Tag Archives: heaven

Ep12 Interpreting the Bible

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Father Len describes the challenges of accurately interpreting the Bible and reveals what it takes to understand its full meaning.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

  • Three levels of interpretation are essential to accurately interpreting the Bible: literal, symbolic, and contemplative.
  • Complete understanding of the Bible is impossible if you just interpret it literally because 50% of the Bible is poetry and it contains many allegories and parables. The full meaning of poetry, allegories, and parables is obscured or lost in strict literal interpretation.
  • Jesus teaches in parables because he wants us to think about the meaning of what he’s teaching.
  • Atheists love to interpret the Bible literally so they can mock it.
  • The New Testament was originally written in Greek which is more sophisticated than English. There are words in Greek that can only be interpreted literally. Like when Jesus says about the Eucharist, “you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. Do this in memory of me.”
  • Father Len reveals symbols contained in the gospel where Saint Peter walks on water to demonstrate how symbolic interpretation of the Bible is essential to understanding its full meaning.
  • Father Len explains the symbols present in the story of the prophet Elijah’s experience with God on Mount Horeb and how they reveal what is possible when we’re able to hear God in silence and how our knowledge of God grows over time.
  • Father Len demonstrates how knowledge of context at the time it was written and understanding the meaning of its original Greek and Hebrew language are vital to accurately interpreting the Bible. He uses this context and understanding to debunk the notion that the Bible says Jesus had siblings, brothers and sisters.

We welcome your questions and comments:

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Ep11 Lessons from Jesus on the Dangers of Fear

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Father Len explores Christ’s teachings on fear and how it controls all of us in not such good ways without us even knowing it.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

  • Fear and anger are identical cousins.
  • We don’t always recognize when we’re being controlled by fear.
  • Martin Luther King trained his followers in the civil rights movement to pray, pray, and pray and never react with fear or anger no matter what opponents would say to them.
  • Jesus taught his apostles to have no secrets and not to be controlled by fear.
  • “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28
  • “If we’re going to be a church that helps change the world, we can’t be controlled by fear of rejection, suffering, gossip, criticism, and standing up for our convictions.” – Father Len
  • If we want love to control us, we first must deal with our fears.
  • The phrase, “do not be afraid,” appears 365 times in the Bible.
  • In God, there is only truth. There’s nothing hidden that won’t be revealed.
  • Jesus cautions us not to lose our souls for fear of pain, rejection, or standing up for truth.
  • We can’t be authentic, honest, or loving with each other unless we can conquer our fears.
  • Heaven is a place of pure light where there are no secrets. Everything will be revealed. So, why not live courageously in truth now.
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how you are being controlled by fear.
  • Litany of Humility Prayer: https://tinyurl.com/mts3da2v

We welcome your questions and comments:

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Ep10 The Bread of Life

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Father Len dives into the sacred mystery of the food Jesus gives us to feed and fortify our souls on the journey to our heavenly home that he’s prepared for us.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

  • The biggest theme in the Bible is that of a meal.
  • Access to the divine happens through a meal.
  • Beginning in the Garden of Eden, God provides food for our souls and our physical bodies.
  • Bread and wine are huge themes in the Bible. Not just symbols, but food that has both physical and spiritual effects.
  • Jesus identifies himself as the “bread from heaven, the bread of life” saying, “you must eat my flesh and drink my blood or you have no life within you, for my body is true food and my blood is true drink.”
  • Jesus institutes a mysterious meal with food for eternal life. It looks like ordinary bread and wine, but he insists that it is his true flesh and blood.
  • Catholics take Jesus at his word and believe in the real presence of his body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

We welcome your questions and comments:

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Ep5 The Purpose of Worship

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Father Len explores the history of worship and reveals that all worship and its purpose come from the Bible.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

