Best Wordcast Podcasts (2024)

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This Kind of Happiness Only Christians Can Experience | #1449 12:24

6h ago12:24

12:24

All Saints Day • Why have so many people left the Catholic Church? I think they have left because being Catholic made them less happy. It gets in the way of getting their way and having all the things and pleasures they want. Getting what we want only makes us happy when we have learned to want that which is actually good for us. The happiness base…

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What Does He See When Jesus Opens His Eyes? | #1448 14:27

2d ago14:27

14:27

Ordinary Time, 30th Sunday (B) Jericho often symbolizes the kingdom of this world. Bartimaeus can see with the eyes of faith that Jesus is the one he has been waiting for. He keeps calling Jesus until Jesus calls him, then he leaves everything to follow Jesus. Jesus is leading home to the heavenly kingdom all who have heard his call and followed hi…

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How to Grab a Spot at the Top | #1447 13:37

13d ago13:37

13:37

Ordinary Time, 29th Sunday (B) Stewardship is a great way of understanding the Gospel in our practical, everyday life. Christians are called to be like God. We can't possibly succeed, so the Holy Spirit gives us the power to love as God has loved us. Consumers we are rarely grateful, because we have been trained to see the lack in our lives and to …

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Stewards of Creation and Human Life | #1446 13:05

28d ago13:05

13:05

Ordinary Time, 27th Sunday (B) This weekend we kickoff our annual parish Stewardship Renewal. We ask every parishioner of the Antigo Area Catholic Churches to make at least one commitment each in the areas of Time, Talent, and Treasure. It's always good to re-evaluate our commitments. What can our scripture readings teach us about stewardship? Adam…

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Jesus Has a Message for Pimps | #1445 14:15

27d ago14:15

14:15

Ordinary Time, 26th Sunday (B) Many Catholics have no sense of the incredible gift they have received, nor the responsibilities that come with that gift. How would your life be different if you were able to live from your true identity as a child of God, temple of the Holy Spirit, and a part of the Body of Christ? Traffickers deceive their victims …

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Receiving One (More) Child | #1444 14:11

1M ago14:11

14:11

Ordinary Time, 25th Sunday (B) The Bible and our Catholic faith teach that life begins at conception and that every child is a gift from God. Every one of us is wanted, every one of us is willed, and we each reveal something special about God. “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me…

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To Know the True Religion, You Must Answer This Question | #1443 10:42

2M ago10:42

10:42

Ordinary Time, 24th Sunday (B) Which world religion is the true religion? You don't have to look at every religion, you just have to answer this question: Is Jesus who he says he is? Every other founder of a major religion has claimed to have a special insight or revelation from God. Only Jesus claimed to BE GOD. Most people accept that Jesus was a…

1
Hear, Listen, and Understand | #1442 14:08

2M ago14:08

14:08

Ordinary Time, 23rd Sunday (B) After an attempt at rolling my kayak, my ears had to be opened in order for me to hear clearly. Just because we can hear doesn't mean that we are really listening. What would happen if God actually spoke to you during your prayer time? Some of us might feel he was interrupting our prayers. When working with foreign pr…

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This Is the Reason Why God's Law Exists | #1441 12:06

2M ago12:06

12:06

Ordinary Time, 22nd Sunday (B) Is Jesus opposed to rituals and traditions? I see that Jesus has three objections to the behavior of the Scribes and Pharisees. Using external rituals to say, "I'm better than you." We can and should judge right and wrong behavior. But we cannot judge hearts. And we must not use external rituals to compare ourselves t…

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The Surprise Best Part of My Summer Vacation | #1440 15:00

2M ago15:00

15:00

Ordinary Time, 21st Sunday (B) Why have so many people left the Catholic faith? Some left because they didn't experience the Catholic church to be a loving, healthy family. Others have left because they don't believe that we teach the truth. But the vast majority of people have left for one simple reason: they want to be happy. We all know that I'l…

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The Interpretive Key that Unlocks the Meaning of Everything | #1439 17:23

3M ago17:23

17:23

Ordinary Time, 19th Sunday (B) The Eucharist looks like bread and it tastes like bread but it's really Jesus. Catholics have started to lose a sense of God's presence in the Eucharist. But first we lost a sense of the sacramentality of the whole world. Creation speaks to us about the Creator. Humans reveal who God is, and the nature of God reveals …

1
Jesus Offers to Satisfy Your Hunger | #1438 8:10

3M ago8:10

8:10

Ordinary Time, 18th Sunday (B) The Israelites were well-fed slaves! We modern Americans think we are free because we can have whatever we want. The problem is, the more we want, the less satisfied we feel. I become enslaved by my desires. Only Jesus can satisfy the deep hungers in the human heart. This is why Jesus gives himself to us in the Euchar…

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You Don't Realize How Hungry You Are | #1437 13:31

3M ago13:31

13:31

Ordinary Time, 17th Sunday (B) I notice three lessons from the multiplication of the five loaves and the two fish: First, we are hungry. Humans have many deep needs. We need to feel valuable, to know that we are good, to feel that we matter, to be seen and known by others, to live with security and a sense of justice, to have a life of meaning and …

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Bad Leadership is Not a New Problem | #1436 13:39

4M ago13:39

13:39

Ordinary Time, 16th Sunday (B) Bad leaders confuse and scatter. Good leadership leads to clarity, unity, and peace. The clarity comes from a respect for truth. The unity comes from the love for the sheep. Being led according to truth and love leads to peace. The Apostles are being good shepherds by bringing people to the Good Shepherd. Have you see…

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Shake Off the Dust of Self-Reliance | #1435 10:03

4M ago10:03

10:03

Ordinary Time, 15th Sunday (B) The whole human race has a long love affair with self-reliance. We are convinced that a good, happy, and successful human life will be the fruit of our hard work and intelligence. Repent! When Jesus sends his missionaries out two-by-two, he precisely prevents them from relying on themselves. They can only carry what t…

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God is Most Present in the Place We Try Really Hard to Avoid | #1434 15:43

4M ago15:43

15:43

Ordinary Time, 14th Sunday (B) Life is not meant to be easy. The more we try to live a comfortable life, the more miserable we become. When Jesus comes to save us, he doesn't come to take away our pain and suffering. He comes to suffer with us and to suffer for us. Have you had a moment yet when God became real for you? For many, it happened when t…

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The Biggest Blessing from 17 Years of Priesthood | #1433 15:01

4M ago15:01

15:01

Ordinary Time, 13th Sunday (B) Disintegration, disharmony, dis-ease, destruction... this is spiritual death. Through the envy of the devil it entered the world. As long as we remain in the devil's company we will experience all these things. It's not that Jesus hands out cures to this or that problem; Jesus himself is the cure. When we are in his c…

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Fathers Use These Two Tools to Change the World | #1432 16:57

5M ago16:57

16:57

Ordinary Time, 11th Sunday (B) What would you wish for if you only had one wish? I know exactly what I would wish for: that men would be good fathers. About 90% of the issues that wander in my office can be traced back to men who failed to be good fathers. We have a severe crisis of childhood, which is rooted in a crisis of fatherhood and motherhoo…

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Stop Playing the Blame and Shame Game | #1431 11:46

5M ago11:46

11:46

Ordinary Time, 10th Sunday (B) We are the only critter in creation not comfortable in it's own skin. Why do humans wear clothes? The Bible says we started with original innocence. But then we rejected God's Fatherly authority and all started playing the Blame and Shame Game. Jesus refuses to play the game. He lives a life of simplicity, innocence, …

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Blood Brothers | #1430 14:03

5M ago14:03

14:03

Corpus Christi (Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ-B) This weekend the Diocese of Green Bay implements Bishop Ricken's pastoral instruction that allows the common cup on select feast days. We receive the whole Jesus no matter how we receive Communion, but Communion under both species is a fuller symbol of Jesus giving himself compl…

1
An Infinite Inheritance Awaits Us | #1429 13:57

5M ago13:57

13:57

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (B) God created everything, but nothing created God. God simply is. There is no other God but him. The Trinity means that God is love and he is always pouring himself out in love. Made in the image and likeness of God, we are made for a community of love. We can only truly fulfill our calling if we learn to live f…

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The Holy Spirit Responds to our Vocations Crisis | #1428 13:27

6M ago13:27

13:27

Pentecost Sunday • God wants to breathe life into us so he sends the Holy Spirit. We may not realize that when we desire true love, community, peace, and guidance, we are really desiring the Holy Spirit. We can always draw more life from God, so our prayer each day should be, "Come, Holy Spirit!" This weekend, Bishop Ricken ordained six men to the …

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The Ascension and the Gift of Motherhood | #1427 13:56

6M ago13:56

13:56

Easter, Ascension (B) Jesus ascends into heaven. The ancients understood that he is now seated at the vantage point, from which he can see all things and direct his servants to victory. He has made our captivity his captive and has given gifts to men. These "gifts" are the prophets, Apostles, teachers and Evangelists that serve God's people and bui…

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We Love Mary Because She First Loved Us | #1426 15:16

