A Resounding Yes!

Paloma & Fig
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Biweekly

A Resounding Yes! is a podcast produced by Catholic creative agency Paloma & Fig centered around Mary's Fiat and how we can say YES to the Lord. Visit www.palomaandfig.com to learn more.

  1. 3d ago

    Heroes Who Are Still Human: Corinna Turner on Writing Catholic Fiction

    Belle Meade talks with Corinna Turner, a Catholic novelist and lay Dominican who has been writing since she was fourteen and now has more than thirty books behind her, including the Carnegie Medal–nominated I Am Margaret series. The conversation covers why she trusts a story to carry truth further than an argument will, and how she writes danger and violence without ever making them graphic. She also tells the story of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, at length. What We Talk About: Why integrity in a character is not the same thing as perfection — readers have grown tired of flawless heroes, and the saints are the evidence that real people can manage genuine heroism.Fiction reaches people where argument cannot. Christ taught in parables, and most adverts are miniature stories for exactly the same reason.Handling violence and danger without graphic description: imply it through what the characters feel, so each reader supplies only as much as they already carry.The story of St Edmund, the ninth-century English king killed by Vikings, whose shrine later kings were afraid to cross for six hundred years.Where to find Catholic fiction for teens, and why she reads the one-star reviews first.Resources Mentioned: Paloma&FigCatholic Teen BooksCatholic Writers GuildLegendFictionIgnatius PressChapters: 00:00: Introduction00:30: Welcome and Opening Prayer03:17: Starting to Write at Fourteen05:33: What Integrity Looks Like in a Character08:39: Dominican Spirituality and Not Preaching14:04: Inside the I Am Margaret Series17:31: Writing Gritty Without Writing Graphic20:05: The World of unSPARKed26:10: Pier Giorgio and Writing the Saints29:24: The Story of St Edmund, King and Martyr39:15: Writing for Teen and Young Adult Readers46:25: The Campervan and the Giant African Land SnailProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    Heroes Who Are Still Human: Corinna Turner on Writing Catholic Fiction

  2. Sep 11

    Bringing Catherine of Siena to Life with Novelist Jenny duBay

    Belle Meade sits down with Jenny duBay, an author and trauma-informed Catholic coach, to talk about her debut novel World Between Worlds, a fictional retelling of the early life of St. Catherine of Siena. Jenny traces how a passing reference to Catherine in a secular history book pulled her back into the Catholic faith after years away from the Church, and shares stories from years of research and travel to Siena. The conversation moves through what made Catherine radical for her time, the discipline behind writing historical fiction, and what readers can carry away from her story today. What We Talk About: How a passing reference to St. Catherine of Siena in Barbara Tuchman's history book "A Distant Mirror" led Jenny duBay back to the Catholic faith after years away from the ChurchThe story behind leaving a copy of the novel in St. Catherine's home church in Siena, and how it ended up being sold in the basilica's gift shopA surprising discovery from Jenny's research — St. Catherine's real mission to Avignon was to broker peace for Florence, not simply to bring the pope back to RomeWhy World Between Worlds opens with Catherine's childhood rather than her public ministry, and what that choice reveals about the ordinary struggles behind every saintSt. Catherine's teaching on the "cell of self-knowledge" — balancing honest awareness of one's own sinfulness with trust in God's mercy — and how it shapes a healthy spiritual lifeResources Mentioned: World Between WorldsA Distant Mirror by Barbara TuchmanThe Prodigal Parishioner (Jenny's Substack)Paloma&FigChapters: 00:00: Intro00:43: Welcoming Jenny duBay and opening in prayer03:11: What inspired the novel about St. Catherine of Siena05:53: The path back to Catholicism07:39: Research trip to Italy and the gift shop encounter12:18: Surprising discoveries about St. Catherine's life15:00: Why the novel opens with Catherine's childhood21:09: Understanding St. Catherine's "Truth, capital T"23:37: The novel's writing process29:21: What readers can gain, and a look at the sequel33:18: Returning to Italy and writing rituals35:24: What brings the most joy — daily adorationProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    Bringing Catherine of Siena to Life with Novelist Jenny duBay

