Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: 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 help spread the good news and further unite our parish community.
This is episode number 38. We are celebrating the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Saint Martin of Tours, and I want to ask you about worship and Mary.
Remember, you can find us on the Spotify, the Apple podcasts, and the YouTubes. So please like or subscribe and we will find your inbox every week.
How are you doing today, Father?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Great.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: You're just back from a retreat.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: It was awesome.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: What kind of things go on at a priest's retreat?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Prayer, talks, reflection, eating, sleeping, resting, pondering, walking, etc.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Oh, cool. So a lot of things that might happen here, but at a different location with your brothers in Christ.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's also, in this case, it was a silent retreat. So you're not talking all the time. You just have talks. Like three meditations or so. Adoration, confession opportunities, but a lot of silence. It's time to reflect, time to think and pray.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Okay. Beautiful. You came back refreshed and ready to tackle the challenges of a new week and a new season in the church.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: I do have a quick question before we go.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Confession is about clearing your conscience.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: That's part of it.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Have you ever considered having a loyalty card program for frequent confessors?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: First off, great joke. Secondly, what would it look like?
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
Get nine confessions and your tenth one is free.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: But they're always free.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: True.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: This sounds like we're charging.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Sounds sketchy, bro.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: If anyone starts giving me money for confessions, I'm going to be like, no.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Donation box.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: It's a free gift from Jesus. What you have received without payment and give without payment.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Okay, that sounds good. I love that. That's a much better approach.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: There we go. But maybe, like, I would give them later penances.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. On the 10th one.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: It's possible.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah. One less Hail Mary. Oh, no. We don't want to shortchange the Hail Marys. I don't think we want to shortchange any of the prayers.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Right. That's the tricky part. If we ask them to do less, maybe they're missing out.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Anyway, fun exploration, worth giving a bit more thought. Yeah, I guess this is why the church hasn't allowed it yet.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Oh, too much fun. All right. Yeah. That was very interesting. You better start us off with a prayer. Get us on the right foot here. Sure.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus, we thank you for your presence right with us here, wherever we are. As we watch or listen and we just know you're with us, that you look on us with love and affection and tender care, we ask that you would pour out your spirit upon us and fill us with an awareness of your presence and the grace to respond well, knowing that you love us and that anything we're going through right now, you walk with us. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael and all the saints to pray for us, our parish, our podcast, and all that is in our hearts. We pray this in Jesus holy name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father.
Let us 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. So we had a few choices this week. St. Josaphat, St. Leo the Great was celebrated yesterday, but today, November 11, Martinmas, which is a new word, one hard to pronounce, but there it is. We recognize St. Martin of Tours, who lived in the fourth century.
He was a Roman soldier who became a Christian and later one of the most beloved bishops of early Christianity.
Famous for his compassion, he once cut his military cloak in half in order to clothe the freezing beggar. Christ later appeared to him wearing the same piece, inspiring Martin to seek baptism.
He founded one of the first monasteries in Western Europe and became bishop of Tours and is known for humility, miracles and deep care for the poor. Despite his office, he lived simply and worked tirelessly to spread the gospel.
There's a lot of different things that he is purported to be the saint of the different resources didn't really agree. Some of the ones that did come up more commonly are being patron saint of the poor, soldiers and vintners. Just really great for our area as well.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: And as he is Saint Martin of Tours, not Saint Martin of wandering around and going and seeing different sites, but tours. Just the region of France.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Just clarification. I know our new patron for our tour.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: And interesting fact For Mississauga listeners, St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church has two stained glass windows dedicated to St. Martin of Tours.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Little known fact. You heard it here first.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: They're winning.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: So it's Hard to find direct quotes because he was from the 4th century. But there's some things that he's purported to say that really line up with. With his life and.
And his background.
First is, I'm a soldier of Christ. It is not lawful for me to fight. When he refused to continue military service after his conversion, interesting and.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Traditional final sentiment attributed to him is that he said, I have served Christ as best I could. I shall not fear to die.
Wouldn't it be great for all of us to be able to have a little bit of that sentiment in us, too?
There's a third one, actually, that he is purported to say, I don't want to forget this one. Jesus, I trust in you, which I'm sure must have come up at some point in time. Yeah, it's possible.
All right, it is time for Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a loyal listener or one that we make up ourselves regular appeal to. Please send in your questions through email, through text, or through a comment on the gram or the youtubes or any of the different platforms.
So I'm not really sure what my question is, but it all revolves around Mary. I mean, she's vital to our faith. We pray through her. We spend a lot of time and energy with Mary, but we don't worship her. And sort of.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: I think there may be a misunderstanding that because we spend so much time praying the rosary and praying to Mary that we do worship her. But that's not really the Catholic stance, is it?
[00:06:59] Speaker B: That's correct. We do not worship Mary. We honor her, just as Jesus would have honoured her more than we ever will, being that he honored his parents perfectly. And she is the one through whom Jesus came. She was full of grace, which is a title no angel gives anyone else.
But, yeah, she is the mother of God, free of all sin. She's the new ark of the covenant, the new Eve, and so on. All sorts of profound stuff to say about Mary. She's not God. We don't worship her.
We honor her. So just be careful, because some people, they will freak out if you say, oh, we worship Mary. They'll be like, what? You can't worship Mary. She's not God. And they're right. We don't worship Mary, we just honor her. But she gets the highest honor of all.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Okay, this kind of came about from a Catholic podcast that I heard today, and he gave a really good analogy about Mary's role in the hierarchy of the church, if I can call it that.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: With Jesus as the head of the church.
The church is the body, and Mary can be considered the neck as a way for the church to connect with Jesus.
How does that sit?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah, in some sense, I wouldn't oppose it, that's for sure. I mean.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I wouldn't oppose it. I think that insofar as the image helps us to understand the great importance of Mary, through whom God gives us his grace and his presence, then that seems quite reasonable.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: It seems that. And she's a vehicle. Everything that goes to Jesus can go through her.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So this is in reference to a document that came out very recently from the Church, clarifying some of the ways we talk about Mary. The document is called Mater Populi Fidelis, which is Latin for Mother of the Faithful people.
And it's a doctrinal note that clarifies some things about Mary and her role in salvation. And in this document, which just came out not even a week ago, it tries to clarify some things just so that people don't have misunderstandings about Mary, because on the one hand, it does highlight that Mary's role in the work of salvation is immense.
And so it wants to remind us of that, but it also just wants to make sure that we don't use too many terms that are confusing for people. So, for example, it notes that we can use this term mediatrix of all graces to describe Mary, but it also warns that it's a very dangerous term to use because it could confuse people. So it's saying it is true, rightly understood, that God gives us his graces through Mary.
But it kind of says, but it's probably best not to use that too much unless you know, the people you're talking with understand it. Because if you say Mary is the mediatrix of all graces and they don't understand, they might think like, well, all grace comes through Mary, and they might not realize that it means like, but from Christ, and they might not understand the nuance and it could confuse people.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: I think one of the elements that adds a bit more confusion is there's an official document that comes out.
The language and the understanding is at a level that's a little bit beyond a regular guy like me.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty in depth theological stuff. If you read this, I think it's very, in some sense, it's very profound, but it is pretty dense. And hey, if you want to explore some dense theological commentary on Mary and her role, it is very interesting, but it might not be something that everybody finds themselves drawn to.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Okay. I guess ultimately what we have to Remember, though, is that we worship God. Period, end of sentence.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Yep. And God has chosen to use Mary as a vessel of his grace, through which we would receive Christ, and not just once, but in an ongoing way.
She is still the mother of God's people, as we see in the Bible in the book of Revelation, for example.
So her important role is not finished by any means, and that's important to remember.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Okay, cool. All right, thanks for adding a little bit of clarification and pointing us in the right direction for that as well. That's beautiful.
All right, let's get to our resource of the week.
And the resource of the week. I'm going to point two things out. This beautiful document that's produced every week here at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast, our bulletin. Bulletin. And you're great to always reference people and say, pick up a copy of the bulletin and check it out, because it is chock full of all key events that are happening about a month in advance so that you can sort of plan your.
Your celebrations, your weekends, your weeknights around an event and be able to maybe reach out and try something that you're interested in or something that's new for you. But also, I think your messages are always so on point and concise, and, you know, you give us just another element of things to think about through your little personal message to all of us.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: So thank you.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I'm just going to kind of throw my support behind you to, you know, as people are thinking about the.
Oh, maybe I'll just look at it online, grab a copy. You know, digest it when you get home with a coffee after Mass.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah, don't eat it, though.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Don't eat it.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Digest it intellectually.
But do digest it intellectually because there is some great content in here. We don't put anything useless in here. It's really meant to be the top stuff we think you should know.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: And we are always looking for ways to improve. If you have any suggestions for our bulletin. Hey, we're not fixed in stone here. We always want to make things better around here.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: Excellent. And we'll throw a little commercial for all of our sponsors on the back.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah. All the people who sponsor. Yeah.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: So please make sure.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Patronize our sponsors, keep our bulletin going.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Okay. And there was also one other thing I want to look at this week, which we received a letter from our new bishop. I want to say bishop elect, but that's not right. Bishop incoming.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: I think technically it's like bishop designate. Okay. Because he's technically designate of Hamilton. Yes, there we go. He's our bishop, but like, he hasn't officially come and started his official bishop work, let's put it that way.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: But we're starting to feel his influence from afar and.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: And so I thought it was a beautiful welcome letter and there were a couple of points in here that I thought. One was a fact. I didn't know that Hamilton is the second largest English speaking Roman Catholic diocese in Canada.
I did not know that.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: And then he made a statement about in his incoming role and he compliments the diocese on its collaboration with the Catholic education on many levels.
And this sentence really struck me. Together we will seek to be a church that welcomes, that heals, that stands close to those in need, and that lives the Gospel with authenticity and joy.
That is a beautiful message.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Yeah, there's some really great content in it.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Not a great mission or a great vision.
Mission and vision sometimes get a little bit mixed up, but what a beautiful statement and a great way to look at our work as Catholics in the diocese.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's also just nice to kind of start to get to know our new bishop, try to feel connected to him because the bishop is the successor of the apostles.
