Lectio: Third Sunday of Lent | Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress, Fr. Patrick Briscoe & Fr. Bonaventure
March 22, 2025
This transcription was generated using AI technology. Please note that there may be errors or inconsistencies.
This is father Patrick Briscoe. This is father Joseph Anthony Kress. And this is Father Bonaventure Chapman. Welcome to Godsplaining. Thanks to all supporters. If you enjoy the show, please consider making a monthly donation to us on Patreon. Be sure to like and subscribe to Godsplaining wherever you listen to your podcasts. All right, boys, we are here in week three of lent.
00:00:25:02 – 00:00:45:06
Unknown
That’s right. We are. We have all cast off our Lenten penances already. Yes. Forgot them all. Not Father Batman. She’s very good at following the rules. I have a question. Oh, please. What is cress mean? I have no idea. Yeah. No, I know it’s it’s German origin. Yeah. But I don’t know. Yeah. Okay. Should I know?
00:00:45:06 – 00:01:01:07
Unknown
No, I don’t know. It’s a court case. This is what you’re thinking. This is Father Joseph Anthony Cress, and I thought, like cress. That’s. That’s fine. What is happening? Yeah. Man. Man. Man man. Man man. Yeah, I mean, some it’s a chap, man. A guy was a man involved in chaps. It’s an English sort of the standard kind of stuff, right?
00:01:01:10 – 00:01:21:22
Unknown
Which means you’ll appreciate this. The one. The one from the woods and the one from the woods. Oh, the French one from the woods. Yeah, there’s sort of like the. Yeah, there’s always various. It’s the whole kind of island. Celtic. Oh, sure. Sure. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The one from the woods. One out the woods. One for the woods and the woods.
00:01:21:22 – 00:01:36:08
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t seem like it. I wasn’t going to say that. What should cress mean? Make it up. You speak German? Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, sounds like Freud is a bit like cross or something, so that can be some guy. And, you know, I was I was like, you know, change of that or something.
00:01:36:12 – 00:01:58:13
Unknown
So I did some new tricks over here. Yeah, I did some research and there was, somebody there, some kind of aristocracy doctor, see, or something like, cress, von Chrétien. Stein, Christian and Christian I. Yeah, yeah. I don’t know what that means, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think they just, I don’t know, wiped out. I came to the second half of that one, this Castle Crescent.
00:01:58:15 – 00:02:18:19
Unknown
Yeah, I know I do. I have a castle. That would be awesome. See, they need to do some research. Yeah. The Lord. Yeah. I don’t know if we do. We don’t have a, No Chapman Castle. No, I don’t think so. I mean, everyone’s going to obviously claim, going back at some point to something, but sure, I, my family doesn’t own it now, I don’t know.
00:02:18:21 – 00:02:43:19
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Before we jump in to get us more in a Lenten mindset, please, you have a favorite Lenten hymn. No. I feel like part of the desert of lent is the paucity of it is I mean, the advent is just advent has a fantastic Lenten message. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, unfortunately, let All Mortal Flesh gets sung a lot during lent.
00:02:44:09 – 00:03:03:04
Unknown
But that’s actually an advent. You got the A word. Yeah. Yeah it’s true with that in the hymn. Oh yeah. Yeah. Not. Oh yeah. Yeah. We would never said that. Yeah. Like in in this non liturgical podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Well I just we would have never said that sometimes people do and I don’t, I don’t care for that.
00:03:03:04 – 00:03:24:17
Unknown
Just exactly mentioned not use. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know I don’t really have. Yes. What’s the one with, let’s say, 40 days and 40. I was going to say that’s kind of a classic. Yeah, yeah, that’s a classic one that’s on my sacred Heart out there. Well, sacred head now. Oh, that’s nice. Like sacred.
00:03:24:18 – 00:03:45:00
Unknown
That’s right. Yeah. It’s around. Yeah. So that’s has nice kind of, you know, dirge to it. Right. That sort of thing. Very beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s nice. I do like the, the lamentations of Jeremiah. So I’m going good. Oh that’s good that those are spectacular. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Very very powerful. Very moving. Yeah. That satisfies many okay.
00:03:45:00 – 00:04:08:18
Unknown
Chit chat thinking oh well. Oh yeah. Well so let’s let’s begin with the prayers as I cast him. And then Father Joseph Anthony will turn to you to take us through happy messages in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, who in fasting, prayer, and almsgiving have shown us a remedy for sin.
00:04:08:20 – 00:04:36:10
Unknown
Look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. All right. The first reading for today’s liturgy comes from the third chapter of Exodus.
00:04:36:12 – 00:04:57:12
Unknown
Moses was tending the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, leading the flock across the desert. He came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, and fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.
00:04:57:14 – 00:05:24:01
Unknown
So Moses decided, I must go over to look at this remarkable sight and see why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush. Moses, Moses! He answered, here I am. God said, come no nearer. Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
00:05:24:03 – 00:05:46:21
Unknown
I am the God of your fathers, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But the Lord said, I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I’ve heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers. So I know well what they are suffering.
00:05:46:23 – 00:06:09:10
Unknown
Therefore, I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses said to God, but when I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, if they ask me, what is his name, what am I to tell them?
00:06:09:12 – 00:06:32:11
Unknown
God replied, I am who am? Then he added, this is what you shall tell the Israelites. I am sent me to you. God spoke no further to Moses. Thus shall thus shall you say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.
00:06:32:13 – 00:06:41:03
Unknown
This is my name forever. Thus am I to be remembered through all generations.
00:06:41:05 – 00:07:17:22
Unknown
I love fire, I, I love a little bit of a pyromaniac, but I do love fire. There, there are qualities of fire that it can. I constantly am reflecting on and meditating on. And there’s something about when you sit in a holy hour and there’s a thorough bowl of incense and just watching the smoke below it, and the different forms it takes and how it elevates and all those types of things, I, I, I too am mesmerized by fire and I find here it does not surprise me if if I was in Moses’s shoes, if I was leading a flock on a hillside.
00:07:18:00 – 00:07:49:19
Unknown
Yeah, exactly. His. His Birks. If I was in Moses’s barracks and leading a flock on a hillside and I saw a fire, I. I would do the same thing, right? I would be mesmerized by that. And there’s a certain attraction, a natural attraction to fire. And you see this, like, if you ever go to a party and there’s, you know, people inside or around the kitchen or hanging out playing board games or something, and there’s a fire outside at some point, the entire party kind of just ends up next to the fire.
00:07:50:07 – 00:08:13:00
Unknown
You know, everybody ends up there at some point and it has this magnetic quality to it. And so there’s a certain natural attraction to fire that I think Moses it moves him in that just by its very nature. But as he starts to approach, you hear the Lord call out to him by name. Right. And this is what we start to see the like.
00:08:13:05 – 00:08:39:13
Unknown
There’s this natural desire for God. Like we have this natural impulses. There’s this kind of magnetic quality, that man’s search for God. We’re all looking for him in some capacity. But as we start that pursuit, as we’re drawn near to him, what do we find? That it’s not just some kind of spirit in the sky or force that oversees things from a distance, but there’s an intimacy that he knows our name and he calls us by name.
00:08:39:13 – 00:09:15:15
Unknown
So in that kind of natural pursuit for meaning for God, then we start to hear our name uttered by a very personal God, right? That this is a God who knows us intimately, knows our struggles and has heard our cries, heard our laments, knows our heritage and all these ways. And he calls us by name. And that’s what I love about this, as invent in this encounter on the mountain, is that there’s a natural magnetism and attractiveness that calls Moses to pursue and get closer to God.
00:09:15:15 – 00:09:37:11
Unknown
But in that pursuit, he finds his name. He finds who God is and who he is. But he is called by name, by very personal God, and not just a force or, a deity from a distance. There’s a sort of, yeah, like this, this fire symbolism, because you try to imagine what what if it was something else really saw Moses saw a stream at a distance.
00:09:38:03 – 00:09:54:15
Unknown
And it was flowing, but not like moving. And, you know, he said, I must go and see this wonderful stream, this marvelous stream that flows but doesn’t move when you go, like, oh, look, you could imagine what eternity of God and purification, whatever. Or like there was a wind. You know this. There’s a wind blowing, but I don’t feel it’s not.
00:09:54:15 – 00:10:14:09
Unknown
But the birds aren’t flying or something, you know, I must go see this more remarkable wind. Or imagine like another kind of, you know, this dirt and fire has this quality to it that it is extremely fitting for reflecting on God’s nature as he is revealed, because it’s it is both attractive. So you’re drawn to it. It kind of has a purity to it.
