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 topics related to our faith in our beautiful parish in Winona, Ontario. We are here to help spread the good news and to further unite our parish community. This is episode number 15, and we'll be talking about states, state, San Ando. How about St. Stanislaus?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: That's great. Yeah.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Back to those vocal exercises. And we'll also be suggesting a new resource that hits perfectly right now, remember, you can find us on the Spotify, Apple podcasts and the YouTube every week. So like or subscribe and we'll find your inbox every week.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: I don't know which way it is. We still haven't told.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: I think in Lent particularly we should be pointing out, but you know, and for the three days we could point down because. And anyway, what's. What's exciting with you this week, Father Greg?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: I'm here with jd. I mean, could it be more exciting?
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Wow. I don't think so.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: It's amazing. And we're getting ready for Holy Week and just lots of things going on. All good things.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some hide and seek happening in the.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: There is hide and go seek. Yeah.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Maybe a little bit on that a little later on in a few minutes.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Please do.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: I do have a quick question before we begin. This week, the Catholic Church, patron saint for just about everything. Did you know that there's a patron saint of copying people on email?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Tell me more.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: St. Francis of Assisi.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Oh, of a CC.
Like carbon copy.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Carbon copy.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: That is so cool and clever. Wow.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: That is a Father Greg quality joke right there. Coming soon to homily Assisi.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Pray. Get them to pray for your intercession, your emails. Yeah. When. Especially when you're trying to include other.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: People or not include other people.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Do I CC these people are not St Francis of Assisi pray for me.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Or do I CC the entire community?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Wow. After a joke like that, though, you better start us off with a prayer.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you for your great love, compassion and mercy. Your care, your presence. You're with us right now and you truly love us so much. Each one of us. Help us to be aware of that love, aware of your presence. Help us to continue to let you into our lives evermore, giving you permission to bless us and guide us so that we may have life to the full joy made complete union with you, which is the source of all true happiness, and also strengthens us on our journey towards heaven. So may you bless us, our listeners and all we do. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, as always, to pray for us. We pray this in Jesus name, the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Another beautiful prayer. Thank you for that.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Well, let's reveal our saint of the week. You know, each week we do feature a saint and share some facts about their lives. And as we strive to live out our lives as Catholics, we can always look to our saints for inspiration. St. Stanislaus was a Polish bishop and martyr known for his piety, leadership, and conflict with King Boleslaw ii. His reputation for holiness and eloquence led to his appointment as Bishop of Krakow in 1072. To give us a little timeline there, he was deeply committed to church reforms and protecting the poor. He opposed corruption and spoke out against injustices, including those committed by the king. The most notable conflict arose when Stanislaus publicly condemned the king's immoral actions. Sound familiar?
I think it's happened once or twice along Christian history.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Well, their dispute escalated when Stanislaus excommunicated the king, and in response, Boleslaw ordered his execution. But soldiers refused to kill the bishop, and the king reportedly struck him down himself during Mass at St. Michael's Church in Krakow. His body was dismembered, but according to legend, miraculously reassembled.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: That's pretty cool.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Today, Stanistlas is the patron saint of Poland and Krakow and celebrated for his courage in defending justice and the church's authority.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: We don't really have a quote attributable to Saint Stanislav, but a phrase connected with his beliefs. Stand firm. Injustice and truth, and prepare for battle.
Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: I think that last part I may have added, but maybe St. Senislaus. Wow.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really cool story. It's really incredible.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Well, and again, just a lot of such common themes about standing up for justice.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And obviously with our Lord, but lots of. Lots of saints like that.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: And, you know, the parallel with John the Baptist and standing up to nobility at the time and paying the ultimate price for it.
Well, it is time to ask Father Grey a question. Each week we do respond to a question submitted by a listener or one that we make up ourselves.
And this week, I was thinking about last week's Gospel and the story of the woman who was condemned because she was caught in adultery. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into condemning her So I read the story, I heard the story, I understood the words, but I didn't really grasp the trap until it was, you know, interpreted for me. You know, was he going to support Moses law, which is a serious offense against the Romans, or is he going to support Roman law and be seen as a him hypocrite by the Pharisees? So you touched a little bit on your. On your last homily, viewable on the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels and the YouTube, by the way.
You know, if I just read the narrative myself, I would have missed the significance of the trap. You know, not being a great historian, and this happens so often when I think I'm missing the context of the lesson. So, okay, where's my question in all this?
How important is grace?
Or, yeah, I guess personal grace and compassion when we're reading or hearing Bible narratives and not quite grasping the intended message?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Okay. The question is, how important is grace in grasping what the Bible gives us? Yeah. First off, we can distinguish between types of grace after we define grace. Grace is an unmerited gift given by God. That's the simple definition of grace. There's lots of types of graces.
One grace is called, and a very important grace. This is called sanctifying grace. Now, this is when God lives in your soul. So at baptism, because you have a soul with a capacity for God, at baptism, God comes to live inside you, and that living inside you is called sanctifying grace, or it's called habitual grace.
And so when you have God living inside you, you have a lot more lights from the Holy Spirit, a lot more guidance, a lot more insights. The fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active in you according to your openness to God and therefore having that state of grace, sanctifying grace, habitual grace means you're going to have more light as you read the Scriptures, more light from the Lord, which we need. We need what we will now call particular or actual graces. Those are particular individual graces that God chooses to give someone at a particular time. It could mean a light into the Scripture, could mean a light about how to make a certain decision in our life. It could mean a deeper grasping of something we already knew, but it just hits us whole more deeply and falls even more deeply into our heart.
And so now it's good to know this, that if we commit what's called a mortal sin as something seriously wrong, that I know is seriously wrong, and I freely do it, a mortal sin extinguishes sanctifying grace in our soul. So we no longer have the indwelling of the Trinity that began at baptism. But if we go to confession, then not only are all our sins forgiven, but sanctifying grace begins again.
So if we want to have the most insights into the Scriptures, we want to be in state of grace, and we want to ask for God's grace in reading the scripture. Before we read the Scripture, we say, lord, give me your grace. Help me to understand, give me the light. Now also, we have to remember that we do so in the context of the whole body of Christ, which has many, many members that have each uniquely received graces already from God. And so we share the insights we receive with one another, as Scripture says. So there are many great gifted scripture scholars or experts or saints and fathers of the church who have great insight into the Scriptures and what they mean. And so reading them could be considered a sort of grace because it helps us. But yeah, we need to use our mind. We use the gifts that God has given us, our intellect, our memory, our imagination, all the natural gifts that God has given us. But also we ask his supernatural gifts, his light from heaven, to grasp more deeply. And when we've done our best using the natural and supernatural means to understand the Scriptures, that's when we'll get the most out of it. So using whether it's videos or commentaries or books or just talking about it with friends, God will also enlighten us through that as well.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: And sometimes also just having to sit with a message for a while.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Totally. Yeah.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Having it resonate or stepping away from it and coming back and maybe rereading.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Or depends on where we're at in our life too. Sometimes based on our own life circumstances, certain part of scripture will kind of be unlocked for us.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. One of the parables has stumps me annually. It's the parable of the talents.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: And I think by the number of times I've heard it now, I should really be not surprised at the end at the reaction. But it's happened over a number of years. It's okay. What's the reaction? Oh, obviously this one did well and this one did well and. And I'd been surprised at the end, but I finally have had a resonance with the message and why it's important to use our talents for the most good and not just hide them and give them back as is. So there's just one example of something that can be interpreted in a number of different ways and to find someone who is gifted enough to explain or to outlay so I'm very grateful for your interpretations every, every week of, of the current readings. And Mike Schmitz as well provides good.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Good commentary, especially with a Bible linear podcast.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Other other modern day writers that you would profess to or not profess to, but you know, support.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think anything by Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. John Bergsma, anyone from the St. Paul center for Biblical Theology. Very, very Good, very solid. Dr. Edward Sri, you know, anyone with Ascension presents is very good.
Yeah, that's what comes to mind. There's lots of great stuff out there. There's lots of like, depends on if you want like more heavy duty Bible commentaries. Like there's, there's various great Catholic commentaries in the var Bible commentary or they're just. I forget what it's called exactly, but it's like the Catholic commentary on Sacred Scripture. Yeah, there's lots of, lots of those types of things too.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Oh, fantastic. That kind of leads us right into our resource of the week by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Resource, resource, resource, resource.
This anthology is called the Cries of Jesus from the Cross. And so it presents the seven last words from Jesus on the cross and a summary of Archbishop Sheen's writings on, on each one. And it's, it's really brilliantly organized.
So of course the seven words of Jesus. So it's organized into seven chapters, each devoted to one of the words.
And each chapter is devoted in or broken down into seven sections. And if you read them in, you can read them randomly, you can read them start to finish, but also they've hidden in. If you read, for example, the fourth reflection from each chapter, you will have read Sheen's Victory over Vice.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Oh, nice. That's good.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: And if you read the third reflection from each chapter, you will have read the Rainbow of Sorrow.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: So it's kind of like multiple books in one.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: That's good. That's why they call it an anthology, I guess. Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to be lame.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Father language person.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Sorry, sorry.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: That was good. So, yes, the Cries of Jesus from the Cross so available wherever all good Christian books are sold.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: It's a good. Yeah, it's very good book. Al Smith. I know Al Smith personally, who assembled it. It's very, very good. Very good book.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: And you can't go wrong with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He's amazing.
Yeah.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: And, and his words resonate perfectly even today.
All right, well, we are in week five of Lent, as mentioned. We got a little bit of hide and seek happening in the church. Palm Sunday is imminent.
Tell us a Little bit about this week, Father.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Sure. Okay. You made reference earlier to, I think, asking, like, why are some of the things covered in the church just by the way you said hide and seek there? So it's been a very long standing thing that beginning the fifth Sunday of Lent, we would veil statues and images in the church, just as a way of kind of temporarily denying ourselves the pleasure, the joy of seeing them. It's a bit of another Lenten kind of practice. And so now you might say, why do we wait until the fifth Sunday of Lent? Like we've already been Lent all along. Like, why don't we just do it at the beginning?
We could say in the last two weeks of Lent, where we're kind of going extra hard in Lent, we're really going to finish the home stretch with extra finesse, extra effort. And the last two weeks of Lent have been traditionally called Passion Tide. So that's within Lent. And so, in fact, the preface at Mass changes right after the fifth Sunday of Lent. It's a preface. It's always about the passion of Christ and Christ crucified. And so it's kind of like we're right there now, getting to the cross, and we're really up close. And so we do this extra thing to deny ourselves the pleasure of seeing the beauty.
But then we will, of course, unveil it again on Easter. So now, before Vatican ii, I don't think it was optional, but now it's optional. But it's still noted in the missal that it can be done beginning fifth Sunday of Lent. And given that the church has preserved that, I think many would read into that, that it's still an encouragement while not being forced to be done.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it just. It adds a sense of mystery as well.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: It's true.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And then when you see that much more purple, you're reminded about your own prayer, fasting, almsgiving. And also it'll again be a reminder for our own fasting. Not just visual fasting, but whatever fasting we're doing. And that much more we'll enjoy when we come back at Easter vigil or Easter Sunday and we say, oh, yeah, man, the church looks so beautiful.
