Latest / Beyond The Beacon / 44: Confession. What's the big deal? Do I really need to go?

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44: Confession. What's the big deal? Do I really need to go? · Beyond The Beacon

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith and submit questions for the Bishop today.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jay Agnish, and with me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bishop Kevin, how are you?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Jay.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Doing good, thanks.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So what's new?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You were away for a few days.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Where'd you go?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: We missed you.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh San Antonio, Texas.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not on vacation, uh, but uh a conference or workshop sponsored by Catholic Leadership Institute.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful group that um has been around, I think, for about 15 years.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Or more.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh it's kind of they use analytics uh as a popular thing these days, but um uh they've they've they've do courses on leadership for priests, they use some business practices.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh they run a course for potential pastors or new pastors called Good Shepherds, Good Leaders.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they help dioceses who are going through merger processes and uh um uh structural um uh you know, setting up the leadership structure of the diocese.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um so um they sponsor a conference once a year for uh uh I think they invite all the bishops of the country.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: There were about 20 or so that were there um this past week.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it was uh nice opportunity to be with some of the other bishops and uh you know we um the class of 2020, there were 20 bishops ordained during the year 2020, and um one of those bishops, Bishop McClory, uh he um makes a point of mentioned before, I think that he gathers us at in November and June as kind of a class.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh uh one of those, one of our bishops, one of the class uh was with us last Friday to lead our um leader's day of prayer, um uh Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, who got good reviews.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think you guys could say a word about that.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: But uh uh sadly, um uh an archbishop uh an auxiliary bishop in Chicago, I don't know, I guess about six months ago, um, died suddenly in his sleep, uh Bishop Kevin Birmingham.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then um the bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, beat Bishop Peter Muich, um, originally from Minnesota, um, was diagnosed with uh esophagal cancer, I think.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um he passed away very suddenly or very quickly um uh last weekend.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So um uh Wow.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So number of the there's three from that 2020 class.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh three auxiliaries in Newark are part of that class as well.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they were at the um at the um conference, as were a few others from that class.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so uh sad.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um uh that fraternity is important like with priests and yeah um I know you and Bishop uh Lorenzo go go back to your Brooklyn days, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, right, yes, Bishop Lizard Lorenzo, yeah.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the only New Yorkers, there's another New Yorker joining us today.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jared, yes, Jared Brogan, um who I've said many times his uncle was one of the best priests I've ever known, Father John Brogan, uh wonderful priest of the diaspora Brooklyn, who also passed too soon, but um but uh left uh did a lot of good in um was he in his sixties?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: He was in he was in his sixties, his early sixties.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: He passed away in two thousand eight.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful, wonderful priest, yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so good, welcome back and what what's going on around here?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um well we've Father Jared and I were together with um uh many of our priests and leaders uh to welcome 123, right?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: 123 New Catholics.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think it'll be in the beacon this next week.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the annual rite of election, uh that wonderful uplifting moment where we see that the church is growing.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Cardinal Dolan in uh his podcast was speaking about, he said, uh we hear about everybody leaving.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: We only talk about is leaving, but there's plenty who are coming in.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's some huge number in the in the in in terms of the country uh of Catholics who are gonna excuse me, uh those who were never baptized who are entering the church and will be baptized, receive communion and confirmation.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what we call the candidates, right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: The the those to be uh confirmed and receive Eucharists.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right, who are baptized maybe as infants or young and uh never received communion or confirmation, but they respond to the call of faith and uh and uh will receive um the sacraments uh communion and confirmation.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Did you not know the RCI?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was a revert from yeah, yeah.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you had confirmed when I was younger, but it came in later, right?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and the rite of initiation, uh RCIA, right?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Of Christian initiation for adults.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: But now they're gonna change it to order of Christianity.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we're in that process.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's been an ongoing process that was supposed to already be um out there a year ago, but now they're hoping by um October of 24, and then the process to be conversion, renewal, it's conversion.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, right.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so um uh we had that this past Sunday, and also this uh past Sunday, um the annual Murray House Dinner, um, a wonderful annual event that uh the Murray House, I think, was the first of what now is um I think more than 20 adult group group homes run by um our Catholic charities, uh Department for Persons with Disability.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um just a beautiful ministry, and um thanks to the support of many uh the Murray family uh started that first house uh along with uh one of I think Father Worlin, um one of the priests of our diocese.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I didn't think it was the 53rd um uh dinner that they've had.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So um so that was uh that was a good weekend.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Among the honorees were was a guest who was on our podcast pretty early on, Chris Broncado.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Chris Broncado, right, right.