6th Sunday of Easter May 14, 2023

Isaiah 11:  On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.

Romans 15:  Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sign praises to your name.

Matthew 3:  A voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

 

     

Meredith and Brent get a cookie for their anniversary

 

 

Advent Opportunities

1.  December 11, 2022 We are collecting sweatshirts and hoodies for the men at Soul's Harbor.

2.  From Lynda Fleming:

Shonda and Cody (home sick) get a cookie for their anniversary

 

 

Thanks…     

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Mary Jane and John

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

         

                           

Tom and Denni have an anniversary too.

               

                                                                  

Readings:  Download 12-04-22- Readings – 2nd Sunday of Advent

Homily:  

 

 

Richard gives out communion

 

 

 

Remember these special people:

For Jan;  For Tom  Quinn who is having back surgery on November 21st;  For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer and Kaliope, John Cade's Mother-in-law;  For Madeleine, Richard Eshelbrenner's granddaughter;  For Hue; For Jackie;  For John's sister, Kathey recovering from a fall;    For Tom Good;  For a young man, 19 struggling with a brain tumor and cancer;     For Mary Hall's friend Cadence still suffering from a serious medical condition;   For Sir Charlie & Jan; 

       

Jackie's mom, 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 & friends, Annie, a mom of 3 kids and Michael ;    for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

 

  Connie gives out communion

 

 

Birthdays:  Mike Moran 12/2, Grace LeBlanc 12/4, Cathy Bambenek 12/4

Anniversaries:   Brent and Meredith 12/1, Shonda and Cody 12/3

 

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  1,995.00 

Outreach: $   515.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

                 

Lynda tells us about the Angel Tree

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:  

 

Sometimes readings in Advent focus mainly on repentance and on waiting for the Savior and Messiah to redeem us from our sins.  Yet, the Jewish people of the Hebrew Scriptures and the early Christians had much broader expectations.  The Savior is the one who comforts and heals us, rescues and unbinds us, enlightens us and lifts us up as well as wipes away our sins.  The earthly life of Jesus was filled with his healing and compassionate acts; his treating outcasts and women with inclusivity, dignity and love; his breaking down cultural, religious and social walls that separate people; and his not only forgiving sinners, but also eating with them.   This is what Jesus wants to do for us.  Advent is a time of becoming more whole, a time of becoming all we want to be and all God wants us to be.

Advent Reflection by S. Jean Amore, CSJ, VP for Mission and Academics, Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead, N.Y.

Readings: Sirach 35, 12-18; Psalm 34, The Lord hears the Cry of the Poor; 2 Timothy 4, 6-8, 16-18; Luke 18 9-14.

Introduction to the Readings 

A brief word about our first reading.  We have heard from Sirach eight weeks ago on the twenty second Sunday of Ordinary Time.  At that time I had told you that this book was written by Sirach, it is part of the Wisdom literature, and probably written around the year 180 BCE.  The writing is also known at Ecclesiasticus, because early in the life of the church it was one of the most used of the Old Testament books.  I love that contrast between the statement in the first two lines “The LORD is a God of justice, who knows no favorites” with what then follows, namely how God hears the cry of the poor, the widows, the orphans, the oppressed. 

 

Our second reading is the final one from Paul’s Letters to Timothy.  We have been reading from these two letters for the past six weeks.  The letter is perhaps the last one written by Paul from prison in Rome before he is executed.  The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus, form what is known as the Pastoral Letters.  The style is very different from Paul’s other letters.  He is writing to these two to encourage them as leaders in communities that Paul had set up.  Remember, Timothy, who is mentioned in Luke’s Acts Chapter 16, was a companion to Paul.  Our reading today is the conclusion of the second letter and sounds like Paul’s farewell.

 

 Homily

 Main Point – A simple parable, humility trumps pride, especially when we pray.  I could stop there but won’t because there is a second layer to this simple parable.  We need to understand the setting for the story.  The two men going into the temple were not like two men going into church here any afternoon. 

 First of all, they were going into the Temple in Jerusalem.  They were going into a “Prayer of Atonement” service held each afternoon in the Temple.  The Pharisee would have naturally joined with the other Pharisees at the front and the tax collector would have hung around inside the door.  In the eyes of the Law, or Torah, the Pharisee was a very good person, and what he declared went even beyond the Law. 

 Where he failed, was realizing that everything about his “holiness” was due to his own efforts and nothing came from God.  The tax collector on the other hand was all too well aware of his shortcomings and acknowledges that he is totally dependant on God and His mercy.

 

 Our catholic tradition has always given me the impression that if I was good, went to Mass every Sunday, obeyed the commandments, fasted at the appropriate time etc. then I was all set for heaven.  It would seem that God had very little to do in it.  And of course this was the whole crux that caused the Reformation. 

 One would think we could have learned from our mistakes.  At that time Martin Luther was appalled at the practice of selling indulgences, as if folks could purchase their way into heaven.  His position was: “Salvation by faith alone” and the church preferred to add that “good works” were also important. 

 But back to the two in the temple.  There are several interesting little hints given which tell us a whole lot more.  The Pharisee stands apart, he does not seem to belong to the gathered community.  When the tax collector prays “have mercy on me a sinner” the word he uses in the original Greek is not the common word “eleison” which we use when we say Lord have mercy, or Kyrie Eleison, but a very different word connecting to the liturgy which he was part of that afternoon. 

 In other words the tax collector saw himself as part of a community, and absolutely in need of God’s forgiveness, the Pharisee saw only himself!!  It was being part of a community and recognizing his total need for God, which allowed for him to go home justified. 

 
 

 The message:  we must be aware that even though we are here each Sunday, this should not lead us down the same path of the Pharisee. 

Picture 1:  Mass with Tony

Picture 2:  Tom, Lynda, & Nina packing up food for this Saturday at the Habitat House

Picture 3:  Maggie with her dad & granddad, Tom & Bob

Picture 4:  Sienna with her mom & dad, Erin & Payton

 

 

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  755.00

  Outreach: $   310.00

 

  Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

                       

          Barbara gets a cookie for her birthday

Genesis15: Abraham gave the name Isaac to this  son of his whom Sarah bore him.

Hebrews 11:  So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Luke 2:  When the day of circumcision arrived, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.  Then when the days stipulated for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God. 

 

Isaiah 50:The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced;

Philippians 2: Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,  he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

 

Music,   Ben & Shonda

 

Expenses: $   470.00

Outreach: $    110.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

The grass never sleeps.

Or the roses.

Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,

and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,

and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me.

And maybe the stars did, maybe the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn't move,

maybe the lake far away, where once he walked as on a blue pavement, lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not

keep that vigil, how they must have wept,

so utterly human, knowing this too

must be a part of the story.

Gethsemane  by Mary Oliver 

 

Isaiah 6:  As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes it's growth  spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

1 Thessalonians 5:  May the God of Peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely,  spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

John 1:  "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord;"

 

 

Connie reading from the book of Isaiah

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Shonda & Ben 

Readers,  Connie & John

Homily,   John Stack

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 Thessalonians
 

 

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.

 

 

John  reading from the Gospel of John

                                    

Birthdays: Allen Stryker 12/17, Ben Porter 12/18

     

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  505.00

Outreach: $   180.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                                 
Lynda  letting us know about the Anger Tree for the Plano Wellness Center for Older Adults