Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome back to another edition of our Dias and podcast Big City Catholics with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, father Christopher Hek, the rector of the Co Cathedral of St. Joseph. We are excited to discuss all the events to come on this Holy Week 2023, but we begin in prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Asking our blessed mothers intercession upon us, our diocese, the faithful, and all of those who need our prayers. We pray. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of the Jesus
Speaker 2 00:00:48 Holy Mary, mother of God. Pray for us sinners now and of our death. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:52 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So Bishop, we're really coming to the busiest week of the year, right? For us as churchmen, but
Speaker 2 00:01:03 The busiest and the most grace-filled Amen. Week of the year. It's busy in a different way. In some ways I feel somewhat refreshed during this week. You, you put a lot of physical energy into the schedule, but a lot of other things step back and it refocuses our priorities
Speaker 1 00:01:19 Does. And a lot of the work, I guess, too, is the work of preparation and planning. But once we're able to enter into it, it's a very grace-filled week. But we begin, before we chat about Palm Sunday, we just wanted to recap, we did talk a lot in our last episode about Reconciliation Monday. And just to remind the faithful again that on Monday, April 3rd, our diocese and the Archdiocese of New York and Rockwell Center will participate in Reconciliation Monday.
Speaker 2 00:01:47 And that means that in all of the church's priest are available for confessions from two until four and from six until nine. And we look forward to welcoming many, many people. It's, it's such a beautiful tradition and people really do come out during those days. So we invite you to make Monday a special opportunity if you don't have the opportunity otherwise. That's right. Monday's our day.
Speaker 1 00:02:15 Yeah. Especially when we're talking about holy week being a grace-filled week. That's one of the graces is the grace of God's mercy. And so we hope that the faithful of the diocese will come out in great number. And there's some actually just, I know we didn't mean to go too much into this, but I read somewhere that over 75% of Catholics only go to confession once a year if they go at all once a year. Is that, have you heard something like
Speaker 2 00:02:40 That? I've never heard that. And technically speaking, that fits within the expectations of the church. We certainly wanna encourage people because it's a gift. It's a gift from God, the gift of his mercy. And so the practice of monthly confession or taking advantage of the sacrament at particular times, like at retreats or before certain moments in one's life, we highly encourage it. But honestly, my experience as a priest is a lot of people make it a part of their Lenin practice and a part of their advent practice. And that's
Speaker 1 00:03:09 Good. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:03:10 That's good. Obviously if we are conscious of mortal sin, of serious sin, we need to deal with that right away. But I'm actually encouraged that people do take it pension, that it's kind of built into a holy week and lent, I, I remember I was hearing confessions during one of the World Youth Days overseas, and so it was just English speaking people, and it turned out to be a student from a Catholic high school in this general area. And so began, you know, when was the last time you've been to confession? And she gave, you know, a couple of months ago, that's really good. And she said, well, it's lent that was lent. Don't we always go in Lent? And I said, yes, <laugh> <laugh> that. Yes, that's it. Exactly. Great. And it's true that a lot of our schools make room in their schedules during the season of Lent and invite priests to come in. So it really is part of our culture. And it's good that we connected, especially this season of penance and of renewals. So if that's what you're doing, at least you're doing that. That's
Speaker 1 00:04:07 Right. Once a year
Speaker 2 00:04:07 At least you're doing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:04:09 Exactly. Exactly. Well, Bishop, we begin truly the Holy Week celebrations with Palm Sunday Mass. And
Speaker 2 00:04:16 I'm looking forward to repeating. Last Palm Sunday, we were here at the Co cathedral for the Spanish mass at one 30, but we actually began with the blessing of the Palms up at Grand Army Plaza. Yes. And that was just so moving. And then we had a procession along the circle there and down Vanderbilt Avenue to the co Cathedral of St. Joseph. And it was amazing. It really was. And they had started the season of closing vanil to E on Sundays, and people were out having brunch and walking. Right. Walking about. That's right. And all of a sudden, this procession of people with the music blasting from the speakers and people carrying the cross and holding the palms, it was quite a sight. And you know what, that's a good thing. It kind of brought home to people, oh yes, today is a different day. And it maybe gave the idea of Holy Week to Catholics and the, the idea of, well, this is something sacred to those who are not.
Speaker 1 00:05:15 Yes. Yeah. That was a real act of evangelization, really. You know, these men and women were sipping their mimosas and having their brunch. And it was a beautiful kind of a spring day, if you remember. And we were just blessed with great weather. And again, a special thanks to the N Y P D for facilitating that procession walking with us. It was your first Palm Sunday in the diocese, and it was a very special one. And for those who may be listening, we will meet at Grand Army Plaza at 1230 on Palm Sunday. Whether you are English speaker or a Spanish speaker, all are welcome to join us in that procession of faith. So, you know, theologically, significantly, Palm Sunday, what does it signify, Bishop?
Speaker 2 00:05:58 It's a dramatic liturgy, isn't it? With a dramatic twist. So we begin with that triumphant entrance of Jesus into his holy city, to the cries of acclimation, the screams of Hosanna people holding palm branches, throwing their cloaks on the ground to welcome Jesus into his holy city. Only in the very same liturgy, to find ourselves turning to the passion of Jesus and to maybe some of the same crowd crying out, crucify him, crucify him. It, it's a real insight to human nature, not to any group of people, but it's a real insight into human nature. And so it becomes very somber. It starts off joyful. It starts off with the praises and acclimation, but then it goes into that very long gospel this year. It will be from the gospel of Matthew telling us of the passion of Christ, and then continue on with mass. But it opens us up into that holy week.
Speaker 1 00:06:58 It is, again, one of the more popular masses. Our crowds attendance generally rises and elevates during that day because there's so much to it. It is true. I liked how you say it takes a turn, you know, it really does take a turn. You're, you're starting on such a high note, an elevated note. And even the priest standing, you know, especially with the procession, you're walking and the people are waving the palms symbolizing Jesus' entrance. And then I remember as a child, you know, reading the gospel that Sunday and having to yell out, crucify him, crucify him, that as a child, that was really shocking to me. And, and it's still is, you know, it still holds some shock value because you're recognizing, wow, I, I could be a part of this mob that's turning against my Lord. And it is an absolutely beautiful liturgy, and it's, is, it's a great way to set the tone for the rest of the week.
Speaker 2 00:07:52 One of the invitations I almost always give during Holy week is that this could be a week, just like any other week, we can continue our work and our responsibilities. Those never go away, really. But we can get caught up in the day-to-day, and maybe they intensify if you're having company for Easter or something like that. But the church invites us to make this week different from any other week to set aside some of the things of ordinary daily life and focus in on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We've been preparing during the season of Lent, but now to prepare more intensely to celebrate so that that Easter celebration is all the more joyful. So what we wanna do is look through the liturgies of Holy Week, and, and I invite you, take part in the liturgies of Holy Week. They're unusual times.
Speaker 2 00:08:44 So it's not like we keep our regular schedule, the regular schedule kind of goes out the window and other things are added in. Take advantage of that. Maybe, you know, it might be one of the sacred and traditional liturgies. It might be the stations of the cross. It might mean if you can't do those things, making the stations of your cross yourself Sure. Somewhere along the way. Or simply praying the sorrow for mysteries of the rosary, or reading from the gospel, reading one of the passion narratives from the gospel. But this week could be like any other week, I urge you to somehow or another let this week be different.
Speaker 1 00:09:24 Sure. Beautiful words. Um, we call it holy week for a reason. Right. What a beautiful statement. We move from Palm Sunday Course Reconciliation Monday. That reconciliation Monday is not part of the liturgical, it's not part of
Speaker 2 00:09:37 Litur. It's a, it's a custom now that in Rockville Center at least goes back 23 years. Yeah. So we've been doing this for a while mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but it's a very local custom here in, um, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, New York, Staten Island, Bronx, and then all those counties further north. So, so it's a more local custom to me it's a commitment on the priest part, the priest standing together and saying, you know, the work that they do all year long saying, we're taking a moment to do this altogether, and we're doing this as an act of love, our appreciation for the sacrament of reconciliation and our love for God's people. So I think it's a real beautiful act of generosity on the part of the priest to the three diocese and unity, both generosity and unity. Yeah. So, yeah. And it speaks of what we see as our priority.
