Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, December 31, 2023

Readings:                          

1 Kings   19,  16, 19-21,  Please, let me kiss my father & mother goodbye.

Psalm 16,  You are my inheritance, O Lord.

Galatians 5, 1, 13-18,     You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 9, 51-62,  I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family.

 

 

 

Says Donna, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Introduction

[first reading] In our reading from 1 Kings, Elisha realizes that he has received a call from God to first be Elijah’s servant, then his successor.

[second reading] The gospel sets us free from the Law! For the whole Law is fulfilled by these words of Christ, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’  We are led by the Spirit to be love, and this love is active in works.

 

 

Mabel and Marlene also say, "Hi, Folks, Come on in."

 

Homily by Mike:

How do we become the Lord’s disciples? Discipleship is a choice, through grace, to be led by the Holy Spirit to live the gospel by treating others with goodness and justice, with tenderness and compassion.  ‘For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal live!’ 

 

 

 

Cole, our Candle Lighter, at work.

 

As Jesus walked along the road to Jerusalem with his aspiring disciples in today’s gospel, others joined to walk along with him.  And a man said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus turned to him, ‘Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head.’  The journey to Jerusalem is the structural backbone of the Gospel for it is there that Jesus literally dies to himself for humankind.   He is telling this man that if he wants to follow him he must die to self.   Everyone’s Jerusalem is different; but the journey is the same. The inspired writers tell Jesus’ aspiring disciples to return to Galilee, in the written gospel. It is there that the Holy Spirit will lead them, and us, to their Jerusalem.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Alison.

 

Jesus said to another man who had begun to walk along beside him, ‘Follow me!’  The man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Obviously he wouldn’t have been walking along with Jesus that day if his father had just died.  The man’s answer to Jesus was that he wasn’t going to make a decision until he received his  inheritance when his father died. So Jesus said to him. ‘Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead, but you I have asked to be spiritually alive, to proclaim by word and deed the kingdom of heaven.

 

 

Offertory, John & Alison, Carrie & Paul.  Thanks.

 

Still another said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.  Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit to serve in the kingdom of God.’   Those who are looking back over their shoulder literally do not know where they are going; they are likely to fall.  Jesus is saying to him, ‘put the past behind; look forward, follow me.’ 

 

 

Special Good Wishes to you, John, on the big Wednesday Operation.

 

 

This past Sunday my younger brother and I were visiting our older brother in Florida.  I took a short walk that afternoon to a park not far from his house.  There, on Father’s Day, I began to enjoy watching a woman and her twenty-something son celebrating a picnic lunch together.  Later, after joining them, I learned that her husband, the young man’s father, had recently passed unexpectedly.  It had been difficult for them, but members of their church community had supported them with help and encouragement.  She had gone back to work, was making good friends, and he had returned to college.  Each of us has a cross to bear on our journey in the kingdom of heaven; but, we are called to assist one another, to press forward, our burden light.

 

 

Mike sharing his thoughts on today's readings.

Job 7: Job spoke, saying: Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?  Are not his days those of hirelings?

1 Corinthians 9: I have become all things to all, to save at lease some.  All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.

Mark 1:  He told them, "Let us go to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come."

 

Some of our Community members  are in need of special prayers:

 

Jan Keszler  is in Chicago with her Mom who will be 101 on 6/31.  Her Mom  is now in Hospice Care and Jan asks for prayers for her and the family.

 

John Cade's Mother-in-Law, Kaliope, who is 96, fell and broke 2 vertebrae and is in the hospital.

 

Tom and Teresa Quinn were on a  river cruise on the Danube and the second day Tom tested positive for Covid.  They are now in a hotel room in Vienna and Tom is quarantined for 5 days and can't leave the room.  Teresa just hopes she doesn't get it.

 

Readings:

Isaiah 5, 1-7, My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

Psalm 80, The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Philippians  4, 6-9, Have no anxiety at all.

Matthew 21, 33-43, There was a landowner who planted a vineyard

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda 

Readers,  Jackie & John Simari  & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  Deacon Mike 

Homily,  Deacon Mike 

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike, Ben, Richard 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

 

 

Download MASS Reading week 27

 

 

 

 

 

Does it get any better??

 

Homily

Recall how the gospel ended last Sunday: Jesus told the chief priests and the other religious leaders that evil men and prostitutes were going to enter the Kingdom before they did. Visualize this: The angels in heaven have begun to rejoice for those who have repented and turned to God.  So Jesus said to the lawyers who have rejected him, “Have you not read the Law and the Prophets; where The Father’s servant, Isaiah, taught you how to bear fruit; we are to love one another with goodness and kindness, with tenderness and compassion.  In the John gospel Jesus addresses us this way: “I’ve chosen you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last. “I am the vine; you are the branches.

 

Richard monitoring  the Zoom program.

 

 

Please Remember these special people:

For Alan Stryker;  For John Doherty with back pain; For Becky's dad who has moved to the other side;  For Cindy recuperating at home;    For David Dismore's bad shoulder from a biking accident; 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 Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, Woodlands,  For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney, who just passed to the other side;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family;   for all the students and teachers and coaches returning to school, for Geri's sister with heart & circulation problems, 

Richard & Mike Zooming. 

 

For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  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, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

Birthdays:  Georgie, 19, Erin MClurg, Nancy Kovatis, Sabrina DeGenova, 25

Anniversaries: Paul & Carrie Bieda, 3rd

 

 

Spring color in fall.
                                                

                 

Community Finances, October 4, 2020

Expenses: $450.00  

Outreach   $100.00    (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

I thank you God for this most amazing day:

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and

for a blue true dream of sky; and

for everything which is natural

which is infinite

which is yes.

e.e.cummings

 

 

Just in case you missed our new address, 7017 Helsem Way  75230.   (notice the same Zip Code as Tulip Lane?)

Here are the links for Sunday:

 

 

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles 2, 42-47.   All who believed had all things in common.

Psalm 118,  Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.

1 Peter 1, 3-9,   You rejoice with glorious joy.  (Wow, 3 long sentences)

 John 20,  19-31,    Unless I see the marks.

 

Homily unavailable this week, sorry.  Next week.

 

Have a good one, John & Rosemary in Dresden