Held August 2008

Presented by Richard R. Gaillardetz, Ph.D.

Our parish is grateful to be able to offer the recordings of the talks given by Dr. Gaillardetz to our parishioners during our parish Awakening in August 2008. MP3 files for each of the four talks are available for download below on this page. Audio CD’s are also available for checkout in the STM Library.

Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz is a Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame. In 2000, Dr. Gaillardetz received the Sophia Award from the faculty of the Washington Theological union in recognition of “theological excellence in service to ministry” and has received numerous awards for his writing from the Catholic Press Association. He was an official delegate on the U.S. Catholic-Methodist Ecumenical Dialogue from 2001 to 2005 and served on the Board of Directors for the Catholic Theological Society of America from 2006-08. He is married to Diana Gaillardetz and they are the parents of four boys.

• Books and Booklets by Dr. Gaillardetz:
  • Ecclesiology of a Global Church, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2008.
  • The Church in the Making, New York: Paulist Press, 2006.
  • Transforming Our Days: Finding God Amid the Noise of Modern Life, Revised edition, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2007.
  • A Daring Promise: A Spirituality of Christian Marriage, Revised and expanded edition, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2007.
  • By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium and the Sense of the Faithful Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2003.
  • Broken and Poured Out: A Spirituality for Eucharistic Ministers, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2002.
  • Making the Connections: A Spirituality for Catechists, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2002.
  • Becoming Word for One Another: A Spirituality for Lectors, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2002.
  • A Vision of Pastoral Ministry, Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2002.
• Audiobooks by Dr. Gaillardetz:
  • A Daring Promise: A Spirituality of Christian Marriage, Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2004.

…be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2

Talk 1 — Finding God in Our Daily Life
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Scripture to read before listening: 1 John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 20-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. …No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. …God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. …If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Talk 2 — Marriage and Sexuality
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Scripture to read before listening: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-25

At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted—for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground—then the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. …The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.”

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man. So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

Talk 3 — Cultivating a Spirituality of Forgiveness
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Scripture to read before listening: Luke 37-50

A Pharisee invited him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Talk 4 — The Eucharist and the Church
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Scripture to read before listening: 1 Corinthians 12:12-18

As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.