Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy talk about the strange story of the prophet Balaam and the Moabite King Balak and the donkey that saw the angel.

Episode Three: Balaam and the Talking Donkey - Numbers 22

We complete our conversations about the Commandments, the Tablets given to us from God. They are a gift for a good life for us as individuals and as a community, as a society that understands that without boundaries, with these laws we have no true freedom.

Episode 37: Commandments: For Love of God, Love of Neighbor, Love of Self

Welcome to our new weekly podcast, Go and Make Disciples: Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. The title is from Mathew 28:19, the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That is what OCIA is all about.

OCIA draws us away from a program mindset of initiation toward an approach that embraces a sacramental life of discipleship. This new way of seeing Initiation is about accompaniment on our journeys of faith, walking in the Gospel with others toward a life of worship and service.

This first episode will introduce the podcast, explain why the process has shifted and how we envision the parishes embracing OCIA.

In the upcoming episodes experts will join us to talk about the history of Initiation in the Church; the kerygma, the proclamation; conversion; OCIA with children and teens, among many other elements that order our hearts, souls, and might toward Christ. 

Please join Fr. Juan Ochoa, Director of the Office for Divine Worship at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and your host, Barbara Murphy, Coordinator of the Catholic Bible Institute for Go and Make Disciples: Order of Christian Initiation of Adults.

Episode 1: Introduction - Go and Make Disciples: OCIA

The National Statutes guide pastors and teams through the OCIA process so that they might better guide the lives of Inquirers and Catechumens toward community worship and a habit of prayer, in Church teachings and living a moral life, and participation in works of charity and service. In other words - to a life configured to Christ.

In this podcast Fr. Juan Ochoa and Barbara Murphy talk about the norms provided by the US Church and our role as ministers of the OCIA process.

Episode 2: National Statutes

The change in the name from Rite to Order of Christian Initiation of Adults orients our hearts toward the process of becoming Catholic. The changes articulate that journey and clarifies steps and terms. What has not changed is the vision:

“The Order of Christian Initiation…is designed for adults who, upon hearing the proclamation of the mystery of Christ as the Holy Spirit opens their hearts, consciously and freely seek the living God and undertake the journey of faith and conversion.” OCIA 1

Please join us for this podcast to help clergy and ministers find their way through the renewed process and book.

Episode 3: Go and Make Disciples - What Changed and What Remains the Same

This podcast begins with the parable of Good Samaritan in which the Church Fathers saw the foundation of our Sacraments. Fr. Juan Ochoa beautifully describes the life of the Church in her experiences of Grace. He show us how we are called to approach the sacraments with faith like the woman who touched the tassel of Jesus's cloak and was healed. Please join us for this excellent teaching about Faith and Sacraments.

Episode 4: Go and Make Disciples  - Faith and Sacraments

Fr. Pedro Lopez walks us through the history of what we know today as Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. He shows us the development of the process from our Jewish roots, through times of growth, waning, and revival. Please join us for this fascinating podcast that helps us to understand that OCIA did not start in 1972. It began with the birth of the Church herself. The same truth brought to a new generation.

Episode 5: Go and Make Disciples - History of Christian Initiation

The Rite of Election at the Cathedral brings together literally thousands of people who desire to be part of the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church. To see them gathered together gives all of us hope that the Church is alive and well and ready to enter the world to love God with all our hearts, souls and might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We see our mother Church reflected in those who come to the table of the Lord with open hearts, praise and thanksgiving.

Episode 6: Go and Make Disciples- Right of Election

The Rite of Calling to Continuing Conversion is for Catholics who were baptized as infants, but have not been catechized or fully initiated, and for those who were baptized into other Christian traditions. They are already part of the Christian community and in this rite are called to ongoing conversion that will last their lifetime. Please join us as we share the importance of this rite for those who wish to participate fully in the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church.

Episode 7: Go and Make Disciples- Right of Calling

The minor rites of the catechumenate are beautiful prayers that help to free the minds of the catechumens and all who participate from the wiles of sin and temptation. Simple yet beautiful in the love for God and God's love for us. Please join Fr. Juan Ochoa, Fr. Chris Bazyouros, Adrian Aralar, and Leticia Perez who share their experience of OCIA and the rite's power to transform lives and hearts.

Episode 8: Go and Make Disciples-Exorcisms and Blessings - The Minor Rites

The OCIA Rite offers rites for adults and children, but what about our teenagers? Those ages 13-17 have different needs and questions. This podcast featuring Dayrin Perez, Lead Coordinator of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Fr. Juan Ochoa, Director of the Office of Divine Worship offers great wisdom from experience as a parent and as ministers to help catechists find practical ways of evangelizing our young people and their parents. Please join this important conversation so we can guide our youth toward becoming missionary disciples of Jesus.

Episode 10: Go and Make Disciples - OCIA with Teenagers

Please join Erick Rubalcava, Chief of Mission and Catholic Identity, Department of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with Fr. Juan Ochoa of the Office for Divine Worship as they share their experience and vision for OCIA and Sacramental formation for our parish children and families. Often the church and school are separate communities and in this conversation Erick and Fr. Juan offer practical ideas and resources to help pastors, principals, teachers and families be unified in the Body of Christ.

Episode 11: Go and Make Disciples - OCIA in Catholic Schools

Mystagogy takes place after Easter Vigil and is a time for neophytes to reflect on what God has done for them in the Sacraments. It is a time often misunderstood or even ignored. In this podcast Fr. Juan Ochoa, Leticia Perez, and Adrian Aralar articulate what mystagogy is and its importance to those newly received into communion with the Church, and for the whole community. Please do not miss this podcast, or mystagogy for your OCIA minsters and your entire parish!

Episode 12: Go and Make Disciples - Mystagogy

Catholic Social Teaching is the guide of our Christian life. We are called as missionary disciples to works of charity for our neighbor based on the story of the Good Samaritan. The Letter of James tells us that underpinning all our work is faith in Jesus Christ. Paragraph 75 of the OCIA Rite instructs all of us to reach out anyone in need, no matter who they are, what they believe, or their status in life. Michael Donaldson, Director for the Office of Life, Justice, and Peace along with Fr. Juan Ochoa share beautiful insights and offer practical ways to ground our works in Christ so that all we do reveals God to the people we encounter. We are all made in the image of God and to see each other through the eyes of Jesus will transform the world. Join us.

Episode 13: Go and Make Disciples - Living the Christian Life: Works of Charity

In this podcast Fr. Juan Ochoa and Adrian Aralar walk us through the beauty and mystery of the Easter Vigil, from darkness into light. From the lighting of the fire and Paschal candle through the sacraments of Initiation of our elect. The Elect have prepared for many months and this is the night on which they now share at the table of the Lord. 

Wishing each one of you many blessings this Easter as we all renew our faith through the waters of baptism and are once again called to serve.

Easter Blessings!

Episode 14 : Go and Make Disciples - Easter Vigil Sacraments

Interior conversion of the heart to Christ is at the foundation of missionary discipleship. Join Fr. Juan Ochoa and Bobby Vidal as they share with us the thresholds of conversion to life as saint as St. Paul describes. Whether we are well off the path that does not stray or firmly embedded in our parish community our hearts, minds, and souls are always turning toward the way Jesus gave us. Open up to the love of God and be transformed!

Episode 17: Go and Make Disciples - Conversion to Christ

St. Augustine said "he who sings, prays twice". Music is an integral and Scriptural part of worship. The hymns we choose express the readings and parts of the Mass. Music reinforces the rites of OCIA and helps to articulate them to the catechumens and the assembly. Please join Victor Wheeler, Coordinator of Sacred Music in the Office for Divine Worship and Fr. Juan Ochoa in this important conversation about the beauty and power of music in the OCIA rites.

