Sunday Collections

September 6th Attendance: 234 1st : $2,155.98

Bldg Fund: $1,790

September 13th

Attendance: 205/1st : $3,190

Holy Land/Good Friday/ $454

MASS INTENTIONS

OUR LADY OF LOURDES 108 North West 4th Avenue, Mineral Wells, Tx 76067

Phone: 940-325-4789 Fax: 940-327-8170 pastoratoll@gmail.com www.ollcatholicchurch.com

Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-3pm Rev. Thomas Dsouza Pastor Deacon Jesus Cardenas

Secretary: Marla Trevino marlaourladyoflourdes@gmail.com

Sept 19th -Sept 25th, 2020 Sept 19th 4:30pm -St. Francis Sept 19th 6:30pm– (Chapel)-Alfred Renner† by Jane Nixon, Bill Hill† by Margaret Colton & Porfiria Gutierrez† by Melva Santibanez Sept 20th 9am-Ray DeLara† by Kathy DeLara, Porfiria Gutierrez† by Eddie Gutierrez

Sept 20th 11:30am– Balvina Romero† by Melva Turcios, George Luna Sr.† & Julia Gutierrez† by Patricia Luna

Weekday Masses/Chapel

Sept. 23rd Mass at 7am-Esteven Jose Aguilar† by Raffaela Aguilar Sept. 24th Mass at 7am-Porfiria Gutierrez† by Eddie Gutierrez

Sept. 25th Mass at 7am

September 20th, 2020

Our Lady of Lourdes, Mineral Wells, TX

Eloise Rodriguez, Eddie Gutierrez, Henry Harbrecht, Sharon McKin-ley,Leonor DeSantiago,Letha Rus-sell, Jim Slattery, Kathy DeLara, Johnny Davis, Janet Coalson, Angeli-ca Pineda, Steven Ortiz, Elena Tejeri-na, Pat Luna, Melchora Pérez, Josefa Esquivel, Lupe Trevino, Marie & Bill McGuire, Nicki Ruiz, Joanne Pechacek, D.J. Davis, Julian & Sally Rios, Antonio Maldanado, Liz John-son, Roger Huddleston, Christina Ro-driguez Fuller, Sharon Howell, Jessi-ca Luna Gloria, Joseph Dover, Fr. Thomas Dsouza, Brenda Mendoza, Willie Harrison, Elizabeth Nowak, Ar-mando Dominguez, and Bryan Dominguez, Jesse & Wantia Angui-ano, Sanjeev Joshi, Richard Kamin-ski, Tomasa Gonzalez, Rudy & Rita Alvarado, Velia Samaniego Barrien-tos, Arnoldo & Natalia Sanmiego, Daniel Nava.,Tina Cruce, Lee Sanchez, Bertha Chavez, Gloria Ortiz, Rocky Turcios, Felicita Garcia, Jorge Garcia, Jane Nixon, Alfredo Guajardo and Ana Plascencia.

THE SICK OF OUR PARISH FROM PASTOR’S DESK

GRATITUDE & GENEROUSITY

CATECHISM CLASSES

“Seek the LORD while he may be

found, call him while he is near,” Isa-

iah counsels us in the first words from

today’s first reading. We come togeth-

er today to seek the Lord in word and

sacrament, knowing that he can be

found in scripture, in the Eucharist,

and in each other. We call to him now,

lifting our voices in song and prayer,

aware of his closeness as we are gath-

ered two or more in his name.

“Busquen al Señor mientras lo pueden

encontrar, invóquenlo mientras está

cerca”, nos exhorta Isaías en las pri-

meras palabras de la primera lectura

de hoy. Hoy nos reunimos para buscar

al Señor en la palabra y en el sacra-

mento, a sabiendas de que lo po-

demos encontrar en las Escrituras, en

la Eucaristía y en cada uno de no-

sotros. Lo invocamos ahora elevando

nuestras voces en la música y en la

oración, y conscientes de que está

cerca, pues estamos dos o más re-

unidos en su nombre.

Catechism classes will start

Sunday, September 27th online

from 10:20am-11:10am. Regis-

tration forms are on the church

website, facebook and hard-

copies in the back of the

chapel/church. All registration

forms can emailed to Maria

Jones at the following email:

angelmom60@sbcglobal.net

RCIA classes will start some-

time in October, please contact

TJ Jones for further instructions

and information and his contact

information is 940-328-0573

and leave a message if there is

no answer.

We need to express our gratitude to God in our daily lives. God personally calls each of us to our own ministry and shows us His care by giving us His grace and eternal salvation. To God, we are more than just numbers on a payroll. Our call to God’s vineyard is a free gift from Him for which we can never be sufficiently thankful. All our talents and blessings are freely given by God. Hence, we should express our gratitude to God by avoiding sins, by rendering loving service to others, by sharing our blessings with the needy, and by constant prayer, listening and talking to God at all times. We need to practice generosity: We can be generous in the way we give some-one encouragement and a kind word when that person is feeling down, even though that person might not be one of our best buddies. We can be generous in the way we give of our time to help someone going through a rough patch. When someone says something that offends us, we can be generous in our reaction, sympathize and understand, rather than give back the hostility or injury just as it was given to us. When we have fallen out with someone or believe we have been unfairly treated, we can be generous in our willingness to reach out, make amends and restore friendships. When someone really annoys us and gets under our skin, we can be generous with our patience and kindness, dealing with that person in a way that re-flects the generous nature of God. When we see people who lack the bare necessities needed for a happy and healthy life, we need to be generous with what we have been given by our generous God.

AMAZING GRACE

The man who wrote the hymn Amaz-

ing Grace had been a slave trader

and had taken part in the most inhu-

man and cruel treatment of people.

He called himself a wretch who de-

served nothing but contempt and

punishment but instead found himself

pardoned and raised to a position of

trust and responsibility. How else

could he describe it except as Amaz-

ing Grace?

Our Lady of Lourdes, Mineral Wells, TX

IF GOD IS GOOD, WHY IS THERE EVIL IN THE WORLD?

IS YOUR LOVE FOR GOD, REAL?

HOW DO WE LOOK THE PART?

The problem of evil is perplexing. If God is all-powerful and all-good, why doesn’t He stop bad things from happen-ing? He must either not be all- powerful, or perhaps He’s not very good after all. Human beings have faced the possibility of evil since the very beginning of our existence. In granting us free will, God gives us the ability to make free choices. God does not force us into moral per- fection. We are not forced to love Him or to love our neighbor. We must make the decision ourselves. This means, of course, that we have the ability to choose against love. One small decision of selfishness, jeal-ously, or pride may not seem so bad. But every decision — good or bad — is like a stone dropped into a still pond. The ripples extend much farther than the original stone. When decisions against love begin to compound, they affect families, neigh-borhoods, and nations. This is all the more reason for Christians to be faithful to our baptismal call to love one another as Christ has loved us!

If I work for five hours, I expect to get paid for five hours. If I work for two, I expect to get paid for two. What if we worked for a company that paid everyone the same amount regardless of how long they worked? How would we feel going home with the same pay for working eight hours as my co-worker did for working only two hours? Secu-lar wisdom would have a huge problem with this and a visit to the Labor Board would quickly pursue. But this is God’s wisdom and God’s ways. We sometimes think that if we pray more, better, or more fervently and go over and above with the practice of our faith, God will some- how reward us and present us with some kind of merit badge. We are so wrong. Spiritual practices have only one true purpose: to deepen our love for God. In deep-ening our love for God, we also increase our ability to see God’s presence around us, living life more purposefully and contempla-tively. What if God chooses to treat someone who has come on the scene of faith later in life the same as someone who has devoted their whole lives to it? Does it really matter? If we have the merit badge notion of faith, we can find ourselves feeling a little arrogant and even jealous of folks who have not followed the same path that we have. We can even see our- selves as the privileged few who have a corner on the faith and fully possess it. That thinking doesn’t square with God. God is all about mercy in abundance and is ready to take anyone to himself regard- less of when they come. He is on-ly happy that they have come home and delights in their return. After all, if you really and truly love someone, does it matter what they will give you in return or what you receive as a benefit? If relationships were assessed based upon productivity, they would lack authentic love. We invest too much self interest in our prayer and neglect to see it as an opportunity to pursue our Lover and deepen the intimate bond we have with God. When we breathe our last, all that is of consequence is union with God. If my love for God is real, I am going to want to live the Gospel, abide by the commandments, practice my faith, forgive and love my neighbor, and care for the environment, re-gardless of how much time it takes or benefits me. We want God to think and behave as we do, and in doing so, we set ourselves up for disappointment. God has a totally different agenda and that’s okay.

I used to coach my oldest son in soccer when he was younger. As he got older, he would go to tryouts for select and high school teams. I was no longer the coach, but I always shared with him one piece of advice before any tryout: Be sure to look the part. I told him that if he showed up looking like a soccer player, there was an increased chance of him being seen as a soccer player. If he showed up looking like a kid that plays soccer in video games as op-posed to the real thing, he might not be taken seriously. As he grew older, that same advice was then applied to get-ting a job. It’s advice I have heeded myself all my life. You can even say it is like another common phrase: “Fake it till you make it.” As disciples of Jesus Christ, we certainly do not want to fake it, but we do need to look the part. The world looks at those of us who proclaim to be Christians to see if there is anything to this way of life. If they see us looking and acting like people transformed by Jesus Christ, they will be more likely to take Christianity seriously. If they look at us and see nothing different, then they can easily conclude that there is nothing different about Jesus Christ. He just becomes simply another religious figure of history. Can the world see the power of Christ in you? How will do you look the part?

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