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2024 Banquet: Fr. John Riccardo

We would like to thank everyone who attended our annual Ruah Woods Institute Banquet. It was a great success, with over 800 people in attendance. We appreciate your ongoing support to the ministry as it enables us at Psychological Services to continue to offer compassionate care to those in need.

Fr. John Riccardo is a missionary and ACTS XXIX Executive Director. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996. In 2019, after 23 years in parish ministry, he founded Acts XXIX to proclaim the gospel in an attractive and compelling way and to equip clergy and lay leaders for the age in which God has chosen us to live. Fr. John is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Gregorian University, and the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. Fr. Riccardo provided an insightful reflection on our times and an inspiring call to action. For those of you who missed it or would like to revisit Fr. John Riccardo’s keynote, a link to the full recording is forthcoming.

“Who Am I? Discovering Our Identity in Christ.”


Dr. Andrew Sodergren delivered the keynote at our Ruah Woods Institute Luncheon this past May. He chose the topic of identity and finding our identity in Christ. Our culture bombards us with false claims about who the human person is and what our identity should be predicated upon. Yet, our Creator, from the beginning, & through the example of Jesus Christ, invites us to discover who we are based upon our Father’s love. There is a divine order, design and purpose for the human person, created male or female in God’s image. We are enlightened and inspired by this message of hope in the truth of how God views each one of us as a unique, irreplaceable & unrepeatable gift. When we know who we are in Christ, we can strive to act accordingly to become who we were created to be.

You can view Dr. Sodergren’s 27-minute keynote here: