Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #179 052425: When Church Meets Challenges: Keeping Faith Alive

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Good News #179 052425: When Church Meets Challenges: Keeping Faith Alive · 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 on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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I am Deacon Al. I'm a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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welcoming you all to Catholic Spirit Radio.
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We hope you've been listening all day. If you haven't, you should.
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Keep in mind that we are 24-7, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
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with great programming from EWTN and other Catholic networks,
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as well as locally produced programs.
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And we're able to do it because of you. This is your radio station.
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It is completely funded by our listeners.
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And you're doing a wonderful job so far. We've grown from one tower to 11 towers.
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We continue to expand our network. But only because of your help in evangelizing
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with the word of Jesus Christ.
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So we appreciate that. Here on Good News, we take that word, the gospel,
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from the Sunday Mass, and we look at what all our readings are for this weekend's
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Mass, and talk about how they affect us in our life today, and talk a little
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bit about my own life. It's been kind of a quiet week.
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Lots of things going on in the church.
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We had graduations. We've had confirmations.
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We've had weddings, baptism funerals.
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So we're running the whole gamut of sacraments, which is really nice.
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But we also had, in a way, the last rite, sacrament of healing,
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the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.
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Our air conditioner died, and we had to put it to rest.
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33 years old. So it went to, for an air conditioner, I mean,
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if you look at it in dog years, we're over 220 dog years, it's an old.
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33 is a long time for commercial air conditioner.
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And it has limped along for a little while. And last weekend,
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remember we had a day last week where it was like 90 some degrees that's the day it quit.
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And that was a weekend where we were supposed to have the confirmation from a few of our schools,
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at our church and we had to move it over to another church because it was just
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sweltering in in our church and we had the doors open the windows open but when
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you're trying to get rid of hot air by letting in hot air,
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doesn't work real well. So we had to move a number of our activities for that weekend.
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And we brought in the guys who know, right?
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Brought in some contractors to take a look at it and ended up having to give it last rites.
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I can't tell you. Now, you have to remember the inside of our church is almost
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about three quarters the size of a football field.
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It's a lot of space. It seats a thousand people.
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And so the air conditioning unit is not tiny by any means.
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I don't even want to think of what it's going to cost us to replace that.
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And here we are trying, you know, we're one of those churches that the bishop
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is looking at. Is it going to stay open? Is it going to close?
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We don't know. And so we've been trying to update a lot of things at the church
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to make it more welcoming and more enjoyable, more comfortable.
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And this is a pretty good, pretty big kick in the butt for this.
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I mean, that's a big expense, big expense.
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And we're trying to improve a lot of things in our church. And we're not the
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only one. A lot of churches are going through this, Catholic and non-Catholic.
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And I guess what it brings to mind is your sacrifice, your offerings are important to your church.
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And this is your church. This is your parish. This is your home that you share
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with your Catholic community.
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And if it were your home where the air conditioning broke, you'd find a way
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to pay for air conditioning, right?
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I mean, if the refrigerator broke, you'd find a way to fix the refrigerator.
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Well, you should be looking at your church and talking with your pastor and
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seeing what does your church need, not what do they want.
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That's a good thing too. But let's start with what they need and make sure that the needs are covered.
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Because I'll tell you, since COVID, offerings are down. at all churches.
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And the needs are up. And at some point, something's got to give.
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If you're not helping to support your parish to keep your building operating.
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Don't say, I'm not going to church because the church is too hot or the church
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is too cold, because the fault is in your pocket.
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I'm sorry, you know, I don't mean to be harsh, but let's be real about this.
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God has all the money he needs for all his churches, but he keeps them in your pockets, right?
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It's the same with the radio station. We're able to do what we do because of
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your generosity. Well, the church is the same way.
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Your parish is up against those same challenges.
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And sometimes we give our philanthropy to a lot of other places rather than our parish home.
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And it all starts at home. You wouldn't let your house fall apart,
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and take care of other charities. You'd fix your house first,
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right? Because you need to be in your house to be able to do this. Well, it's the same way.
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And even the church gives away a lot of its money to others before it can fix itself.
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And it really relies on the parishioners to help keep the parish home operating.
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So please, really pray about how you use your funds, what you support,
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and what you don't support.
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And let's be kind to our parish homes and keep them in good repair and keep
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them welcoming and comfortable for all of our guests, especially you.
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And if you happen to have a commercial air conditioner sitting around that you
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don't need, my parish needs one.
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Give me a call. You can reach us at our email at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com
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and we'll be glad to take that compressor off your hands.
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Yeah, so it's going to be an interesting summer with us to see if we can get
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our air conditioning up and running.
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And we've got our evangelization's going great. We've got all sorts of great
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ministries going on. But our home needs some help.
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And your home probably does too at your parish home.
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So I'll just leave you to think about that for a few minutes.
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Other than that, I just celebrated a couple days ago My class 10 of the Peoria
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Diocese diaconate program celebrated their eighth anniversary.
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Hard to believe been doing this for eight years now. So five years,
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five years in formation and now eight years ordained.
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And I'll be honest, it's been the best eight years of my life.
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I've never enjoyed anything more than I've enjoyed my ministries.
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It's been an absolute blessing.
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I'll be honest with you, I hated my boss in my last job, and I was self-employed.
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So that tells you what I thought of my work life.
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Yeah, I've never been happier. And I've reaped so many rewards,
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not only out of my ministry, but because of my formation and my ordination.
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My family life has just, it was always good, but it's even improved more.
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My role as a husband has gotten more joyful.
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My role as a family member with my siblings has improved.
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And it's just been the greatest thing. And the people I've met and the people
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I've gotten to work with at my parishes are just absolutely some of the best
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people I've ever met in my life I've met through ministry.
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So thank you for the calling, Father, and thank you for the formation to all
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of the deacons who helped me during that time.
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And thank you to my parishes for being so welcoming and being so patient with me.
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Speaking of being patient, we're going to ask you to be patient for just a couple
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of minutes, listen to some messages from the friends of our station,
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and we will return with more good news right after this. Stay tuned.
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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.
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Sheen. 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 the salvation of souls, we ask you to move the Church to proclaim Him a saint.
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And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al, and you're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
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So on Good News, we talk about the readings from the Mass, and this is the sixth Sunday of Easter.
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Next Sunday, we go into Resurrection Sunday, and then following Sunday after
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that, we're into Pentecost, and then back into Ordinary Time.
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So it's a very busy time at the Church. We've got all these transitions coming up.
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But in our readings, we've been pretty stable for the last few weeks in that
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we've stayed in our first reading, has always been now for the last,
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gosh, what, five weeks, has been from the Acts of the Apostles.
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The second reading's been from Revelation.
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Third reading from the Gospel of John. And it's pretty much gone in order each week.
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We're doing chapter after chapter and looking at these three books fairly deeply.
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And the last couple of weeks in the Acts of the Apostles, we're looking at the
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Last Supper and everything that happened during the Last Supper,
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the washing that we've talked recently about, the washing of the feet, but mostly about Jesus'
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instructions to his apostles,
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telling them, this is who I am now, so that you fully understand,
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this is who I am, and this is what I came for, and now I have to leave.
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I'm about to die.
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And don't worry about it because things are going to be okay.
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I'm going to take care of you.
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And this is what he's explaining now is what's going to happen next.
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So he's giving the apostles pretty much a pretty detailed play-by-play as to
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what's about to happen, not just over the next few hours, but over the coming years and centuries.
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And then we have in Revelation, Luke is telling us about what John has shared
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about his vision of heaven.
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In a conversation with Jesus in heaven. And in Revelation, John is telling us what he saw.
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And then in our gospel, as I say, the gospel we talked about is largely Jesus
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talking to his apostles.
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In the Acts of the Apostles, we're learning about the early church and how it's starting to develop.
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So we've heard about the stoning of Stephen. We've heard about the apostles
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making other priests, elders, and bishops being formed.
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So we're seeing how the church is starting to take shape.
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So what we're going to do today is kind of unusual. We're going to do the readings
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rather than in the order that they're done in the Mass.
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I'm going to do them chronologically so that you have a better idea of the overarching
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story of what this weekend is trying to tell us about.
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So rather than start with the first reading, we're going to start with the gospel
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reading because that came first.
