Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #203 01242026: Apology, Prayer, and Removing Last Week's Episode

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Good News #203 01242026: Apology, Prayer, and Removing Last Week's Episode · Catholic Spirit Radio

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  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
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  Good evening and welcome to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy,
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  a permanent deacon in the Peoria Diocese here at Catholic Spirit Radio every
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  Saturday and Sunday evening from 8 to 8.30.
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  Good news is just about that. We talk about good news, some of it in our lives,
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  some of it in the life of the Catholic Church, and the good news of Jesus Christ
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  as shared in the gospel and the readings of the Catholic Mass.
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  So, you'd normally spend the first few minutes of the show,
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  talking about things going on in the world of Catholicism or in my life as a
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  deacon or just as a person, and then we take the second half and we talk about
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  the readings from the Mass.
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  So, this is the third Sunday of Ordinary Time, and so we will have readings
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  from the prophet Isaiah,
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  from the book of—I'm going to forget now—of the Gospel of Matthew,
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  and from the New Testament, from the letter of St.
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  Paul to the Corinthians. But before we get to that, I owe an apology.
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  More than apology, I owe you a confession. Last week's program was...
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  I veered from what I normally do, and I gave a personal opinion about someone
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  in the church, and that was wrong of me.
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  I do want to thank, though, I had a listener who called in and offered me a
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  correction to my program, and they were absolutely right. I needed to be corrected.
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  So just to kind of give you a quick catch-up of what happened last week,
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  if you missed the program.
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  I mentioned an article in a news outlet called The Pillar.
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  The Pillar reports on news from the Vatican about the Catholic Church.
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  And I mentioned that in this article, The Pillar suggested that within the next
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  week or two, that the Vatican would be announcing the beatification of Archbishop
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  Fulton Sheen. Great news.
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  I mean, especially here in the Peoria area, We've been waiting for this news
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  for a long, long time. I was very excited about that.
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  With that, I stepped out of my lane and I shared a personal opinion which was wrong.
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  And I admit it was wrong and I admit it was an error and I think we need to talk about that.
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  And I don't want to make it sound flippant at all. I am extremely contrite about
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  what I did, because in personal review and personal reflection,
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  it was sinful. It was gravely sinful.
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  I made a derogatory comment about the role of Archbishop Dolan in the beatification of Fulton Sheen.
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  And it was unfair, and it was done purely out of personal opinion,
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  and that's not my role as a deacon, to share my personal opinion about an apostle,
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  and I shouldn't have done it.
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  And I apologize for that. I apologize to you, our listeners.
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  I apologize to the Catholic faith for stepping beyond the role that I've taken
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  on as in my call to the diaconate.
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  I apologize to Archbishop Dolan for anything I said that was detrimental to his character.
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  I wasn't in on the meetings about Fulton Sheen. I wasn't in on the negotiations
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  between the Peoria Diocese and the Diocese of New York, or the Archdiocese of New York.
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  And so it really wasn't my place to guess about what happened or what caused
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  this or what caused that.
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  It just was wrong of me. I took part in gossip.
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  And gossip is sinful. I talk about this to the 7th and 8th graders that I work
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  with all the time, how easy it is to get drawn into gossip through your peers.
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  And I let that happen. And I shouldn't have.
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  And I even can't blame the Pillar or other news articles who've talked about
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  this, talked about this ongoing negotiations between the diocese.
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  As I said, I wasn't there.
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  I wasn't in on the meetings. I don't know what the conversations were.
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  I don't know who was responsible for what.
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  I know that a lot of fine men and women in this diocese and in New York have
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  been working on the canonization of Fulton Sheen for, gosh, like 24, 25 years.
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  And it's not just one person who's accomplished what's happened so far.
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  It's not just one person who has kept anything from happening.
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  This is an ongoing process.
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  The cause for sainthood sometimes takes centuries.
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  This has only been going on for 25 years. If at some point, and I hope it happens
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  soon, that Archbishop Sheen is beatified, that's wonderful, and we will certainly celebrate that.
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  And that should be a cause for celebration for everyone involved,
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  and no one should be left out.
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  And if I cast any aspersions onto former Archbishop Dolan, I apologize in my part in that.
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  And to be honest with you, after I had this phone call and I spent some time
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  in personal reflection and personal prayer, I took this to the confessional
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  the next morning and talked about it with my confessor.
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  And I am truly contrite over what I said.
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  I'm going to ask John Hall, our producer and the owner of Catholic Spirit Radio,
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  to please remove that program from our archives.
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  I really don't want anyone to be misled by what I said or to be drawn into further gossip.
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  So last week's program is going to be taken down out of our website,
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  and we're just going to toss that one in the trash can and hope that going forward,
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  I can be a better deacon for the church,
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  a better deacon for you, our listeners,
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  as well as for my parish, and
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  or the parishes, rather, that I serve. And we'll go forward from there.
