Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast with Father Greg and jd. Each week, Father Greg and I connect on a variety of topics related to our faith and our wonderful parish in Winona, Ontario. We are here to help spread the good word and to unite our parish community even further. This is episode 10. We'll be featuring St. Gregory of Nerick and another great resource to help advance our faith.
Remember, you can find us on the Spotify, the Apple podcasts and the YouTube every week. Which is your favorite. I know, I love the YouTube. So please like or subscribe and we will find your inbox every week. What's exciting this week, Father Greg?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Hmm.
Just being here with you is so exciting.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: There's so much other stuff. Honestly, it's like my brain, it's like overwhelmed at trying to piece just one thing. But I mean, we've got our youth group thing coming up and just lots of cool stuff. I mean, yeah, life is good.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Excellent. Beautiful. Beautiful. We started re watching the Chosen. Back to season one. Wow.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Chosen. So good.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Super, super impactful, even second time through.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: What a great. What a great show. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I do have a quick question before we begin. It's a bit of a spicy one, though.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I'm ready.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Should reading the Bible scare the hell out of us?
[00:01:24] Speaker B: There's so many ways I could answer that. I could say yes. I could say no. I could say yes, but not literally.
I don't know.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Tell me the joke or d. All of the above.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. But what's the answer that I'm supposed to give?
[00:01:39] Speaker A: The answer is the answer that you give.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: No. Don't make that up.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: It's not a great way of answering.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: A question, but no.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Aren't we used to that, though?
[00:01:47] Speaker B: But what are you supposed to say to that joke?
[00:01:49] Speaker A: I guess it depends on where the emphasis is.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: But what was the answer you were going to say? I'm not trying to sound insistent, but I don't know if my answer was really the answer to the joke.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Well, if we have hell within us, then reading the Bible will scare the hell out of us.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Okay, got it. Got it.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: There we go.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Amazing. Thank you so much for this amazing joke. It's so amazing, so clear, so intuitive.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: So maybe not one for the start of a homily if you have to.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: I'm not going to use it, but I'm not saying you couldn't use it.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought maybe the H word might be a bit spicy for A parish podcast or.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I don't think it's too spicy. It's in the Bible.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: But it was good. It was good.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: It always depends on context, too.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Totally. You're doing great.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Don't let anyone else.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Thanks for your support.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: I support you.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Well, after repartee like that, you better start us off with a prayer.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Okay. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you for your love for us. And we thank you that you're right here with us, right now, wherever we are, and you are present to us even more than we are to you. You look on us with love and you treasure each one of us, and you invite us to deepen our friendship with you. May this episode of this podcast and all we do draw us closer to you so that we may have the joy and the peace, the love that you want to give us. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, all the saints to watch over us, to pray for us, to protect us. We ask this in Jesus name, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Excellent. Thank you, Father. Well, let's reveal our saint of the week right away.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Reveal, reveal, reveal.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Each week we feature a saint or several and share some facts about their lives. You know, as we strive to live out our lives as Catholics, we can always look to our Saints for inspiration. St. Gregory of Nerwick was born in a village on the shores of lake van Between 945 and 950, the years, not the time of day. When his parents died, Gregor and his older brother were raised by a scholarly uncle who had them educated in the Narak monastery, where he was a monk. The monastery was a prominent center of learning located in what is now Turkey.
He entered the monastery and was ordained in 977. He became a presser and a professor of theology and wrote a mystical interpretation of the Songs of Songs and a long mystical poem called the Book of Prayer, or the Book of Lamentations. He described his poem as an encyclopedia of prayer for all nations. And this is a classic in Armenian literature, and it's been translated into 30 languages.
And he wrote this really beautiful poem that I love.
The soul's every movement is a reminder of God. The taking of a step, the extension of the right hand, the raising of the arm. With thanks for good works, with shame for bad, for familiar conversation and public addresses, in rational discourse, in works of success, in the fervor of virtue. Day and night we are guided by you in the useful movements for our spirit, asleep or awake.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Amen. Hey, you put that in there.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: I did put that one in there, but why not? Funny story about that. I was just writing in my prayer journal this week, and I opened it up, and guess what fell out.
