Thoughts from the Trailer with Fr. John Riccardo

Usually, this weekly blog is about the 2nd Reading for the upcoming Sunday at Mass. However, I can’t stop thinking and praying about the Gospel from last Sunday, and so I wanted to pass on what the Lord has been sharing with me in prayer in the hope that it might be helpful and timely for perhaps one other person out there. John 10:11-18 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click...

Many years ago now some friends of mine adopted a young boy who was maybe nine or ten years old. He had spent most of his life going from orphanage to orphanage in the country where he was born. Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's child...

Someone crying is someone who is in need or hurting somehow. They are acknowledging they’re not all together and need help of some sort, thus the cry. Isn’t this us when we call out to God for His grace to help us be the men and women He made us to be and that we want to be? 1 John 2:1-5 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Any mention of Jesus without the words Victor, Champion, King, and Lord are incomplete. 1 John 5:1-6 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

The highlight of the Easter Vigil is when those who have been preparing for many months now are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son Colossians 3:1-4 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Some years ago, I found myself utterly absorbed in Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. It’s a most worthwhile read, especially at this time of year. One of the chapters is entitled, “The Godlessness of the Cross” and I thought the following excerpts might be helpful for us as we prepare to enter into those days that the Church often simply calls “the great...

Prayers? Supplications? Loud cries? Tears? Where are we? Hebrews 5:7-9 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Unlike us, God “is rich in mercy.” Unlike us, God loves to forgive. Unlike us, God’s love knows no limits. Unlike us, Jesus cries out from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” Unlike us, God does not delight in the death of the wicked. Unlike us, God wants all men and women to be saved. Ephesians 2:4-10 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click...

St. Paul was, to put it mildly, brilliant. Few people have impacted human history as profoundly as Paul... 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

I could never believe in a God who would crucify his own son. A very popular television talk show host from decades past said that. I remember hearing those words as if he said them this morning. Romans 8:31-34 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Today, we begin the grace filled season of Lent, and this passage from 1 Peter, challenging as parts of it can be, calls to mind how the season ends: in glorious triumph! 1 Peter 3:18-22 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

A quick drive down any city street, or walk through any park can instantly reveal where people’s allegiances lie. Bumper stickers, hats, and sweatshirts immediately declare a person to be a Michigan fan, a Swiftie, a Trump or Biden devotee, proudly pro-life or proudly pro-abortion. 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Perhaps I’m just really selfish and disordered, but I’ve always been encouraged by passages in Scripture that seem to convey that the disciples thought like me (at least at times). James and John jockey for positions of power, wanting seats at the right and left of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 9 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

I can just imagine the eyerolls among some people this coming Sunday as this passage is proclaimed at Mass. There goes the Catholic Church again. Why is she always so down on marriage and sexuality and the things of this world?! 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

The line that I am personally dwelling on this week is the last one: “The world in its present form is passing away.” ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

I was fortunate after ordination to the priesthood to spend several years studying the theology of the body in depth. I can still recall as if it was yesterday an experience I had sitting outside reading the Holy Father and suddenly realizing I was starting to sit up straighter. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

I had a conversation with a young woman recently that I can’t shake. Hers is a rather common tale: she grew up in a strong Catholic family, went to Catholic schools, got to college and drifted away. There’s much more to it, of course, but how many young people are in her shoes, and how many parents know the anguish that hers know? ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Lea...

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This was originally an entirely different article. And then Monday happened. For those unaware, The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans on Monday. This Declaration has caused, well, wholesale confusion. Seemingly everywhere. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

We in ACTS XXIX think of this mission of ours as priests as being “hopeful lamenters.” Hopeful because Jesus is Lord, and He has defeated Sin, Death and Satan, and He will make all things new. But lamenting because the world is right now groaning in pain ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Without clarity on the mission, all sorts of negative results can and usually do occur. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

I would argue that at the root of every temptation is the accusation that God is not a good Father and He cannot be trusted. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

“ACTS XXIX is the most fruitful apostolate I’ve ever seen and been around. Every dollar is building the kingdom. There’s so much fruit, both measurable and of eternal consequences.” A dear friend and partner on mission recently shared these words with us. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

How, as believers in Jesus, are we to live in this time of “already and not yet?” With the news seemingly getting worse (and crazier) each day in the world, the country, and the Church, this question seems increasingly important. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

When I was a younger priest I used to think I knew a lot more than I do now. As I’ve gotten older, I am less and less sure about many things. There is one thing, though, that I know for certain. God hates death. It isn’t supposed to be here. ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX