Senior Citizen Angel Tree:
Special Reminder: Food Drive this Sunday.
Isaiah 62: No more will anyone call you Rejected, and your country will no more be called Ruined. You'll be called Hephzibah (My Delight), and your land Beulah (Married), Because God delights in you and your land will be like a wedding celebration.
1 Corinthians 12: All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
John 2: This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Aviana 6/2008
Aviana 1/2025
Another Reminder for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 19, 2025
Here are the links for Sunday:
Meeting ID: 885 2874 4737
Passcode: 412993
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
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, …
Here are the links for Sunday:
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.
Note: Because of popular demand and because I am still congested, no spin class for me at the J Monday morning. John
Hi, Dearest Emma, Welcome in.
Readings:
Exodus 20, 1-17, Yahweh gives the 10 Commandments to Moses
Psalm 19, Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
1 Corinthians 1, 22-25, God is stronger
John 2, 13-25, Jesus cleans out the temple.
Tori & Zoe at work lighting our candles.
Exodus: 2nd book of the Bible & of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.
Date of Composition: put together ca 450-400 BCE, though elements come from 1000 BCE at least.
Author(s): Moses, no. At least 3 sources, maybe 4, e.g., the Yahweh (J) source, the Elohim (E) source, the Priestly (P) source, and even the Deuteronomy Source.
While Zoe & Tori light the candles, Georgie reads the Candle Blessing.
Subject: The 10 Commandments–observations:
Source: Bishop (Episcopal) John Shelby Spong (Excellent Biblical Scholar)
Side Note: it is interesting to realize that the 10 Commandments are not considered the first set of laws. For instance, the famous Code of Hamurabi . Hamurabi was the ruler of Babylon (good old Babylon again) 18-20 centuries even before the Christ event.
Good Morning to the Kerns, Michael, Candy, Ben, and Holly around here somewhere.
The Week's Blessings (3)
Two Sundays before Ash Wednesday we had a first reading from the Book of Job. Job was the man over whom Yahweh and Satan had a little wager.
Job was a prosperous man. So Satan bet that Job would curse Yahweh if Yahweh allowed Satan to send into his life a whole lot of afflictions.
And Good Morning to you, also, Vanessa and Stella.
The line that Job is famous for comes after Job has been flattened. He says to his tormentors, “The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the Lord.”
This has been one of those rare Job weeks in my life. Things started going down Thursday about 2:00. I felt a slight whisper in my chest. I know my physical system well enough to spot when something different is happening.
The Team, Georgie & Buddy.
Rosemary & I had just spent Monday to Thursday with Kay Reddick in the small Ontario town of Lindsay. We were just departing to drive into Toronto to share dinner with Renee, one of the Reddick kids.
When we arrived at Renee’s house, I knew I was coming down with something. It turned out to be Influenza Type B. I struggled with that all the way home and through Saturday & Sunday until I saw my favorite internist Monday. Initially, he thought I had severe chest congestion. Only on a just to be sure did he do an influenza test. In ten minutes my doctor said, “You got it.”
Ladies' Luncheon, Friday.
I felt immediate improvement once I got on Tamaflu. What a gift. But, as far as I was concerned this diagnosis complicated my life. I had hoped to join the Dickinson team. I never made it. “The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the Lord.”
I truly have no significant reason to be anything other than grateful—for my health.
Who let these people out on the streets?
I had a five day menu of Tamaflu and every morning I felt better until Saturday morning I woke up and knew I was healed. I am grateful for my health. I am disappointed I did not get to take part in Dickinson, but I am touched and proud of our community which contributed so much.
What are you grateful for this third Sunday of Lent?
This could be dangerous.
Readings: Sirach 35, 12-18; Psalm 34, The Lord hears the Cry of the Poor; 2 Timothy 4, 6-8, 16-18; Luke 18 9-14.
Introduction to the Readings
A brief word about our first reading. We have heard from Sirach eight weeks ago on the twenty second Sunday of Ordinary Time. At that time I had told you that this book was written by Sirach, it is part of the Wisdom literature, and probably written around the year 180 BCE. The writing is also known at Ecclesiasticus, because early in the life of the church it was one of the most used of the Old Testament books. I love that contrast between the statement in the first two lines “The LORD is a God of justice, who knows no favorites” with what then follows, namely how God hears the cry of the poor, the widows, the orphans, the oppressed.
Our second reading is the final one from Paul’s Letters to Timothy. We have been reading from these two letters for the past six weeks. The letter is perhaps the last one written by Paul from prison in Rome before he is executed. The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus, form what is known as the Pastoral Letters. The style is very different from Paul’s other letters. He is writing to these two to encourage them as leaders in communities that Paul had set up. Remember, Timothy, who is mentioned in Luke’s Acts Chapter 16, was a companion to Paul. Our reading today is the conclusion of the second letter and sounds like Paul’s farewell.
Homily
Main Point – A simple parable, humility trumps pride, especially when we pray. I could stop there but won’t because there is a second layer to this simple parable. We need to understand the setting for the story. The two men going into the temple were not like two men going into church here any afternoon.
First of all, they were going into the Temple in Jerusalem. They were going into a “Prayer of Atonement” service held each afternoon in the Temple. The Pharisee would have naturally joined with the other Pharisees at the front and the tax collector would have hung around inside the door. In the eyes of the Law, or Torah, the Pharisee was a very good person, and what he declared went even beyond the Law.
