Holy Rebels Podcast

Nina Hirlaender OFS
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The Holy Rebels Podcast is for spiritually literate, psychologically aware seekers who want a mature, grounded relationship with God.  Hosted by Nina Hirlaender, Franciscan Sister and mystical theology teacher, this show pulls the Western mystical tradition off the shelf and into the daily grind, with more grace and less spinning.  Each episode blends vivid storytelling with practical formation, so your spiritual life feels alive, connected, and unmistakably real. You will meet mystics like Mary Magdalene, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, not as saints on pedestals, but as wise companions for real life.  Expect practices that sharpen discernment, strengthen intuition you can trust, and bring steadier decisions, deeper prayer, and more peace that holds up under pressure.  No fluff, plenty of heart. www.HolyRebelsPodcast.com

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    What Your Restlessness Is Actually Trying to Tell You

    There's a moment when you realize waiting has started to cost you something. The old pattern still works, technically. But something in your chest knows the window is closing. In this first episode of an eight-part series, Nina Hirlaender OFS introduces The Soul's Eight Thresholds of Transformation—a framework drawn from the Celtic Wheel of the Year that maps the inner seasons every seeker moves through. This episode explores Imbolc, the threshold of awakening: that quiet moment when change has already decided to arrive, even though nothing on the surface looks different yet. Nina takes you inside the stone circle at Stonehenge at sunrise, shares the wisdom of Teresa of Avila on humility and self-knowledge, and offers a grounded five-minute practice to help you take a step toward what's trying to begin in you. This is also a personal invitation. After fifteen years of guiding pilgrims through England's sacred landscapes, Nina announces that May 2026 will be the final Celtic Shamanism in England pilgrimage. If you've felt the pull toward this journey, the window is open—for now. What You'll Learn: The subtle signs you're ready to begin something newWhy routines that used to work now feel too smallWhy waiting for perfect clarity or trying to fix everything at once keeps you stuckWhat happens when you step inside Stonehenge at sunriseHow Teresa of Avila's teaching on humility unlocks real momentum toward one clear decision and the relief of finally startingA five-minute truth-check practice to create a clean inner starting pointWhy clarity comes after you start—and how to give yourself permission to begin before you feel ready Your Next Steps: Explore the final Celtic Shamanism in England Pilgrimage — May 23–June 2, 2026 >> https://dancingspirittours.com/journeys/england/Book a 15-min video call with Nina >> https://calendly.com/nina-hirlaender/15min Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    39 min

  2. 21/12/2025

    Advent Week 4 | Love You Don’t Have to Earn

    Part 4 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday. There comes a point in the spiritual journey where effort quietly runs out. Where striving no longer works. Where something in you longs not for improvement, but for rest. If you’ve ever felt like love was something you had to earn—through goodness, productivity, spirituality, or self-control—this final Advent episode is for you. Welcome to the fourth week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the deep wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition. This week is all about Love. Not romantic love. Not approval. Not love as a reward. But the love you don’t have to earn—the love you can rest in. Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together Franciscan spirituality, mystical theology, and psychology to explore Love not as a feeling we chase, but as the ground of being itself—the presence that holds when joy rises and falls, when faith feels strong or thin. Across the contemplative tradition, love is not something added to life after we get it right. It is the deeper reality already giving itself to us—before achievement, before repair, before worthiness. This episode traces how Advent has been gently leading us here all along: from trusting, to resting, to tasting… into abiding.  What you’ll take away from this episode: the meaning of Love as the fourth and final theme of Adventwhy love is not a wage, reward, or outcome—but a giventhe difference between original sin and original grace—and why it matterswhy receiving love can feel unsafe when the nervous system is burned outa practical re-script for the belief “If I’m good enough, then I’ll be loved”how love takes flesh in ordinary life—boundaries, giving, receiving, and restLove isn’t something you rise up to. It’s something you lean back into. It is already here—beneath the noise, beneath the effort, steady as your breath. Advent doesn’t end by asking you to try harder or become better. It ends by inviting you to rest in what has been holding you all along. Press play to enter the final week of Advent with more spaciousness, more honesty, and a deeper trust in the love that does not withdraw.  This is the love you don’t have to earn. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    43 min

  3. 13/12/2025

    Advent Week 3 | Finding Joy You Can Trust

    Part 3 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday Joy is everywhere in the culture — sold, studied, optimized, hashtagged — and yet so many people feel flat, numb, or quietly exhausted instead of joyful. If you’ve ever wondered why joy feels harder to trust than it should, this episode is for you. Welcome to the third week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the deep wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition. This week is all about Joy. Not forced positivity. But a joy you can trust — the kind that doesn’t disappear when life gets hard. Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together Franciscan spirituality, psychology, and neuroscience to explore why modern culture struggles with joy, and why Advent offers a radically different invitation. This is Gaudete Sunday — the moment when the tradition calls us to rejoice in the middle of waiting, not after everything is resolved.  What you’ll take away from this episode: why joy is not the same thing as happiness, and why chasing happiness often backfires how loneliness, exhaustion, and pressure to “be happy” block our capacity for joywhat psychology and neuroscience reveal about joy as a body-based, relational statethe meaning of Gaudete Sunday and why joy appears in the middle of Adventthe five most common obstacles to joya simple Advent candle practice to help joy arrive gently, without forcingJoy is the felt experience of connection — to love, to meaning, to God, to your own deepest self. It can coexist with grief, uncertainty, fatigue, and unfinished stories. Advent doesn’t ask you to pretend you feel joyful. It invites you to discover a joy that can live inside what is unresolved. Press play to enter Week Three of Advent with more honesty, more spaciousness, and a deeper trust in the quiet joy that is already arriving. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    39 min

  4. 06/12/2025

    Advent Week 2 | Peace When Life Won’t Slow Down

    Part 2 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday. Life doesn’t slow down during the holidays just because you want it to. The emails keep coming, the world keeps moving, and your mind keeps spinning—even as something in you longs for quiet. If that’s been your experience this year, this week’s episode is where you’ll find grounded support. Welcome to Week Two of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for spiritual honesty, nervous-system awareness, and practical ways to anchor yourself when life refuses to cooperate. This week is all about Peace. Not the version that waits for silence. The version that becomes possible even while everything around you stays loud. Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together the mystical meaning of Advent with psychology-based practices around nervous system regulation, emotional overload, and the inner orientation that allows peace to rise from within. St Clare of Assisi accompanies us, offering a real examples of what peace looked like in moments that were anything but calm. What you'll take away from this episode: what the second week of Advent symbolizes historically and spirituallythe difference between calm (a state) and peace (an orientation of the soul)how stress pulls you away from presence—and how to interrupt that patternwhat Clare of Assisi’s courage reveals about inner steadinesshow to identify your “peace threshold” when life feels unmanageablea simple practice to help your nervous system settlehow to begin Week Two with alignment rather than pressurePeace isn't the absence of noise. Peace is the awareness that God is present inside what hasn’t resolved yet. It grows through noticing, returning, and softening what has been clenched for too long. Press play to enter the second week of Advent with a steadier center, a calmer body, and a deeper experience of presence. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    27 min

  5. 29/11/2025

    Advent Week 1 | Hope for an Uncertain Future

    Part 1 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday. There’s a moment at the beginning of Advent when something in you finally exhales. A small but real sense of relief that you don’t have to be fully “ready” to begin again. If you’ve been carrying more than you want to admit — the anxiety, the uncertainty, the subtle fear that the future is shrinking instead of opening — this episode is where you’ll feel held. Welcome to the first week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the quiet wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition. This week is all about Hope. Not the kind you manufacture. The kind that returns when your body feels safe enough to imagine possibility again. Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together the deeper spiritual meaning of Advent with what psychology now understands about future orientation, resilience, and the nervous system.  St Francis and St Clare of Assisi walk with us as guides, offering a way of living that stays steady even when life feels uncertain. What you’ll take away from this episode: the meaning of Advent as “arrival” and why it begins in the darkwhy so many people today feel disconnected from the futurehow hope actually forms — through goals, pathways, and agencywhat Francis and Clare can teach you about trusting the next stepa simple embodied practice to help your system calm and re-openhow to begin Advent with clarity instead of pressureHope isn’t a mood. It’s a nervous-system shift. It returns slowly, through safety, honesty, and the gentle willingness to soften what’s been clenched for too long. Press play to begin the season with space around your heart and steadiness in your body. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    28 min

