The basic details of Father Walter Ciszek life sound like a movie: An American Jesuit priest ministering in Eastern Europe around the time of World War II, he was arrested by the Soviet Union and falsely accused of being a Vatican spy. He spent time in a KGB prison and more than a decade in Siberian labor camps. His family and his Jesuit brothers back in the U.S. assumed he was dead. During his captivity, Fr. Ciszek secretly heard confessions, celebrated Mass, baptized, comforted the sick, and m...
Mar 06, 2024•36 min
When you hear the word “Lent,” what is the first thing you think of? Maybe it’s purple or giving up social media or chocolate. Or maybe it’s trying to build better prayer habits or abstaining from meat on Fridays. Or famous Lenten Scripture passages like the Transfiguration. For Margaret Felice, today's guest, one thing that’s always near the top of her mind when it comes to Lent is music. Margaret is a professional singer and liturgical musician with an absolutely stunning voice. She’s also a t...
Feb 28, 2024•44 min
Today's guest has an incredible amount of experience of the truly "catholic," global nature of the church. Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, today serves as the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. This school is one of the two Jesuit “theologates” in the United States, which means it’s a place where Jesuits in formation from all over the world pursue theology studies alongside lay students. Before arriving at JST last August, Fr. Orobator spent seven years as the pre...
Feb 21, 2024•31 min
Even though the French paleontologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died in 1955, it feels like his work is still being discussed and debated in theological circles all the time. There are numerous associations and publications dedicated solely to exploring Teilhard’s huge body of work. He made it back into the news this past fall when Pope Francis described him as “often misunderstood” during a Mass in Mongolia. Host Mike Jordan Laskey reached out to one of the foremost Teilhard exp...
Feb 14, 2024•42 min
For more than 60 years, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) has been a pioneer in the service landscape. With over 100 volunteers each year and over 12,000 alumni, they are one of the largest lay, Catholic, full-time volunteer programs in the world. JVC gives young adults the opportunity to engage in service and solidarity with local communities, rooted in the values of spirituality, simple living, community and social justice. Host Mike Jordan Laskey recently spoke with JVC’s president, Tom Chabol...
Feb 07, 2024•35 min
In the final meditation of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola reminds us “that love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.” We are called to love and serve in all things. And so, it’s hardly a surprise that in the 500 or so years since Ignatius wrote those words, countless service organizations have grown and flourished within the Ignatian tradition. Over the course of the next two weeks, we’re going to explore two of those organizations. Today, we’re talking about ...
Jan 31, 2024•33 min
It’s hard to know where to start an interview with Jesuit Fr. Leo O’Donovan. At 89 years old, Fr. O’Donovan’s could boast a hefty list of accomplishments and accolades—though he’s not much interested in bragging. A theologian by training, he studied under the prominent Jesuit Fr. Karl Rahner in Munich, where O’Donovan’s own body of work would eventually earn him The Knight Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit, with Star, of the Federal Republic of Germany. For over a decade, Fr. O’Donovan serv...
Jan 24, 2024•51 min
Have you ever met someone so passionate about something that you just couldn’t help getting excited about it, too? That was host Mike Jordan Laskey's experience when he first met Fr. Tom Curran, SJ, today's guest. Fr. Curran, who served as the president of Rockhurst University in Kansas City for 16 years, is now the coordinator of the Jesuit Prison Education Network (JPEN). Through participation in JPEN, nine different Jesuit institutes of higher learning offer college courses and degree program...
Jan 17, 2024•43 min
This past weekend, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, when the three magi followed yonder star to God’s perfect light (to paraphrase the old song). By gazing at the stars, people from near and far we’re drawn to Christ—a reminder that, woven into the very fabric of the universe, God reveals Godself, guiding us deeper into God’s mystery and an encounter with Christ. What was true more than 2,000 years ago remains true today. Stars, meteorites, planets, the mysteries of space still speak to ...
Jan 10, 2024•29 min
Happy New Year! And welcome to the first episode of AMDG of 2024. Each January, to kick off a new year, we like to delve into aspects of Ignatian spirituality that might be particularly useful as we think about forming better habits and growing deeper in our relationship with God over the next 12 months. After all, Ignatian spirituality is all about discovering who God dreams we might be by better understanding the person God already knows we are—and already loves. This year is no different. We’...