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Then we're going to go to the Acts of the Apostles, which chronologically would
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have happened a few years, just a few years after the gospel.
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And then we're going to go to Revelation, which happened decades later after
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the gospel and after the first reading. So here we go.
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This is a reading for the Holy Gospel. According to John, this is taken from
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chapter 14. This is right after last week's readings.
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Jesus said to His disciples, Whoever loves me will keep my word,
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and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
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Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Yet the word you hear is not
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mine, but that of the Father who sent me.
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I've told you this while I'm with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
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whom the Father will send in
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my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
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Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.
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Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
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You heard me tell you I am going away and I will come back to you.
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If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.
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For the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens,
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so that when it happens, you may believe.
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So Jesus has finished telling them that he and the Father are one,
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and that God has given him all power and authority.
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And then he shares that authority with the apostles.
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And now he's telling them, okay, my work here is done and I'm leaving.
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And he understands how the apostles are going to feel about that.
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Imagine if your parent, one day you came home from school and your parents said,
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well, we've done our job.
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You're all grown up. We've told you everything we know. Now we're leaving.
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And you would panic, and rightly so. But they say, but don't worry about it.
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Everything's going to be okay.
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Because I'll still be with you in some form. I'm sending someone else to take care of you, right?
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And that's what Jesus is saying. But it's not just someone, it's the Holy Spirit.
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And they're familiar with the Holy Spirit. They've heard about this person through
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Jesus and that he and the Father are one and they're going to be with him in
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the person of the Holy Spirit.
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So this is informing the apostles of the Trinity, making them understand that
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the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work together in a triune,
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there's never just one present.
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When one is there, they're all there, but they take different forms.
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God the Father, the Creator, God the Son, the Teacher, the Sanctifier,
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the Healer, and then God the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Holy Spirit,
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from Jesus, and from God.
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So, let's explain proceeds, because a lot of people think that means comes before.
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But the proceeds that we're talking about here means breathed out.
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And if you remember when Jesus was blessing the apostles, it says,
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He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.
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That's the proceeding, the breathing out. The Holy Spirit comes from within
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Jesus and from within the Father.
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At the very beginning in Genesis, God breathes out the Holy Spirit to to go
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across the waters of the earth to create life.
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So the Holy Spirit is the very breath, the very life of God.
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And so when Jesus says that we will have God within us, with us,
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that's the Holy Spirit that we receive at our baptism.
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That's God within us who never leaves us.
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Now, we sometimes forget about Him and we turn away from Him,
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but God is within us and never leaves us.
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And God's within the church, so He's not only there for us, God is there for His entire church.
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And we see this in the first reading.
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So from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke writes, Some who had come down from Judea
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were instructing the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic
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practice, you cannot be saved.
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Because there arose no little dissension and debate by Paul and Barnabas with
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them, it was decided that Paul and Barnabas and some of the others should go
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to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
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The apostles and the elders, in agreement with the whole church.
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Decided to choose representatives and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
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The ones chosen were Judas, who was called Parsabas, and Silas,
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leaders from among the brothers.
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This is the letter delivered by them. The apostles and the elders,
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your brothers, to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, Cilicia, of Gentile origin, greetings.
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Since we have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate
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from us have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind,
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we have with one accord decided to choose representatives and send them to you
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along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
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who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we are sending Judas and Silas, who will also convey this same message by word of mouth.
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It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden
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beyond these necessities.
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Namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood from meats of strangled
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animals, and from unlawful marriage.
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If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.
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Farewell. This is one of the first big conflicts to take place within the Catholic
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the community, whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised or not.
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And you have to remember, we're not talking about circumcising infants.
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We're talking about they were calling for grown men from Gentiles who were joining
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the Catholic Church in order to do that, needed to be circumcised.
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They felt that they needed to be entered in the traditions of Judaism in order
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to become Christian, because Christian at that time was adapted from Judaism.
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It had its basis in Mosaic law, which included the circumcision of adults.
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And so, of course, the Gentiles were too crazy about this idea. Not a great rule.
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And there was a lot of complaining. And rather than see division in the church,
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it required the church to come together and talk about this.
