Readings:    

1 Kings  17, 10-16,   When we have eaten it, we shall die.

Psalm 146,   Praise the Lord, my soul.

Hebrews 9, 24-28,   He will bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.

Mark 12, 38-44,  A poor widow came and put in two small coins.

Emma & Mom

 Kings:

     Author & date of composition: the work is a compilation of numerous sources put together near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 550.

    Subject Matter: 1 Kings is part of a 4 book work that includes 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings.  The 3 kings are Saul, David, and his son, Solomon.

 The work begins with Samuel, the last great judge, continues through the lives of the 3 kings, and finally shows how Solomon’s sons’ squabbles led to the division of the Jewish nation into two states, north & south, Israel & Judah.  Both states were defeated and the people of Judah taken into the Babylonian Captivity.  It ends on a high note when Cyrus of Persia defeats Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem.

Leo & truck

    The Theme: you be good, good things happen to you; you be bad, bad things happen to you.

    Our selection: 2 great prophets lived when the kingdom divided, Elijah & Elisha.  They criticized the bad ways of the sons.  In this selection, Elijah tells the king he is going to send a drought to the king's land.  Then Elijah goes away & meets a poor, starving widow with a son.  Watch what happens.  This is setting us up for a little widow in the gospel.

Celebrating Verans' Day

   Contribute all I have, my whole livelihood?

I want to talk about a marvelous event I saw take place on a Southwest airplane.  

Last week Rosemary & I went to Chicago to visit a friend of mine since all the way back to our days at Christ the King grade school.  My friend, Pete, he and I parted after high school and we saw each other maybe half a dozen times all these years up until recently.

Bernadette leading The Creed

When I entered the Jesuits in Louisiana, he entered the F.B.I. and worked his whole life in and out of Chicago.  He was always athletic and last year told me he ran the Chicago Marathon 10 times.

So we fly Southwest to Chicago on Tuesday and return Wednesday.  The visit goes fine and we prepare to return home.  When we boarded in Chicago we were a bit nervous because the plane homeward bound was booked solid and we were on standby.  We make it okay.

Torri and her Mom, Michelle

Before arriving at Love Field we make a quick stop in Kansas City.  Half the plane empties, and refills just short of full.  Rather quickly all the new passengers are seated.  The overhead bins are stuffed full and closed.

Rosemary and I are seated two thirds of the way back, together this time.  Everything is copasetic and ready for departure.

Connie

 At this point down the aisle comes a slightly heavy lady.  She is pulling a roll on, max size. 

When she gets to us she sees a flight attendant approaching from the back.   “Where can I place my bag?” she asks. 

Bill Hammond updating us on Bona Responds and accepting our $2,000 check for their relief work in NYC

“I think all the bins are full, Ma’am.  Would you like to check your bag?”

“No,” responds the woman somewhat bluntly. 

Meanwhile the flight attendant is patiently opening and trying to find space, but this lady’s roll on is not small.  And her posture says she is not backing down.  The flight attendant is pleasant but starting to get a bit frustrated.

Amanda being escorted by her mom, Linda

We are at crisis point, I think to myself. 

Then, the most amazing thing happens.  The woman in the aisle seat right across from me and Rosemary says to the flight attendant, “You may check my bag that is overhead and put her bag in my place.” 

I could not believe. 

The Wedding Saturday night

The woman then mentions that she has $20,000 worth of equipment in her bag and she cannot stow it.   It would have helped to know this from the start.  However, the bag in the bin went underneath and the late arriving bag went in the bin.

I talk about this because the woman who offered her bag resembled the two women in the stories.  Both women gave a lot of themselves.

Three observations.

Luciano and Amanda beginning a new life

First, I bet a lot of parishioners are hearing how they should be donating to their parish like this little lady in Mark.   It is a set up.  And it is a really narrow approach to the story.

Secondly, watch out for Mark’s use of infinite demand.  Am I supposed to likewise contribute all I have, my whole livelihood?  Not quite, which leads to my next point.

Thirdly, we are called to help and to contribute, not just money, but so much else, my roll on, my time, my positive strokes of others, my efforts to help people recover from a hurricane, like the St. Bonaventure kids and staff are doing. 

Of course, when leaving that plane I complimented the lady on her offering her roll on to be stowed and I asked the flight attendant her name so I could send in a compliment to corporate, which I did.  That was my small offering to the event.

Owen Gordon's Memorial at Sunset Point on White Rock Lake, Sunday afternoon

Whom are you helping today?

Readings:    

Deuteronomy  6, 2-6,   You shall love the Lord

Psalm 18,   I love you, Lord, my strength.

1 John 3, 1-3,   See what love the Father has bestowed on us. (this is from the All Saints readings, p. 75)

Mark 12, 28-34,  Which is the first of all the commandments.

All Saints presentation with pictures

All Saints: intro & a brief history

   Intro: 3 feasts—

                      All Saints: (or All Hallowes) those who have achieved the beatific vision according to Catholic Church, based on miracles.

                    All Souls: those who have not achieved the beatific vision and are considered paying for their sins in purgatory.

                    Hallowe’en: the vigil of All Hallowes, a Celtic-Irish harvest, end of summer celebration. 

   History in 2 parts: the Western Catholic Church & the Eastern Catholic Church

Offertory, Hugh and Sydney, Lily and Scott

                     The West: 4 significant dates, 300, 600, 700, & 800

    Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated the feast of All Martyrs.  This is really the foundation of the feast. Year 600: a Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to Mary & All Martyrs.  May 13 was the celebration because it was also an ancient pagan day of celebration.

  Year 700:  a Pope Gregory set up in St. Peter’s Basilica a side chapel dedicated to All Saints.

   Year 800: Dec. 25, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by Pope on the red stone in St. Peter’s.  Charlemagne, an advocate of All Saints, established it on Nov. 1, coupling it with a Harvest Feast. 

Caliope receiving the sacrament of the sick blessing

                    The East:

   Year 900, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Wise had a beloved, devout wife, Theophano.  She died & Leo built a church which he intended to dedicate to her.  The religious authorities said no, so he dedicated it to All Saints, assuming his wife to be among the saints.

  Note:  later, three big events happen:

          a.  Crusade #4, on its way to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, captures and wrecks Constantinople, ca. 1200.  J.P. II apologizes for this in 2004. 

          b.  Ottoman Turks or Muslims capture Constantinople, 1450 and rename it Istanbul.  It is Muslim to today.

          c.  Post 1540, Rome condemns Eastern Catholic church as schismatic over theological disputes, i.e., the nature of Jesus.

 Sources: Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, Catholic Encyclopedia on line, Wikipedia.

Emma

 The Most Difficult Commandment

Today we have the greatest commandment or the first commandment.  I want to talk about the hardest commandment.

Rosemary has a passion for these British dramas on PBS.  One of her favorites comes on tonight at 7:00, Call the Midwife.  The story takes place ca. 1950 in London on the East Side, a rough ghetto of good people trying to make a penny.  In particular it is about midwives who serve the women.  The group has been set up by some nuns, Anglican, in fact, and they invite help from other trained women.

Leo

There is the kind nun, the tough on the outside nun, the young pretty girl shocked by so much drama she is seeing for the first time, and there is Chummy. 

Chummy is a warm and tender midwife with no self confidence.  She acts clumsy and insecure.  She is not from anything like the East Side, rather from a wealthy, cold family where she received little love.  In fact, she spent most of her life in boarding schools.  How she came to work as a midwife in the East Side nobody has said.

Sandra receiving The Cupcake of The Week for her special birthday

Turns out Chummy has attracted the interest of the nice local police man and they have developed a special relationship.  She meets his parents and all goes well.  He wants to meet her mother.  Ugh, oh.

And that’s where we are tonight.  Rosemary tells me that she read or saw in one of her sneak previews on line that Chummy was turning herself in for some infraction and that she was talking about being a nun.  Which leads me to think her relationship with the police man ran aground.  Because her cold, class conscious mother did not approve?

Sorry, I don’t know what happens.  I can tell you in the blog or you can tune in tonight.   Channel 13, 7:00.

Rosemary says, “So why the story??”  Because this exemplifies the way I have approached the Great Commandment forever. 

Cole

 There are really 3 commands here, love God, love my neighbor, and love my neighbor as I love myself.  What is the hardest?  For me the third, loving myself.

We get messed up & even ruined as kids in two ways: abuse & neglect.  A kid messed up this way can be messed up for life. We see it all the time, like in the news.  Angry, violent adults and angry, violent kids.

Lorynn and Laycee

And Chummys.   People without self confidence and courage to risk.  People afraid.  People neglected as children, Chummy. 

I don’t know the outcome, but I can conjecture that Chummy will be afraid to confront her mother and marry the policeman.  Yes, I’ve been sucked into watching this program.  The moral, ethical, and psychological dilemmas are riveting. 

Rosemary reading her blessing

We are called to love ourselves. 

How?

Readings:    

Jeremiah  31, 7-9,   Shout with joy.

Psalm 126,   The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Hebrews 5, 1-6,   Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God.

Mark 10, 46-52,  Bartimaeus, a blind man, sat by the road begging. 

Emma

Jeremiah observations:

Who:  one of the Big 3 Prophets, 52 chapters, the “broken hearted prophet,” because he hated being so unpopular and having to condemn so much. 

Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe seems to be who put down the prophet’s message.   Jeremiah probably died in Egypt.

When: put together before & during the B.C., Babylonian Captivity, say 575 before Christ  (reminder, Babylon is near present day Bagdad, Iraq).

Remember, too,  that time before Christ is counting downward or backwards.

Welcome, Leo

Interesting Side Note: (another reminder) can you guess when the Genesis story of creation in 7 days was composed?  Biblical research reveals that the creation story was put together during the Captivity, this same time, i.e. ca. 575.

Why?  The priests & prophets (e.g., Ezekiel) of the Jews in captivity determined that the people would not be assimilated into the local gene pool as their cousins in the northern kingdom had done when made to live with the Assyrians.  They decided they would establish customs & religious practices that would make the Jews so different they would not intermarry.  Three special laws were established: 1.  male circumcision; 2. dietary laws and laws about not touching menstruating women; and 3. the Sabbath.

The priests put together the 7 day creation story to suggest that Yahweh approved of their Sabbath law.  They had Yahweh rest on the 7th day to bolster their demand that all Jews take a day off every 7 days.  Before the Babylonian Captivity there was no legislated Sabbath and no myth of Yahweh creating the world in 7 days with the 7th being a day of rest.  So, now you know when the story was created & by whom, the priests, and why, to keep the Jews united vs the Babylonians.  It worked, even down to today.

Offertory, Mike and Judy, Mary and Bill

Subject: the usual prophet message—condemn, pay, peace.

Today: Beautiful message of peace and consolation.  It is coming.

Sources: Bishop John Shelby Spong, The sins of Scripture; Wikipedia

Leo and Cole

 She Danced through Life

Rosemary & I had the privilege and the honor Thursday to attend the funeral of another noble woman & friend, like Joan, Colleen Romero. 

I calculate that Rosemary & I have known Colleen and her husband for ten years.  We certainly knew them for a couple of years before we got married in 05/05/05.   You will never guess how we met them.  Dancing.

Zoe receiving her birthday cupcake of the week, 4 years old today, Sunday

 Somewhere along the line, a group of us noticed that Plano Parks provided a whole variety of adult classes, among them dancing.  So Rosemary & I, Gilberto & Bernadette, Beth & Rob , and some others, we all decided, “Let’s go learn to dance.”  And so we met Colleen and Fred.

Sophia

They were our teachers.  They were elegant, charming, and fun.  I danced with Colleen a number of times.  I would ask Fred how I was learning some special dance.  He would laugh.  Then Colleen would guide me to a point where I got it.

Delgado corner with Buddy, Leo, and Torri

 This is the first thing I see when I remember Colleen.  She danced through life, charming, elegant, smiling, and having fun.  She and Fred were even running dance classes at St. Gabriel parish for adults who had Parkinson’s or coordination problems. 

Nikki and Cameron with Sophia with their birthday cupcakes of the week, 12 years old.

A  second aspect to Colleen I saw recently.  It was a few weeks back when I got a notice that Colleen was not doing well and was in the hospital.   We had not seen her and Fred for months, maybe a year.  She had been struggling with various joint problems for some time, but this was supposed to be serious.

Jessica home from Boston

So, I called her straight up.  She answered.  She sounded groggy and stressed.  In fact, she was experiencing nausea.  So I made it quick, saying I loved her and sent her all my support.  She said this may be her time and that she was okay about it.

A few more days go by and I get another note saying that the word is this really is it.  This time we get in the car and go visit her at Medical City Plano. 

I walk in and find her looking and sounding great.  However, she says this is truly her time, that she wants no special treatment, and that she is totally ready.  She was in that acceptance stage we talk about in stages of dying, the stage of peace.  

Cathy just before receiving blessing for her foot operation

Colleen was not like Mark’s Bartimaeus today.  She was not blind.  She could see.  She danced her way through life and when her time approached, she accepted it. 

Like I asked with Joan, how have you been blessed by people like Colleen?