AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

There is a new book out from Ave Maria Press. It’s called “A Book of Everyday Blessings”—and today’s host, Eric Clayton, was eager to get his hands on it. He knew this would be one of those books to reach for time and again to begin a meeting, to ground a retreat, to start moments of personal prayer. It’s just full of beautiful, nuanced and poignant blessings for every moment of life.

Eric was so excited about it that he wanted to learn more about the author, Christine Valters Paintner. In his research, he discovered that she is the online abbess for the Abbey of the Arts. He poked around the website, abbeyofthearts.com, and found in so many ways the workings of a kindred spirit. Here was someone—a whole community of someones—who cared deeply about the intersection of creativity and spirituality. But where we at the Jesuit Media Lab approach these questions through the lens of the Ignatian tradition, the Abbey of the Arts and its abbess, Christine Paintner, approach these questions and the journey they beget through the monastic tradition.

Eric knew he had to talk to her. And in reaching out, he came to learn that—not only is she Jesuit educated, with degrees from Fordham and Santa Clara, among many other credentials—but she has written a library worth of books including, “The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom.”

They had a really delightful conversation. For those of you who—like all of us at the Jesuit Media Lab—live at this intersection of creativity and spirituality, we believe you’ll find the integration of another spiritual tradition helpful.

Abbey of the Arts: https://abbeyofthearts.com/
A Book of Everyday Blessings: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/a-book-of-everyday-blessings
The Artist’s Rule: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/The-Artists-Rule

Friendship is not accidental in Jesuit life; it’s foundational. Fr. Eric and Fr. Damian reflect on trust, vulnerability and the risk of being known, and how real friendship shapes ministry and discipleship. Grounded in Jesus’ own invitation to friendship, this conversation explores how human relationships can quietly mirror divine love.

About the show:

Two Jesuits Talking is a Catholic podcast hosted by Fr. Eric Immel, SJ, and Fr. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ. Through candid, unscripted conversations, they explore Ignatian spirituality, Catholic life, ministry, culture, prayer and the everyday questions that shape modern faith.

This isn’t a lecture. It’s not a debate show. It’s two Jesuit priests talking honestly about what it means to follow Jesus today, with humor, depth and real friendship.

Whether you're a practicing Catholic, spiritually curious, returning to the Church, or just interested in authentic conversations about faith, you're welcome here.

During Lent, Two Jesuits Talking episodes will appear here on the AMDG feed every Saturday. After Easter, we'll move the show onto its own dedicated feed.

You can also watch episodes of the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/societyofjesus

Two Jesuits Talking is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Learn more: jesuitmedialab.org/

With more than 120 Jesuit high schools and universities in the US and Canada, it’s no surprise education is what the Society of Jesus is best known for in our part of the world. And listeners to AMDG might be familiar with newer educational initiatives that have Jesuit roots, like the Cristo Rey Network of high schools or MiguelNativity presecondary schools or the relatively new handful of two-year colleges growing out of Jesuit universities. These last three initiatives were designed to serve students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

If you head to Central and South America, you’ll find yet another innovative Jesuit-rooted approach to education that has been growing and transforming lives for more than 70 years: Fe y Alegría, which is Spanish for Faith and Joy, is an international education movement that was founded in Caracas, Venezuela in 1955 by a Jesuit named Fr. José María Vélaz. Today, the network is working in more than 20 countries in Latin America, Africa and Europe, and its mission is to provide quality education to people living in poverty and on the margins. Fe y Alegría serves well over a million students through schools, vocational training programs, and community education initiatives, all rooted in a commitment to human dignity.

Fr. Marco Gómez, SJ, is the national director of Fe y Alegria in Panama. He joined host Mike Jordan Laskey for an interview during a recent speaking tour of the United States. Fr. Marco talked about his background and the important work Fe y Alegría is doing in Panama, where it is serving young people who are facing extremely difficult living situations. As American foreign and domestic policy decisions can have an impact on the lives of our neighbors here in this hemisphere, especially those who are already struggling with poverty and violence, we hope you’ll find it both enlightening and challenging to hear Fr. Marco’s perspective from his vantage point in Central America. And we hope you’ll learn that Fe y Alegría movement is doing work all Jesuits and Catholics should be proud of, no matter where you live in the world.

Fe y Alegría: https://www.feyalegria.org/en/home-fya-international/

AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

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Every life has a soundtrack. Fathers Eric and Damian swap stories about the music that formed them, the songs that carried faith, doubt, longing and joy. Along the way, they wrestle with sacred versus secular, passive listening versus real attention, and why music so often becomes prayer before we even realize it.

About the show:

Two Jesuits Talking is a Catholic podcast hosted by Fr. Eric Immel, SJ, and Fr. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ. Through candid, unscripted conversations, they explore Ignatian spirituality, Catholic life, ministry, culture, prayer and the everyday questions that shape modern faith.

This isn’t a lecture. It’s not a debate show. It’s two Jesuit priests talking honestly about what it means to follow Jesus today, with humor, depth and real friendship.

Whether you're a practicing Catholic, spiritually curious, returning to the Church, or just interested in authentic conversations about faith, you're welcome here.

During Lent, Two Jesuits Talking episodes will appear here on the AMDG feed every Saturday. After Easter, we'll move the show onto its own dedicated feed.

You can also watch episodes of the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/societyofjesus

Two Jesuits Talking is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Learn more: https://jesuitmedialab.org/

There’s a stereotype out there that Catholics don’t know much if anything about the Bible. If you have a question about a specific book or verse from Scripture, better to ask a Protestant.

Why is this a stereotype? And is it a fair one? Or do those of us who are Catholics perhaps know more about the Bible than we think we do? These are some of the questions at the heart of Michael Peppard’s book “How Catholics Encounter the Bible,” which was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. Michael is a professor of theology at Fordham University, and this book is a true joy to read – host Mike Jordan Laskey learned something on almost every page. It’s scholarly but also incredibly readable for non-experts. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael and Mike talked about the lectionary, early Christian sculpture, Bruce Springsteen and so much more.

To go along with the episode, we’re running an excerpt of the book about the Biblical imagination found in the rosary and in St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises up at Jesuits.org. So after you listen, head to https://www.jesuits.org/stories/what-the-rosary-and-st-ignatius-spiritual-exercises-have-in-common/ to read the excerpt.

Dr. Michael Peppard: https://www.profpeppard.com/

“How Catholics Encounter the Bible”: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-catholics-encounter-the-bible-9780190948696?cc=us&lang=en&#

AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project 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/