Readings:

Isaiah 61, 1-2, 10-11, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

Psalm, Luke 1, My soul rejoices in my God

Thessalonians 5, 16-24, Rejoice always; Check out special reading from Pope Francis

John 1, 6-8, 19- 28,  A man named John was sent from God

Our Mass this morning is for Christine Dresher, who passed to the Other Side recently, and for her family, Mom & Sisters, and Many Friends.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda, 

Readers,  Jackie & John Simari, & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  John Cade 

Homily,   John Cade

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 Gaudete Sunday 12-13-20

Download Cade homily 12-13-2020

Please Remember these special people:

For Cody, For Paul & Carrie recuperating, plus her ex, Larry;  For Alan Stryker;  For Joe Sullivan;    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;  

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.  It's about learning how to dance in the rain.  Vivian Green

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 a little 4 month old boy undergoing an operation, from Barbara;  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Our Beloved John Cade.

Birthdays: Jan Keszler, Doug Kite 65, Quads (12), Becky 62.

Anniversaries: Jackie & Rick

Community Finances, December 13, 2020

Expenses: $1375.00

Outreach   $900.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

May an abundance of gratitude burst forth in our minds and hearts as we remember all the blessings in our life

May we slow our hurried pace these days so we can be aware of, and enjoy, what we can too easily take for granted. 

May we always be open, willing and ready to share our blessings with others and never forget the God who loves us lavishly and unconditionally. 

And  may we remember that our thanksgiving is incomplete until we pay it forward by doing for others what they cannot do for themselves. 

Amen.

From a prayer by Sr. Jean Amore CSJ,  Sacred Heart Academy,  Hempstead, N.Y.

Welcome to our marvelous community, Clare & Joe, from Hilton Head.   Clare is Rosemary's sister (but not her twin sister).  

Readings:                          

Zechariah   12,  10-11, 13, 1, I pour out on the house of David a spirit of grace.

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

Galatians 3, 26-29,     Through faith you are all children of God

Luke 9, 18-24,  If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily.

Genevieve, too, not to be outdone in hospitality, says, "Hi, Joe & Clare.  Welcome.  And Welcome, Everybody."

Zecheria observations : 

Who:  
one of the 12 minor prophets.  Why?  Small work.  Only 14 little chapters.  Vs the Big 3, who have chapters numbering into the 60’s.  Zecharia is really the author of this work.

Time:  
post Babylonian Captivity, therefore, after 555 before Christ.  How do we know?  Reference is made to Darius, the king of the Persians.

Content:  
part 1 involves visions about the restoration of Jerusalem.  Part 2, our part, talks about future prosperity.  Maybe a slightly forgetable book.  I have not one line highlighted in my bible.

Sources: Good News Bible, Wikipedia

Kevin, also, says, "Welcome in, Joe & Clare, and Welcome, Everybody?

Deny Myself and Take up a Cross Daily

This morning I would like to talk about this notion of taking up my cross daily.   Every time I hear this it creeps me out.  It is so depressing and gloomy.  I have known people who have followed this scrupulously and they were not happy.  In fact, I could describe them as psychologically infirm.

I think there was some of this in my original decision to enter the Jesuits to be a priest in 1958.

Our Professional Candle Lighter of The Week, Brandon.

Certainly in those early years of Jesuit training, we practiced this.  We took up the cross daily.  We lived in silence most of the time, worked hard on the beautiful Jesuit farm at Grand Coteau, and we never went back to our original homes, even for Christmas or weddings.   A really regimented monastic life, up at 5:00, lights out at 10:00, every day, month after month, year after year.

Times have certainly changed since Vatican II and I have obviously changed.  I think there is a healthy way to understand taking up one's cross.  I have three positive comments.

Buddy, Is that a little mouse admiring you?

First, it can be a invitation or a challenge to  self-improvement.  I see a lot of this every morning I go to work out at the Jewish Community Center.  These people are healthy and not depressed.

Secondly, the self-improvement involves obvious things, like the big three:

          Healthy eating, that is, watch out for salt, sugar, and fat or butter, the major seducer ingredients of fast food places, like McDonald’s.

Hannah, who is that loving up on you?