  • The word liturgy means worship or how to worship.
  • We worship not to get something, but to become aware of something.
  • We worship and go to church to remember many things. The past, the present as it truly is, who we’re meant to be and what we’re supposed to become.
  • God tells us in the book of Genesis to keep the Sabbath, gather together as a community, and remember what it means to be a true human being.
  • Worship is not about keeping the status quo, but about remembering to become something.
  • Liturgy is a judge and a criterion on how we’re supposed to order our lives.
  • We go to Mass to see the future. The whole Mass is a liturgy of heaven and getting us ready for heaven.
  • “Today, more than ever, we need a framework for our lives. A pattern of holidays and rotating seasons. Without it, we’re like somebody in a speedboat over a trackless sea with nothing to indicate where we are. You’re moving fast, but you have no way of noticing what the changes are.” – Alan Toffler, author of “Future Shock”
  • God gives us symbols in the Bible as a way to study and understand the Bible and to use in worship and prayer to help us drink in wisdom and put the Bible into action.
  • We don’t worship symbols. We use symbols to worship God.
  • All worship comes from the Bible.
  • The Eucharist began before any of the Bible was written. The Eucharist didn’t rise in the Bible, the Bible rose from the Eucharist.
  • There’s a difference between being a spectator and biblical worship. Worship is not supposed to be entertaining.
  • The Eucharist is not about entertainment. It’s about conversion.
  • Liturgy is supposed to subvert the way the world works. Liturgy is supposed to subvert the way we think. Liturgy is about how we conquer the world by sacrificing ourselves in love for other people.
  • Many people in the United States confuse worship and entertainment. Worship is supposed to give us a vision of the kingdom of God, the order of heaven.
  • Liturgies are commitment ceremonies. The Eucharist is us making a commitment to be like Christ and sacrifice ourselves in love for other people.
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Ep4 What divides and unites us?

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Father Len takes a deep dive into what divides us and what unites us. He introduces us to Communio, the one thing that can unite us forever and where to find it.

Highlights, Ideas and Wisdom

  • Communio is this invisible union between us and God. It’s also the thing that makes us united with each other.
  • Communio celebrates the mystical communion that makes us one community.
  • Father Len illustrates the effect of Communio by telling the story of a former Nazi who became friends with a former member of the French Resistance that fought against the Nazis.
  • Communio is never based on externals like religion, race, politics, ideology or even superficial morality.
  • Real community at its very heart is spiritual. It’s a deep belief that we’re inextricably connected to each other by something greater than us. It’s rooted in love and compassion and can never be severed, even by death.
  • Facebook is a hollow substitute for real community.
  • The Book of Revelation in the Bible describes Heaven as ultimate communion. Like a city where everyone is wearing a wedding dress because they’re all in love. That’s true Communio.
  • We came from community, the Trinity. We are meant to live in community, the body of Christ. We end in perfect community, heaven.
  • The really big issue of life is God.
  • More and more people these days are sorting themselves into ideological bunkers. Nine times out of ten, the only thing these people have in common is they hate the same people.
  • If Christ is Communio, Satan is the opposite. The word devil means divider. Satan is always offering us a substitute communion based on who we reject.
  • Christ came to knock down the dividing walls that keep us separated.
  • At the end of our life, we’ll be judged on what we did to others and what we did for others. How united we were with other people. In the final judgment we’ll be judged on how strong our community was.
  • Perfect worship is done together because it’s in a community where our egos are always challenged. Community challenges us to be more loving.
  • Ego keeps us separated from each other and from our true selves.
  • The Bible tells us God will destroy our enemies because God will form us into a community of brothers and sisters.
  • Religion is supposed to be about community, but often times, people confuse conformity with community. The opposite of community is social conforming. There’s a difference between belonging and fitting in. Conformity is just the appearance of community. In conformity, there’s no communion. You just have to act and dress in a way that’s pleasing to the group.
  • Our deepest need is to be in community and be loved.
  • In the Bible, God is always working to save a community, not just an individual.
  • The book of Proverbs says, in a community we’ll develop new eyes. We’ll see the world differently by living in a community.
  • The Catholic Church celebrates Communio.
  • The lifeblood of Wrestling with God Productions comes from generous donors who support our mission. If you’ve benefited from one of our podcasts, please consider making a financial donation here: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions
  • We welcome your questions and comments;