Also: What is Christian Forgiveness? And the character missing from The Gilded Age.
If you are a parent, you have definitely heard of it by now. If you are not a parent, you have definitely heard of it by now.
KPOP Demon Hunters is the most popular Netflix film of all time with 236 million views. Unreal.
My kids watched it at a friend’s house over the summer, and of course, I didn’t like the idea of them watching something about demons. But, the more I heard about it, and the more the songs haunted me in my dreams, the more I felt I needed to watch it and so I did.
I must admit, that as far as children’s media goes, I liked it. It’s not a Christian movie, and it certainly wasn’t created by people with a Christian world view, but the plot points are an excellent spring board for us to reflect on our own understanding of evil, and to talk to our kids about what in the film aligns with Christianity and what doesn't.
So, dive into the world of KPOP with me today, because yes, even thought I am no fan of Asian animation whatsoever, the Gospel exist even here and if we pay attention, we can learn something.
Also in this episode, Erika Kirk forgave Charlie Kirk’s murder in front of 200 thousand people and 100 million streamers. It was unspeakably beautiful. But what exactly is Christian forgiveness, and how can we be better about forgiveness in our own lives?
Whether you saw KPOP Demon Hunters or not, I promise you will get something out of this episode.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Hoping to get these KPOP songs out of my head,
Mallory Smyth
It has been a tough week to be an American. Most of us were traumatized when multiple murders just showed up on our feeds before we could avoid seeing them, especially the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, we can’t seem to stop hating each other. National tragedies used to bring us together in unity. Today, it seems like unity is a thing of that past, at least for now.
BUT! Amid such tragedy, chaos, and so many screaming voices, something remarkable happened this weekend. Thousands, if not millions, of people decided to go back to church for the first time in many years.
Please hear my message loud and clear. Whether you are faith curious and feel pulled to church but are nervous, or whether you are a regular church goer who wants to go deeper, COME AS YOU ARE.
In this episode, I reflect on my own journey back to faith. By now I have told it enough times to stream line it and make it sound like it was seamless. It wasn’t.
I remember the first time I want back to church: a Protestant church, not even the Catholic mass with which I was familiar. I was nervous, unsure if I would feel like I belonged.
I remember my unfamiliarity with the Bible, my questions, the many many times I just fell of the behavior wagon, and the moments of break through until I finally realized that I was never leaving Jesus again.
I hope you will join me for this reflection. I hope it gives you hope, and offers you insight into what God has done and is doing in your own life!
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
If you are interested in diving into the French Revolution, here are the lectures.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Praying for the Kirks, against violence, and for our nation,
Mallory Smyth
I woke up yesterday excited to restart the podcast for the school year. I thought I would start with a light and fun topic, but by the end of the day, I knew that would be inappropriate. We have spiritual work to do.
Like all of you I watched the Minnesota shooting unfold in horror. I also saw the video of Iryna the Ukrainian refugee get stabbed and the image still hasn’t left me. Not only did I see my daughters in that scenario, I saw myself. I would have done EXACTLY what she did in that situation. Why didn’t anyone help her?
These two unspeakable tragedies are too many, but as we all know that tragic news didn’t stop there. As I was walking upstairs to film a video asking people on social media to pray with me, my husband told me Charlie Kirk has been shot (he later passed away). After I filmed the video I learned that there was another school shooting in Evergreen.
How does the human heart process such tragedy and death? How do we make sense of it? How did we get here?
Today’s podcast had no script. These are thoughts I have been processing for a long time and if I’m honest, this is a bit of an off the cuff rant. Therefore, there will be more filler words and it will definitely feel more “stream of consciousness,” than my other ones.
My hope, however, is to offer you a different take. Mental illness is a real thing, but what we aren’t discussing is a spiritual problem first and foremost. Whether we as a society believe in God or not, does not change that fact that He and the devil exist. He loves us and wants us to walk in His ways so that we can experience abundant life. The enemy wants to steal, kill and destroy us. It is time for us to open the eyes to the reality we live in and stop flirting with evil personally, and as a society.
Join me as we dive into scripture, talk about this valley of tears, but then also rediscover the unfathomable power of the cross. Because in the end, death will be defeated, and God will win. In the mean time, He longs for us to return to Him with our whole hearts.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Grieving with you,
Mallory Smyth
Whether or not you are a Billy Joel fan is probably a coin flip.
