Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] 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 spread the good news and to further unite our parish community.
After we break, probably Winona's best Catholic podcast returns with episode number 28.
We are celebrating the Feast of the transfiguration today and St. Dominic and I want to ask you about praying in different languages.
Remember, you can find us on the Spotify, the Apple podcasts, and the YouTube every week. So please like or subscribe and we will find your inbox every week.
How are you doing, Father? How's your week so far?
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Life is great. Living the dream.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Oh, wow, that's great. You have many great dreams.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Almost. Almost like St. Joseph quality dreams.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Maybe. I don't think I'd really compare to St. Joseph's dreams, but because he had an angel showed up in his dream. But I mean, I have had some pretty powerful dreams for sure.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: And that. That. Do they guide you to action too?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Most of the time my dreams are random and have nothing to do with regular real life.
Just like most people's dreams.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: One thing I read recently was that sleep, dreams, Dreams are there to instruct us, but they speak to us in not in daytime language.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: That's right. Sometimes that's true. I mean, dreams are always from God, the enemy, or just your subconscious. I think the last is the most common source. So I think we got a little.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Summary of your entire educational background in that.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Oh, because. And also because you have psychology. I major in psychology. So we talk about how dreams. There's a theory of dreams that it's most of the time your subconscious trying to work out understanding things and process things.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Okay, excellent.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: And if you're thinking about something a lot, then you're likely to dream about it.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: And so layers and layers upon layers.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Beautiful.
I have a quick question before we begin.
Weekly homilies. Love the homily summaries.
Really helps keep us on track. And it's a great opportunity to review midweek of what the important messages and how you shared. Would you say that your weekly homilies have mass appeal?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: I think they have mass appeal with capital M, but not small M. Oh, okay, okay.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: I beg to differ. I think I'm going with both M's. I would call it the mass appeal.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Let's go with that.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: I'll take it.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: That is a Father Greg quality joke right there. After that, you better Start us off with a prayer. Sure.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: 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 just right here and in this moment, we know that you are with us wherever we are. Not just us here, but those who listen and watch this podcast. Lord, you're with us. You love us, you care for us. And we just lift up any burdens, struggles, anxieties we might be carrying. And we open our hearts to you, to your presence, and we give you permission to work in our lives. Because you know us more than we could ever love ourselves. And you know us best. You want what's best for us. So just guide us. Guide our podcast, guide all of us. Guide our parish.
And we ask that through the intercession of Mary, we may always be on the path of her son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Thank you, Father.
Well, let's begin by revealing our saint of the week. As you know, each week we reveal a saint or several and share some stories about their lives. As we try to live out our mission as Catholics, we can always look to our saints for inspiration.
So this week, we focus on St. Dominic. For founder of the Dominican order, whose mission is centered on preaching, teaching, and the pursuit of truth and throwing a cool Latin word veritas in bringing souls to God.
St. Dominic played a vital role in the renewal of the Catholic church in the 13th century. He was committed to preaching poverty and education, and he combated heresies like, oh, here we go. Albigensianism, which, if I remember correctly, is sort of Old Testament God versus New Testament God. And considering fighting that they're not two different gods, but there is still only one God. But he fought against this with truth and compassion. And he emphasized the importance of study and formed an order of preachers who live simply and travel to spread the gospel.
So his legacy includes something that's dear to our hearts here, devotion to the rosary and fostering intellectual and spiritual growth in the church.
So his life of humility, zeal, and unwavering faith continues to inspire generations of clergy, scholars, and lay people around the world. And he's the patron saint of John Vianney's. A patron saint of priests. That was earlier research. Sorry about that.
And a quote. Arm yourself with prayer rather than a sword and wear humility rather than fine clothes.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Amen. There we go.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: And I love this one as well. I can't do big things, but I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Amen. That's the right approach, eh?
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's sort of a common theme that's really woven through many of our quotes that we've had. So, you know, doing everything in the spirit of God.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Amen. Exactly.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: And I believe the third quote, just to throw a third one in here, Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: I had a feeling you were going to use that one.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: That one comes up.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: How could he not have said that?
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, no kidding.
Oh, wow. All right, it is time for Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or one that I make up myself and ask for Father Greg's interpretation or a witty answer to it. So this week, actually going to combine it with the resource of the week.
Just back from a trip through Italy and attended many beautiful churches in Porto San Giorgio, in Sora and in Rome, and so collected a number of beautiful prayer cards.
Also prayed at the tomb of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: And just some amazingly beautiful prayer cards. Actually, the one I was going to focus on is Miraculosa Imagine del Adolatra, which is Our lady of Sorrows.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Oh, okay. The miraculous image of Our lady of Sorrows in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sora.
Okay.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: And so these, of course, obtain in Italy, have Italian prayers on the back.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: And so my question, getting around to the question, we're overlapping the question with the resource.
If I read the prayer in Italian while not fully understanding what I'm reading, does it still count?
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Great question. It counts. But we could say prayers can be on a continuum of being, let's say, the most full expression of our being, reaching out to God. More like more or less of that. So Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. So we can say that our prayer more and more as we grow in holiness, engages our whole being.
Our mind, our heart, our body, our soul. Right. So we even pray with our body when we, like, genuflect or we kneel or we stand. Those are forms of praying with our body, loving God with our body.
And likewise, in terms of prayer, yeah, we could physically say the words, our body is praying and our heart is praying. We don't maybe fully understand the exact meaning of, for example, these Italian words, but we know that the heart of them will always be God. I want to be close to you and I want your will in my life. Right. And so, yeah, you could say These words, I could pray sotto la tua protezione noi cart chiamo refugio santa matre dio. Okay. And maybe I know to some degree what that means, but maybe I'm not an expert in the meaning of every word.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: The Lord would know my heart. And so, yeah, it counts, for sure. But the church has also long reinforced what it calls active participation. And you hear that a lot when it comes to Mass, the idea that not just that we need to be physically doing stuff, but that our whole being is involved. Like, okay, when the mass is happening, our mind is locked in on the meaning of what's happening. My heart is really invested in each part of the Mass.
And that's not perceptible. That's actually interior participation. And that active participation is the primary way in which we participate in the Mass and in prayer in general. Which means I can say this prayer. And yeah, the Lord understands it, and he knows. And he knows I just mean the prayer, and I want to have him work in my life.
But if I were to pray it in my own language, where my mind grasps more keenly the concepts, then I can part participate a little bit more fully in that prayer with my mind, which is that much more of my whole personhood participating in the prayer, which might be even more ideal if I get to choose between the two.
But if I'm learning Italian and I want to pray these prayers as a way of me both praying and learning, that's fine, too. Does that make sense?
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Totally makes sense. And the next step then would be attending a Mass that's in Italian.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: And the beauty of the universe, universality of the church is that, you know, the show flow, you know what's coming up, you know exactly what prayer it is.
They produce these beautiful bulletins that have all of the prayers listed in them as well. So you can sort of read along in Italian. Yeah, and sometimes I'll do that, but sometimes I'll default to English. But I have to kind of close my eyes to kind of tune out extra sensory stuff. Because I find it sometimes hard to say a prayer in English while hearing Italian in my ears.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good example as well, that we can just apply what we said and say for Mass too. Like, if. If we're at Mass in Italian, we don't really know Italian well. Or it could be any language. Yeah. Thankfully, like you said, we know if we go to Mass regularly, we know the flow. So we know. Okay. We don't know the exact Words we know the priest is inviting us to call to mind our sins and just talk to the Lord in our heart and tell him we're sorry for xyz, things that maybe we're most aware of that wasn't probably part of his plan. And then during the Gloria, okay, maybe we don't know the exact song or the words, but we, but we can still in our heart be praising the Lord for maybe the things that we're most excited about lately that the Lord is doing in my life or just praising the Lord for who he is. I can turn that into my own personal prayer, which is the goal of the liturgy, is that although each of us is doing the same thing, expressed physically and audibly, interiorly, as much as is possible, we try to personalize the prayer so that becomes a living prayer. And that's really fullness of active participation in that concrete moment. So whether it's each part of the Mass of those ones or the collect, or even the readings, we might not fully understand, but we might at that time at least talk to the Lord in our heart or reflect on the scriptures that most mean something to us in that moment. Again, each part of the Mass, thankfully, a lot of it's the same. So, okay, I know that this is the Holy, Holy, Holy, and this is the Lamb of God, and I know that Jesus is in Holy Communion and I know what a final blessing is. And so even though we might not understand each word, we understand the general idea. And so our heart can still very much participate in that and do a.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Little pre dive into the English readings before Mass to know what's happening.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: And then that's a great idea.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: When the priest delivers his homily. Think of, okay, what would Father Greg be saying right now?
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Or like even better preachers.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: And surprisingly so the chanting and the singing in Italian, a lot less Latin than here.
Interesting then. That was interesting. I was expecting a bit more Latin, but.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Right. Well, I'm a fan of. I don't think it's a secret that I'm a fan of Latin, but the biggest reason I am is because in Vatican II it says that all the lay people should know all the Mass parts in Latin. I mean, most people don't know that and.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Oh boy. Well, you heard it here first.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Maybe not, but I don't know.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: But it's in Sacro Sanctum Concilium, which is the Vatican II document on the liturgy. And so it's, it's really. I think there's something also important. Just if I'm on this topic. I'll mention how in Jesus time, the Jews did their worship in Hebrew, but they did other things in Aramaic. Right. So they had a language that was just for worshiping God. And so for many, many, many centuries, that language for us in the Roman Catholic Church was the Latin language. And I still think that even today. Like, I mean, at first, some people can get a little intimidated by that, but once you move past that, then you can start to appreciate the beauty of having a language that's just for sacred things and how that itself can be an assistance in getting into a sacred thing mindset.