6M ago15:16

15:16

Easter, 6th Sunday (B) Twelve of the last 14 years I have made a walking pilgrimage to Champion Shrine, the only approved Marian apparition site in Canada and the USA. This year I was hoping to join the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage for a few miles, but they are doing very few miles. I got my walking fix by completing my first ever Walk to Mary, …

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Grafted and Pruned (First Communion Homily) | #1425 6:50

6M ago6:50

6:50

Easter, 5th Sunday (B) Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We were grafted onto Jesus at our Baptism. We must remain in Him and draw much life from Jesus. The branches need pruning. The gardener must get rid of overgrowth so the energy from the vine can go to making good fruits. Fathers need to be good pruners of their family. They need so s…

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The Good Shepherd Calls Turkeys Like Us | #1424 15:08

7M ago15:08

15:08

Easter, 4th Sunday (B) Turkey hunting in the state of Wisconsin opened this week. A turkey hunter is pretty much the opposite of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows us personally and loves us so much that he lays down his life for us. The Good Shepherd calls his sheep. The first call or "vocation" that every Christian receives is the call of…

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Five Places Jesus Wants to Give You Peace | #1423 12:34

7M ago12:34

12:34

Easter, 3rd Sunday (B) "Peace be with you," says the Risen Jesus! Here are five places Jesus wants to give peace: 1) Your past. The gift of new life means we no longer have to worry about our past. 2) Our future. The Risen Jesus will meet us at the end of our time and lead us to eternal life. 3) Our sufferings. We will have the strength to endure w…

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The Wounds that Heal | #1422 12:52

7M ago12:52

12:52

Easter, 2nd (Divine Mercy) Sunday • At the resurrection of the dead on the last day, our wounds will all be healed. So why does the Risen Jesus still have wounds? He is the healer, the medicine for all of us. The seal must be broken so his life can flow into us. Jesus lives his whole life without wounds. But in his passion he experiences all our wo…

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Easter Pancakes | #1421 14:34

7M ago14:34

14:34

Easter Sunday Morning • Little children need lots of help and support. As we grow up, we become more independent. We move from needing our mom and dad for everything to needing them almost never. We seem to think the spiritual world works the same way: we "grow up" from praying all the time to only calling God when we are really, really desperate. …

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What Is Jesus Worth to You? | #1420 8:08

7M ago8:08

8:08

Good Friday of the Lord's Passion • An item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Something that is rare, unique, or has special value might fetch more than you would imagine. What am I worth? If we let the world set our value, we will always find ourselves being cheated. Imagining bringing yourself into the Antiques Roadshow. Jesus looks…

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You Should Wash Her Feet | #1419 14:18

7M ago14:18

14:18

Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord's Supper • We often think of the past and the future as a straight line. Jesus is seen as an historic figure. Easter is a re-enactment of Jesus' death and resurrection. We might also conceptualize Jesus as a future event, his second coming in judgement. Meanwhile, we try to follow his example of a sin-free life until…

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The Passion Reveals Our True Colors | #1418 9:23

7M ago9:23

9:23

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (B) The people of Jerusalem are rolling out the red carpet for Jesus. By laying down their cloaks, they show their willingness to lay down their lives for Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemane, a young man leaves his linen cloth behind and runs off naked into the night. How many of us willing follow Jesus when Christ…

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The Real Mission of a Catholic Priest | #1417 12:13

8M ago12:13

12:13

Lent, 5th Sunday (B) Being a priest in the modern world is very challenging. You need to live celibacy in a culture soaked in sex, convince Catholics to come back to Mass, teach the next generation not to abandon the faith like their parents did, save all the marriages, win the culture war, keep the buildings open, convince young men that this is a…

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The One Commandment that Does Not Make Sense | #1416 12:03

8M ago12:03

12:03

Lent, 3rd Sunday (B) The first three commandments are all about love of God and the last 7 are about love of neighbor. They all make perfect sense, with the exception of the third commandment. Why would God command his people to take a day off, especially people who were living hand-to-mouth? God rested on the 7th day. We, who are made in the image…

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The Most Disturbing Passage in the Bible? | #1415 17:35

8M ago17:35

17:35

Lent, 2nd Sunday (B) There are a number of disturbing passages in the Bible. This might be the most disturbing of all: God commands a father to sacrifice his son. In a kind of reverse psychology, he is teaching us not to engage in human sacrifice. There are people that live life with radical trust in God. They believe that God is good, and that the…

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Out of Order | #1414 14:33

9M ago14:33

14:33

Lent, 1st Sunday (B) Creation reveals a sacred order (hierarchy), with God at the top and human beings above the rest of creation but below God. We are part of a sacred order and we also have a sacred order within us. Man is a unity of body and soul. Except that we don't often experience ourselves as a unity. We tend to experience the body and soul…

