Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, it's welcome to the Immaculate. Oh, he's awake. Okay.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, I am tired. You said it's not the real deal yet, is it?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: It was.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Keep going, Keep going.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Podcast with Father Greg and J.D. winon is the number one Catholic podcast. 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 further unite our parish community.
This is episode number 32. We are celebrating the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary, St. John Chrysostom. And I want to ask you about.
What did I want to ask you?
I was going to ask you about anxiety, but maybe we'll put that off to you next week, because I think we have a call.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: I feel more relaxed already.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Not your own anxiety because you're as calm as a cucumber.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: This is true.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: And today we welcome Lexi to our studio audience. Welcome, Lexi. Thank you for joining us today.
Remember, everyone, you can find us on the Spotify, the Apple podcasts, and the YouTube every week. So please like or subscribe. It's right here. It's right there.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, We've got the new strategy.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Like or subscribe. And we will find your inbox each week.
I do have a quick question before we begin, and it actually relates to this week's topic.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Okay, so Mary gave birth to Jesus.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: And Jesus is the Lamb of God.
Then did Mary have a little lamb?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Yes, indeed.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Wow, that's very good. That's a Father Greg quality joke right there. And a very succinct answer.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that might be part of why that song is a song.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: You know, you could be right.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Well done.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: That is a Father Quality Greg joke coming to a homily near you very soon after that. You better start us off with it.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you for this day and all your many blessings. And we just pause to take a step back and be aware of your presence here with us right now, wherever we are, knowing that you're with us, you love us, you care for us, and you are indeed walking with us, holding us by the hand through all the ups and downs of life. We ask that you bless us and all those who watch and listen and draw everyone closer to you. We pray that you would bless our time today. And we pray this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father.
Before we get into our regular feature of Saint of the Week, I just want to touch base on a topic we mentioned last week. It was about prayer and spirituality and sometimes prayer life doesn't go so well and it's a bit. Feels kind of bit slow and it feels like an effort. And I bring it up just because yet again, I've had an occurrence where something that I'm reading offline or online parallels a conversation we've had or something that's immediately happened that day. And it was in the Franciscan media email today where they talked about prayer having an ebb and flow. And I think it's something that I regularly have to wrap my head around that it's not always going to be an upward trajectory and positive and great. You know, sometimes when we're praying, we like to walk on water, but sometimes we sink like a stone. You know, sometimes it's a. We get a deep sense of God and sometimes we can't even wrap our head around God existing. So it's, you know, the fact that trying to continue to pray through all those times, times is so important to just keep going, you know, wherever we are, God is waiting for us regardless.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: The parallels that are occurring are really mind blowing.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: And as the chopper's landing, bringing in all the.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: I don't know if they can hear it, but there's a lawnmower right outside our window. But there we go.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: I like that.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: And there was one other occurrence that happened this week where in the book that we reviewed earlier on Jesus Calling, I had done a bunch of reading inside in the morning because it was 9 degrees and not quite ready to go outside and do some reading and some time for prayer. But when I did go, the first thing I read was Jesus calling. In the very first sentence was talking about being bathed in Jesus warmth in the light of his warmth.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: That's what we want.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: And the fact that that was the first sentence that I read as soon as I sat outside of the sun just struck me like these things are no longer, ah, what a coincidence that they feel really more purposefully directed towards me. It's just that kind of a.
Kind of a woo moment of God.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Is always speaking to us. If we're attentive, we just have to keep our eyes open.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: I think my weekly conversations with you are helping me be a bit more attentive.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So praise God.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Thank you for that.
All right, well, let's reveal our Saint of the Week. Each week we feature a Saint or several, and share some facts about their lives. As we strive to live out our mission as Catholics, we can always look to our Saints for inspiration.
St. John Chrysostom was a renowned early church father, known for his eloquent preaching, earning the title Golden Mouthed as Archbishop of Constantinople. He emphasized moral reform, charity, and he criticized corruption and wealth among the elite. His many homilies interpreted scripture clearly for everyday Christians.
He was a strong opponent of heresies, of course, and an advocate for the poor. And his boldness led to his exile and death.
He remains a major theological and liturgical figure, and he's honored in both Eastern and Western Christianity and is celebrated as a doctor of the Church.
He is the patron saint of preachers and orators, theologians and pastors, Saint of Constantinople and also epilepsy sufferers.
So in researching some quotes, here's some good ones for him.
