Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Three, two, one.
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast with father Greg and J.D. probably Winona's favorite 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 spread the good news and to further unite our parish community.
This is episode number 34. We are celebrating the feast of.
Sorry, Memorial of Our lady of the Rosary.
We're going to celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi and I want to ask you about guardian angels based on what we.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Talked about last week. Great.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Remember, you can find us on the Spotify, the Apple podcasts and the YouTubes.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: YouTubes.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: So please like or subscribe or. And we will find your inbox.
I have a quick question before we begin this week.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Great.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: It's also about guardian angels.
So guardian angels really follow us everywhere.
Do they get overtime for traffic jams or danger?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Pay for bad decisions? They might.
They might not get paid in human dollars, but they might get paid in merit or some other supernatural eternal currency. That's right.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Oh, golly. Well, that is a father great quality joke right there.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: After that, you better start a.
Sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, we just lift up anything on our hearts to you today. And we invite you to pour out your Holy Spirit into our hearts. To give us your peace, your strength, your guidance.
We are aware, Lord, that you are with us right now.
Be with us always and continue in your love to strengthen us, to guide us, to comfort us and to give us wisdom and strength. We ask that you would guide us in all we do today and always. We pray this through the intercession of Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, all the saints. And we ask this in Jesus name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Thank you, Father.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: My pleasure.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: 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.
Today we honour St Francis of Assisi, who is a symbol of peace, humility and love for all creation.
Renouncing wealth, he embraced the life of poverty and founded the Franciscan order, inspiring others to live simply and serve the poor. His deep connection with nature and animals reflects a profound spiritual ecology, making him the patron saint of the environment.
Francis life emphasized compassion, non violence and care for the marginalized. His legacy continues to influence Christian thought, interfaith dialogue and. And environmental movements. Through his example, St. Francis calls people of all faiths to live with kindness, humility, and reverence for all life.
It feels like such a. Such a brief summary. I mean, for someone who means so much to the church and has had such a lifelong impact. And maybe I'm feeling more impacted because of our pilgrimage and having been in Assisi and seen his house and where he celebrated. So I.
I mean, what an incredible, incredible, incredible saint.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Incredible, sir. Look at that.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: That's right. Even though, like, technically he was. On Saturday, we're in like, the. The wake of a celebration of such an important saint.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Holy cow. Last week there were.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: That's right. It just wasn't fair for you.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: And there's nobody this week. Like, he got.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if there's nobody, but.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Well, on the calendar, really, we have today's memorial.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: That's true. We also had yesterday Bruno, Saint Bruno and blessed Marie Rose du Rocher.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: But at the same time, hey, St. Francis. It's hard to miss him. I totally don't blame you for wanting to do him.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: It's a good thing.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, ecology, the environment, merchants, Italy. And they're going to reinstate a national holiday.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Beginning next year.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Isn't that so cool?
[00:03:53] Speaker A: This one was interesting. Birds, which I thought were animals.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: They're a specific type of animal.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Oh, are they? Okay.
And also for Catholic action and some good quotes from St. Francis, Preach the gospel at all times.
When necessary, use words.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: But. But can I say something which maybe you already know this, but, like, that's a commonly quoted thing. But no one knows where it. Like there's no record of him saying it.
But it's still a very important sentiment. But like, all the time you'll hear people say, like, but go find a documentary says that. Because apparently, apparently there's not. I'm not saying he didn't say it. I'm not saying that it's not true. It's very true. But a lot of people say, like, there's actually no record of him saying it. That we still have.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Anyways, allegedly, St. Francis said this.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: I'm gonna guess what it is.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: I've got another good one. And maybe this isn't allegedly too. So start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: It might be.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: I've heard that, like, kind of looked in a couple of different places and they continue to come up being attributed to him. But Just, you know, when you're stumbled at feeling a task is a little bit overwhelming, you know, just start by what. Do what you can do.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Right. Well, that's. The sentiments of it are certainly true.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: So may or may not be quotes.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: From St. Francis, but we gotta start getting our sources.
I need to see your sources for these quotes. You're just giving quotes from the chatgpt, serving up hallucinated quotes. That's true.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Okay, so we have the fully annotated notes now coming in from here.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Not annotated per se, but just sourced.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Didn't.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Do you think he said, jesus, I trust in you?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: That we don't need the proof for. But he probably, probably does have it written somewhere because that's the kind of thing I think he's especially likely to have written down.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: We probably carefully might have had it scratched.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we missed it.
But it was nice visiting his tomb.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Oh, that. Yeah, that was super special. And Lucy went up to the caves as well.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: And did that special.
Shout out to Lucy.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: There we go. Shout out to Lucy.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: It is time to ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to questions submitted by a listener or one that we make up ourselves. This is our regular appeal to. Please send us questions.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: We love questions.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: We love questions.
Last week we talked about guardian angels. And I remember a cartoon that started in 1960 called Family Circus, probably the most syndicated cartoon panel in the world.
I remember one panel where the deceased grandparents were watching over the kids, you know, as their. As angels and so on. After a chat from last week, I got to thinking, can dead relatives be guardian angels?
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Good question.
Short answer is no.
Sorry, that sounds a little. I didn't mean to sound too callous or harsh, but let me elaborate. Okay, so the beauty of God's creatures is like, for example, humans are created by God in his image and likeness, and we are human for eternity.
You will never become a different species. An angel is a different species, and they are beautiful species too, that God has created.
But they are not the same thing as humans. Angels have. They don't technically have a body. They are pure spirit, and they're neither male nor female. They are pure spirits that can take on the form of a body when God allows for the fulfillment of their mission.
We, however, are intrinsically having a body.
Humans cannot be fully human without a body. And in fact, this is why when we die and our soul is separated from our body, it's called death.
And only at the last, last day, when Christ comes again, will our bodies be reunited with our souls. So there's a real sense in which, until that moment, we are kind of imperfect or incomplete humans because we don't have our body with our soul.
But when your loved one dies, just because they are not becoming angels doesn't mean that they can't pray for you, watch over you. If they've gone to heaven, then, yeah, then they are able to watch and pray. And that is why we ask the saints to pray for us, because they are in heaven and they can see us. And so if you have a relative or a friend who has died and is in heaven, then, yes, they can pray for you. Even souls in purgatory who are on the way to heaven, they can pray for us.
And we should ask the souls in purgatory to pray for us because they have powerful prayers, too, but they can't pray for themselves. So we pray for them, they pray for us. And it's part of the family of God working together.
So technically, no human ever becomes an angel. We could say metaphorically, like, oh, that person was my guardian angel. They really watched over me. They really helped me out. But, like, not in a literal sense, like forever. JD Is a human male. He's never going to be an angel in the sense of a different species, not going to become a different creature. But he could be, in some metaphorical, figurative sense, angelic in the sense that he is an upright, morally virtuous man.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: I have my days.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: There we go. That's right. You are truly angelic. But not literally.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: But not literally.
So in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, cleric comes down as an angel and he takes on a bodily form.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Was.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Was the body physical or just an image?
[00:09:22] Speaker A: It seemed like it was physical because he did interact with people.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: The movie theology is always a good source of our Catholic dogmas. Well, I'm just joking.
No, it's true.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: But would it have been a body that already existed, like, you would have taken over?
[00:09:41] Speaker B: No. No. He doesn't go, hey, this body's not in use. Take. Take that. No, that's. That's weird and creepy, at least in my opinion. But it's a good question. No, like, that movie is a nice movie.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: But it's very good. But in terms of that particular theological intricacy, it's. I don't think, intending to. To really convey this portion of our faith with great refinement. I think basically that angels, as we said, can take on the appearance of a body, but they're not getting a literal body.
They can just appear in that way, but it's not actually.
It's not a real body, so to speak. It's not a physical.
But they can interact with physical things. Right. Like angels can move things. Yeah, good angels and bad angels can move things. Right. So just because they don't have a body doesn't mean they can't interact with physical things.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Interesting.
Gives me an idea for future shows and conversations and questions. Talking about theology and movies.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: And.
Okay, put a pin in that.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: And I'm not trying to say that that's not a great movie or that isn't cool.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: No, it just sort of, you know, how does it.
