15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2020

2 Kings 4, They shall eat and there shall be some left over.

Psalm 145, The hand  of the Lord feeds us, he answers all our needs.

Ephesians 4, ..unity of spirit through the bond of peace.

John 6, Where can we buy enough food for them to eat.  

 

 

Music Magic with Shonda & Ben

 

Thanks……

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Patricia & Fred, & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,     Richard, Hue, & Mike

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy for all these years & will miss you enormously, Becky

 

 

Patricia reading 2 Kings.

 

Readings:

Download 07-25-21 R1 – PatJansky – 17h Ord (1)

 

 

 

Fred reading from Ephesians.

 

Homily by John Stack

Download Homily by John Stack 7-25-2021. 17th Ordinary Time

 

 

 

Today's Team.

 

Remember these special people:

For John & Karen Anderlick's unborn grandson;  For Alan Stryker;   For Candice Taht, friend of Mary Hall;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   For Esparza's new great grandson baby, son of Monique, & Frank with shingles;  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, 

 

Who are these two beautiful girls?  How you have grown, Zoe, and, Wow!, Michelle, how you have really trimmed down.  Welcome home, Both of You!

 

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 daughters, Lisa & Lauren  ;  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 baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother;   for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

Happy Anniversary to you & David, Donna.  I wish I could be with David now beginning the first day of Ragbrai.

 

Birthdays:    Dawson, Cindy Ekes

Anniversaries:   Donna & David

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Dawson.

 

Community Finances,   July 25, 2021

Expenses: $960.00

Outreach: $405.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Rosemary doing her blessing of the week.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

Life is not a journey to the grave

With the intention of arriving safely

In a pretty and well preserved body,

But rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke,

Thoroughly used up,

Totally worn out,

And loudly proclaiming

—WOW—What a Ride!

 

Hunter S. Thompson

 

Readings: Entrance procession, Luke 19, 28-40; Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?; Philippians 2, 6-11; Passion, Luke 22, 14-23, 1-49. 

 Some short reflections on the readings, short because of the length of the readings, i.e., the Passion.

It is very unfortunate that we only read little sections of the Luke’s Gospel each Sunday.  It is like seeing a few minutes of a movie; we keep getting interrupted and can too easily lose the whole plot.  Remember, Luke’s product is both the Gospel and the Book of Acts and together they form a complete message.

The very early church was Jewish.  After the Resurrection, the followers of Jesus continued to go to the synagogue or temple, this we see in Acts, and they also met in each other’s homes to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  As they reflected on the life of Jesus, they turned to what they were most familiar with, namely the Old Testament, in their efforts to try and understand Jesus’ place better.  And so after forty or fifty or even sixty years of this, as our Gospels emerge they are hugely influenced by the Old Testament.  It was the only way the gospel writers and the early communities knew how to understand Jesus and his message.

 

Today, we have one of those points, if we were watching a movie, when the music would be cranked up.  For Luke, from Chapter 9:51 up until today’s first Gospel reading Chapter 19:28 Jesus has been journeying towards Jerusalem.  Today he enters Jerusalem and begins what we know as the Jerusalem ministry, a mere two and a half chapters. You will remember way back at the beginning of this gospel, when Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem, he says to his parents, “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs.” Right after today’s reading, Luke has Jesus go to the temple and clean it out and then begin teaching in the Temple every day. 

 

We get the sense of more time than just the few days we experience between Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and what we will read about shortly as the Holy Week events. 

Finally, recall on the first Sunday of Lent, we read of the temptations of Jesus after his 40 days in the desert.  Luke ends that story with the words “the devil left him to return at the proper time.”   We will see that return in our reading of the Passion when Peter denies Jesus 22:31, when Satan enters Judas 22:3 and at the hour of darkness, 22:53.

 

We are almost done with Lent.  Now we turn to the events of Holy Week and Easter.  Our Gospels give us different interpretations of these events, influenced by the early church’s interpretation in the light of the Old Testament.  Each one of us also needs to reflect on what these events mean to us and how our lives are different.  Was this just a sad story, which happened over two thousand years ago, or are our lives today lived with a different meaning because of Jesus?

 

 

Picture 1:   Palm Sunday Mass begins with Tony

 

Picture 2:   Tony blesses the Palms

 

Picture 3:   Denni, Nancy, & Ron await the Procession

 

Picture 4:   The Procession with the Palms

 

Picture 5:  The Kless Family await the blessing, Christine, Cara, her friend, Sean, and Ed

 

Readings:  

 Deuteronomy, 4,1-2, 6-8,  What great nation is there that has gods so close?

