Ave Explores

Welcoming Jesus Into Your Family Life with Emily Jaminet

September 9th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  45 mins 16 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholicism, enthronement, faith, family, family life, sacred heart of jesus

Emily Jaminet is a Catholic author, speaker, mother of seven, and the executive director of the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network. She talks with host Katie Prejean McGrady about how family prayer and welcoming Jesus into your home can transform your family dynamic. Jaminet also explains how the ability to pivot in the midst of life’s changes is a mother’s greatest strength. When a mother is centered in prayer, she’s able to change course with grace and patience, Jaminet says.

Fruitfulness & Infertility with Timothy P. O'Malley

September 4th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  39 mins 21 secs

adoption, ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family, catholicism, faith, family life, infertility

Timothy P. O’Malley, director of McGrath Theology Online at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, talks with host Katie Prejean McGrady about he and his wife Kara’s struggle with infertility. A professor who also teaches a course on marriage, O’Malley offers insights into discernment and dating for young adults, and ways that we can encourage prayer as a family.

Forming Families & Finding Joy with Marcia Lane McGee

September 2nd, 2020  |  Season 6  |  54 mins 52 secs

adoption, ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family life, catholicism, family, family life, foster family, infertility, single life

Marcia Lane McGee is a birth mother with an open adoption and a foster mom who lives with six teenage boys at the Mooseheart Home near Chicago. She tells host Katie Prejean McGrady that we are all called to creatively foster family life based on our unique state of life and vocation. Lane McGee also explains how we must invest in people, even when they are at their worst, to help them find joy and to lead them to a fullness of love in Christ.

Heroic & Empathetic Fatherood with Brian Greenfield

August 28th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  50 mins 56 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family life, catholicism, fatherhood

Catholic speaker Brian Greenfield talks with host Katie Prejean McGrady about a father’s role as provider and protector, and as an affirming, empathetic, healing presence in the lives of his wife and children. A theology teacher at an all-boys high school, Greenfield also shares how walking with young people through their wounds and helping them to find peace and love is a key role that all men can play in helping to heal a broken and selfish culture.

Lighting a Fire within your kids with Damon and Melanie Owens

August 26th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  52 mins 40 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family life, catholicism, children, faith, kids, marriage

Damon and Melanie Owens, founders of Joyful Ever After Ministries, talk with host Katie Prejean McGrady about finding healing within a marriage, especially when working through resentment and frustration. The couple also shares about raising their eight children in the faith, ultimately entrusting their hearts to the Lord and his will for their lives. The Owenses also offer insights into the ups and downs of married life, homeschooling, and finding balance at home.

A Twitter Romance & a Covid-19 Wedding with Nick & Riley Sciarappa

August 21st, 2020  |  Season 6  |  54 mins 7 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic, catholicism, covid-19, engagement, faith, family, family life, marriage, pandemic, wedding

Newlyweds Nick and Riley Sciarappa talk with host Katie Prejean McGrady about meeting online and about their lives while dating and discerning marriage and what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown in trust throughout their engagement. The Sciarappas also share what it was like to plan a wedding in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Making Marriage Abundantly Joyful with Jackie Francois Angel & Bobby Angel

August 19th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  59 mins 14 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family life, family, family life, joy, marriage

Jackie Francois Angel and Bobby Angel, authors, speakers, and parents of four, explain to host Katie Prejean McGrady that marriage must be rooted in friendship, attentiveness to the other’s needs, communication, and a dedication to prayer. The Angels say that marriage is meant to be abundantly joyful, established in a love of Christ that flows into family life.

Regroup and Let it Go with Jeannie Gaffigan

August 14th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  56 mins 25 secs

ave maria press, catholic, catholic family life, coronavirus, covid, covid-19, family, gaffigan, jeannie gaffigan, katie prejean mcgrady, pandemic

Jeannie Gaffigan, author of the bestselling When Life Gives You Pears, wife to comedian Jim Gaffigan, and mother of five, talks candidly with host Katie Prejean McGrady about balancing family life, her Catholic faith, and maintaining a sense of sanity and fun in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City. Gaffigan shares practical tips on how Catholic family life can thrive by lowering your expectations and letting stressful things go so you can focus on your family’s health, happiness, and holiness.

Finding Ways to be Generous with Beth and Dr. Edward Sri

August 12th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  54 mins 27 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic family life, catholicism, family life, marriage

Theologian Edward Sri and his wife Beth talk with host Katie Prejean McGrady about how marriage and parenting is meant to be centered in love of God and a couple’s call to mission— to generously love, serve, teach, and proclaim the Gospel. With stories of raising their eight kids (ranging in age from nineteen to four years old), the realities of balancing work, home, and travel, and how to find healing from past wounds, the Sris explain how generosity is the key to thriving within Catholic family life.

Introducing Ave Explores: Catholic Family Life

August 7th, 2020  |  Season 6  |  2 mins 1 sec

Katie Prejean McGrady's parents, Marie & Garland Prejean, introduce the upcoming Ave Explores series on Catholic Family Life

Restoring Justice with F. DeKarlos Blackmon

July 3rd, 2020  |  Season 5  |  44 mins 17 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholic, catholicism, equity, inequality, justice, racism, restorative justice

F. DeKarlos Blackmon, director of the Secretariat for Life, Justice, and Charity in the Diocese of Austin, Texas, explains why people of faith should be concerned with advocating for justice, especially in prison systems and in the ongoing fight against racial inequality.

A Personal Mission Field with Fr. Michael Thomas, C.S.C.

July 1st, 2020  |  Season 5  |  47 mins 19 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, faith in action, holy cross, notre dame

Fr. Michael Thomas, C.S.C., a teacher and campus minister at St. George’s College in Santiago, Chile—a K-12 school apostolate of the U.S. Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross— explains what led him to mission work in Chile. Thomas says that much of our mission work will occur within our own families, workplaces, and parishes.

Using Our Gifts to Help Those in Need with Steve Camilleri

June 26th, 2020  |  Season 5  |  39 mins 49 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholicism, faith in action, homelessness

Steve Camilleri, executive director of the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, Indiana, explains how each of us are called to use our gifts to help those who need food, shelter, clothing, and financial assistance, not only tangibly, but also by loving and engaging them.

Defending Life with Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei, S.V.

June 24th, 2020  |  Season 5  |  43 mins 20 secs

ave explores, ave maria press, catholicism, life, pro-life, sisters of life

Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei., S.V., joined the Sisters of Life thirteen years ago, choosing the order because of its charism to protect and defend life. She shares how advocating life is not so much being “against” something, but being “for” the goodness of life.

Bringing Hope to At-Risk Youth with Kris Frank

June 17th, 2020  |  Season 5  |  45 mins 53 secs

at-risk youth, ave maria press, catholicism, faith, faith in action, hope, inner-city ministry, vagabond missions

Kris Frank, vice president of Vagabond Missions, shares how the Steubenville, Ohio, ministry expanded across the country by focusing on sharing the Gospel with at-risk, inner-city youth, helping them break the cycle of abandonment and hopelessness.

Ending Racism in America with Fr. Joshua Johnson and Sr. Josephine Garrett, C.S.F.N.

June 12th, 2020  |  Season 5  |  1 hr 10 mins

ave maria press, catholic, catholicism, change, faith in action, inequality, injustice, justice, racism, social justice, work

Fr. Joshua Johnson and Sr. Josephine Garrett, C.S.F.N., share their experiences as black Catholics, discuss why racism is sinful, and explore how Catholics are called to advocate for change.