The SEEK Podcast
Welcome to the SEEK Podcast – we're so glad you’re here. This podcast is a place of community, collaboration, and inspiration, created to invite and encourage you deeper into a relationship with Jesus. Join these podcasters and many others as we encounter Jesus at SEEK25, Jan 1st-5th. For more information and to register, visit seek.focus.org.
The SEEK Podcast
7 Day Spiritual Prep for SEEK: Better Preach Podcast x SEEK
Join Ryan O’Hara and Connor Flanagan as they unveil a 7-Day Spiritual Prep Plan designed to enhance your experience at the SEEK conference. This episode dives deep into the essential spiritual disciplines of asking, fasting, listening, confessing, praising, journaling, and responding—each designed to cultivate a fertile spiritual ground for the seeds of faith to flourish during and after the conference. Tune in to gear up spiritually and ensure you’re fully prepared to embrace all that SEEK 2025 has to offer.
1.Ask: Begin with prayer, asking God for guidance and expressing your desires and needs.
2.Fast: Engage in fasting to sharpen your spiritual awareness and discipline.
3.Listen: Dedicate time to silence and attentive listening to God’s voice.
4.Confession: Prepare spiritually by partaking in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
5.Praise and Thanksgiving: Offer praise to God for His nature and thanksgiving for His deeds.
6.Journal: Record insights, prayers, and reflections to solidify your spiritual experiences.
7.Respond: Prepare to act on the spiritual insights and convictions you gain from the conference.
Register for SEEK here: https://seek.focus.org/registration/
Welcome to the Seek Podcast, where we explore faith, inspire hope and build community. My name is John Michael Lucido and I'm excited to invite you to join us this season as we dive into topics about the faith with people from all over the Catholic world. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Know that we are praying for you.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this special episode of the Better Preach podcast. I'm your host, ryan O'Hara, and I'm here with my trusty occasional co-host, connor Flanagan. Connor, what's up, dude, let's go. It's been way too long.
Speaker 3:But we're here now, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:We're in the Better Preach studio. Best studio in the cities, baby. Best studio in the cities. And this is a special episode of the Better Preach podcast, Special epi huh.
Speaker 3:A little special, a special epi.
Speaker 2:A special epi, sounds like we don't know how to speak English. This is a special episode, a special epi, because I'm going to the SEEK conference in Salt Lake City in well, about two months now, and the Better Preach podcast is going to be there too. But today I want to talk about getting ready for the SEEK conference. I've got let's call it a seven-day spiritual prep plan, a seven-day spiritual prep plan that somebody could do as they're heading to SEEK this year, or really kind of any kind of big conference or retreat. This plan would help, and we've had a history of preparing for conferences together. We have, yeah, dude, you and I, you and I. Don't you remember?
Speaker 3:Oh, we have. Sorry, when we were talking about this, I thought you were talking about your audience. Like you and your audience have a history of prepping for conferences together through this podcast. No, you? And me Dude we have not only prepped. Yeah, we've mega prepped, mega prepped, mega prepped for conferences together and mega executed conferences together, mega prepped, mega programmed, mega executed, mega executed. Some of my favorite professional memories, experiences, times, vibes, places have been with you in the conference world.
Speaker 2:And, again for context, connor and I served on staff at St Paul's Outreach, spo, for almost five years together and we were a part of the team that put the Ascend conference together. That would happen each January down in Orlando, and that was amazing. And I guess part of what this is about is that you know, a conference doesn't just happen. A conference, most of the I mean 90%, 95% of the hard work happens before the day, of course. Yeah, before it starts, yeah. And I think the same principle can be true in our lives, like if you're gonna go that far, spend that much money, take that much time and be in this intentional kind of powerful spiritual environment, don't just show up. And that's really my, that's my deep conviction that that again, god can do amazing things. Of course, if you literally just show up, that's all you have capacity for please do just show up.
