The Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community, a virtual faith community started in Northwest New Jersey in 2008, is inviting the members of John Stack Ministries to join us, Sandra and other friends of Sandra Pratt for a Zoom service of blessings, readings and songs honoring Sandra on Saturday morning, May 13. The start time has not been finalized. We will probably begin at 11 am Central time (noon Eastern time). The service will be about 30 minutes.
We will send the Zoom invitation email to Rosemary with two attachments (the worship guide and Highlights of Sandra Pratt’s Amazing Life) on Wednesday 5/10. Rosemary will forward that information to the members of John Stack Ministries.
A message from Richard Eshelbrenner
There will be a single Parent Family Fun Day. We recognize single mothers and fathers, as well as their students for a fun low key day in the courtyard with games, picnic, crafts, and TLC.
Held on Saturday June 3rd from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Isaiah 60: Get out of bed, Jerusalem! Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight. God's bright glory has risen for you.
Ephesians 3: The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God.
Matthew 2: They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
Lynda reading from Isaiah
Thanks…
Music, Ben
Readers, Lynda & Tom
Homily, John Cade
Eucharistic Prayer A & B, John Stack & John Cade
The Magic Zoom makers, Hue & Kevin
Final Blessing, Rosemary
Tom reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians
Remember these special people:
For John Stack; For John Simari's mother; For Shonda's Grandmother; For Meredith ; For Tom Quinn; For Frank Esparza; 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 Mary Hall's family and 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 and her neighbor, Marie and the family; for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.
Brent receiving a check for $2,000 for Soul's Harbor
Birthdays: Tom Fleming 1/5, Cheryl O'Hagan 1/9
Anniversaries:
Donna sharing a Thank You card from the men at Soul's Harbor for the sweatshirts and hoodies.
Expenses: $ 2024 900.00
2025 390.00
Outreach: $ 2024 600.00
2025 130.00
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Lynda sharing a Thank You note from the Plano Wellness Center for Older Adults for the gifts we gave them at Christmas
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.
For Sandra Pratt's family; For Cindy Cramer's family; For the family of Ron Senter; For Meredith whose cancer has come back; For Jan; For Tom Quinn who had back surgery on November 21st; For Lambrini, John Cade's wife, who is dealing with cancer ; 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.
The Kiss of Peace
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 965.00
Outreach: $ 360.00
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
The Kiss of Peace
Rosemary's Blessing:
O God, we thank you for the fact that you have inspired men and women in all nations and in all cultures. We call you different names: some call you Allah; some call you Elohim; some call you Jehovah; some call you Brahma; some call you the Unmoved Mover. But we know that these are all names for one and the same God.
Grant that we will follow you and become so committed to your way and your kingdom that we will be able to establish in our lives and in this world a brother and sisterhood, that we will be able to establish here a kingdom of understanding, where men and women will live together as brothers and sisters and respect the dignity and worth of every human being.
In the name and spirit of Jesus. Amen.
Taken from The prayers of Martin Luther King Jr. by John Dear appearing in the National Catholic Reporter, January 15, 2013
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.
For Cody, For Paul & Carrie recuperating, plus her ex, Larry; For Alan Stryker; For Joe Sullivan; For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ; For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine; For David Dinsmore's bad shoulder from a biking accident; For Esparza's new great grandson baby, son of Monique; 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 Loretta's aunt Alicia; For Sir Charlie & Jan; Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;
Tranquility, Fall
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 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 a little 4 month old boy undergoing an operation, from Barbara; For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools
Birthdays: Jan Keszler, Meredith, & Ben
A little crowded in the studio this morning.
Community Finances, December 20, 2020
Expenses: $1014.00
Outreach $0 (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Schedule for Christmas Eve, Thursday:
4:0o, live & recorded Christmas music
4:30, Christmas Eve Mass begins
Becky got a deal on all this classroom & office furniture at a local college closing down their classrooms and going on totally line.
Rosemary's Blessing:
The Christmas Story will always be the story of Emmanuel, of God-with-us, always and everywhere, in the everyday, in the chaos, in the flight into exile, in the love between a man and a woman and in the birth of a child.
It is the story of God who heals, empowers and loves us just as we are – in our greatness and our foolishness.
As we anticipate the joy, the love and the peace that are God's Christmas gifts to us, let us receive them with gratitude and be sure to unfold them and share them especially where they need to be more visible.
Sister Jean Amore, CSJ, Principal, Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead, N.Y.
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.
This year we are going to the Meyerson on Friday, December 16th at 7:30 pm. We will have seats in the Orchestra section at approximately $45.00 per person. Please let Rosemary (rosemary.mcginn@sbcglobal.net) know as soon as possible if you are interested in going.
Something new and special this year. We will meet before the 7:30 concert at the condo of Beth & Rob at 2111 Marilla on the corner with S. Pearl across the street from the Dallas Farmers’ Market.
You may come by car or by DART. More on this later.
Buddy taking care of the flowers.
What is going on in Our Catholic World
Nothing this week
Georgie taking care of Buddy.
True?
Men who have pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.
Rita Rudner, Comedian
The Team at work.
See you Sunday.
J.S., 214-783-0443
Peace and Happy Thanksgiving.
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.
1 Samuel 16: There – anoint him, for this is the one! Then Samuel , with the horn of oil in his hand, anointed David in the presence of his brothers;
Ephesians 5: Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.
John 4: As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam"
I am sorry everyone but Rosemary forgot to put the battery back in the camera so we have no pictures today.
There will be a Celebration of Life for Ron Senter on April 1, 2023 at Restland at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Remember these special people:
For the family of Ron Senter; For Frank Esparza; For Jan; For Tom Quinn who had 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 ; 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.
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Community Finances:
Expenses: $ 435.00
Outreach: $ 0.00
Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.
Rosemary's Blessing:
God,
Bless anyone who has asked me to pray for them
and anyone that I have promised to pray for.
Bless anyone that I cannot get along with
And anyone that cannot get along with me.
Bless the person who has hurt me deeply
and anyone that I have hurt.
Bless the person that I cannot forgive
and anyone that cannot forgive me.
Grant me the grace to live as a person of peace today
and to treat all I meet today with dignity
Unknown
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.