Hope for America

They That Hope, Ep. 200
Bob: [00:00:00] Welcome to They That Hope with Father Dave and Deacon Bob celebrating the Jubilee of Hope 2025, and I'm Deacon Bob.
Dave: And I'm Father Dave.
Bob: And this podcast is brought to you by Franciscan University of Steubenville in partnership with osvpodcasts. com, and you can check out more cool stuff at Faith and Reason. And you know what, there's been a lot going on, but let's just, let's just start with the most important thing, maybe in the history of humanity that's happening in this moment.
This is, I just realized this, I forgot to mention this in our
Dave: Our 200.
Bob: our 200th episode.
Dave: There you go. If we could have yeah,
Bob: in my office.
Dave: some celebration would be fantastic.
Bob: Yes. Yeah. I,
Where, where are you from? Right. Where are you right now?
Dave: we're burying the lede. I don't want to talk about anything else yet. I don't want to say because I [00:01:00] consider myself a hopeful person Bob?
Bob: I, I mean, I would. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Dave: But as
Bob: at all. Not curmudgeonly.
Dave: sister Mary Beth last night was just The game, the national championship.
I can't, I'm gonna say that I'm sure there is hope. And I'm sure when we get to the last part, reasons for hope,
I'll be able to find something. SOMETHING.
Bob: You need this podcast more than any listener Yes, I do. this podcast is for you, Dave.
Dave: Yes, it
Bob: To bring hope back into your life.
Dave: Yes, it is. Waiting since 1988 for Notre Dame to win another national championship.
Bob: Yeah. you had, you had nine and a half glorious minutes of the beginning of the game.
Dave: Yeah. Yes, I did. No, it was, obviously I would have loved Nordheim to win. That would have been so much fun and exciting. Ohio State was a really good [00:02:00] team. I, I was glad in the second half, Nordheim started. They didn't, honestly, they didn't play bad.
They didn't. Ohio State's just a really good team. Nordheim didn't have any turnovers. They didn't give up any major horrible plays. It just, it was, Ohio State's a really good team.
Bob: With the exception doinked field goal. And I'm not sure why he went for that at that
Dave: Yeah. That could be debated, but
Bob: but yeah. So if you haven't, again, Sister Marybeth, those that haven't listened. So yesterday was. Oh, this is recording on a Tuesday, by the way, which is unusual for us. We wanted to get through the inauguration, get through the national championship.
We thought, why don't we just do the podcast the next day? But Notre Dame played Ohio State for the national championship, and everybody favored Ohio State. Notre Dame came out, they got the ball, they did this incredible drive down the field, where, you know, nine and a half minutes, scored a touchdown.
Things looked great. Ohio got the ball back. That was kind of the end of the game.
Dave: did the same [00:03:00] thing three times in a row,
Bob: Yeah, exactly.
Dave: it was, it was fun actually. So we can go to the next thing is that yes, I, so I had board meetings down here in Florida and the weather was up in the east. Apparently it's cold is the
word.
Bob: Yeah, it's like two degrees outside. You have faculty and students angry that you have not canceled school today, by the way.
Dave: yes starting on Saturday, I start getting texts. Your flight could be disrupted because there was all kind of weather and cold and this and the other. And then late Saturday night, get a text that says, my flight's canceled. And I had already looked at the possibility of leaving on Martin Luther King.
So I knew that I was in trouble because there were no flights available.
Bob: Yeah.
Dave: I talked to the lady and she said, you and I fly a lot. So I get pretty good service. She said you are not getting out.
Everything is booked. So I ended up being quote unquote stuck and I use the word stuck.
Maybe that's my sign of hope right there. Cause [00:04:00] yeah, it was actually, it was chilly here. I think the high yesterday was 60. Be that as it may be that as God willing and everything goes okay. I get on a flight here in about an hour and 15 minutes and I should be coming home, but I guess
Bob: It'll be great to have you here.
Dave: it's been really cold, right?
Bob: Yes. Yeah, like just it's a dry cold. You know how people in Arizona say it's a dry heat. I don't, I don't buy it, but it's a dry cold. So it's the kind of cold that just makes it feel like it just got inserted immediately into your bones and you're just like, wow, it's suddenly like your whole body temperature just Drops, you know, it's not like cold outside.
It's cold inside your body and it's an unpleasant experience So
Dave: Yeah.
Okay. I'll
Bob: for everybody who needs shelter and other things. I know in this area There's a lot of folks trying to help homeless shelters or others. Just you know get through It's one of those like, it's two degrees but feels like negative five kind of [00:05:00] vibes, so, and I know other places in the country I'm sure are worse because here in Ohio it's usually not, it's really, you don't really get a lot of super cold fronts, usually that's a bit more,
Dave: yeah, it's supposed to last like a couple, two or three more days. So we'll make it home tonight.
Now let's catch everybody up real quick. Sister Mary Beth. There are four teams left. The official position of this podcast is we want the commanders and the bills to win.
Bob: huge upsets this weekend. The commanders played the lions at the lions, the lines being the number one team in football. The commander is a scrappy wild card team. You might remember the Washington commanders as the team that beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the previous week. Well, they shocked the world, easily the biggest upset of the weekend.
Dave: Oh, sure. and they beat the Lions in Detroit. Our heart goes out to all the morning Lions fans. That's just a bitter pill to swallow. I'm quite sure they didn't think that the commanders would be the one that [00:06:00] tripped them up. But the commanders go on into the NFC Championship where they get to play the Eagles who beat the Ravens.
Bob: Yeah, fairly, I don't want to say handily,
Dave: the bills beat the Ravens.
Bob: oh, I keep getting my AFC and NFC mixed up. Well, who'd the Eagles beat?
Dave: The Eagles beat, not the Ravens.
Bob: The LA Rams.
Dave: Yes.
Bob: Yeah, the LA Rams. So it's going to be the Eagles and the Commanders in Philly next weekend. And then the Ravens went to Buffalo but lost to Buffalo. So sorry all the Ravens fans. that are out there. It was a great game though. It really, it really
was a great game.
And then the Chiefs beat whoever they beat because they always just beat people.
Who was the other team that the Chiefs beat? The Texans. Oh yeah, we like C. J. Stroud.
Dave: here we go. The official position is, we're rooting for the [00:07:00] commanders because they're the underdogs. They beat the Lions bad. And the Bills to win because we don't want Kansas City anymore. And it would be nice to have a team that's never won the Super Bowl.
Bob: For a Bills Commander Super Bowl. We're probably going to get a Chiefs Eagles, which is
Dave: And basically, the Chiefs referees are basically Mahone's parents and godparents and grandparents. We're very tired of that. Very tired of
that.
Bob: Yeah, there were a couple there are a couple of very questionable calls as there seems to have been all season. I haven't really followed the chiefs, but anyway, it is, it is what it is. So it's exciting football stuff. College football is over. Did you see any of the post game stuff with Notre Dame?
I, I honestly, I tapped out and went to bed.
Dave: it's hard to see through tears. Yeah. When you're just in tears, it's just really hard to see through that. I just sat and went.
Bob: Okay. All right. And tell us about, tell us one more time about that bet that I think you have officially lost, right?
Dave: I have. So my brother and I [00:08:00] made a bet about 20 years ago that Norden would win the national championship before I turned 60. There were eight days to make that happen. And it's not going to happen. So actually, I got a text from him late last night. He says, just for the record, Dave you don't have to pay me personally the bet but make a donation in my name to the university.
So I'm going to donate a dinner to the president for my little brother. So thank you so much, Tom. I look forward to it.

Bob: The handsome Pavanca. He's
a, he's a he's a generous man. Speaking of Pavanca's or those related to them, I did get an email. That said it was this. It was your Brooklyn accent was great. Don't listen to Dave, Mary.
Dave: My sister she's never been to Brooklyn. Actually, she probably has.
Bob: And that is, I believe our sports, unless you mentioned something about pitchers and catchers or something horrible baseball coming up.
Dave: Not yet. Not
yet.
Bob: Okay, we've got [00:09:00] time for those kinds of things. All right, that's sports. And then we cue the music for the other stuff. Here's today's promo. So do you want to draw closer to God this year and help others do the same?
I mean, who doesn't? Well, join Franciscan University's School of Spiritual Direction. You will learn how to become a spiritual director and help others listen for God's You'll also gain tools to deepen your own prayer life. Applications for this year's Summer Intensive Program are now open. Learn more at franciscan.
edu slash ssd. That's franciscan. edu slash ssd. D, which is School of Spiritual Direction,
Dave: No, it's a
great
Bob: and that's an amazing program.