This card.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Oh, yes.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: This card says, jesus, I trust in you.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: And what is this card, Father?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: My ordination card.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Yes, it is. This is Father Greg's ordination card, and it has the famous phrase, jesus, I trust in you.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: And there it is.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: I'm a huge fan of Saint Faustina and her diary, by the way, and she's the one that Jesus revealed that divine mercy image to and asked that those words, jesus, I trust in you, would be there to remind us to say, I trust in you, and to cultivate our trust and to look at his mercy there on display. Yeah.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Okay, excellent. So that's another idea for a great resource coming.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Saif Austin, his diary. Read it. It's great.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Okay, it's time for Ask Father Greg. Last week, we talked about the Chosen and that they have a consulting team consisting of a Messianic rabbi, a Catholic priest, a university professor of the New Testament, and for season four, they added an Orthodox Jewish theologian. In one of our earlier episodes, we talked about focusing more on commonalities within religions as opposed to the differences. So I'm wondering, is that in play in our diocese? Is there a local interfaith group of leaders who regularly meet to promote unity?
[00:06:16] Speaker B: I suspect that there is. I'm sure there is. But I don't think I'm always, like, that high up on the totem pole that I get invited to all these things. Like, I'm sure Bishop Crosby regularly meets with leaders of various Christian and even non Christian faith communities. So.
But I can't say I always get the invite. I don't mean that in a mean way. I just mean that in a. I'm just a priest. Like, he's the bishop, so. But in terms of a more, like, local thing. Yeah. Like, the church encourages priests to build a spirit of what's called ecumenism. Ecumenism is the sense of kind of unity among Christians and trying to bring us together as one family, one flock under one shepherd. And so I definitely do touch base with other Christian leaders, and I'm always happy to touch base with any religious leader of any kind. It's always exciting. I love learning, I love sharing. And I am in the process of trying to get a group of Christian ministers of various denominations together to meet regularly. We haven't quite started that yet, but there are things in the works. So yeah, it's a beautiful thing because it's so important that especially more than ever today, that the way we live our faith brings unity and allows us to really put Christ on display rather than differences.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: There's. And so much as you said, we can learn from each other and celebrating what we have in common.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Can only bring us even closer together. Kind of tumultuous times as well.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean the mind of the Catholic Church is that given that we're the original church, we have the full package of truth that God wants us to have. We have all the books in the Bible, we have all the saints, we have the sacraments and, and so on. But that doesn't mean that there aren't ways that with other Christians we can still get a lot out of working together and inviting them into our beautiful family of faith and just working alongside each other to witness to Christ.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: So 2000 years of development and always looking for more ways to get better and to improve our faith and devotion.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Exactly. Well said.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Fantastic.
And as you said, we have all the saints, including St. Gregory of Narak.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Who's our saint of the week? Thought we get another little plug in firm there.
Well, let's talk about our resource of the week and this week it's sort of multi layered.
Yes, indeed.
Want to feature the Rediscover series by Matthew Kelly? Matthew Kelly has so many great, amazing resources. The Mass journal that was part of a couple of weeks ago was part of a Matthew Kelly series. And these are the Rediscover, Rediscover Jesus, Rediscover the Rosary, Rediscover Catholicism, Rediscover the saints and this week rediscover Lent.
And so he does a fantastic job of piecing together devotions and reflections and questions to help.
There we go. There's the E version of Rediscover Lent.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: For people on the YouTube. You can see the amazing Apple Books version of rediscover lent on JD's phone.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: I just, I think it's so, it's a, they're amazing guides to, to help us get started and reconnected with whatever element of the church that that is time to be reconnected to. So right now for sure, Lent, which we'll feature in a couple of minutes as well.
On a previous pilgrimage I went through the Rediscover Catholicism and I was so blown away by the, by the introduction. If you haven't go back and reread the introduction.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: It's.
