Hi, everyone, welcome back to the Daily Gospel Exegesis
podcast. Thanks so much for listening to
this podcast and particularly to those of you who support the
ministry. It really does make a difference
and we really want to get the word out there.
This is a small grassroots ministry, but as you'll see from
some of the feedback we're going to share today, when podcasts
and ministries like this are willing to teach the Word and
proclaim the Word in a faithful, authentic way, it really does
make a difference in people's lives more than you would think.
Sometimes you might get the impression that the study of the
Bible is a very niche kind of thing that is helpful for some
people. But there's all sorts of other
interesting Catholic and Christian things you can do
apart from the Bible. There's some truth to that.
But there's something about really studying the Word of God,
helping bring it to life, helping people make connections
with it, that illuminates everything else in the Christian
life. And so today we want to share
some feedback that's come in about the ministry.
There is a lot of great feedback that comes in.
We can't share all of it, but I do this with the purpose of
helping you see that studying scripture really does make a
difference in people's lives, and even a small grassroots
ministry like this can make a difference.
So hopefully this is an encouragement to you.
So firstly, we have a comment here from Mary who is a Patreon
supporter. Thanks for your support, Mary.
She says since first hearing you on Hello, I've been praying in
Thanksgiving for your clear call to share God's Word.
I grew up Byzantine Catholic and then married a Roman Catholic.
In recent years, I had to leave a vibrant, serious Bible study
group of more than 60 persons to accept a university position in
a different part of the country. I felt torn from my Bible study
group. Your ministry has stood in the
gap in my life. I've often been reminded of
Saint Jerome, who said ignorance of Holy Scripture is ignorance
of Christ. May God bless you and your
family one hundredfold for your consecration of time and
commitment. You have often been akin to the
face of Christ to me and I'm sure to hundreds of others.
Thank you from my heart as we share our love of Christ amidst
an often Dark World. Thank you so much for that
wonderful feedback, Mary. That is really beautiful that
this podcast is has been the face of Christ to you.
And I mean, that's God's work. Ultimately, my goal in this
podcast is to do a faithful, rigorous exegesis of Scripture.
And for many people that really touches them.
And as you said, it helps if you haven't got access to a local
Bible study that's doing something like this.
Podcasts like this can really supplement that aspect of your
Christian life. Thank you so much for your
support, Mary, and I'm so glad this podcast has been beneficial
to you. We have a comment here from
Maddie. She says I'm from Kentucky in
the USAI found the podcast on Hello and I love it.
I've listened to almost all of the episodes that have been
available on Hello so far, which is sad because now I won't have
it to listen to during my work day, except for the daily
episode that is released each day.
But I want to let you know I'm incredibly grateful for the work
you're doing for our Lord. I've learned so much.
And then she gets quite personal here.
She says I grew up Catholic, but I lived my life as a homosexual
from the time I was 15 until almost two years ago when Jesus
pulled me out of it. Ever since then, I've given my
life back to Christ. I still battle addiction.
It's been the hardest thing to let go of.
But your podcast helps me tremendously and I'm so
incredibly grateful. So thank you so much for that
personal feedback, Maddie, and thank you for sharing some of
your struggles. And I just think this is amazing
that this podcast is not about homosexuality or moral issues,
but it's about studying the word of God.
And the very act of studying the word of God can help people
breakthrough those things. The word of God is really
central to the Christian life. So I'm so glad you're benefiting
from this ministry, Maddie, and I hope you'll keep listening.
We have a short comment here from Andy on Patreon.
He says I'm so happy to support this ministry.
My wife and I have made this essential part of our daily
Bible study. It is the best out there.
God bless you for your work. Thank you so much for that
wonderful comment, Andy. I'm I'm glad that you and your
wife are benefiting from it and that this is an approach to
studying scripture that you've been looking for.
We have a comment here from Francois, who is also a Patreon
supporter. Francois says the content of the
daily exegesis gives much clarity about the texts.
I appreciate that you're always full of respect for different
opinions and you only modestly mention mention your own
opinion. And thank you, Francois.
That is something I try to do is where there's differences of
opinion among scholars. I want to tell you as the
listener that and then tell you what my preferred interpretation
is and why, but always keeping in mind that there there's no
definitive interpretation. So you're free to go with
wherever your study of the evidence leads you.
And then he finishes by saying, with time, I have learned to ask
myself the right questions about a text.
That is great. That is what this podcast hopes
will happen for the listeners is that you'll eventually develop
the tools to ask the questions about the text yourself.
And that is, that means you're then ready to embark into the
world of biblical scholarship and start doing your own study
of Scripture. So if this podcast is helping
you do that, that is fantastic. We have an e-mail here from
Sharon. She says thank you so much for
sharing your knowledge and understanding of the Gospels.
It is truly not enlightening and so helpful when trying to
discern the meaning of these when studying the Bible on my
own or in a Bible study group. All of the background knowledge
that you bring of the settings, timeline, and language is also
very interesting and makes studying easier and more
valuable. Thanks so much for those kind
words, Sharon. A brief comment here from
Vivian. She says thank you for your
exegesis of the Bread of Life discourse.
I never imagined how profound in its original meaning the
discourse was and how much it deepened my appreciation of the
Eucharist. Thank you so much, Vivian.
And yeah, indeed, the bread of life discourse, most of us as
Catholics know a couple of verses from that because it's
often used in apologetical discussions relating to the
Eucharist. But there's actually even more
richness to it if you sit down and studying the entire
discourse, which is about 40 verses long.
And sometimes you have to do that with Jesus discourses,
especially in the Gospel of John.
Raymond says he's 73 and has a Catholic education, but this is
the only in depth explanation of any gospel I have ever
experienced. Thank you for that comment, Ray.
There are a lot of written commentaries out there that go
even more in depth than what we're doing in this podcast.
But there's not many audio resources out there that go in
depth. And that's the purpose of these
podcast episodes. Got a comment here from Louie
who is a new Patreon supporter. He says I'm a new member to the
podcasts. I feel like having access the
Patreon page. I've entered a huge library of
books that I'm anxious to listen to.
Currently I've been concentrating on the bonus
exegesis episodes and catechesis recordings.
Your presentations have been great.
The research is very informative and captivating.
Thank you for your time and energy, Louis.
I'm glad that you're benefiting from those bonus resources that
are available to you. And many of you would be aware
that Louis is referring to some bonus materials you can get
access to as a Patreon supporter if you are willing to support
this ministry. With $10 a month or more, you
get access to all of the bonus exegesis episodes, which is
where we look at parts of the Gospels that are never read at
Mass. And also if you're willing to
give $20.00 a month or more. And thank you for your
generosity. If you're willing to do that,
you can get access to a paragraph by paragraph
commentary, audio commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, which is something that I'm working through in the local
area with some adult Catholics who are keen to learn the faith.
So we're doing a long term systematic study of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
All of those things are available to you if you become a
financial supporter of the ministry.
And the link for that is in the episode description, Baldina,
who is a Patreon supporter, says I searched for years for a
logical Bible study like this one.
I went through Catholic schooling and two years of
college theology. No one ever referenced the
Bible, neither Old or New Testament.
Well, I find that very disappointing.
If that's true, that in your two years of theology no one ever
referenced the Bible. I hope that's not true, but I
suppose it is possible. She says.
I found this literally with God's help as I was frustrated
with all the Bible in a year commentaries.
There are a lot of really good Bible in the year commentaries
out there, but being that they often have to do short episodes
and go through them in the year, you typically won't get an in
depth explanation of any Bible text.
What we're trying to do in this podcast is something different,
which is an in depth study of particular books of the Bible.
And thanks for your kind words about this ministry of Baldina,
Yvette, who's a Patreon supporter, says.
I'm so happy to support this ministry.
I love the podcast. It is part of my morning
routine. When I have extra time, I make
notes on my Bible. From your explanations.
That is a great way of consolidating the information.
Yvette, I'm glad that this podcast is helping you do that,
She says. This is what I've been looking
for for months. I've learned so much.
We should have more Bible studies for Catholics.
That was something I envied from other non Catholic Christians
that had a lot of knowledge about the Bible.
I agree with you Yvette. I wish there was more resources
that are easily accessible for Catholics about the Bible.
But I do think there are more and more becoming available.
So it's an exciting time to be part of the church.
We have some feedback here from Joe via e-mail.
He says God blessed me when I became a member of Hello and
started listening and benefiting from the daily exegesis.
I look forward to being fed the very moment I awake as a 76 year
old. I'm so thankful for your
incredible contribution to anyone desiring to deepen their
relationship with our Triune God.
I am spreading the word and will continue to do so.
Thank you so much, Joe. I'm so glad this ministry is
been beneficial to you. And indeed, the whole purpose of
this ministry and indeed any Catholic ministry should
ultimately be to bring people into a deeper relationship with
the Trinity. That is the goal of the
Christian life. We have an e-mail here from
Ryan. He says.
I just wanted to send a message thanking you for your excellent
podcast. I was an atheist for about 20
years, and since returning to the church, I've found that your
podcast has been a huge help in catching up, if that makes
sense. That does make sense, Ryan, and
I'm so glad that this podcast is helping you.
I know many people who've had time away from the church and
what brought them back was some sort of intellectual resource
like this and others. So I'm glad that this has been
one of probably several resources that have helped you
fill in the gaps as you've tried to develop a more mature
understanding of the faith. We have a really special e-mail
here from Beverly. She says after a few months of
listening to you on Hello, I finally decided to support you
on Patreon. I know you hear this all the
time and you it must get repetitive, but your exegesis I
listen to daily on Hello is so incredibly helpful.
As a former Protestant, slowly over the past five years
fumbling my way into Mother Church.
Long story, your podcast has really been wonderful and so
helpful. I'm finally going to start RCIA
this fall and hope to be confirmed this E star, which
just luckily enough is a Jubilee year.
Thank you for your hard work and dedication.
I'm eternally grateful. So I hope emails like this
should illustrate to you that you never know the impact that
your podcast is going to have. There are people who are
Protestants who are thinking about Catholic faith, who are
looking for really solid intellectual resources.
Ministries like this, this can help.
And as we saw in the previous e-mail, there's atheists who are
starting to be attracted to the faith.
And again, they're looking for resources, too.
So never feel that your small contribution won't make much
difference or never feel that what you're doing is only for
people who are already Catholics.
These kinds of resources that open up the word of God to
people can touch many people's lives.
Thank you for that wonderful feedback, Beverly.
Some feedback here from Samantha.
Thank you so much for your work to produce this gospel exegesis.
It has been such a revelation to me and also enabled me to hear
so much more from what the Bible is saying.
Even when I read other parts of Scripture, I feel like it has
opened a door for me and I'm so grateful for all your hard work.
I've joined as a Patreon supporter and I look forward to
your podcast every day. Thank you so much for your kind
words, Samantha, and I'm so glad that this podcast is helping you
particularly. You said there that it's helping
you understand other parts of the Bible, and indeed, I do
think that's how God has designed the Bible is When you
dig a little deeper into a certain book of the Bible, it'll
give you some context that will help you understand things that
are going on elsewhere in the Bible too.
It's a really wonderful journey to try and understand the Bible
in a deeper way, and it's a lifelong journey.
There's always new things you can learn.
Next, we got some feedback from Barbara, who emailed in.
She said, I've been listening to your podcast for over a year,
and I absolutely love it. I was given a catechism book and
never knew how to use it. So I am forever grateful to you
and your podcast. So thank you so much for that
feedback, Barbara. Yeah, a lot of people, even
Catholics, feel intimidated by the catechism.
They just think it's a huge book.
They're not really sure what they're supposed to do with it.
So if this podcast is helping you make links between the Bible
and the faith as expressed in the Catechism, then that is that
is fantastic. And I would encourage more and
more Catholics to read the Catechism.
It is an amazing document. It helps answer so many
questions. It's incredibly well written.
If you've ever been somewhat interested in the Catechism, but
you kind of need a guide or you, I want to be able to go through
it a bit slower. We do have some audio resources
available through this logical Bible study ministry where we go
through the Catechism of the Church paragraph by paragraph in
an extended audio series. So that's available to those who
are Patreon supporters of the ministry who are willing to give
$20.00 a month or more. Have a look at the Patreon page
if you're interested in that. Next, we've got an e-mail here
from someone who's anonymous. I've been listening on an almost
daily basis and supporting the ministry.
I'll often read a Gospel passage or hear it at Mass, and I can't
wait to find out what the daily exegesis has to say about it.
So thank you so much for that feedback.
And indeed, that's basically how I felt before I started doing
this ministry is I wish there was a resource that could help
Catholics explain what was going on in some of those more
difficult Gospel passages. Looking around, there wasn't
many easily accessible resources to do that.
That matched with the daily Mass.
So that was one of the motivations for starting this
ministry. So if this podcast is helping
you with that, that's awesome. We've got some feedback here
from Denise. I found you through the Hello
app and I've listened every day. Many of my friends have the app
and I have led them to you. They love it and are beginning
to understand Scripture. Unfortunately, many didn't have
a clue, even though they are lifelong Catholics.
The follow up in the Catechism allows us to know that your
teaching and interpreting of Scripture is proper and
reliable. So thank you so much for your
feedback there, Denise. There are many Catholics sitting
in the pews who just don't understand the Gospel and
they're not sure where to start. Thank you for sharing this
podcast with them. And I ask that many of you who
are listening would consider if there are other people in your
parish who would benefit from hearing this podcast too.
We've got a wonderful message here from Dina, who is a Patreon
supporter of the ministry. Thank you for this amazing
ministry. I became a member of the Hello
App and found your podcast there.
It was the answer to my prayers. I had asked God to lead me to
the resources I need to lead me on the path of holiness and
heaven. I'm especially lacking in
knowledge of the Bible and the Gospels, and I was too
intimidated to even try to comprehend anything on my own.
Like clockwork, I found your podcast.
She then goes on to talk about how she became a Patreon
supporter and also how she's found the complete chronological
audio studies of each gospel which are available as products
through the ministry. And she says she's in benefit
from that as well. Thank you so much for your
wonderful feedback, Dina. I'm so glad that God has LED you
to this podcast and other resources in helping you
understand Scripture. There is a great value, as I've
said many time, there's a great value in being willing to sit
down and breakdown Scripture verse by verse.
It really does help people in their understanding of God and
in their journey of personal holiness.
If you're interested in those chronological gospel
commentaries, they're available through the Sound Wise page, and
again, the link for that is in the show notes.
If you've ever wanted to be able to study the Gospels in
chronological order without jumping around like the
Lectionary sometimes does, that is available to you.
Just check out the show notes and look for the Sound Wise
link. This next bit of feedback from
Sharon is really interesting in terms of thinking about the
value of podcasts as a medium. She says, I'm following you on
Hello, and I want you to know how much I love the podcast.
You've made a very real difference in my prayer.
I cannot read because I have macular degeneration.
Listening is a gift for me, so you may not have ever thought
about that. Many of us listen to podcasts
because we enjoy it, but for some people, they can't read.
So podcasts and other audio resources may be the only way
that they can access good Catholic and Christian
resources. So certainly keep that in mind.
For those of you who are out there who are thinking of
starting a ministry, can you supplement what you're doing
with some audio products as well?
This feedback is from Cheryl, she says.
I stumbled upon the Bible exegesis on the Hello app on my
phone. I had been searching for some
type of scripture commentary that would help me better
understand the biblical texts. I must say this is a goldmine
for me. I truly enjoy how you break down
the verses and even word for word at times to help us better
grasp the context of what Jesus was saying, doing, or implying.
I'm thoroughly enjoying listening to these every day.
So thank you so much for that wonderful feedback, Cheryl.
And there are many people out there like that who are looking
for Scripture commentary. They don't know where to start,
or they may have listened to Father Mark Schmitz's Bible in a
year, and then they want to do something a bit more slower and
deeper. This podcast can be a great way
to access that level of study. So we'll finish today with this
wonderful feedback from Ruth that again shows the power of a
ministry like this. I just wanted to thank you for
doing this. I've been listening to you on
Hello for the last couple of months.
I try to never miss an episode. You've helped my husband and I
grow in our faith. You've planted the seeds for us
to take up reading the Bible and now have a better understanding.
Thanks to this and this ministry.
You've helped revive our Catholic faith and return to the
Church as well. I enjoy listening to the Mass
and playing your episode afterwards to pick up on the
things I missed. So thank you so much for that
feedback, Ruth. And it's so amazing that God is
using this podcast to help you come back to the faith in a
deeper way. Thank you to all of those who
are listening and supporting the ministry.
This is just a snapshot of the many wonderful bits of feedback
that we receive at the ministry. There's many more that we could
include, and we'll do more of these bonus episodes in the
future, sharing questions and feedback.
Thanks so much for your support in the Ministry.
Make sure you check out the other exclusives that are
available to you in the show notes and we'll see you
tomorrow.