Regardless, the new HBO Plus documentary about his life and career, “And So It Goes,” is worth the watch. Seriously, if I could, I would give everyone my Amazon Prime log in so you could all go watch it. Even still, a month’s subscription to HBO Plus would be worth it because there is so much depth, history, nostalgia, and entertainment that comes through during the five hours in which Billy and the people who have loved him talk about his life.
Billy Joel has been a household name in the music industry for fifty years, and during that time he has achieved the American Dream of fame and fortune. His music is well loved and unceasingly played, and yet, throughout the documentary, we meet an accomplished man who has struggled, and still claims to be searching.
In this podcast, we will dive into what Billy says about his own life, what his loved one’s say, and how the Gospel is just BURSTING through. Billy is a well known secularist with a fraught relationship to religion. Yet, it might be that good ole time religion that he wrote about too much for a non believer, that might give me the rest and peace he wants.
You don’t want to miss this episode, if only that my deep love for this man and his music ignites a passion in me that I know comes through on the microphone.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
If you want to check out my favorite podcast of the summer, its called “Heaven Meets Earth”
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Finally, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Keeping the Faith,
Mallory Smyth
Is marriage and family worth having today? Many Zoomers, and Millenials are choosing to opt out. Marriage is often seen as a something likely to end badly, and kids are often seen as a barrier to freedom.
Joseph and Crystal Gruber, however, are on a mission to tell a different story. After spending many years serving the Church as FOCUS missionaries, Joseph and Crystal are now running their own marriage ministry in the midst of raising seven children.
When they got married, they were excited for life to be an adventure. It definitely is an adventure, but not the one they thought it would be.
In our conversation, Joseph shares genuine wisdom that the world, in all its desire for comfort, glamour, and ease, has left behind. I hope you will listen to all of it as we talked about Joseph’s faith journey, he and Crystal’s unique family life, and how they teach married couples to take practical steps to get better at being married and enjoy the great gift of married life.
I promise, you will get great nuggets from the entire conversation!
If you want to follow Joseph, Crystal, and what they are doing you can connect with them:
Attend their upcoming workshop: Speech Creates Our World
Listen to their podcasts: Love Your Marriage and A Word From Our Outpost
Email them at: hello@ouroutpost.org
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Working on being a better wife,
Mallory Smyth
With Guest: Caroline Perkins! Plus, "How Catholicism Got Cool", and my thoughts on the latest plastic surgery trend
Most of us have heard the experts tell us how bad screen time is for us. But what are parents experiencing everyday in their homes?
Join me as we welcome our very first guest, Caroline Perkins to the show!!!! Caroline is a mother of four. She is quick witted and has great hot takes. Caroline is passionate about the effect that screens are having on children, and has seen some of the rotten fruit in her own life.
Join us as we talk about kids, screen time, Youtube Kids, and what to do about it practically in your everyday life where often, screens can’t be avoided.
Follow Caroline on Instagram or Substack.
If you haven’t already, The Anxious Generation is a must read.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Going to put a movie on for my kids,
Mallory Smyth
Along with reflections on my daughter's First Communion and the difference between Prince Harry and David Beckham.
There has been a major cultural vibe shift that you have most likely noticed. Women, many of them are young mothers, are taking up new hobbies that are really, old hobbies. They are trying to turn off the screens and getting their kids outside. They are starting to garden, cook from scratch, sew, bake their own bread, and anything else that can fit into the “home industry” or “heritage craft” category.
When I was growing up I knew very few adults who took part in the same, slow, methodical handiwork that their parents (our grandparents) used in their daily lives. But as Ecclesiastes reminds us, “There is nothing new under the sun,” and what’s old again normally becomes new.
The younger generations grew up drinking in the promise of modernity. The better technology got, the happier, healthier, wealthier, and more rested we were supposed to become. While modern life certainly has major perks, those promises did not materialize, and many are responding by turning around, slowing down, and rediscovering the benefits of working with our hands, finding silence, and embracing embodied living, face to face, with the people who live in our communities.