Where he failed, was realizing that everything about his “holiness” was due to his own efforts and nothing came from God. The tax collector on the other hand was all too well aware of his shortcomings and acknowledges that he is totally dependant on God and His mercy.
Our catholic tradition has always given me the impression that if I was good, went to Mass every Sunday, obeyed the commandments, fasted at the appropriate time etc. then I was all set for heaven. It would seem that God had very little to do in it. And of course this was the whole crux that caused the Reformation.
One would think we could have learned from our mistakes. At that time Martin Luther was appalled at the practice of selling indulgences, as if folks could purchase their way into heaven. His position was: “Salvation by faith alone” and the church preferred to add that “good works” were also important.
But back to the two in the temple. There are several interesting little hints given which tell us a whole lot more. The Pharisee stands apart, he does not seem to belong to the gathered community. When the tax collector prays “have mercy on me a sinner” the word he uses in the original Greek is not the common word “eleison” which we use when we say Lord have mercy, or Kyrie Eleison, but a very different word connecting to the liturgy which he was part of that afternoon.
In other words the tax collector saw himself as part of a community, and absolutely in need of God’s forgiveness, the Pharisee saw only himself!! It was being part of a community and recognizing his total need for God, which allowed for him to go home justified.
The message: we must be aware that even though we are here each Sunday, this should not lead us down the same path of the Pharisee.
Picture 1: Mass with Tony
Picture 2: Tom, Lynda, & Nina packing up food for this Saturday at the Habitat House
Picture 3: Maggie with her dad & granddad, Tom & Bob
Picture 4: Sienna with her mom & dad, Erin & Payton
Readings:
Sirach 3, 17-18, 28-29, Conduct your affairs with humility.
Psalm 68, God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
Hebrews 12, 18-19, 22-24, You have approached Mount Zion.
Luke 14, 1, 7-14, Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.
Sirach observations
Author : The author is
Sirach or Joshua, a Jewish scribe. The
book of 51 chapters is one of the “in between books,” more or less 12 of them. In other words, their genuiness is
questioned. The Catholic Church accepts
them; the Protestants don’t.
Date:
about 200 years before Christ.
Subject: Ethics, norms for good Jewish living. For example, “Do not compliment a person on
his good looks,” (11, 2), or “Never abandon an old friend; you will never find
a new one who can take his place,” (9, 10), or “Friendship is like wine, it
gets better as it gets older,” (9, 10), or Don’t prevent the poor from making a
living, or keep them waiting in their need,” (4,1).
Today’s subject: Humility.
Sources: Good News Bible
Invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.
I would like to speak on the line about inviting the poor and crippled rather
than my friends and wealthy neighbors.
To give meaning to the idea, and in remembrance of 9/11, I would like to tell a true story about a
Delta flight.
Some of you may have seen the story Friday in the blog. It is quite touching. For those who did not read the story, let me
fill you in. It has a lot to say about inviting people and 9/11.
The day is 9/11. Delta 15 is
about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, Germany on its homebound run to Atlanta. A flight attendant is telling the story.
The plane is over the north Atlantic when the pilots tell her to come
straight to the flight deck. She enters
and notices the team is all business.
They tell her that they have been informed that all U.S. airports are
closed to commercial traffic. Land as
quickly as possible wherever possible.
They turn back 400 miles and land at Gander, New Foundland. About 20 other planes are already on the
ground. Time is around 11:00 A.M.
They did not inform the passengers about the real reason for the odd landing
while in the air. On the ground they
give them the real reason, though they only knew that some planes had been
hijacked. In an hour 53 planes are packed on the runway, 10 thousand people in
a town of 10 thousand.
They are treated well, but have to spend the night on the plane and are finally informed they may deplane at
11:00. Promptly at
11:00 a convoy of school buses arrives and everyone exits and is passed through
immigration.
At this point the crew gets taken to a hotel in Gander and the
passengers disappear. That evening they
discover the reality. They remain in
Gander two days.
At the end of the two days, everyone is reunited and they board Delta
15. It turns out the passengers are actually
in a really congenial mood, calling each other by first names, sharing their
experiences, exchanging phone numbers, and even crying over the hospitality.
What happen? All of Gander and
the neighboring villages welcomed them with open arms. They cleared space, housing, school buildings, auditoriums,
everything. Schools were closed and the
students were told to play host. Food
was provided, hiking trips took place, boat trips, visits to cafes and
bakeries.
The passengers had been put up by the inhabitants of a little village
called Lewisporte.
Once airborne again, a passenger approached this flight attendant and
asked if he might use the mike. Normally
prohibited, but because of the spirit and the uniqueness of the experience she
said, “Of course.”
The man, a doctor from Virginia, says to everybody that because of the
extraordinary hospitality of the people he would like to propose that a college
fund for the students be set up. He
would be willing to establish it and he said he would match the amount. After passing the hat, $14,000 was collected,
which he matched.
As of today a million and a half has been raised and over 100 kids have
received help with college.
What do you think? Hospitality? Yes, over the
top.
Gratitude? Yes, over the top.
Rare? No. I
saw it this summer in Des Moines, Iowa.
I saw it a week ago in Wichita Falls.
You, where do you see hospitality and gratitude? When do you show it?
Source:
Download Delta 15 & 9-11, 8-30-13