This episode of Soul Food is a throwback to a live story shared by Kester Rozario at The FaithFeed live studio audience. At the time when he shared this story, Kester had felt himself blaming God for the shock of what became a very different reality. Now a bit of distance from the experience, he shares the surprise of the key life pillars that emerged in that fragility, allowing him to come through to this point and to encourage the search ahead. Watch Kester's story via Youtube Podcast backstor...
Mar 14, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In this episode we're joined by Rachael Kama. Rachael is the newest member of the Mission Enhancement Team - the team behind the creation of the Soul Food podcast! She is a multi-talented ministry veteran, having been immersed in community building initiatives throughout her family upbringing; and being formed through grassroots parish ministries and professional work in Lismore Diocese. Hers is a heart of servant leadership, a willingness to listen to the prompting of God's Spirit and a passion...
Mar 07, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 6
It's hard not to feel a sense of abundance and appreciation for all of life’s potential when you meet Phil Dulawan. He’s a lover of life and has a passion for bringing people and communities together. For Phil, ‘home’ is a core theme for his way of being. It underpins the way he interacts with others, how he builds relationships and what frames many of his larger-than-life questions. As the current associate director with the Lasallian Mission Council, his particular role focuses on the human an...
Feb 28, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Being this far into 2023, what hope do you carry for the year ahead? In this episode, Alison shares some of her reflections for how she’s trying to keep her eyes open to surprise and goodness in her everyday. In doing so, she encourages each of us to discovery a God who is a God of surprises – a God who makes things new. Even though 2023 is well underway, Alison reminds us that today is another opportunity for us to be open to newness, goodness and God-ness in our life. Podcast backstory: Over 1...
Feb 22, 2023•11 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In this podcast special, Alison Ryan from the Mission Enhancement Team shares a conversation with Sr Nathalie Becquart, the most senior woman in the Vatican. From sailing across the seas to having coffees with Pope Francis, we hear from Sr Nathalie that synodality is the practice of living in a way that sees creation and the human family as those who we are called to walk alongside with as part of the journey of being Church. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blu...
Feb 14, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Walker draws on key moments in his life that became the foundation of some of his ‘core convictions’ – those deeply held values he discovered, which helped shape and give meaning to life. For Walker, these core convictions empowered his choice in what to study, where to work, to engage community building & develop a vision for life centred around journeying with others. Watch Walker’s story via Youtube Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were con...
Feb 07, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 2
The pillars of family, creation and career have formed Sally Butler’s mindfulness of the gift that mutuality can be. It is a gift where, borrowing from the phrase attributed to Francis of Assisi, ‘In giving we receive.’ For Sally, the way we accompany others, an exchange occurs that speaks to the natural rhythms and cycles of what it deeply means to be human. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & fait...
Jan 31, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 1
What a year 2022 has been for the Soul Food podcast journey! Join Alison and Donnie from the Mission Enhancement Team for this Soul Food 2022 season finale. Together they celebrate the stories featured on the podcast this year, as well as dropping hints for what listeners can expect from the podcast in 2023! Alison & Donnie’s podcast picks for 2022 E18 Paul Harris’ Soul Food Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/31nmRseSIYYeq4SvKz7nGM?si=def1d8a344be48b1 E08 Maddy Forde’s Soul Food Episo...
Dec 20, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Like many, the lead up to Christmas can be frantic. There's holiday plans, organising parties with loved ones and finalising present shopping. For Alison, who's no stranger to these experiences, this period of preparation can often be accompanied by hopes for all plans to go to perfection. This theme of preparation in the weeks toward Christmas takes the name Advent within the Catholic Christian tradition. Just as Advent means 'to come to', Alison reflects on what this season is inviting people ...
Dec 13, 2022•13 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Singer-songwriter Anthony Silvestrini shares a bit about what helped him remember some of his most significant life moments. Music it seemed, in particularly the songs he had written, have served as a way of cataloguing the ups and downs of his life. Interestingly, in more recent reflections, Anthony has discovered that his melodies loaded with personal memories have increasingly become channels where he can recognise God’s activity in an enlivening and personal way. Watch Anthony’s story via Yo...
