Announcements, no. 2

 

A Reminder:  Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend.

 

 

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

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

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

 

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles    

Psalm ,  

1 Peter ,   

 John 20,     

 

 

You people are having too much fun!

 

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, April 28, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos,  you will fit right in.  No old geezer this week & the next.

JULIET LUNCHEON, (aka.,just us ladies into eating together),  May Final Date- Wed. May 3 @12:30 pm, Chef's Gallery Restaurant at The Institute of Art  of Dallas, 8080 Park Lane, (east side of Central Expy)

 

What is going on in Our Catholic World

1. Nothing this week.

 

What next?  That girl now does fist bumps (at 2 years old).

 

True? 

 He who drinks beer sleeps well.

He who sleeps well does not sin.

He who does not sin goes to heaven.

Let's drink beer.

Martin Luther, 1517, Wittenburg, Germany (East)

5th Centennial of  Martin Luther's 95 Theses posted on the church door in Wittenburg,

 

 The Church door in Wittenburg.

 

See you Sunday.

J.S., 214-783-0443

 

 

 

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.

 

Healing Touch for Emma.

 

 

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

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

Place: Legacy Charter School,  601 Accent Drive, Plano, TX 75075

 

 

Healing Touch #2.

 

Readings: 

Acts of the Apostles, 13, 14, 43-52, The Gentiles were delighted.

Psalm 100,  We are his people, the sheep of his flock. (excellent stanzas)

Revelation 7, 9, 14-17,  I, John, had a vision of a great multitude.

John 10, 27-30, My sheep; hear my voice.

 

 

With this three some Everyone wants to Sing!

 

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, May 10, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos, you will fit right in.   

 

Juliettes, June, TBA

 

A Summit Meeting.

 

TRUE?

 

Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.

John De Paola

 

 

Wake Up, Rick!

 

What's up in Ye Old Catholic Church?  Like…

1.    Bannon's anti-Francis movement threatens church unity,  https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/bannons-emerging-anti-francis-movement-threatens-church-unity

 

 

Hooray, the Coffee Shoppe is open.

 

See you Sunday,  

J.S., 214-783-0443

 

 

Guess what Beth & Bill are talking about…  Pagosa Springs.

 

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.

 

 

If it is Cinco de Mayo, it must be Anniversary Time, like 14.

Readings:

 Amos 7, 12-15  I was no prophet.  I was a shepherd.

Psalm 85,    Lord, let us see you kindness and grant us your salvation.

Ephesians 1, 3-14, In love he destined us for adoption

 Mark  6, 7-13, Take nothing for the journey but a walking stick

 

                      Says Kevin, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Amos  observations:

Author: Amos or his scribe.  He was a shepherd of sheep & tended sycamore trees.  One of the 12 minor prophets of the OT, minor because of smallness of the works.  Amos has only 9 chapters.  Usual pattern of prophets: 1. predictions of dire times for evil behavior; 2. predictions of better times in the future. 

Date: Ca. 777 (a memory help), after the kingships of David & Solomon, time of King Jeroboam of the northern kingdom, called Israel vs the southern kingdom, called Judah (where Jerusalem is).   

 

 

                          And from Harper, too, "Hi, Folks."

 

Geography: Note the two kingdoms, Judah in the south, Israel in the north.  Amos tended sheep in a little town called Tekoa, 10 miles south of Jerusalem, in Judah, the south.  He is sent by Yahweh to Bethel, a small but important town in the northern kingdom, 10 miles north of Jerusalem, to warn the people of Israel & their king Jeroboam that Yahweh was mad at them.  The wicked high priest of Bethel, Amaziah condemns Amos for his interference.

The Setting: a time of prosperity.  But Yahweh is mad at the greed of the wealthy and their oppression of the poor (which ties into our gospel talking about walking lightly through life).  We know the people of this kingdom of Israel are headed for annihilation by the Assyrian nation.  And they will disappear as a significant body.  

Our Selection, chapter 7:  Amos describes three visions or dreams he has.  Amaziah gives it to him for spreading these visions around.  Then, Amos responds and socks it to Amaziah with a hammer.

 

          And from Sienna, "From Brooklyn and me, Welcome."

 

Take Nothing for the Journey

I apologize this morning for telling you a story that some of you will probably remember.  However, the event so speaks to the gospel this morning that I can not pass it up.  Another African story.

One evening in Tanzania I boarded an overnight train in Dar es Salaam, the capital.  I would get off in the region near Kilimajaro where the Jesuit house was that I used as a base when I was not on the road giving seminars or retreats. 

 

       Some of The Cupcakes of The Week gang for this week.

 

I had bought my ticket just the afternoon of the trip.  No compartments were available, which were not much anyway.  Two shared the compartment and an upper bunk came down.  You had to be careful in the little stations, because thieves would look in the window and grab.  So, no big loss.

I had to take general booking.  This entitled me to a place on the train, not necessarily a seat.  It is not air conditioned and can be a bit warm. 

 

 

           Offertory with Mike and Judy, Sydney and Hugh.

 

I started out sitting on a suitcase I traveled with.  There were mothers with little kids and a few chickens all around my area at the end of a train car.   I expected it would be a long night, but I would get where I wanted to go and then sleep extra.

About midnight the train stopped, like in the middle of nowhere.  We sit there.  No explanation, nothing.   I finally join others getting off.  I lie down on the rocks on the edge of the track, my case under my head so no one would snatch it, and wait.  And wait.  We sit there with no explanation until about 7:00 the next evening. 

 

 

                      Wendy and Collin providing The Best.

 

Just like Mark recommends in the gospel today, I had boarded that train with nothing to drink or eat.  Looking back, I cannot believe I was so stupid.  Normally I would never have set out without water. 

