19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2024

Exodus 19:  Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself.

Romans 5:  Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Matthew 9:  Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Last Sunday's Homily: Download 06-11-23 Homily – Corpus Christi

John Stack Ministries now meets at:  The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano

Isaiah 50:  The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced;

Philippians 2:  Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,  . . .

Matthew 26:  The Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ 

Mary Jane reading from Isaiah

Thanks…     

Music,    Shonda &  Ben

Readers,  Mary Jane & John, Claire, Brent, Lynda & Tom 

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,   

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 Philippians

Readings:  Download 04-01-23 Readings – Palm Sunday

Homily: 

Claire, Tom, Lynda and Brent getting ready to read The Passion

There will be a Funeral Service  for Cindy Cramer on April 15, 2023 at Restland (Wildwood Chapel) at 10:00 in the morning

Remember these special people:

For Cindy Cramer's family;  For the family of Ron Senter;  For Frank Esparza;  For Jan;  For Tom  Quinn who had back surgery on November 21st;  For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   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 a young man, 19 struggling with a brain tumor and cancer;     For Mary Hall's friend Cadence still suffering from a serious medical condition;   For Sir Charlie & Jan; 

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 & friends, Annie, a mom of 3 kids and Michael ;    for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Barbara getting a cookie for her birthday last week

Birthdays:  Jean O'Donnell 4/5

Anniversaries:

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  1,300.00

Outreach: $  410.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Acts of the Apostles 8:  Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 

1 Peter 3:  For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.

John 14:  I will not leave you orphans;  I will come to you.

John Stack Ministries now meets at:  The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano

Invitation to pray with Sandra Pratt:

The members of the Sophia Inclusive Community, a virtual community based in New Jersey, invite you to a special virtual prayer service for Sandra Pratt on Saturday 5/13 at 2:30 pm Eastern and 1:30 pm Central time.  We hope that you will join Sandra and us as we celebrate her amazing life with her.  The service guide is attached.  Please have one candle and something to light it with by your computer.  Try to join us about 10 minutes before the starting time.

 You are invited to send a personal message to Sandra via text or email soon. You can text Sandra at 214-444-4235.  Sandra’s email address is: Prattquest@yahoo.com.  For those of you who are accustomed to a shared homily during Sunday liturgy, consider your message to Sandra to be your personal sharing response to the blessing service we will be having for and with her.  Questions about this service, can be directed to Marie Hogarty at 973-452-4504 / marie923119@gmail.com

Topic: Blessing for Sandra

Time: May 13, 2023 01:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83785401749?pwd=QzlKK3BnRmdiTEpGUVV4cTB4YVEwQT09

Meeting ID: 837 8540 1749

Passcode: 856879

Download Blessing Sandra (1)

Download Highlights of Sandra Pratt (1)                  

Rosemary's Blessing of  The Week:

May all peoples of the earth become as brothers and sisters,

and may the most longed-for peace

blossom forth and reign always among men and women."

Pacem in Terris,  Pope John XXIII, 4/11/63

Patricia reading from Ezekiel. 

Special Thanks to these special people:

•    For  the Readings:  Pastricia & Mary Ellen
•    For The Team:    Georgie & Buddy & Leo
•    For the Communion Bread:   Alison
•    For the Special Communion Cups:  Jan & Charlie
•    For the Pictures:   Rick & Connie & Mike  
•    For the coffee and extras:  Mike & Judy & Jackie
•    For the altar & sound:  Rick & Hue
•    For the Music:     Ben & Shonda 
•    For all who helped with Communion 

Mary Ellen reading from Romans.

Birthdays:   Jean Wright & Wendy (Sunday), Warren Wittek

Anniversaries:

Mike & Geri (42^nd Tuesday) 

Our candle lighter, Emma and her assistant, Tori.

Please Remember these special people

Mike's swollen knee;   For the Urbanczyk family;   For Connie Bresson's mom;     For Carol's recuperation;   For Tom Good;     For Dee and her daughter, Lisa;    For John Schanot's continued recuperation;  For Nadia's recuperation;   For Geri's  nephew, Martin Calabrese and Martins' family;  For a young man who is suffering from depression;    For Claire's mom; For Cliff & Jean;   For Rosemary's niece, Beth and her partner, Sarah with cancer;   For Laura's sister Claudia;   For Dawn;   John Simari’s friend, Ron;   For Anthony & Sabrina;   For John & Jean's son John Louis;   For our good friend Kay in Ontario;    For Rose's daughter in law Jamie; For a young father of two & married, Paul Day, struggling with a heart condition

A birthday cupcake for Warren. 

For Rosemary's sister, Patty and her husband, Lou;  For Cathy's uncle, Jim Wright at 92;   For Connie's nephew, Fred; For Mary Jane Stevenson's son Philip, 34, sick & don't know why;     For Maureen’s daughter, Kathleen, with cancer;      For Jackie's friend, Barbara, plus Angela & her mom;    For Sr. Patricia Otillio, a nun I worked with for years in Grand Coteau;   John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli;    for Franks brother with advanced Parkinsons;      For Steve Barrett, Rose, & Katie;

42 years for Geri and Mike. 

