18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 4, 2024

Acts of the Apostles 2:  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

1 Corinthians 12:  There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there  are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

John 20:  Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

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

Here are the arrangements for Sandra Pratt:

Celebration of Life:  Thursday, 5/25,  6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

All Saints Catholic Church, Dallas, Fellowship Hall

5231 Meadowcreek Drive, Dallas, TX

LIVESTREAM INFORMATION for the Celebration of Life

The livestream will start about 5-10 minutes before it begins, and that is when the livestream will appear at the below links.

The livestream can be accessed at https://www.allsaintsdallas.org/livestream.  If you click on that link right now it will show that the next event is tomorrow’s 9 AM Mass (or today’s mass may still be on)… but that is the spot all livestreams can be found.

We simulcast to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/asccdallas) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@asccdallas).

Christ the King Catholic Church, 

8017 Preston Road, Dallas, TX

The streaming info for the funeral Mass is not available yet.

We will celebrate the Mass for  Ash Wednesday on Sunday.

Joel 2:  For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.

2 Corinthians 5:  We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.

Matthew 6:  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Another Reminder for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, March 2, 2025

Acts of the Apostles 10, Peter proceeded to speak

Psalm 118,   This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.

1 Corinthians 5, A little yeasts leaven all. 

John 20, On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen  came to the tomb early in the morning.

Romeos, Welcome!    Jason's Deli, 1:00, Friday, March 26.  Required: vaccines, mask for entrance & departure. 

A reminder for those attending the 9:30 Easter Mass at Legacy: wear a mask (along with your vaccination).

Another Reminder for Sunday, April 4, 2021, Easter Sunday

Here are the links for Sunday:

2 Kings 4:  This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.

Romans 6:  …you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10:  And whoever gives only a cup  of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.

Cody reading from 2nd Kings

Thanks…     

Music,    Shonda & Ben 

Readers,  Cody & Mary

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Mary reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans

Readings: Download 07-02-23 Readings -13th Ordinary

Homily: 

Jackie reading her homily

Remember these special people:

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  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.

Connie and John

Birthdays: Brent Burmaster 7/6, Paul Bieda 7/8

Anniversaries:  

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  680.00

Outreach: $   360.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

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

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