How can you say no after reading that?
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Yeah, you can go ahead. It's okay. Keep going.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Well, and now, now we're at sort of episode 10 now, and we've got a new resource every week. And I. I kind of starting to think people might say, okay, I can't read all these things.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: There's only so much time. Right. But these are really just, you know, find something that you love and dive into it. Whether it's a daily devotional. This Lent, you know, could be a great opportunity to walk through Lent with Matthew Kelly and get reconnected that way if you don't have another resource in order to do it. But, yeah, it can be overwhelming to try to take on all these brilliant suggestions that we're. That we're presenting, but really find, find one, find two. Maybe time of year will dictate as well to be able to dive in to help deepen your faith.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: I do want to put another commercial in on the Lent story on the formed series.
So is it preparing for Lent? It is preparing for Lent.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: I'm going to talk about that sometime. In fact, I'm going to talk about it today, too. But you can talk about it.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Okay. No, I'm going to save it for you.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Okay. And you can just fill in.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Okay. While you're chatting about Lent, in a little while, I'll find the app and just kind of reiterate the three episodes that are there.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: So good.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Okay, Excellent.
All right, looking ahead to next week. Oh, it's Lent is coming up Ash Wednesday.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: I'm not sure.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: I'm not sure if people are picking that up from the number of times we've mentioned it today, but Ash Wednesday is coming up and Lent. So we're continuing to think and pray about our devotions for Lent.
What are you recommending or what are your thoughts on approaching Lent for us?
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Lent, Lent, Lent, Lent, Lent. Okay. So, yeah, Lent's coming up next week, and first off, we can just talk about, like, what is Lent and then some tips on how to live it. So Lent is a few things. One thing is it's a preparation for Easter, and so we want to make sure we're ready to renew our baptismal promises, which we do at Easter. People often forget we kind of recommit to God at Easter. So it's a time to prepare for that recommitting of our life to Jesus. It's also a time where we often think of Jesus 40 days in the desert. And so we also go through a time of kind of purification and looking at our life and saying what. What is in my life? And is this really necessary? Is this leading me closer to Christ? Also, classically, we think about these three pillars of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Here's my connection with the Prepare for Lent or whatever it's called. Affirm Forum.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: How to Lent, how to Lent, how to Lent.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Amazing. I watched the first episode and it is really, really great at really helping you prepare for Lent. So if I can get you to do one thing from this podcast, if you only watched how to Lent, like, you would win. Okay, so. But really what I appreciated was highlighting how Lent can be a real opportunity to grow in freedom. Like you can end Lent better and keep grow, growing every year using Lent as a launchpad. And I really appreciate it as well, how they talk about the three temptations of Christ. To pleasure, to hold on possessions, and to pride from the devil. The three temptations. Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread, and that's a temptation to seek pleasure aside from God's will. And the idea is that fasting helps us control that temptation. And likewise, Jesus is tempted to throw himself off the top of the temple, and everyone would just kind of be wowed and impressed. And that's a temptation to pride. And the pillar of prayer helps us overcome that temptation. And then the devil asked Jesus to worship him and he would give him everything, all the things of the world and so on. And that's a temptation to possessions. Not that possessions are always bad, but often we get into bad habits with caring a little too much about our possessions. And so alms giving helps us overcome that. So I really liked this idea that they put forward that if you really want to have a fruitful Lent, look at your biggest areas of weakness when it comes to pride, possessions and pleasure. And think what resolutions of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving could I have that would help me overcome those. Those will be powerfully fruitful Lenten resolutions. So as Lent is coming close, take some time. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and do some real reflection. Ask Our lady to guide you as well. And how can I overcome those struggles of pride, kind of disordered pleasure, and an unhealthy relationship with possessions, overcoming those with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: So that's.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: There's a lot more we can say on Lent, but that's a little overview.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: That's a beautiful summary. Thank you, Father. The how to Lent series. There are four episodes each less than 15 minutes. Back to basics, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. So they will hit each of the key areas for us there. So. And we have our parish subscription, so people can sign in.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: That's right. Sign up on forum.org and also my plan is to get Lucia, who's here. I'm looking at Lucia behind the camera.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: She is going to hopefully post links. I heard that these are even on YouTube now. They've been releasing them on YouTube too. Not that you shouldn't check them on Formed. That's great.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Is it the same as the YouTube?
[00:15:16] Speaker B: It's slightly different, but it still works the same way. You just type in YouTube.com okay. And it's. It's kind of the same as the YouTube. So anyways, you check it out there and yeah, the videos are on there. So I want to post those because I really want to encourage everyone to watch that.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Beautiful. Excellent. And it'll be fantastic Preparation as the clock is ticking for preparation for Lent.
Well, there is so much happening in our community, as you've heard. Our parishioners can always check out the parish bulletin. But for everyone else out there, Father, what are some of the highlights of the coming weeks?
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Well, this Friday we've got our youth night. Looking forward to that. And then Saturday we've got the Bishop's Charity dinner. Every year our bishop hosts a big charity dinner and the proceeds from that go to just tons of really worthwhile causes in the Hamilton community and even beyond. So I'll be there. Looking forward to that. We've got, I think, almost, if not four, tables of people from our parish going that night. So that's cool. Chosen series on Saturday nights, as we already referred to rcia. Tonight, I'm happy to give them a church tour. Ash Wednesday coming up on March 5th and lots of other cool stuff. Young adults group coming up on March 8th. And as JD said, just check out the bulletin for an amazing smorgasbord of upcoming events. Coming to a church in Winona near.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: You that hosts the number one Catholic podcast In Winona. In Winona, of course. Church tour. That would be. That would be phenomenal. I remember doing one years ago at another parish and it was just so intense and incredible to see the sacred areas and. And just to ask people to ask open questions of things that we'd often wondered.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: We should do one for the whole parish.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: A church tour or sort of maybe every couple of months, throw one after a Sunday, 11 o'clock mass.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's possible.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a nice Guy carrying the flag out front leading the tour.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Is that going to be you?
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Off to have my training session first, but then, yeah, I'm happy to lead that.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: But I got to learn a lot more about the.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: I can. I can do the tour while you hold the flag.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Okay, very good. I'm there. I'm there.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: None of these great things happen without supportive group. And we've got a very active parish group and people doing some amazing things. Who would you like to recognize in the parish this week?
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Today, I really want to give a shout out to a gentleman named Richard LaBelle. You might know him as Rick LaBelle. Richard is awesome. He is really on fire for Christ. And he ultra serves quite regularly sometimes he ultra serves like daily. And also he acts as a sacrosan often at 4pm Sunday Mass. And he's also involved in the St. Joseph's Men's Group often. And anyways, he's just a really good guy doing a lot of good work, and I'm really grateful for his presence in the parish.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: All right, Rich, well done, and thank you for all you do for our parish. That's amazing.
Well, that is just about all the time we have for today, Father. Thank you for your insights. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you for all you're doing in our lives. And as Lent approaches, we just ask that you send your Holy Spirit upon each one of us. Give us wisdom and insight to really use this Lent as the best Lent yet of our life, drawing us ever closer to you, allowing us to recommit our life to you and to really take a look into our hearts and our lives to see where through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can come closer to you and reflect your love to those around us. Better inspire us in all we do, lead our podcast, lead our parish, and lead each one of our listeners. We pray this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father. And thank you for continuing to remind us that if we are wrinkled with burden, we should always come to the church to get it ironed in.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Please do.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: All right, and thanks to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us again this week through the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels, through the Apple podcast, the Spotify and the YouTube. If you like our show, subscribe and tell your friends. And if you don't like our show, tell your friends anyway and let them discern for themselves. Have a great week, everyone. We are Father, Greg and J.D. leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you were yesterday.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Should. Cheers. We should do a cheers at the end.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Cheers. There we go.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: There we go.
