280 episodes

Jesuits and friends come together to look at the world through Ignatian eyes, always striving to live Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam -- For the Greater Glory of God. Hosted by Mike Jordan Laskey, Eric Clayton and MegAnne Liebsch. Learn more at jesuits.org. A production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast Jesuit Conference

    • Religion & Spirituality
    • 4.8 • 108 Ratings

Jesuits and friends come together to look at the world through Ignatian eyes, always striving to live Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam -- For the Greater Glory of God. Hosted by Mike Jordan Laskey, Eric Clayton and MegAnne Liebsch. Learn more at jesuits.org. A production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

    Making the Jesuit App “Pray As You Go” with Emma Holland

    Making the Jesuit App “Pray As You Go” with Emma Holland

    Ever since the Jesuits in the United Kingdom launched the daily prayer project “Pray As You Go” (PAYG) in 2006, the creative team behind the resource has shared fabulous audio prayer programs that are spiritually nourishing in their beauty and simplicity. Each day combines music, Scripture from the lectionary, and short spoken prayer prompts that always invite you to reflect on the Scripture in a new way. PAYG will slow you down and invite genuine contemplation, making it so different from almost any other smartphone app or podcast program out there. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world love PAYG, especially here in North America – maybe you’re one of them.

    For years, host Mike Jordan Laskey – a huge fan of PAYG – has been curious about the team behind the app. How does an episode come together? What inspired the format and why does it work so well? How do they want to grow? So Mike invited Emma Holland onto the show, who serves as PAYG’s director. She has worked for the Jesuits in the UK for almost a decade and has advanced from an audio producer to the leader of the project.
    Mike asked Emma to take us behind the scenes of PAYG and to share what she loves about her work. It was such a fun conversation and if you haven’t prayed with PAYG before, we really hope you’ll give it a try. You can find it in your smartphone’s app store or download daily episodes using your podcast player of choice.

    Pray As You Go: https://pray-as-you-go.org/

    AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

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    • 38 min
    How Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ, Found God in Soviet Captivity with Jim Keane

    How Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ, Found God in Soviet Captivity with Jim Keane

    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 ministered to the dying. His unwavering faith sustained him through solitary confinement, torture, and violent interrogations. The John F. Kennedy administration negotiated his release, and he returned to the United States in 1963.

    In the years following his release, Fr. Ciszek wrote two books, “With God in Russia” and “He Leadeth Me.” The latter book, a spiritual memoir, shot up to the very top of Amazon’s bestseller list recently, decades after its publication. Why? The extremely popular Catholic prayer app Hallow, which just ran a Super Bowl commercial a few weeks ago, picked “He Leadeth Me” to anchor their Lenten prayer program this year. It’s safe to assume thousands of folks are meeting Fr. Ciszek for the first time. So we thought we’d take the chance to introduce him to AMDG listeners, too.

    Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Jim Keane to come on the show to talk about Fr. Ciszek and his legacy. Jim is a senior editor at America Media, where he oversees the book reviews, literary essays, the Catholic Book Club and the "Faith and Reason" section. Jim is a fantastic writer and storyteller and he has written several great pieces on Fr. Ciszek over the years. So Mike asked Jim to share some of his favorite Fr. Ciszek stories and reflect on why the biggest Catholic smartphone app around might have picked “He Leadeth Me” to read this Lent.

    America Media's coverage of Fr. Walter Ciszek: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/return-russia

    https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/06/08/little-known-story-behind-father-walter-ciszeks-god-russia

    https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2024/02/16/walter-ciszek-soviet-prison-247340

    https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/article/chained-free

    https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2022/05/10/cbc-column-walter-ciszek-242962

    AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

    www.jesuits.org/
    www.beajesuit.org/
    twitter.com/jesuitnews
    facebook.com/Jesuits
    instagram.com/wearethejesuits
    youtube.com/societyofjesus
    www.jesuitmedialab.org/

    • 36 min
    Learning to Love Lent Through Music with Margaret Felice

    Learning to Love Lent Through Music with Margaret Felice

    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 terrific writer and a first-year doctoral student in theology at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry. She taught religion and directed a liturgical choir at Boston College High School for 18 years.

    Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Margaret to pick two of her favorite Lenten hymns that we could discuss. She picked “Again We Keep This Solemn Fast” and “Were You There.” And as a totally surprising gift, Margaret went ahead and recorded herself singing both these hymns along with accompanist Chris Rakovec on piano. We’ll include excepts from both hymns in the episode.

    Margaret and Mike also talked about the role of the Lenten season without our spiritual lives, and what opportunities this yearly observance gives us to grow in faith, hope and love.

    Margaret Felice: https://margaretfelice.com/

    AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

    www.jesuits.org/
    www.beajesuit.org/
    twitter.com/jesuitnews
    facebook.com/Jesuits
    instagram.com/wearethejesuits
    youtube.com/societyofjesus
    www.jesuitmedialab.org/

    • 43 min
    Synodality: Embracing Tension, Staying at the Table with Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ

    Synodality: Embracing Tension, Staying at the Table with Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ

    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 president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, leading the Jesuits on the continent where the order is growing fastest. A theologian originally from Nigeria with a doctorate from the United Kingdom who specializes in ecclesiology, the study of the Church, he is the author of a number of books, including “Theology Brewed in an African Pot” and “The Pope and the Pandemic: Lessons in Leadership in a Time of Crisis.”

    In the first few months of his tenure at the JST, Pope Francis invited Fr. Orobator to attend the Synod on Synodality in Rome, where he was a voting member. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked him about that experience, about synodality at work in the Church in Africa, and what his goals are for his leadership at JST. You’ll see from his thoughtfulness and deep faith on display in this conversation why Fr. Orobator has been tapped for big leadership roles within the Society of Jesus and beyond over and over again.

    Learn more about Fr. Orobator: https://www.scu.edu/jst/about/faculty/orobator.html

    AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

    www.jesuits.org/
    www.beajesuit.org/
    twitter.com/jesuitnews
    facebook.com/Jesuits
    instagram.com/wearethejesuits
    youtube.com/societyofjesus
    www.jesuitmedialab.org/

    • 31 min
    Get to Know Pierre Teilhard de Chardin with Sr. Kathy Duffy, SSJ, Ph.D.

    Get to Know Pierre Teilhard de Chardin with Sr. Kathy Duffy, SSJ, Ph.D.

    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 experts in the United States, Sister Kathy Duffy, SSJ, to learn more about this fascinating Jesuits. Sr. Kathy is a Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia and the president of the of the American Teilhard Association. She’s also Professor Emerita of Physics at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where she directs the Institute for Religion and Science. She has written two books on Teilhard, including, most recently, “Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution” (Orbis). Sr. Kathy also guides retreats on topics related to Teilhard’s life and work.

    Mike asked Sr. Kathy to introduce him to Teilhard’s life and thought. Why does he continue to be so interesting to so many people today? And why is he controversial? Sr. Kathy talked about the relationship between faith and science, some key biographical moments in Teilhard’s life that shaped his theology, and where readers new to his work might want to start.

    American Teilhard Association: https://teilharddechardin.org/

    Sr. Kathy Duffy, SSJ, Ph.D.: https://www.chc.edu/faculty/kathleen-duffy

    www.jesuits.org/
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    twitter.com/jesuitnews
    facebook.com/Jesuits
    instagram.com/wearethejesuits
    youtube.com/societyofjesus
    jesuitmedialab.org/

    • 42 min
    Solidarity and Service in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps with Tom Chabolla

    Solidarity and Service in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps with Tom Chabolla

    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 Chabolla, who has served in the role since 2018. Tom has more than 30 years working in faith-based and community-development organizations and he brings a wealth of expertise to the role. Mike asked Tom about what inspires him in his work, plus how he and his team navigated the pandemic. They also talked about the challenges JVC and other similar organizations are facing today and how they’re responding.

    This conversation is the second part of a two-week series on full-time volunteer programs in the Ignatian family. Be sure to listen to last week’s conversation between my colleague Eric Clayton and Mary McGinnity, president and CEO of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, which typically works with volunteers quite a bit older than JVs, folks who have spent decades in career and family life.

    Jesuit Volunteer Corps: https://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/

    About Tom Chabolla: https://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/jvc-news/meet-tom-chabolla-jvc-s-new-president-jvc-is-proud-to-welcome-tom-at-the-helm-of-the-organization-starting-november-1

    www.jesuits.org/
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    twitter.com/jesuitnews
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    jesuitmedialab.org/

    • 34 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
108 Ratings

108 Ratings

sisyphus216 ,

Great

Really strong guests, thoughtful questions. Recommend.

pepperjack 42 ,

Synod

Julia is obviously a lovely woman but she is not North American. I don’t understand why you can’t find someone to represent our young folks who is from the United States or Canada. Julia should be representing
Eastern Europe. I’m not going to go on any further about this because it’s obvious what I’m saying.

NJ Dan 08558 ,

Interesting guests

Michael Jordan Laskey asks great questions that are often unexpected. The caliber of his guests is also high - CEOs, college presidents, bestselling authors. This makes for excellent conversations on important topics. I recommend wholeheartedly!

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