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, myself, Father Christopher Hennu, the rector of the Co Cathedral of St. Joseph. Joining we are very excited this week as we're closing into to the celebrations of Holy Week. We just celebrated St. Patrick's Day, the solemnity of St. Joseph. And so, as we begin this podcast, we'll begin with a prayer to St. Joseph. The memorare to St. Joseph in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Remember, almost pure spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my great protector, St. Joseph, that no one ever had recourse to your protection or implored your aid without obtaining relief. Confiding therefore in your goodness I come before you. Do not turn down my petitions, foster Father of the Redeemer, but graciously receive them. Amen. St. Joseph, pray for us. St. Patrick, pray for us. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen. So we had a great weekend, bishop. We were celebrating St. Patrick's Day, and then later in the week, St. Joseph's Day. But it was good to be with you at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the city.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: That was a great day with all the rain, and we'll talk about that a little more with all the rain we've experienced. It was great to have a nice sunny, a little bit warm kind of a day. It was really a great St. Patrick's Day the day before St. Patrick's Day.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: I was very confused myself, because I guess I was celebrating the whole weekend of it as St. Patrick's leading up to it, and my responsibilities with the irish apostolate, there were different gala events, the friendly sons of St. Patrick, the St. Patrick's Day gala foundation. So the whole week prior to it, then Saturday, which wasn't really the feast day, but technically it was the 16th, not the 17th, but it was a great time to celebrate. And then the archdiocese again continued its celebration on Monday as they recognized St. Patrick's Day on Monday.
But you were there, you were able to stand in front of the steps of St. Patrick and greet some of the parishioners, some of the diocese, but.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Certainly in our police and in the firemen and women, we have great representation. So it was good to see them. And then the different counties had different groups of people who were connected with Brooklyn and Queens. And then, of course, St. Francis Prep. They had a great showing.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: You were there with your brother, stopped by, and some of his family members, they were there.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yep. And St. Francis Prep and St. Anthony's marched together, and St. Anthony's has the bagpipe band. And so they enjoyed. His kids went to St. Anthony's and they enjoyed. In fact, my nephew used to play the bagpipes when he was there.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Oh, great.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: And it was a great day. It was a wonderful celebration.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: I was able to march with my father's county galway. My mother comes from county Meads, but we generally have to pick one that we're going to march with. And most times it's the one that goes up earlier. That's the one we'll march with. That's where our loyalty lies. Whichever comes up the first. The parade runs really very long. It's certainly the longest running parade, 263 years. But it's also one of the biggest and longest in time parades. It goes for hours, but it's a blessing to be there. And then we moved into the week and the solemnity celebrated. The solemnity of St. Joseph.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Yes. And, of course, patron of our co cathedral. And a great solemnity. It was really quite a great day.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: You didn't have any St. Joseph pastries? No.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: St. Joseph patriots? Nope. But I was in St. Jude Parish. They were hosting the diocese and pilgrimage day, and I enjoyed mass with the school students. Our lady of Trust Academy is on the grounds of St. Jude. And it was really quite a beautiful celebration. It really was.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: I thank you, bishop, for allowing the Diocese of Brooklyn's Facebook page and their Instagram page to piggyback off what we were doing here at the co cathedral. In preparation for the solemnity, I prayed this 33 day consecration to St. Joseph. And it was incredible. Prayerful support for me, certainly, like, life changing. I've done it once before and I realized I should do it more, because every time I do it, you can see the graces that come from it.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: I did it when it first came out. I was in Ohio at the time, and, yeah, it was a good experience. Good experience. There were some things. The author of the book, Father Calloway, did a very good job. There were some things that I thought were a little bit of a stretch, I'll be honest. But I think he gave some really good insights into St. Joseph. Just a simple thing. We picture St. Joseph as an old man and frail, and think about it. He walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary. He went from Bethlehem to Jerusalem for the presentation. He went from Bethlehem to Egypt and then Egypt back then to Galilee. This isn't a frail old man.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And his work as a carpenter and the guidance and the care he gave to Jesus in his human formation. It's really, again, when you focus on Mary and Joseph, you're looking through a different lens, but you're looking at Jesus, and that's what they do for us. So that consecration is a great exercise.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: There were a few pieces even on that topic, of his frailty, or whether he's old or young. Old men don't walk to Egypt. That was the title of that chapter. And one of the things that stood out to me, bishop, was the father mentions that the saints had great devotion to St. Joseph. We come to St. Anthony when we lose our keys, or we go to St. Jude for this, or whomever, maybe St. Mary Cabrini. We were talking about that for their intercession, sometimes silly, albeit. But those saints, they went to St. Joseph, he's the saint of the saints, he's the patron of the patrons. And I just thought that was really impressive and very thought provoking.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Very edifying. Exactly. And then, of course, patron of the universal church, when the anniversary of the declaration of Joseph was patron of the universal church was approaching, remember a beautiful line in the declaration where it said, he who people for ages had longed to see Joseph held in his arms as a baby. And just that human interaction of the baby Jesus, the vulnerable Jesus. Joseph held him in his hands and patted him on the head and encouraged him. And I have to say, one of my favorite Christmas cards, and this goes back years and years, I got a Christmas card, and it was a picture, an image of Joseph helping Jesus to take his first steps. The child Jesus is walking with his hands held high, and Joseph has his hand in hand with Jesus as he's taking his first steps and thought, wow, what an image to see and to say, yeah, that happened.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: I don't know exactly how, when, but that would have happened. That was Joseph's role. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: It's a beautiful gift as patron of the universal church. And here, even at the co cathedral of St. Joseph, when we had the mass for the solemnity, of course, we have a very diverse community, as we do in all parts of the diocese. So english speakers, spanish speakers, and certainly members of the haitian community, Creole speakers, were present, all have a great devotion. We all have a great love for St. Joseph, but in a particular way. I know, Bishop, you had a mass that was very beautiful earlier.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: I had a wonderful experience. Beautiful experience. On Monday evening at Holy Innocence Church, we offered Monday as a day prayer for Haiti and for the people here in Brooklyn and Queens of haitian origin, many, many of whom have family members and at least close friends in Haiti and are deeply concerned. And so I asked that Monday be a day of prayer, and we concluded with mass at Holy Innocence Church. But that was very much on my mind is the connection, the solidarity with our own neighbors who are hurting at this time, and then our solidarity through them with the people who are really suffering from the violence. And the violence has been extreme in these last couple of weeks, as we see things really breaking down very rapidly and very disastrously, if that's a good way of putting it. But this has been going on for several months. There's a whole history. But I've spoken to many individuals, personal friends, some of our priest, who had family members kidnapped in the last two years, and it's all about ransom. When the ransom is paid, then the person goes free. That's been a reality. So there's a lot of worry and a lot of concern here for family members. The other thing is that Father Luzon, the pastor at Holy innocence himself, he went back for his father's funeral just before everything really broke down, and so he can't get out. I've been in touch with him, and he tells me he's safe, his family's safe. They're in the country. They're not experiencing any difficulties here. The main problems, he tells me, are in Porto Prince. But the issue is he can't get to Porto Prince, and he can't get a flight.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: The roads aren't safe, the highways aren't safe.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: So he's waiting to get a flight home. And so we pray for him.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Mass on the father Pascal from the coke cathedral was there.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Thanks be to God.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Representative from our community. But I read in the tablet that's being published this week that Father Lucian was able to participate via live stream, and also that he continues working in his ministry via Facetime and Zoom and all zoom.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: I had spoken to him along the way, the old fashioned way, telephone. On Monday night, one of the priests in the parish there said, oh, Father Luson wants to talk to you before mass. And they had FaceTime, so it was the first time he'd seen him since he had been there. But, yeah, we pray for him. But this was part of our Lenten pilgrimage, and there's a significant haitian population there. So I said this would be the day. This is a good day. I wanted to do something for Haiti, and it turned out to be a good day. I have to tell you, I was so deeply moved by it. I was so deeply moved by it. It was a very good crowd. People came, very good number of priests. A large number of the haitian priests came. The parish has a spanish speaking component and an english speaking component, and all those communities were represented there. So there were a good number of parishioners from all the communities, as well as a good number of pilgrims from the wider community here in Brooklyn, Queens. So there was a nice representation. Again, largely, though, people from Haiti or with haitian origin or heritage who were there praying after communion, they sang a song. It's a christian song that I happen to like very much. It's a contemporary song called the Goodness of God by Jen Johnson. It was done beautifully. The people, you could see people being caught up in the prayer, but I thought, what a powerful prayer. The lyrics go, for all my life, you've been faithful. For all my life, you've been so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. And I'm saying, this is what our pilgrimage is about, and this is what our prayer is about. We're on our knees pleading for God's help and mercy, for helping to get us through this moment. But we begin, in a sense, by remembering that God has always been faithful to us, and that even in the midst of suffering, we talk about faith. We sometimes tend to think of faith being that warm feeling when things are good and you say, thank God, and that's important.
