5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024

Ezekiel 34: Thus says the Lord God: From now on, I myself am the shepherd.  As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I’m going after my sheep.   I’ll rescue them from all the places they’ve been scattered. 

James:  You can no more show me your works apart from your faith, than I can show you my faith apart from my works.  Faith and works, works and faith—they fit together hand in glove.

Luke 17: Whenever you did one of these things to the least of my sisters and brothers—that was me.  You did it to me.

 

 

Mary Jane reading from Ezekiel

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Shonda & Ben 

Readers,  Mary Jane & John

Homily,   John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Richard

Final Blessing, Rosemary

                                      

         John reading from James

 

 

Christmas Collections:

We will be collecting sweatshirts and hoodies for Soul's Harbor  on Sunday, December 10, 2023.

We will also have an Angel Tree.  More details to follow.

 

 

Homily:  Download 11-26-23 Homily – Christ the King

 

 

 

John gets a cookie for his anniversary

 

 

Remember these special people:

For the family of Ron Senter;   For Meredith  whose cancer has come back;  For Tom Good;  For Tom  Quinn who had back surgery on November 21st; For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer ;  For Allen Stryker;   For Mike and Judy Carrell ; 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 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.

 

Cody gets a cookie for his birthday last week

 

                                      

Birthdays:   Mike Moran 12/2

Anniversaries:  Frank & Mary Esparza 11/26, John &  Michelle Simari 11/29, Brent & Meredith Burmaster 12/1

                 

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  330.00

Outreach: $  

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Gilbert gets a cookie

                                    

Readings:

Genesis 15, 1-6,  Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can…Thus so shall your descendants be.

Psalm 105, The Lord remembers his covenant forever

Hebrews 11-14,  By faith Abraham obeyed, by faith Abraham received power

Luke 2, 22-40,  Simeon had been told that he would not die until he saw the Redeemer

 

Readings:

 

Download Readings 12-27-2020. Holy Family

 

Homily:

Download What A Wonderful World Lyrics

 

Louis Armstrong video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-T6aaRV9HY

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda, (& Ben's son, Jack, playing cello Christmas Eve)

Readers,   Patricia & Jackie & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  John Cade 

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Mike 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

 

Community Finances, December 27, 2020

Expenses: $3350.00

Outreach   $350.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Peace

 

Communion Prayer video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDsyvKJZz7g

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

Dear God, 

I pray that our family

may always live in peace,

may we understand each other,

May we have patience

and let You know first

about every problem

we are facing as family.

shortprayersforyou.blogspot.com

Readings:  Isaiah 55, 6-9; Psalm 145, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him; Philippians 1, 20-27; Matthew 20, 1-16.

 

Brief teaching on Liturgy of Word before first reading:

The disciples of Jesus were not only Jews, they continued to be Jews after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven by their presence in the temple and synagogue.  After attending the Sabbath service in the synagogue, on the first day of the week they would gather at someone’s home to celebrate the Lord’s Supper where they shared memories of His teachings and sayings.  But the early Church having no gospels did not have a Liturgy of the Word. The Jews, who believed that the Messiah had come-the Christ, were most likely not concerned that they didn’t have a Liturgy of the Word.  Why? They had the synagogue prayer and Scripture service on the Sabbath that continually catechized the Jewish communities.  It wouldn’t be until after the Jewish believers of Christ were being excluded from the synagogue and temple, thrown out and persecuted, that they realized how much they needed the gospels to be written for a Christian Liturgy of the Word to catechize new converts Sunday after Sunday. 

 

When the Matthew and Luke gospels were written, which were also meant to address the needs, tensions and concerns of the gentile and Jewish Christian communities, there should have been in one of them an acknowledgement of a Christian Liturgy of the Word that was being used prior to celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  There is, even though the Church has failed to recognize its presence during the past 19 centuries!  (Read the account in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus comes into the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth on the Sabbath to stand and give the reading, then sit to give the teaching. He was required to give a teaching on the words of Isaiah; but instead said that He had fulfilled the reading from Isaiah.  By doing so, the inspired writers are telling us that the words of Christ fulfill the reading from Isaiah as well as the synagogue service itself! What could it possibly mean to fulfill the Jewish ‘Liturgy of the Word?’ The inspired writers are presenting the Liturgy of the Word of the early Christian Church!  It fulfilled the Jewish Sabbath synagogue service but it didn’t abandon it! 

Therefore the Christian Liturgy of the Word would include a first reading from either the Law and the Prophets as well as the singing of the Psalm…all of which are the expectation for the coming of the words of Christ and their teaching…then the words of Christ and their teaching which would fulfill the expectation of the first testament and psalm.  Therefore there would be a harmony between the testaments, and the Jewish Christians, intimately familiar with their Sabbath synagogue service, had the catechetical method of weekly evangelizing the converts to Christianity—besides telling us how the whole four gospels were written (the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of his coming within the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Judaism and its feasts as well).

 

Homily:

The parable beginning Matthew 20 on the landowner who goes to the marketplace to hire laborers for his vineyard can be readily understood if you understand the following symbolism (In doing so the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of His coming from the prophet Isaiah who tells us that the Lord is generous, and that his ways are not our ways).

 

The dilemma of the parable is the reply made by the laborers to the landowner at 5:00 PM, an hour before sunset: ‘No one has given us the words that satisfy our spiritual hunger.’  (omitted the rationale from ‘no one has given us the words that satisfy our hunger’ to spiritual hunger) The landowner sends them into the vineyard where Christ is the vine. His words will satisfy their spiritual hunger.  The landowner is like a hound who has continually gone to the marketplace to bring back laborers who long to hear the words that will satisfy their spiritual hunger…so the landowner is the vine, the Christ.  The wage is that which is ‘righteous’, therefore what God would pay his laborers. 

 
 

Christ is an advocate for his laborers by going to the ‘manager’ (his Father) asking him to give each laborer the wage of salvation beginning with the last and going to the first.  The wisdom of the parable come from the words of Christ, ‘I choose to give to the last the same as I give to you (the first)’. The first do not understand that the ways and thoughts of God are generosity and mercy.  Jesus tells them to ‘go,’ which in Greek is to leave without noise or fanfare… to rather come to their senses and rejoice with the angels over these last who have repented….

 

Why is this parable placed where it is within the Matthew gospel?  Immediately following are the words of Christ on who is the greatest in the kingdom of God (the one who shows mercy and generosity by reaching out to the least by making them the first)

Why is this parable placed within the Matthew gospel instead of the Luke gospel? The Jewish Christians are to reach out the gentiles (who are the last) with the inspired Liturgy of the Word to welcome them as the first!

 

Picture 1:    Mass Begins   

Picture 2:    The Team

Picture 3:    The Guys, Jerry, Bill, Mike, & Tony

Pciture 4:    Leo with Rosemary

Picture 5:    Claire with her fiance & dad, Andrew & Tom

Picture 6:    John & Sandra

 

 

 

 

 

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  755.00

  Outreach: $   310.00

 

  Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

                       

          Barbara gets a cookie for her birthday

Readings: Wisdom 18, 6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11, 1-19; Luke 12, 32-48.

Wisdom: this book is one of the 12 special books only finally approved by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546.  Martin Luther, for instance, did not think the 12 books were genuine.  Whatever the case, the 12 books are in a special section of our bible after the Old Testament.

The book we are reading from today contains traditional Jewish and Greek ideas about life, basically saying that God rewards those faithful to him & punishes you know whom.

What are You Afraid of?

When I was about sixteen, I came home from the old Jesuit High School one afternoon probably in the spring.  Nobody was home, not even my sister as far as I can remember. My dad was at work. My mom was at one of her afternoon bridge clubs and had gone with one of her friends because her baby blue Pontiac was in the garage. 

After hanging around a bit and getting bored, I decided I was going to go visit a friend and use my mom’s car. Mom, however, did not like me using her car, so I could not find her keys. Now in those days all of us kids knew how to run a car without keys. It was called hot wiring a car. You used tin foil on the back of the key slot under the dash. 

So I hot wired my mom’s big Pontiac, pulled out of the driveway onto Stanford, and turned toward Preston Road. Arriving at the corner the car stalls. For five minutes I am working on the key slot to start the car, all to no avail, when a car coming north on Preston turns into Stanford. A lady is driving.  I know that lady and sitting next to her, my mom.

The master had returned and the servant was unprepared. In fact, the servant was caught red handed.

I never got that car started and, in fact, had to pay my hard earned paper route money to get it towed and fixed. I had shorted out some wires. I don’t remember my mom ever saying anything, but I was humiliated. 

I remembered this incident when I read about the master & the servant. I have some observations about these readings.

First, I don’t see our God as a thief who is trying to catch us off guard. He is not a strict master who is looking to catch us red handed and beat us. 

Secondly, I don’t see us as servants. In fact, in John’s gospel Jesus says he does not call us servants, but friends. In today’s psalm it says, "Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.  We are his chosen.  So is everyone.

To see this parable in a positive light, I would go back to last week when we talked about life being a gift.  When it says that the Lord will come at an hour we do not expect, I propose that the gift comes at moments and in packages we do not expect.  Appreciation is the goal and the process. It involves being sensitive and reflective.

One of the best lines in the whole gospel today is the very first line where Jesus says, "Do not be afraid any longer." This means I do not have to be afraid of God, afraid of death, afraid of getting caught red handed, or afraid of missing the gifts of the moment. 

I’ll always remember how stupid I felt when my mom came around that corner and saw me in her car, broken down. She did not tear into me, and neither do we have a god who is a thief or master who will beat us. 

So what are you afraid of?

   

 

 

Says Tori, "Welcome in Everybody, and Happy Mother's Day.

 

 

Readings:  

 Acts of the Apostles 1, 15-17, 20-26,  The lot fell upon Matthias.

Psalm 103,  The Lord has set his throne in heaven.

 1 John 4, 11-16,  We must love one another.

 John 17, 11-19,  When I was with them I protected them.

 

 

 

They are back, Everybody.  Welcome Home, Bernadette, to you and Gilbert playing with the kids in the hallway.Welcome home to both of you from your around the world cruise.
 

 

Mother's Day History:

1905-08: Anna Jarvis of West Virginia began this celebration for her mother, Ann, who cared for wounded Civil War soldiers of both sides.  She campaigned to make it a national day and in 1914,  Woodrow Wilson made it national.

The spelling: always singular, according to Anna. 

Hallmark Cards: Anna hated them because she felt you know what.  

 

 

 

 

Welcome in, too, Tom & Teresa.  Are you ready for an around the world Viking cruise?

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day

This morning I would like to tell the story of how on one occasion I attempted to make up to my mom all that she had to put up with in me.  This took place when I must have been about 40, still living and working in East Africa, but on a home leave.  Rosemary says I have shared this story before.  Pardon me if I go here again.  It was one of the highlights of my life.

I had a couple of things I figured I owed her for.  The first was that she thought I was a bad kid, especially that afternoon the University Park Police came to our house looking for me. 

It just happened to be the very day on which my mom was hosting her whole bridge club. 

 

 

 

Sister team, Zoe & Georgie teaming up to light and bless our candles for the week.

 

 

The second was that I did not go to College (I was enrolled at N.D.) 
Instead, I joined the Jesuits in the days when we never came home.  It was seven years before I got back to Dallas, not to go home, but to teach at Jesuit.

To compound this event some 15 years later I agreed to accept an invitation to set up a spiritual center in Nairobi, Kenya.  For at least 5 or 6 years my mom never spoke to the Jesuits in Dallas.  She was convinced I had been sent.

 

 

 

The team special for today on Mother's Day & the special vow renewal.

 

 

So, at about 40 years of age I am on a few months home leave, when my mom asks would I be willing to come to Ireland with her and her two sisters, Kitty and Pauline.  “Sure,” I said.  I would be their driver.

So, we met up in London.  

We went to eat at The Irish Pub where we were seated in the basement.  Half way through the meal a victorious Irish rugby club tromps in.  There was a piano player doing Irish songs at the end of the room on a little platform.  These guys joined in with such gusto that I think they drove the poor guy out.

 

 

 

John reads the closing.

 

 

Guess who took up the piano, my Aunt Pauline from N.Y.  Eventually, all the guys and my girls got up, made a ring around the otherwise now empty basement, we held hands, and with my aunt playing we danced around in a counter clockwise direction.  It was one of the most memorable nights of my life and got us all off to a roaring start.

In Dublin we rented a little red car, took off to the north, and laughed our way through the next ten days.  We drove counter clockwise all the way over to and beyond Shannon.   

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Shonda and Ben, for singing & leading us in The Father will Dance, one of my most favorite hymns.

 

 

Our daily drill was breakfast around 9:00, in the car about 10:00.  At 12:00 we were looking for lunch until 1:00 or 1:30.  3:00 was time for tea, and by 5:00 I had to find a place to stay that was clean, had carpet, and had bathrooms connected to the rooms.  The girls stayed in one room and laughed until they cried every night.  If Ireland were not so small we would never have gotten anywhere.

This was probably the best time I ever had with my mom.

You?  What was the best time?  Or as a mom, what was the best time?

 

 

 

The Blessing of All The Mothers, actual or virtual.

 

 

 The Special Blessing.