5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024

Lynda reading from the Book of Genesis

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $    530.00

  Outreach: $    110.00 

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Izzy gets a cookie

Rosemary's Blessing:

May those that love us, love us. And those that don't love us,

May God turn their hearts.  And if He doesn't turn their hearts,

May He turn their ankles, so we will know them by their limping.

An Irish Blessing

Isaiah 43: I am doing something new!  Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  In the desert I make a way,  in the wasteland, rivers.

Philippians 3:  Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

John 8: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

 John Cade's homily from last week: Download 03-30-25 Homily -4th Sunday in Lent

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Expenses: $   990.00

Outreach: $    80.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Tom gets a cookie for his birthday

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  

Sirach 27:  Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

Romans 14: For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; …

Matthew 18:  Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often  must I forgive?  As many as seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy -seven times."

The rain is coming

Here are the links for Sunday:

For Zoom   ( the video conference, same as last week )

 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7428208829?pwd=VERncTBxaWdkaFpkTUZKL3RROW81UT09

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Readings:  

Ezekiel 17, 22-24, Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it.

Psalm 92, Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

2 Corinthians 5, 6-10, We are always courageous.  

Mark 4, 26-34, Through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.

Leo & his momma, Shonda

Observations on Ezekiel

Who:  Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 prophets.  Why?  48 chapters.  The other 2: Isaiah & Jeremiah.  Lots of chapters.

Ezekiel was born into the priest class.  He later was considered a prophet.  When he was about 25 he was swept up in the Babylonian captivity, around 590. 

Emma wiating for the cookies

When: It covers the period of the Captivity, but it is composed toward the end of the Captivity, around 550, before Christ.  This is Ezekiel’s material, but it has been saved and edited by his fellow priests.

Brooklyn ready to roll

Message:

1.  Ezekiel warns the people that they will be punished for their bad ways, for example, the Captivity.
2. He promises comfort and a brighter future for the captive, especially envisioning a restored temple (which was done until when?  The year 70, when the Romans finally destroyed the temple & the priestly cast ceased to function, to this day).
3. An amusing vision: The Dry Bones, chapter 37.

Today’s selection: Consolation.  Watch for a comforting message about a cedar tree.

As Sienna escapes across the stage, Brian climbs the stairs two at a time in hot pursuit. Who won?

Sources: Good News Bible, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Wikipedia

All males in the community receiving a special community Father's Day Blessing

Father’s Day

In honor of Father’s Day I want to tell you 4 vignettes that I saw this weekend at a wedding Rosemary & I celebrated in Marshall, TX.  Two of the fathers are the couple’s dads.  The other two are guys I saw in action.

The community blesses

The wedding was for Kyle Dansby, a boy whom I have known and loved since way back in the nineties when he & often his two younger brothers helped me as altar servers at St. Mark’s.  Ashli Marie Acker was Kyle’s fiancé’.

Robyn & Erin offer their blessings

The first time I noticed something special was at breakfast yesterday morning in our motel, Comfort Suites.  Rosemary & I were seated at a table in the dining room about 9:00.  In comes a young couple with a girl about 3 and a boy who was placed in a high chair. 

This little boy fell immediately in love with Rosemary.  To see her he had to turn around left in his chair.  Despite dad’s efforts to interest him in eating, the little boy just watched Rosemary.  Food went uneaten and even on the floor.

The Dansby Family, Clark, Charlie, Kyle, Janet, & Randy. The Marshall Court House is where Kyle works as an Assistant D.A.

We talked with the little boy who never spoke, just watched.  Despite dad’s plans and despite the mess, dad never lost his cool.  When it was time for them to leave, he simply cleaned up, held out his arms, and the little boy put up his arms to be held.  I was touched, especially by his not placing project over people.

Later at the wedding, which was outdoors across the plaza from the pretty Marshall courthouse in a small park with a gazebo attached to a building.  So there was a stage effect.  We had two little flower girls, Lily & Abby.    Kids are always a delight at a wedding and these little girls were no exception. 

Ashli & Kyle Married

First, they got lost trying to choose which access to get up on the gazebo stage.  So I went and helped them up.  Then, as the wedding progressed, they were everywhere.  They went up and down, they went to pick up their flower baskets, and they were chatting with the bride’s maids.  Dad never got flustered.  Nor did anyone on the stage.  Instead of being seen as distractions, they were celebrated as delights.

Another example of people over project.

Then there was Ashli’s father.  Nice guy, congenial, probably in his fifties.  Then I discover he has recently obtained his doctorate and is teaching at a college maybe in Beaumont.  I am most impressed because I was trained as a Jesuit and still believe it that we never stop learning.  Life is an adventure in learning.  And here is an example.

Our very entertaining flower girls

Finally, Kyle’s dad.  I discovered that when Kyle was about 2 or 3 his mom died of cancer.  She was only about 34.  I cannot imagine how difficult this must have been.  I talked with him just a little bit about the event and he admitted that it was really, really tough. 

Later, fortunately, he met his present wife and has two more sons.  Faithfulness.

Technology to the rescue. The Bible was left in the girls' dressing room. So Kyle's brother, Charlie, brings up the Corinthians reading on his iPhone

These four guys touched me each in their own special way.  The two fathers of the little kids reminded me of my own struggle with placing projects over people.  Ashli’s dad exemplifies the ideal that learning is a lifelong adventure.  And Kyle’s dad, faithfulness.

How are you blessed by the dads in your life?

How are you dads blessing our world?

Readings:

Isaiah, 35, 1-6, 10,  Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

 Psalm 146,  Lord, come and save us.

 James 5, 7-10,  Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you.

 Matthew 11, 2-11,   Are you the one who is to come?

Treat of The Week: Sabrina is home from college.  Welcome home, Sabrina.

Observations on Isaiah 35

What:  The passage is another from Isaiah 1, (Chapters 1-39)

Our selection:  Another beautiful passage about a bright future.

Sez Tori, "Yes, Welcome Home, Sabrina."

Then the Eyes of the Blind will be opened

I would like to talk this morning about how once in a while, of course, only once in a while, I can be so blind to other people.  This is an old story, but it is right on.

One mild afternoon afternoon I was sitting on a bench in front of Baskin & Robbins on the corner of Preston & Royal, just near our house.   In front of me were two handicapped parking spots, both empty.

"Welcome home from me, too, Sabrina."
 

Suddenly a guy in, say, his early 20’s pulls into one of the parking spots, gets out of his car, and walks into Baskin & Robbins.  I am thinking, ‘Hey, this guys is cheating. There is nothing wrong with him and he has no handicapped sticker in his car window.’  I’m thinking, ‘Why did I not give him my opinion while he walked by me?  I will give it to him whenever he comes out.’

I wait probably about five minute, when suddenly the door opens.  The man emerges holding the right arm of a little old lady who was barely able to walk.

Is that really you, Leo?

Thank God ‘the eyes of the blind will be opened’ before something stupid is said.  Classic judging the book by the cover, one of my favorite activities.

Want to know of another place where my eyes are opened every year?  The Love for the Kids picnic in Flower Mound.

Love for the Kids picnic, entertainers

Again this year we had about 20 volunteers from our home community.  1000 kids with their teachers and sponsors.  There was all the usual activity, horseback riding, bounce units, face painting, people dressed as super heroes. 

When the kids walk in they are given a bag of goodies.  When they return to their school busses, they find a special gift in their seat.

Bill, the horse whisperer and the kid whisperer, helping the kids ride the horses.

They get lunch, put together by a bunch of our people.  People are floating around with bags of popcorn in baskets to give to the kids.  Kids who needed or wanted a coat, they could get one.  Bike helmets were being given away, good helmets.

I go to give the gift of my time to these kids, but the kids gift me even more.  But it is the great number of volunteers that touch my spirit.

So, the question obviously is: who is cuter, the white guy or the pink pig?  

That guy outside of Baskin & Robbins, the kids, and the volunteers open my eyes to the good around me.

How are you blind & how are your eyes opened?

Hey, John & Connie, I think those cookies are supposed to be for the kids' lunches, not you guys.

Not only were the kids given jackets & coats if they were needed, but bike helmets were given and fitted to the kids' heads.  These were good helmets, like Specialized.

Deuteronomy 26: Therefore, I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O LORD, have given me.’

Romans 10: For the Scripture says,  No one who believes in him will be put to shame.

Luke 4: Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.

Music,   Ben

Expenses: $   1,835.00

Outreach: $    450.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

The Kiss of Peace

Rosemary's Blessing: