Episodes

  • Episode 77: True Wealth Finale: Justice & Mercy (October 19, 2020)

    Episode 77: True Wealth Finale: Justice & Mercy (October 19, 2020)
    Oct 20 2020
    In this episode of True Wealth, the series finale, Catholic evangelists Dave Basconi and Maria Smith discuss God's Justice and Mercy. Dave describes mercy as God's dome covering us and sheltering us. If we leave God's mercy and depart from the dome we then encounter God's justice.

    Link to an amazing conversion story - a turning to God's mercy:
    "Jewish Harvard Professor Roy Schoeman Becomes Convinced Catholic"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDzSfquYcs&ab_channel=SalvationisfromtheJews
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • Episode 76: Blessed Carlo Acutis = Millennial Sanctity! (October 12, 2020)

    Episode 76: Blessed Carlo Acutis = Millennial Sanctity! (October 12, 2020)
    Oct 16 2020
    In this episode of True Wealth, Catholic evangelists Dave Basconi and Maria Smith discuss the recent beatification (October 10, 2020) of Blessed Carlo Acutis who died in 2006 at the age of 15. Blessed Carlo had a profound love for Our Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and before he died he set up a website of Eucharistic Miracles all over the world. (October 12, 2020)

    Two short videos:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFmj9Fw6Acw&ab_channel=EWTN
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_Zuq2OzXQ&ab_channel=EWTN
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Episode 75: The Gaze of God (October 5, 2020)

    Episode 75: The Gaze of God (October 5, 2020)
    Oct 7 2020
    Could you stand the Gaze of God peering into the depths of your soul? It is what will happen to each one of us at the moment of our death. For Father Kevin, a priest in a southeastern Connecticut parish, this encounter with God - some call it an "illumination of conscience" - happened during his lifetime, in his 20's. This very real and very personal experience, this face to Face meeting with Our Lord, took him from being a bartender and bouncer to eventually becoming a diocesan Roman Catholic priest.

    In this episode of True Wealth, Dave Basconi and Maria Smith also discuss Father Federico's video (link below) on confession, titled "How to Have a Clear Conscience," in which Father Federico tells us it's not enough to stop doing sinful things - although it is certainly a crucial beginning - but we must also grow in knowledge, we must educate and form our conscience, and grow in virtue. "Virtue is a stable disposition; it is excellence that has become a habit."

    How do we form our conscience and grow in virtue? The Catechism (1785) tells us, "In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path..."

    Father Federico video "How to Have a Clear Conscience" (and attain joy and peace of heart!):
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=325585442050321&ref=watch_permalink
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Episode 74: Are You Envious? (September 28, 2020)

    Episode 74: Are You Envious? (September 28, 2020)
    Sep 29 2020
    In the Gospel reading of Sunday, September 20th, a landowner pays a day's wages to all his hired workers, the same wage to those who worked all day and to those who worked but briefly towards the end. Is this fair? Dave Basconi brings out a great point that this landowner pays everyone a day's wage so that each laborer could take care of himself and his family, so that no one would be left in poverty. (September 28, 2020)
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    52 mins
  • Episode 73: The Natural and the Spiritual (September 21, 2020)

    Episode 73: The Natural and the Spiritual (September 21, 2020)
    Sep 22 2020
    In this episode of True Wealth, Catholic evangelists Dave Basconi and Maria Smith present on growth in holiness. To grow in holiness is a two-step process: first the natural or physical and then the spiritual or supernatural. Saint Paul tells us, in 1 Cor 15:46, "But it is not the spiritual which is first but the natural, and then the spiritual." It is natural to work, to labor, and the greatest labor we can do is prayer, which is both a natural and a supernatural work. Everyone is called to labor in the Lord's Vineyard. (September 21, 2020)
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Episode 72: Explaining the Mass - Part II: From Earth to Heaven (September 14, 2020)

    Episode 72: Explaining the Mass - Part II: From Earth to Heaven (September 14, 2020)
    Sep 16 2020
    The Liturgy of the Eucharist comes after the Liturgy of the Word.

    During the Eucharist time collapses - we are there, at the foot of the Cross! In the video (link below) Father says that after we receive Communion and go back to our seat this is the moment we can obtain anything we ask for in prayer. There are many good things to pray for, for ourselves and our loved ones, for physical healing as well as emotional, mental and spiritual healing. The best thing to pray for is to know and do God's Will. Ask Our Lord sincerely to desire His Will at that moment and always.

    God has one plan for us:
    Plan A: Become a Saint!
    Plan B: God has no plan B. Neither should we:)

    Link to the video we refer to (it starts at the 6:00 minute spot):

    https://www.facebook.com/stbridgetofswedenparish/videos/3047421152052897

    It's an excellent presentation and explanation of the Mass by Father Frederico. (September 14, 2020)
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Episode 71: Explaining the Mass - Part I (August 31, 2020)

    Episode 71: Explaining the Mass - Part I (August 31, 2020)
    Sep 1 2020
    In this episode of True Wealth, Catholic evangelists Dave Basconi and Maria Smith ask if you were asked to define what the Mass is in one sentence what would you say? Dave says, "The Mass is a mission to take us from a state of sin to a state of grace." Maria says, "The Mass is both the re-enactment of Holy Thursday - Good Friday and also the transportation which carries us into our eternal home."

    Link to the video we refer to (it starts at the 6:00 minute spot):

    https://www.facebook.com/stbridgetofswedenparish/videos/3047421152052897

    It's an excellent presentation and explanation of the Mass by Father Frederico.
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    58 mins
  • Episode 70: Acedia: Can You Be Both Industrious and Slothful? (August 24, 2020)

    Episode 70: Acedia: Can You Be Both Industrious and Slothful? (August 24, 2020)
    Aug 25 2020
    In this episode of True Wealth, Catholic evangelists Dave Basconi and Maria Smith speak on Acedia, also known as Sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. They also go off on tangents and so their beginning conversation centers quite a bit on painting. More house painters are men but more women enjoy painting the rooms in their homes. Why is this?

    And yes, a person can be both very active and "lazy" because the spiritual sin of acedia or sloth is doing anything or everything that you should not be doing while neglecting the one thing you should be doing.

    Two resources to check out:
    Acedia & Me, by Kathleen Norris
    https://www.amazon.com/Acedia-Marriage-Monks-Writers-Life-ebook/dp/B001ANYDB8/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=acedia&qid=1598291225&sr=8-2
    and
    The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times
    by Jean-Charles Nault
    https://www.amazon.com/Noonday-Devil-Acedia-Unnamed-Times-ebook/dp/B0182YPFH8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1598291026&sr=8-2
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    1 hr and 9 mins