Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast with Father Greg and jd.
You're reaching out for props.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: That's right. We love props.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Each week, Father Greg and I connect on a variety of topics related to our faith at our parish in Winona, Ontario. We are here to help spread the good word and further unite our parish community. This is lucky episode number 13. We are featuring St. Joseph. We are talking about prayer and suggesting a resource to help get started in a rich and fruitful prayer life or continue in a rich and fruitful prayer life. Remember, you can find us on the Spotify, Apple podcasts and the YouTube every week. There we go. So please like or subscribe. I think it's down there. And we will find your inbox every week. So why. Why find us when we can come and find you?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: It doesn't sound creepy at all. No.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Father Greg stalking the parishioners.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: We're gonna find you. Yeah, that doesn't sound. I'm just joking. In this sense, it's a good thing.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: All right, what's exciting with you this week, Father Greg?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Oh, we heard all the confessions of the students at Imanca Heart and Mary School today. And, yeah, saw some priests today for a nice time of prayer and lots of things. So much that I'm peacefully bamboozled into another sip of this nice caffeinated beverage.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Excellent. Super del. Get through the rest of the day. Beautiful. I have a quick question before we begin this week.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: So Noah's children were looking after all the animals aboard the ark. Must have been very stressful.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: They can only imagine.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: You know, it couldn't always have gone smoothly. I'm wondering if the ones who were looking after the birds were using foul language.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: In one sense, they might have. In the other sense, I don't know.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: I don't know a lot of records about language at that time, but maybe you never know. You never know. Well, that is a Father great quality joke right there. Maybe not for a homily, but maybe for another time after that. You better start us off with a prayer.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. God, we thank you so much for your love for us and your care. And we just invite your holy spirit to rest upon each one of us who are here and listening, watching. Lord, we just open ourselves to your presence, and we rejoice that you desire to be close to us and you desire to bless us, to heal us, to strengthen us, whenever necessary, to forgive us. We just give you permission to guide us now and in all we do. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, all the saints to be with us. May you bless us and our parish, our podcast and all its listeners. We pray this in Jesus name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Thank you, Father. Well, another saint we'd like to be with us all the time is St. Joseph. He is our saint of the Week. As you know, each week we feature a saint and share some facts about their lives. And as we are striving to live out our life as Catholics, we can always look to our saints for inspiration. We got a big one this week. St. Joseph, husband of Mary, an earthly father of Jesus, who was a humble carpenter and a righteous man. He obediently followed God's will, protecting and providing for his family. He is honored as the patron of workers and fathers. He lived a life of faith, humility and devotion, passing away in holiness. He guided Jesus in wisdom, devotion, taught him his trade, remained steadfast in his trials. And despite his silent role in scripture, there's not really a lot about St. Joseph in scripture. His influence shaped Christ's early life. His unwavering trust in God's plan makes him a model of virtue, obedience and strength, inspiring countless believers through the ages. I love this prayer to St. Joseph.
O glorious St. Joseph, thou who has power to render possible even things which are considered impossible, come to our aid in our present trouble and distress. Take this important and difficult affair under thy particular protection that it may end happily.
Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: That's become the ending to every prayer.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: That's great. We love it. Great prayer.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: So, St. Joseph, have you seen this book?
This one?
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that one.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yes, indeed.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Who is it by?
[00:04:09] Speaker A: It is by Donald H. Calloway.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Is that a Father? Don Calloway?
[00:04:13] Speaker A: He's an mic.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. With a father in front.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: You got a father in the front?
[00:04:19] Speaker B: On the back.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Oh, Father.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Father in the front.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: There it is.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: He's a father.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: He's a father. He didn't put Father on the front of the book.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, you're right.
It's a good book. Consecration of St. Joseph. Super recommend.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Great book and perfect timing because the.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Lenten bingo includes it.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Lenten bingo includes. So we get a little plug for the parish there, and the consecration wraps up on March 19, which is tomorrow for those who are living in real time and.
And just. I mean, there's so many things attributed positively to St. Joseph. And just. We have the litany to St. Joseph, which is prayed daily through the consecration. And you know, some of the powerful, powerful depictions. Mirror of patience, lover of poverty, model of workmen, glory of domestic life, guardian of virgins, pillar of family, comfort of the afflicted, hope of the sick, patron of the dying, terror of demons, protector of the holy church.
All these things.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Very good. So St. Joseph rocks. Come and hang out with us for the solemnity of St. Joseph and definitely recommend consecrating yourself to St. Joseph.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Excellent. I'm going to circle back to another prayer to St. Joseph, but we'll cover that maybe in an upcoming segment. Ask Father Greg. Oh, it's time for Ask Father Greg.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or one we make up ourselves another urgent plea to please send us questions. Father. This is my personal question time with Father. And I'm sure he liked to hear from others, to hear what things are nagging at them as well and things that can help them along their spiritual life. This week I want to ask about prayer.
One of the common concerns people have is that it is. I don't know how to start and how do I, how do I get started in prayer? How formal should I be?
Is it really easy to get started? Is it sort of like a Seinfeld where anything can be a show, anything can be a prayer?
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. I mean, yeah, prayer.
Prayer is something that is both profoundly simple and profoundly and infinitely deep. But that's just true of any relationship that relationships can be very simple. Hello, hey, how are you today? Or it could be something very deep. Prayer is all about relationship. It's a communication with God.
So when we pray, we can just speak from our heart. There's lots and lots of types of prayer. Right. There's. I'm going to call it prayer from the heart. Just speaking your own words to God. God, you know, thank you for this day. Thank you for this podcast. Thank you for my family member. I'm having a hard time right now. God help me. Why is this happening? Show me what you want me to do here. That's beautiful prayer. There's also what's called vocal prayer. Vocal prayer. Not because you necessarily speak it out loud, it just means it's pre written prayer like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory be. These are powerful prayers and they can deepen our own personal prayer and raise our prayer to new horizons. And they can also be like a launch pad for us to also go even higher in prayer. There's lots of other types of prayer. Contemplative prayer.
St. Ignatius talks about what we now call Ignatian contemplation, which is when you imagine the Bible scene and you put yourself in it like a movie. And you really also can pray that way and think, okay, what was it like to be in the boat when Jesus silenced, calmed the storm? You know, and you can also use just quiet, just sit back and relax and just be in the Lord's presence. You know, there's so many ways to pray, and really at the heart of it is a desire to connect with God. And so prayer doesn't even always have to have words. Prayer doesn't always even have to have concepts or images in your mind. Prayer is about relationship. And it's so fundamental that it can even be beneath that, beyond that, but it also does often use that because our minds use images and thoughts and words to process things. So anything can become the content of prayer. And God is our perfect friend. He loves to listen to us, and he loves when we share. Does he not know something? No, he knows already. But, you know, that doesn't mean he doesn't want to hear it from us. That's how we develop our friendship, our relationship with him.
Does that answer your question?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: That. That does. That does. I mean, it can be, as you said, so simple and so complex at the same time.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah. It meets us where prayer, in a sense, meets us, where we're at.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Okay. I heard a really great, very short prayer.
Jesus, son of the living God, God I trust. Have mercy on me, I trust.
And version B, have mercy on me, a sinner.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. That's called the Jesus Prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Yeah. And it's really. It's really profound. In the east, people pray that. I don't know if I've ever told you the story of when I read a book called the Way of a Pilgrim, and it's all about the Jesus prayer. And so I started praying the Jesus prayer all day, every day. Because part of the story is how this young man wants to learn how to pray without ceasing, as Jesus teaches. So he starts using the Jesus prayer as some monks instruct him, and he. And he starts being immersed in a deep relationship with God. The means of eventually praying this prayer so often just becomes part of his breath, part of his heartbeat, so that he's always in the presence of God. I remember I went through this phase where I, like, for days I was doing this. It was very profound, and it totally lastingly impacted my Life. So there's a little content on the Jesus prayer.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Well, thank you for sharing that story. Cycling back to another resource, the Rediscovered Lent series, Matt Kelly just last Friday had a section.
Friday was make time to pray. And so for people who are struggling with how to pray, he said, just talk to him. Just talk to God. You know, open up your heart and have a dialogue. Speak to him as you would speak to a friend. Tell them about your ups, your downs, whatever is happening during the day.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: That's what a great place to start. And that could be a good way into remembering to pray always.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: That's right. Just set a little time on your phone. Even, just like little Jesus time. Even have your Google calendar or something, some reminder, a little appointment. And then like set a timer on your phone. Like, like I very rarely but occasionally be like, hey, Google, five minute timer. And then I'll just sit there. I'll just hang out with Jesus, talk to Jesus. And then whatever happened during that time is fine.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: You know, I like, this is a beautiful intro to. I think we can go further into prayer later on. I know there will be lots of questions that come up, hopefully from our listeners, but I've got more that are burning in me just about the effectiveness of prayer and what happens at prayers that aren't answered and all that kind of stuff. But that's, that's for perhaps a later. And then we'll field some, some questions that come in from the crowd.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah, and from the crowd. I just want to say, like, the weirder, more challenging question, the better. Like, I think I want to say that if you can ask a really weird, challenging question, I'm going to give you a prize. I don't know what the prize is yet, but find out a prize and I'll get you a price. And just ask. Just make sure you come to me and be like, I asked it. That was my question. I claim my prize and I'll give you a price.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Excellent. Okay, so it's prize month here at Immaculate Heart of Mary with the Lenten bingo.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: And then best question prize, indeed.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: And there's an unlimited amount of best question prizes. Just so you know, that's how much I want best questions. Okay.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: All right.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Another.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Another way to say please, somebody else asked me.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah, but like, strange, weird, wacky, big, who knows what questions. Like, come on, whatever. There's no bad one.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: And this leads directly into our resource of the week, the Queen of Apostles prayer book.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: It looks really good. I perused it before this podcast. I gotta Say it looks really incredible.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: And so again, for, you know, just a bit of a guide for praying in different circumstances and for different needs. I have a bunch marked over time for things that were important and needed at the time. So there's a prayer for times of difficulty. There's prayer for special intentions. There are prayers for people who are.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Sick, times of adversity, prayers when people don't submit questions. That's a joke.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Are those prayers or supplications?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, prayers.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Prayer for those in the armed forces, prayer for peace, prayer for families. So there's just some of the ones that were hidden there. So just a great little resource to. To help guide a prayer life.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: It looks amazing. Queen of Apostles prayer book. I hereby endorse it.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: And tying in St. Joseph as well, there's a memorary to St. Joseph that I don't know, that everyone knows.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Most people don't know the memory to St. Joseph. Yeah.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: And so very similar to the memorary to St. Mary.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Remember, almost Chase, spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never has it been known that anyone who asked for your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I commend myself to you and beg your protection. Despise not my petition, dear foster father of our Redeemer, but hear and answer my prayer.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Amen. Amen.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Okay, so Queen of Apostles prayer book.
All right, we are. Let's see, on the calendar, cruising into. Well, we have cruised into week three of Lent. What are some of the highlights? And what would you say to people who are in the midst of their Lenten promises? Do you have any words of support for them?
[00:13:45] Speaker B: So first off, what's happening in week three of Lent? We're recording a podcast. Tomorrow is St. Joseph Solemnity. From the time of this recording, 9am and 7pm Mass here. St. Joseph is so underrated. He's the best saint in heaven after Our lady, so we're happy to have him praying for us, protecting us. Also, this upcoming weekend, we start what are called the scrutinies at the weekend Masses only when we have RCA candidates who are preparing to be baptized.
Scrutinies sound like we're scrutinizing them. That's not at all what's happening. Scrutinies are us helping them to, in quotes, scrutinize their own life and heart as they get very close to becoming fully Catholic and just taking a deep look within themselves, making sure that they are in the right place as they get very close. It's not A scary thing. It sounds scary. The word scrutinize just doesn't sound positive. But that's coming up this week, so it's kind of just fun Catholic trivia. You know, they start with the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. There are three, the first, second, and third scrutinies leading up to Holy Week and so on. Now, in terms of what advice I would have for those who are in the midst of living their to Lenten promises, Lenten commitments, et cetera, I often don't even use the word promise because I feel like promise, as soon as you break it, you feel like you're toast. Like, so I often will say, like, Lenten resolutions or commitments or observances. Not that it's wrong to say promises.
Yeah. If you're doing great in your Lenten commitments, awesome. Virtual high five.
If you're not, hey, good for you for trying. Virtual high five. And just pick up again. Like, even if you struggle, there's sometimes something very fruitful about having tried and failed. Right. Like, or at least not done perfectly. Like, there's something good about that because we actually learn a lot through that. We can say, like, oh, I didn't realize that I struggle with this this much. I thought it was gonna be easier. And that itself is great self knowledge. Great for humility, great for teaching us just how much we need the Lord. And if that brings us to know our need for him more, is that not such a fruitful thing? And also, just the Lord seeing you try is like, making him so happy. So sometimes we. We are overly ambitious with our Lenten resolutions. We think we can do something, and then we, like, totally fall flat. That's okay. Sometimes you should pick up again, do the same thing. Or other times it's like, yeah, maybe I was a little over ambitious. So let's just moderate that a little bit and start again with the more moderated version. Right. So all of this is really fruitful. And if we don't try, we never learn.
So no matter where you are, hey, credit for you. And if you've still not even started something, it's not too late. Think about it. What can you do? Go for it. It's still going to be very fruitful if you try, no matter. No matter what.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Excellent. And maybe easy to start with a fast on Friday.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, there's so many things you could do. Could be just like, my relentless resolution is to buy consecration to St. Joseph and find a time to start it. Or it could be, I'm at the Quido Apostles Thing. Or it could be I'm going to pray a decade of the rosary every day or I'm going to do an examination of conscience every night. Or I'm going to, I don't know, not put salt and pepper on my food. I don't know. Like, there's a million things you could do. They don't have to be too crazy.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Okay. Just anything that's going to bring you closer to God and try to lead to a more prayerful life, into a more committed life.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: And if you happen to have a piece of sliced turkey on a Friday, it's okay as long as you do.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Some other penance, charity and sacrifice to replace it. Yeah. Just don't do that on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, though.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, but it's what it has done, is it? Set me up with a new habit of reminding myself about the Friday fast.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: That's good. That's healthy.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: So a little bit of good came out of a minor tragedy there.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: So you've highlighted some of the things that are coming up in the calendar. We've got this big pilgrimage coming.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Wow. May 11, it's RA approaching on the, on the schedule.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Very exciting.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Are there other events at the parish that you'd like to showcase?
