Restore The Glory Podcast

This week, Jake and Bob are joined by Andrew Laubacher, the Executive Director of Humanality, to explore how our digital world is reshaping our attention, attachments, and relationships. After stepping away from social media and smart phones to overcome addiction, Andrew realized that healing sometimes requires more than better habits, fasting, or more prayer—it requires recovering the way God created us to live and relate. Together, they discuss the false intimacy of online community, the loneliness epidemic, and why technology is never as neutral as we assume. Andrew also shares practical steps you can begin today to live intentionally with technology.
 
Key Points:
Modern technology offers a false intimacy while leaving us increasingly isolated, lonely, and craving real in-person community.
Human beings are biologically designed for face-to-face connection, not constant digital interaction.
Technology is not neutral because every platform is intentionally designed to keep us using it.
AI offers remarkable benefits but also presents significant dangers when it replaces authentic human relationships.
Healing requires real encounter, attention, and attachment that technology can never fully provide.
Many of today's mental health struggles exist alongside a broader crisis of addiction and overstimulation.
Constant digital stimulation weakens our capacity for focus, presence, contemplation, and prayer. It also affects sleep, physical health, eyesight, and overall well-being.
Living intentionally with technology allows people to recover creativity, purpose, authentic relationships, and a deeper encounter with God.
 
Resources:
Humanality
 
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
06:49 How Technology Diminishes our Humanity
14:04 Artificial Community and False Intimacy
21:03 Can AI Heal Us?
31:10 The Tension of Virtual Communication
36:54 Attention, Attachment, and Addiction
52:33 Reclaiming Your Attention
57:07 Resources and Encouragement
 
Connect with Restore the Glory: 
Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast 
Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod
Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast
 
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This week, Jake and Bob conclude their series on confession with Fr. John Horn and explore the root system behind two deadly sins: sloth (acedia) and lust. Through personal examples, they uncover the deeper attitudes, fears, and wounds that drive these struggles and keep us from intimacy with God. They also discuss how self- reliance, discouragement, and isolation can distort our desires and lead us away from the freedom God offers us through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 
 
Key Points:
Virtue grows when our desires are reordered toward God through love rather than fear.
Sloth, or acedia, is often misunderstood as just laziness. It can also manifest as overactivity, restlessness, and self-reliance.
Discouragement is frequently rooted in the belief that we must transform ourselves without God's help.
The remedy for acedia begins with surrendering control and accepting poverty of spirit.
Lust reflects a deeper attempt to satisfy desires apart from God.
Shame, hopelessness, and a lack of purpose often lie beneath struggles with lust.
Confession becomes more fruitful when we bring our underlying attitudes and beliefs rather than only our behaviors.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation restores communion with God, ourselves, the Church, and others.
Freedom grows as we learn to receive the Father's delight and stop holding our sins and weaknesses against ourselves.
 
Resources:
Institute for Priestly Formation
Confession Fourfold 


Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:26 The Goal is Not the Removal of Sin
10:57 What is Sloth (Acedia)?
18:40 Personal Examples of Acedia
27:19 Emotion is Not A Sin
38:15 What is Lust?
44:14 A Lack of Hope
65:45 Resources
 
Connect with Restore the Glory: 
Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast 
Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod
Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast
 
Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow in holiness by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks!

This week, Jake and Bob are joined by Fr. John Horn, co-founder of the Institute for Priestly Formation, to continue their series on confession. They explore how the sin of pride often hides beneath the surface of our spiritual lives and can even affect the way we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation itself. Using the parable of the Prodigal Son, they also uncover how fear, shame, and self-reliance can keep us from fully receiving the Father's love. At its core, Confession is an encounter with a Father who rejoices over His children and allowing our hearts to receive this love leads us toward deeper healing and freedom
 
Key Points:
Zephaniah's image of God rejoicing and singing over His people reveals the Father's true posture toward repentant sinners.
Many of us approach confession assuming God is disappointed in them rather than delighting in their return.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that "whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver." Which means, the disposition of our hearts is connected with our ability to receive the Father's love.
Self-condemnation and self-hatred can be hidden forms of pride rather than genuine humility.
Many deeply rooted patterns of sin become so familiar that we mistake them for normal life instead of areas needing healing.
The younger son's demand for his inheritance reflects a desire for God's gifts apart from relationship with God Himself.
The younger son's return reveals how shame can continue to operate even after repentance begins.
The Father's embrace, kiss, robe, ring, and feast demonstrate God's extravagant response to repentance.
The older brother reveals a different form of pride expressed through resentment, self-righteousness, and comparison.
Resentment often exposes deeper fears, wounds, and unmet desires hidden beneath the surface.
Joy can be difficult to receive when we are attached to self-protection, control, or self-judgment.
True healing involves uncovering and renouncing the lies that keep us from trusting God's love.
The Holy Spirit restores our original beauty by healing the places where we have rejected ourselves and doubted God's love.
 
