Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, big city catholics with bishop Robert brennan, the diocesan bishop of Brooklyn and queens, and myself, father Christopher Henu. Today, as we enter into the Advent season, this upcoming Sunday, our first Sunday of Advent will begin in prayer. We'll pray the collect the opening prayer for Mass on the first Sunday of Advent, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Grant your faithful, we pray Almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without the and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, good day, Father Penu. And isn't this great? We are on the cusp of the season of Advent, finally.
It's funny you say that. I thought that on the way in. Usually we're saying, oh, where did the time go? It came upon us so quickly. This year, Advent comes a little bit later. We had an early Thanksgiving. Very often we're running into Advent writer on Thanksgiving weekend. This year, we have a little bit of a week in between, and it's not a bad thing.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: To be fair, this last week of Ordinary Time seems to be kind of dragging on. I'm just sort of christ the King Sunday. Beautiful Sunday. Beautiful, solemnity. We spoke about that last week. It made it a lot more meaningful to me, even after our conversation to celebrate it. Now we're sort of moving through this week and I'm like, let's go. Let's get to advent already. We're ready, the parish is ready, the programs are set.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: We're so used to rushing, right? Yeah, we're so used to rushing. Now we're going to pay for this on the other end, because we've said this before. The fourth week of Advent consists of.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: A couple of hours sunday morning, that's it, sunday morning.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Sunday afternoon, we'll be filling our churches with people coming for the earliest Christmas Eve Mass they can get.
We'll begin our Christmas festivities. So the fourth week of Advent doesn't get a lot of play this year.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: And you mentioned, Bishop, that we're rushing, we're rushing. But then the opening prayer this Sunday says, let us eagerly run forth.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Grant us a resolve to run. I love that prayer. Now, it's what? Twelve years. On the first Sunday of Advent, 2011, we instituted the new translation of the third edition of the Roman missile with the new prayers. As a priest, I'm sure you only know the third tradition with the new translation, but some of the prayers are just so much richer in the language. And this is a good example of it. It's just, grant us the resolve to run forth eagerly to greet our Savior. It's really the posture of the season of advent. Sometimes we rush the season of Advent. We are eager to celebrate the Christmas festivities, but really, we hear in the beginning of this season of Advent the call of rushing forth to meet Jesus Christ, the fullness of salvation. When Christ comes again in glory when Christ comes again and brings about the fullness of judgment when he brings all things into one with Him in the glory of heaven we're rushing really toward.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: And you know, as I mentioned this as I age, certainly as a child at the Advent season was I wanted to rush through it because you see the candles, you know that you're getting one step closer to Christmas, to the presents. As a pastor, it takes on a different a little more anxiety and a little more stress levels. However, with the proper preparation, this is a season of penance. It's a penitential season. It's a season of preparation, yes, for receiving the Christ child. And I think, as you'll note in many of our parishes throughout our diocese, especially here at the Coke Cathedral, we're really trying to provide a lot of programming, prayerful programming activities for our faithful so that they can better enter into this Advent season, into a season of prayer, of penance. And, yes, maybe here at the Co Cathedral, for example, we're going to have a lecture series each of the only three Mondays of Advent. And so it's a commitment for our faithful to say, I'm going to make this commitment to Go. Why? I want to grow in holiness. But it's a penance for me. I'm going to make the sacrifice in my calendar to be there each and every Monday for that lecture series. So I know that around here in our deanery, there's a lot of programs.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: A lot of musical offerings. Music is so rich during the season of adventure. The music we use at Mass in our liturgical practice is beautifully rich.
Those are some of the things I love, things that you use only at a certain part of the year. And so these hymns come out now, fresh again, and the imagery in them, you could do a retreat if you want to do something on your own. Even you could do a personal retreat on the hymn oh, Come, O Come Emmanuel Those are the antiphons that we use in the later days of Advent. They call them the O antiphons. From the 17th through the 24th, the different images of Israel awaiting its savior. And just think about that first one, for example. O come. O come. Emmanuel. Rescue captive Israel. I mean, you think of the situation of a nation of people. I'm talking about ancient times.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: But a nation of people who suffered one occupation after another, one being conquered by foreign nations after another. So rescue captive Israel. You think of the Babylonian exile. Come and save us, oh come, oh come, Emmanuel. Rescue captive Israel who mourns in lonely exile. Here until the Son of God appear. Think about the history of it. Think about the experience, the biblical imagery, but then think about our own sense of longing. Rescue us. We're not subject to foreign occupation, but we are subject to the ravages of sin and death all around. Rescue us from this. Rescue us from the violence we experience. Rescue us from the hatred that pervades the earth, that pervades our own society. Come rescue us as we mourn in a certain exile. These hymns and these antiphons are so beautiful. Then you can go through each one of them and see images of how when Israel was waiting for God to step in and bring salvation, these become the images that describe who Jesus is to us. So we see the richness of the imagery of Advent.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: You're right.
