Important Notice

Sirach 27:  Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.

1 Corinthians 15:   Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Luke 6:  Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?

 

 

Thanks…Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,   Paul & Carrie

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,  John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue, Richard & Mike 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

 

 

Rhine River

 

 

Readings: Download 02-27-22 – Readings – 8th Sunday Ord

Homily:  Download 02-27-22 – Homily – 8th Sunday Ord

 

 

 

 

A house in the Black Forest

 

                                                   

 

 

Remember these special people:

For John Stack having a hard time right now with a bad back;  For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   For Esparza's new great grandson  & Frank;  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 and for a friend Cadence still suffering from a serious medical condition;   For Sir Charlie & Jan;  All of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy,

 

                           

       The Black Forest      
              
                                                      

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 baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation & friends, Annie, a mom of 3 kids and Michael ; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother;   for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

                                                            

 

 

                     

Birthdays:   Michelle Brown 3/2

Anniversaries:   

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  710.00

Outreach: $  275.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

                                    

 

 

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

 

 

1 Kings 19:   Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant.

Galatians 5:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 9:  I will follow you wherever you go.

           

 

Connie and John

Thanks…

Music,    Ben

Readers, Pat & Fred

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Stack & Community

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Rob and Beth, Paul and Carrie

 

Readings:  Download 06-26-22 – Readings – 13th Sunday Ord

Homily:  This is Jackie's contribution to the Homily 

                  Download 06-26-22 – Homily – 13th Sunday Ord

                                       

                                                     

 

Remember these special people:

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, with 2 broken vertebrae;  For Jackie;  For John's sister, Kathey in the hospital after 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; 

                           

Rick

 

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.

 

 

The Kiss of Peace, Frank and Mary

     

Birthdays:   

Anniversaries:   

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  300.00 

Outreach: $  50.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                    

             The Kiss of Peace, Brent, Meredith and Cheryl              

 

Rosemary's Blessing:  

 

 

Welcome, Everybody!

 

 

Readings:  

 Ezekiel   17, 22-24,   All the trees of the field will know…

 Psalm 130,   Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

 2 Corinthians —  A special reading

 Mark 4, 26-34,   This is how  it is with the kingdom of God.  

 

 

 

 

Welcome to our Fathers' Day Special.

 

 

Homily by John Cade:  

Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is here all around us and, yes, it is miraculous, like the mustard seed or pine nut are miraculous. To Jesus’ listeners the gifts of nature, like the growth of plants, were a mystery, how they start out so little and somehow grow so big. This is how God’s Spirit works. From inside we are moved to grow, to mature, to share, to help create God’s kingdom. 

 

 

 

 

Emma sharing one of  her special gift, lighting our candles.

 

 

Examples of people building the kingdom abound. We see each week this wall of portraits of people who were like us, regular people, and who also dared to love their neighbors however they met them: Like Mahatma Gandhi in India, standing for non-violent civil disobedience and for self-government for the Indian people; like Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S., standing for racial equality and against unjust war; like Mother Teresa in India, serving the poor and outcast; like Oscar Romero in El Salvador, standing for his people against political tyranny and abuse; like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, standing for his native people of color against apartheid; like Cesar Chavez and Harriet Tubman in the U.S., Cesar standing against the unjust treatment of migrant workers and for the right to unionize, and Harriet standing for the freeing of slaves and risking her life supporting the ‘underground railroad’; and so forth with the others.

 

 

 

The Team.

 

 

These people were, like us, born as regular people. They had eyes like us to see, and ears like us to hear, and they, each in their own way, imagined how they could help build up the kingdom of God in their time. We tend to make our heroes seem other-worldly, bigger than life. We put them on a pedestal, just out of our reach, just a bit too super to imitate. But this is an overly idealized view. Most people who actively build up the kingdom of God don’t get known as super heroes, don’t get their portrait on a wall.

 

 

 

The Doughertys, Connie, John, & home from college, Kevin.

 

 

Like my sister-in-law who raised 2 children while working full time as a teacher and when her husband developed a brain tumor, being a caring partner in his journey. She now divides her time between helping her grown daughter, a single mom who has MS and a 3 year old son, and helping her 95 year old father, who is in failing health, to remain in his own home. 

 

 

 

The Best, Shonda, Ben, & David.

 

 

 

Or like two young men and fathers I know who, though their marriages did not succeed, stay true to their mission to be fathers to their sons, participating wholeheartedly in their growth and development.

 

 

 

The Bresson Offertory Procession, Kevin, John, & Connie.

 

 

These good people are builders of the kingdom of God visualized by Jesus. Look around. See all the ways people you know are building up the kingdom. How you help make the kingdom come in your time is limited only by the unlimited ways you can imagine it. It’s not how big a splash you make. It’s the love and courage and persistence of your choices and behaviors that make God’s kingdom come in our world in our time.

 

 

 

Welcome Home, Mary Ellen.  So nice to see you here with us all.

 

 

Who have you seen building up God’s kingdom, and you can imagine their portrait on the wall? And when did you last imagine how you could build up this kingdom in your lifetime?

 

 

Thanks for being special to us all, My Dearest Emma.

 

 

Joshua 24:  The people answered, "We'd never forsake God! Never! We'd never leave God to worship other gods.

Ephesians 5:  And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh."

John 6: Peter replied, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life.

 

 

Another Reminder for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024

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?

 

 

 

Wisdom 9:  Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?

Philemon 9:  … but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.

Luke 14:  In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

 

Sunset on the Baltic

 

 

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Mary Jane & John

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

         

 

Starting Sunday, September 11th, we will be meeting at:

Art Centre of Plano

902 E. 16th St, Plano

             

 Please use the Haggard Park side entrance.

                 

                

Readings:  Download 09-04-22- Readings – 23rd Sunday Ord

Homily:  Download 09-04-22- Homily – 23rd Sunday Ord

   

Flowers from Giverny, France

 

 

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 Donna and the Dinsmore Family after her brother, Dennis died  from pancreatic cancer;   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.

 

 

Flowers from Giverny, France
   

 

Birthdays:   Aggie Stryker 9/8

Anniversaries:   Beth & Rob Robinson 9/7,  Aggie & Allen Stryker 9/9

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $   875.00

Outreach: $   350.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                 

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:  

O Lord, you mark the journey of life with change. Once again we witness your creation moving from one season to the other. Change is your instrument of growth that brings us to a deeper relationship with you. May your Word be the lantern that guides the roads of change in our lives. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

www.catholicrurallife.org/resources/spiritual/calendar-of-blessings/9-september-blessing-of-change-and-letting-go/