Resources:
Institute for Priestly Formation
Zephaniah 3:14-18

 
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:25 The Father Rejoices Over His Children
13:38 Disposition Changes Everything
22:42 Entering into the Prodigal Son Story
33:02 Shame and the Younger Son
39:14 The Father's Embrace and Mercy
43:33 The Older Brother's Hidden Pride
 
Connect with Restore the Glory: 
Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast 
Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod
Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast
 
Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow in holiness by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks!

This week, Jake and Bob are joined by Fr. John Horn, co-founder of the Institute for Priestly Formation, to begin a series on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. They discuss the connection between our wounded image of God and sin, revealing how many of our repeated struggles are rooted in lies about our identity in the Father's love. Fr. John also shares how Confession can become more than just listing sins, why we should embrace our interior poverty, and the danger of scrupulosity. 

 
Key Points:
Unforgiveness is one of the greatest barriers to restoration.
Many people remain trapped after confession because they continue holding unforgiveness toward themselves.
God does not despise our wounds; He desires to love us directly within them.
Much of habitual sin is driven by deeper lies and false beliefs about God, ourselves, and others.
Spiritual poverty is the very place that attracts God's mercy.
Confession becomes transformative when we examine not only the outward sin, but the beliefs underneath it.
Our image of God is often shaped by early relational wounds and experiences with parents or authority figures.
God is not reluctantly forgiving us; He rejoices over us and fights for our healing and freedom.
 
Resources:
Institute for Priestly Formation
Episode 131: Forgiveness and Spiritual Renewal w/ Fr. John Horn
"....Not enough that the arrow has been extracted from the body, the wound, which it inflicted, must also be healed. So with regard to the soul. Not enough that the sin has been pardoned. The wound which it left must also be healed." (St. John Chrysostom)
 
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:21 Healing is Found Through Forgiveness
09:10 The Wound Left Behind by Sin
16:01 Why So Many Catholics Avoid Confession
24:29 Sin Begins with Unbelief
33:56 Scrupulosity and Self-Forgiveness
37:40 How Our Image of God Becomes Wounded
58:51 Practical Ways to Prepare for Confession
 
Connect with Restore the Glory: 
Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast 
Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod
Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast
 
Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow in holiness by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks!

This week, Jake and Bob talk about the two Sacraments of Healing, Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick, and what they reveal about Christ as the physician of both soul and body. They discuss how suffering itself can become healing, why not everyone who prays for healing is healed, and the role of forgiveness in both receiving and asking for healing. Healing ultimately is a restoration into wholeness and is found in communion with God. Jake and Bob end by sharing a few stories of miraculous healing as well as their experiences of receiving a quiet, yet strengthening grace.
 
Key Points:
There are two Sacraments of Healing: Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick.
Jesus is the physician of both body and soul.
Healing is an ongoing encounter with God's love.
Forgiveness of sins and physical healing are deeply interconnected.
Unforgiveness can act as a barrier that prevents deeper healing from taking place.
Sin causes fragmentation, while forgiveness restores unity and openness to grace.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers forgiveness and healing for the heart.
The Anointing of the Sick offers grace for physical healing, spiritual strength, and preparation for death.
Suffering becomes healing when it draws a person into deeper communion with God.
Not everyone receives physical healing, and this remains a real and difficult mystery.
 
Resources:
CCC 1421
CCC 1503
CCC 1508-1509

 
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:33 The Two Sacraments of Healing
06:16 Forgiveness as A Barrier or Gateway to Healing
12:30 The Healing Nature of Suffering
15:30 Stories of the Anointing of the Sick
25:39 Why Not Everyone is Healed
34:21 God's Grace is Sufficient
 
Connect with Restore the Glory: 
Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast 
Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod
Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast
 
Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow in holiness by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks!