Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchDoes God Punish Us?
Episode 446
Friends, I want to focus this week on the second reading, which is from the marvelous Letter to the Hebrews. It addresses a very important and very controversial topic—namely, the divine punishment. …
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Christ Came to Cast Fire Upon the Earth
Episode 445
Friends, the title of my ministry, Word on Fire, came from our Gospel for today. Jesus says to his disciples, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” This is n…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
What Is Faith?
Episode 444
Friends, on this Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews offers us a great biblical description of faith. I stand with Paul Tillich, the Protestant theol…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
All Things Must Pass
Episode 443
Friends, George Harrison once sang, “All things must pass; all things must pass away.” Almost every major religious figure and philosopher the world over has intuited this great truth about our world…
Published on 3 months ago
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Episode 442
Friends, we have the great privilege this week of reading, in our Gospel, Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer. This is a very sacred moment: Jesus himself—not just a spiritual guru or someone we admi…
Published on 3 months, 1 week ago
Are You Anxious and Worried About Many Things?
Episode 441
Friends, on this Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our Gospel is the Martha and Mary story, and in my years of preaching, I’ve found that it tends to bother people a lot. With the first reading abou…
Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The Natural Law
Episode 440
Friends, in our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy this week, Moses says to the people, “For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. . . . No, it is …
Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The Church’s Marching Orders
Episode 439
Friends, as we resume Ordinary Time, it’s appropriate that we’re looking at a portrait of the Church, because we’re coming back, if you want, to the ordinary work of the Church up and down the ages t…
Published on 3 months, 4 weeks ago
The Church Is Built on the Rock
Episode 438
Friends, this year, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul falls on a Sunday, and I want to spend some time reflecting especially on Saint Peter. Around the year 64, Shimon Bar Yonah, a fisherman from Ga…
Published on 4 months, 1 week ago
Join Your Life to Christ’s Sacrifice
Episode 437
Friends, every year we have Trinity Sunday followed by today’s wonderful Solemnity of Corpus Christi—two of the highest theological mysteries of our faith, the Trinity and the Eucharist, back to back…
Published on 4 months, 1 week ago