Displaying items 21-30 of 153 in total of Thoughts from the Trailer with Fr. John Riccardo with the tag "acts xxix".
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Episode 133: First Things First
September 17th, 2025 | 5 mins 49 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
In these days of intense feelings, often hostile rhetoric, and worse, let us be very careful how we speak about others. And most of all, first of all, with utmost confidence in God’s mercy and power, let us pray for them — perhaps especially for those we find it most difficult to love or like.
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Episode 132: Love on Display
September 10th, 2025 | 13 mins 59 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
Saint Mother Teresa, whose feast day we recently celebrated, heard Jesus one day in prayer give what to me is the single greatest commentary on this ”picture.” In a world increasingly fearful, lonely, and longing for love, it seems so very timely. As you read what He said to her, please know He is saying this now to you and to me. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you hear the voice of the Lord Jesus, the King of glory, the One before whom one real day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, speak these words very personally to you.
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Episode 131: There Is No “Them”
September 3rd, 2025 | 7 mins 31 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
As we eavesdrop on Paul teaching Philemon this week, he’s teaching us too. The world is still divided between “us” and “them” — just read the news. The call on the disciple of Jesus is still to announce the good news that the entire human race has been rescued from the powers of Sin and Death, and the subsequent enslaving forces of division, hatred and more. But not just to announce it. To put the power of the Gospel into effect in every dimension of human life, to act like leaven so as to make the world ever more authentically human.
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Episode 130: The Blood That Cries Mercy
August 27th, 2025 | 6 mins 49 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
The most unjust, horrific, hideous act in human history took place on Calvary some two thousand years ago now. There, on that hill, the God who is Love, gave Himself into the hands of the creature He had fashioned out of love for friendship, and was torn to shreds, quite literally. Why? So that we might be rescued from the clutches of the powers of Sin and Death, into whose grip we had fallen as a result of fateful decisions just before Abel’s murder.
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Episode 129: What Kind of God Is This?
August 20th, 2025 | 6 mins 18 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
So God — God! — came to our rescue. Personally. He didn’t wave a magic wand. He didn’t send an angel. He came Himself. As a man. And the rescue happened by His going to the cross, a most shameful, humiliating and painful way to die. What looked like a defeat was in fact a victory, because Jesus on the cross isn’t just a victim, He’s the aggressor; He’s not just hunted, He’s hunting. Our enemy. And the resurrection on Easter Sunday is the announcement that Good Friday was a victory.
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Episode 128: The Real 12th Man
August 13th, 2025 | 5 mins 45 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
There’s a reason why teams want to play their big games at home. Tens of thousands of cheering fans, often whipped up into a frenzy by anything from cheer leaders to yell leaders, somehow inspire and perhaps even enable highly skilled athletes to do things that they could never do otherwise. Accordingly, the home crowd is often referred to as “the 12th man” in football.
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Episode 127: Heralds of Hope for a Hurting World
August 6th, 2025 | 9 mins 5 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
We in ACTS XXIX would gently like to suggest, however, that it is not enough in these days in which we are living to simply be pilgrims of hope. We must also be heralds of hope. We live in the midst of a world that is riddled by fear, division, anger, depression, despair and so much more. As disciples of Jesus, that is, as men and women who have encountered Someone who has entirely changed our lives, who has brought us from darkness to light, we are called to proclaim to those with whom we work, study, play, and live that life is not in vain, that there is a God, and that He is good and knows what He is doing.
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Episode 126: Taming Our Tongues
July 30th, 2025 | 8 mins 54 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
Our speech can be immensely damaging to others, and in our modern society we are exposed almost constantly to harsh, slanderous, malicious, and obscene speech. As disciples of Jesus, the way we talk and write is supposed to stand out, to be different, to be noticed by not sounding like the world at large. In doing so, we can help the world become more genuinely human..
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Episode 125: Sitting Down To a Feast
July 23rd, 2025 | 8 mins 8 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
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 remember stories. Analogies, like stories, tend to leave lasting imprints in our minds.
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Episode 124: Stepping Into The Arena
July 16th, 2025 | 6 mins 37 secs
acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly
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 competitive I can tend to be, especially in sports, and certainly when I was young. Putting these together, the Lord has given me a new image that has been very helpful in my morning prayer and perhaps will stay with me for quite some time.