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Other events? Well, looking at my calendar, just pray for our people in our. Our two elementary schools, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Gabriel's they're having first confessions very soon. So our young people are preparing for this beautiful experience of God's mercy. It's good to pray for them. And then soon enough they'll have their first communion, the grade twos as well. Just good to pray for them, support them. We have this beautiful program at our parish called Family Catechism. Happens usually every couple weeks. That's this upcoming Sunday. So if you've got a family and you want to get together with other families who want to follow Jesus and you want to just have a nice little fun time from around 2 to 4 or so on a Sunday, have little classes. They learn, they study, they have little snacks. It's really, really good. The families really find it very fruitful. And plus, I'm also there offering confession or if you want to chat with the priest a little, what's called spiritual direction or pastoral counseling, you can talk to me then, too. So it's a very beautiful program that's. That's coming up this Sunday, so just kind of good to highlight that. Stations of the Cross, Saturday or Friday nights? Don't say Saturday nights. Friday nights. I don't want to. Like, people are gonna be like, where. Where'd everyone go? Father told me Saturday nights.
That's. That's probably enough for now. Keep checking our. Our events list in our bulletin for lots of other cool, exciting things, which no shortage of.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Excellent. And there, as you reflect, there's so much great work happening, but it doesn't happen in isolation. There are so many people doing great work here at the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Who would you like to recognize this week?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: I really want to just give Aleria another shout out.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Hilaria, our secretary. So good.
She deserves another shout out. I gave her a shout out before. She's always doing amazing work. I'm so blessed. And I mean, we're so blessed to have so many people here at our parish doing amazing work. I mean, having J.D. here, having our secret behind the scenes podcast director, Lucia, all the great work that she does, and I mean, just. We're so blessed. So you guys will probably get eventually a second shout out too, but there's lots of. Yeah, Hilary does so much. I think she deserves a second shout out. Great.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Shout out to Hilary. Thank you for all that you do and helping keep the parish humming along.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Excellent.
Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your insights, Father. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Okay, right before prayer, can I do a show and tell?
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yes, indeed. Show and tell time.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. I've got this thing called holy water. Holy water. Holy water. Whoa. Now, if you don't have holy water, did you know that in our gathering space or our lobby or narthex, there's a little silver thing, and you can bring your own bottle and you just kind of. And then the holy water pours out, and then you can bring your own bottle and. And then you have it. That's exactly how it sounds. So if you don't find it sounds that way, bring me over and I'll remedy that. So. And what do you do with your holy water? Well, you can keep it by your bedside. You can sprinkle a little bit before you go to bed, sprinkle it in your home. What does holy water do? Well, it's very protective. It spiritually protects you from the evil spirits. It. It really disposes you to the. The showering down of God's grace. It's very powerful, and it's a beautiful thing to have. So I think every home should have a little holy water. And, you know, in Lent, there's a common misconception that they would remove the Holy water from the little fonts during all of Lent, that's actually not a thing they're supposed to do. So get your holy water here. When you come to the church, you do the little sign of the cross, reminding yourself of your baptism and kind of using that holy water again to draw down God's grace upon you. We usually do that as we walk in and. Or as we walk out and so, yeah, holy water. Holy water. Holy water. Holy water free.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: Holy water Free.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: Free.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Oh, another keyword.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Come here and get it for free. There we go. Excellent. That's my show and tell.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Okay, show and tell. That could be good. Future segments could be. Okay. All right, we're going to pencil that in next time. Next time.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Coffee? No, I'm just joking. Espresso. Okay. Closing prayer.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Let's close with a prayer.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, Amen. God, we thank you so much for all the many blessings you give us. You give us the blessings of friendship with you that we can pray to you anytime about anything, that Mother Mary and St. Joseph also are praying for us, watching over us. We have gifts like prayer books and holy water to also help us stay close to you and the gift of our parish, where we have a wonderful parish community. Continue to bless us, bless our parish, bless our listeners, and help us to hear your voice in our lives, Lord, speaking your love and your goodness to us. We pray this in Jesus name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: And thank you for continuing to remind us that God promises us a safe landing, not necessarily a calm passage.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: And thanks also to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us this week to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, social media channels, the Apple podcast, the Spotify, or the YouTube. And if you like our show, subscribe and tell your friends.
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 JD Leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you were yesterday.