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  I wish only the best for the bishop, for former Bishop Dolan,
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  and pray for his continued health
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  and success in whatever role he will be taking on within our church.
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  And I do apologize for what I said.
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  Let's just all celebrate the fact that Bishop Fulton Sheen is one of our own,
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  and that he's being considered for sainthood.
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  And I think a good way to close this session out would be to join in prayer
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  for the canonization of Fulton Sheen.
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  So if you all would please take a moment of reflective prayer with me.
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  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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  Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, you raise up within the church in every
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  age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication.
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  You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful
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  servant, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
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  He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ,
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  and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.
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  If it be according to Your will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity,
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  and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim Him a saint.
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  We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the
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  Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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  And Sheen certainly holds a place of honor here at Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  In fact, if you ever visit us here at the station, we have a chapel dedicated
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  to our Lord and to Fulton Sheen.
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  We have been blessed with many pieces of memorabilia that belong to Sheen,
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  and they're on display here at the radio station.
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  I invite anyone who'd like to come by and spend some time in prayer in our chapel.
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  You're certainly welcome to do so.
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  Also, I want to draw your attention to the cause for Sheen.
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  So there's the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation.
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  So if you Google Sheen Foundation, it'll take you to their website.
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  There's a lot of great information about the life of Fulton Sheen.
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  There's information about the process of canonization and where Sheen is currently in this process.
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  It will tell you about what the foundation is currently doing to advance this
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  cause. And there's also an opportunity for you to help defray some of the costs of this.
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  There's a lot of costs involved in sainthood only because of the distance between here and Rome.
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  And there's lawyers involved, canon lawyers.
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  There's trips between here and Rome.
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  There was numerous trips between Peoria and New York in the negotiations for
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  making it possible for Sheen's tomb to be moved here to Peoria.
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  It's at St. Mary's Cathedral if you'd like to visit that.
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  So please, if you'd like to support the foundation, there's also the prayer
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  we just did is available at the website. It's a wonderful prayer.
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  Please include Fulton Sheen in your nightly prayers and the cause for his sainthood.
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  And thank you to the men and women who have worked so hard for decades now to advance Sheen's cause.
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  We appreciate all your efforts and we pray for you as well.
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  So that being said, we're going to take a break for a couple minutes and we
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  will return with the readings from this weekend's Mass for the third Sunday
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  of Ordinary Time. You're listening to Good News.
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  And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy.
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  And by the way, if you want to ask any questions about the Catholic faith,
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  about Christianity in general,
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  things you like, things you don't like, things you want more information on,
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  you can write to me here at Catholic Spirit Radio at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com,
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  and I will do my best to either give you an answer or find you the answer.
• 13:11
  A lot of great questions out there, And so we hope you'll drop us a line.
• 13:16
  So our readings for this weekend, we start with the book of the prophet Isaiah.
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  And just a reminder, we're talking hundreds of years before the birth of Christ,
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  about 700 years, seven to 800 years before Christ.
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  And it's amazing how accurate Isaiah was.
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  I love reading, of all the prophets, I love reading Isaiah the most.
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  His understanding, his connection with the Holy Spirit, Because with all the
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  prophets, what you're really hearing is the Holy Spirit speaking to us through a prophet of God.
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  And Isaiah was a great listener and really reflected on what was being shared
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  with him and then repeated it back to those who needed to hear it,
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  both Jewish and non-Jewish alike, the Jews and the Gentiles.
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  And then to see so much of what he says come to fruition during the time of
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  Christ, I just find absolutely fascinating.
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  So Isaiah in chapter 8 writes,
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  First, the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
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  but in the end He has glorified the seaward road, the land west of the Jordan,
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  the district of the Gentiles.
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  Anguish has taken wing, dispelled in darkness, for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
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  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Upon those who dwell
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  in the land of gloom, a light has shone.
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  You've brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before
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  you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils.
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  For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder,
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  and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed is on the day of Midian. The word of the Lord.
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  And then I'm going to share, I normally don't talk about the Responsorial Psalm.
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  I'm just going to share the refrain with you because it ties in with all of this.
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  The refrain for the responsorial psalm is from Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
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  So, we talked about in the first reading from the prophet, we talked about the
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  people who've walked in darkness have seen a great light.
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  And now, our responsorial psalm, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
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  Our second reading is from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
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  I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among
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  you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
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  For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
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  by Chloe's people, that there are rivalries among you.
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  I mean that each of you is saying, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos,
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  or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ.
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  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
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  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
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  and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might
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  not be emptied of its meaning. The Word of the Lord.
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  What always strikes me about this reading is the people who say,
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  do you follow Christ or you to follow Paul, that question is still being asked of Catholics today.
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  Because so much of the New Testament comes from Paul's epistles,
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  they think we're putting too much emphasis on Paul, but all of Paul's emphasis
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  is on Christ. It's like with Mary.
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  They feel we put too much emphasis on Mary, but all of Mary's emphasis is on Christ.
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  So, both these historical people of of Mary and Paul, are not in this for themselves.
