Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2026

 

 

 

Our brother – sister act, beautiful

 

 

Readings:  

 Acts of the Apostles 3, 13-5, 17-19,  Peter speaks again.

Psalm 4,  Lord, Let you face shine on us.

 1 John 2, 1-5,  Whoever keeps his word, the word of God is perfected in him.

John  24, 35-48,  Jesus appears in the upper room. 

 

 

 

 

Trying out for the choir Buddy?

 

Acts: A review–

Author:  Luke, the author of both The Gospel and Acts.  Today we get Luke twice, in the first reading with Acts and in the last reading, today's Gospel. 

While we are on the subject, Luke's gospel story today is a compliment to last week's gospel story by John.  Both John & Luke find the apostles in a locked room, Jesus appears, and he says, "Peace."  Both focus on the physical, last week on Thomas demanding to see the wounds, this week Jesus eating.  What does he eat?   Why so much focus on the physical? 

Date:  written about 40-60 years after Jesus death, i.e., ca. 70-100 A.D.

 

 

 

 

Suited up and ready to go!

 

 

Subject: Two parts.  Part one covers chapters 1-8, which focus on the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, plus their effect on the community.  The rest of the book, i.e., chapters 9-28, the focus is on Paul, his conversion & travels.  

Today's Selection:  

The scene is this, just like last week.   Peter & John have just healed a lame man at the door of the temple.  The people come rushing to see.  Peter & John say, "Hey, we did not do it."  In fact, Jesus did it and he has been raised from the dead.  This caught the attention of the priests and authorities who had the two arrested and put before the council.  They are released the next day after a warning not to talk about this Jesus.  Then they return to the local community of believers. 

 Today we go back to the time just after the healing of the lame man.  The people have rushed to see the phenomenon and ask Peter & John to explain.  Today's reading is their explanation.

 

 

 

 

 

Love for Kids Picnic & our team under the patronage of St.Bonaventure U., NY

 

 

Let Your Face Shine Upon Us

I want to talk about how the Lord’s face shone upon me this week.  Two stories.

First, Thursday afternoon Rosemary & I finally went for a bike ride down & back on the White Rock Creek Trail.  I’ve already mentioned often what a jewel this path is.   With the forest and the birds singing, is this Dallas?

As usual we stopped for a break on the bridge overlooking the doggie park swimming hole.  It is always a joy watching the dogs jumping into the water & playing.  Thursday there was one lab especially joyous and full of energy.

 

 

 

 

Good Morning, My Dearest Zoe.

 

 

The lady who was his owner would toss a stick as far as she could into the water.  She and the dog were on the third level of the terraced bank, all paved.  That dog would race down the two levels and then launch himself (or herself) a good ten feet above the water. 

That dog was the Lord’s face shining upon us.

The second story has to do with that beloved and cursed Love for the Kids picnic, cursed because it always takes place on a Saturday, when I am pretty busy getting ready for you know what.

 

 

 

 

The Offertory Team, Beth & Emma, Allan & Aggie.

 

 

So, I am driving north on I35 sort of grousing at that Hammond who keeps inviting me to events like this and at the same time aware that I always return home richer and more humbled.  I then realize that Bill is also inviting me to Dickenson again and to a CO backpacking trip.  And I am saying no to everything.  This even goes to L’Alliance Francais, where I am getting invited more and more to plug back in after about a half a year dropping out.

It hit me, am I getting to be some kind of old stay at home?  Some old monk?  I confess I just love staying at home hanging around with Rosemary & Aviana.

 

 

 

 

You think I'm going to trust that right hand of yours, Sir Charlie?  No way!
 

 

 As I drive along, L’Alliance Francais came to my mind.  Monday evening I have a two hour class with a group of voyajeurs, travelers to France.  5:00 P.M. I wish I did not have to go.   I go. And return full of joy.  

All this went through my mind as I drive north on I35 to Love for Kids.  I realized I do not want to only stay at home.  As I walk around the picnic grounds I know I want to go to L’Alliance and to Dickinson and to CO.  Sign me up, Bill.

This Love for Kids Picnic is dangerous, Folks.

These are two ways the Lord’s face shone on me this week.

And You?

 

 

 

Good Morning, Beth, Sir Charlie is awaiting you.  Does he have a deal for you, like a motor enhanced bike.  Oh, I forget.  You already have one.

 

 

Here is the homily for Sunday.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel was the third great prophet with Isaiah and Jeremiah, because this author’s book is big like theirs, divided into 48 chapters.  Ezekiel is called by God to warn the Israelite people of their coming punishment and banishment to Babylon because of their infidelity to God and his law.  Ezekiel starts out about 600 years before Jesus lived and before the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel’s prophecies continue through the captivity and the return of the Jewish people to Israel.

                                                                              

Homily

The book of Ezekiel is about warning people to get it together. The Gospel story has a similar directive to warn or confront a friend of their need for correction.  I want to say a word about that difficult directive.  The formula given in Matthew is 1) By yourself, speak your hurt to your friend and try to work it out; 2) take one or two others and confront your friend; and 3) take it to the community for mediation.  The smartest statement in Matthew may be admitting that these three steps might not achieve the desired end, and then you start over from scratch (or you drop it).  The point I want to make is that human relationship is probably the most difficult thing we do as humans and that healing hurt is what we’re all about.

An example is a personal case I have talked about before, between my sisters and me.   

1) Two of my sisters felt hurt and upset by each other’s actions in regards to our sister Carol’s care in a nursing home. Our older sister had been in charge of managing Carol’s care.  The sister who lives in the town where Carol’s nursing home was visited Carol and checked up on her every day. The older sister and the local sister didn’t seem able to speak respectfully to or listen well with each other. Often they would cancel out one another’s directives about Carol’s care. So Step 1 didn’t really happen.

2) Their inability to connect work together as co-caregivers led to step 2 and my involvement. Our older sister asked me to be present at a meeting with the local sister and our youngest sister, and an ombudsman representing Carol. This was an awkward meeting.  Since the home had complained about the local sister’s intrusive and disruptive behavior at the home, and threatened to ask us to remove Carol from the home, I and our youngest sister sided with our older sister in the matter. In theory this meeting had the potential of bringing us together for Carol’s sake.  In reality the process pitted two sisters and a brother against Carol’s local sister and set limits on that sister’s behavior as regards the nursing home and its staff.  No real listening to one another happened.

3) That takes us to Step 3: As Catholic Christians we no longer have a tradition of taking one’s hurts to the church community for mediation.  That venue in this time is the court.  Carol’s local sister took the matter to the court and she ultimately gained legal management over Carol’s care.  This result was probably beneficial to Carol as the push and pull about her welfare and treatment ended, and Carol’s local sister continued to visit and care for her till Carol died 1½ years ago. The family breach, however, hardened, and my sisters remain estranged from one another. 

 

Do I think I am alone in having family hurts that remain unresolved?  No, I don’t. In 44 years as a counselor, I have known many relationships that are stuck in their hurt.  Do I lose hope for them or for my own family relationships?  No I don’t.  Today’s second reading from Paul to the Romans, is a clue to our hope: everything is summed up by love, and there’s no accounting for how or when love will find expression. Period.

Finally, going back to Ezekiel, near the end of his book (in Chapter 37) Ezekiel talks about God’s promise, when times were the darkest, to raise up the people of Israel and help them get it together and walk back to their promised land.  His point was that, even if we are dead and gone and our bones are dried up, even then God is with us raising us up. Ezekiel’s poetic words were turned into a spiritual I remember singing as a child: “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones….I hear the Word of the Lord” …  your toe bone connected to your foot bone, your foot bone connected to your ankle bone….

 

My question for you is: Who has been Ezekiel in your life, confronting you and giving you hope in stuck times?

And when have you been the Ezekiel in someone else’s life?

 

 

 

Deuteronomy 18: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I  command him.

Mark 1:  The people were astonished at his teaching,  for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Isaiah 66:   They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations as an offering to the Lord …

Hebrews 12:  So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.  Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.

Luke 13:  For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

 

 

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Geri & Mike

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

         

This is our last Sunday at Legacy Preparatory Charter Academy.

Starting Sunday, August 4th, we will be meeting at:

Art Centre of Plano

902 E. 16th St, Plano

             

 Please use the Haggard Park side entrance.

                 

                

Readings:  Download 08-28-22- Readings – 22nd Sunday Ord

Homily:  

 

   

 

 

Remember these special people:

For Jan; For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer and Kaliope, John Cade's Mother-in-law;  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.

 

   

Birthdays:   Teresa Quinn 8/29

Anniversaries:   

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $   400.00

Outreach: $   

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                 

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:  

Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people,

A heart that forgives the worst,

A mind that forgets the bad,

And a soul that never loses faith in God.

Unknown

 

 

1 Kings 19:  Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. Suddenly an angel shook him awake and said, "Get up and eat!"

Ephesians 4:  Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

John 6:  I am the Bread of Life.  Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died.   But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever.

 

 

 

 

Special Reminder for Holy Thursday & Good Friday:

 

Place: Marlene's home, 2017 Keystone Place, Plano

 

Time: 7:00 P.M.

 

Thanks for the hospitality, Marlene

 

 

 

Guess Who!   Congratulations, Wendy, Brandon and Atlas Xavier Hartsell (8 lbs 15 ounces.)