Reminder for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 21, 2024

 

Guess who says hello.

 

Welcome: Catholic Mass with coffee and juice and pastries, both bought and home-made, after Mass

Time: 9:30; Celebrate with the Community & Stack. 

Place: Sigler Elementary, 1400 Janwood Drive, Plano, TX 75075

 

 

The Offertory Team, Meredith & Brent, Cheryl & Caroline. 

 

 

Readings:

Isaiah  6, 1-8,   “Here I am,” I said, “send me.   (The call of Isaiah.)

Psalm 138,  In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.  (one of my favorites)

1 Corinthians 15, 1 – 11,   I am the least of the apostles.

Luke 5, 1-11,   The big catch of fish.

 

 Wow!  What do I see on that table? 

 

Community Activities:  

1. ROMEO MEET: Friday, February 5, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.   Welcome all wakos, you will fit right in.                                                                                                                                             
2. JULIET LUNCHEON, (aka.,just us ladies into eating together),  Thursday, February 5, 1:00 P.M.,   Cafe Amore.  600 N. Coit, Richardson,  (Italian & BYOB),   Please RSVP to Marilyn Ackerman, rmackerman5@gmail.com

 

Oh, that looks so good.  I wonder if anybody is watching.                                                          

 

What is going on in our Catholic World  

1.  Currents in American Christianity, Corpus, December 29,   920  words,        Download American Christianity 2-4-16        

                                                                                                                                  

Donor Receipts for your 2015 donations have been emailed out.  If you have not received yours, please let John or Rosemary know.  Thank you for your generosity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Me?  Eat one of those cookies?  Never!  But…may I?

 

True? 

 Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.

CAMILLE PISSARRO

 

 

The Gang, Gil & Bernadette, "Sir" Charlie & Jan

 

See you Sunday.

J.S., 214-783-0443

 

 

The Sacrament of Healing and Life.

 

JSM Mission-Faith Statement

Help create a Catholic Community that welcomes all God’s People, provides for and challenges spiritual and total growth.

Reaches out to help people who are disadvantaged and make the world we live in a better place to live.

 

For Victoria and Zoe, too.  

 

                     

Communion, too, bread & grape juice.

Extra, Extra, I am seeing a Light at the end  of the tunnel!

 

Rosemary & I got our vaccines today at the Fair Park Super Center.  I phoned John Cade, he raced down, and he and his mother in law got the vaccine, too.

 

As of today you need no appointment.  Just be 75 or older & ID.  I will verify that you are all passed that age.

 

It took us 1 hour waiting in the car to get in the Fair Park gate 5 check point.  Once in, it was really well organized and in 2 1/2 hours we walked out vaccinated.

The easy & quick way to get there: 75 South, I30 East, look for the Ferris wheel on your right, and you are there.

 

Rosemary & I wanted to pass the word as soon as possible.   Rosemary was given this tip yesterday afternoon, Wednesday by a neighbor.   No wonder we love this neighborhood!

Happy Birthday today, Jan Keszler!

 

Am I actually seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  

 

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 Morning News 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.

 

What do you think?

 

Picture 1:  Mass begins with Kevin helping

 

Picture 2:  Daniel (Mr. A&M) & Beth

 

Picture 3:  Bob & Jerry with 2 new knees

 

Picture 4:  Georgie

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing Video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Donna updates us on the sweatshirt and hoodie drive

 

Expenses: $   1,000.00

Outreach: $   450.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Lynda reads her blessing

 

 

Lynda's Blessing:

Today I am thankful for eyes that have come to see that life will not always be easy.
That road will bend.
Those lines will blur.
That tides will rise.
And that storms will come.
I am thankful for those lights that took the form of humans.
Who shone into me when I was at my lowest.
Who were not afraid of sadness. Or darkness.
Or the many layers that wove themselves around me and made me hard to understand.
Or reach. Or even hard to love sometimes.
I'm thankful for skies that change color.
For paths that change direction.
And for seasons that remind me that we are all just one breath away from a new beginning.
I am thankful, knowing that kindness still exists.
That the truth is out there.
That faith can move mountains.
And that I was made for every last bit of it.

~ 'Thankful' by Ullie Kaye

 

 

 

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  755.00

  Outreach: $   310.00

 

  Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

                       

          Barbara gets a cookie for her birthday

Genesis  22, 1-2, 10-13, 15-19, God put Abraham to the test

Psalm 16, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living

1Romans 8, 31-34, If God is with us, who can be against us.

Mark  9, 2-10, He was transfigured.  

 

Dreaming….