The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast is a free, weekly thirty-minute podcast, posted on every Monday, featuring Fr. John Dear and his reflections about Jesus, Gospel nonviolence, and peacemaking, and guests who teach, speak out, organize and work for a more just, most peaceful, more nonviolent world. Through these weekly reflections, we hope to inspire everyone to follow the nonviolent Jesus more faithfully and do our part to welcome God’s reign of peace with justice on earth!

Here is the schedule for the first five podcasts. The link we will provided on the day they are posted; the podcast APP will be available in early February. It will also be posted every Monday on the homepage of the National Catholic Reporter, HERE.

“We are experiencing the thrashing of empire and the death throes of capitalism,” Martha Hennessy says in this episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.” Martha is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the legendary activist, author, anarchist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. A longtime peace activist, Martha lives on her family farm in Vermont and volunteers part time at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, which was Dorothy’s home. She speaks regularly on the issues of war, poverty, the works of mercy, and nuclear weapons, and has traveled to Russia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Korea to witness for peace.

Like her grandmother, Martha says that “good solutions never come from the state… We need to find one’s niche…to create a new world from the shell of the old world, to create a society where it’s easy to be good.”

John Dear asks Martha about Dorothy’s brilliant—and shocking–statement right after the attack on Pearl Harbor which she ran as the headline of the Catholic Worker: “Our Manifesto Is the Sermon on the Mount.” Even if everyone else runs off to war, we will obey the teachings of Jesus and not support war, Dorothy insisted. We discuss Dorothy’s amazing witness over the course of her long life, how she said “No” to every single war.

“The U.S. church desperately needs Dorothy as a saint, a saint who was a laywoman, a mother, and a grandmother. Pope Francis recognizes her as a saint. She was a mystic, she was touched by God. And she was an extraordinary grandmother.”

Martha also talks about her recent arrest on Ash Wednesday outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations calling upon the U.S. to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; her work at Maryhouse; her imprisonment for the King’s Bay Plowshares disarmament action; and her grandmother’s impending canonization. Join us and be inspired to carry on like Dorothy Day!

Upcoming Podcasts

April 31st, #17. John Dear in conversation with Kazu Haga, author of the new book, Fierce Vulnerability, on trauma healing and creative nonviolence

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

Jan. 6th. #1 John Dear on “Living the Beatitudes”
Jan. 13th. #2 John Dear in conversation with actor and activist Martin Sheen
Jan. 20th. #3 John Dear in conversation with Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Dr. King’s personal assistant
Jan. 27th. #4 The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast with Sr Helen Prejean
Feb. 3rd. #5 John Dear in conversation with Fr. Richard Rohr about his new book on the prophets, “The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an age of outrage.”
Feb. 10th. #6, Fr. John Dear on “The Nonviolence of Jesus: 10 Essentials”
Feb. 17th. #7 Fr. John Dear in conversation with Sr. Joan Chittister on “Jesus and the Beatitudes,” Part 1 of 3
Feb. 24th. #8 Fr. John Dear in conversation with Sr. Joan Chittister on “Jesus and the Beatitudes,” Part 1 of 3
Mar. 10th. #10, John Dear in conversation with Marie Dennis
Mar. 17th. #11 Fr. John Dear in conversation with Brian McLaren
Mar. 24th. #12 Fr. John Dear in conversation with Shane Caliborne
Mar. 31st. #13 John Dear on Jesus’ Grassroots Campaign of Nonviolence, a Model for our Time
April 7th. #14 John Dear in conversation with Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder and director of Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
April 14th. #15, Eric Stoner of WagingNonviolence.org On the Growing Resistance to Trump’s Policies

Last Sat., April 5th, an estimated 3 million people marched in the “Hands Off!” movement with over 1,400 demonstrations around the U.S. covering all 50 states, protesting every aspect of the Trump Administration’s policies. A month before that, on February 28th, close to 40 million people participated in a nationwide economic blackout boycott, to protest Trump’s policies, making it one of the most successful acts of non-compliance in U.S. history. Contrary to what you might think, people are indeed taking to the streets and resisting Trump’s corporate injustice, rising authoritarianism, and global chaos.

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Eric Stoner, founding editor of WagingNonviolence.org, an independent, non-profit media platform that covers social movements and grassroots activism around the world on all issues of justice, disarmament and creation. Since 2009, it has published original reporting on nonviolent action from contributors in more than 90 countries.

Eric and friends started this clearinghouse of nonviolent movements in the 2000s from scratch, and today it regularly gets over 1.3 million readers looking for news about people power movements that you will never hear on the mainstream media. “Contrary to what a lot of people see or think, there is more protest and resistance to Trump than you see or read in the mainstream media,” Eric says.

John will ask Eric about the growing resistance to rising authoritarianism and oligarchy, as well as stories of grassroots movements from around the world, and his own changing understanding of nonviolence. “Boycotting is the most important tool in protesting,” he says, “hands down.” Covering the world from the perspective of nonviolence actually gives him hope, he tells John, because so many people are struggling hard for positive social change. Listen and be encouraged!

Upcoming Podcasts

April 21st, #16. John Dear in conversation with Martha Hennessy, longtime peace activist, member of Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, granddaughter of Dorothy Day
April 31st, #17. John Dear in conversation with Kazu Haga, author of the new book, Fierce Vulnerability, on trauma healing and creative nonviolence