Episode Transcript
[00:00:23] Speaker A: 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 help spread the good news and further our parish community.
This is episode number 40. 40. That's a very important liturgical number, isn't it? Comes up quite often. Yeah.
We are celebrating the third Sunday of Advent, St. Lucia, and I want to ask you about the solemnity of. Of the Immaculate Conception. Whoa.
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I would do. I have a do.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Sounds like a song's coming.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I have a do. I jemchurch Ca. We have to get that one in, too.
I do have a question before we begin.
During Advent, we're told to stay awake.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: And to assist us with this, we have coffee. So does that make coffee a sacramental?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: It's not a sacramental, but it is useful and it is something the Church has supported.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: So as a lot of moments make coffee or sisters make coffee, they sell it.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Okay. So not quite at the level of a sacramental, but it's not like a rosary. Almost vital.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Ask you about rosaries later on, too.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Okay. Exciting.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. That is a Father Greg quality joke right there.
Probably on par with the ones that were last weekend from what I'm hearing.
Have you been getting feedback on those? I got a little bit of feedback on those.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: That's hilarious. Welcome to my life.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Oh, goodness gracious. Well, can you please start us off with a prayer?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, we thank you so much for your love and mercy. We just ask that you'd pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, guide us and help us as each of us draws close to you as we listen to this podcast. Lord, we're here to listen to you, to learn more about you and to draw closer to you and to the rest of your family. Bless us in our time together. We ask this in Jesus holy name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Thank you, Father.
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.
Saint Lucia of Syracuse is a third century Christian martyr and she's venerated as a model of purity, courage, and unwavering faith. Born to a noble family, she dedicated her life to Christ and vowed lifelong virginity. When she refused marriage and used her dowry to serve the poor, she was denounced during the Diocletian persecution.
Tradition says that even torture could not move her. And her eyes, symbols of spiritual sight, became part of her enduring legend. She was martyred around 304 AD and is honored as a patron saint of the blind, those with eye disorders, and all seeking clarity, light, and steadfast faith.
So this was interesting. According to a popular tradition, her persecutors gouged her eyes out as a form of torture.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Or conversely, she may have plucked them out herself to reject an unwanted pagan suitor.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: I think the second is much less likely.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: I think so.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: That's not normally thought of.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: God is said to have miraculously restored her sight before her death. And this is why she's often depicted in art holding her eyes in a small golden plate.
Fascinating. Christian art is fascinating indeed.
No real written works, but we can imagine she may have said the following.
With eyes of faith, I see the Lord who is my only light.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: You're just making up quotes.
This is like, what the heck, bro?
[00:04:06] Speaker A: We can imagine. No, I even qualified it. We can imagine imagining up saints quotes like, what the heck? Okay, let's try this.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Imagining scripture passages.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: That one, she probably said that one. You're allowed to imagine.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Okay, all right, we'll skip over the rest of the ones.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: I don't know, man. I think this is too much chat. GPT vibes.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: No, no, very clearly she did not leave written works, but she may. She could have possibly said these things. So they're not. Definitely not quotes at all.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: No, definitely not quotes. There we go.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Oh, goodness. All right, let us get on to Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or a question that we made up ourselves a regular appeal. And thank you to those who send your questions in. Please send them in.
So we are at or this week was the solemnity of the Immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I think there's some confusion maybe. I mean, this is happening right before Jesus is born, so it can't be his conception. Right? Like that would be a 16 day pregnancy.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: That's right. You're talking about December 8th versus December 25th.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well, his birth on December 25th. That's what I'm saying he wasn't conceived on the 8th.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Okay, See, Conception of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Okay. But I think having the two dates really close together might throw some confusion into.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no, I think I get what you're saying. Yeah. I hadn't even thought about it with that, actually, but that makes sense. People might be like, wow, hey, it's close to Christmas, so it must be Jesus conception.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Sixteen days, boom.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: The Immaculate Conception. Why should the Virgin Mary, why should.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: She suffer for nine months?
[00:05:39] Speaker B: There we go. Yeah, you've got some good takes today.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: But actually, so his conception is celebrated at the feast of the Annunciation.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Well, that's correct.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: In and around that time.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Okay. So that kind of timeline makes biological sense, I guess.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Totally, man.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Okay. And so. So we're celebrating the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary this week. Okay.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Do you want me to tell you what it is? Is that the question?
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Go for it.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Okay, awesome. And that's a good build up to wondering. People might be wondering. So, yeah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not, as JD Is saying, it's not when Jesus conceived in Mary, but it's rather Mary's own conception that is miraculous and takes place in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, and wherein Mary is conceived free from any taint of sin, including what we call original sin. And so this wonderful gift of God is a way by which God took the graces of Christ's cross and applied them earlier in time to Mary so as to prevent her from ever having a stain of sin. You can just imagine, instead of dropping a T shirt in the mud and then cleaning it up. Nice. Imagine if you never dropped the T shirt in the mud at all. Right. Mary never, ever had any taint of sin by a special grace so that she could be the most perfectly fitting mother for Jesus.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Dropping a T shirt in the mud. That's a good one.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: It was very similar to the daily rosary meditation this week on the Amen app, they talked about that. How Jesus, through God or as God, was able to prevent Mary from having sex. That's right.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: The best cure is prevention.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
So our resource of the week. I wanted to sneak back to the Amen app and the daily rosary meditations. That's why I mentioned them there.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: And maybe ask a little bit of a question, because they do daily meditations. They go through the full prayers of the rosary, but they don't pray the mysteries at all. They have different, you know, each day it's a little bit different. He does reflections instead.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Okay, I haven't listened to it, so I don't know.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Do I count these towards my rosary of the day? It's a meditation.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Are you praying, like decades of the rosary praying?
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So there's five full decades, but instead of the Luminous Mysteries, he'll share five thoughts. So one day it was about the Immaculate Conception, so he did a rosary meditation.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: So you're saying all five decades, or does he just do one meditation?
[00:08:05] Speaker A: All five. So all five.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: All five are focused on the Immaculate.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Conception and five different importances of it. So one of them was about.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think those count, jd. Those are all prayed in vain. It's useless repetition as Jesus watches out.
So I'm disappointed that you fell prey to that pagan trap.
No, I'm just joking. Oh, goodness, no. Of course. It's totally valid. I mean, I would suggest that if they don't announce the mysteries, maybe they're just assuming you're going to choose your own mystery set.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Choose your own mystery set, but still try.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah, still try to connect it to the Immaculate Conception all day. I'm guessing that's what they're thinking, but I'm not sure. I'm not familiar, so I can't call it.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
Now sounds good, though. They do a mixture of recordings. They were on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land a while ago, and they were in a number of different sites. And they did pray the Luminous Mysteries.
This morning. I think it was this morning.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Anyway, so they do mix in the actual Rosary Mysteries along with these other meditations.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So they count.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
And going back to a point from way earlier, and this was actually brought up at the core group one time, how when you're doing a rosary, you can split it up during the day if time requires. You don't have to sit and do, you know, don't. Don't not start a rosary because you don't have time to do five decades.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah, exactly. It's going to break it up. Do a decade here, decade there. A decade for anyone who doesn't know our Father, 10 Hail Mary's glory be, and usually the Fatima Prayer as well.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
Okay. That was a bit of a jumbly question and resource of the week, but I think we got it all in and I got a lot of good questions answered.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: We've got some smart listeners. They're going to figure it out.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Thank You, Father. Thank you. Okay.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: On the podcast.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: All right.
In our liturgical calendar, we are in week three of Advent. So on what will we joyfully focus this week? And I would really rejoice if you could explain to me what gaudete means.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Queotete is simply a Latin word that means rejoice.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Oh. So there we go.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: We are joyfully getting excited at the greater proximity of the birth of Jesus Christ and the celebration of the Christmas season.