00:10:14:11 – 00:10:47:02
Unknown
Right? It it’s brilliant. It it it brings light to things and heat. It’s like a mini sun, you know, it has this kind of power of giving life, but also taking it. Right. If you get if you put things into the fire, they burn. Except in this case, it has a purification business, so it cauterized. This kind of fire is has there’s tons of like you can just point out divine attributes on this thing, reflect in a way that you water or wind or heart or whatever other power in the, you know, what is that?
00:10:47:10 – 00:11:11:03
Unknown
Captain Planet. Nice. Planeteers. There it is. Yeah, yeah. Fire has this this sort of. Yeah, it’s. It also has this living this to it, right? Because it dances around a bit. It doesn’t just flow or, like, blow like the wind or something. No, it it it has its own kind of freedom. You know, sort of. It is a beautiful image and a beautiful, like, symbol that he chooses to reveal himself through.
00:11:11:07 – 00:11:34:09
Unknown
It’s like that, that spending time with fire, and realizing that this, our God, is a consuming fire in all sorts of ways. That’s true to your point, Father Joseph Anthony, about this being a personal revelation. You know, not not just a kind of natural or vague phenomenon. That’s that’s what’s so beautiful about not only not only does God call Moses by name, but God gives Moses his name.
00:11:34:23 – 00:11:51:22
Unknown
You know, he he instructs Moses how to call upon him. And it’s a it’s a beautiful exchange, really, because to know, to know someone’s name, to be able to call on them is to to invoke them right down to appeal to them. And I pick up on this. Yeah. Please. So this is what’s interesting about this, this niggling move, right.
00:11:52:06 – 00:12:10:05
Unknown
Is that, he doesn’t give his name, right? He gives he gives something for his name in a place, right? He says, I am so in a sense, he he gives he gives him a name to call on me. But it’s not a personal name. Right. So why is isn’t this okay? And this is interesting because it sets it up like we’re heading out the antithesis tend to sense this.
00:12:10:12 – 00:12:27:01
Unknown
So it’s sense that he’s not like us, like he’s not to be, because a name gives you power over someone. In a sense. You know how to summon them. He’s not to be summoned like the gods in this way. He is the one who summons you by name. But he is this. But here’s the trick, of course, is that he’s given this.
00:12:27:01 – 00:12:53:20
Unknown
But then later, he’s actually going to take on not only, a name, but a human nature, so that at the name of Jesus, all of a sudden now we not only have like I am who I am at John, this sort of thing, but he actually gives his name and weakness, since he can’t give his real name or a name until he actually comes in the flesh, and then we can then actually summon him in the sense, like he he says, I will bind myself to you in that way.
00:12:53:20 – 00:13:11:20
Unknown
Yeah. So you see this like heading out and actually pulling away from having names so that he can rather fully, more, more fully embrace having a name and give himself to us that will only understand, how he can actually give himself over to us once he shows himself on the cross and in the flesh. Yeah, that’s very interesting.
00:13:11:22 – 00:13:42:15
Unknown
I’ve never rejected the name that is that is different from how I’ve thought of him. Yeah. But do you want to take us through, the letter to the Corinthians. Sure. For the betterment you. This is so this is a reading from the first letter of Saint Paul, two Corinthians. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
00:13:42:16 – 00:14:07:08
Unknown
All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things as they did.
00:14:07:10 – 00:14:37:05
Unknown
Do not grumble as someone. Some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. I think this is a beautiful passage, in that it gives this very dramatic retelling of the story in the desert.
00:14:37:05 – 00:15:07:20
Unknown
And all of this as an example. But what’s surprising is the example is not about, say, behavior. It’s not example the response followed by behavior. We are to that, but rather it’s that we might not desire evil things supposed to see the externals and have that train remind us to not even get started in the internals. It’s asking for not just a behavior modification, you could say, and to avoid acting in a particular way, but rather to train our own desires in these things so we shouldn’t even get started.
00:15:07:22 – 00:15:36:07
Unknown
This is for the moral life. I take this to be super important in that it’s not just the behavior that’s the problem, but rather the intention, the desires, and to save oneself from falling into temptation and sin. Of course, we have the beautiful. I will avoid the near occasions of sin and near occasion sin. I take it, is not just a physical matter of space and time, but rather the desire that the desire then could turn into an actual action.
00:15:36:09 – 00:15:57:23
Unknown
So here it seems like he’s he’s giving this, this model of what happened and asking is not just not to follow them an example, but actually to drive deeper and say, don’t even desire these things. Because if you think you’re you would do something different. You can only say that if you didn’t desire it because they did not intend to reject the Lord.
00:15:58:01 – 00:16:23:06
Unknown
But had they opened up their hearts and in particular ways to those just little deviations that can lead to to destruction? The the phrase that grabs my attention in this is where his heart, he says, all ate the same spiritual food and all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them. Rocks don’t follow him, right?
00:16:23:06 – 00:16:41:07
Unknown
Like the last time I kind of rolled along with him. Yeah, like Indiana Jones. Yeah, but that’s why they say, like, that’s the image that I see is like, the last time I’ve seen a rock, like, pursue somebody was Indiana Jones, right? And it’s like, well, what do you mean by the rock? Follow with them like a sad little puppy.
00:16:41:10 – 00:17:05:09
Unknown
You know, my nephews wear the Rock and Indiana Jones for Halloween this. Oh, and the like the little four year old was Indiana Jones and the little guy, his younger brother. The toddler was the rock that’s just followed his older brother around all Halloween. It was very good. Yeah. So I mean, that doesn’t make any sense. But then he clarifies that and says, and the Rock is Christ, by the way.
00:17:05:09 – 00:17:30:05
Unknown
And it’s like, okay, this is how this works, is that the Lord is not abandoning us in the Lord. Never abandoning any of his children continues to pursue them, you know, and even through the desert. Right. Even through the wilderness, he’s they’re pursuing in in ways that we would never expect. When you have this also the image of they were being followed by the rock, of course.
00:17:30:05 – 00:17:53:10
Unknown
Yes. This is this says but they’re being led by the cloud. That’s right. Yeah. Right. And so you have the spiritual life of this is the word led by the cloud and called by this sort of thing and by night, by by fire. But the seemingly inevitable failure does not mean that you drop behind. It’s like when you’re in your hiking or something, you have some as long as there’s someone in the back as a guide in the future who still doing something?
00:17:53:10 – 00:18:25:20
Unknown
Well, yeah. Then we’re we’re all safe in between because you’ve got no one’s can be lost. Right? So you have the front and then you have the back. And both God has compassed us about such that we need not fear getting lost on the way. 1,000%. That’s very beautiful. Yeah, yeah. The, the, the thing that I, that I find especially rich, in this passage is of course, the, the great interpretation of Paul’s here that allows us to mine the Old Testament for many, many, beneficial points for our spiritual reflection is that Paul gives us the interpretive key.
00:18:25:22 – 00:18:48:12
Unknown
He tells us to go back to the Old Testament and to look for the signs of Christ telling us that the rock is Christ. He tells us to go back and to look for all of the things that we should understand as Christ. So it allows us to, to say that that Christ is the lamb that is sacrificed for Passover, that that Christ is or you know, all manner of things.
00:18:49:11 – 00:19:08:15
Unknown
And to find, to find there in the Old Testament in the end, the, in the first covenant, the residence of Christ, it’s a sort of, interpretive boldness. Yeah. You can have an obviously where, you know, you want to be careful over interpreting in a sense. But Paul says, look, I’m going to just follow me here, watch this rock rises sort of thing.
00:19:08:15 – 00:19:33:14
Unknown
And you can in a sense, you can like, never know, rock unturned or not find Christ underneath it. Like that. The, the Old Testament insofar as means anything. It has a teleological origin or orientation towards Christ and the covenant such that there is this kind of there should be this holy boldness, and that the medieval is picked up, of course, in the spiritual sense, and all of this and that, perhaps because of biblical criticism in our our kind of Protestantism, we tend to think like, okay, you know, this was clearly referring.
00:19:33:14 – 00:19:54:01
Unknown
We ask, we demand like perfect 1 to 1 direct quotes, basically. So when, when if it’s if it’s God is the author and if, if the whole thing is aiming for or collected towards this sort of thing, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that actually it’s more like a focal case. And then the kind of Adam creations outward on it like that, that interpretive boldness.
00:19:54:03 – 00:20:24:05
Unknown
Who Adam Grayson’s. Yeah. Like that one. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, with that, how about we turn to the gospel? A reading from the Holy Gospel? According to Luke, some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way, that they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
00:20:24:07 – 00:20:52:08
Unknown
By no means. But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did were those 18 people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them. Do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived at Jerusalem? By no means. But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.
00:20:52:10 – 00:21:09:20
Unknown
And he told them this parable. There was once a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it, but found none, he said to the gardener, for three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree, but have found none. So cut it down.
00:21:09:22 – 00:21:58:01
Unknown
Why should it exhaust the soil? He said to him in reply, sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it. It may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down. I like this passage very much because we find ourselves, as we’ve often spoken of here, on the podcast, facing a new missionary impulse, a new need for missionary work in the church, a new call to evangelize, even our fellow, even our fellow Catholics, senior Shea has called this the, the new age of the apostles, that we’re living in a kind of apostolic age rather than a a
00:21:58:01 – 00:22:14:10
Unknown
kind of Christendom, and that we need to we need to focus our mentality on that. And I like it very much. And the reason, the reason I’m thinking of that point and our own reality in connection with this parable is that I think sometimes as Catholics, we’re inclined to keep things just for the sake of keeping them.
00:22:14:12 – 00:22:34:17
Unknown
We want to hold on to things. We want to hold on to particular church buildings, or we want to hold on to a particular way of doing things. And some of those some of those places, some of those structures, some of those activities, some of those ways of educating our children in the faith. For example, are just not bearing fruit.
00:22:34:19 – 00:22:57:14
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, they’re just aren’t. And, we can say cultivate them, okay. For, you know, fertilize them if, you know, giving it a little bit of love does anything. And then if not, then we cut it down and we should not hesitate to cut it down to do something different. Right. Because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
00:22:57:14 – 00:23:20:20
Unknown
Right. And so I think this, I think this passage affords us a moment where we can evaluate what our efforts for the kingdom, to ask seriously, which need to be fertilized, and to evaluate. Well, which have we been trying to fertilize and now simply need to step away from what? What needs to be cut down?
00:23:20:22 – 00:23:45:16
Unknown
Not, not despite the getting to, but for the sake of the Kingdom. Well, and this ties back to that first part of the, the passage about these Galileans. So you wonder what are they, is this like holy gossip? They’re talking about Jesus. I assume they’re making some comment about that. These Galileans had done something wrong, or trying to point to them as saying that they had done something wrong and saying, well, see, look, now we’ve got physical proof, obvious proof that they were revolutionaries, right?
00:23:45:16 – 00:24:12:05
Unknown
That’s why Pilate was. Yeah, makes it so they haven’t followed the so they haven’t done the right things. You know, they haven’t been the great and so they’re greater sinners in some fashion. So obviously these are I suspect these are more, staged and, you know, more conservative, you know, followers at this point. Right? But Christ is, to your point is saying, look, you know, your your particular practices may not save you in this particular way.
00:24:12:07 – 00:24:31:22
Unknown
Now, of course, following the law and being being a good Jew and therefore being a good Christian in our our dispensation is always important. But the details about specific moments and different actions, well, we’re not always going to see ahead of time. And when you’re entering a new time, like as you say, we are, we’re going to have to make some modifications.
00:24:31:22 – 00:24:47:18
Unknown
We’ll have to try things. And there might be question of, is there fruit in this new one yet? And say, well, look, it’s not we’re going to stick to our old ways and say, no, we know you don’t. You don’t know there’s a mystery here. Like, why? Why did these people die? Why did why are these people remember the tower again?
00:24:47:21 – 00:25:13:17
Unknown
You know, we just I don’t know. What you do know is following the gospel. Speak away and not clinging on to certain things that might hinder that. I find there’s a weird, emphasis on the soil here. Like the, who is the the owner of the the orchard or whatever. He says the reason he gives to cut it down is why should it exhaust the soil?
00:25:13:19 – 00:25:44:15
Unknown
Like, there’s a there’s an importance for the soil. Like the soil has nutrients. It’s rich in this schmuck of a tree is exhausting. That I want to save the soil right in this. This fruit less tree is is taking that soil or those nutrients that should be given to something else. And then the, you know, the the other gardener said, sir, leave it like, let me cultivate the soil, let me fertilize the soil, not let me save the tree.
00:25:44:17 – 00:26:10:18
Unknown
Let me take care of the soil of which will have a benefit to the tree. So there’s this weird kind of emphasis on the the surrounding soil, and not so much actually on the tree itself. Yeah. That’s interesting. It’s kind of right. Yeah. And, and I think that’s actually very important for us to say, okay, you know, those, you know, beautiful Etsy like prints that say, just like bloom where you’re planted, you know, but like, where is my soil right now?
00:26:11:02 – 00:26:30:03
Unknown
You know, where am I called to live? Who are the people in my life? You know, what are my surroundings? I’m a really big extrovert, so my surroundings really matter to me. It has a it has a really huge impact on me. So I have to be attentive about what my surroundings are. What is the soil that I’m in, and to kind of say, do I cultivate this one?
00:26:30:04 – 00:26:50:14
Unknown
There’s and I think looking both from the owner and the kind of gardener, they both see that the soil has a richness to it and they’re attentive to that and they value that. So I think there are times that maybe we get upset because we think we’re, you know, we’re in barren deserts or whatever. It’s like, actually, let’s be attentive.
00:26:50:14 – 00:27:12:15
Unknown
There’s a reverence and a goodness to the soil around me, and let me make sure that the right nutrients are feeding me and that I’m drawing the best from the soil that is around me, and cultivate that. Maybe it needs a little more water, maybe it needs a little. It takes effort to to cultivate that. But just left to its own devices, their goodness, their nutrients, their that maybe don’t produce fruit.
00:27:12:16 – 00:27:34:20
Unknown
But I have to cultivate that. But there’s an attentiveness to the soil around that fig tree. Yeah. I mean, Father Patrick talked about the institutional kind of commitments. He. Exactly. But also and I think it’s great to bring the personal dimension as well, the fact that, like the fruit in your spiritual life. Right. My, my prayer, my relationship with the Lord or something has a whole lot to do with the soil that you’re being.
00:27:34:21 – 00:27:53:19
Unknown
You’re planted in what kind of what kind of things and nutrients are around that. So like if your daily life is, day to day, from morning to to evening is not conducive to the Lord. And what do you how do you expect to possibly produce your own spiritual fruit to be attentive? Do you think you can just, like, be planted in any soil.
00:27:54:03 – 00:28:10:22
Unknown
And still grow. And that’s a good that’s a nice spiritual metaphor meditation on how is your how’s the fruit and how’s the soil and realizing like you know who, what is your, what are your circumstances. Have you set up your day that you might bear fruit? We don’t always even have good soil. I never know, there might be something wrong with the tree, or the.
00:28:11:02 – 00:28:27:03
Unknown
But if you’re not in the right soil, do you even have the possibility of that? So if you’re not punctuating your day with prayer, with purely friendships in this sort of sense, then if you’re feeding yourself the wrong and bad soil. Yeah, well, how do you possibly get fruit out of that? That’s an I, I like to soil.
00:28:27:05 – 00:28:51:11
Unknown
Yeah. Soil and fruit. We’re going to make sure both of these things in spiritual life. Yep yep yep. Well friends thanks for joining us for this episode of God’s Planning. We love doing these Lexi episodes. They help formulate our approach to the season. We hope that they help you formulate your approach to the season. Be encouraged. As our Lenten fasts and penances continue to, bear fruit.
00:28:51:18 – 00:29:12:01
Unknown
That’s our hope, our prayer. Good soil for good for exactly that. You, doing some soil work here that that all of that will all of that will come to fruition according to the mysterious designs of God’s providence in your lives, we ask that you would consider making a monthly donation to us if you enjoy this episode.
00:29:12:01 – 00:29:31:22
Unknown
If you enjoy our project, you can head on over to God’s Feeding fork to become a Patreon monthly supporter. Over on our website, you can find information about upcoming God speaking events. You can shop our merch. We’re pretty active on social media. Thanks to our fabulous social media managers. The gals that run our accounts do a really great job.
00:29:31:22 – 00:29:55:21
Unknown
So you should follow those accounts. Not because we’re great, but because they are so follow Godsplaining on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok for all of your latest little cards, fleeting clips, the little touch of Godsplaining. You need every day can be found there. Be sure to like and subscribe to Godsplaining. Wherever you listen to your podcast and friends, we ask that you would pray for us.
00:29:55:23 – 00:30:20:21
Unknown
Please know that we are praying for you. God bless.