Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. It's a beautiful Wednesday, January 15th. We are officially in ordinary time, and it's time for the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast with JD And Father Greg. Each week. Father Greg, like I'm pointing to you as though they're not sure who we are.
He's the guy wearing black today.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Stop playing these jokes on us. I see that.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Well, each week, Father Greg and I will connect on a variety of topics related to our faith and our parish in Winona, Ontario. We're here to help spread the good news and further connect our parish community. Happy hump day, Father Greg. How's your week going?
[00:00:37] Speaker B: My week is going well. I'm blessed.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: You are blessed indeed.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Oh, golly. Well, I hope it just keeps getting better and better for you.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Amen. I'll take that. And I wish the same for you and all our listeners.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. Well, as our listeners may or may not know, we're relatively new at this and are already the number one ranked podcast in Winona for Christianity.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: How about that? That's great. Is there, like a lot of other Christianity podcasts in Winona?
[00:01:02] Speaker A: I. I'm not looking behind, I'm just looking ahead.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Is there any other podcasts at all in Winona?
[00:01:07] Speaker A: I'm not looking back. I'm looking ahead.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, that's great.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: There have to be in a town as vibrant and dynamic, as beautiful as Winona, there have to be other podcasts in Winona. And so we're happy to have the mantle of it, though.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I mean, are they really that famous?
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Ah, there you go. There you go. If we look nationwide, though, we're number 210 in all of Canada.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: So climbing higher every day.
We are looking for feedback, so reach out to the social media team, Father Greg, myself, if you have any feedback on the show, anything you'd like to hear or see or for us to discuss during our weekly segments.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Excellent. I do have a quick question before we begin this week. This week's saint is known as the father of all monks. So do you think that if he had a law degree, he could be a father in law?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: I think he would be a father in law, but a different type of father in law than the usual phrase.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Father in law could be a dad in law.
Yeah, you get it.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: There we go. There we go. Another Father Quality.
Father Quality. I think that's what we're going to call you now. Father Quality.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Another Father Greg quality joke right there. And after such you need to start us off with a prayer.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you for this day and your love for us and that you're always here with us. And as always, we just invite you to bless us. Bless our time. May your Holy Spirit guide us in all we think, do and say. And may you also bless those who listen to us with your grace, your presence, your peace, your comfort. We ask Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael and all the saints to pray for us. We ask this in Jesus name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: That was beautiful. Thank you, Father. Let us reveal our saint of the week. Each week we do feature a saint 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.
Well, from earlier, you'll remember that this week's saint is the father of all monks. And who else could it be but St. Anthony? But wait, you ask, is this the St. Anthony of lost things? That's what I thought at first and prompted an 11th hour rewrite of the show. That is St. Anthony of Padua and we will circle back to him in June when he has his feast day. Today we feature St. Anthony the Great, whose feast day is January 17th. Born into a wealthy family, he gave away his inheritance and became a hermit. Much like Anthony the hermit, he began Christian monasticism. So there's another week of language instruction here. Another big word, monasticism, the religious practice where people dedicate their lives to spiritual work, renounce worldly pursuits.
St. Anthony is also well known for his holiness, wisdom and asceticism. Credited with assisting in a number of miraculous healings, primarily for ergotism, which became known as St. Anthony's Fire.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: I had to look up what ergotism is. Do you know what it is?
[00:04:08] Speaker A: It has to do with rot in plants.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah, like certain, apparently like certain mushrooms or something, or fungi. If you eat it, you get ergotism and it's not good.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: This is the podcast of fun guys. You are so glad other famous Anthony's that we will be featuring down the road. Perhaps Anthony of Padua, as mentioned. Anthony the Great, Anthony of Antioch, Anthony the Hermit, Anthony of Kiev, Anthony of Rome and Anthony Mary Claret.
And I love this quote from this week's St. Anthony. The Holy Trinity teaches angels, angels teach people and we teach those who are behind us. That's discipleness in a nutshell.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good to pass on what We've received excellent.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: It's time for Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or a question that we made up ourselves. This question comes from Colette, another real live person who has listened to our show.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: We love real people.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: We love real people. I love the interaction. Isn't that fantastic?
So, Father, please comment on Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25 to 28. Now, this will be a first. This is a Catholic podcast, and we haven't read any scripture yet.
That's right. Well, here we go.
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life?
And why do you worry about your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these.
Colette's question is, is it a sin to worry? And is it wrong to strive for more?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Such a great question. And I want to thank Colette for this. I love questions. We love questions. Just keep submitting.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Indeed.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: So, as you heard, Jesus says, do not worry about your life. Okay, so that's God in the flesh telling us, don't worry. So we might ask, is it always a sin to worry?
That's a great thing to think about. And I would say here are some things that help us answer.
The scripture shows that when Mary and Joseph lost Jesus, when they find him, they ask him, why did you do this? We were anxious about you.
So that means that Mary, who is free of sin, she was anxious. So that must mean, logically speaking, that there are times where it's not sinful to worry and it's going to happen. You know, things are outside of our control. We're human. We struggle, we grapple with things, and it's not always easy. And I think it can be a sin if we choose to worry, if we kind of go along with it or we don't try to resist that temptation. But if we're trying our best to trust in the Lord and we're trying to do what we can to fix whatever our part is in whatever we're worried about, then I think the Lord understands. You know, even Jesus himself Says that he's anxious for his baptism and he's making reference to his passion. And so there's going to be some, we could say sinless worry that we might experience.
But we try to surrender things to God. We try to trust in him. Because sometimes we're worrying because we lack faith.
Sometimes we're worrying maybe because we doubt ourselves that we'll be able to do something.
But again, it's something where it really matters. Is this deliberate, or is it just something I'm trying to fight against?
This also made me think of the quote that's attributed to St. Augustine, pray like it all depends on God. Work like it all depends on you. So we trust in the Lord, but we still have to do our part. And both are very, very essential.
And also I thought of A quote from St. Teresa of Avila where she said that you pay God a compliment by asking him for big things. So our trust is a way of honoring and complimenting God's power and love. So we try to choose to trust even when we don't feel like trusting. And then also this made me think of how anger in the Bible is also one of those things where you can be angry but do not sin, as St. Paul says. And so even Jesus himself was angry. You might remember that incident in the temple. He was upset at the money changers. He didn't think that was appropriate. My Father's house is a house of prayer.
So Jesus was not sinful when he was angry. So emotions are a gift from God, but we need to try to control them and direct our emotional energy towards loving God and neighbor. And if we do our very, very best at that, the Lord knows what's in our heart. So, you know, it's not always a sin. I think it can be. But we have to be honest with ourselves and with God and just keep trying to trust in him. And it's not always easy. It's not always easy, but the Lord is with you. So here's my encouragement. Do trust in the Lord. And also maybe I'll connect with this. Wrong to strive for more. This is probably connected to, like, more material things. Is that. Is that what we mean? Okay, yeah. Because Jesus in this passage also speaks about, you know, worrying about clothing or things like that, or what's, you know, what you're going to wear, food. No, it's not wrong to strive for things. The key is that we're doing what we do out of love for God and neighbor. Some people have a gift for really helping us make progress, whether it's economic progress or other types. Those are great gifts to use from God and they are a blessing. And when we use those gifts, we really help everyone around us. And so it's not wrong to have things. But the question is, do I have these things so that I can love God and neighbor better, or are they really deep down just for me? Is it really kind of selfish? And we have to be honest with ourselves and check our motives and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and say, lord, if there's something I have or that I'm using in a way that is not really for love of you or others, gently let me know so that I can, I can redirect that a bit.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Love your perspective and how you tied in the Holy family and how they did have worry. So really don't worry about worrying as long as it's channeled correctly. And also desire for things or desire for more as long as it's for the proper purpose.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Amen. Well said.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Excellent. Super. Well, thank you for that, Colette. And if anyone else has questions that they would like us to consider here, please again, reach out to Father Greg. Reach out to myself or our parish social media team.
Now, looking ahead to next week, we are smack right into ordinary time. What's on the horizon for us? Is Lent going to be early or late this year? And does the groundhog figure into this at all?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: The groundhog has a very important role, except not in determining Lent. But it is a good joke. And I think, I think the groundhogs, whether it's the American groundhog or the Canadian groundhog, I think they do their thing in February, if I remember correct. So we're a little early. So I can't predict what they'll predict. But I can tell you that Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, which is March 5, 2025. So that's a pretty early start to Lent. That means we have Lent starting in just over six weeks, I think, from now.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Okay. So I think in the coming weeks, we'll maybe talk about the preparation for Lent and how we can prepare our hearts for that season coming up.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: You're awesome.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Well, there is so much happening in our beautiful church communities. Of course, our parishioners can check the bulletin, but for everyone else out there, our new listeners, old listeners, what are some of the highlights in the coming week?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Some of the highlights coming up. As usual Tuesday nights, we got rcia. I mean, I love journeying with these people who are becoming Catholic. It's so exciting. And as always, if you know someone who wants to be Catholic. Let them know they're welcome to reach out to us. We're happy to help.
I'm also appearing on another podcast next week. Whoa, whoa. But not in replacement of this. So we'll keep you posted. We'll probably give a link to that too, God willing. My usual school visits. On Monday, January 20th at 7pm, we have a St Vincent de Paul meeting to see how we can grow our parish's service to those who are in need right here in our geographical boundaries. We do amazing work as a parish serving a lot of those in need, but there are people in need right here in our boundaries that I think we can continue to improve our service to. Also on Wednesday, January 22, we have our parish town hall at 7pm in our hall. And that'll be a great time for us to talk about things in our parish. What do we like? What do we not like? What are some priorities? It'll be a really wonderful opportunity just for anyone who wants to come to, to share about our parish. And it'll be a nice time that I hope, I hope many parishioners will come to you. You're all very welcome.
On February 8, also, we have our next young adults group event. This last Saturday, January 11th, we had our first young adults group. We had about 30 young adults. It was awesome.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: It was so much fun and they said it was great and it's only gonna get better. So the second Saturday of the month, young adults group. It's a great thing. That's for 18 to 39. And then lastly, I just want to make a plug for the Rome pilgrimage that we're going on May 11th to 23rd, if I'm correct.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: We're going on.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah. If you want to come with us, please come with us. Please come with us. It's going to be amazing. We're going to go see so many things. We're going to walk through some holy doors. We're going to go see all the major churches in Rome. We're going to see some of the greatest kind of cultural things that are there. I mean, I have to make a separate video for this, but really, it's going to be great. So that's my plug. Come with us, Jerome. Come with me. I would love to have you with us.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: And I'm super jazzed to be starting the Isaiah 49 program tonight.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: About intentional accompaniment.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: That's right, that's right. There's a program tonight for a good number of people, and this is going to help us prepare to launch Faith Studies to the whole parish.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Excellent. Wow. So much going on. So much great stuff.
It's incredible. Well, Father Greg, there's so many people doing great work here at Immaculate Heart of Mary. Who do you want to give a shout out to this week?
[00:14:43] Speaker B: I want to give a shout out this week to Jedviga Zukovich. Jedviga is so generous with her time, and she loves the Lord so much. And she, along with Ellaria, oversee our adoration chapel. She does amazing job keeping that. It's really run so well. And she waters plants. She helps with altar linens. She just does so many things. So, Jedviga, I want to say thank you. Our parish is so blessed to have you and keep up the great work.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: All right, Yedvika, thank you very much for all you do. Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your insights, Father. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. God, we thank you for all you're doing in our lives, our parish, and we know that you're with us. We can rely on you. We trust in you. And as we continue this season of Ordinary Time, may we continue to grow and go closer to you in your word. Bless our listeners, bless their families and friends, and help us to continue to walk on the path you want for us. And may Almighty God bless all of you who are listening. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Love that alliteration you threw in there. Grow and go. Grow and go.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: That's perfect green light from the Lord to keep growing.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: That's right. Well, thank you, Father, and thanks to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us this week. This is just our little way of getting the word out about Jesus. And, you know, just like the person who spray painted Jesus loves you on the building next door. I guess that was their version of evangelism.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: You just had to throw that in at the end. I think you vandalized our podcast.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Well, you can now find us through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. So social media channels, Apple podcasts, 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. Have a great week, everyone. We are JD and Father Greg, leaving you smarter, happier, and more blessed than you were yesterday.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: That's a big promise. Bye for now.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: It's a guarantee.