Dave: It really is. It's one of the things we've taken it off to other diocese in Juliette and looking at other places. It really is just an opportunity to be able to have somebody to journey [00:10:00] with. It's one of the greatest things, I think. Honestly, just be able to bounce things off of, with other people, what's going on in your heart, what you sense the Lord saying.
Just the fact that you're actually praying and talking to other people about it, it's just a huge thing. It's one of the great graces, I think that's going on here
Bob: Yeah, and you know, I love, you know, it's a lot of work to learn how to do spiritual direction. I think sometimes people
might
Dave: It's not a workshop. And the other
Bob: yeah, no, no. Yeah, people just think spiritual direction is just talking. you know, to a friend about it. Or I also know others, you know, because they spiritual direction trains a lot of lay people.
And I've talked to people being like, well, can lay people do spiritual direction? And usually I find as I kind of dig a little deeper is for many people, spiritual direction to them is just a longer confession and that there's a whole other world. I mean, confession can be a part of that if you're going to see a priest, but there's a whole other world of.
spiritual direction, which I've actually [00:11:00] personally experienced just the past couple of years, you know being a deacon. I had a priest who was my spiritual director. He wasn't able to do it. I got I got connected to a lay woman and I thought, Oh, I don't know about this. It's been fantastic. I mean, it's just been so great because she really knows what she's doing.
She actually helped some of the trainings with the school of spiritual direction. And it's like. Wow, that's that's
Dave: part of it is it also, I get that some people want to go to a priest or religious, but when you can go to spiritual direction to somebody who is Their life experience is similar to yours. They know what it is to be married. They know what it is to have anxieties and stress and children and family and all that.
There's something about that makes that journey with that individual. I'm not to say better or worse or anything like that, but there's a real grace in that. And so I think, all that is to say, I think it's a great program, but it is hard. It's a 3 year summer intensive program.
It's not something you do for a long weekend. You commit to it, so I'm really pleased [00:12:00] about the program and seeing the growth of it's been a great blessing.
Bob: Yeah. Amen. Amen. So check that out if you're called for that
Dave: Yeah, at the beginning, when we started this podcast 200 years ago, and who would have thought 200 really, we thought after two, we probably ran the gamut, but we've all, we talked about being able to see humor and hope in a crazy world. And so we've always talked about some cultural thing that's going on.
So I actually said at the beginning, should we talk about the inauguration and Bob was like yeah, we probably should mention it. Wow. I honestly, did you watch much of it?
Bob: did I saw a good chunk of his speech and Some of the other festivities surrounding it. It seemed like that they had a number of technical difficulties at time Maybe it was because they decided to be inside because it was so cold outside. So Did you get to watch any of it?
Dave: I watched the inauguration itself. Actually I thought the inside, the [00:13:00] indoors was beautiful. And there was things about it. Like I liked there's, unless you're just totally, and there are some. There's something very cool and honestly, maybe even hope filled when you see an inauguration.
It's a new beginning. Some of the things that Trump said, he said, golden age of America. Obviously, depending on where you come down on this, it's not that they don't see it the same way. One of the lines he had, I thought that was cool was, do the America is a place where you can do the impossible or where we do the impossible.
I thought that was a nice line. Yeah, so it was good. Honestly, I was troubled with all of the really, the tech people all being there in seats of prominence that I didn't like that, but they didn't ask me.
Bob: no, I mean, it wasn't a Steubenville conference. We would have run that so smoothly.
Dave: Yeah, we would have.
Bob: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think it's definitely You're right. It depends on what you think of direction he's going. I mean he had a lot of [00:14:00] really good Rhetoric and I mean rhetoric in the right way. Sometimes rhetoric is like
Dave: Yeah.
Yeah.
Bob: insulting thing But like like in the true sense of it like some of the things he was speaking It reminded me a little bit of Obama.
You know, Obama had a great way of speaking, a great way of elevating hope, a great way of inspiring. And, you know, I hadn't heard that kind of tone in the And from a president since him until really that moment. I know Trump has given a lot of speeches and done other things, but I think there's something about this being his second term and him feeling like he has a good, really clear vision of knowing what he's doing, that there were a lot of really great.
inspiring things. And yet, as I was listening to the talk, there were moments I was cheering and then there was moments I was cringing and it just felt like it [00:15:00] swayed back and forth from at least what I considered to be significant to just You know, he would say things like, you know, we are going to equip our military to fight against the enemies of America and, you know, really, you know, bolster that up.
