Wrestling with God Show

Wrestling with God Productions
Wrestling with God Show

Two fun-loving and God-fearing Irishmen, a Catholic priest and his good friend, grapple with the big questions about faith, religion, and life.

  1. 12/21/2024

    Ep106 Encore: The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

    Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us. Make a financial donation here: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions 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. We welcome your questions and comments: Email: irish@wwgproductions.org Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738 Links to Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions Wrestling with God Show: http://WWGShow.com Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

    21 min
  2. 09/07/2024

    Ep104 Hope

    Father Len helps us grapple with tough times in our lives and understand the virtue of hope. What is it? Where does it come from? Why it’s essential for peace and joy in our lives. Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom Paula D’Arcy Theologian of Hope “Gift of the Red Bird: The Story of a Divine Encounter” by Paula D’Arcy Faith, hope and love are different aspects of one spiritual reality. Hope is illogical. It’s not a matter of sitting down and rationalizing with people why they should have hope. If you have some rational reason for hope, that’s not hope. That’s logic. Fear is logical. Depressed people are not irrational. They’re just excessively logical and obsessed with their current state of life. “Notes from the Underground: The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Wealth, comfort and safety don’t bring hope. Poverty and abuse don’t take away hope. Hope is a theological virtue. It comes from God alone, not the circumstances of your life. Hope obliterates the idea that life should be easy. Hope is uncertain, it believes in possibilities. Hope takes work to participate in. It comes from this relationship with divine love and life. The Book of Revelation reveals the struggles we have on earth and tells us how the story ends with a huge victory party in heaven. “Optimism and pessimism are twins. Both are blind to possibilities and lock you in to your current state of life. Optimism believes you will always be happy and beautiful, with a full head of hair. Pessimism believes life will always be crap.” – Father Len Hope is not optimism. We live better in the United States than any human beings in history. We live in such incredible comfort. Yet, our young people have the highest rate of suicide and the highest use of prescription pharmaceutical drugs to deal with depression. If circumstances give hope, our children should be thriving. “We live in a culture of hopelessness because we keep telling people, you need the right circumstances to be happy. Unless you’re a Kardashian, with tons of money and social media likes, unless the world treats you a certain way, you’re a victim.” – Father Len Hopelessness suffocates hope. “Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity” – Jamil Jivani It’s a myth to tell people if they have the right circumstances, they’ll be happy, they’ll be hopeful. A sense of meaning to your life is oxygen for hope. You have to suffocate the things that kill hope. Suffocate anger. Suffocate victim mentality. Suffocate the propaganda that circumstances give you happiness. Characteristics of people who have hope. They can endure higher levels of pain. They enjoy competition, win or lose. They believe life is good, no matter their circumstances. They can survive in humble circumstances. They turn out happier. We welcome your questions and comments: Email: irish@wwgproductions.org Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738 Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

    52 min
  3. 04/18/2024

    Ep100 The Most Consequential Decisions in Life

    Father Len helps us recognize and grapple with decisions we make that control the trajectory of our lives and determine our happiness. Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom The Most Important Decision in Life – College commencement speech by Bishop Robert Baron that inspired this episode The most important question in this life is what kind of soul you will have. “To love is to be vulnerable.” – CS Lewis “What you do with your soul really is a map to your future.” – Father Len Your soul is not your mental ability or your psychological profile. It’s a thing that contains all the virtues of God and the spirit of God. The Old Testament describes heaven as a place of true relationship where people relate to each other soul to soul. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur Brooks Happiness comes down to care of your soul, not success in the world. “Everybody worships something. Everybody adores something. Everybody has something that gives their life meaning and worth. Everyone lets something capture their imagination. That thing will control the direction of your life. If you worship money and things, then you’ll never feel like you have enough. If you worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, in time, you’ll be resentful because you’ll never be beautiful enough. You’ll feel ugly. And, as time and age starts to show, you will die a million deaths. If you worship power, you’ll end up feeling threatened and afraid. Read any biography of a dictator. You will need evermore power to numb you against the fear of being afraid. If you worship intellect, being seen as smart, you’ll end up feeling stupid and a fraud and on the verge of being found out. The most insidious thing is, that for most people, it will remain unconscious, but it’s their true religion.” – David Foster Wallace Whatever you worship shapes your soul and controls your life. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman Meditation is one of the best ways to care for your soul and good for your health. Not all worship is good. Worshiping or calling on the name of God can be a way of manipulating evil. Good worship is supposed to lead you to self-sacrificing love. What will what you worship do to your soul? We welcome your questions and comments: Email: irish@wwgproductions.org Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738 Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

    33 min
5
out of 5
92 Ratings

About

Two fun-loving and God-fearing Irishmen, a Catholic priest and his good friend, grapple with the big questions about faith, religion, and life.

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada