Reminder for the 4th Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2024

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  330.00

  Outreach: $  60.00

  Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Linda and Barbara

Jeremiah 38:   Then the king ordered Ebedmelech the Cushite to take 3 men along with him, and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.

Hebrews 12:  For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross,…

Luke 12:  There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished.

Mary reading from Jeremiah

Thanks…

Music,    Ben

Readers,  Mary & Warren

Gospel,   John Cade

Homily,  John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Richard & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

         Warren reading from Paul's letter to the Hebrews       

Readings:  Download 08-14-22- Readings – 20th Sunday Ord

Homily:  

Hue and Kevin working on the Zoom

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 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; 

Meredith, Brent and Paul

                   
Aggie and Allan 

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 and Barbara

Birthdays:   Marlene Ekes 8/15

Anniversaries:   Jean & John O'Donnell 8/15, Bernadette & Gilberto Delgado  8/20

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $   780.00

Outreach: $   120.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:  

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Success – Ralph Waldo Emerson

May you succeed!

Rosemary's Blessing:                                  

Next time.  Santa arrived. 

Want to read a good Christmas story:   Download A Christmas Story 12-26-14

Richard reading the beautiful Isaiah 9.

Our Special Thanks:  

•    For  the Readings:  The Froebes, Richard, Morgan, and Monica
•    For The Team:   Kevin & Georgie 
•    For the Communion Bread:  Claire
•    For the Wine & Cups:  Judy & Dick
•    For the Pictures & Video:   Rick &  Mike, John & Connie & Beth
•    For the coffee and extras:   none this day
•    For the altar & sound: Jackie & Hue
•    For the Music:  Ray & Shonda & Wendy
•    For all who helped with communion, all 20 of you

Morgan reading Titus 3.

Birthdays:   Diane Holcomb ( Sunday); Amanda Baack (Monday); T.J. Gleason (Wednesday); Robyn Pack (57, Thursday); Hugh Bivona (Friday)

Anniversaries:

Tom and Teresa Quinn (47^th, Tuesday)

Monica reading Luke's Nativity.

 Please Remember these special people:

For three of our greatest friends and supporters who died this year, Fred, Curtis, and Chuck, last year, for them and their families.

For Jamie Wilson in the hospital;  The Quinn’s granddaughter, Mikayla; For Fred, our buddy and supporter for years, who moved to the other side recently;    For Curtis, another buddy and longtime supporter, who  died recently, and for the family;    For Bethany & for the coming of her Little Visitor;    for Jackie Urbanczyk's continued recovery; for Beth's sister, Katy, in Baylor;  For Rita;  Mike & Dee Miller's daughter, Lisa, not doing well;    for Nina Tucker's dad;    Judy Thompson's dad in the hospital;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli;  Charlie's brother in law with cancer;  Beth Dugan's dad struggling with prostate cancer;  from Rob, the brother of his business associate who has cancer;   For Diane Drescher with a bad back & hips;  

A U.T. fan? Yes, Ryan.

Frank’s sister, Grace Campos, 84, with stage one;   For Jackie;  Diane McClurg's mom having a hard time making the transition to assisted living;   Dee's friend, Don Fox, with cancer;   Dick Thompson's daughter, Teri Jill & her cousin Terri.  Barb & Warren's grandbabies, Leighton Elizabeth and Warren Phillip, & their friend Chris, plus Barb's dad & niece.

Good old friends & buddies, Gerald and Frank.

Bernadette Delgado's mom; Gilberto's mom and brother; Tom and Teresa Quinn's niece, Chawna, with cancer, plus Neva Flynn, Angel, and Diane Kreeitzer; Connie Doherty's mom and her sister, plus Kevin's cousin, Peter;  for Mary Ellen; for our friends, sons, and daughters in the military, including Cole Carey, Ryan McClurg, and Chebino; cure for autism from Laura Chollick; for our President that he have great success and someday hold his grandchildren in his lap.

Meals on Wheels, Christmas Day, a huge operation.

Your Finances, December 24

Expenses:   $6010.00

Outreach:   $2747.00

Thanks for your Generosity.

Video:  The Great Nativity Drama, 4 minutes,

Have a Good Week, J.S

(214-783-0443)

Meals on Wheels, volunteers loading cars of those delivering the meals.

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

Meals on Wheels, a car loader and cheer leader.

Acts of the Apostles 10:  To  him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

Colossians 3:  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory

John 20:  Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

Mary Jane reading from The Acts of the Apostles

Thanks…

Music,    Ben 

Readers,  Mary Jane & John

Gospel,    Sandra

Homily,  John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Mike & Hue & Kevin

Final Blessing, Rosemary

John reading from Paul's letter to the Colossians

Readings: Download 04-17-22 – Readings – Easter Sunday

Homily:  Download 04-17-22- Homily-Easter Sunday

The Kiss of Peace

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 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;

Connie and Rob assisting with Communion

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.

Communion

Birthdays:  Claire Occhipinti 4/17 

Anniversaries:   John & Connie Doherty 4/21, John & Alison DeGenova 4/23

Community Finances:   

Expenses: $  765.00

Outreach: $  125.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

                                    

Carrie & Paul and Beth & Rob

Rosemary's Blessing:  

Risen Jesus, help us to be human expressions of the God you proclaimed: a God who is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

May we know deeply God's great love for us, and like God, lean toward those suffering, oppressed and poor.

Adapted from A Reflection and Prayer for Easter by S. Jean Amore, CSJ

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?