Episode 119: Begging the Spirit to Do What Only He Can Do

May 21st, 2025  |  6 mins 8 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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 world” he means that disciples are supposed to interact with and touch the world, just as leaven interacts and touches the dough, making the world “rise” and become more genuinely human.

Episode 118: God Makes All Things New – Especially People

May 14th, 2025  |  8 mins 57 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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 ”cancel culture.” Unlike the one we currently live in, where people get canceled because of past failures and indiscretions, God’s version cancels the failures and indiscretions — not the people who committed them — thereby enabling us to begin again. 

Episode 117: Are We Able to Warm People’s Hearts?

April 30th, 2025  |  11 mins 36 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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 inspired and convicted me, both as a disciple and as a priest. In particular, I have found myself returning over and over to a gathering he had with the bishops of Brazil shortly after he was elected in 2013.

Episode 116: How Death Was Undone

April 16th, 2025  |  13 mins 16 secs

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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 understand what’s happening to Him for us.

Episode 115: Standing Alone With Jesus

April 9th, 2025  |  8 mins 53 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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?

Episode 114: The Tsunami That Is Baptism

April 2nd, 2025  |  6 mins 23 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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...

Episode 113: Faith Is Not Blind

March 26th, 2025  |  7 mins 9 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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 Jesus makes so that they too might walk in the light and come to know this astounding truth that is increasingly necessary in a lonely and anxious culture: God is Love, and the object of that love…is each one of us.

Episode 112: The Promise Keeper

March 19th, 2025  |  6 mins 32 secs

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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.

Episode 111: What Makes a Good Citizen?

March 12th, 2025  |  7 mins 29 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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.

Episode 110: You Can Come Home Now

March 5th, 2025  |  11 mins 53 secs

acts xxix, actsxxix, encouragement, faith, fr. john riccardo, hope, inspiration, mission, prayer, reflections, weekly

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.