Embodying the Christian Faith: Healing the Whole Person – Mookie Manalili

Living Our Beliefs: Exploring Faith & Religion in Daily Life

Episode 44.
As a psychotherapist, professor and researcher, Mookie believes in attending to the whole person. For him, this care includes his Catholic practice. For his clients, faith or root beliefs might also be included. Mookie has arrived at his philosophy of therapy and groundedness in Catholicism through a circuitous route. Born in the Philippines, raised in California, followed by graduate studies and work over a multi-stage eastward journey across the US, he has landed at Boston College, a Jesuit institution where he has found a home. Each place has had its own Catholicism, from the pink-habited nuns in the Philippines to the Chicano inflection in California and the more stoic version in Boston, while remaining part of the same Church. Despite traversing many communities, he still lives by the values of his childhood – caring for the whole person, with special attention to those at the margins and those who have suffered injustices.
Highlights:
00:05:01 Catholicism shaped and challenged Mookie’s faith journey.
00:06:31 Catholicism's different expressions, faith, and justice.
00:10:43 Mookie’s journey of darkness and light.
00:24:31 Integration of culture, faith, and therapy in practice.
00:37:31 Embodied, sacramental nature of things: Catholic faith.

References:
· Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness
· Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island
· Catholic Worker – https://catholicworker.org/
· Ignatian Spirituality – https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/

Social Media links for Mookie:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mookie-manalili/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mr.man.of.lily/

Social Media links for Méli:
Talking with God Project – https://www.talkingwithgodproject.org
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisolomon/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066435622271
Transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851013/episodes/13213541
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The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
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The Living Our Beliefs podcast is part of the Talking with God Project – https://www.talkingwithgodproject.org/