Start with the paradox that changes everything: the same Jesus who hangs condemned on a cross is the one who reigns as King of the universe. In this episode, Monsignor Wolf traces how that tension—cross and crown—does not dilute faith but sharpens it, turning the liturgical year into a slow, bright unveiling of love that actually orders a chaotic world. From Advent’s apocalyptic readings to the steady rhythm of Sunday Mass, he connects the dots toward a single revelation: Jesus is all in all.

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode, Monsignor Wolf reflects on his 70th birthday and uses small annoyances to open a larger reflection on civility, hidden suffering, and the danger of loose talk about civil war. History, media literacy, and prayer guide us toward mercy, truth, and peace, with a closing poem on the gifts of age.

• loud noise and fraying civility as signals of respect
• hats in church as a cultural practice of reverence
• grades and metrics failing to measure real life
• living with an unseen disability and fear
• choosing charity because most pain is hidden
• historical lessons on civil war rhetoric and cost
• media bias, sincere belief, and critical listening
• prayer for enemies as the only way forward
• poem “An Odd Plus” on the strange gifts of age

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

A minute of silence on November 11, 1918 did not end the world’s turmoil—it exposed it. In this episode, Monsignor Wolf opens with the Armistice and follow the shockwaves: empires dissolving, borders reshaped in Central Europe and the Middle East, and a fragile “peace” that many leaders privately admitted would last only twenty years. From Austria-Hungary’s collapse to the reassembling of the Ottoman lands, from Germany’s chaotic republic to Japan’s strategic rise, the map changed faster than the moral reckoning that should have guided it.

He also examines how the United States stepped from hesitant observer to decisive actor. Wilson’s ideals, the politics at home, and the raw numbers of American troops turned the tide, yet conflict persisted far beyond the armistice. Civil war in Russia, shifting lines in Ukraine and Poland, and fighting between Greece and Turkey all underscored a hard truth: ceasing fire is not the same as making peace. The Versailles settlement left most parties convinced they had sacrificed more than they gained, sowing grievances that would erupt again by 1939.

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode, Monsignor Don Wolf explores All Souls Day through the lens of communion across time and the hope of purgatory as purifying love. A hospital story, Scripture, and the saints help illustrate why praying for the dead is not empty sentiment but solidarity in Christ.

• one Church that includes the living and the dead
• universality of grace from Adam to the apostles and to us
• communion with saints and ordinary faithful across centuries
• why prayer for the dead matters and how it helps
• purgatory as the experience of cleansing love, not a place
• forgiveness in Christ and the truth of our lives held together
• time and presence rethought in light of eternity
• practical invitation to remember and pray for specific souls

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode, Monsignor Wolf pushes past the noise around Halloween and returns to its heart: All Hallows’ Eve as preparation for All Saints. He explores the communion of saints, how their lives shape ours, and how holiness takes root in real times and places.

• reclaiming Halloween as the vigil of All Saints
• communion with the saints as living friendship
• Stephen’s witness and Paul’s awakening in Acts
• saints formed by history, office and duty
• Miguel Pro, Thomas More and Oscar Romero as concrete models
• one Church across parishes, dioceses and centuries
• Rome’s stones as a sign of living continuity
• the saints’ intercession and patronage today
• becoming holy in our own time, not theirs

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode, Monsignor Wolf explores why original sin remains a clear, useful lens for understanding human rivalry and broken freedom, and how grace in Christ offers a real path of rescue. Along the way, he tests rival answers, from detachment to law to social engineering, and find their limits.

• asking better questions in faith as in science
• defining original sin as foundational disorder
• Genesis reframed through mimetic desire
• the teddy bear image and rivalrous wanting
• freedom’s gift and how desire traps us
• limits of law, detachment, and optimism
• critique of denial and utopian fixes
• Christ reorders desire and heals freedom
• slow growth in grace, steady hope

To learn more, visit okr.org

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode, we mourn two Oklahoma priests and reckon with what brotherhood, death, and the promise of resurrection demand of our vocation. We reflect on last rites, family grief, priestly identity, and the quiet discipline of presence at the edge of life.

• priestly life lived near death and dying
• last rites as reconciliation, anointing, commendation
• stories of peaceful deaths and hard departures
• families navigating acceptance, anger and fear
• presence over performance in pastoral care
• missed anointing and the cost of denial
• shared priesthood as one cloth across parishes
• imago Christi and the weight of the collar
• respect and reverence beyond Catholic spaces
• mourning as a way back to hope and footing
• catholic as universal, many seats, one aisle
• cemetery as memory, legacy and promise

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

A single question can bend the arc of a life: Will many be saved—or only a few? In this episode, Msgr. Wolf explores how generations shifted from “heaven is promised but not presumed” to “heaven is assumed if we’re decent,” and why both comfort and terror can miss the heart of grace. We unpack the old struggle over predestination and assurance, and how Sunday worship takes shape from those assumptions: is the goal a moving experience that signals chosenness, or the steady sacramental life that Christ entrusted to the Church? We argue for a both/and spirituality—feelings welcomed, sacraments central—anchored in a God whose mercy calls for a real response.

To bring Jesus’ “narrow gate” to life, we contrast Broadway’s bright promise with the quiet courage of daily fidelity. Drama can awaken us; only the cross can change us. The narrow way is the kitchen table, the hospital corridor, the patient choice to forgive without applause, the freedom that comes from dying to self early so fear loses its grip. Blessed Stanley Rother’s witness ties it all together: he did not become a martyr in a moment; he became ready through thousands of hidden yeses. That is the shape of salvation lived now—focused love, steady hope, and a cross that promises all is gained in what is given away.

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode Father Wolf reflects on Erica Kirk's public forgiveness of her husband's murderer and explores how this fundamental Christian teaching continues to surprise our culture despite being central to our faith. We examine why such a basic element of Christianity stunned observers and what it reveals about our disconnect between religious teaching and practice.

• The memorial rally for Charlie Kirk drew 60,000 people and approximately 100 million streaming views
• Erica Kirk's unexpected declaration of forgiveness for her husband's killer shocked onlookers
• Catholics pray "forgive us as we forgive" regularly, yet public displays of forgiveness are treated as extraordinary
• Forgiveness is not a one-time event but a process that may take years to fully realize
• When we forgive, we free ourselves from the burden of resentment and vengeance
• Father Wolf shares his personal struggle with forgiving someone over a $10,000 grievance that troubled him for decades
• The journey of forgiveness begins with simply saying the words "I forgive," even when emotions don't align
• Our own freedom is the gift we receive when we choose to forgive

Begin with the words "I forgive" in your prayer. Don't worry if you don't feel anything except anger or frustration. It's a beginning. Keep saying, keep repeating this central part of the life of faith. It will matter.

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.

In this episode Father Wolf examines recent high-profile killings and their spiritual implications, providing historical context and theological insight into how Christians should respond to cultural violence. He explores how ordinary people can be drawn to commit horrific acts and how faith offers protection against the pervasive evil of our time.

• Recent school shootings and assassinations capture headlines because they capture our interests and fears
• Historical perspective shows similar waves of political violence have occurred throughout history
• The demonic manifests not just supernaturally but through ideologies and movements that dehumanize
• Baptism serves as spiritual protection against pervasive evil, not merely a cultural tradition
• Violence can be attractive because it creates false unity and purpose in society
• Ordinary people can gradually accept and perpetrate atrocities when influenced by cultural currents
• Self-examination and repentance are essential first steps in countering cultural violence

"Our work always is to be present to and be responsive to the work of God in the world. That means that we cast our minds, our hearts and our souls into the hands of God to know his will and to do it, which is, after all, the passport to happiness and the pathway to heaven."

************

Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.