Thoughts from the Trailer with Fr. John Riccardo

I’ve always found analogies wonderfully helpful. I have a simple mind, and I have always appreciated teachers who had the gift of breaking complex topics down in such a way that they become more understandable and digestible. God, of course, is the greatest Teacher. There’s a reason why most of Scripture in general, and especially most of Jesus’ teaching in particular, is story telling: we easily...

Pope Pius XII preached in his homily that parents can learn from Maria’s life to train their children such that when put to the test they will come through “undefeated, unscathed and untarnished.” What a triad! As I lingered with this thought, the Holy Spirit led me to remember the speech by Theodore Roosevelt entitled, “The Man in the Arena.” He further held in front of me how fiercely competitiv...

I’m thinking of Dr. Kreeft this week since we’re going to be celebrating the solemnity of Corpus Christi, that is, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. A convert to Catholicism, Kreeft has what I consider to be the single most helpful book to start with if we want to dive deep into this most magnificent (and often misunderstood or taken for granted) gift Jesus has left to...

Sports fans often argue about who they think the G.O.A.T. is in any given sport (Greatest Of All Time). Here’s the truth: Jesus is the real G.O.A.T. — and it isn’t even close. He has defeated the power of Death, the power of Sin, and the enemy of our race, the devil. And one day, when He returns to make all things new, He will destroy them, wipe away every tear from our eye, and usher us into the...

"As we prepare this weekend for the great solemnity of Pentecost, I have found myself re-reading this spiritual gem. There is one excerpt in particular that is simply too good to keep to myself; I pray others will find the following as helpful and encouraging as I do." actsxxix.org/trailer/121 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

"Worship is something that I would argue makes up very little of most people’s prayer. Our prayer is usually dominated by intercessions of one kind or another, and that’s alright as Jesus told us to ask after all. But this week, let us be intentional to worship the King. Let us imagine how we would have felt back in 1945 to have heard the war is finally over; to see ourselves on those streets as t...

The Church is supposed to be a sign of unity and communion for the world, the means by which the human race, scattered by sin and more, is not only reconciled to God but to each other. In fact, nothing else can accomplish this end, so desperately needed right now in a culture and world that is so prone to demonize “the other.” When Pope Leo says that the Church is to be “a small leaven…within the...

Peter must have been aware of the whispers behind his back about his denials, concerns about his past, and various other attacks on his character. Not just from the anonymous crowds, but especially from within the small group of the Apostles. He might even have expected Cornelius to question him about his lack of loyalty. Instead Peter is free because he is the recipient of God’s version of the ”c...

While many in the world and the Church are eagerly awaiting the start of the conclave and the election of the next successor to St. Peter, we are still in what are officially known as the nine days of mourning for Pope Francis. As such, we are called to pray for the repose of his soul in an intentional way. It’s also been a time for me to revisit some of the many things he wrote that deeply inspir...

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 =...