Last week, we began our pilgrimage to Belize. We met Fr. Brian Christopher, the superior of the country-wide Jesuit community. And we heard a little bit about the hopes and heartaches of the people of Belize. We saw how Ignatian spirituality has a role to play in helping crystalize the character of Belize, and how important collaboration is in a co…

Over the next two episodes, host Eric Clayton is going to take you on an adventure. We’re going to travel to Central America, to a small country on the Caribbean Sea. A country that is both ancient and relatively new. A place that is both a melting pot of so very many cultures and ways of life, and yet is also the least populated country in all of …

Today we’re talking about the global nature of God’s invitation. Our guest — Fr. Chuks, the new director of communications for the Jesuit Curia in Rome, responsible for sharing the stories of the entirety of the global Society of Jesus — reminds us that the people of God are everywhere. And we, informed by the Ignatian tradition, have a responsibil…

When the celebrity chef and restauranter Lidia Bastianich was just a few months old, the city her Italian family lived in was assigned to Yugoslavia as part of the reorganization of Europe after World War II. Her family became exiles without a proper homeland. Eventually, her family fled to Italy, where they lived in a refugee camp for two years. W…

From the Jesuit Media Lab, this is AMDG. I’m Mike Jordan Laskey.Today’s episode is the fourth and final one in our series on faith and politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election here in the U.S. Our guest is the Jesuit Conference’s very own Tom Mulloy, who serves as our director of government relations.Sometimes people are surprised to f…

For the third episode of our pre-election series, we’re going to focus on the role of the media in a democracy. Our guest is Scott Detrow, a veteran radio journalist and a host of NPR’s flagship show All Things Considered. You can usually find Scott hosting the weekend editions of the show on Saturday and Sunday, but this month he’s filling in on t…

This is the second in our series on faith and politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election here in the United States. Our guest is Dr. Nichole Flores, one of the most exciting young theologians around. Nichole is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, and completed her doctoral study in theological ethic…

It’s October, which means the presidential election here in the US is next month. So here on AMDG we are going to take old that rule about never discussing religion or politics in polite company and throw it in the Potomac River. Our four episodes this month will all cover faith and politics in a variety of ways. We know you don’t come here for pol…

Santos and Noehlia worked with Jesuits in Nicaragua; when the government began to attack the Church, they had to flee.This audio reflection is part of a series marking the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Over the course of six episodes, we invite you to join migrants in solidarity and prayer.Find supplemental resources for reflection and action…

Fr. Sudzer and Matthew support migrants at the Jesuit parish in Miami. They both have family members who’ve migrated.This audio reflection is part of a series marking the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Over the course of six episodes, we invite you to join migrants in solidarity and prayer.Find supplemental resources for reflection and action …

Today’s episode is different from anything we’ve ever done. Instead of an interview, we have three audio pieces about what you could call the spirituality of everyday life. What are the things we do to find meaning and purpose within the daily grind? First, host Mike Jordan Laskey tells you about his “kindie rock” band, Down By The Bagel.Then, New …

Sometimes on this show, host Mike Jordan Laskey has topic in mind he’d like to cover and then he goes and finds someone great to talk about it. Other times, he knows he wants to talk to a specific person because they’re brilliant and Mike doesn’t really care what the topic is. Whatever the guest wants to discuss will be interesting. Today’s episode…

Think back to the early days of ChatGPT and generative AI. It was a topic discussed on seemingly every podcast and countless news segments. Nearly every one of them started those segments with some elaborate introduction about the risks and opportunities that the new technology posed, how the way we communicate with one another would be irrevocably…

There aren’t that many times in the Gospels when Jesus tells his disciples how they might act if they’re hoping to get to heaven one day. When Jesus does indeed get that direct, it’s probably a smart idea to pay attention. And probably the most famous example of this sort of Jesus talk comes in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. It’s the Last Ju…

A couple of weeks ago, The New Yorker magazine published a fabulous profile of a Jesuit priest: Fr. Brian Strassburger, SJ, who lives in a Jesuit community that’s serving migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The piece went deep into Fr. Brian’s vocation story and how he wound up at the border as his first…

The end of the summer and the beginning of fall means many of us will be returning to school in one form or another. Teachers, students, bus drivers, cafeteria workers—it’s all about to begin again. It’s a time of excitement and maybe a little apprehension.I’ll wager a bet that a few listeners are familiar with a particular type of school. It may b…

This is a conversation about racism and the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Put more precisely, this is a conversation about how the Spiritual Exercises might better form us to understand and push back against the repercussions of racism in America. The question that frames this conversation is one that comes from the global Society of J…

Today’s topic is one straight out of science fiction. We’re talking about transhumanism—which, as you’ll soon learn, is very much a real thing with very real ethical implications. That’s why Dr. Jason Eberl, professor and director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University, is here to share his insights and experti…

Today, July 31, we celebrate the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Happy feast day! We'll wager a guess that if you’re a listener of this podcast, then today’s saint needs no introduction. You know about the cannonball, the pilgrimage, the Spiritual Exercises and the founding of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius’ story, told year after year, might even…

There is a list of Jesuit giants through history you hear over and over. That list starts with Saint Ignatius and his companions, of course, then includes to other Jesuit saints and blesseds to more modern Jesuits who are often called by just one name: Rahner. Hopkins. De Lubac. Teilhard. Arrupe. Dulles. Ellacuria. Bergoglio. And today’s episode is…

A few weeks ago, our guest was the sociologist of religion Tricia Bruce, who talked about what we know about the state of the American Catholic Church today. On this episode, host Mike Jordan Laskey is pursuing the same questions but from a different angle. Our guest is Scott Moringiello, and he’s an associate professor of Catholic Studies at DePau…

