Loving THIS with Michael Gungor

Host Michael Gunger welcomes songwriter Dave Riffle to discuss the origin and meaning of the song "Be," and how it grew from a meditation into a shared hymn. The episode explores the Mystic Hymnal project and why group singing matters for connection, health, and spirit. They trace the history of communal singing, critique modern worship trends, and explain the three guiding qualities of the project—singable, kind, beautiful—while reflecting on silence, presence, and the simple power of "be."

In this episode Michael Gungor shares a personal 2010 story of spiritual crisis and a week of silence in Assisi that led to a profound breakthrough—dissolving into a sense of God, dancing on the hills where St. Francis preached, and feeling a deep, freeing presence. He connects that experience to the song "Remember," inspired by a letter from St. Clare, exploring themes of re-membering the present moment, the balance of emptiness and form (Om Namah Shivaya), reclaiming spiritual language, and the simple practice of resting in love and presence.

This episode is a continuation of the "Magnificat" series, where Michael Gungor does a deep dive on every song of his new Gungor album, Magnificat. This week's song: "This is Love". To understand this song fully, one must understand "Play"--an experiment in “worship 2.0” that mixes the sacred and the absurd, explains the song’s writing and production choices, and shares how the event fostered playful, healing community. Gungor also addresses the song’s potentially triggering religious language, invites listeners to sit with tension and healing, and encourages reconnecting with community through music and events.

Michael Gungor reflects on seeing three crosses with a political banner and uses the image to explore the song "I Am," the meaning of Jesus (Yeshua), the I AM mantra, and how religion and empire distorted a message of love. He combines musical behind-the-scenes, personal stories from the Mystic Hymnal retreat, and a call to return to the root of being and unconditional compassion.

Michael Gungor recounts a shamanic sexual healing retreat and explores the ideas behind his song "Like Hallelujah" from the album Magnificat. He argues for a third way between repression and indulgence—sacred sexuality as a guided life force—draws on Tantra and Christian mystics, and shares personal stories of healing and deprogramming religious shame. The episode closes with an invitation to deeper somatic and spiritual work through sessions and retreats.

In this episode, Michael Gungor explores the song "Burdens," tracing its origin from a Mystic Hymnal retreat through LA wildfires, Bell's palsy, and time alone in the Sequoia forest. He shares how personal pain, community rejection, and the healing arc of the album shaped the music and lyrics, blending field recordings, playful community rituals, and reflections on welcome, scars, and transformation.

Michael Gungor walks through the song "Smokeless Fire" from his album Magnificat, explaining his musical choices and the three-character arc that shapes the record. He explores themes of desire, incarnation, suffering as offering, and the invitation to let life have its way, guiding listeners into presence and surrender.

Michael Gungor breaks down the song "Totally Meaningless" from his album Magnificat, sharing early demos, inspirations, and studio moments. Through playful strings, candid demos, and his daughter Lou’s cameo, he explores how embracing life’s inherent meaninglessness can open the door to presence, joy, and creative freedom. This episode blends songwriting behind-the-scenes with a philosophical invitation: let go of yesterday and tomorrow’s stories, inhabit the moment, and find how meaninglessness can become radically meaningful.

Michael Gungor breaks down episode 3 of the Magnificat series on the Loving This Podcast, exploring the song "All In" from his album Magnificat — a celebration of embodied life, sexuality, and the wildness of being human. He shares the song's origins, its place in the album's narrative (Mother, Father/Forest, and the mystic child), and challenges purity culture by inviting sexuality into the realm of the sacred. Gungor also reflects on mortality as a path to presence and closes by playing the full song and inviting listeners to engage with his Mystic Hymnal work.

Michael Gungor breaks down the making of "Same Sky" from his album Magnificat, sharing early versions, studio anecdotes, and production choices that shaped the final song. He explains Internal Family Systems and the sky/cloud metaphor that inspired the lyrics, and invites listeners to witness and hold all parts of themselves with open, non-judging love.

Host Michael Gungor introduces his new album Magnificat and a short podcast series that explores each song, blending music-making with a spiritual invitation to "spirit remembering itself." The episode recounts a powerful experience at a songwriter retreat in the Garden of the Gods where Hope hears a voice she identifies as Mary singing in 432 Hz, a moment that becomes a recurring, transformative texture on the record; themes include the divine feminine, transmutation of suffering, and the album’s other characters—forest and mystic. Listeners are invited to listen meditatively as each episode dives into a song’s story, meaning, and sonic choices that shaped the album.

May we be free from our beliefs. Amen.

In this episode, Michael talks about his discovery about how the most destructive patterns in his history have been rooted in a story of not being enough. This realization has made him refocus his mission to the point that he is restructuring all of his life, work, and business. Support this new work at www.patreon.com/michaelgungor

“What do I love when I love my God?”   This is a famous question asked in St. Augustine’s “Confessions” that many people through the centuries have pondered and wrestled with.     I too have wrestled with that question. And I can tell you it wasn’t just a theoretical or casual philosophical conversation for me. For me, it felt like the slow breaking of a tree branch I was perched upon over a cliff.  It was terrifying and painful and often lonely.  But one thing that I think sometimes gets missed in conversations around “deconstruction” is that there is often a deep love that is underneath and even fueling the questioning. I didn’t question God because it was a cool or progressive thing to do… I didn’t question the Bible because I was trying to be relevant culturally. I questioned God BECAUSE I loved God. I questioned the Bible because it was so important to me.     This tension between loving something and not being able to understand it has shown up not just in my spiritual journey, but my personal life as well. In the last several years, some of my most important relationships have either been lost or redefined in some very scary and painful ways. But honestly, I still have such deep love for every one of those people. So what do you do in those scenarios? What do you do when your structures/expectations/understanding of reality falls apart even while you still are in love? What do you do when you love God even if you don’t know how to believe in God? What do you do when you love someone but don’t know how to define your relationship or understand them? This new single, “I Still Love You” that dropped today is an exploration of that tension. Sometimes, you just gotta let things be what they are. And maybe that’s actually the heart of what true, unconditional love is.  

Can the idea of forgiveness actually be violent? In this episode, Michael talks about Gungor's new single "I Forgive You" and explores the idea of forgiveness looking through the different lenses presented in Marshall Rosenberg's "Nonviolent Communication".    

Michael talks about the meaning and story of Gungor's new single "A Million I's"

What is truth? Can one be certain of anything? 

Singing together is not only a potentially powerful spiritual technology and form of spiritual community, but it’s good for you! Studies have shown singing to be linked to lower stress, better moods, more of a sense of connection, and many more benefits. In this podcast, Michael Gungor announces that he will be leading some simple chants and musical experiences that are designed to draw one into deep presence and embodiment. No religious belief is necessary to enjoy and reap the benefits of this powerful spiritual practice.

How do we make a difference in a world that feels so big and out of our control? How do we not feel hopeless in the face of huge problems like climate change, racism, and inequality? Michael offers a radical suggestion. 

This is probably the most vulnerable podcast I've ever recorded. 2020 and 2021 have been some of the most challenging and beautiful years of my life. In this podcast, I share some of what's been happening with me as well as a song that I just released out of some of the shadow work I've been doing called "Look What I Can Do."