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Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes

Join us for conversations about the intersection of Church and Culture in our current moment. What are these conversations and why do they matter? Tune in to learn how to contend for the faith and how it affects your daily life.

  1. 27 MAR

    #16 - Lent wk. 6: Why this week changes everything.

    After five weeks of preparation through Lent, the Church now enters Holy Week—the most significant week in the Christian calendar, where everything in Scripture moves toward fulfillment. In this episode of You Are Here, we explore the tension at the heart of this day. It is the only Sunday of the year with two Gospel movements: The triumphal entry into Jerusalem (“Hosanna!”) The beginning of the Passion narrative The Church doesn’t just remember this moment—it re-enacts it. From the earliest centuries, believers gathered outside, holding palm branches, and processed into the city, walking with Christ into Jerusalem. This tradition, recorded as early as the 4th century, invites us to do more than observe the story. It invites us to enter it. Because Holy Week is not simply something we think about. It is something we participate in. The Gospel writers make this clear—devoting nearly a third of their accounts to this single week. Everything—from Genesis to this moment—has been leading here. This is the week. The week of: Rejection Suffering Crucifixion And ultimately, resurrection But first, we must walk through the tension. Drawing from Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the deep traditions of the Church, this episode explores how we engage Holy Week not just intellectually, but spiritually and physically—through practices, reflection, and the sacraments. Through art like Michelangelo’s Pietà and music like Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, we see the same truth echoed: You cannot reach resurrection without first passing through death. This Holy Week, the invitation is simple: Don’t just observe the story. Walk it.

    27 min
  2. 10 MAR

    #13 - Lent Wk. 3: Thirsting for more

    Lent is a six-week journey. But what happens as the journey continues? Week Three of the Lent journey focuses on Spiritual Thirst. The readings this week center around water. Exodus 17, Israel is wandering in the wilderness and begins to thirst. In desperation they cry out to Moses, and God provides water from the rock. A rock the Apostle Paul will point back to and claim is Christ. (1 Corinthians 10)   Psalm 95, a retelling of the Exodus 17 story.   John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. John draws on an Old Testament style of storytelling to reveal something deeper: the woman’s physical thirst points to a deeper thirst, one Jesus reveals that only He can satisfy.  The Church Fathers reflected deeply on this theme of conversion. These were the leaders and theologians of the early Church — the ones who helped articulate and defend the faith passed down from the apostles. For them, conversion was not simply a moment. It was a lifelong process. Lent is a season that helps us focus on that transformation. This week the invitation is to look beneath our actions and ask deeper questions: What am I truly thirsty for? To close the episode, Dr. Mark Masucci helps bridge the gap between the Church’s story and our cultural imagination, reflecting on Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas and the film Good Will Hunting as examples of the deep human longing for inner transformation. Because beneath every human longing lies the same truth: Only Christ ultimately satisfies.

    25 min
  3. 3 MAR

    #12 - Lent wk. 2 : The Narrow Door. Fasting, Freedom & the Glory of Christ

    In the second week of Lent the conversation shifts from self examination to self denial. Last week was the call to examine our desires This week, we confront them. Lent begins with self-examination — naming the loves that shape us, the habits that form us, the desires that may have become disordered. But awareness alone is not transformation. Now comes the narrow door. In this episode, Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes explore why the Church gives us the spiritual discipline of fasting after we have taken inventory of our hearts. Fasting is not punishment. It is not spiritual dieting. It is a way of bringing our loves back into order. James reminds us that we are tempted by what we love. And often, we are trapped not by evil things — but by lesser things we have learned to cling to for satisfaction. Fasting creates space. Fasting exposes attachments. Fasting loosens the grip of earthly desires that quietly rule us. It is how we practice freedom. And right in the middle of this call to repentance, the Church gives us the Transfiguration — the moment Jesus reveals His glory to Peter, James, and John. For a brief moment, the veil is pulled back. The disciples see who He truly is. What would happen if we saw Christ like that? We would realize He is what our souls have been reaching for all along. The world offers highs that fade by Monday morning. But on the mountain, we glimpse the glory that actually satisfies. So after naming our disordered desires, we begin to deny them — not to lose something, but to be freed from loving lesser things. Because the goal of Lent is not deprivation. It is transformation. It is renewal. It is learning to love God with all our heart. youarehereccc@gmail.com

    25 min

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Join us for conversations about the intersection of Church and Culture in our current moment. What are these conversations and why do they matter? Tune in to learn how to contend for the faith and how it affects your daily life.