Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome back to our big city Catholics podcast, our Diason podcast with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diason bishop of Brooklyn. Myself, father Christopher hen you, director of the Co Cathedral of St. Joseph. This is our Christmas edition of our podcast, and we wanted to begin in prayer, the colic, the opening prayer of the mass on Christmas at midnight, midnight mass. Beautiful prayer that we can read together and that you'll be able to hear again on Christmas at midnight mass. In the name of the Father, the none of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 00:00:41 Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:42 Amen. Let us pray, oh God, who have made this most sacred night radiant with the splendor of the true light. Grant. We pray that we who have known the mysteries of His light on earth may also delight in his gladness in heaven, who lives in reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. In the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop, you know, we're getting ready for Christmas. You've mentioned this a few times during this advent season, that we're very lucky to have four full weeks, and I really, I appreciate that now more than ever because it has, I remember saying Advent was flying by, and you said, just wait. You're gonna, there's gonna be time for prayer. There's gonna be time to get all of that stuff done. And, uh, it's,
Speaker 2 00:01:31 It's like right now, and especially this week, we have this full week. We did the fourth Sunday of Advent earlier, you know, this past Sunday. And now we are in these days we have a full week. And things do change that, you know, first of all, liturgically, they change radically. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative> all, all the readings on the beginning, on the 17th. Yeah. Uh, turn our eyes, as I say to at Bethlehem. Yeah. But the other thing that happens is that just on a secular level, the world seems to slow down. It seems like all the so-called holiday parties Yes. Take place in the beginning of December. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And now we're in that week in which Christmas will occur and a lot of the events have quieted down the busyness of everyday life. It's probably busy in some ways, but we have more days That's right. To do it. And there's a great opportunity now to let the power of the liturgy, power of the Christmas narratives in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, or even the prologue of John's gospel, which we proclaim on Christmas Day, all these beautiful images that help draw us closer to the mystery of Jesus's birth.
Speaker 1 00:02:40 Yeah. I think this advent season for me personally here at the co cathedral, we've been running these Sunday night Vesper services. Each and every Sunday we've invited a different bishop to come for the solemn Vespers and Vespers for those who don't know, is just a fancy way of just saying the evening prayer of the church. So we, we were able to pray these Sunday investors, which actually Father Bruno was saying to me is in the Vatican, second Vatican Council document, SA Santo Ulum. That, that there's a desire from the second Vatican Council that parishes do have the opportunity for parishioners to participate in, in vesper services. Each and every Sunday. Not just the Sundays of Advent, but each and every Sunday. We started with Bishop Demario and then Bishop Cisneros, Bishop Veto. And then the fourth Sunday, just this past Sunday, yourself, you came and presided at our Vesper service and you brought along your,
Speaker 2 00:03:33 The seminarians. Seminarians the seminarians from all of the institutions, the different seminaries, college level, major seminary, they all came together. There's an a, a custom, I remember when I was a seminary in that the bishop would invite the seminary and sometime around Christmas for dinner to celebrate the Feast of Christmas. That continues. We haven't had it now for a couple of years. In fact, last year I was so convinced I was brand new mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And remember, you and I talked about this, that I really wanted to have this. I remember. And definitely I wanted to have it. And we even made plans to have it here
Speaker 1 00:04:13 So that there could be social distance Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:04:15 Spread out a little bit. And yet a good number of guys on two, three days before were exposed. And at that time it was beginning of that omicron outbreak and people didn't know and you couldn't get tests.
Speaker 1 00:04:28 That's right.
Speaker 2 00:04:28 It was just chaotic. And so I finally had to give in and say, I guess we can't have it. We can't. I remember that. Yeah. People together just before Christmas. I, it was all the more meaningful to be able to do that this year. And it was great. It was good to be together with everybody.
Speaker 1 00:04:42 Yeah. It looked like, uh, I saw some photos that, uh, were posted on our vocations Diocese of Brooklyn Vocations Facebook page, and I think Father Beth even posted a video of our seminarians, the neo catechumen and singing a medley of Christmas songs. And
Speaker 2 00:04:56 That was great. I mean, it's always nice to gather for dinner, but there is something about the Christmas carols that touched the hearts of us all and that made it very, very festive. And they did it with a lot of spirit. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. A
Speaker 1 00:05:08 Lot of fun. We had Christmas carols also sung at our Christmas tree lighting. So this is both what we're saying is these full four weeks, um, have allowed you to get a lot done. A lot in. Right.