Jan 03, 2024•28 min
If you’re a long-time listener of this podcast—and certainly if you’re a graduate of Jesuit education—then you likely know a thing or two about the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola. You know about his courtly life, the cannonball, the conversion, the books he read while bedridden, his pilgrimage and the cave and the founding of the Society of Jesus. You probably can rattle plot points off just like that. But have you ever taken time to really immerse yourself in the story? To imagine what Ignatiu...
Dec 27, 2023•33 min
It's an AMDG Christmas jamboree: our first-ever five-person episode. Friends of the pod (and awesome writers/retreat leaders) Shannon Evans and Cameron Bellm join AMDG's three co-hosts Mike Jordan Laskey, Eric Clayton and MegAnne Liebsch for a draft of Christmas characters. The conversation is raucous, overstuffed, reflective, spiritual, a little melancholic, mostly fun -- kind of like the whole Christmas season overall. The appearance of Shannon and Cameron is also a teaser for our new project,...
Dec 20, 2023•49 min
“There is no faith without an encounter, because faith is a personal encounter with Jesus,” Pope Francis writes. He goes on: “One of the things that helps us when we have the Gospels before our eyes is to imagine those encounters with Jesus—recreate them, look at him ourselves, meet him ourselves. In the Gospels, to look and to see are two very important verbs. So let us approach the episodes in the life of Jesus with eyes filled with contemplation.” This is a brief excerpt from the introduction...
Dec 13, 2023•41 min
From the Jesuits of Canada and the United States, this is AMDG. I’m Mike Jordan Laskey. Sometimes, people wonder how we pick guests for the show. We tell them the Jesuit network is so huge that we’ll never run out of interesting conversation partners. Sometimes, though, we come across someone outside of a Jesuit context whose work we love and who we wish we could ask on the show. If only they had a Jesuit connection! But then in some rare occasions, when we look into this great person who’s not ...
Dec 06, 2023•49 min
This coming Sunday, December 3, is the first Sunday of Advent and the start of a whole new Church Year. These days leading up to Christmas and beyond can feel overwhelming: spiritually, emotionally, all of it. So, it’s tempting to say, Haven’t we already done this? What more do I have to learn from these stories? I’m going to sit this one out. Today’s guest, Joe Durepos, is a story expert. He’s worked in publishing for more the four decades: as a bookseller, a sales rep, a literary agent and an ...
Nov 29, 2023•30 min
This week in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday in which we’re invited to cultivate a disposition of gratitude. What are we thankful for? Who are we thankful for? How can we be gifts to others? Gratitude is a foundational disposition in Ignatian spirituality. Ignatius wanted us to know that our God is a giver of good gifts, a God who delights in us for the gift that we already are—and for the giftedness we have yet to share with the world. From that place, that spiritua...
Nov 22, 2023•37 min
At the end of October, about 1900 people arrived at a massive hotel in Washington, DC, for the 26th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, which is sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network. Most of the attendees were students from Jesuit high schools and colleges, gathered for three days of prayer, encounter, Catholic social teaching education and political action. Like always, the energy at this year’s teach-in was palpable. There were great keynote speakers and informative workshops ...
Nov 15, 2023•39 min
Today’s episode is the second part of host Mike Jordan Laskey's conversation with Fr. David Collins, SJ, about his fabulous new book “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History.” If you didn’t hear the first part of the interview, you might want to go back to last week’s episode and catch up. On today’s show, we focus mostly on American Jesuit history from the 20th and 21st centuries. Fr. Collins is an associate professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University, where he’s...
Nov 08, 2023•38 min
“The history of America cannot be told without the history of religion, the history of American religion cannot be told without the history of Catholicism, and history of Catholicism in America cannot be told without the history of the Jesuits in America.” That’s the beginning of the dust jacket text for the new book “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History” by Fr. David J. Collins, SJ, published by Georgetown University Press. Fr. Collins is an associate professor in the Department ...
Nov 01, 2023•45 min
Decades before Virginia Senator Tim Kaine ran for vice president in 2016, he spent a year ministering alongside Jesuits in the country of Honduras. That experience changed his life forever. Even though Senator Kaine was in Honduras back in 1980 and 1981, he still talks about his time there as if he got back just yesterday. It was the experience in Honduras that exposed him to the horrors of poverty and led him to pursue a career in public interest law and then in politics. Host Mike Jordan Laske...
