The Transfiguration of the Lord, August 6, 2023

Acts of the Apostles 2:  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

1 Corinthians 12:  There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there  are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

John 20:  Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

           

      

 

John Stack Ministries now meets at:  The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano

 

 

Here are the arrangements for Sandra Pratt:

                       

Celebration of Life:  Thursday, 5/25,  6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

All Saints Catholic Church, Dallas, Fellowship Hall

5231 Meadowcreek Drive, Dallas, TX

 

LIVESTREAM INFORMATION for the Celebration of Life

The livestream will start about 5-10 minutes before it begins, and that is when the livestream will appear at the below links.

The livestream can be accessed at https://www.allsaintsdallas.org/livestream.  If you click on that link right now it will show that the next event is tomorrow’s 9 AM Mass (or today’s mass may still be on)… but that is the spot all livestreams can be found.

We simulcast to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/asccdallas) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@asccdallas).

Christ the King Catholic Church, 

8017 Preston Road, Dallas, TX

 

The streaming info for the funeral Mass is not available yet.

 

 

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben 

 

  Expenses: $   680.00

  Outreach: $   285.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

The Kiss of Peace

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch, Be yours to bear it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep tho’ poppies blow
In Flanders Field.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

 

Isaiah 6:  And then I heard the voice of the Master: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" I spoke up, "I'll go. Send me!"

1 Corinthians 15:  So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it's all the same: We spoke God's truth and you entrusted your lives.

Luke 5:  When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, "Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch."

 

 

 

 

 

Another Reminder for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 9, 2025

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Hue & Linda.
 

 

 

Welcome: Catholic Mass with coffee & juice, and pastries, some bought, some home-made.  

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

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

 

 

 

 

What are these two up to??

 

 

Readings:

Genesis 9, 8-15,  Never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood.

Psalm 147,  Your ways, Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.

 1 Peter 3, 18-22,  God patiently waited in the days of Noah.

Mark 1, 12-15, The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.

 

 

 

Just judging by appearances, I would suspect that whoever is seated in front of John is in danger.  Why else would be Connie so amused??

 

 

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, February 16, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos, you will fit right in.  

JULIET LUNCHEON, (aka.,just us ladies into eating together),  March Luncheon, TBA

 

 

 

Cindy & Ken, Joe & Geri (twins?)

 

Dickenson Trip:  February 23- March 3

 

 

 

Bill Hammond putting the touch on Bill Ekes to join us in Dickinson, TX to help those folks after the hurricane. 

 

 

What is going on in Our Catholic World:

1   For a good article on why an excellent NY Jesuit was disinvited to a NJ parish, go to 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/scariest-catholic-james-martin.html

 

 

 

 

Say Nina and Kerry, "Who let in this old geezer in with that red cap?"

 

 

True?

– 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

 

 

 

 

Healing for Grace.

 

 

See you Sunday.

J.S., 214-783-0443

 

 

 

 

Healing for Jan.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Peace, Everybody.

 

Acts of the Apostles 14: They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith,…

Revelation 21:  He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.

John 13:  I give you a new commandment: love one another.

 

 Sunset over Lake Lewisville

 

 

Thanks…

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers, Jackie & Brent

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  Aggie Stryker

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

 

Readings:  Download 5-15-22 – Readings – 5th Easter

Homily:  

 

 

Sunrise over White Rock Lake

 

 

 

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 Lambrini, John Cade's wife who is dealing with cancer;  For Tom Good;  For a young man, 19 struggling with a brain tumor and cancer;    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;

                           

 

Sunset in Dallas

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 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 the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

Sunset in Alabama

                   

                  

Birthdays:   

Anniversaries:   

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  560.00

Outreach: $  0.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

A rest after a busy day

                                    

Rosemary's Blessing:  

…and life is still a constant surprise to me.  We never know what will happen next, what we will see, and what important person will come into our life, or what important person we will lose.  Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always drama, if not tragedy.  But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed.  And we must have faith in God, and in the Universe, and in a better tomorrow even if that faith is not always deserved.

 

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

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?