And it's like, great, that, that sounds wonderful. And we're going to rename the Gulf of Mexico. What? Like, what, what are you, like, what are you talking about? And then you'd be like, you know, man is, you know, we're just, there's only two genders, a man and a woman. Okay. That's, you know, that's absolutely awesome.
And we're going to. Bring back Mount McKinley, and I'm sure everybody in the world is Googling where is Mount McKinley, and why is this, you know, why is this an issue? I mean, he's, you know, talking about the importance of our economy, and then and you're like, woo, and then, and we're gonna take back the Panama Canal, and it's like, Can we, can we do that?
Are, is, are we going to invade Panama? Like, so there's just like this vibe [00:16:00] of Yay, yeah, yeah, what? You know, and goodness. I mean, I don't know. I just don't know what to make of him. I mean, I,
Dave: Yeah, that's just it. I think we, yeah, I think I do know what to make of him because we've had eight years now and it's exactly that, it's in one minute. He's going to say some things and do some things that we think, okay, that's really good. Actually, I was actually pleased the way he handled the male and female thing, because.
He didn't make it a huge thing. He didn't, this is not, he just said, this is what we believe. This is what I believe, as president, that there is male and female and there's two genders. And I, I was a little concerned that he may just go off, but he just said it very matter of factly, which the fact that you have to say that I must say is,
Bob: It's a,
Dave: but yeah.
But it was typical Trump and that typical Trump is exactly what you said. It's on one minute you can say, yeah, that sounds good. I can support that. And the other, it's really, is this major significant issue? So that was good. And, I was actually, I thought it was a little, it was not typical inauguration address, [00:17:00] and I thought it was more personal than, again, that it needed to be, but again, that's Trump you use word petty.
For a man of such influence at times, I think he can be unbelievably petty. But then there was the whole thing with the pardons and
Bob: Oh my
Dave: the pre, the preemptive pardons. So that's where Biden did this to Fauci and some of the other people and all of his family. It's funny because there's recordings of him in the past saying preemptive pardons are so inappropriate.
Yada yada. And that's, he basically said if anybody of any of these people did anything wrong they're pardoned. And it's just, that
is
Bob: Yeah. And yeah, Biden said. So again, sister Mary Beth, if you're not paying attention. So Biden, I mean, it's a common thing at the end of a president's term to pardon people,
Dave: look. And apparently at the beginning as
Bob: as you start. But this is just insane. And so Biden now his, the argument was because he knows that there could be [00:18:00] retribution from Trump, who can be petty and take vengeance.
Pardoned Fauci, pardoned the, the chief of, the general of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pardoned all the House members who were involved in investigating the January 6th incident. And, and, and he said, like, this isn't an admission of any guilt. We're not saying they did anything wrong. It's like
Dave: his entire family too.
Bob: Oh, sure, yeah.
Dave: Yeah. Why
Bob: And so he's, and again, we're not necessarily convinced that Biden's been making decisions all along anyway. So it's not, you know, he's signing pieces of paper and who knows who's actually doing this. But right, there was a massive we're just gonna pardon every Democrat and relative who's been working in politics for the past 20 years.
And then on the flip side,
Dave: not be outdating. To
Not be
Bob: to be outdone, you know Trump pardons every person that was involved in the January 6th [00:19:00] riot that
Dave: here's the thing is there are already people that were talking about, there there's going to be investigations and a part of me is just let's stop already. Let's stop. Let's begin again. Let's keep going. So it
Bob: Well, my only, my only, my only caveat, I, I, I almost entirely agree with that statement. Except some people died, you know, like,
Dave: no. But that part is, in my thought is the January 6th stuff has been investigated. I was talking about the other things.
Bob: Oh, okay. Oh, yes, yes,
Dave: 6th has been investigated for four years. So my feeling is that there's a lot that's gone in the investigation, but now they want to go investigate. What might he meant?
It's just let's just let it go. But there is a sense, there is a sense, honestly, I think, again, with every inauguration, a new beginning, it was obviously a Martin Luther King day, which was I think A nice time to have the inauguration. It was interesting to Marcus Freeman, the coach of Notre Dame, who is just a great person by all accounts.
He was also the first African American to be in the national championship game as a [00:20:00] coach. And he talked about that. Actually, it was interesting listening to him talk about that. He said, I appreciate it. But his thing was, we need to move past, putting grace on everything. It was, again, it was very respectful.
He said, I appreciate this. But it's There's a way that we can focus on that too much. So I think some people appreciated that. I will say, I think one of the most touching things was, did you see the end of the inauguration where Carrie Underwood was going to sing God bless America. And for some reason they couldn't get the music or the accompaniment for it.
Bob: Yes. The very
Dave: That was a long, that was a one minute and 47 gap. And that's a long time of just like standing around waiting for something. But then she just said, all right, folks, if you know it, let's sing it. And I thought it was beautiful. In the hall there with the acoustics, it was really actually really beautiful.
So
Bob: And, and just one verse, because nobody knows the second verse. So well, there is a second verse. Okay.
Exactly. And let's just, let's just roll out at that moment. So praying [00:21:00] for our country, obviously yeah, I think there's definitely hopeful things, confusing things. I don't want to you know, I think the most hopeful thing though, that I, I honestly almost wept to see were the release of those three female hostages.
From Hamas. It was like 400 and something days that they were in captivity. I cannot, you know, I mean, this was, it was October of last year. I don't think anybody thought it would go on this long. People are at a music festival and Hamas breaks in shooting, grabbing people, pulling them across the border.
And these three women and many others have been In, in captivity and not in like nice, you know, not such a thing as nice captivity, but you know, like you can tell they're, they, they were probably not treated well. I'm sure we'll hear more stories about that. After that happened, I, I got connected to a website.
I think it's called firm or something like [00:22:00] that, but it had just a list of all the names. of the hostages and invited people to, to pray and they've been updating it based on who's died and who's been released and things like that. And so, it's just, I've just been, yeah, it's, I wish I could say constantly in my heart because I get distracted by life, but I just keep thinking like
Dave: no, but that's worth noting. I saw one of the interviews of a relative of one of the hostages and you said that it's not constantly on your heart, but there are people that it is, it's just, it's one of those things, like you said, we just get busy and we forget and sometimes the politics of it all gets.
complicated. But the reality is that there's still lots of people that are they're being held captive against their will that by all accounts, like you said, it has not been good treatment and we just continue to pray that they're able to come home.
Bob: Yeah. Yeah. Pray for freedom of captives. Pray for peace in the Middle East, peace in the Ukraine, peace in the world. And, you know, something. You know, Trump said, which you can snicker at, he said he [00:23:00] wants to be known as a peacemaker which I don't think is one of his charisms,
Dave: No, I do.
Bob: well, I hope it's, I hope it's a fruit.
I, I hope it actually occurs. I mean, maybe, maybe it's that level of bluster that intimidates people enough to not, you know, he said, like, we want to, we want to fight, win the wars we're fighting and, and keep out of any potential fights. And that was the thing he said, and everybody stood up, and I'm like, yeah, that's, That is my prayer for a Trump administration.
Like, just get, get the fighting done and stay out of fights. I mean, whether it's because people are just intimidated because they just don't know what he would do. But yeah, let's, Lord, please bring peace to our world and
Dave: Yeah. It'll be interesting to just in the light of that. So obviously the March for Life is Friday. The, Trump, the reality is Trump was very friendly with Supreme Court justices and who he chose to lead the court from our perspective, obviously there's other people that would adamantly disagree, but I'm thrilled at the [00:24:00] choices that he made and Roe versus Wade being overturned from the courts.
So it'll be interesting. I'll be going out. Tomorrow, I guess tomorrow to Washington for some meetings and then for the March, but it'll be interesting to see what he does, if he has something to say, I'd be surprised if he made it. If he showed up to the event, but he did show up to the event a couple of years ago, but that will be interesting, be interesting to see what the security is like we were the University of Franciscan was going to do an event the night before the inauguration, a night of prayer, we're going to do a rosary, a procession of rosary around the White House.
And when push came to shove, we were told, security such that you guys are not going to have access. You're not gonna be able to just be walking around like that. So we weren't able to do it, but it'll be interesting to see how quickly things get back to quote unquote normal. But I don't, I, I don't know what normal is going to look like,
it just don't.
But so
Bob: is,
Dave: you won't, you're not able to go to March.
