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A special Sunday edition in which Dr. Gerry Crete and Dr. Peter Malinoski reflect on today’s Mass readings from an Internal Family Systems lens.
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Presenters: Drs. Peter Malinoski and Gerry Crete, co-founders of Souls & Hearts
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Creators and Guests
Guest
What is Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts?
In the Gospels, Jesus reaches out to the outcasts, the most marginalized and rejected members of His society. In this very brief podcast, we take His approach inside – to reach out to your inner outcasts, the parts of you who are walking in darkness and gloom. Listen in and invite the Good News in the daily Mass readings to shine on your inner lost sheep, your inner prodigals, your inner lepers, your lame, deaf, and blind parts, your inner tax collectors, and your inner prostitutes – all those parts of you deemed unworthy and unacceptable by your protector parts.
Why? So that you can integrate inside, heal, and grow to flourish in accepting being loved, loving yourself in an ordered way, and then being able to love God wholeheartedly, with all your parts, and your neighbor as yourself. All informed by Internal Family Systems and other parts work approaches, and all firmly grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person. Join us in seeing Scripture through a new lens, coming alive for those parts of you that may have experienced spiritual neglect and need healing.
This podcast is produced by Souls & Hearts, an organization dedicated to human formation from a Catholic lens. Learn more at soulsandhearts.com.
Transcript
Speaker 1: Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink, because the little one is a disciple. Amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Scripture for your inner outcasts. Today is June 28th, 2026, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today is a special Sunday edition in which Doctor Peter Malinoski and Doctor Jerry Crete reflect jointly on the mass readings for today. They're both clinical psychologists and the co-founders of Souls and Hearts.
Speaker 3: Doctor Jerry, it is good to be back with you for our sharing our discussion. 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. So good to be with you.
Speaker 1: Here we are. Good to be with you too.
Speaker 3: And good to be with all of you listeners, with all your parts, especially your excels. This podcast is really, I think, the only one out there that brings the good news specifically to exiled parts. I actually think it's the only podcast out there that directly addresses exiles about anything at all. So I think this is pretty special that we can be here together.
Speaker 1: So love it.
Speaker 3: So we got some interesting readings here and I've got some things I know you got some things lead us off with, you know, a line, a thoughts, an image, whatever, you know, kind of comes up for you on this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, there's so much here and the whole story of Elisha will probably get back to you because I think there's a lot there. It's complicated, but I really wanted to say something about the end, the toward the end of Matthew in this passage, because that's just what hit me the strongest and says, whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink, because the little one is a disciple. Amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward. So I'm listening to this word, little one. I just moves me. I know it moves you. Peter. Um, these this is the context, though, of the disciples being sent out. Right. To, to become vulnerable because I can't even imagine what it would be like. Like I don't like the idea of being a door to door missionary. So and so the idea that they're going out into this hostile world and he sees them as little ones is kind of beautiful, and they're kind of dependent on the hospitality of others. And so many of our exiles are little children who when they when, when the person was a little child, they were definitely dependent on others for their safety.
Speaker 1: And so I'm thinking that he's really speaking to the youngest, most vulnerable parts of our inner world here. He's speaking to you exiles. And what Jesus is saying seems to be this even the smallest act of compassion toward what is small and vulnerable and dependent matters. And it is seen. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to do years of therapy before your inner work counts for something. You don't have to excavate every exile and heal every wound before God. Uh, acknowledges what you're doing with just like a cup of cold water. So, I don't know. I was just moved by this cup of cold water thing and, um, you know, so maybe the idea that if one move turning toward a frightened part inside of you with kindness instead of criticism, write is powerful. One breath where you say to the exile where listen, you exile. Were you here? I see you not going to abandon you. One small act of inner hospitality, right? Uh, for the for the part that has been sleeping outside in the cold, it will not lose its reward.
Speaker 3: I really keyed in on the same passage. What came to me was like little things matter to God. Little things matter to God, and probably a cup of cold water isn't going to be the difference between life and death. You know, for a disciple, right? Like a cup of cold water. But man, it can just it can just really hit the spot, right? It can just be really attuned to a need. And yeah, so I was definitely looking at this and the language, the translation here and the nab of, um, little ones. Yeah, that really struck me as well. Um, especially, especially at the end of that passage where he's saying things like, and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. So it can feel a little like that can land a little hard for parts that don't appreciate yet the love of God. You know, that can land hard if they have negative God images. So to kind of temper that with this, this at the end, I think was just really beautiful.