So you mentioned, certainly, concerts. We offer that. And there's always the tradition to go to here Handel's Messiah at some point during the Advent season. Or to pray, to enter into retreats a day of retreat, a day of prayer. Because all in all, at the end of the day, this period, albeit this year, a shorter period of time, is a time of penance. And that's why, as we were mentioning before, in preparation for this podcast, you see it in the colors of the liturgy. You see the priest wearing the violet. That is a color that reminds us, yes, of the Lenten season, which we know as more profoundly a Penitential season. But this is a season of penance, of preparation, of preparing our hearts for Christ's coming. And then the readings, bishop, speak to this.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: As you know, I had a great experience in preparation for Advent that we're going to be doing in our schools and perhaps in our catechetical programs, too. I hope so. I was at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Academy in Cypress Hills, and we recorded a series of very short videos, really, around the Advent wreath. So there's one grade there for the first week, and then a second grade joins them, and then a third grade joins them, and then a fourth grade. It's the upper school, so it's 6th, 7th, and 8th. The group just grows each week and they light a candle and offer a prayer. The choir sings in English and in Spanish, but it's a simple little prayer, but something that's different from the rest of the year. And that's what I would encourage people to do, is to say, what can I do to make it different? Not just Deck the halls and la. I have no objection to those things, believe me. Something that makes it different, that shows that sense of waiting, the readings in the beginning, they take us to the end of times to recognize that sense of longing. And then we move to John the Baptist and his calling forth that sense of preparation. And then, of course, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve each year, it takes one of the scenes in preparation, the annunciation, the visitation or the annunciation to Joseph from Matthew's Gospel. So every year it's a different theme, but it gets us closer to Bethlehem. You might.
Very powerful imagery. The other thing about Advent is it's the beginning, in a sense, of a new church year on the feast of Christ the King last Sunday. And with the readings, we focus, in a sense, on the fullness of time, jesus Christ, Sovereign King. But we recognize God bringing all things into one in Him. Now we start all over again with the expectations, with the hope and the beginning of salvation leading to the birth of Jesus. But we start a new year, and that has a lot of freshness to it as well, doesn't it?
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an opportunity, as we would think in our own secular world. It's a fresh start.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: I love new beginnings. September brings a new beginning to an academic year or a pastoral year. January brings all kinds of newness. But the first Sunday of Advent kind of starts us off again.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Another aspect of this new liturgical season is as the opening prayer of the first Sunday of Advent states so clearly that we're running forth, we're directing ourselves. There's a new direction. And one of my favorite hymns in this Advent season is People Look East.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: You like it? I don't, but go on.
I mean, it's a matter of taste. They gusty bus, as they say. It's a matter of taste. But we'll see if this gets edited out.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: I think that it identifies the way in which we're supposed to direct ourselves. People look east, the time is near. We're directing our whole selves toward this particular moment. And Bishop is shaking his head. He's not a fan.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Well, that's a good thing that we.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Can be, but it's the direction is the point.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Well, with a new year brings a new cycle of readings. You know that the Church works on a three year cycle of readings. Part of the reform of the liturgy and the Second Vatican Council is that we have a three year cycle, and we call them for no other reason than convenience, cycle A, cycle B, cycle C. We're beginning Cycle B. So for the last year, we read principally, not exclusively, principally from the Gospel of Matthew. This weekend, with the beginning of Advent, we're going to begin a year reading principally not exclusively from the Gospel of Mark. And I don't know about you, but I always enjoy that change, that sense of identification. And so it makes sense to reflect on that change, on starting the Gospel of Mark. Every year during the end of Lent and during the Easter season, we read from the Gospel of John. This year, because Mark is a little bit shorter, we read from the Gospel of John a little bit. In the summertime, there's a beautiful interlude where we focus in on the bread of life discourse. Jesus the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. But then Jesus's reflection on that, how he himself is the bread of life.
