Yooper Catholic Podcast

When Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish, he did so through the hands of the disciples. As they brought Jesus what they had and trusted in Him, Jesus multiplied their resources to feed thousands of people. Jesus expects us to get personally involved in helping those in need, both materially and spiritually. Our work alone is never enough, but Jesus is able to bring about a harvest beyond our wildest imaginings.

Jesus' parable of the treasure hidden in the earth teaches us to focus not just on surface-level appearances and image management, but to be concerned with the inner motivation of our hearts in all of our work. Our treasure lies hidden in doing all that do in union with Jesus for love of God and love of our neighbor for God's sake.

Jesus' parables about the Kingdom of God encourage us to be patient and wait for God to bring fruitfulness from our daily labors. The weeds and the wheat and the mustard seed remind us that we won't see the fruit of our labors in this lifetime, and many times they will be mixed with evils out of our control, but God will bring completion to the harvest at the end of time.

The purpose of our work is much more than just to make money. By our work, we co-operate with God in setting creation free from corruption, bringing it to completion as something beautiful and useful for the service of mankind. God also works on us as his handiwork, setting us free from all kinds of slavery, in order to be beautiful and useful in his service. In this episode, Father Ryan explains how to understand our work from this perspective.

Jesus wants to teach us a new way of working as we 'yoke up' with him and learn from his meekness and humility before the Father and our fellow man. In this episode, Father Ryan speaks about Jesus' way of working and how we can come into deeper union with the Spirit of Jesus through our free choice of how we engage in our daily labors.

Jesus himself chose to work as a manual laborer for most of his earthly life. The Church has reflected a lot on the dignity of work in imitation of Jesus and St. Joseph. In this episode, Fr. Ryan speaks about our work as a means of our salvation as we take up our cross daily with Jesus, serve those most in need, and are molded more and more into the likeness of Christ.

This Father's Day is a good time to ask: "What kind of Father is God?" The Scripture readings for this Sunday give us many clues that God is a caring, consistent, close, and competent Father. In this episode, Father Ryan reflects on these themes and shows us how to trust ourselves to the Father as he has revealed himself to be in Jesus.

In this episode for Trinity Sunday, Father Ryan reflects on the identity of the Holy Spirit as self-giving love. The need to give ourselves is stamped into our very bodies as male and female, and the call to become one flesh in marriage. If we want society to be transformed, we need the Holy Spirit to renew us from within, down to the roots of sexuality and marriage.

On the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and united people from multiple nations, races, and tongues in confession of faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit unites people from every nation, education, social and economic background in one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. In this episode, Father Ryan describes how the Holy Spirit forms us to be love and give witness to Jesus' self-denying, other-focused love that overcomes divisions.

We can learn a lot from Jesus in the way he left this earth at his Ascension. In this episode, Father Ryan looks at the mission he left us, and his instructions to pray and make disciples. Following Jesus' instructions should lead to an eruption of evangelization in this time when so many people feel lost, confused, and angry.