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 parish in Winona, Ontario. We are here to help spread the good news and to further unite our parish community.
Thought on that, but maybe later.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: It's not sign language. It's just interpretive gestures.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Oh, it's a fsl, Father. Sign language.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: This is episode number 14. And we'll be talking about the Annunciation and suggesting another resource to help you see the Bible differently this week. And remember, you can find us on the Spotify, Apple podcasts and the YouTube each week. So please like or subscribe. I think we should change it to do this. I think it's wrong for us as Catholics to be pointing down if we want more visibility. And I don't think we should be pointing out.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: No. Now she's going to have to put it on the top and the bottom.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Okay. Well, that's up to the editor to come up with.
So, yeah, like and subscribe. And we will find your inbox every week. What's exciting this week? Father, you're looking beautiful and black. You were ravishing in rose on the weekend. Beautiful and black.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: You're so kind. Thank you. Yeah, things are good. Life's great, loving life, living the dream. Things get better all the time. God is good.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Excellent. And after that concise summary of the week, I have a quick question before we begin.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Does God ever change his mind? What I'm thinking of is this whole when God closes the door, he opens a window thing. I mean, it's great in concept, but my friend had a tough winter and now his heating bills through the roof and six raccoons got in.
So could we get God to maybe revise that plan?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Like close the windows.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Close the windows and. Yeah, I think, well, there's got to be a way for the goodness to get in.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: I think it sounds like a great thing to pray about.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Okay. All right, let's do that. That is a Father Greg quality joke right there. Coming soon to a homily near you, perhaps. But after that, you better start us off with a prayer.
[00:02:03] 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 your presence with us right here, right now, wherever we are. We know that we are with you and that you never abandon us. And so we just ask that you would bless us. Bless those who watch and listen to this Podcast. May your Holy Spirit lead us, Lord, so that we can be your instruments and help draw others closer to you and that they would find the joy of walking with you in their life. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, all the saints to help us, and we pray all this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Amen. Beautiful. Thank you, Father. Well, this week, instead of focusing specifically on a saint, let's talk a bit about the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. We were going to do it last week, but we had a week off, and I think it's just too important for us to not address.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: I'm with you.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: And a solemnity trumps Lent. And so it's like a halftime break from your Lenten sacrifices, potentially.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Could be. Some people might say that. Is this a question or is this a statement?
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Both. I have a question mark at the end of it, but maybe it's more rhetorical.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Right, right. Well, maybe I'll just quickly comment on that and then we can talk more about the Enunciation. But solemnity, there's solemnities, feasts, memorials, optional memorials, and feral days. And now it's. We see a lot of purple and stuff during Lent, because in Lent, basically anything that's a memorial gets, like, lowered down. And you don't change colors. So you see less change in the colors during Lent, which means that the white of the solemnity of the Annunciation stands out all the more. And so, yeah, it's a big celebration. Same with March 19th and St. Joseph. And just like Sundays, some people say, well, okay, you don't have to follow your Lenten observances on Sunday. So some people might treat the solemnity that way. And when the solemnity lands on Friday, you can eat as much meat as you want, and you don't even have to substitute that with extra prayers or repentance, which you normally would on a Friday.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Okay, beautiful. More learning. You heard it here first. Well, you heard this version here first. You may have heard some of that content before, but you heard this version of it first.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: You heard this version first. First here.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: The Annunciation, of course, is the biblical event in which the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, announcing she will conceive and bear a son, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit described in Luke 1:26 to 38, marking the beginning of Christ's incarnation. Mary, though initially troubled, humbly accepted God's will, saying the event is a cornerstone of Christian theology, emphasizing God's grace and Mary's faith.
It is celebrated on March 25, as we know, nine full months before Christmas, which is a perfect amount of time. And the Annunciation inspired countless works of art symbolizing divine intervention, obedience, and the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation. And we often hear at this time talk about Mary's fiat, which is a surprising card choice for her because I thought pregnant and all would be very small for her to be able to get into.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: You are just full of great wit.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Oh, goodness.
I love the statement from St. Mary, though, as she contemplated this and she just immediately said, let it be done. Let it be to me according to your word. I better say that properly once. Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: That's one translation. Jesus, let it be. Oh, yeah, Jesus, trust me. I'm sure she did trust in Jesus, even as Jesus was a little baby.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Looking down at her belly saying, I trust you. Yeah, maybe you said that was one translation.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yeah, let it be done unto me according to your word is another translation. Yeah.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Oh, beautiful.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Or let it be done with me according to your word. This total surrender, that's the spirit of Our lady that we want to imitate.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: What color of a fiat do you think she would drive?
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Blue.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so, too. Very good. That was very perfect. Oh, you're right on top of it, aren't you?
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: All right, it's time for Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or one that we make up ourselves. This week, I want to circle back to prayer again, and this time it's, we pray a lot. We're guided to pray a lot, and we may feel that our prayers aren't always answered, and we think that it's a wasted prayer. You had a take on this back at a previous Ask Father Greg night that we attended. So what would you say to somebody who thinks their prayers are wasted?
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Well, someone might say, I prayed for blank, but it didn't happen. So what do I make of that? So the good news is God never wastes any prayers. He loves when we pray. He loves listening to us. He is so excited to hear from us. And yet, just like any parent would respond to a child for a request, the parent might say yes, or they might say no, or they might say, wait. And that's always going to be said by a loving parent out of love. And God has the total cosmic, eternal perspective. He sees past, present, and future all at the same time. So when we ask him for something, he might say yes, and immediately it happens, because he knows that's best. Or he might say, nah, if you knew the impact of me granting that, you would know why I don't want to give you that right now or at all.
Someone might pray, hey, can I win a million bucks? God might know that might not be best for our soul. Or he might say, wait. And he knows his timing better than we know what would be best. So, but even if God doesn't give us what we ask, he will give us something, because he just loves being asked. He loves the fact that prayer brings us closer to Him. It's not that God doesn't know what we want. The Father knows what we need before we ask it. But that is through prayer, that we draw closer to God, we build our relationship with Him. And there are many things that God wants to give and he will give to us through prayer. And so if he doesn't give us something, he'll give us something better. And God knows how to redirect the prayers where they need to go. So if we pray for something with great sincerity. But God knows ultimately that to grant that as we've asked, is not truly the best for everyone. He'll still give at least that level of blessing we asked for, but he'll give it in a different way. And so in this way, prayer is never wasted. And God loves hearing from you. And that can just give us peace. And also to know that if God didn't give us the thing we wanted, maybe we can remember because he loves us. And we might not understand yet, but we will at the end of time.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: I love that explanation. That's a beautiful take, really, as you said, comforting. And knowing that all prayers are purposeful, as you said, not necessarily for the purpose that you may have originally intended them, but if we're trying to help everyone be better in themselves, then whatever we pray for has the ability to help someone else.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And when we see at the end of time how God redirected those prayers, if he did, we'll be like, thanks, God. That was a good choice.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Beautiful. Interesting. The million dollar request that's not always granted, but at least once a week for someone lucky. Resident of Ontario.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah, someone's getting it.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Okay. Well, thank you for that. What a great response. I love that one.
Let's slide over to our resource of the week.
Resource. Resource. Resource. Am I on sound effects this week too?
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Let's do three, two, one. Resource. Resource. Resource.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Resource. Resource. Resource. Resource. Resource. This week's book is Bible Basics for Catholics by John Bergsma, One of the.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Dr. John Bergsmart was powered by Dr. Scott. We've got great, great authors.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: They. He didn't put the doctor, nor did Scott.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: But they're super doctors.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: But they're super doctors.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah, they're not even just regular doctors. They're super doctors.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: So Bible Basics for Catholics gives us a new picture of salvation history. It reviews God's covenantal relationship with humanity.
A great introduction if you're trying to put them all together and try to see some commonalities among them. We hear them over a longer period of time in the church, through the readings or through the maybe a Bible reading or podcast in the air. But this concisely puts them all together and allows some common threads to find out all the way from Adam to Jesus and awesome. One fun fact I didn't know that he points out is that the six covenants were all made on mountaintops. I did not know that that was a common theme for all of them.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Fascinating.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So also, it really goes into a bit of detail in explaining what a covenant is sort of beyond a promise. It's an agreement at a much, much deeper level than a palm, than a promise. So Bible Basics for Catholics from Dr. John Bergsma, hopefully coming soon to a library near you.
Well, we are into week four of Lent, Father. What words of support do you have for those of us chugging through our Lenten promises or Lenten commitments or Lenten vows or Lenten Lenten things?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Well, no matter how your Lenten observances have gone up to this point, every day is a new day.
