19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle B – August 11, 2024
Theme: Finding Joy in Times of Trouble
19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle B – August 11, 2024
Theme: Finding Joy in Times of Trouble
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Gathering Song Bill
Chris Skinner – We are connected
Lyrics:
CH: We are connected like branches to the tree
We all walk the planet, let’s walk with dignity
No matter our colour, no matter our creed.
All of us are gifted and all of us we need.
We are connected one great family.
Let’s light the fire together and let it shine for all to see.
Shine, everybody standing in the light.
Shine, everybody warmed by the fire.
Shine, no one left in the dark or in the cold.
Shine, come together to embrace and to hold.
Shine, forgive and heal the hurts that divide.
Shine, standing with, along, beside.
Shine, Shine! We are connected, connected!
Breath and life, connected.
Earth, sea and sky, connected.
Hands and hearts, connected
Believe it, believe it!
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Opening Prayer Mike
Beauty is fleeting. Happiness can be fleeting as well. Often happiness and joy are confused for one another. Today, may we be open to exploring the true meaning of joy. May we seek to understand Jesus and how he lived a life of joy. May we plumb the depths of the richness of joy even in the midst of a life and world that are chaotic and troubled. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
First “Reading” Bill
Are You SCARED to Feel Joy? How to Have More Joy in Your Life! | Brené Brown w/OprahWinfrey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uqu23b50G0
This text is here to aid me in composing the Prayer of the People.
If you ask me what’s the most terrifying difficult emotion that we experience as humans, I would say Joy.
I’ll have 5 000 parents or something in an audience and I’ll say raise your hand if you’ve ever stood over your child while he or she was sleeping and thought to yourself I love you like I didn’t know was possible and then in that split second picture something horrific happening.
How many of you’ve ever sat up and said wow work’s going good, good relationship with my partner, parents seem to be doing okay. Holy crap what’s going to happen?
So what is that?
When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, Joy becomes foreboding.
I’m not going to soften into this moment of joy because I’m scared it’s gonna be taken away, the other shoe’s gonna drop. When we lose our tolerance to be vulnerable Joy becomes foreboding.
So what we do in moments of joyfulness is we try to beat vulnerability to the punch.
Yesterday I’m on the plane I’m getting ready to leave. The plane gets down the runway and has to come back and something’s wrong. I was like I knew it! I called Steve I said let me just tell you something. I know because I’m fixing to meet Oprah. I’m gonna die. At my funeral you better say she was gonna be on Super Soul Sunday
I interviewed a man who told me “my whole life, I never got too excited too joyful about anything. I just kind of stayed right in the middle. That way if things didn’t work out I wasn’t devastated and if they did work out it was a pleasant surprise. In his 60s he was in a car accident and his wife of 40 years was killed. He said the second I realized that she was gone the first thing I thought was I should have leaned harder into those moments of Joy because that did not protect me from what I feel right now.
We’re trying to dress rehearse tragedy so we can beat vulnerability to the punch.
This is what the joyful people do. This is what I learned from them. In those moments they’re looking at their children or their partner or something great they get that shutter too. But you know what they do? They don’t say oh there’s that shutter of Terror about feeling joyful. I’m gonna dress rehearse tragedy. They say I’m going to practice gratitude.
Gratitude is a practice. It is tangible you can see it. It’s not an attitude of gratitude, it is a practice and what I found is that when you actively practice gratitude where you concentrate on not just thinking about it but write things down you go through the day looking for it.
I think we appreciate the little things.
I think one of the things that happens in a culture of scarcity is we’re all chasing the extraordinary and we forget like when I interviewed people who went through horrific things I mean I’m talking about the loss of children, Genocide, violence, trauma, and I talked to them about what’s the hardest loss. They never talked about the extraordinary
Things. They said “I miss the ordinary moments. I miss hearing the screen door slam and knowing my husband’s home from work. I miss hearing my kids fighting in the backyard. I miss the way that my wife’s at the table.”
Those are the moments that are in front of all of us every day that we could stop and say God I’m grateful for this!
________________________________________________________
This is another text I found regarding the same ideas in the video. Only here for my reference.
Though I study scary emotions like anger and shame for a living, I think the most terrifying human experience is joy. It’s as if we believe that by truly feeling happiness, we’re setting ourselves up for a sucker punch. The problem is, worrying about things that haven’t happened doesn’t protect us from pain. Ask anyone who has experienced a tragedy; they’ll tell you there is no way to prepare. Instead, catastrophizing, as I call it, squanders the one thing we all want more of in life. We simply cannot know joy without embracing vulnerability—and the way to do that is to focus on gratitude, not fear.
The good news is that joy, collected over time, fuels resilience—ensuring we’ll have reservoirs of emotional strength when hard things do happen.
The Dare:
Stop the train.
The next time you’re traumatized by “What ifs,” say aloud, “I am feeling vulnerable.” This sentence changed my life. It takes me out of my fear brain—i.e., off the crazy train—and puts me back on the platform, where I can make a conscious choice not to reboard.
Be thankful.
Recently, when a turbulent flight caused me to start planning my own funeral, I remembered something I’d learned in my research: Joyous people are grateful people. So I used the fear alarm in my head as a reminder to feel grateful for my kids, my husband, and my work. Even more effective: Speak your gratitude aloud to others, or write it in your journal.
Start a practice.
I believe joy is a spiritual practice we have to work at. For me, that means appreciating everyday moments: a walk with my husband, fishing with my kids on the Gulf Coast. It means not living in fear of what I could lose, but softening into the moments I have.
Psalm Maryann
Long before the night
(This Ancient Love)
by Carolyn McDade
Long before the night was born from the darkness
Long before the dawn rolled unsteady from fire
Long before she wrapped her scarlet arms around the hills
There was a love, this ancient love was born
Long before the grass spotted green the bare hillside
Long before a wing unfolded to wind
Long before she wrapped her long blue arm around the sea
There was a love, this ancient love was born
Long before a chain was forged from the hillside
Long before a voice uttered freedom’s cry
Long before she wrapped her bleeding arms around a child
There was a love, this ancient love was born
Long before the name of God was spoken
Long before a cross was nailed from a tree
Long before she lay her arm of colors ‘cross the sky
There was a love, this ancient love was born
Wakeful are our nights and slumbers our morning
Stubborn is the grass sowing green wounded hills
as we wrap our healing arms to hold what her arms held
this ancient love this aching love rolls on
Second Reading
https://sojo.net/articles/faith-action/where-joy Aug 13, 2014 adapted
Where Is the Joy? By Lisa Sharon Harper
How do you talk about joy in times like these and not sound like a traveling salesman with a bottle of snake oil up his sleeve?
Iran, Hezbollah and Israel are locked in a cycle of escalation that could consume the region. 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed to date during Russia’s full-scale invasion. More than 31,184 Palestinians have been killed and 72,889 injured, and more than 1,200 people in Israel have been killed. Four key pillars of the global climate (the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic currents that warm Europe) are melting in the heat trapped by rising fossil fuel emissions, destroying the relatively stable climate that nurtured human civilization. The United States Supreme Court overthrew the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law. The man running for president of the US has attempted a coup, has 34 felony convictions, has been impeached twice, has been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming a woman, been charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, has called for the execution of people who upset him and who has vowed to exact vengeance on those he now thinks have wronged him.
So … to think of joy right now, reminds me of snake oil.
The spiritual discipline of joy is a challenging call.
When I think of joy, I think of women in sundresses running through fields of daisies, blankets and baskets brimming with great food and wine in tow. I think of babies laughing and little girls playing hopscotch and little boys playing marbles.
But perhaps none of that is joy after all. Perhaps what my youth group leader told me years ago is true. Those are images of happiness. They are fleeting. Joy runs deeper.
Joy is like the deepest leagues of the ocean. Though hurricanes rage above, it stands still. Joy is like the sun and the moon: No matter what happens on earth, they are constant. They rise and rise and rise again.
Joy smiles—period. It is almost sly, smiling in the face of disaster, as if it knows a secret.
Or, does joy smile in the face of disasters as a non-violent weapon wielded against the lie that all is lost?
Joy’s smile states simply, with the only energy it can muster in the face of this fallen world: All is not lost. This is not the end of the story. And though the world rages around me and may threaten my very being, I am whole and complete because God is.
Maybe that’s where Paul’s charge to the Philippians comes from. This man who endured persecution, shipwreck, poverty, and Roman oppression said, unequivocally: Rejoice in the Divine always: again I say Rejoice. Let everyone see your forbearing spirit. The Divine is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds; instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers. Before you know it, a sense of wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when the Divine displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:4-7)
Perhaps joy brings peace because joy lives in the deep…and God is in the deep. So, on this day when news cycles rage and injustices beg to be engaged, in the middle of hurricanes raging, I feel a smile forming in the deep waters of my soul.
Peace is coming.
Inspired Words
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People ??????
What thoughts come to you when you experience joy? Are you scared to feel joy? For many, joy is the most difficult, terrifying emotion! When we feel joy, it is a place of incredible vulnerability—it’s beauty and fragility and deep gratitude and impermanence all wrapped up in one experience. When we can’t tolerate that level of vulnerability, joy actually becomes foreboding. Our response will be: May we be vulnerable.
“Yes, softening into joy is uncomfortable. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it’s vulnerable. But every time we allow ourselves to lean into joy and give in to those moments, we build resilience and we cultivate hope. The joy becomes part of who we are, and when bad things happen—and they do happen—we are stronger.” We respond: May we be vulnerable
“In the midst of joy, there’s often a quiver, a shudder of vulnerability. Rather than focusing on fear, the people who lean into joy use the quiver as a reminder to practice gratitude.” We respond: May we be vulnerable.
“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.” We respond: May we be vulnerable.
The beauty of joy is that, like a stained glass window through which light breaks into a myriad of colors, it enables us to see how good life is, even when it seems that it isn’t. We respond: May we be vulnerable
Joy is not an event; it is the attitude a healthy person takes into every situation in life: work, family, social life, and even moments of personal stress. We respond: May we be vulnerable.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, Rainbow Railroad and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they experience joy in the good work they do as they follow the Way of Jesus. We respond: May we be vulnerable
For what else shall we pray?
Allow up to 4 petitions.
Joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. Joy gets us to love, love brings us together and it just might help us survive. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Adapted from quotes by Brené Brown
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine ???
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike and ???
| P: The Divine nurtures and sustains all of creation. Humanity is abundantly blessed. | Voice: Jesus taught us a message of peace and taught us to live as sisters and brothers. His message took form in the hearts of his friends when, at their best, they created communities of love where all might live as one. This message lives on in our midst as a challenge for all people today and a promise for tomorrow. |
| P: With gratitude in our hearts, we give thanks for the Divine’s presence on our journey. We are grateful for all that we have. We know that we are sustained by the loving presence of the Divine. | Voice: In the birthing forth of creation we have been called into being. We are gifted with health and wholeness; We are enhanced with ability, wisdom, knowledge and discernment. |
| P: We are called to work for justice, to share our table with all creation, to feed the needy at our door, to see nobody is left in need. | Voice: The table we share is adorned with the gifts of creation, gifts given for all to share in equality and justice, a table where all are welcome, and from which nobody is to be excluded, from the greatest even to the least. |
| P: As we gather, we celebrate the open table, proclaimed by Jesus our liberator and our friend, a table of abundant life, inclusive love, and redemptive liberation. | Voice: In the power of the creative Spirit, Jesus lived life to the full. We, too, are blessed in the power of that same Spirit. We celebrate the transformative energy symbolized in our gifts of bread and wine, given to nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life. |
| P: While sharing a feast at table, Jesus took bread, blessed the Divine for all good gifts. Jesus broke the bread and along with the cup, gave it to his friends. | Voice: After the meal, Jesus took another cup, poured out in a spirit of solidarity and empowerment. Jesus gave thanks and shared the cup with his friends. |
| P: As we celebrate this Eucharistic feast, we call to mind that we are a people nourished throughout the ages; and we look forward in hope to that day when justice will guarantee food for all who hunger for the fullness of life. | Voice: With grateful hearts we receive the gifts of this table. May the creative Spirit, who energizes these gifts, activate in our hearts, too, a hunger for that justice that will guarantee sustenance for every human being. |
| P: In the spirit of this celebration, we rejoice and give thanks for all we have received; but we do so in the painful awareness of all who are excluded from the table abundant life. | Voice: May we be awakened to a passion for equality and generosity of spirit, that all may be brought to the table of abundance, from which the Divine wants no one to be excluded. |
| P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. | Voice: To this, we give our Amen! |
Prayer of Jesus ?????
Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything
and from which all life flows,
We acknowledge this healing and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields, may we have the basics we need to live
and may we have the love and commitment to ensure that others have what they need too.
May we have the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong,
to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt
and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace.
Amen A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer by Roger Courtney adapted
Breaking of the Bread Colleen or Alice
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
Windsong by John Denver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXOihxjXqAo (no lyrics but nice pictures)
The wind is the whisper of our mother the earth
The wind is the hand of our Father the sky
The wind watches over our struggles and pleasures
The wind is the goddess who first learned to fly
The wind is the bearer of bad and good tidings
The weaver of darkness, the bringer of dawn
The wind gives the rain, then builds us a rainbow
The wind is the singer who sang the first song
The wind is the twister of anger and warning
The wind brings the fragrance of freshly mown hay
The wind is a racer, and a wild stallion running
and the sweet taste of love on a slow summer’s day
The wind knows the songs of cities and canyons
The thunder of mountains, the roar of the sea
The wind is the taker and giver of mornings
The wind is the symbol of all that is free
So welcome the wind and the wisdom she offers
Follow her summons when she calls again
In your heart and your spirit , let the breezes surround you
Lift up your voice then and sing with the wind
Closing Prayer Mike
As we live our lives let us choose to find ways to be joyful. As we face a world of trouble let us decide to live grateful lives. As we confront the challenges of our day may we engage each one with positive attitudes. May we practice repeatedly intentional and purposeful living. May we train ourselves in mindfulness. Above all may we exercise the gifts of joy and gratitude to be the well-round people we are called to be in this life. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sending Forth Song Maryann
Joy in Our Hearts by Karen Drucker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRBSdrI1MBI or slides in library at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YMFUZUsvvrs90bevqSzS0qyQ_CvTcCOo9QKTyWOsobU/edit?usp=sharing (needs one slide updated)
By Karen Drucker and J. D. Martin
INTRO CHORUS Peace for the season, love ev’ry moment, Light shines wherever we are. Faith in the darkness, hope in the silence, Joy, sweet joy, in our hearts.
VERSE 1 Ev’ry day is a choice to show some kindness. We’re all a part of one family, So connected our hearts and spirits, I reach out for you, you reach out for me.
CHORUS 1 Peace for the season, love ev’ry moment, Light shines wherever we are. Faith in the darkness, hope in the silence, Joy, joy, in our hearts.
VERSE 2 Now is the time to come together To count our blessings. We are grateful. We lift our voices in one chorus. My brother, my sister, let’s celebrate!
CHORUS 1
BRIDGE Let’s celebrate peace, let’s celebrate love, Let’s celebrate light that shines, shines, shines Let’s celebrate faith celebrate hope Let’s celebrate joy, joy in our hearts.
Peace, oh love, All that light shines, shines, shines, shines, shines. Faith and hope, Talkin’ ’bout joy, joy, in our hearts now!
CHORUS 1
CHORUS 2 We’re talkin’ bout peace for the season love ev’ry moment, Oh that light that shines wherever we are. Faith in the darkness, hope in the silence, Joy joy, joy, joy, in our hearts, Joy joy, joy, joy, in our hearts, Joy joy, joy, joy, in our hearts, in our hearts!
Copyright © 2013 TayToones Music/Gill ‘n’ Goldie Music (ASCAP)
Announcements
18th Sunday Cycle B August 4th 2024 Theme: Gratitude
We pray for those individuals in need
Gathering Song Mike
With All Good Gifts Weston Priory
iTunes and Slide Show
Opening Prayer Mike
We can be the Gracious Mystery’s incarnation
When we live in love and peace;
The Divine’s own kindom is reflected
When all wars and conflicts cease;
With the promise
Of true justice
We may see the Gracious Mystery’s reign increase.
We can be the Divine’s incarnation
When we care for all around;
The Divine Presence’s own kindom is reflected
When in kindness we are bound;
In our living
And our giving
The Gracious Mystery’s own action can be found.
We can be the Divine’s incarnation
When we link with Galilee;
The Divine Presence’s own kindom is reflected
In our life and ministry,
When with Jesus
We find purpose
Bringing love to victory. Amen
George Stuart, adapted
First Reading Collee-Walsh-White
Pastor Dawn Hutchinson October 7, 2020
To Whom Shall We Go to Say Thank-you
After You Move Beyond Personifying God?
Over the course of the past nine years a group of little people have come into my life. Lovely little people who call me Gran. There are seven of them and participating in their little lives is a source of such great joy. Each stage of their development is a wonder to behold. I particularly enjoy watching their parents as they attempt to teach these little darlings the things that they need to know about being human. One of the first things that we teach little humans is the fine art of saying thank-you. It takes a fair amount of repetition to teach a child to say thank-you. Over and over again, after giving them exactly what they want, we ask, “Can you say thank-you?” and the little darlings repeat the words “Thank-you.” Sometimes all we have to do is ask the question: “What do you say?” in order to hear the words “Thank-you” uttered in such a delightful way as to inspire us to praise them as such good little girls and boys.
Expressing gratitude is a skill that all tiny little people must learn in order to develop into well-rounded human beings. Indeed, scientists insist that being grateful is a prerequisite of happiness. Happy humans it seems, are humans who embody gratitude. But there is more to gratitude than simply saying thank-you. I remember learning that gratitude includes more than simply expressing our thanks. It happened when I was about sixteen and actually noticed the beauty of a sunset and for the first time I realized that I was part of something so much bigger than myself. I know I must have seen the sunset before, but this time I actually saw the sun set. We were driving down the road, my friend Valerie and I were riding in a car driven by her mother, Lola. It was a partly over-cast day on the west coast of British Columbia. Just a few clouds. You could see the mountains off in the distance. We were chatting back and forth when all of a sudden, Lola pulled the car over to the far side of the road, switched off the engine and got out. Valerie followed her mother out of the car, so I figured I had better do the same. Val and her mother scampered down from the road and onto the beach. When they reached the water’s edge, they stopped and just looked off into the distance. Apart from a tanker-ship making its way across the horizon, I couldn’t see much of anything. Lola had the most amazing expression on her face. She positively glowed with happiness. Valerie wore a similar expression. I must have looked somewhat puzzled because Val smiled at me and said “Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” This only confused me more. What were they looking at that had made them stop the car, scamper down the bank and stand there at the water’s edge on a cold autumn evening.
These happy, glowing, smiling people made me nervous. There they stood grinning from ear to ear. What were they on? And then, I saw it. For the first time in my life, I saw it. It had been there before. But I had never really seen it before. The sky was amazing. The colors were overwhelming. It almost didn’t look real. It looked like someone must have painted it that way. It was magnificent. A work of art. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen. If you’ve never seen a late October, Pacific Coast Sunset before, you’ve missed one of the great wonders of the world. Neither Emily Carr’s paintings nor picture perfect post cards do a western sunset justice.
Believe it or not, even though I had been living on the west coast for about four years, at that point I had never before really noticed just how beautiful a sunset could be. No one in my experience had ever taken the time to stop and look at one. No one had ever pointed one out to me before. I would never have dreamed of stopping a car and getting out to watch as the sun put on a show while setting. So, I stood there. Overwhelmed by it all. Amazed at just how beautiful it was. Wondering just who or what could be responsible for such a spectacular thing as this. Before long my thoughts drifted to the Creator. Actually noticing a magnificent sunset was the beginning of a journey beyond myself as the reality that I am part of something so much bigger than myself continues to permeate my being.
Back then, I expressed my gratitude by very much the same way as my grandchildren are being taught to express their gratitude, simply by saying “Thank-you”. The object of the Thank-you being God. At the time, God was an old bloke up there in the sky somewhere. As my images of God changed over the years, my Thank-you’s continued to be expressed to my ever-changing images of God. But I must confess, that it was a whole lot easier to say thank-you to God when God was some big guy up there, out there somewhere? It was so much easier when I thought of God as “Father” or even as “Mother” to express my gratitude by simply mimicking the behaviour that I’d been taught as a child, “Can you say “Thank-you” Oh yes indeed I can say thank-you. “God is great, God is God, let us thank him for our food. By his hand we must be fed, Give us Lord Our Daily Bread.”
It is so much easier to say thank-you to a deity that we have personified than it is to give thanks to a deity that is Beyond the Beyond and Beyond that Also. Our thank-you’s to the One in whom we live and move and have our being, tend to be expressed in words that are so much more awkward than the simply “Thank-you Father” that sufficed when we personified God.
Thanksgiving is certainly easier when you personify God. I have said over and over again that there is absolutely nothing wrong with personifying God. Indeed, it is part of our human nature to personify things. Personification is how we relate to something that is not a person. Personifying God is only a problem when and if we actually begin to believe that God is a person and we then go on to worship the person who we have created. The One in whom we live and move and have our being, lives and moves in, with, through, and beyond us. Which means that each one of us is in God and God is in each one of us, so expressing or gratitude for the many blessings that we enjoy moves our attention beyond ourselves to those around us.
Embodying our thanks, takes on whole new dimensions when we begin to see God in, with, through and beyond all of creation. We all have a lot of learning to do if we are ever going to learn to give thanks to the source of our being, the One who lives and breathes in, with, through, and beyond us. When little children are learning to talk sometimes it is difficult for them to say the words, “Thank-you”. In my family, we used to encourage babies to say “ta” or “ta, ta” as a first step along the way to learning how to express their gratitude. As we learn and grow in our knowledge of the ONE who is the source of our blessings, we use words like, “LORD”, “FATHER”, “MOTHER”, “REDEEMER”, “SAVIOUR”, all perfectly good attempts at expressing the inexpressible. So, if personifying God, helps, then by all means personify God. Just remember that your personifications of God, are not God, for they will always fall short of expressing that which is beyond language.
As we continue to live into our full humanity, we will continue to learn to notice, and name our blessings, and we will learn new ways of expressing and embodying our gratitude as the LOVE that is the source of our blessings continues to flow through all things. The One we seek to offer our thanks and praise, the One who is the source of all our blessings is the one we call God.
The ancient Greek noun for God, is theos; we get our word theology from it…theology means words or ideas about God. The ancient Greek noun theos, was derived from the Greek verb theo, which means to flow. Our ancestors, described God as the Light that flows through all things. Jesus taught us that God is Love. As followers of Jesus, surely we can begin to understand God as the LOVE that flows through all things. Let our Thanksgiving celebrations open us to the realities of our many blessings and let those blessings flow through us.
May our God who is LOVE, flow in, with, through, and beyond us so that everyone may know the One who in whom we live and breathe and have our being, by our love. Let us remember that LOVE flows both ways. Just as surely as our blessings flow through us, so too, the pain of our sisters and brothers flows. Let us remember that we are intimately connected one to another. Even though the LOVE that lies at the very heart of our existence is beyond our ability to imagine, it can be embodied in the love that flows in, with, and through us. Let that LOVE who is the ONE to whom we offer our thanks and praise, flow through us.
We have been richly blessed. Can we say “Thank-you”? Absolutely, we can say thank-you by continuing to learn what it means to be LOVE in the world. Let us enjoy our Thanksgiving celebrations, by pausing from our regular routines to take some time to count our blessings, let the LOVE flow as we embrace family and friends, and then as the knowledge of our many blessings washes over us, let us act out of the abundance we share, so that the LOVE, the ONE who IS, Was, and Evermore shall be the source of our blessings might flow. Let our gratitude take on flesh and live among us, so that all may know the LOVE who is God. Let our gratitude live and breathe in, with, through, and beyond us. Let LOVE flow from each one to each one.
Inspired Words
Psalm Mike
GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World | Empty Hands Music | nimo feat. daniel nahmod
Gospel Peter Arney
A reading from the gospel in the tradition of John
So when the crowd realized he was gone and wasn’t coming back, they piled into the Tiberias boats and headed for Capernaum, looking for Jesus.
When they found him back across the sea, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs – and for free.
“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.”
To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?”
Jesus said, “Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.”
They waffled: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do.
Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus responded, “The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread.
The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.”
They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who abides with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.
Inspired Words
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Kim Marchand
We wish to abide, reside or dwell with Jesus. We do so by our prayers and by our modelling his behavior.
Our response: May we abide in the Way of Jesus.
For all houses of Worship, that the spirit of gratitude may permeate all that they do so give joyful expression to the Divine Presence and make all people one, we respond,
For all leaders of government, that they may reflect on the power they have been given and respond with thankfulness as they find new ways to improve the lives of those in their charge, we respond,
For public servants, the police, EMTs, ambulance personnel, law enforcement officers and officials, justice workers and all who engage with the public, may they do so in a grateful manner that is respectful, we respond,
For all those working with those in need of any kind, that they may navigate the negativity and frustration they encounter through an attitude of gratitude, we respond.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways2Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… We pray,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray that we may always be attentive to the Divine’s call. May we live our lives with grateful hearts. May this gratitude overflow and keep us upbeat in the times of challenges and frustration. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Linda Schaller
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike & Sue Bove
| Presider: Deep within us all lies the dream of a better world; our dream and longing for justice and fairness, harmony and peace, openness and honesty, comfort and warmth, freedom and choice, for light where there is darkness. | Voice: Today, we are mindful of people all around the world and throughout human history, who have shared this longing; a deep longing that is embedded in our DNA, in our very humanity. It is our human dream, our human song, common to all people. |
| P: Jesus, human like us, gave clear expression to the deep-seated longing and hope experienced not only within Judaism, but within people of all faiths and cultures – the longing and hope for a better world. | Voice: The better world we imagine is ours to accomplish. It is in our hands; the compassion, the honesty, the justice, the peace and non-violence, the determination to be light in the darkness, to be people set free from fear. It is all within our grasp. |
| P: And yet, we work at recognizing and being okay with our humanness. We rejoice that we can rise above ourselves, yet understand that we sometimes fall down, experiencing the pain of disappointing ourselves and others. We acknowledge that getting up is difficult and involves hard work, and that sometimes we are simply not ready for it. . We accept that sometimes our hands come up empty, our grasp can only hold ourselves together. | Voice: May we also recognize and accept humanness in others, approaching them with a hypothesis of generosity…being open to believing that most people are doing the best they can with the tools they have. May our boundaries be courageous, honest, strong, and loving. In this way, may we open ourselves to being the wholehearted and compassionate followers of Jesus that we want to be. |
| P: In that spirit, we turn to our gifts of bread and wine. May they be symbols of our readiness to grow and to transform. May they, along with the love of community, nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life…with all of its nuance and complexity. | Voice: May our gifts of bread and wine be symbols of all our gifts. May we have the courage to commit to using those gifts, small and large, in bravery and balance, so that we can join with Jesus and all of those throughout history working to create a better world. |
| P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Reworked from Michael Morwood’s Eucharistic Prayer for humans longing for a just and peaceful world, from Prayers For Progressive Christians, pages 195-197
Prayer of Jesus Louise Murray
(Please pray along)
Divine Birther of all that is – from the smallest particle to the vastness of the cosmos, you are present. Holy are your infinite names chanted, sung or whispered.
Abba, Beloved, Divine Breath, Great Mystery, Sophia
May we walk in peace, speak with tenderness, touch with compassion, and love unconditionally. With gratitude for the abundance we’ve been given, may we always share with any who hunger or are in need. May we be filled with humility and regret for the times we did not reflect your love. May we always offer forgiveness to those whose words or actions have caused us pain. May we understand our individual purpose and seek to fulfill it without distraction.
We pray what we believe and believe what we pray. Amen.
By Colleen Walsh White 2020
Breaking of the Bread Colleen or Alice
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
With Thanksgiving to God (Instrumental)
iTunes and PowerPoint
Closing Prayer Mike
My fellow servants, we are one.
The bread we share makes us one.
The cup we pour makes us one.
Even as our dearest sisters and brothers
come and go from us, we are one.
Even as we scatter from this place
to so many diverse pursuits
throughout this city, this state, this globe,
we are one.
With gratitude we share the Table.
With gratitude we depart.
With gratitude we release one another,
trusting in the One
Who makes us one.
Go in peace.
~ Benediction for November 25, 2012, written by Paul Randall, and posted on Ecclesia. http://www.ecclesiahouston.org/
Closing Song Mike
Thank you for this day – Karen Drucker
Announcements18th Sunday Cycle B August 4th 2024 Theme: Gratitude
We pray for those individuals in need
Gathering Song Mike
With All Good Gifts Weston Priory
iTunes and Slide Show
Opening Prayer Mike
We can be the Gracious Mystery’s incarnation
When we live in love and peace;
The Divine’s own kindom is reflected
When all wars and conflicts cease;
With the promise
Of true justice
We may see the Gracious Mystery’s reign increase.
We can be the Divine’s incarnation
When we care for all around;
The Divine Presence’s own kindom is reflected
When in kindness we are bound;
In our living
And our giving
The Gracious Mystery’s own action can be found.
We can be the Divine’s incarnation
When we link with Galilee;
The Divine Presence’s own kindom is reflected
In our life and ministry,
When with Jesus
We find purpose
Bringing love to victory. Amen
George Stuart, adapted
First Reading Collee-Walsh-White
Pastor Dawn Hutchinson October 7, 2020
To Whom Shall We Go to Say Thank-you
After You Move Beyond Personifying God?
Over the course of the past nine years a group of little people have come into my life. Lovely little people who call me Gran. There are seven of them and participating in their little lives is a source of such great joy. Each stage of their development is a wonder to behold. I particularly enjoy watching their parents as they attempt to teach these little darlings the things that they need to know about being human. One of the first things that we teach little humans is the fine art of saying thank-you. It takes a fair amount of repetition to teach a child to say thank-you. Over and over again, after giving them exactly what they want, we ask, “Can you say thank-you?” and the little darlings repeat the words “Thank-you.” Sometimes all we have to do is ask the question: “What do you say?” in order to hear the words “Thank-you” uttered in such a delightful way as to inspire us to praise them as such good little girls and boys.
Expressing gratitude is a skill that all tiny little people must learn in order to develop into well-rounded human beings. Indeed, scientists insist that being grateful is a prerequisite of happiness. Happy humans it seems, are humans who embody gratitude. But there is more to gratitude than simply saying thank-you. I remember learning that gratitude includes more than simply expressing our thanks. It happened when I was about sixteen and actually noticed the beauty of a sunset and for the first time I realized that I was part of something so much bigger than myself. I know I must have seen the sunset before, but this time I actually saw the sun set. We were driving down the road, my friend Valerie and I were riding in a car driven by her mother, Lola. It was a partly over-cast day on the west coast of British Columbia. Just a few clouds. You could see the mountains off in the distance. We were chatting back and forth when all of a sudden, Lola pulled the car over to the far side of the road, switched off the engine and got out. Valerie followed her mother out of the car, so I figured I had better do the same. Val and her mother scampered down from the road and onto the beach. When they reached the water’s edge, they stopped and just looked off into the distance. Apart from a tanker-ship making its way across the horizon, I couldn’t see much of anything. Lola had the most amazing expression on her face. She positively glowed with happiness. Valerie wore a similar expression. I must have looked somewhat puzzled because Val smiled at me and said “Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” This only confused me more. What were they looking at that had made them stop the car, scamper down the bank and stand there at the water’s edge on a cold autumn evening.
These happy, glowing, smiling people made me nervous. There they stood grinning from ear to ear. What were they on? And then, I saw it. For the first time in my life, I saw it. It had been there before. But I had never really seen it before. The sky was amazing. The colors were overwhelming. It almost didn’t look real. It looked like someone must have painted it that way. It was magnificent. A work of art. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen. If you’ve never seen a late October, Pacific Coast Sunset before, you’ve missed one of the great wonders of the world. Neither Emily Carr’s paintings nor picture perfect post cards do a western sunset justice.
Believe it or not, even though I had been living on the west coast for about four years, at that point I had never before really noticed just how beautiful a sunset could be. No one in my experience had ever taken the time to stop and look at one. No one had ever pointed one out to me before. I would never have dreamed of stopping a car and getting out to watch as the sun put on a show while setting. So, I stood there. Overwhelmed by it all. Amazed at just how beautiful it was. Wondering just who or what could be responsible for such a spectacular thing as this. Before long my thoughts drifted to the Creator. Actually noticing a magnificent sunset was the beginning of a journey beyond myself as the reality that I am part of something so much bigger than myself continues to permeate my being.
Back then, I expressed my gratitude by very much the same way as my grandchildren are being taught to express their gratitude, simply by saying “Thank-you”. The object of the Thank-you being God. At the time, God was an old bloke up there in the sky somewhere. As my images of God changed over the years, my Thank-you’s continued to be expressed to my ever-changing images of God. But I must confess, that it was a whole lot easier to say thank-you to God when God was some big guy up there, out there somewhere? It was so much easier when I thought of God as “Father” or even as “Mother” to express my gratitude by simply mimicking the behaviour that I’d been taught as a child, “Can you say “Thank-you” Oh yes indeed I can say thank-you. “God is great, God is God, let us thank him for our food. By his hand we must be fed, Give us Lord Our Daily Bread.”
It is so much easier to say thank-you to a deity that we have personified than it is to give thanks to a deity that is Beyond the Beyond and Beyond that Also. Our thank-you’s to the One in whom we live and move and have our being, tend to be expressed in words that are so much more awkward than the simply “Thank-you Father” that sufficed when we personified God.
Thanksgiving is certainly easier when you personify God. I have said over and over again that there is absolutely nothing wrong with personifying God. Indeed, it is part of our human nature to personify things. Personification is how we relate to something that is not a person. Personifying God is only a problem when and if we actually begin to believe that God is a person and we then go on to worship the person who we have created. The One in whom we live and move and have our being, lives and moves in, with, through, and beyond us. Which means that each one of us is in God and God is in each one of us, so expressing or gratitude for the many blessings that we enjoy moves our attention beyond ourselves to those around us.
Embodying our thanks, takes on whole new dimensions when we begin to see God in, with, through and beyond all of creation. We all have a lot of learning to do if we are ever going to learn to give thanks to the source of our being, the One who lives and breathes in, with, through, and beyond us. When little children are learning to talk sometimes it is difficult for them to say the words, “Thank-you”. In my family, we used to encourage babies to say “ta” or “ta, ta” as a first step along the way to learning how to express their gratitude. As we learn and grow in our knowledge of the ONE who is the source of our blessings, we use words like, “LORD”, “FATHER”, “MOTHER”, “REDEEMER”, “SAVIOUR”, all perfectly good attempts at expressing the inexpressible. So, if personifying God, helps, then by all means personify God. Just remember that your personifications of God, are not God, for they will always fall short of expressing that which is beyond language.
As we continue to live into our full humanity, we will continue to learn to notice, and name our blessings, and we will learn new ways of expressing and embodying our gratitude as the LOVE that is the source of our blessings continues to flow through all things. The One we seek to offer our thanks and praise, the One who is the source of all our blessings is the one we call God.
The ancient Greek noun for God, is theos; we get our word theology from it…theology means words or ideas about God. The ancient Greek noun theos, was derived from the Greek verb theo, which means to flow. Our ancestors, described God as the Light that flows through all things. Jesus taught us that God is Love. As followers of Jesus, surely we can begin to understand God as the LOVE that flows through all things. Let our Thanksgiving celebrations open us to the realities of our many blessings and let those blessings flow through us.
May our God who is LOVE, flow in, with, through, and beyond us so that everyone may know the One who in whom we live and breathe and have our being, by our love. Let us remember that LOVE flows both ways. Just as surely as our blessings flow through us, so too, the pain of our sisters and brothers flows. Let us remember that we are intimately connected one to another. Even though the LOVE that lies at the very heart of our existence is beyond our ability to imagine, it can be embodied in the love that flows in, with, and through us. Let that LOVE who is the ONE to whom we offer our thanks and praise, flow through us.
We have been richly blessed. Can we say “Thank-you”? Absolutely, we can say thank-you by continuing to learn what it means to be LOVE in the world. Let us enjoy our Thanksgiving celebrations, by pausing from our regular routines to take some time to count our blessings, let the LOVE flow as we embrace family and friends, and then as the knowledge of our many blessings washes over us, let us act out of the abundance we share, so that the LOVE, the ONE who IS, Was, and Evermore shall be the source of our blessings might flow. Let our gratitude take on flesh and live among us, so that all may know the LOVE who is God. Let our gratitude live and breathe in, with, through, and beyond us. Let LOVE flow from each one to each one.
Inspired Words
Psalm Mike
GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World | Empty Hands Music | nimo feat. daniel nahmod
Gospel Peter Arney
A reading from the gospel in the tradition of John
So when the crowd realized he was gone and wasn’t coming back, they piled into the Tiberias boats and headed for Capernaum, looking for Jesus.
When they found him back across the sea, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs – and for free.
“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.”
To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?”
Jesus said, “Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.”
They waffled: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do.
Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus responded, “The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread.
The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.”
They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who abides with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.
Inspired Words
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Kim Marchand
We wish to abide, reside or dwell with Jesus. We do so by our prayers and by our modelling his behavior.
Our response: May we abide in the Way of Jesus.
For all houses of Worship, that the spirit of gratitude may permeate all that they do so give joyful expression to the Divine Presence and make all people one, we respond,
For all leaders of government, that they may reflect on the power they have been given and respond with thankfulness as they find new ways to improve the lives of those in their charge, we respond,
For public servants, the police, EMTs, ambulance personnel, law enforcement officers and officials, justice workers and all who engage with the public, may they do so in a grateful manner that is respectful, we respond,
For all those working with those in need of any kind, that they may navigate the negativity and frustration they encounter through an attitude of gratitude, we respond.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways2Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… We pray,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray that we may always be attentive to the Divine’s call. May we live our lives with grateful hearts. May this gratitude overflow and keep us upbeat in the times of challenges and frustration. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Linda Schaller
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike & Sue Bove
| Presider: Deep within us all lies the dream of a better world; our dream and longing for justice and fairness, harmony and peace, openness and honesty, comfort and warmth, freedom and choice, for light where there is darkness. | Voice: Today, we are mindful of people all around the world and throughout human history, who have shared this longing; a deep longing that is embedded in our DNA, in our very humanity. It is our human dream, our human song, common to all people. |
| P: Jesus, human like us, gave clear expression to the deep-seated longing and hope experienced not only within Judaism, but within people of all faiths and cultures – the longing and hope for a better world. | Voice: The better world we imagine is ours to accomplish. It is in our hands; the compassion, the honesty, the justice, the peace and non-violence, the determination to be light in the darkness, to be people set free from fear. It is all within our grasp. |
| P: And yet, we work at recognizing and being okay with our humanness. We rejoice that we can rise above ourselves, yet understand that we sometimes fall down, experiencing the pain of disappointing ourselves and others. We acknowledge that getting up is difficult and involves hard work, and that sometimes we are simply not ready for it. . We accept that sometimes our hands come up empty, our grasp can only hold ourselves together. | Voice: May we also recognize and accept humanness in others, approaching them with a hypothesis of generosity…being open to believing that most people are doing the best they can with the tools they have. May our boundaries be courageous, honest, strong, and loving. In this way, may we open ourselves to being the wholehearted and compassionate followers of Jesus that we want to be. |
| P: In that spirit, we turn to our gifts of bread and wine. May they be symbols of our readiness to grow and to transform. May they, along with the love of community, nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life…with all of its nuance and complexity. | Voice: May our gifts of bread and wine be symbols of all our gifts. May we have the courage to commit to using those gifts, small and large, in bravery and balance, so that we can join with Jesus and all of those throughout history working to create a better world. |
| P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Reworked from Michael Morwood’s Eucharistic Prayer for humans longing for a just and peaceful world, from Prayers For Progressive Christians, pages 195-197
Prayer of Jesus Louise Murray
(Please pray along)
Divine Birther of all that is – from the smallest particle to the vastness of the cosmos, you are present. Holy are your infinite names chanted, sung or whispered.
Abba, Beloved, Divine Breath, Great Mystery, Sophia
May we walk in peace, speak with tenderness, touch with compassion, and love unconditionally. With gratitude for the abundance we’ve been given, may we always share with any who hunger or are in need. May we be filled with humility and regret for the times we did not reflect your love. May we always offer forgiveness to those whose words or actions have caused us pain. May we understand our individual purpose and seek to fulfill it without distraction.
We pray what we believe and believe what we pray. Amen.
By Colleen Walsh White 2020
Breaking of the Bread Colleen or Alice
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
With Thanksgiving to God (Instrumental)
iTunes and PowerPoint
Closing Prayer Mike
My fellow servants, we are one.
The bread we share makes us one.
The cup we pour makes us one.
Even as our dearest sisters and brothers
come and go from us, we are one.
Even as we scatter from this place
to so many diverse pursuits
throughout this city, this state, this globe,
we are one.
With gratitude we share the Table.
With gratitude we depart.
With gratitude we release one another,
trusting in the One
Who makes us one.
Go in peace.
~ Benediction for November 25, 2012, written by Paul Randall, and posted on Ecclesia. http://www.ecclesiahouston.org/
Closing Song Mike
Thank you for this day – Karen Drucker
Announcements
17th Sunday Cycle B July 28th 2024 Theme: Answering the Needs of Others
We pray for those individuals in need
Gathering Song Mike
Gather Us In by Marty Haugen
Opening Prayer Mike
We come believing in our emptiness,
believing that we will never have enough,
believing that what we have is unworthy.
We come fearful of sharing,
fearful of losing our tenuous grip on security,
fearful of touching and knowing the pain of others.
We come overwhelmed by the hunger,
overwhelmed by the suffering of children near and far,
overwhelmed by the endless tales of senseless violence, greed, and death.
We come aching from the weight of the responsibility,
aching from the chilling challenge of knowing our abundance,
aching from the gnawing awareness that we have much to share.
We come clinging to our meager lunches;
bless them, and us.
break them, and us.
share them, and us.
~ written by Katherine Hawker, on Liturgy Outside. http://liturgyoutside.net/
First Reading Colleen-Walsh-White
A reading from the gospel in the tradition of John.
Some time later, Jesus crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – that is, Lake Tiberius – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by healing sick people.
Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with the disciples.
It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
Looking up, Jesus saw the crowd approaching and said to Philip,
“Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?”
Jesus knew very well what he was going to do, but asked this to test Philip’s response.
Philip answered him,
“Not even with two hundred days’ wages could we buy loaves enough to give each of them a mouthful!”
One of his disciples, Simon Peter’s brother Andrew, said,
“There’s is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two dried fish.
But what good is that with so many people?”
Jesus said to them, “Make the people sit down.”
There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand families sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and gave them out to all who were sitting there;
he did the same with the fish, giving out as much as they could eat.
When they had eaten their fill, Jesus said to the disciples,
“Gather up the leftovers pieces, so that nothing gets wasted.”
So they picked them up and filled twelve baskets with scraps left over from the five barley loaves.
The people, seeing this sign that Jesus had performed, said,
“Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Seeing that they were about to come and carry him off to crown him as ruler, Jesus escaped into the hills alone.
Inspired Words
Psalm Song Mike
The Many – We are Enough
Second Reading Teri Corso
Loaves, fishes and the work of building a world where everyone has enough By Kathy Killian Noe | May 12, 2021
Most of us, whether we are conscious of it or not, operate somewhere on the continuum between an assumption of abundance and an assumption of scarcity.
An assumption of abundance is a way of living with a healthy amount of trust that everything we truly need to become the people we were created to be will somehow be given. It’s a way of living with trust that everything that happens to us — even the things we never would have chosen — can somehow be used for good and as part of our becoming.
The scarcity assumption tells us that there is simply not enough to go around; not enough resources, not enough attention, not enough love, not enough opportunities, not enough forgiveness for us truly to be forgiven and not enough acceptance for us truly to be accepted, etc.
The scarcity assumption tells us, maybe on a subconscious level, “if that person is loved, I must be less loved; if that person gets attention, there won’t be enough attention for me; if that person is special then I must be less special; if that person’s basic need for health care, housing, education and employment are met, there won’t be enough to meet my basic need for housing, education health care and employment. The scarcity assumption is at the heart of the ban on refugees, and the building of a wall.
The truth is there really is the possibility of there being enough for everyone; enough love, enough attention, even enough resources to provide for every one’s basic needs. But when we operate out of the scarcity assumption, when we act as if there is not enough to go around and we act as if we are not all part of the same human family and we create policies and tax codes that reflect those assumptions, we in fact create scarcity for millions of people.
One of the miracle stories in the New Testament addresses the scarcity assumption that is part of the human condition. It’s the story of the loaves and fishes found in the gospels of Mark and Luke.
Jesus and his disciples, his beloved community, have gone on a silent retreat. They are tired and in need of some r and r. But when they get to the site of their retreat they discover that a huge crowd has followed them. So Jesus reaches deep within himself and discovers the energy and compassion he needs to teach the people who are starving for spiritual nourishment.
Naturally, at the end of the day the people are physically hungry. The disciples come to Jesus and say, “Jesus, send these folks away into the next town so they can get some supper.”
Jesus said, “You feed them.”
Operating out of the scarcity assumption the disciples asked, “ Seriously? Do you know how much it would cost to feed all these people?”
And Jesus who always operated out of an assumption of abundance, asked, “how much food is there among us?”
Again, operating out of the scarcity assumption the disciples replied, “ Only five loaves and two fish filets. Clearly not enough.”
So Jesus said, “Have everyone sit down in small groups on the grass.” And then he said a blessing.
Now most of us who were raised in the church were taught that the miracle that happened that day was that the loaves and fishes literally began to multiply so that everyone was able to have a fish filet sandwich and there were even lots of fish sandwiches left over.
But I think it is possible that the miracle that happened that day was this: Once everyone was seated in small circles, everyone began to see each other, really see each other.
When we really see each other something amazing happens. We are able to see past the labels we tend to place on each other and we begin to see that the person sitting in this circle across from me is more like me than different from me. We begin to drop some of the stereotypes or judgements we hold of others. We begin to embrace as our family member the person we once saw as “the other”.
So perhaps the more profound miracle that happened that day was that once people were sitting across from each other, truly seeing each other as one’s family — instead of “ the other” … perhaps the miracle that happened was that everyone began to dig a little deeper into their own backpacks and pulled out whatever gift they had to share. What we know for sure is that there was an abundance of food; more than enough to go around.
A question that is helpful to work with is: “Where in my life do I operate out of an assumption of scarcity and where do I operate out of an assumption of abundance?
For what the world desperately needs are people and communities that are operating out of an assumption of abundance; people and communities that are embodying an “alternative” to the values and assumptions of our dominant culture. And when I refer to the dominant culture I am not referring to any political party. By dominant culture I mean the power structures and scarcity assumptions that are in contrast to the way of sacrificial, self-emptying Love. I am talking about power structures and scarcity assumptions which are at work in every historical period and every political party.
Inspired Words
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Joanne & Tom Kyritz
In humility and openness, we pray for the needs of others and then attempt to feed them.
Our response will be a silent prayer for 10 seconds.
We are grateful for Jesus, who taught the disciples and us that there is always hope and that we can always finds ways to meet the needs of those around us. May all leaders grow into this same positive attitude, we pray,
May our words and actions may be helpful to others. We pray for the public discourse of our nation, may our press, governments, and public institutions be open and honest. May daily work be successful, and our workplaces free from malice and hatred, we pray,
We pray for those lost in confusion of belief and behavior, and for those who serve false gods. May hatred and violence between peoples cease, and may the pain of victims of terror be vanquished, we pray,
We pray for those infected with disease especially in countries where medicine and medical aid is limited. May we find new ways to support those in the medical field to reach these countries and bring support and help, we pray,
For children who face so many obstacles as they grow into healthy humans. May we and our society do everything possible to create and sustain a healthy environment for them to flourish, we pray,
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways2Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… We pray,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
May the Spirit of Jesus live in us, that a new world can take shape in us and keep growing. May we seek to nourish those, especially those who seem beyond help, may we take on the mind and attitude of Jesus as we face the challenges ahead with faith, hope, determination and grit. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Janet Pilewski
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike & Rob Goodman
| Presider: Deep within us all lies the dream of a better world; our dream and longing for justice and fairness, harmony and peace, openness and honesty, comfort and warmth, freedom and choice, for light where there is darkness. | Voice: Today, we are mindful of people all around the world and throughout human history, who have shared this longing; a deep longing that is embedded in our DNA, in our very humanity. It is our human dream, our human song, common to all people. |
| P: Jesus, human like us, gave clear expression to the deep-seated longing and hope experienced not only within Judaism, but within people of all faiths and cultures – the longing and hope for a better world. | Voice: The better world we imagine is ours to accomplish. It is in our hands; the compassion, the honesty, the justice, the peace and non-violence, the determination to be light in the darkness, to be people set free from fear. It is all within our grasp. |
| P: And yet, we work at recognizing and being okay with our humanness. We rejoice that we can rise above ourselves, yet understand that we sometimes fall down, experiencing the pain of disappointing ourselves and others. We acknowledge that getting up is difficult and involves hard work, and that sometimes we are simply not ready for it. . We accept that sometimes our hands come up empty, our grasp can only hold ourselves together. | Voice: May we also recognize and accept humanness in others, approaching them with a hypothesis of generosity…being open to believing that most people are doing the best they can with the tools they have. May our boundaries be courageous, honest, strong, and loving. In this way, may we open ourselves to being the wholehearted and compassionate followers of Jesus that we want to be. |
| P: In that spirit, we turn to our gifts of bread and wine. May they be symbols of our readiness to grow and to transform. May they, along with the love of community, nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life…with all of its nuance and complexity. | Voice: May our gifts of bread and wine be symbols of all our gifts. May we have the courage to commit to using those gifts, small and large, in bravery and balance, so that we can join with Jesus and all of those throughout history working to create a better world. |
| P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Reworked from Michael Morwood’s Eucharistic Prayer for humans longing for a just and peaceful world, from Prayers For Progressive Christians, pages 195-197
Prayer of Jesus David Lorenz
The Lord’s Prayer – from the original Aramaic
O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your “I Can” now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
Amen!