Speaker 1: Right, right. And I guess just to link quickly, we don't have to take a lot of time on it. But with the story of Elisha, which is sort of interesting on the surface of it, it could just look like a simple story of hospitality. Mhm. Right. It's a woman of influence. She sees a prophet. She invites him to dinner, sets aside a room for him, uh, you know, on the roof, I think it says, um. And so she's. But but but I, I want you to notice maybe something here. Because before she can offer Elisha a room, she has to actually really notice him. Mhm. She doesn't just see a man, she sees who he is. And she literally says to her husband, I know that Elisha is a holy man of God. So she perceives something in him that is, perhaps others walked past without registering, right? And because she sees him, she really sees him. She makes a space for him, you know, and she doesn't wait for him to ask. She doesn't wait until it's convenient. She she creates a dedicated space, a little room. So when I think of little rooms, what do I think of my inside world? You know, that house? That's where when I work with with people and help them connect with their exiles and bring their exiles home. I think of it as a little creating rooms and spaces within your heart for those exiles. So that's exactly what seems to be happening here. I think that the first step is noticing. Noticing your exile and actually seeing them, not trying to manage it, fix them, not trying to exile them further or anything like that, but just taking time to actually see them and see what they need. You know, more than anything else, it's exactly what this whatever woman offered him to be noticed, to be received, to have a place prepared for them. And so that to me is what we are we want to do for our exiles.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm noticing here, as you're describing that, that there's not an agenda here. It doesn't sound like she's doing that in order to get something from Elijah. In fact, Elijah doesn't even know what she needs. Like she that's why he asks Gehazi, you know, his servant, you know, can something be done for her? You know, and Gehazi is definitely tuned in to Jahazi is like, hey, she's older, she has a no son husband's getting on in years. That's what she needs. And then Elisha immediately responds to that and says, call.
Speaker 1: Not quid pro pro.
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Right. Simply does what her heart is calling her to do. She notices, sees, and provides. Right. As a result, she is blessed, but not because she was grasping at that so much. At least that's how it sounds to me, right? It's so beautiful, this sort of generosity that just flows, the mutual generosity that kind of just naturally happens in that kind of love situation.
Speaker 3: Right? Because we have often experiences of very transactional relationships. You know, you scratch my back, I scratch your back, you do this for me. I do that for you. Sometimes even some of our closest relationships are love. Relationships really seem to be dominated by like quid pro quos, you know, and you don't see that there's a lot of beauty in that. There's no, there's like a desire to offer, to give that's not driven by some expectation, some agenda.
Speaker 1: Mhm.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. It's just a natural response. Like she responds by noticing and loving him on some level. And he responds naturally by seeing her need and wanting to provide that. It's not, you know, there's no transaction, kind of it's not a contract or something. It's just a mutual love.
Speaker 3: Mhm. And, you know, I'm also thinking about the role of the husband in the story, right? He's not the one that's the mover and shaker. He's not the one making things happen. But I can imagine that he was supportive of her. You know, that her husband was like, on board with this idea of providing a room for, for Elisha, you know? And so he was I just imagine him. It doesn't say this, but I imagine him being supportive. I imagine him sort of cooperating and, and, and playing that, um, maybe like a secondary role, not the initiator, but a supportive role. And I was thinking about that in terms of the system of the family, right? Like there's some harmony there, um, about bringing Elisha in so.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, maybe that can link as well, right? With the gospel. I know we don't have to cover everything, but but you know, he does say, you know, whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And and I think there's something about what does it mean to lose yourself? Right. Like, I think from an IFS perspective, we tend to think all the, our, our parts that are performative, that are trying very hard to have those agendas that are sort of managed self, right. And we're having to, we're not, we're not killing them exactly, but we're allowing those things to die on some level. We don't have to try so hard. We don't have to manage everything. We don't have to perform. That's a kind of a dying to self. And as a result, when we just act like this Schumer white woman and just act out of her natural generosity, her natural, inmost self's goodness, then you will find your life like you will find good things will naturally come as a result of that. Um, not because of your performance, but because you let go of the performance, right?
Speaker 3: I love that. Yeah, I think so. I mean, and this idea is that parts don't have to make it happen, right? Sometimes the parts are more like in supportive of that. If you were sort of thinking about the system of the household of the woman and sort of she has like maybe the innermost self in that system, and her husband is like a part, you know, like he has to just kind of go along with it, you know, he doesn't have to make it happen because, because she's leading and guiding that. And similarly, sometimes parts of us really feel like they have to somehow achieve spiritual goals, you know, like they have to somehow make the relationship with God happen. And it's really much more about the receptivity. It's really much more about being open to the graces. It's really more about initially at least being loved first. Saint John in the gospel, you know, says, you know, Christ says, I loved you first and being able to receive that, and then we can reflect the love back, as opposed to operating out of a sense of duty or operating out of fear. It's not that those things can't be, you know, helpful motivations at times. But boy, if the, if the, if the primary motivation can be love and that can include the heart, you know, that we're responding out of love. And I, I sort of sense, you know, Elijah responding out of the heart, right? Like he, he didn't this wasn't just an act of the will. It wasn't like he was sort of thinking, okay, what act of the will can I make? Right? It sort of seemed to spontaneously come up. And as we get more ordered inside, that becomes so much more easy, more natural.
Speaker 1: So we're just opening our hearts to love our outcasts or exiles just from that purity of heart with no agenda. We just want them to know they're welcome here.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Because Elijah didn't have a place to stay.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, he didn't have a place to stay, but yet he acted in trust to God that somehow something would be provided. So, so beautiful. Doctor Jerry, I enjoy these these reflections with you. And again, just an invitation to, to work this in to your Sundays, you know, and, and maybe before you go to mass so that you can kind of listen to these readings again and just be with your exiles, uh, and the exiles being with your innermost self and other parts and taking in taking in the word of God, letting that really nourish your heart, letting that really nourish your soul.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in. You can find more content from both Doctor Peter and Doctor Jerry on Souls and hearts.com.
Speaker 3: And with that, we'll bring this to a close by invoking our patroness and our patrons, Our Lady, our mother. Untier of knots.
Speaker 1: Pray for us, Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Speaker 3: Saint John the Baptist.
Speaker 1: Pray for us.