Messy Family Podcast : Catholic conversations on marriage and family

One blessing of having 10 kids is that we have matured and learned enough about kids to appreciate the toddler years of children #9 and 10 much more than those years with children #1 and 2. Our advice to parents of toddlers is to start by enjoying them. Its hard to do when they are destroying your house and embarrassing you in public, but with a few strategies and consistency on your part, you can begin to see that this little bundle of creative energy has been amazingly designed by the Divine Creator. It’s all part of His plan to get this child to adulthood and independence, and to get you to heaven!

“It is in the family that young people have their first experience of Gospel values and of the love which gives itself to God and to others.” ~ St. John Paul the Great As Catholic families, we want our children to be open to the call to priesthood or religious life, but how do we do that in a practical way? Where does this call come from? How can we support our children in responding to that call? Ultimately, the answer comes down to teaching our children to love and know Jesus, because the path ahead of them can only be walked with His help. In this podcast, Father Joe Doman, Alicia’s younger brother, shares his vocation story and insights into how the laity can foster vocations. We also discuss how to support the priests who care for us in our parishes.

“Wine is a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” ~Ben Franklin God could have made food boring, dull, and simply to sustain us. But He didn’t. He made food good! Added with human creativity and work, food becomes a sign of love to our families. Parents work to buy food, prepare food, and serve food to nourish their children. It’s amazing how much work goes into just feeding people! In this podcast we talk about feeding babies, the kind of food we give our kids, our perspective on organic and non-GMO foods, and why we think its important to consider your philosophy of food that you are passing on to your kids. Additional Resources: * Grace Before Meals (Fr. Leo is awesome!) * The Catholic Table (great book and blog!) * Once a Month Cooking (Cook book)

“More than ever necessary in our times is preparation of young people for marriage and family life.” – St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio Preparing for a wedding can be a whirl of appointments, deposits, planning, decision-making, “Pintresting”, and, sometimes, drama. But the wedding is just a day, marriage is a life time. Preparing for marriage is a very serious and important task for any couple. Marriage is naturally fraught with difficulties, and in our culture today that is especially true. There is little support for faithful marriage and many of us come from families who have given us poor examples of what a healthy marriage should look like. In this podcast we give some topics that couples really need to discuss as well as some of our own insights of how to renew the sacrament of marriage in our church. Some Resources Mentioned: * Catholic Bishops on Marriage * Fr. John Riccardo – Biblical Vision for Marriage Pt 1(iTunes) * Beloved DVD Series

  “The future of evangelization depends in great part on the Church of the home [the family].” – St. John Paul II The deepest desire for many of us as parents is to pass on the faith to our children. According to many statistics upwards of two-thirds of young people are leaving the faith. so its obvious that most parents are facing an uphill battle. Parents must be intentional about the evangelization of their children. What is the secret formula for success? What does it look like to be an evangelizing parent? In this podcast, we share the TOP FIVE WAYS to evangelize your kids. Gain some insight, spark a conversation, and go deeper in the work of evangelization. Listen in and share your ideas.

“Once you’re a parent, your relationship matters more, not less, because now other people are counting on you.” ~ TheDatingDivas.com Marriage is under attack, but many times the attack is not direct and aggressive. Instead, it is slow and subtle – couples simply drift apart. How do we keep this from happening in our marriages? In this podcast we give 5 ways to keep your love alive in your relationship. We must continue to pursue and discover our spouse, no matter how long you have been married or how well you know each other. During this episode we also share a new and exciting way that our listeners can help us spread this ministry of Messy Parenting. Listen in! Consider sponsoring the podcast

This is part two of our podcast on teenagers. There are few tasks in parenting that can be as rewarding but also as challenging as disciplining sons and daughters who are moving from childhood to adulthood – otherwise known as teenagers. This is an important time of transition for them, and it is a time of transition for parents as well. Old ways of communicating and protecting them will not be as effective as they were. Some families breeze through this time, while it takes a heavy toll on others. In this podcast, we would like to give some foundational principles that we have found very helpful in discipling, not just disciplining, children who are going through this amazing and critical transformation in their lives. This podcast had so much information in it, that we decided to break it up into 2 parts.

Don’t throw away your friendship with your teenager over behavior that has no great moral significance. There will be plenty of real issues that require you to stand like a rock. Save your big guns for those crucial confrontations. ~Dr. James Dobson There are few tasks in parenting that can be as rewarding but also as challenging as disciplining sons and daughters who are moving from childhood to adulthood – otherwise known as teenagers. This is an important time of transition for them, and it is a time of transition for parents as well. Old ways of communicating and protecting them will not be as effective as they were. Some families breeze through this time, while it takes a heavy toll on others. In this podcast, we would like to give some foundational principles that we have found very helpful in discipling, not just disciplining, children who are going through this amazing and critical transformation in their lives. This podcast had so much information in it, that we decided to break it up into 2 parts. The second part will be out next week.

“Father Mike Scanlan was a priest of the New Evangelization before there was a New Evangelization,” ~ George Weigel Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, impacted many lives with the saving message of Jesus Christ. He was a friar, priest, preacher, teacher, healer, president, but to us he was our spiritual father. In this podcast we take some time to reflect on the lessons that we have learned from this man that we would like to share and continue to make real in our lives. We know you will benefit in hearing about this great man because he taught us both how to love Jesus, in a deep, real, intimate way. We hope we can honor his legacy by continuing to proclaim the gospel in the best way we know how- by sharing these stories with you. The debt we owe him is beyond all measure. Thank you Jesus for this gift, this privilege, this humble friar who has changed our life for all eternity.  #FatherMike For more information, videos and more on Fr. Mike: www.franciscan.edu/FatherMike/  

“Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately. But then we are so made that we can see only the present moment. If we could see the past, then of course it would look different. For there was a time when every man was part of his mother, and (earlier still) part of his father as well, and when they were part of his grandparents. If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing–rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other.” ― C.S. Lewis We all come from somewhere. We are part of the human family, but also we are part of a particular family with a history. So many of us, especially Americans, have lost the appreciation for our family tree that we should have. It’s important that we know where we come from, so we can pass that on to our children and to future generations. In this podcast we talk not only about ancestry and the importance of knowing it, but also of keeping connections with extended family and keeping our own family history through videos, keepsakes, and photos. All of these things are important in keeping us grounded in our place in history. Catholic tangent from show: I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!

“In children we have a great charge committed to us. Let us bestow great care upon them…Form the soul of thy son aright, and all the rest will be added hereafter.” —St. John Chrysostom We are so grateful for all the people who have emailed us encouraging words and stories of how these podcasts have touched their lives. We are MOST grateful for those people who email us questions, because we can use them as topics for our podcasts! Thank you for trusting us enough to ask for our help. In this episode we take some time to answer questions and give encouragement to those who have asked us about issues like teaching gratefulness, getting kids to sleep, and tithing. Keep those questions coming!

“Harboring unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die” Unforgiveness destroys marriages, relationships, families, and communities, but forgiveness is the most powerful weapon we have as Christians. When we forgive, with the grace of God, we are free from the power that any person and their actions have over us. Sometimes forgiveness seems impossible, and if it is dependent on us, then it would be, but we are not alone. Listen in as we talk about what it means to forgive and how to do it.

The birth of Jesus brings us the good news that we are loved immensely and uniquely by God – Pope Francis The Advent season is more than just a countdown to Christmas. It is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ –  His coming at Christmas and His second coming. The Church gives us many beautiful traditions to help us lead our children to focus on more than just presents and treats, but instead on the true celebration of the gift of Jesus! In this podcast we share some ideas and inspiration on what we do for Advent and how to inspire your family in this journey to Bethlehem. Previous podcasts of interest: * MP 036 : Holidays with In-laws and Out-laws * MP 021 : Visiting Family

“I don’t know what’s more exhausting about parenting: the getting up early, or acting like you know what you’re doing.” ~ Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat Babies are a joy. People will tell you that no one can describe what its like to be a parent and they are right! Parenthood is something that has to be experienced because you can’t explain it. God has this amazing way of combining an experience that is exciting, frustrating, amazing, and discouraging all at once. He does all this to form us into who He wants us to be which is the best version of ourselves. In this podcast we offer some encouragement, a dose of realism, and of course, practical advice in navigating the transition of being a married couple, to being parents.

Warning! Political Talk Ahead! “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” ~ Edmund Burke This election is a difficult one for many reasons. What is a good Catholic to do? Over the years, Mike has been involved in politics on the local, state, and federal level. He has had time to think and pray about some principles that apply to this election in America, but also to elections in other countries and at other times. We think you will find this advice practical and helpful as we navigate these muddy waters in our election this year.