Speaker 1 00:10:28 We moved to the Christ and Mass now, of course,
Speaker 2 00:10:31 Speaking about our priests,
Speaker 1 00:10:32 Speaking about priests and the, and the renewal of our priestly promises. Occasionally that mass is held traditionally, I guess on Thursday morning, the morning of holy
Speaker 2 00:10:42 Thursday. That's right. For pastoral reasons. It could be moved. And it has been celebrated here for a number of years now, on Tuesday night last year, I would say almost all of our priests were there. It was what a site that was. It was to see all the priests lined up out on Pacific to get ready for the mass to process in and to have everybody. And then we had a pretty full cold cathedral. We had a lot of people there.
Speaker 1 00:11:05 We did. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:06 It's very uplifting.
Speaker 1 00:11:07 It's a, a wonderful way for the diocese to, again, to come together in, uh, in the sense of solidarity and support, you know, have parish representatives to be present. One of the things that is really beautiful that you've done this year and last year is the invitation of the priest's parents. That's really very sweet. My parents know about it. They hope to be able to come to it as well, and to be present for the mass, but a nice way to recognize the parents of the priests who are serving our diocese. I think that's a really very beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 00:11:39 I know that from my parents going in Rockville Center, it was always an uplifting occasion. They enjoyed that very much, and they enjoyed seeing priests that they had seen through the years in, in our parish mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then of course connected to me being there. Yes. And, and we owe a lot to the parents of our priests. We are an awful, awful lot to have the parents of our priests. So I try to encourage that wherever I've been. And so I was glad to do that. Unfortunately, my fault, we got the word out late, but I think it's still early enough that people, that the priests can extend that invitation and hopefully they know that I would be doing that.
Speaker 1 00:12:12 It should. Yeah. It should be fine. You know, we talked about in this podcast, our Lady of Guadalupe Feast and, uh, how the torches are lit and the runners run to the torches. They come, they gather here at the co cathedral, and then they're moved. They move out in a similar way. You know, what happens with the blessed oils is that all the oils are blessed together here, uh, at the co cathedral, in the presence of the bishop and the priests and the faithful. And then those oils, those very important oils, those three oils that are used throughout the liturgical year are then sent forth to, to those individual parishes. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2 00:12:48 Exactly. So the first thing is the, the idea of blessing the oils at the charism mass. So the mass itself is somewhat of a joyful mass. Again, in the midst of this very somber week, we connect the sacramental life of the church to these mysteries of Holy Week. And so in a very joyful way, we have the, uh, the charismas, the music that's chosen is a little bit more upbeat. We sing the glory, which we generally don't do mm-hmm. <affirmative>, septon solemnities in Lent. But we sing it at the charism mass. And there's that sense of joy because we're celebrating the presence of Christ in the sacramental life of the church, and the blessing of the oils does that. The second thing is, it's the connection with the bishop in a sense. The bishop has a responsibility for the sacramental life of the church in the diocese.
Speaker 2 00:13:41 And so we do this at the charism mass. The bishop blesses the oil so that our unity as a local church is expressed, as you say. We take those oils, then the sacred oils that we will use in the sacraments. So what are the oils? The oil of catechumens. We use that at baptism and in the process of the, uh, Christian initiation of adults. So that sense of protection, the oil of catechumens, that's probably the least used oil. We don't use that as much. Mm. The oil of the sick. Now, we do use that an awful lot. We use it as priests go to visit people in their homes in time of illness. Sometimes we have masses of anointing where we invite the sick to be present with us. Our hospital chaplains, and now parish priests go regularly to the hospital, and people find in the sacrament of the sick, sometimes real and physical healing.
Speaker 2 00:14:38 Sometimes the spiritual healing needed to be able to walk the road to calvary with Christ or to endure what they're enduring and always the forgiveness of sin. So the oil of the sick of the infirm is blessed. And then the sacred charism, all three oils are olive oil. And at the charism mass, in the sacred charism, balsam, a sweet perfume is added to the olive oil. And then that oil is blessed and sacred charism we use at baptism, at confirmation, at holy orders. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the dedication of a church. I, last week I was at St. Pius the 10th in Rosedale, and they had had a fire, sadly, a couple of years ago, four years ago, and rebuilt the church. And so it's a new church, a new altar. The dedication of a church is so powerful, and it was a very joy-filled celebration. But one of the things you do is the bishop pours that holy oil, that charism, that sacred charism on the altar, and then spreads it over the whole altar. I smelt like charism for three days, I
Speaker 1 00:15:46 Imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:15:48 And I use a lot of it when I do that. <laugh>, basically, you use that oil to set apart as holy, you know, as Jesus was anointed priest, prophet, and king. So may you live as members of his body sharing in his everlasting life. We say that prayer as we anointed with cri, that's right before we anointed with charism at baptism. So that one, everybody at baptism is set apart. That's right. To take on the mission of Christ's. A beautiful, the sacred prism has some very strong, powerful meaning in our liturgical life. So all of that is done in the context of the prism mess. But then again, it really is the church present in all its fullness. That's the image the bishop can celebrating with the priest in the midst of the assembly. So that I'm delighted to be joined with Bishop DeMaio and all of the auxiliary bishops.
Speaker 2 00:16:39 And we are all united with all the priests, and it's so many priests to come. That's such a powerful symbol that we can be together. And what, what a great boost it is for us to be together, especially on a day like this. The deacons come in number and they're part of that assembly. This is the image of the church coming together. Religious. We are so blessed with religious life in Brooklyn and in Queens and many of the religious joiners. And then among the faithful, you have people who are working in our parishes, people who volunteer in our parishes, and just people who really wanted to take part in the fullness of life of the church. So it really is, to me, one of the most powerful expressions of the fullness of the church.
Speaker 1 00:17:21 Is it traditionally, uh, the sense that the bishop preaches a homily at the charism mass that's directed towards the priest? Or it
Speaker 2 00:17:28 Is a chance for the bishop to speak directly to the priest? It's not exclusively to the priests, but we're also explaining those broad mysteries of the liturgical life of the church, the, the meaning of the Os to all the faithful who were there, or those who join us by way of television. Sure, many will join us by way of net tv, but it is a privileged time for a bishop to speak to the priest,
Speaker 1 00:17:52 Because it's probably few and far between. When you have an audience of that many priests present, maybe, you know, occasionally when we have pastors meetings. But this is not just the pastors. These are all the priests, parochial vicars, all who are assigned in, in the diocese. And many
Speaker 2 00:18:08 Are. And it's not a meeting, you know, that's the other thing. There's a different setting. Uh, so you're speaking from a different vantage point. And in the context of something sacred, it's
Speaker 1 00:18:18 Beautiful. Again, traditionally the cria mass would take place on holy Thursday morning, and, and
Speaker 2 00:18:23 Which is the day of the priesthood,
Speaker 1 00:18:24 Which is the day of the priesthood
Speaker 2 00:18:25 Here, it's to make it more accessible to people. Sometimes in some diocese, it's because of distance, because we have the evening masses on Holy Thursday, we connected with Holy Thursday, but we'll be celebrating it here on Tuesday night
Speaker 1 00:18:39 And Thursday, holy Thursday, the mass of the Lord suppers the mass, of course, which our Lord Jesus institutes the Eucharist by.