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  They weren't evangelizing for themselves.
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  Everything they did and do is to direct us more and more towards the teachings of Christ.
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  In our gospel, which is from Matthew, and this is from chapter 4.
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  It reads, when Jesus heard that John, and now we're talking John the Baptist,
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  had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.
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  He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulon and Naphtali.
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  And if you remember, those are the two places mentioned in Isaiah's book that
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  a great light will come to them.
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  Well, here we have Jesus coming to that same area.
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  That what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled.
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  Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, because these are
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  both bordered between the Mediterranean and Jordan, the Sea of Galilee.
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  Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, the way to the sea beyond the Jordan,
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  Galilee of the Gentiles.
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  The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and those dwelling in
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  a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.
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  From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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  As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
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  Simon, who's called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen.
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  And he said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.
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  And at once they left their nets and followed him.
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  He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John.
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  They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
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  He called them and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
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  He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
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  proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and curing every disease and illness among
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  the people. The Gospel of the Lord.
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  So in the last few weeks, and in these readings today, we have this ongoing
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  theme of a journey, of wandering.
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  And if we go back through the Old Testament and the New Testament,
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  journeying is a big part of our Christian faith.
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  You can go all the way back to Abraham, when he left his home to a new home
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  at the urging of God, the Holy Spirit, and he settled in a new land,
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  and he raised a new family.
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  And then you have Moses, who went on a journey with the Israelites through the
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  desert as they went to a new home.
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  You have all sorts of journeys taking place.
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  You have Mary and Joseph, who go from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.
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  You have them journeying from Bethlehem to Egypt to evade Herod and his armies.
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  You have them journeying back and settling in Nazareth.
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  And then you have Jesus settling in Capernaum as He begins His ministry.
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  So these journeys from one home to a new home, and there's always growth that
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  takes place on each journey.
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  We're on a journey, the Christian journey to a life in Christ.
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  And whenever you go on a journey, there are certain things you need to take
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  with you. for the decades that I was involved in scouting.
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  Anytime we were going on a trip, I had to remind the scouts,
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  make sure you bring a good flashlight.
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  Good light's important because not everything you do takes place during the day.
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  And so you need a good light. And without that, you can get lost. You can get injured.
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  Well, we're on a journey. We're on this spiritual journey to our new home.
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  This home we have now, this is a tent. This is temporary.
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  Our true home is and always has been to be with God in heaven.
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  And God understands how treacherous a journey this can be.
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  And so what did he do? He sent us a light. He said, don't forget to take this
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  light with you wherever you go.
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  Jesus is that light. And Jesus even tells us that he is the truth and the light.
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  So what are we doing to keep Christ with us on this journey?
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  How are we using him to get through the darkness, to keep from getting lost,
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  to keep on the right path, to keep from getting injured.
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  Well, He gives us the sacraments for that. He gives us the church,
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  His body, where we can have this great light.
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  That came to the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, because that's,
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  by the way, where you're going to find so much of his ministry taking place.
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  When you hear about him going to Sidon, right, and speaking with the Gentiles, that's in this region.
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  So, this light that started to the south in Bethlehem has now come to reach
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  not just to the tribes of Israel, but beyond.
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  So, Christ is this light that keeps leading us to new places and shining beyond
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  where we think it's going to go.
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  We need to immerse ourselves in this light.
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  And the way to do that is through the Mass, through the sacraments of the Church,
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  through confession, through Eucharist, even through marriage, through ordination.
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  Through all these sacraments are all ways that we receive more and more graces
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  from our God who loves us, who loves us more than anything.
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  Remember through Genesis, We are God's greatest creation.
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  Everything on earth is here for us.
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  What are we doing in return? Are we taking care of these gifts?
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  Are we showing our appreciation, our gratitude to God for all that He's given us?
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  We do that through our worship, and the highest form of worship we have is the Mass.
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  So I ask you, because I know there's a lot of us out there as Catholics who
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  still are wandering in darkness, who keep forgetting that we have this great
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  light given to us, and it requires our cooperation.
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  You know, flashlight doesn't just jump on our hands and turn itself on.
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  You have to reach out for it.
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  You have to intentionally use it.
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  How do you intentionally use these graces from God in your life to keep on the right path?
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  It's easy to get lost. I got lost last week. It's easy to slip.
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  It takes constant reminders that God loves us, and He wants us to love others.
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  But first, we have to love God Himself.
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  And the Church gives us the tools for that, and the strength for that,
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  and the opportunities for that.
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  So I ask you this week, as we start to get closer and closer every week to Lent—we're
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  only a few weeks outside of Lent.
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  How are you using Christ in your life? How have you opened your heart and your
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  mind and your actions to the gifts from God?
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  Keep that in mind, keep on the path, and keep praying. That's our connection is prayer.
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  May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life. Amen.
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  Almost teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
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  Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 24:43
  That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 24:46
  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion.
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  Thank you for listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.