SPO Ohio Formation Community: Recent Episodes
SPO Ohio
Providing content for the Formation Community at Ohio State University and Ohio Dominican University
Noah speaks to us about how to prepare well for Fan into Flame Spiritually and as a community
Olivia shares the vision for the SPO Formation community - these college years are the training grounds for the rest of our lives. She shares what kinds of elements we'll engage in the process and some helpful dispositions to maintain along the way.
Audio Block Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more Joe Dunlevy talk to us about how we can approach the emotions of fear and anger through a Christ-like perspective. He shares how we don’t have to live in fear but can actually live new life in Christ.
Joe and Amanda Dunlevy share with us how to not fall into the vicious cycle of letting shame, sadness, and despair rule our lives. They discuss how circumstances affect our emotions and how to turn to the Lord in difficult times as opposed to the enemy who brings shame into our lives.
The lecturer, Fr. William Slattery, an epistemologist by PhD, will present where “ultramodern Catholicism” – classic Catholicism liberated from the quarantined ghetto it has lived in since the Enlightenment - fits on the map of contemporary reality. We live in an epoch where Modernity as a worldview is crashing down around us. Many of the basic ideas that have been around for centuries and around which generations have based their lives are either being rejected, revised, or enlarged. His conviction is that ultramodern Catholicism provides a new worldview for a new culture and lifestyle that finds support from the philosophical implications of quantum physics and from the insights of postmodern critics of society whether right wing or left wing.
Mitch talks to us about what it means to live the Christian life with joy as the default. He discusses what joy is and how we can implement this as a foundational way in which we operate as sons and daughters of God.
John talks to us about how we need the Holy Spirit to lead in our lives. He discusses how we must not live through a spirit of lawfulness but out of a spirit of belief. The Holy Spirit does not come to us because of the things that we do but because of our faith.
Kara Day speaks to us about what it means to fight for unity among the many complicated situations that arise when living in committed community chasing after the Lord. She explains how to live supporting each other through actions like reconciling relationships, having proper obedience to authority, and building relationship in community.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Emily talks to us about the responsibility we have as Christians to love one another. She details what it means to show honor and respect for one another and why this is pivotal to our growth as mature Christians.
John explores our inability to create a plan to love God through our own efforts. If we are in control of our life, God isn’t. So we turn our attention to who the Holy Spirit is and his role in transforming our hearts to love God with his very own love. We end with the story of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al seeking to stack up dry wood for the Lord in order for his fire to fall on our lives.
John Mullen talks to us about what it means to surrender our lives to God. He shares that the act of surrender paradoxically must be united with effort and explores what that looks like in the context of our lives.
We explore how we can mishear what the Father is saying to us, and unknowingly carry burdens we are not meant to carry. When we get the Father wrong, we fall into a caricature of the Christian life called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. God's love is the source of the entire Christian life and the source of our good actions.
John speaks about knowing who the Father is. He discusses how this is the entire foundation for this new course and for our pursuit of deeper Christian formation.
Andrew and Carmen Kebe give helpful tips and guidelines for dating and marriage while also giving reason for why the vocation of marriage is beautiful and necessary but also hard. They dig into their story of dating and married life and share the reality behind what it means to enter into the vocation of marriage.
John gives a talk about good guidelines and dispositions for discernment. He shares that ultimately we must choose to surrender our plans to God knowing that His ways are higher.
Emily talks about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in preparation for FiF 23. She goes over the different gifts and what it means to receive gifts along with what it does to the greater body of Christ.
Michael gives an exhortation about baptism in the Holy Spirit. John then gives a more extensive talk on relationship with the Holy Spirit and baptism of the Holy Spirit in preparation for FiF.
Tim dives into how to approach finances with a mindset of surrender, recognizing that everything we have comes from the Lord.
In this talk we dive into how the worldly impact of media has shaped our lives (time, finances, desires, values, relationships) while seeking to establish a Christian approach to media (limited, selective, purposeful). We also touch on the place the Sabbath commandment has in the life of the Christian people while seeking understanding in how to to keep it well. The overall goal is to provide us with a positive vision for a personal approach to leisure and building our way of life together through leisure.
In this talk we dive into Ephesians Chapter 4 to consider the "Rules for Living a New Life". Paul begs us to lead a life worthy of the call we have received, because we have every spiritual blessing we need in order to do so, and we are members of one another. Living this way of life has been made possible through Christ Jesus. Signs of a healthy body include growth and renewal. We consider a few practical ways in which the Holy Spirit might be inviting us to grow or be renewed in such as emotions, speech, and generosity.
