Part 4 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday.

There comes a point in the spiritual journey where effort quietly runs out.
Where striving no longer works.
Where something in you longs not for improvement, but for rest.

If you’ve ever felt like love was something you had to earn—through goodness, productivity, spirituality, or self-control—this final Advent episode is for you.

Welcome to the fourth week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the deep wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition.

This week is all about Love.
Not romantic love.
Not approval.
Not love as a reward.

But the love you don’t have to earn—the love you can rest in.

Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together Franciscan spirituality, mystical theology, and psychology to explore Love not as a feeling we chase, but as the ground of being itself—the presence that holds when joy rises and falls, when faith feels strong or thin.

Across the contemplative tradition, love is not something added to life after we get it right. It is the deeper reality already giving itself to us—before achievement, before repair, before worthiness. This episode traces how Advent has been gently leading us here all along: from trusting, to resting, to tasting… into abiding.

What you’ll take away from this episode:

• the meaning of Love as the fourth and final theme of Advent
• why love is not a wage, reward, or outcome—but a given
• the difference between original sin and original grace—and why it matters
• why receiving love can feel unsafe when the nervous system is burned out
• a practical re-script for the belief “If I’m good enough, then I’ll be loved”
• how love takes flesh in ordinary life—boundaries, giving, receiving, and rest

Love isn’t something you rise up to. It’s something you lean back into. It is already here—beneath the noise, beneath the effort, steady as your breath.

Advent doesn’t end by asking you to try harder or become better. It ends by inviting you to rest in what has been holding you all along.

Press play to enter the final week of Advent with more spaciousness, more honesty, and a deeper trust in the love that does not withdraw.

This is the love you don’t have to earn.

Send Nina a text message.

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“I love Nina and Holy Rebels Podcast.” If that sounds like you, please rate and review my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — to practise their spirituality and nurture their inner wisdom. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a review.” Nina reads every single review and it always brings a smile to her face.

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Part 3 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday

Joy is everywhere in the culture — sold, studied, optimized, hashtagged — and yet so many people feel flat, numb, or quietly exhausted instead of joyful. If you’ve ever wondered why joy feels harder to trust than it should, this episode is for you.

Welcome to the third week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the deep wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition.

This week is all about Joy.
Not forced positivity.
But a joy you can trust — the kind that doesn’t disappear when life gets hard.

Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together Franciscan spirituality, psychology, and neuroscience to explore why modern culture struggles with joy, and why Advent offers a radically different invitation. This is Gaudete Sunday — the moment when the tradition calls us to rejoice in the middle of waiting, not after everything is resolved.

What you’ll take away from this episode:

• why joy is not the same thing as happiness, and why chasing happiness often backfires
• how loneliness, exhaustion, and pressure to “be happy” block our capacity for joy
• what psychology and neuroscience reveal about joy as a body-based, relational state
• the meaning of Gaudete Sunday and why joy appears in the middle of Advent
• the five most common obstacles to joy
• a simple Advent candle practice to help joy arrive gently, without forcing

Joy is the felt experience of connection — to love, to meaning, to God, to your own deepest self. It can coexist with grief, uncertainty, fatigue, and unfinished stories.

Advent doesn’t ask you to pretend you feel joyful. It invites you to discover a joy that can live inside what is unresolved.

Press play to enter Week Three of Advent with more honesty, more spaciousness, and a deeper trust in the quiet joy that is already arriving.

Send Nina a text message.

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Rate, Review & Follow

“I love Nina and Holy Rebels Podcast.” If that sounds like you, please rate and review my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — to practise their spirituality and nurture their inner wisdom. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a review.” Nina reads every single review and it always brings a smile to her face.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. If you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Follow now

Show Notes: www.holyrebelspodcast.com
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Part 2 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday.

Life doesn’t slow down during the holidays just because you want it to. The emails keep coming, the world keeps moving, and your mind keeps spinning—even as something in you longs for quiet.

If that’s been your experience this year, this week’s episode is where you’ll find grounded support.

Welcome to Week Two of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for spiritual honesty, nervous-system awareness, and practical ways to anchor yourself when life refuses to cooperate.

This week is all about Peace.
Not the version that waits for silence.
The version that becomes possible even while everything around you stays loud.

Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together the mystical meaning of Advent with psychology-based practices around nervous system regulation, emotional overload, and the inner orientation that allows peace to rise from within.

St Clare of Assisi accompanies us, offering a real examples of what peace looked like in moments that were anything but calm.

What you'll take away from this episode:

• what the second week of Advent symbolizes historically and spiritually
• the difference between calm (a state) and peace (an orientation of the soul)
• how stress pulls you away from presence—and how to interrupt that pattern
• what Clare of Assisi’s courage reveals about inner steadiness
• how to identify your “peace threshold” when life feels unmanageable
• a simple practice to help your nervous system settle
• how to begin Week Two with alignment rather than pressure

Peace isn't the absence of noise.
Peace is the awareness that God is present inside what hasn’t resolved yet.

It grows through noticing, returning, and softening what has been clenched for too long.

Press play to enter the second week of Advent with a steadier center, a calmer body, and a deeper experience of presence.

Send Nina a text message.

Support the show

Rate, Review & Follow

“I love Nina and Holy Rebels Podcast.” If that sounds like you, please rate and review my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — to practise their spirituality and nurture their inner wisdom. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a review.” Nina reads every single review and it always brings a smile to her face.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. If you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Follow now

Show Notes: www.holyrebelspodcast.com
Connect with me!
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