Dec 06, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Several years ago, Rosa Pualoa’s life changed when she said ‘yes’ to putting her career on hold and become a parent. What makes her decision particularly rare was that becoming a mother also meant supporting her sister who had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Rosa’s story is one of vulnerability, courage, the depth of family bonds and a powerful reminder for what we can be for each other, especially when we recognise how we can share the gift of our life with those around us. *Thi...
Nov 29, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 33
What does the baptismal call of all Christians look like? For Mark O’Connor, his life experience and formation as a Marist brother has allowed him to discover that growth in the Christian life goes hand-in-hand with growth in our fullest humanity. he articulates that our fullest humanity is best expressed in our capacity to share our lives with each other – to be self-gift is the universal Christian vocation. It is in this way that Mark sees all vocations, religious, married or lay, as mirrors o...
Nov 22, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Remembrance day for Alison Ryan is a day close to her heart. Generations within her family have had different levels of involvement serving in the context of war. Whilst she honours the experience of her family, she has found it difficult hold the tension with that of her own Christian pacificism and the circumstances that call for war. This puts her in touch with the theme of memory that sits at the core within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Syd...
Nov 15, 2022•16 min
There is a particular joy in life that comes from otherness. It’s a gift that often comes from our openness to share our time and genuine interest in others, which in turn becomes a recognition of the gift they are to us. Taylor Coutinho has known the joy of this gift in her life. Currently, she experiences it through her active involvement with her parish community of John XXIII in Stanhope; as well as through her work with Catholic Religious Australia. It’s through such spaces that Taylor inte...
Nov 08, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 30
There's so much potential in being authentically in touch with our life-giving passions. For Mary Brazell, her passions connected her to spaces of community and places of purposeful work. Her love of gaming, particular table top role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons have afforded her some of the most meaningful conversations to date. Her joy for building community and appreciating people's stories have naturally fuelled her search for careers in communication and storytelling - a search t...
Nov 01, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Whilst affirming that the experience of family may vary for different people, Karina, as someone who has recently married, acknowledges the importance of her family in shaping her identity. For Karina, knowing who you are enables an openness to the other, allowing for genuine relationships to form and develop, which creates space to ponder together the tough questions of life, faith and action in the world. Watch Karina's story via Youtube Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney...
Oct 25, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Geoff Officer is a lover of history. To him, history is a great teacher of self. In pondering his own story, it is the witness of his father’s capacity for leaning into mystery and his mother’s reflective practical faith that formed the earliest foundations for Geoff’s own openness to mystery, wonder and awe. These seeds were further nurtured by his Marist schooling, accompanied by exposure to management roles across the globe. All this life and faith experience is what Geoff brings into his lea...
Oct 19, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Kim Chong is the Media & Community Liaison for the Columban Centre for Christian Muslim Relations (CCCMR). She is also one of the three conversation partners in The FaithFeed podcast, the spiritual predecessor of the Soul Food Podcast. Through the work of the interfaith centre led by Rev Dr Patrick McInerney, Kim combines her gift of taking interest in the other with the principles of dialogue so that she can contribute to the building of bridges across peoples with different faith and belie...
Oct 11, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 26
When you hear the word ‘vulnerability’, do you hear it as a weakness or a strength? From a Christian perspective, Alison observes that vulnerability is precisely how Jesus’ earthly life began and ended. Taking this further, Alison observes that the Jesus story as the salvation of the whole world comes through the upside-down example of an ultimate act of vulnerability on the cross. What’s something of yourself that you can share with someone that you trust as a way of being more mindful of this ...
Oct 04, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Joann Loko knows firsthand what it means to lean into the stories of the people around her. As someone who was accompanied herself by community volunteers, she now accompanies the stories and lives of others in a way the empowering way she experienced herself. Her stories offer wisdom for many faith communities and volunteer spaces on the difference that empathy, presence and simple acts of kindness can make. Here's to trust in each of our own potential to bless those we encounter day-to-day by ...