  3. Sep 4

    The Widow Who Became America's First Native-Born Saint

    Belle Meade sits down with Sister Betty Ann McNeil, D.C., a Daughter of Charity and former provincial archivist who edited the second edition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton: A Spiritual Portrait. Sister Betty Ann has been telling Elizabeth Seton's story for fifty years, since winning a place as one of the youngest Daughters of Charity sent to Rome for the canonization in 1975. What We Talk About: How a biography read at twelve set Sister Betty Ann on the path to the Daughters of Charity, and how she came to be in Rome for the canonizationWhat happened to St. Elizabeth Seton in Italy: the month quarantined in a stone building with no window panes, her husband's death two months later, and the widow left in a country where she didn't speak the languageThe moment in a Florence church when an Englishman leaned over during Mass and told her what Catholics call the real presenceWhy Sister Betty Ann went back through the first edition and verified every quotation against St. Elizabeth Seton's own writings, and what she added for readers who want to check the sources themselvesThe painting of Jesus taken down from the cross and laid in Mary's arms that a grieving young widow could not get out of her mindResources Mentioned: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton: A Spiritual PortraitNational Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann SetonLetters and Writings of Elizabeth Ann Seton, DePaul UniversityPaloma&FigChapters: 00:00: Introduction03:20: Losing her father, and meeting the Daughters of Charity05:40: Winning the lottery to attend the canonization in Rome08:02: A socialite on Wall Street, and the business that collapsed10:15: Sailing to Italy, and quarantined at the Lazaretto14:21: "That's what they call their real presence"16:59: Home to New York with a Catholic heart21:14: Emmitsburg, and the founding of the American Sisters of Charity22:56: Fifty years since the canonization26:58: Why the book needed a second edition36:10: The painting in Florence that gripped her42:19: How Elizabeth Seton shaped her own choicesProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    The Widow Who Became America's First Native-Born Saint

  4. Aug 28

    The God Who Cheers Us On: Astronaut Tom Jones on Wonder and Creation

    Christina Sabo and co-host Fr. John Johnson welcome veteran astronaut and planetary scientist Dr. Tom Jones, who flew four space shuttle missions and made three spacewalks helping build the International Space Station. Tom traces the yeses that carried a fourth grader's dream all the way to the launch pad, and tells the story of the Sunday in April 1994 when three Catholic astronauts received the Eucharist aboard Endeavour. He also describes the sunrise that broke into the cockpit moments after communion, and the five minutes on a spacewalk he calls the best he has spent in space. What We Talk About: Growing up during the space race, and the parents, teachers, and nuns who kept telling a fourth grader he could be part of it somedayA failed Air Force Academy medical exam, a bomber assignment instead of fighters, and the five years of graduate school that followedThree hours strapped in on the launch pad, the prayers said during the wait, and the eight and a half minutes to orbitThe Sunday aboard Endeavour when three Catholic astronauts shared the Eucharist, and the sunrise over the Pacific that followedWonder, beauty, and what Tom and Fr. John offer anyone who believes faith has no place in scienceResources Mentioned: Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir by Tom Jones: Tom's Website | SmithsonianJesus in Space: A True Story That's Out Of This World Turn Left at Orion by Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. DavisWould You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? by Guy Consolmagno, SJ and Paul Mueller, SJVatican ObservatoryChapters: 00:00: Welcome and introducing Dr. Tom Jones02:31: Mary's fiat and the yeses that led to space05:33: Asthma, a bomber assignment, and the long road to the astronaut corps09:32: What a shuttle launch feels like from the inside16:51: Fear, prayer, and an engine shutdown on the pad20:03: Explorers or active participants in creation?24:04: How the Eucharist came aboard Endeavour27:07: Sunrise over the Pacific and the blue of the Virgin's veil30:14: Beauty as a language for God that science cannot give34:13: The view from orbit and the best five minutes of a spacewalk40:10: Faith and science: Georges Lemaître and Brother Guy Consolmagno47:29: What brings Tom the most joy nowProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    The God Who Cheers Us On: Astronaut Tom Jones on Wonder and Creation

  5. Aug 21

    How to Find Relics Near You w/ Brian O'Neel

    Christina Sabo talks with writer, editor, and publicist Brian O'Neel about SaintsTombs.com, the twenty-three-year project that maps where servants of God, venerables, blesseds, and saints are buried across 133 countries. Brian traces it back to a 2003 trip to Rome, where he visited the tomb of Saint Monica without knowing that Venerable Giuseppe Minocchio lay beneath a small square of black marble in the same church. He and Christina talk about pilgrimage, relics, forgotten martyrs, and what happens when a person goes to pray where the saints are laid. What We Talk About: The 2003 Rome trip, a guidebook that raised more questions than it answered, and the venerable buried steps from Saint MonicaWhat a pilgrimage actually is, and why medieval penitents were sent to the Holy Land and Rome to make oneVenerable Patrick Peyton, the reopening of his center in Massachusetts, and what a visit to a tomb can stir up in an ordinary personThe 300-plus people who have died for the faith on US and Canadian soil—and the anti-Catholic history most Americans were never taughtTwenty-three years of daily research: Google alerts, tombs that get moved, cloistered nuns who ask for privacy, and the three question marks that mark an unknown graveResources Mentioned: SaintsTombs.com39 New Saints You Should KnowSaint Who?150 North American Martyrs You Should KnowHagiography CircleChapters: 00:00: Introduction02:01: Opening Prayer03:53: The Yes Behind SaintsTombs.com11:17: The Aha Moment in Rome13:20: Praying at the Tomb of a Saint15:45: What a Pilgrimage Is—and Why It Matters20:28: Writing About the Saints No One Remembers23:02: The North American Martyrs and Catholic America29:16: Twenty-Three Years of Research32:58: How the Site Is Organized38:34: The Camps and a Litany of the Unknown45:29: What's Next for SaintsTombs.comProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    How to Find Relics Near You w/ Brian O'Neel

  6. Aug 14

    Not a Cry Room, but a Training Room: Author Steve Walton on Children at Mass

    Steve Walton is an author, former Army Ranger, father of four, and grandfather of five. Steve joins Belle Meade to talk about converting to Catholicism at fifteen, a career built on writing, and his new board book, Loving God: A Mass Book for Little Hands.  Steve describes finding illustrator Claudia Corrales in Savannah, why he set out to make the Mass book he never found as a young parent, and how the finished book is reaching parishes and Catholic bookstores. He also covers the free coloring sheets on his website, the Mass book for older children now in progress, and twenty years as a Scout leader. What We Talk About: The yes at fifteen: converting to Catholicism in southern Louisiana, meeting one-on-one with a priest before the RCIA program existedWhy Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God is the book Steve keeps returning toFinding illustrator Claudia Corrales in Savannah, and what her artwork brought to the board bookWhat Steve says to the parent whose child is loud at Mass—and why his parish calls it a training room, not a cry roomWhere the book is available now, the free downloadable coloring sheets, and the Mass book for older children in progressResources Mentioned: Loving God: A Mass Book for Little HandsThe Practice of the Presence of God (TAN Books)Steve's SubstackPaloma&FigChapters: 00:00: Introduction00:30: Welcome and Opening Prayer02:28: The Yes at Fifteen04:33: Louisiana, Oscar Romero, and the Road to Writing10:10: The Practice of the Presence of God13:04: The Book and Its Illustrator, Claudia Corrales17:59: Bringing the Book to Mass20:36: Why Mass Came First22:56: The Parent Just Getting Through Sunday Morning30:41: Where to Buy the Book33:56: Coloring Sheets and a Book for Older Children38:59: Twenty Years as a Scout LeaderProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    Not a Cry Room, but a Training Room: Author Steve Walton on Children at Mass

  7. Aug 7

    Signs of Hope in a Pornography-Filled Culture w/ Fr. Carter Griffin

    Belle Meade welcomes Fr. Carter Griffin for a conversation about chastity as the power to love well rather than a list of restrictions. Fr. Carter is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, a former Navy line officer, and the author of Reclaimed: Win the War of Freedom, Self-Mastery, and Holy Purity.  Fr. Carter recounts his conversion at Princeton, the four years at sea that shaped how he understands discipline and fatherhood, and the dissertation that grew into Why Celibacy? He then walks through the practical battle plan behind his new book: honest limits on screens, real boundaries, friendship, and a daily habit of prayer. What We Talk About: Why chastity is the virtue that enables us to love well as body and soul—and why angels have no need of itWhere to begin when someone feels stuck: screen usage, boundaries around the near occasions of sin, building real friendships, and three Hail Marys at nightWhy Fr. Griffin could not disagree more with the counsel that occasional falls will always be part of the pictureHow a doctoral dissertation on the theology of celibacy became Why Celibacy?, and the part the Amazon Synod played in bringing it to a popular audienceThe Gerasene demoniac as an image of what chastity restores: clothed, in his right mind, and no longer harming himselfResources Mentioned: Reclaimed: Win the War of Freedom, Self-Mastery, and Holy Purity by Fr. Carter GriffinWhy Celibacy?: Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest by Fr. Carter GriffinForming Families, Forming Saints by Fr. Carter GriffinCovenant EyesPaloma&FigChapters: 00:00: Intro00:31: Meet Fr. Carter Griffin and Reclaimed04:38: Raised Presbyterian, Reading His Way into the Church08:29: The Navy, Discipline, and a First Taste of Fatherhood15:51: How Why Celibacy? Began as a Dissertation in Rome20:15: What Chastity Actually Means23:42: Freedom From and Freedom For26:51: Signs of Hope in a Pornography-Soaked Culture32:38: Where to Start: Screens, Boundaries, and Friendship39:26: Why a Field Manual for a Real Battle47:20: What It Means to Be a Herald of Freedom54:28: One Field Order: Never SurrenderProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    Signs of Hope in a Pornography-Filled Culture w/ Fr. Carter Griffin

  8. Jul 31

    The Only Wrong Way to Pray: Tanner Kalina on Prayer, Heartbreak, and Wholeheartedness

    Christina Sabo is joined by co-hosts Fr. Kevin Braski and Belle Meade for a conversation with Catholic evangelist, author, and speaker Tanner Kalina about his new book, All Your Heart: How to Live for Christ Without Holding Back. Tanner traces the yes that took him from chasing acting and comedy in Los Angeles to campus ministry in Colorado, then opens the question at the center of his book: what the heart actually is, and why loving God with all of it depends on the intellect and the will as much as the affections. Fr. Kevin brings a priest's perspective on daily prayer, discipline, and the kind of witness that reaches people when arguments cannot. What We Talk About: Tanner's yes: the pull between the faith he professed and the life he was building while pursuing acting and comedy in Los AngelesWhy the word "heart" kept surfacing—in Scripture, in ordinary speech, and in a season of heartbreak—and what it led him to writeDietrich von Hildebrand's case for the heart as its own spiritual center: the intellect tells us what something is, the will what to do with it, the heart how deeply to value itFr. Kevin on putting a peg in the day: the holy hour, the link between disciple and discipline, and why starting small beats attempting everything at onceWhy witness reaches people where argument cannot, and why Tanner says the first step in prayer is admitting you don't know how to prayResources Mentioned: All Your Heart: How to Live for Christ Without Holding Back by Tanner Kalina (Ascension Press)Paloma&Fig review of All Your Heart by Teagan ByrneTanner Kalina's websiteTanner Kalina on InstagramChapters: 00:00: Welcome and Opening Prayer03:30: Summer Check-In and Time Outdoors11:04: Tanner's Yes: Los Angeles, Conversion, and Campus Ministry15:37: Putting a Peg in the Day19:11: Training to Become Like Christ25:50: What Inspired All Your Heart31:29: Common Misunderstandings of the Heart35:19: A Threefold Conversion of Intellect, Will, and Heart43:09: The Lukewarm Heart, Stars, and Black Holes51:36: Scripture, the Saints, and Protestant Voices59:51: The Only Wrong Way to Pray01:05:39: What Brings You JoyProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow Paloma & Fig on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.  Learn more at www.palomaandfig.com.  Join in the conversation by joining our  Facebook group, A Resounding Yes!

    The Only Wrong Way to Pray: Tanner Kalina on Prayer, Heartbreak, and Wholeheartedness
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

A Resounding Yes! is a podcast produced by Catholic creative agency Paloma & Fig centered around Mary's Fiat and how we can say YES to the Lord. Visit www.palomaandfig.com to learn more.

Information

  • Creator
    Paloma & Fig
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    68
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 A Resounding Yes!
  • Show Website
    A Resounding Yes!

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