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um colleague of Cecile's uh um they did a lot of work together.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh so um part of our original social media team.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that uh uh still doing great work, and um so um yeah, um it was a great night.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um in other than um St.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: John's being up by 19 points against Seton Hall and then losing again.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I just heard St.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: John's coach Rick Fettino had some choice words that he I think he had to walk back a little bit.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um but uh March Madness is coming up.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping St.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: John's might squeak in there, but it's uh not looking too good at the moment.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: But happy for Seton Hall.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh uh happy to root for Seton Hall.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: They'll get in?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking good, yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking good, yeah.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: But that new coach from Jersey City, right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So um wanted to introduce Father Jared.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um Father Jared Brogan is the director of the Office of Divine Worship.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's also the Master of Ceremonies for the Diocese of Patterson.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was born and raised in Brooklyn and attended high school, undergrad, and graduate schools in New York City uh prior to entering the seminary.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: He worked as a speech language pathologist.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when he answered the call to the priesthood, Father Jared studied philosophy at St.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: John's University in Queens.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Someone else sitting here did the same thing.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the uh yeah, the same school that the bishop uh attended.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Father Jared then entered the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, New York, and studied at the Theological College at the Catholic University of America in D.C.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was ordained a priest of the diocese in 2011 by Bishop Arthur Sorratelli.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Father Jared has ministered in various capacities through uh throughout his priesthood, including as pastor of St.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Catherine of Siena in Mountain Lakes.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: He served as an assistant vocation director and has been on diocesan committees, the Presbyterial Count Council, the College of Consultors for several terms.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he's also an adjunct professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, along with some of our other priests and dynasty.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly, yeah.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he uh he assists at some parishes on the weekends, including my parish from time to time.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome and and there there you have the Welcome, Father Jared.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be here.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the invitation.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for being here.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we might get back to it at the end, but I don't want to forget uh you mentioned Bishop Saratelli, who ordained uh Father Jared and ordained, I think, close to a hundred priests in his 16 years as our bishop.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh um some know he had some health issues uh uh back in the end of November and early December, and he's been recuperating and uh is doing really well.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um he uh graciously responded to an invitation to write an article um for the beacon for next week uh about the wonderful movie that's coming out about the life of Mother Cabrini.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um many know that Bishop Saratelli is a great devotion and even some kind of personal contacts uh to Mother Cabrini.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and when our cathedral was renovated, uh he made sure that there was a wind a window to Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um Father Jared and I both having grown up in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, uh sometimes known as the Diocese of Immigrants.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um we know it's a challenging topic in our um country at the moment, but um uh we we're a country of immigrants and um Mother Cabrini, this great story, um the way that the church can respond at times and sometimes how God can work through the life of one person.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I got to see it in November uh at the USCCB meeting, there was a screening, but it'll I think it'll be coming out in theaters March 8th, so make sure you and we'll try to be promoted as well.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the I think it's titled Cabrini.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so um so um look forward to the article from Bishop Saritelli and hopefully many will go out and see the movie.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Should we pray?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: We should pray, yes.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and as we uh pray in this time of Lent, um and in on we're recording on a Friday morning, the feast of St.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Polycarp, actually, February 23rd, yesterday in the liturgical calendar was beautiful feast of um the chair of Peter.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um in these days of Lent in a special way we focus on that um those um shared um uh observances of Lent and practices of prayer and almsgiving and um and fasting.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um Father Jared can talk a little bit about that from the liturgical perspective.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um the prayers of the Mass, daily Mass is a beautiful way to uh uh be connected to the Lord in prayer and even receive the Eucharist every day.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Many during Lent will attend daily mass um every day during Lent.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it struck me the prayer um for the Mass this morning, the opening prayer, is a beautiful prayer, I think, that um is used at times throughout the Lenten season, and um I think a good way for us to pray today.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Grant that your faithful, O Lord, we pray, may be so conformed to the paschal observances that the bodily discipline now solemnly begun may bear fruit in the souls of all through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: St.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Polycarp, pray for us.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, Father Jared, thanks for being with us.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons we wanted to have you on uh at this time is because of the wonderful um Welcome Home to Healing program that, or uh initiative that uh Bishop Saratelli began about 15 years ago.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that uh invitation, especially during the season of Lent, um, to be literally welcomed home by celebrating the sacrament of uh reconciliation of penance, also known as confession, uh going to confession, and that um uh hopefully everyone knows, but we want to get the word out that every Monday night uh here in our diocese, at every church in the diocese from 7 to 8.30, um confessions are available and we pray for and thank our priests for all that they do, but in a special way during Lent, not only on Mondays, but many different opportunities uh to um to celebrate the sacrament, receive God's forgiveness and mercy in the sacrament of healing, that is uh the sacrament of reconciliation.