Speaker 2 00:18:47 So earlier I was talking about how the regular schedule is set apart. There aren't morning masses. On Thursday mornings, many parishes will offer morning prayer. People will gather. But the Triduum, the sacred Triduum, begins on Thursday evening with the mass of the Lord's Supper. Again, pastoral reasons, nursing homes, things like that might offer something a little bit earlier in the day. But generally speaking, it would be an, an evening mess. The Pope traditionally would've celebrated that mass from the, uh, cathedral of Rome, which is not St. Peter's, but from St. John la that's the diocese in Cathedral, and he's the Bishop of Rome. Pope Francis uses the day to visit either a prison or hospital or some kind of a detention facility. He uses it to go out to people who are on the fringes or who are poor. And again, the mass of the Lord's Supper has a joyful element, but ends on, as samba note, it has a joyful element.
Speaker 2 00:19:48 It's the celebration of the institution, of the Eucharist, but it connects our regular celebration of the Eucharist with Jesus' act of kneeling down to wash the feet of his disciples. So that where charity and love prevail, God is ever, there will be Kaita Moore, DEO C that's the chant that's used during the washing of the feet. So holy Thursday has a sense of service, of outreach, of care for somebody beyond ourselves. And so that all comes together in the Eucharist. The, the mass of the Lord's Supper is, you know, it's the night before Jesus died. What did Jesus want more than anything else? He want it to be with his friends. He wanted to share this meal. He wanted to kneel down and wash their dirty feet. He wanted to serve them humbly. That's the hallmark of his life, isn't it? You know, he sets aside his cloak to kneel down and wash the feet of his disciples.
Speaker 2 00:20:45 Isn't that the mystery of the incarnation? God sets aside the garment of glory to knee down and to serve our human needs to come among us as a human. That's, uh, an insight from the late Pope Benedict. But when we celebrate the Eucharist, it's not only about the bread and the wine, it's about Jesus' self-gift, the gift of the cross. He's present in the Eucharist because he gave his life over for us. And what he says to his disciples, he says to us, what I have done for you, you in turn must do for one another.
Speaker 1 00:21:22 That act of remembrance. Every time we come to celebrate the Eucharist, we are remembering the Last Supper. It's an act of remembrance. And even
Speaker 2 00:21:30 In that, and we proclaim that reading there too, St. Paul's reading in the Corinthians, every time we eat the bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the death of the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:21:40 That's right. Uh, what a beautiful, um, act of service. A beautiful liturgy for holy Thursday. Bishop, you'll celebrate that mass at St. James Cathedral.
Speaker 2 00:21:49 So I'll be at the Cathedral of St. James, and I'm looking forward to that. The mass there. I was going to say, the mass ends on Asam. No, but it doesn't actually end. That's right. We begin the mass of holy Thursday. Again, joyful Gloria, we bring the bells during the Gloria. It's upbeat. We're remembering a beautiful gift. But then we also know that at the end of that supper, the passion begins. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Jesus asks his disciples, he want, he wants to be with his friends on holy Thursday. And he talks to them about that friendship, the gospel of John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. On this one dinner conversation, he talks about their friendship. That might be something to focus in on, on Holy Thursday. Let the Lord speak to you. But what does he do? He says, come and pray with me a while.
Speaker 2 00:22:38 Hmm. He asks them to go out to the garden where he prays, and he prays intensely. We hear that. And the disciples, again, human nature, they fall asleep. Right. But Jesus asks us to stay with him and pray. So we have this beautiful procession inside the church, usually Yep. With the blessed sacrament. And then place the blessed sacrament in, in an altar of repose. And people will pray before the blessed sacrament in a tabernacle for some time after the mass. Traditionally, it's till midnight here in the city. We don't always have the chance to keep the churches open till midnight. But what we wanna do is make some time available Sure. For personal prayer, for reflection to be with the Lord. Remember, there used to be a custom of visiting. I've heard seven churches. I've heard three churches. When I was growing up, I heard three, but I found out later, no, it's probably seven. I, when I was doing youth work, we used to go visit seven churches. Yeah. With the young people and pray before the blessed sacrament in seven different churches. But the idea is that it's a night of friendship with Jesus. Jesus wanted to be with, with his friends. He's asking us now, his friends in 2023 to be with him, to pray, remain here with me and pray.
