Dear Friend,

A man named Peter inherited a huge land grant, but the will provided that he could choose land in either Chile or Brazil. He chose Brazil. Unhappily, if he had chosen Chile, he would have received his inheritance in land on which they had recently discovered uranium, gold and silver. But he chose Brazil.

When he arrived in Brazil he had to choose between receiving his inheritance in a coffee plantation or land with Brazil nut trees. He chose the nut trees, and immediately the bottom fell out of the nut market, but coffee futures went up two dollars a pound. The government took control of the nut farm for back taxes, and Peter was left destitute.

Dear Friend,

When a famous restaurateur died in early 2002, he left behind more than just thousands of restaurants. He also left a legacy of being a practical, hard-working man who was respected for his down-to-earth values. Among the pieces of good advice that have outlived the smiling entrepreneur is his view of what Catholics should be doing with their lives.

This very savvy businessman, who as a youngster was influenced for Christ by his grandmother, said that believers should be "roll-up-your-shirt sleeves" Catholics.

Dear Friend,

The Bible defines worldliness by centering morality where we intuitively know it should be. Worldliness is the lust of the flesh (a passion for sensual satisfaction), the lust of the eyes (an inordinate desire for the finer things of life), and the pride of life (self-satisfaction in who we are, what we have, and what we have done).

Dear Friend,

How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren't home? Sound absurd? According to one time management study, that's how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail.

Are Catholic teachings on Mary really biblical? Or are they the "traditions of men"? Should she be called the "Mother of God", or just the mother of Jesus? Did she actually remain a virgin her whole life, or do the "brothers of Jesus" refer to her other children? By praying to Mary, are Catholics worshiping her? And what does Mary have to do with the quest to understand Jesus?

In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, Dr. Pitre takes listeners step-by-step from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation to reveal how deeply biblical Catholic beliefs about Mary really are. Dr. Pitre uses the Old Testament and ancient Judaism to unlock how the Bible itself teaches that Mary is in fact the new Eve, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and the new Ark of the Covenant.