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so we'll talk a little bit about that uh initiative, but maybe just um to say a word about uh maybe um not everyone is aware that uh as a a man discerns the call to priesthood and um is ordained as a diocese and priest, as you were ordained in what year?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: 2011.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: 2011 by Bishop Saratelli for our diocese.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you had a number of assignments, uh parochial vicar and pastor.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then um uh as I arrived, um, we you were helping with uh some of our younger clergy in there um making sure they were doing okay, checking in with them during the uh still in the lockdown and pend uh dealing with the pandemic.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then um uh Monsignor Condon, who um with Father Stephen Prisk had been uh overseeing the office of worship, with there was um uh a need to uh have a priest who would um uh be in in in charge of that office and the important work of uh helping us in our common prayer.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I asked you to um to uh study um uh the uh for a degree in in the in the liturgy and um and so um uh so maybe just talk a little bit about um how how that experience was of um being called from parish uh work to uh kind of a special assignment in the diocese.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well that was a big difference, uh big change, big transition.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: I uh obviously as diocesan priest and while you're going to the seminary, you're formed to be a parish priest.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: At least that's in your in your mind.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it's also too it's also good to recognize that the call to priesthood, well one, it's uh a universal call.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um we connect it to a specific location and a specific diocese and a specific bishop.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: But it is a universal call, it's a call to minister as a priest um in the church.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many different ministries outside of parish ministry, um, including what I'm doing now is director of worship.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um and also another part of my life is teaching, educating, uh specifically, but not limited to the formation of a future priest in the seminary.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it did take me a while, uh well, a little bit back to school.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: I had to go back to school for one.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks me to God, uh Bishop uh Kevin gave me the great opportunity to get an advanced degree in liturgy, and so I was able to do so at um the University of St.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Mary of the Lake, which is at Mundaline Seminary out in Chicago.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, you were gone when I got here when I started a couple years ago, you were gone.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Studying, yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: I uh it was a two-year program, it was for a licentiate in sacred theology.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um the first year I did it online while working here in the diocese still, and then the second year, which is when I had to do a lot of research and the writing of my thesis.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the bishop allowed me to go out and spend full time out there, which was a huge help.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh made a big difference in getting it in getting it done.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it was a great opportunity seeing another part of the church.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, even when I was in the seminary in Washington, D.C., in my seminary, there were guy over a hundred guys from about 50 dioceses.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you really throughout the United States, including Honolulu.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I made sure to become friends with that fellow.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: I met the Bishop of Honolulu at World Youth Day at this past, and um unfortunately they had the terrible fire the other summer, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: But all that uh the education uh certainly opened my mind to a lot of a lot of different things and for the benefit of serving the church, both here locally in Patterson and and everywhere.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um, you know, we certainly connect the 40 days of Lent to that um uh the Jesus' 40 days in the desert, even the wandering for 40 years of the uh of the people of Israel um before leaving after have leaving slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the promised land.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um uh some of the origins of Lent uh have to do with what we just discussed in terms of our brothers and sisters preparing for the sacraments, right?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is not only them, but the whole church praying for them as parishes are are welcoming them.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's th there'll be ceremonies at mass.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe talk a little bit from your, especially from your liturgical studies.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the rite of Christian initiation for adults is an ancient, ancient um practice and order um in in the church.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um it did go out of use in many ways for for many years, up until again the Second Vatican Council.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: But for many years, starting in in the in the third, second, third century, we had this uh Christian initiation process.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um and towards the end, and it was for adults because people were coming into the church as adults, babies were not being baptized, Christianity was a new thing, too.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So they were only really adults.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And they were risking their lives.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Many of them are imprisonment or losing their own.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right, because the persecution and the church would kind of be underground, but um they they would be getting ready for that Easter vigil, right?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so and it was that immediate preparation uh where these individuals, these catechumens, would really have to have um it was called an order of penitence where they were intentionally turning away, convert converting, turning away from one thing and turning towards something.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Turn away from the world, turning away from sin, right?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, take on this new life which they'll receive in baptism, um, new life in Christ.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so this period right before Easter was a really penitential time.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so much so that they would walk around publicly doing public penance.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: What we have today is nothing.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta walk around town, right?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty much yelling out that you're you're a sinner, um, and with that desire to turn away from that life.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: And they would uh wear things like hair shirts, uh, which is a symbol, a sign of penance, and they would wear ashes.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: So this was the connection ashes.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: Not just on the first Wednesday, not just on the first.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right, exactly.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Ashes is a sign of desire to be converted, it's a sign of of of penance.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so we can see now that it's the start of that connection between our 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter for the whole church and having signed with ashes.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think you know that idea of ashes is uh a real sign of our humanity, the fragility and the delicacy of ashes.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um some maybe when they were uh last week or uh on Ash Wednesday, uh that um I guess for a long time it was the words were um um uh remember you are dust and to dust you shall return, right?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: That sense of the ashes and our humanity and um uh God created out of nothing and uh we go back into the earth, and certainly then uh believing in in the resurrection and the resurrection of the body.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's also a choice, um, and I guess the the the liturgist leading their church in our public prayer to say, okay, were we focusing too much on you are dust and you and uh to dust you shall return.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: How about living the gospel, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So uh the option is you for the priest or minister to say those words, you are dust and a dust you shall return, or turn away from sin, repent and believe in the gospel, right?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Which uh so there are two formularies that the church allows us.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Those are legitimate options that the priest um could opt to take one one or the other.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, repent one this time, basically.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh that tends to be a little quicker too, so maybe if the minister's in a rush, and perhaps on Ash Wednesday, it might be right, exactly.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think as Bishop said, maybe there was a time we were focusing too much on the dust, and then we we went uh to focus on bel repenting and believing and living and living the gospel.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for myself, at least this past Ash Wednesday, I went back to the dust.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was also the topic of my homily, but uh but I just think it says something about our um fragility and our dependence on God and the fact that it's put on this on our foreheads in the sign of a cross, it reminds us that despite our, you know, struggling humanity, it is through the cross that we are raised up and saved.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so um the one of the things you would study in the liturgists um which is a I guess a a word that we use to describe the work of those who um lead the office of worship, right?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or who help us as a church in terms of making sure that we kind of follow the book, right?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the things uh some do it maybe a little bit more than others.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh right.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there's uh and uh you know we we look for some balance.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um but you know a book like this, and that's only by I brought it because of prayer, but I think it's good having it here because I mean this unites us as a church, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because whether it's in Chinese or Spanish or uh any language, it's the same prayers, the same mass.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um so um and it also um uh this book in particular is the missile is for the mass, but we have a book for each of the sacraments, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and the liturgy um and the office of worship will help a diocese.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and um so uh you could speak to each of the seven sacraments, and and certainly we mentioned those sacraments of initiation, baptism, uh confirmation, and communion that the adults will be receiving.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um also during Lent we focus on that beautiful sacrament.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I say maybe the most misunderstood or underappreciated, uh everyone's favorite, not really uh the uh uh the the sacrament with three names, and a few other sacraments have more than one name, but we call it confession, reconciliation, penance, right?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh it it seemed to be going out of practice, but I've said I It's making a great comeback.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And initiatives like Welcome Home to Healing have done that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe, and even you I think you said you were you were uh pretty recently ordained or or newly ordained when the diocese was starting this program, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe talk about some of your experience as a priest and then from a liturgical perspective.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that back in around 2009, 2010, which I was at the the end of my seminary formation, I think at that time in Patterson and I think throughout the United States, there was this renewed interest in the world.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's this renewed interest in promoting the sacrament because as you um mentioned that it seemed maybe not to be so popular or kind of dying out.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh a lot of the diocese, including Patterson and Bishop Saratelli, decided to have this initiative, specifically during Lent, because Lent has that penitential nature, to offer the sacrament and uh promote that sacrament uh every Monday night in every church of the diocese, which is pretty incredible because uh just just to sit back and think that every Monday night in these three counties from seven o'clock to eight thirty, imagine just the outpouring of God's grace and mercy that that that's going on.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um of Holy Week as well.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we are right, that's right.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's right, that's right.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it's six full Mondays that we offer the sacrament.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Your experience as a parish priest with um uh this uh Welcome Home to Healing.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, welcome home.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think first in general, my sacrament my my experience as a confessor, it's one of the most beautiful sacraments to celebrate.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I've I've I guess have been blate, blessed or graced that in every assignment, in all my parish assignments, uh it was a very lively uh sacrament.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was a very popular sacrament.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so I never felt bored, I never felt like I had to bring uh a book to read in the confessional, uh spiritual and out whatever.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: But um it was something that always the that I know that people took advantage from, uh took advantage of in in a very good way.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then the the Mondays of Lent, I think so.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it takes a little bit of time for people to get into it.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Usually as we go on in Lent, it becomes much more popular, and definitely that last week is is very is very big.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I I it's people see it and people know that they need that.