Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchA New World Unveiled
Episode 406
Friends, we're coming toward the end of the liturgical year, and as is typical, the Church gives us readings of an apocalyptic nature dealing with the end times. “Apocalypse” means “unveiling,” and w…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago
Trusting God in Dire Straits
Episode 405
Friends, our first reading is that wonderful story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, which is a kind of hidden gem in the Old Testament. Like so many of the stories in the Bible, it is very under…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago
The Highest Good Is God Alone
Episode 404
Friends, the readings for this Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time take us to very holy ground. In the first reading, taken from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, we hear the “shema,” a prayer funda…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
Answering God’s Call
Episode 403
Friends, all three readings for this Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time have a golden thread running through them, which is the idea of the call—of the primacy of God’s action in the life of salvation…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
What Real Power Looks Like
Episode 402
Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is taken from the tenth chapter of Mark, and it is high-octane spiritual business. Something pivotal is being laid out for us in this passage, and it has to do with po…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
What Do You Ask God For?
Episode 401
Friends, for this Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our first reading from the marvelous book of Wisdom presents an old biblical trope: If you were to ask God for something, or if God were to co…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
The Biblical Vision of the Family
Episode 400
Friends, the first reading from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark this week are of great importance. They have to do with what we call Christian anthropology—the biblical understanding of who we are—a…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us
Episode 399
Friends, the first reading and Gospel this Sunday have to do with the Church at war with itself. The devil is the scatterer, the divider, and one of his favorite tricks is to take the Church—which is…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
The Ladder Doesn’t Matter
Episode 398
Friends, why was the story of Jesus with the little children, versions of which appear in the three synoptic Gospels, so vividly remembered by the first Christians? I think they intuited that it got …
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Faith Without Works Is Dead
Episode 397
Friends, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”—and this week, I am going to go once more into the issue of faith and works, which has been dividing Western Christianity since the Reformation. Ou…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago