Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 4)

What does it mean to be made for freedom?

We are all called to live in freedom as sons and daughters of God. The reality is we are seen, loved, and chosen by God the Father and there's freedom when we experience that.

In this episode, we're going through the mechanics of freedom and learn more about how the experience of home and trust can help us understand that a little bit deeper.

Here's the link to the graph that we referenced in the video: https://bit.ly/pocofreedomgraph

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You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 3)

Can you imagine how you would gaze upon your newborn baby for the first time?

This is the way the Father loves everyone. He's constantly looking at us and is constantly delighting in us.

The Father always looks at us with the same delight, love, and rejoicing as a father looks at his newborn for the first time. This is how our Heavenly Father looks at us, delights in us, rejoices in us and contemplates us right now. 

When we feel things that we feel far away, or we think we feel that there's such darkness or separation or walls, it's an illusion, it's not true. We are always gazed upon with love and intimacy.

In this episode, we're discussing the intimacy the Father wants to invite us into. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 2)

Do you know how much your heavenly Father delights in you?

The part of the heart of the Father is to care for his children in whatever shape or form that would take. It might feel a lot or even tiresome but because of the uncalculated love of the father, the time when he gets to take care of and be with his children in this special way can be the best part of the father's day.

In his children's poverty, in this exchange, and despite the challenges, there are still many things about them that allow the father's heart to well up with delight. The inabilities and imperfections that we have, delight the Father because they are occasions of intimacy and closeness to Him.

This is the purity of the delight we're talking about in today's episode. This is a reminder that God delights in all of us even more than an earthly father delights in his earthly children. The heavenly Father is not burdened by you, but He profoundly delights. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on "The Father" by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR (Part 1)

How are you affected by the wounds you had from your earthly father?

The life of St. Francis is a good example of how the wounds we have from our earthly father can be an access point to the heart of God. His wounds led him to embrace the heart of the Father through Jesus Christ. 

It is a good reminder for all of us that Jesus is the way to the fatherhood of God, He is the interesession between the Father and our wounds and He wants us to know the presence of the Father, save us, and heal us from those wounds.

This episode is an invitation to hope that we can all experience the goodness of the fatherhood of God.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 7)

This holy week, how do you intend to receive Jesus' total gift for you?

The fast during Lent is not to show Jesus how tough we are, it's to show him how poor we are. It's to be in the space of utter poverty and to trust that receptivity, that He will come.

And what we are celebrating in this holy Triduum, this Holy Week, is Christ, giving himself to us as the bridegroom and espousing himself to us, His bride. We are celebrating Jesus' love and total gift of self that is given to each of us in his passion.

This episode is all about receptivity. As we go through this last week of Lent, we continue to dive into how Jesus is the bridegroom to us and talk about being open to receiving Jesus' love and His total gift.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

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You can get your copy of The Father (by Fr Mark-Mary Ames, CFR) at  https://ascensionpress.com/thefather

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 5)

Does it have to end in just being able to receive God's unconditional love?

Like Lazarus, the guy beat up on the side of the road. We who have been loved in such messiness are also invited to go into the mess, and love. This is a sign that God is alive in us.

We now have the dignity of His beloved sons and daughters, of not just being the recipients of His unconditional love, but now being able to love, not only from our own strength but in response to God being alive in us.

In this episode, we'll talk about the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and its relation to the other parables discussed in the previous episodes.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

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Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 6)

Our expectations and what God is doing can be totally different, so how should we respond to that?

In the raising of Lazarus, the response of the Pharisees was to have Jesus killed. This was the tragic response of the heart when they were not open and unable to receive the mysterious and unconditional love of God.

We can sometimes share the same humanity as the Pharisees too. We sometimes prefer to have Jesus out of our lives completely because of the changes, experiences, and difficult things that are happening in our lives that weren't what we expected them to be.

We want it to be a certain way but then it's not that way.

But despite all that, we are invited to stay in relationship with Jesus through any difficulty, change, or experience. In this episode we're gonna do a recap on the raising of Lazarus and dive into its mysterious reality and our response to that.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 4)

If you were the prodigal son would you receive the Father's unconditional love?

The conversion that the Father wants us to have is to move on from a conditional, perfectionistic way of experiencing God to a place of just being unconditionally loved by Him.

But we can sometimes hold onto shame for security, what is asked of us is to leave behind that shame—let the shame and self-contempt crumble.

We don't need to "pay rent" to be loved by the heavenly Father. Our sonship/daughterhip is not to be paid but is freely given to us. The invitation for all of us is to remain in the forgiveness and mercy of the Father. Let the relationship we have with Him restore and heal us from the place of shame and insecurity that we put ourselves into.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 3)

Are you familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan?

When we're beat up, when we're in this place of difficulty and shame, He's there, at the side of the road looking at us, desiring to pick us up and saying, "Come with me.". That's Jesus for all of us.

The invitation of this episode is to allow the Lord to get close into our deepest places of darkness and shame so he can help us and love us there. Jesus actually comes into our messiness and He loves us unconditionally.

This Lent, let Jesus unconditionally love you, and let the healing begin.

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 2)

How does a bridegroom love his bride?

That is how Jesus loves each one of us. He meets us wherever we are in our life to be our beloved and for us to be His. The Lord meets us in the desert-our place of poverty where He betroths us to Him and He betroths Himself to us.

In this way, Jesus as the bridegroom reveals to us a quality of love, the way that God loves.

In this episode, our aim is for us to better understand what it means to have Jesus as the bridegroom and the desert as the place of betrothal. 

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!

Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 1)

What does Jesus desire for you and Him this Lent? 

The temptation during Lent is to make the Lenten journey about us, we can do hard things during Lent that are fueled by our own desires and distractions but Lent isn't supposed to be about ourselves. Lent is also not simply about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those disciplines help us to focus on what we need to focus on. This season is about a person and that person is Jesus.

In this episode, we'll talk about the reality of Lent and how we can orient ourselves to our relationship with Jesus as we enter this year's Lenten season.

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!

The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you!

You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion

🛒 You can also grab your Poco a Poco Merchandise at pocomerch.com!