  6. 22/07/2024

    Mary Magdalene: Sacred Femininity and Redemption

    In this captivating episode, we dive deep into the life and legacy of Mary Magdalene, one of history's most enigmatic and influential figures. Journey with us as we explore medieval tales of Mary's final years in the south of France, uncovering the sacred mountain of Sainte Baume and the astonishing discovery of her supposed remains in Saint Maximin. We unravel the intriguing forensic research that brings Mary's story into the modern era. As we continue, we confront the complex cultural and psychological phenomena surrounding Mary Magdalene, including the archetypal tension between the maternal and the erotic, shedding light on how Mary embodies this duality in ways that captivate and challenge us. This episode offers a heartfelt meditation on true repentance and its transformative power, using Mary Magdalene's journey as a metaphor for spiritual healing and unconditional love. We end with an inspiring announcement about the upcoming Mary Magdalene pilgrimage in France! You're invited to walk in her footsteps and experience the places that hold her enduring legacy. Join Franciscan Sister Nina Hirlaender for an episode filled with historical intrigue, deep psychological insights, and a spiritual adventure that promises to be both enlightening and transformative. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    26 min

  7. 16/05/2024

    The Mystery of Mary Magdalene: Unveiling The True Story

    Mary Magdalene is a woman shrouded in mystery and misinterpretation. We journey through the Gospels to unravel her true identity, exploring her profound roles and the symbolism she carries. Through careful examination of biblical texts, we shine a light on her secret knowledge that transcend the understanding of even Jesus' closest male disciples. This episode portrays Mary as a "wise woman," intimately linked with the sacred cycles of life and death, and underscores her monumental significance as the first witness to the resurrection, positioning her not merely as a bystander but as a pivotal leader in early Christianity. Prepare to be inspired by the resilient spirit and transformative essence of Mary Magdalene, and discover how her legacy continues to resonate with spiritual seekers today. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    31 min

  8. 11/04/2024

    Spiritual Desolation: 3 Reasons You Feel Distant From God

    What should you do when you feel distant from God? In this episode, we dive deep into the concepts of Spiritual Desolation and the Discernment of Spirits as taught by Ignatius of Loyola.  We explore the three main reasons why desolation might be showing up in your life: neglecting your spiritual life, learning to love the Divine for its own sake, and being reminded of your ultimate dependence on God. We also discuss how to prevent, endure, and conquer Spiritual Desolation, and the importance of finding meaning and purpose in every situation.  Key Takeaways: * Ignatius of Loyola: Explore the revolutionary insights of Ignatius, whose spiritual exercises have profoundly impacted the way we understand our inner lives. * Spiritual Desolation: Delve into the nature of Spiritual Desolation, understanding its reasons and how it serves as a catalyst for profound spiritual growth. * Discernment of Spirits: Unpack guidelines for Spiritual Desolation from Discernment of Spirits that Ignatius proposed for recognizing and acting upon the movements within one's soul. * Practical Application: Learn about actionable, practical strategies derived from the 500-year-old wisdom of Ignatius for facing fears and making wise, clear decisions. Whether you're wrestling with Spiritual Desolation or simply seeking to deepen your relationship with yourself and the divine, this episode offers valuable insights and practical guidance rooted in the age-old wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola. Join us as we explore how to trust the mystic within and find peace amidst the fog of uncertainty. Support the show Rate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence: “Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.com Connect: Instagram | Facebook

    33 min
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About

The Holy Rebels Podcast is for spiritually literate, psychologically aware seekers who want a mature, grounded relationship with God.  Hosted by Nina Hirlaender, Franciscan Sister and mystical theology teacher, this show pulls the Western mystical tradition off the shelf and into the daily grind, with more grace and less spinning.  Each episode blends vivid storytelling with practical formation, so your spiritual life feels alive, connected, and unmistakably real. You will meet mystics like Mary Magdalene, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, not as saints on pedestals, but as wise companions for real life.  Expect practices that sharpen discernment, strengthen intuition you can trust, and bring steadier decisions, deeper prayer, and more peace that holds up under pressure.  No fluff, plenty of heart. www.HolyRebelsPodcast.com

Information

  • Creator
    Nina Hirlaender OFS
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Holy Rebels Podcast
  • Show Website
    Holy Rebels Podcast