Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to a new 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 come together this last week of the Easter season.
This episode releases on Friday before Pentecost Sunday. We'll join in prayer calling forth the Holy Spirit upon us on our listeners on our diocese and our intentions. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall
[00:00:47] Speaker A: be created and you shall renew the face of the earth, Lord, by the
[00:00:51] Speaker B: light of the Holy Spirit, you have taught the parts of your faithful in the same spirit. Help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in your consolation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop, good to be back with you. It's been a busy time for us all and great to be back recording with you and also be with you this week as we gathered for our priest's convocation.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: It was a big week. We had a meeting of all the priests convocation on Tuesday afternoon. We, we had a good showing of priests. It was a serious topic. We had a conversation about the pastoral implications of the law about assisted suicide. How do we handle it pastorally? How do we accompany our people, guiding them to make the right decision? How do we accompany people in their illness all the time? So all of that was part of our convocation. But again, it's just good to be together. We could share the meal together, we pray together, we have a holy hour together.
It really is always a life giving experience.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And while you're absolutely right, I mean the chance to gather to see one another. But it was a pretty filled afternoon with very, very meaningful conversations. We heard from Bishop Massa, from Father Charles Caccavalli, both of them. Bishop Massa serving as the rector of St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, and Father Caccavalli, who also serves on faculty at the seminary and a very special doctor who visited us, Bishop, at our priest convocation away convocation. Knew it, invited her back.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Right. Dr. Nicole Cirilla.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yes. Dr. Nicole comes with a great background in hospice care and in this particular field we were discussing in the pastoral dimensions of ministering to those with terminal illnesses, especially in light of recent legislation here, locally and throughout our country regarding medical assistance in dying.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Exactly. It really is accelerating this passage of this kind of legislation all around the country. So I remember when she was with us at the away convocation in the fall, Dr. Shirella told us stories about different case studies of people who were seeking to take advantage of that opportunity for assisted suicide.
And almost to a person, when she would talk, it's not that she presented arguments, but she engaged in conversation. She really tried to understand what were the underlying reasons.
And often the reasons were reasons that didn't match up with reality. I'm afraid I'm going to be a burden to somebody.
And somebody said, well, no, no, you're not going to be a burden. You know, there were other underlying worries and fears and reasons, and she was able to give people some reassurance. I remember at that convocation, she said, you can always get to that deeper point of what's really the concern, but it takes a lot of time. And she said, who's going to have those conversations? And I looked around the room and I said, we are. It's going to be many of our priests. And so I was hoping we would have the opportunity to delve into it a little bit more. You know, we spoke back in the fall. It was talking about the possibility of the legislation and why it's a bad idea. Now that it's part of our life, how do we deal with it? How do we accompany people so that they can make the good decisions in the light of the gospel and the light of human dignity of every human person? The other thing that it does is it provides challenges for the church. So just like the pro life movement, we don't just say it's bad to have an abortion. We realize that we have to step up and offer support to women at times of pregnancies, to families in crisis. The same is true for us in this kind of situation. It's not enough simply to say, no, such is a grave mistake. On the other hand, we have to mobilize to walk people through this very difficult time, the times of terminal illness, maybe provide respite to families, maybe provide support to families. And the church has different agencies of support in terms of nursing and hospice care. How can we give the alternatives to address the deeper need? So it was very powerful conversation, and it was good to get the give and take from the priests. I think we need to be able to do that, to try to understand this so that we can be more effective in our witness of the gospel, but also in our accompaniment of people. And when I say our accompaniment, we can't do it alone. We have many good people who are parish visitors and the visitors to nursing homes and things like that, who themselves, too, can provide tremendous accompaniment and encouragement.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: And really, in addition to kind of equipping us with those different scenarios that we discussed, it was equipping us with the knowledge of the complexities of these issues and scenarios, the reality of the priest's presence, the church's presence, and how much more complicated it gets. And we could. We don't have enough time in this podcast.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: But the point is, yeah, there is magisterial teaching.
The church has spoken about this and developed some guidelines that we have to take very, very seriously. We do have to witness to the truth of the dignity of human life. So it was a good conversation. And as we head into this weekend, we approach the Feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and we entrust ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And it begins a series of feasts. The Easter season finishes Monday, we begin the season of Ordinary Time. But for the next couple of Sundays, we have feast after feast. Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and then the Friday after Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One of the things as I was doing some preparations is I noticed a thread in the readings from Trinity Sunday to Corpus Christi to the Sacred Heart, in the readings that are provided for those feasts this year. And they all focus very deeply on the profound love of God. On Trinity Sunday, we say, God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that all those who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.