In honor of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, we’re thrilled to welcome the swimmer and five-time Olympic medalist Missy Franklin onto the podcast. Maybe you remember Missy taking the Olympics by storm back in 2012 at the age of 17. What you might now know, though, is that Missy was a student at Regis Jesuit High School in Denver, Colorado dur…

Most of our listeners have surely at least heard of Homeboy Industries, which is the largest gang intervention, rehab and re-entry program in the world. Founded in Los Angeles by the Jesuit priest Fr. Greg Boyle in 1988, Homeboy works with about 10,000 former gang members each year in dozens of different ways, from job training to tattoo removal to…

"The Holy Spirit provides." This is one of the central mantras of the Migrant Familia program at Holy Trinity Jesuit Parish. Based in Washington, DC, the parish's Familia provides crucial support to newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers, helping them find housing, apply for work permits, enroll in school, and receive medical care. More than pro…

The internet, wherever we access it, is so much of our lives now. Being online isn’t some alternate reality different from our real lives. The internet is real life. But what is that doing to our brains and our souls? How are the mini computers in our pockets affecting our lives, whether we’re using them for listening to great Jesuit podcasts or mi…

We presume listeners to this podcast are interested in the state of the Catholic Church in North America. But if you stop to think about what you know about the church, or how you think you know what you now, you might realize your picture is incomplete. Maybe we parrot popular talking points about polarization or disaffiliation or frustrations wit…

Of all the saints and heroes of the faith we have in our Catholic tradition, it can be difficult to spiritually connect with martyrs. Maybe that’s part of the point of martyrs, to trouble us a bit in a holy way, to remind us that sometimes faith in Christ can mean literally laying down one’s life for one’s friends. The martyrs invite us to reflect …

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In these conversations, host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. They reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of Jesuit formation, and wrestle with s…

If you’re as interested in Catholicism and the arts as we are here at AMDG, you might also have been excited to see that a new movie about Flannery O’Connor’s writing and life is now playing nationwide. The movie is called “Wildcat,” directed and written by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke, who plays both Flannery and a range of cha…

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In these conversations, host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. They reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of Jesuit formation, and wrestle with s…

It’s graduation season, which means it’s commencement address season. Host Mike Jordan Laskey did a quick Google search for “most common words in graduation speeches,” and the top hit provided this list – which doesn’t include prepositions or other super-common words:1. Life2. Make3. People4. World5. Yourself6. Success7. Generation8. HumanThere are…

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In these conversations, host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. They reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of Jesuit formation, and wrestle with s…

This year marks 10 years since Fr. Paul Shelton, SJ, was ordained a priest. As a result, he's been feeling a bit reflective, nostalgic even. He's been thinking about the very first Mass he ever celebrated.But not for the reason you think.Today's episode of "AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast" is a fun one. In it, we hear from a variety of voices, a variety of …

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In these conversations, host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. They reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of Jesuit formation, and wrestle with s…

If you made a list of the best things about the Catholic Church in the United States, Catholic Charities USA would be in that list’s very top tier. A network of 168 local agencies based in dioceses throughout the country, Catholic Charities served more than 15 million of our at-risk neighbors last year alone. They serve people without homes, those …

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States in which host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for priestly ordination. Hear Jesuits reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of formation, all while wrestling with some of the bigge…

In 60-plus years of life, Reynaldo Domínguez has never heard someone say, "I live without water and I live in peace." Water is fundamental to a healthy and peaceful life, he says. Yet for Reynaldo and his community in Guapinol, Honduras, access to clean water has become a deadly fight that has killed two of his brothers and sent him and his family …

En más de 60 años de vida, Reynaldo Domínguez nunca ha oído a nadie decir: "Vivo sin agua y vivo tranquilo". El agua es fundamental para una vida sana y en paz, nos afirma. Sin embargo, para Reynaldo y su comunidad en Guapinol, Honduras, el acceso al agua potable se ha convertido en una lucha mortal que ha matado a dos de sus hermanos y lo ha envia…

The American essayist and novelist Marilynne Robinson may not be Catholic, but her writing reveals a deeply sacramental imagination. Through five books of fiction and dozens of essays, Robinson trains her readers in the art of spiritual attention. Where is God’s grace operating in nature and in the ordinary ways humans love, disappoint and forgive …

In honor of National Poetry Month - which is currently underway during April 2024 - author and editor Gary Jansen returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, "Meditations at Midnight: Poetry and Prose."Gary lives at the intersection of faith and art. He’s worked in publishing a long time—both at secular publishing houses editing Catholic …

You might be familiar with the American Catholic novelist, Flannery O’Connor. You might have read her short stories in a class, maybe “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” or “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” to name a few. You might have even read one of her novels, an essay or two or some of her letters. You might know that she spent much of her rela…

There’s an old saying in Jesuit circles: If you’ve met one Jesuit, you’ve met one Jesuit. A fun list to make is all the different careers guys had before joining the Society of Jesus. We have actors and comedians, doctors and lawyers, astronomers and one former lieutenant governor. Shane Liesegang, SJ, today’s guest, is the only Jesuit host Mike Jo…

Fr. John P. Foley, SJ, spent 34 years as a missionary in Peru -- a full career in most lines of work. But then, in 1995, he was missioned back to the United States to start a high school for Latino students from low-income backgrounds in Chicago. Despite immense challenges -- like not knowing where the school would be even at the press conference a…

While Fr. Daniel Hendrickson, SJ, president of Creighton University, is excited for both his women's and men's basketball teams' March Madness journeys, today’s episode isn’t about basketball at all. (Well, it makes an appearance for a couple minutes at the end.) It’s about the roles of Jesuit colleges and universities in our world today.Host Mike …

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 a…

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 b…

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 o…

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…

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 …