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And notice, they talked about it. There was no revolution.
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There was no revolt. There was no reformation. There was a conversation.
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Members of the church from both the Gentiles and from lifelong Jews talked about
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this and talked about not what was best about what they believed.
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What was best for the church?
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What was best for all the people following Christ?
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And they worked out an agreement. See, in Judaism, you became one with God through obeying rules.
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If you did all the ceremonial stuff that had grown through the Mosaic laws,
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that's how you gained closeness with God.
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And then Jesus came and said, no, that's not what it's about.
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It's not about the rules.
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It's about the love of God. It's about the love of neighbor.
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It's about regaining that image and likeness of God that we lost through original sin.
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So, the only laws they decided out of this first council of Jerusalem that had
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to stay were laws that proved their love for God, staying away from idol worship,
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staying away from sacrifices used in idol worship, staying away from anything
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that drew your attention from your love of God and fellow man.
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And so, that was represented by the foods you ate, the prayers you said,
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and your marriage, Having a valid marriage.
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And those are still things important to the church. We see that even through
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the Ten Commandments, but also through canon law.
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Almost everything that we say in church you have to follow is all about staying
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true to the worship of God and no one else.
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And having worship that's valid and having a marriage that's valid.
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Love of others, love of God.
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And so this is what they came to during the decision they came to during the Jerusalem Council.
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And they did it by guidance of the Holy Spirit. They did it peacefully.
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They did it the way Christ would have done it if Christ were present.
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He would have talked. He would have listened. And then he would have decided
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what is best for us in the love of God.
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And so we see what was talked about by Jesus and loving one another,
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telling the apostles to give you a new commandment, love each other.
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And by the way you treat each other, that's how the world will know your disciples.
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And so that's what we see lived out a few years later during this first council of Jerusalem.
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Then we step forward several decades to what would be our second reading.
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But right now tonight we're doing is our third reading, which came from Revelation.
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And this is now John in heaven, in this vision, talking with Jesus.
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And the angel took me to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem
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coming out of heaven from God.
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It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious
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stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.
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It had a massive high wall with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed,
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and on which names were inscribed, the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites.
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There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, three west.
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The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation,
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on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
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I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.
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The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave
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it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. The Word of the Lord.
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This new city coming from heaven represents actually two things.
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Heaven itself, with God at His throne, built on the foundation of the apostles,
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but also of the twelve tribes of Israel, showing that the church isn't just new,
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the church is both old and new, that much of our faith is built upon the revelation
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of God to the Jews long before the coming of Jesus Christ.
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So it takes both the old and the new.
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Scripture tells us that God makes everything new again. So how do you make heaven
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new again? You do it through Christ.
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You do it through the church. And so the second understanding of the city coming
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down is the church being brought to us by Christ, where Christ is present in the church.
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These high walls, high walls in a city spoke of the defensive ability of the
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city, the secureness of the city.
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And so it's talking that not only heaven is secure, but the church is secure
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because it's guarded by Christ through the Holy Spirit, through his angels.
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So this same Holy Spirit that Jesus tells the apostles about before his crucifixion
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is present in the church when they make decisions,
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and it's present for us in the church for our own salvation.
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It's a beautiful reading, and it has many facets to it, but it all comes down
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to a trust in the Holy Spirit.
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That the Spirit is with us, that the Spirit is God within us,
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within our parish, our church home, and within the Catholic religion itself.
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All protected and guided by the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God.
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We're faced with so many challenges, health challenges, political challenges,
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war, famine, poverty, all sorts of things we're challenged with that we get
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so upset over, so fearful of, and we forget who's really in charge.
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God's in charge of it all. The Holy Spirit is with us in all things.
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There is no need to be afraid because we have to remember what we're going through now is temporary.
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This was never meant to be our home. This was never meant to be our eternity.
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This is where we learn about God and where we grow in His likeness.
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Some things to think about from this weekend's readings of the Holy Mass of the Catholic Church.
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May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting
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life. You've been listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio,
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a program for teens and almost teens to better understand that the gospel of
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Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
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Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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That's goodnewsat at catholicspiritradio.com.
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Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion.
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Thank you for listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.