Podcasts about then gomer

Luke and Gomer talk money and the Church (not the Vatican, but fundraising). Then Gomer updates everyone about Shannon and what's next there (minute 40ish). Finally, as Luke tries to hang up, Gomer demands Luke tells him all about the new audiobook Luke's listening to about the Late Night wars between Leno and Conan.

She's here! Everleigh Carey is big, beautiful, and a female version of Luke. Oh, but it was a tumultuous birthing experience filled with yogurt, Luke laying down a lot, an emergency C-section, and all the things that make parents anxious. Then Gomer shares about the tragic death of a family member (pray for him) and the need to just be with one another.

Hosea was instructed by God to marry a prostitute named Gomer who subsequently bore him three children, and he wasn't even sure the last two children were his. Then Gomer left him for another man, and Hosea had the humiliating responsibility of buying back his own wife. What was this all about? It was a vivid picture of what the people of Israel had done to their God by prostituting themselves to idols and committing ''spiritual adultery.'' We face the same temptations today.

We talk about Lent. Luke's is going pretty well, but then he visited me and I ruined it. Then Gomer shares his amazing experiences inside the Ferguson Unit prison during the Kolbe Prison Retreat Ministry. And Gomer got a prison nickname. My Facebook Post on the Kolbe Prison Retreat Ministry The experience of going to the prison was intense and amazing. The men in white (MIW) who were there for the three days of the retreat (Thursday-Saturday, 7am to 7pm) come from a variety of religious backgrounds- most were lapsed Catholics, some were anti-Catholic and some were agnostics or Muslims. The retreat followed the format of an ACTS retreat as closely as possible. We had four testimonies followed by table discussions, two by the outside team and two by the MIW. They were powerful, to say the least. Each table had 5-7 MIW, plus one member of the outside team and one member of the MIW as table stewards/facilitators. The discussions were open and honest. I was tapped as the answer man, so if men had complex questions at any of the tables, I'd get a tap on the shoulder and go and try and answer them. In the end, we had 3 or 4 Q and A sessions with the MIW peppering Deacon Bradley and me with questions. "Why do you pray to dead saints?" "Why do you believe in Purgatory?" etc. I gave a talk on the Sacraments and another on the Mass/Eucharist. Deacon Bradley tag-teamed with me on the Sacraments. We did things like Rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplets, two daily Masses, and we even had an Adoration chapel set up in the prison chapel where each one of us took two holy hours, and the MIW team took holy half-hours from the beginning to the end of the retreat. We had Fr. Sebastine led a Healing Mass, which was very powerful for a lot of the men there. The people in the Ferguson Unit are gang-affiliated, life-ers, or long-timers. Almost all are there for drug-related violent crimes. These are men who know they are sinners but also know little else about themselves. They are labeled "prisoners", "Offenders," and "Inmates", but we call them the Men in White, reminding them of their dignity. Fr. Sebastine preached against the word "Prisoner", reminding them that Saint Paul did some of his best work in prison. If you are a child of God, no prison can define you. At the end of the retreat, they had an opportunity to express what the retreat meant to them. One man stood up and explained why he did not get his feet washed. "I was scared. My whole life I've only experience chaos, violence, and negativity. I never knew love. Here, I experienced the love that I never had before, and it scared me. I didn't know people could love like that, and I didn't know how to receive that love. I couldn't believe you would wash my feet and even kiss them. Who am I? I've never seen a man do that for another man before." I found out while praying before my Life Teen talk last night that a Man In White slipped his name tag into my Scriptural Rosary book, with the words, "Please remember me." scrawled on the top. He's currently in the prison's RCIA program. One of the funniest moment came at the end, where a man in white was thanking us for our work, then turned to me and said, "You have one minute to win me over on one issue that is killing me about you Catholics. We at a bus stop. The bus is coming in one minute. Before we get on explain to me this: Mary." So I plowed through as fast as I could (took me about 1:20). He looked at me, smiled, and said, "That makes sense. You won me!" Everyone jumped up and started cheering, hooting, and hollering, and then I led it into a "USA! USA!" chant. Then we all collapsed into our chairs laughing. One man was 70 years old. He will never leave prison. At the age of 7 he married a Baptist who told him he's not allowed to be with her and be Catholic, so he left and never looked back. This Friday he went to Confession and is now fully reconciled to the Church. One of the most bizarre parts of the weekend was how normal it was: men talking about their wives and their kids, talking about friends and faith. It seems so normal. I'm looking around at all these men sitting at tables and thought, "This could be at any retreat site." I was so nervous going into the retreat because I have no experience of prison life. But that ended after 10 or 15 minutes. It became totally normal. It was weird how normal it was. That said, we were dealing with convicted felons and men with violence in their past. They were in there for a reason, and many of those reasons were heinous. First Rule: You never, ever ask them what they did. Let them tell you. In fact, after that initial curiosity burns off, you kind of don't want to know. They are trying to change their lives here and now. We all know they have a past, but we do not want that preventing future conversion and the sacrament of the present moment. Finally, I received my prison nickname.

