Tag Archives: Christmas

Ep89 Encore: The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 14, 2022UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:46 — 20.8MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.

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Ep73 Encore: The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 6, 2021UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:55 — 19.1MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.

Ep58 The Big Mysteries of Christianity

April 18, 2021UncategorizedAnger, Anxiety, Atheists, Bigotry, Catholic Church, Christ, Christians, Christmas, Christmas Christians, Communism, Corruption, Cruelty, Culture, Easter Christians, Good Friday, Good Friday Christians, Heaven, Holy Thursday, Human Beings, Injustice, Jesus, Jim Crow, Love, Morals, Richard Dawkins, Sexual Harassment, Sin, Soviet Unionwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:56 — 26.5MB)

Father Len and Irish grapple with the mystery of the three big events that are the foundation of Christianity: God taking on human flesh and living among us, God being tortured and killed by us, and God’s miraculous resurrection from the dead.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Father Len explains why we should view these events as a whole, as one.
Father Len identifies three groups of Christians and their sensibilities: Christmas Christians, Good Friday Christians, and Easter Christians.
Christmas Christians love the idea of God becoming a human being and the practice of giving and receiving gifts as a way of showing appreciation for the gift of people in their lives.
God recognizes there’s a problem in creation and it’s us. We don’t realize that being a true human being means living a life of love. So God takes on human flesh to teach us the way of love.
Good Friday Christians see the brokenness in the world. They have a deep awareness of sin in the world. They recognize the fight between goodness and corruption and injustice, even in ourselves. They see and understand the need to “die” for what is right.
Atheists, like Richard Dawkins, believe that we can solve the problems of the world, on our own, with education and our intellect. Father Len explains why this is a big lie.
We have to be able to see sin and corruption in the world and realize that it’s not the world that needs to change, it’s us. We’re the ones that have to change.
Father Len uses the movie “The Help” to illustrate how Christ’s model for becoming a true human being and living a life of love actually works.
The struggle against injustice and oppression and dying to our ego purifies the soul. It gets us ready to enter the kingdom of God here and now.
Christ’s resurrection from the dead is not just a singular event. It represents a whole way of life that begins for us right here and now and is fulfilled in heaven when we die.
If Christ didn’t die, he couldn’t have been resurrected.
Resurrection for us is not returning back to our former life. That’s resuscitation. That’s continuing to live like zombies with half a conscience.
The resurrection for us is a whole new life. It’s Christ putting his life in our hearts. It’s freedom from all the shame and darkness in the world. It’s so extreme that in the early church those who were resurrected were called “new persons.”
Easter Christians live in the resurrection. Their hope is in them and beyond them. They live with love and joy inside them that can’t be taken away because they’ve died to anger and fear.
“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
All our sins begin on the inside, in our hearts.
Our modern culture tells us that the problems in the world are outside of us. Therapists believe this is the result of a generation raised with the idea that self-esteem is all important. A generation constantly told, “you’re smart, you’re good, you’re beautiful, you’re special, you’re a winner, you can’t be the problem.”
If you’re not participating in the resurrection, right here and now, why do you think that you’ll be participating in it in heaven? If you spend your whole life denying your own brokenness, not becoming something new, better, and connected, what makes you think that you will be ready for heaven?

Ep57 The Real Story of St. Patrick’s Day

April 9, 2021UncategorizedChocolate, Christmas, Easter, Easter Bunny, Evangelization, Ireland, Italians, Italy, Love, Romans, Santa Claus, St Patrick, St. Joseph, St. Martin of Tours, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Daywrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:36 — 11.5MB)

Father Len explains how a Roman citizen named Patrick became a great saint and hero to Ireland and the real reason we celebrate him and his life.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Patrick was the child of a very religious Roman family, but he had no use for religion until he was captured by pirates on a beach in England and sent to Ireland as a slave to care for sheep and dogs.
Patrick discovered and fell in love with God while caring for sheep.
A voice in St. Patrick’s head guided him to escape slavery and return to his homeland where he decided to become a priest. The same voice convinced him to accept an assignment as a missionary and return to Ireland though he knew most missionaries in Ireland were being killed at the time.
Father Len explains how the Roman named Patrick, who had no interest in religion as a young man, goes on to use a special talent to help evangelize Ireland and become a great saint.
Father Len muses about how our culture ends up taming religious celebrations into secular celebrations like Easter becoming about the Easter Bunny, Christmas becoming about Santa Claus, and Valentine’s Day becoming about chocolates and roses.

Ep42 Only One Thing Will Unite Us

December 18, 2020Uncategorized10 Commandments, Adam and Eve, Bill of Rights, Catholic Church, Christianity, Christmas, Constitution, Contention, CS Lewis, Declaration of Independence, Division, Self-Sacrificing Love, The Bible, the Devil, The Good Samaritan, The Old Testament, Tower of Babel Story, Unitywrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:38 — 24.4MB)

Father Len presents the solution to contention and division in our individual lives and in the world around us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“Secretaries rule the world. Never tick off a secretary because they control everything.” – Father Len
Unity comes through Christ.
The word Catholic means universal.
Father Len shares the hope for unity found in the two creation stories in the Bible.
We are meant to live in unity with other people, even when there is great diversity.
The word devil means divider. The devil is constantly tempting us to be divided against each other and God.
Humanity is forever attempting to come up with a source of unity outside of Christ.
We end up more divided when we develop external things to bring us together.
Ego will always tear us apart.
The Bible chronicles humanity’s quest for unity.
Father Len shares the Bible story of the Good Samaritan to reveal God’s most important laws.
We cannot possibly love God without loving one another.
The Catholic Church is the most ethnically diverse movement in human history.
Father Len tells the story of what CS Lewis learned about the effect other people and community have on our personalities.
Father Len explains why private personal relationships with God are not Christian and not spiritual.
God is perfect loving community.
The one thing God desires in the Bible is family; that all of us will look at each other as brothers and sisters.
Unity is not brought about by conformity.
Our relationship with other human beings should be founded on God.
The only path to unity is the self-sacrificing love Christ came into the world to model for us.

Ep41 The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 8, 2020UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:51 — 20.0MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.