Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving with feasting, family and a time to express our gratitude to God for the blessings we’ve received.  At American Catholic Radio we’re thankful for our radio partners and listeners, and we’ve “cooked up” some Thanksgiving-related features for you.  We produce ACR  in Cincinnati, Ohio, where St. Anthony Messenger Press has its home offices. Our communications ministry is exercised with the blessing of our local Archbishop, Daniel E. Pilarczyk.  He’s been a good friend to us as well as one of our best-selling authors. During this past year, Archbishop Pilarczyk has been writing and preaching on the theme of thankfulness, or as he calls it, being “grateful believers.”  So we invited him to share with you how to become “grateful believers” for all God has done for you. 

On a lighter note, producer Judy Zarick found a priest who supplements his priestly ministry with a ministry of cooking. Father Leo Patalinghug, from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, has written a cookbook and is planning a TV cooking show with a twist: He’ll be visiting families and cooking with them as a way to show how food helps to enrich the soul and bring families together.

As the Church ends its liturgical year, the season of Ordinary Time ends with the feast of Christ the King. Unlike many of the other feasts of Our Lord, this feast celebrates an idea, rather than an event in our salvation history. We honor our Lord by recognizing his title of king and acknowledge his sovereignty over all peoples, human societies, secular states and, indeed, the universe itself. The official liturgical celebration for Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a way of combating the rise of secularism and atheism in the world during those troubled times between the great World Wars. 

As our Church’s liturgical year ends, it’s fitting for us to sum up the sweep of salvation history in the person of our Messianic King. And it’s also fitting that we learn more about the meaning of this feast from Father Al McBride, veteran educator and author.

Producer Judy Zarick is always on the lookout for Catholics who have translated their faith into action. She interviews Dottie and Skip Glover of Erie, PA, who retired from their mutual careers and then took a year to serve in the Mercy Volunteer Corps. Dottie worked with students living with AIDS, and Skip worked with homeless men and women.

We give thanks for you and pray for your continuing ministry in the “new evangelization” on radio.

Fr. Greg Friedman, O.F.M.

Use the links below to preview the shows or download them in MP3 format for broadcast.

Highlights from this episode include:

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Father Leo Patalinghug talks about his cookbook, which has led him to working on a cooking show, Grace Before Meals. He hopes to bring families to the table and prayer back to families.

What is meant by Baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire? Do Muslims and Jews worship a different God? Why should wives be submissive to their husbands?

“Priestly Blessing” written and read by Dr. Sarah Melcher

Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk what it means to become a grateful believer.

Highlights from this episode include:

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

Dottie and Skip Glover retired and then took a year to serve in the Mercy Volunteer Corps. Dottie worked with students living with AIDS, and Skip worked with homeless men and women.

How are saints designated as patrons for various causes? How do we know that Jesus loves each of us?

“Zacchaeus” written and read by Sister Barbara Leonhard, O.S.F.

Father Alfred McBride, O. Praem., talks about the feast of Christ the King.