Reminder for March 28, 2021, Palm Sunday

 Readings:

Deuternomy 26, 4-10,  He brought us out of Egypt.

Psalm 91,  Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

Romans 10, 8-13, The same Lord is Lord of all.

Luke 4, 1-13, Jesus was led into the desert for 40 days.

 Deuteronomy 

The scene: The Israelites have escaped from Egypt and have been wandering in the desert for years.  They are just about to enter The Land.  They are assembled.  Moses is addressing them and reminding them of all Yahweh has done for them over the years of wandering.   

In our chapter he is telling them that when they have settled in their new land, where he will not accompany them, they must take a basket full of a portion of their first harvest, present it to the rabbi, and offer it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.   

Who & When: Though about Moses, Deuteronomy is a compilation of numerous sources.  Guess when: post Babylonian Captivity, say 555.  Easy to remember.

Emma arrives.

Romans

Paul writes to the Romans that all people, Gentiles as well as Jews, are invited to be part of the Christ event.

Andrew and Danny arriving with Sir Charlie.

  Beware of Great Expectations: observations on a new pope

I must confess that Monday morning when I first heard of Benedict’s retirement, I was excited.  “We might get a new man who is progressive and less authoritarian,” I thought.  With a little reflection I have two observations I would like to share with you from my perspective and experience.  Both fall under the Beware of Great Expectations heading.

1. Beware of expecting a progressive pope.  The college of cardinals has been carefully screened to include only very conservative, corporate, follow the leader type men.  They will likely vote their kindred.
2. Beware of the idea that a 3^rd world man would be great.  Two Africans are mentioned, one I know, Cardinal Arinze from Nigeria.  I attended his "coronation" in ’76 or ’77. 

One observation about him and many Africans is that in being converted they really bought into traditional Catholicism.  I knew a Tanzanian bishop who prohibited drums at liturgies because he thought they were pagan. 

Moreover, the custom of the African tribe demands that a big man make a big impression, not the idea of being a servant or last.

Have a Happy Lent?

Looking forward to Lent this year?  I confess that I was not.  Maybe it has come too quickly after Christmas this year.  However, I know I mildly dreaded it until.  Until we had our Ash Wednesday Mass at Marlene’s house.  Something happened there, some grace of being at home.  I felt peaceful about it all.

Ryan arriving with his dad, Jim.

So what are we going to do about this Lent?  Three observations.

1.  As a community you all will be invited on several occasions.  We will have a food drive next Sunday and a general pick up by Soul’s Harbor’s truck another Sunday.  One Sunday we will have one of our penitential rites, probably the Sunday just before Palm Sunday. 

Georgie ready to suit up.

        2.    I am going to invite you most Sundays to have a happy Lent.  It is Spring Training time.  Instead of focusing on the negativity  and the bad, focus on getting back in shape, from taking a daily walk to riding your bike around The Lake, White Rock.  Pass out compliments, like I mentioned last week.

Zoe arriving with her brother and mom, Buddy and Michelle.

          3.  I am also going to kick off a special project.  For years before I moved out of Jesuit I had a men’s group in the evening maybe two Tuesday a month.  It was both fun and profound.  I did not have furniture enough for all who came.  So I would take all the furniture out and I lay cushions all along the walls of the small office I had.  Everybody sat on the floor. 

Our candidate for pope, Bernadette, wondering where all the kids went.

I want to start a new group, a lunch group.  All you guys here are invited.  Tentatively, it will be Fridays, 1:00, Jason’s Deli here at Collin Creek Mall on Central.  It won’t be every week usually, mostly when I can come.  I’ll send out a note to everyone.  2 guys, 20 guys, who knows? 

Mike, Jerry, Shirley, and Maureen.

Why am I doing this now?  Good Lenten Penance!  Lenten penance with Stack.  Get you to heaven quicker.  Actually, it is because I miss you guys.  I may see everybody Sundays, but I don’t get to find out how it is going.  It will be great fun.

You women can rejoice that the old guy is out of the house for a while each week.   

So, what are you going to do to have a happy Lent?

Rosemary reading her blessing.

Readings: Wisdom 18, 6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11, 1-19; Luke 12, 32-48.

Wisdom: this book is one of the 12 special books only finally approved by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546.  Martin Luther, for instance, did not think the 12 books were genuine.  Whatever the case, the 12 books are in a special section of our bible after the Old Testament.

The book we are reading from today contains traditional Jewish and Greek ideas about life, basically saying that God rewards those faithful to him & punishes you know whom.

What are You Afraid of?

When I was about sixteen, I came home from the old Jesuit High School one afternoon probably in the spring.  Nobody was home, not even my sister as far as I can remember. My dad was at work. My mom was at one of her afternoon bridge clubs and had gone with one of her friends because her baby blue Pontiac was in the garage. 

After hanging around a bit and getting bored, I decided I was going to go visit a friend and use my mom’s car. Mom, however, did not like me using her car, so I could not find her keys. Now in those days all of us kids knew how to run a car without keys. It was called hot wiring a car. You used tin foil on the back of the key slot under the dash. 

