Frank Friar Fridays

Some are pretty easy - whether to have gelato today or not - but many are challenging. How do we choose - who do we rely on?

I bet you know what I am going to say. But how often do we think that all the things we buy, or can acquire are the things that will ultimately satisfy us?

Are we?

We might ask, "What is my deepest hunger?" and then go from there.

The story of the feeding of the thousands gives us a model for how we are called to share with others the many gifts we have received, and to not hold back.

It is the Church's responsibility - and that means that the leaders of our Church have certain responsibilities - and sometimes that means they have to push us to uncomfortable places some times. But we are not to think our Church abdicates its responsibility to guide us.

Fr. Gabe attended Purdue, where I got to know him. I could tell there was a vocation to religious life almost from the first day I met him. Of course, I was hoping he might be a Dominican, but Gabe was born in South Bend and was/is a Domer through and through. Hear his story his experiences on the journey and what it has been like to serve as a priest at Notre Dame.

Brandon was a super active Boiler Catholic at Purdue and is now a University of Wisconsin at Madison postdoc. Listen to our conversation about the type of research he is doing and how he brings his Catholic faith into everything he does.

There is evil in the world, but God can overcome anything - do we trust God enough to believe that?

Trust is a thing that doesn't happen automatically - we grow in trust - and when we can help that trust grow, we will know peace.

On Father's Day, we reflect, in a special way, on the roles of our fathers and grandfathers in helping us grow in ways meant to build up God's Kingdom.

Really??? We know better. We open ourselves to sin, but there is recourse of course.

That saying goes back to St. Augustine. He wasn't talking about donuts either. He was talking about Jesus Christ and how our faith in him can change us - through Eucharist but also in the fact that Christ is present to us in the Word and in one another. So what does that look like?

This weekend is Trinity Sunday. We can make our understanding of the Trinity more difficult than it needs to be. It is how we come to understand our relationship with God - a relationship that builds on the love of the Father for each of us.

Maybe we first have to ask, DO we use our gifts? We all have been given particular gifts from God, and this Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, is when we recognize that reality, and we need to reflect on what gifts we have, and whether are we sharing them with others for the building up of God's kingdom?

A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe You Dreamed of Empires - Alvaro Enrique Counting by 7s - Holly Goldberg Sloan A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy The Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab Signal Fires - Dani Shapiro Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus  Miss Benson’s Beatle - Rache...

It's not easy for us, but it's not impossible either. And there are people in our lives to show us the way.

The short answer - no! We are all connected to one another - like a great vine, and when we recognize that reality, we can accomplish great things.

Or maybe it is you who is called to be a good shepherd for others!

To be truthful, maybe it doesn't - but we need to figure out how to do that - and then share it. This is vital stuff. If we want to stop the exodus of people from our Church, we have got to get excited - and then share it with others - everyone - start with our families - but don't let it stop there.

Today we reflect on this question of Saint Thomas the Apostle. And we can ask the same things of ourselves - is Jesus here yet, in our own lives, and if so, can people see Jesus at work in our lives?

We have a special episode of Frank Friar Friday this week. Fr. Vincent Davila, OP, BoilerCatholic, and good friend, joins us today to explore this question that has perplexed and troubled Christians for centuries. Br. Joseph Hilliker, OP joins me as a guest host. Joseph has been on FFF twice. Vincent is writing his doctoral dissertation on this cry of Jesus and provides some fascinating insights....

Here's the answer (maybe) to a question that people have asked for centuries.

What would that mean if someone said that to you? What would you think? I'd think it was pretty important. And it is!!!

This is maybe the best-known verse of the Bible - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.