But with that in mind, the Gospel of Mark is an interesting gospel. I often say half jokingly, but only half jokingly, when I suggest to people, if you want to start reading the Bible, one way to do it, there are lots of ways to approach it, but one way is start by reading the Gospels and read the Gospel of Markets the shortest. That's my joke, the shortest. But you know what? Just read a little bit of it every day. To begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, we read a passage, the fancy word is pericope. But to read a short passage, the story of the temptation, the story of his baptism, the story of the parable, of the sower and the seed, just read one little passage and treat that as your conversation with Jesus. It's that this is your touching base with Him every day, kind of sharing what's going on. You share what's going on in your day. He shares a bit of his day from the Gospel experience and just do it as a matter of a relationship. But anyway, Mark, it's believed to be the first of the Gospels that was written. It's the simplest in the sense that Mark gets right to the point. It's very bare bones. Matthew and Luke coming a little bit later, having the experience of Mark's Gospel in front of them, probably would elaborate a little bit more. Mark gets right to the point. And so we get to see an image of Jesus, of who he is and what he's about. So now we don't start at the beginning. We start off reading because we're in this season of Advent more toward the end where Jesus is talking about the end times and about that sense of waiting and rejoicing. And then we'll go back to the beginning of sorts. But you hear that call Jesus. The Gospel of Mark starts when Jesus begins his public ministry and he goes out and says, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: And taking that message is the message that we're hoping to enter into more deeply preferably this liturgical year, but this piece of this Advent season that in all of our cases, we hope that we are preparing the way for the Lord today and always.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, the first miracle in the Gospel of Mark is Jesus expels the demons from a man. And I love it. There's this conversation with the demons. The demons says, we know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come here to destroy us? And in a word, Jesus is saying, Yep, exactly.
That's exactly what I came to do. I came to drive you out, drive you out of this particular fellow here. But I came to take away your power, drive you out from the grip that you have over this world, and that's what you see in the Gospel of Mark all the way through. It's this battle that's going on between good and evil. Jesus is ushering in a new kingdom of good and fighting the forces of evil. And that becomes really a certain key that you see then all the way through in the Gospel of Mark, we'll.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Have, as you say, the opportunity to discuss further on the Gospels as we move ourselves through this new liturgical year, this new start, this new beginning. Do you have any particular practices yourself, Bishop, that you enter into the Advent season or in preparation for? Is it concerts? Is it musical events? Is it retreats? Is it particular readings?
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Hopefully, during the Advent Season, there are opportunities for days of recollection. I know we have one for the Priest. I want to take advantage of whatever I can in terms of a day of recollection, if that provides itself in one way, shape or form. The other possibility is I love focusing in on the joyful mysteries, if you will, of the Rosaries, as I said before, the hymns, so rich, even just praying the office.
We pray the office every day, all year long. But the readings that are given to us in the office of Readings again, the hymns, the prayers, I spend maybe a little more time focusing in on those and letting those steep in again, concerts, I love it when there's something that available. Sometimes it's just a matter of what happens during the calendar, what the calendar allows for.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Of course, in the midst of it all, the Diocese offers this year, as they do in each season of Advent, and lent a day of reconciliation for the faithful towards the end of this season of Advent, specifically on monday, December 18. An opportunity for all the faithful to come and to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. Especially with less than a week from the day.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Actually, it's pretty much a week a week from the day. It is exactly the week, yeah, the Monday before. So that's all very good. Well, of course, that's something we all want in Advent, and that becomes the underlying call. We hear the call of John the Baptist. We hear the call of Jesus himself to repent, meaning to turn around, to take a hard stop, repent and believe the Good News, to repent, to allow conversion to take place in our lives. Repentance isn't always a bad thing. It's a matter of stopping and turning in a new direction in response to Jesus'call. So, yes, we echo those words. Repent believe the good news.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: So, with the season of Advent coming upon us with the beginning of a new liturgical year, why don't we conclude our own podcast today with prayer?
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: We just ask God's blessing upon us during this time of Advent that we may run with resolve, eager to meet Christ our savior. The lord be with you and with your spirit. May the blessing of almighty God, the father and the son and the holy spirit come upon you, remain with you forever and ever.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Thank you, Bishop.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: As Deacon McCormick would say, the podcast is over. Let us go in peace. We thank you for joining us for in another edition of our podcast, big city Catholics. We hope that you will continue to share this on your own local platforms and continue to tune in each and every week for another edition. God bless you and have a great week.
