Shadowing Practice: Psalms 87:5 || Reflection - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hello, hello.
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How are we doing, Spa family?
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Glory to God.
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It's like you've been a while.
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How are we doing?
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I know we're sad.
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Summer's almost over.
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I was really thinking about it.
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I was like, it's August.
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And in two, three weeks, my siblings are going back to school and everything.
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It's crazy to think.
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Time is flying.
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But we have now, we're still in the season of rain, technically.
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But within the season of rain, there's one of the seven mandatory, probably one of the most important fasts of the year and
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that is the fast of or as we say in Giz So when did it start?
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Can someone tell me?
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When did it start?
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Saturday?
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Thursday?
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Friday.
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Friday, perfect.
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So Filsata started Friday so I hope so far it's going amazing, it's going great.
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One of the best things I love about this fast is
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that because it's so short you kind of can push your spiritual limits.
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A lot of the time, like when other fasts, like Great Lent or the fast of the prophets and other things, we kind of like have to pace ourselves spiritually, right?
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So we push our limits, but like we're also aware of the fact that, okay, I'm going to be doing this for the next 40 days or 30 days.
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So I have to also be conscious of how much spiritual output I can put out.
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But this is one of the fasts where it's only two weeks.
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So we can be a little bit more, according to the advice of our Confession Father, we may be able to be a little bit more ambitious.
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Maybe eating until later time.
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Or maybe, you know, doing more prostrations or something of that nature.
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Because it's only two weeks.
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But yeah, on that note, we can start.
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So for today's psalm, David says, And of Zion it will be said, This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High himself shall establish her.
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Now, I learned a fun fact from this psalm.
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You know when, like, you're reading the psalms, a lot of the time it's like the headers in each psalm, right?
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And it'll say, like, a lot of the time, either who it's by or the context of which it was written in, right?
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So this psalm, it starts and it says it's for the sons of Korah.
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And if you read through the psalms, if you're praying it regularly, you'll see that's a consistent thing throughout the psalms.
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It normally says that, sons of Korah, sons of Korah.
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And I'm like, who's Korah?
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Right, who's Korah?
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So actually, the Hebrew word for Korah literally means Golgotha.
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And so when the forefathers, when they're doing the andamta or the commentary for these psalms,
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It's supposed to mean, what it means is that saying it's for the sons of the resurrection, the sons of the cross, right?
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So it's like, it's literally like a love letter written for us, the Psalms.
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That was a fun fact.
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You don't seem amused.
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It's okay.
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We're going to continue anyway.
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But we're going to be talking about Zion.
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Zion is a very, very important thing.
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And so for this past especially, the forefathers chose this psalm for this liturgy because though Zion has many different representations,
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the church fathers speak about Zion as the church, they speak about Zion as the heavenly Jerusalem, the kingdom of heaven, but there's also Zion as our mother of the holy fiatal coast, the Virgin Mary.
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So we're going to be talking about this, the Virgin Mary.
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And so it says, and of Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born in her.
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Right?
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And so the commentary says how?
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When it says this one and that one were born in her, it's saying first Christ is born in her.
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Right?
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We call it the Theotokos.
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Theotokos literally means God-bearer, the mother of God.
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And so Christ was born in the Theotokos.
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And then it says this one and that one were born in her.
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It's to say that first Christ was born in her.
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Right?
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And as St. Paul said in his epistles, we call Christ the firstborn of the resurrection, the first fruits of the resurrection.
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Right?
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So after Christ, he's the firstborn.
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After him, we are all his siblings.
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And that, because he was the first, after him, he opened the gates for us to be able to also reap a lot of blessings
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and be able to live and walk with God.
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Right?
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So, follow me here.
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It's not rocket science.
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If, for example, let's say, so if Christ is the firstborn and then you're born after, what does that make you?
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His what?
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Sibling, right?
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Or brother or sister, whatever, depending on your gender, right?
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Makes you your sibling.
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So if you guys are siblings, that means you have the same who?
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I'm just hearing crickets.
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I can't hear you guys.
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You have the same, you said, uncles?
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Parents.
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Okay, perfect.
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So that means you have the same parents, right?
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So that means that the Virgin Mary is also your what?
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your parents but your mother there you go right so
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that means the virgin mary is also your mother i know
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literally i know that's my name was very long it's okay as much okay
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that means that the what's it called the virgin mary is also your mother right
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and i think this is a very critical thing we forget about
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that christ is our sibling and
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that he is the firstborn we have through him we are able to take a lot of blessings have the Eucharist, have time with him, have rights to be able to call God the Father,
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our Father, our parent, our Heavenly Father.
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But we also forget about another part of the package.
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Like think about like, you know, Amazon Prime.
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Who here has Amazon Prime?
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Raise your hand.
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Do you have Amazon Prime?
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If you don't, you're missing out.
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But Amazon Prime is fire, right?
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Amazon Prime is amazing.
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A lot of the time we use Amazon Prime for one reason only, shipping, right?
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Next day shipping, that shipping is amazing.
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Thank God for the shipping.
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But a lot of the time we only see the shipping, we don't see other benefits of Amazon Prime.
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Like let's say for example, Amazon Prime and video.
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You get free videos or free movies, right?
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You get to read books, you have Amazon Kindle, all these different other rights and things you can do with the Amazon Prime membership.
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Similarly so, Christ has given us a lot of gifts when it comes to salvation.
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And I think we only look at Jesus Christ as the only thing, a part of this gift.
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But a part of the bundle, a part of the membership, you could say, of the kingdom of heaven or being God's child is, you also get the Theotokos as your mother.
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A lot of the time, we only look at Christ and we forget the other parts of the benefits of this prime membership, this heavenly membership, we could say.
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Right?
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So another critical point is that the Theotokos is a part of our salvation.
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Christ on the cross gave the Theotokos as our mother.
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So she's also a key part, very important, and a very beneficial part of this package deal we get in being God's children.
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And so you may say, okay, that's nice.
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Yeah, but how?
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And this is the most beautiful thing is
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that I think a lot of the time we fear even delving into the theotokosis or building a relationship with her.
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But the psalmist reassures us.
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He says, and the most high shall establish her.
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Who establishes her?
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Who establishes her?
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Who's the most high?
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Who is the most high?
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This is not rocket science.
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Who is the most high?
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God.
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Yes, God.
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Okay, so the most high is God.
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So this means that if God is the one who is establishing her, right, that means that what?
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She is the spitting image of the one you are worshiping, right?
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So it's very ironic.
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We sit and we ask like, I don't want to get too close to the Theotokos, I might worship her.
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Or I might do this, I might worship her.
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Or I might, but it's like, wait a minute.
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The person who you're worshiping is the image of the person that you're trying to get close to.
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It's a whole, it's a circle.
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So you can't really worship the Virgin Mary because any honor you give to her is going back to who?
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Christ.
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Because whose image is the Virgin Mary carrying?
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It's Christ, right?
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And therefore, we ought to look into her.
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Because she is another window, another lens we can see to come to get to Christ.
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And this is what the Lord wills.
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This is not what we're doing right now.
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Even as I'm standing here, right?
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God can come and speak to us individually.
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But God loves more.
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God can speak to us himself.
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He can come down and speak to us himself.
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But rather, God loves above all to use us as vessels.
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We're all a spinning image.
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Our father, the clergy.
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All of you guys are being used as vessels, right?
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This is how our Lord works.
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And similarly so, he loves to use his mother as a vessel to show his divine love.
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Just as he uses us as vessels in our co-workers' lives, in our friends' lives, in our family's lives, it's the same thing.
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And so, just as one of your co-workers or one of your friends, or you yourself have been able to look into somebody else and see Christ, the Virgin Mary is the same model he's using,
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using his children for his glory.
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And so this season is a season we ask for intercession.
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But not only that, not only just asking for intercession because we have a big test, we have a financial dilemma, or our family is this, or my mom is sick, or this.
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But rather, we need to look into who she is.
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The Virgin Mary has a lot of exemplary virtues.
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And it's only when we look into her life that we can also fall in love with her as a mother.
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There's so many beautiful qualities we can learn from her, right?
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And in learning from her, we look in awe, right?
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But that all goes to Christ.
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Because the virtue is humility.
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Where does humility come from?
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Christ.
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The virtue is love that we learn from her.
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Where is that virtue?
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Who is the fountain of that virtue?
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It's Christ.
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So as we learn about our mother, we fall more in love with her.
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And in falling in love with her, we fall in love with who?
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Christ.
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Dang, brothers.
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Not from St. Mary's like that?
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Is that long?
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I just watch this.
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Okay.
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So, to wrap up, one of the fathers, he says, She is the mother of us who are his members, because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful,
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who are the members of that head, might be born in the church.
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The most beautiful thing about the Theotokos is that any story you see within the Synixarium, or in Ta'ammer Amariam, or any kind of canonized book, is that a lot of the time,
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the results of the Virgin Mary working in somebody's life is that they become closer to Christ.
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That's her entire goal.
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That's all she wants for us.
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She wants to be in our life to point us to Christ.
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And that's why you'll see in a lot of the icons, it's not in this icon, a lot of the icons, where it's, where we say in Giz, Mr. Fukur Ulda, or to say her beloved son,
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with her beloved son, you'll see a lot of the time is that she'll be sitting on the throne holding her son, but she's pointing to her son, right?
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She's pointing to him a lot of the time.
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She's not just, her hand is not like this, right?
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Her hand is pointing to her son.
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And it's to show that eternally, all she wants to do is come in our life
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and tell us about how amazing her son is
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and tell us about her son so i pray
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that we also take advantage as the saints
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and martyrs before us take advantage of having a mother like
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the theoticals in this season we do the same glory be to god let's call up choir
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
This video is a goldmine for english speaking practice because it blends casual conversation with deeper reflection, mirroring real-life communication. The speaker shifts from chatting about summer ending to discussing spiritual traditions, giving you a chance to practice both everyday small talk and more thoughtful dialogue. Using the shadowing technique here—repeating phrases right after the speaker—helps you mimic natural rhythm and intonation, making your speech sound less scripted. Plus, the conversational tone makes it easy to follow, so even if you’re new to shadowing, you’ll feel confident trying it with a shadowing app or just by pausing and repeating.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Let’s break down key phrases to boost your English:
- “It's like you've been a while.” This casual structure (“It's like…”) is perfect for sharing feelings or observations. Use it to sound relatable, e.g., “It's like the day flew by!”
- “we kind of have to pace ourselves spiritually.” “Kind of” softens statements, a common trick in spoken English. Try it: “I kind of need to leave early.”
- “according to the advice of our Confession Father, we may be able to be a little bit more ambitious.” “According to” and “may be able to” show respect for others’ input while suggesting possibility—great for polite suggestions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Watch out for these tricky words:
- “Filsata” (a fast): The speaker pronounces it with a soft “t,” so focus on not over-enunciating the final “a.”
- “Golgotha”: The “th” sound can trip you up—practice by placing your tongue between your teeth.
- “prostrations”: Stress the second syllable (“pros-TRAY-shuns”) to avoid mispronunciation.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | will be said · was written · were born |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've been · has given · have been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | one who is · person who you |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.