And this is where I could probably just repeat my virtual high five sentiments from last episode. If you've been doing great, awesome. If you've not been, that's okay. Don't worry. So just, I think if you have done great, notice what made you do great. If you haven't done great, notice what made you not do great. And not in a self flagellating, beat yourself up way, but in a way of like authentic self reflection that leads you to a deeper self awareness, which itself becomes fertilizer for continued growth and fruitfulness as you continue to walk with the Lord. So no matter what, even if you've like epically failed, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God can turn a greater good out of any evil, including our sins and brokenness. Just bring whatever it is to the Lord, lay it at his feet, and ask him for light from the Holy Spirit.
And hey, we're almost. We're kind of almost done. We don't have a lot of Lent Left, right. Soon we're going to have the fifth Sunday of Lent, then we're going to have Palm Sunday, and then we're going to have Easter. So there's really only three Sundays left. And so we can kind of kind of like if you were doing a run, you might kind of like just give one last run, one last push. You can do it, you know. Exactly. Then go for that. And then at Easter you can just kind of.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Three more Sundays. Just three more Sundays.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: That's right. So hang in there and try to take the most you can out of these things, because they're not just things to check off, things to do. They're about a relationship, they're about deepening your life of faith. And we want that momentum to continue, even if things might change in some ways when Easter comes.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Love how you drop the fertilizer reference in there. Kind of a throwback to the reading a couple of weeks ago about the fig tree. Totally adding a bit more fertilizer to help the fig tree go before deciding whether you're going to send it on its way or not.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: And a little bit about the pretty pink or ravishing rose of the week from Leetari Sunday.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we just had the fourth Sunday not too long before this recording. And yeah, day to rejoice. We only get the rose pink twice a year and one Sunday of Advent, one Sunday in Lent, and they're both kind of the same type of rejoice. We're chugging along. Be uplifted.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Beautiful.
Well, there's so much happening in our community. Our parishioners can check the bulletin, which is chock full of events in a, activities for them to get involved in and things that are happening. But for everyone else or their father, what are some of the highlights of the coming weeks?
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Well, highlights include stations of the Cross, Fridays for a little bit longer at 7pm We've got our youth night coming up on Friday, April 11, our young adults night. Saturday, April 12. We've got a awesome trip to Rome coming up in May.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Wow. Six weeks.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: But even before that, we've got in April, April 30th, the Sarah Club Vocations Dinner. Amazing dinner. I really, in fact, I want to invite you right now. Just live invite you. I want to invite Lucia. I want to invite like you. Who's watching this? I'm inviting you to the Sarah Club Vocations Dinner, April 30th. Great event. I love you so much that I will even either pay your whole ticket or I'll pay part of it, depending on what you want, because I want you to come. It's going to be great.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: And check out the events on our bulletin for all more stuff that you might want to know.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: There's so much happening, and it's incredible. There's a really beautiful team working to make all these happen because none of these events happen in isolation. And who would you like to recognize this week, Father?
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Today I'm going to give a shout out to a gentleman named Graham. And Graham is a relatively new Catholic, and he is just on fire for the Lord. And he altar serves. He comes to various men's activities. He's been helping along with a group that's working on our Citadel gathering stuff and how we can continue to boost our parish's vibrancy. And he does a lot of things behind the scenes, and he's not even been a Catholic for a whole year, so he's really generous. And, yeah, I just want to say, Graham, you rock. We're proud of you. You're doing awesome stuff, and keep up the great work.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Excellent, Graham. And he's been stretching his vocal cords.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. He's been singing lately. I told him he has a great voice, and so, yeah, beautiful.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: All right, Graham, thank you for what you do and for making Father and the rest of our lives better.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Well, that is just about all the time we have for today, Father. Thank you for your insights. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we just thank you for all you're doing in our life. When we stop and count our blessings, we realize we'll never finish. We're so blessed you love us so much. You're with us right here telling us you love us, you want to bless us, continue to bless us, our families and friends, and help us on our walk ever closer to you so that we may have a foretaste of that joy that you want us to have with you forever in heaven. Bless our listeners, bless our parish, bless our podcast, and help us to continue to know your love evermore. We pray this in Jesus name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father, and thank you for continuing to remind us that we don't change God's message. His message changes us.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Thanks also to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us this week through the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels, the Apple Podcasts 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 jd, leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you were yesterday. Sa.