But their faith really shows itself, is when things are really difficult.
And we say, Lord, you've been faithful to me. I know you're faithful to me now, and I don't know where all this is going, but I can trust that all things are in your hands, and I'm asking your help in that trust. And so that's what struck me is I was struck by the beauty of it and actually the beauty of all the music. There was a haitian choir. Wow, they were terrific. And from being at different celebrations, a lot of that. The music was very familiar. And the readings that Monday, I love the readings that day, the Monday of the fifth week of Lent. I call it the old Susanna readings, but it's the story of Susanna who was falsely accused by men who were trying to take advantage of her, and then the woman caught in adultery.
Two stories about robbing people of their human dignity and showing what hearts hardened by greed and power and lust end up doing. So. These are these two stories about that, but that how Christ redeems us. The prophet Daniel, in the first reading, speaks up God's word and brings about he takes like a legal approach. It's more like a detective story than it is a Bible story. But Daniel is the one who testifies to the truth in the gospel. God himself is the one who raises up, who shows mercy and lifts her off the ground and restores human dignity through mercy. And so really that became our prayer that for the restoration of human dignity and praying for peace. So it really was a beautiful celebration. I would call it that. I would call it a celebration. It was a beautiful moment to trust and ask the help and mercy of God. And of course, the haitian people, pretty resilient. They've been through things before the political crises, they've been through natural disasters. It's tough. It's, I think, the poorest country in this hemisphere. And yet somehow or another, God bless people, they rebound. And God bless the haitian community here in Brooklyn and queens because their faith really helps to lift us all up. It inspires us to stand a little taller in trusting in God's help and mercy. So that was a beautiful experience. And all of this leads us now. Wow, we're right on the threshold of Holy Week.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: This is it.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: So often St. Patrick's and St. Joseph Day come somewhere midpoint in Lentis, I always say St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day and his enunciation all come as like little breaks in the rigors of Lent.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: Just like a little break along the way. And particularly Joseph and his enunciation. Those are solemnities. We make St. Patrick a bit of a solemnity. But the point is, it's a little break this year. It led us right in. It was, yeah, one guess before we get into the real serious nature of Holy Week. And here we are standing on the threshold of Holy Week.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: So it begins, and quite a marathon it is these next few days, this next week coming up. So palm Sunday, of course, when this releases is that upcoming Sunday, Bishop, we're happy that you'll be able to, weather permitting, we're talking, right?
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Yes. The last two years we've had the procession from Grand Army Plaza down here to the co cathedral. But the theme of the year, everything we've done this year has been weather permitting, and weather hasn't always permitted. This year, we've been dealing with a lot of rain, or at least rain that's poorly timed for us, but so be it.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: No, that's fine. We're hoping for weather permitting. A great celebration. It's a nice, and we've talked about this in earlier podcasts, but just a great, these public processions are great public testimonies of faith. And it's not just here at the go cathedral. Many parishes do some sort of a procession, perhaps around the block or sometimes gathering outside, blessing the palms and then coming into the church. But it's a great way to elevate the day and also recognize and be proud for the name christian followers of Christ. As we follow the Lord into Jerusalem.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: We walk with him in possession. We walk with him as he takes up his cross. We walk on Good Friday as well. I'm looking forward again to the communion liberation procession across the Brooklyn Bridge on Good Friday. That's something that I've always been fascinated by, and now I'm so glad that I can participate in it. But these processions are great expressions of faith. But we walk with Christ because he walked with us when the second reading, and I'll probably be focusing in on this a few times, in the second reading, it's that beautiful hymn from Philippians. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself. He emptied himself and came among us and walked the road with us. God chose to walk among us, even to the cross? Even to the cross. And in a sense of gratitude and in a sense of desiring to be with him, conformed to Christ. We walk with him.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: It's going to be, we pray, a beautiful celebration. And this is the way now in which we enter into this just most beautiful, most holy of weeks. And I think, Bishop, we've discussed each one of these liturgies in depth before.