May our future actions grow from here!
Breaking of the Bread Colleen or Alice
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
Beautiful Relaxing Hymns, Peaceful Instrumental Music, “Tuesday Morning Sunrise” By Tim Janis
Closing Prayer Mike
On my own
what I have to give
doesn’t amount to much
in the light of all that I have been given
and in the face of so much need.
Put together as a community,
what we offer here in love
becomes more,
not simply added together,
but somehow multiplied in its usefulness.
We ask our gifts to be blessed
and with the addition of this blessing,
just as it was with the loaves and fishes,
there is enough for all.
Amen
~ from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand website. http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/ adapted
Closing Song Mike
Canticle of the Turning – Rory Cooney
Announcements
Feast of Mary Magdalene
July 21, 2024
We Pray for Others Margie
Opening So
ng Marie
Women of the Church by Carey Landry – Video Slideshow by Mary Theresa Schreck, ARCWP from the Upper Room in Albany, NY
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Remembering Mary Ann Schoettly Margie
Today we remember in a special way the foundress of the Sophia Community Mary Ann Schoettly. Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, was by far Mary Ann’s favorite saint. Mary Ann died on the Feast of Mary Magdalene, July 22, 2014, ten years ago tomorrow.
One of Mary Ann’s favorite contemporary prophets is Joan Chittister. Today’s first reading is from Joan’s book, The Friendship of Women.
Opening Prayer Margie
Like Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, we rejoice that our spiritual power to live the Gospel is rooted in the presence of the Divine Spirit within each of us. Like Mary, we rejoice that our oneness with the Divine frees us from rules, projections and expectations that limit our ability to be a radiant reflection of Divine love and compassion.
Amen. Blessed be. May it be so.
First Reading Marie
Friendship is the linking of spirits. It is a spiritual act, not a social one. It is the finding of the remainder of the self. I am not so sure, then, that we so much find a friend as it is that friendship, the deathless search of the soul for itself, finds us. Then, the memory of Mary Magdalene becomes clear, becomes the bellwether of the real relationship.
Mary Magdalene is the woman whom scripture calls by name in a time when women were seldom named in public documents at all. She is, in fact, named fourteen times––more than any other woman in the New Testament except Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. She is clearly a very important, and apparently a very wealthy, woman. Most of all, she understood who Jesus was long before anyone else did, and she supported him in his wild, free-ranging, revolutionary approach to life and state and synagogue. She was, it seems, the leader of a group of women who “supported Jesus out of their own resources.” And she never left his side for the rest of his life.
She was there at the beginning of his ministry and she was there at the end. She was there when they were following him in cheering throngs. And she was there when they were taking his life, dashing it against the stones of synagogue and state, turning on him, jeering at him, shouting for his death, standing by while soldiers poked and prodded him to ignominy. She tended his grave and shouted his dying glory and clung to his soul. She knew him and she did not flinch from the knowing.
The Magdalene factor in friendship is the ability to know everything there is to know about a person, to celebrate their fortunes, to weather their straits, to chance their enemies, to accompany them in their pain and to be faithful to the end, whatever its glory, whatever its grief. The Magdalene factor is intimacy, that unshakeable immersion in the life of the other to the peak of ecstasy, to the depths of hell.
The intimacy of truth, the Magdalene factor, is about appreciation, affection, and warmth. It is as important to the married as to the single, to the elderly as to the young. It is about being deeply valued, reverently respected, lovingly tended and warmly received. It is about more than the present moment, more than the daily routine of partnership; it is about the obscure miracles and the hidden meanings of life. It is about forever.
Inspired words from The Friendship of Women, by Joan Chittister
Gospel Geri
Mary Magdalene, a strong and spirited woman, was a leader among the Galilean women who were disciples of Jesus. Some of the men found it difficult to share status with a woman. Others envied her privileged position. Peter and his brother Andrew complained that Jesus seemed to favor her, for he would tell her things he did not share with them. One of the women once said to Peter, “Why are you so hostile to her? She is not an adversary. If Jesus finds her worthy, who are you to reject her? The female disciples respected Mary for her competence and her wisdom. A circle formed around her of women who ministered to other women with compassion and empathy. Inspired words.
From The Gospel According to Mary – A New Testament for Women
by Miriam Therese Winter. New York: Crossroad. 1993. Page 62.
Second Reading – Magdalene’s Diary Colleen
He is not as gentle as they say or think
A thundercloud on some nights,
A hurricane of sorrow on others.
No one sees this private man as I see him
His hands clenched in madness one moment
Folded in prayer the next.
At night it is I who calms him down
rub his burdened back with balm.
He needs me as the men need him
which causes fury in a few of them.
Peter lashes out in jealousy and rage –
I don’t tell Yeshua, yet he seems to know.
They call him Master,
though he asks them only to master themselves,
to make of their lives what he is making of his.
He calls them to manhood but they will not grow up.
Over and over he says:
Whatever I do,
you can do, too, and more –
but they will not believe and do not try.
This man is mine as I am his.
I drink his sorrow and taste his sweetness.
He is the light of my every dawn.
I am the star in his eastern sky.
From There Are Burning Bushes Everywhere by Jan Phillips
San Diego: Livingkindness Foundation. 2016. Page 55.
Homily Marie starts video
Kayla August – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqtr62_LHag
Presider Margie starts the shared homily
The Real Woman Creed by Jan Phillips Linda S and Maryann
Maryann:
I believe that within me lies an extraordinary radiance,
and I commit to letting my light loose in the world.
I believe that the source of my power and wisdom
is in the center of my being,
and I commit to acting from this place of strength.
Linda:
I believe that I possess an abundance of passion and
creative potential and I commit to the expression of these gifts.
I believe that the time has come to let go
of old notions and unhealthy attitudes,
and I commit to re-examine what I have been told
about beauty and dismiss what insults my soul.
Maryann:
I believe that negative thoughts and words compromise my well-being,
and I commit to thinking and speaking positively
about myself and others.
I believe that young women are in need of positive role models,
and I commit to being an example of authenticity and self-love.
Linda:
I believe in the relationship between my well-being and
the well-being of the planet,
and I commit to a life of mindfulness
that regards all living things as holy and worthy of my love.
I believe it is my spiritual responsibility to care for my body
with respect, kindness and compassion.
I commit to balancing my life in such a way
that my physical being is fully expressed and nurtured.
Maryann:
I believe that joy is an essential part of wellness,
and I commit to removing obstacles to joy
and creating a life that is full of exuberance.
I believe that a woman who loves herself is a powerful,
passionate, attractive force,
and I commit, from this day forward,
to loving myself deeply and extravagantly.
The Real Woman Creed by Jan Phillips. 2007. www.janphillips.com / 858-571-1417
Prayer of the People Sue
Inspired by the hope that all women and girls, especially our daughters, may know radical inclusion and justice, equality without qualification, and institutions that transform oppression into love without bounds, may we act to make it so.
Our response to each petition will be a prayerful silence.
For leaders of religious communities, that they may recognize that all people come from the Source and strike down every oppressive practice, teaching, and law that assigns women and girls to a subordinate status, we pray:
For those who work for justice for women in the world, that we may stand with them to build structures that support and sustain the basic needs of all, including access to clean water, clean air, adequate housing, food, security, education, work, political and social engagement, we pray:
For those who are poor and those most vulnerable, the majority of whom are women, that we may stand in solidarity with them and work to dismantle all structures, systems, customs, forces and manifestations of human oppression and exploitation, we pray:
For those in our communities who are marginalized because they are LGBTQIA+ or who belong to diverse families, and for those whose voices have been silenced because they support women’s equality, we hope that they may come to know us as a place of radical inclusion that defers to the primacy of conscience; affirms the spirit of the Divine in their identity, gifts, needs and dreams; and welcomes them to every table including the Eucharistic and decision-making tables, we pray:
For those who have died and particularly our foremothers in faith — those in Scripture, those in our tradition, and those who have walked with us in our time. That their stories and witness may always be remembered, celebrated and honored, and that they may know the peace of complete unity with the Divine, we pray:
For all of us gathered here, that our ministries, expertise and experience, and contributions of mind, body, and spirit may be welcomed and celebrated for the benefit of all, we pray:
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia who are not here with us today, for all in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, Rainbow Railroad, and RAMP, who spread the gospel by word and deed, their actions and their support, we pray…
For what else shall we pray?
We offer these prayers on behalf of all — confident in endless and transformative love… Amen. Blessed be. May it be so.
Abstracted and adapted from Future Church’s Mary of Magdala Celebration Kit 2016, page 11
Sharing of Peace Margie
Blessing the Bread and the Wine Kim
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Margie and Kathy
Presider: O Nurturing, Mothering One, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. You give us life, and we live and breathe with your Spirit. You call us good, and we live as equal partners. You share the earth with us, and we, as co-creators with you, complement your ongoing activity of creation.
Voice: O Heart of Love, Your Spirit moved through Mary Magdalene as she taught us that we are in continuous communion with the Divine. Your Spirit moves through the love within us, expanding in widening circles to embrace all people and creation in our evolving universe. We are united with all our blessed ancestors, with Mary Magdalene and all women and men who confronted the structures of oppression in their times.
Presider: We give grateful thanks for all faithful servants who open for us a path to life.
Your Spirit is in us and among us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
Voice: We are thankful for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing God-With-Us, revealing us as one with the Divine, and all creation. Jesus had nothing in this world but love, companions on the journey, and his very self. Together, that was more than enough.
Presider: On the night before he died, Jesus came to the table with the women and men he loved. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
Voice: Back at the table, Jesus took the Passover Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat.
Presider: Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying: Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
Voice: What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives,
As we share communion, we become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Presider: We seek to discern wisely your call to speak truth with courage. We seek to act faithfully as Mary Magdalene did, to witness all that is sacred and to bring peace in times of suffering and grief.
May we be alert to the opportunities the Spirit makes possible in us, nudging us to be full participants in the risky yet wonderful challenge of co-creation.
Voice: Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live compassionate lives, for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to the Spirit within, moving us to be our best selves each and every day.
Amen. Blessed be. May it be so.
Prayer of Jesus Linda Kaul
Beloved One who dwells within the soul of my Being
Whose name is I Am, veneration to your holy name.
Your kin-dom is here, your will prevails throughout the earth
as it does in the heavenly realms of my soul.
You open your hands and satisfy the hunger of all living beings.
You heal all hearts of sorrow, so that they in turn may show forgiveness to those whose minds are shrouded in ignorance of the self.
Beloved One who imparts to all the sense of choice
so we may finally come to choose You, who are Truth,
and thus find everlasting freedom.
Glory to your name, oh Truth, for yours is the kin-dom of existence
of peace and love. All power and glory emanates from the One
Who imparts to all the wisdom, the light, the love and courage
to refer to themselves as I Am. Amen
By Mooji
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song: Marie
Follow Your Heart’s Desire by Jan Phillips
Follow your heart’s desire
tune in to what it feels
it leads to love alone
it knows the way to heal
Spread kindness everywhere
give more than what they ask
you’ve come to light the world
your power’s unsurpassed.
CHORUS: X2
“What you have seen me do,
you, too, can do and more,”
so said the holy one who lives forevermore.
The power’s in your hands
the light is in your eyes
the love that holds you up
causes the sun to rise
Heaven is where you live
holy is what you are
the fire inside of you
is inside every star
CHORUS: X2
“What you have seen me do,
you, too, can do and more,”
so said the holy one who lives forevermore.
You and the Source are one
you needn’t look above
it’s all inside of you
you’re breathing pure love
The new is being born
The light is breaking through
The very one you seek
is in the heart of you.
CHORUS: X2
“What you have seen me do,
you, too, can do and more,”
so said the holy one who lives forevermore.
© Jan Phillips 2012
Closing Prayer Margie
May we go forth completed by Love and inspired by the wisdom of those like Mary Magdalene who have come before us.
May we be true to ourselves.
May we be open to wisdom, to understanding the struggles of others and always willing to change for the greater good.
Amen. Blessed be. May it be so.
Closing Song Marie
Women of the Church by Carey Landry with a slideshow of women in Sophia.
Announcements
Future Church is offering two programs this month:
Their 2024 Mary Magdalene Celebration July 22 at 7 PM
Stations of the Resurrection with artist Laura James July 30 at 7 Pm https://futurechurch.org/event/?=371
15th Sunday Cycle B July 14 2024 Theme: journey
We pray for those individuals in need
Gathering Song Bill
“Weary Traveler” by Jordan St. Cyr. Words and music by Jordan St. Cyr, Matthew West, and AJ Pruis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBg_u48_F6w&list=WL&index=25
Weary traveler
Beat down from the storms that you have weathered
Feels like this road just might go on forever
Carry on
You keep on giving
But every day this world just keeps on taking
Your tired heart is on the edge of breaking
Carry on
Weary traveler, restless soul
You were never meant to walk this road alone
It’ll all be worth it so just hold on
Weary traveler
You won’t be weary long
No more searching
Heaven’s healing’s gonna find where all the hurt is
When Jesus calls we’ll lay down all our heavy burdens
Carry on
Someday soon we’re gonna make it home
Weary traveler, restless soul
You were never meant to walk this road alone
It’ll all be worth it so just hold on
Weary traveler
You won’t be weary long
Opening prayer Mike
We come together today to examine ourselves in this journey we call life in light of our response to the Way of Jesus.
We pray for a spirit of openness and discernment as we listen to our readings and songs. As we listen to the instructions from Jesus to “shrug off” in today’s Gospel let us reflect on how it applies to our own lives. May we engage willingly in the practices of silence, contemplation and mindfulness. May we always seek to meet the needs of others even when our vessels are empty. May we listen to the journey of the refugee and discern how that journey applies to the journey of our life and life of faith. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
First Reading Louise
Gospel Mark 6: 7-13
Jesus told them, ”A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there – he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.
Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions:
“Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple.
“And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave.
“If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.”
Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits.
Inspired Words
From This Transforming Word, scripture passage from The Message: Catholic Ecumenical Edition, by Eugene Peterson
Second Reading Geri
The Gift of Silence
For Richard Rohr, silence is a foundation upon which we can build our lives:
Silence is not just that which happens around words and underneath images and events. It has a life of its own. It’s a phenomenon with an almost physical identity. It is a being in itself to which we can relate. Philosophically, we would say being is that foundational quality which precedes all other attributes. When we relate to the naked being of a thing, we learn to know it at its core. Silence is somehow at the very foundation of all reality. It is that out of which all being comes and to which all things return.
Silence precedes, undergirds, and grounds everything. We cannot just think of it as an accident, or as something unnecessary. Unless we learn how to live there, go there, abide in this different phenomenon, the rest of things—words, events, relationships, identities—become rather superficial, without depth or context. They lose meaning, so we end up searching for more events and situations which must increasingly contain ever-higher stimulation, more excitement, and more color to add vital signs to our inherently bored and boring existence. Really, the simplest and most stripped-down things ironically have the power to give us the greatest happiness—if we respect them as such. Silence is the essence of simple and stripped down.
We need to experience silence as a living presence which is primordial and primal in itself, and then see all other things—now experienced deeply—inside of that container. Silence is not just an absence, but also a presence. Silence surrounds every “I know” event with a humble and patient “I don’t know.” It protects the autonomy and dignity of events, persons, animals, and all things.
We must find a way to return to this place, to live in this place, to abide in this place of inner silence. Outer silence means very little if there is not a deeper inner silence. Everything else appears much clearer when it appears or emerges out of a previous silence. When I use the word appear, I mean that silence takes on reality, substance, significance, or meaning. Without silence around a thing, which is a mystery, it can be difficult to find a meaning that lasts. It’s just another event in a sequence of ever-quicker events, which we call our lives.
Without silence, we do not really experience our experiences. We have many experiences, but they do not have the power to change us, to awaken us, to give us that joy or “peace that the world cannot give,” as Jesus says (John 14:27).
Inspired Words
Monday, July 1, 2024
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation,
Psalm Song Maryann slides are done
Life Is a Journey by Monks of Weston Priory from Move with one Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD-toQFbtrg for the tune.
Refrain:
Life is a journey we travel together,
walking hand in hand
with our sisters and brothers.
Our lives though diff’rent are interwoven,
creating a beautiful weaving of love in our world.
1. Take a moment to be present
to someone in need.
Show that you care,
reach out and plant a loving seed. Refrain
2. Men and women, young and aged,
diff’rent color skin,
in solidarity, we stand together,
united from within. Refrain
3. Together let us work
to build God’s kingdom here today:
justice, equality, sharing, compassion,
peace will be our way. Refrain
Third Reading Peter
A PILGRIM’S JOURNEY
BY SANDY OVALLE MARTÍNEZ, KAYLA LATTIMORE
In November 2018, I had an opportunity to visit with families journeying to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum, abandoning all they knew in light of the humanitarian crisis that has been brewing in the Central American region.
Among them were people like William. He owned his own business back in El Salvador. But he was threatened and physically harmed on multiple occasions by organized crime members that demanded a large portion of his money in exchange for safety. Unable to pay them and provide for his family, William was set on fire. So, he gave up his business and spent the last few years recovering from the burns and selling fruit on the streets. But that did not provide enough to feed his wife and children.
William left El Salvador with his mom and a group of friends, leaving behind his wife and children, to find the freedom to work and provide for them. They have been on the road for more than a month. As they have been walking, he has organized an internal census to make sure no one gets lost in the process and everyone receives what they need. He coordinated a team of people to write down the names of those sleeping in the same area. And he has asked them to survey families regarding their needs. Some have shoes or diapers written next to their names. William makes sure that when donations arrive, they are given to those who are most in need. He also ensures rules at shelters are respected and he serves as a mediator when conflict arises. He is trusted by the group to represent them in meetings with local authorities. And while William is still unable to provide for his family, he is beginning to live into the freedom he desired by serving this group of Central American families in search of security.
We met this group in Mexico City on the day the largest provisional shelter in the city closed down. They were in transit to a new shelter, La Casa del Peregrino, The Pilgrim’s Home.
Like other liminal spaces, La Casa del Peregrino is a space where the inevitable tensions of life are made more evident. They are in a safer space to lay their heads but not in a fully stable place to rest. At the shelter, they find themselves in between the land they left and the land in which they hope to live.
Christians are called to live our faith as aliens in this land. It is no mistake the experience of migration is the chosen metaphor for our life of faith. Migrant people set out with hope and a vision for something different. They are able to imagine new and better realities — that in itself is prophetic. It is the kind of imagination our faith so desperately needs. Migrant people must adapt to the new environments they encounter, and they are willing to make many sacrifices in the journey as they keep the hope of a new reality in mind. In this way, they are a model for the North American church.
In the Christian faith, we often talk about the now and not yet reality of the kingdom of God. By their mere embodied experience, those we met with on their journey showed us how to live in that tension. They are no longer bound by the circumstances that oppressed them at home, but they are not quite in a space where they can live life to the fullest. So they journey on, waking up one more day, entrusting their lives to God, to the people around them, to their own strength to imagine and forge a new reality.
Migrant people hold the now and the not yet in tension. In the midst of waiting to make it up north and taking their turn for a credible fear interview at the border, life continues. People find ways to feel alive, to keep hope alive. At La Casa del Peregrino, holding on to hope looked like doing karaoke, coloring banners, and making beaded bracelets. They were not devoid of life.
For the North American church, this is a key moment to respond responsibly and humanely to the journey of those who have risked all that they may walk into a better tomorrow. How we live out our faith will mark us. Whether we advocate for and welcome these families will not only reveal the content of our faith but will have major implications on how the glimpses of the kingdom continue to appear among migrant families.
Of course, not all people on this journey have the same story. But we are not asked to distinguish who to help. We are called to risk loving our neighbor regardless of who our neighbor is.
Inspired words
DEC 12, 2018
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Tom Schaller
Jesus sent out his disciples without a degree in theology, without a certificate from the diocesan training program, and without a catechism. Two by two, they walked along with no more than a pair of sandals and a walking stick, both crucial to keep them on the journey. With so little, they still summoned the authority to cast demons, heal the sick, and preach repentance. Today we pray for us to do the same.
Our response will be: What is mine to do?
Jesus sent out the apostles in pairs, because being connected to others is key to bringing the kindom on earth. Today we pray for those who are lonely, who have no support system and who go through life alone. We respond… What is mine to do?
Like everyone in his culture, Mark, the gospel writer, presumes demons cause physical and psychological problems. Paralyzed or mentally ill persons were seen as being diabolically possessed. So when Jesus sends out his disciples to have authority over unclean spirits, he is asking them to treat the people they meet with respect and equality. Today, may we see the Divine in everyone we meet. We respond… What is mine to do?
The disciples are to stay in one place, because the message is more important than their accommodations and because it takes time to share the message and have it deepen and grow. May we be aware of the time we take to share Jesus’ message and of how we enable it to grow. We respond… What is mine to do?
The disciples are to take nothing but a walking stick and sandals. No food, no bag and no money. When we follow Jesus and bring his message to others, may we leave behind our fear of being unqualified, our fear of not being able to perform, our fear of not knowing what to say and do, our fear of being rejected, our fear of being humiliated. We respond… What is mine to do?
When our spiritual path seems like a dead-end and when we feel life is happening to us, not through us, may we locate our walking stick and sandals and just keep going on the path. We respond… What is mine to do?
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parishes in Rochester and Fort Meyers, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… We respond… What is mine to do?
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
When we are called to journey outside of our comfort zone, may we remember that the Divine is with us on the journey.
We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Linda Schaller
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike and Linda Kaul
First and Foremost Working For New World by Michael Morwood, Prayers for Progressive Christians 2018. P. 107-111
| P: Every one of the sixty trillion atoms in our bodies was on a cosmic journey for billions of years before coming into community with one another and producing the sentient human beings we are. We marvel, we wonder, we appreciate, we delight in what we are. | Voice: But with our innate grandeur comes responsibility; responsibility to further the evolution and development of the human species. Jesus framed his understanding of our responsibility in terms of “God’s kingdom”. Working to achieve God’s kingdom on earth was, in his words, our “first and foremost” task. |
| P: We pray, recognizing our true worth, and our understanding of what it means to be human. No longer unworthy exiles, we are people with a glorious cosmic history, with great responsibility, and a noble destiny. | Voice: Along with everything else in the universe, we are on a journey beyond our imagining. |
| P: We are bonded in spirit with everyone who walked this land, and every other land, centuries before us. | Voice: In the midst of darkness, chaos and struggle, the human story has been blessed in all places and at all times, with men and women of insight and courage, who gave voice and witness to the path of peace and human progress. |
| P: We give thanks for voices in this land, and for voices in our religious tradition, that spoke of a Spirit in our midst, voices that affirmed the preciousness of life, voices that challenged us to work together for the sake of a better world. | Voice: Today we give thanks for the voice of Jesus calling us to “desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.” |
| P: The creation of a better world is what Jesus lived for, what he longed to see, what he spoke about day after day, what he was willing to die for. | Voice: We gather to share bread and wine, committing ourselves to keeping his dream, and the dream of many other voices, alive in today’s world. |
| P: We eat and drink, committing ourselves to add our voices and our efforts, to those of countless people before us who dreamed of a better world and actively worked to achieve it. | Voice: We seek to give shape to Jesus’ dream, to his desire that we would take responsibility for working together, for directing our energies “first and foremost” to making a difference for good in the world. |
| P: By our example today, and every day, may we give witness to our willingness to accept Jesus’ challenge to work “first and foremost” for the betterment of our world. To this commitment we give our Amen. |
Prayer of Jesus Janet
Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything and from which all life flows,
We acknowledge this healing and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields, may we have the basics we need to live
and may we have the love and commitment to ensure that others have
what they need too.
May we have the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong, to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace. Amen.
A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer by Roger Courtney adapted by Maryann Crilly
Breaking of the Bread Colleen or Alice
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
You’re A Blessing to the World words: Reverend David Bruner & Karen Drucker
music: Karen Drucker.
You are the heart
You are the hands
You are the voice of Spirit on earth
And who you are – and all you do
is a blessing to the world…
( substitute “you” with We and I )
repeat: I am the heart – I am the hands
you are the heart – you are the hands
we are the heart – we are the hands
Closing Prayer Mike
Strengthened by one another, strengthened by the words we have heard and spoken, may we rejoin our journey with a new sense of vigor and intensity.
May we use the tools of non-aggression, silence, contemplation and mindfulness to equip us for the journey ahead. May we always serve others even when we feel that we are empty and have nothing left to offer or give. And may we live a life of patient endurance, hope, faith, love, embracing the unknown, and a dream of a better tomorrow. Amen.
Closing Song Maryann
Companions on the Journey by Carey Landry Slide show exists (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EudRpbUuqxPB-5fdOdvaAV0oFkJrWSuMnQBROCaUPOA/edit?usp=sharing)
Refrain
We are companions on the journey,
breaking bread and sharing life;
and in the love we bear is the hope we share
for we believe in the love of our God,
we believe in the love of our God.
Verse 1
No longer strangers to each other,
no longer strangers in God’s house;
we are fed and we are nourished
by the strength of those who care,
by the strength of those who care. Refrain
Verse 2
We have been gifted with each other,
and we are called by the
Word of the Lord:
to act with justice, to love tenderly,
and to walk humbly with our God,
to walk humbly with our God. Refrain
Announcements
Eucharistic Liturgy – 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time July 7, 2024
Theme: Standing in solidarity against Christian Nationalism
A prophet has little honor in his hometown &
Jesus has no place in the Christianity of Christian Nationalism
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Introduction Margie
Patriotism is good. Faith is good. Yet even as we are celebrating Independence Day, they are not the same thing, and they should never be blended and abused to become tools of empire, theocracy, or right-wing oppression.
This Fourth of July, Faithful America and many other Christian organizations are coming together in solidarity against Christian Nationalism. These are not voices crying out in the wilderness. The chorus of Christians speaking out against Christian Nationalism is growing. In addition to individual leaders critiquing the ideology, institutional voices are also expressing their concerns. We in Sophia are joining this collective, prophetic, voice to learn, to pray, and to take a stand against the hijacking of the Christian faith.
The liturgical Gospel this week is Mark 6:1-6, where Jesus is not accepted in his hometown. Those who should have accepted and loved him the most were not interested in his message. In the same way, it seems that Christian Nationalists have no need for the true teachings of Jesus in their religion. They twist and distort Jesus’s message of love as they “other” so many in our society…immigrants, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community … actually anyone who sees things differently than they do. Our readings today are about people who, like Jesus, are no longer at home in their “homes” due to this hateful ideology. We pray for them and all who are hurt. May we continue to stand against Christian Nationalism and stand up for love.
Opening Song Margie
We Stand by the Many
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
Change can only come when we all speak out with a collective prophetic voice — which means you’re making a difference. Together, we will reject hatred, political violence, Christofascism, and the hijacking of Jesus’s name for partisan politics — and in their place take a prophetic, Jesus-like stance for peace, faith, hope, and love.
Recognizing the scope and urgency of this situation, we send our positive energy and healing love for our nation and our leaders that those seeking absolute power may not prevail and that our democratic republic may not end. Amen.
Reading One (part 1) Colleen
The Day My Old Church Canceled Me Was a Very Sad Day
by David French, modified slightly for brevity
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/opinion/presbyterian-church-evangelical-canceled.html
This week, the leaders of the Presbyterian Church in America are gathering in Richmond, Va., for their annual General Assembly. The Presbyterian Church in America is a small, theologically conservative Christian denomination that was my family’s church home for more than 15 years.
It just canceled me.
Our family joined the P.C.A. denomination in 2004. At the time, the denomination fit us perfectly. I’m conservative theologically and politically, and in 2004 I was still a partisan Republican. At the same time, however, I perceived the denomination as relatively apolitical. I never heard political messages from the pulpit, and I worshiped alongside Democratic friends.
When we moved to Tennessee in 2006, we selected our house in part because it was close to a P.C.A. church, and that church became the center of our lives. On Sundays we attended services, and Monday through Friday our kids attended the school our church founded and supported. We loved the people in that church, and they loved us. When I deployed to Iraq in 2007, the entire church rallied to support my family and to support the men I served with. They flooded our small forward operating base with care packages, and back home, members of the church helped my wife and children with meals, car repairs and plenty of love and companionship in anxious times.
Two things happened that changed our lives, however, and in hindsight they’re related. First, in 2010, we adopted a 2-year-old girl from Ethiopia. Second, in 2015, Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign.
There was no way I could support Trump. It wasn’t just his obvious lack of character that troubled me; he was opening the door to a level of extremism and malice in Republican politics that I’d never encountered. Trump’s rise coincided with the rise of the alt-right.
I was a senior writer for National Review at the time, and when I wrote pieces critical of Trump, members of the alt-right pounced, and they attacked us through our daughter. They pulled pictures of her from social media and photoshopped her into gas chambers and lynchings. Trolls found my wife’s blog on a religious website called Patheos and filled the comments section with gruesome pictures of dead and dying Black victims of crime and war. We also received direct threats.
The experience was shocking. At times, it was terrifying. And so we did what we always did in times of trouble: We turned to our church for support and comfort. Our pastors and close friends came to our aid, but support was hardly universal. The church as a whole did not respond the way it did when I deployed. Instead, we began encountering racism and hatred up close, from people in our church and in our church school.
The racism was grotesque. One church member asked my wife why we couldn’t adopt from Norway rather than Ethiopia. A teacher at the school asked my son if we had purchased his sister for a “loaf of bread.” There were terrible incidents of peer racism, including a student telling my daughter that slavery was good for Black people because it taught them how to live in America. Another told her that she couldn’t come to our house to play because “my dad said Black people are dangerous.”
There were disturbing political confrontations. A church elder came up to my wife and me after one service to criticize our opposition to Trump and told me to “get your wife under control” after she contrasted his support for Trump with his opposition to Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Another man confronted me at the communion table.
Psalm Margie
I Won’t Back Down
Reading One (part 2) Kathy
We also began to see the denomination itself with new eyes. To my shame, the racism and extremism within the denomination were invisible to us before our own ordeal. But there is a faction of explicitly authoritarian Christian nationalists in the church, and some of that Christian nationalism has disturbing racial elements underpinning it.
In 2022 a member of the denomination who has since left it published “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” one of the most popular Christian nationalist books of the Trump era. It argues that “no nation (properly conceived) is composed of two or more ethnicities” and that “to exclude an out-group is to recognize a universal good for man.”
I do not want to paint with too broad a brush. Our pastors and close friends continued to stand with us. Our church disciplined the man who confronted me about Trump during communion. And most church members didn’t follow politics closely and had no idea about any of the attacks we faced.
But for us, church no longer felt like home. We could withstand the trolls online. We could guard against physical threats. But it was hard to live without any respite, and the targeting of my children was a bridge too far. So we left for a wonderful multiethnic church in Nashville. We didn’t leave Christianity; we left a church that inflicted harm on my family.
I still have many friends in the Presbyterian Church in America, people who are fighting the very forces that drove us from the church. In March, one of those friends reached out and asked if I’d join a panel at this year’s General Assembly. I agreed to come. The P.C.A. extended a formal invitation for me to join a panel with three church elders to speak at a session before the main event. I knew the invitation would be controversial. Members of the denomination have continued to attack me online. But that was part of the point of the panel. My experience was directly relevant to others who might find themselves in the cross hairs of extremists.
The anger against me wasn’t simply over my opposition to Trump. It was directly related to the authoritarian turn in white evangelical politics. My commitment to individual liberty and pluralism means that I defend the civil liberties of all Americans, including people with whom I have substantial disagreements. A number of Republican evangelicals are furious at me, for example, for defending the civil liberties of drag queens and L.G.B.T.Q. families. A writer for The Federalist ranted that granting me a platform was akin to “giving the wolf a brand-new wool coat and microphone and daring the sheep to object.”
The panel was announced on May 9. On May 14, the denomination caved. It canceled the panel, and in its public statement, I was to blame. I was sacrificed on the altar of peace and unity. But it is a false peace and a false unity if extremists can bully a family out of a church and then block the church from hearing one of its former members describe his experience. It is a false peace and a false unity if it is preserved by granting the most malicious members of the congregation veto power over church events.
When I left the Republican Party, I thought a shared faith would preserve my denominational home. But I was wrong. Race and politics trumped truth and grace, and now I’m no longer welcome in the church I loved.
Inspired words
Reading Two Margie
Families of trans children – no longer “at home” in their state of Missouri
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Judy L
As followers of the Christian tradition, our faith teaches us everyone is created in God’s image and commands us to love one another. As Americans, we value our system of government and the good that can be accomplished in our constitutional democracy. Today, we are concerned about a persistent threat to both our religious communities and our democracy – Christian Nationalism.
Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation.
Those fighting this issue, including Faithful America, reject this damaging political ideology. They invite others to join them in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation. Today’s Prayer of the People will be the Statement which they are asking people to sign against Christian Nationalism. We will hear each tenant, and then have a moment for silent reflection and prayer,
As followers of the Christian tradition, we are bound not by citizenship, but by the teachings of Jesus. We believe that:
People of all faiths and none have the right and responsibility to engage
constructively in the public square. (pause)
Patriotism does not require us to minimize our religious convictions. (pause)
One’s religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing
in the civic community. (pause)
Government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over nonreligion. (pause)
Religious instruction is best left to our houses of worship, other religious institutions, and families. (pause)
America’s historic commitment to religious pluralism enables faith communities to live in civic harmony with one another without sacrificing our theological convictions. (pause)
Conflating religious authority with political authority is idolatrous and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalized groups as well as the spiritual
impoverishment of religion. (pause)
We must stand up to and speak out against Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation—including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship—against religious
communities at home and abroad. (pause)
Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple, America has no second-class faiths. All are equal under the U.S. Constitution. As Christians, we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy. (pause)
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus. (pause)
For what else shall we pray? Please respond with a silent prayer.
(Allow up to 4 petitions.)
May we as individuals and as a community help to raise a prophetic voice against Christian nationalism. May we continue both to pray for, and do the work of: love, peace, truth, equality, and justice in our lives. Amen.
Anyone moved to sign Faithful America’s statement can find it here:
https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/statement
Sharing of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Joan
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy (Please pray Voice part in your home) Mike & Linda S
Presider: This year as we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are keenly aware of the threats to both our faith and our country. May our concerns lead us to be more and more open to the Divine’s call.
Voice: As we reflect on the life and true mission of Jesus, may we follow his way of addressing inequity and corruption powerfully, while still having compassion for those who see things differently than he did.
Presider: The creation of a better world is what Jesus lived for,
what he longed to see,
what he spoke about day after day,
what he was willing to die for.
Voice: Like Jesus, we commit ourselves to give the energizing Spirit within us, the most faithful and courageous expression that each of us can.
Presider: We gather to share bread and wine,
committing ourselves to keeping his dream,
and the dreams of many other voices, alive in today’s world.
Voice: We eat and drink, committing ourselves to add our voices and our efforts to those countless people before us
who dreamed of a better world and actively worked to achieve it.
Presider: We seek to give shape to Jesus’ dream,
to his desire that we would take responsibility for working together,
for directing our energies “first and foremost” to making a difference for good in the world.
Voice: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
modified from Michael Morwood, First and Foremost
Prayers for Progressive Christians, pages110-111
The Prayer of Jesus Maryann
Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything and from which all life flows,
We acknowledge this healing and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields, may we have the basics we need to live
and may we have the love and commitment to ensure that others have
what they need too.
May we have the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong, to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace. Amen.
A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer by Roger Courtney adapted by Maryann Crilly
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie
Amen by Beyoncé, from Cowboy Carter
Beyoncé, the R&B and pop megastar, dropped Cowboy Carter, her first country music album, in March and it shook the music industry and pop culture. But Cowboy Carter is more than just music – it’s a provocative piece of cultural criticism calling out white privilege and nationalism and deconstructing the silos of societal genres.
“Amen”
Beyoncé concludes this album, a requiem, with “Amen.” With big vocal harmonies over church piano chords, Beyoncé delivers a rousing speech, like a general to her freedom fighters. “Amen” is a battle cry, a warning to the white Christian Nationalists trying to rewrite our history, take away voting rights, and convince us that oppression is good and divinely sanctioned. “Amen” says we know the truth; we won’t let them warp faith into a weapon. We are singing a death song, a requiem, to those old ideas and white supremacy. America is our country. Our ancestors built it. We are the patriots. The future is ours.
Commentary link:
Closing Prayer Mike
It is an illusion that we are powerless. It is an illusion that someone else is responsible. It is an illusion that we cannot transcend these dualities and differences that are making a mockery of democracy. We are the people. This is our world. And every movement that ever led to any change in this ever-evolving civilization grew like a seed from one person’s imagination.
And what did that person have—a deeply-rooted sense of what’s right; a commitment to truth-telling, to heart-sharing, to bridge-building; an ability to inspire, to breathe life into the hearts and minds of others. No matter how brilliant our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides.
This morning we pray, individually and collectively, to have the strength and vision to make a difference, to be the change makers in this fragile time. We have faith and confidence that by standing in solidarity against Christian Nationalism we can be the inspiration to give Jesus a home in Christianity once again. Amen.
by Jan Phillips, taken & modified from The Art of Original Thinking
Sending Forth Song Margie
Standing in the Breach by Jackson Browne
Announcements
Eucharistic Liturgy – 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time June 30, 2024
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/UTVQmsuJX-z-xBPIj4rSQ6W6vg5j__VFhYmuAotCDPKjYAUAwqEK7hiyeZjDp_Jt.p77hxk48RN8LKfKj?startTime=1719756105000
Theme: Jesus, Standing Up for The Other
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Opening Song Mike
“In June of 2015, we as a band decided that our LGBTQ community deserved a new song for Pride week,” said Muna’s Katie Gavin. They came up with “I Know a Place,” an uplifting reminder that home is where you make it out to be — and with whom you choose to make it. —T.C.
Muna
‘I Know a Place’
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
Limitless Love – A Prayer for Pride Month
Adapted by Bill Appleton from the Catholic Health Association of the United States
All of creation displays the goodness and diversity of God,
It is awe-inspiring and life-giving to witness.
From the most intricate snowflake to the grandest of mountain peaks,
With each inbreaking of the sun’s rays that paint the sky until day’s end,
God’s limitless love creates it all.
As we gaze, then, upon all of God’s children,
The special co-creators God has made to experience God and God’s beauty,
May we always appreciate the dignity of each person:
Straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, asexual.
May we witness the handiwork of each beloved,
Celebrate God’s imprint upon each heart,
And recognize how God fashions each human being with purpose and wonder.
God’s limitless love creates us all.
May we seek and grant forgive to each other
For the limitation of our eyes that fails to take in another’s beauty,
For choosing the comfort of our own apathy instead of bearing one another’s burdens,
For not remaining silent enough to hear each other’s story and pain and for remaining silent when we should cry out,
God’s limitless love forgives us all.
We pray for the wounds the world inflicts,
In thought, word, and deed,
Against what the Creator’s hands have formed.
We seek to be soothed and comforted, renewed and redeemed.
We know that God’s love restores us all.
We pray for unity,
For tenderness,
For belonging and justice and freedom,
For solidarity and bountiful compassion
We pray that the world may know the love of our brother Jesus
By the way we love one another
And how willing we are to enter the splendor of co-creating
With one another
And with our God, whose limitless love heals us all.
Reading One Mike
What Sister Joan Chittister Believes Will Change the World | SuperSoul Sunday | OWN
Inspired words
PSALM Mike
Psalm 139: 13-14 “For it was you who formed my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.”
Gospel Acclamation Mike
Pride Festival Alleluia – courtesy of Dignity Women
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17QxLoltBT49KmfpfpsEJSeAmgVmYwuY-/view?usp=sharing
Gospel Louise
A reading from the Gospel in the tradition of Mark
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her.
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors.
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd.
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to Jesus,
“You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside.
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So, he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child’s father and mother.
and those who were with him.
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.
Inspired words
Homily Bill A
Prayers of the People Peter
We are called to go outside of our comfort zones just as Jesus went outside of the norms of his day. May our prayers reflect our desire to live this way.
Our response will be a prayerful silence.
For all religious leaders, that they may lead their people to move outside their comfort zones to places of growth and care for all people, we pray;
For government leaders, that they may provide leadership that welcomes and affirms the other in their society in order to allow societies to engage in the richness that diversity and inclusion brings to it, we pray;
For civic and recreational leaders, that they may actively engage in affirming the other in society especially members of the LGBTQIA community, we pray;
For healthcare providers, that they may vigorously seek ways to meet the needs of their patients who are LGBTQIA, BIPOC or disabled, we pray;
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus, we respond;
For what else shall we pray? Please respond with a silent prayer.
(Allow 4 petitions.)
May the Spirit of Jesus live in us, that a new world can take shape in us and keep growing. May we move freely outside our comfort zones and expand our social network. In doing this, we will emulate Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Linda S
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink
A Eucharistic Liturgy for Pride Mike & Tom S
Presider: As we gather here this morning, we are the church! In this moment, we respond to the words of Jesus, who tells us: “…where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Voice: And it is with the spirit of Jesus that we proclaim that this table is open to all people — no matter who you are or what you believe or what you’ve been told.
Presider: At our table we remember the simple gathering of a chosen family that came together for a meal that proclaimed a new way of being in this world.
Voice: We remember the radically inclusive love of the Divine made real in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We remember the One who befriended the forgotten, embraced the outcast, and saw the Image of God in all people. We remember the One who confronted every power that disconnected, marginalized, oppressed, and “other-ed.”
Presider: It is here at this table that we find hope and imagination to see Jesus’s dream and promise of a world of wholeness, and it is here that we receive the nourishment and strength to continue on the paths of justice.
Voice: We recall that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Presider: In the same way he took the cup, saying, “This is my very life, poured out for you. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Voice: We are thankful for this beautiful world. We are grateful for the endless blessings that we see, feel, and know on our journeys of life. And we celebrate the rich diversity of creation — every beautiful body, every shade of skin, every expression of love…each of us good enough, smart enough, enough enough…infinitely worthy, without prerequisites.
Presider: We open our hearts to the joy we can find in the midst of life’s challenges. We remember that we are loved — fiercely and forever, for who we are. And however the world may try to hold us down or tell us who to be, we know that nothing can separate us from the Divine and each other. Amen!
Published by Medium,
modified from St. John’s Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
The Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Geri
Our father, our mother, our beloved two-spirit parent,
help us honor your holy name in all that we do.
We pray that your justice, peace, love, and mercy come to this needy planet.
Give all of us, transgender, cisgender, and people of all gender expressions and orientations, what we need each day to live and thrive. We need food, we need employment, housing, and medical care. We need a loving community.
Forgive us our failings, the times we did not listen, the times we did not love, the times we looked away from neighbors in need, as we forgive those who have failed us.
Keep us from the temptation of intolerance, contempt, and complacency in the face of injustice. Give us instead the courage to stand in solidarity with all your beloved children and deliver us from those who would harm us.
For yours is love, justice and peace, now and forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer for Transgender Awareness
from Dignity USA’s Believe Out Loud initiative
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With boundless joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
Be With Me Lord Marty Haugen
Closing Prayer Mike
May we always be ready to act as an Ally.
May we first recognize our privilege.
May we then use our position or status to fight systemic oppression or discrimination.
May we be active and outspoken about issues such as racial injustice, transphobia or homophobia, and ableism.
May we acknowledge our privilege and openly discuss it.
May we support and make use of our privilege and power for those who are marginalized.
May we turn the spotlight our power provides away from ourselves and toward marginalized voices.
May we use opportunities to engage people with whom we share identity and privilege in conversations about oppression experienced by those we seek to work with.
May we do this all in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Closing Song Mike
“Believe Out Loud” by David Lohman from Fling the Church Doors Open Wide
Announcements
Eucharistic Liturgy – 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time June 23, 2024
Theme: Navigating the Storms in Life
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Opening Song Mike
Melissa Etheridge – “Uprising of Love” Official Video
My eyes are wide-open recognizing change
It feeds the fires of the fear
Where human love seems strange
I’m gonna rise above
I believe that love is love
I’m gonna raise my hands
With every woman, child and man
I’m gonna start an uprising
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
There’s no need for hiding
And there’s no need for shame
Come into the sun, tell everyone
Love has a face it has a name
I’m gonna rise above
I believe that love is love
I’m gonna raise my hands
With every woman, child and man
I’m gonna start an uprising
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
A sacred force created me
In that I had no choice
Gave me my heart and who it loves
My arms to hold and gave me my voice
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
I’m gonna start an uprising of love
Songwriters: Melissa Etheridge. For non-commercial use only.
Introduction: Juneteenth
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
An Opening Prayer for Pride
Jesus’ view of the Divine was one of wild love and extravagant acceptance…
A Spirit of boldness and beauty…
One that is faithfully present in both the grit and glitter of life,
and present here with us now.
May we be awakened to the dream for creation:
A world in which every member of the human family is free
to flourish however they have been made.
May we be forgiven for the moments we have held back
the ever-flowing current of love, dignity, and justice that flows from the Divine.
May we be a people eager to see the Divine
in the faces, bodies, and expressions of all people.
May we be reminded to step out of the shadows of our lives
and shine fearlessly and courageously.
May the Divine Light be ignited within us to sparkle through the prism
of our bodies and brighten every corner of this Earth.
Each of us is called beloved.
Each of us cherished.
Each of us desired.
Each of us sacred.
And so, we give thanks now and forever.
Amen.
Published by Medium,
modified from St. John’s Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
Reading One Teri
OTHERSIDE OF STORMS OF YOUR LIFE Dr. Jayanthi N.L.N.
Once a child came to visit his grandfather during his summer holidays. He used to play with his grandpa during the time. One day he said to his Grandpa, “When I grow up I want to become a successful man. Can you tell me some ways to be successful?”.
Grandfather nodded, “yes”, and took the boy to a nearby nursery. From the nursery his Grandpa bought two small plants and came back home. He planted one plant in a pot, and kept it inside the house, and planted another one outside the house.
“What do you think? Which of these two plants will grow better in future?”, the grandfather asked the boy. The boy kept thinking for some time and then said, “the plant inside the house will grow better, because it is safe from every danger, while a plant outside is at risk of many things like strong sunlight, storms, and animals”. Grandfather smiled and said, “let’s see what happens in future”.
After that, the boy left with his parents. After four years when the boy saw his grandfather, he said, “last time I asked you some ways to be successful but, you did not tell me’’. Grandfather smiled and said, “Sure. But, let’s first take a look at the plants that we bought a few years back”, saying this grandfather took the boy to a place where he had planted a small plant in a pot.
They saw that the plant had grown into a tree. Then he took the boy to look at the plant which they had planted outside. There they saw that a huge tree stood, its branches spread far and wide, providing shade to the passersby.
Now, Grandfather looked the boy and asked, “Which plant grew more? Which is more successful? “The boy replied, “the one that we planted outside”, but “Grandpa! How is this possible? That plant would have faced so many dangers. Still, it grew so big”.
Grandfather smiled and said, “Yes, plants outside had to face many things, but dealing with problems had its benefits too. Plants outside had the freedom to spread their roots as much as they wanted. Problems like storms made its roots stronger. Today it is so strong that a small storm cannot cause any harm to it. Son! What I am about to tell you now, you must always remember. Then, you will be successful in whatever you do in your life. If you always make comfortable choices, then you will not be able to grow as you can. If you are ready to face this world despite all the dangers, then no goal is impossible to achieved by you. Never think of problems as hurdles but think of them as steps towards success”. Boy took a long breath and stared at the tree, and he understood his Grandpa’s words.
Inspired words
PSALM Mike
The 50 Most Inspirational LGBTQ Songs of All Time This is ranked number 3 by Rolling Stone.
Katy Perry’s 2010 Teenage Dream hit is as bright and uplifting as its title, a celebratory track that encourages listeners to release their inner sparkle and let their colors shine. “Firework” has become one of Perry’s most anthemic songs, and a fan favorite. More proof of the song’s impact: “Firework” is the track Perry closes with every night of her Las Vegas residency. —T.C.
Gospel Acclamation
Pride Festival Alleluia – courtesy of Dignity Women
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17QxLoltBT49KmfpfpsEJSeAmgVmYwuY-/view?usp=sharing
Gospel Kathi S
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Inspired words
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Joan Thomas
We are as a society and as individuals facing storms both literally and figuratively. We know that we have a well-honed faith; the faith of Jesus to meet the challenges that we encounter.
Our response: As One we Pray!
