Thoughts from the Trailer with Fr. John Riccardo

What we might not realize, given how often many parishes take up such “special collections” is that while we have become accustomed to such things, nobody ever did this in times long past. 2 Corinthians 8 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Who am I living for? Who are you living for? Is it really the Lord? 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

When Paul writes that “we walk by faith and not by sight,” he certainly does not mean that faith is blind, or lacking in evidence. Paul, after all, met the risen Jesus in the flesh, and heard Him speaking to Him on the road to Damascus. 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

As the title of C.S. Lewis’ essay comes from the above passage from St. Paul, I thought it worth sharing at least part of it this week. I know it’s much longer than this blog usually is but it’s simply too good to edit more than I already have. For those who are encountering this masterpiece for the first time, you might want to refill your coffee, or whatever beverage you are enjoying, and settle...

Contrary to how the world thinks, faith is not blind but rather a way of knowing, a way of seeing all of reality which is much, much bigger than anything we can conceive. Hebrews 9:11-15 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Each day, the Church puts before us a veritable feast not only in the Scriptures chosen for Mass but in the antiphons and prayers as well. Truth be told, the appetizers are so good that sometimes I never make it to the main course. Romans 8:14-17 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX Special Guest: Albert Faraj.

Idols? What in the world do idols have to do with us moderns? I’ve never seen a shrine to Zeus or Aphrodite in any of the homes that I’ve visited. And yet… 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn More About ACTS XXIX

Jesus has been established as the true and rightful Lord. His is the name above every either name. Jesus has no rival and no equal. And one day He will return to judge the living and the dead and establish God’s kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no sickness, no mourning, no death. Ephesians 1:17-23 ======= Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us! Click To Learn Mor...

God ... Is ... Love The gods of the ancient world, whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Sumerian, or other, were to be appeased, kept happy, bargained with, and more – lest they become angry and wreak havoc on mere mortals who are nothing but their playthings. The thought that God might be love never entered the imaginations of the people in the ancient world. 1 John 4:7-10 ======= Have a comment about...

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