4th Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024

Wisdom 1: For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.

2 Corinthians 8:  You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us – in one stroke he became poor and we became rich.

Mark 5:   He clasped the girl's hand and said, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, get up."   At that, she was up and walking around! This girl was twelve years of age. They, of course, were all beside themselves with joy.

Jeremiah 20:  I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; …

Romans 12: … that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and  perfect.

Matthew 16:  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

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:  

 Isaiah, 35, 4-7,  The eyes of the blind will be opened

 Psalm 146,  Praise the Lord, My Soul

 James, 2, 1-5,  Did not God choose those who are poor?

 Mark, 7, 31-37,  Immediately, the man’s ears were opened.

John and Kevin at the beginning of Mass

A few words about today’s readings 

1^st reading from Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Ch. 35

You know well how the Old Testament prophets operated: telling the Jewish people, “You’ve done wrong”, then prophesying “Yehweh will punish you”, and then prophesying “there will come a time of repentance and blessing from Yahweh who is merciful”. In today’s reading Isaiah is prophesying a time of healing and blessing.

2^nd reading from the Letter of James,  Ch. 2

As Stack said last week, James was the administrator of the Jerusalem Christian community.  Paul refers to him as “ the brother of Jesus”. His letter was probably written around the year 50 AD which would make it the earliest writing in the New Testament, still over a generation after Jesus.  It was written to the “dispersion”, that is, to Jews who were followers of Jesus and were scattered outside Israel. The letter of James is one of 5 small books in the New Testament that were disputed in the early church, and were not accepted as inspired books of the Bible until the early 5^th century, The other 4 were the second and third letters of John, the second letter of Peter and the letter of Jude. The Letter of James acquired special significance at the time of the Reformation in the 16^th century when the priest Martin Luther said this letter’s emphasis on good works contradicts Paul’s doctrine that we are justified by faith.  Luther also disagreed with the Council of Trent that the Letter of James refers to the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. James Ch 5:14 reads, “Is there anyone sick among you? He should ask for the presbyters of the church. They in turn are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

3^rd reading from the Gospel according to  Mark,  Ch. 7

Mark’s Gospel was written with non-Jewish readers in mind. We know this because there are very few quotes from the Old Testament in Mark, he explains particular Jewish customs, and he translates any Aramaic expression into Greek, as in today’s reading where the Aramaic word “Ephphatha”, is translated into the Greek word for “Open” or “Be opened”.

Bernadette reading Isaiah

Mary Ellen reading James

Homily        

For over twelve years, John Cade, in addition to his private practice of counseling, has worked in an agency setting with victims of violence, including victims of sexual assault. Currently he serves on the board of the non-profit Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center or DARCC. Since the theme of our gathering today is healing, John invited Monica Urbaniak, a bi-lingual counselor at the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center (or DARCC) to speak about the work of DARCC. Monica will talk about what DARCC is, what they do, and what they need from the community to maintain and enhance their services.

Monica speaking to us

John Cade and John Stack begin Mass.

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

  Expenses: $    330.00

  Outreach: $        0.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

Gracious God inspire us with the hope in the gift of shalom, the gift of wholeness and the promise of your presence.

Give wisdom to seek nonviolence as an answer to the violence of our lives and world.

Give us courage to seek wholeness in a fractured and divided world, to find reconciliation rather than revenge, to abandon the instruments of violence and death and entrust our lives, our homes and our families to you.

May your presence fill us and others with the thirst for unity, wholeness, and the desire to see all people valued as created in your image.

May we and others receive your shalom, that we might be faithful instruments of your love.

Blessed be your name forever,

Amen.

Rabbi Andrew M. Paley, senior rabbi with Temple Shalom, Dallas. He emailed this letter to his congregation in 2018 after a gunman shot members of the Tree of Life Synagogue. He gave The Dallas Morning News permission to publish it.

Revelation 7:   “These are those who come from the great tribulation, and they’ve washed their robes, scrubbed them clean in the blood of the Lamb.”

1John 3:  What marvelous love the Father has extended to us!  Just look at it—we’re called children of God! 

Matthew 5:  Whenever you did one of these things to someone. who is overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.”                             

Saturday night – fall back 1 hour

Another Reminder for All Saints Day, November 3, 2024

Here are the links for Sunday:

https://youtu.be/MYvAPkjp2xY

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles, 8, 5-8, 14-17,  They laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 66, Let all earth cry out to God with joy.  (Beautiful Psalm)

1 Peter  3, 15-18, Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

John 14, 15-21, I will  not leave you orphans. 

Remember……

ROMEOS, Friday, 1:00 as usual.    Welcome!

ROMEOs' Virtual JasonsDeli BYOB lunch
This is a recurring meeting, Friday, 1:00 pm
Link :
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85798571623?pwd=NmFSTW1ocVMzRGdIc0QzUGxKdHM3dz09

Meeting ID: 857 9857 1623
Password: saladbar

Sangmissoq, Greenland