We are the Syro-Phoenician Woman. You are the scraps that fall from the Master's table. Wait. This sounded better in my head a minute ago. In this episode we talk COMMUNITY GROUPS! ...or Life Groups... or Cell Groups, or House Church Groups, or Small Faith Groups, or 242 Groups or Connect Groups or Discipleship Groups or ...whatever.Then Gomer tells Luke he is done with his need for approval from people at the parish. He's ready to take it to the next level, job be damned! (but pleeeease don't let it be damned! I love working there.) session one// The Gospel.pdf Here's the talkie talk I gave at the Encounter Houston young adult conference called Intimacy with God.

Luke and I start out with the Qatar death scandal involving the World Cup, but don't worry, plenty of people die, Qatar and FIFA authorities assure us. Just not on the same project. At the same time. At all. Then I mock the worship of Sports (#1 of America's Top 7 Gods) and Luke pivots the conversation to a quote from Archbishop Chaput: “This difference between production and consumption is what sociologist Zygmunt Bauman calls the gulf between solid and liquid modern life. Older, “solid” societies based on production find their security in ownership, delayed gratification and rational organization. They seek methodical progress, and they put a high value on durable goods. “Liquid,” consumer-based societies—creatures of the tech revolution and its rapid rate of change—feed on “incessant new beginnings” and experiences.” — Archbishop Chaput I express how I get nervous with quotes like these because, to be honest, a fear of technology is essentially a fear of our native strength. Robots, AI, and all these iPhones are extensions of our selves, they are our creations. Anywho, Zygmunt Bauman's thesis sounds interesting, so here's a link to his book Liquid Modernity that benefits our ministry. And we shouldn't fear them.Now on to Mars, ELON MUSK, GET MY FAT ASS TO MARS!Then we talk about our upcoming two guests: Sergio Bermundez and Lisa Brenninkmeyer from Walking With Purpose.Then Gomer pulls out the GREATEST ANSWER OF ALL TIME WHY LUKE HAS BAD TASTE IN MUSIC/BEER. Thanks 'Stina!Finally, we end with the New Evangelization and why we aren't really implementing it and how Gomer has no patience for this. 

We talk with Brian about his doctoral studies in St Thomas Aquinas' philosophy and theology, which opens up conversations about atheism and materialism, Ghostbusters, why Gomer hasn't seen Ghostbusters 1, but he has seen 2, and Thomas Aquinas on Islam. It's a pretty crazy episode, full of grace and truth!Show Notes (all amazon links support the show!)The Regensburg Lecture, An analysis by Fr James SchallAmazon’s James Schall Page: http://www.amazon.com/James-V.-Schall/e/B001H6PN80/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1Movies and TruthThe Coen BrothersEthan Coen http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001053/?ref_=tt_ov_st_smJoel Coen http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001054/?ref_=tt_ov_st_smWes Andersonhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/?ref_=nv_sr_2The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 RThe Gospel of Happiness: Rediscover Your Faith Through Spiritual Practice and Positive Psychology Kindle EditionA Catholic version of Mindfulness: The Sacrament of the Present Moment. Bernard J. Baars : The Double Life of B.F. Skinner: Inner Conflict, Dissociation and the Scientific Taboo against Consciousness “Freedom was much in the air at the time. The Calvinism of Skinner’s early upbringing denied freedom, with the hotly-debated doctrine of predestination. Early American novels like Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter play out the conflict between Puritan predestination and the emerging American ethic of individual freedom. This was taught routinely as part of a literary education. Skinner must have been thoroughly aware of this tension as a literature student at Hamilton College. The radical behaviourism of Watson and Skinner is indeed an ideology of rebellion. It defines itself in a militant struggle against the perceived stranglehold of religion, and against religion’s evil twin, the consciousness psychology of the older academic generation — all while proclaiming a determinism as rigorous as Calvin’s theology (Watson, 1925; Skinner, 1987).” — -http://bernardbaars.pbworks.com/f/Double%20Life%20Skinner%20JCS.pdf P 12 Which one? The responsible one or the cool guy with long hair?  Saint Augustine’s Confessions, the best translation: http://amzn.to/1SDmqUYGroundhog Day: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/Phil? …PHIL CONNORS?! Best clips from YouTube.comThe Universal Call to Holiness in Lumen Gentium, Chapter Five, paragraph 39ffGet to know Thomas AquinasA Glance at St Thomas Aquinas: A Handbook for Peeping Thomists - http://amzn.to/1oObBCX Guide to Thomas Aquinas by Josef Pieper - http://amzn.to/1oObGGI The Dumb Ox by GK Chesterton - http://amzn.to/1oObPdlSumma of the Summa by Peter Kreeft - http://amzn.to/1SVpyfh For people struggling with God…New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy by Fr Robert SpitzerHow the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods Then Gomer and Luke wander way too far into inappropriate territory that HAD to be edited. Then Aquinas talks Islam...