Gregory Maguire’s spiritual journey–From a Catholic orphanage to ‘Wicked’-fame

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Long before he wrote “Wicked” Gregory Maguire has been weaving careful attention into his artistic pursuits and his prayer. He joins host James Martin, S.J. on “The Spiritual Life” podcast to talk about his spiritual journey, from a Catholic orphanage and formative education with religious sisters who helped him draw his first picture of God, to his current practice of seeing Jesus’ face on the margins. Timecodes 0:00 Introducing Gregory Maguire, author of “Wicked” 5:04 The tragic circumstances surrounding Gregory’s birth 11:42 Gregory’s first image of God 17: 45 Discerning the shape of his own ministry 25:42 The art of paying attention + studying people’s faces 35:55 Are there Christ-figures in “Wicked”? 40:40 The experience of being gay and marginalized 42:50 Audience Question: What advice would you give to a young, gay, Catholic striving to live authentically? Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why does the term health care leave people feeling sick to their stomach? Maybe it's because instead
0:04.5	of being tied to health, the word seems to have a deeper connection to industries. At Catholic
0:09.5	Health Care, we're returning the word health care back to its former glory, because when
0:13.9	health care really cares, communities thrive, prevention is prioritized, and everyone has access to
0:19.9	care. Say it with has access to care.
0:21.5	Say it with me.
0:22.4	Health care.
0:24.0	Sounds better already.
0:25.5	Catholic Health Care.
0:26.6	We care.
0:27.8	You flourish.
0:30.2	Sponsored by the Catholic Health Association.
0:40.8	I do have an impulse toward art and the basis of art is pay attention. And that's the same basis as the basis of prayer as far as I'm concerned. You have to pay attention to what you want
0:44.6	to be grateful for. You have to pay attention to what you need. You have to pay attention to
0:48.8	what wrong you've done. And you have to pay attention to the glory of the world so that you
0:53.6	can be sufficiently grateful, I suppose.
1:00.3	Welcome to the spiritual life. I'm Father Jim Martin. On this podcast, we reflect on how people experience God in their prayer and in their daily lives.
1:09.1	And I am joined by my terrific producer, Maggie Van Dorn.
1:13.0	Maggie, great to be with you.
1:14.5	It's great to be here with you, Jim.
1:16.5	And, you know, I've been reflecting on the fact that sometimes the spiritual life can be really challenging
1:22.1	and can start to feel heavy.
	...

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