Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens, and myself, Father Christopher Henry, here at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Jackson Heights, Queens. As we begin each podcast, we always call to mind the presence of God and of the angels and saints in heaven. Heaven. We pray today, as always, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the patroness of our diocese, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, as we ask her intercession for us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop, we had some great guests on recently. We had Father Michael Fauci and Harry d' Onofrio at the Cathedral, Cathedral Club. And that dinner went very, very well. We teased a little bit about the installation of the new archbishop of New York, and we had a chance to both be there. That was quite a beautiful ceremony, wasn't it?
[00:01:16] Speaker B: That really was. And he spoke very well. You know, you can pick up. He has a certain message, a theme. He really is focusing on going and making disciples.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: You know, it's very true. And, you know, as I was recalling your installation Mass when I was at the CO Cathedral, and the excitement of the opening of the doors and this beautiful ritual of beautiful symbolism and just quite an energy and excitement as there was for the priests of the Archdiocese of New York, as they were in great number. And how many bishops, over a hundred or so bishops were present at the archdiocese at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and great number of cardinals. And it was really an exciting time.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: We certainly had the New York contingent and a number of archbishops there because he represents more than the Diocese of New York, but he represents the metropolitan province. So a lot of the provincial leaders were there, and there was a big contingent from the Chicago area. He was originally a Chicago priest and then serving in Illinois. The Illinois bishops were really there in great number. And that. That was a good thing to see.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: It was. I ended up meeting a few priests from Joliet, and I asked them, I said, how long are you in town for thinking, you know, they're coming to new city, they must want to try to make a little bit of a trip out of this. And one of them said, no, I'm just in for the day. I flew in this morning and I'm flying Out tonight. Well, okay. But God bless them.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: I guess they do have Chicago. You know, as much as I love it, New York isn't the only great metropolitan city.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: You're right. You're absolutely right. But we're very, very glad that they were there, that they came to visit. And it's sort of the last week and a half, two weeks, really, before we begin a really blessed season in our liturgical year. As this podcast releases on Friday the 13th, just in five short days, on the 18th, Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we celebrate. We begin the season of Lent.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: It's already upon us, and it's really neither early nor late, but it seems like we just got past Christmas. And I guess with all this winter weather, it's been a bit of a blur. Actually, from a calendar point of view, it's good to be moving along, but from a spiritual point of view, too, Lent always comes at a good time. It's always good to take stock, and not only for me to take stock myself, but for us to take stock of things together. There's something about a season rather than just a personal, spiritual moment.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: That's right. I've been mentioning the last week here at the parish of St. Joan of Arc. You know, I've added it to the Sunday announcements. Keep in mind, folks, that in 10 days, we begin the season of Lent. Don't let Lent catch you like a thief in the night. We want to make sure that we're prepared so that on the 17th we don't say, ah, I guess I'll just give up chocolate again, or I'll just give up carbs. You know, we have to be more focused on our. Our spiritual realities more than our physical selves. It's not a season of diet. It's not just a season to look good for the summer. It's a season to look good for eternal life. So, Bishop, what suggestions do you have for those who are listening to us as they kind of come to this Friday and just a few days away from the beginning of that great season?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: You know, the readings for the first three days of Lent, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, give us the tools and set the tone. On the one hand, on Ash Wednesday, you have the prophet Joel calling people, now rend your hearts, not your garments. Now is the time to turn to the Lord and St Paul on ish Wednesday saying, Now is the appointed time. There's a seriousness to the now and to do something drastic. The prophet Joel was facing a natural disaster and was calling on the nation saying, hey, we have to do something drastic.
