The Catholic Accent Podcast

BONUS 19 - Saint Paul, Mission Trips, and... Guinea Pigs?

• Diocese of Greensburg • Season 2 • Episode 9

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Bonus Conversation — Following Season 2, Episode 9

 When hope feels thin, what banner do you raise? We begin with the image of the Paschal Lamb and its unexpected link to the medieval Oriflamme—the king’s banner lifted when defeat seemed certain—and trace that symbol straight to the empty tomb. From there, we look at Saint Paul’s example of an undivided heart, seeing how celibacy and single-minded devotion helped focus his mission, and how that same openness to God still fuels service and ministry today.

Our journey moves from comfortable pews to uncomfortable places—where control loosens and grace has space to work. We talk honestly about how routine can dull our sense of wonder, and how small choices—visiting a new parish, welcoming interruptions, saying yes when we’d rather wait—can open unexpected doors for the Holy Spirit.

Along the way, we share stories from the Peruvian highlands: pilgrim roads beyond Machu Picchu, a sister diocese celebrating a milestone, and the joy of finding deep faith in surprising places. The theme that emerges is simple and hopeful—victory often looks like presence, generosity, and courage in the everyday.

You’ll hear how faith feels alive around the world: the comfort of seeing a priest in a faraway city, the kinship that bridges language, and the way even the poorest households make space at their tables so the Gospel can keep moving. There’s laughter too—yes, even about trying guinea pig for the first time—because mission is grounded in real life: meals, humor, and friendships that carry hope across every threshold.

If you’re looking for a faith that moves with compassion and courage, this conversation invites you to listen, reflect, and step forward. Subscribe, share with a friend, and tell us—where might the Spirit be asking you to raise the banner next?

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

SPEAKER_00:

You're listening to the Catholic Acting Podcast. We discussed the act that Jesus performed that stunned his disciples. Great to be back, Jordan. You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know. I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father Poojil, and we're both stunned.

SPEAKER_02:

Something I wanted to bring up in Christian tradition, in imagery, is what we see is like the lamb of God, right? The Paschal Lamb with a banner that's flying, and it has the white with the red cross and so forth. It actually comes from uh French tradition. It's called the Oriflom. And there, that was a flag that only the king, in the midst of the battle, whenever everything looked like it was lost, he would run back into the battle with that flag as a sign of like a great victory, as a push for the victory, that we need to go back into the fray. And so we can think of St. Paul doing that. He's carrying that same banner that Christ carried out of the tomb, the great sign of victory over what looked like it was lost, and now he's proclaiming that to the world, that we can have victory in Christ. And one of the things, too, that made Paul such a great missionary or his ability is that he gave himself wholly to the mission of the Lord, where we don't have that Paul was married even, that he lived this celibate lifestyle in full service to the Lord of the mission and the message. And we see that still echoed in religious vocations of today, monasticism uh in the West, in the Catholic priesthood or celibate priests, that you're given to the mission of Christ at all times to preach the message of the gospel.

SPEAKER_01:

And to have that full commitment with an undivided heart.

SPEAKER_02:

Really, the way in which that we live out this missionary discipleship is going into uncomfortable places in our lives. Just like St. Paul. It's so easy to just sit in comfort of I like my way that I practice religion this exact way at this exact time and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_01:

My pew at my mass time at my church.

SPEAKER_02:

And sometimes it's good to break up that to really then see where the Holy Spirit can serve us and can really be uh enlivened in us because you really will feel the grace of God whenever you don't have everything in control, when it's not by your own auspices or abilities or anything else like that that you make things happen. It's like this had to be God doing it, not me, but God making his will done in the midst of the world.

SPEAKER_00:

What has been an experience you have had uh on a trip where you may have shared the gospel?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think as priests we always have different opportunities to have missionary encounters, whether it's in the confessional, meeting people on the street, you know, during pilgrimages. But I like to remember my time in seminary. I was able to go with the diocese to our sister diocese in Peru on a missionary visit as they celebrated their 60th anniversary uh of their canonical establishment. And at that time when we were able to go up into the mountains, you know, way past Machu Picchu in the middle of nowhere, and to see how the faith has received and has grown in those places where you would not think that Christians would be. How did we get from the Far East to the jungle in Peru? You know, it shows that what St. Paul and these other early disciples did truly not only made a difference, but reached all people in all places.

SPEAKER_02:

I've had many encounters and I've traveled before as a priest, that you actually become a comforting presence to some people, especially in a foreign land. People that are Catholic see you somewhere else immediately, even if you don't speak the same language, and there's a friendship there, there's a comfort there for them. And so that we can actually be comforts to one another in the midst of the journey when we're strangers in a strange land awaiting the fulfillment of what is to come. Uh, and those are beautiful moments where we just have that essence as Catholics, a solidarity across the entirety of the globe that everywhere you go, there's really a sense of feeling at home because the Catholic Church is there because of great missionaries that have spread the gospel.

SPEAKER_01:

And how quickly the faithful are willing and able to open up their homes, right? For a missionary, for a preacher, for a priest. And they could be the poorest of the poor, and they are going to find something for you to eat. They are going to make sure you have what you need so that you can continue the journey and go forth.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, here's a little clip of Father Chris in Peru. Young Father Chris. Then when he was a seminarian. Oh, look at that sheep. Now that's not what you ate there.

SPEAKER_01:

No, we ate the guinea pigs. They were crispy. I picked out my own guinea pig. They're like chicken pigs. Instead of a lobster from a tank, it's pick out the guinea pig from the pen.

SPEAKER_00:

I just figured out that's what I was doing this whole time. I was looking, I was trying to find the the the other ones. Hide your guinea pigs.

SPEAKER_01:

Hide you hide your wife. Okay, I think that's the end of this.

SPEAKER_00:

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