Speaker 1 00:23:52 And one of the liturgical aspects of Holy Thursday, the conclusion of, well, not necessarily the conclusion, but of that celebration is we leave in silence. Right. There's no
Speaker 2 00:24:02 Right. There's no final blessing.
Speaker 1 00:24:03 There's no final blessing. And
Speaker 2 00:24:04 Leaving silence, not even in a procession. I mean, sometimes everybody gets up and walks out together. All the ministers with all the priests. Yes. But the idea is you just pray a little bit and leave the altar is stripped. I, you see, when I was a, an altar server and a sac, I used to love that there's something very dramatic about the whole thing. Yeah. You know, everybody comes into this sacristy, there's silence. Yes. Because now it's different. But then we would go around and strip everything. Yeah. You empty all the holy water funds. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you take the coverings off the altar, you take away the flowers. The flower church is decorated beforehand for holy Thursday, but it all goes away.
Speaker 1 00:24:38 That's right. So there's a, an absolute bareness when you come in to the church on Friday. On Friday, good Friday.
Speaker 2 00:24:45 And just like the mass on Thursday doesn't end with the final blessing. The liturgies of Good Friday, end of Holy Saturday, don't begin with the blessing. It's like one continuous liturgy over the three days. It's one continuous liturgy. There's no dismissal. The masses end go in peace. Everybody just slowly departs and then reconnects. And there's a silent entrance into the church on Good Friday for the commemoration of the Lord's passion. That's not a mass. There's no mass celebrated in any Catholic church. On Good Friday, we consecrate enough of the Eucharist enough so that people can receive the next day. But Friday is that powerful, powerful commemoration that is very somber. We come in, in silence and the priest live prostrate. Another dramatic moment that I always love. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:25:38 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:39 The priest in the deacons live prostrate. Get up, go to the chair. Let us pray.
Speaker 1 00:25:43 We have the three aspects of Good Friday liturgy is the, the liturgy of the word. Another
Speaker 2 00:25:49 In which we, again proclaim the passion this time from the gospel of John,
Speaker 1 00:25:53 The adoration of the cross, and then the reception of, of holy communion. So it is a, a beautiful celebration. And this year, I guess parishes may resume the reverencing of the cross.
Speaker 2 00:26:06 They may well always continue the reverence of the cross. But basically it's good to keep in mind that there are different ways to reverence the cross. People used to kissing the cross and, and somebody usually wipes it with a purated. But whether your parish has resumed that or not, you are free. You can just simply touch the cross. You can bow down before the cross. You can just take a moment in silence. You don't take too long because there's a line of people, but there are different forms of reverencing. Yeah. The cross and faithful invited to any one of those. Again, there might be places where incidents of infections runs higher. People are still concerned. And so we respect that. So, you know, a particular church may say, let's continue to use the other ways of reverencing the cross, but all people are free to reverence in other ways. Sure. That's not the only way to reference the cross.
Speaker 1 00:27:01 Oh, on Good Friday, Bishop, your calendar, you'll be first in the morning at 10:00 AM at St. James
Speaker 2 00:27:07 Cathedrals Cathedral. So that's a custom that I remember from, uh, years back when I was in Long Island. Communion. Liberation always has the stations. It's a di it's not exactly the 14 stations, but they have stations of the cross beginning in St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn, and then walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, then taking up a place in, in one of the churches in Manhattan last year. I got to do it for the first time. Like I said, I've heard about it for years and years. And I always said, oh, that would be so interesting, but Good Friday's a hard day for me to come into Brooklyn <laugh>, and now I am in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 00:27:44 Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:27:45 And, um, shorter
Speaker 1 00:27:46 Commute.
Speaker 2 00:27:47 Oh, it's wonderful. That too is another powerful procession. A lot of young people over the years, they, the crowd grew into the thousands. Now last year they resumed it, um, and they had a decent crowd. So we'll see what this year brings, but it begins at St. James at 10 o'clock we walk across and then go into Manhattan. I en encourage anybody who would like to join us for any part of that. Sure. So to
Speaker 1 00:28:11 Do. Sure. Yeah. It's a beautiful profession of faith,
Speaker 2 00:28:15 You know, and that's offered by communion and liberation. One of the movements in the church, a very powerful movement in the church founded by Father Giani in Italy. And that has spread throughout the world. The focus of communion and liberation is the encounter with Jesus Christ, the human encounter, our encounter with one another, but encountering Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:28:36 Later that day, I'll return to St. Joseph's Co. Cathedral for the 3:00 PM liturgy, and we're happy to have you and be at liturgy in English. Those who wish to join us are welcome to do so. But it also will be televised that's on that tv. And so moving on, then after the Good Friday celebrations, we of course come to the mother of all liturgies the
Speaker 2 00:28:58 Right. So Saturday is meant to be a quiet day, although Polish churches have the pa custom of blessing Easter baskets in the morning. In the morning. But it's a day really of the Great Sabbath, a day of rest. But not to a lot of people don't get to rest because we gotta, you gotta turn the church around from the bareness of Good Friday to the glory of Easter. So people are decorating churches, doing rehearsals and all of that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But yes, the mother of all liturgies, again, doesn't begin. We just enter in with the fire, the blessing of the fire, and we celebrate the sacraments of initiation.
Speaker 1 00:29:30 Again, an incredibly rich liturgy. Lots of readings of the scripture. There's the, of course, the sacraments of initiation for those who have been preparing for it for so long. The beauty of entering the church, a dark church with the Paschal candle, that light being shared from the Christ candle, which alums the entire church just from that one, the light and the, the singing of the exult. Just a, a, an incredibly beautiful celebration. I do say jokingly, but not so jokingly for someone who may not practice their faith on a regular basis, you know, like maybe they come on occasion. That's a hard one to just come to. That one. You have to build ups your muscles for, because if you're coming and you say every mass is gonna be like this two hours long. Well, they're not always like that. That's the long one. So maybe come on Easter Sunday instead. But it is one, not for the week. It's a beautifully long literature, but a beautiful one at that.
Speaker 2 00:30:31 It is, and again, we go back to the sacramental life of the church. So now what we did on Charismas celebrating sacramental life of the church together at the co cathedral, churches are celebrating all around the diocese and around the world. They're using the new oils in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. They're carrying on now the liturgical life of the church because Christ has risen. And we're proclaiming Jesus Christ risen from the dead living among us who comes to us in a very privileged way through the Sacramento life of the church.
Speaker 1 00:31:03 That's right. You will be here at the Co cathedral for the 8:00 PM liturgy on Holy Saturday for the Easter vigil, and then on Easter Sunday, you'll return to St. James Cathedral for their 11:00 AM Easter Mass, which will be televised as well for those who wish to join you on net tv.
Speaker 2 00:31:22 Exactly. We're
Speaker 1 00:31:23 Really in for a beautiful week. And, uh, I hope that our, all our priests and pastors and parishes and sacristans are getting their rest this week as they prepare themselves for the excitement to come, and the faithful of the diocese, and of all diocese is, are open to the graces that they can receive during this
Speaker 2 00:31:43 Holy week. Precisely. Again, let's close where we begin by saying, you know, this can be a week, just like any other week. Life doesn't stop unless we hit pause. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I invite you. Please hit pause. Let the Lord speak to you. Let him show you just how much he loves you. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. We adore you, oh Christ. And we bless you
Speaker 1 00:32:08 Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world,
Speaker 2 00:32:11 Lord, hope in our hearts this week, to the mysteries of your passion, death and resurrection, and to the love that you show us through these mysteries that we may rejoice forever in your glory, Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Mighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:32:31 Thank you for joining us in another episode of our DAAs and Podcast, big City Catholics. We hope that you all have a very blessed holy week that you'll be able to join in your parish celebrations. And if not, you can always join us on net TV here in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Have a great and blessed Holy Week.
