Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome back to another edition of our Diocese podcast with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocese Bishop of Brooklyn. And myself, father Christopher hen you today is a very special podcast. We're invited to be with us today, the members of the ordination class of 2022, the priests who are now completing one year of ordained ministry. And so we're so grateful to have you with us today, father Andrew Choi, father Vincent Fu. And father Alex Chesky. Bishop, before we begin with our conversation with our guests, perhaps you could begin us in prayer and we can talk a little bit about what's going on in the diocese.
Speaker 2 00:00:43 By all means, father Christopher, you know that this Sunday we celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost, concluding our celebration of the Easter season, but celebrating the ongoing presence of Jesus's Holy Spirit among us. So why don't we begin during these days with of the great Nona to the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful Kindle in them, the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, oh Lord. And they shall be created and you shall renew the face, face of the earth in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. I think I mentioned last week that this is probably the original novena.
Speaker 1 00:01:27 That's right. Yeah. That was a thought, very thought provoking for me, because then I started now the novena to the Holy Spirit. I've never done it before. It was clear.
Speaker 2 00:01:36 And last Sunday we had the image of Mary gathered with the apostles together, praying for that gift of the Holy Spirit. Those nine days between the ascension of the Lord and the Feast Pentecost. It is in my book, the original Nona. It is
Speaker 1 00:01:51 With Mary at the center
Speaker 2 00:01:53 And Mary at the center. Exactly.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 And, uh, Bishop, you had quite a, a weekend, you'd started to tell us a little bit about what you were doing when we were here prior to the podcast. But on Sunday morning, the seventh Sunday of Easter, you spent the morning at St. John's University, your alma mater. My
Speaker 2 00:02:07 Alma mater. But I did so as the diocese and bishop of Brooklyn to represent the people of the diocese and to engage in the community with those students. But I wanna show those students that we really believe in them. Mm. And that we are grateful for their pursuit, that we really wanna support them. Sure. So it was a, it was a good experience. It was a good experience being at St. John's. It took up the whole Sunday morning. So I had, I had to offer mass in the evening on Sunday evening. Usually when you have an evening mass, right. When you have an evening mass, you've celebrated masks and you've done other things on Sunday. So I said I felt like one of the last chance crowd. Yeah. It was first somebody coming for, for the evening mass. And we celebrated at St. Teresa of Ala the parish associated now as part of the parish of the co Cathedral of St. Joseph, St. Teresa of ala. And it was also your young adult gathering. And it was a great experience to be with the parishioners, but also to be with the young adults.
Speaker 1 00:03:03 We were so grateful to have you. And what I loved about the whole event was that you saw that we were advertising this event, and you said to me, would you mind if I come and join you for that mass? And I'm so glad you did. It was a, a really, a very successful evening. We had good crowd at mass, and then we gathered for a rooftop social, they really, the young adults of the neighborhood, and many, many of them were actually from the neighborhood. Right. Um, we had
Speaker 2 00:03:30 Or at least someone connected to the neighborhood. That's
Speaker 1 00:03:32 Right. Right. That's right. You know, we, we did advertise it, especially even with some of our das and offices of young adult ministry. And I think that gained maybe a few, a handful, but the majority were members of the Prospect Heights Crown Heights neighborhood, and those connected to the co cathedral. So they had a good time. It was a beautiful evening, a beautiful sunset overlooking the Brooklyn, downtown Brooklyn. So that's great. We don't get that very often.
Speaker 2 00:03:59 And it all came together very nicely. Earlier in the weekend I was with the religious, and we had a, a great experience with the sisters and the brothers celebrating 25, 50, 75, even one sister, one of the little sisters of the poor, celebrating 80 years as a sister. Wow. She was 103 years old. And she was wonderful. We had a great witness to the joy of religious life. And at one point during the evening, she went to the microphone and she led the crowd. She was from Ireland. She led the crowd in singing Molly Malone <laugh>. It was wonderful. But again, it just shows that joy of serving the Lord, of being committed to Christ and to his church, years of dedicated, loyal service, but also being able to enjoy the goodness, uh, of community life and, uh, church life, whether it be with singing and gathering in a good meal. So it was great, but nice to celebrate the longevity. But today we're going in a different direction. We are celebrating the newness, the youth of our church.
Speaker 1 00:05:12 Well, as I, we're, we're remarking before the podcast began. You guys, now Father Andrew, father Vincent, and Father Alex, you're one year in, so you're no longer the newbies on the block. Right. About a week or so, June 3rd, Bishop Brennan will orain his second set, his second class of priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn. But we're so happy that you guys would come together to be with us today. I wanted to just give you a chance to introduce yourself, just to introduce the parish that you're serving at and the pastor that you work with first. So why don't we begin with you Father Andrew?
Speaker 3 00:05:45 Um, this is Father Andrew, and, um, I'm at St. Bar on Elmhurst. My pastor is Father Rick Buer.
Speaker 4 00:05:52 I'm Father Vincent. I work at the Paris Audi Blos and Pastor.
Speaker 5 00:06:00 I'm Father Alex, and I'm at St. Thomas Aquinas in Flatlands. And my pastor is Father Duane Davis.
Speaker 1 00:06:07 I wanted to ask you all just to give us a chance in presence of the bishop here. Talk a little bit about, you know, what have been some of the experiences that you've had ministerially in the parishes, things that have been real joys to you in the parish, and perhaps maybe we could begin. Father Alex, if you'd like to begin. Sure.
Speaker 5 00:06:27 Our parish is close by to two hospitals, and I've been doing most of the emergency calls from the hospital, which means I do a lot of anointings of the sick. And it's a time in people's life where they're very vulnerable, they're very open to God's message, grieving families. So I do quite a bit of anointings, which brings so much consolation to the people when you explain to them what an anointing does for their loved one. And also, I, I do quite a few confessions. I went to the Shrine of Divine Mercy for the Feast of Divine Mercy, and I was one of the priests that that did confessions, and I did it for hours. But it's, it's wonderful just to see those two sacraments, just to see the healing right there in front of you that occurs with you acting as the instrument of God's graces.
Speaker 2 00:07:24 Very good. And, and those are important moments in people's lives, and it's a real gift that the church can bring the healing from the illness. But, but healing from broken relationships from sin, those are two very important elements of a priest's life.
Speaker 5 00:07:37 I, I hear the most beautiful words I've ever had spoken to me in my life are after confessions and after anointings, I've gotten, I've heard the most beautiful things. Like, I did not know how happy I could be. I did not know how good I could feel.
Speaker 2 00:07:54 Isn't that amazing? That's renewing for all of us. How about you, father Vincent?
Speaker 4 00:07:58 Well, my parents, uh, help by the community. So that why we can learn among more the culture and work together with them. And the best thing, we have three time, no more time or schedule for a confession. But my joy with, when I, uh, hear the confession, I have no more thing about operation before. I don't know about, uh, long time ago, they not, they had to come to confession. So that why when I finished I say, oh, thank God I today have a very good work for Jesus. So that way I'm very happy
Speaker 2 00:08:35 That, that's great. You do great work for the Lord. In, in that sacrament of confession, you know, you mentioned the, the diversity of your parish. I've been there a few times. And while you were there, I was there for the Feast of Our Lady of Lords, right? Yes. And we had that great procession, but I was overwhelmed by all the countries that were represented, and many of them were carrying the country's flags. We had procession with the country's flags.
Speaker 4 00:09:01 Yeah. And my party have more time for adoration. People come and, um, we really happy with the people come to, uh, adoration. Yeah. That's
Speaker 1 00:09:10 Wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have and your parish, uh, regularly scheduled adoration?
Speaker 4 00:09:16 Yeah. Schedule. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 00:09:18 Especially now in this continued eucharistic revival. You're, you're doing it, <laugh>. That's good. That's good to hear.
Speaker 2 00:09:25 And Father Andrew, tell me about your first year.
Speaker 3 00:09:28 My first year has been amazing. It's been beyond my wildest dreams, you know, preparing for a priesthood for such a long time, but actually putting it into action and living your priesthood as an alter, Christos, it's humbling, but it's also been just amazing experience just to take a step back and just like, wow, God is working in you despite your limitations. Uh, so I'm at St. Baru and, and Elmhurst, it's the second largest parish in the diocese. And an Elmhurst is the most, um, diverse part of the United States. We have many, many different cultures and peoples, and of course I'm using my Lin linguistic skills as well over there every week. I'm using at least four or five languages.
Speaker 2 00:10:15 Are you really? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:16 Good. And then I pick, I picked up Tagalog in December, September to December, just enough to celebrate Tagalog mass in, uh, for Sabi, which is their big holiday for the Filipinos. And right now just brushing up on my Spanish.
