Rhythms of Faith

In this episode of the Rhythms of Faith podcast, host Carolyn Pirtle—program director at the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy—discusses her original Eucharistic musical, Behold God's Love, a triptych-structured work tracing salvation history from Old Testament prefigurations through the Last Supper and into the early Church at Corinth. She reflects on the creative process, describing how she overcame intimidation and perfectionism by embracing the discipline of daily early-morning writing and the liberating realization that "all writing is revision." Carolyn also details the Eucharistic Culture Project, a cohort-based initiative of the Center for Liturgy that forms ecclesial leaders—including a prison chaplain, a public policy attorney, and church property stewards—in building a Eucharistic culture through shared work, intellectual pilgrimage, and aesthetic experience. She shares her favorite liturgical music (a Magnificat set to the hymn tune Jerusalem) and reflects on what makes good liturgy: receiving it as a gift and offering it back with humility and simplicity. The episode closes with a lighthearted discussion about what animal Carolyn would be—she picks a lamb, for its playfulness, utility, and theological resonance.0:00 - "Introduction & Carolyn's Background"1:54 - "Behold God's Love: A Eucharistic Musical"3:51 - "The Story Structure: Root, Vine, and Branches"8:20 - "The Creative Process"12:20 - "Embracing Revision"16:31 - "Musical Theater and Scripture"18:44 - "Just Make Something: Creativity for Everyone"20:55 - "Art and the Christian Vocation"22:13 - "The Eucharistic Culture Project"26:58 - "Building Community Through Shared Experience"29:04 - "Church Properties Initiative"30:27 - "Contours of Wonder Program"31:19 - "Favorite Liturgical Music"33:21 - "What Makes Good Liturgy Good"35:50 - "Fun Question: What Animal Would You Be?"38:55 - "Closing & Thanks"

Stacey Noem, Director of Human and Spiritual Formation in Notre Dame's MDiv program, shares her journey from a science major working in a Florida diocese to her current dream role at Notre Dame. She discusses synodality as "journeying together" — a practice rooted in Church tradition from Nicaea through Vatican II — and her unexpected appointment as moderator of the local synod in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The conversation explores co-responsibility among the laity, how synodality serves as a counter-cultural response to today's polarization, and the communal process of listening, silence, and prayer that defines synodal consultations. Stacey and the hosts draw rich parallels between synodal practices and collaborative music-making, highlighting how vulnerability, trust, and letting go of individual agency create deeper communal bonds. The episode also covers the side-by-side formation of clergy and lay ministers at Notre Dame, its challenges and transformative benefits, and closes with a reflection on what it means to be Church.0:00 - Introduction & Stacey's Background2:41 - What is Synodality?5:24 - Roots of Synodality & Co-Responsibility7:57 - Why Synodality Matters Today11:11 - Conversion & The Synod Experience13:06 - The Synod Process in Practice17:33 - Community, Vulnerability & Trust21:41 - Agency & Opposition24:00 - Synod Participants & Structure26:59 - What Does It Mean to Be Church?28:02 - Human & Spiritual Formation29:51 - Together vs. Alongside in Formation33:55 - Closing & Fun Question

The Rhythms of Faith podcast hosts Father Joachim Osunze, a Nigerian priest and PhD candidate at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute, who discusses his research on how individuals and communities are socialized into violence and how Christian rituals might disrupt these cycles. He describes how watching videos of young drug users being publicly scourged in Southeast Nigeria haunted him and redirected his research from post–civil war legacies to the drug crisis, which he uses as a lens for understanding deeper structures of violence. Through ethnographic fieldwork—companioning drug users, sellers, and vigilante groups, and drawing on the Igbo concept of ifunanya (love as mutual seeing)—he explores how violence is inscribed on bodies and how healing can be a form of rewriting. His time at Homeboy Industries' tattoo removal program became a powerful metaphor for how violence is written on the body and how healing involves negotiation, family, and re-inscription. The conversation also examines the complex relationship between liturgy and culture—including the colonial implications of naming practices in baptism—and closes with Fr. Joachim reflecting on the beauty of being human.0:00 - "Welcome & Research Overview"2:14 - "Encountering the Drug Crisis"5:15 - "The Call Within the Call"8:19 - "Companionship & Ifunanya"10:47 - "Homeboy Industries & Facing Fear"14:31 - "Seeing God & the Meaning of a Name"24:26 - "Generational Violence, Tattoos & Healing"29:01 - "Liturgy, Culture & Being Human"