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then as uh uh parochial vicar as pastor, um when um Lent began and um you were promoting in the parishes uh the uh Welcome Home to Healing, um, on those Mondays, uh there would be a a a good response.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh absolutely, without a doubt.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and like I said, it started off a little slow and maybe that first week, right?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: But definitely as Lent went on, it became more and more popular.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I I connected it on Monday nights um with uh adoration too.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think you know, we we we we say that the sacrament of penance, reconciliation is a sacrament of healing.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean the Eucharist is a sacrament of healing too, to connect those two together.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um it just brought, you know, sometimes it just brought out people to go to adoration, but nine times out of ten, you know, people would be moved then to also go to the sacrament um and vice versa, too.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we just had our diocesan leadership retreat that that you started, Bishop, and the and I got to go to confession and Eucharistic Adoration.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I thought that was a great, a great combo.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh a moving experience for me, and yeah, I'm I'm grateful for that opportunity, it seems to me.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I think uh there was in certain places, uh again for a time where um confessions might be offered on a Saturday afternoon in a parish from three to four or from four to five before the evening mass, and some would say, and it was the case in some places, yeah, uh the priest would need to bring a book because nobody was coming.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the um uh before the Second Vatican Council, uh uh a little before my time, before our time, but not that much.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um everybody went if you were gonna receive communion on Sunday morning, you had to go to confession, or at least that was the understanding.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh and and so there'll be lines of confession on Saturday nights.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, that was probably not the best understanding of the sacrament, uh just kind of mechanical, obligatory.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um some would talk about I had to make up a sin or something like that, as young people, you know.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because but uh so that's not that wasn't um you know the best maybe uh practice.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was grace and it was good and it was uh you know of its time.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: But and then again the Second Vatican Council, I think, um invited us uh to all to look at what are these sacraments, these gifts, really about?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: How do we pray together?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: What's the heart of the the law in the in the in the sense and um and and certainly each sacrament is that gift given to us by the Lord.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so um again, maybe there was in in moving away a little bit from that legalistic um understanding and practice, uh the pendulum swings and uh um people are ongoing to confession.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh so but thanks be to God.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm sure St.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Pope John Paul II um uh uh had a lot to do with it, uh, but um but uh people started to appreciate again um that need for God's healing and mercy that we experience in the sacrament.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe I'd ask each of you, um uh uh uh Father Jared as a priest would uh in in preaching, would encourage or even in conversations or or classes, you know, um to sometimes people will say, uh, why do I have to go to confession?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Can I just confess my sins to God?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I started uh, I guess I heard it along the way someplace, but um to one of the things you can say about the sacrament is um it's not so much about what we say as about what we hear.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I think that God knows this better than we know ourselves, that that act of you know going to the priest is the instrument and actually hearing myself say the words, I'm sorry, I did this wrong, please forgive me.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's important and a human experience to say, ask for that forgiveness.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: But then to hear, um, I absolve you of your sins, go in peace.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, for those who maybe um it's been a while, the priest isn't gonna yell unfortunately in the past.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there were some experiences, but um, but to consider, especially for those who maybe um haven't been for a while, just to hear God say to you through the priest, um, yes, when we pray in our hearts, God please forgive me.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: We hope God forgives us, but um, but in the sacrament, we know it, we hear it, those words, go in peace, your sins are forgiven.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and again, to trust the Lord that uh, you know, if we didn't need the sacrament, he wouldn't have given it to us, right?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so um uh maybe uh Jay, and going back to your time coming into the church, maybe something you heard about the um sacrament that was particularly helpful or you might share with someone who maybe doesn't uh maybe fully appreciate and you can think about that for a moment as Father Jared would say, what would you say to encourage someone maybe who hasn't uh been to the sacrament for a while?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: I have found that even as a priest, when I go to confession, there's that sense of discomfort and uneasiness going because and but this is also one of the benefits of going to confession.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said, yeah, we could tell God I'm sorry, and God will forgive us.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: But the importance of the words, hearing the word saying I forgive you, I mean, that's incredibly healing, but also speaking the word saying that I am imperfect and I messed up.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: But there's something very fundamental and important about that, recognizing who we are.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: I find that unless we recognize our own limitations, we'll never accept and be patient with and um acknowledge the limitations of other people.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I don't think I'm if I think I'm perfect, well then everyone else is so much I remember sharing with um uh I think confirmation students and adults preparing and talking about uh the sacrament, um, and uh to think in our human experience, right?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Someone we love, someone we care about, wow, I can't believe I said that to him or to her, or you know, I really hurt her or I I wasn't honest.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that recognition that I offended someone I love is important.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: But for me to take the step and go to that person, whether it be a spouse or a a brother or sister or uh a close friend, someone we care about, especially, um, but to take that step and to say, you know what, I s I I I don't know why I said I really lost my cool or you know, I'm sorry.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and and so uh again the sacrament gives us that opportunity, as Father Jared was saying, right?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Those words are important.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thinking it and realizing it is one thing, but taking the step to say the words out loud is um and it's a very freeing.