Bob: no, I'm not able to go to the [00:25:00] march, so, and I, and I'm hoping that they would. Can they just change it to June? Like, for crying out loud, like, why don't we celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade? I mean, the January January in D. C. is always so cold and brutal and, I mean, again, I guess, I think it's part of the sacrifice and the prayer. But,
Dave: there has been some discussion about that, about moving it to June and out of. Of a January event to to be able to celebrate, but then also, and we all know this that while we're pleased that Roe versus Wade was overturned, but it doesn't mean that the fight is over. But there is less, it seems to be.
And I know through a couple of different sources pulling off the January events is becoming more and more difficult. So maybe there will be something to June, we continue to go. We can, I think that the witness value of it's important for us to pray. But it'll be interesting to see what the coming years look like as far as the March itself is concerned.
Bob: Yeah, and of course, I wasn't trying to [00:26:00] say, let's not do it anymore. I was just trying to suggest the reason for that date. Why, why January? Why Washington? Because that's when Roe v. Wade was you know, done. And so now that it's undone, I would say, let's shift it and have better weather. And I think I'd like to think with better weather, you'd even get more participation.
I don't know how that would work. I mean, I guess that Franciscan, it'd be over the summer, so we wouldn't be able to get the bus loads of My suspicion is you honestly, you'd probably get less because. We have, I know so many of the schools, particularly the high schools and the colleges, it's just a part. They're all together. They all jump on buses. But if you're not all together, they did once in the spring. I remember when quail was vice president, they did it in the spring.
Dave: I'm not sure why or what the event was. But yeah we'll see. We'll see. But yeah, we continue to pray for that. Just so much work that still needs to be done there.
Bob: So this upcoming week is one of my favorite weeks of Ordinary Time. And a lot of [00:27:00] cool stuff going on. First of all, it's the Week of Christian Unity.
So, if you have an opportunity to say a prayer that we would all be one. And this might be a great moment as you're driving to wherever you're going. I imagine you probably pass a number of Christian churches on the way to and fro, and it can be really easy to just block them out of our mind or, you know, just keep going.
But maybe just as you pass that church, just say, Lord, bless those Christians or, you know, bless our, you know, unite our church or whatever it is. Like this is a beautiful ecumenical week. where we really are trying to pray for the unity of the church. And even if you know, we're not united under the Pope, we are united in our baptism and in our creed.
I'm not trying to minimize differences, but, you know, I think there's more that unites us than divides. So just throwing that out there. And then we have this incredible lit, you know, just litany of feasts going on. I mean, I mean, you've got, [00:28:00] today's Tuesday, we're celebrating Saint Agnes. Coming up, we've got.
Timothy and Titus, which is my birthday.
Dave: Happy birthday. We've got conversion of Paul and it's always it's honestly, it's one of my favorite priests. My middle name is Paul, so there's an infinity there. But I love the conversion of Paul. I love the fact that the Lord broke in into his life, intervened in his life, radically changed the direction of his life, but then also with all the history and the baggage that Paul.
Still called him to something great and you know those particularly those who come from situations where you know You're bad paths and do some things that were you know Pretty messed up to think that we have a God that can use you and use your gifts and your talents and all of That I think the conversion of Paul's is such a great feast.
Bob: yeah. Did you see the movie, Paul?
Dave: I don't think so. Was it which
Bob: Jim Caviezel was in it as Luke.
Dave: Yeah, I did see [00:29:00] it. I did see it. I didn't think that was the name of it, but yeah, I saw it.
Bob: Yeah, I thought that was a surprisingly beautiful movie and you know, if you're looking for something to watch this weekend I'm sure it's on whatever streaming things that we all have but Yeah, it was it was Paul at the end of his life in prison talking to Luke You know who he was the gospel writer who's good friends with and that was played by Jim Caviezel I don't remember the actor that played Paul, but it was yeah, I just it was it was beautiful surprisingly touching I don't want to ruin it for anybody but You
know,
if you're looking for
Dave: Probably pretty sure we know how that one
Bob: ha ha ha.
Dave: But the thing,
Bob: just a, it had a very profound ending, which isn't, which I, actually I remember being moved to tears about that.
Dave: yeah, I thought,
Bob: talk about reconciling your past and the mercy of God.
Dave: I thought the
best part of the movie honestly was the way that it presented the Christian community and the care that they had for one another the way that they had to live their life and fear in fear and because of that, they really supported each other. I [00:30:00] thought that was, I think, one of the most beautiful parts of that film.
