St. Basil Catholic Church Brecksville Podcast

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does not fall away from us.

How do I decide what to watch? What media will nourish my soul? How do I turn the time I spend on media into a tool for learning how to relate to and evangelize others? And 5 practical tips to watch like a Catholic.

Fr. Walt's remarks on Divine Mercy, with 3 tips from St. Faustina.  

Fr. Doug Brown, formerly assigned at St. Basil the Great, shares recommendations on a few devotional practices that help round out our spiritual lives to pull down maximum graces from Heaven and get us in deeper relationship with the Holy Trinity.  Hear him share about a mystical experience he once had in Eucharistic Adoration.  

This is the moment that changed everything. Life, death, and eternity make sense and have purpose.  Also, a real life story of the love of Heaven.

Fr. Kevin shares the saints who have impacted his life and Scriptural foundations for devotion to the saints are mentioned.  Rev. 8:3-4, Rev. 5:8, 1 Tim 2:1, John 2:5, 1 Corinthians 3:9, Exodus 32, Genesis 18, John 15:5. 

Powerful witness!  Cheryl Wear found herself incapacitated by alcohol. Desperate and personally shattered, she found hope, healing, and redemption through her faith, the Bible, and her church. She is a mother, attorney, and Domestic Relations Court Magistrate.

Fr. Walt addresses the engaged couples preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage at St. Basil's PreCana Day 2019.  Covenant.  Honesty.  Giving your word.  Ordered towards mutual love of the spouses and the bringing forth of children.  

Our word Mass comes from the Latin word missa, which is at the root of the dismissal that gives us our mission. The final blessing gives us that last dose of supernatural grace we need to fulfill our mission to bring souls to Jesus' Sacred Heart.

God has the patience and mercy to always give us another chance if we repent first, but eventually every tree must die. And I'm also really glad that one tree by the rectory is gone!

Why do we sit, why do we stand, and why do we fold our hands?

On the final night of St. Basil's 2019 Parish Mission, Bishop Amos addresses love of neighbor and provides stories, thoughts, reflections, and tips on how to live it out.

On the second night of St. Basil's Parish Mission 2019 Bishop Martin Amos explores how to love ourselves, which Our Lord commands us to do.

Bishop Amos provides practical tips regarding prayer, distraction, and preparation. He also teaches the ancient trustworthy prayer practice of Lectio Divina and its different parts.

Way back in the year 155 AD, a man named Justin Martyr described something in writing. See if you can recognize what he was describing.

Holy Water fonts at the entrance to the Church bring to mind our Baptism, which is how we entered the Church, the spiritual Body of Christ. Dipping our fingers in a Holy Water and making the sign of the Cross is how we enter the Church the physical building. The action of the priest washing his hands goes back hundreds of years when it was a practical necessity to clean his hands after receiving all the community's various gifts during the offertory. Now we spiritualize that action and the priest prays for interior purification so that he can offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist with a pure mind, heart, and soul.

Honesty is the only antidote to hypocrisy, and honesty must start with ourselves before we are honest with others.

Very quick 2 sentence highlights of the past 4 topics - the Stole, Chasuble, Opening Procession, and Genuflecting.

God will forgive us based on how we forgive others. Forgiveness heals us, can disarm others, and defuse dangerous situations. Fr. brings up a recent event demonstrating this.

Sometimes all other words fail and rational explanations don't do the job. The only thing left to do is trust. Deacon Lou shares a personal story witnessing trust in the Lord Jesus and pulls together the common threads from the Scripture readings.

Genuflecting is a sign of humility, an offering of service, and a proposal. Usually our souls lead our bodies to do the right thing, but sometimes we need our bodies to lead our souls to enter the right attitude for worship and prayer.

3rd Grade Catholic School Teacher and Parish Catechetical Leader Mary Meler shares her insights on how to bring young children into our faith.

Catholic High School Theology teacher Gregg Stovicek answers questions about passing on the faith to teenagers.

Love demands that we speak the truth about the human dignity of all persons and the attacks against it that are currently underway.

Fr. Walt provides his thoughts on the famous selection from the 13th Chapter of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.

The Opening Procession is a victory parade in which we are proud of what God has accomplished, and also a pilgrimage showing us our ultimate goal - reaching the table of the Heavenly Banquet. If we get on and stay on God's team, we'll reach it.

Mature Content intended for Married Couples. God's design of our hearts, minds, bodies, and desires as explained through St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Part 1 of 2.

We receive quite a lot!

The Chasuble is the outermost vestment worn by the priest and the color corresponds to the liturgical season or the feast being celebrated.  It also serves to hide the priest so we can more readily recognize that it is also Jesus at work.  

2018-12-30.  The Ambry is a compartment in the sanctuary that contains the 3 sacred oils.  These oils are used in a variety of sacraments.  The ambry is a visible reminder of the connection we have with those we love who are not at Mass because we are connected through the sacraments we both received that made us part of God's family - the Body of Christ.  

2018-12-23.  The ambo is the structure in the sanctuary from which the Biblical readings are proclaimed.  Like the altar, it is also a table.  Whereas the altar feeds us the Bread of Life, the ambo feeds us the word of life.  We need both.  Before the Gospel is proclaimed, we make a triple sign of the cross on our foreheads, lips, and hearts.  The prayer we can pray at that time is "May the word of the Lord be on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart."

2018-12-16.  The Altar is (1) a symbol of Christ, (2) a table for a meal, and (3) an altar for sacrifice.  We bow and the priest kisses the altar because it's a symbol of Christ.  It's a table just like Jesus had at the Last Supper when He instituted the Eucharist.  It's an altar for sacrifice where we place our whole selves to offer to God in union with Jesus' sacrifice to the Father.  

2018-12-9.  The Sanctuary is the place that is (1) set apart, (2) holy, and (3) where God dwells.  This floorplan of our church tells the story of the Christian faith and of our lives since we start with separation but then move into union. 

There are a lot of reasons we come to Mass, but God has a reason why we're here too.  2018-12-2