Americamagazine.org/subscribe
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you maintain a friendship with God when life gets hard? What do you do when, in your mid-fifties and at the height of your career, you are diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable brain cancer? That’s the question that confronted Ann Garrido, our guest on, “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.” podcast. Ann is an associate professor of homiletics at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis Missouri, where she also founded the school’s master’s program in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She has written several award-winning books including Redeeming Administration, Redeeming Conflict, and Redeeming Power.

Together, Fr. Jim and Ann discuss:

How to reflect on human suffering and “offer it up” as a prayer

Allowing oneself to be wooed by God daily, even when the future seems uncertain

What we can know about heaven

Timecodes:

0:00 “I am with you, and I am within you”

5:58 Where Ann’s life of teaching, preaching and ministry began

9:30 The hard theological questions born in Africa

15:42 How Ann was diagnosed with a glioblastoma

19:57 Noticing God’s presence and offering up her suffering

28:38 God woos Ann each day through the examen prayer

39:46 What we can know about heaven

51:00 Audience Question: How do we maintain a friendship with Jesus that allows us to remain joyful when life is so hard?

Check out Ann's recent book, Redeeming Power

Maggi and Fr. Jim’s article reflection on “offering up” our suffering

Preach episode featuring Ann Garrido

Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org

Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been over ten years since the award-winning actor Andrew Garfield trained as a Jesuit priest with Fr. James Martin, S.J. Well, more accurately, since he trained to play a Jesuit priest in Martin Scorsese's film Silence. And the fruits of those Ignatian practices of prayer and contemplation have continued to bear out in his life. Garfield joins his long-time spiritual director, Fr. Martin on this episode of “The Spiritual Life” to reflect on:

-The importance of empathy in Garfield’s own spirituality of acting

-The ways God calls us to defend human dignity and fight for justice as portrayed in Garfield’s new movie, ‘The Uprising’

-What lessons from The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius have remained close to Garfield’s heart

-God speaking through our dreams

Timecodes:

0:00 Andrew Garfield

5:20 The spiritual themes of ‘The Uprising’

10:10 Is there a spirituality of acting?

14:30 His mother’s ability to attune to small miracles

18:30 The mystery of faith in ‘Silence’

21:30 Encountering Jesus in the Spiritual Exercises

28:10 How Andrew Garfield reflects on his day with the Jesuit examen

38:05 Does God and our loved ones speak through dreams?

42:20 Audience Question: How do I transform my pain to stop transmitting it to others?

Maggi Van Dorn’s producer’s notes on this episode

Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org

Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.” returns for its third season with what is sure to be a crowd favorite: a conversation with the legendary Catholic musician Matt Maher. A nine-time Grammy Award nominee, Maher has written some of the most widely sung worship songs across many Christian denominations, including “Lord I Need You,” “Your Grace Is Enough,” and his latest, “Gonna Be Alright.” Together with host James Martin, S.J, Matt reflects upon:

The profound conversion experience Matt had in his early 20s that led to his vocation as a praise and worship singer-songwriter.

The evolution of praise and worship music in the last century

The ways that “writing to task” and divine inspiration have shaped Maher’s songwriting

The ministry of being on the road with people and home with family

Timcodes:

0:00 In a didactic age of faith, we need to return to the experience of God

5:10 The conversion experience that led to Matt’s vocation as a Christian musician

12:39 Church music progression: from the St. Louis Jesuits to modern praise and worship

24:35 Writing out of the experience of the Eucharist

26:10 Any great song tells the truth

30:10 The practices that keep Matt spiritually alive

34:13 Discernment and detachment for creatives

38:28 Encountering God in relationships

46:54 Audience Question: I am often moved to tears at mass but don’t understand why?

Maggi Van Dorn’s producer’s notes on this episode

Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org

Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Founder of Homeboy Industries and best-selling spiritual writer, Greg Boyle, S.J., joins James Martin S.J. on the season finale of “The Spiritual Life” podcast. They talk about who inspired Greg to join the Jesuits, where he goes for spiritual direction each morning, bringing a mystical lens to reading the Bible, and how the community at Homeboy, the world’s leading gang intervention rehabilitation program, has made God’s love real to him.

Timecodes: 

0:00 Greg Boyle doesn’t know a bad person

5:20 How Homeboy ministries began 

14:17 How joy, humor and fearlessness attracted Fr. Greg to the Jesuits

20:20 Why you need a mystical filter to know the God of Love

24:45 You want to see Jesus so you can be Jesus to others

35:55 Hate is a symptom of bad health, not a bad person

47:00 Dealing with criticism and praise

50:31 Greg’s morning spiritual practice

54:45 Audience Question: How do we know for sure if God forgives us?

Take our Listener Survey here!

Read Fr. Jim’s spiritual reflection on moral heroes

Fr. Greg Boyle’s books:

Tattoos on the Heart

Barking to the Choir

Cherished Belonging

Forgive Everyone Everything

Do you have a spiritual question for Father Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org

Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices