20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 18, 2024

Mary commenting on the homily

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  330.00

  Outreach: $   

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

John and Connie

Rosemary's Blessing:

Loving God, through the gift of our fathers,

you reveal your wisdom, love and care.

Continue to bless and guide these holy men

you have given to us in our lives.

Support them in their call

to lead holy lives of faithfulness, respect and integrity.

May their witness of faith and love

shine from them and on their children and families

giving hope and encouragement to all.

Bless them for all the ways they lift their children to achieve their dreams.

Bless them for their sacrifice, their forgiveness and their guidance.

Bless grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, teachers and coaches

who have shown us love and support.

For those fathers who have lost a child or spouse,

give them your loving touch of healing

consoling them with your gentle care.

For those fathers who have gone before us,

bring them to your eternal banquet of joy and peace;

bring them the fullness of union with you

and communion with us as we remember their love for us. Amen.

(Adapted from Fr. John Thomas Lane, SSS)

Happy Father’s Day

Jonah 3: The word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you."

1 Corinthians 29:  For the world in its present form is passing away.

Mark 1:  "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Acts of the Apostles 2:  Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured him forth, as you see and hear .

1 Peter 1:  He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you….

Luke 24:  "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"  Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

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

Spring

Here are the links for Sunday:

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

 

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

 

 

                                                                  

                                                                 

 

Guess who has a birthday next week?

 

 

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?

Acts of the Apostles 1:  When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Ephesians 1:  And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Matthew 28:  All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, ….

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

Betsy!  Where you been?  Missing you tons.

From our Dearest Becky:

Legacy Preparatory Charter Academy is now your drop off point for needed medical supplies such as gloves and masks. We are also combining this with a food pantry drive.

If you feel the need to help during this special time and can bring any or all of these needed medical supplies and/or food donations, Legacy will get them to the appropriate sites.

Hours are between 8 am and 4 pm Monday – Fridays. Week end hours by appointment only for large donations.

Location: 601 Accent Dr., Plano 75075

Please share share share !

Also from Becky:

Legacy has just spent the last week preparing to be closed for probably the year and yet still have school. We are fortunate that the Texas Education Agency and the Commissioner of Education  has allowed educators to continue to be paid if we make an attempt to instruct children while they are home.

Not only at Legacy, but educators around the state have been doing just that. Many districts like us will be starting online school or giving out instructional packets on Monday. We also started our food program back early last week and on Tuesday handed out over 1000 meals in one day. Every Monday now families can come and receive 7 days worth of food for each child in the home. For many families, especially for the ones who has a parent or two who has been laid off, it’s making a tremendous difference.

I am proud of my leadership team and what they have accomplished in one week’s time. But you know what’s even better? Knowing that Legacy is not unique. You will continue to hear wonderful stories of what school districts around the state of Texas are doing to meet the needs of families through food support and low tech and high tech learning. It’s a great time to be proud of your public school system!

#ClosedNotClosed

#CheersforPubEd

Spread the priesthood around:

http://corpus-blog.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-modest-proposal-spread-priesthood-by.html

Please Remember these special people:

For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami sick people, in particular locally and Cindy's staff at Presby; For Joe Hogan with cancer,  For Ryan, Rosemary's nephew, who had surgery; For Bill Hammond,    For Sydney & her dear Husband, Hugh, who just moved to the Other Side,  & For Sir Charlie recuperating from surgery;  Shonda's mom;   For Gilberto recuperating from his gall bladder operation:  for Michelle;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free.;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;    For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini; 

How Pope Francis manages,  http://corpus-blog.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-pope-francis-outflanks-his-foes.html  

Remember….

Download Trees stack

Here is a link to Google Meet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ywOjB1c4Q#action=share

Take a look we may use this for our Mass on Sunday.