Author: Rosemary

Welcome, Everybody, including you crazies.

Welcome this Sunday: 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

Peace, Everybody.

Readings:

Wisdom 18, 6-9,  You people awaited the salvation of the just.

Psalm 33,  Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to me his own (Everybody?) 

Hebrews 11, 1-2, 8-19,  Faith is the realization of what is hoped for.

Luke 12, 32-48,  Do not be afraid any longer.

The Look!

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, August 9, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos, you will fit right in.   

Juliets, August-September, TBA

Two buddies (kids, really)

TRUE?

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

Catholic Church in Germany shrinking,  http://corpus-blog.blogspot.com/2019/07/latest-statistics-show-german-church.html

Our Father.

See you Sunday, J.S.

214-783-0443

Peace, Everybody.

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.

The Coffee Shoppe is open, John, Rob, & Geri.

From Jim & John, "Welcome in, Everybody." 

Readings:

Ecclesiastes, 1,2; 2, 21-23,  Pretty pessimistic.  Author having a bad day?

Psalm 90, If today you hear his voice, harden not you hearts.  

Colossians 3, 1-5, 9-11,  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth

Luke 12, 13-21,  There was a rich man

So good to have you back, Dee, especially looking so good.

The First reading from Ecclesiastes reminds us that when a person passes he or she can’t take any of their worldly things with them.

Our Second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians reminds us that greed is idolatry; for it is a love of wealth; rather than a love of God.

Good Morning, Patricia!

Homily on the Gospel reading:

Here in Chapter 12 of Luke, a nondescript man comes to Jesus seeking a favorable decision regarding some inheritance that he is hoping to receive from his older brother. Jesus used this event to address the crowd with the wisdom to be on guard against all forms of greed.

Watch out for this crazy guy, Everybody.  I knew him way back when he was a nice little high school, kid.

Following Jesus’ advice the older brother has put their extended family in mind.  He will not allow himself or his younger brother to fail in their responsibility to put their extended family ahead of their desire for possessions.   The older brother had taken a course of action to enhance the harvest from their father’s land.

Three of the Candle Lighting Team, Zoe, Tori, & Georgie.

Now, there is nothing more in Luke’s chapter 12 about the relationship between the younger man and his older brother; however Luke has no intention of forgetting about them!  Each of the gospels form two complementary stories.   We will encounter the brothers again in a chapter 15! There, the younger son said to his father, “give me the share of the inheritance that would come to me.  The father divided the inheritance between them…and a few days later the younger brother took his inheritance with him to a foreign land where he squandered it on riotous living.

Mike homilizing on the Luke gospel.

Recall that when the prodigal son came home asking to be forgiven, the story did not end. Is there a story like this in your immediate family? Harden not your hearts.

Married life: carry your cross??

+Says Louis, "Welcome in, Everybody."

Readings:

Genesis  18, 20-32,  Sodom!  Good story.

Psalm 138,  Lord, on the day I cried for help you answered me.  (a terrific psalm)

Colossians 2, 12-14,  You were buried with him in baptism.

Luke 11, 1-13, "Ask & you will receive."

The Great Candle Team in action.

Intro to the readings:

1.   Another nice story about Abraham's relationship with God.  We can all place ourselves in Abraham's' shoes.

2.  The Gospel reading gives us an idealized version of how the Our Father came about.  With all these stories, you probably would not be far off if you suspected a ghost composer rather than Jesus. 

It ends with an encouragement from Jesus to ask for what you want with persistence, "ask & you will receive."  Reminds me of my mom & her 8 day novenas.  One of those novenas was, I bet, that I would leave the Jesuits quickly and go to college like a normal kid.

3.  Psalm 139.  As much as I like parts of the readings, it is Psalm 139 that really touches me and has touched me for decades.  I would like to spend a couple of minutes explaining why & how it has played a role in my life.  All 4 stanzas move me.   The first line of the first stanza sums it up, "I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart."

Leo joins the Music Machine.

I will give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart

This event took place 20 years ago or more.  Do you remember one Spring afternoon (think it was Spring), when Hillary Clinton came to Dallas?  I know not the reason, but come she did.  There was an ordinary motorcade somewhere in the Dallas area.  All was peaceful until one of the motorcycle policemen had an accident.  The policeman was killed in the accident.

We probably really don't want to know what is going on over there.

The man was a member of St. Marks Catholic Church, where I was saying every Sunday the 9:00 & 10:30 Masses.  I always said the English Mass in the cafetorium at 10:30, and the 9:30 was either English in the main church or Spanish in the cafetorium.  Seeing as the policeman was hispanic I probably knew him from the Spanish Mass.

The funeral which was huge was held at Restland on Greenvile Ave. & Forest Lane.  I went to the viewing to offer my condolences, but decided to skip the funeral, it being so huge.

Watch out, Sydney, for that Rosemary.

The family has 4 or 5 kids and the kids were in individual rooms.  I chose to visit with one of the daughters because I knew her probably the best.  She was around 13 and was seated with her girl friend at the back of a room and people were lined up to visit her moving clockwise through the room.

I got in line which started in the hall.  When I got in, the girl got up and ran over to me and we hugged.  I stayed in line and when I got to the girl she told her friend that I was her priest and that when she made her first confession, a process which I don't like, I gave her for her penance two Hershey Kisses.

Elevation Time.

I give Thanks to you O Lord with all my heart. 

I give thanks because that little girl got my message.  The message: that "your kindness, O Lord, endures forever."  (Stanza 4,line 3)   This was why I gave out Hershey Kisses instead of penances and even hugs to every kid despite the warning about "don't touch the kids."  I grew up without enough hugs. 

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in Love." Psalm 145 & other locations.  Another of my favorites.

Can you believe that?

Who let that Shropshire in here?

With the exception of John, in Jennings, LA to visit his sister, the whole gang is back, yeah.

Readings:

Genesis  18, 1-10,  Sarah will have a son (at 90!)

Psalm 15,  He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord

Colossians 1, 24-28,  I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

Luke 10, 38-42, "Lord, do you not care that my sister…

A great sister act.

Observation on Genesis:

I would laugh at the editor who selected this passage about Abraham and Sarah, his wife.  He leaves out the punch line, a most relevant fact coloring this passage.  Namely, Sarah is 90 and Abraham 100.  Why was this not mentioned?

Genesis, by the way is the first book of the bible and a fun read, especially if you can appreciate it as fable & not factual history.  Don't go looking for the Ark, like you read about periodically.

Buddy  reading the Summer Blessing of the Candles.

Observation on Paul writing to the Colossians:

This version of Paul makes me want to pull out the violins and weep for the poor man.  Which, I guess, is the intention Paul is working with.  A poor me presentation.  The goal: get the readers to get up off their behind and get to work, like Paul is doing.

Shonda & Ben, The Best, minus David riding RAGBRAI with Dana, his daughter.

Ragbrai Spirit : People are Good

It’s Ragbrai (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa)  week, Folks.  At this moment bikers (including David & Dana) are arriving at Council Bluffs on the MO River prepared to set out this morning, heading ultimately next Saturday to Keokuk, where Mike &  Judy grew up on the MS River.  I should be there.

What kind of trouble are these 4 up to??

Along the way the bikers will walk (too crowded to ride) through achingly beautiful little towns with glorious Victorian houses, tree lined streets, delightful town parks, and welcoming people.  Plus a gazillion vendors. 

Let me give you two vignettes that reflect the spirit of Ragbrai. 

One early afternoon I am riding over some medium level hills.  They were a work out.  At one point starting to climb I run up behind a tricycle, one wheel in front of two & a bench.  Seated on the bench was an elderly guy and a young woman.  The woman is pumping them up the hill. 

I think to myself, This hill is going to really discourage that woman.  So I ride to the top, drop my bike, and run back down to find two other young guys with the same idea .  We all three joined in and pushed that woman and her father right up to the top.

Cody, I have not seen Ben in a couple of summer months and when he came in this morning I did not recognize him.  He's grown a foot.

I hopped on my bike and as I went down the hill I realized another hill was coming up.  To this day I can only hope other people stopped to push that lady & her dad up what turned out to be a series of serious hills.  I would expect they did help.

I have already mentioned here that my most favorite vendor was the home made pie & ice cream stop, always on the right hand shoulder, always in the afternoon (at least for me).  I mentioned how once when I forgot my money, Hanc, a good kid I would see every year, he served me anyway.

On another occasion I was in line at the pie selections tables when a lady behind me realized she did not have enough.  Naturally I staked her and told her to forget it. 

And the same with your pretty daughter Olivia.  She has so grown up this Summer.

A day or two later I am sitting on a park bench in a beautiful park.  I am looking at a band stand, the bikers’ road, and a gorgeous river.   Behind me is the whole rest of the park with bikers everywhere.   Everybody is just enjoying the beauty.

Suddenly a tap on my shoulder.  The lady from the Amish pie & ice cream stand hands me the money I loaned or really gave her.  She said thanks and disappeared in the throng of people lying around.   To say the least I was stunned and touched, and reminded again of how good people are. 

This year I will not join the 20 to 30 thousand riders doing the 500 more or less miles.  The people spirit stays with me.

Today' Communion team, Cheryl, Patricia, Mike, & Claire.