          Exercise, that is, keep moving.  2 a days are coming for high school football players.  You want to see self discipline?  27 days from now I will join 15 thousand other wakos to ride across Iowa in a week, about 500 miles.  I’m exercising, getting in shape.  

I know a couple here who will remain nameless, who when the husband was discovered to have the beginning of Diabetes 2, he decided to eat healthy and exercise.  He did it, lost a good bit of extra weight, and controlled his diagnosis.   Following his example, his wife joined him and she, too, lost weight and got into shape.  

Folks, that seems to be Victoria who loves Hannah.

          Thirdly, taking breaks, days off, vacation periods.  A day off a week
or 3 once a month.   Contemplate and reflect during the breaks.  Contemplate what?  My blessings & gifts & joys.  Number one, number two, and on.

The final comment, the goal of all this discipline & self-improvement?     Be fully alive.  This is what it means to take up a cross in a healthy way. 

Where are you being invited by God to become more fully alive?

Sez Genevieve, "Is it not my turn to play that guitar?"

Readings:  Genesis 18, 20-32; Psalm 138, Lord, on the Day I called for Help, You answered Me; Colossians 2, 12-14; Luke 11, 1-13

Seventeenth Sunday – Reading Notes

The first reading continues from last week’s with the Book of Genesis and shows us a rather interesting twist on the old adage of collective responsibility for a crime, and therefore collective punishment.  This was an accepted principal in early Israel. 

Today’s reading views this principal from the other side.  Can a few good people save the entire community?  We have a wonderful example of a type of prayer, a bargaining prayer.  It reads like a great story and we are left wondering what did happen!  I hope you know what happened!  Remember, Lot’s wife had to look back!

Our second reading continues our readings from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians.  The focus of today’s reading is the contrast between the effectiveness of circumcision and that of baptism, because of Christ’s death on the cross.  Everything is forgiven by that death.

Seventeenth Sunday – Homily

The main focus in our Gospel reading today is the Our Father.  Remember, in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is on his Journey to Jerusalem.  Luke gives us this section about Jesus praying and his apostles ask him to teach them to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray, and just as any great prophet would be expected to do. 

This prayer is the simplest version we have of the Our Father.  The version in Matthew’s gospel is a little longer, and there is a very early church document called the Didache, which means the Teachings, which has the version used today by most Protestants with the ending “for thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever.”  Luke’s version has two addresses to the Father, May your name be holy, and may your kingdom come,  and three about us; provisions, forgiveness and don’t test us.  The opening section is very similar to the Jewish prayer the Kiddish!

Growing up, most of us learned prayers by heart, or rote.  I still find myself using those prayers and they give me a sense of calm.  But if my prayer life stops there then my relationship with God will probably be very childlike. 

I came across a very helpful interview with Sister Joan Chittister on Prayer.  I have included the link to the site at the end of these notes.  She talks about prayer bringing her to a greater awareness of God’s presence around us.  If we look at the actions of Jesus, he was incredibly sensitive to those around him and their needs.  His level of prayer enabled him to know who was suffering and to bring relief to them, whether it was the pain of sins past or of current illness. 

As a community I think that we do show awareness to the pains of those around us in our Outreach Ministry.  But the question that should always be asked is, who else needs comforting.  Who around me, either in my home life or work, or in the marketplace could benefit from God’s love, which can only come through one of us. 

Last week John mentioned our desire to be a more welcoming and outreaching community to those who have felt rejected by the “official church” for whatever reason.  Those folks are out there, hurting for want of a loving healing community.  As you continue to pray, to get in touch with the all present God, keep an eye out for those ‘lost or rejected sheep”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-haag/what-is-prayer-a-conversa_b_603667.html

Picture 1:   Mass with Tony & 2 servers

Picture 2:   Tom handing over our monthly donations

Picture 3:   Alison & Anthony running the celebration from the entrance

Picture 4:   The Sisters, Marlene & Cindy bringing up the bread & wine

Readings: Genesis 1, 9-31;  Responsorial Psalm 136, Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Acts 2, 42-47.  Matthew 18, 1-4.  Special for Reconciliation Service.

The Third Sunday in Lent.

 Today’s liturgy will be a bit different from our normal Sunday Liturgy.  I had mentioned several weeks ago, when we were discussing the Sacrament of Penance or Confession that I wanted to have us do a Communal Penance Service during Lent.  The more I thought about it and planned it the less sense it made to me.  And so today’s liturgy.

I want to begin with an acknowledgement that each one of us has our own personal relationship with God, and I want to respect that as much as possible. So the ideas, which I am sharing with you today, take them or leave them, they certainly are not “official teaching” but they are the result of much thought and prayer on my part.

 There is an interesting story about the substitute teacher who was called to fill in for most of the year for one of the teachers who would be out for an extended time.  On her first day in class the substitute was given a list of the pupils in her class.  She worked hard with the class all year and at year end with the exam results came out the principal was amazed with results.  When she told the substitute of her surprise, the substitute was surprised.  But they were a very bright class with high IQ.  I saw that the first day on the class roster you gave me, she responded.  That class was our worst class in the school, she was told, and those numbers were their locker numbers!!

There is a whole lot of truth for me in that story and I want to build on that in today’s Liturgy.  Traditionally we have been told that we are a sinful people.  Born with original sin, and we have hardly stopped sinning since.  Most of our prayers reconfirm this approach..  I would like our Liturgy today to be one where we try to reconcile ourselves to a different point of view.  And it is going to feel perhaps strange at first, but I would ask that we give it a try.

 So instead of a Penitential Rite where normally we reflect on our sins, I would like to invite you to reflect on maybe occasions over the past week when we missed opportunities to do good for someone.

Opening Prayer:

 I arise today

In the name of Silence, Womb of the Word,

In the name of Stillness, home of Belonging,

In the name of Solitude, of the Soul and the Earth

I arise today

Blessed by all things, wings of breath,

Delight of eyes, wonder of whisper,

Intimacy of touch, Eternity of Soul,

Urgency of thought,

Miracle of health, Embrace of God.

May we live this day

Compassionate of heart

Clear in word, Gracious in awareness,

Courageous in thought, Generous in love.

                                      To Bless the Space Between Us

                                                John O’Donohue

 Intro to the Readings.

 The readings today I have chosen because they give us reason to pause, at this time in Lent, and reflect on our goodness, our innocence and not on our sinfulness.

Homily

 I mostly want you to spend a little quiet time reflecting in a way on whether we are better off being told we are good, or whether we are better off being told we are not good, namely sinful.  For most of us, we grew up being told we were born with Original Sin, and that we from about the age of seven needed to go to confession all the time, because we were sinful.  Like the kids in the school, if someone believes we are smart, we will be smart, likewise if we can believe we are good, then goodness will follow.  I would like us to recapture our childhood innocence. How else are we to become like little children? 

Prayer after Communion

 Humble God, risen with us now in the fragile miracles of human life.  We glimpse your glory now, in the love, laughter and beauty we share with one another, in the depth of humanity, as we respond to the needs and sufferings of our world.

 Final Blessing.

Picture 1:   Tony Beginning Mass

Picture 2:   Sacrament of the sick

Picture 3:   Offertory with Cliff & John

Picture 4:   Communion helpers Margie, Jackie, Denni, Nancy, Sandra, Rob, Patricia, & John

Picture 5:   Nina

Readings:    

Deuteronomy  6, 2-6,   You shall love the Lord

Psalm 18,   I love you, Lord, my strength.

1 John 3, 1-3,   See what love the Father has bestowed on us. (this is from the All Saints readings, p. 75)

Mark 12, 28-34,  Which is the first of all the commandments.

All Saints presentation with pictures

All Saints: intro & a brief history

   Intro: 3 feasts—

                      All Saints: (or All Hallowes) those who have achieved the beatific vision according to Catholic Church, based on miracles.

                    All Souls: those who have not achieved the beatific vision and are considered paying for their sins in purgatory.

                    Hallowe’en: the vigil of All Hallowes, a Celtic-Irish harvest, end of summer celebration. 

   History in 2 parts: the Western Catholic Church & the Eastern Catholic Church

Offertory, Hugh and Sydney, Lily and Scott

                     The West: 4 significant dates, 300, 600, 700, & 800

    Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated the feast of All Martyrs.  This is really the foundation of the feast. Year 600: a Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to Mary & All Martyrs.  May 13 was the celebration because it was also an ancient pagan day of celebration.

  Year 700:  a Pope Gregory set up in St. Peter’s Basilica a side chapel dedicated to All Saints.

   Year 800: Dec. 25, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by Pope on the red stone in St. Peter’s.  Charlemagne, an advocate of All Saints, established it on Nov. 1, coupling it with a Harvest Feast. 

Caliope receiving the sacrament of the sick blessing

                    The East:

   Year 900, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Wise had a beloved, devout wife, Theophano.  She died & Leo built a church which he intended to dedicate to her.  The religious authorities said no, so he dedicated it to All Saints, assuming his wife to be among the saints.

  Note:  later, three big events happen:

          a.  Crusade #4, on its way to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, captures and wrecks Constantinople, ca. 1200.  J.P. II apologizes for this in 2004. 

          b.  Ottoman Turks or Muslims capture Constantinople, 1450 and rename it Istanbul.  It is Muslim to today.

          c.  Post 1540, Rome condemns Eastern Catholic church as schismatic over theological disputes, i.e., the nature of Jesus.

 Sources: Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, Catholic Encyclopedia on line, Wikipedia.

Emma

 The Most Difficult Commandment

Today we have the greatest commandment or the first commandment.  I want to talk about the hardest commandment.

Rosemary has a passion for these British dramas on PBS.  One of her favorites comes on tonight at 7:00, Call the Midwife.  The story takes place ca. 1950 in London on the East Side, a rough ghetto of good people trying to make a penny.  In particular it is about midwives who serve the women.  The group has been set up by some nuns, Anglican, in fact, and they invite help from other trained women.

Leo

There is the kind nun, the tough on the outside nun, the young pretty girl shocked by so much drama she is seeing for the first time, and there is Chummy. 

Chummy is a warm and tender midwife with no self confidence.  She acts clumsy and insecure.  She is not from anything like the East Side, rather from a wealthy, cold family where she received little love.  In fact, she spent most of her life in boarding schools.  How she came to work as a midwife in the East Side nobody has said.

Sandra receiving The Cupcake of The Week for her special birthday

Turns out Chummy has attracted the interest of the nice local police man and they have developed a special relationship.  She meets his parents and all goes well.  He wants to meet her mother.  Ugh, oh.

And that’s where we are tonight.  Rosemary tells me that she read or saw in one of her sneak previews on line that Chummy was turning herself in for some infraction and that she was talking about being a nun.  Which leads me to think her relationship with the police man ran aground.  Because her cold, class conscious mother did not approve?

Sorry, I don’t know what happens.  I can tell you in the blog or you can tune in tonight.   Channel 13, 7:00.

Rosemary says, “So why the story??”  Because this exemplifies the way I have approached the Great Commandment forever. 

Cole

 There are really 3 commands here, love God, love my neighbor, and love my neighbor as I love myself.  What is the hardest?  For me the third, loving myself.

We get messed up & even ruined as kids in two ways: abuse & neglect.  A kid messed up this way can be messed up for life. We see it all the time, like in the news.  Angry, violent adults and angry, violent kids.

Lorynn and Laycee

And Chummys.   People without self confidence and courage to risk.  People afraid.  People neglected as children, Chummy. 

I don’t know the outcome, but I can conjecture that Chummy will be afraid to confront her mother and marry the policeman.  Yes, I’ve been sucked into watching this program.  The moral, ethical, and psychological dilemmas are riveting. 

Rosemary reading her blessing

We are called to love ourselves. 

How?

Readings:  Isaiah 40, 1-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3, 8-14; Mark 1, 1-8.

Isaiah 2: Remember that Isaiah is one of the Big 3 Prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  Because of its 66 chapters this work is the big one.  Remember, also, that at least 3 writers contributed to the book. 

The first 39 chapters are the main Isaiah and present a strong critic of the rampant corruption of the ruling class with their oppression of the ordinary people.  His counsel was that Israel & Judah (north & south) pursue a passive political & military policy versus Assyria, the threatening power of the time, ca. 700 BCE.  Moreover, the Hebrews should not form a military alliance with Egypt & Babylon.  Babylon was no threat at this time, but would be so ca. 590, when they would enslave the Hebrews.

Isaiah was not heeded and eventually the Assyrians defeated the northern state, Israel, and the people disappeared.  They intermarried and did not maintain their identity.  Today they are called the 10 lost tribes of Israel, the remaining two tribes surviving in Judah, the southern state, capital, Jerusalem.  Remember how I mentioned Ezekiel helped the Hebrews enslaved in Babylon ca. 580 maintain their identity with 1. sabbath, 2. kosher food, 3. male circumcision.

Side note: why 12 tribes?  Because of the 12 sons of Jacob, the third of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  Jacob was given the name Israel.  Israelites are the sons of Israel or Jacob.

For our purposes this second Sunday of Advent when we look forward to Christmas, we use the second Isaiah, which begins, guess where?  With our selection, chapter 40.  These chapters are called the Book of Comfort and you will see why.  Even though I as a backpacker would not like to see all the mountains & hills made low, we have a beautifully consoling reading.  Isaiah 2 is speaking to the Jewish people under siege.

Jim in the Blood Mobile

Good News in Strange Places

I did it again, folks.  Rode in car number 1, DART red line.  It was Wednesday ca. 12:00 when I caught the down town train at Forest Lane to have one of our occasional lunches with Dawn Schultz.  She got on at City place, but what happened before that was the event.

I was seated on the aisle, right side, third seat from the front, so I can watch the scenery ahead as well as beside me.  Somewhere like Walnut Hill Lane we stopped and the driver laid out the handicap bridge to let someone on.  In came an orange baseball cap covering a skinny old black man in an electric wheel chair.  He parked in the bay just in front of the seat on the left side, right in front of a white woman in her 30's. 

We  had not gone one stop when he started talking loudly enough to hear him all over the car.  He had his back to us but was asking people if they had a paper towel.  His nose was dripping because of the cold.  He was able to talk most directly to this white woman because he was near her and only needed to swivel around in his chair to face her.  She was  good.   Did not have a paper towel, but offered him a Kleenex.  Which he used to wipe his nose.

Then he proceeded to converse with her some more.  She responded graciously.  At one point, he says in his loud, gravely voice, "How old are you?"  I was really amused.  Smiling she said she was 33.  He said something I could not distinguish and she responded, "You are 30 years older than I am."

I was stunned.  He was 63.  5 years younger than I am.  Wow.  He must have lost count along the way, I am thinking.  He looks and sounds like 83.

This got me thinking on how our two lives have been so different from the beginning.  He was born into this world probably a poor black boy.  I was born into this world a rich white kid.  I've had every door opened to me, every opportunity.  I obviously have much greater health than he.  I've worked at it, no doubt, but I had so much help, starting with my parents and teachers who appreciated being well rounded.   When I returned from East Africa in '86 and began to have annual checkups, we Jesuits had total coverage and I had an internist that was the best.  He set me on a road to overall health in my older years that has been a priceless gift.  All this came to me as I listened to the little black man in the wheel chair on the red line.

The readings we have this morning all point at the coming of a priceless gift.  Isaiah and Mark talk about the coming.   In fact, Mark quotes Isaiah's very words saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord."  The Good News is coming.

So how does that effect me, us?  So what?  Two observations.

 Rose in the Blood Mobile 

First, the Good News that Isaiah foresaw and the Good New that Mark is trying to set up, it has come.  It is past tense.  We can take consolation from the knowledge that we are accepted.  Jesus has lived.

Mark is trying to convey this by creating for his readers  something special and he is working a plot.  He is writing in the 70's after Jesus' death in the 30's, Jesus a person whom he never knew.  He writes for Jews who became Jesus' followers and are being persecuted for it.  He is trying to show that Jesus it the one foretold by the prophets.  He begins with a three stage strategy, prepare, proclaim, test. 

In today's reading he is doing the first, that is, counseling the people to prepare for The Coming.  With Jesus'  baptism he proclaims The Good News.  The temptation in the desert is the test and the third part of the trilogy.

Second observation.  The Good News is not just past tense.  It is present tense.  I encounter it daily in big and small ways.  I encountered it on the red line.

Where or when do you encounter the Good News?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-12-07.mp3

1.  The Joy of helping with the Quads and meeting Casey and Robbie.  Truly gives hope for the future.

2.  I am Thankful for My Family, My Pets, the World, Jesus, and God.

3.  My Kid quit Smoking.

4.  I am Blessed to have known & loved Sarah Dixon Herbert during her short life.