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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
We explore the benefits of prayer, fasting, sacrifice, and reflection with Father James Martin, a Catholic priest and best-selling author, and Jack Gordon, host of the radio show “Interfaith-ish.” Both men made spiritual migrations in their lives — Father Martin from a corporate desk to the Jesuit brothers and Gordon from Judaism to the Baha’i faith. And both share their insights into the current religious observances of Lent among Christians and the fast during the month of Ala among Bahá’ís.
Everyone Can Pray: Father James Martin on Talking to God
In his book, “Learning to Pray,” Jesuit priest and bestselling author Father James Martin charts an approach to prayer that is not just for Catholics, or even for Christians, but is for everyone. He describes the solace prayer can bring in tough times, like our current pandemic, and acknowledges that prayer, like anything, takes commitment, practice, and perseverance.
Heart of a Believer: How Can We Approach God Through Prayer?
Father James Martin continues to construct a pathway to prayer for the devout, the questioning, and even the skeptic. Prayer, he says, means being in a relationship with God. That means there will be ups and downs and even times when the relationship feels boring. And how are we to understand those times when it seems God does not hear or answer our prayers?
From One Faith to Oneness: From Judaism to Baha’i
Interfaith activist Jack Gordon was raised Jewish but migrated to the Bahá’í faith in his early adulthood. Currently in the middle of a 19-day period of fasting, prayer, and study, he talks about how the Bahá’i tenet of the oneness of all human beings and the value of all faiths speaks to the pandemic and this time of loss. Last year, Gordon hosted a series of 19 virtual Instagram Live conversations after breaking the fast at sunset. He has invited interfaith collaborators to reflect on the meaning of a passage from the Hidden Words, a book of verses written in 1858 by the faith’s founder, Bahá’u’llah.