 Psalm 15, The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

James, 1, 17-18, 21-22,  Be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Mark, 7, 1-8, 14-15, 21-23, From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts.

 

Observations on Deuteronomy

What is it about: Moses is addressing the people just before they are to enter into the Promised Land, the land of the Canaanites.  They have escaped from Egypt and have been wandering around in the desert for about 40 years.  Moses is dying and knows he will not go into Canaan.

The theme of the staged talk is that God has saved and blessed his beloved people.  To help them live better he has given them the 10 commandments and a whole bunch of other laws.  This is a book on the laws.

This is the 5^th book of the whole bible and the fifth of the Big 5, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy

The Dancer, Sienna

Authors:  Inferring from the work, it is obvious that the judges and teachers of the people compiled the material.

Time composed: as with so much else, after the Babylonian Captivity, around 500 before Christ.

Observations on James

1.   We have James for 5 Sundays
2.   James was not an apostle, but head of the community after Jesus.  He gets stoned in 62.

 Sources: The New Interpreter’s Bible Study; The Good News Bible

Emma arriving and with all her charm

 

A Labor Day Story (accompanied by slide show)

I would like to tell you a story this morning about a special event that happened to Rosemary & me a week ago Wednesday morning about 8:00 A.M.   It all happened on the corner of Northwest Hwy. and West Lawther Drive, which is the western border of White Rock Lake, the side opposite to the Arboretum.    

We had just finished riding around The Lake twice and were packing up the Sienna with the bikes.  It is very rare that we park at this corner instead of at Royal Lane near Greenville.  We did it this morning because we knew the White Rock Creek Trail leading to The Lake from our neighborhood would be muddy & wet.  It had rained the day before. 

This corner has special meaning for Rosemary & me.  It was here January 6, where Rosemary missed the turn coming off of a detour that is no longer there.  This is precisely where she fell and broke her left elbow on a beautiful, sunny January afternoon.

On this Wednesday morning we are parked not right on this southwest  corner, but up and behind a store called Dallas Bike Works.  Rosemary had sat on the stairs of this bike store in January, while I raced back to get our car and take her to Presbyterian.

So here we are in the parking lot behind the store.  I am storing the bikes in our Sienna.  I notice that a man is slowly driving up from Lawther Lane in a large yellow tractor with a back hoe and a front end scooper.  I wave at him as he passes me at the rear of the car.

He proceeds along the right side of the car at a little distance.   Rosemary is preparing to get into the car.   He stops his tractor, slides to the left toward Rosemary, gets down off his tractor, and walks toward Rosemary with a smile on his face.  He is a stocky Hispanic in yellow hard hat and work clothes for the heat, long sleeved shirt and long pants. 

 

He says to Rosemary, “How are you?”  Instantly Rosemary knows who he is.  She runs to embrace him.

It is the same workman who was right there when Rosemary broke her arm.  He was the first to her, because she almost landed at his feet.  It was under his pick up that Rosemary slid and his little bumper apron that she cracked with the front of her helmet. 

He bathed her road rash with water and towels.  He even offered to drive her to the hospital and would take nothing for the crack in his bumper apron, even though the truck was pretty new. 

His name is Max and he saw Rosemary from the area where he was working.  So, he drove over to see how she was.   We talked for about 10 minutes and he was so happy that she had recuperated.

We left there astounded and so touched. 

Two lessons:

First, there are some really good hearted people on those street work crews.

Secondly, a little distinction on Mark’s statement that “from within people, from their hearts, comes evil.” 

I would propose that the human heart comes good and gentle and loving.   It is the heart hurt that becomes the heart that hurts. 

Senor Max has touched our hearts with his gentle caring. 

Who has touched your heart lately?

 

 

 

Readings: Luke 19, 28-40 (Entry into Jerusalem); Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2, 6-22; Luke 22, 14-23, 56 (The Passion). No homily today. Download the reading of the Passion as an mp3 file.

Two parts to the liturgy today. Part one covers the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the blessing of the palms.

Part two covers the Passion and begins the solemnity of Holy Week.

