Jeremiah 31: I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Hebrews 5: Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
John 12: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Another Reminder for the 5th Sunday in Lent, March 17, 2024
Here are the links for Sunday:
For Zoom ( the video conference, same as last week )
Isaiah 60: Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of theLord.
Ephesians 3: … the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Matthew 2: … and on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Mary Jane reading from Isaiah
Thanks…
Music, Shonda & Ben
Readers, Mary Jane & John
Homily, John Cade
Eucharistic Prayer A & B, John Stack & John Cade
The Magic Zoom makers, Hue & Kevin
Final Blessing, Rosemary
John reading from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians
Remember these special people:
For John Stack; For Shonda's Grandmother; 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 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;
Brent gets a cookie to bring home to Meredith for her birthday
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.
Connie gets a cookie for her birthday
Birthdays: Cheryl O'Hagen 1/9
Anniversaries: Jackie & Rick 1/12
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 1,400.00
Outreach: $ 90.00
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Rosemary shares the Thank You Card from the men at Soul's Harbor for the sweatshirts and hoodies donated by the community
Rosemary's Blessing:
When the decorations of Christmas have been packed away then the work of Christmas begins:
Lord, help us
to find the lost, to heal those broken in spirit, to feed the hungry, to release the oppressed, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples, and to make a little music with the heart…
Adapted from Work of Christmas Begins by Howard Thurman
John Stack Ministries meets on Sunday for Mass at 9:30 at The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano, Texas.
JSM Mission-Faith Statement
Help create a Catholic Community that welcomes all God’s People, provides for & challenges spiritual & total growth.
Reaches out to help people who are disadvantaged & make the world we live in a better place to live.
Isaiah 50: And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me, so I'm not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I'll never regret this.
James 2: For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you?
Mark 9: Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how.
The Blog will be on vacation until September28,2024
There will be no Mass at the ArtCentre this Sunday. Mass will be on Zoom. Please note new address below.
Another Reminder for 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 15, 2024
Readings: Isaiah 40, 1-11; Psalm 104, O Bless the Lord, My Soul; Titus 2, 11-14, 3, 4-7; Luke 3, 1-22.
Baptism & Original Sin: traditional & contemporary theology
Traditional theology on baptism & original sin:
a. Original sin: the 1 sin of Eve & Adam, the eating of an apple, ruptured the relationship between God & Humans.
b. Why we baptized: purification & removal of that original sin inherited by all babies. A new born baby was a sinner & would go to Limbo forever if not baptized before dying.
Contemporary theology on baptism & original sin:
a. Original sin:
1. no original sin
2. Genesis story of the fall is allegory, not fact. No Garden of Eden and no Adam & Eve.
3. from Darwin's Origin of the Species the idea has developed that in our human infancy, we needed certain behaviors to survive. For instance, killing another person & stealing (like food). As our ancestors formed communities, norms of social behavior emerged, for example, the 10 commandments.
4. St. Augustine, ca. 400:
–A major, if not the major influence on Christian/Catholic theology of original sin and human nature from his time to today
–After conversion from a rather lusty life at 32, he had a pessimistic view of human nature, different from early Christianity
–St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), Pelagius, a British monk, & Julian of Eclanum, Italy, a bishop, all found nature good and fought against Augustine
–Augustine used all means to vanquish his opponents with their positive view that nature was good, even to sending a gift of horses to the pope to influence his decision. Augustine won.
b. Why we baptize today: (using the contemporary theology)
1. To celebrate a new life
2. To ritually & formally welcome the new person into a family, a community, and to a God famous for love and acceptance.
3. To cleanse after the journey
Sources: Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; John Shelby Spong; Wikipedia
We are Getting Better
I have one more Christmas story to celebrate this baptism today.
There are three people in the story. My good friend, her little daughter, and her niece, who is about 16 or 17. The story took place at Collin Creek Mall one or two days just after Christmas. Guess what they were doing. Bringing things back.
It happened that the niece had offered to take the daughter to the mall to have girl fun while her mother went to the mall to return various items. After they had been there a while, the niece phoned to say that it was getting to be time for her to leave. So could she return the daughter?
They agreed that the easiest way to arrange the swap was for the niece to take the girl in her car, drive over to where my friend's car was, and then transfer the daughter & her car seat. So they met in the parking lot, my friend's car in a parking place, the other car in the aisle behind the first car.
Mother goes into the niece's car, unbuckles her daughter, and places the girl in her car. Then she disconnects the car seat and reconnects it in her own car, securing her daughter in place. Somewhere in this process she set her purse down. Yep, you guessed it.
Who knows where she set it down. Maybe by her niece's car, maybe by her own. But apparently outside.
She gets into her car and drives off. Almost immediately she notices her purse is missing. She calls her niece and asks her to look in her car. No purse.
So they both return to where the car was parked. They drive around, ask people. No sign of the purse. The niece finally departs and mom goes home. She calls her mom, then she calls the mall security. Nothing had been reported or brought in. Security says to call the police. The police do not know what to do. Was it stolen? Or was it forgotten?
She thinks of her credit card, of getting a new license, she thinks of her phone. So, using her mom's phone, she starts calling her phone hoping someone will answer No one answers.
Time passes. A few hours later in the evening, her mom gets a phone call. It is young boy, a high school aged kid. He has the purse. He says he and his dad found it in the parking lot and simply used the phone's incoming calls to call the number identified as "Mom."
The mom who got the purse back was Bobbi Jo Whitley, mother of Dillon, Hunter, and Audry. Bobbi's mom is Jo Whitley, who read this morning. The purse came back. Nothing missing.
Are there not lots of good stories like this? Are we not evolving into a better people? Scott Burns said so in his column in the Dallas MorningNews a couple of weeks ago. A great Jesuit geologist and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, thought so, saying that the human race is slowly becoming more mature, more sensitive, more peaceful. I think so, too. For lots of reasons.
For John Stack having a hard time right now with a bad back; For Laura Chollick; 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, For Sir Charlie & Jan; Shonda's mom & Cody & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy,
Amsterdam
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 & a nephew; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother; for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.
Camellias
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Barcelona
Community Finances,
Expenses: $
Outreach: $
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
The Mercado, Barcelona
Rosemary's Blessing:
Loving Father, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
Robert Louis Stevenson
JSM Mission-Faith Statement
Help create a Catholic Community that welcomes all God’s People, provides for & challenges spiritual & total growth.
Reaches out to help people who are disadvantaged & make the world we live in a better place to live.
John Stack Ministries, 7017 Helsem Way, Dallas, Texas 75230
Jeremiah 20: I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; …
Romans 12: … that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Matthew 16: For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Another Reminder for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 3, 2023
Here are the links for Sunday:
For Zoom ( the video conference, same as last week )