2nd Sunday of Lent, March 13, 2022

Revelation 7:  "Amen, Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever.  Amen."

1 John:  Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.

Matthew 5:  When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.  He began to teach them saying:…

 

The software used to build the Blog was going through maintenance and this weekend.  That is why the Blog is late.    Unfortunately, I haven't been able to put any pictures in.  Sorry.                         

John and Rosemary will be taking a vacation from 11/16 – 12/1.  John Cade will have Mass on Zoom,  Sunday, 11/20 and Sunday, 11/27.

 

 

Thanks…     

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Aggie & Allen

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

         

                  

                                                                  

Readings:  Download 10-30-22- Readings – All Saints

Homily:   Download 10-30-22- Homily – All Saints

 

 

 

 

 

Remember these special people:

For Jan; 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 Donna and the Dinsmore Family after her brother, Dennis died  from pancreatic cancer;   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:   John DeGenova 11/1, Karen Anderlick 11/4

Anniversaries:   

      

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $   565.00

Outreach: $  50.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                 

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:  

Gracious God inspire us with the hope in the gift of shalom, the gift of wholeness and the promise of your presence.

Give wisdom to seek nonviolence as an answer to the violence of our lives and world.

Give us courage to seek wholeness in a fractured and divided world, to find reconciliation rather than revenge, to abandon the instruments of violence and death and entrust our lives, our homes and our families to you.

May your presence fill us and others with the thirst for unity, wholeness, and the desire to see all people valued as created in your image.

May we and others receive your shalom, that we might be faithful instruments of your love.

Blessed be your name forever,

Amen.

Rabbi Andrew M. Paley, senior rabbi with Temple Shalom, Dallas.  He emailed this letter to his congregation and gave The Dallas Morning News permission to publish it.

 

 

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Cody with Sandra & Emma & Beth & Sophia.

 

 

Notice: if ever you notice that suddenly you are not receiving this blog, please reregister under www.johnstackministries.com.    Two guys just told me on the same day that the blog suddenly stopped coming.   This is the error of the carrier, Typepad, and it happens fairly regularly for some reason.  So sorry.

 

 

 

 

Guess who is Sophia's favorite dad.   I bet it is Ben.

 

 

Readings:

Deuteronomy 18, 15-20,  Moses spoke to all the people.

Psalm 95,  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts

Corinthians 7, 32-35,   I should like you to be free of anxieties. 
A married man is anxious.

Mark 1, 21-28, Is not a man’s life on earth a drudgery?

 

 

 

 

 

A double team.  While Emma performs her candle magic, Georgie reads the blessing of light.

 

 

Deuteronomy observations :

What : 5th book of the Bible, of the Pentateuch or Torah   It is a series of addresses by Moses to the people in the desert after escaping from Egypt & Pharaoh.

Psalm 95 observations:

I would like to share some ideas about the part of the responsorial that says, If today you hear his voice. 

The first stanza is the best of all the readings.  Watch for it.

 

 

 

 

Welcome in Vanessa, Stella, and Coco.

 

 

1 Corinthians observations:

There was in ancient times a theory of asceticism that said that all pleasure was harmful to the inner spirit.  This applied double for sexual experience.  From personal experience I would reject this idea.  Watch what Paul says about marriage vs celibacy.

 

 

 

 

There he is, Sophia's favorite daddy and, also, Leo's favorite mommy
 

 

Mark observations:

The story is about a man who had an unclean spirit in him, meaning he was possessed by a devil.  Today people would say Jesus did an exorcism. 

There is another explanation of all this that I subscribe to because of psychological study and personal experience. 

Psychology says there is a condition called multiple personalities.  The condition is the result of severe abuse, especially at a young age.  It is a self defense maneuver, a disassociation from myself. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it helps to have helpers with the elevation, especially with a little Parkenson's. 

 

 

I have worked with some of these poor people.  They usually had more than one personality with different ages.  With some of those I worked with there had been exorcism, which was not just useless, but harmful.  The person thought they had a devil inside, which was false and horrible.  For starters there is no devil.

Recovery involves acceptance and talk.  Ultimately, the host person needs to close the door to the alternates because it knows it is safe.  It takes time for healing.

Actually, Jesus exemplifies the process, though it normally takes much more time than one encounter.  I would suggest that Jesus presented a peaceful and accepting persona, just what the man’s host personality craved.

Watch as Mark presents a story about multiple personality.

 

 

 

 

How could we do this without Georgie and Buddy!

 

 

Hearing the Voice of God in Unusual Places

I want to talk this morning about three  places the voice of God was heard.  Two are mine.  Number three from a mystery guest who gives me permission to share the story.

The first event came up because I am thinking about the trip planned to Dickenson to help with the clean up.  A few years back there was a tornado in OK City.  The same team went, Professor Jim Maher & his students from St. Bonaventure. 

Jim has my number unfortunately (not really), so I went up by myself.

 

 

 

 

It is almost brunch time, Buddy.  It will be terrific!

 

One day we're cleaning up a mess at a rural town called Little Ax.  We had our team and you will never guess at the other team.  Muslim Emergency Aid.   Remember?  I talked about this after I returned.  They were well equipped like the Baptist Men and great guys and girls.

At one point I was walking down a hill from taking a piece of an I beam to the pile on the dirt road.  For pick up.  One second I was up walking down that slope.  The next I fell over something on the ground.

I was not injured in any way, landing on thick grass.  People started coming to my help.  Guess who was the first to come to me.  Yep, one of the Muslim boys.  I was most touched and humbled.

The voice of God in an unusual place.

 

 

 

Sez Rosemary, "Don't tell the old geezer that he is 78.  He still thinks he is about 40."

 

 

The second was at DFW airport when Rosemary & I came back from the wedding a couple of weeks ago.  We had landed and were departing the plane. 

I stopped to put a book into my backpack, using a wheel chair as a table, stepped to the right, forgot about the little foot piece, and fell right over on the carpeted gangway. 

Like with Joyce Scott, the lady I talked about Christmas Eve, all sorts of people came to my aid and helped me get up.  No injury except to my price.

God spoke again in an unusual place.

 

 

 

Brent, It is an honor to be able to give you these two checks for Souls Harbor.  The work you do there for 65 men in recovery is phenomenal.

 

 

Thirdly, the mystery guest.  Rosemary.

One morning about 6:00 Rosemary walked up to the desk of one of the hotels within shuttle distance of DFW.  We park at these hotels when we fly sometimes.  It costs about $5 per day and the shuttle is free.

Without a word she starts in, “I would like a chit to park here.  My husband is parking the car in the back.”

The clerek looks up and says cheerfully, “Good Morning.”

“Oh, I am sorry.  Yes, Good Morning to you, too.”

The voice of God in an unusual place.   

You, any unusual places?

 

 

Guess what  is coming.

 

 

John reading from Micah

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Connie gets a cookie for her birthday

Expenses: $   1,275.00

Outreach: $    380.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

A Christmas Prayer

 

Loving Father, help us to remember the birth
of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and the worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and
open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and
good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings, and teach us to
be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy
to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening
bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.

Amen!

 Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

 

Hi, Tori, Welcome back, you look beautiful.

 

 

Readings:  

 Proverbs 9, 1-6,  Wisdom ha built her house.  

Psalm 34,   Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.  (Wow, 2^nd week in a row, terrific)

Ephesians 5, 15-20,  Watch carefully how you live. 

John 6: 51-58,  I am the living bread.

 

 

 

Hi, Leo, Welcome back to you, too.   You also look beautiful.

 

Proverbs:

What are they: a collection of moral & religious teachings in the form of pithy sayings.  For example: "Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than to have a banquet in a house full of trouble" (17, 1); "Being cheerful always keeps you healthy" (17, 22).

Some a bit tough: "Don't hesitate to discipline a child.  A good beating won't kill him" (23, 12).

Some amusing: "A nagging wife is like water going drip-drip-drip" (27, 15); "Better to live on the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife" (25, 24). 

Author: Maybe Solomon is behind chapters 1-29.  Most likely a compilation.

Date: Ca. 300 BCE is considered a possibility with material coming from as far back as 900, during the time of Solomon.

                                                                 

 

 

 

Great job, Zoe.  You, too, are a Super Candle Lighter.

 

 

Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord, part 2, or

Pet Delights, the inspirational column of Steve Blow, which I shared in the blog Thursday

 

Sorry, Folks, but I am going to do it again, namely, push the belief that we can taste and see the goodness of the Lord, every day.

This week for me it has been the White Rock Creek trail running from Royal & Greenville to White Rock Lake.  It had rained last weekend, so the whole creek edge was a beautiful green.  The lawn mower guys were out and where they had passed the rows & patterns made it super special.

 

 

 

 

Georgie reads our Blessing of the Candles.  I hope you know, Dearest Georgie, how terrific I think you are.

 

 

We  tunnel under 5 or six bridges on this trail.  One for me is breath taking.  Going north I come out of the Skillman tunnel, cross over a quaint steel & wooden bridge, look ahead for about ½ a mile, and see the trail meandering along often with other bikers, see a blue sky framed by a V of large green trees, and take in wilderness on my right and left. This cannot be Dallas.  It takes my breath away.

Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord.

Another biking blessing came this week Friday, when I actually had enough stamina to keep up with Rosemary, who this year leaves me in the dust.  It should be humiliating.  I’m actually quite proud of her, remembering that Sunday when she crashed and ended up with 9 screws in her left elbow.  As I tell her, the good professor is the one who sees his student do better than the old professor.

 

 

 

 

Sisters act, Jessica and Renee.  Welcome home, Jessica, from Boston, and congratulations, Renee, upon becoming an officially licensed architect.

 

 

Then there is Jim Mahar, the professor at St. Bonaventure who set up Bona Responds.  A great person always, but especially when he phones me about a story that touched him.

The scene: Sierra Leone.  Jim has worked there and has organized a bit.  One of his local teams was planning a talent show for kids to earn money.  They had prizes for the winners.  Until they were all stolen.

The police catch a guy.  Jim’s man, who has been even accused of stealing the awards, goes to see the guy and explains what all the gifts are for.  Jim even talks with the guy by phone.   He finally admits that he stole the awards and wants to give them all back.

The charges are all dropped and the guy even asks if he can join the group which is trying to help others with this talent show.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Dallas, My Dear Paul.  The last time we met up was at your wedding with Lori in Ashville, NC.  Wish Lori had come with you.

 

 

When did you last Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord?

 

 

Communion with Jan on bread and Lynda on grape juice.

Exodos 17:  … in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?"

Romans 5:  And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit …  

John 4:  Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;

 

 

Tom reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans

 

 

Thanks…     

Music,    Shonda &  Ben

Readers,  Denni & Tom

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,   John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

       

 

Denni reading from Exodus

 

Readings:  Download 03-12-23 Readings – 3rd Lent

Homily:   

 

                                                                                                                                                                    

 

The Kiss of Peace

 

 

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 John Simari's mother who is not feeling well;  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.

 

 

Richard letting us know about the Love For Kids day

                                             

 

Birthdays:   John O'Donnell 3/14

Anniversaries:  

 

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  735.00

Outreach: $  0.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

       

 

 

 

 

The Living Nativity.  

 

Readings:

Isaiah 9, 1-6,    The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.  (Wow!  Beautiful)

Psalm, 96,  Today is born our savior, Christ the Lord.

Titus 2, 10-11,  The grace of God has appeared.

Luke 2, 1-14,   The Nativity story.   (Lovely)

 

 

 

 

What do we have here?  A donkey, a giraffe, an Addie?  

 

 

Isaiah observations:

 

This is Isaiah 1, a beautiful, hope filled piece.

 

 

 

Ever see a prettier Mary?  Hi, CC.

 

 

The Daily Nativities bringing Peace, Joy, & Gratitude

I would like to talk a few minutes this evening about celebrating the Nativity.  We do this once a year.  I propose that we can celebrate the Nativity, not once a year, but everyday.  The Nativity is an event that gives me peace and joy and a sense of gratitude.  These nativities happen daily. 

 

 

 

Hey, who let this character in?  Got a gift for me Santa?

 

Two examples.

There is a little widow lady named Joyce who lives right across the street from Rosemary & me.  She is on the southeast corner of Tulip Lane & Camellia.  We are on the northeast corner.

Joyce is 89 years old and Aviana & I visit her every morning.  In fact, we give her our newspaper after we have read it.

 

 

 

Has Santa run out of presents?  No way!

 

 

A week ago Joyce walked over to The Tom Thumb on the corner of Preston & Royal, a ten minute walk from our corner.  After buying bread and crossing over Preston at the light, Joyce was crossing Royal at Camellia.  As she walks to the median, she steps into a pile of leaves thinking it was flat.  

Nope, it was the curb and Joyce falls face down on the cement of the median.  She gets right up and is bleeding all over herself from where her sunglasses had cut around her left eye.  Not the eye itself, but her face.

 

 

 

Thanks, Emma, for doing your Candle Magic again.

 

 

At this point Joyce says all these people literally stopped their cars and ran to her.  Some wanted to call an ambulance for her.  Others offered to drive her home.  “No,” she said, “I am okay and only live right there,” and she points to her house.

One guy, however, puts his arm around her waist and offers to walk her home.  She accepts and gets home.

 

 

 

"All I want for Christmas?  Yes," says Vivian, my front tooth."  And Viki, her mom agrees

 

 

Want to know what really touched her?  Yes, all the people who ran to help her, leaving their cars right there on extremely busy Royal Lane. 

Those people were a Nativity event for Joyce.  And guess what.  She has  great peace, joy, and gratitude.

 

 

 

The Team, Georgie & Buddy, Leo & Mike.

 

 

The second example of a nativity happened to me Thursday.  I went to the main Dallas recycle dump on Harry Hines & Webb Chapel.  I get on the ramp and start unloading empty paint cans, old phones, and stuff that had accumulated for a year or more.

Coming up and helping me was a tall, old black guy, probably older even than I am.   I’m thinking this guy should be retired and at home with his grandkids.  I take the stuff out of the van, he takes  it and puts it in the correct container.  I am most touched.

 

 

 

And the Rest of The Team.

 

 

I wish him Happy Christmas and I start to get into the van.  “He deserves a tip,” I think and look into my bill fold.  5 bucks, maybe.  No luck.  No fives, no tens even.  Only a 20.  “Rosemary is going to kill me,”  So I walk over and shake his hand, the 20 in the shake. 

He, of course, tells me how I do not need to do this a bunch of times.  But finally he is all gratitude.  I get into the van quickly so he won’t see my tears.

 

 

 

 

Jack & his sister Sophia, who dances, like to all the music their dad (Ben) is playing.

 

 

A daily nativity event.  I gave him a 20.  I took from him peace, joy, and gratitude.

Where is the Nativity Event in your life this season?

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas, Carrie.  Merry Christmas, Paul.