Loved Called Gifted

For the 90th episode of the podcast, Loved Called Gifted is joining with the Raise podcast in a joint venture, with, rather excitingly, two podcast episodes. To get the second one, which will be released the following day, you will need to hop across to the Raise podcast to hear Carol interviewing Catherine about the creative possibilities of doubt. 

In this episode, Catherine talks with Carol Barwick, founder of Raise and hos...

What does it really mean to grieve? Tom Attig, philosopher and author of Seeking Wisdom in Death's Shadows, joins Catherine Cowell to challenge some of the most widely held assumptions about grief and loss.

Drawing on four decades of teaching, writing, and listening, Tom a...

St. Ignatius of Loyola had a revolutionary effect on the spiritual lives of millions of people. As well as founding the Jesuits, he developed a philosophy and practice of prayer that continues to be helpful to people 500 years later. We look at how he was both similar to and different from his contemporary Martin Luther. And take a look at some of his ideas and methods, such as finding God in all things,  Lectio Divina (readin...

Catherine Cowell sits down with Maria Manuela Silva—a spiritual director whose life journey spans cultures, crises, and a profound rediscovery of faith.

Maria shares her story of growing up in Portugal under the fear and restriction of a dictatorship, living through a revolution, discovering faith, and then building a life of ministry and service in the UK. When a series of personal losses brought everything to a halt, Maria ...

Catherine Cowell and Katy Bowser Hutson talk about play as a spiritual practice. Katy shares how her lifelong creativity—and even her experience with cancer—led her to see play not as something trivial, but as something deeply meaningful, even sacred.

Together, they explore how play is rooted in curiosity, imagination, joy, and relationship—and how it can shape the way we connect with God, ourselves, and others. F...

Catherine is joined again by Maria Garvey who is navigating life with ongoing physical fragility and chronic pain. She reflects on surrender, vulnerability, and the slow undoing of an identity built on strength, resilience, and responsibility. What emerges is not a neat lesson, but a lived experience of being “broken open” — and discovering love not as something earned or managed, but something received.

Together ...

Catherine Cowell chats with Andrea Clarke about surrender, rest, and rediscovering who we really are beneath all the roles and expectations. Andrea reflects on a sailing trip that became a powerful spiritual reset, where she sensed an invitation to join Jesus’ “crack surrender squad” — not about doing more, but about letting go. Through stories, poetry, and deep honesty, they explore surrender as returning t...

This episode is a deep, honest conversation with Addison Torrance and Caidyn Bearfield about their experiences in the foster care and youth institutional system in Ohio, and how those experiences led them into advocacy. They both share painful stories of being placed in congregate care and residential treatment facilities, where trauma, over-medication, lack of education, and loss of trust were common. Despite that, they talk about...

As we start the New Year, Catherine is joined by Olga Malarkey for a rich, down-to-earth conversation about faith, identity, and noticing God in everyday life. Olga shares a bit of her story and together they reflect on Ireland, creativity, and the deep hunger for freedom and healing woven into Irish culture, before moving into Olga’s personal journey of faith — including walking through years of chronic illness and exp...

Sophie Killingley is a freelance artist who is passionate about the intersection of faith and creativity and breaking down the sacred/secular divide to explore the world as it is. Her work and cartooning are quirky offerings of humour and heart from her perspectives on mental health, Christian culture, and the daily realities of having a neurodivergent family. I discovered Sophie's work having been alerted to her presence in the wo...

Catherine talks with Anni Ponder and Kim Eckhart, who host a regular online meeting called “Finding Mama God”.

Both Anni and Kim describe how, independently, they have grown up in Christian churches which focused on the masculine aspects of the divine, and yet were drawn into a journey of discovering the transformative power of perceiving God as feminine, particularly through the lens of our motherhood.  How they ...

Catherine is joined once again by the wonderful Heidi Steele from Live Play Learn. Heidi’s an unschooling parent of four and a former teacher, and she shares what life looks like when learning happens naturally — no classrooms, no curriculums, just curiosity.

They dive into how unschooling has supported Heidi’s neurodivergent family, what it means to unschool ourselves as adults, and how questioning old assumption...

Maria Skoyles, founder of Dorcas Dresses, shares her journey inspired by the biblical figure Dorcas, a dressmaker known for her acts of charity. Maria’s business supports women in financial hardship, providing them with sewing machines and training to establish their own businesses. Through her work, Maria witnesses the transformative power of empowering women, enabling them to bless ot...

What does God's mothering of us look like? What are the different ways that we experience the maternal embrace of the divine? This is the question that Joan Wright Howie explores with Catherine in this episode. 

Joan is a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia. She is also a Spiritual Director and a professional supervisor. 

Here is  Joan's Golden Thread website. The conversation she refers to can be found on Th...

In this wide ranging conversation, Catherine talks with Dr Laura Beres, who is Professor of Social Work, at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario. They talk about spirituality in the context of social work, narrative therapy, research into spirituality and resilience and COVID 19. What can we learn from the Celtic inspired practices of community of Iona? And from the Benedictine concepts of conversatio, obe...

Sue Saunders is a PhD student, living in Dublin. She is exploring how spiritual practices could sustain climate change activists. In this conversation, she talks about Inner Development Goals, psychotherapy, quakerism, and finding the Divine in nature. She has developed a simple spiritual practice, she calls Natura Divina, which gives some structure and support to being in nature as a way of connecting with the divine. She shares h...

**Catherine's new book, Finding God's Feminine Side is now available on Audible**

In this episode of the Loved Called Gifted podcast, Catherine chats with Steve Kenyon—a dad, nurse manager, musician and former DJ—about his journey through faith, work, and identity. Steve shares stories from his childhood in Lancashire, his early experiences in nursing, and how his desire to make a difference led him into healthcare lead...