Sunday Homily 11-30-08, 1st Advent

 Readings:

Isaiah 40, 1-11, Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

Psalm 104,  O, Bless the Lord, my soul.

Titus  2, 11-14, 3, 4-7, The grace of God has appeared.

Luke 3, 15-16, 21-22, With you I am well pleased.

Cupcake of The Week: Rick & Jackie 12 years today, Sunday.

  For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use, The Bible at Your Fingertips and USCCB, The New American Bible. 

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.    To buy a Bible, try The Jerusalem Bible or The New American Bible.

Our neighbor Sydney, who invited me to do Meals on Wheels with her 10 days ago. See last Sunday's homily.

Baptism & Original Sin: traditional & contemporary theology 

Traditional theology on baptism & original sin: 

a.  Why we baptized: purification & removal of original sin inherited by babies.  Baby was a sinner & would go to Limbo forever if not baptized before dying.   The non-existence of Limbo has been acknowledged by the Catholic Church.

b.  Original sin: the 1 sin of Eve & Adam, the eating of an apple, ruptured the relationship between God & Humans. 

Offertory, Carol and Richard, Celeste and Michelle

Contemporary theology on baptism & original sin: 

a.  Original sin: (first) 

1.  no original sin  

2.  Genesis story of the fall is allegory, not fact  

3.  from Darwin's Origin of the Species the idea has developed that in our human infancy, we needed certain behaviors to survive.  For instance, killing another person & stealing (like food).  As our ancestors formed communities, norms of social behavior emerged, for example, the 10 commandments.   

Alison and John

4.  St. Augustine, ca. 400: 

–A major, if not the major influence on Christian/Catholic theology of original sin and human nature from his time to today 

–After conversion from a rather lusty life at 32, he had a pessimistic view of human nature, different from early Christianity

–John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), Pelagius, a British monk, & Julian of Eclanum, Italy, a bishop, all found nature good and fought against Augustine

–Augustine used all means to vanquish his opponents with their positive view that nature was good, even to sending a gift of horses to the pope to influence his decision.  Augustine won.

Our Man Cole

b.  Why we baptize today: (using the contemporary theology)

   1.  To celebrate a new life

    2.  To ritually & formally welcome the new person into a family, a community, and to a God famous for love and acceptance

   3.  To cleanse after the journey

 Sources: Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; John Shelby Spong; Wikipedia

Our Cole, the Fire Man.

Baptism Today

This morning I would like to say a few words about contemporary baptism.   To get there I have a story.  Rosemary has gotten me hooked on another of her Brit dramas, this called Doc Martin.   It is not running right now, but we have been watching the series from past years.

There are basically two main characters with a bunch of others.  Doc Martin was a successful London surgeon until he suddenly developed a phobia for blood.  He said he was in the midst of performing surgery on a woman when suddenly he could not do it.  He said in one session he was like a tight rope walker who suddenly lost it.

So he moves to a little fishing village in Cornwall, Port Wenn, to act as the regional general practitioner.   His Aunt Joan, the wisdom figure in the series, has a small farm on the outskirts of Port Wenn.

Meghan receiving the Blessing of the sacrament of the sick.

What really sets Martin apart is his bluntness, his rudeness.  He tells one female patient she is fat, as is her teenage daughter.  He tells patients to get out, when he has finished his exam.  He won’t let his somewhat airheaded receptionist offer the patients tea, even though they sort of expect it and occasionally ask her for it.  When she gives it to them, he jumps all over her.

On one occasion he even paints over a portrait of his receptionist a patient had put on the wall of the waiting room.  The patient was painting the room.

The second primary character is, you guessed it, a pretty girl who is headmistress of the primary school.  We have been given glimpses of how much each loves the other.  On one occasion when Luisa invites Martin to share a glass of wine in his office after hours, one glass and Martin unwinds and tells her he thinks she is beautiful, loves her, and longs to just see her every day in the village.  Then he promptly falls asleep on the kitchen table because, as he said ahead of time, wine puts him straight to sleep.  But they are star crossed. 

Emma ready for snow.