John 3:16.
Famous verse, John 3:16, God so loved the world. And then you realize as we get into Corpus Christi, God loved the world that he sent His Son, but His Son gave us the gift by which we can have him remain with us forever in the Eucharist. And then, of course, we turn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This theme of the love of God that knows no bounds is the. The theme that unites these three feasts. And I'm looking forward to the Feast of the Sacred Heart. You know that it's going to be a special occasion for us in the Church this year.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: So quite dutifully, we've been reading a little bit more about it, and you spoke, you had the chance to speak to the priests about it at the convocation. But as our Nation celebrates its 250th anniversary of its founding, we recognize that all the bishops are going to be together that week for bishops meeting in Florida. And it's at that point where all the bishops of the United States will come together to consecrate America to the Sacred Heart. I think this is really quite beautiful, really powerful and important historically.
Reading there's a reflection from Archbishop Sample about the desire to do just this. And he brings back basically to the days of, well, Pope Francis encyclical Dilexit Nos where he raises that, the devotion again to the Sacred Heart, he says, to the forefront of our contemporary Catholic life.
And he quotes Pope Francis in contemplating the pierced heart of the Lord who took our infirmities and bore our diseases, we too are inspired to be more attentive to the sufferings and needs of others and confirmed in our efforts to share in his work of liberation as instruments for the spread of his love. So there's a beautiful thing that the bishops are promoting this 250 years, this consecration to the Sacred Heart, but also 250 works of mercy, combining with Catholic charities throughout our country to encourage works of mercy. It's again, I think, as you said, the theme is love and theme is God's love.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: And there were two dimensions to it. And Pope Francis brought that out so beautifully in his letter. It was not long before he died that he issued this letter and anticipating the Feast of the Sacred Heart. And of course, he had died by the time we got to the celebration of the feast. But he left his imprint in a very, very powerful way. And the very title of the letter, he loved us. Delicte knows the first thing is to recognize how deeply, how profoundly we're loved by God. God so loved the world.
But when you take that seriously, it necessarily has to do something within us to increase our love for one another. As you quoted there, it draws us, compels us to be ourselves, people of love, to reach out especially to those who are suffering in any way in our nation.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Certainly we are attentive to the needs of the suffering. We see it a divided nation in a nation that's greatly in pain and in great need of love and peace. And I think to see the bishops of our country as a Catholic and certainly as a Catholic priest, encouraging their priests to do it on a local level. And I know that in our diocese we have great celebrations as well. We have in the Spanish speaking culture and the Latino, the Sagrado Corazon, the Coffraria, the women of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which meet on an annual basis. And even here at St. Joan of Arc, there's a desire to create a group and to create that devotion to that first Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart. This is a topic that you and I have discussed now, I think, three years in a row, right on that Feast of the Sacred Heart when you had the priest visiting us from Ohio that joined us to, you know, bringing the Sacred Heart into your home.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: The enthronement of the Sacred Heart. Exactly. Yes, there were some great devotions. And that's a long tradition in the church that we venerate the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Francis encourages us to take that and to go deeper. He speaks about compunction to realize our own need for God's mercy in our lives and compunction not as like wallowing in grief or in regret, but compunction, this desire because we're loved by God, this desire to set things right, this desire to express our love more generously.
So, yes, we're going to celebrate it here. I'll be in Orlando, of course, at the bishops meeting. And on the Vigil of the Sacred Heart, we'll celebrate this consecration. And then parishes are encouraged, either on Thursday night, the Vigil of the Sacred heart of Jesus, June 11, or during the day to celebrate this consecration in their own parishes. The materials to do that are on the USCCB website, and we'll be providing that through the Vicar General notes on Friday, so it'll be shared with the parishes this week. There are liturgical texts and the consecration itself. But then you mentioned another piece to this. And through Catholic Charities, we'll participate in this sense of service through food drives, and we'll provide as well, information so that parishes can participate in this celebration.
This all comes this all comes in celebration of our nation's 250th anniversary coming up on July 4th.
