Acts of the Apostles 4: He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
1 John 3: Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.
John 10: I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
Another Reminder for 4th Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024
Here are the links for Sunday:
For Zoom ( the video conference, same as last week )
For Jan Keszler's Family; For Sandra Pratt's family; For Cindy Cramer's family; 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 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 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 & the families of Annie and Michael ; for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.
John reading from the Gospel of Matthew
Birthdays: Cindy Ekes 7/31, Linda Beavers 8/4, Birth of Soul's Harbor 1956 8/2
Anniversaries:
The Kiss of Peace
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 885.00
Outreach: $
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Rosemary reading her blessing
Rosemary's Blessing:
Life is not a journey to the grave
With the intention of arriving safely
In a pretty and well preserved body,
But rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke,
Thoroughly used up,
Totally worn out,
And loudly proclaiming
—WOW—What a Ride!
Hunter S. Thompson
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.
The holidays are upon us. To celebrate Christmas we would like to offer some opportunities for you to share your joy, gifts and blessings.
Following are some ideas of how you can help that we would like to pass on to you.
Soul’s Harbor. As in years past we are collecting sweatshirts and hoodies for the guys at Soul’s Harbor. Please drop them off at Lynda Fleming’s house by 12/17/20. (5 Vista Cliff Place, Richardson, TX 75080).
We will have opportunities to share the Christmas spirit but I have not as yet coordinated this with Becky. So information will follow.
Lynda Fleming is involved with a company called Caring Transitions which helps coordinate a Senior Holiday Wish Program. After reviewing the details below, please send an email to fleming23@gmail.comif you are interested in helping out. Most seniors need items that range from $25-50, but if you can cover the cost of a larger item, please let Lynda know your budget. Gifts MUST be collected by Tuesday, December 2ndso please reach out by Tuesday, November 24th. Please bring all gifts to Lynda’s house (5 Vista Cliff Place, Richardson, TX 75080).
In addition to the above need, here are two more opportunities:
Collin County Meals on Wheels – desperately in need of meal supplement drinks such as Boost, Ensure Glucerna, Equate or Kirkland brand.
Pajamas for Seniors – another desperate need in our community is pajamas size XL- 7X.
The deadline for this is also Tuesday, December 2nd.
*** Lynda will have a bin on the front porch for contactless drop off.
Nehemiah 8: Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, "Oh Yes! Yes!" with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
1 Corinthians 12: You are Christ's body – that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.
John 2: God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
Another Reminder for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 26, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 40, 1-11; Psalm 104, O Bless the Lord, My Soul; Titus 2, 11-14, 3, 4-7; Luke 3, 1-22.
Baptism & Original Sin: traditional & contemporary theology
Traditional theology on baptism & original sin:
a. Original sin: the 1 sin of Eve & Adam, the eating of an apple, ruptured the relationship between God & Humans.
b. Why we baptized: purification & removal of that original sin inherited by all babies. A new born baby was a sinner & would go to Limbo forever if not baptized before dying.
Contemporary theology on baptism & original sin:
a. Original sin:
1. no original sin
2. Genesis story of the fall is allegory, not fact. No Garden of Eden and no Adam & Eve.
3. from Darwin's Origin of the Species the idea has developed that in our human infancy, we needed certain behaviors to survive. For instance, killing another person & stealing (like food). As our ancestors formed communities, norms of social behavior emerged, for example, the 10 commandments.
4. St. Augustine, ca. 400:
–A major, if not the major influence on Christian/Catholic theology of original sin and human nature from his time to today
–After conversion from a rather lusty life at 32, he had a pessimistic view of human nature, different from early Christianity
–St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), Pelagius, a British monk, & Julian of Eclanum, Italy, a bishop, all found nature good and fought against Augustine
–Augustine used all means to vanquish his opponents with their positive view that nature was good, even to sending a gift of horses to the pope to influence his decision. Augustine won.
b. Why we baptize today: (using the contemporary theology)
1. To celebrate a new life
2. To ritually & formally welcome the new person into a family, a community, and to a God famous for love and acceptance.
3. To cleanse after the journey
Sources: Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; John Shelby Spong; Wikipedia
We are Getting Better
I have one more Christmas story to celebrate this baptism today.
There are three people in the story. My good friend, her little daughter, and her niece, who is about 16 or 17. The story took place at Collin Creek Mall one or two days just after Christmas. Guess what they were doing. Bringing things back.
It happened that the niece had offered to take the daughter to the mall to have girl fun while her mother went to the mall to return various items. After they had been there a while, the niece phoned to say that it was getting to be time for her to leave. So could she return the daughter?
They agreed that the easiest way to arrange the swap was for the niece to take the girl in her car, drive over to where my friend's car was, and then transfer the daughter & her car seat. So they met in the parking lot, my friend's car in a parking place, the other car in the aisle behind the first car.
Mother goes into the niece's car, unbuckles her daughter, and places the girl in her car. Then she disconnects the car seat and reconnects it in her own car, securing her daughter in place. Somewhere in this process she set her purse down. Yep, you guessed it.
Who knows where she set it down. Maybe by her niece's car, maybe by her own. But apparently outside.
She gets into her car and drives off. Almost immediately she notices her purse is missing. She calls her niece and asks her to look in her car. No purse.
So they both return to where the car was parked. They drive around, ask people. No sign of the purse. The niece finally departs and mom goes home. She calls her mom, then she calls the mall security. Nothing had been reported or brought in. Security says to call the police. The police do not know what to do. Was it stolen? Or was it forgotten?
She thinks of her credit card, of getting a new license, she thinks of her phone. So, using her mom's phone, she starts calling her phone hoping someone will answer No one answers.
Time passes. A few hours later in the evening, her mom gets a phone call. It is young boy, a high school aged kid. He has the purse. He says he and his dad found it in the parking lot and simply used the phone's incoming calls to call the number identified as "Mom."
The mom who got the purse back was Bobbi Jo Whitley, mother of Dillon, Hunter, and Audry. Bobbi's mom is Jo Whitley, who read this morning. The purse came back. Nothing missing.
Are there not lots of good stories like this? Are we not evolving into a better people? Scott Burns said so in his column in the Dallas MorningNews a couple of weeks ago. A great Jesuit geologist and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, thought so, saying that the human race is slowly becoming more mature, more sensitive, more peaceful. I think so, too. For lots of reasons.
Ezekiel 34: Thus says the Lord God: From now on, I myself am the shepherd. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I’m going after my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all the places they’ve been scattered.
James: You can no more show me your works apart from your faith, than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith—they fit together hand in glove.
Luke 17: Whenever you did one of these things to the least of my sisters and brothers—that was me. You did it to me.
Mary Jane reading from Ezekiel
Thanks…
Music, Shonda & Ben
Readers, Mary Jane & John
Homily, John Cade
Eucharistic Prayer A & B, John Stack & John Cade
The Magic Zoom makers, Hue & Richard
Final Blessing, Rosemary
John reading from James
Christmas Collections:
We will be collecting sweatshirts and hoodies for Soul's Harbor on Sunday, December 10, 2023.
We will also have an Angel Tree. More details to follow.
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.
Cody gets a cookie for his birthday last week
Birthdays: Mike Moran 12/2
Anniversaries: Frank & Mary Esparza 11/26, John & Michelle Simari 11/29, Brent & Meredith Burmaster 12/1
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 330.00
Outreach: $
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Gilbert gets a cookie
Rosemary's Blessing:
O God of Quiet, come!
Whisper in our waiting hearts what you ask of us. … Come!
Help us listen.
Help us be quiet.
May God’s small, still whisper reach our waiting, listening hearts.
Sr. Delores Dolezai
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.
Deuteronomy 4: This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.
Romans 8: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
Matthew 28: And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.
Mary Jane reading from Deuteronomy
Thanks…
Music, Shonda & Ben
Readers, Mary Jane & 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 Romans
Remember these special people:
For John Stack; For Shonda's Grandmother; For Meredith whose cancer has come back; For Tom Quinn; For Frank Esparza; 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 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.
The Kiss of Peace
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Denni helping with Communion
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 925.00
Outreach: $ 170.00
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Rosemary's Blessing:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch, Be yours to bear it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep tho’ poppies blow
In Flanders Field.
In Flanders Fields By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915 during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium
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.