Catholic Podcasts to Enrich the Vocation to Marriage
/MAGGIE STRICKLAND
I was first introduced to podcasts as a newlywed, when we moved away from family for my husband’s job and entered a season of regular road trips up and down the East Coast. I was hooked and have since curated a selection of favorite shows that I’ve listened to during various stages of our marriage.
I’ve listened as I drove through the Pennsylvania countryside for a volunteer job, as I waited throughout the long weeks of pregnancy to meet our son, and, now, as my toddler and I run errands in the car and do chores at home. I’ve chosen a few of my favorite, can’t-miss-a-new-episode shows for the next time you want some accompaniment in your day.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MADELEINE DEIGHAN PHOTOGRPAHY
Hobo for Christ
Whenever I’m in need of a boost in my spiritual life, I turn to Meg Hunter-Kilmer’s podcast. Meg is a former high school theology teacher turned hobo missionary, as she describes herself, who travels the world speaking about the Father’s love.
Her podcast consists mainly of recorded talks, as well as some interviews during her travels, but everything revolves around the central message of Divine love. The archives are full of gems, like her saint stories for kids and topics like how your personality type can inform your prayer life, all of which will encourage you in your pursuit of holiness through your vocation to marriage.
One of my all-time favorite talks is Some are Teresa, because often we need reminders that authentic, faithful Catholic womanhood doesn’t look the same for everyone. It’s especially easy during engagement and early in marriage to compare ourselves, our spouses, and our marriages to the marriages we see in our extended families, our parish family, and on social media, but God doesn’t call us to be carbon copies of somebody else. Meg provides examples of holy women throughout the centuries whose diversity of experience and calling can inspire us to holiness right where we are.
Meg publishes new episodes sporadically, but she has been uploading them since 2015, so there are plenty of episodes in the archives.
Risking Enchantment
This podcast is, to quote the show’s introduction, “a podcast about art, beauty, and the Catholic faith,” hosted by Rachel Sherlock and a variety of guests from Rachel’s Dublin apartment.
This podcast is a particular joy for me, a former English major, because of the way Rachel and her guests see reflections of Catholicism in beauty of all kinds. Whether they are discussing the hidden Catholic elements in Vermeer’s art, or the Catholic understanding of people that makes a good detective story, they have a keen ability to find the truths of Catholicism embedded in the world around them, which helps me be more attuned to find and create beauty for my family.
While a podcast episode about World War I might seem like a strange topic to suggest to a bride-to-be or newlywed, I highly recommend the episode Green Gables and the Great War.
Rachel and her friend Phoebe Watson (yes, Sherlock and Watson, although I don’t believe they solve mysteries) discuss Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novel Rilla of Ingleside and how doing one’s duty in challenging circumstances takes a particular kind of moral courage, which is also needed in marriage. Especially when the necessary day-to-day tasks of my life seem unpleasant or unwanted, Montgomery’s story of people who do their duty, no matter how difficult, out of love, inspires me to do better—much like St. Therese’s Little Way.
Risking Enchantment usually has 2 new episodes per month, but they are worth the wait.
American Catholic History
Despite the fact that I attended a Catholic high school, most of what I knew about the Church in America was pretty limited: I knew of a few American saints, that Maryland was founded as a haven for English Catholics, and that Spanish missionaries built the famous California missions.
Through this short podcast, hosted by husband and wife Tom and Noelle Crowe, I’ve been introduced to a treasury of people and places in the Church’s history: people completely new to me, like Daniel Rudd, a black Catholic journalist; people I knew, but didn’t know were Catholic, like Babe Ruth; and places I’d never heard of, like Mount St. Macrina, a pilgrimage site in western Pennsylvania that’s home to an order of Byzantine sisters.
A few of the Crowes’ podcasts have been about American saints-in-the-making, including Servant of God Julia Greeley, who, after entering the Church in 1880, tirelessly helped the people of Denver, Colorado, often at night so they wouldn’t be embarrassed about receiving charity from a black woman. Although she never married, her story is a beautiful reminder to married couples that holiness can be found in the small or unacknowledged things we do for each other
American Catholic History has been published weekly since June 2019.
I hope that these podcast suggestions are helpful, whether you want to grow in your spiritual life, learn to see beauty in unlikely places, or learn more about the history of the Church in America. If you’re looking for more podcast ideas, Features Editor Mariah Maza has shared a list of her favorites as well. Happy listening!
About the Author: Maggie Strickland has loved reading and writing stories since her earliest memory. An English teacher by training and an avid reader by avocation, she now spends her days homemaking, chasing her toddler son, and reading during naptime. She and her husband are originally from the Carolinas, but now make their home in Birmingham, Alabama.