Speaker 2 00:10:31 That's great that it really is. Again, it's very diverse, but it's also very Catholic. So that whole deanery, uh, are the parishes where we have some of the largest mass attendants and not just large parishes, but lots of people going to mass each week. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:46 So we'll be having first communion soon. Our first communion is 240 students. Wow. Just for first communion. Just our religious ed programs, over 780 kids. So definitely getting my feet wet and keeping busy. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:11:00 Oh, that's good. That's good. There were academies associated with all three parishes. Have you had much opportunity to get into the school? Uh, how do you see the relationship of the school with the parish
Speaker 3 00:11:12 This year? Father Rick wanted myself and Father Csar to go into the school. So every week, twice a week, we would go to the classrooms and teach. So I have fifth, sixth, seven, and eighth grade. We're teaching catechism to the kids. Good.
Speaker 2 00:11:25 Once a week. That's great. Father Alex.
Speaker 5 00:11:27 Yeah. That's also the ministry that I think I'm drawn to the most. Maybe, well, maybe now that I've done confessions and anointings, perhaps I, I prefer those. But initially I was drawn to, uh, the school because that's where, you know, that's where we have to form them. We have to show them that God is important. And I, I've always enjoyed that a lot. For me, it takes, uh, quite a bit of preparation. I can't just go into the class and start speaking. I've gotta prepare a lot. But something I really want to do more of, perhaps as much as Father Andrew does.
Speaker 1 00:11:59 You know, in the tablet recently, there was an article about your parish at St. Thomas creating this space for the teenagers. I love the title of the cafe, the Dumb Ox Cafe of that was the nickname of, of St. Thomas Aquinas. Right. Tell us, can you just share a little bit about your experiences of that? Cuz I, I was intrigued by that article. I thought that was really very creative.
Speaker 5 00:12:22 That's not my ministry. That's Father Dwayne's. I, I would say that his charism is working with young people, especially teenagers. And so we've got a beautiful old church that's now used as a parish center wonderful space. And we've converted it part of it into a, something like a cafe, almost a little bit like a Starbucks almost, to make it as welcoming and inviting for teenagers, just so that they feel comfortable to spend time at their parish. There's quite a bit of activities that we do for them. We have, uh, various dinners. We just had a speaker come in. We had a speaker from, uh, NASA come in and give a presentation to them. It's a very active youth ministry, and the, the cafe is really their gathering space.
Speaker 2 00:13:11 It is. Great. It is. And Father Vincent, have you gotten over to the school?
Speaker 4 00:13:16 We have group
Speaker 2 00:13:18 In the
Speaker 4 00:13:19 Youth group. We can join with group and I can stay my, uh, party. Very good group Weam. And we have more at it. And, uh, I hope we can find more vocation in my group.
Speaker 2 00:13:31 Well, I hope so. We would love to see vocations coming out of your youth group. You have a lot of al Alter service, if I remember correctly there. So, so you keep the young people involved and not only involved, but close to the Eucharist. Yes. Which I think is, is is a great thing. You know, a first year contains a whole bunch of firsts, doesn't it? Tell me about your first Christmas.
Speaker 5 00:13:51 Uh, my first Christmas, that was the first time things really got busy. We had events going on every week. You're doing a lot of work, but it's worth it because you're there to serve to people and they all love it. So a lot of liturgies, a lot of decorations, a lot of events, but a beautiful time that brings everybody in the parish together.
Speaker 2 00:14:12 It is true when you look at the schedule of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, I'm terrible company for Christmas Day, for dinner, you know, you get home. I think I'm gonna fall asleep in my soup, <laugh>. But it, it's rewarding, isn't it? It's incredibly rewarding. And for us, this Christmas was kind of special for us. I had been worried, really now since the pandemic, there's always been that little bit of a dampening on Christmas. So that even last year that we were sort of coming out of the pandemic, you had that omicron variant, um, emerging just around Christmas time. And I was always concerned Christmas time, you have the people maybe who are the most marginally connected, but at least they're connected. And I said after, if we went three years with not many people at Christmas, that would be devastating. It was nice to be welcoming everybody to celebrate Christmas with, with all of its joy. And we'll come to Holy week later. But I think if that was true on Christmas, that was really true this year for a lot of our parishes at Easter. There's just wonderful crowds of people. So, so I'm glad you had what would be closer to a normal experience of Christmas in the parish? Did any of you do the midnight mass or anything special or anything different? Or what was your experience on Christmas Eve?
Speaker 4 00:15:32 Yes, my pariser, we have Mask Midnight with, uh, Bri in Pariser and Pariser, and we separate masks, but a lot of people coming. Wow. Even the midnight. So we very happy with the Christmas. Sure.
Speaker 2 00:15:49 Father Andrew,
Speaker 3 00:15:50 I'm gonna be honest with you, everything's a blur. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:15:53 That's a good, that's a, is a blur. That's a good thing.
Speaker 3 00:15:56 Just this past Christmas, I'm just living every single day, day by day. So for Christmas, honestly, I just don't remember <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:16:05 I do remember you, you started down one road before, even before Christmas, the celebration of Advent. And one of the beautiful things being here in Brooklyn and Queens is I'm learning all kinds of new customs and cultural celebrations. So you mentioned the Filipino celebration. I remember some of that when I was in Long Beach. We had a Filipino community. I learned a lot. But even when I learned, then there's even more. Tell me about preparing for Christmas and your celebration with the Filipino community.
Speaker 3 00:16:35 Oh, it was beautiful just to see the different rituals and also the cultural aspect. But even like San or,
Speaker 2 00:16:43 So you had the novena before Christmas,
Speaker 3 00:16:44 The Ninos just before Christmas were Sabi
Speaker 2 00:16:47 Sabi,
Speaker 3 00:16:48 Sabi.
Speaker 2 00:16:48 That's something that was new for me.
Speaker 3 00:16:50 So sabi, traditionally, the Filipinos would celebrate mass in, in the evening, hence the reason award sabi, the nightly novina masses. Unfortunately, for us in the diocese, just because we have a little bit, the, the elderly don't like to come out in the middle of the night. So we had the mass a little bit earlier.
Speaker 2 00:17:07 And then after Christmas, as you get into February, as we, I think it's really closer to the feast of the presentation, but the sank,
Speaker 3 00:17:14 Oh, that was amazing. I've never seen so many statues of our, this little child, Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:17:20 It looks a little like the infant of prophets. I do know it, yes.
Speaker 3 00:17:23 But, uh, coming from a Chinese, traditional Chinese background, we know we have our own devotionals. But to see the Hispanics bring their infant, the baby Jesus, into the churches and having it blessed
Speaker 2 00:17:34 And it's very joyful. They, they, they have the drums b <laugh>, it's, it's a very joyful, rockets almost celebration. And then holy week, tell me a little bit about Holy week. That's
Speaker 5 00:17:47 A blur. That's true. Like Father Andrew said. It's actually, I'm happy to get through it. It has also has the toughest liturgy. So for a new priest, I think holy week is actually the most daunting because the masses are just different. So I had several of the liturgies. I had the Friday, good Friday, 3:00 PM I also had, holy Thursday, I had the homily at the vigil. Luckily the priests that my parish pitched in and helped quite a bit. I never lacked a safety net. So at Holy Thursday, mass, it's a different liturgy. And I did kind of lose my place for a moment. And luckily I had one of the other priests quickly, quickly helped me out.
Speaker 1 00:18:31 I think that's also a a, a real lesson too. You know, when you're in the seminary, you are taught liturgy classes. We take liturgy, practicums and confession, sacramental practicums, how to baptize, how the prayers of absolution. But those are the moments where you're put out into the regular parish life. You know, in the ministry of, and your first mass, you have all these priests around you to tell you which prayers to pray. And then by your, the time you get to the, that Sunday, and then Monday you're on for a daily mass, it's, you're just there by yourself. You know, it can be quite scary, especially as you enter into the Holy Week celebrations. They can be quite difficult. Is there anything you think that, you know, they, they often say, priests will say they don't teach you this in the seminary. You know, you hear that occasionally, uh, especially I think as you will begin to take more positions of authority in the church to become pastors years from now. Is there anything that you would think that was shocking or surprising to you in your priestly ministry in this first year that you say, I never thought I would be doing this, but I'm, I'm happy I did it. I'm happy I learned it. What, is there anything that you can think of? You
Speaker 3 00:19:41 Know, I spoke to Father Alex and Father Vincent and I are really great friends. So we often share war stories amongst ourselves. Life is complex, people are complex. When we had our, our practicum for our confessionals, it was just a really simple class. And we're like, oh, okay. You're just gonna have little old ladies come to confessional. And, uh, and that's it. When we first experienced confession, talk about big fish, I mean, there's really, really big fish that we weren't ready. And at least for myself, I wasn't ready to deal with. But that's where you allowed the Holy Spirit and the Lord to really, to work in the, in the sacraments. And it was just a beautiful thing. Despite my limitations, despite my lack of knowledge, Jesus still works in the sacrament despite us Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:20:25 With me, the Holy Week, the pastor for me that, uh, holy Thursday. Holy Thursday. Yeah. So with the liturgy, before I become rich, that I know that. But this year I, the men ed. So that's why I'm very carefully do little chief, make sure people they understand and they recollect these day, they're a holy week. So that I'm very happy to
Speaker 2 00:20:51 So you celebrated the holy Yes. You were the principal celebr for the holy Thursday evening mess. I would say in Holy Week. That's one of my favorites. There's something just very intimate about it. It's the intimacy of Jesus with his friends. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. I remember when I was first ordained, I'll tell you a funny story. We had in the parish where it was, they had this for the washing of the feet, this big ball and a picture matching picture. There's a name for it, but it's, it comes out of Cape Cod and it's shaped like a fish this picture. And so, you know, it looks very nice. And so we used it and I was kneeling down to wash the feet of the 12 people. And the first time I didn't realize this oddly shaped pitcher made these gurgling noises, <laugh>. So I start pouring the water and you can hear go <laugh>. And by the second or third person, it was taking everything within me to keep from laughing. They know you're laughing now, but I'm trying to keep serious. And it, it, it really was funny. Sometimes those funny moments though, uh, the things that catch you by surprise, but they're human. They're very human. And then you realize, you know what? The church didn't come crumbling down. Right. And, and we, and we get on with it. So I never used that picture again. How, how about your own experience of Holy Week? Uh, father Andrew,
Speaker 3 00:22:15 It was really amazing just starting from Palm Sunday all the way to Easter vigil. For me, it was just a beautiful spiritual experience in itself. I remember just reconciliation Monday, we had six hours of confession straight. And I was like, oh, wow, there's a lot of souls really asking for Jesus' mercy. Then there was a cri and mass, it was so beautiful. You know, going to Kris and Mass as a layperson is so different than being there as a priest and con celebrating. But also it was a powerful experience for me just to really renew our vows. Before you, it was just like, wow, I'm doing it with the presbyterate I'm doing with my other brother priest. And so that was another amazing experience. And then holy Thursday, I just like Father Vincent, I was a principal celebrant, and I'm not gonna lie, I was very, um, nervous <laugh> because you're having all these well experienced priests who have been priests for many, many more years than you have. And you're just a baby priest who's the main celebrant. It was, it was really humbling. But also it was just powerful to see how Jesus wanted this, the Washington Feet together, but also the institution of the Eucharist. Seeing the people like afterwards, holy Thursday, a mess. I was in on how many people stayed and adore Jesus after mass, just at the repository where Jesus was. It was so beautiful to see just so many people. Right after mass, we have a small chapel connected to St. Barts, and it was packed.
Speaker 2 00:23:53 And that really is in answer to the Lord's request to his disciples at the Leupp, stay here with me, remain in pray. You know, and Jesus is, our adoration is always very, very powerful. But the adoration that night, it's not just praying before Jesus there in the blessed sacrament, but it's answering him. He's saying, please stay with me. Pray with me. It's it to me. That's always a very, very powerful experience. Did the parishes where you were, did you have some baptisms during, um, the east vigil this year?
Speaker 4 00:24:28 Yes, we have. But the baptism, uh, the best for my parish is that para, he have three new para, he, uh, have big power. Pardon? And he come inside. And we had, and I know many years ago, but the first time I saw that, oh, that very, uh, happy with the liturgy and we make people feel very, very holy when we do sacrament. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:59 You know, as Father Christopher mentioned earlier on, in another week or so, we are going to be celebrating ordination of priests once again. And there'll be four new priests for the Diocese of Brooklyn here in Brooklyn and Queens. You would know most of them in one way or another, but what advice would you give to a priest just starting out now, just beginning his first year?
Speaker 3 00:25:26 We all have the honor and privilege to know many of the guys who are being ordained. My advice is to, to them is be generous. Be generous with God. Be generous with the people. If the people are asking you to do something, say yes. Say yes. You know? And if someone needs you to, uh, I guess anoint them, be like our blessed mother with her cousin Elizabeth. Run,
Speaker 2 00:25:49 Run. Wow. Do you wanna give the retreat at the seminary next? That's great. I love that. I love it. How about you?
Speaker 4 00:26:00 When people ask something and I admire in my mind, say, oh, you priest, four people come to serve,
Speaker 2 00:26:08 And would you have any advice talk about this?
Speaker 5 00:26:10 I I have two pieces of advice. The, the, the more minor of the two is to try to learn everybody's name as much as you're able to, especially the little people that are sort of at the margin of the church, people perhaps who sit by themselves. If you go up to them and you say, hello Marie, and you know them by name, it makes them feel so good. And the second piece of advice was be available. Try to be available, be available after office hours. If, if you're able to, whenever someone comes and walks into the door, asks for a confession, someone just asks you for a confession on this spot, or they just want to talk, be available, because those are the little unexpected moments of grace. And you never know who, who God will put in your path at that moment. And some small thing for which you're tempted to say, well, could you come back later? No, no. Do it right Then God's grace will be acting through you, and you'll find out why that encounter was meant to be. So try to learn everyone's name, especially the little people, and just be available.
Speaker 2 00:27:21 I think that's great advice. Very, very inspiring. One of the advantages with names, one of the advantages of being new is you can repeatedly ask people their name. The longer you're in a place, it gets more difficult to do that <laugh> <laugh>. So, uh, I give you credit for, for, for that observation. Very good.
Speaker 5 00:27:41 Uh, mine would, it would just end up be a Latin elaboration of Father Andrew. The two things. One is that you're not prepared for, uh, confessions and you will get some things that make your hair stand out. And sometimes there have been a few where I had to say, I'm sorry, I don't know. I wish I knew what to say to you, but thank you for sharing because I'm going to learn more about this so that I can help other people in the future. Uh, and the other thing is, you'll get people coming into the, uh, office. You'll be the only priest on duty. You'll be the only priest there in the off directory that day. Someone will come in and say, give me a couple reasons why I shouldn't kill myself. And it's on you right then and there. You can't call for the senior priest and you just, you have to do the best you can. And so far, whenever I've had a crisis, I get through it, but boy, I wish, I wish, uh, we had more practical training in crisis.
Speaker 2 00:28:36 That, that's in a a good insight, Alex, because the fact of the matter is you, what we are talking about are human situations for which nobody is prepared. And, and I can tell you as an older guy, that will still come your way, that you'll encounter people. And it's sometimes humbling to say, I don't know the response, but I'm gonna walk with you. I'm going to pray with you. And I know that we're gonna commend everything to the loving mercy of Jesus Christ and to his help. The fact of the matter is we, we are always learning that we don't know everything and that we're always in need of learning more and thank the Lord that he walks with us and, uh, continues to open our, our minds. So these are very good insights on, on all of your parts. So, so I appreciate that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:29:29 Just as we close, before I asked this final question to us, I'd wanted to raise to the awareness of, of our listeners and something that Bishop Brennan and I had spoken of earlier as the need for prayers for one of our brother priests, Monsignor Paul Gervis, who's a priest of our diocese, who just celebrated his 40th anniversary priesthood. And, uh, Monsignor Gervis has been very ill, uh, as of recent. And Monsignor Gervis is the postulator of the cause of canonization. Monsignor Bernard Quinn. We'll end our podcast today by praying a prayer for the intercessions through the intersession of Monsignor Quinn for the health and wellbeing of Monsignor Gervis. But recently at the Vicariate for Black Catholic Concerns event. Bishop, you were present at it. Monsignor Gervis had a chance to speak about his 40 years of priesthood. I would imagine that, you know, I do know that he spoke so highly of his years of priesthood, the memories and, and the experiences that he's had. Uh, and he spoke with such joy of this life, this vocation. And I just wanted to ask you guys, you know, if a young man were to, uh, come to you and you're just completing your first year, you know, what would you say about, uh, your life as a priest? And what would you say to that young man if he said, uh, is this a vocation worth thinking about? Is this a life worth considering? Well,
Speaker 3 00:30:53 A few days ago I had a conversation with one of my parishioners. She joked around that she had a conversation with her son about a vocation. She says, she said to her son, well, if you can't find a wife, you can become a priest. Or, um, if you don't do well in your studies, you can become a priest. And after I had a long conversation, she's like, well, it's not right. You know, we should be giving our best to Jesus. We don't become priests because we're ugly. We can't get a job, or we can't, we do poorly on our studies. Rather the priesthood is the love of Jesus incarnate, you know, to bring that love of Jesus to, to the world. There's so many people that don't know our Lord. You know, in my place in Elmhurst, we have a huge Chinese population. How many are actually Catholic? How many actually know about Jesus? How many actually know about our blessed mother? This Wednesday we'll be celebrating, um, the feast of our Lady of Shan, which is the World Day of Prayer for the Chinese. And the Chinese is 1.4 billion people in the world. That's one in every five people to Chinese, to Christian, the Christian populations, not even 10%. So we still have a lot of work, and that's where my plug for vocation is, is that if you want to do some good work, come to the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 00:32:12 Father Alex,
Speaker 5 00:32:14 I would say if you,
Speaker 5 00:32:16 As Father Andrew said, it's the priesthood is not job you choose. It's one that you are called, called to. And if God does call you to this, you will never wonder about the meaning of your life. You will never wonder why, why was I created? You'll never have a midlife crisis because every week something is gonna happen that's gonna be so fulfilling and it's going to show you why you were created, what the purpose God has set out for you. Since the beginning of time. I would say that priests and religious probably have the most contentment, the most satisfaction and joy of any profession out there.
Speaker 4 00:32:57 So, um, I would say with the many time when we meditation, we know everything come from God. So when you become raise, do not ask some question, how many money from one? And we can do something. Raise the first thing, love God. First love Jesus. And anything come later that we may. I think that yeah,
Speaker 2 00:33:23 We have amongst us a particularly unique situation. You will always be the first class that I ordained as priest in the diocese of Brooklyn. So <laugh>, that won't change. I'll be ordaining, more priests for many years, I hope. But you will always be the first. And it's, uh, a real delight to see all of you in action. I'm very proud of the way that you've hit the ground running, the enthusiasm, the generosity that each of you is bringing. And I asked the Lord to continue to bless you, even as we bring in another year of priests. So thank you for being with us today. Thank you for sharing the, the joys and the challenges of that first year priesthood. Um, we have a lot to look forward together. Father, we did talk a little bit about Father Jarvis. There was a wonderful gathering of at the dinner for the, um, Ariat, uh, for black Catholic concerns, um, a very joyful evening, even though there was that twinge of sadness with Father Jarvis's illness. But boy was he brave and was he generous? And it was a great evening. We see the vibrancy in so many of our parishes, um, especially with the different black communities, African-American, Caribbean, Haitian, but altogether celebrating the gifts that each community brings to the vibrancy of the church here in Brooklyn and Queens. You mentioned the Nok. Maybe we could conclude by praying the prayer for today. Sure,
Speaker 1 00:34:53 For sure. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The prayer for canonization of the servant of God, Monsignor Bernard, John Quinn. Oh God, your devoted priest, father Bernard John Quinn, loved the people of St. Peter Claver Church and those in need with all his heart. Like a father who withheld nothing that was good from his children with fatherly care, he embraced the orphan children of the little flower house of Providence and was willing to die for them. I am in need of the loving care which he gave to others. And ask the intercession of your servant. As I humbly present my petition before you, Lord, we ask this intercession for the recovery of the health of Monsignor Paul Gervis. If it is your will to grant our request, may it aid to the cause of his canonization. We offer this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 2 00:36:00 Give us, give us a stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us, not temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Speaker 1 00:36:11 Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of th Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:36:18 Holy Mary, mother God, pray for us sin, sinners now our amen.
Speaker 1 00:36:22 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
Speaker 2 00:36:25 As it was in beginning now, never shall shall be. World of Amen. In
Speaker 1 00:36:30 The name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop, would you give us your final blessing?
Speaker 2 00:36:35 And may the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:36:40 Amen. Thank you guys, uh, our fathers Vincent and Andrew and Alex for your presence with us today. We hope that those who listen in on our das and Podcast will continue to do so. Fathers. You can share this podcast with your parishioners at St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Baru and Our Lady of Lords. And we hope that more will join us in the weeks to come. God bless.