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Be My vaLENTine | #1413 10:22

9M ago10:22

10:22

Ash Wednesday • Anyone can say, "I love you." How do we know if someone really loves us? Real love is when someone wants what is best for the beloved. And true love is when the lover is willing to put his beloved first. We know that Jesus is True Love because he sacrifices himself for us. If we truly love Jesus, than we will not just say, "I love y…

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Sin is Contagious—Lent Holds the Cure | #1412 13:51

9M ago13:51

13:51

Ordinary Time, 6th Sunday (B) The leper must remove himself from the community in order to save the community. Jesus is the source of healing for the leper, who can go back and be a blessing to his community. We often think of sin as a private matter. But the seven deadly sins not only hurt us, but they are also toxic to community. Think of the way…

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Does Talking About Anxiety Make You Anxious? | #1411 21:01

9M ago21:01

21:01

Ordinary Time, 4th Sunday (B) The APA tells us: Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure... Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threa…

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Understanding God's timing 28:29

10M ago28:29

28:29

Sometimes we can get conflicted about the promptness of God to act. Can we be too fast or slow for him or can he be too slow or fast for us? We look into the concept of understanding God's time in this podcastBy info659

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Five Ways We Can Hear God's Voice | #1410 16:01

10M ago16:01

16:01

Ordinary Time, 2nd Sunday (B) In today's first reading, Samuel hears a call from God. Perhaps we don't want God to call and interrupt, or perhaps we are try to discern our vocation an we wonder why God doesn't call. We need to listen with our heart. Here are five ways that God commonly speaks to us. Nature. The world around me is speaking to me of …

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Eucharistic Epiphany in Cowley, Alberta | #1409 14:58

10M ago14:58

14:58

Epiphany of the Lord (Three Kings Day) On December 29, the Holy Eucharist was stolen from the Most Blessed Sacrament Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Oshkosh, WI. Since Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, was this a theft, or a kidnapping? I recount for you the miraculous recovery of a stolen host in Cowley, Alberta. Father and the other searche…

1
Walking with God 30:01

10M ago30:01

30:01

In this podcast, we examined what it means practically to walk with God, it's purpose and obstacles. Join the conversation!By Global Gospel Channel

1
Dealing with a lying spouse 29:21

10M ago29:21

29:21

In this podcast, we examined the reasons spouse can lie to each other and how to handle it.By info659

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Entrusting Our New Year to the Mother of God | #1408 12:13

10M ago12:13

12:13

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God • Today we celebrate a very controversial title of Mary. Two Patriarchs disagreed about whether it was wrong to call Mary the Mother of God. The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 settled the debate in favor of this title. We could not possibly honor Mary any more than God honored Mary. God raised this humble servant …

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Perfect Love Casts Out Fear | #1407 18:26

10M ago18:26

18:26

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (B) We each image God in our own way. But we also image God when we form a community of persons in the family. When bonds of family love are secure, we can experience a pervasive sense of peace and joy. Family members are able to thrive and develop to their full potential. This heals the core wound…

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The Gift That Everyone Needs But No One Seems to Want | #1406 13:36

10M ago13:36

13:36

Christmas Day • God created the whole universe. Then God created us in his image and likeness. You might think that between the two, God's goodness would be abundantly obvious. But humans throughout history have believed some pretty strange things. So God decided to reveal his face in the person of Jesus Christ. The wise men present him with gifts …

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Watch for God's Healing Truth and Love | #1405 15:36

11M ago15:36

15:36

Advent, 4th Sunday (B) Fr. Michael's patience helped to heal my wound of abandonment. After I got healing, I was able to be patient with him, too. We were made by Love and for Love. But we didn't trust God and we started grasping for whatever we could get our hands on. God sends his Son Jesus to heal us at the very root. Jesus helps us to accept Go…

1
Watch for God's Answer to the World's Problems | #1404 12:14

11M ago12:14

12:14

Advent, 3rd Sunday (B) If we sat down to list all the things that are wrong with the world, we would be here a while. Then we look at Christmas and it makes very little sense. How does one day with family opening presents fix any of the world's problems? The first Christmas makes even less sense: one more mouth to feed, and a homeless family. You m…

1
Watch Out for The Misunderstanding | #1403 16:44

11M ago16:44

16:44

Advent, 2nd Sunday (B) Watch out for fake news, and for calumny. Always check the sources! Before sharing information, ask yourself three questions: 1) Is it true? 2) Is it good? 3) Is it useful? Lies can damage relationships. Don't believe me? Ask the Hallmark Channel! Just when a couple starts to believe in the possibility of love, their relation…

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