Episode 18: Go and Make Disciples - Pray Twice: Music and OCIA

Many people come to OCIA who were baptized Catholic when they were infants or baptized in another Christian tradition and wish to complete and become part of the Church community. OCIA provides formation and rites for these people who already know Jesus and are part of the Christian life. Terri Palmer, Regional Coordinator for the San Pedro Region and Adrian Aralar, Coordinator of Liturgical Minister Training, share their many years of experience helping our Christian brothers and sisters enter more deeply into the Catholic life and community. Please join us for this very special and important conversation.

Episode 19: Go and Make Disciples-OCIA for the Baptized

In this seemingly simple yet complex parable Jesus teaches us to live side-by-side, wheat and weeds, good and evil, and to wait until the final judgement before we two are separated from each other. What does it mean for us to live our day-to-day lives in the struggle to be the "children of the kingdom" along side the "children of the evil one"? Please join us for this challenging conversation.

Episode 74: From Sinai to Bethlehem - Weeds among the Wheat - Mathew 13-24-30

The Sermon on the Mount is a rich and textured teaching of Jesus that permeates the world, often without people even knowing where the wisdom originated. In this episode we come once again to the Sermon particularly the section about leaving anxieties of daily life behind and trusting that God knows what we need. We ask how to do that especially when we see suffering and poverty, hunger and despair. What does it mean that God will provide? These are difficult questions that we face in our struggle to understand God for us. Please join us.

Episode 75: From Sinai to Bethlehem - The Sermon on the Mount Revisited

We continue our conversation sharing what it means to be salt of the earth and light to the world.

Episode 76: Semon On The Mount - continued

Chapter seven of the Sermon on the Mount speaks about judging as we would be judged, going through the narrow gate, the golden rule, and discerning what is good and what is evil. In all of the teachings Jesus challenges us to examine ourselves and our own motivations and to build on a foundation of rock that is the Word of God. In this conversation we ask those difficult questions that cause us to probe within our own souls in order to see others more clearly. This teaching of Jesus is well known and, as he instructs, to be put into action.

Episode 77 : The Sermon on the Mount - Standing on the Rock

This chapter, read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, has us face the question of the ambiguity of meaning that caused Hagar and Ishmael to be driven into the wilderness. On this day of judgement we are compelled to ask many questions about our lives and relationships and how we understand words and actions and the consequences of our interpretation. It pushes our sight beyond the moment for a broader view of history and family. Please join us.

Episode 78: Ambiguity of the Wilderness - Genesis 21

Leviticus 19  opens with the word of God to Moses: Tell the people to "be holy as I am holy". This chapter, rich in the commandments, teaches us how to be holy, how to exercise the power we have within us as people created in the image of God.  It warns of the pitfalls of succumbing to cultures outside the law and helps to bring us back to where we belong, in fellowship with God and with each other.

Episode 79: The Power to be Holy - Leviticus 19

We have heard it said to love your neighbor as yourself. It can mean to be kind to others, to challenge us to self-care, and in its deepest level to love others and ourselves for who we are in the truth of our lives. What does it really mean to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? In Leviticus 19:18 after the command to love we are essentially to do this because the Lord says, "I am God". What does this mean, then, for our daily lives and relationships if it all comes from being in relationship with God? Please join us for this conversation about what it means to be a loving neighbor.

Episode 80 - The Depth of Loving our Neighbor as Ourselves - Leviticus 19 continued

This prayer that culminates the celebration of Rosh Hashanah is about the day of judgement for God's people, an "awesome and frightening" day in which humanity passes before God like sheep. At first distressing at its deepest spaces this prayer is one of hope, of forgiveness, charity and repentance. It holds within it the promise of God's love for his people and God's desire that we do not die in our sins but live in his great and glorious love. Below is the prayer, Una Tana Tokef:

"Let us describe the great holiness of this day, for it is awesome and frightening. On this day, Your Kingship is uplifted, and Your throne is established with kindness, and You sit upon it in truth. True that You are judge, admonisher, knower and witness; and You inscribe, seal, record and count, and recall all forgotten things. You open the book of records and it reads of itself; and the signature of every man is in it. A great shofar is sounded, and a silent, gentle voice is heard; and the angels are alarmed, pangs of fear and trembling seize them, and they declare, “behold the Day of Judgment.” The heavenly host is arraigned in judgment, for they are not guiltless in Your eyes in judgment. All mankind pass before You like young sheep. As a shepherd inspects his flock, making his sheep pass under his rod, so do You cause to pass, count, number, and review the soul of every living being, determining the life-span of every creature; and You record the decree of their judgment.

On Rosh Hashanah their decree is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, how many will pass away and how many will be created, who will live and who will die; who will come to his timely end, and who to an untimely end; who will perish by fire and who by water; who by the sword and who by beast; who by hunger and who by thirst; who by earthquake and who by the plague; who by strangling and who by stoning; who will be at rest and who will wander about; who will have serenity and who will be confused; who will be tranquil and who will be tormented; who will become poor and who will become wealthy; who will be brought to a low state and who will be uplifted.

For as Your Name, so is Your praise, You are slow to anger and easy to pacify; For You do not desire death [for the sinner] but that he turn from his evil way and live. And even until his dying day, You wait for him— if he repents, You immediately accept him.

True, You are their Creator, and You know their impulse that they are [but] flesh and blood. Man, his beginning is from dust and ends in dust; risking his life, he gets his bread, he is like a potsherd that is breakable, like grass that withers, like the flower that fades, like the shadow that passes, like the cloud that vanishes, like the wind that blows, like the dust that flies, and like a fleeting dream. But You are the King, the Almighty, the living and everlasting God."

Episode 81: Una Tana Tokef - the Silent, Gentle Voice

Today we talk about the mitzvah (the commandment) of the sukkah, the booth built for the celebration of the Feast of Booths. God told the people in the desert to live in booths and through the generations the Rabbis have struggled to help the people live out this mitzvah. Sukkot is a time of great celebration, a harvest festival to experience life without analysis. The sukkah's roof allows rain to enter, stars to be seen, it shades from the heat of the sun while allowing light to penetrate. It is a sign of God's presence, the light in the clouds of the theophany. Jesus said in John 7:6 just before going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, "My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you." The walls of the sukkah are the mitzvah that we strive to live by, the opportunity to live the word of God, the shelter of God's love and law that is the source of all joy and unity. Celebrate it!

Episode 82: Build a Sukkah for Your Life

Today we share thoughts and reflections about the Vatican II document on the relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions. One of the beautiful things that came from the conversation is that it is the reason we are able to come together each week and share our faith with prudence and love. Join us as we embrace the beauty and wisdom of Mother Church and her acceptance of all things true and holy in every religion.

Episode 83: Nostra Aetate - Prudence and Love

In this episode we talk about the movement of the divine spirit within Jesus and ourselves. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus who will bring us out of captivity to those things that keep us from recognizing and living out the divinity we are endowed with through our creation. To live out God's command to be happy by walking the way of Jesus requires humility. We must move past the question "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" in order to see the Son of God.

Episode 84: The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me - Luke 4:14-22

In this season of Thanksgiving we share this beautiful psalm of gratitude that is exquisitely simple and open to living right now. In its depths it calls us to praise God in a way that brings divine blessing on our service and lets us embraces the service of others. Shouts of joyful worship fill our hearts and the hearts of all God's people in every generation. This gratitude is both personal and communal. It teaches us as members of the flock that we act as individuals for the common welfare, not only in our time but for all time.

Episode 85: Praise the Lord! Bless His Name! - Psalm 100

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Connecting Scripture and Life podcast explores the way God speaks in different times and places with the same wisdom that lead to a happy life. Scripture teaches us how to live. Through conversations with people who love, teach, and live it we will explore our own lives in the pages of the sacred.

Connecting Scripture and Life is a ministry of the Catholic Bible Institute, Office of Religious Education, Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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