Oct 25, 2023•43 min
If you’ve ever been intimidated by Ignatian spirituality, today’s guest will put you at ease. In fact, Fr. Michael Hansen is determined to make the Ignatian exercises accessible to as many people as possible. Why? It’s simple: He knows that God is at work, whether you’re doing the full thirty day retreat or just a one-off reflection. Host Eric Clayton has been intrigued by Mick’s work for a while. In fact, longtime listeners will remember when he came on our podcast a few years ago. He talked ab...
Oct 18, 2023•52 min
If you have followed Jesuit-related headlines over the past few months, you might have heard about the situation in Nicaragua. In August, the government of dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, closed the Jesuit-run University of Central America in the capital city of Managua. They confiscated the property, too, including the Jesuit residence there. While these developments have captured the attention of the Society of Jesus globally, they are just one part of a mu...
Oct 11, 2023•44 min
You may have heard that the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is meeting all month long in Rome. This is just the latest stage of the years-long Synod on Synodality, which included listening sessions in parishes and other Catholic ministry settings all over the world. Participants will be discussing issues connected to communion, participation and the mission of the church. One thing that makes this synod different from all the others that came before it is that this is the first time tha...
Oct 04, 2023•38 min
Here’s a list of famous comedians who all have at least one thing in common that’s relevant to this podcast: Bob Newhart, Bill Murray, Bob Hope, Chris Farley, George Carlin, Amy Poehler, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Dan Aykroyd, John Leguizamo, John Candy, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jim Gaffigan, Janeane Garofalo and John Mulaney. Did you guess? They all have a Catholic background in some way or other. Some were raised Catholic and left the church, some are still practicing Cat...
Sep 27, 2023•51 min
If you’ve had any encounter with Jesuits or Ignatian spirituality, you know the whole thing rests on the simple yet radical idea that God is to be found in all things. And films — stories — are an obvious place to look for God. Stories reflect who we are as people; they point the way toward where we might yet go. We can all point to our favorite “religious” film, right? ("The Mission," "Of Gods and Men," "Calvary"...) But what about movies that are less obviously religious? That seems almost ent...
Sep 20, 2023•55 min
Fr. Chris Kellerman, SJ, is the author of "All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church" (Orbis, 2022), which provides a rigorously researched, era-by-era history of the Catholic Church’s teachings and actions related to slavery. The book gives a detailed account of the Church’s slaveholding past while issuing a call for the Church to take the necessary steps to reconcile with its history. Fr. Kellerman is also the brand-new Secretary of Justice and Eco...
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Many weeks ago, host Eric Clayton visited a coastal town in Kenya called Malindi — and the Jesuit community that lives there. It’s a new community, only about five or so years old, and it’s been tasked with carrying out the legacy of St. Francis Xavier who visited that very place many, many years ago. Xavier — the great missionary — spent only a few days on that shore. But while there, he engaged in interreligious dialogue, meeting with and learning from the local Muslim communities. The bishop ...
Sep 06, 2023•51 min
Conventional wisdom would have us keep our options open. Don’t commit until you have to—and even then, always have a backup plan. The world’s a big place with lots of choices, and you deserve your crack at all of them. That might be conventional wisdom. But our guest today, Pete Davis, firmly disagrees. In fact, he wrote a whole book about it. It’s called “Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing.” And in it, Pete lays out not only why committing ourselves to something g...
Aug 30, 2023•52 min
If you spend any time on social media, you might have seen Washington Post columnist Christine Emba’s big essay earlier this summer. It’s headlined “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness.” Every so often there’s a piece about contemporary masculinity that pops up, but Christine’s piece was so widely read. The essay takes on the challenges men face in American society today with nuance, clarity and incredible depth. Christine really is a fabulously smart writer and reporter, which you’...
Aug 23, 2023•44 min
Today's host, Eric A. Clayton, encountered today’s guest’s professional title before he met the man himself. Eric was told to chase down the person who held the “Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination” at Regis University—and he was not disappointed. Dr. Chris Pramuk is said chair. He’s also an associate professor of religious studies. His interests focus on the intersection of faith, creativity and justice, and the conversation reflects this multitude. Chris and Eric jump from Thomas Merton ...
Aug 16, 2023•44 min