Special Thanks:

• For reading, Jackie McGrath, Tony Whitley, Blair Reyes, Nancy Kovatis, Jessica Bresson                
• For the Altar Bread, Angie Carroll
• For Serving, T.J., Lacee, & Lorynne
• For the Altar, donuts, muffins, coffee, & juice, Margie, Jackie, Lisa, Ray & Claire, & Margarita
• For the Books & Communion Cups, Roy & Carol Strom, Beth & Rob Robinson
• For ushering & all sorts of jobs, Cliff Wright
• For the music, Ray & Shonda, Wendy, Elliot & Hue, Rick & Jackie

Happy Birthday: Mark Nugent, Cole Bentley, Jacob Wilson & Nicole Wilson, Elliot Zurchin

Happy Anniversary: Bobbi Jo & Danny, Myron & Chris Hubble

Please Remember: Rosemary’s nephew definitely improving; Jean Atwood’s uncle Harry & aunt; Margarita’s sister Tina’s friend Evelyn with cancer; Jackie Ritter’s friend Chad Johnson; little 5 month old Sadie with cancer, friend of Jack Carlson; Tom Quinn’s brother Tim; Nina Tucker’s friend Nancy with stage 4; Barb Senter’s mom, Margie’s mom, Dona & Cathy Goode’s mom; David Pastula & his companions in the military over seas, including Trey Bailey back from his 3rd deployment, Ryan McClurg, Matt Gardner, Chebino, & T.J.’s friend Aimee; David & Ofelia, Rita; Mary Ellen’s Christopher, Margaret, & Jim; George & Marianne’s sons & Linda’s son; Rob’s mom & dad; & a cure for autism from Laura Chollick.

Spiritual Formation Schedule (CCD): We’ve started. Welcome!!

Your Finances:

• April 1: Income for Running Expenses: $778.00      
• April 1: Income for Outreach Expenses: $515.00

Thanks for your Generosity!

Next Mass: April 8, 2007, Easter Sunday

Holy Thursday Mass & Good Friday: 7:00 P.M., home of Chris & Terry Phipps, 1712 Glenwick Dr., Plano 75075

Key: Westwood stoplight (between Custer and Alma on 15th Street) Go south and 3rd street on right is Glenwick.

Click here for a map.

Readings: Revelation 7, 2-14; Psalm 24, Lord, this is The People that longs to see Your Face; 1 John 3, 1-3; Matthew 5, 1-12

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

    

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

   

Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated 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.

 

 

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 Easter Catholic church as schismatic over theological disputes, i.e., the nature of Jesus.

 

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

 

Special Poems for All Saints:

SMILE BECAUSE THEY LIVED (Jackie McGrath)

You can shed tears because he is gone

Or you can smile because he lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that he will come back,

Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left.

Your heart can be empty, because you can’t see him

Or you can be full of the love that you have shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow

And live in yesterday,

Or you can be happy for tomorrow

Because of yesterday.

You can remember only that he has gone

Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on.

You can weep, and close your mind,

Be empty and turn back,

Or you can do what he would want –

Open your eyes, smile, love and go on.

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL (Geri to read)

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other
That we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes
We enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me,
Let my name be ever the household word that
It always was.

Let it be spoken without effort,
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am
Out of sight? I am but waiting for you
For an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner .
All is well.

Today's Saint

Know any saints around here?  I told the story of Mother Teresa recently and propose that she is a saint.  Trouble is, I look at her and think her example is quite a bit out of my reach.  I have a story that may be more in reach.

This guy is 44 years old.  His name is Adam.  A year ago he was 70 pounds overweight.  He took medication for blood pressure, he took cholesterol meds, he even had to use a breathing machine to sleep sometimes.  He had tried to lose the weight a million times, he says, but never really put his whole spirit into the project. 

This is one aspect of being poor in spirit.  This is what it means to take up thy cross and follow The Man. 

His dad who died some years ago of heart disease had told him that if you believe in your project you can sell anything.  The guy says he did not believe in his product any more, the product being himself.  Even though he had a marvelous wife, Trayce, and two young kids, he could not move.

Then one day Adam had one of those moments.  He is a doctor and caught himself telling one of his patients that they should more carefully monitor their weight.  The patient responded, "You know, doctor, I'm not the only one who needs to lose weight."  In one way a body slam, in another a wake up call.  A beatific vision?

For Adam it was a wake up.  He realized suddenly that he had to turn his life around for his patients, for Trayce, for their kids, and for The Product, himself. 

He joined Weight Watchers.  He started walking 30 minutes a day.  Ounce by ounce the 70 pounds began to come off.  He joined a running class and found an Adam he had never known.  He even began to rise at 4:00 A.M. to join an early morning running group.

One evening while he was on line he came across information about The Marathon.  The one going on right this minute.  It said that if you collected money for a charity you could register for the marathon, 26 miles.  At that moment he decided he could collect the money and that he would run the marathon.  He was so pumped he ran in to tell Trayce. 

At this moment, this man, Dr. Adam Kaplan, has lost his 70 pounds, has renewed belief in The Product, and is with our own beloved Tom Fleming.  They are running the New York Marathon, all 26 miles. 

I found this Adam Kaplan story in The Dallas Morning News, Tuesday. 

Why is Dr. Kaplan for me a member of the All Saints Team?  And all of you?  Take a guess, take two guesses.

Source: The Dallas Morning News, Tuesday, Oct. 27, p. 12E, Healthy Living section

Picture 1:  All Saints Celebration with Wendy & Ben

Picture 2:  Chloe dancing to the music

Picture 3:  Birthday Man, Rob

Picture 4:  Our Father

Picture 5:  Birthday Man, John hugged by Sabrina, his daughter

Picture 6:  The Community

 

Readings:

Isaiah  60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem,  Your light has come.

Psalm 72,  Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Ephesians  3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs.

Matthew 2, 1-12, Magi from the east arrived.

  

 Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I have mentioned this before.  He is my favorite.  

Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ.  It helps to picture the mood of these people.  Are you a Sooner Fan?  How did you feel at about midnight Friday night?  Multiply this by 10 and you have how the Jewish people felt after 50 years of slavery and  their town destroyed like New Orleans or parts of NY & NJ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, he is talking to these beaten down people.  Later centuries church leaders began to make these words have two meanings.  Jerusalem, then, applies to us.

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Bible

Cupcake of The Week to Jan on her birthday

 An Epiphany

I would like to talk this morning about the Epiphany in our every day lives or on special events.  I define an epiphany as a new awareness, a new understanding, greater appreciation.

I did something Friday morning that I had never done before in my life and about which I have been curious.  I did a route for Meals on Wheels. 

 

This came about because next door to us lives an 18 year old girl who is a senior at Greenhill and getting ready to attend Colgate next fall.  The girl, Sydney, texted me the other day inviting me to join her on her community service program.  It is helpful for her to have an adult or companion on her runs, her parents were busy, and we have done these things before.

We picked up our food at the V.N.A., the Visiting Nurses Assoc. head office on Mockingbird near the entrance to Love Field.  This was eye opening enough for another homily.  We had 17 people listed on a page and they all resided in a high rise apartment building just east of Central going toward Fair Park.  The building has 13 floors with about 15 apartments per floor.

Three observations:

1.  These people are not wealthy and they were mostly black.  What they are is so grateful and so friendly.  In the lobby, the corridors, and in the elevators, greetings, chats, cordiality, and grateful comments like, “What you are doing is really good.”  And this even from folks who were not getting meals, but just observing.  I felt such consolation being around these people.
2. My neighbor and friend Sydney.  I tell her, “Sydney, you are ruining my life again,” as she drives me over to pick up the meals at the Visiting Nurses’ Office. 

First, she showed me long distance bike riding.  She & some other girls rode down the west coast from like Seattle to San Francisco a few years ago.  The idea was planted and when Dembney last winter mentioned Ragbrai and Iowa, even though I told him he was crazy at the time, look what happened to me last July.

Sydney next got me to serve meals at the Bridge.  That led Rosemary and me to the Austin St. Shelter, and then to Soul’s Harbor with Brent, where we are really plugged in, even as a community.

And now what: Meals on Wheels, a marvelous phenomenon.  This girl has been an epiphany for me.

     3.    Third observation: this extraordinary service program for high school kids.   When I taught English & Latin & history at Jesuit in the mid-60’s, there was no service program.  I come back to the States in 1990, and most private secondary schools all have the program.

  Sydney told me the Greenhill program sets 24 hours a year.  I noticed Jesuit has 100 hours for seniors. 

The programs are terrific, not just for the high school kids, but also for old geezers like me who get invited along as adult companions and have such marvelous experiences.

Friday was an epiphany experience for me.  It led to something unexpected and beautiful.

What is your recent epiphany?

For whom are you an epiphany?