You know how. It's just fascinating how some of the explanations tie into narratives that we may already be familiar with. Or. Or I've seen. And so trying to make sense of those two, you know.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: When you are sharing wisdom, it's like, oh, okay, I remember something like that from this movie or in just the overlap. And it just really helps nail down an explanation or giving it concrete.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Something of something. Okay, well, thank you for that, Father. Let's slide into our resource of the week, and this is one we featured on our short. I want to talk about the free table for a second here. Free. Because there has been some amazing gifts shared on the free table. Some of them from the summer house cleaning that happened around the parish here as you went through every nook and cranny and your.
And rain was helping as well. And Ellaria to share things we might.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: That's right. Giving back things we might not really need, per se, in a back storage room.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Prayer cards.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Prayer cards should be taken to pray with or books should be taken to read. And we only have so much room on our shrine. And.
And.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah, and so I remember someone asking, oh, that's a great idea. Can. Can we also contribute to the free table?
So what would you say to that?
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Yeah, please. Yeah, but just give it to us in the office. Like bring it either in a bag or whatever is an easy system for you to transport those things. Just bring them to the office, give them to me or Ellaria, and then either way I'll end up going through them.
Or since we have a new seminarian coming in a week or so, then I can give him the task of going through them just so that we can just have the opportunity to go through things before we put them out. It doesn't mean that we're not going to put them to the best possible use.
Over the last two years, that I've been here. We've had many people drop off things that they don't need anymore, whether it be statues or old religious things or just random stuff.
We always try our very, very best to put anything to the best possible use. If there's something that can directly help our parish, we'll keep it and put it to good use right here. Or if it's something that's really nice, but maybe we don't need to keep, then we might put on the free table, or sometimes maybe it's closed. Okay. We can take those to maybe St. Vincent de Paul or somewhere else where those can go to good use. So I really don't like wasting things and I don't like throwing things in the garbage if they could have use for people. But I want to help them find the best possible use. So we're going to go through them and then we're going to make that discernment. So I always appreciate the opportunity to do that before they show up on the free table.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Yeah, excellent.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Perfect. Okay.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Now, in the church liturgical calendar, today, on a day recording, it is the memorial of Our lady of the Rosary.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: So Mary's getting a lot of good days in the calendar.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: She rocks.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: And so what sets this day apart from the other days that her rockingness takes over?
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Yeah. October 7th, the Feast of Our lady of the Rose. We say feast often, but, like, it's technically the memorial. That's right.
So I'm glad that you're saying memorial, but it wouldn't be totally wrong to say feast. Anyway, side note, this exists because I forget which year it was exactly, but there was an epic victory of Christians that were out outnumbered to a severe degree. They were in a big naval battle against the Ottoman Empire, and it looked like Europe was going to be taken over completely.
And so many people prayed the rosary that there would be some kind of miracle. And indeed, there was a miraculous naval victory at Lepanto.
And it totally affected the direction of history.
And it was really acknowledged that it was miraculous and that it was a response to the massive amount of people in that battle and at home praying the Rosary. And so shortly after that battle, the Pope proclaimed this celebration on this day, the day of the battle, October 7th, that we would continue to remember that story and also to continue to use the rosary for the battles of our day, like even today, October 7th, because of the very trad. And Sagic. Sorry, trad.
Well, that's apparently. I just wanted to say traditional places there. No, my bad, my bad. The sad and Tragic loss of life and violence in the Middle east. You know, October 7th is a, let's say, a date of great importance there since the last two years. So I think that we are also praying today for peace, you know, and so our Lord wants peace. Our lady is Our lady of peace. And the Rosary is a powerful weapon for peace. And so we really are reminded every year on this day, especially of the power of the rosary, the importance of the rosary.
Popes for centuries have recommended the daily Rosary. It's a powerful prayer, and we want to have an explicit focus on that gift of the Rosary, which is probably one of the most undervalued prayers or aspects of the Catholic faith. Okay.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: And also as an instrument of peace, when that was a prominent message from Our lady at Fatima.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: That's right, Our lady, yeah. When Our lady appeared at Fatima, Portugal, she said, pray the Rosary for peace. And in many other approved private revelations where Mary has appeared, she has said, pray the Rosary. Pray the Rosary, peace.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: Okay. So then this memorial attributed to Catholics, defeat of the Ottomans, making them footstools and leading to the whole furniture industry.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Wow, you had that one all geared up. That was clever.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Oh, goodness. All right.