In this episode of “The Gospel &…”, we are going to go back in time a bit and discuss why are we, as a society, unhappy, sick, untethered, and seem to be struggling by every possible measure, what the Gospel can teach us here, and how some women’s return to home hobbies is offering a way off the the over busy streets of modern life, onto the ancient paths that offer us an age old wisdom that seems to have been left behind.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
If you want to listen to the podcast episode on baking bread: find it here.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Ordering a wheat mill for the summer,
Mallory Smyth
ALSO! WE HAVE A POPE! Starbucks has a new (actually old) uniform, and a girl lost her 200k job because of an internet aesthetic.
You know you are aging out when you go to a movie and see a preview for a celebrity named Justin, and you think to yourself, “They finally made a movie about Justin Timberlake.”
That was me a few years ago.
Justin Bieber is, in all honesty, after my time. But I became interested in him when he was baptized in 2014. I follow him on Instagram and have kept tabs because I am interested in his well being. Suffice it to say that right now, it seems as though his well being isn’t great.
Ever since the allegations against P. Diddy, apparently evil incarnate, have surfaced, the public has seen Just Bieber through a new lens. Like many other child stars, his rise to fame came with an extremely high and sad cost. This combined with the breaking news that he has been in trying to get out of binding music contracts has thrust him back into the cultural discourse.
Today, we will dive into his story as I have followed it, and pull out the Gospel lessons. It’s easy to think that, if you are not interested in Hollywood culture, it doesn’t affect you. But that’s not true. Celebrity culture trickles down into our fly-over towns and silently affects our wants, and desires.
It’s worth exploring so we can find what’s good, reject what’s bad, and find God in it all.
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
If you are wondering about the scriptural basis for the Papacy, check out my last episode on Pope Francis.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Also, if you would like me to speak at one of your events, email me at mallorybueche@gmail.com
Praying for Justin Bieber and Pope Leo XIV,
Mallory Smyth
How the public related to Pope Francis, what it says about the human heart, and the truth Charles Dickens could only express through his fiction.
On Monday, I took my kids to the park and ran into a friend. As she and I began discussing the news of Pope Francis’s death, she said she felt like she never truly knew Pope Francis. She commented that she sent too much time comparing him to Pope Saint John Paul II, and wished she hadn’t done so.
I nodded my headed in agreement. I too only knew the Pope through sound bites and headlines.
Isn’t this all of us?
How many of us knew what Pope Francis thought about God, Jesus, prayer, and the Christian life? What did we know? We thought we knew his political stances, and made decisions on whether or not we liked him accordingly. This says so much more about us than it does about him.
Join me for this week’s episode of the “Gospel &…” as we dig into one more lesson from the Pontiff. He is hopefully in Heaven, or at the very least, well on his way there. We, however, are still here and there is much to learn.
As always, I would love to hear from you so let me know what you think as you listen!
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
Also, if you need a refresher on the Gospel message, check out the first episode of this podcast.
Did this episode speak to you? Please share it with a friend so we can grow the show!
Praying for Pope Francis,
Mallory Smyth
If you have ever fallen into a mental spiral, whether it’s common for you or not, you know the struggle and the shame that can come with mental health issues.
It’s no secret that we are living through a mental health crisis, and yes, even here, we find the Gospel unfolding. Sin broke everything, including our internal human faculties.
This means that our intellects, wills, and desires not longer work in harmony. Instead, they often work against each other and we stumble through our lives dealing with an internal struggle that no one can see. We then look at everyone else and wonder why we can’t keep it together.
Now I’m not here to tell you that you can pray your mental health struggles away, although, prayer is essential for anyone who wants to gain freedom from the brokenness of this world.
Instead, in today’s episode of “The Gospel &…” I will share with you a reflection that I found a few years ago about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. So often we allow our internal struggles to cover us in shame and keep us from drawing close to Christ. He was sinless, how could he possibly get it. We forget that his human experience was more raw than ours. He understands your mental struggles, I promise.
So, I invite you to join the conversation. My hope is that this reflection draws you into the Easter Triduum in a new way. These next few days are the most important in the Church calendar. This is where the rubber meets the road. The Gospel is real. It truly happened, and it all culminates beginning with Holy Thursday, through Good Friday, and into the glory of the East Sunday.
As always, I would love to hear from you. People have many different takes on this topic so let me know yours!!
