Readings:

Isaiah 55, 1-11,  All you who are thirsty, come to the water.

Psalm, Isaiah 12,    You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

1 John 5, 1-9,  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God.

Mark 1, 7-11,   The baptism of Jesus.

Renee Elisabeth says, "Welcome in Everybody. I just got baptized."

Isaiah observations:

Who:  Can you guess, Isaiah 1, 2, or 3.  Actually, we have two selections from Isaiah, Isaiah 12 for the psalm and Isaiah 55.  Isaiah 12 is easy.  That is first Isaiah.  Isaiah 55 is in the middle of all the 66 chapters, and, yes, it is second Isaiah.  They write before and during the Babylonian Captivity.  Both passages are comfort passages.

Today’s passages: despite the different time each writer wrote, both are trying to encourage the people and let them know that their God is with them.  The first reading, Isaiah 55, is especially rich.  It contains beautiful images of food and drink, rain and snow on the earth.

Renee, the Packer Fan, also says, "Hi Folks, come in,' before returning to her witness protection area.

You are Beloved

Yesterday afternoon Rosemary and I had the privilege and the joy of baptizing a little 5 month old girl.  Her name is Renee Elisabeth.  She is the daughter & second child of Colleen and Carl Huval.  Colleen is the daughter of our John and Jean O’Donnell.  

I love baptisms and when I can and the little kid permits it, I love to carry her or him around and talk.  Renee Elisabeth was so peaceful and accepting.  At Saint Marks I used to pick these little kids up at the beginning of Mass and I would introduce them and have them welcome everyone. 

Zoe says, "Come in Everybody, where it is warm."

One Sunday I did this in the main church at the 9:00 Mass.  I had the little boy in my arms for maybe 10 minutes and gave him back to his momma.  After the Mass I am outside saying good-bye to everybody and I noticed I had a sour smell about me.  That little boy had barfed on my left shoulder and nobody told me.  I had to laugh and I really gave it to those people the next week for not telling me. 

When I did Renee Elisabeth’s baptism yesterday I did the two things I love to do.  First, I invite people to discuss when they last saw God and also where do they most find the presence and peace of God.  This brings in some really nice answers.  Of course, Renee Elisabeth was the place where many said they saw God.

"It's great here," says Megan.

After the baptism I like to talk with the little kids.  I told Renee Elisabeth that this baptism was her official welcome into the marvel of her new life.  And I told her that I had three things I wanted her to remember.

First, I want you to know, Renee, that you are like Mark says about Jesus, You are my Beloved.   In fact, you are beloved, you are beautiful, you are good, and you are perfect just as you are.

The pretty Georgie says, "That's my friend, Megan."

Secondly, you are being officially welcomed into a marvelous family that also thinks you are beautiful, good, perfect, and beloved.

Thirdly, you are being officially welcomed into a marvelous community (your numerous grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, at least), who also hold you dear, consider you beautiful and perfect.  She seemed to accept this.  

Emma learning to do yoga.

One of the reasons I love to have our kids present with us at Mass is that they may know that they are part of us, that we appreciate them, and that we and God loves them.

People have told me that their kids see me in the white robes and they think this creature is God.  When I was a little boy I probably thought the same thing, but that god figure did not like little boys, or at least me, and instilled in me a belief that I was bad.

Victoria says, "Cupcake time yet?"

This is why I will always welcome our kids.  I want them to know that God loves them, that they are good and beloved. 

Of course, I have tried to inform Rosemary that God does not do yard work and does not do dishes.  No luck with that.  In fact, God received for Christmas a new vacuum cleaner.  God had worn out the old one.  

How do you know that you are beloved?  Blessed?

Harper says, "I feel beloved."

Revelation, A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman bathed with sun.

Psalm 45, the queen stands at your right hand arrayed in gold.

1 Corinthians 15, 20-27, Christ has been raised from the dead.

Luke 1, 39-56, Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste.

The Best Music, Shonda & Ben

Thanks……

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Frank & Mary, & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,    Hue

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy for all these years & will miss you enormously, Becky

Frank reading from Revelation.

Readings:

Download Readings 20h Ordinary Time Assumption 8-15-21

Homily by John Stack

Download John Stack homily 8-15-2021 Assumption

Mary reading from 1 Corinthians.

Remember these special people:

For John & Karen Anderlick's unborn grandson;  For Alan Stryker;      For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   For Esparza's son, Jason, with the virus;  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery, and for Hue & Linda's daughter, Doctor Rosemary Beavers;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody &  Leo & all of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy,   for John Simari

Today's Team.

Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg.; For Meredith, cancer free & John Schanot;    For John O'Donnell & Jean;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughters, Lisa & Lauren  ;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer; from Barbara, a little 10 month old baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother;  For the Fleming family on the death of Tom's father;  for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Thanks, Cody, for being The Best.

Birthdays:  Marlene, Rose Banzhaf, 

Anniversaries: 

Jean & John O'Donald, 63

Gil & Bernadette Delgado

Peace, Patricia, Peace, Sandra.

Community Finances,   August 15, 2021

Expenses: $505.00

Outreach: $300

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

You will really be  missed here, Marcia & Joe.

Rosemary's Blessing:

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Success – Ralph Waldo Emerson

May you succeed!

Peace & Health, Everybody

Readings: Zephaniah 2, 3-3, 12-13; Psalm 146, Blessed are the Poor in Spirit; the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs; 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31; Matthew 5, 1-12 

Zephaniah observations:

 The 3 chapters of the little book of Zephaniah were compose about 600 years before Christ.  Therefore, he is writing shortly before the Babylonian defeat of Jerusalem and the Captivity.  Because of the book’s shortness Zephaniah is considered one of the 12 minor prophets. 

His theme is the prophetic line:

            1. You people are bad.

            2.  You people will be punished by Yahweh.

            3.  You people, after being punished, will return to a happy place.

Today’s selection focuses more on how the humble of spirit will pasture their flocks with no one to disturb them. 

 The psalm & Matthew today both focus on how the poor in spirit will be happy, receiving the kingdom of heaven.

 I am struck that in the readings there is a quality of wishful thinking.  For example, in the psalm,  the lord sets captives free, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, and raises up the bowed down. 

 I can see someone skeptically asking me, “Stack, are you crazy.  You believe this really happens?  Look at history.”  I would like to talk about this in the homily.

Poor in Spirit?  Get Real!

 You remember last Thanksgiving when about 35 of us went to help feed the homeless for LifeNet?  Well, while I was helping out, I liked to go around and chat up the people at different tables.

 At one table during the second or third seating over by the windows opposite the side door I ran into 3 elderly white, nicely dressed little ladies.  Folks, they absolutely reminded me of my mother, who would have been mortified to have been eating there. 

The ladies were quite friendly, obviously educated, and lived in Richardson.  Were they homeless?  Were they without money, social security, family?  I only knew that they would not have been there had not LifeNet vetted them as being authentically in need. 

 My heart went out to these ladies and I mention them this morning as a lead into the notion that blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  This statement strikes me as really precarious.

 I would propose that there is a healthy and an unhealthy poverty of spirit.  The poverty of these 3 ladies is unhealthy, spirit killing, depressing.  Unemployment, homelessness, all kill the spirit.

 The same is true of Larry Sims, the 60 year old black man exonerated Friday of a crime for which he has spent 25 years in jail.  DNA proof.  Can you imagine being put in jail for 25 years of your life for something you did not do?  I think I would be mad, bitter.  The amazing reality is that these men are all accepting, forgiving, and grateful.  They humble & amaze me. 

 The same was true of the 3 little ladies.

 Mr. Sims is number 35 exonerated in Dallas according to my buddy & old classmate Tony Levatino who helps these men adjust to their new life through Holy Trinity Parish down on Oak Lawn.

 This unhealthy poverty of spirit has been so common down through our history as humans.  Suffering has characterized so many lives.  Slavery, holocausts, genocides, wars.

 I have spent my life attempting to raise up people in this poverty.  We are doing it in this community. 

 What then is healthy poverty of spirit?  From my perspective it is two things: acceptance and gratitude.  This brings about peace of spirit.

 I am astounded, but Mr. Sims and the 3 ladies seemed to have acceptance and gratitude.  I do know others who were dying of depression or discouragement.

 Can a person work through the unhealthy poverty of spirit to the peace of acceptance & gratitude?  Apparently so. 

 On a scale of 1-10, where is your poverty of spirit, your acceptance and gratitude?

Picture 1:   Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 2:   Emma walking

Picture 3:   Georgie & her sister Zoe

Picture 4:   Zoe with her dad, Randolph & grandmom, Bernadette

Picture 5:   Michelle, the mother of Georgie & Zoe, with Torri & Buddy, the twins, and Gilberto, Michelle's dad

Readings: Acts 1, 1-11; Psalm 47, God Mounts his Throne to Shouts of Joy, a Blare of Trumpets for the Lord; Ephesians 1, 17-23; Luke 24, 46-53.  

Ascension  of the Lord – Intro to the Readings

Today, we have a whole lot of Luke and a reading from Paul, or someone who knew him very well!

Our first reading is from the beginning of Acts and because of the feast, we leave aside John’s Gospel today and hear about the ascension from the very end of Luke’s Gospel.

The Gospel of Luke ends as it began (Luke 1:9), in the Jerusalem temple.

Luke brings his story about the time of Jesus to a close with the report of the ascension. He will also begin the story of the time of the church with a recounting of the ascension. In the gospel, Luke recounts the ascension of Jesus on Easter Sunday night, thereby closely associating it with the resurrection. In Acts 1:3, 9-11; 13:31 he historicizes the ascension by speaking of a forty-day period between the resurrection and the ascension. The Western text omits some phrases in Luke 24:51, 52,  perhaps to avoid any chronological conflict with Acts 1 about the time of the ascension.

Homily for the Feast of the Ascension

Faith is one of those items, which, try as we might, we will never be fully able to explain.  But I think there is a clue to this challenge in our second reading today.  There is a little phrase in there about the eyes of the heart.   I have never heard of the phrase “eyes of the heart” before, but the more I thought about them the more it started to make sense to me.

For most of my life beginning with my first catechism my faith seems to involve learning stuff:  information, ten commandments, seven sacraments, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, twelve apostles names, mortals sins and venial sins.  The list goes on and on.  As humans, today, we are almost obsessed with information, data.  I don’t think that people at the time of Christ were quite so obsessive as this.  Here is why:

In our first reading today from the opening chapter of Acts, Luke tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection.  Yet in the gospel reading, also by Luke, if we pay close attention to the last chapter of that Gospel, Jesus ascended to heaven the same day as the resurrection!  Both readings are from the same writer.  Both readings coming from close to each other in their respective books, the last chapter of the gospel and the opening chapter of the Book of Acts, and yet this contradiction did not seem to matter to Luke or his audience. 

The only conclusion is that the detail, the facts themselves were not that important.  The event was looked at thru the eyes of the heart.  As I said on Easter Sunday, the fact of the Resurrection cannot be proven; neither can the fact of the Ascension.  They can only be seen thru the eyes of faith, thru the “eyes of the heart”

This week I was watching a new TV program “Into the Universe” from Steven Hawkins, the world's most famous living scientist which is all about the origins of the universe.  Even as intelligent a person as Hawkins cannot find God in our universe, and I believe the reason is quite simple. 

He is not looking with the eyes of the heart; he is looking through the eyes of a scientist who looks for hard data.  Our God is outside all of that.  Our God is in a totally different world.  His is the world of caring, the world of loving, of taking care of the poor, the sick and the lonely.  Our God has one simple rule, love one another. 

This kind of stuff is only visible thru the eyes of the heart.  And so today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, we can only celebrate it emotionally, not intellectually, because the notion of someone rising from the dead and going up where-ever doesn’t make any sense from a scientifically observable point of view, but is easy to accept in the context of a God who loves you and me unconditionally.

Picture 1:  Fr. Tony Begins

Picture 2:  Fr. Tony & Buddies, Marianne, George, & Ron

Picture 3:  Coffee time, Curtis, Warren, Ken & Cindy, Teresa & Tom, & Mabel

Picture 4:  Old Geezers, Tony, Jerry, David, & Stack

Picture 5:  Backpacking talk, Lynda, Bill, Daniel, & Claire

Welcome to The Team this Sunday, Mike.

Readings:

Exodus 17, 8-13,  Joshua mowed down Amelek and his people.

Psalm 121,  The Lord Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven & earth.

2 Timothy 3, 14-4, 2,  Remain faithful to what you have learned.

Luke 18, 1-8,  The persistent widow & the ornery judge.

Georgie helping Leo with the candles.

He is beside you at your right hand: In praise of Pete Wacks

It often strikes me as disappointing when I hear or give a eulogy.  Why?  Because the person has no say, like ‘He’s lying,’ or ‘Why did you not tell me all those good things while I was alive?!’

Pete Wacks was one of my best buddies at Christ the King grade school and at old Jesuit.  Moreover, he is alive and most of this story I have told him. 

Ben, I'm envious of your Zeke Elliott do.   Maybe if I could do that with my hair Rosemary might love me a little bit.

When we were adolescents Pete was the guy I would like to have been.  He was well built without even working out.  This was the age of flat tops.  His was the best.  He was one of the guys we all hung around together.  Which scared me when Msgr. Bender thundered one Sunday, “If your friends are going to hell, you will too.”  One story why: the German Shepherd event.

It was a Friday night football game at Highland Park, our junior year.  As we walked out of the stadium early we saw a friendly German Shepherd on a chain under the north stands.  We, the three of  us, got into my dad’s black & white ‘54-‘55 4 door Chevie.  I used it for my morning paper route. 

Welcome home, Kevin.

Going east on Lovers Lane we got the red light at Preston.  Lo and behold, right in front of us was the German Shepherd in the University Park dog wagon.  We did not think twice.  Pete seated next to me and Jerry in the back both jumped out and let the Shepherd out, he jumped into the front seat next to me, and off we headed north onto Preston.  We had not gone 20 yards when, bam, we are engulfed in the red lights of the University Park police.

It takes a community to get suited up around here.

The cop told us to follow him to the station and there we were asked to get the dog out, which we did.    After grilling us we spent 3-4 hours in a jail cell.  Meanwhile Jerry had been begging them not to call his parents.  His mom was just on the verge of delivering her 9^th or 10^th child.  About 12:30 they released us.

The police never called our parents.

This is just one of the episodes that characterized our adolescent years.  See why I joined the Jesuits?

Welcome in, David.  When I was a young Jesuit teaching at Jesuit in the '60's, David was one of our star assistant principals. 

Guess what: I recounted this story to Pete last Monday when we visited him in Chicago.   He could not remember it!  Instead of joining the Jesuits, Pete joined up with the F.B.I. & worked for 35 years.  He also got into running, doing the Chicago Marathon ca. 12 times, plus the Boston, N.Y., and some others.

Pete retired in “97 .    He is now bedridden and has amyloidosis, plus a few other conditions. I know our loving God is waiting to embrace him.

Welcome in, Catherine, Becca, and Grace.

Readings:

Isaiah 55, 1-5, All you who are thirsty, come to the water.  (Ever wonder why I love Isaiah so much!!)

Psalm 145,  The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.           

Romans  8, 35, 37- 39,  What will separate us from the love of Christ?

Matthew 14, 13-21,   They all ate and were satisfied and they picked up the fragments left over.  (Terrifically positive readings this Sunday!  Wow!)

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda

Readers,    Mary Jane & John, & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel & Homily,  Deacon Mike & Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Richard, Ben & Hue (welcome Hue!)

Final Blessing, Rosemary

The Best Music, Ben & Shonda.

Please Remember these special people:

For our Bill & his family, Patty, Bobby & Lisa, Melinda, Amy & Bret;  For Becky's dad just discovered with the virus;  For Cindy recuperating from a procedure some weeks ago;    For Carrie Bieda's son;   For Esparzas, Frank & Mary,  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family;   for Michelle;

John Schanot reads Romans today.

For Jackie's mom;  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;  for Virginia Mattingly.

Download Readiongs Week 8-2

Birthdays:  Linda Beavers, Eric Wittek, Lynda Fleming 60, Souls Harbor's birth (Brent wants a cupcake), born 1956 (64 years ago!)

Anniversary: Mike & Judy, 56th

Brian Bambaneck & Kendall, 15th (parents of  Harper & Betsy)   

Today Mary Jane reads from Isaiah.

John's Homily, In Memory of Bill

Matthew has presented to us this morning one of my favorite Bible stories.  The point is usually made that Jesus just multiplied the bread.  As I’ve said all the times I have spoken on this little vignette over the years, my read is that Jesus created such a spirit among the people that they shared what they had with each other.  That was the miracle of sharing.  

 I saw this in Tanzania the ten years I lived there.  I would be riding my motorcycle down a hot, dusty road, & come across a half a dozen Tanzanian women waiting for a country bus.  They all wore robes from their heads to their sandals.  Under those robes they had food.  And they did not reveal a crumb. 

The brain trust.

What did Jesus do?  He created a spirit of trust and invited them to share.  Imagine you are there.  You are provident and conceal your rations.  Suddenly, after having a good meeting with these people, Jesus takes a  loaf of bread, breaks it, takes a piece, and passes it to you.  In the spirit of sharing, you take a piece of the bread and you put some of your bread into the basket. 

Can’t you see Bill Hammond doing this!  It is September and Bill is standing up here inviting us all to help with the Love for Kids special picnic day at the Circle K Farm in Flower Mound one Saturday in October.   20-30-40 members of our community would show up every year.

The Brain Trust?

Initially I found it difficult to spend Saturday morning at the picnic because I used Saturday to get my ideas sorted out for our Sunday Masses.  Little did I need those ideas because I came home and devoted all my homily time to how I was touched by the kids, by our community, and by Bill for touching my heart again.

Because of Bill & Bona Responds, Bill and I spent a week in Galveston helping to clean up after the hurricane.   Bill frequently relayed opportunities to community members to join him and other Bona Responds kids in tornado clean up.  Bill got us into these sharing events and we were incredibly richer.

Hey, Mike, we got audio this morning.  Hooray!  In fact, if you missed it the first time, it even repeats.

The second event that showed me how special Bill was came with our early September 8-9 day back packing trips to Yosemite.  8-9 campers loaded up and came along.  Bill was one camper & hiker that I knew I could rely on to help me out if someone was having trouble with the altitude or weight of a back pack.  We had 8 dinners & deserts, like freeze dried peach cobbler,  which Rose Banzhaf prepared & freeze dried.  This meant 1 bear canister for each camper. We ate well and we had to tote all that up the trail.  Bill always generously offered to help out with the load, especially the pint of Jack Daniel we all carried for the evening feast. 

Sacra Couer, Paris

The third way that Bill touched me was the famous Hotter ‘N Hell Bike Ride out of Wichita Falls, the last week end of August, yes, usually the hottest week end  of the calendar.  The year was probably 2011.  

So along comes Bill inviting me to ride.  Trouble was, I was a runner, not a biker.   No problem.  He had everything I needed, Helmet, shorts, shirt, and even a bike (which I discovered later was Bobby’s bike).   I must have hesitated, to say the least.  But you know how hard it was to turn Bill down. 

Chain Bridge, Budapest

So I agree and ride up with Bill to Wichita Falls.  We camp out on the college campus.  There are thousands of these crazy people. We get up in the dark about 5:00.  Bill wants to leave before the huge crowd takes off all together.  I get into these clothes in the dim light of the parking lot.  We take off.  It does not take long for Bill & his buddies to speed off down the road.  I trail along. Yes, I did finish but Bill never let me forget that I spent the first 20 miles with my bike pants on backward. 

Sunset, At Sea

Thank you, Bill, for blessing my life and the lives of so many.  You have been and still are a very special gift.

Using John Lewis' Blessing,  So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers & sisters, and let the spirit of peace & the power of everlasting love be your guide.  

Is City of Dallas giving us a little hint?  

Cindy Cramer:

John has been in touch with Cindy Cramer’s son and daughter.  Cindy has healed from the heart surgery. 

She is presently in Encompass Health Rehab Hospital, 3351 Waterview Parkway, Richardson, TX 75080, Room 110.  Cindy needs physical therapy to learn to walk again due to Guillain-Barre.

She is not allowed any visitors but would LOVE to receive some cards and notes.  Also, since she is on the  first floor you can window visit.  The windows are numbered with the room numbers, so you should be able to find #110.  Also you can make her a home-made dinner and deliver it to the front desk! She is currently on a special diet due to her blood thinner which requires that she not go crazy on Vitamin K. It's not that she can't have any at all; she just shouldn't have large amounts. Check out the Mayo Clinic's list of foods to avoid. If you include any of those items mixed into a casserole or something, be sure to include a note with how much is in there.

She’s very busy between three meals a day, and physical therapy twice a day at times that change daily, scheduling your visit may be a challenge. Rather than set a particular time for all window visits, it will probably be easiest if you just sign up for a day, and then contact her about when would be a good time to come by. Here is the signup sheet if you want to do that.