Speaker 2 00:05:19 We've done those and now we have a little bit of time for prayer. So Yes, exactly. Last week we lit the tree over at Grand Army Plaza and we have a major scene set up there, I believe on, on the other side of the street there's a menorah set up. That's right. Yeah. So it shows respect, but I think that's a great thing to have a public display. The reason for our joy, we're not just, you know, deck the halls and la la la la because everything's okay, cuz everything's not okay. Yeah. But there's a deeper reality that God has come to live among us, that God shares our human nature. That God came on earth precisely to die. He wouldn't die as God, but he became human to save us from that very reality of death. And if you stop and think about it, this can make us immensely joyful. Sure. And this is really the answer to every long human longing. And so the way we celebrate Christmas is proclaiming to the world that we do have some good news in the midst of everything else. And we are, we're thrilled to proclaim it. So what we're doing at Grand Do Plaza is shining forth for the whole
Speaker 1 00:06:26 World. Yeah. The crossroads of of Yes.
Speaker 2 00:06:29 I
Speaker 1 00:06:29 Mean, how wind
Speaker 2 00:06:30 Joke, I could hear the ha horns honking and the traffic going by, but that's the whole point. Christ is in the midst of the city. That's
Speaker 1 00:06:36 Right.
Speaker 2 00:06:37 He comes in the midst of the city.
Speaker 1 00:06:39 There's this sort of silence, this peacefulness Right. In the midst of all of this chaos.
Speaker 2 00:06:44 Rush hour chaos. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And we have something to proclaim. I over the weekend too, had some other great experiences. So a quarter of my family heritage would be of the Czech Descendancy, uh, Bohemia. So my paternal grandmother, her parents both are, are of Czech origin. My one great-grandfather was born in was called Bohemia. It's a town called Dobe Chce. And I got to visit there. I went to Prague. It's about 45 minutes outta Prague. This goes back a couple years over Bishop pge. But I got to see the church where my great-grandfather was baptized when we went over the cemetery. A couple of generations came with them when they immigrated. Sure. So there was nobody really of close link to my family. But we went over visited. But I got to go to Mount Kamala, a lady of Mount Kamala in Astoria, where we have, I think the last remaining Czech mass. Is that right? On the East Coast? At least that's what they tell me. They're, they're guessing certainly in the tri-state area. There's a Slovak Mass in New York City, but an actual Czech mass right there. Wow. In Astoria. Again, the world is in
Speaker 1 00:07:57 Brooklyn. That's right.
Speaker 2 00:07:59 The world is in Brooklyn. Yeah. So it's a small group, but a steady group. Father Anthony, he's over full-time at Queen of Maters in Forest Hills. But he comes every Sunday to do this mass. And it's something I wanted to do. It was great because I, I told the people my grandmother was born here, so I'm not as up to date on all the customs and all the culture. What I remember is the food <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:08:26 My grandmother made the food and people brought cookies. And I said, those are the cookies she used to make. That's exactly it. So I learned a little bit. So these days are privileged days, these days, Sundays in Advent, the privileged days, days for the liturgy, they, they have the roe prayers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which comes from that prophecy of Isaiah, come down from the heavens, oh Lord. And then let from the earth spring forth a savior. And so these roe crying out to come down from the heavens Oh Lord. Becomes integrated into their prayers. And they have special hymns and songs that go back to the 16th and 17th century. Wow. And so there's a rich, rich, deep-rooted heritage and, and the Kims that they use at mass too, it's kind of weaved into the mass parts. It's, it's, it is really, to me very eyeopening, but very, very beautiful. Sure. You know, and you know, one of the things that makes it so powerful is the people there would tell me, I knew this already, but the Czech Republic is probably one of the most atheistic places in the world. There was a strong anti-religious, anti-Catholic experience there. You go back to the hus sites. John Huss. Yep.
Speaker 1 00:09:37 Yep.
Speaker 2 00:09:37 Strong, strong, deep-rooted hatred. King Wela. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, good King Wenceslaus will be sing out on, uh, looked out on the feast of Stephen. His feast is in September. But he was murdered by his own brother for becoming a Catholic. So there's, there's strong dissident roots there. But then the experience of communism. Exactly. One of the more recent cardinals was a barista bishop who spent time in jail. That's right. For his faith. Cardinal Duda. So the people who do celebrate their faith out of that Czech heritage, they do it, do so Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:13 With grace,
Speaker 2 00:10:14 The darkness. That's right. Yeah. They shine forth. We, we'll be talking a little more about light in the darkness and that they continue to be a light for us. Yeah. Yep. Here in the story. But people come from all over. So that was fun. And I, I got to understand a little bit more the customs, if you will, around Sure. The celebration of Christmas. And I happened to be there, but they already, they, they gather for coffee every Sunday after their mess. But they had the singing of the carols. Oh, wonderful. And I guess that's almost like a universal experience, right? Yeah. Yeah. The singing of the carols, but the special Czech carols, and then they added in a <unk>
Speaker 1 00:10:50 Faithful. Nice. And did they wear their traditional garb? Something?
Speaker 2 00:10:54 No. Oh, no, no. Again, it's just, these are people in our community. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. Traditional
Speaker 1 00:11:00 God, I, I was, uh, blessed to spend some time at our Lady of Mount Carmel as a deacon, and with Monsignor Sean Ogle, who was the pastor there at the time. And, uh, of that Czech community. There's a family that, that Easter vigil that I was assigned there, I, I sang the exulted, this gentleman, the father of this family who must have been in his eighties at the time, he's since passed away, but they were just so filled with the Easter joy. I remember just how excited they were. And it was the, it was this particular Czech family. It was the ones of the Czech community that were there. And, and it just speaks to what you're saying, they are this light in the darkness because of how they've had to live their faith as a sign of true, authentic joy in the midst of, of a world and, and a society that which they've come from.
Speaker 2 00:11:46 And, and not just because of interest, but a society that became very dark and very, uh, foreboding. Yeah. Yeah. On Saturday I was with the Hispanic community. We had a retreat, Dave, this was more about Eucharistic revival. It was over at St. Peter and Paul in Williamsburg. I participated in their procession, their eucharistic Holy Hour and procession. And then I was there for mass. So I kind of touched base with some of the customs in the Hispanic world, which we are more familiar with, certainly here. And we talked a lot about some of the different things. So, uh, I know a number of parishes are celebrating the Posadas. Yes. Have you ever had that
Speaker 1 00:12:23 Experience? There's a unique way of looking at it. We have a, a priest here now, a sign of the co cathedral from Columbia. And so he arrived in our Spanish faithful here, the Hispanic sites. Father, can we do the Posadas here for Christmas? And he had no idea what the posadas were.
Speaker 2 00:12:37 That's more Mexican. It's more of a Mexican kind. That's Columbia, more South America.
Speaker 1 00:12:41 Right? That's right. And so it, for him, it's a great experience too, cuz we're both, he and I obviously, you know, are experiencing this great devotion, this great kind of, uh, traditional devotion of a different group of Hispanics, of Latinos. So no, only experiencing it, holy child, Jesus. And, and now we are gonna do something here for it as well.
Speaker 2 00:13:01 That's great. But I, I remember when I was in Long Beach, we celebrated it. So there they would, for the first 15, 16 days of December, they would do the passats. They would go, they would go to people's homes. Some of our larger parishes here do everything at the church. But the idea of the passata is, is going to people's home, which is a great moment of evangelization. That's right. Because they didn't just go to the people who were there all the time, but to the whole community and groups, the different groups would gather in people's homes. And you had the reenactment, if you will, of the scene in Bethlehem. So there's this whole dialogue back and forth knocking at the door. That's right. So the, the outside group is acting as Joseph and Mary saying, oh, please, can we have some poso? Can we please have some, some shelter?
Speaker 2 00:13:46 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we need shelter. And the people on the inside going out saying, there's no room, <laugh>. And then it goes back and forth, and finally there's the open the door, and then there's just this grand celebration. That's right. You know, come on in. And there's the, the joy, yeah. The joy of preparing for Christmas. And this isn't rushing the season because this is really marking the journey of Marion Joseph. Yeah. I remember in Long Beach, PE a lot of people had these statues of Joseph leading a donkey with an expecting Mary riding on the donkey. And a lot of people would carry that, and they'd carry, uh, an image of the baby. That was, oh, very important. But then on the 16th in Long Beach, they turned to the Noves, the Noves in Spanish, it's Noves. So that was a combination of prayer, but they also set up the nativity scene at large set up, and it was really centered around the children. And then the Vnc goes, the, the carols. And some of them are just, uh, an awful lot of fun.
Speaker 1 00:14:48 You have experienced much more of it than I have, you know, and at Holy Child, they did do parishioner gatherings in their homes. But here, a little more difficult in this area, a lot of, of our parishioners live in apartments that, you know, to try to exactly host all these people. It's almost impossible. So we do, we're gonna do it just one night in preparation before Christmas here at the co cathedral with a procession to St. Teresa. And on the way we're gonna stop at different homes,
Speaker 2 00:15:15 Like
Speaker 1 00:15:16 Outside the
Speaker 2 00:15:17 Yeah. Like stations Exactly. Along the way. That sounds like a lot of fun too. Yeah. But the Carols are just a lot of the Spanish carols are a lot of fun. Everybody seems to know about, uh, you know, uh, Rito ero, you know, am Donkey. I I ride to Bethlehems. He may have been <laugh> with some fun
Speaker 1 00:15:35 Songs. We'll put that one in as the ending. Uh, there you go. End song of our podcasts today. Oh, my Donkey. I write
Speaker 2 00:15:41 <laugh>. Did you, you've heard that song. I've
Speaker 1 00:15:45 No, I, no, I feel like I've to, I've totally inept for this conversation. Oh my goodness. I don't know it. No,
Speaker 2 00:15:50 I'm gonna, no, I'm not singing <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:15:55 I'll, I'll put it on my, my Apple music afterwards, after
Speaker 2 00:15:58 This. Yeah. So those are some of, of the customs. Um, we'll talk next week a little bit about New Year's Day, but of course, the Haitian celebrations lead into Flag day. We all know the Italian Seven Fishes
Speaker 1 00:16:10 Last year, my first Christmas here, Bishop Demario was got food delivered actually from, uh, generosity of, of a restaurant in Coney Island, Gargiulo's. And they brought all of the fishes for us Oh yeah. To eat. And it was, and, uh, I said, this is a new experience for me. I mean, I called my mother. I had to FaceTime her just to prove that I was actually doing it. She had no idea what I was talking about. I said, we're eating all the fishes here.
Speaker 2 00:16:33 Well begin of your mother. Tell me a little bit about iron.
Speaker 1 00:16:36 Yes. So my, well, my mother's very happy to be, uh, quoted in this week's edition of the tablet. You know, over the last few weeks they've been putting a really cool, uh, segment about this multicultural aspect of our diocese. As you said, every culture's represented here in our diocese. She was interviewed by our reporter there, Paula Catinas, about the Irish traditions. I was there when she was being interviewed over the phone and hearing her talk about how her family came together to make this Christmas pudding. And she was one of 13. They, she said they all had to hold the spoon at one, you know, I guess as they were at, at a certain age, you know, when they get older, they were probably out of the house, but, and they all had to stir the pudding in preparation for it, for it to bake together.
Speaker 1 00:17:24 They had to, they all had to hold this big wooden spoon and stir it together as a family. I thought, now, I don't know if that's what every family did, just her family, but what a cool experience and just listening to her traditions in her, her home. Things that I've never even asked her. But I know my, my mother, she brings a lot of that flavor from her youth to our home, you know, so she still makes the Christmas pudding really. Every year. She makes the, she really reenacts the Christmas experience of her Irish traditions in our home.
Speaker 2 00:17:56 Oh,
Speaker 1 00:17:56 That's great. Yeah. Yeah. That's, she was talking also about like placing Holly around the house, a single candle in the windowsill.
Speaker 2 00:18:04 That's a, an Irish custom that I remember. And I, and that's a sign of welcome. Yeah. That's, that's a sign of saying to the holy family, you're welcome in this household. Yeah. I know. You're looking for a place, you're looking for shelter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the Holy Family. Jesus. Marion Joseph. We put a candle in the window to welcome you
Speaker 1 00:18:23 Here. And so, however, all of our parishioners of the diocese in this big city celebrate Christmas, we're certainly unified in celebrating the joy of the birth of Christ this
Speaker 2 00:18:34 Christmas. Well, I hope people had a chance to look at, uh, the tablet over the course of these weeks to see how the Christmas is celebrated in all the various different cultures here. And, uh, look forward to many years of celebrating all the different cultures. Yeah. Right. I know some of them are still to come Filipino San Nino. I did that last year.
Speaker 1 00:18:54 That's right. And, and they, they have the Zibi
Speaker 2 00:18:57 Celebration, the Zimbabwe, the No, no Filipino. When I was in Long Beach, we had a strong Filipino community, so they too, that was the other, uh, celebration. I do remember everybody pitched into the church's nativity and there was this big colorful
Speaker 1 00:19:11 Star. Yeah. The star. Yeah. And, and that, that's their big, the symbol of art that you always say that
Speaker 2 00:19:15 Huge
Speaker 1 00:19:16 Star,
Speaker 2 00:19:16 Huge star. However you celebrated our prayer, is that you do celebrate the, the joy of Christmas, not deck the halls with bow, holly, fa la la, la because as I said before, all is not well in the world. But that's precisely the world in which Jesus came to live. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Jesus came to live among us to redeem this world that is messy, that sometimes is painful, that is sometimes shattered in darkness. But he came to be the light, to lift the burdens, to walk with us along the way. A child is born for us, a son is given upon his shoulders, his dominion rest. So I look forward to being at St. James Cathedral for a midnight mass, and that will be televised on net tv. I look forward to being at the co cathedral on Christmas Day at 11 for the mass of the day. We look forward to a great octave of Christmas in the days to come. God bless you, and Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 00:20:17 Thank you, Bishop. Merry Christmas to you. Would you like to give us your final blessing?
Speaker 2 00:20:22 May the Lord Jesus, who came to live among us as a light in the darkness, as Prince of Peace, to bear our infirmities guide you and bless you with that deep inner joy of knowing the mystery of Emmanuel. God is with us, a male mighty God bless you, the Father and the Son, and
Speaker 1 00:20:47 The Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. A very merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, <laugh>.