For all houses of worship, that they may be true places of refuge for those who are considered “other” in society especially the LGBTQIA+ community, we respond:
For all government officials throughout the world, that they may use their power to build up and not tear down. May they not use groups or individuals as pawns in political, military or religious gamesmanship; especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community, we respond:
For judges and court officials and or all law enforcement officials as well as for correctional administrators and officers, that they may treat members of the LGBTQIA+ Community with dignity, respect and equality, we respond;
For insurance companies and health care providers, that they may provide optimal care to all medical needs due the members of the LGBTQIA+ Community, we respond;
For educators at every level, that they may create an affirming environment for each and every member of the LGBTQIA+ Community, we respond;
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus, we respond;
For what else shall we pray? Please respond with a silent prayer.
(Allow 4 petitions.)
We pray that we may always be attentive to the Divine’s call. May we always be more that welcoming to each and every person we meet. May we affirm them, celebrate them, and help them grow! We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Linda S
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink
A Eucharistic Liturgy for Pride Mike & Colleen
Presider: As we gather here this morning, we are the church! In this moment, we respond to the words of Jesus, who tells us: “…where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Voice: And it is with the spirit of Jesus that we proclaim that this table is open to all people — no matter who you are or what you believe or what you’ve been told.
Presider: At our table we remember the simple gathering of a chosen family that came together for a meal that proclaimed a new way of being in this world.
Voice: We remember the radically inclusive love of the Divine made real in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We remember the One who befriended the forgotten, embraced the outcast, and saw the Image of God in all people. We remember the One who confronted every power that disconnected, marginalized, oppressed, and “other-ed.”
Presider: It is here at this table that we find hope and imagination to see Jesus’s dream and promise of a world of wholeness, and it is here that we receive the nourishment and strength to continue on the paths of justice.
Voice: We recall that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Presider: In the same way he took the cup, saying, “This is my very life, poured out for you. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Voice: We are thankful for this beautiful world. We are grateful for the endless blessings that we see, feel, and know on our journeys of life. And we celebrate the rich diversity of creation — every beautiful body, every shade of skin, every expression of love…each of us good enough, smart enough, enough enough…infinitely worthy, without prerequisites.
Presider: We open our hearts to the joy we can find in the midst of life’s challenges. We remember that we are loved — fiercely and forever, for who we are. And however the world may try to hold us down or tell us who to be, we know that nothing can separate us from the Divine and each other. Amen!
Published by Medium,
modified from St. John’s Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
The Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Margie
Our father, our mother, our beloved two-spirit parent,
help us honor your holy name in all that we do.
We pray that your justice, peace, love and mercy come to this needy planet.
Give all of us, transgender, cisgender, and people of all gender expressions and orientations, what we need each day to live and thrive. We need food, we need employment, housing and medical care. We need a loving community.
Forgive us our failings, the times we did not listen, the times we did not love, the times we looked away from neighbors in need, as we forgive those who have failed us.
Keep us from the temptation of intolerance, contempt and complacency in the face of injustice. Give us instead the courage to stand in solidarity with all your beloved children and deliver us from those who would harm us.
For yours is love, justice and peace, now and forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer for Transgender Awareness
from Dignity USA’s Believe Out Loud initiative
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
The Gift You Are John Denver
Closing Prayer Mike
Blessed Are the Queer
By HP Rivers
Blessed are the wanderers,
Seeking affirmation.
Blessed are the worshipers,
Praying from closets,
Pulpits, pews, and hardship.
Blessed are the lovers of leaving –
Leaving family and familiarity,
Leaving tables
Where love is not being served.
Blessed are those who stay.
Blessed are those
Who hunger and thirst for justice –
For they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the queer
Disciples of Truth,
Living, breathing, sacred
Reflections of
Divine Love.
Closing Song Mike
“Believe Out Loud” by David Lohman from Fling the Church Doors Open Wide
Announcements
Eucharistic Liturgy – 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time June 16, 2024
Theme: Invisible Seeds/ We Are Enough!
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Introduction Colleen
I believe that we are all born with an invisible seed planted within us. It is our purpose to nurture that seed into bloom. We must allow it to take root and grow. But you ask, how are we to nurture something that we cannot see? Ah, that is the mystery and the challenge of this life.
The Divine that lives within each of us is the invisible seed. We can never see the face of God, just as we cannot see the invisible seed, but it is there, nonetheless.
We are born with this inherent knowledge but as we mature, we grow further and further away from this knowledge. We allow outside influences to overshadow it. We believe what we are told by society, by teachers, by our family and ultimately by ourselves – we are not good enough, we are not smart enough, we are not worthy. Ultimately creating our “not enoughness”. Those voices, within and without, wither the invisible seed. They starve it of light, the light that paradoxically shines within us.
We must, as Jesus said, become like the little children. Remain in the belief that we are Divine, we are good enough, we are worthy.
Opening Song Margie
You Are Loved by Karen Drucker
Here it comes again that feeling of not enough
I see you struggle, I feel your pain
How can I convince you that you are a radiant child of God?
You are worthy, deserving, loving and caring, a shining light of love
If only you could see yourself as other people do
You would see the light of love that shines to everyone
You would understand the reason why people care for you
You would see that, you would know that you are loved,
You are loved…
You look in the mirror and all you do is criticize
But take another look and see the soul that’s in your eyes
You have everything you need it’s all inside of you
Step into your power, open your heart
and let your love shine through
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
In our Opening Song, Karen Drucker sings, “Here it comes again that feeling of not enough.” So many of us feel it, sometimes faintly but at other times looming large. It has a way of keeping us from trying things, being our true selves, recognizing our worth.
May we experience this morning’s liturgy with hearts open to accepting our beauty, truly believing that we are crowns of creation…the face of God! May our readings remind us that worthiness does not have prerequisites and that comparison is the thief of joy. May we rejoice that we were born perfect and luminous. And may we embrace the mystery and challenge of life to grow and share our invisible seeds. Amen.
Gospel Sue
Mark 4:26-34
Then Jesus said, “God’s kindom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows – he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps – harvest time!”
Inspired words
Reading One Margie
Buddhist Boot Camp – Self Worth
1:10 – 4:45 & 6:50 – 8:45
Inspired words
PSALM Janet
The God Who Made the Octopus
If you think
the Eccentric God who made
the octopus
is gonna judge you
for your sins,
I’m afraid you’ve missed
the mark.
If you think this
Wild God
that spins galaxies
as a pastime
cares to get fussy
about your mistakes
or has ever made anything
that wasn’t born
perfect and luminous,
you might need to repent.
If you can’t yet admit
how lovable
and infinitely worthy
the fullness of your human nature is
and if you think God
wants to do anything
but perpetually pour
an abundance
of love gifts
upon you,
well, my dear, your soul
just might need
to go to confession.
by Chelan Harkin, from Let Us Dance, p 24
Reading Two Bill
You Are Incomparable! modified from James Burklo, November 22, 2023
You are incomparable. I am incomparable.
So why do we persist in comparing ourselves to others? And suffering the frustration that results?
You and I are, as the scripture says, crowns of creation. We’re microcosmic mirrors of the grand and glorious cosmos, another way of saying that we’re made in the image of God. This is who we really are, so why don’t we revel in it?
We may be the crown of creation, but we’re also subject to all manner of delusions.
We wander the world with a device in our pockets or purses almost all the time. Is it really a smartphone? Or would it better be described as a perverse mirror into which we gaze, wishing we looked like the people whose images appear on its screen, wishing we had their idyllic, carefully-curated lives. It’s a cruel ‘trick mirror’ that shows us who and what we aren’t, but feel like we could or ought to be.
Meanwhile, the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount ring true, down through the ages. He says, don’t compare yourselves to each other. Compare yourselves to the birds. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. They neither wear designer clothes nor drive fancy cars nor augment their body parts. Nor do they spend their days gazing into so-called smart phones!
We want to fit in, we want to be socially appropriate. And so we compare ourselves to those around us, to sort out the norms for behavior. Obviously nothing problematic with that. But when we’ve done a reasonable job of being socially appropriate, without sacrificing our dignity, there’s no need to keep going with comparing ourselves to others. It quickly loses its social utility and becomes a dead weight on our souls. It keeps us from being and fully enjoying who we are, where we are, how we are.
Meanwhile, the truth is that you are beyond compare! You are seriously awesome just exactly the way you are right now! It took 13 billion years for you to get here, and here you are, an incredible creature with self-reflective consciousness, with absolutely phenomenal capacity for creativity and reasoning and story-making and story-telling. The universe has evolved to create you in order for you to reflect the grandeur of the universe back to itself. A high and noble task to which we are all called. We are probably not the only self-and-universe-reflective beings in the cosmos, but we do know that none exist within a radius of 5.88 trillion miles from Planet Earth. So let’s not compare ourselves to other people. If you are going to compare yourself at all, compare yourself to the lifeless swirls of gas on Jupiter, the red dust of Mars, the lonesome, stony asteroids spinning around the sun. And it will be obvious that indeed, you – just as you are, right now – are the crown of creation!
Inspired words
Reading Three 2:38 Margie
NCIS Hit and Run – The Things You Do Matter to People
Abby: I’m trying to figure out a way to be okay with not being enough.
Gibbs: Enough what?
Abby: Enough good.
Gibbs: Well then, you’re not counting the hit and runs.
Abby: The what?
Gibbs: The good kind. You do something good now and you’re not always around to see the difference it makes later.
Final line: The things you do mean something to people.
Fortune cookie: Today’s new friend is tomorrow’s family.
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Peter
Spirit of wild love and extravagant acceptance…
of boldness and beauty…
You are faithfully present in both the grit and glitter of life,
and you are present here with us now.
Awaken us to your dream for creation:
A world in which every member of the human family is free
to flourish however you have made them.
Our response will be “You are the Face of God.”
For each of us as we pursue the mystery and the challenge of this life to grow our ‘invisible seeds.’ May we be free of the pressure of outside validation and build our lives on our own integrity. May we have the courage to show our authentic selves to those around us. And may we recognize that we are enough exactly as we are…infinitely worthy expressions of the Divine…so that we allow our light to shine forth to the world.
We respond: “You are the Face of God.”
For our Sophia members who are part of the LGBT+ community, and for people of all gender expressions and orientations who have been persecuted and marginalized through the years. May you know that your being and your loving are a miracle that enriches all of us. May your acceptance of yourselves bring commitment and strength to your journey. And may you recognize that you are enough exactly as you are…infinitely worthy expressions of the Divine…so that you may allow your light to shine forth to the world.
We respond: “You are the Face of God.”
For our Sophia members who are fathers and for fathers everywhere. May you be acknowledged and appreciated for your many gifts. May you give yourselves the same loving care and understanding that you have shared with those around you. May you recognize your impact and contributions without feeling the need or pressure to be stoic, stalwart, or perfect. And may you recognize that you are enough exactly as you are…infinitely worthy expressions of the Divine…so that you may allow your light to shine forth to the world.
We respond: “You are the Face of God.”
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus.
We respond: “You are the Face of God.”
For what else shall we pray? Please respond with a silent prayer.
(Allow 4 petitions.)
We are all beautiful expressions of the Divine! May we live each day truly believing that of ourselves and others. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Linda
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink
A Eucharistic Liturgy for Pride Mike & Rob
Presider: As we gather here this morning, we are the church! In this moment, we respond to the words of Jesus, who tells us: “…where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Voice: And it is with the spirit of Jesus that we proclaim that this table is open to all people — no matter who you are or what you believe or what you’ve been told.
Presider: At our table we remember the simple gathering of a chosen family that came together for a meal that proclaimed a new way of being in this world.
Voice: We remember the radically inclusive love of the Divine made real in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We remember the One who befriended the forgotten, embraced the outcast, and saw the Image of God in all people. We remember the One who confronted every power that disconnected, marginalized, oppressed, and “other-ed.”
Presider: It is here at this table that we find hope and imagination to see Jesus’s dream and promise of a world of wholeness, and it is here that we receive the nourishment and strength to continue on the paths of justice.
Voice: We recall that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Presider: In the same way he took the cup, saying, “This is my very life, poured out for you. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Voice: We are thankful for this beautiful world. We are grateful for the endless blessings that we see, feel, and know on our journeys of life. And we celebrate the rich diversity of creation — every beautiful body, every shade of skin, every expression of love…each of us good enough, smart enough, enough enough…infinitely worthy, without prerequisites.
Presider: We open our hearts to the joy we can find in the midst of life’s challenges. We remember that we are loved — fiercely and forever, for who we are. And however the world may try to hold us down or tell us who to be, we know that nothing can separate us from the Divine and each other. Amen!
Published by Medium,
modified from St. John’s Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
The Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) ????
Our father, our mother, our beloved two-spirit parent,
help us honor your holy name in all that we do.
We pray that your justice, peace, love and mercy come to this needy planet.
Give all of us, transgender, cisgender, and people of all gender expressions and orientations, what we need each day to live and thrive. We need food, we need employment, housing and medical care. We need a loving community.
Forgive us our failings, the times we did not listen, the times we did not love, the times we looked away from neighbors in need, as we forgive those who have failed us.
Keep us from the temptation of intolerance, contempt and complacency in the face of injustice. Give us instead the courage to stand in solidarity with all your beloved children and deliver us from those who would harm us.
For yours is love, justice and peace, now and forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer for Transgender Awareness
from Dignity USA’s Believe Out Loud initiative
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie
The Presence Your Are (shortened to 1:48) by Jan Novotka, Awakening Consciousness
Closing Prayer Mike
Our prayer this morning is that this liturgy has nurtured the invisible seed within you, bringing it closer to the surface so that your light can shine forth to the world. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A Blessing on All Fathers and those who have been like Fathers
For new fathers, coming to terms with new responsibility;
For those who are trying to balance the demands of work, marriage and children;
For those who have to struggle to be a part of their child’s life;
For those who are unable to feed their children due to poverty;
For those whose children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities;
For all single fathers;
For those whose child has been placed for adoption;
For those whose love and support has offered healing;
For those that have adopted a child into their family;
For those who have lost a child;
For those who care for the children of others;
For those whose children have left home.
We bless all women who have acted as fathers because that raised their children as single parents.
We bless all fathers, that they may be able to commit themselves selflessly as mentor, protector and provider, shaping the direction
of their child’s character by giving love, care and guidance.
We bless all fathers, that they may lead their children to know and do what is good, living not for themselves alone, but for the Divine and for others.
Amen.
House of Prayer Assembly adapted
Closing Song Margie
The Face of God by Karen Drucker,
(for future – possibly include signing it, as indicated in Karen’s lyrics:
https://www.karendrucker.com/wp-content/uploads/5.-Face-of-God.pdf)
Announcements
10th Sunday Ordinary Cycle B – June 9, 2024
Theme: Family
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Opening Song Maryann
We are Connected by Chris Skinner
CH: We are connected like branches to the tree
We all walk the planet, let’s walk with dignity
No matter our colour, no matter our creed.
All of us are gifted and all of us we need.
We are connected one great family.
Let’s light the fire together and let it shine for all to see.
Shine, everybody standing in the light. Shine, everybody warmed by the fire.
Shine, no one left in the dark or in the cold. Shine, come together to embrace and to hold. Shine, forgive and heal the hurts that divide. Shine, standing with, along, beside.
Shine, Shine!
We are connected, connected!
Breath and life, connected.
Earth, sea and sky, connected.
Hands and hearts, connected
Believe it, believe it!
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Opening Prayer Mike
Family and families take on all forms and shapes.
Together we are family.
Some families are married,
Some are partners
Some are single
Some are in a covenant relationship.
Together we are family.
Some were married,
and in a holy union,
and never married,
and married twice,
and widowed or a widower.
Together we are family.
Some are older
and younger,
and in between,
some are facing a first serious relationship,
knowing the joy of love,
enduring betrayal,
tasting the grief of a dying partner.
Together we are family.
Some are an only child,
Some have ten siblings
Some have raised two children
Some have no children.
Together we are family.
We are part of a family,
the human family
the family of faith
our family of origin
the family of our choosing.
We are the people of who follow Jesus.
Together we are family.
We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
by Katherine Hawker, on her Liturgy Outside the Box website. 2004 (adapted)
1st Reading Gospel ?Louise??
A reading of the Gospel in the tradition of MARK
Jesus came home and, as usual, a crowd gathered-so many making demands on him that there wasn’t even time to eat. His friends heard what was going on and went to rescue him, by force if necessary. They suspected he was getting carried away with himself.
….his mother and brothers showed up. Standing outside, they relayed a message that they wanted a word with him. He was surrounded by the crowd when he was given the message, “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside looking for you.” Jesus responded, “Who do you think are my mother and brothers?” Looking around, taking in everyone seated around him, he said, “Right here, right in front of you-my mother and my brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’
Inspired Words
MARK 3:20-35 from This Transforming Word, Cycle B, Copyright 2014 by Alice Camille
2nd Reading ?????
The second reading is from research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS)
Defining ‘family’ is not straightforward. While the legislation in various contexts provides definitions of family and relationships and outlines obligations and entitlements, the way individuals experience and understand family in their day-to-day lives can be very different.
How people define family and decide who is included in their kinship circles is influenced by these legal definitions but also shaped by culture and personal life experiences and circumstances. People may also have multiple definitions of family and group these into different sets of people with different values and functions – for example, their ‘birth family’, their ‘in-laws’ or their ‘chosen family’.
Cultures, values, social expectations and laws have all changed over time and vary from place to place. For example, while marriages and families were once guided by, and created through, obligation and tradition, today relationships are increasingly shaped and defined by love, satisfaction and individual choices.
In research by AIFS, love and unconditional non-judgemental support had universal agreement as being important in defining what makes a family. Across the entire sample, as well as each generation and group analyzed, these 2 characteristics were the most likely to be chosen as important or very important.
In contrast, while there was much more variation in views on the importance of blood and genetics, and legal ties or obligations; overall and in each generation and group analyzed, these more traditional definitions of family were the least likely to be rated as important or very important.
Love and support are central aspects of relationships with ‘chosen family’ and are often the reason why people are selected to be in one’s ‘family’ alongside, or sometimes instead of, people related by blood or the law.
More than half of the participants in this study included pets as a part of their family. Like chosen family, recent research suggests that animals can play an important role as confidantes and offer people a place of non-judgemental safety and unconditional love.
The Families in Australia Survey included a set of questions about what family means to participants and who they included in their family. Central to this analysis, Families in Australia survey participants were asked to rate how important they considered the following when defining what makes a family:
- love
- unconditional, non-judgemental support
- common experiences and activities
- shared values, beliefs and traditions
- legal ties or obligations
- blood/genetics.
What makes a family? Almost all participants considered love and unconditional, non-judgemental support as either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ when defining what makes a family.
While not as universal, a majority of participants also considered shared values, beliefs and traditions and common experiences and activities as either ‘important’ or ‘very important’. While participants had evenly divided views on the importance of legal ties or obligations and blood/genetics; overall, they rated them as the least important characteristics when defining a family.
Understandings of ‘family’, like many aspects of our society, are shifting over time from a rigid institution guided by obligations, tradition and legal definitions to relationships that are defined by love, satisfaction and individual choices.
Psalm Bill
Human Family by Maya Angelou
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.
I’ve sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I’ve seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I’ve not seen any two
who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.
We love and lose in China,
we weep on England’s moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we’re the same.
I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
3rd Reading ???
A Family Is Like A Circle © Nicole M. O’Neil
Published by Family Friend Poems July 2006 with permission of the Author.
A family is like a circle.
The connection never ends,
and even if at times it breaks,
in time it always mends.
A family is like the stars.
Somehow they’re always there.
Families are those who help,
who support and always care.
A family is like a book.
The ending’s never clear,
but through the pages of the book,
their love is always near.
A family is many things.
With endless words that show
who they are and what they do
and how they teach you so you know.
But don’t be weary if it’s broken
or if through time it’s been so worn.
Families are like that –
they’re split up and always torn.
But even if this happens,
your family will always be.
They help define just who you are
and will be a part of you eternally.
Nicole M. O’Neil. “A Family Is Like A Circle.” Family Friend Poems, July 18, 2006. https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-family-is-like-a-circle
Prayer of the People ???
(Slowly): We pray for the needs of the whole human family, for all families — however and wherever they are — and for those who are closest to us.
After each petition there will be a silent response (allow 5 seconds)
For all members of the human family … we pray,
For national and local policies that support families, especially those without the basic needs of food or housing, employment or just wages, adequate education or health care… we pray,
For understanding and love to honor and support all families in every configuration… we pray,
For families in danger or on the move: victims of war and violence; refugees and undocumented immigrants; those awaiting deportation and victims of persecution… we pray,
For broken families, those who struggle with conflict, and those committed to helping them… we pray,
For our own families; for those who have loved us and those who have hurt us… we pray,
For family relationships that are defined by love, satisfaction and individual choices, instead of legal ties or obligations and blood or genetics…we pray,
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… we pray,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
May we recognize that all families are holy, no matter what form they take.
We acknowledge that families help us grow in strength and wisdom.
May we love one another and live in peace with our families. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine ?????
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & ?????
| P. We gather and pray, raising our minds and hearts to the mystery we name God, always creatively active throughout the universe, on this wonderful planet, in the slow development of life-forms here on earth, and in the wonder of human life. | Voice: We pray believing our prayer gives expression to the presence of God with us. |
| P: We pray aware we are in communion with all men and women throughout human history who ever raised their minds and hearts in prayer to the mystery we call God. | Voice We give thanks for the insights about God we have gained from prayerful people from various times, places, cultures, and religions. |
| P: We recognize the Spirit of one God at work in all places, in all people, at all times. We are all one in God. | Voice: We believe our oneness extends beyond death: that all who live in God die into God and are connected now with us as we live in God. |
| P: We give thanks for Jesus, who allowed the presence of God to move so freely and generously in his life that in him, we have seen a true picture of ourselves: temples of God’s Spirit, earthen vessels carrying a treasure, God expressed in human form. | Voice: We give thanks that through Jesus we are set free from magic and superstition, fear of God and the sense of distance from God. |
| P: We remember Jesus sharing his last meal, asking his friends to love as he had loved, to remember him whenever they met to tell the story of God in their lives. So we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and we give thanks for the wonder of God in and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus: God-with-us. | Voice: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of God. (Pause for reflection) |
| P: We give thanks for Christians who have allowed the message of Jesus to find generous expression in their lives and have sought to make the reign of God visible on earth. | Voice: We give thanks for men and women of all religious beliefs who have allowed the Spirit of God to work freely and generously in their lives. |
| P: We pray that our awareness of connectedness with Jesus and all people and all that exists may expand our hearts and minds and allow the Spirit of all Life to move more freely in us. | Voice: We pray this for ourselves, for our families, for our country, and for all of humanity. To this, we give our Amen! |
All Saints We Are All One in God by Michael Morwood, Praying a New Story 2004
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) ????
Our father, our mother, our beloved two-spirit parent,
help us honor your holy name in all that we do.
We pray that your justice, peace, love and mercy come to this needy planet.
Give all of us, transgender, cisgender, and people of all gender expressions and orientations, what we need each day to live and thrive. We need food, we need employment, housing and medical care. We need a loving community.
Forgive us our failings, the times we did not listen, the times we did not love, the times we looked away from neighbors in need, as we forgive those who have failed us.
Keep us from the temptation of intolerance, contempt and complacency in the face of injustice. Give us instead the courage to stand in solidarity with all your beloved children and deliver us from those who would harm us.
For yours is love, justice and peace, now and forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer for Transgender Awareness from Dignity USA’sBelieve Out Loud initiative.
Prior to the Breaking of the Bread Mike
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
How could anyone… by Shaina Noll
Bill created slideshow with a gay pride month theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF7yFOlOk9M for tune
How could anyone ever tell you
You were anything less than beautiful
How could anyone ever tell you
You were less than whole
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul…
How could anyone ever tell you
You were anything less than beautiful
How could anyone ever tell you
You were less than whole
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul…
How could anyone ever tell you
You were anything less than beautiful
How could anyone ever tell you
You were less than whole
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul…
How could anyone ever tell you
You were anything less than beautiful
How could anyone ever tell you
You were less than whole
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul…
How could anyone ever tell you
You were anything less than beautiful
How could anyone ever tell you
You were less than whole
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul…
Closing Prayer ???
Different Meanings Of Family By Kelly Roper
To some, family means mom, dad and the kids.
To others, family means single parents doing the job of two to make a home.
To some, family means living with grandparents too.
To others, family is the aunt or uncle who has stepped up to fill in for parents.
To some, family means two moms or two dads growing a family together.
To others, family means two people multiplying their love through adoption.
To some, family is limited to blood relations.
To others, family includes friends who are there through thick and thin.
To some, family is all about the people in their lives.
To others, pets are considered family members too.
Yes, family means different things to different people,
But every family has one thing in common, and that’s love. Amen
Sending Forth Song Maryann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1o7bC0waNQ Chosen Family – Rina Sawayama & Elton John | One Voice Childrens Choir | Kids Cover (Official Video)
Lyrics:
Where do I belong?
Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine
I’m all ears, take your time, we got all night
Show me the rivers crossed, the mountains scaled
Show me who made you walk all the way here
Settle down, put your bags down
(Ooh) You’re alright now
We don’t need to be related to relate
We don’t need to share genes or a surname
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
So what if we don’t look the same?
We been going through the same thing
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
Hand me a pen and I’ll rewrite the pain
When you’re ready, we’ll turn the page together
Open your heart, it’s time we celebrate
Who you were, who you are
We’re one and the same, yeah, yeah
We don’t need to be related to relate
We don’t need to share genes or a surname
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
So what if we don’t look the same?
We been going through the same thing
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
I, I chose you
You chose me
I chose
(Chosen family)
I chose you
You chose me
We’re alright now
We don’t need to be related to relate
We don’t need to share genes or a surname
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
So what if we don’t look the same?
We been going through the same thing
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
We don’t need to be related to relate
We don’t need to share genes or a surname
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
So what if we don’t look the same?
We been going through the same thing
You are
You are
My chosen
Chosen family
Announcements
Resources
Closing Song – We Are Family – Sister Sledge
Use Retreat pictures and others of folks in Sophia
“Union, Food for the Journey, Commitment” in lieu of Corpus Christi
June 2, 2024
We Pray for Others (please be brief) Mike
Opening Song
The Broken Body of Christ, by The Many Marie
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
We gather today at this fellowship communion table to celebrate in Sophia’s unique way the Feast of Corpus Christi, a powerful symbol of Jesus’ message of love, compassion and unity. May we always be aware of our role of being members of the body of Christ for the world, believing there is grace enough, love enough, and mercy enough for all.
Amen.
Introduction to the Reading Marie
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi – the Body of Christ – in the institutional church. For our Liturgy of the Word, I have selected a homily by Father Dick Rento, “Union, Food for the Journey, Commitment”, from his 2016 book, It’s Not Necessarily So. For those of you who do not know of Father Rento, he and Mike Corso ministered together for many years in a parish in Clifton, NJ. Father Rento was a retreat facilitator for one of Sophia’s pre-pandemic in person weekend retreats. This message will give you the opportunity to take a mental walk down memory lane from your First Communion to the present. Father Rento’s reflection on what Eucharist has meant to him over the decades of his life is presented in three stages, so you will hear his inspired words read by three lectors.
First Part of the Reading Dave
It has taken me this many years – I am an octogenarian – to recognize what I now see as a logical development in my understanding and practice of the Sacrament of Eucharist. The stages of that development have been marked mostly by the various emphases we placed on the sacrament at different times in our history.
Let me explain –
As a child and long after my childhood, I was taught that “receiving Communion” was a great privilege granted to us young Christians as we were gradually moving from infancy toward adulthood. Born some 2000 years after Jesus was born, we were taught that we were being welcomed into a privileged friendship with him. Therefore, spiritual togetherness with Jesus was the essence of this wonderful sacrament.
We were carefully schooled in how to participate in the awesome act…. We rehearsed the attitudes and bodily gestures of profound reverence. And so forth….
The fact of the matter is that the emphasis in those days was on this mysterious union of a person and Jesus, who had somehow taken the place of the bread and wine while leaving the perceptible characteristics of the bread and wine unchanged.
In my reckoning, that was stage one.
Part Two of the Reading Louise
Next came a new insight: Communion was also regarded as food for the journey of life. When kneeling to receive the sacrament, the prescribed requirement at the time, was replaced by standing, the explanation given was that we don’t go to Mass to linger at a shrine or to worship. No, we were to regard ourselves as pilgrims, a people on the go, on our feet and ready to move on. The church building or whatever was the setting in which we celebrated the Eucharist, was essentially a stopping off place where we will find rest and healing and nourishment for the journey ahead.
I liked that analysis, that theology, and it still appeals to me strongly. I have always relied on that benefit of the sacrament as I struggle with the challenges of my life, and I know that I have been helped by the Eucharistic Jesus more than I will ever fully appreciate.
That was stage – or phase – two.
Part Three of the Reading Kathys
Not too long after that step, a third followed, a different insight into what Eucharist means and what our part in it should be. For me, that revelation came mainly in the form of a one-page article in the Jesuit magazine, America, published in March of 2000 and written by a now deceased diocesean priest from Detroit, Gerald Martin. I knew at once that it was the most important thing I had ever read on the topic.
Father Martin shifted the emphasis of Jesus’ words “Do this in memory of me” from changing bread and wine into himself to our being changed into the likeness of him! He wrote: “‘Do this in memory of me” means you should imitate my self-giving, which is represented in these symbols of bread broken and wine poured out. When you take and eat and drink, you enter into this action and commit yourself to imitate my self-giving in your own life.” That makes perfect sense to me.
If I never learn anything more about the Eucharist, I will be content with the understanding we have achieved so far.
So then
- I believe that the Eucharist is a special bonding between us and Jesus.
- I believe it is powerful, energizing, and healing food and drink for the faith journey of life.
- I believe that each time we receive the Eucharist we are pledging to imitate Jesus in every aspect of our individual lives.
Inspired words.
By Richard Rento, It’s Not Necessarily So –
A senior priest separates faith from fiction and makes sense of belief,
pages 21-212
Prayer of the People Linda K, Colleen, Tom S
Reader 1: Holy One, you have given us a world rich beyond measure in variety and diversity of people. Today we proclaim and celebrate your love for all people, especially those who are LGBTQIA and those Catholics who feel excluded from receiving Communion in their church.
Reader 2: We pray for all people who are marginalized for their sexual orientation, their skin color, their gender, their economic or educational poverty, their physical or mental disabilities, their age or because circumstances of their lives label them unworthy of approaching a priest in a Catholic Church with hands open to receive the Communion bread.
Reader 3: Response: We proclaim and celebrate the Divine’s love for all people.
Reader 1: We remember those young people who struggle to understand and accept their sexual orientation within families, schools, and communities where diversity is not honored.
Reader 2: We give thanks for all children who are members of gay and lesbian families. May these children never lose sight of the goodness within themselves and their families, even when others fail to honor them. We give thanks for adults who teach children about inclusivity, especially the way Jesus taught it by his example of welcoming all to the table of fellowship and communion.
Reader 3 Response: We proclaim and celebrate the Divine’s love for all people.
Reader 1: We pray for parents, family members, and friends who are unable or unwilling to accept or understand the sexual orientation of their loved ones.
Reader 2: We give thanks for PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lebsians and Gays, for Lambda Families, for New Ways Ministry, for Dignity USA, and for the education, advocacy, and support they provide for families and friends. We also give thanks for Rainbow Railroad and its volunteers who welcome LGBTQ asylum seekers with a variety of support services while they begin to resettle into safe communities in our country.
Reader 3: Response: We proclaim and celebrate the Divine’s love for all people.
Reader 1: We pray for changes in federal, state and municipal ordinances which allow persons to be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and denied access to public services solely on the basis of sexual orientation.
Reader 3: Response: We proclaim and celebrate the Divine’s love for all people.
Adapted and expanded from Redeemer’s A Simple Matter of Justice Annual Liturgy
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, for our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus…we pray…
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray with confidence that these petitions and those unspoken concerns and needs deep within each of us will be heard and answered with loving compassion. Amen.
Sign of Peace Mike
Blessing of the Bread Sue
We bring to the table our gift of bread.
This bread which comes from the rich moistness
and darkness of the earth,
which grew as wheat in the light of the sun
and became bread in the work of our hands.
This bread is a sign of hope for the world.
It represents our hope that we will share
the produce of the land and feed the hungry.
May this bread nurture and strengthen us
in our commitment to bring about a new world of justice
in which no one is hungry.
May our gift of bread be blessed.
Adapted from “Bread” by Edwina Gateley
in There Was No Path So I Trod One page 102.
Blessing of the Wine Janet
We bring to the table our gift of wine.
Rich, red and full bodied,
it is the yield of the berries
which blossomed and burst beneath the warmth of the sun.
It is a sign of joy and celebration.
It is a sign of community and sharing.
May we care for the tender bushes
that are meant to produce fruit.
May we ever be mindful of the need for pruning,
for cutting back and for gathering in.
May we learn to rejoice in the fruit of our labors.
And may we share our overflowing cups with one another.
May our gift of wine be blessed.
Adapted from “Wine” by Edwina Gateley
in There Was No Path So I Trod One page 101.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike and Linda S
Presider: O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with the Divine and all creation.
Voice: Aware of our limitations and our essential goodness, we believe we are lovable as we are. May the compassionate heart of Jesus inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations.
Presider: When opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, may we be inspired to make wise decisions toward what is good.
Voice: We are grateful for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times.
Presider: We are ever aware of the Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
Voice: On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and washed their feet.
Presider: When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, this is my very self.
Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
From the Upper Room Community in Albany , NY
Prayer of Jesus Joe P
This adaptation of The Lord’s Prayer for Transgender Awareness is from Dignity USA’sBelieve Out Loud initiative.
Our father, our mother, our beloved two-spirit parent,
help us honor your holy name in all that we do.
We pray that your justice, peace, love and mercy come to this needy planet.
Give all of us, transgender, cisgender, and people of all gender expressions and orientations, what we need each day to live and thrive. We need food, we need employment, housing and medical care. We need a loving community.
Forgive us our failings, the times we did not listen, the times we did not love, the times we looked away from neighbors in need, as we forgive those who have failed us.
Keep us from the temptation of intolerance, contempt and complacency in the face of injustice. Give us instead the courage to stand in solidarity with all your beloved children and deliver us from those who would harm us.
For yours is love, justice and peace, now and forever. Amen.
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
We gather together this morning and every Sunday to remember Jesus and his teachings. We come to be nourished spiritually, so we eat and drink bread and wine in his memory.
Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread, say: “This is and you are the bread of life.”
Once everyone has the bread.
With great joy, we state.
We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup, say: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Marie
Bread Breaking by Kathy Sherman
Words are on the slides
Closing Prayer Mike
May we have the grace to be who and what we ritualize here this morning: a community of followers of Jesus, persons committed by our Amen to allowing the Spirit to move freely in our lives. We give thanks that we are able to gather virtually as the Sophia Community. We rejoice in the giftedness of each person here. We are grateful for who we are for each other. May we be truly eucharistic in all we do.
To this prayer we give our Amen.
Closing Song Marie
Break Open the Bread of Your Life by Gregory Norbet and the Monks of Weston Priory
Refrain
Break open the bread of your life; give yourself in love
as leaven to those all around you and extending to those far beyond.
Whenever you break bread together, when you drink from the cup of new wine –
do this in memory of me and share in the gift of my life. Refrain
I washed your feet as a sign – an example of service and love.
As I have done unto you, to each other you also should do. Refrain
You are all called to be one body united together in faith – living the Gospel message and building God’s kindom on earth. Refrain
Announcements
Trinity Sunday – May 26, 2024
Theme: Jesus the Reason for Community
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Opening Song Marie
In the Name of All that Is
Created by: Michelle Sherliza, OP Music by: Jan Novotka
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
We come together as a community of seekers who share in a similar vision of life and faith.
May we be attentive to today’s promptings so that we may have a deeper understanding of who we are in relationship to one another, ourselves, this planet and the Divine.
May we constantly reflect and meditate on the life and ministry of Jesus for guidance in all we say and do. We make this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
From a Facebook post by Jim Palmer August 3, 2023 (part one)
The other day I was asked if I still feel any kind of special connection to Jesus.
Jesus and I go way back. Growing up as a child, I walked past Jesus several times a day. He was there on the crucifix, hanging on our front-room wall. Attending Catholic Mass as a teenage boy, I watched as the bread and wine became the sacrificial body and blood of Jesus Christ, and I heard stories about Jesus from the gospels.
In college, I left my Catholic roots and became an evangelical Christian, which continued through seminary and many years of professional Christian ministry. A crisis of faith led to my questioning what I truly believed and eventually I left organized church and my megachurch pastor career. It didn’t take long for me to deconstruct and discard most of my Christian theology. But I was still left with Jesus.
Back in my professional ministry days, I was fond of unpacking the stories and teachings of Jesus. And even after leaving Christianity behind, I still held regard for Jesus in my heart and I tried to make sense of him outside of traditional Christian teachings. My third book – Being Jesus in Nashville – was embroiled in controversy. My Christian publisher leveled a charge of “heresy” against me, and my manuscript and book contract were swiftly cancelled. In my most recent book – Inner Anarchy – I present an alternative understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus, untangled from and in defiance of traditional Christian theology.
Jesus is significant to me but not in the ways I learned in Christianity. I don’t believe I need to be saved from myself or anything else, or that Jesus is the ticket to streets of gold in the afterlife. There are a range of views about Jesus, which include that Jesus never existed, Jesus was a lunatic, Jesus was only human, and Jesus is God. I think it’s all of the above.
In my view, the Jesus of religion, which Christendom manufactured, never existed. This is a “Jesus” that the Church has distorted and corrupted in order to serve its theology, politics and agenda. Christianity is not the fault of Jesus.
I see Jesus as one who had a touch of madness, a bit unhinged, and a renegade with conviction. He was also a man of deep love, tenderheartedness and compassion.
On the one hand, Jesus called the religious leaders of his day every name in the book, was basically one big middle finger to the establishment and their rules, and knew how to use a whip if necessary. But he also defended and stood in solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed, wept at the suffering of humankind, touched the untouchables with his own hands, and even straightened out a wine problem at a wedding because it upset his mother. It’s the humanity of Jesus I admire. It takes guts to be human the way Jesus was.
Inspired Words (reader says these words at the end of the reading)
Psalm Marie
There is only Love Karen Druker and Michael Gott
Reading Two Judy
From a Facebook post by Jim Palmer August 3, 2023 (part Two)
Back in the day, I told people that one became a Christian by accepting Jesus into their heart. It was a legal contract, spelled out in the terms of substitutionary atonement and Christus Victor, which stamped your ticket to heaven. One’s heart didn’t really have much to do with it.
I feel a heart connection to the Jesus portrayed in the gospels that is far more meaningful that what I had in my religious days. The reasons I once believed Jesus was significant have all fallen away but other reasons unique to me have grown. I can identify with the madness, humanity, tenderness and moxie of Jesus.
Stories of Jesus come to my mind at the strangest times. I see him kneeling down in the dirt with the shamed woman, throwing in his lot with the least of these, and stopping church to point out the value of the widow’s mite. Sometimes the suffering of the world makes me weep, and I know someone has shed these same tears. Jesus wept. In many ways, I see that I am only now understanding the life, teachings, wisdom, and spirituality of Jesus, which were previously obscured to me by religion.
In my view, Jesus is divine in the same way that all of us are. The difference between Jesus and most others is that Jesus fully knew and embodied the truth of who he was. When Jesus said he was the way, the truth, the life, and way to God, he was indicating that it was unnecessary and futile to seek God through the mindsets, ideology, formalities, and rules of religion. Jesus lived and expressed the fundamental truth that sets you free, which includes the realization that there is no separation between us and God and everything God represents.
I consider the life, teachings, and wisdom of Jesus to be universally relevant, regardless of one’s religious, spiritual, or philosophical point of view. Christianity does not hold unique and absolute claim to Jesus. Just because you are a Christian doesn’t mean you truly get Jesus. In fact, it may be the reason why you don’t.
Christianity is not the fault of Jesus and one should be careful not to associate the two together too closely or at all. You don’t have to be a Christian and could even be atheist and appreciate the life and legend of Jesus. As a symbol of liberation, Jesus has endured the ages in the hearts and minds of countless people. It’s not mandatory to find meaning in Jesus, but neither is it necessary to discard Jesus if he is meaningful to your spirituality.
I don’t identify as a Christian. I don’t equate Jesus with Christianity. I don’t try to persuade anyone else to find meaning in Jesus. I don’t think it is necessary to believe in or have some active interest or connection with Jesus. I’m only describing me. Truth is, after all these years I still carry Jesus in my heart. Not because I believe he saves me or that he is the only truth. It’s because I have this feeling in many of the most heartbreaking, confusing, saddest, and lonely moments of life… that in someway Jesus would have understood and cared. And somehow that feeling in those moments means something.
Inspired Words (reader says these words at the end of the reading)
Reading Three Colleen
A Reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 13:11-13
Finally, dear ones, rejoice and be well. Strive for full restoration. Encourage one another. Be agreeable. Live in harmony, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones send their greetings.
The grace of Jesus the Christ, the love of God, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!
Inspired Words (reader says these words at the end of the reading)
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Teri
We come together today when most of those who claim the name Christian celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity. We choose to celebrate Jesus who formed a community of like-minded individuals around himself for support in a similar belief system.
Our response will be: As One We Pray
All religions believe in some form of the Golden Rule; may all houses of worship vigorously embrace and practice this principle both within their community as well as outside their community, we respond.
Governments are built on communities of people who have come together for protection, education, similar purpose and economic growth; may governments understand that their power and legitimacy comes from the bottom up and treat all citizens with respect and dignity, we respond.
Corporations and businesses only survive and grow because of the communities that support them; may corporations and businesses no longer price gauge, place priority on stockholders, and emphasis the almighty dollar over the needs of consumers, we respond.
Insurance companies were created to assist people in their time of need. Most have morphed into money makers with little concern for those injured or damaged by illness or accident; may insurance companies return to the roots of their creation, we respond.
Healthcare facilities and healthcare practitioners have become so concerned with rules and regulations, with profit and establishing a name that they often lose sight of the staff and patient; may healthcare facilities and healthcare practitioners be enabled to focus on patient and staff and so enhance the healing process, we respond.
Society is made up of many people who are still seen as marginalized, the disabled, the poor, the LGBTQIA community, the BIPOC community, unhoused, those in the criminal justice system and so many more; may society come to see that we all are made up of one great community and treat one another with the dignity we deserve, we respond.
The Climate is at a breaking point – almost to a point of no return – may the voices of reason and truth rise above those who deny and coverup; may existing laws be respected and new laws be enacted to save our planet and ourselves, we respond.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, we remember those who gave their lives for their country. We honor the sacrifice they made that affected themselves and their families and friends for the sake of the greater community, we respond.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… we respond,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
May the Spirit of Jesus move in us that a new world may take shape. May the static ways of the present fall away to new invigorating ways of life, energy and love. May all people see all peoples of the earth as one community growing together for the good of all. May we care for this fragile planet we call home. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Tom K
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike & Sue
| Presider: Deep within us all lies the dream of a better world; our dream and longing for justice and fairness, harmony and peace, openness and honesty, comfort and warmth, freedom and choice, for light where there is darkness. | Voice: Today, we are mindful of people all around the world and throughout human history, who have shared this longing; a deep longing that is embedded in our DNA, in our very humanity. It is our human dream, our human song, common to all people. |
| Presider: Jesus, human like us, gave clear expression to the deep-seated longing and hope experienced not only within Judaism, but within people of all faiths and cultures – the longing and hope for a better world. | Voice: The better world we imagine is ours to accomplish. It is in our hands; the compassion, the honesty, the justice, the peace and non-violence, the determination to be light in the darkness, to be people set free from fear. It is all within our grasp. |
| Presider: And yet, we work at recognizing and being okay with our humanness. We rejoice that we can rise above ourselves, yet understand that we sometimes fall down, experiencing the pain of disappointing ourselves and others. We acknowledge that getting up is difficult and involves hard work, and that sometimes we are simply not ready for it. . We accept that sometimes our hands come up empty, our grasp can only hold ourselves together. | Voice: May we also recognize and accept humanness in others, approaching them with a hypothesis of generosity…being open to believing that most people are doing the best they can with the tools they have. May our boundaries be courageous, honest, strong, and loving. In this way, may we open ourselves to being the wholehearted and compassionate followers of Jesus that we want to be. |
| Presider: In that spirit, we turn to our gifts of bread and wine. May they be symbols of our readiness to grow and to transform. May they, along with the love of community, nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life…with all of its nuance and complexity. | Voice: May our gifts of bread and wine be symbols of all our gifts. May we have the courage to commit to using those gifts, small and large, in bravery and balance, so that we can join with Jesus and all of those throughout history working to create a better world. |
| Presider: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Reworked from Michael Morwood’s Eucharistic Prayer for humans longing for a just and peaceful world, from Prayers For Progressive Christians, pages 195-197
The Lord’s Prayer – from the original Aramaic Kathy
O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your “I Can” now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
Amen!
May our future actions grow from here!
© 1995 – Neil Douglas-Klotz – Desert Wisdom
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Marie
Closing Prayer Mike
In this liturgy we have come to know and experience that it is in community that we grow in knowledge of ourselves in relationship to one another. It is in community that we are nourished. It is in community that we come to learn from one another. It is in community that we are held accountable to one another. It is in community that we thrive and grow.
As we live our lives may we always remember these truths and live them as fully as possible. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Sending Forth Song Mike Companions on the Journey, Carey Landry
In memory of the fallen. Those who died because they wore the uniform.
America the Beautiful by Selah
Announcements
Eucharistic Liturgy Pentecost Sunday May 19, 2024
Theme: Live Freely in the Spirit, Loving the Life Within You!
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Opening Song Margie
Season Suite: Spring
Lyrics
Open up your eyes and see the brand new day, the clear blue sky and brightly shining sun.
Open up your ears and hear the breezes say, “”everything that’s cold and gray is gone.””
Open up your hands and feel the rain come down,
taste the wind and smell the flowers’ sweet perfume.
Open up your mind and let the light come in, the earth has been reborn and life goes on.
Do you care what’s happening around you? Do your senses know the changes when they come?
Can you see yourself reflected in the seasons? Can you understand the need to carry on?
Riding on the tapestry of all there is to see, so many ways and oh, so many things.
Rejoicing in the differences, there’s no one just like me.
Yet as different as we are, we’re still the same.
And oh, I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see.
And oh, I love the life around me, a part of everything is here in me.
A part of everything is here in me, a part of everything is here in me.
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
Each Sunday in the Easter season, we’ve prayed for ourselves and for one another in the Eucharistic Prayer by Michael Morwood; words which actually originated in today’s beautiful opening song by John Denver:
“May you love the life within you, may you love the life around you,
and may you know that a part of everything is here in you.”
We pray that our celebration this morning, focusing on good people, uplifting music, beautiful images, and wonderful gifts, may be a reminder to live freely in the Spirit, our own Divine Spirit, and to truly love the life within each of us and one another. Amen.
Reading One Tom K
Celebrating the “Spirit” in Everyone by Michael Morwood,
Modified from Prayer for Progressive Christians
The “Pentecost” story told in most Christian churches never happened.
The notion that a new religion started fifty days after Easter and that Pentecost Sunday is the “birthday of the Catholic Church” is patently untrue. Decades after that supposed event, St. Paul lived and died as a Jew. Every one of the original apostles of Jesus died faithful to their Jewish religious heritage. Yes, even St. Peter. The “Christian” religion did not separate from Judaism until fifty years or so after Jesus died. Its Pentecost story sought to replace the traditional Jewish feast of Pentecost…
For Jews, the time from Passover to the end of the harvest season was a time of great rejoicing. It began with the harvesting of barley around Passover, and ended with the harvesting of wheat at Pentecost (meaning fifty days). This season spanned the two great stories of Judaism: Passover, freedom from bondage – physical freedom; and Pentecost, the giving of the Torah – spiritual freedom.
The “Holy Spirit” did not “descend” on anyone seven weeks after Jesus died.
Jesus had recognized and experienced “the Spirit of the Lord God” in his own life. He set himself to teach people how to recognize and experience its presence in their lives – in their everyday acts of kindness, generosity, forgiveness and courage.
When we gather to celebrate “Pentecost”, we celebrate the fact that the “Spirit of God” has always been with us personally, and with all people for all time. In a world with its mixture of joy and pain we celebrate the presence and power of that Spirit within everyone.
Inspired words
PSALM Margie
Somebody Told Me sung by Mina Greiss
composed by Dan McFadden
POST-CHORUS Lyrics
Maybe in time, thereʼll be love for all
Maybe in time, I wonʼt feel so small
La la la, lala la la la
La la la, lala la la
Reading Two Joanne
modified from Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese mysticist, early 1900s
“You can have flaws, be anxious and even be angry, but don’t forget that your life is the greatest business in the world. Only you can stop it from failure. You are appreciated, admired and loved by many. Remember that being happy is not having a sky without storms, a road without accidents, a job without effort, relationships without disappointments.
Being happy is to stop feeling a victim and become the author of your own destiny. It’s going through deserts, but being able to find an oasis deep in your soul. It’s to be thankful every morning for the miracle of life. It’s kissing your children, cuddling your parents, having poetic moments with your friends, even when they hurt us.
To be happy is to let live the creature that lives in each of us, free, joyful and simple. It’s having maturity to be able to say: “I made mistakes”. Having the courage to say “I’m sorry”. It’s having a sensitivity to say “I need you”. It’s having the ability to say “I love you”. May your life become a garden of opportunities for happiness… that in spring you can be a lover of joy and in winter a lover of wisdom.
And when you make a mistake, start over. Because only then will you fall in love with life. You will find that being happy doesn’t mean having a perfect life. Use your defeats to train your patience.
Use your mistakes with the serenity of the sculptor. Use pain to tune into pleasure. Use obstacles to open the windows of intelligence. Never give up … Above all, never give up on the people that love you. Never give up on happiness, because life is an amazing show. “
Inspired words
Psalm 2 Kathy
You Don’t Have to Believe in God by Chelan Harkin, from Let Us Dance
You don’t have to believe in God
but please collapse in wonder
as regularly as you can.
Try and let your knowledge
be side-stepped by awe
and let beauty be so persuasive
you find yourself willing
to lay your opinions at her feet.
Darling, you don’t have to believe in God,
but please pray
for your own sake
great prayers of thanks
for the mountains, the great rivers,
the roundness of the moon
just because they’re here at all
and that you get to know them
and let prayer bubble up in you
like song in a bird,
as a natural thing.
You don’t have to have
a spiritual path
but do run
the most sensitive
part of your soul
over the soft curves
of this world
with as much tenderness
as you can find in yourself
and let her edge-less ways
inspire you to want to discover more.
Just find a way
that makes you want to yield
yourself
that you may be more open
to letting beauty fully
into your arms
and feel some sacred spark
inside of you that yearns toward
learning how to build a bigger
fire of love in your heart.
You don’t have to believe in God
but get quiet enough to remember
we really don’t know a damn thing
about any of it
and you can feel a reverence to be part
of This Great Something,
whatever you want to call it,
that is so much bigger
and so far beyond
the rooftops of all
of our knowing.
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Peter & Kim
Voice 1: In Michael Morwood’s book In Memory of Jesus, Jesus said, “I’m just being true to that Spirit within me, the Spirit that is in everyone. Many people, however, do not see the connection between the Spirit within them and their courageous acts.”
Voice 2: And so we pray:
Voice 1: When we reflect on our good actions, on our everyday experience of being decent, caring, and sometimes even courageous, people…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the goodness we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: When we come face to face with the challenge of self-giving, when we are asked to go the extra mile, to take the risk of reaching out to another, to offer forgiveness to the heart that rejects us…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the love we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: When our world seems bleak, when we walk with sadness written on our soul, when we have days during which everything goes wrong…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the hope we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: When anxiety and concern take over our spirit, when restlessness or boredom holds sway over us, when our world cries out in distress and turmoil…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the peace we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: When harshness or abruptness dominates our moods, when we feel challenged by the power of another, when we use the things of this good earth without thought or gratitude…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the gentleness we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: As we walk on the edges of life and death, as we struggle with the disciplines of spiritual growth, as we yearn to be faithful amid the many changes of inner and outer growth, and struggle to believe in our own gifts and blessings…
Voice 2: May we recognize and name the wisdom we see in ourselves as the movement of our Divine Spirit.
Voice 1: For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all of those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and Ramp…
Voice 2: May they reflect on their good and caring actions and recognize and name the compassion in themselves as the movement of the Divine Spirit in them.
Voice 1: For what else shall we pray? May we recognize the presence of the Divine with a moment of reflection. (Allow up to 4 petitions)
Voice 2: As we begin to see the connection between our basic goodness and the Spirit of God in us, may we react as Jesus promised…with surprise and delight! Amen.
modified from Prayers for Our World, from May I Have This Dance?
An Invitation to Faithful Prayer Throughout the Year by Joyce Rupp
& In Memory of Jesus, by Michael Morwood
Sharing of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Rob
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink
Eucharistic Liturgy Mike & Geri
Celebrating the “Spirit” in Everyone by Michael Morwood,
From Prayer for Progressive Christians, pgs 185-188
P: We gather today mindful of a creative, energizing magnificence
at work in all:
– in the vastness of the universe,
– in the evolutionary development of life on earth,
– and in every breath we take.
Voice: In this Great Mystery we are one with everything and everyone.
P: We open our hearts and minds to this creative Presence,
this energizing Power in the depths of our own being,
knowing that we need not ask it to “Come”,
but rather
knowing it has always been here with us in life,
in being, in spirit, in love.
Voice: We gather in memory of Jesus
who knew this Presence in his own life,
who recognized its presence in the lives of others
and who urged his listeners to call upon this Presence within them
to transform a world of sorrow,
a world of pain,
into a world of joy,
a world of promise and hope.
P: Today we give thanks for the Jewish men and women
who took up the challenge of transforming their world,
who kept the dream of Jesus alive.
Voice: Building on the faith of those who knew and walked with Jesus,
those who faithfully and courageously
kept his dream alive, we gather here today
seeking, like them to deepen our awareness
that we, too, are bearers of the Spirit.
P: Like them, we commit ourselves
to give the energizing Spirit within us,
the most faithful and courageous expression that each of us can.
Voice: We give thanks for Jesus who opened eyes to see
ears to hear, minds to understand,
and hearts to expand
– in love
– in courage
– in hope
– in determination to create a better world.
P: As we gather once more around bread and wine
we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine
with his friends shortly before he died.
He invited them to eat and drink
as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive
to give their all for what he believed and taught.
Voice: We eat and drink today
signifying our willingness
to see what Jesus wanted us to see,
to hear what he wanted us to hear,
to understand what he wanted us to understand
to expand as he wanted us to expand.
P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
The Prayer of Jesus Colleen
O Holy One, who is within, around, and among us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits, and we let go. You support us in our power, and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.
Miriam Therese Winter
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we knew you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie
Love Is Around Us sung by Katie Pachnos
composed by Nancy Curry
Closing Prayer Mike
May our rejoicing in the Spirit this morning enable us to feel the sacred spark inside of each of us. May we commit ourselves to give that energizing Spirit the most faithful and courageous expression that each of us can.
And when we are true to our Spirits, may we be filled with joy, peace, and unconditional love. Amen.
Sending Forth Song Margie
Unconditional Love
Announcements
Resources
Look for the Good in Everyone by Jason Mraz
Teach Your children – Nash
Spirit Blowin Through Creation
Love
Dance Holy Spirit Betsey Beckman
OR
Here are 15 lessons from A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter:
1. Value your family and friends. They are the most important people in your life.
2. Be humble and compassionate. Treat everyone with respect, regardless of their social status or background.
3. Work hard and be persistent. Don’t be afraid to set ambitious goals and work hard to achieve them.
4. Be honest and ethical. Always do the right thing, even when it’s difficult.
5. Give back to your community. Use your time and resources to help others.
6. Be grateful for what you have. Don’t take your blessings for granted.
7. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is a part of life. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
8. Be forgiving. Forgive yourself and others for their mistakes.
9. Live in the present moment. Don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future.
10. Enjoy life. Find things that you’re passionate about and make time for them.
11. Be open to new experiences. Try new things and step outside of your comfort zone.
12. Be curious. Ask questions and learn from others.
13. Be courageous. Stand up for what you believe in, even when it’s unpopular.
14. Be hopeful. Believe in a better future for yourself and for the world.
15. Make a difference in the world. Use your talents and abilities to make a positive impact on the world around you.
7th Sunday Easter Cycle B – May 12, 2024
Theme: Ascension
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Introduction Maryann
One of the Lectionaries that could be used today, according to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website, is the Seventh Sunday of Easter – Ascension. Ascension means the act of rising to an important position or a higher level. Synonyms of ascension are Rise and Soar. As we participate in today’s liturgy, let’s contemplate how we are called to rise and soar to a higher level of living in and through the Divine.
Opening Song Maryann You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJxrX42WcjQ for music. Maryann has slide show
Lyrics
When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence
Until You come and sit awhile with me.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.
You raise me up to more than I can be.
Blessing of Water in Wisdom Bowl Spot Bill
Water Blessing by Earth Mama on Blessings of the Universe CD
slides – Bill has slides
Opening Prayer Mike
We gather today to once again be inspired to become more like the person of Jesus. Jesus was called Teacher and Rabbi by those who followed him. Indeed, Jesus continues to have much to teach us about living and loving. When we see Jesus as a human being rather than otherworldly, we can better incorporate his teachings into our lives.
We pray that we may be open to the challenge of accepting the ordinariness of human living and loving as sacred. We pray that in following the example of Jesus who called each of us to be neighbor to one another we may help transform the world one loving act of kindness at a time.
We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
Commentary Living Faith
ON ASCENSION DAY, AN ANTIDOTE TO AMERICAN CHRISTIAN EXCEPTIONALISM
BY SAMUEL SON
MAY 25, 2017
Imagine what would have happened had Jesus not left Earth.
Christianity likely would not have spread, for it was the belief that Christ was no longer on Earth that decentralized Christianity, challenging it to adopt and adapt to other lands and languages.
The first disciples claimed that Jesus vanished after 40 days of meeting with them. This inaugurated the first missionary movement in history. Prior to the early Christians, no adherents had left their land and language to convince foreigners of the universality of their faith. Religion was an ethnic expression. Every city had their patron God. No one felt the need to take their god to other cities except for safe travels,
This would have been the fate of Christianity, too, if not for Jesus’ ascension. Ascension took away the temptation of the first disciples to claim a central location and language. Lamin Sanneh, a professor of missions and world Christianity at Yale Divinity School, points out that Christianity adapted through multiple cultural and historical contexts because it was detached from a geographical center.
This rapid adaptation manifests in the Christian Scriptures. The Jewish Bible is mostly in Hebrew, the language of the Jewish patriarchs; the Quran was scripted in Arabic, Muhammed’s mother tongue. But the Gospels were written in Koine, (simple) Greek, though Jesus taught in Aramaic.
The original Scripture of Christ is a translation. The essence of Christianity is to be in constant translation.
It is the nature of any organization to centralize. Often this is done through connecting a land and/or a language it to its founder — the leader’s birth and burial places often become holy grounds requiring pilgrimage. This is an ingenious form of message control.
The Jewish people made a treacherous journey three times a year and Muslims are called to make pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, Muhammed’s birthplace and sites of ministry. Land and language are powerful cohesives for these religions.
But the strong affirmation of Christ’s absence kept the early church from centralizing around Jerusalem. Without the body of Jesus to create a memorial, no land or language could monopolize claim to sacredness. Ascension, in one sense, is an abdication of worldly authority. It is the empowerment of everyone, no matter their land and language.
Tim: The second and third readings are excerpts from the book In Memory of Jesus by Michael Morwood
This is a conversation between Jesus and his prison guard the night before Jesus died. While purely imaginary, it provides a context for Jesus to explain his life’s work and to state how he wished to be remembered.
The guard’s name is Tim.
Tim: “What did you say to people as you moved around.”
Jesus: “There were several points I mentioned almost everywhere I went. They all focus on the urgent need for us to take responsibility for bringing to life the heart and soul of our religion, which is to establish God’s reign on earth. There is nothing more important than this. What is to be the future of humanity? Is it to be what we experience all around us these days – oppression, domination, violence, fear and hopelessness? We are overwhelmed by all this and we think we can achieve little. Yet, our religion and our Covenant with God has always called us to be like the mustard seed or a light to the nations or a voice for the hopeless and the oppressed. We are called to reject injustice and to work for a better human society. We are never to give in to despair and to accept hopelessness as our lot. We cannot take on the Roman army, but we can ensure that our basic attitude to life is grounded in our Jewish faith and our care for one another and not in despair.
Jesus: “Almost always, my starting point was the need for my listeners to change the way they thought about God. Such a huge task! At times it seemed as if I was talking to the walls of the synagogue or to the grass beneath my feet. People are so deeply entrenched in images of God they have carried most of their lives. Unfortunately, our Scriptures carry some blame for that. People think of God as distant, as punisher, as judge, as not at all interested in them. Mostly I think they are fearful of God because sickness and pain are all around them, and they think this is all part of God’s judgment and punishment on them. Or they think that God wants them to bear hardships for some reason or other. People have been taught to believe that they are sinners, so they have no personal experience of our great religious commandment. How can you love the Lord God with all your heart and all your soul if you are fearful of God and have no personal experience of God loving you? That’s an enormous difficulty for people to overcome.”
Tim: “So, how did you try to help them overcome that difficulty?”
Jesus: “I often used images from nature. I told them to look at flowers and crops and fruit trees and what their beauty and the way they grow can tell us about God’s Spirit in the world around us. I wanted people to become aware that this same Spirit that we see active everywhere is in each of us. Whatever is in nature by way of beauty and growth and possibility is in every person. I wanted to open peoples’ eyes and minds to that reality. God’s Spirit of life and beauty and goodness is in everyone.”
Tim: “I hear what you are saying, but how do we know that it’s not just your pious thinking? How do we get beyond cynicism?”
Jesus: “Until people see the connection between what they do in their everyday lives and what they hear me saying, it might sound little more than pious words. People have to see and experience for themselves the connection between their everyday experience of being decent and kind and the activity of God’s Spirit in them. That’s the important point. I want them to recognize that when they are generous, considerate, and forgiving that they are allowing the Spirit of God to be expressed though their love and care.
Jesus: “Think of all the people you know personally. How many of them are evil people? Very few, if any, I would think. Most people are good and hard-working. They care for their families and they’re willing to help others. They try not to harm anyone. If they would only reflect on this reality in their own lives, on their own goodness, they would eventually make the connection I long for them to make. I want them to think, ‘Ah, our loving kindness to one another is an expression of God’s loving kindness’. Hopefully they would then be able to see a little deeper and come to realize that their many ways of expressing love give expression to the Lord’s Spirit within them. That’s the really crucial “Aha!” moment of awareness. It’s only then that people will learn to trust that the Lord’s Spirit in them can lead them to promote new possibilities for the creation of God’s kingdom among us.”
Psalm Bill
Nearer than the Air. By Michael Gott
It is like the air around me
Like the sunlight on my face
I feel the love of God surround me
I am touched by amazing grace
And all I ever wanted
And all I ever needed
Was already there
Closer than the sunlight
Nearer than the air
I breath in and I am filled with the Spirit
And it is health to my body
It is peace to my mind
It is joy to my soul
And I breathe out
A simple prayer of thank you
And my breath becomes a song
That was singing all along
That is singing everywhere
It is nearer than the air
3rd Reading V1: Tim V2: Jesus
Tim: “As I’m sitting here listening, I’m thinking this is wonderful and encouraging. Until you get to that last bit and I’m taken back to what I said earlier: Me? You’re asking the likes of me to promote these new possibilities for God’s kingdom when I am looking at you beaten half to death because of your new possibilities? Do you really expect someone like me to leave whatever comforts I have in life and follow your way of life when this is where it leads?”
Jesus: “My way of life? No, that’s not right. It’s not my way. It’s the Jewish way. If you think I’m wrong or am being too demanding just look at our Scriptures. You know we are called as a people to make God’s presence among us evident in all we do. Look around and ask yourself how well we are doing. Look around and ask are there no new possibilities at all for us to be more faithful to our calling to establish God’s kingdom of justice, compassion and peace. And stop thinking it’s the task of the temple establishment. This is a task in which every Jew must actively participate and in which they must have a voice.”
Tim: “If all you are doing is telling me and others I must be a better Jew, then why are you here in a prison cell?”
Jesus: “Religious leadership here in Jerusalem has too much vested interest in working with the Romans and in protecting wealthy business interests. What’s happened to me tonight is no different from what happened to any of the prophets who criticized our religious leadership for taking its eyes off justice and care for the weak. Our leaders don’t want to hear about or see anyone empowering people. They don’t want people to believe the Spirit in them can establish our Jewish dream of a society based on justice.”
Tim: “I’m trying to imagine what you thought you would achieve when you started to preach and tell your stories. Did you imagine you would see any great changes in your lifetime?”
Jesus: “I did, actually. I had this great dream. I knew I had an encouraging, uplifting message. I knew, too, that it was challenging, but I expected the good news about God’s presence among us would underpin a change of attitudes and actions in the people who heard me preach.”
Tim: “But what were you hoping for? Surely you didn’t expect to see a revolution against the temple priesthood or against the Romans?”
Jesus: “Not exactly a revolution, but a movement in which people came to believe that what I was preaching could set a course for social and religious change in the future. I desperately wanted people to believe what I was telling them about themselves and about God.”
Tim: ”And that dream died?”
Jesus: ”Yes. The dream has died, and I feel brokenhearted about it.”
Tim: “Was there a particular moment when you realized your dream would never be realized?”
Jesus: “Yes, when I heard of John’s death.”
Tim: “Why should John’s death have affected you so deeply? Violence is so commonplace. You must be used to it, surely.”
Jesus: “I had always felt a deep connection with John, even though our preaching was different in some ways. We were both trying to change the way things are, in God’s name. On hearing of John’s senseless and brutal death I felt an enormous sense of powerlessness to change anything. I had already realized that I was not getting through to people the way I had dreamed of doing, and I sensed that time was running out for me. I felt tired and alone. And I wondered whether I would be next in line to be murdered.”
Tim: “If you thought that, why on earth did you come here to Jerusalem and cause such a disturbance? Why didn’t you stay in Galilee and continue your preaching and healing where you could be much safer?”
Jesus: “That’s the issue I wrestled with in prayer. Why continue? Why not just retreat back home? Perhaps I should stop preaching altogether? I decided I couldn’t back away from everything I had preached. How could I tell people to trust God in tough times, and then retreat when trouble loomed in my own life? If I really believed what I preached, then integrity demanded I stand by my words and demonstrate it.
Jesus: “I also decided that I would not let my life end the way John’s had, dragged off to prison and killed at the whim of a despot. No, I decided I would make a statement with my death. I would stand up and be counted, and people would know I was ready to die for what I believed and preached. So I came to Jerusalem.
Jesus: “I’m just being true to that Spirit within me, the Spirit that is in everyone. Many people, however, do not see the connection between the Spirit within them and their courageous acts.
Jesus: “I urge you to start reflecting on your everyday experience of being a decent and caring man. Recognize and name the goodness you see in yourself as the movement of God’s Spirit in you. The Spirit is there. It’s just that you fail to see the connection between your basic goodness and the Spirit of God in you. It’s simple really.”
Tim: “Or maybe you are just being simplistic and misguided.”
Jesus: “Try doing it for yourself and then decide whether I am misguided or not. But you have to try it. I believe you’ll be surprised and delighted by what you find. Just reflect on your good actions and start to connect and identify those actions with the presence of God’s Spirit in you. Will you do that whenever you recall this night?”
Tim: “I will consider doing so. I can’t promise more than that… Another question…do you think you are God’s promised Messiah?”
Jesus: “No, no, no. That is not who I am. I’m simply the human face of God’s Spirit. I am no different from you or anyone else in that. We’re all called to be the human face of God in the world. My dream about the kingdom of God includes everyone and challenges everyone to participate. I want nothing to do with a political, religious institution that would set itself up as uniquely belonging to God.”
Tim: “I must ask one more question, then. What of Judaism? What is our future as God’s chosen people?”
Jesus: “There is no one way for people to honor God. There is only one great commandment that everyone should embrace. All Jews know it. Judaism must be a light to the world. It must attract people by its God-consciousness, by its care for everyone and by its concern for justice. However, Judaism, like any other religion, must grow beyond exclusive claims of intimacy with or knowledge of God. The Spirit of God is everywhere and cannot be contained within one group, sect or religion. The Spirit is evident in everyone who loves and cares and tries to be neighbor. All religions should espouse this belief and use it to challenge their followers to embody this Spirit in the way they treat others. Religions must respect everyone as a child of God.”
Tim: “I must go now. I may never see you again. I’m so sorry for what is happening to you here. But I want you to know that my family and I will never, never forget you.”
Jesus: “Thank you, Tim. And please, remember my teaching. Please do that.”
Inspired words
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People ????
There will be a moment of silence after each petition.
May the Divine within bring you to live…
from deep in your heart where the Divine’s Spirit dwells.
May the Divine within bring you to discomfort ….
at easy answers, hard hearts,
half-truths ,and superficial relationships.
May the Divine within bring you to work…
for justice, freedom, and peace.
May the Divine within bring you to anger…
at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people.
May the Divine within bring you to tears…
shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war.
May the Divine within bring you to reach out your hand…
to comfort others and turn their pain into joy.
May the Divine within bring you to enough foolishness ….
to believe that you can make a difference in this world, in your neighbourhood, so that you will courageously try what you don’t think you can do, but find, in Jesus, that you’ll have all the strength necessary.
May the Divine within bring you to fearlessly speak out…
about injustice, unjust laws, corrupt politicians,
unjust and cruel treatment of prisoners,
and senseless wars, genocides, starvations,
and poverty that is so pervasive.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… we respond,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
May the Divine within bring us to remember…
that we are all called to continue the resurrection work of love and healing,
in and through Jesus’s name, in Jesus’s Spirit,
continually creating and breathing new life and grace into everything and everyone we touch.
We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine ???
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & ???
| P. We gather at Easter mindful of the seasons of life, the seasons of our own lives and the seasons of Jesus’ life. | Voice: We seek the grace to “love the life within” as passionately as Jesus did and wanted his followers to do. |
| P: We seek the grace to know that we are a “part of everything” as Jesus and so many other people throughout the ages truly knew they were and would want us to know that we are. | Voice: And now, mindful of the changing seasons of our own lives we give thanks: for the Summers, those times in life… – when the morning came in singing – when flowers opened up to gather the sunshine – when we were full of life and glad to be alive. |
| P: We give thanks for the Autumns, those times in life… – when we had to let go – when we had to trust – when life took on different colors. | Voice: We give thanks for the Winters, those times in life – that seemed bleak and uncertain – when we pushed on and faced life – when we longed to see the summer sun again – when we held on to hope and promise. |
| P: And we give thanks for the Spring times in our lives – when we opened our eyes to see brand new days – when we opened our minds to new light – when we felt reborn – and loved life all around us. | Voice: Today we remember and give thanks for Jesus and the seasons of his life – when he was full of hope and possibilities – when life took him into unknown territory – when life tested him to the limit – when, in the depths of his Winter, he believed Spring would come. |
| P: This Easter season, we rejoice that his life and all that he lived for all that he believed and taught leads us to see beyond death and darkness and to believe in transformation beyond our imagining. | Voice: In his memory, We gather once more around bread and wine symbols of nourishment of hospitality of friendship and of commitment. |
| P: We share this bread and wine today committing ourselves to be Easter people, people who see beyond the barriers, the pain, the darkness and the hard times, people who live in faith, hope and love in all the seasons of our lives whatever the ups and downs. | Voice: As we gather once more around bread and wine we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine with his friends shortly before he died. He invited them to eat and drink as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive to give their all for what he believed and taught. (Pause for reflection) |
| P: We open our eyes, we open our ears, we open our hands, we open our minds, we open our hearts. | Voice: We pray for one another: May you love the life within you, may you love the life around you, and may you know that a part of everything here is in you. A part of everything is here in you. |
| P: We pray for ourselves: May I love the life within me, may I love the life around me and may I know that a part of everything is here in me a part of everything is here in me. | Voice: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Easter The Seasons of Life by Michael Morwood, Prayers for Progressive Christians 2018
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) ???
Our Father, Holy Mother,
Creator of the Cosmos, Source of Life,
You are in my mind, in my garden, in my cup of wine and loaf of bread. Blessed be your names:
Mother, Allah, Goddess, Beloved, Great Spirit, Radiant One, Yahweh, HaShem, Sophia
Your presence has come, your will is done on earth as it is in the cosmos.
May we give each other strength, mercy, tenderness, and joy,
and forgive each other’s failures, silence, pettiness, and forgetfulness,
as we ask to be forgiven by those we’ve hurt. Lead us home to ourselves and each other, to clarity, to oneness,
and deliver us from the darkness of our ignorance and fear.
So we pray and so we receive.
Amen
From There Are Burning Bushes Everywhere by Jan Phillips, p. 36.
Prior to the Breaking of the Bread Mike
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
Closing Prayer Mike
Like Jesus, may we stand as a sign and a witness to the powers of government and religion and now corporate structures to challenge them with the simple message of love exhibited in the traits of empathy, humility, gratitude, discernment, reflection, and meditation. While this is often assertive; it is never aggressive and is ideally non-violent.
We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen
Sending Forth Song Bill
“Up Where We Belong + Joe Cocker / Jennifer Warnes + Lyrics / HD” on YouTube
Lyrics
Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world few hearts survive
All I know is the way I feel
When it’s real, I keep it alive
The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb a step every day
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world below
Up where the clear winds blow
Some hang on to used to be
Live their lives looking behind
All we have is here and now
All our lives, out there to find
The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb a step every day
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Where the clear winds blow
Time goes by
No time to cry
Life’s you and I
Alive today
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Where the clear winds blow
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Announcements
6th Sunday in the Easter Season – Cycle B
Reflecting on the Documentary God and Country
May 4-5, 2024
We Pray for Others Mike
Opening Song Marie
Join with Spirit
Join with the Spirit;
join with the Spirit, rising;
join with the Spirit;
She will empower our rising.