More importantly, I think this year is that continued invitation. Right. The last few years since you've joined the Diocese of Brooklyn as our new bishop, we know that we've been coming out of this period of COVID in the beginning. We've even seen mass numbers increase in certain aspects. In our celebration of Christmas. We've noticed you asked pastors, wow, Christmas this past year was more than we've had in the last two years, which was great. The solemnity of St. Joseph. We had great crowds here at the co cathedral, and I think we want to keep that invitation, keep letting people know that these are the moments now to return and be reinvigorated by the liturgies.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: So there are two things in there. First of all, especially during the triduum, the days, Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, Saturday vigil, and then, of course, Sunday mass, definitely during the triduum, but all the liturgies and devotions of Holy Week, I would invite you, please check your parish bulletin. Check your neighboring parishes if you want, but make the most of it. Make the best of it. Let this week be different than any other week. That's the invitation of the church. Let this week be different. And even if it's just in your own prayer life, the rosary, the stations, but let this week not be like any other week.
And then the notion of returning. We've had the custom, I think now, I first experienced it during the Jubilee year of 2000. So we're getting on 24 years of reconciliation Monday from its earliest beginning. And we encourage people anytime to take advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation. But the idea of reconciliation Monday is, it's meant to be a no brainer. It's a chance that in all of our churches, all of our parishes now, I know, gets a little complicated here in Brooklyn and Queens, where we have parishes with multiple worship sites and priests can only be in one of those. But the point being that every parish is offering the sacrament of reconciliation Monday afternoon and evening. And that's true not only here in Brooklyn and Queens, but in the archdiocese of New York and on Long island in the Diocese of Rockville center. You don't have to say, gee, when is it? Everybody knows Monday afternoon. Find a church and chances are good you can go to confession. And what a beautiful way to enter into the mysteries of Holy Week, especially if you feel that you've been away for a while, or even if you've been connected, but maybe haven't approached the sacrament. What a beautiful experience to hear Christ's words of mercy, of love, and of new beginnings.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Bishop, this podcast, in so many ways, we're preaching probably to the choir, right? The ones who are tuning in are perhaps priests, our faithful, parishioners and faithful, the diocese and some outside of that. Recently I've been reading in our diocesan tablet stories like story of the permanent deacon at St. Mary Winfield, who was invited by his wife to consider the diaconate. Or recently now a story about members of the OCIA, the Order of christian initiation. For adults who were invited, they were asked by other have you had, have you made all three of your sacraments? Do you have all the sacraments of initiation? And these verbal invites, this now, bishop, is your chance to invite, but I think we're inviting the ones who are listening.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: But perhaps if you're listening to invite others.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, that's it. What did Andrew do after he met Jesus? He ran home to Peter and said, we found the messiah. Come and see.
Christ is among us. And yes, come and see. Come and experience. And that's to everything. Certainly for reconciliation, that would be beautiful. But these most holy days, you might call them soft invitations. These are things that are saying, we're not asking, come every Sunday, but as a start, why don't you just come Thursday and see something different?
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Why don't you come on Good Friday? And you know what? Those simple invitations. I'm going to such and such a church on Good Friday. You want to come with me?
[00:21:36] Speaker A: I have friends that are my age. They've grew up catholic and many times have fallen away from this particular Sunday practice of the faith. But for some reason or another, one of those days in the Trudeau either calls back their own childhood memories. One of my friends is always, no matter what parish I'm in or where, he's at the holy Thursday mass. He doesn't live in the neighborhood. He lives in Long island. He comes in to be there for holy Thursday. And another one of my friends just has a great love for the Good Friday processions. Those are those kind of moments that stick to people. They stick in your heart. Perhaps they're recalling their own childhood. But again, it's a good celebration. They're beautiful invitations, and we hope that people will participate in them more fully.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: I wish you, all of you who are listening, I wish all of you and your families a very blessed holy week. May it be a time of grace renewal. May it be a time to remember just how deeply Christ loves us. I often think of that beautiful hymn. What wondrous love is this? What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul? What wondrous love is this? Maybe think about that during the course of this week. And as you reflect on the love of Christ, may that enter into your heart and give you a sense of joy, of hope, of peace and consolation. Shall we pray?
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Please, bishop.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: And I'll use the collect the prayer at the beginning of mass on Palm Sunday. Almighty, ever living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to follow, caused our savior to take flesh and submit to the cross, graciously grant that we may heed this lesson of patient suffering so merit a share in his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. And may almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Amen. God bless you, bishop. Thanks to everyone who joins us each and every week. We hope that you'll join us again next week as we enter into this holy week celebrations. God bless in close.
