Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish podcast with Father Greg and JD Pointing just in case. Just in case they're not sure. Each week Father Greg and I connect on a variety of topics related to our faith in our parish in beautiful Winona, Ontario. We are here to help spread the good news and further unite our parish community. This is episode eight. We will be honoring our lady of Lourdes who is revealed through Saint Bernadette. And featuring another great resource to help us along our faith journey. Remember, you can find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts and the YouTube every week. But still, why find us when you can subscribe or like and then we can find you every week. So try that. Subscribe like, and then we will come to your inbox every week with a brand new episode. So it's exciting with you this week, Father Greg.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Well, we got confirmations this week and lots more fun stuff.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Excellent, excellent. And we'll see if the viewers can identify what's new in this week's version. We had some outstanding video added next week and some great.
Some great features. That's really a bad word. But some great bonus video editions and we'll see what they. Thank you for saving me. I do have a quick question before we begin this week.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I'm sure it's very important, very real, very not joke.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: I did see somebody had a sign that God was their co pilot. I think if God is their co pilot, shouldn't they really be switching seats?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: I think that's legit. Unless like. Yeah, no, I think you're right. I'm not a pilot. So.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: All right. Another Father Greg quality line right there.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: That was better than my jokes.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: That was really good. Oh, I don't think so. Anyway, after that, you better start us off with a prayer.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Okay. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you so much for this day. And we just ask that you would be with us in a special way right here, right now, wherever we are, as we watch or listen to this. Lord, send your spirit upon us, all those who watch and listen and help us to experience your presence, your peace, your light. And help us to hear what you want us to hear through this episode. We pray this in Jesus name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Love how you say watch and listen, but I think the really leaning towards watching the numbers are tilted that way right now. But with all these outstanding effects that she is putting together, why not let us Reveal our saint of the week. You know, each week we do feature a saint and share some facts about their lives. As we strive to live at our mission, as Catholics, we can always look to our saints for inspiration. This week we are featuring Our lady of Lourdes, who appeared to Bernadette and Saint Bernadette was born in 1844 in Lourdes, France, was the eldest of nine children in a poor family. At 14, she saw a vision of a lady in a grotto who instructed her to tell priests to build a chapel, wash in a fountain, and pray for sinners. Over the course of 18 visits, the lady revealed three secrets and identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. After miraculous healing occurred, Bernadette gained recognition and she later entered religious life and was canonized in 1933. Today, Lourdes remains a significant pilgrimage site, with many claiming healing through its waters. Have you been?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: No. I'd like to go one day.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: I think that should be tour of.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Our next year's pilgrimage.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: I think so. I think so. I do love this prayer from Our lady of Lourdes. Dearest Mother, you chose the humble Bernadette to proclaim your universal message of repentance and your title as the Immaculate Conception. Please pray for me that I may one day share in your glory in heaven. St. Bernadette, pray for me. Our lady, the Immaculate Conception. Pray for me. Jesus, I trust in you.
I love that ending. It's a perfect ending. Just as a simple, simple message. Jesus, I trust in you.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I also just want to say, if you have not seen the movie the Song of Bernadette, it's such an amazing movie. If you're looking for a good classic movie that'll really inspire you and tell you the true story of Saint Bernadette and how Mary appeared to her in Lourdes, you got to watch the Song of Bernadette. It's incredible. The first time I watched it, I had to leave the room at the end. I just walked away at seminary and I just went and cried in my room. It was so good.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Okay, excellent. All right, so this could be a new feature of the week. Movie reviews with Father Greg. All right, well, let's get into Ask Father Greg. Each week we respond to a question submitted by a listener or one that we make up ourselves. Last week's resource Talking Point Cards prompted this week's question. We featured these cards and the Christian edition, and we noted after it wasn't the Catholic edition. And so it prompted a little bit of discussion. Does it matter? Like, is there a difference between Christian and Catholic? And where do we go with that?
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Awesome. I love this question. In fact, when I was a kid, I had no idea what these words really meant and I didn't even know which one I was. Was I Christian? Was I Catholic? I don't know.