You are a font of knowledge, information.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: That's fantastic.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Thank you.
Well, Father, there's so much happening in our community. Our parishioners, of course, can check out the bulletin every week. But for everyone else out there, what are some of the highlights of the coming week that you want to share?
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Well, today, because it is the Feast of Our lady or the memorial of Our lady of the Rosary, we'll have a special event where we'll pray three, maybe even four sets of the Mysteries of the Rosary. So that's cool.
And we've got RCA continuing. RCA is where we've got right now, about even more than 12. I think people want to become Catholic, so it's great. Very pumped up about that, and I'm excited for having a new seminarian, Peter. We're looking forward to having him show up on the podcast. Maybe in a week or two, he should be able to be here for you to see and to hear as he shares maybe his story.
And, of course, we got Thanksgiving coming up. That's exciting. We've got our young adults and our youth nights coming up this week.
Those are always fun. If you haven't yet come to our youth nights or young adults nights, if you're within that age range, just come and it's a great time.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: And we can still donate to the food drive. Their boxes are right.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: We've got the food drive going and.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: The entrance of the church.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: So that's right.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: That'll be great, too. And the corpsmen's group starting Saturday.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Corpsmen's group is starting. Hey, yeah, you got it. It's gonna be awesome. You are so plugged into all the good stuff. And that's just. And that's just some of the stuff. And that's just some of the stuff. This is incredible.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: An incredibly active and beautiful parish, for sure.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: For sure. Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: And, you know, and none of these events happens in isolation. None of these activities takes place on their own. There's so many people doing great work here at the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Who would you like to recognize in the parish this week?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: I am going to give a person far, far away a very big shout out.
And that person is named Lucia, because even though we've given her shout out before, she works so hard. She does such great work.
And Lucia is. Is here. You won't see her, but she's behind the camera, so to speak. But she really makes so many good things happen at our parish. So we're really grateful for Lucia and she deserves to be thanked again.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Thank you, Lucia.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: All right. And we are only coming to you every week through the graces of Lucia.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: And her magic with technology.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Hey, by the way, did you know that on Spotify, our podcast is comedy?
Did you. Did you know that? I only noticed that the other day. I was like, wait, it is funny, but shouldn't we make it religious or spirituality?
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think.
Or, you know, can we be both?
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to change that, but can I just throw that out there? I know we're funny, but it's not our primary. Right? That's right.
Like, we're pretty good, actually. Even if it's. Even if it was, we'd be up there maybe, but.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yep, that's right. Well, you know, we are currently Winona's probably Winona's favorite podcast.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: We're the number one comedy podcast in Winona, apparently. Are we even a spirituality podcast? I don't even know we are anymore. I've got an identity crisis. What am I, a priest? What?
[00:19:18] Speaker A: How many. How many chart toppers can we hit?
[00:19:20] Speaker B: That'd be great.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Number one on the comedy charts. Number one.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Just add us on every list, eh? Yeah, yeah, put us up there. Not. Just joking. Holy moly. That's great.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Well, that is just about all the time we have for today, because you've got a mass to celebrate. Thank you for your insights, Father. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. God, we thank you so much for your love for us. We ask that you would bless us and our family and friends.
Anyone that we know, Lord, that's struggling, we just lift them up to you. We ask that you continue to bless us. Bless our parish. Bless those who listen to this podcast. May they experience your peace and your blessing and send your Holy Spirit upon us to give us all the light we need to do your will. We ask our lady of the Rosary to intercede for us and we pray this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father. And thank you for your insights again this week. And thank you for answering all of our questions so patiently, even the ones that probably made your guardian angel sigh.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: That's good. That's funny.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Thanks also to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us again this week through the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels, the Apple Podcasts, Spotify Comedy channel and the YouTubes.
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. 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 were yesterday.