First is about charity and justice.
Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead.
So really emphasizing caring for the poor and also on the power of the Church. This was really profound. The Church is a hospital, not a courtroom. She does not condemn, she heals.
That was the profoundness of that. Because people will often think of the Church as being a condemning place or a guilt ridden place. Right. And really, it's a place to come for healing.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: That's right. And if the church ever does say something is not good, it's not to condemn, it's to heal.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: It's to protect and to guide and to lead into.
Into a better place.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: And third quote, jesus, I trust in you.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: So, yeah, that checks out.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Well, let's roll on to ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or a question that we make up ourselves. And we are so excited that we had a question said into us this week.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: That's right.
That's right. So thank you to Chantelle for submitting a question on her Instagram, which is great. So I'm going to read the question.
When baptizing a child, can you pick your brothers from both sides, mother and father, to be godfathers for your child, or does it have to be both a man and a woman?
And she says that she was born Catholic, she's seen different things, and she was wondering what's kind of allowed there. So it's a great question.
So basically I'm gonna just quote from the Code of Canon Law, which is gonna answer this question about godparents. First off, this is canon 872. Canon law is like how things work in The Church. In fact, it's the oldest law in the West. Actually, it's canon law.
And so it says, insofar as possible, a person being baptized is to be assigned a sponsor or godparent. They're the same thing.
In the case of adult baptism, the sponsor's role is to assist the person in Christian initiation.
In the case of an infant baptism, the role is together with the parents to present the child for baptism and to help it to live a Christian life befitting the baptized and faithfully to fulfill the duties inherent in baptism. So the purpose of a godparent is really to help that person follow Jesus. That's really. When you're choosing a godparent, you want to ask, who do I think will, for the long haul, be the best positive impact on my child to bring them closer to Jesus, keep them strong in their Faith?
Okay. Canon 873 says, One sponsor, male or female, is sufficient, but there may be two, one of each sex. So you can have a male or a female or both, but you're not allowed to have two males and two females. Because I think in the wisdom of the Church, there's something profound about having a male and a female figure. We know that just from science, there is a difference. They each have their tendencies to offer support in a different way, and I think that's a good thing. And the Church seems to have picked up on that. And that's been the law of the Church for many, many centuries.
Just in case you're wondering what happens if you can't find a sponsor godparent, that's okay. It's not mandatory. It's just strongly encouraged because we want to have the most support for that child. And so maybe just lastly, we'll Note this. Canon 874. It says, to be a sponsor godparent, that person must be either appointed by the candidate for baptism, if it's an adult, or by the parents.
They have to be 16 or older. They have to be fully initiated member of the Catholic faith. That means they've been baptized, had their first Holy Communion, and been confirmed, and they can't be the parent of the one to be baptized. So there you go.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Okay, fascinating points.
A couple supplementary questions I'm going to ask.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Great.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Canon law, same as the ccc.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: CCC is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is also important. It, like, summarizes what we believe is Catholics. And then canon law is more like the.
The. The way things work in the Church. But it's not. It's not Dry. You might think law is boring. It's actually really profound.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: And so they're not exclusive. There's a lot of tie in.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: They would be overlapping, like the catechism and the code of everything in the Catholic Church is all kind of one integrated system.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. All right, interesting.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: That might be a fruit for further conversation, too.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: And when you mentioned law, and you also said that you don't have to have a sponsor, maybe think of courtrooms, you know, if you don't have a sponsor, but one could be provided for.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: You, like a lawyer or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's helpful. It's really important. But I think today, people, they often choose godparents just because, like, well, maybe they made me their parents or they made me their kids godparents. So I guess I owe them that back. And I think that, okay, there's nothing wrong if that happens, but I think the real question is who will be the best impact?
And sometimes maybe our siblings aren't going to church, aren't praying, or aren't reading the Bible.
And the question is, is that really someone who I think is going to be the best positive Christian impact on my child? And sometimes it could be someone totally that we're not related to, that we know, that would actually be willing to be and would be a great godparent. So it's important to ask the Holy Spirit to help you to remember what the purpose of a godparent is.
Sometimes people think a godparent is someone who takes over the child if you die. That's like an older idea, but that's not really the church's law at all.
So it's really about what will best help them in their spiritual life.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: So getting away from thinking of it as a symbolic title and trying to really instill it as a practical title for somebody who's really going to be there to support.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: That's right. The purpose of godparenting is to parent them spiritually.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: Okay. All right.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: That's a lot of. That's a lot to think about.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: And a really significant job in the eyes of the church.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. In fact, fun fact, before the 1983 Code of Canon Law, priests were not allowed to be godparents for.
And the reason was because priests get moved around. And so the priests would not be able to be definitely sure they would be in the life of that child for In a serious way, which would prohibit them from actually living at what the godparent is supposed to be. So to protect the people from having Bad godparents. They actually stopped priests from being godparents lest it might be kind of cool, but not really actually what we're supposed to have in practice. It's very thought provoking.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: So yeah, it could potentially set up a, an environment where there's an absentee godparent.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Exactly. Now, now priests are allowed to be godparents. I have, I have a couple God children and I'm a sponsor.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: 47 Godchilds.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah, no, actually you'd be surprised.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: You've got all of us.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of spiritual children, but in terms of like formal godparents, I'm not that for a lot of people, just a few.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Wow, that's interesting because you, you know, you think of the, the stress between sometimes parents having to select. You don't think.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they get a lot of.
There's a lot of stress. In fact, parents often feel pressured to choose certain people and I think that they have to really pray about that and say, are they choosing this person out of being pressured or feeling stressed or are they choosing it for the spiritual well being of the child?
[00:13:36] Speaker C: All right.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Oh, very good. Wow, there's a lot there.
Okay, so we are time for a resource of the week. And we're kind of working our way through the examiner.
And I gotta say, we've looked at the first three steps of the examine and today we're supposed to look at asking forgiveness and renewal. So we're kind of cycling through our day in a detailed way.
And I think rather than explain that one, I need to ask for advice because, you know, as we're trying to do the examine and go through a detailed accounting of our day, I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast sometimes. And so how do you do that? I feel a little bit of a spiritual struggle to, to try to review.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: The day when you can't remember what the day looked like.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: If people ask, how was your weekend?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: It was great.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: I'm here, so looks like it could.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Have been pretty good.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: You know, there was a great joke at the homily this weekend and everything was wonderful and here I am. So what can you give advice about trying to do the recall of the day?
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Great question. Yes. Part of the examine again is to look back over the day with the Lord, reflect, where was the Lord in that day?
And I think it does just kind of force us to develop our memory just on a natural level, like to be more attentive to what we do. But also what I personally do, which I'M not telling you to do, but case is helpful. Is like earlier in the day, I plan out and I asked Holy Spirit to help me. What is the best way this day could go? What's the most efficient, fruitful, productive day that could possibly shape up today? And I plan that out briefly.
And then I've already written it down exactly what I'm doing all day for each hour, et cetera.
And then throughout the day, if that changes, I update it.
And then at the end of the day, when I'm reviewing the day, I just look at that and then I already know everything I did that day at a glance. And then I Can you use each of those little parts of that to prompt me to remember, okay, where was the Lord in that? So I'm not saying you have to do that. That may be a little more intense than some want to do, but for me, because I'm going to plan my day anyways, because that's, for me, how I'm going to get the most out of each day that I'm already going to have that written. I use my phone slash laptop to do that. And it's just synced on the cloud, so I can edit that anywhere. That's part of how I try to get as much out of the day as I can.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: So being more diligent about documenting, just regular, regular daily stuff.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I write down what I. Yeah, I write down, like, what I'm doing, but I also sometimes write, like, tasks I completed on my to do list. And then by looking at that, it kind of quickly. I also have Google Calendar and that also can help sometimes.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: And you do that trick of sometimes writing down a to do list and you include things you've already done just for the joy of crossing them off.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: If I know I did it, I'm not going to write it down again, but at least not usually. I don't think so.
But if I did it, I'll, like, put it in the done section of that day. So then I get to see that. And I'm like, oh, that's good.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: Okay. All right.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Thank you for that tip. I really want to nail that, that part of the, of the exam and down. And I was having great struggles with it. Okay, awesome.
Well, in our calendar now, we are working through, again, ordinary time. But November 8th is the.
No, September is the feast of the.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Nativity, which was yesterday.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: The Blessed Virgin Mary, which was yesterday.
And to ask the obvious, what makes it such an important piece?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, yeah. Why is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary important.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: And why is it September 8th?
[00:17:07] Speaker B: September 8th. Yeah, great question. So, first off, Mary is important to us as Catholics because she is the mother of Jesus.