But now I know that Christian just means someone who, who follows Jesus. So Christian, okay, we follow Jesus Christ. Christ means anointed one. So if you are a Christian, you follow Jesus Christ, you believe he's God.
Now, the first type of Christian and the only type of Christian, broadly speaking, for the first thousand years were Catholic Christians. So Catholic comes from the Greek word catholicos, which means universal or all embracing for everybody, because God wants one flock, one shepherd, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Jesus prays in John 17 Father, I pray that they would all be one, as you and I are one. So God wants this unity, this unity amongst his family. And so for the first thousand years, there was just one church. There wasn't all these extra churches.
The year 1054, the Orthodox broke off. That's a whole story. And then later on, there was the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
And so all of those who believe Jesus is God and follow him, they're Christian. But as Catholics, we are the og, the original Christians. And we would believe as Catholics that there's rays of truth in every religion. And we have so much in common with our brothers and sisters in Christ who follow Jesus. But we'd say we have the fullness of all that God has wanted to reveal. We have all the sacraments, we have all the Scriptures, because later Protestants would remove some of the Scriptures from the Bible. And we have the saints, and we have many of the things of the early church, early Christians talk, talked about. And so Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics, but Catholics are the original Christians and God wants us to be one family. And so part of our life as Catholics is to try to bring that sense of unity amongst Christians. We have this prayer week throughout the year, every year, the prayer for a week of prayer for Christian unity. And so we want to reach out to others who may be okay on some points. They may not agree with us fully.
And I'm always happy to answer questions about those things. But that's broadly speaking, Christian, follower of Jesus, Catholic, like we're part of the Catholic Church which Jesus founded. We're the only church that goes right back to Jesus and St. Peter in a, you know, right from the beginning, we've always existed. And maybe I should just lastly say, because not everyone knows that in the Catholic Church, the people who are ordained.
Well, I was ordained by bishop, for example. Ordained by a bishop. Ordained by a bishop all the way back to one of the 12 apostles. So we go right back to Jesus as well.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Excellent. There's so much emphasis often put on differences among Christian religions. Wouldn't it be great to have a bit of a shift and let's focus on what we have in common and further unite everyone together?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah, and the Church is big on that. The Catholic Church is really, really big, strong. Like in Canada law, it says that pastors like myself, we're required to try to reach out to other Christian ministers and build bonds and unity. And it's something I'm trying to do in our community. So this is, like, one of the many things you have no idea that I'm doing, not just saying Mass.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: So. Yeah, just before, you know, when you're blasting in here, five minutes before recording, you're on a mission.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: To try to help and spread more good news around. Well, that's awesome. Thank you for that explanation. Curious to see if there's anything that comes up in the cards that will be an interesting distinction between Christian and Catholicism.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I have a feeling that these are more, like, open, so that they won't create any division, which is totally legit.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: All right, well, we will report back in coming weeks about the different questions that Father encounters or we encounter in other social groups.
Okay, let's look ahead to the liturgical. Well, that's easy for you to say. Liturgical, calendar. We are ensconced in Ordinary Time right now, and I think we're really coming up upon Lent very soon. Should we begin Lent in preparation? Is it too soon?
