12 minute podcast that describes the lifestyle of the Holy Family in Nazareth during the “hidden years” before Jesus launched his public ministry.

The four gospels tells us very little about the life of Jesus between his birth and his baptism besides his presentation forty days after his birth, the flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth, and his pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his family at age 12.

Saul of Tarsus the Pharisee to Paul, the apostle - both life and fruit were transformed when he met the Risen Lord .  His story tells us where the sour grapes of egoism and violence comes from, and how it can be changed into the fruit of the Spirit.

The image of Jesus as the Good shepherd is a comforting one in the minds of many.  But some of those who first heard Jesus describe himself in this way were deeply disturbed.  For it seems that Jesus is setting himself up as the only true Shepherd and savior.  People still find this claim disturbing.  "What about other religions?," they ask.  For the 4th Sunday of Easter, cycle B.

On the first Easter, the Risen Lord makes clear to his frightened disciples he not a ghost or specter and in so doing shows why the gnostic gospels are bogus and did not make it into the Bible.

The Solemnity or Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated on March 25.  Here, in his typically lyrical language, Leo the Great ponders the unfathomable mystery of God becoming man in the womb of a Virgin, at the moment of conception. Through the Father's love and Mary's faith, the divine Word became flesh and dwelt among us, assuming a full human nature.

In this podcast from the Sonrise Morning Show, host Anna Mitchell begins by observing that virtually half the Gospel of Luke is taken up by Jesus and disciples journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Holy Land Pilgrimage host and theologian Marcellino D'Ambrosio (Dr. Italy) describes what this journey would have been like for the Lord and his followers and what Jerusalem would have been like in the days before the Passover.  He goes on to explain the distinctive location of the Last Supper high in the Essene Quarter of Jerusalem and the strenuous downhill walk of Jesus and the Twelve from the Cenacle to the Kidron valley, and then up to the Garden of Gethsemane a third the way up the slopes of the Mount of Olives.  Jesus capture is described as well as "the sacred Pit," the maximum security cell in Caiaphas' palace complex where Jesus most probably spent the last night of his earthly life.

6 minute podcast in which on the journey of Jesus and his disciples from Bethany, over the top of the Mount of Olives to Bethphage, & down the Palm Sunday Road from there into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey amidst cries of hosanna.

If "God so loved the world." how can he possibly send people to hell?  Is he a loving Father or a stern judge? Jesus helps us reconcile love & grace with hell & judgment in perhaps the most famous worlds in the Bible, John 3:16.

Religion is not supposed to be the opposite of spirituality.  But sometimes religion becomes a cold routine, even a business.  The Lord's cleansing of the Temple spells the end of business as usual.  Our religion must be a matter of living faith, zeal and fidelity to the Ten Commandments.

On the Second Sunday of Lent, the church places together the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah with the story of Jesus and three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Together, these stories teach us the meaning of Lenten sacrifice.