Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #215 One God, Three Persons: Deacon Al on the Mystery of the Trinity

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Good News #215 One God, Three Persons: Deacon Al on the Mystery of the Trinity · 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, Catholic Spirit Radio.
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I am Deacon Al Lundy, a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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and this is Good News, where we talk about the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel of our Lord.
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And so we look at the readings for the Sunday Mass and give some insight and
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some reflection on them, talk
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a little bit about my life and what's going on in the Catholic Church.
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And, oh gosh, the last time we talked, it's been a while.
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But since then, I had the opportunity to emcee a dinner, a fundraiser for Catholic
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Spirit Radio that featured Dr.
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Ray from EWTN. He's a hoot. I just love him. I just think he's a riot.
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He slips in a lot of good, solid, serious advice among some wonderful stories and jokes that he tells.
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And he was a lot of fun. We had a lot of people there. It was very successful,
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I understand. I don't know any of the final numbers, but I know that we did pretty well.
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So thank you all who attended, who donated for that cause. It was a great meal.
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Ate at the Eastland, not Eastland, no, we ate at the Chateau.
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The Chateau, oh my gosh. Yeah, the food was wonderful.
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So thank you all for coming. I hope you had a good time.
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And I just always enjoy meeting our listeners and getting a chance to do some
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good work for Catholic Spirit Radio.
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And also since then, I've been out west. My wife and I went out and visited our son and his wife.
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And they live out in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. I love going out there.
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It's warm. This wasn't so bad. I usually go out in like July or August.
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And this year we did May, and it only got up to the mid to upper 90s, which is a huge benefit.
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I've been out there when it was 114, 117.
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And as my son keeps reminding me, well, it's a dry heat.
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And as I keep reminding him, so is my oven. And yet I cook pizza in it.
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You know, 117 in the sun is just brutal, just brutal.
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I burned my hand just getting into his car one day when I was out there last year.
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So, but this was wonderful weather, very mild in comparison.
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We all went to see Cirque du Soleil together.
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Saw O, tremendous show, really amazing. They have a stage.
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It's a water stage. stage and
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it's the hydraulics in this thing where it goes
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from this water where people are diving i don't
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know how many feet 20 30 feet into this
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pool and then suddenly it's a it's a
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solid stage you know as things move
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around and boats float through and people dive and are jumping in and then they're
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walking across because it's a stage and then the water's gone and it's just
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a regular stage and then the water's back and it's a pool again i mean it's
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it's just a phenomenal staging And the gymnasts,
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the acrobats, the divers,
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the cast of, I don't know how many are in the cast, probably 30,
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40, just amazing, just really amazing.
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So we enjoyed that, took some beautiful hikes, went out to Valley of Fire and went to Red Rock and...
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Really beautiful, just beautiful places. A lot of them sandstone.
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Saw my first Gila monster in the wild.
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I've only seen them in, you know, at aquariums or at zoos.
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And we were walking among some formations, and I caught sight of a Gila monster,
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about, you know, 18 inches, foot to 18 inches long, a juvenile.
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And I thought, that's pretty cool. Now, if I could just see some longhorn sheep,
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that would be perfect. So we're starting to drive out, and the car in front of us has stopped.
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And my first non-Christian reaction is, why is this idiot stopping?
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And then I realized we're in a park, there's a chance he sees something,
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so I quickly start looking around, and there just nibbling on some tall grass
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in a little meadow next to us is a juvenile longhorn sheep in the wild, which was pretty cool.
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And I thought, well, where there's one, there's got to be more,
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right? So we start looking around.
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We drive about 15, 20 feet. And then on a rock,
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a rock, it's about, oh, I would guess eight feet tall, sitting right on the
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side of the road on the left side of our car,
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standing on top of it like you would expect to see Bambi in the movie,
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you know, out there with his head up and the ears perked up and just kind of
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looking around, surveying his domain, is another bighorn sheep standing on top of this boulder.
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So we got some great photos. It was very, very cool.
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Plus my son's house is on the flight path for the Air Force Base.
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Now he's not really, really close, but he is on the flight path,
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which means we had some really cool aircraft passing overhead.
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F-35s, the new F-35, got to see one of those, a couple of those actually.
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F-16s, F-15s, a KC-35, the new the new supertanker.
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Man, are they fast and agile.
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Really, military jets always fascinated me. All military aircraft.
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I saw a helicopter. I'm not sure which one we saw, but we saw a military helicopter.
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Went over one of the big, what do you call it? These are the ones,
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like a sky crane kind of a thing.
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So, neat aircraft flying overhead. They just moved to a new house six months
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ago, so Did a lot of dad stuff around the house, helping him.
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One of the things we did, we set up his train set. Now, this train set was built
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when he was a young teenager.
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It was almost completed the day he graduated college.
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And moved out like a week later. And now I had to take the train set down and pack it away.
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And I thought, well, I'm just going to keep it, because this is a big,
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heavy train table that we made that was really solid, no vibrations.
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Had a lake in it with little model boats, and he could get under the table and
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lift up the lake and stand up in the middle of the table so he could reach to
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the far side of all the track.
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And then he ducks back down, and the lake drops back in place.
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So I hated to get rid of it because this was a pretty cool build that we did together.
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So I took it apart in sections and stowed it under the stairway in the basement.
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And there it sat for 14 years.
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Now he wants it because now he's got a house where he has room for his train set.
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I forgot how heavy this thing was. And it's in the basement.
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So thank you a couple guys in a truck who
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who came and and carried all this upstairs because i wasn't going to do it anymore
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i mean when i was built when i built this i was in my 50s and you know now i'm
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pushing early 70s i'm not i'm not all in this thing up the basement steps but
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we got it there and his some of his buddies and him got it up into their house upstairs,
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and he and I put it back together and he sent me a picture yesterday of trains
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running on the tabletop again.
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So it's, yeah, it's neat to see. It's nice to see that something we did together
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when he was a kid, he's still enjoying and it's still working and it still looks very cool.
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And yeah, he's having a lot of fun with it and I'm having fun just knowing that he's enjoying it.
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So that was, while I was gone, I've been kind of busy. Been kind of busy.
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And things have been happening at parishes while I was gone.
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Oh, we visited a really neat parish in Vegas. I've been to before.
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No, it's St. Anthony of Padua.
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Very cool design church, kind of missionary-style exterior.
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Inside, you have the worship center is in the middle of the building,
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and then in a ring around the outside of it is the gymnasium,
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the school, the classrooms,
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the adult ed rooms, the kitchenette.
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I mean, it's really cool design.
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But they're doing a major fundraiser right now, as many churches are.
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And they're trying to raise $7 million, right?
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We're trying to raise a little less than that at our church.
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And what was fascinating about it was that we were there after the first week
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of the fundraiser, the first week.
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And at this point, 153, 54 families have taken part in the drive so far.
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$2.5 million.
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153 families, and they have raised $2.5 million in a week.
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I don't think it's Christian to be jealous or envious, but I got to tell you,
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knowing what it takes to raise that kind of money in a parish,
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to raise $2.5 million in a week is phenomenal.
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Phenomenal. I mean, And here at the radio station, we are perpetually raising
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money, it seems, but we're also perpetually growing.
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And so that kind of fundraising is needed.
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And we're not just trying to do repairs. We're trying to actually grow and do even greater outreach.
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And boy, would you like to make $2.5 million in a week, John?
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Wouldn't that be, that would be just dandy. So congratulations to St. Anthony's of Padua.
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God bless you. I hope things continue to go well for your fundraiser,
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for your capital campaign.
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They also struck a deal with the bishop, which I wish, from their mouth to the
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ears of all bishops, they have five years interest-free loan to get things done on their building.
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And by an interest-free loan for five years, you can do a lot with that kind of flexibility.
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So again, congratulations. But we're here to talk about the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.
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That's the feast that we're celebrating in the church this weekend,
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first Sunday after Pentecost, actually the first Sunday of ordinary time,
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which we've set aside for the Solemnity for the Most Holy Trinity, that being God.
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We're here to give a special attention to God in the three persons of the Trinity, one God,
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three persons, a belief held by most Christians, not all, but the vast majority
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of Christians see God as made of a trinity of three unique persons.
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How does that happen? Well, we're going to talk about that a little bit after these messages.
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We'll be back in just a few minutes with more good news here on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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Stay tuned. Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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As you've heard, Catholic Spirit Radio is hosting their 15th anniversary pilgrimage to Wisconsin.
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I want to congratulate Catholic Spirit Radio on their 15th anniversary.
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I was pleased to visit and bless the station's studio.
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You are touching the souls of so many. The listeners in the Diocese of Peoria
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I wish you again a very happy anniversary and hope you keep our airwaves full
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of the Lord's love and words.
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May the Holy Spirit bless this ministry, its volunteers, and all its listeners.
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In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.
13:06
Hello, this is Steve Gleason with your one-minute tool for Catholic evangelism.
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Here's the question for your non-Catholic friend.
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Are you lured by the half-century-old shift in Christianity that hails,
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I am supposed to be blessed with all my needs met, including excellent health,
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upward financial abundance, and sidestepping any adverse circumstance?
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Tens of millions are reaching for the lures that tickle a natural human quest
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for life with no heartaches.
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That is not Christianity as described by Jesus and the apostles.
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Secondly, there are 73 books, not just 73 individual verses of a dream life.
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God's merciful action in our life brings us into seasons that are not pleasant.
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We all struggle with expectations like, take up your cross and follow me.
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We just can't skirt it. This is a very real part of Christianity.
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St. Paul said in multiple places, what he suffered as loss, he counted as rubbish
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in order that he might gain Christ. And thirdly, my take on the lives of the saints.
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Bluntly said, more went wrong than went right, except at the end.
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And isn't that what counts? Find me online at Smarty Pants Catholic Evangelism.
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And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy.
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We're here every Saturday and Sunday evening from 8 to 8.30 to talk to you about
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the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from this weekend's Mass and short reflections on it.
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This weekend is the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
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This is a belief that's been part of the dogma of the Catholic Church,
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of most Christian churches, in fact, since the very beginning.
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It's always been a belief of the Catholic Church. It was never,
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I shouldn't say it was never, for a long time, it wasn't explained well because
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it's a tough bit of dogma to understand.
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Mathematically, we're talking about one plus one plus one equals one.
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And that doesn't work too well with the human mind. And so we're always looking
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for ways to explain how the Trinity can exist.
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And so before we get to our readings, I just want to remind you that some of
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the things we've tried over the centuries to explain this in a way that our
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human minds can understand just aren't real effective. This is a mystery.
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A mystery not in that we can't.
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We don't know anything about it, is that we don't know everything about it yet.
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And some of it we won't know in this human capacity, because it's just,
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it's too difficult to understand.
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It's too far out of our context to be able to understand it.
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And so we've tried for centuries to develop simple explanations.
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And a good example would be St. Patrick with a botanical explanation.
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He uses a three-leaf clover, right? How one plant is made up of three separate
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leaves. So one God made of three separate persons.
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Where that falls apart is if you take each individual leaf, it's not fully the clover.
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But with God, each person of God is fully God and completely God.
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And so the model of the clover leaf doesn't work.
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Well, then we try things like a musical explanation, right? A three-note chord.
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But that fails too, because each note doesn't contain the entire chord,
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even though the chord contains all three notes.
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So that doesn't work. We've tried chemistry, ice and water and steam,
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three states of being of water.
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The problem is water can't be in all three states at the same time, where God can be.
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The three persons of God are all fully God at all times.
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And there's, pardon me, there's other similar attempts. None of them seem to
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work well, and that's because we seem determined to find a natural human understanding
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of a model of a God who's supernatural and beyond our human limitations.
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So we struggled to explain this. And in fact, the first time I had to preach
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on this topic was about eight years ago, shortly after I was ordained.
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And about three days before I was to offer my homily,
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A priest, Jeff Windy, who you've met Jeff here on the air at Catholic Spirit
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Radio, Jeff took me aside and said, so I understand you're preaching on the
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Holy Trinity this weekend.
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I said, yes, I am. He says, do us all a favor, try not to commit a heresy.
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It's easy enough to do because it is such a difficult concept.
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It's hard to explain it without entering into error.
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So somebody who I think has come the closest at it is probably St. Augustine.
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Now, some will say it's Augustine.
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Augustine, Augustine, it doesn't matter. It's actually Augustus.
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And so to say Augustine or Augustine really doesn't matter.
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It just depends on local translations.
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But he has what's called the psychological analogy.
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And he developed this in the fourth century. And it's written in a beautiful
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writing that he has called De Trinitate, meaning of the Holy Trinity.
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And he compares the three persons of one God to three functions of the human
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mind, memory, understanding, and will.
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Each function unique, each one exists in one mind, but they can all act both
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independently and in unison. And for me, that is the best explanation of the Holy Trinity.
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One God in three persons, all acting both independently and in unity.
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So keeping that in mind, let's look at today's readings and talk about how they reveal God to us.
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Because I think what's most important about the Trinity isn't the nature of the Trinitarian Union.