Speaker 2:But if you've got a little more horsepower, a little more energy, a little more kind of vision for how those days can be most impactful in your life, you've got to get ready and I want to talk about kind of seven ways that somebody could get ready. The theme this year for SEEK is follow me, and I love that that's such a powerful theme, such a powerful theme for a conference because, again, if you really boil it all down, what did Jesus invite us into? To follow him, follow him and to imitate him, to be near him and to decide I'm going to follow him and nobody else. And so a conference like this is really setting it up that, at the end of the day, have we made a decision in our life to follow him. But that can't just come out of nowhere. I hope and pray and that's part of why I wanted to do this kind of spiritual prep plan is so that people can be ready when the call comes, when the opportunity comes, to grab onto that and to say, yes, I will follow him.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's a no brainer right. When we think of these conferences and how they're supposed to interact with our daily life. It is, I will say, easy to show up somewhere out of your normal reality and follow Jesus for a weekend.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:And recommit and be like I'm in. I'm loving all of what I'm hearing, I'm on board with all of it, I'm excited I'm around like-minded people. But what I love about these steps and this prep plan that you've put together is like it's about following Jesus in the day to day.
Speaker 1:That's right Leading up to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, leading up to it even like just starting to till that soil leading up to it saying all right, god, how am I following you?
Speaker 3:What does it look like? And for me as a husband, a father, as an entrepreneur, as someone who's got my hands in a lot of different things, the hardest places to follow Jesus are in the day-to-day inconveniences. That's right, and especially now when we look at, like, election time and whatever all of these big things that are asking big questions about what we believe and where our convictions lie and all of this stuff, I would still argue it is harder to follow Jesus in the five minutes between two screaming kids fighting over something. Or you as a dad need rest, but your wife needs your attention for I don't know. You know what I mean. I would still argue that it is harder to follow Jesus in the mundane of your day-to-day, when you're working against your own concupiscence, than it is when we face societal things or massive existential questions that come every four years or every six months or whatever I just I'm so convicted of in my own heart. I just know the day-to-day is where it's at.
Speaker 2:Amen, and I think, to the degree that we're going to follow Jesus after the conference, I want us to be preparing for that before the conference, that we can anticipate. This is a place of encounter, this is a place of invitation and I don't want to miss his voice Because, again, even the bigger the conference and SEEK is one of the biggest kind of Catholic conferences out there there's a lot going on.
Speaker 1:Oh man, there's a lot going on, so much.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of time on your feet, a lot of time moving from venue to venue and hotel to venue, a lot of people to see, a lot of people to see, a lot of late nights, not a lot of sleep, yeah, and these are some of the things that kind of work against the response and so we kind of think it's like all Catholic spiritual prayer stuff all the time. No, it's very human. It's very human, yeah, you know, and I'm tired, my feet hurt, I'm old, I guess there's that, and maybe I'll just stay in my hotel room and watch some kind of live stream, like I might opt for that. Boo, boo, don't do that. But that's like it's, that's part of the human experience of these conferences and I really want people to be ready. Yeah, amen. So what do you got for?
Speaker 3:them. Let's start with day one. Well, so let's. Let's lay it out though Seek starts when yeah.
Speaker 2:So SEEK this year 2025, two conferences Salt Lake City January 1st through the 5th. I'm going to be there. Better Preach podcast is going to be there, really excited about that.
Speaker 3:Also, washington DC, january 2nd through the 5th and there's no transportation between the two. During the conference you can't hop a train from Salt Lake to DC right for people who want to try to hit both.
Speaker 2:You might be able to. I'm not sure you'd get there in time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, find someone with a plane if you want to hit both conferences, that's right. But if we work back so you have a seven-day prep, Doesn't matter which one you're going to, well, more or less, we're going to still start this on the same day Christmas.
Speaker 2:You start on Christmas, that's seven days ahead of January 1st and even forget Sikh.