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, and this says something about the reality of grace too.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: There's something very when you walk out of the confessional or walk away from the sacrament, there's something very freeing from that.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um I remember, and this was the at the beginning of my discerning process back in 2001, in the fall of 2001, um, I had not been away from the church, but I would say I'd been away from the sacrament for a while.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I went for the first time in Advent of 2001.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: I remember going into I went to St.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Francis of Assisi on 31st Street to the Franciscans.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was in graduate school.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I went and just laying it all all out there and you know, keeping in mind what uh as I started my discernment to the priesthood, it I walked out of there just a new man.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of like um it's a renewal of our baptism, really.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right, right, right, right, right.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness of sins, yeah.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it reconnects us in communion with with Jesus, right?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: It uh Yes, and and the church.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, right.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh because sin isn't just me, it's uh right, right, yeah.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: We re-enter the communal relationship with the right.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right, right, right.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um we can talk about this more another time, but sometimes, you know, um uh right, we should be to receive holy communion, we should be in a state of grace.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: We should be prepared to in communion with the church, right?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: And if we've a serious sin breaks that relationship, right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so we need that relationship to be healed before we can um uh receive the body and blood of Christ as a sign of who we are as a member of the body.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, um uh a serious sin um needs to be confessed and forgiven before we can return to receiving Jesus in Holy Communion.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of discussion about that topic on many levels, but um but and and you know, uh even our understanding of sin as a society, um uh um the the the there's different understandings of sin.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Some, you know, you maybe don't even hear sin discussed anymore.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe some people are receiving holy communion who really need to go to reconciliation.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then um in uh some cultures as well, um, there's such a focus that um someone um won't receive Holy Communion because they committed there was a little sin and they feel that they can't, and uh and um and and you know we ask for God's forgiveness in the penitential rite of the mass, and and yes, there's a forgiveness that can be received when when we ask for it in in prayer.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um so um, so um we look again for that balance and um uh priests in in parishes and and homilies and um there's resources that can help us to maybe have that understanding of his serious sin and a less serious sin.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um Jay, as you said, right, that reconnection with Jesus, right?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: And me and Jesus and me and his body, which is the church, the community, so that it restores that communion which is broken by sin.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um maybe what something you've heard that uh you found helpful about the understanding of the sacrament, or you might say to someone uh who um I've just been away.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: It just feels right.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's you know, from a theological perspective, I can't I couldn't give you all the all the reasons why, but I I've come to realize like certainly around Lent, the beginning of Lent, I I like to go.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I try to go a couple times a year.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: I should probably go more.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I I learned in in researching for this episode that the Pope goes twice a week every two weeks.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right, right.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nuts.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, as did I think Mother Teresa.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: If she's going, if she's going everywhere, right.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's readily available and it's there.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, yeah.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I I'm hard on myself at times.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I struggle with is is uh forgiving myself.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: And lately when I when I've been going to confession, um that's something that I've been sharing with with the priest, and I've um you know been learning and and coming along in that regard.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I wonder if I can put this to you.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not not to ask you what people confess to you, but do do you can you can you get a sense of um I don't know, the pulse of of parishioners or or the faithful or or kind of like the the trans or or like what's going on out there in people's hearts, maybe or no, I would say that there's a clear longing and desire for God and for God's peace and God's healing.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's kind of a sense of like something missing for people.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like St.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Augustine said, you know, uh my my heart is restless until it rests in you.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: We all experience that type of restlessness and reconciliation is you know one of the ways that we could come back into communion uh and be made whole again.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think that there is that sense we not always recognize that as God missing from our life, but a lot of people do.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why the sacrament is uh a really, really important um uh conduit to that.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um uh you know, as you were talking, Jay, about yes, we need our sometimes forgiving ourselves can be the most difficult.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are who labor and are heavily burdened, I will give you rest.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Take your yoke upon me, uh uh upon your shoulders, um, uh and and learn from me.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: For I am gentle and humble of heart, your souls will find rest.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when we're going to Jesus in the sacrament of reconciliation, and he tells us that he forgives us, um, he's teaching us to forgive others and to forgive ourselves.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, as you described, um that it, you know, I think of being in the confessional and um kind of walking that journey.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a graced, privileged, uh humbling moment um uh where you know the the the feeling of God's presence um uh can be so powerful.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um and and yes, we have to be able to forgive ourselves and we have to be able to forgive others and and forgiveness brings healing and brings peace.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness brings healing and brings peace.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: And how much does our world need healing and peace?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this God gives us instruments, tools, um, but he doesn't force us to use them.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have to take that step.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, if you know, St.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Francis, make me an instrument of your peace.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, um where there's hatred, let me so love and uh uh injury, pardon, right?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: So um if if we find it difficult to forgive, um let us go to the sacrament, ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness, and we might uh uh I've often said to people um in in the sacrament, especially, um uh um either forgiving myself or forgiving, I don't think I can do it.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I I want to do it, I should do it.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know God wants, but um um there are things that are as Jesus said, um what's seems impossible for us is not impossible for God.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: With God, nothing is is is is impossible, everything so um um it can seem that I could never forgive that person on the human level.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's the case, but with God's help, it's possible.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is possible.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Supernatural love.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know a lot of people struggle with that, not being able to forgive someone, and I I say, Well, thanks be to God, God will forgive us unconditionally, right no matter what.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: But we're not God, and so we don't always forgive immediately.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we will, we can, but others we can, and that forgiveness is a process, which is all the more reason why we need the sacrament of reconciliation and all the sacraments for God's grace.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so as far as forgiving other people, I think it could be a process, and we have to be patient with that as well.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um do you guys recommend uh confession ten times a year, twice a year?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's any recommendations about numbers?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I for myself, um for those who want to grow in the spiritual life, I think once a month is a great way to go.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um for many Catholics, you know, we believe that as Catholics we should the used to call them, I guess they're still called the Easter sacraments that we needed to uh uh go to confession and receive communion at least once a year.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: That was um, yes, we should be at Mass every Sunday and hopefully receiving communion every Sunday.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um uh, you know, for some uh uh reconciliation during Advent and during Lent is a great way, at least uh the twice a year.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know Yeah, no, that that Easter duty we we would call it, right?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Which actually really uh historically that comes from the duty to receive communion once a year.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because especially during that more legalistic time, there are a lot there's a lot of scrupulosity and people were very I mean, this is a heresy too, um uh Jansenism, right?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: That we're not we're not worthy to receive communion.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so the church said, well, no, I mean this is, although it didn't have these words yet, because this isn't come to the Second Vatican Council, but the idea of the source and summit of our faith is the Eucharist.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: And if we're saying that, well, we should be celebrating it and receiving it.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so at least once a year during the Easter season, um, which regarding that goes actually from the beginning of Lent all the way to even beyond Pentecost, uh, even to try, I think, the tr uh Trinity Sunday.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we have have to receive communion during that time, what automatically is connected to that is going is making it going to confession as well before receiving that communion.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's how that historically developed.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: The um uh the experience of of forgiveness and uh um as uh you know we say it so quickly and so often, we're so used to it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we're kind of making a little deal with the with the Lord in in every time we pray the hour, Father, please forgive me, and I'm gonna forgive.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh, how we do with that, you know, and we could ask ourselves.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so um, and thank God that God is God, as uh some of us said, and and and and is mercy, and um God is is is merciful when we struggle to forgive one another.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: For fans of the chosen, um, there's a great scene.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's in these new episodes um in the fourth season, um, where uh Peter, as we know, at one point said to the Lord, How many times must I forgive?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and but also um the relationship between Peter and Matthew, the tax collector.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um Matthew, uh as depicted in the series, um, you know, was the tax collector in Peter's town, and Peter was behind on his taxes, and Matthew was about to turn him into the Romans and get arrested.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that was right around the time where Jesus called Matthew, and they end up, you know, being two of the 12.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: And but Peter is no is not chummy with Matthew.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and and Jesus challenges Matthew um to forgive Peter for uh the way he's been treating him since they were both part of the 12.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: But he also um uh tells Peter, you know, um, are you able to forgive Matthew?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: For um, and it's um there's a great uh moment, no, hope not a spoiler alert, but uh uh well no if you haven't seen it, I encourage you because um to see Peter and Matthew reconcile um is is is um uh a beautiful depiction of what um the Lord asks of each of us to to forgive one another as as he forgives us.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: So um easier said than done, yes, but uh um uh so um Father Jared, anything else maybe in terms of Lent and our preparation for Easter that you would share from your own studies and your own uh experience as a parish priest.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, traditionally Lent we associate with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and again, that could be looked at in a very legalistic, you know, we're so used, you know, no meat on Fridays, and but there has there's something good about that, all right, because there's this communal dimension that we all that as Catholics we give witness that we're all giving up something as as a group together, together.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it's it's a good witness to the you know to the world.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um but there's something deeper there as as well.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I like to think of it as we have to think about those things to which we are attached.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now, in many parts of the world, something like meat is a great luxury, right?
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: So to give that up is a good is a great sacrifice.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, if I don't I I could I can substitute the prime rib for lobster tails, and I'm fulfilling my obligation, right?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: So uh that's n not quite not quite the point.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: However, there is something important in that that act of uh uh of union.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I like to think of those things to which I I truly am attached, whether it be food or whether it be um habit, the value of sacrifice, be it small or large.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: And hopefully what those things to which we're attached, if we kind of get rid of them for a little bit, it will make more room for God, which is ultimately ultimately the the thing.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the gospel for Ash Wednesday, I find um um each year around.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think gives us a good introduction to the um Jesus says how others fast, how others pray, how others give alms.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: But when you fast, but when you pray, but when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what you're doing.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um so Jesus very personally telling us to think about not only what we do, but how we do it and why we do it.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: So the the what not eating meat on a Friday, okay, that's not but why and and and and and how because so um uh hopefully that can help us all.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh it's a beautiful season, right?
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's wonderful um um uh together with the whole church um being a little closer in in prayer and charity and um and and sacrifices, you know.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks so much, Father Jared, and it's been an awesome conversation.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do want to be mindful of time, but uh Bishop, is there anything else you want to share with our audience as we first end?
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank Father Jared, not only for being with us, but for the work you're doing for the diocese and uh uh helping us to pray.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so um thank you for that.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um just encouraging everyone and um to consider the sacrament.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: And every Monday uh um we do as best we can to promote it by social media.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I let's say earlier, you know, uh it's in every parish, right, available.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh on that human level, um, some people are very comfortable and happy to go to their parish priest or their pastor.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: Some like a little anonym and anonymity, uh be anonymous.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so going to the next parish might be something that's attractive for my father.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: My father would never go to our home parish.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: He would go to the next parish.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh after he had passed, one of the pastor of that neighboring parish said, you know, your father was a very regular confession.
• 46:33
  unknown: Really?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Father John McGurl was the being anonymous.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, no, well, that was it was after he passed.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: He kept it, he didn't say anything until um so um so and uh and um Cabrini movie, check out the Cabrini movie a week from uh well, two weeks um from Friday.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: Next week, I'm looking forward to going to traveling again, not necessarily looking forward to that, but uh uh uh the leadership roundtable, which we can share more about, but founded here in our diocese, another group that does great work to s promote evangelization and uh the living of our faith and um and and the work of the church.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: They're having a conference in Arlington, Virginia.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um our friends at Jesuitical will be there, uh host the recording of podcast, I think, on Wednesday evening.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward to that.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: But um a week from today will be March 1st.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this being a leap year Thursday will be the February 29th, uh my nephew's birthday and my brother's birthday on March 1st.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: So happy birthday to them next week.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: But uh March 1st, we're gonna start our vocation discernment retreat uh at the Jesuit retreat house in Morristown.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think we have close to 20 men uh who have signed up.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Not too late still, if anyone interested.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but asking everyone to please pray um for that first weekend in March, um, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, um, for the men who'll be on retreat with Father Rama, uh, our vocation director, myself, other some of the other priests and seminarians will be helping.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: But um, please, God, it'll be a blessing for our diocese and maybe help some men in that discernment process to say yes to the Lord's call.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: So um a lot to pray for and no better time to do it than joining land, right?
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so check out our website for information, social media, and I'll have some links in the show notes as well.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you both.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you all for spending time with us.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Get to know us a little better by following Beyond the Beacon on Facebook or Instagram.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll join us for the next episode.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to subscribe, comment, and leave us a positive rating.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're watching on Bishop Kevin Sweeney's YouTube channel, be sure to like, subscribe, and ring the bell for notifications.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Email questions and podcast topic ideas for the bishop to beyond at pattersondiocese.org.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, and God bless you.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Father Jack.
• 48:49
  unknown: Thank you.