Dick Thompson's daughter, Teri Jill, and Judy's aging parents;  Barb & Warren's grandbabies, Leighton Elizabeth and Warren Phillip and Ethan Michel, & their friend Chris, plus Barb's  Annie & Kaitlen; Tom and Teresa Quinn's niece, Chawna, with cancer, their granddaughter, Mikayla;   plus Neva Flynn, Angel, and Diane Kreeitzer;   Connie Doherty's mom and her sister, plus Kevin's cousin, Peter; for Mary Ellen;  For a number of David McKeon's family who are having a rough time with health issues; for our friends, sons, and daughters in the military, including Ryan McClurg and Chebino; cure for autism from Laura Chollick; for our President.

Zoe, Michelle, Tori, Harper and Cathy.

Your Finances, September 10, 2017

Expenses:   $ 985.00

Outreach:    $ 245.00

Zoe and her Mom, Michelle. 

Special Note:

We also had a Food Drive for the North Dallas Shared Ministries Food Pantry.

Thanks for your Generosity, Everybody.

Have a Great Week, J.S

(214-783-0443)

Our candle lighter, Emma and her assistant, Tori also got a cupcake. 

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.

Mary reading from Joel

Music,   Shonda & Ben

Expenses: $   990.00

Outreach: $    140.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Michelle gets a cookie for her birthday

Rosemary's Blessing:

A Prayer For Growing Old Gracefully

Lord, Thou knowest better than I myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all; but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains; they are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cock-sureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet, for a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people; and give, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

Amen.

17^th Century Nun’s Prayer

Readings:  Wisdom 1, 13-15, 2, 23-24; Psalm 30, I will Praise You, Lord, for You have rescued Me; 2 Corinthians 8, 7-15; Mark 5, 21-43.  

Wisdom: One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not part of the orginal Jewish bible, not part of the OT nor the NT, but in between and the subject of controvercy over the centuries.  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books.

Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, who spoke and wrote excellent Greek.

Date: ca. 100-200 BCE.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale. 

Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia on line

This is Radical

There is a novel going around called Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See.  I recommend it. The novel tracks the lives of two middle class, educated sisters who are born in Shanghai in the 1920's or early '30's.   It follows them through a time in 1937 when the Japanese invaded China to the time when they end up in California as arranged brides. The novel has good character development and provides a view into a time just before & after the Second World War from the perspective of Chinese middle class women. 

What struck me in a unique way was the mother of the two girls.  She was, according to the girls, an old fashioned mother.  That is, she bound her feet so they would not grow.  From the novel I discovered what a barbaric & painful experience this was for women, young & old.  Imagine the pain of wearing shoes too tight or new.  Why?  Beauty?  I discovered in researching for our homily that another reason was to limit the mobility of women.  So they cannot run away or even run.  The reason for the demand was to limit mobility; the side effect was beauty, all because of male bias against women.

I remembered this novel when I read about Jesus healing two females.  Do you realize how radical this was, especially with the woman bleeding?  Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, has a lot to say about women who bleed.  For instance, a woman giving birth to a boy is ritually unclean for 7 days; a girl baby, 14 days (chapter12).

In Lev. 15 it says that during menstration, women were ritually unclean, which meant they were considered socially dead, not allowed in the temple, not allowed in the community, could not touch anyone and no one was allowed to touch them or their clothes or they, too, were ritually unclean.  So what does the lady in Mark do?   What does Jesus do?

Do you realize today how historic and universal this bias was against women?  Plato in The Republic says that Socrates asked, Do you know of any thing done by humans which is not done better by the male.

Hindus teach that a woman must immolate herself after her husband's death.  Buddhists consider it bad karma to be reincarnated as a woman.  Jewish men are taught to pray, Blessed be God who has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman.  Our Bible in Genesis blames a woman for the origin of evil in our world.

In 1873 in Illinois a case was decided against a woman.  She had passed the bar exam to be a lawyer, and the court would not grant her appeal to receive a law license.  A judge said that the place of a woman was in the home and that women did not have the fortitude to deal with such issues as the law.

The church fathers, as they are called, had their own bias.  St. Jerome says that when a woman wishes to serve God more that the world, then she will cease to be a woman and will be called a man.  You do not want to know what St. Augustine thinks about women.

So why this historic and universal bias against women by men (& women)?  One reason, from my research, blood.  Another is the male nervousness & weakness around women, beginning in adolescence.

So here comes Jesus along.  The woman touches him.  He could have had her killed by the crowd.  What was she doing in the crowd anyway?    And what does he do?  He calls her "Daughter," and heals her.  This is revolutionary.  He moves from bias to inclusion & acceptance.

In Galatians (Chapter 3) it says there is no male or female.  Just folks.  We are being called to get rid of the bias.  Women do not deserve to have their feet bound.

How is your bias barometer?  Any bias against women, men, a particular race, political party, a part of town, a school? 

Sources: The Sins of Scritpture, Bishop (Anglican) John Shelby Spong; Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

Audio on vacation this week & next, sorry.

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & Noah helping

Picture 2:  Kevin & Noah

Picture 3:  Birthdays & Anniversaries, Sue Tomas, Rick & Jackie, Sandra & Chuck Pratt

Picture 4:  Birthdays & Anniversaries, Nina Waldron, Barb & Warren Wittek