Profiles of Endurance

If God spoke directly to you, would you follow the guidance you received, no matter what? Dan McHale had a moment of divine clarity when he was 20, but life presented many other worthy opportunities along the way that clouded the message. How did he get back in alignment with God's plans for his life? Listen as this newly ordained, 41-year-old priest shares his story with Fr. Scott.

Bashir Chedrawee thought he was called to be a doctor, but he misunderstood the reason for his interest in health and science.  Only later did he realize that he was not called to treat illness as a doctor, he was called to prevent illness and promote health as the creator and promoter of Simone’s Kitchen, a local restaurant that serves homemade Lebanese food, tailored for today’s American tastes and lifestyles.  Listen as Bashir shares with Fr. Scott the story of how the call he thought he had to be a healer led him not to medicine but to holistic nutrition.

 

Simone’s Kitchen: https://www.ordersimones.com/

Frances Cannon was born to a large Baptist family during the post-war baby boom. Along her life journey she collected nuggets from a number of Christian denominations before she found her home in the Catholic faith. But she didn't stop there. 

 

Listen as this mother of three and grandmother of three describes how she answered a call to become a nun in midlife, and what that journey from the Bible Belt to the convent has yielded in her life.

How do I know that I am being called to do something in particular with my life?  How does God issue a calling and what does it look like to respond?  

Danielle Epting discusses how she knew God wanted her to be a writer and what it takes for her to be faithful in following that calling.  Listen as she joins Fr. Scott (first known to her in 2008 as “Mr. V,” her middle school religion teacher) to discuss the anatomy of a call.

All of us want to treat others in welcoming and inclusive ways, but if we have little experience interacting with people who have disabilities, we may not know how to do that effectively.  You may even have had the experience of trying to connect respectfully with someone who has a disability, and realized that you had done so poorly, but did not know why or how to fix it.

 

Christina Serra is an actor, artist and educator in Ontario, Canada, and is the mother of three children, the oldest of whom, Bruno, has cerebral palsy, which makes him unable to speak and requires him to use a wheelchair.  She offers us her experience and helps guide us toward interacting more effectively with those with disabilities.

Spirituality is something that some of us inherit while others must go on a journey to find. Debbie Kirsch was raised in a loving, nominally Jewish household that she describes as simply “American.” In her youth, Jesus was a fascinating figure, but one as remote as Zeus or Sparticus. In college, experiences with Christians and praise music drew her in... so far, in fact, she joined a Christian household made up of a young family and other singles modeled on First Century Christianity as it is described the Bible in the Book of Acts. 

 

Today Debbie’s Christian faith is half a century in the making. She shares with Fr. Scott how faith helps her through the trials of living with an abundance of physical pain, and, for the past decade, in a wheelchair. 

We may think that a mental health crisis can only happen to someone else, but the Coronavirus Pandemic has given many of us a greater understanding of how fragile our mental health can be.  Just after graduating college and losing a beloved grandmother, Claudia knew her mental health was declining, but nothing could have prepared her for the unexpected reaction she had to a trusted antidepressant medication.  

 

She generously shares with us about her experience with frightening and dangerous panic attacks, the week she spent in a hospital psychiatric ward and her gradual recovery from an overwhelmingly scary experience.

 

Warning: Contains possibly disturbing emotional experiences; listener discretion is advised. 

 

 

What do we do when we are all set to follow what seems to be God’s call for our lives and then another call urgently interrupts it?  That’s what Mathew Jacob (yes, Mathew spelled with one “t”) had to figure out.  As the only son in an Indian family, the expectations for pursing a career and marriage that would bring stability to the family were clear.  When a sudden, strong call to the priesthood interrupted those plans, he was thrown into a challenging dilemma. 

Listen as Mathew shares with Fr. Scott how he discerned the path forward and what helps him endure the long road he’s walking between now and ordination.

Sometimes God uses a spiritual journey to bring us right back to where we started. St. Patrick’s parishioner Ann Marie Costanza will tell you that her years of learning and practicing Buddhist meditation were a springboard for having a deeper love for and experience of her Catholic faith.

Listen as she and Fr. Scott discuss how not a single step of her spiritual journey was in vain and how all of us can benefit from being open to the adventure of seeking authentic experiences of God.

 

Episode Note: Ann Marie mistakenly said that a Mrs. Holsipple was the catechist that introduced her and her classmates to the Jewish Passover Seder, but in fact, it was Patricia Fuerbach, who continues to pray and minister at St. Patrick’s more than 30 years later.

April 14, 2002 was the last day Coxsackie, NY, resident George Knauer was able to see.  On that day he collapsed in his apartment as a serious infection and high fever permanently damaged his optic nerve, plunging him into darkness.  George not only survived his illness, he even returned to his work as a plumber and wrote a book about his experience entitled Suddenly Dark.  

 

George shares with Fr. Scott his perspective on how to live with joy and purpose despite his circumstances and how we can all choose to prevail no matter what.