Where do you feel most "at home"? When are you most free to be yourself? Ultimately, our hearts can only fully experience this  through a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. He's the one who settles our insecurities and gives us the sense of belonging which we crave.

If you're feeling a sense of exile, of not feeling seen and known and loved... maybe it's time to discern if that's due to trying to make your home in other places. As Henri Nouwen pointed out, sometimes we know we have a home, we just don't choose to live there.

Let's choose home! Let's decide to live there. Because that's where we belong—and if we're not home with the Father, it's very difficult to find home in the world.

Today's episode continues with Blessed is She’s Advent Devotional, Maranatha.

Also recommended (thanks Fr Angelus): Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944 by Fr Alfred Delp, S.J.

Advent is here! In these days leading to Christmas, we all have the chance to look at the places where we need Jesus to break in and bring light and hope.

In this week’s episode:

We start our 4-week exploration of Blessed is She’s Advent Devotional, Maranatha Recommendation from Fr Angelus: Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944 by Fr Alfred Delp, S.J. Martin Jernberg (instagram: @martin.jernberg), Mike Kearney (instagram: @atmikekearney) Advent and Lent have similarities. Consider this: St Francis fasted before both Easter (during Lent) and Christmas (during Advent). Do you struggle to get “into” Advent? Fr Mark-Mary is publishing a book with Ascension Press, set for release in March 2021. Fr Mark-Mary talks about praying maranatha (“Come, Lord Jesus!) in a particular situation as an example of how we can invite the Lord into our lives. The “recipe” for Jesus to come: embracing our poverty. Jesus doesn’t always come with the remedies we hope for—He comes with himself. The world before the advent of Christ needed a Savior; it was broken, lost, dark. Christ brought healing, purpose and light to the world, and He wants to do the same for our world, now; for our lives. We don’t have to wait for the “big” things to happen before we involve God; He wants to enter into the ordinary, everyday things with us. The Church has set aside holy, consecrated times like Advent as a gift for us. Jesus not only wants to come, but also wants us to ask, even beg, for Him to come. Servant of God Marcel Văn, in prayer, hears Jesus say to him, “It brings joy to me to hear you call my name.” Jesus has a desire to hear us cry out to Him. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel… one of the greatest Advent songs, right? Reflecting on the experience of Megan Hjelmstad (instagram: @positively__imperfect) of longing for children after a hysterectomy, and how so many of us can relate to that suffering of longing. Megan feels the Holy Spirit invite her to pray for Our Lady’s intercession to conceive Christ in her life so that she might bring His light into the world. When we’re consumed by our suffering, we need to let God break in. We need to turn away from ourselves and to the Lord, and let Him work. Fr Innocent talks about struggling with depression in high school and feeling the pressure as a varsity athlete, even while appearing totally fine and happy on the outside.  This depression and experience of anxiety leads to a profound Eucharistic encounter. Healing is made possible through hope. Your Advent season can be real and concrete. What are areas in your life that are barren and burdened and in need of Christ?

Peace on the outside comes from knowing God on the inside.  This week we discuss the Prince of Peace who is Christ crucified.  Through the cross, Jesus has made a way for us to have peace with the Father in this world.

Peace WITH God will bring the peace OF God. Jesus promised peace in our hearts. So, we remain in His presence.  It’s in Him alone that you can find real peace…

In this week's episode we talk about the reality of our heavenly Father. The God of heaven and earth is passionately pursuing you right now. No matter how close you are to him, he is knocking on the door of your heart, asking to come in and meet with you once again. He’s not knocking just to fix you. He’s not knocking just to make you do something for him. He simply wants to meet with you. He simply wants to love you.

This week we discuss the title, "Mighty God" and the way in which God shows his might by making himself small, by forgiving us, by coming to us in the Eucharist.  God is great and omnipotent but he chooses to become small to us so we can respond to Him in love. He made himself fragile to give us his strength. He became vulnerable so we could finally open our hearts in love, without fear.

He is with you. He is for you. And he is enough.

Are we fascinated by God or merely interested?  God wants His creation to be fascinated with Him and His ways. In this week's episode we talk about what it means to put aside our worry and to trust in the Wonderful Counselor.  The truth is this: If we are fascinated with anything in life other than Jesus then we don’t really know Him intimately!  If  we allow ourselves to be captivated with Him and seek Him more, then we will experience a heart consumed by and filled with God!

In this week's episode Fr. Angelus talks about his favorite Icon, Our Lady of Tenderness and how Our Lady teaches us how to surrender everything that keeps us from loving Jesus with all we have. Through her example Our Lady teaches us how to have hope in seemingly hopeless moments, and what it means to really be seen by the Father.  We uncover how Mary desires to mother us in our poverty so that we can go before Christ fully alive.

As the Father sent me, so I send you. In this week’s episode we talk about the real share that we have in Jesus's own mission and the urgent need to bring Jesus to the world. God uses our gifts and talents to touch the people that God brings into our lives. God is not waiting for somebody else. God want to use you. No matter what our vocation in life God calls us to mission.

The Holy Spirit, who worked in and through Christ during his life on earth, now works in and through us. In this week’s episode we discuss how the Holy Spirit wants to move in our lives. Just as the Spirit enabled Christ to bring glory to his Father, so now the Spirit enables us to glorify both the Son and the Father.  The Holy Spirit can help us greatly, but only if we let it.  

We look at Jesus and the Samaritan woman with an emphasis on they way in which Jesus thirsts to love her.  We also mention Mother Teresa's relationship with the thirst of Jesus and how important it is for us to know that God thirsts for our love.  We're wanted and pursued by God.

Our first guest!  Our long time arch nemesis, Michelle Benzinger from the Abiding Together Podcast, joins Fr. Innocent and Fr. Mark-Mary to talk about tangible grace for tangible trials, seeking first the Kingdom of God lest you go about your day spiritually hangry, and praying when there's no time to pray.  Also, we learn about Fr. Innocent's cheap shot on Fr. Mark-Mary and his failed tinkerbell charade. (N.B. by "arch nemesis" we mean dear friend, source of inspiration, mentor, and much loved.)

We take a look at two ways to live: The way of Simon the Pharisee (boring!!, empty, vanilla) and the way of the sinful woman who bathes the feet of Jesus with her tears. Her love is desperate. Her loves makes others uncomfortable. But , her love is real! Her love is beautiful.

Why does she love the way she loves and lives the way she lives? She knows she’s a sinner in need of the savior, and the savior is within reach. Let’s love lavishly people! Let’s live like sinners in need of a savior who know where to find him!

We take a look at the story of Bartimaeus. One major theme is the way in which a blind person feels very vulnerable in the world and has a lot of fear/anxiety because of it. If we go about life without faith, it's like we're walking the streets of NYC blind. Faith gives us absolute security, it allows us to see who we are and that God's with us.

Have you ever noticed how “going for a walk” helps to calm you down when you are stressed?    God wants to walk with us before He works through us. Our daily encounter with Him becomes our training ground for a life that is rooted and grounded in love.  In this week's episode we talk about how to allow God to walk with us in the midst of our mess. God is always trying to draw us closer to him.  He wants your life to be transformed into a joyful relationship with him regardless of the circumstances we live in. Teach us Lord to walk with you!   Invite God to walk with you in those hard places so that we can be fully alive.      

Could God be prompting you to leave the boat -to take a radical break from your routine to get some rest and enjoy silence, so you can hear God’s whispers and hear his nearness again?  In a culture where the world wears busyness as a badge of honor, how can we live in God’s stillness?  This week we explore how Christian rest comes from living from our identity and sharing in Christ's own rest -because he knows the Father.

Sometimes it takes greater faith and courage to admit we’re tired and we need to reassess why we’re doing what we’re doing. God welcomes soul searching. He loves being with us on that intimate journey.