We have to really stop. I'll never forget. One of the images that's really imprinted in my brain goes back to the COVID experience, and it was of Pope Francis sitting outside on an empty St. Peter's Square on sort of a rainy evening, and certain emptiness, a certain loneliness, but basically him making an urgent call. We put too much stock in our own power to do things. We put too much stock in our own abilities and in our own pursuits. Things that in the end, are fleeting. So there's that urgency, and that was the kind of urgency that the prophet Joel spent and that the church gives us these scriptures to remind us that there needs to be a certain urgency in our own lives, but not only our own lives again, but the whole church, that this is the appointed time, now is the time, and then again to go deeper. The prophet Isaiah on Friday talks about, this is the kind of fast that I wanted, similar to the reading that we heard this past Sunday. You know, unbinding the burdens of people, lifting debts and helping people doing concrete things to make other people's lives a little bit better. So there's that combination of living outside of ourselves but also making that urgent. You are responding, I should say, to that urgent call to draw closer to God.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: I love that point. I think that's so important in our own spiritual lives. There's those things that sort of. They prod at us. Yeah, I really should get to that. You know, I'll get to that eventually. And you say, no, this is the time and we have the support. As you said, it's not just a single person's spiritual journey. It's the whole church, universal, coming together, praying for one another in these moments to strengthen each other, to say, lord God, give me the strength to make that change now, to rid myself of this vice now, to put on the new, put on Christ fully now, to step away from notice, to see people.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: To see human suffering, to see human suffering in the world, and also to see suffering, maybe even the people right front of us, right around us, but to be more attentive to that and to find those words and deeds to lift the burdens.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: So we know the three traditional practices of Lent. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Or in other words, almsgiving, works of mercy. So prayer, fasting, works of mercy, the three go together. And so whatever we're thinking about giving up or whatever we're thinking about doing probably should nourish the other two. So you mentioned before, oh, giving up chocolate. Well, you know, maybe that's not the Worst thing in the world. But is it just an exercise in discipline or, or like you say, is it a diet? Or can my giving that up be, first of all, a reflection? Prayer. A reflection on a lot of the things I take for granted, a lot of the things I do to fulfill my own needs. Gee, you know, how does this make me grateful for things, notice things? How does the eating of chocolate, for example, or smoking or something, what's the need that that's fulfilling? And how do I pray with this? How does this giving up of something draw me closer into prayer? And then there too, you know, if you're giving up the sweets or giving up, say, smoking, well, hopefully that's going to give you a little bit of extra cash there. And is that an opportunity for almsgiving, Putting a little bit extra into some kind of charity? A charity of your choosing? When I was a kid, we used to put quarters in the. And we didn't have mike boxes, we had a card and you put the quarter in the card. But you know, there were different mic boxes. And then at the end of Lent, to give that money to an organization that cares for the hungry. Think of Catholic Charities, St. John's Bread and Life. But how can the sacrifices I make turn into generosity and care for somebody else concretely? And how does that draw me closer to God in prayer? There's a whole cycle.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: It's a beautiful cycle. Your point is certainly well taken. Not to minimize a practice, but as you said, how is this leading me to greater spiritual growth? And how is it, how is it fostering the other aspects of this season of Lent? You know, it's a great opportunity for us to think about, even as priests, you know, how can we be doing more to serve the Lord? Where am I? Where does God's will and my will? Where does my will overpower times? God's will? And that's your motto, isn't thy will be done, thy will be done. And it's such a beautiful opportunity for us just to take that time. So here in the parish as pastor, I'm trying to offer our parishioners additional programming so that they can find added ways throughout the week to grow in the spirit of prayer. So we're offering more time for eucharistic adoration. We're doing a youth event. We're having amass purposes of healing. We're also offering something within the Spanish speaking community. So we're trying our best, and I'm sure every pastor does, to make sure that our parishioners have extra programming.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Absolutely Three things that I would suggest publicly and then a few things privately in terms of prayer. So all of those devotions make sense. Maybe somebody might be able to fit daily Mass into their schedule, if not every day, at least once or a couple of times a week in addition to Sunday Mass. That's a great way to deepen our own spiritual lives. I've become more and more attached these days to the Stations of the Cross, even outside of Lent and the Friday Stations of the Cross. Many, many parishes have Stations of the Cross on Friday. And many of the parishes kind of attach it to other things like a Lenten Supper or something along those lines. We try during Lent to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the crucified one.
Last week in the reading from St. Paul, he went into Corinth after kind of been humbled a little bit in Philippi in Athens, where he thought his talents were going to carry him through. And he comes in, he said, with much fear and trembling into Corinth. And he resolved that I would do nothing but preach Jesus crucified. And so we keep our eyes fixed on the Cross. So daily Mass, the Stations of the Cross. And then of course, we have our Lenten pilgrimage, which we do. I think it's the fourth year of doing this. Father Giovino set it up in such a way that we're going to a lot of parishes that haven't yet hosted it. So it's a great opportunity. I find that a little community forms out of that. People meet each other along the way. And so there's this community at prayer and they're glad to reconnect. And those are day long things. And they have two approaches. One, I encourage people, particularly if it's in your area, in your deanery or something like that, to make a visit to one of these station churches.
When you were in Rome studying, did you go to the visit churches? Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: It's beautiful.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: You go out every morning, right, for Mass in a different church in the city of Rome. Well, this is kind of modeled on it. There are some people who make all or many of them. But even if you just do the ones that are close to you and you could go to Mass there that day, you could take part in one of the devotions or hopefully there's adoration at these churches. You can just stop in and pray for 15 or 20 minutes. And that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm not doing the same thing. I'm not celebrating the Mass in each place. I'm going to kind of work it into the rest of the calendar. And sometimes the morning will be best to start the day off. And sometimes that might be best for the parish. And sometimes it might be best to come in the evening to close the night. And sometimes, you know, the way the calendar is set up, I might be able only to pop in and pray privately, quietly for a few minutes. And every one of those things works. On the one hand, if you keep an eye on the schedule and you see something in your area, come on by and just make that visit at any point during the day that it's scheduled, you'll get the schedule on the website or on the app. On the other hand, there are some places that when the church is designated as a site, that parish rises to the occasion. And so to do this, when it comes to your parish, to be a good host, to be there to welcome people, to take part in one or some of the activities, those are things we suggest. So that's a great way of celebrating Lent. It kind of upends the schedule a little bit and says that this time, these 40 days are different. I look forward to getting to as many as possible. This year the ordination of Bishop Rodriguez Manuel Rodriguez in Palm beach is going to pull me out for two days. Minister of committee is going to take me to Washington a couple of days and there's a new bishop being installed in Rochester.
So a little more than I like being away in Lent, but these are all must dos. But I'm looking forward to doing what I can and seeing the people along the way. And again I drop in at different points so I see different people at different times.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: The schedule has already been published on our website, Lent.dioceseofbrookland.org and as Bishop was mentioning, there is an app that is found on the App Store and Google Play that will help you to follow the pilgrimage sites. St. Joan of Arc's happy to be one of the sites this year and yes, so thank you with our school kids and a day of prayer. It's Thursday and which is already a very busy enough day here at the parish, but a blessed day and we're happy to open the doors to our neighbors. And you're right, Bishop, if our deaneries can come together as well, just to offer that information for those around us, that's also very beneficial.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: So Valdanya, those are some of the concrete spiritual things we can do publicly, we can do together. But even privately there are things we can do. This Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary or the Daily Rosary, praying the different mysteries each Day, you know, the joyful on Monday, the sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday as it goes. But as we get closer and keep our eyes fixed, particularly the sorrowful mysteries, to keep our eyes fixed on the cross, we can read, read the Bible, read the Gospel in the beginning of Lent, just listen to Jesus, be a disciple, follow him, you know, listen to what he has to say, watch what he's doing, and then lead as you get into those later weeks of Lent, to his passion and death. These are things we can do on our own. I mentioned the stations publicly, but even privately. And then there's the prayer of the church, the liturgy of the hours, and now there are all kinds of apps. You don't even have to buy the book and you don't even have to figure out where to turn all the ribbons.