So I hot wired my mom’s big Pontiac, pulled out of the driveway onto Stanford, and turned toward Preston Road. Arriving at the corner the car stalls. For five minutes I am working on the key slot to start the car, all to no avail, when a car coming north on Preston turns into Stanford. A lady is driving.  I know that lady and sitting next to her, my mom.

The master had returned and the servant was unprepared. In fact, the servant was caught red handed.

I never got that car started and, in fact, had to pay my hard earned paper route money to get it towed and fixed. I had shorted out some wires. I don’t remember my mom ever saying anything, but I was humiliated. 

I remembered this incident when I read about the master & the servant. I have some observations about these readings.

First, I don’t see our God as a thief who is trying to catch us off guard. He is not a strict master who is looking to catch us red handed and beat us. 

Secondly, I don’t see us as servants. In fact, in John’s gospel Jesus says he does not call us servants, but friends. In today’s psalm it says, "Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.  We are his chosen.  So is everyone.

To see this parable in a positive light, I would go back to last week when we talked about life being a gift.  When it says that the Lord will come at an hour we do not expect, I propose that the gift comes at moments and in packages we do not expect.  Appreciation is the goal and the process. It involves being sensitive and reflective.

One of the best lines in the whole gospel today is the very first line where Jesus says, "Do not be afraid any longer." This means I do not have to be afraid of God, afraid of death, afraid of getting caught red handed, or afraid of missing the gifts of the moment. 

I’ll always remember how stupid I felt when my mom came around that corner and saw me in her car, broken down. She did not tear into me, and neither do we have a god who is a thief or master who will beat us. 

So what are you afraid of?

Isaiah 6:  As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes it's growth  spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

1 Thessalonians 5:  May the God of Peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely,  spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

John 1:  "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord;"

Connie reading from the book of Isaiah

Thanks…     

Music,   Shonda & Ben 

Readers,  Connie & John

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

John reading from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians
 

Remember these special people:

For the family of Ron Senter;   For Meredith  whose cancer has come back;  For Tom Good;  For Tom  Quinn who had back surgery on November 21st; For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer ;  For Allen Stryker;   For Mike and Judy Carrell ; For Madeleine, Richard Eshelbrenner's granddaughter;  For Hue; For Jackie;  For John's sister, Kathey recovering from a fall;   For Tom Good;   For Mary Hall's friend Cadence still suffering from a serious medical condition;   For Sir Charlie;  For Ron ;  For Teresa Quinn's niece, Maddie who has a brain tumor;

Jackie's sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg.;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughters, Lisa & Lauren;  For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's daughter, Joey, with cancer; from Barbara, a little baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation & the families of Annie and Michael ;    for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

John  reading from the Gospel of John

Birthdays: Allen Stryker 12/17, Ben Porter 12/18

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  505.00

Outreach: $   180.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                                 
Lynda  letting us know about the Anger Tree for the Plano Wellness Center for Older Adults

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

May the blessings of peace be yours,

the peace to build and grow,

to live in harmony and sympathy with others,

and to plant seeds of a better world for future generations. 

 

Adapted from a Christmas Blessing from Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead, New York

 

 

 

Ben gets a cookie for his birthday

 

 

John Stack Ministries meets on Sunday for Mass at 9:30 at The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano, Texas.

 

 

 

JSM Mission-Faith Statement  

      Help create a Catholic Community that welcomes all God’s People, provides for & challenges spiritual & total growth.  

      Reaches out to help people who are disadvantaged & make the world we live in a better place to live.

Isaiah 63:  Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hands.

1 Corinthians 1:  He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mark 13:  Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, …

2 Kings 5:  Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.

2 Timothy 2:  Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.

Luke 17:  Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?

John about to begin Mass

Thanks…      

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Mary & Frank

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Frank reading from 2 Kings
       

Readings:  Download 10-09-22- Readings – 28th Sunday Ord

Homily:   

Remember these special people:

For Jan; For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer and Kaliope, John Cade's Mother-in-law;  For Donna and the Dinsmore Family after her brother, Dennis died  from pancreatic cancer;   For Hue; For Jackie;  For John's sister, Kathey recovering from a fall;    For Tom Good;  For a young man, 19 struggling with a brain tumor and cancer;     For Mary Hall's friend Cadence still suffering from a serious medical condition;   For Sir Charlie & Jan; 

Mary reading from Paul's Letter to Timothy       

Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg.;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughters, Lisa & Lauren;     For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's daughter, Joey, with cancer; from Barbara, a little baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation & friends, Annie, a mom of 3 kids and Michael ;    for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Jan and Charlie are here    

Birthdays:   

Anniversaries:   

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $   590.00

Outreach: $  355.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Connie telling us about Bona Responds and everyone's memories of Bill

Rosemary's Blessing:  

May you be blessed with the gift of humility

To know who you are,

To appreciate your strengths and talents,

To be aware of your shortcomings and limitations,

And most especially…

To be grateful each day for life

Unknown

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $   1,230.00

  Outreach: $   300.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Brent gets a cookie for his birthday

Rosemary's Blessing: