Today on the podcast we take a moment to reflect on the impact that we, as Catholics, can have for our climate and our world today. With the upcoming Earth Day celebration, as well as Pope Francis’s recent encyclical, Laudato Sí, we reached out to our friends at the Catholic Climate Covenant to discuss the responsibility that we, as Catholics, have to the care of our earth. Where does care for creation lie within the Church’s Catholic social teaching? What can we do to raise awareness?

Jose Aguto was kind enough to sit down and discuss all of these things with me today. Jose is the Associate Director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC that seeks to care for both creation and the poor.

Lastly, please note that this interview was made into a video podcast as well! You can watch the video version of this episode, including a slide show presented by Jose. The video version of this episode can be found on NPM’s YouTube channel, NPM Livestream, and can also be found here in the “show notes” of this episode.

It’s Monday of Holy Week. And we know that for most of our listeners, this means that we have a long week ahead of us.

For many of us, our music is (mostly) prepared at this point, all of the liturgy committee meetings are done, and Victimae Paschali Laudes is practiced and ready. And yet, there are still things to do.

Where are we, ourselves, on our own to-do lists? Have we devoted enough time to prepare, spiritually, for our Triduum journey this week?

I asked Mary Birmingham to share some thoughts about how we, as pastoral ministers, can slow down at the beginning of this holiest of weeks and meditate on the journey ahead.

We continue to celebrate Women’s History Month in the many ways that we, as women, serve the Catholic Church. We’ve been highlighting Women’s History Month on our website, and we encourage you to check out npm.org for more resources. We’ve also made a Youtube playlist of videos highlighting women in their strength, their resilience and their faith. Our YouTube channel, and all of the playlists we create, can be found at npm.org, so go and check it out!

Today I speak with Holly Mohr, Director of Religious Education at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Holly draws strength and inspiration from those who were empowered to do God's will in the church during their time. Holly shares her reflections about four women she is most inspired by in the Church: Mary Magdalene, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich and Dorothy Day. As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, it’s a great conversation to have.