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What's important is the nature of God, because all three of these persons share the same nature.
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They all have the same thoughts, the same...
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The same desires, the same wishes, they all cooperate completely and perfectly together.
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So our first reading is from the book of Exodus. It says, early in the morning,
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Moses went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, taking along two stone tablets.
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Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, Lord.
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Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, The Lord, the Lord,
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a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, rich in kindness and fidelity.
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Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said,
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If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.
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This indeed is a stiff-necked people, yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
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and receive us as your own. The word of the Lord.
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So what we find here is not a God of vengeance,
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a God who's there to condemn Moses or the Israelites or chastise them for their
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errors because this is the second time Moses has gone up Sinai to receive the commandments.
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He was up there the first time with God, the burning bush, remember that?
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And he returns to the Israelites and finds them worshiping a false idol while
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he's up speaking with God, trying to gain favor with God for the Israelites,
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the Israelites are down below worshiping a false god.
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And Moses in his anger hurls the tablets to the ground and they smash.
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And then he has quite a disagreement with the Israelites, quite a fight.
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But now he's settled down, and he's going to try again.
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So he takes two blank stone tablets, and he starts the long climb up Mount Sinai
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again, not knowing what to expect. Is God going to be as angry as Moses was?
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Is he going to take vengeance on Moses? Did Moses fail as a leader of the Israelites?
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So I'm sure all this is running through his mind as he's making this difficult
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climb, hauling these stone tablets with him, trying to figure out what is God going to do?
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And so what happens? Does God punish him or chastise him or berate him?
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No, he reminds him that I'm a loving and merciful and gracious God.
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He reminds them that he's forgiving. He reminds them that he's not going to
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just take what he said about being, holding the Israelite people as his own
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and just cast that aside over one error.
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And as we find out through the Old Testament, he's not even going to throw them
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aside after many errors.
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This is a God who's not going to forsake his own.
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And so that's an important thing to remember because we find those same characteristics in Christ.
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We find those same characteristics within the Holy Spirit.
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So, our God is a loving, faithful, forgiving God, and those characteristics
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are assumed throughout all of the persons of God.
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In our second reading, it's a letter from Paul to the Corinthians,
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and Paul writes, Brothers and sisters, rejoice, mend your ways,
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encourage one another, agree with one another,
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live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
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Greet one another with a holy kiss.
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All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
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of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. The word of the Lord.
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And for those of you who are regularly attending Mass, you recognize these words.
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You hear these words at every Mass, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
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love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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You hear this every single week, a constant reminder that this is a God of love
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and not a God of retribution.
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This is a God who cares for you, wants you to live in peace,
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wants you to live in harmony, wants to live in you so that you can live in the
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love and the peace of God and share that love and peace with others.
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We are part of this unity.
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Just as God lives in unity with Himself in His Son and the Holy Spirit,
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we were created in that same image to live in that same unity.
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So the closer we come to a Christ-like life, the closer we come to not only
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having God live within us through our baptism, but to have us live in God Himself.
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Our gospel, very short gospel, gospel according to John, This comes from chapter 3 of John.
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But again, this talks about the nature of the Trinity.
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John writes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,
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so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.
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For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
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but so that the world might be saved through Him.
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Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe
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has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the Holy
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Son of God. The Gospel of the Lord.
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So again, we find through John, as we did through Paul and we did through Moses,
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that this is a loving and forgiving God who wants only the best for each of
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us, providing that we accept who God is.
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And we do that, as Jesus tells us, through our obedience to Christ.
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That's the best way. I mean, you can stand on the street corner and praise God
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as much as you want, But if you don't live that out through the teachings of Christ,
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you know, as James would explain, you're a bell with no clapper, right?
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You're making a lot of noise but accomplishing nothing.
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And so we're being welcomed by these scriptures this weekend to enter into the
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love of God in unity, in a relationship.
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To be part of God by letting God be a part of us.
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We begin that through communion, and then we grow in that unity through the sacraments.
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That's what we all need to be thinking about, not only this week, but every week.
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How is Christ alive in us? And how are we living in the love and peace of God,
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not only with God himself, but with our neighbors?
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Something to pray on, something to contemplate, meditate about.
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As we continue now through the next several weeks of ordinary time,
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this is what all of our lessons are going to be about, growing more Christ-like each and every day.
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May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
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Good night from Good News and Catholic Spirit Radio.
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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
26:39
Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
26:41
Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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That's goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.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.