And so, yeah, I'm not saying that everything needs to be in Latin, but I'm just saying that the Church definitely says in Vatican II that Latin's still supposed to use, but it's not.
There's a little bit of freedom there. So. Yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: And we just kind of jump right back to Mass in a different language, like singing some of the chants in Latin. I'm not really sure what these individual words are, but I know what they are.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Right. That's right.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Following along.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that can be for sure. But also the good news is they don't change. Like, most of the Mass is the same every time. So, I mean, once you realize what Sanctus Sanctu Sanctus means, you're probably good for a while.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Same with Agnew's Day. Like, or if a whole Mass was in Latin, for example, you'd probably figure out what in Nominee Patris et Fili Espiritu Sancti meant. So most of it doesn't change much, which.
Which means that even if at first there's a bit of a learning curve for any language of Mass, the more you go, the more you get a little bit more used to the fact that, yeah, I do know all those parts already.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And praise again, the universality of the Mass celebrated around the world.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Beautiful. Wow, that was fantastic.
Okay. As we look at our church calendar now, we are celebrating the Transfiguration today.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: What a beautiful feast.
Dr. Tim Gray from Formed and the Amen Apt tied them all together beautifully through this great mystery. And connected all the readings, including Peter's eyewitness testimony. What a powerful message that was.
What is your biggest takeaway from the Transfiguration?
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Good question.
So this morning in my homily, I mentioned about one thing that I noticed is that it's clear that this happens right after Jesus predicts his passion and tells the disciples he's going to die. Right. And they're still not really understanding what that means. But in order to strengthen them for that journey, that he will go to the cross so that their faith is strong. He allows them to glimpse his own divinity. In the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, where they see him with Moses and Elijah and they see like, this guy is God, like he's. He's shining, his clothes become dazzling white, and there's so much there. But also you see that Peter later on writes about that experience.
And we can just imagine how Peter remembered that for the rest of his life and whether it was right when the Lord died, but also maybe later struggles in his life. He could always go back to that moment and be strengthened in his faith by that memory. And how we're called to think of, like, when did we have our transfiguration, Mountaintop prayer experiences that strengthen us for those moments that are harder. What are the top, most powerful experiences of God's presence and blessing in our lives? And how can we be like Peter and go back to that memory and let it strengthen us? Maybe when we're having a struggle?
[00:15:19] Speaker A: And there's so many things in the story, you know, not telling people about it until.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Until later on after the resurrection.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
It's just amazing and a fascinating story. Now, Dr. Gray also threw in a little subplot that Moses always wanted to see the Promised Land, and he died before he was able to get there. And this was his opportunity to be in the Promised Land.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So what I also really love about this and especially the account we read from today, it says how Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about his departure, but more literal word is Exodus.
So that they're talking about Jesus Exodus, which is like the New Testament fulfillment of what the Old Testament Exodus was foreshadowing. Right. The Old Testament Exodus is Moses leading the Israelites out of the slavery in Egypt to the Promised land, freeing them from Pharaoh. The New Testament exodus that Jesus is about to accomplish through his passion is setting all the people of God free from the slavery to sin, subject to the evil one. And he's about to set them free, which will be through the waters of baptism, etc. The water that flows from the side of, you know, his side on the cross. So it's so fascinating that. Right. Very explicitly, it kind of points that Jesus again, in one more way, is the new Moses accomplishing a new Exodus, fulfilling, giving us a new Passover, which is the mass where we have the New Lamb of God, not just the Old Lamb of sacrifice. So It's. It's really fascinating to see all those Old Testament parallels being very explicit in the New Testament.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Beautiful. Speaking of the Lamb of God, we were in the Minor Basilica of San Clemente and very powerful sheep and lamb imagery on the carvings around the altar. And that's a church that goes back to the first century bc.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: That's cool as well.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: So incredible. Lots of tie inside.
All right, thank you for that, Father.
And so let's look at what's coming up at the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I mean, there's so much happening in our community.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Our parishioners can check out the bulletin every week. But for those who.
Everyone else out there who don't consult our bulletin because they're not part of our community immediately, what are the highlights in the coming weeks?
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Well, I'm excited for. Hopefully, God willing, within a few weeks we'll have our brand new website, which we're hoping to have a list of all our parish groups and, like, how to get involved and what they do.
Hoping that's coming soon. We're just kind of fine tuning some of the things there this upcoming weekend. We've got our next young adults group on Saturday night. And so Father Mark Morley, our vocation director, will be here for that.
As usual, I just have a ton of appointments with people, which is, like, not very newsworthy, I guess, for people. But in case you find that interesting to know, I'm going to a certain person's place for dinner. His name is JD Wow. Actually, it's you.
Yeah. But we can't invite the whole parish to that. That might be a little bit bigger than your home can handle.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: So we'll have. Well, we can fit them in anywhere.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Wow. You heard it here first. You're invited.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: And so it'll be a wonderful gathering. We'll have the president of the St. Vincent de Paul.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Oh, yes, that's rain.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: We'll be in a.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm so excited for that.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: And our amazing seminarians are joining us as well.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: That's right. That's gonna be fun. Then on Monday, we have our monthly men's recollection. Fun fact, in case you find this interesting to know.
Father Greg also goes to the dentist. So I'll go to the dentist on Monday. Father Greg uses his day off to go to the dentist. Just so you know.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: And sometimes medical appointments as well.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Like Father Greg's got to do what you guys do, too.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Gotta check under the hood, make sure.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Everything'S still working Indeed, Indeed.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Fill all the conditions of the warranty.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: This is true. This is true. Then I'm saying Mass on Tuesday at Holy Sepulchre, where Sal's working right now. So he'll see me there in Burlington.
So.
And then, fun fact, I guess on the assumption, August 15th, the we'll have a 7pm Mass, a bonus 7pm Mass, in addition to the 9am Just because it's a solemnity, it's a special day. And on August 17, I'm going to be filling in to St. Ann's downtown Hamilton, doing 8am, 10am and noon mass there.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Okay. So let's all head down.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: There we go. Come on. To August 17, St. Anne's if you want to come. If you want the most fun Mass, come to the noon Mass.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Okay. And go to the noon mass. Hang out on the right hand side. So we'll be all together.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: And then we can chant very loudly at the appropriate places.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Totally. 100%. Then I'm going on an annual cottage trip with some priests. It's really my only annual vacation. So that's also coming up in a bit.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Wow. All right.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: That's not a lot of, like, parish events, per se. That's just random things that I figure you might be curious about. The more randomness, maybe the more interesting.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: The life of Father G. Reg unfolded here.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: For the.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: You want to know the real Father Greg, not just the one you see all the time.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: And so your dentist appointment is this coming Monday?
[00:20:06] Speaker B: Very excitingly, yes.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So we can talk about that next week.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Wow, those teeth. I can't believe how burntly white they are. Wow. Like, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for podcast material when we're talking about my dentist.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: They may be doing a little bit of scraping for you as well there.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: That might be.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Well, a lot of those are Father Greg center. But all the other events that you mentioned, too, they're all as a result of the great work of people doing it, you know, Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Who would you like to recognize?
[00:20:34] Speaker B: I would like to recognize a really cool seminarian. His name is Salvatore Parise. In fact, he's right here. I'm going to invite him to roll into the. The shot, and I'm going to let him share anything about himself, maybe his time here for the summer, what he's experiencing, maybe whatever he wants to share.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: Well, thank you very.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Much.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Thank you very much. Well, it's a pleasure to be on the podcast with you guys.
I enjoy listening on My own time to you guys speak. So, yeah, I had the pleasure of, or still have the pleasure of staying with Father Greg and seminary in Giuseppe here for the summer.
It's been very, very nice spending time learning.
I think that's the. The biggest thing that's beneficial for me this summer was learning from Father Greg and watching everything that he does and trying to be the best person that I can be.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: You know, developing my prayer life, getting ready for seminary.
Yeah, I've. I've enjoyed it very much.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: And you're starting seminary, you're moving in very soon?
[00:21:48] Speaker C: Yes, the 24th of August.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: That's just. That's under three weeks. I know. And so do you have some back to seminary shopping to do?
[00:21:59] Speaker C: You know what? I don't know.
We'll find that out soon.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: It should be sometime soon. They'll be setting out a list of materials, how many binders, what kind of paper you'll be needing, and journals and things like that.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Excellent.
Oh, that's super. Well, yeah, awesome.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: To give the special shout out to Sally. There we go. Sal, it's great to have you here. We're very blessed to have him here. Yes. You can still say you don't have to roll too far away.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: You can sit.
You can sit and finish off with us.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sure.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. And thank you for your insights, Father Sal. Great to chat with you here today, Father. Shall we close with the prayer?
[00:22:32] 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 this time and all your many blessings on each one of us and our parish community. May you just continue to rain down your blessings upon us. And we just continue to give you permission, Lord, to bless us, to guide us, to lead us. We pray this in Jesus. Name the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father. And thank you for your insights today.
And thank you also for shepherding us through today's episode. You've truly kept us on the right path.
See, he doesn't rit.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Rit.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: I know. See?
Oh, good. Goodness gracious. Anyway, 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 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. Let them discern for themselves. Have a Great week, everyone. We are Father Greg and JD And Sal, leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you were yesterday.