Speaker 3:I know this is about Sikh, but just to start the new year, that's right. This could just be spiritual prep for the new year too, that's right, like if you can't go to Sikh and you're listening to this but you're excited about Sikh happening, or you're just wanting something to get you spiritually prepped for the new year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I'm going to propose here is, you know, 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes each day for seven days, different things that you can do to help spiritually prepare for this kind of encounter. Let's go so day one. Day one is ask, and I want to start there. I love that phrase in the gospel where Jesus says we don't receive because we don't ask, and a lot of times it puts this idea in perspective for me. In fact, I heard somebody say how different would the world be if God answered yes to all of your prayers.
Speaker 3:And I was like what? Which? That's like flipping and being like, what are you praying for?
Speaker 2:Right? No, it's like how big? How big are your prayers? What are you asking of God? Wow, if I'm honest, I think my family would be blessed and protected and I'd have enough money, like that. Okay, these are the things that I'm like praying for. Bless me, bless me, protect me, protect me, provide for me, provide for me, provide for me. How different would the world be if God answered yes to all of my prayers?
Speaker 2:That question has really hit me and helped me to not just stop there and to start to think bigger. How do I pray for my family, my extended family, my neighborhood, my city, the country, the world, the church at large, whatever it may be Like? Why is it that we have such a small view?
Speaker 3:when it comes to prayer, or why is it that I mean this should be a whole nother episode? I mean why, where does guilt come from? Like why I've just experienced in my own life, like, why do you feel guilty? Why do I feel guilty for asking for things in prayer? Like where does that come from? You know, I don't know, because even as you're saying that I'm like just recently I actually had this conviction. I I have realized I am not praying specifically enough for the things that I want God to do with my music career Right, like I'm very much like you know, lord, your will be done.
Speaker 3:You know I have these desires, but I ultimately want this to serve you. But I I kind of I don't know. Just in my own heart it just started welling up like God, I need to be bold, I need to be more. I know you know these things about me, but like I want to be much more specific in what I'm asking you to do. And actually I think it came from a conversation where someone was asking me just practically about goals what are your goals for the next quarter, for the next couple months? And I, oh, I don't. I mean I have them but I don't speak them often. And then I was like, does God know? And then I was like, am I praying for those things you know? And like, so yeah, I just I realized there's somewhere down the line there some guilt came in, like that might be selfish for me to ask for these huge things I want God to do.
Speaker 2:I'm just kind of hoping he does them, because I'm faithful right, and that's that guilt I'm sure comes from, or if we're ever relating to God.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to bother him yeah yeah, like that tells us about an image that we have of God. Yeah, you know that he, he's kind of this busy CEO that doesn't have time for you know the guy in the mail room or something you know which. That's God, his father, god's perfect father and God in his infinite eternal nature. Attention to me is as natural as attention to every person on earth, simultaneously and mysteriously. And yet we have this really kind of small view, I think actually to your point there, like the size of our prayers reflect the size of our belief in who God is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had someone use this analogy in the last year with me in terms of just my continued building of and pursuit of music, and they were sharing with me like I feel like God has given you a plane ticket. It's paid for, full price trip. You just don't know when you get to use it, right. So God's kind of like Connor, like you know we're going somewhere, but we're just not. You know you have to trust me as to the timing, as to when, almost like a dad surprising his son with an awesome vacation trip, right, like when I know the time is right for me to take you on this trip, I'll take you on this trip. And to me as I pray about the future and things that I want to happen, it was like whoa, like, yeah, like God, god delights in where I'm going and what he has for me.
Speaker 3:And I would say the same about anyone who's going to seek. A lot of people make sacrifices. Seek is not cheap, right? All of these types of conferences cost money and time and it can be very, very much like a pilgrimage to get to something like this. And I would just I want to say like, if you're listening and you're going to seek like ask big. Because God is excited you're going. He is excited that you may be leaving your family behind for three days. He's excited that you may be leaving some of those friendships that have been dragging you down for three days. He may just be excited that you're getting some rest, you're getting away from your job. God gets excited when we make time for him.
Speaker 2:So ask big, ask big. Yeah, what does that look like? Spend 15, 20 minutes just talking to God about what you hope will happen. What do you hope? Do you even know what you're looking for, what it is you're hoping you'll encounter what you'll see, and ask God for the grace not to miss His grace in your life during this time, to not miss His voice and to pray for everybody. Start praying for everybody you're traveling with. Pray for everybody from your school. Pray for everybody who's going to be at the conference, who's going to be at the other conference that you're not going to be at too? Yeah, so that's day one.
Speaker 3:Just start asking God and ask God big I'm getting, so we might have to stop this. The levels of conviction right now are kind of creeping up to where I might not be able to speak. We might have to stop. I'm being so convicted right now. My levels of convict are just like so high. I'm not sure if I can keep going. You might have to take us through the next six. I'm just going to sit over here asking the Lord in prayer quietly while you take this episode.
Speaker 2:Speaking of which, day two, day two Fast, baby, you got to fast. Jp2 said this that the most powerful force on earth is the combination of prayer and fasting. Wow, because of that conviction, because of that sentence, actually, at my silent retreat this past summer, I was convicted that I needed to fast and pray for a particular group. It's a big group of people that my family has a relationship with and that I needed to write all of their names down and to fast and pray every week. And that was a it was a little bit of a chiding, like the Lord was like hey man, what are we doing? Yeah, are you? Are you serious about reaching these people or not? Yeah, and and that thought that the combination of prayer and fasting coming together is the most powerful force on earth. And I've just been so blessed by the fruit of that Every Friday lunch time that I fast around the meal and spend an hour in Eucharistic adoration. That's been kind of my prayer and fasting combination, and again, it's in addition to my daily prayer, that day, you know.
Speaker 2:And so how can you say no to yourself just for one day? Literally, this is day two. We're not talking a week fast, just day two. Literally, this is day two. We're not talking a week fast, just day two. Yeah, what can you say no to so that you can prepare your heart to say yes to God? Yeah, you know, and I'm thinking like skipping a meal. Yeah, simple, don't eat meat that day. Yeah, you know, forget the coffee, take a cold shower.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Keep it super simple. We often try to make these things larger than life and bigger than they need to be. But think of I mean yeah, coffee is always a go-to for me. If I'm ever going to fast for somebody, I love coffee.
Speaker 3:I drink multiple cups a day. It's an emotional fix for me, which sometimes I think is worse. You know, like I love it so much, I don't actually need it. When you take out something like a worldly good that you love that much, it's hard right and I just think God honors that, and something as simple as giving up a couple cups of coffee one day could be a great way to fast.
Speaker 2:So simple, yeah. So day one ask. Day two fast. Day three listen. Right, we got to get quiet. I want, on this day three, spend 15 minutes in what I'd call attentive silence. That that you're. You know. You make a sign of the cross, you welcome, you invite the Holy Spirit in your prayer time and you just get quiet, get to a place, turn your phone off, do not disturb Some place where you're not going to be interrupted. 15, 20, 30 minutes, those first few minutes are a little uncomfortable. Yeah, the silence, because the weight of it, we just don't experience it. But just being attentive to God, being in God's presence, and to begin to listen, that's the hope. Listen and see what the Lord puts on your heart or brings to your mind.
Speaker 3:Do you recommend people have a Bible for that time or anything to write with? Or is it truly just like trust God to do something with this silent time? You don't need anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, if it was me, I would go to the church. I go to a church and just sit in attentive silence before the blessed sacrament, either in the tabernacle in the church or in adoration, if possible. That, to me, is just a perfect place to not to not have to have a journal, to not have to have a Bible. Yep, you're just. I think it can be helpful to have something simple, to write down a note or two, because things will come to mind Oftentimes too. If things are coming to mind, it's nice to be able to jot something down so that I can put it out of my mind. But really, your goal is just 15, 20 minutes of attentive silence with the intention of Lord. I want to hear your voice. What is it that you're asking? You're kind of asking this question, or what is it that you want for me? Yeah, from this experience, and sort of bringing that question to the Lord and then waiting in silence for how the Lord may speak back to you.
Speaker 3:Do you have any sort of simple prayer or hack that you say or use when you experience distraction in silence? Because, for me honestly like the easiest part of silence is finding the time, the space and turning off my phone, the hardest part is the silence itself, right?
Speaker 3:Like once you kind of leave yourself alone with yourself. Isn't that crazy? It's the. I mean, even past those. You know, maybe you could pass those first couple of minutes. You have five or six good minutes and you're like, you know you're tapping out. You're like come on, get me out of here. I got things to do and places to be and thoughts coming back in. And is there? How do you deal with that?
Speaker 2:Two things that come to mind that helped me, that I just have heard help others. Come Holy Spirit. Just a centering prayer, come Holy Spirit. Repeating that quietly a few times, or just the name of Jesus, just saying the name of Jesus, drawing my attention back to him when I notice that my mind wanders. And sometimes I don't notice for a couple of minutes that my mind has been wandering, but when I do, just recollecting myself with the name of Jesus, or that Jesus prayer. Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner praying that prayer. Another prayer that I've been praying a lot lately is that prayer of surrender. Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything. That's been such a powerful prayer, so simple prayers like that can really help to kind of bring you back to recollection, bring you back to attentive silence in the face of some distraction Nice.
Speaker 3:All right. Day four We've asked, we're fasting, we've listened. What are we doing? On day four Confession.
Speaker 2:See if you can now. You may not be able to go to confession that day, but make that a part of your plan, for two reasons. One it just helps you to be in a state of grace for sure going into the conference, god willing. Number two there will be tons of opportunities at SEEK to go to confession, but it's the lines. The lines can be long. There could be a lot going on. You don't want that pressure. I find that it's one of the best. The best things to do to spiritually prepare myself is to make a good confession, and so, whether it happens on day four or it happens that week, I'd encourage you to do a good examination of conscience, to make a good confession and prepare your heart and mind spiritually for what's to come. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2:Day five Praise and thanksgiving. Now, this is a little tough, okay. What I'm already anticipating through praise and thanksgiving is I'm beginning. I know, I know that God is going to do some amazing things and I'm going to thank him ahead of time for what he's going to do and I'm going to praise him ahead of time for who he is. Yeah, and that's again. I think it's always helpful to. I love to make a distinction. Praise honors God for who God is. Kind of what God is like. You know that he's kind, he's merciful, he's slow to anger, he abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. I praise God for his character, but thanksgiving can shout it out in gratitude for what God has done, out in gratitude for what God has done. And so, if we make that distinction, I want to encourage you to praise God. Spend a few minutes praising God for who he is and thanking God in advance for what he will do Well, and I think, too, this comes.
Speaker 3:You know, we're coming off of we're kind of in between two holidays, right. So we're coming off of kind of probably a crazy week of life for every person everywhere, and I find this often, as I'm preparing for shows I'm going to go play or events I'm going to be a part of, to try to pause beforehand and give praise and thanksgiving seems like it's an impossible task because for me, my house is probably chaotic. I'm trying to make sure my family's ready and prepped well before I leave for when I'm gone. All of these different things work, stuff's tied up, and so you have all of these other things that I really think can be serious temptations to not want to praise God and not want to say thank you for what's about to happen. You're just kind of like I just need to get there.
Speaker 3:So I actually think this is like very important and very specifically timed on day five to be like come up for air, take a deep breath and thank God, even for the current circumstances, right, like thank you for Christmas with my family, thank you for the ability to have been able to provide for presents this year, all of the things like thank you for this chaos, because, god, you always make something beautiful out of chaos. So I don't know. I just was really struck by I hadn't even really looked at this until now and seeing day five, praise and thanksgiving, given the week we're in leading up to seek, seems like a very timely opportunity to honor and praise God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the liturgy says and I love this line that God, if we remember it in the Eucharistic prayer I think it's the Eucharistic prayer for that God has no need of our praise, but our desire to thank him is itself his gift to us, and so did you track all that, I think so yeah, so God doesn't need it, we need it.
Speaker 2:God doesn't need our praise and thanks it, we need it. God doesn't need our praise and thanksgiving, we need it. It's his gift, and so this is a gift that God has given us at all times to praise and thank him for the hard stuff and to thank him for the good stuff and to praise him for what he is doing. And that's again, I think I love that you point out there's going to be a lot of different things swirling around that week going into Seek yeah that's awesome, Day six coming in for landing here Getting there, journal.
Speaker 2:So this is two things For me. I'm a journal guy, I love to pray with a journal. So this is two things. I for me. I, I'm a journal guy, I love, I love to pray with a journal. But I also love to go into a conference, knowing how, how am I going to capture? How am I going to capture this event?
Speaker 2:You know, uh, whenever I go on my silent retreat, I got to make sure I have the right kind of notebook and pen. Yeah, and sometimes, um, you know, sequel, always they'll always give you, you know, uh, a book and and you can take notes. But for me, I like to bring my own journal, my own notebook, so that I'm ready and it kind of. I don't take any notes on my phone, I don't take any notes on my iPad or any kind of electronic device. When I'm on a retreat, I want to have a book, I can carry it with me. I want to be able to take notes at any point with a pen and I want to be able to look back at it in that way. That's like where the spiritual reflection and prayer comes for me is in these kind of analog books that I can hold, I can put on a shelf I can go back and see, and so what I want people to do here on day six is what's your plan? To take notes.
Speaker 2:Grab that book, begin to write down some of what's been happening. What have you been asking for? What have you heard in prayer, as you're listening to God? Write down some things that you're grateful for in anticipation of this week. I love it, it's so good. Last day Respond. This is really praying for the grace. Praying for the grace to be able to respond to God's action in your life, to be able to wholeheartedly respond to what God is initiating in you during this time. What, what, what is the invitation and that you don't want to miss. Praying for the grace to hear that voice. Yeah, so so day one ask. Day three listen. Day five praise and Thanksgiving and day seven respond. These are all like 15 to 20 minutes of of dedicated prayer around these themes. Yeah and um.
Speaker 3:Again, I and then those other days are more, I don't want to say like activities, but they're kind of more action oriented.
Speaker 2:That's right, and things that you're that you're doing. Yeah, um, you know what is it? What does your fast look like? Are you getting to confession? Do you have your journal kind of ready and beginning to write some things down? But the other days are really around. The kind of prayer commitment that you can make in anticipation and I again, whether it's a, it doesn't have to be seek is just a great vehicle for a kind of preparation plan like this. But to me it has everything to do with who. Who does God want me to be on the other side of this thing? Yeah, uh, that's what we're working on on this side of that thing. Right, I mean.
Speaker 3:to me this is just all. It's just tilling soil, that's right. Right, you're, you know, like maybe the ground has become hard and maybe it's become rocky.
Speaker 3:Maybe you feel like you haven't been watered in a long time. Right, like all of these, you're living your life. We get into habits and routines and things that we don't even realize and we have to take. I mean, in seven days you can till some serious soil so that whatever's going to fall on you from the conference, whatever's going to be born new in you at the conference, actually can take root. Amen so that's what I love about this.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Hey, man, thanks for being here with me today, yeah well, and I'll see all y'all at SEEK. I don't know in what capacity, but I'm going to be there. Wait, you're going, I'm going, what, yeah?
Speaker 2:How did I just find that out now? Have we not talked about this? What are you?
Speaker 3:doing Nothing, just going. I'm just going to hang man, so come hang, if you see me let's hang Dude.
Speaker 2:Dude, that makes my day. Yeah, so I'll see you there, all right? Salt Lake City, salt Lake City.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Hey, folks, we'll see you there. This is Ryan O'Hara with the Better Preach Podcast, my trusty occasional co, and again, love hanging with you, my friend, and yeah, see you in Salt Lake City. See you there, bro, peace.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this episode. We hope you learned something and encountered Christ in some way. If you enjoy what we do, please subscribe and share this podcast with a friend. This helps us reach more people with and for Christ. Until next time, this is John Michael Peace.