It's one more way in which we are no longer experiencing the same passion. Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: And I love how you inserted that into your comments through the Mass that, you know, you may have noticed because, yes, obviously, everyone notice. Everyone will notice.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: They don't notice. Then you need to help them out.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: But. But also the purpose. Why. And so it's not just a, you know, another mystery or thing that we're just going along with because we're told to go along with.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Right, Exactly.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: You get a little bit of background.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Everything in the church has such a beautiful why about it that I feel like we've lost a lot. Like, even myself, being a formerly atheist, I knew, like, nothing. Right. So. But then the more you learn, you're like, that's really fascinating. It's really thought provoking. It really takes you deeper into your faith. Oh, that's why we do it.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: And week by week, I hope we can bring some of those answers to. To our parishioners and all of our friends out there.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Amen.
Oh, yeah. Palm Sunday. You asked about Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday we'll just throw out there. Obviously, Palm Sunday is reliving the. The kind of biblical narrative of the palms being cast down before the king. And we walk in a bit of a procession too. And there's the Passion narrative is sung. And so, in fact, previously there used to be Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday and they were distinct.
Now they've kind of been collapsed into one Sunday, which means that now we kind of have Passion or Palm Sunday in the same day. So we have to put the palms and we have the reading of the Passion, which we'll do something similar again on Good Friday.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Excellent.
Well, there is so much happy in our community.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: The.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: The bulletin is chock full of activities and events, things to get involved in our church. Parishioners obviously can pick up a bulletin or check us out online, but for everyone else out there, what are some things that are highlights in the coming weeks?
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we are so blessed. Our parish has so much going on. And so, I mean, this upcoming Friday, we've got our monthly youth night. Excited for that. Also Saturday, our monthly young adults night. It's really exciting. We usually have almost 30, around 30 young adults every month. It's really exciting to see. This is so much fun.
And then, of course, we've got Holy Week starting up. I mean, that's a lot already right there. We've got our family catechism program this Sunday as well. Men's Recollection this upcoming Monday for the men to have that extra time to pray and go deeper with the Lord.
I've got tons of appointments and meetings with lots of people, but that's always fun in a good way. And then, yeah, the triduum. Right. The three days begins with Holy Thursday. Very exciting. I'm just doing a lot of stuff to get that ready.
Yeah, I'll say. That's enough for now.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: So for anyone who really wants to deepen their faith, there's so many different opportunities for range of ages, you know, range of entry points to 100%.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah. No matter what your story is, what age you're at, what part of your faith life you're in, like, we have lots to nourish your faith.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Okay. And a great starting point would be, hey, check us out every week and log in and have a little bit of a listen and gradually build into your faith and growing in your love of Jesus and the Lord. Yeah, well, all of these great things don't happen in isolation. They all require an active volunteer and somebody to. To spearhead.
Who would you like to recognize this week in our parish?
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Good question. I want to recognize.
I'm going to choose Marie.
Marie. She's actually. She just recently had a knee surgery, so she's kind of recovering right now. But she does so much work behind the scenes setting up for masses and liturgies, and when funerals and stuff like that come up, she's there. And so I want to give her a shout out because first off, she's done so much for our parish. Secondly, she's probably having to, like, feel that, like, oh, I wish I could do more right now, but I'm recovering. So shout out to you. You're awesome. Thanks for your prayers and support. We look forward to when you are back in full action.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Beautiful. Thank you, Marie, for all that you do to help support us and help support Father. And we hope to have you back really soon. Mm.
Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your insights this week, Father. They've been beautiful. Let's close with a prayer.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we just thank you for your love and mercy. We just ask that you would again fill us with your Holy Spirit, inspire us and all we do. Set our parish, our families, our friends, on fire with your love, with your peace. Just lighten our way. Help us to be bold like Saint Stanislaus. Help us to prepare for Holy Week. Well, help us to put you at the center of our life, Lord, and thereby find the greatest joy that we can possibly have in this life. May bless our listeners and guide us in all we do. We pray this in Jesus name. Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Thank you for that nice little tie in with St. Stanislaus.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Well done.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Thanks, bro.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Well, thank you for continuing to remind us too. That man's ways leads to a hopeless end, but God's ways lead to endless hope.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Nice. That's clever.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: And 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, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or the YouTube. And 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.