Dr. Michelle Francl, a chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr College who also writes extensively on theology, joins the Rhythms of Faith podcast to discuss the intersection of science, prayer, and contemplative living. She shares how she has prayed the Liturgy of the Hours for over 40 years and how the Psalms became a lifeline during her first husband's death, providing words when she could find none of her own. She describes bringing contemplative practice into her science classroom—asking students to silently observe wave functions for minutes at a time—and how doing fewer things more slowly leads to deeper learning. The conversation explores the inherent mystery of quantum mechanics, drawing parallels between phenomena like entanglement and theological concepts such as the Trinity, both of which can be contemplated but never fully grasped. She offers wisdom on discernment, describing how prayer and imaginative reflection help navigate life's choices, and shares how she prays the Examen by imagining herself watching the film of her day on the sofa next to God. Finally, she discusses her book Steeped, a molecular tour of a cup of tea that sparked an international controversy when she suggested adding salt to tea, her growing experience as a preacher, and what it means to be Church as the mystical body of Christ present in any gathering of the faithful.0:00 "Introduction & Welcome"1:27 "Discovering the Liturgy of the Hours"4:54 "The Psalms and Grief"6:29 "Contemplative Practice in Teaching Science"11:22 "The Value of Inefficiency & Silence"17:51 "Quantum Mechanics & Mystery"22:48 "Discernment & Prayer"26:40 "Steeped, Preaching & Being Church"

Professor Katie Bugyis joins the Rhythms of Faith podcast to discuss her research on medieval liturgy, particularly how veiled religious women used the metaphor of the honeybee to authorize their prophetic voice. She traces her passion back to studying Hildegard of Bingen at Notre Dame, which led her to Yale's Institute of Sacred Music. Bugyis explains how Hildegard, a 12th-century polymath and Benedictine abbess, strategically commissioned saints' lives during her lifetime to secure her community's future, though her canonization dossier was famously lost en route to Rome. The conversation explores the relationship between liturgy and care, drawing on Bugyis's first book, The Care of Nuns, which examines how Benedictine women tended to body, mind, and soul through liturgical practice. Bugyis reflects on liturgical participation as a daily commitment—showing up to pray even when you don't feel like it—comparing it to the dedication required in a friendship or marriage. The episode closes with a discussion of music's power in the liturgy and a surprise answer to the hosts' signature animal question: a peregrine falcon, inspired by Bugyis's secret dream of becoming an urban falconer.0:00 - Introduction0:34 - Discovering Hildegard and Medieval Liturgy2:04 - The Honeybee Metaphor5:25 - Who Was Hildegard of Bingen?8:05 - The Making of Saints13:20 - Liturgy and the Care of Nuns26:24 - Liturgical Participation29:10 - Music, Mystery, and Falconry

In this episode of The Rhythms of Faith podcast, two instructors debrief their experience co-teaching a course at Notre Dame that explores the intersection of music, theology, and community. They reflect on how their collaborative teaching model—where the whole is more than the sum of its parts—mirrors the very ecclesiology they teach, showing students what it means to be church through lived experience. The conversation covers the "Rhythms of Faith process," a structured method of group creativity built on mandatory listening, deliberate silence, and consensus-building that resists the efficiency-driven culture of undergraduate life. They share memorable stories, including dorm residents who refused to sing on day one but fell in love with it within weeks, and a parish workshop where a woman's inability to speak produced a profound minute of communal silence. The discussion also explores how students bring implicit musical knowledge that, once surfaced and given vocabulary, becomes a powerful foundation for collective creativity. Ultimately, the episode argues that embracing discomfort, dependency, and genuine feeling in collaborative work produces something transformative—lessons that extend far beyond the classroom into all relationships, including marriage.0:00 - Introduction and Teaching Reflections2:14 - The Whole Is More Than the Sum of the Parts5:51 - Directing the Choir: Unifying Voices9:37 - Liberating Students from the Efficiency Model12:25 - The Rhythms of Faith Process17:48 - The Parish Workshop Experience25:35 - Building on Implicit Musical Knowledge32:25 - Embracing Discomfort in Collaboration