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Good question. It's pretty hard to be too soon to think about Lent. And I think most Catholics, probably when Lent's coming, they're like, whoa, it's Lent. And then even then, they're like, but what am I gonna do? You know? And I think it's always, like. Even, like, two weeks into Lent, they're still figuring out some stuff times, so. And that's happened to me, too. That's. That's not a judgment about anybody. It's just a sign that preparing is probably good. Doesn't hurt to err on the side of starting early as Lent's coming up. And, yeah, Lent is a great time for us to prepare ourselves to renew our baptismal promises, renew our commitment to Jesus, which we do at Easter, and also to. Yeah, focus on some ways you want to grow in those classic Lenten areas of prayer, fasting, and Almsgiving. I always recommend people to think of one resolution for each of those three areas. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving. Now, when it comes to prayer, yeah, some way to pray more or some way to pray better and something hopefully you want to carry through after Lent because you can really make some beautiful life changing habits with the graces of that Lenten season. You know, fasting could mean food fasting or could mean you eat healthier or could mean you give up something that's just maybe not so good in your life right now. And then, yeah, almsgiving is sharing with others. Most traditionally giving alms is giving money. But it could mean other gifts of yourself to others, time, talent and so on. So, yeah, I would say anyone listening? Ask the Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do this upcoming Lent that can really change my life and help me be even more of that disciple Jesus wants me to be.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Okay. And I suppose in the next couple of weeks, why don't we kind of make it a commitment to talk a little bit more about preparation and give some more suggestions for getting people prepared early and so they won't arrive two weeks in and say, now what?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I think this is such a great idea. We should make it an ordinary thing.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Very good. I'll write it with my green pen.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Also possibly coming up would be a concentration, concentration.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: You've got to concentrate on the consecration.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Consecration to St. Joseph. And we mentioned this, I think last week or the week before. And it would be an ideal time to start. Start on February 15, which could be the next starting point to lead into the march.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: March 19th is the feast of St. Joseph. And maybe I'll just quickly say, as I hold it, for any viewers, consecration to St. Joseph is a way to entrust yourself to the protection and the guidance of St. Joseph. You know, those who are in heaven can pray for us and protect us. We have guardian angels, we have Our lady, we have St. Joseph, who's the greatest saint in heaven after Mary. So this book comes, Consecration to St. Joseph by Father Don Calloway. A wonderful. I would, I would really almost call it a modern spiritual classic. Even though it's only been around like four years or so. It's really incredible. If you want to learn about St. Joseph and like get a really strong connection with him, great book. And there's 33 days of a little reading, a little prayer, and then on the last day you kind of make that prayerful commitment to invite St. Joseph to protect you and guide you. So it's a Cool idea to start so that it ends on March 19th. That's the Solemnity of St. Joseph, when we're going to have 9am and 7pm Mass, because it's such a big deal.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Excellent. And so if you want to jump on it early, you can find the book on the Amazon or you can go to the site that sells the book specifically. There are other starting points, too.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you don't have to start this time anytime. You could really do it anytime. But it's kind of nice to land on a time where it's a feast of St. Joseph. Like May 1st is St. Joseph the Worker. So you could do that I suppose, too.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: And that would be a March 30th start.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: So there we go. Okay, excellent. That's a perfect bridge into our resource of the week.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Resource, resource, resource.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: For a resource. This week, I wanted to focus on being purposeful about listening to homilies and taking messages away. And Matt Kelly has this resource called the Mass Journal.
Just a small little book that mass journal 3D, and it's a great thing. You don't need, I suppose, the branded version, but any kind of little journal. But I like this one because there's a little bit of a prompt each week. This one lasts for 52 weeks, so it would be valid for a whole year. And there's a prompt each week. So for week four, it says, the story of Jesus Christ is the most powerful in history and has directly or indirectly influenced every noble aspect of modern civilization. But amid the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it is easy to become distracted and distance ourselves from this story. From time to time, someone comes along who reminds us of the spellbinding power of the Gospel has when it's actually lived. So there's a little bit of a reading to get started and then a little space to write notes, maybe some brilliant points from the homily that you want to carry forward and remember and work on through the week. And he also recommends starting the Mass with a little prayer in mind, saying, God, show me one way in this Mass I can become a better version of myself this week. What a very simple invocation to open your mind as you go through Mass. How is this going to make me better next week?
[00:14:04] Speaker B: I think when it comes to Mass so often, people, people, it's kind of like they turn on their TV and they almost like turn off their brain sometimes. And I think that, on the contrary, we want to make sure that when we're at Mass, we really, like, light up our Brain. We're extra proactive. We're really mining for new ways this could help me be better or help me love others more. We want to have a proactive intentionality during the Mass, which might be hard to maintain given that there's so much we do every time. But the reason we do those things so often is, is because each one of them holds so much potential to help us grow closer to God.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: I remember for years attending masses and listening to the homily and sometimes being really captivated, sometimes less so. But there's always a message in there and sometimes leaving and trying to remember. Okay, what was that nugget?
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Right. If you write down all those nuggets, you might have a little book of great nuggets after a year.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Excellent. And I mean, you really help us out with your weekly summaries now that the homilies are also recorded and broadcast. Really helps live the message more on a weekly basis, more consistently. So think about a Mass journal, think about reviewing the homilies, and for sure pick up a set of notes on your way out of church. Amen. All right, so there is so much happening in our community and in our parish. Our parishioners can check the bulletin, of course, but for everyone else out there, what are some of the highlights of the coming weeks for us?
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Here's a rapid fire set of cool things. As usual, we have rca. Anyone who wants to become Catholic, let us know. We are so happy to welcome you, Chat with you chosen series. Saturday nights. We've got confirmations tomorrow night, the night after. Bishops Crosby and Lobsing are coming. So we're really excited to have them here. February 14th this Friday, which happens to be Valentine's Day, if I'm correct. You are correct. Right. Didn't want to get that wrong. We have our Hamilton Diocese vocations night dance thing. So that's kind of cool. Looking forward to that. I won't be dancing, but I'll be chilling out.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Oh, you say that now.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then February 28th, we have a youth event. So 10 to 18 years old, come and join us for this exciting youth event. And March 1st is Bishop's Charity dinner. Have you ever wanted to have dinner with Bishop Crosby? Well, now you can.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: March 1st, Bishop's Charity Dinner. Carmen's in Hamilton. Have dinner with Bishop. Have dinner with lots of cool people. There might be multiple bishops and the who's who's of the Hamtown will be there. Okay. There's my. Hopefully.
Yeah, hopefully cool advertising. Okay. And then there's as usual. The Rome pilgrimage. May 11, May 23. That's probably enough for now.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Wow. That was a very downplayed Rome pilgrimage. We got a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage. Pilgrimage.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Hold on.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: One, two, three. Pilgrimage. Pilgrimage. Pilgrimsimage. Yeah. May 11th, May 23rd. Amazing. That was great.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Excellent. None of those events happen on their own.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: They require incredible teams of people, and there's so many great people doing great work at our parish. Who would you like to recognize this week?
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to recognize someone who probably doesn't know this podcast exists, which is.
I want to really recognize Bishops Crosby and Lobsinger. They're coming this week to do confirmations. They're going to be pouring out the Holy Spirit, and we're excited to have them. So if you happen to listen or watch Bishop Crosby or Bishop Lobsinger, we are so grateful to you for your great ministry, and what we do would not be possible without you.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Okay. And maybe we'll pick up two new listeners and then plus.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. If you know Bishop Crosby or Lobster and you want to show them this shout out, by all means. Yeah, we're grateful to them.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Okay. That's super. Well, that is just about all the time we have for this week. Thank you for your insights, Father, shall we close with a prayer?
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. And before we do, I just want to highlight. Look at this amazing logo. For those who are watching. We got this amazing logo, like, so cool. If you watch this, by the way, you get, like, a few bonus Easter eggs. Just like, there's, like, little funny things we do, like we hold things or point to things or whatever. Anyways, now let's do our prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, we thank you so much for this episode, this time to chat, to pray, to think about how we can get more out of mass, how we can continue to build unity amongst Christians, how we can continue to be like Saint Bernadette and be closer to you through the help of our lady, who always leads us to follow Jesus and help us to continue to draw closer to you in our personal prayer life. Bless our listeners, their families and friends, and we pray this all in Jesus. Name the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Thank you very much, Father, and thanks to our fans and friends and odds and ends for joining us this week. And I want to borrow from your homily and thanking you for being our gps. Oh, thank you, God Positioning system.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Of course you can find us on the Apple and the Spotify and the YouTube and through the Heart of Immaculate Heart of Mary's social media channels. I gotta do some vocal exercises.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: No, these are great. This just makes it more fun.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: And 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. Have a great week, everyone. We are Father Greg and JD Leaving you smarter, happier and more blessed than you were yesterday.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Bye.