It's become very, very accessible. But morning and evening prayer, night prayer, again, I always say, do what you can do and not what you can't.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: You don't have to do everything. And that's one of the temptations is I'm going to be extraordinary this Lent. I'm going to get all of this accomplished. And then we get discouraged and we do nothing better to do something practical, something that, that makes the time different, Give it a shot and if you fail, get up again and start over.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: You know, that the Lord's walking with you.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Amen. I found just in my reflections this. As we're prepping for this season to try to encourage families to find moments as a family to pray together, how important that is, you know, my fondest memories, that didn't happen all that much. I mean, obviously every Sunday, my parents and I went to Mass every Sunday without question, no matter where we were. But occasionally, and probably around the season of Lent, my mother and I, before bed, would pray the rosary. And I just have great memories of that, just praying the rosary with my mother, occasionally my father coming in and joining us. But those moments of family prayer are so important and perhaps as parents can take this season as well to do something spiritual and prayerful with their children.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Precisely. You know, and another thing is look in on each other. Earlier this week, on Wednesday, the feast of Our lady of Lourdes, we celebrated World Day for the sick. I'll have the chance, we're recording this before then, and I'll have the chance to be with our senior priest. But, you know, who needs a phone call, who needs to have some kind of follow up, a little bit of extra attention?
Those little concrete things are the fruits of that prayer. Prayer should be fruitful. It should do something to our hearts and spur us out of ourselves and into concern for other people following after the heart of God. So these are all possibilities.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Amen. Bishop, before we get to Lent, we have another event happening in our diocese. We always recognize the diversity of our diocese, a diocese of immigrants. On Saturday, February 14th at 1pm there's a special mass taking place at the Co Cathedral of St Joseph celebrating just that, our diversity, our unity in our diversity with our migration. Mass, you want to say a little bit about what you're looking forward indeed.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: You know, it's a long standing tradition in the diocese. It paused a little bit during COVID and to be honest, I don't think we got it off the ground again. And given some of the rhetoric on both sides, I've been saying this all along, some of the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum, given a lot of the rhetoric, we want to recapture that this is a human issue. We want to recognize the real needs of people.
We want to see each other as fellow human beings. We want to promote respect for the dignity of life from the beginning of life until the bitter end and at every moment in between. And we also want to stand in solidarity. Pope Leo chose as his motto the expression of St. Augustine in the one, we are all one. And that's it, you know, that's what unites us. In the one, we are all one. And so we celebrate the many cultures that make up the Diocese of Brooklyn, which has been part of the heritage of Brooklyn and the legacy of Brooklyn for well over a century, maybe two. We recognize that. And then we also celebrate our unity that comes from our experience, our encounter with Jesus Christ in his church. So we look forward to that. If you're listening, on the day it has on Friday, it's tomorrow afternoon, you're certainly very welcome to join us at the Coke Cathedral. And you know, we pray. We pray especially right now for those who are refugees, those who are running from persecution and fear and violence. We pray for those who are. Many people who pray for both those back in their home countries who are suffering a great deal. We have a lot to join us together in prayer. Many things we need to be praying about.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Amen. We do. And it's great that we have these opportunities for our parishioners and our different apostolates to come together.
They often, as we just celebrated the Irish Apostolate, St Bridget and the Dominican we talked about, we covered Alta Gracia and all the different apostolates, but for us to come together right is a great opportunity as well. So we're looking forward to that. On Saturday, February 14th at 1:00pm, Bishop, perhaps as we conclude our podcast, you might give us your blessing. Sure.
The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Be gracious to you.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever. Amen.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Amen. Thank you, Bishop, and thanks one and all who join us each and every week. We hope that you'll join us again in the week to come. God bless.