And this will be a time that the bishops will be together. This will be, you might say, our celebration of America's 250th. The US is 250th, and it is a great celebration for us as a nation. We have so much to give thanks to God for in our country.
So many benefits of freedom, of being able to be productive, so many chances at opportunity.
We give thanks for the many moments of the noble history of this country.
But we neither sanitize our history nor run away from our history as a nation.
We have our lights and our shadows.
We've seen this nation rise up to give great assistance and aid to people all around the world. We see a goodness in the citizenry of the United States. But we also know that we have a ways to go. And we have some tough things in our history. You know, institution of slavery. We have a lack of respect for human life. We started off talking about some of that concern about human life in the beginning of this conversation. We know that we have to work harder on our care for the poor and for one another, our care for the migrant, our respect for every person at every moment in life, regardless of race or creed. We do have a lot to go.
But you know what? That's why we make this consecration, because we know we're always in need of God's help, mercy and conversion, the conversion God gives us. And that's a beautiful thing in this nation. We don't claim to be a nation of people who are perfect, but a nation that's always searching for the truth.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: You know, when I was in seminary, we studied with some of the seminarians from Nebraska, and they had mentioned one of their founding bishops, either Lincoln, Nebraska, Omaha, or Grand Rabbits. One of the three dioceses had went out on horseback and blessed the boundaries of the diocese to prevent, you know, it from great storms, tornadoes that had been ravaging the diocese. And I always was kind of blown away by that beauty of this, you know, how we view the power of prayer, how this bishop would have gone out on horseback and blessed all the boundary of this incredibly large diocese. But in a way, I feel that similar kind of sense when I hear the bishops coming who represent all aspects, all corners of this great country saying, you know, we need to come together and unite and consecrate this land to the love of the Sacred Heart to bring back a reminder of that love, of that charity, of that forgiveness, of that openness with all. And I think if we don't underestimate the power of prayer, do think that there's something really life changing that's to happen. So I'm really impressed by it and I'm looking forward certainly to participating with you, Bishop, and the bishops of the country here locally in Jackson Heights.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Isn't it amazing that the bishops of the country would choose to meet in Orlando in June?
But that's okay. We're glad to be together. And you and I, people here in Brooklyn, will be united in the heart of Jesus in our prayer as we make this consecration on Thursday night and celebrate this great feast of the Sacred heart on Friday, June 12. In the meantime, going back, you offered, you started off our episode today with that prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And this weekend we celebrate Pentecost Sunday.
There's another example of the way that God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus sent his spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, came and what was the first fruit of the Holy Spirit? The apostles were able to proclaim the gospel and they overcame divisions, the divisions of language by the proclamation of the gospel. And so, on this Pentecost Sunday, we pray that the Holy Spirit will work through his church and work through all of us so that the Gospel of Jesus may be known and that we may overcome divisions so that we may hear of that amazing love of God.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Amen. Bishop, I think perhaps just on that note, if you wouldn't mind, but closing our podcast today in prayer.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: And I close with the prayer to the Sacred Heart which we will use on the occasion of the consecration of the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Almost. Sacred Heart of Jesus, you know the longings of our hearts and you desire that we enjoy friendship with you. From your pierced side you have poured out the wellspring of life for which we thirst.
Your heart burns with the love for all people to return to a right relationship with you.
We celebrate the abundant gifts you have given this nation founded on the self evident truths that our Creator has endowed all people with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, who make reparations for the offenses against you and against human dignity if that have taken place in this nation.
May our hearts be united with you so that our families and our communities may enjoy peace and happiness.
May broken relationships be reconciled, injustices repaired and the wounds of our land be healed.
May your Holy Catholic Church serve as a sign pointing all people to your infinite love. O desire of nations and center of history. We ask you to bless these United States of America who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Pray for us.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Thank you very much Bishop. And we are really in store for some really great upcoming podcasts. Next week we hope to be joined by Father Joseph Za and Father James Coroli to discuss Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical entitled Magnifica Humanitatis. Magnificent humanity centering on the role of artificial intelligence, AI and the the great again pastoral dimensions of that topic. And then we hope to join with the ordination class of 2025 as we have this annual recap of their first year ordained. So we looking forward to having them join big city Catholics but for each and every one of you who join us each week, thank you for joining us, and we hope that you'll join us again next week. God know,
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Sam.