So, like it matters that we're connected to our bishop. We can't just go on an island and be disconnected from all the rest of the Church. The Pope and the bishops are the higher authority that God has given us. We see that described in the Bible itself. So as Bible believing Christians, we. We follow the whole Bible.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: And what better way for our parishioners to get to know him than to have him as a guest here?
[00:14:19] Speaker B: So, hey, that'd be great.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Maybe.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Maybe put him on the podcast.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe we'll get on that.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: It might be a bit of a stretch.
We can't make any promises.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: No, no, but. But I think that would be quite amazing if you were to be able to do that. Oh, and he's the 10th Bishop of Hamilton.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good number. 10th Bishop of Hamilton. 10th Bishop.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: I thought only 10.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Wow. Okay, excellent.
Let's see what is coming up.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: In the Catholic Church. So this coming Sunday is the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. Very exciting. What's especially significant for the church at the last Sunday of Ordinary Time?
Is there something about the Sunday or is it maybe the anticipation of what's coming?
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So it's actually the last Sunday of Ordinary Time automatically becomes Christ the Christmas King, which means we reflect on Christ as King. King of our lives, King of Heaven. King of our souls. Like that his kingship should be expressed in every aspect of the world's life, whether that be politics, whether that be our jobs, our families. Like Christ as king means we submit that aspect of life to what Christ has given us.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Beautiful. I love that.
Anything that we should have in particular in focus for the last Sunday of Ordinary Time? You'll be in your regular greens, not the cool black, pink or.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: No, I think I'll be in white. Yeah, I have to double check. I'm pretty sure it's white.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Okay. Right on. That's awesome.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: And then the next weekend will be first Sunday of Advent, so we get the purple.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Holy cow. So first Sunday Advent means new missiles.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Ah, yeah, yeah, New missiles. They'll be coming soon.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Coming soon to a parish near you.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: I got a good rap. Rap about the new missiles. New missiles are coming. They're just straight up in the box. I know. Everyone's sharing. Everyone's trying to get the talks. They're trying to get the missiles, trying to get their own copy. I don't really know what rhymes with that. So it's getting sloppy.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Well, today's the day for poppies.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: There we go. There we go. And poppies. That's true. That would have been a good one.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Oh, goodness. Well, as we held up the bulletin, people may have glanced that there's this long list of events. And I mentioned in the bulletin they're about a month in advance. There is so much happening in our parish each week. Is there something in particular you'd like to draw out as highlights of the coming weeks?
[00:16:36] Speaker B: I really think our new website is around the corner. I'm excited. I really think it's coming. Not literally. Don't look over there. If you found it over there, you'd be pretty impressed. But I really think it's around the corner. That's actually exciting.
We've got more people joining RCA. We write now look like we have about 17 people in RCIA.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Holy cow.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Which is really a beautiful thing to think. We have 17 people who want to join our Catholic faith here at our parish this year. That's beautiful. So that's a great thing. We praise the Lord for that and pray for them and anyone else who might still be open to that.
And we've got our youth night coming up. The young adult speeding Catholic speed dating event is this Saturday. It's all full. It's very high demand. People are coming from all over. It's pretty exciting, actually.
Good friends of mine really wanted to spearhead this. I Think it's gonna be great.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Oh, that sounds like such a fun event.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: Yeah, those are some. Some of the many awesome things. Check out the bulletin. It's got a good summary.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Okay, well, all these groups that you mentioned, all the ones that are listed in the bulletin, you know, all as a result of all these great people doing great work at the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Who would you like to recognize in the parish this week?
[00:17:38] Speaker B: I really want to say that I'm really grateful for Bishop Dabrowski.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: He's not at the parish at all right now.
His impact is already starting to be felt by this letter.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: His autograph is in the parish.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: His autograph is in the parish. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're recognizing him in the parish.
Copies of his writing.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: But I'm excited, you know, with the spirit of hope, optimism, excitement.
We look ahead to when our new bishop. I'm sure eventually he'll be here at some point, right?
So we're happy. We pray for him and we will welcome him with love.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Okay, well, if this podcast should reach your ears, we welcome you to Hamilton, and we look forward to making your acquaintance, hopefully in one of these chairs sometime soon.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Welcome, Bishop Dabrowski.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: All right, well, that's just about all the time we have for today. Boy, that went by fast.
Shall we close with a prayer? Sure.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: 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 just ask that you continue to help us to sense your presence in our lives, especially for those of us who may be going through challenges, ups and downs, stressors, and so on.
You know, we just ask, Lord, that yout would be with us in those particular things that most weigh on us, that yout would bring them to a peaceful, smooth resolution and grant us a fresh outpouring of youf spirit of peace and guidance so that we may make the decisions in those areas yous know our best. Bless our parish, our podcast, our listeners, all those who hear this, that they may experience you. Lord, we pray this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Thank you for that, Father. And thank you for reeling in wisdom and dropping some spiritual bait. I think our listeners are hooked.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Thanks also to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us this week through the Immaculate Heart of Mary social media channels, the Apple podcasts, the Spotify, and the 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.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: I still hope that's true.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: I think so.