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
You can also purchase Archibishop Fulton Sheen’s “Life of Christ,” here
And of course, I’d love for you to share this episode with a friend so we can grow the show!
Overwhelmed by the gift of the cross,
Mallory
If you came into my house after 7:30, you would find that I had transformed from regular Mallory into avenger Mallory. Every night, after I shower, I take 90 seconds to put on my Frownies, small cardboard like tape that helps keep my wrinkles at bay. Why? Because I am as vain as the next person and while I don’t get Botox, I still would like to have a smooth forehead.
So, know from the get go that I enjoy taking care of myself. I wear make up, buy serums, and generally try to look put together and fashionable. It is because of this that I have noticed myself getting sucked into the skin care industry and all its empty promises.
In this episode of the Gospel &… we are going to dive into some the cultural trends surrounding skin care because it reveals to us exactly what happened to us after the fall. God created women and placed His unique beauty into us as part of our nature. This is something that is part of us. We didn’t have to do anything to get it and it is not based off of what we happen to be into. Whether you consider yourself to be someone who loves feminine fashion and makeup, or you would never put on a dress and haven’t bought something for your face in ten years, God made you beautiful.
Why then can’t we see it? Why is it so easy to see in someone else, and so difficult to pin point in ourselves.
The Gospel has something to teach us here so I hope you will join me for the conversation.
As always, I would love to hear from you. People have many different takes on this topic so let me know yours!!
If you want to dive into my other work you can purchase my book Rekindled, or one of my Bible Studies.
And of course, I’d love for you to share this episode with a friend so we can grow the show!
Trying to stop wasting money on my vanity,
Mallory
Last weekend, Chappell Roan went on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and said that the women she knows who are mothers seem like they are in hell. And of course, as the internet goes, everyone has an opinion.
On today’s episode, I am not so much giving a hot take on her comment as diving into why the cultural conversation about motherhood is the way it is. I take an honest look at motherhood and why someone (often including mothers) think that women with small children are miserable.
But we will not sit and in the challenges of motherhood because I don’t believe that serves anyone. We are going to dive into Genesis chapter 3, discover why the conversation around motherhood always seems so negative, discuss how the Church calls us to something much higher, how mothers often feel stuck in the middle and what we can do about it.
Let me know your opinions and thoughts on the show as well as what topics you would like me to cover.
Also, if you would like to dive into my other work, feel free to grab a copy of Rekindled, my story of abandoning God, leaving Catholicism, and returning whole heartedly. You can also purchase Bible Studies I’ve written and dive into those as well.
And, if you would be so kind, I’d love for you to share this episode with a friend to help me build the show.
God is good and the Gospel is in everything.
Should Prince Harry be deported?
Why is the Culture so insane?
How should we respond and what can we do about it?
Join me in the conversation as I give my much desired opinion on Prince "H', and dive into some scripture that helps answer our questions and frustrations with the culture at large.
In this episode, I hope you will join me as I explore the intersection of the gospel and contemporary culture, addressing the chaos and confusion prevalent in society today. I also discuss the importance of understanding our identity as humans in a noisy world, drawing insights from biblical texts, particularly from Exodus and the Gospel of John. The conversation emphasizes the need for personal transformation and the hope found in Jesus amidst cultural insanity.
Connect with my by subscribing my Substack, or follow me on Instagram.
Dive into my writing by purchasing Rekindled or a Walking with Purpose Bible Study.
In this episode, Mallory Smyth explores the intersection of the gospel with contemporary culture, particularly through the lens of Meghan Markle's new show. She discusses the public's polarized opinions on Meghan, the deeper lessons to be learned from her experiences, and how these relate to the Gospel's teachings on beauty, order, and personal responsibility. The conversation emphasizes the importance of reconciling broken relationships and the higher call of living a life aligned with Christian values.
In this inaugural episode of the Gospel And podcast, host Mallory Smyth shares her personal journey of faith, the significance of the gospel, and how it shapes her understanding of theology, culture, and history. She emphasizes the importance of sharing opinions and seeking truth through the lens of the gospel, while also recounting her transformative experiences that led her back to her faith. The episode culminates in a clear explanation of the gospel message and its relevance to everyday life, encouraging listeners to engage with their faith and the world around them.
Links: Rekindled , Reclaiming Friendship, Rooted and Radiant, Passionate Discipleship