The holy calling of God for us in Jesus Christ is one that completely reshapes our lives: both our identity and our purpose are fundamentally changed by the work of God in us. The message that runs throughout the Scripture is that we can become such people: we can live lives marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, because the gift of the Spirit makes such a life possible for us if we find our identity in God and cooperate with his purposes
It is good for a community to have norms so that we can all move in the same direction with power and make a lasting, positive impact. Emily closes out the Christian Personal Relationships Course by diving into ways to preserve a culture of honor and respect.
Andrew continues the CPR Course with this talk on reconciling relationships. He encourages us to have mercy and beg the Lord for the gift of perfect love, and he gives practical wisdom for reconciling relationships.
Anna continues our course on Christian Personal Relationships by diving into Right Speech.
John introduces the CPR Course, encouraging us to reorient our lives so that we live for God, others, and then ourselves.
Jazlyn continues FIF Prep, discussing how when we receive the Holy Spirit, we are encountering the Father’s love for us.
Michael leads us in a time of preparation for Fan into Flame, focusing on the gift of Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Mitch talks about how our identity impacts our worldview, which affects the way we live out our call to mission on the front lines.
Tim continued the Christian Personal Relationships Course by talking about the importance of repairing wrongdoing in relationships. He touched on how it affects our relationship with the Father, the other person and others beyond that.
Sarah continued the course on Christian Personal Relationships by looking at how the world lives out relationships and how we as Christians were made for relationships and called to a higher way of relating. We find life by giving it away like Christ himself did.
Emily Bauer kicked off our Who Are WE Course by diving into worship. Emily highlights that we are made to worship decisively using our words, actions, and our hearts.
John kicks off this year’s Formation course on Christian Personal Relationships and dives into the topic of Prayer.
Doug Russell speaks to the men’s community about viewing desire through a Christian perspective.
Angelo shares the importance of living out of our identity as sons and daughters of the Father and having an experiential relationship with Him. Only then can we live out our purpose in answering the call to build the Kingdom.
Jazlyn shares how God has Abundance for us, but we need to be ready to receive abundance. Often times this means we need to surrender and remove obstacles in order to be ready to receive what God has for us.
Michael recaps what the Lord has been speaking to our community this semester and invites us to enter into what the Lord is laying before us and step out in trust as we invite others to Fan into Flame
In the final course of the semester, Sarah discusses charismatic spirituality, and how living a life in the spirit helps us in our daily walk to live as more effective Christians.
Fr. Komo preaches on God’s will to transform us in Christ and provides practical guidance on keys in the spiritual life.
Anna concludes our 3 Dimensional Christian course with what it means to be on mission and how we can be on mission each day.
Emily discusses how we enter into the greater promise of the Lord by entering into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Carol speaks to the women about the spiritual battleground Christ came to conquer in our lives. Part of a two part series.
John speaks to the men about the spiritual battleground Christ came to conquer in our lives. Part of a two part series.
Tim encourages the community that what the world wants most, we do best: community. With a fun activity, Tim shows that longevity in the Christian life is not just hearing a good talk, or having a good mentor, but consistent loyalty over a period of time.
God has not been speaking and working randomly in our community. He has more for us. John invites us to respond in faith to take God at His Word.
Intimacy with the Lord leads to an integrated Christian life. Intimacy without integration is a hookup, not a relationship. Holiness doesn’t come when all the right things fall into order, those things fall into order when holiness comes, and holiness come through intimacy.
One thing that Jesus has promised us is His joy. Emily invites us to open our hands and surrender what is keeping us from receiving the Kingdom joy that Jesus is offering. Having done so, everything He gives then becomes our joy.
Without a greater promise for our lives, we will retreat into preservation mode for our lives. The greater promise is THE Promise, Jesus Himself. This semester, we are running toward knowledge of the LORD through listening to His Word, moving toward faith that amazes Jesus, like the centurion in Matthew 8, and becoming into true disciples who lower our nets and obey Jesus.
Challenge: Read a chapter from the Gospel of Matthew each day, ask the Lord what He is saying to you through that passage, and then do what He says.
Fr. Frank Lane teaches about prayer as growing in knowledge of God through loving friendship with Christ
Casting vision for this year of Formation, focusing on us being a part of a movement and how we are to hear the right story (God's story) and to play the right game (live how Jesus lives)
Sarah talks about the end goal of formation as empowering us to be lifelong disciples well-beyond college.
John shared about the role of our emotions in Relational Evangelization and being a Community on Mission.
A panel of recent SPO graduates provides encouragement and advice for the transition after college.
Blake and Lauren provide vision for a Summer that is rooted in the foundations for living we've been laying in Formation.
Anna speaks to the ODU Formation Community about Christian maturity. She speaks truth about what maturity is, the obstacles we face to growth in maturity, and the approach we can take.
Matthew speaks about the gift of prophecy to help us understand how it can be used today, and practicals for stepping into it and using it in love. Then Leah shares how she received a prophetic word.
Tim speaks about being a transformational people called to share the gospel by living deep relationship one person at a time.
Michael and Jazlyn break open what it means to be a prophet with tangible applications to daily life, and give us a chance to activate this gift.
Sarah spoke on how our emotions are given to us by God but can at times come in the way of our walk of holiness. As a community, we have been given by God the gifts of whole hearted worship and renewal in the Holy Spirit to aid us in rightly ordering our emotions.
Katie re-convicts us of the root of all mission: that it begins with and flows from a life-changing encounter with God. She challenges us to go back to the roots of the joy of the gospel.
Ethan and Carol speak about the fundamental roots of fragmented brotherhood for men and sisterhood for women as continuing the sin of Cain against Abel. From here, SPO calls men and women to live as sons and daughters of God, granting a radically new experience of brotherhood and sisterhood to become a light to the nations.
Tim introduces us to the emotions course for this semester, a place for us understand our emotions in the context our our lives so that we may be transformed by God to desire the good so that we would live our Christian life to the fullest.
In further preparation for the upcoming Fan into Flame retreat, John speaks about what it means to be a builder in God’s kingdom, exhorts us in choosing God’s kingdom over our own, and how we can step in to the spiritual gifts that the Lord equips us with for the sake of his kingdom.
John speaks about the founding of SPO as fundamentally a movement of the Holy Spirit, and that our life in the Spirit is the core of who we are today. In preparation for Fan Into Flame, John teaches us about baptism in the Holy Spirit, and how it can unleash the power of God.
Anna talks about the importance of choosing to use media with a limited, selective and purposeful approach.
Michael exhorts the community about giving al of their lives to the Lord for the rest of their lives, and gives us context for the wholeness of our course this semester.
As a follow-up to our men's and women's Formation Retreat on Manly and Womanly Character in Christ, Sam shares more deeply on the topic of men and women relating.
Noel (Servants of the Word) and Sr. Theresa Rose (Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus) were our guest speakers on the topic of celibate vocations. They shared insight into their own lives living out this vocation and tips for discernment.
Emily exhorts us on the centrality of our relationship with God as the core of our identity and the reason for our mission. We reoriented ourselves to the most important aspect of the 'All my life for the rest of my life' content.
John speaks about why time matters as a gift from God, and offers practical wisdom on spending it generously and growing in discipline.
John and Anna give us a renewed vision for dating and its purpose, with insight into what readiness for dating looks like and what we can do within our current state to prepare for vocation.
Thomas speaks on good stewardship of our resources, founded on biblical principles, and tied to modern principles of good money management. We're given a mindset for how to maturely handle all the gifts that we're given.
Fr. Jacob introduces us to Ignatius spiritual warfare to begin winning the interior battle.
Sarah Stuart gave a talk about the spiritual battle we all face which is commonly expressed in the battle of our minds and hearts. Christ has already won the victory. We need to be aware of the Father’s voice and ways of the evil one so we can be alert, move past it and claim the truth.
Alissa Giles speaks the OSU Formation students about what holiness really means and takes us beyond seeing it as something simply to be attained through rigorous practices. God is concerned with our hearts wants to help up overcome obstacles that keep us from loving God and neighbor.
Andrew speaks on an invitation to give "all of my life for the rest of my life". This invitation is both a destination for the year and a lifestyle we must choose in the everyday here and now.
Ethan and Carol cast vision for the year, centering around how we have to do the mundane, practical things well in order to win the big games.
Michael's talk sets us up with what to expect in a year of Formation, and how we can approach the talks, small groups, and community we are immersed in to receive the growth and abundance of life the Lord is offering us.
In our last talk of SPO's way of life course, John speaks about what it means to live maturely, and how our mature choices change the trajectory of our lives.
Andrew reminds us the power of community - that we were made for it, that we are called to choose it sacrificially, and that it transforms us and all who experience it.
Alissa shares insight on our call to the front lines of the spiritual battle, where we walk with others at their points of conflict.
John invites us to view the words 'charismatic' and 'liturgical' with a new lens, emphasizing how the two go together, and how our way of life in SPO capitalizes on both.
This is the second talk in our new track on SPO's way of life. Br. Clinton speaks on making a magnanimous offering of our lives to the Lord, and what we can expect in response.
Joe launches our new semester's track on the SPO way of life with a talk on worship. Hear about how worship is foundational to our charism!