So
Bob: yeah, I really, they really worked hard to get a snapshot of what, you know, what did that early Christian community look like, particularly in Rome. And yeah, I just recommend it highly. But yeah, it's such a, it is such an amazing feast. Paul's one of the few guys that gets two feast days and I
Dave: At least.
Bob: I think we even talked about this last year, I think he's the only saint where we celebrate their conversion.
I mean, we, we, you know, usually the day we celebrate a saint is, you know, when they're, they pass away or they're martyred. Sometimes we celebrate births of things like, you know, John the Baptist gets a birth and a martyrdom, but it's a very unusual feast in that it really is, I think the only one that celebrates conversion, you know, and, and the new life that we have in Christ.
Dave: Absolutely.
Bob: Yeah. Praise God.
Dave: Cool. Reasons of Hope. Can we have more than one?
Bob: Sure. Yeah.
Dave: Okay. I have a [00:31:00] couple really
Bob: Signs of hope. Signs of hope.
Dave: Signs of Hope. Signs of Hope. Really quick ones. Pitchers and Catchers. Report in 16 days. So if that doesn't give you hope, I don't know what does today, although we're, it's unfortunate, I'm going to miss it because I'll be traveling back.
But at the university, we're having opening of the Jubilee mass. So this is obviously the year of Jubilee year of hope for the church. So I thought it'd be nice to have a special mass that we'd be able to celebrate that. So that's happening this afternoon, which I'm unfortunately going to miss, but there's a sign of hope.
But lastly, excuse me. I had an alumni event down in Florida and I am always just to listen to our alumni and just their faithfulness. They're particularly the ones who've been out, five and 10, 15, 20 years that have just, they love the Lord. They're, Raising a family. They're working in the field, not to ministry, just faithful people.
There's one family, the Rodriguez family. I was talking to Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez. They sent their first child to Franciscan in 1989, [00:32:00] I believe, maybe 88. And since then they've had 23 children and grandchildren that have come through the university and just,
Bob: Oh, my
Dave: there's just this beautiful sense of. A faithfulness of a mom and dad that just saw the education of their children was really profound and important.
And now that's being passed on to their grandchildren. It's just, it was a great blessing. Lots of hope.
Bob: Wow. That's awesome. Yeah, I would say my sign of hope was absolutely the release of those female hostages and just continue to pray for the release of other hostages the other the other sign of hope that I felt this is I Don't know how I'm gonna articulate this. Well, so I was I got really sick last week there'd been a stomach bug going around and you know middle of my first week of classes and I teach a 1 p.
m. class. I'm feeling great. I'm just about to teach the 2 p. m. And suddenly it's like a switch got flicked and I was weak. One of the students were like, are you [00:33:00] okay? I'm like no. And I just said, class is canceled. I went home. I won't go through the The, the gory details of the amount of fluid I lost in various ways, but it was like painful and dizzy and all these things and in the middle.
And I couldn't keep food down for a day or so. And one of my kids brought me an ice cube, which you'd think this isn't much of a sign of hope, but like. I just had the, I was so hot. I had the ice cube in my mouth. It was slowly melting down my throat, which soothed my throat. It was like, it was like God.
Like, it was just so weird, like God coming to bless me in this moment. And I just thought like, man, when everything's really dark, like just one little prick of light can mean everything to you. And I might sound like I'm over dramatizing it, but I just was lying in bed. You know, with ice packs on me, just sucking on this ice cube and like, Jesus, I'm so grateful for this ice cube [00:34:00] right now.
I'm so thankful for this, for this little moment of hope in the midst of a really, really difficult time. And I just thought, like, you know, when we're all in difficult times, sometimes It's the ordinary thing that we take for granted you know, that we don't even notice in the busyness of our days, that's what, you know, it might be a friend, it might be just something really simple, but we just appreciate the most simple things there can be signs of hope.
Dave: Amen. Laura, just thank you for the way that you always keep your eyes on us. You're always close to us. You never turn your face from us. You are the reason that we can always hope. Bless our country in this time of transition. Bring your peace, your presence, and your hope. May the Lord bless us, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Bless you, Bob.
Bob: Thank you, Father Dave, and thank you everybody for listening for your prayer requests. Feel free to shoot us a prayer request or a question at hopeatfranciscan. edu. That's hopeatfranciscan. edu.
Dave: B U.[00:35:00]
Bob: God bless!