2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2023

Due to the ice on the driveways and roads, we will not have Mass on Sunday, December 8, 2013.

The collection for the Samaritain Inn will take place next Sunday, December 15, 2013 along with the collection for the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center.

Also next Sunday, we will have a Penitential Service and Christmas Brunch.                                  

We are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday, December 15, 2013.

Readings:  Isaiah 55, 6-9; Psalm 145, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him; Philippians 1, 20-27; Matthew 20, 1-16.

Brief teaching on Liturgy of Word before first reading:

The disciples of Jesus were not only Jews, they continued to be Jews after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven by their presence in the temple and synagogue.  After attending the Sabbath service in the synagogue, on the first day of the week they would gather at someone’s home to celebrate the Lord’s Supper where they shared memories of His teachings and sayings.  But the early Church having no gospels did not have a Liturgy of the Word. The Jews, who believed that the Messiah had come-the Christ, were most likely not concerned that they didn’t have a Liturgy of the Word.  Why? They had the synagogue prayer and Scripture service on the Sabbath that continually catechized the Jewish communities.  It wouldn’t be until after the Jewish believers of Christ were being excluded from the synagogue and temple, thrown out and persecuted, that they realized how much they needed the gospels to be written for a Christian Liturgy of the Word to catechize new converts Sunday after Sunday. 

When the Matthew and Luke gospels were written, which were also meant to address the needs, tensions and concerns of the gentile and Jewish Christian communities, there should have been in one of them an acknowledgement of a Christian Liturgy of the Word that was being used prior to celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  There is, even though the Church has failed to recognize its presence during the past 19 centuries!  (Read the account in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus comes into the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth on the Sabbath to stand and give the reading, then sit to give the teaching. He was required to give a teaching on the words of Isaiah; but instead said that He had fulfilled the reading from Isaiah.  By doing so, the inspired writers are telling us that the words of Christ fulfill the reading from Isaiah as well as the synagogue service itself! What could it possibly mean to fulfill the Jewish ‘Liturgy of the Word?’ The inspired writers are presenting the Liturgy of the Word of the early Christian Church!  It fulfilled the Jewish Sabbath synagogue service but it didn’t abandon it! 

Therefore the Christian Liturgy of the Word would include a first reading from either the Law and the Prophets as well as the singing of the Psalm…all of which are the expectation for the coming of the words of Christ and their teaching…then the words of Christ and their teaching which would fulfill the expectation of the first testament and psalm.  Therefore there would be a harmony between the testaments, and the Jewish Christians, intimately familiar with their Sabbath synagogue service, had the catechetical method of weekly evangelizing the converts to Christianity—besides telling us how the whole four gospels were written (the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of his coming within the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Judaism and its feasts as well).

Homily:

The parable beginning Matthew 20 on the landowner who goes to the marketplace to hire laborers for his vineyard can be readily understood if you understand the following symbolism (In doing so the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of His coming from the prophet Isaiah who tells us that the Lord is generous, and that his ways are not our ways).

The dilemma of the parable is the reply made by the laborers to the landowner at 5:00 PM, an hour before sunset: ‘No one has given us the words that satisfy our spiritual hunger.’  (omitted the rationale from ‘no one has given us the words that satisfy our hunger’ to spiritual hunger) The landowner sends them into the vineyard where Christ is the vine. His words will satisfy their spiritual hunger.  The landowner is like a hound who has continually gone to the marketplace to bring back laborers who long to hear the words that will satisfy their spiritual hunger…so the landowner is the vine, the Christ.  The wage is that which is ‘righteous’, therefore what God would pay his laborers. 

Christ is an advocate for his laborers by going to the ‘manager’ (his Father) asking him to give each laborer the wage of salvation beginning with the last and going to the first.  The wisdom of the parable come from the words of Christ, ‘I choose to give to the last the same as I give to you (the first)’. The first do not understand that the ways and thoughts of God are generosity and mercy.  Jesus tells them to ‘go,’ which in Greek is to leave without noise or fanfare… to rather come to their senses and rejoice with the angels over these last who have repented….

Why is this parable placed where it is within the Matthew gospel?  Immediately following are the words of Christ on who is the greatest in the kingdom of God (the one who shows mercy and generosity by reaching out to the least by making them the first)

Why is this parable placed within the Matthew gospel instead of the Luke gospel? The Jewish Christians are to reach out the gentiles (who are the last) with the inspired Liturgy of the Word to welcome them as the first!

Picture 1:    Mass Begins   

Picture 2:    The Team

Picture 3:    The Guys, Jerry, Bill, Mike, & Tony

Pciture 4:    Leo with Rosemary

Picture 5:    Claire with her fiance & dad, Andrew & Tom

Picture 6:    John & Sandra

From Cindy & Ken, Bill & Cindy, "Welcome in, Everybody."
 

Welcome: Catholic Mass with coffee & juice, and pastries, some bought, some home-made.

Time: 9:30; Celebrate with the Community & Stack. & Mike homilizing

Place: Sigler Elementary, 1400 Janwood Drive, Plano, TX 75075

Hi, Vivian.

Readings:

Genesis 2, 7-9; 3, 1-7,  Eating the apple.   

 Psalm 51,  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned

 Romans 5, 12-19   Then everyone will receive praise from God.

 Matthew 4, 1-11,    Temptation in the desert.

The Girls, Patricia, Cathy, & Sandra.

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, March 3, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos,  you will fit right in.  

JULIET LUNCHEON, (aka.,just us ladies into eating together),      

Juliet’s Luncheon Ladies will meet Friday, March 3 at 1:00 P.M. at Ocean Seafood and Grill.  For all who have not been there the food is very good and reasonable.  It is a BYOB.  I thought this would be a good choice because it will be Lent and some of us do not eat meat on Fridays during Lent.  Ocean is at 3829 W. Spring Creek Pkwy., Plano, behind Chic-Fil-A which is on Coit Rd. (Spring Creek and Coit).  Please let me know if you can join us.  They do have other choices besides seafood.   Ron & Marilyn Ackerman [rmackerman5@gmail.com]

Love for the Kids, April 8, Welcome

 Healing for Rob.
 

What is going on in Our Catholic World

1. Big Doctrine Divisions in Rome, The Tablet,   2/23, 747 words,   Download DOCTRINE DIVISION 4-2-17
2. Big Loss for Abuse Commission in Rome, National Catholic Reporter, 3-1-17, 888 words,   Download ABUSE COMMISSION LOSS 3-2-17

Our Father with Buddy.

True?

Men hate those to whom they have to lie.

• Victor Hugo

Our Father with Hugh, Tom, Becky, and John.

See you Sunday.

J.S., 214-783-0443

Communion for Buddy. 

JSM Mission-Faith Statement

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

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

 Peace.

"Welcome, Everybody, even the pastry shoppe is open, yippee!," say Harper, Tori, and Emma

Welcome: Catholic Mass with coffee & juice, and pastries, some bought, some home-made.  

Time: 9:30; Celebrate with the Community & Stack 

Place: Sigler Elementary, 1400 Janwood Drive, Plano, TX 75075

Ready, Leo?  Ready

Readings:

Isaiah 56, 1, 6-7,   A house of prayer for all peoples.

Psalm 67,   Oh God, let all the nations praise you.

Roman s 11, 13-15, 29-32,  I am speaking to you Gentiles

Matthew 15, 21-28,  My daughter is tormented by a demon.  

Leo flying solo for a little while until Buddy gets here.

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, August 18, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos,  you will fit right in.  

JULIET LUNCHEON, (aka.,just us ladies into eating together), Off for the summer.  We will be back in September. 

Good Morning, Nikki & Mary.  Where is my little buddy, Seth? 

What is going on in Our Catholic World

1. Catholic Church imploding, Commonweal & Corpus, July 31, 1500 words,

Minor Elevation.

True?

100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

The Dinsmore girls, Donna, Darbianna, and Dana (a wicked biker so I hear).

See you Sunday.

J.S., 214-783-0443

 Please remember Judy Carrell, who was rushed to the hospital Tuesday evening with heart flutters.  She is home and okay as of Wednesday evening.

The Best Music, Shonda, Ben, & David

JSM Mission-Faith Statement

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

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

Say Zoe and Harper, "See you next week, Everybody."

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  710.00

  Outreach: $   50.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Brent gets a check for Soul's Harbor

Rosemary's Blessing:

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Donna updates us on the sweatshirt and hoodie drive

Expenses: $   1,000.00

Outreach: $   450.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Lynda reads her blessing

Lynda's Blessing:

Today I am thankful for eyes that have come to see that life will not always be easy.
That road will bend.
Those lines will blur.
That tides will rise.
And that storms will come.
I am thankful for those lights that took the form of humans.
Who shone into me when I was at my lowest.
Who were not afraid of sadness. Or darkness.
Or the many layers that wove themselves around me and made me hard to understand.
Or reach. Or even hard to love sometimes.
I'm thankful for skies that change color.
For paths that change direction.
And for seasons that remind me that we are all just one breath away from a new beginning.
I am thankful, knowing that kindness still exists.
That the truth is out there.
That faith can move mountains.
And that I was made for every last bit of it.

~ 'Thankful' by Ullie Kaye