And so that's why we're rejoicing. We'll see soon that rose pink candle as we literally lighten up with joy at the proximity of Christ's birth. Because the closer we are to Christ, the closer we are to joy.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: And rose pink vestments.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: This is correct.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Right on. Okay.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: They're coming only two, two weekends a year I get to use them. So I gotta use them.
If you don't use them, it's like, what the heck, man? You only get two chances.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Oh, they must be so pristine in your closet.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: I think in the old. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure in the pre Vatican Jew calendar, you got to wear them for more days.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: But I think it's just too.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: You can't just pick like a Thursday. Hey, I feel like wearing pink today.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think, like, you might have been able to wear like for the whole week, not just the Sunday.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: So I'm not 100% certain though. But I think that might have been the case.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
This is gonna play my hand embarrassingly, but.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Oh, well.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: During your daily masses.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: This week, are you wearing purple?
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Whenever it's not a memorial or something of a feast or saint. Like yesterday I did not wear purple because it was Immaculate Conception. Great, great, great.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: That's gold. That's special. And so the vestments carry on through the daily masses of the week.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Every day is going to base on what is being celebrated. If there's no saint that day, then it's gonna be purple in Advent. But if there's a saint, like today is Saint Juan Diego. So it's gonna be white.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Yes. Okay.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: But then after you hit December 17th, all Saint memorials become commemorations and they get subdued so that the color doesn't change.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Memorial feasts, optional feasts, optional memorials.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yes. Solemnities, feasts, memorials, optional memorials. Ferial day ferry means there's no special thing that day.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay, cool.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: I typed something in the wrong place. Can we go back to rosaries for a second?
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: And the Immaculate Conception.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: This is a point that I wanted to bring up to ask you about and just.
I hadn't thought of it in this way before.
People may hesitate to get close to Mary because of our guilt about sin. We feel that we're too sinful and we can't get close to Mary. So we're thinking of the physical world and going back to maybe your T shirt analogy. If you bring something dirty next to something clean, what was clean becomes dirty. That's in the physical world. And what I heard this week a fascinating take that it's the opposite in the spiritual world. If you bring something dirty next to something clean, clean wins and clean has the power to triumph.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a hope filled perspective.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So we can bring our dirty hearts to Mary and she will help cleanse us.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what she wants to do. She's like a loving mother who's like, hey, let me wash that shirt for you. Let me help out. I love you.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Let me wash that soul for you.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Indeed, she brings it to her son.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Get me the tide stick.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: That's right. She's got the divine, the heavenly tide stick which is really the grace of her son.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Oh, perfect.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Good call. Which she is the mediatrix of.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: All right.
We had a very busy weekend last weekend in the parish.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Gosh, I think everything that could possibly happen, every group had something going on. It was a wonderful atmosphere. It was busy, it was joyful, it was energetic.
And there is so much happening in our community.
Our parish owners, they do own the parish.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: The parish owners, that's their parish. I mean really the bishop owns them kind of the Pope owns the parish, like, but really there's an ownership that the parish owners have to play into. Your wonderful speech.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Wonderful. Yeah.
So the.
They can check the bulletin every week or this cool new website, ihmchurch ca.
But for everyone else out there, I guess they can check the website too. But what would your personal invitation be for people to.
To focus on and to highlight this week?
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Well, I think that there's just always going to be so much great stuff, including our RCA where we've got almost 20 people who want to become Catholic. There's always things like Knights of Columbus meeting tomorrow and CWL event tomorrow. Little kind of CWL thing to hand over the past to the new team and our youth night on Friday. I'm going to be visiting Saint On Henry Newman High School probably a couple times this week.
In addition to meeting, I always go to IHM School and St. Gabe's School and core on Saturday. Core. Our men's group on Saturday morning, as well as our young adults group, which is always awesome.
And we've got all sorts of exciting stuff like family catechism on Sunday, as well as our annual Smith's memorial service for those who have lost a loved one in the last year as well.
And that is just some of the stuff coming up in the next seven days.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Feels like things are getting way busier. Like, I think of when we talk during the summer, it's like, yeah, summer.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Subdued, and then summer's summer. I'm not bored, but I'm loving the pacing.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: It's a little bit like. But God is always there. He gets us through a little bit.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Of spiritual rest before the busy season.
Yeah, that's great. And a lot of souls being converted.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah, we got lots of confessions going on. People are getting ready for Christmas during this beautiful Advent season.
So much cool stuff. I loved the Holy Land handicraft items that were available this last Sunday. And just lots of great stuff going on.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: We're super blessed, great people here.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: And. And speaking of great people, there are so many people doing great work at the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Who do you want to recognize in the parish this week?
[00:15:48] Speaker B: I want to recognize Paul.
Paul is the guy who came this last Sunday with the handy craft items from the Christians in the Holy Land. And I just love that guy. He's super nice guy. I talked to him before and after and super, super cool dude.
And just grateful for the ways that he's promoting our ability to support Christians in the Holy Land and keep them there. And, you know, it's. They're also kind of grading, creating all these wonderful Catholic items that people can have, these crucifixes and, like, this stuff is just beautiful, great gifts. I love seeing that because it's a way of spreading in a very visible way the love of Jesus. And this devotion to Jesus.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And the stats that he mentions paint a very dire picture about the number.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Of Christians that are remaining 30 to 1% in the last. I think he said 30 years or 50 years. Can't remember. Anyway, so shout out to Paul. Paul's got it all.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Paul's got it all.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah. If you get pushed back against a wall, then you know the person that you need to call his name is Paul, and he always really stands tall.
So Hurdy also happens to play basketball.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: So we can excerpt this little section. And there's your rap of the week done.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: There we go. No Rap of the Week. That was it. No, I'm just kidding.
That was not a very good rap. That's part of the fun.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: That's part of the fun. Coming up with it right on the spot. That's great. All right. Congratulations, Paul. Thank you for.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: He probably doesn't even know this podcast exists. Oh, gosh, I'm sure he should send it to us.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Everybody's talking about this.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: He was in Winona. It's everywhere.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: That's true. You know what? What am I thinking?
Why am I sabotaging myself so much?
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Your modesty to one of your wonderful traits.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Well, that is just about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your insights, Father. Shall we close with a prayer?
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. And thank you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love for us. And we thank you as we reflect on the gift of the Immaculate Conception, on saints like Saint Juan Diego, on this Advent season, on the gift of more and more people being involved in our parish. We just have many motives to thank you, to give you praise, and each of us can look into our own life right now and see ways that you are with us, you love us, you're helping us. And this is not always an easy time of year for everybody. Lord, we just ask that you would pour out your graces upon them and bless them as the Christmas season appears and we get to rejoice.
May be filled with that joy already, even on Gaudedi Sunday, which will help us to receive with even greater joy the gift of Christ's birth. May bless us and our listeners as we pray this in Jesus name. Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Thank you, Father. We're going to introduce a new competitor to chat GPT. Gemini is really moving up the charts right now.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Gemini. There's also, like, truthly, there's Magisterium AI.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Which is like Magisterium AI. Wow.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Catholic AI thing.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Okay, maybe we'll talk about that next week.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not an expert on these.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Okay, well, we don't really. We'll poke around, see what we can find.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: We can check it out.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: All right.
Wow. What an episode. Well, thank you so much, Father. It takes a truly special kind of person to participate in these shenanigans. Sometimes wonder if this is sometimes a penance for you and our listeners.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Well, I don't think it is for me nor our listeners. I think it's a blessing, but it's good to joke about it.
[00:18:48] 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.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah, they need to exercise better judgment than you. If you don't like the show. And why did you listen? Like, why did they listen if they got this far?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: No joke.
Hang on to the very end. Anyway, 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 to be you were yesterday.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Cheers to that.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Right on.