Why did I not ask the Tanzanian ladies for a drink?  I could easily talk Swahili with them.  Trouble was, they did not often purify their water and I was afraid of it.   So there I sat, now in the shade.  I look around.  Everyone on that train is Tanzanian.  I am the only white guy, which by then I am at home with.

 

 

                                             Elevation.

 

Suddenly I see up the track maybe 4 or 5 cars ahead of me a white couple.  They have extra water.  Hooray.  They are Germans, but speak English with no problem.

We hang out.  They saved me, and let me tell you a quickie about how I saved them.

We were seated in the shade of a Frangipani tree I can still clearly remember.  All the passengers were seated along the train in the shade.  Next to us was a momma with her baby.  At one point the momma gets up and goes into the train.

 

 

                          Emma and Beth solving the World's problems.

 

The German guy who was about 6 foot 4 inches gets up and takes a picture of the baby.  Bad move.  Someone on the train sees him, tells the momma, she tells her husband, and he comes out yelling with a bunch of people.  He wants the camera.  He wants to take the German to the police, wherever that might be.

So, I stepped in.  We all sat down under the trees and I talked.   I finally got the father to allow the German to go to his compartment, cut off the baby’s picture, and give it to the man. 

 

 

                         Emma with one of her Best Buddies.

 

He cuts off just the end of the film, brings it back, and gives it to the man.  The crisis comes to an end. 

I ended up climbing Kilimanjaro with the couple, which ended up being amusing.  He was an Alpine Mountain rescue expert, like a 4 on a 5 scale.  He could crawl across your ceiling holding on with his fingernails.  When we got to the top of Kilimanjaro he got altitude sickness and I carried his back pack.  Of course, I teased him mercilessly. 

 

                                 Harper dancing to the music.

 

I never saw them again, although they were begging me to come to Germany on one of my homeward trips.  I wanted to see the Berlin wall and never did.  She was East German, he West.

The story simply tries to show how literal reading of the Bible can get you into bad places. 

What  would you suggest is a positive in this story about traveling with nothing? Could this be what Francis is emphasizing when he talks about Less is Better? 

How is Less Better for you?

 

 

               

Readings: Wisdom 18, 6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11, 1-19; Luke 12, 32-48.

Wisdom: this book is one of the 12 special books only finally approved by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546.  Martin Luther, for instance, did not think the 12 books were genuine.  Whatever the case, the 12 books are in a special section of our bible after the Old Testament.

The book we are reading from today contains traditional Jewish and Greek ideas about life, basically saying that God rewards those faithful to him & punishes you know whom.

What are You Afraid of?

When I was about sixteen, I came home from the old Jesuit High School one afternoon probably in the spring.  Nobody was home, not even my sister as far as I can remember. My dad was at work. My mom was at one of her afternoon bridge clubs and had gone with one of her friends because her baby blue Pontiac was in the garage. 

After hanging around a bit and getting bored, I decided I was going to go visit a friend and use my mom’s car. Mom, however, did not like me using her car, so I could not find her keys. Now in those days all of us kids knew how to run a car without keys. It was called hot wiring a car. You used tin foil on the back of the key slot under the dash. 

So I hot wired my mom’s big Pontiac, pulled out of the driveway onto Stanford, and turned toward Preston Road. Arriving at the corner the car stalls. For five minutes I am working on the key slot to start the car, all to no avail, when a car coming north on Preston turns into Stanford. A lady is driving.  I know that lady and sitting next to her, my mom.

The master had returned and the servant was unprepared. In fact, the servant was caught red handed.

I never got that car started and, in fact, had to pay my hard earned paper route money to get it towed and fixed. I had shorted out some wires. I don’t remember my mom ever saying anything, but I was humiliated. 

I remembered this incident when I read about the master & the servant. I have some observations about these readings.

First, I don’t see our God as a thief who is trying to catch us off guard. He is not a strict master who is looking to catch us red handed and beat us. 

Secondly, I don’t see us as servants. In fact, in John’s gospel Jesus says he does not call us servants, but friends. In today’s psalm it says, "Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.  We are his chosen.  So is everyone.

To see this parable in a positive light, I would go back to last week when we talked about life being a gift.  When it says that the Lord will come at an hour we do not expect, I propose that the gift comes at moments and in packages we do not expect.  Appreciation is the goal and the process. It involves being sensitive and reflective.

One of the best lines in the whole gospel today is the very first line where Jesus says, "Do not be afraid any longer." This means I do not have to be afraid of God, afraid of death, afraid of getting caught red handed, or afraid of missing the gifts of the moment. 

I’ll always remember how stupid I felt when my mom came around that corner and saw me in her car, broken down. She did not tear into me, and neither do we have a god who is a thief or master who will beat us. 

So what are you afraid of?

   

Isaiah 6: …for my house shall be called a house of prayer for  all peoples.

Romans 11: For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Matthew 15:  Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish."

 

 

Lynda reading from Isaiah

 

Thanks…     

Music,    Shonda & 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 Romans

 

 

Readings:  Download 08-20-23 Readings -20th Ordinary

Homily:  Download 08-20-23 Homily -20th Ordinary

 

 

Richard helping to give out Communion

 

 

 

Remember these special people:

For Jan Keszler's Family; For Sandra Pratt's family;  For Cindy Cramer's family;  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 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 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 & the families of Annie and Michael ;    for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

Kevin gets a cookie today
                                          

 

Birthdays:  Marilyn Ackerman 8/26

Anniversaries:  Rose & Wally Banzhaf 8/24

                 

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  130.00

Outreach: $  

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

       

Paula gets a cookie today