On another occasion, after Martin has saved someone’s life with Luisa helping, he and Luisa are returning in the local taxi.  Luisa kisses him.  Martin the doctor suggests she has bad breath and he has some medication for it.  The next thing we hear is a slap and in the next scene Martin is standing bewildered on the side of the road, the taxi leaving without him.

Why does Martin act this way?  We were given an enormous clue in another session.  His parents.  They come to visit after about three years of no contact.  Dad likewise is a surgeon in London, but has lost a lot of money in some scam.  Mom tells Martin that Martin ruined her marriage.  She never wanted him and still doesn’t.  That was why he spent all his childhood away in boarding schools.  It was a painful session. 

Mr. Leo ready to sing.

Martin is a wounded kid.  His nervousness in the face of Luisa’s love for him is because he can’t handle this new emotion.  He has grown up thinking he is a loser and unwanted. 

Where are Martin and Luisa headed?  I don’t know yet.  I am almost afraid to watch the next session.  I so don’t want Martin to mess it up.  But he always does.  I feel like I am watching the Titanic embarking every time Rosemary & I begin a new session.

What has this to do with baptism?  Baptism is part of the antidote to this negative message.  Baptism can be the official message, the community message, the world’s message to a baby that you are terrific, okay, loved just as you are.  If Martin had heard this as a child, instead of what he heard, how things could have been different. 

After a hip operation, Mike walks.

As a community we can pass this message on to our kids.  They are all gifts.  Our voice can join the heavenly voice in saying, “Little One, you are beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

To whom have you recently conveyed this?

To whom next?

Readings: Isaiah 58, 7-10; Psalm 112, The Just Man is a Light in Darkness to the Upright; 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5; Matthew 5, 13-16.

Intro to Readings

 Our gospel readings, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the next several Sundays are part of the great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.  This section of Matthew’s Gospel is the first and most well known of five major discourses, which are in this gospel.  Matthew had situated Jesus on a mountain; recall one of the themes of this gospel is to show how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. 

 
Moses was on a mountain when he received the Ten Commandments from God, Moses was acting as intermediary.  Jesus is portrayed very differently – phrases from next Sunday’s gospel – “you have heard it said…. but I say to you” Jesus is no intermediary! 

 Just before this Sermon, we are told that Jesus went about the whole of Galilee preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.  Now this sermon spells out what that means.  For instance Jesus tells the disciples about their new relationship with God in that he refers to God some 17 times as “your Father”. 

The whole sermon, which covers three chapters in Matthew, can be divided into three sections, the first dealing with the Law, then a section on religious practice and the final section on material possessions and human relationships, ending with the famous golden rule.  In the middle section we find the instructions on prayer, with the teaching of the Our Father. 

 There is much to ponder on in these readings, and interestingly the contents give us a rare insight into what was probably very early Christian preaching as the Letter from James has much the same content and this is considered one of the earliest writings we have from the new community, written somewhere around the year 50!

The Homily

 I want to continue our discussion of the sacraments.  Today we will discuss very briefly the third of the three sacraments commonly referred to as the ‘Sacraments of Initiation’, the Eucharist.  This sacrament has many names, First Communion, Communion, the Eucharist and the Mass.  I think that the revised Rite of Christian Initiation has gone a long way towards helping clarify the confusion. 

 If you are familiar with the RCIA program, you will recall that in the period leading up to the Easter Vigil, when the candidates are admitted into the community fully, they are invited to attend just the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, and then they process out of the church.  I think the reason the words “First Communion” came about was because just as with our discussion of Confirmation, when originally a new candidate joined, they received all three sacraments at the same time.  It was again due to circumstances and time that each event became separated and became individual sacraments.

So much could be said about the mass that it could be a topic each Sunday at least for a year.  Today I want to cover just a few highpoints.  My intent is to help us remember why we are here each Sunday.

 The Mass as we know it began its life at the Last Supper.  But even before that Passover Meal, there was a whole history connected with the Jewish history and THE most important event, their salvation from slavery in Egypt.  So that last meal the Jews ate before their escape to freedom and the Promised Land is the backdrop for our Mass.  The earliest mention we have of that last meal Jesus took with his apostles comes to us from Paul in his letter to the Corinthian community. 1Cor 11, 23ff.  And this letter dates to around the year 56 or 57 CE.  Meals were important in the gospel stories about Jesus.  And one of his first appearances was to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  As the years passed and the early community gathered to remember Jesus, that Last Supper began to be called the Lord’s Supper.  And it was quickly seen in conjunction with His death and resurrection.  Pretty soon its parallel to the Exodus Event with its resultant freedom for those who were baptized and received into this community was vivid.  The sacrificial aspect became uppermost. 

That Jesus’ death and resurrection won for us a whole new freedom in our relationship with the Father.  In typical human fashion, attempts have been made to explain the words, “this is my body, this is my blood” and like everything else connected with God, it is a mystery, so I prefer to leave it to the realm of faith and accept it rather than try to understand it.  Suffice it to say that the Jesus we receive in communion is there, not as a result just of those words by the priest, but as a result of the whole community, with the priest at its head, because of the entire action of the mass. 

 There has been much debate about whether the mass is a sacrifice or a meal, with one side or the other coming to the fore at different times.  The reality is: sacrifice includes meal, the two are not separate. 

 Our coming here each Sunday is to participate as a community in that sacrifice.  We listen to God’s Word, we offer our gifts of bread and wine and then we pray the Eucharistic Prayer, the word Eucharist means thanksgiving.  We then believe that by eating the bread and drinking the wine we are receiving the risen Jesus into our lives.  This communion, this meeting brings us closer in our relationship with God and hopefully the effect spills over into our lives where we live and work and pray.

Picture 1:   Mass Begins

Picture 2:   Mass Beginning

Picture 3:   The Music Machine, Wendy & Shonda, Ray & Jon

Picture 4:   The Keszler Klan, Jan & Sir Charlie, their son, Chuck, & Chuck's wife, Ellen, & their older son, Andrew. 

 Readings: 

 Amos 8, 4-7,   Never will I forget a thing they have done!

Psalm 113,  Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.

1 Timothy 2, 1-8, I ask that supplications be offered for everyone.

Luke 16, 1-13, A rich man had a steward who was reported for squandering his property.

Line forms at the rear for Free Hugs from Georgina and Zoe.

Amos observations :

What : 
One of the 12 minor prophets, only 9 chapters.

Who:  the book
presents the thoughts and observations of Amos, who was a sheep herder and a
fig farmer.  He was born in the southern
kingdom of Judah in a little town south of Jerusalem, but he is condemning the
people, especially the rich, of the northern kingdom, Israel.

Time:  Amos was
active around 755 before Christ, but his words and message were revised and
edited down through the years, especially during the Babylonian Captivity,
around 555 before Christ.  He lives just
before the Syrians destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, around 700 before Christ.

Message:  prayer and
sacrifice don’t make up for social injustice and oppression of the poor by the
rich. 

Today:  God will
punish you rich and prosperous for your abuse of the poor.  Amos may have seen the threat coming from the
Syrians. 

Sources:  Good News Bible, New Interpreter’s Study Bible,
Wikipedia

Cowboy Cole ready for business.

The Wiley
Steward

Anybody get any rain Thursday night?   We got 3 whole inches, an amazing gift.  We also got a surprise. 

It was just time for the sun to come up Friday morning.  I wanted to take my first cup of coffee on
the back porch where I could watch that special rain.  I go out and sit down with Aviana beside me. 

James arriving.

I look toward the street and I see a huge tree branch lying half way
across the street, Camellia, and half in our parkway.  I immediately look at the front yard of my
neighbor, hoping to see where it came from his red oak.  Nope. 
It did not come from there.  Oh,
Lord, it must be from one of our trees. 
And in fact it is a pecan branch. 
We have three large pecan trees on that side of our yard.  It is our branch. 

Kara, James' big sister.

What to do?  It is still raining seriously.  I decide that I will wait until the rain
stops, even though cars are having to negotiate around the branch. 

I must then have gone in for a minute. 
When I come out I see a boy from St. Mark’s School a block away out
in the rain, trying to lift the trunk of the branch out of the street and pull
it into our parkway.  I am embarrassed
that I am still on the porch while he is working in the rain.

Mabel with Debbie.

He can only barely move the trunk to the edge of the street, although
many branches are still lying in the street. 
At one point he looks over at me and I thank him, saying I am planning
to tackle the branch when the rain stops. 

The Girls, Marlene, Megan, and Cindy.

He finishes up what he can do, looks back, I thank him again, and I tell
him he did great work.  He says, “Sure,
it is really heavy, have a nice day,” and takes off for St. Mark’s.  I could not see whether he was on foot or got
back in a car.  He had no rain gear
on.  So I sent a note to St. Mark’s,
complimenting the boy and them for helping to train a kid like that.

Cupcakes of The Week to Judy and Bethany on birthdays.

Moral of the story: we got lots of good kids out there, and good people,
too.

I tell this story as a bit of a contrast to our parable today, the
parable of the wiley steward.  It is
quite coincidental, but this parable is also explained by Francis Vanderwall in
one of his books.   

Cupcake of The Week to Mary Jane for her birthday.

The steward was in charge of collecting promissory notes from the owner
of the farm.  Here is where the customs
and culture of the times open it all up. 

The steward made his living by adding a little sur-charge, a commission
on each transaction.   The charge went to
the steward.  Francis points out that all
the steward did was call the debtors in and cancel his commission.  Granted, he was also cheating a bit, and
cheating the farmer. 

And to Georgie on 12 years.

There are some other crazy statements at the end of the story, but I
will leave them to Francis to explain. 
Watch out for that either/or stuff at the end, either God or mammon,
hate one master/love the other.  Life is
not either/or, it is both.

The moral of the two stories?  Not
either/ or, but sometimes you got to use your wits like the wiley steward, and
other times you just pitch in and help some poor guy (like me!).

When did you last pitch in and help?

Source: The Liberating Stories of Jesus, Francis
Vanderwall

Leo and Cowboy Cole at work.

Readings:

Isaiah 63, 16-17, 64, 2-7,  No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen any God but you.

Psalm 80, Lord, make us turn to you.

1 Corinthians  1,  3-9, I give thanks to my God always on your account.

Mark 13, 33-37, Be watchful, be alert.

Note:  Watch out in the readings for fear based spirituality.   For instance, in Isaiah, Behold, you are angry and we are sinful; Mark, Watch, you do not know when the lord is coming; may he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.   Gratitude based spirituality says, watch so that you spot & appreciate  the gifts. 

Have a Blessed & Happy Advent.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda, 

Readers,   Mary Jane & John & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  John Cade 

Homily,   Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Mike & Richard

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

Download Readings Week Advent 1

Download Homily for Sunday

Please Remember these special people:

For Paul & Carrie recuperating;  For Alan Stryker;  For Joe Sullivan;  For John Doherty recuperating;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine; For David Dinsmore's bad shoulder from a biking accident;  For Esparza's new great grandson baby, son of Monique;  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery, and for Hue & Linda's daughter, Doctor Rosemary Beavers;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Loretta's aunt Alicia;  For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;  

Tranquility.

For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Song Sheets for Sunday's Mass can be found online at 
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1IOrhygLoXEtbwb3Jws3-JMXMUOzESA8l
Thanks to you, Mike

Birthdays:  Mike Moran 71 (impossible),  & Cathy Bambanek

Anniversaries:

Brent & Meredith, 8th

Shonda & Cody, 4th

The Laboratory on air.

Community Finances, November 29, 2020

Expenses: $1100.00

Outreach   $100.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

And again double thanks to all who jumped right in within 1 week to help the 50 families Becky adopted for special Thanksgiving help.  Our marvelous little community has been so generous that the same families already are covered for Christmas.  I feel humbled and privileged to be part of our most generous community.

Rosemary's Blessing:

Author Unknown

Readings: Acts 1, 15-26; Psalm 103, the Lord has set his Throne in Heaven; 1 John 4, 11-16; John 17, 11-19.

Acts: a review–

Author:  Luke, the author of The Acts & The Gospel

Date: ca. 50 years after the death of Jesus

Our Selection: Believe it or not, we are now back to chapter 1 after getting as far as chapters 9 & 10.  What is going on is this.  The chapter opens with an introduction and then a description of the Ascension, Jesus going up in the sky.  Apparently the event took place about a half mile outside Jerusalem on the Mt. of Olives. 

Afterward, all the community come together in the room they had been hiding in. About 120 are present and Peter gets up to speak.  We read Peter's words. 

John's letter: There is a great line in this selection.  See if you can spot it when you hear it.  I'll tell you after the reading, but a hint, it is the last line.

The World

Last Sunday evening I took Rosemary to the emergency room at Presbyterian on Walnut Hill.  Many of you may not know that for years she has endured a condition where her heart would spike up to ca. 180 and lock in there.  Normally when she felt a spike coming she would lie down and it would subside.  Occasionally it would take a longer, like an hour or two. 

Sunday, after the spike continued for 4-5 hours and she was feeling nauseous and lousy, I called our doctor who assured me the event was not life threatening, not a stroke or a heart attack, and that I should take her to the emergency room so they could arrest the spike. 

So I rush over to Presbyterian reassured that she was not in danger from the spike, but anxious about going to the hospital.  Flashing through my mind are stories about hospital mishaps, overworked nurses, scissors left inside incisions, mixed medications, and people going in with a hang nail and coming out with a staff infection that kills them. 

However, I was humbled and impressed with the efficiency, the care, and the cleanliness of what I encountered.  We arrived about 8:00 and I did not leave until shortly before midnight.  It actually took most of that time to bring the spike down and keep it down.  It would come down, then immediately spike.  The phenomenon is called SVT, supra ventricular tachycardia. 

When we walked into that emergency room, I only had to put Rosemary's name & date of birth on a piece of paper, and they whisked her into the care of numerous teams of nurses, a doctor, and eventually one of her heart specialist team.

Then a great thing happened on Tuesday morning when they did a procedure on her called an ablation, where by they run a little wire up from the groin, through a vein into the heart cavity, and zap the malfunction.  Rosemary came home and donated her heart medications to the CCAC.  She does not need them anymore.

The people in Presbyterian were terrific, amazingly professional, caring, and warm.

This has been on my mind a lot and I thought about the experience when I noticed the John reading about the world.  Did you notice that he uses the word world 9 times in a small paragraph, always in a negative context?  Like, the world is a bad place.

We have talked about this before and I would like to propose again that, while the world around us has a lot of pain & suffering, the world also has tremendous beauty.  And, moreover, you and I can increase that beauty, helping to minimize the suffering. 

As I've mentioned before, I pick up here the scent of the old philosophical principle of dualism.  That is, the whole world is divided into two opposites, hot & cold, dark & light, spirit & matter, and especially, good & bad.  Moreover, bad & good covers other doubles, for example, light is good, darkness bad.  And especially, matter is bad, spirit is good.  Consequently, the world full of material & stuff is seen as the enemy.

This extends to my person.  My material body vs my spirit, my thinking and feeling.  To free the latter I must discipline and control the body.  Taken to an extreme people get into hurting themselves, so as to free the inner spirit.  I did not have enough common sense as a young Jesuit to realize that some of the penitential practices we were encourage to do we just self abuse.

Where are we today?  Today we are encouraged to treasure our world and to improve it.  We see this all over the place.  I was at the CCAC, the Collin Co. Adult Clinic, Thursday and here are all these people providing medical care to the poorest people pro bono, no salary or stipend. Ken Cramer sent me a note, "When can we have another food drive?"  Great reminder.  We'll do it next week.

I saw recently where Groundwork Dallas had another Trinity clean up.  Hundreds showed up to remove trash and in particular a hill of dead tires illegally dumped in the forest.  I wished I could have been there, like the time Ron Kovatis got many of us down there.

I propose that our challenge is not to hate the world, but the treasure it and to make it even more beautiful. 

How are you beautifying our world?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-05-24.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & Sabrina

Picture 2:  Sabrina, who graduated Friday from 8th grade at St. Monica with a Presidential Award for excellence, reading her poem Download Bread_by_sab[1]

Picture 3:  John Doherty preparing to receive a blessing on his employment away from home

Picture 4:  Donut Shoppe with customers Kevin, Chloe, & Denni

note: this is the last time we publish the blog from our Tulip Lane home.

Readings:

Jeremiah, 20, 7-9, You duped me, Oh Lord

Psalm 63,  My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God

Romans  12, 1-2,  Do not confirm yourselves to this age.

Matthew 16, 21-27,   Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda

Readers, Beth & Rob (from Pagosa Springs), & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel:  Deacon Mike

Homily,  Stack 

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike (home from the mountains) & Richard (back from vacation), Tom, Ben & Hue 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Download Readings Week 22

The Homily

A Contemporary addition to the Liturgical Calendar

I would  like to propose this morning that we add a special feast day to our liturgical calendar.  Don’t know what is the liturgical calendar?  Are you people Catholics?

The Catholic liturgical calendar is a daily directive on special Catholic events and special deceased Catholics who are now considered officially saints.  For example, the feast of Christmas, Saints Francis and Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits.  In the sacristy of most Catholic churches there would be a little booklet with the name of the saint for the day and as a priest, I would offer the Mass in honor of and for the intercession of the saint. 

White Rock Creek Path, 7:00 Friday morning, looking north at the DART bridge branch to Plano.  Can this be Dallas?!!

Therefore, in honor of this special day I would propose that this day be officially established as a holy day of obligation, as they once were called.  The day?  Yesterday. 

You all must know that the last Saturday of August, usually the hottest day of the Summer, is especially celebrated each year on the campus of Midwestern University where Kevin goes to college in the town of Wichita Falls, northwest of Dallas a couple hours.

Celebration?  What kind of celebration?  To show that we are not intimidated by 100 degree temps, some thousands of bike riders aim to ride for 100 miles out of Wichita Falls on a clockwise ride around the region. 

South bound WRCT heading toward White Rock Lake at the bridge just before the Skillman bridge-tunnel.   At 7:00 it is gorgeous on the path!   Yes, I'm riding again, Monday-Friday this week.

There are rest stops every 10 miles and at ca. mile 75, every five miles or so.  I have my favorite stops and in particular the stop at the 30 mile marker, the edge of the little town of Electra.  The women of Electra bake dozens of homemade cookies and hand them out.  Everything is free at the rest stops, water, of course, but also fruit, bananas, energy bars, and even pickles.

Shonda and Ben bringing Life.

One year it was especially hot and hot from the beginning.  I rode up to the Electra rest stop about 9:30, eager to taste a few of my favorites, like chocolate chip.   Turns out the extreme heat had melted some of their cookies, especially the chocolate chips.   No problem.   Usually the cookies are just lying there on the tables under a huge tent.  Take all you want.  Not this time. 

I look up and see a lady standing on a step with clear plastic bags on her hands and in each hand she has a cookie ball.  “Come and have all the cookie balls you want,” she is saying.  “They are as good as ever.”  And they were. 

Hue & Richard cooking.

This is why The Hotter ‘N Hell bike ride should be introduced into the Catholic Liturgical Calendar for the last Saturday of the month of August.  It is feast day.  And I nominate Saint Bill Hammond as the Patron Saint. 

So what did you do when you did not bike a hundred miles yesterday?

Welcome home, Mike.  It is really good to have you back.

Please Remember these special people:

For Alan Stryker;  For Becky's dad discovered with cancer;  For Cindy recuperating at home;    For Esparzas, Frank & Mary,  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, Woodlands,  For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family;   for Michelle

On air!

For Jackie's mom;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer.

Birthdays:     Maureen Macchio, Teresa Quinn

Anniversaries: 

Ken & Cindy, 58th

Richard & Monica Froebe, 33rd

John Cade doing the Eucharistic Prayer from his living room.

Community Finances, August 30, 2020

Expenses: $1625.00

Outreach   $360.00   (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people,

A heart that forgives the worst,

A mind that forgets the bad,

And a soul that never loses faith in God.

Unknown

As of September 1, Rosemary & I will have a new address,   7017 Helsem Way, Dallas 75230.   This enclave has TREES, unlike our poor, dear, tornado battered Preston Hollow neighborhood.