In this first episode, Patrick and Jonah open the larger theme of the series: the confrontation with evil. They observe how this reality marks our contemporary age with particular force. They then turn to their own life experiences. Patrick asks Jonah to describe the first moment he truly knew he was encountering something he would call evil. Jonah recalls a core spiritual experience in which a snake-like being revealed itself within him as a young man. In turn, Jonah invites Patrick to share from his own life, and Patrick remembers both the presence of a “spirit of division” in his family and a terrible tragedy in his neighborhood.

From these stories, they draw out archetypal expressions of evil that begin to form a groundwork for discernment. The conversation then turns to Jesus’ encounter with the adversary in the wilderness, as described in Mark’s Gospel: “with the wild beasts and the angels.” Scripture tells us that this event—Jesus being driven into the wilderness to face the tempter—was brought about by the Spirit of God. But why would the Spirit lead a human being into such an encounter? And if Jesus himself had to undergo it, what does the Spirit intend for us to gain by facing the powers of evil? These are the questions Patrick and Jonah begin to unfold—questions that will guide the journey of this new series in the weeks and months ahead.

References:

· Mark 1:9–13 (ESV)– “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.' The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” See also, Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13 (offering other accounts of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness).

· Augustine on evil:

o Confessions VII.12 – “Therefore, whatsoever is, is good. Evil, then, the origin of which I had been seeking, has no substance at all; for if it were a substance, it would be good.”

o Confessions VII.16 – “And I asked what wickedness was, and I found that it was no substance, but a perversion of the will bent aside from thee, O God, the supreme substance, toward these lower things, casting away its inmost treasure and becoming bloated with external good.”

o Enchiridion XI – “For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good?”

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

Join Seminary Director Rev. Patrick Kennedy in conversation with two seminary students as they share their journeys toward the priesthood. Sean traces his path from Baltimore to a Biodynamic farm in the Finger Lakes, and Marc reflects on his travels across Canada and the US, finding his place as a French Canadien. Together, they open up about the call they have heard, the sacraments that have shaped them, and what it means to walk this path today. This episode is the first of a new series we will return to from time to time, Called, offering glimpses into the life of the seminary of the Christian Community of North America and the living question of vocation.

We are also launching our YouTube page today @TheLightInEveryThing. Please join us there and like, subscribe, and share to support this work and help us reach more people.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

As the summer winds down, we are busy at the seminary preparing for new students. We are also quite excited by plans for expanding what we do with the Patreon. Before the new content arrives to you, we are reposting these two episodes from the early years of the podcast. We selected these episodes to align with the announcement that the audit option for the Distance Learning Program is now open. If you wanted the chance to receive weekly instruction about discipleship from Rev. Kennedy, followed by discussion with fellow auditors, then this is what you've been waiting for. Click here for more information. Registration closes September 15, 2025 and the course begins October 7.

In this final repost of the summer, Patrick Kennedy and Jonah Evans explore the next steps along the path of discipleship as revealed in our fourth gospel reading of the series: Luke 9: 1 - 17. We hear how Christ gathers his disciples, empowers them, and instructs them as to their mission and sends them out into the world. What is the mission of a disciple? How are they equipped for this work, what provisions given? Jonah and Patrick take up the answers given in the gospel and explore the deeper mysteries of the 'angel' of the discipleship circle and the final step in the passage: the feeding of the five thousand.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

As the summer winds down, we are busy at the seminary preparing for new students. We are also quite excited by plans for expanding what we do with the Patreon. Before the new content arrives to you, we are reposting these two episodes from the early years of the podcast. We selected these episodes to align with the announcement that the audit option for the Distance Learning Program is now open. If you wanted the chance to receive weekly instruction about discipleship from Rev. Kennedy, followed by discussion with fellow auditors, then this is what you've been waiting for. Click here for more information. Registration closes September 15, 2025 and the course begins October 7.

In this episode, we join Jonah Evans and Patrick Kennedy in the middle of their discussion of discipleship. Here we begin by exploring the third gospel reading in the series: Luke 15: 1 - 32. Through the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son, Jesus reveals to his disciples the dynamic loving effort the divine world is making to find every human soul that has lost its connection to its true home as well as the inner transformation of heart and mind each person can make to turn again towards the ‘Kingdom of God’.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

In this final conversation of the Christian Shadow Work series, Jonah and Patrick first pause to look back—gathering the threads of what has been opened in the earlier episodes. From there, the focus turns toward the heart of transformation in following Christ: the Eucharist.

Here, in Christ’s life freely given—body and blood—we meet the highest image of what it means to be human: the overcoming of self-absorption, offered in love for the world. In His death and resurrection, the question of what to do with our own shadows finds its answer.

When we turn toward Him and allow His life to live in us, our shadows can be transformed into something new: not just burdens, but living crosses—like Golgotha itself—where the light of God shines in the darkness.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

Re-post: In the seventh episode of our series, Jonah and Patrick explore the new role of purity in shadow work, transformed through what took place on Golgotha, the place where Christ’s Mystery is revealed. With Christ’s death, resurrection and revelation, God is now with us in this world. The old pre-Christian paths of purification are no longer appropriate. Our shadows belong to us and call for integration. There is a new path to a new kind of purity that unlocks the power contained in the shadow and unites us with Christ in the process.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

When we speak of spiritual transformation, we often imagine a straightforward process that’s similar to the way we work with the world of things and objects around us: if something is broken or imperfect all we need to do is fix it. We remove, correct or even eliminate the problem on the way to the goal.

In this next conversation, Patrick and Jonah recall how authentic Christ-centered transformation begins with a different orientation altogether. The key is not elimination at all but, instead, begins with simply witnessing our shadow with honesty and courage.

They reveal how this first step is connected to John the Baptist's call to repentance, providing the archetypal first step in transformation—creating space for us to "die before dying" by stepping outside ourselves to truly see our lives in a higher light. This conscious witnessing differs dramatically from forced confession or shame-based approaches that have plagued Christian communities. And it is foundational for deeper prayer.

What we learn in such witnessing can be hard to bear. The most painful part of this witnessing can be to see how our untransformed shadows don't just affect us or others—they flow into God Himself. This recognition that our inner and outer actions that flow from our untransformed shadow-Self actually wound the divine, opens up a piercing question: what can we do?

This us where the sacramental path comes in, offering a radically different understanding of sin and transformation. Rather than focusing on fixing problems, the sacrament for the self (the sacrament of consultation/confession) invites us to shift our attention toward a new and different kind of action. It calls us to offer something—and also to receive something.

Through this dual process of human offering and reception of divine grace, something wholly new can emerge—"the fire of love" that births a transformed identity no longer defined by our shadows but by our participation in divine self-giving.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.

In this re-posted episode from our shadow series, Patrick and Jonah have an intimate and reflective conversation where they work to reclaim the true meaning of ‘repentance,’ or ‘metanoia’—a change of heart and mind that arises not through fear, but through the courage to face our shadows with compassion. They are inspired by the words that are spoken in the time of St. John from the altar in the renewed worship service: “The health bearing, guilt conscious” word that comes like a flame into our lives.

They begin the conversation by once more looking at one of the shadows Christianity itself has cast, naming how church communities have often wielded repentance as a tool of coercion, distorting it into a threat rather than a gift. Jonah shares a formative experience of being told, as a teenager, that unless he spoke the “right words,” he would burn forever in hell—an image he compares to having a spiritual gun to the head.

Yet rather than discarding repentance altogether, the conversation leads deeper. Through honest stories—such as Jonah’s moment of awakening when his daughter was diagnosed with a chronic illness, or Patrick’s encounter with a college friend who called him back to integrity—we glimpse the possibility of a repentance that dignifies rather than diminishes. It is a turning that doesn’t wallow in guilt but opens a path forward, grounded in love. When we find the courage to look at the egotism, denial, or failures that have been revealed to us, we can begin to recognize what Light is making these things visible. Illumined by the gaze of Christ who suffers alongside us, we may discover that even our darkness we uncover can become the ground in which true light takes root. This episode invites listeners into that quiet miracle: repentance not as punishment, but as preparation for this loving light of His gaze.

Support the show

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together,” and the legacy of our original show-notes and patreon producer, Camilla Lake.