Episode 17Liturgical Chant with Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P.: We Need to Be Attuned to God’s RealityFr. Innocent Smith, O.P., a Dominican priest and assistant professor of theology at Notre Dame, joins the Rhythms of Faith podcast to discuss the intersection of liturgy, music, and daily spiritual life. He traces his fascination with liturgy back to childhood confusion at Mass, which deepened into a lifelong passion through his encounter with Gregorian chant at a Benedictine monastery. He explains Gregorian chant as a form of "musical exegesis"—psalms set to music that illuminate the meaning of sacred texts—and describes the rich variety of chant types used throughout the Mass and liturgical year. He also explores the role of rhythmic repetition in the liturgy, drawing a striking parallel between the liturgical cycle and Jesus's call to forgive "seventy-seven times," arguing that we return to the same mysteries not because God's work is incomplete but because we need to be continually re-attuned to it. He offers pastoral wisdom on prayer, including Mother Teresa's counterintuitive advice to pray for two hours when too busy for one, and the story of a man who simply sat in church and said, "I look at Him, and He looks at me." He concludes by sharing his research on how St. Thomas Aquinas was shaped by the liturgy he prayed, his personal love of Irish flute and British literature, and a playful reflection on why—despite the Dominican obligation to say "dog"—he'd rather be a monkey.0:00 - Introduction & Background0:30 - Discovering Liturgy & Gregorian Chant2:30 - What Is Gregorian Chant?6:25 - Advice for Musical Composition7:52 - The Divine Office8:53 - Music & the Dominican Vocation9:58 - Rhythmic Repetition in the Liturgical Year13:09 - Making Time for Prayer15:22 - Overcoming Distraction in Prayer16:51 - Music & Liturgy as Living Practice17:50 - Types of Gregorian Chants20:09 - The Propers: Sources of Chant Texts23:43 - St. Thomas Aquinas & the Liturgy27:30 - Personal Musical Journey28:54 - The Significance of Singing30:48 - Reading for Fun31:58 - What Is Liturgy?33:26 - Fun Question: What Animal Would You Be?

Dr. Jessica Coblentz is a professor of Religious Studies and Theology, as well as Gender and Women's Studies, at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. She came to academia through a lifelong curiosity about religion sparked during her secular upbringing in the Seattle area. She pursued graduate studies at Harvard Divinity School and Boston College and ultimately chose theology as a discipline that allowed her to speak constructively back to her own Catholic tradition. Her book Dust in the Blood addresses the gap in Christian theological reflection on depression, critiquing popular frameworks that either blame sin or frame depression as a divine gift, arguing both can be harmful to sufferers. As an alternative, she develops a theology of depression rooted in the story of Hagar in the wilderness, emphasizing that God does not always explain or fix suffering but does accompany, see, and open new possibilities for those who are struggling. She is currently working on a second book examining women's depression through the lens of Mariology, particularly the image of Our Lady of Sorrows, exploring how ideals of womanhood may contribute to women's disproportionately higher rates of depression. Throughout the conversation, she reflects on the value of personal vulnerability in scholarship, the importance of accompaniment over easy answers in Christian community, and the call to simply be a loving presence to others — especially those who suffer.0:00 Introduction0:39 Dr. Coblentz's Background and Path to Academia7:27 Dust in the Blood — A Theology of Depression15:15 The Story of Hagar and Wilderness as a Framework for Depression21:03 The Lament Psalms and Relational Faith23:48 The Title Dust in the Blood — Robert Lowell and Poetic Language26:38 New Research on Women's Depression and Mariology32:34 Personal Vulnerability in Scholarship37:16 What Does It Mean to Be Church?40:24 Closing Question — If You Were an Animal