Voices Podcast Launches
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Some projects require lengthy explanations and marketing schemes, but this is a project that just speaks for itself - literally.
Voices of Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge is the latest podcast audio release from the Basilian Fathers, now available on iTunes and through the Basilian website at www.basilian.org/News_and_Info/In_the_Media/voices_en.php. Following the success of "Conversations with Macrina," Voices is a project named after the motto of the Basilian Fathers because it is the Basilian Fathers, themselves, who are both the subject and the tellers of the content. Each episode asks one question and contains the responses of 8-12 Basilians. Voices is both a testament to the legacy of the Basilians, as both individuals and a Congregation, as it tries to capture the identity, personality and spirituality of the Basilians.
"It all started from a conversation with our vocations director," says Chris Valka, CSB, "We were searching for a way to convey the unique spirituality and identity of the Basilians, but that has never been easy for us. We are a very anecdotal community, filled with so many different individuals. We were founded by 10 diocesan priests and so we have never really had a easily definable spirituality. Nevertheless, you know a Basilian when you meet him."
Chris Valka, CSB, producer and editor of Voices, enlisted the help of Fr. HB Gardner, CSB to begin interviewing Basilians and gather their responses to five questions: Why did you join? Which Basilian has inspired you the most? What is your favorite Basilian memory? Who is your favorite Basilian character? And what have you learned about God and people through your ministry as a Basilian?
The result is a series of volumes compiled by question and filled with perspectives of religious life and priesthood from an insiders point of view.
"It has been a remarkably rewarding project - not just because I am a Basilian, but because it captures the Gospel as it is lived out today - by those who have dedicated their lives to it," Valka comments.
There is nothing fancy about this project. It is raw story-telling - delightful, inspirational and enjoyable. So far, there are 14 volumes, but the hope is that there will be many more to come.
"I think it is a program Basilians and non-Basilians can appreciate," Valka concludes, "because it represents the art of story-telling by people who are called, in a sense, to be professional story-tellers."
