Sunday Homily, October 2, 27th Ordinary Time C

Jeremiah 31, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.

Psalm 130, Create a clean heart in me, O Lord.

Hebrew 5, He became the source of salvation

John 12, Sir, we would like to see Jesus.

 

 

 

 

Thanks……

Music,  Ben 

Readers,  Jackie & Brent, & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  Mike Carrell

Homily,  John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Richard & Mike  

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

 

 

Christine Dullenty's Memorial, Breckenridge Park, Saturday, 3-20-2021

 

 

Readings for Sunday, March 21, 2021

Download Reading 5th Lent 03-21-2021

 

Homily for Sunday by John Cade, March 21, 2021

Download Cade Homily 3-21-2021

 

 

Please Remember these special people:

For Carrie's ex, Larry with Corona;  For Alan Stryker;  For Joe Sullivan;    For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   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 &  Leo & all of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy 

 

John Cade sharing his homily on Sounds of Silence.

 

Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free & John Schanot;    For John O'Donnell & Jean;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa;  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; from Barbara, a little 4 month old boy undergoing an operation; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

Our Brain Team, Richard, Hue, & Mike.

 

Birthdays:   John Cades' mother in law, Kaliope

Anniversaries: 

 

Community Finances,   March 21, 2021

Expenses: $900.00

Outreach: $250.00 

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

 

Ben, The Music Man.

 

A note about our Easter Celebration.

We now welcome 20 people to our Easter celebration, all vaccinated and coming with mask.  Seating will be spread around the large cafeteria.  Please don't show up without signing up.  Let's see if this goes so well that we can increase the number the Sunday after Easter.

 

 

Concelebration.

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

Oh God who made me absolutely unique,

Help me to value more the Person You made Me to be.

And protect me from comparisons and envy and discouragement over what I am not.

 

Andrew Greeley,  Irish American Blessings  

 

Two of The Best, Cindy & Dee.

 

Readings:

2 Malachi 3, 19-20, Lo, the day is coming that will set them on fire. 

Psalm 98,  The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.

2 Thessalonians 3, 7-12,   Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.

Luke 21, 5-19,  The days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another.

 

 

The best of Teams.

 

Thanksgiving, 2019-11-15

Guess what, Everybody.  Two Sundays and we celebrate my most favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.  To get us into the spirit I want to describe my three biggest blessings of the year.

 

 

The Candle Lighting Ritual.

 

Blessing 1 is my health.  My whole life I simply assumed that I would always be healthy. 

Trouble started last Thanksgiving when Rosemary, Aviana, & I made our annual visit to Rosemary’s sister’s in Hilton Head.  I could hardly walk, even with a cane.  My routine doctor sent me to an orthopedist.  I’ll never forget the visit.   He pointed to his computer screen, said, “I can fix this.”  He even said he had one opening before the New Year.  Did I want it? 

Wow, did I want it!  I had lumbar stenosis, a pinched nerve in my lower back. 

 

 

Buddy reading The Blessing of the Candles (not memorized yet).

 

While I was dealing with this my parkinson decided to get more active.  My neurologist said exercise, box, work out on ellipticals, anything to get my arms swinging.  He gave me a pill to take 3 times a day. 

We had a May cruise in the North Atlantic & I was pretty nervous, even just with the trans-Atlantic flight.  I took a cane.  I never used it.  Everything improved.  No dizziness, better coordination of my legs and arms. 

Which brings me to today and Thanksgiving.  I am grateful.

 

 

The Offertory with Tom & Susan & Bill.

 

Second blessing  of the year: you people, our community.   The generous spirit of everyone, the eagerness to support & pray for our people who need special care, and the way everyone pitches in.  Buddy & Georgie, John & Mike, Ben & David & Shonda, Jackie & Connie, all plus many others who make our Sunday celebrations so touching.  I am humbled and blessed by all of you people.

 

 

The Communion Team.

 

The final blessing of 2019: Rosemary, my blessing for 15 years & more.

Your blessings of 2019?

   

 

Twins??  The Best.

 

 

 

Readings:

Ezekiel 37, 12-14,   I will open your graves and have you rise.

Psalm 130,  With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Romans  8, 8-11,  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

John  11, 1-45,  The raising of Lazarus.

 

 

Make Lazarus live.  Make life happen.

Guess what, I have a story about France this morning.  I want to use it to exemplify the metaphor of giving life that is contained in the Lazarus story.  I would propose that Jesus metaphorically gave life to Lazarus, something all of us can do, give life.

There is a tour company known as Fat Tire Bike Tours.  Founded a few years ago by, of all things, an Aggie who made good in life, the company has tours in a number of European cities, Paris included, naturally. 

 

 

Rosemary & I have used them a few times in Paris and we find them terrific.  A week ago we joined a group that was going to visit the home of Claude Monet, an hour train trip northwest out of Paris into the province of Normandy.  On these distant trips you take the train out to the location, like the palace of Versailles, for instance.   Then you pick up bikes and ride.

Our tour was meeting at the St. Lazare train station in Paris and going to Giverny, the simple, but beautiful garden home of the impressionist artist, Claude Monet.  Twenty eight people met at 10 A.M. at gate 22, and we split into two with a guide for each.

 

 

Our international group of Chinese, Australians, Irish, Americans, and a 28 year old New Zealander guide rode the train to Vernon, a neighboring town to Giverny.   We picked up bikes, went to buy picnic lunches at a farmers’ market, rode to the edge of the Seine River that ran through the town, and had a picnic.

On the picnic the group came alive.  The guide had his French girl friend with her two French girl friends.  Another sparkling young couple from Australia revealed that they were just engaged the evening before.   Life came to the group as pairs or individuals revealed glimpses into themselves.

 

As the day went on, (we traveled together from 10 to about 7 in the evening), Rosemary & I began to reveal ourselves and we also focused on hearing the stories of others.   We targeted particularly 3 groups.

One, of course, was the Australian couple.  We invited them to tell the amusing story about how the engagement planned never took place, but still was dear.  I said I knew an old priest who would do their wedding cheap.

 

 

Then we spent a lot of attention on the guide and his girl friend.  They were not engaged, but we, of course, almost had them married.  I suggested that same old geezer priest would  do their wedding. 

Thirdly, we focused on a Chinese family from California, a mother, an 18 year old high school senior, and an 11 year old, shy daughter.   The 18 year old especially talked about his hopes and dreams, to go to Georgetown, to become a doctor, to work for Doctors without Borders. 

 

 

He said he wanted to work internationally like I had done.  I affirmed his dream while pointing out I did this in 74 years and he still had time at 18.

The mother was extraordinary.  Leaving China, speaking Cantonese and another Chinese language, Erica, did not seem daunted by the prospect of financing Jacob’s educational dreams.

 

 

By the time we arrived again at gate 22 in the St. Lazare station about 7:00, an amazing closeness and life pervaded the group and everyone was hugging.  Jacob even asked to use us as the subject of a project he had to compose for his classes.  He took our picture.  I was flattered.

By asking these people to tell their stories, I saw them come alive. Reciprocally, their stories enlivened me and Rosemary.  We were mutually giving new life.

I repeat my idea, Jesus metaphorically gave life to Lazarus.  And we give life to each other.   That is what our community attempts to do.  That is what Mike’s ideas about a beans & rice brunch and a penitential rite do for us.

To whom are you giving life?

 

 

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 35, 1-6, 10 (again beautiful); Psalm 146; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11

Isaiah: Again today’s selection from this marvelous book put together some 8 hundred years before Christ presents a dream and a vision of a day of peace and happiness.  To emphasize the beauty we will split the reading again, the first part read by Margarita; the second by her daughter Ashley.

How to Give Sight, Give Life

In Utah there is a ranch which specializes in equine therapy for young people.  Equine therapy uses horses to help people & kids find themselves and level out. 

A family who are really good friends of mine visited the ranch some years ago to check out if it might be a good place for one of their children to get settled in life.  One afternoon some staff people took them down to the barn to look at the horses.  Now the wife in her childhood had done some riding and was pretty confident around horses, which the staff apparently picked up.

Consequently, one of the women staff members offered her a bridle and asked her if she thought she could bridle a wild mustang they had just brought in.  "Sure," she said, and off she went to bridle the mustang.  Three staff members climbed up and sat on the fence to watch her.  Inside she was saying to herself that she would be firm and brave, remembering that she had once broken her arm with a horse. 

Using all her skill, determination, and bravery she tried and tried to bridle that mustang, for probably over an hour.  It was even beginning to get dark.  But she was determined she would prove she could do it all by herself.  Finally, with darkness setting in she took the bridle, handed it back to the staff, and feeling defeated said she could think of no other way to bridle that mustang.

The staff asked, "Are you sure you have tried every possibility?"  "Yes," she replied, "Everything. "I think there may be still another possibility," the staff said.  "What?" my friend asked.  "You could have asked for help."

Isaiah says this morning that some day the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf be cleared.  That evening in that coral in Utah, my friend saw and heard in a new way.

There are two pieces to this dynamic.  One, am I aware that I am blind and deaf, and need the help of community?  We are all blind and deaf.  Secondly, am I aware that I have to help others see and hear better?  Or I am less a person? 

One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help.  It is partly pride, but also good Jesuit training.  I’ve been trained to think and act independently.  I can almost learn Spanish or Italian without asking for help.  However, ever try to learn to work a computer without asking for help?  I have had to ask Rosemary a million times how to do things.  Humbling.  And eye opening.

The staff members sitting on that fence were helping my friend to see and hear.  It is even their profession, a privilege and a call really.  Teachers are helping others to see, parents do it.   Like I mentioned the first Sunday of Advent, flight attendants do it with their hospitality, like happened to Rosemary & me coming out of Hilton Head. 

A paradox in all this is that when I help another to see or hear better, I receive the same gift.

My friends never did work with the ranch in Utah, and their child grew up and leveled out.

How are you helping the person next to you to see & hear better?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-12-16.mp3

Readings:

Exodus  34, 4-9,   A merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.

Psalm from Daniel,  Glory and Praise forever.

2 Corinthians 13, 11-13,  Rejoice.

John  3, 16-18,  God so loved the world.

 

 

Father’s Day History:

 Four steps:

     1.  The Civil War started thinking about a Mother’s Day.  Anna Jarvis pushed it ca. 1907 and it was made official in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson.

       2.  Monongah, WV mining disaster, 210 fathers killed, Dec. 6, 1907 (just before Christmas & after the Mother’s Day activity).  Fairmont, WV.   Grace Golden Clayton pushed the idea. 

        3.  Spokane, WA, Sonora Dodd & influence of Mother’s Day.  Dodd’s dad had fought in the Civil War and all by himself raised Sonora & her 5 siblings.   

        4.  Pres. LBJ made it special, 1966.  Pres. Nixon made it a national holiday, 1972.

 

 

Exodus Story: 

So the Israelite people have been wandering around in the Sinai desert for many years after escaping from old Pharaoh in Egypt.  Moses has been invited up Mt.Sinai to receive 10 Commandments.  

He comes down all loaded with two stone tablets written on both sides and discovers that the people have become  exasperated with him and the wandering in the desert.  They have created a gold bull to celebrate with and to worship.

 

 

Old Moses, all angry, throws down the tablets and breaks them.  He calls Aaron, his lieutenant, tells him to gather the Levite tribe, the priestly tribe, and he tells them to slaughter all the rest.  They do.

Then, and here we take up the reading, Yahweh tells Moses to make two more tablets and to return to the top of Mt.Sinai, where he will get another set of commandments.  It is here where that marvelous line about the nature of God is mentioned again, "The Lord is gracious & merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love."

This is ancient folk tale literature at its best.    

 

 

Responsorial Psalm from the Book of Daniel: 

Another great folk story is behind this song.   Characters: three Jewish boys, a gold statue, and the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, what a name.   Get the names of these boys, Shadrack, Mechak, and Abednego.  Terrific.  I had a dog in East Africa I called Shadrack, a German Shepherd.

Seems like old Nebuchadnezzar decided to cast a gold statue.  He wanted everyone to bow down to it.  Three Jewish boys said no.  Even though they were favorites of the king, he had to throw them into a flaming furnace.   

Far from being burned up, the boys started dancing around in joy and they sang the song we have for today’s responsorial psalm.  Though this is totally a mythical story, you can picture them.

 

A Father, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness

Letme talk this morning about fathers.  I would propose that, among all the qualities of a father, one that enables a father to reflect the image of God is my favorite line, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness.  These qualities are attributed to God  and I think men can image the same qualities.  An example.

Ever hear of a guy named Kenny Thompson?   He is an elementary school tutor at Valley Oaks Elementary in Houston and a father.  One day Kenny reads a news report about an elementary school in Salt Lake. 

 

 

Turns out a bunch of kids were not getting their normal lunch because they owed money to the cafeteria.  Not a lot f money.  After all, the lunches ran about 40 cents. 

So Kenny enquires about the cafeteria at Valley Oaks where he is a tutor.  He discovers about 60 kids not getting their normal lunch, just a cheese sandwich.  Moreover, many of the kids are so embarrassed they skip going to the cafeteria for the cheese sandwich.

 

 

Kenny Thompson pays up all the kids’ cafeteria bills, totally almost $500.  He says these kids don’t need to be worried about their lunches, for many the only whole meal they will have all day.  They are in the school to learn and they cannot learn on an empty stomach or embarrassment.  

Kenny’s story got picked up by a local TV station and now he has gone national, creating  a fund under the title Feeding the Future Forward. 

 

 

Kenny Thompson is godlike, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. 

Know anybody like this?  

How about you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Jim & John, "Welcome in, Everybody." 

 

Readings:

Ecclesiastes, 1,2; 2, 21-23,  Pretty pessimistic.  Author having a bad day?

Psalm 90, If today you hear his voice, harden not you hearts.  

Colossians 3, 1-5, 9-11,  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth

Luke 12, 13-21,  There was a rich man

 

 

So good to have you back, Dee, especially looking so good.

 

The First reading from Ecclesiastes reminds us that when a person passes he or she can’t take any of their worldly things with them.

Our Second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians reminds us that greed is idolatry; for it is a love of wealth; rather than a love of God.

 

Good Morning, Patricia!

 

Homily on the Gospel reading:

 

Here in Chapter 12 of Luke, a nondescript man comes to Jesus seeking a favorable decision regarding some inheritance that he is hoping to receive from his older brother. Jesus used this event to address the crowd with the wisdom to be on guard against all forms of greed.

 

 

 

Watch out for this crazy guy, Everybody.  I knew him way back when he was a nice little high school, kid.

 

Following Jesus’ advice the older brother has put their extended family in mind.  He will not allow himself or his younger brother to fail in their responsibility to put their extended family ahead of their desire for possessions.   The older brother had taken a course of action to enhance the harvest from their father’s land.

 

 

 

Three of the Candle Lighting Team, Zoe, Tori, & Georgie.

 

Now, there is nothing more in Luke’s chapter 12 about the relationship between the younger man and his older brother; however Luke has no intention of forgetting about them!  Each of the gospels form two complementary stories.   We will encounter the brothers again in a chapter 15! There, the younger son said to his father, “give me the share of the inheritance that would come to me.  The father divided the inheritance between them…and a few days later the younger brother took his inheritance with him to a foreign land where he squandered it on riotous living.

 

 

 

Mike homilizing on the Luke gospel.

 

Recall that when the prodigal son came home asking to be forgiven, the story did not end. Is there a story like this in your immediate family? Harden not your hearts.

 

 

 

Married life: carry your cross??