And we can never, I think, overestimate the love Jesus would have had for his own mother. I mean, I think that Jesus was obviously the perfect son. He lived the fourth commandment to honor his parents perfectly.
And he is. He had a love. His heart was so full of love.
He would love his mother way more than we can imagine. And Mary being, you know, only having just one child, all that intense love in her heart was just so present, so focused on Jesus. Not that she wasn't so loving with everyone. She was so just. We have to remember that she's so important, and Jesus loves her so much. And Jesus honored her. Jesus really treated her with tremendous respect. He did whatever his parents asked him, and he still does. That's what we say. So when Mary asks something of Jesus, she knows he's going to say yes. So in the Old Testament, you ask the king through the queen. In the Old Testament, the queen was the king's mother.
So Jesus is the new King of Kings. Mary, therefore, is obviously the Queen. Revelation 12:13. Paint her clearly as a queen.
And she's the mother of Jesus and the mother of the church. And so she's very important for us because it's through her that she came. And so Jesus came. So the birth of Jesus comes through Mary.
So Mary's birth, we say, is like the dawn. It's like the sun hasn't fully risen, but like, whoa, hope is rising.
And Jesus is promised in the book of Genesis. And God says that the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And he's talking about Mary.
So Mary is very important for us for many, many reasons. That and many others. So her birth is a great celebration. We would celebrate our mom's birthday.
And at the cross, Jesus gives Mary as our mom.
This is your mother.
So therefore, yeah, September 8th, birthday of Our Lady. Also, it's important because nine months earlier in our liturgical calendar is the Immaculate Conception, when Mary is conceived miraculously in the womb of St. Anne.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: Perfect. Okay.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Hope that helps tie those two pieces together.
Well, Father, there's so much happening in our community, especially now that September started up in a new series of activities or some repeat activities, but a new year of them. Our parishioners, of course, and our parishioners can check out the bulletin every week. But for everyone else out there, what. What are a couple of highlights that you would like to showcase this week?
[00:19:48] Speaker B: This Week, we're hoping at all the masses, we'll have an exhibit that St. Carlo Acutis designed about miraculous phenomenon with the Eucharist.
So we're hoping that will be around this week. We also got our Youth Night on Friday. Looking forward to our scavenger hunt. I've got an amazing challenge for the youth to, like, win some prizes. It's gonna be real hard, real fun. And then we've got our Young Adults Night on Saturday. We've got the Knights of Columbus meeting again tomorrow.
And, yeah, as you said, things picking up. We got our golf tournament on Sunday, and then our men's evening retreat kind of night of prayer on Monday, and lots of other stuff going on at the end of the month. We're excited for RCIA to start again. We've got a good number of people who want to become Catholic. We're really excited to welcome them to our family of faith.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: And you have a full slate of sponsors as well?
[00:20:36] Speaker B: We will.
They don't have to start with sponsors right out of the gate. Sometimes they still figure it out at the beginning, so.
Sometimes they don't.
Yeah, sometimes they. They might not know until later on.
[00:20:48] Speaker C: Okay, excellent.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: All right. Well, you know, there are so many people doing great work at the parish, and none of the events that you mentioned happen in isolation. Who would you like to shout out this week?
[00:21:00] Speaker B: I want to give a shout out to Nicholas. Nicholas is an altar server.
He's also a new Catholic. He and his mom became Catholic this last Easter vigil, and they're just so involved. It's so beautiful to see them here. And Nicholas is altar serving, like, I see him all the time on the weekend. So Nicholas is great. Just want to say, like, Nicholas, great job. You're. You're awesome, bro.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: All right, Nicholas. Well done.
Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your insights, Father. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:21:33] 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 your love for us. We just ask that you continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us. Guide us in our lives so that we may make the decisions you know are best for us and will bring us closer to youo.
Bless our families and friends and all those who we might have in a special way on our heart because of anything they're going through as well. Lord, we lift them up to you, ask you to bless them and us as we pray all this in the name of Jesus, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Thank you for that very touching prayer.
Well, thank you Father. We promise to keep our sins in check this week at least until the next episode. We want to send you blessings and please keep us on your prayer list this week.
Thanks also to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us on this week through the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels, the Apple podcasts, the Spotify and 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. Until next time, keep the faith, say your prayers and hey, don't forget to tip your priest with a smile and a Hail Mary. Have a great week everyone. We are Father Greg and JD Leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you you were yesterday.
Double oh a triple wow.