Sep 27, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 24
How are doubt and uncertainty experienced in the life and faith journey? For Phil D’Rozario, it is this movement from knowing to unknowing that describes his current expression of spirituality. Whilst not disregarding how uncomfortable this space of searching can be, Phil nevertheless describes this drive to seek out meaning and purpose as part of his next steps to rediscovering newness in his life and faith experience. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Moun...
Sep 20, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 23
It was from the inspiration of role models and the spirit of accompanying others in need that drew Ailsa Mackinnon to join the Sisters of Mercy. When it comes to formation and human development, she sees that the particular offering of the Sisters of Mercy is the prioritising of meeting people where they are at and empowering women, through education, toward a flourishing of life and service in the wider world. It is this message of empowerment and flourishing that Ailsa regards as timeless prio...
Sep 13, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 22
“If I met God face to face now, would God say, ‘I’m proud of you?’“ Kim, Francis & Donnie together ponder the question which was anonymously shared by someone in their mid 20s-40s. Drawing on their own personal experiences on their relationship with God and whether or not such a statement would be said by God. One common theme from their sharing is that perhaps it is the ‘journey’ of engaging with the question of what God would say in a face-to-face experience that says more about ourselves ...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 21
What does it mean to be called a 'disciple' of Jesus? Alison Ryan takes us on a life & faith reflection on what it means to be a disciple - a student. As disciple-students, a Christian is called to learn a particular way of being: to be a student who invites others to become students as well. Students learn. Students fail. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback ...
Aug 30, 2022•15 min•Season 1Ep. 20
James Camden is a young married family man who works as the Head of Mission Engagement in the Diocese of Parramatta. From aspiring lawyer, to journalist, television actor and youth worker, James has found his current expression of professional work through the Church. There’s a theme of ‘legacy’ that he carries through his story, from what his work through Church means for him, to what it means for his children, as well as the future of the Church. What does or can the Church look like in 20-30 ...
Aug 23, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Paul Harris is a man who knows and feels known by a God who is love. It is this relationship that forms his conviction as a gay man to joyfully live a life in faith where all are welcome. For Paul, it is God's vision that no one is excluded from love - and that all may experience life to the full. If you’re looking for support services to accompany you as you listen to this podcast, here are some options: LGBT Counselling Service (QLife) on 1800 184 527 Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (...
Aug 16, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Why is it so hard to talk about our faith & religion today? Donnie, along with conversation partners Kim Chong and Francis O’Callaghan chat about their own experiences as a response to this question. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consulted for what they wanted in a life & faith podcast. Overwhelming feedback showed interest for “people’s stories” and “everyday experiences sparking deep thought.” This is what Pastoral Formation want...
Aug 09, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Patty Andrew is a local wisdom figure who engages with the world with the heart of a curious learner. As both the recipient and practitioner of an integrative approach to education, she lives her life & faith attentive to the goodness and God-ness already present in the other. As a religious sister, Patty describes her Ursuline community as nurturers of a spirituality that is both contemplative and active. For her, this spirituality breathes the ever ancient, ever new universal call to holin...
Aug 02, 2022•30 min•Ep. 16
Meet Jane Sio who shares with us her experience of her Samoan upbringing, navigating family, school and faith. Her story of struggle and encountering community through the Mt Druitt Parish youth group provided space for her to ask real questions on purpose, empowerment of young people and her own personal spiritual journey. At the end of her podcast, Jane talks about a moment at her workplace with a surprising colleague whose conversation and faith moves her to tears. Podcast backstory: Over 125...
Jul 26, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton once said, “When we’re truly listening, we also have to anticipate that we might become changed by what we’ve heard.” On the theme of "listening", Donnie reflects on an experience whilst working from home during Covid lockdown in 2021. He invites some pondering on the learnings from this experience and how listening with “wonder” can translate into everyday conversation. Podcast backstory: Over 125 people around Western Sydney & the Blue Mountains were consu...
Jul 20, 2022•8 min•Ep. 14
