By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"The deepest part of us, deep in our spirit, is where the real life of God is," Father Perry tells us for the 19th episode our Sunday Homilies podcast. "All the physical things we do — they're important, they're valuable, they communicate love. But we got to learn how; and it's usually through prayer and contemplation that we get way down deep into the spirit. Of course, Jesus' body is going to die, but the spirit deep within us is where he gives life and makes life happen."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"We need the light to see. It's only through Christ that we find the light. It's because we realise the specialness of Christ — he is the CHRIST —, the one who was sent. And when we put our faith in Christ, and finish that off by being baptised — entering into the waters of life and receiving Christ the light — we see differently," Father Perry tells us for the 18th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "People that love Christ and love his word — and want to be faithful to that word, and open themselves up to that word — they have something more, something extra."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"We have those lifegiving waters," Father Perry tells us for the 17th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "All we have to do is taste it. To drink of it, and to experience the life that Jesus wants to give."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"The Bible is also the place where God is met many times in darkness. And probably that's where we meet God most profoundly. We do it in joy and singing and praising and praying," Father Perry tells us But boy, when darkness hits our life — illness, sadness, or just a disarray of our lives — that's where we really, really have to be people of faith, and that's where we really have to be transformed by our faith. And that's what happens to Abraham today. Do we experience an inner voice that is so clear that after hearing it, we se everything differently?"

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"It was there in vulnerability that he had to put his trust in God the most — and he did. And for everything that the devil tried to do to tempt him he came back speaking the word of God," Father Perry tells us for the 15th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "And there he was, safe and sound with God and the Spirit. That's what this Lent is about."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"And of all the things he could have said, he said the most diving thing you imagine — 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.' That, for me, is him giving up his divinity, bestowing on us that the corruptible — that stuff that comes from sin — has become incorruptible; he's shown how to defeat it," Father Perry tells us for the 14th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "How is that a defeat? Well, we see it three days later in his resurrection."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"Jesus is focusing on something that is so essential if we want to have good hearts, good souls, good lives," Father Perry tells us for the 13th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "God's love filled Jesus' heart, and he couldn't hold it all in there; he had to speak it out loud. When someone hurts us, hurt turns rather quickly into anger. And when we feel anger again and again we call it resentment. We feel it again. We feel it again. And Jesus says, you know what, it doesn't have to be that way; you can be free from that, you can free yourself from that. All you have to do is forgive."

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"At the deepest, deepest, deepest level, especially when there is strife and there there are problems with our lives, that's when we have to dig down deep and find our trust in God and look for listen to hat God will speak in our hearts," Father Perry tells us for the 12th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "Well, what is this contradictory message? How do we find blessing in all those negatives that were listed in the scriptures today? Well, it seems, to me, that is where we need God most — when we can't seem to pull it together, or figure it out, when we seem stuck n a place. And we often go and look in the wrong place for answers, when the answers, I think, lie deep within us in our relationship with God. God, what are you saying? What do I need to do?"

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"In all of the readings we hear about 'the call.' And the implication for us is that every one of us is called," Father Perry tells us for the 11h episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "We're being called everyday, and called into whole commitments of life. But we need to listen. Are we capable of finding God anywhere and hearing his voice?"

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

"This is our story. Do we see the light? Do we recognise Christ, truly, as the light of the world. And when we look at him, he enlightens us. He brings his light into our spirits and souls," Father Perry tells us for the 10th episode of our Sunday Homilies podcast. "That we reveal our darkness — Holy Spirit of God: I am confused. I am filled with feelings that are negative and not helpful. Give me your light! Give me your Spirit! But we have to be people who seek it."