Thoughts from the Trailer with Fr. John Riccardo

In her masterful book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, Fleming Rutledge writes perhaps better than any author I’m aware of on the sheer horror of death in this fashion. What follows are a series of excerpts from her book, and while this may be a longer post than usual, it might be worth taking with us to the celebrations that are about to begin, to help us better understa...

We – the guilty, the enslaved, the foolish, the rebellious, the unfaithful, the creatures – go free and have life because He – the Innocent, the Lord, the King, the Creator, the Son – placed Himself into the hands of Death. What kind of God is this? What kind of love is this? Who am I that my King should allow Himself to be torn to shreds when it is I who should be? actsxxix.org/trailer/115 ======...

Baptism, like the tsunami, causes things to drown. What things? Sin, guilt, the pasts by which we feel haunted. I know few things as a priest that compare with standing inside the font at the Easter Vigil, waiting in the water for those standing outside it to step in... actsxxix.org/trailer/114 Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Like the blind man who encounters Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday (cf. John 9:1-41), baptism moves us from blindness to sight, and from darkness to light. Those who refuse to believe, who refuse to honestly examine what God has done for us in Jesus, remain in darkness and blindness. And out of love, we should be eager to bear credible witness to them by our words and actions of the difference Jesu...

As He did with Abraham, God is asking you and me again today to put our trust in Him, and perhaps especially for things we cannot yet see. Read it here ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

As we continue these early stages of our Lenten journey, let’s seriously consider where our identity is truly found, where our ultimate allegiance really lies, and how we can today advance the Kingdom of God by the joyful and beautiful power of attraction. actsxxix.org/trailer/111 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Lent is a great opportunity to ponder again the story, the narrative arc of history, if you will. Doing so allows us the chance to reflect on God’s intention in bringing everything into being in the first place, what the conclusion will be, and what our role as disciples is until that day. actsxxix.org/trailer/110 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACT...

In these days of Eucharistic revival in the Church, we are continually being invited to consider why the Lord gives Himself to us at Mass hidden under the appearance of bread and wine. actsxxix.org/trailer/109 Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Paul’s proclamation, and the message of the New Testament, is the announcement that Jesus is the true King of the world; that by His death on the cross He has defeated (and one day will destroy) the enemies of the human race; that He has rescued us for the world — not from it; that you and I are now personally being summoned to lovingly and gratefully pledge Him our loyalty and allegiance as our r...

In this great Jubilee Year of Hope, I have found myself rereading Pope Benedict XVI’s rich letter on hope from 2007. The words of Saint Paul this week remind me of a passage that I find very provocative as we not only consider the Lord’s resurrection but the life to come which Paul emphatically preaches. I pray you, too, will find it worth praying with this week. actsxxix.org/trailer/107 ======= H...

Paul reminds us in another letter that this laying down of Jesus’ life wasn’t some generic sacrifice offered up by the Creator of the universe but rather was a personal act of love for him, Paul, by name. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul writes to the Galatians. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,...

Paul is for me the best example of a man whose psychology caught up with his ontology when he wrote, “For me, life is Christ and death is gain” (Phil 1:21). Gain! In other words, so long as we live, we will do so for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. But death need not frighten us. It has no power over us. What’s up head is infinitely greater than all that is behind. Hebrews 2:14-18 a...

“You are Christ’s body,” Paul says. This is not an image. It’s a reality. In baptism we personally became members of Jesus’ body. His body has many parts, and so we are united not only to Him but to each other through our unity with Him. It cannot be otherwise. When we receive the Eucharist too, we are united not only to Him but to each other. This is unlike anything the world can conceive or do....

The truth is that our communities need us all to contribute; everyone needs to step up. As my Archbishop, Allen Vigneron of Detroit puts it, “There are no bystanders in the Church” — and no consumers. https://www.actsxxix.org/trailer/103 Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Trust is something that, if we’re honest, we all desperately need. Not trust that God will answer our prayers the way we think best. Trust that He is good, faithful, and knows what He’s doing, especially when we don’t know what He’s doing. Gal 4:4-7 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

A God who many of us don’t even know, whom we had no idea was real, let alone who loves us, is answering the cry of our hearts. He has come among us, hidden in human flesh, to reveal that God is love, that we are not disqualified or discarded because of our brokenness and sins, and to fight against the enemies we could never defeat (Death, Sin and the devil). https://www.actsxxix.org/trailer/101 =...

The Scriptures that we hear this week and in the days ahead serve as a herald breathlessly shouting with joy that the war has been won! Our enemy, our only enemy, the devil and his fallen angels, has been defeated. The One through whom the entire universe was made, who fashioned each of us out of love in His own image and likeness to be loved and to love, has chosen to become man. God has come to...

God is with us. The all-powerful Lord of heaven and earth, who humbled Himself to be born of the virgin, who suffered the shame of the cross, and who triumphed over Sin, Death and Satan, is with us. And He doesn’t just sit beside us, like a good friend, unable to do anything. He gives us grace, strength, and all that we need to endure, to persevere, to hang on, to trust, confident that those who t...

The early Church won people to the Lord Jesus by being immensely attractive and by showing forth a different way of being human. It was usually only after those encounters with Christians that those who did not know God came into the Church to be baptized, feast on the Eucharist, and join the community of believers. It will almost certainly be the same now. ======= Have a comment about this podcas...

Ours is a culture that often mistakenly equates greatness with things like money, fame, titles and other such things. The saints show us the truth. The truly great ones are the ones who love. As we enter into these Advent days, let us call upon the intercession of Blessed Solanus, and those others to whom we are especially close, that our love may increase and abound, in order that we might become...

Revelation 1:5-8 These tasks and responsibilities of the king, all gloriously fulfilled in “Jesus Christ, ruler of the kings of the earth,” help to inform our understanding of what it means to participate in His Kingship and how we’re supposed to exercise that participation. In short, we are called to have our eyes and hearts wide open to those around us who are in need – wherever they may be: the...

Hebrews 10:11-14, 18 This week, Hebrews tells us Jesus has made us “perfect.” This is a way of saying that as believers we have now become priests or, better, sharers in Jesus’ priesthood. This happened at our baptism. While I think most people are aware that baptism makes a person a priest, prophet and king, I don’t think most people understand the significance of these momentous truths. We’ve lo...

Hebrews 9:24-28 God is always faithful. He knows what He’s doing. And He is the Author and prime Actor in all of history. These are the things that we need to keep our eyes fixed on. He has proven His love for us by going to the cross, defeating the enemies of the entire human race – Satan, Sin and Death. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Hebrews 7:23-28 Jesus’ loving sacrifice on the cross, offered once for all on Calvary, is sacramentally made present at each and every Mass. Unlike how some misunderstand this teaching, the Church teaches that Jesus’ sacrifice offered once for all is made present for us in an unbloodied manner, and then – wonder of wonders! – His Blood (and Body) are not sprinkled on us but given to us to eat, so...

Hebrews 5:1-6 The Bible, it has been said, is a library. That is not to say there isn’t one sacred Author of all the books – God – who is revealing both in word and deed. It is to say that the Bible is not a single genre but is rather made up of many different genres. Within the Bible is poetry, historical narrative, apocalyptic, psalms, and many other styles of literature. What genre is The Lette...