See those women’s rights denied,
She will empower our rising,
by leaders who have often lied;
She will empower our rising.
See the immigrants abused,
She will empower our rising,
their basic human rights refused;
She will empower our rising. Refrain
Work for racial justice now;
She will empower our rising;
all those oppressed will show us how;
She will empower our rising.
We will hold each other fast;
She will empower our rising;
some day we will be free at last;
She will empower our rising. Refrain
Words © 2017 Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Blessing of Water in Wisdom Bowl Spot Marie
Water Blessing by Earth Mama on Blessings of the Universe CD
I say a prayer for the water
O, bless the water
As it Graces in and out of me
And it Blesses in and out of everything.
O, bless the water.
Bless, bless the water. X 2
Joyce Johnson Rouse ©2007 Rouse House Music (ASCAP)
Opening Prayer Mike
In a country divided by very different visions for our nation’s future, may we have both wisdom and strength to commit to doing our part to work for unity. We believe in the power of love. We strive to be open, understanding and compassionate to those who think differently about the future of our country. May the Spirit guide and inspire us to lovingly break down the barriers of division among us.
Amen.
First Reading Kathy
From The Power Worshippers
In the first decades of his career, Falwell practiced segregation even in religion. In the early 1960’s, when Black high school students attempted to pray at the Thomas Road Church, they were ejected by the police. When Falwell went on to set up a Christian academy, he made sure it stayed just as white as his church. He attracted national attention with a 1965 sermon impugning “the sincerity and nonviolent intention of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King” and – with imminence irony, in retrospect – arguing that ministers had no business getting involved in politics. He suggested that the faithful should concentrate their reform ambitions on alcoholism rather than civil rights, since “there are almost as many alcoholics as there are Negroes.”
Bob Jones Sr., founder of the college that later became Bob Jones University, was an especially ardent segregationist, and he centered his defense of segregation clearly in his religion. In an April 17, 1960, radio address, “Is Segregation Scriptural?” he declared “God’s is the author of segregation” and called the practice “God’s established order.” He referred to de-segregationists as “Satanic propagandists” and “religious infidels” who are “leading colored Christians astray” with their “Communistic agitation to overthrow the established order of God.”
As it is written.
The Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart, Inventing Abortion, p 61.
Psalm Spot Marie
Help in Hard Times – by Carrie Newcomer
I am learning to walk with grace in the dark
I am learning to trust and to lead with my heart
When the old moon is gone into silence and sighs
It’s the one and only time a new moon can rise
Sometimes there is no reason the moon waxes and wanes
It was the hundred year flood and you were in the way
Some things we find in daylight and we’re grateful to know
Some things we only learned where we did not want to go
I can’t tell you it will all turn out fine
But I know is there’s help in hard times
Bruised and bewildered I am looking out the door
Unsure of how to do what I’ve never done before
But I am not alone with my questions and my fears
When the old moon is done the new moon appears
I’m inspired and troubled by the stories I have heard
In the blue light of evening all boundaries get blurred
And I believe in something better and that love’s the final word
And that there’s still something whole and sacred in this world
I can’t tell you it will all turn out fine
But I know there’s help in hard times
Sure it could all be just fine
But I know there is help in hard times
All I know is there’s help in hard times
All I know is there’s help in hard times
Second Reading Peter
From The Power Worshippers
The biggest lie in Barton’s first stab at history is what he takes to be its biggest truth. Once upon a time, in his telling, America was united around a common religion that served as the foundation of the republic – until secularists commandeered the Supreme Court and ruined everything. The reality is that America was a pluralistic land from the beginning and the United States was founded as a secular republic. Thomas Jefferson said it best when he pointed to the First Amendment and said with awe that it erected “a wall of separation between Church and State.” It is why he declared, in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, “that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” This is why the Treaty of Tripoli of 1798, endorsed by John Adams and other members of America’s founding generation, declared explicitly (and uncontroversially) that “the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
The next big lie in Barton’s history is about American education. In his telling, American schools were all about God until the Supreme Court decided to throw American heritage to the secular winds. In reality, Massachusetts passed the first law prohibiting the use or purchase of school books “which are calculated to favor any particular religious sect or tenet” in 1827, and in 1837, Horace Mann, often hailed as “the father of American public education,” declared that public schools should be nonsectarian – meaning that schools should restrict religious teachings to commonly shared Protestant values, which he, a Unitarian, regarded as universal and believed could be taught without offending any sectarian sensibilities.
In the middle decades of the nineteenth century an influx of immigrants from Catholic countries sparked bitter and bloody conflicts over religion and public schools in Boston, Maine, Ohio and elsewhere. At the time, public school textbooks were filled with anti-Catholic tropes, and Protestant nativists sought to exclude Catholic teachings and texts from the schools. Catholic parents and religious leaders, naturally reluctant to have their children inculcated in undermining stereotypes, asked, in vain, for a share of tax money for their own school systems. In the early 1840’s, the growing Catholic immigrant community began to pressure school officials to allow their children to read from their Bible, the Douay-Rheims translation, at school.
The conflict took a violent turn in Philadelphia in 1844, when Protestants and Catholics hit the streets for two separate weeks of rioting; when it was over, at least twenty-five residents of the City of Brotherly Love were dead. This episode and others persuaded much of the American public of the inequity and unsustainability of public school-sponsored religion in a diverse society. “Leave the matter of religion to the family circle, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions,” said President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875, “Keep the church and state forever separate.”
Inspired words.
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Tom and Joanne
We are grateful to be members of a discipleship of equals faith community committed to both mercy and social justice. Very concerned about the future of our country, today we pray petitions for all living in the United States now and in the future.
The response to each petition will be a moment of silence.
May all elected leaders of our country at every level have the strength and courage to be faithful to the Rule of Law.
May citizens who value democracy recognize the importance of voting. May they find ways to support others in registering to vote; and may they assist neighbors who may need transportation to the polls on election day.
May we find ways to engage friends, relatives and neighbors in interactive conversations where all can share their visions for the future of our country.
May we make opportunities to share our lived experiences with voting with young adult Americans in an effort to help them understand the present threats to democracy in the United States and the power of each one’s vote.
May American Christian Nationalists be open to a change of heart and mind about the future of the United States.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, for our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus…we pray…
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray with confidence that these petitions and those unspoken concerns and needs deep within each of us will be heard and answered with loving compassion. Amen.
Sharing Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Linda
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & Geri
P: We recall times in our lives when we were called to
“right the unrightable wrong”,
“to run where the brave dare not go”;
times that brought us “unbearable sorrow”.
Geri: We remember our efforts, our anguish, our success, our failure,
as we strode toward “this glorious quest”.
P: We remember our willingness to keep on trying when our “arms were too weary”, the times that called for our “last ounce of courage”.
Geri: As we reflect on those moments, we wonder
at our perseverance, our courage, our capacity “to be true” to the cause.
P: May our wonder lead us to recognize
that the very same Power at work in the universe is at work in us
when we are willing to “die” in order for something better to emerge,
when we bond with others to cooperate and to risk ourselves in the service of others.
Geri: We acknowledge the presence of this Power within us –
awesome beyond words capable of achieving within and through us
more than we dare ask or imagine.
P: The Power and energy revealed in our courage and steadfast goodness
enables us to transcend ourselves in the pursuit of right.
Maryann:
Let us listen to how Jesus’ followers interpreted his stance on the cost of discipleship.
A reading from the Gospel of Matthew:
You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on the right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you.
You have heard that it was said, you must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you, so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.
Matthew 5:38-48
Geri: We honor Jesus and countless men and women
who have been willing “to march into Hell for a heavenly cause”,
believing, trusting that “the world would be better” for their efforts.
We give thanks for their capacity to endure extraordinary opposition
in their efforts to make the world a better place.
P: As we gather around the words of Jesus,
we pray that our hearts and minds be open
that we truly be neighbor to all
that our love be inclusive and expansive
as “complete” as love can be in us.
Geri: Led by the Power within and among us,
we eat bread and drink wine mindful of Jesus’ commitment
to the task he set himself and mindful of our baptism into his story,
a story that calls us to similar wholehearted action.
The Cost by Michael Morwood,
Prayers for Progressive Christians, pages 124-127.
P: We pray for one another:
May you love the life within you, may you love the life around you,
and may you know that a part of everything is here in you.
Geri: We pray for ourselves:
May I love the life within me,
may I love the life around me
and may I know that a part of everything is here in me.
P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
Easter The Seasons of Life by Michael Morwood,
Prayers for Progressive Christians, page 174
Prayer of Jesus Tom Schaller
Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
May the hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
May the way of social justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
May the commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and become a reality everywhere on earth.
With the bread we need for today, may we be fed and may we feed those who are hungry today.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, may be find forgiveness.
In times of temptation and test, may we be strengthened.
From trials too great to endure, may we be spared.
From the grip of all that is evil, may we and all on this earth be spared.
Amen.
– An adaptation of The New Zealand Anglican Lord’s Prayer
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Meditation Song Marie
Our Love Goes Out by Jan Novatka
We are here as one, offering ourselves in love for our world.
Together we live, and together we give our love for the world.
Hand in hand we go, heart to heart! And our love goes out to all!
(repeat once)
Gratitude and joy wells up inside for the life that we share.
In communion we live, finding strength, sharing life.
We are one. We are love.
Hand in hand we go, heart to heart! And our love goes out to all!
Hand in hand we go, heart to heart! And our love goes out
and our loves out, and our love goes out to all.
Closing Prayer Mike
I offer you peace.
I offer you love.
I offer you friendship.
I see your beauty.
I hear your need.
I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the Highest Source.
I salute that Source in you.
Let us work together for unity and love.
To whom are you challenged to offer these words?
Gandhi Prayer for Peace
Closing Song Marie
God Bless America
Announcements
Easter Vigil Liturgy March 30, 2024
Recording of the video started late.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16FZU69sjYoOB1pe6BpHvRbgzbuN5cHuy/view?usp=sharing
Welcome Mike
Presider: Before we begin liturgy, please have a candle, an instrument to light it, and a glass of water near you.
Presider:
Tonight, we have spiritual work to do, and we have to do it together. We will tell the cosmic story, and we will create our own resurrection story. To be a storyteller is to be in touch with a liberating process, for stories catalyze the creative imagination to dream alternative ways to do things. To create is to participate in the Creator’s own work and imagination that gives shape to the universe. We will tell the story and imagine the story and, hopefully, come to know more deeply that we are that story. Our very bonds come from stardust, our lives from the energy of the universe.
Presider:
In the beginning, the Mystery, God, alone, surrounded by infinite darkness, emptiness, Silence.
Pause in Silence
Wisdom Bowl Mike
Reader 1 Kim M
And out of the Divine came,
“Let there be light.”
And the Divine invited the silence into the creation of sound:
Opened the darkness into the image of light;
Stirred the infinite density of emptiness
Into a blaze of energy so full and rich
that the whole Universe burst forth…
Creating Space…all that ever was
And Time…all that is
And Matter…all that ever will be
From the first quarks and electrons to the songs we sing this night.
Reader 2 Mary Lynn
And there was order and relationship to the glistening, pulsing chaos
Of the expanding new World:
Four fundamental forces to color and flavor the quarks;
To poise them in the nuclei of atoms;
To harmonize the swirling and churning of galaxies
About to give birth to the stars.
Light, in the form of trillions of newborn photons,
And heat, a billion degrees, immeasurable,
And energy, pure potential, yet without form.
…This was the Divine’s creation, 14 billion years ago…
Light out of darkness…the first day.
ACTION: People light a candle at home while a photo of an Easter Fire is displayed
Song: Mike has an image to show and he will play the song
Sacred Fire by Jan Novotka on Melodies of the Universe2.31 minutes
Sacred Fire, burning before me;
burning within me; deep in my soul!
Sacred Fire, transforming Fire,
recreate me, Make me whole.
Melodies of the Universe CD ©1994 by Jan Novotka’s Music LLC (ASCAP). All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer Mike
Augustine prayed these words, “Our hearts are restless until they
rest in you”. Augustine’s desire for oneness with the Divine has
been echoed by all of creation. We now know that we are one with the Divine. In that presence, we continually evolve into something new. This evolving means that there must be an ongoing process of end, destruction and new creation. This is the story of Easter. It is the story of letting go of the past; a story that is ever changing and ever new. We pray that we may purge ourselves of limiting beliefs, that we may transcend into something new.
May we experience oneness this time with all that is.
May we radiate love, act in peace and stand for justice.
May we always remember that we come from the Divine.
May we always remember that we are carriers of Divine life in all our comings and goings – even in every breath we breathe.
May we always remember where we come from and where we are going. Amen!
Creation Story
Video: Where Do We Go from Here? Jan Phillips Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu-rYCQEmbM / 13 minutes
Reading Peter
Easter: Personal and Political Transformation from The Last Week by Borg and Crosson
Easter without Good Friday risks being sentimental and vacuous. It becomes a simple affirmation that spring follows winter, life follows death, flowers bloom again, and it is time for bonnets and bunnies. But Easter is the reversal of Good Friday. Easter is the vindication of Jesus’ passion for the kindom, for God’s justice a. Easter is God’s “no” to the powers who killed Jesus, powers still active in our world.
As the climax of Holy Week and the story of Jesus, Good Friday and Easter address the fundamental human question; What ails us? Most of us feel the force of this question—something is not right. So, what ails us? Perhaps, we need and must seek both personal and political transformation.
A central theme of Christian thought about the human condition is to try and not be centered in the self and its anxieties and preoccupations, what is sometimes called the “small self.” The path of Jesus offers a rebirth of the self, of rising to the moment, of being transformed.
Beyond this personal promise of Easter, there is the political meaning of Jesus tussling with earthly powers and priorities and imagining a world of truth and justice. Jesus’ passion was the kindom of God in which everyone has enough and systems are fair to all.
Inspired Words
Gospel Acclamation Slide show ITunes Mike
Halle, Halle by Marty Haugen from the Apage – The Stories and the Feast CD / 1.29 minutes [in memory of Jeanne Nicholls]
Halle, halle, hallelujah! Halle, halle, hallelujah!
Halle, halle, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! X 2 times
Halle, halle, hallelujah! Halle, halle, hallelujah!
Halle, halle, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! X 3 times
Gospel Mike
You Shall Be My Witnesses by Miriam Therese Winter on Woman Song / 3 minutes
Use PowerPoint from 15th Anniversary Communion Song
Refrain
You shall be my witnesses through all the earth, telling of all you have heard and received, for I arose and am with you and you have believed.
Women at the tomb, weeping for the dead:
He is not here, he has risen as he said.
They ran to tell those who were in authority.
The men dismissed the news as idle fantasy. Refrain
Magdalene at the tomb: Whom do you seek?
Her eyes were opened when she heard him speak.
His love for every woman shown upon his face.
The hopes of every age were held in their embrace. Refrain
Women, leave your tombs. Roll the stones aside.
Do not despair, though so many dreams have died.
Do not be fearful of the vision that you see.
Believe in miracles again. Believe in me. Refrain
Homily Mike
Renewal of Beliefs by Michael Morwood Mike & Linda S
P: In Nature we see superb aspects of transformation: in supernovas exploding and in their dying giving birth to new possibilities: in the sun giving of itself that we might have life; in seeds “dying” to produce new life. We know that several times in the history of this planet more species than existing were extinguished. There has been death, destruction, apparent annihilation, and then “resurrection” producing abundant life. Life is somehow stronger than death. Life finds a way.
Voice: Death for Jesus was, as it will be for us, a dying into the Divine: a transformation into a way of existence for which we have no images and no clear idea of how it may happen.
P: Our understanding of Jesus’ resurrection must be freed from dualistic images in which Scripture and traditional Christian teaching have presented it. The Divine does not reside somewhere else, in a place called “heaven” that is above us somewhere. In fact, there is no up or down any more when we consider our planet’s place in the universe.
Voice: Death for us will not be a journey to some other place where the Divine is located; there will not be a judgment as to whether we “get into” an elsewhere place.
Voice: We proclaim and celebrate Easter because it links Jesus with all life, with transformation, and with the possibility of life beyond our imagining. Easter offers meaning and hope to all people. We give thanks and rejoice that Jesus so clearly and courageously linked our loving and our dying with living on in the Divine. We rejoice that Jesus lives on, as we all will, in the Divine. Amen!
Blessing of Water Mike
Water Blessing by Earth Mama on Blessings of the Universe CD
I say a prayer for the water
O, bless the water
As it Graces in and out of me
And it Blesses in and out of everything.
O, bless the water.
Bless, bless the water. X 2
Joyce Johnson Rouse ©2007 Rouse House Music (ASCAP)
Drinking of Water Mike
Please take a drink of the blessed water and allow it to wash you anew and refresh you on the inside.
Prayer of the People Mary Lynn and Teri
ARISE IN ME
When we come face to face with the challenge of self-giving, when we are asked to go the extra mile, to take the risk of reaching out to another, to offer forgiveness to the heart that rejects us…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine love.
When our world seems bleak, when we walk with sadness written on our soul, when we have days during which everything goes wrong…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine joy.
When anxiety and concern take over our spirit, when restlessness or boredom holds sway over us, when our world cries out in distress and turmoil…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine peace.
On those days when we hurry too much, during those times when our anger flares because our pet agendas aren’t met, when we stop giving people our acceptance and understanding…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine kindness.
As we face the shadow of our inner world or peer into the darkness of our outer world, as we struggle to believe in our own gifts and blessings…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine goodness.
In those difficult times when fear threatens to drown our trust in you, during those experiences of growth when we are tempted to doubt all the ways we have known you…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine trust.
As we walk on the edges of life and death, as we struggle with the disciplines of spiritual growth, as we yearn to be faithful amid the many changes of inner and outer growth…
Second Voice: Arise in us with the energy of Divine guidance.
Our hearts are stirred by the Divine. The Divine in us gets us going. Because of this, we do not give up. May we always open our minds and our hearts to experience energizing, transforming radiance. May we always be open to the promptings of the Divine moving freely in our lives. May we trust the powerful presence of the Divine within us at every moment of our lives. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & Margaret
P: We marvel at our cosmic story and all that reveals the Divine Presence: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this our home, the fragile planet earth.
Voice: From the primal elements came forth the human race, blessed with memory, reason, and skill. We are indeed the stewards of creation.
P: As we recall the great events that gave us new life, the image of Jesus is brought to perfection within each of us.
Voice: We acknowledge that the Divine has woven the fabric of the universe. All creation has been invited to robe itself in the love poured out from the source of never-ending abundance.
P: We honor the ones who have revealed the Divine ways to us until now we can recognize them for ourselves. We are grateful for the courage and fidelity of all those sent to prepare a path for us to follow – the holy women and men of every age and culture.
Voice: We proclaim and celebrate Easter because it links Jesus with all life, with transformation, and with the possibility of life beyond our imagining.
P: We especially are grateful for Jesus who came to us as bread for our journey. He is the Way. Whenever we celebrate this meal we recommit ourselves to follow his example. In this, we seek new opportunities to be the followers of Jesus in all our interactions and relationships. It is in Jesus that God revealed the love that is the human family.
Voice: We give thanks for the spirit of life and love among us.
We are grateful that the Spirit sets us free to discover the Divine’s presence within us and in our world. We recognize the Spirit is with us now for all is holy.
P: As we gather once more around bread and wine
we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine
with his friends shortly before he died.
He invited them to eat and drink
as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive
to give their all for what he believed and taught.
Voice: And so, as we take our place in this moment on the stage of human history, we share this bread as our pledge of openness to the Spirit in our midst and in acknowledgment of our eternal connectedness with the Spirit of Life.
P: We share this wine mindful of a relationship of love and trust between ourselves and the Spirit of Life, believing, as Jesus believed, that beyond pain and darkness and death, life in the Spirit continues in ways beyond our imagining.
Voice: May we recognize the reality of Jesus present among us. May we take courage and find power to exult in our great mystery as people on a journey. May we live gently and gratefully upon this planet and upon the pathway you have chosen for us.
P: Easter offers meaning and hope to all people. We pray for all who are sick, may wholeness and healing be theirs. We pray for those who have died. May they be in peace.
Voice: We pray that the Spirit come upon our church and political leaders, so that they might act in truth. May they make the necessary changes to become peacemakers, to transform the church, and to protect the world. May they be moved to bring justice to all.
P: May the life and teaching of Jesus motivate us in all that we do, so that we may be living signs of his living and loving.
We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move freely in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
Prayer of Jesus Margaret
O Divine Birther of all that is – from the smallest particle to the vastness of the cosmos, you are present. Holy are your infinite names chanted, sung or whispered.
Abba, Beloved, Divine Breath, Great Mystery, Sophia
May we walk in peace, speak with tenderness, touch with compassion, and love unconditionally. With gratitude for the abundance we’ve been given, may we always share with any who hunger or are in need. May we be filled with humility and regret for the times we did not reflect your love. May we always offer forgiveness to those whose words or actions have caused us pain. May we understand our individual purpose and seek to fulfill it without distraction.
We pray what we believe and believe what we pray. Amen.
By Colleen Walsh White 2020
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Mike
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Alleluia.
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song ITunes Slide Show Bill
Shimmering Presence by Jan Novotka on Awakening Consciousness / 5.29 minutes
©2006 by Jan Novotka’s Music LLC (ASCAP). All rights reserved.
Closing Prayer Grace
The Sharing by Edwina Gately
We told our stories— that’s all. We sat and listened to each other and heard the journeys of each soul. We sat in silence entering each one’s pain and sharing each one’s joy. We heard love’s longing and the lonely reachings-out for love and affirmation. We heard of dreams shattered. And visions fled. Of hopes and laughter turned stale and dark. We felt the pain of isolation and the bitterness of death.
But in each brave and lonely story God’s gentle life broke through and we heard music in the darkness and smelled flowers in the void.
We felt the budding of creation in the searchings of each soul and discerned the beauty of God’s hand in each muddy, twisted path.
And His voice sang in each story. His life sprang from each death. Our sharing became one story of a simple lonely search for life and hope and oneness in a world which sobs for love. And we knew that in our sharing, God’s voice, with mighty breath, was saying “Love each other and take each other’s hand.”
For you are one though many and in each of you I live.
So listen to my story and share my pain and death.
Oh, listen to my story and rise and live with me.
Sending Forth Song Bill
All You Works of God Marty Haugen Tales of Wonder 1990
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday March 24, 2024
We pray for those in need Mike
Introduction by the Presider Mike
We gather today to recall the last week of Jesus of Nazareth. We remember all that he taught us about the Divine being in and with us, especially when we care and love one another.
We give thanks for his courage – he never gave up believing what he taught, even when people were cruel to him.
As we mark the joyful entry into Jerusalem, let us remember that when we follow Jesus, our lives will have its ups and downs. We will have our Palm Sundays and Good Fridays as well as our Easters.
Blessing of Palms Sue B
This blessing
can be heard coming
from a long way off.
This blessing
is making
its steady way
up the road
toward you.
This blessing
blooms in the throats
of women,
springs from the hearts
of men,
tumbles out of the mouths
of children.
This blessing
is stitched into
the seams
of the cloaks
that line the road,
etched into
the branches
that trace the path,
echoes in
the breathing
of the willing colt,
the click of the donkey’s hoof
against the stones.
Something is rising
beneath this blessing.
Something will try
to drown it out.
But this blessing
cannot be turned back,
cannot be made
to still its voice,
cannot cease
to sing its praise
of the One who comes
along the way
it makes.
Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace – A Book of Blessings for the Seasons, pages 123-124
Reflection on the Gospel of the Palm Blessing Judy L
Palm Sunday: What “following Jesus” really means by Michael Morwood,
from Prayers for Progressive Christians
We need to be discerning about the Gospel accounts of Palm Sunday. We need to discern what most likely never happened, what could have happened, and what didn’t happen. This reflection highlights the latter.
The historical event was that a prophetic Jewish teacher with a message about the need for religious and social reform here and now, went to Jerusalem willing to take a stand for his beliefs whatever the consequences.
This is a very Jewish story.
Decades after Jesus died, a different story about that event arose; a story about the triumphant “Christ” entering Jerusalem, the Savior of the world who would die for our sins and gain access to God’s heavenly dwelling place.
This is a very non-Jewish story.
In its celebration of Palm Sunday, Christianity opted for the “Christ” story rather than the story about a man and his reason for going to Jerusalem. As “story” we can readily enter into the “Christ” story and be moved by its themes of recognition, joy, celebration, welcome, hope, discipleship, fickleness, and recognize the contrast with Pilate’s ostentatious entrance into the city.
However, a danger lies in traditional emphasis on this story. The danger lies in not being challenged enough by Jesus’ radical preaching, in mistaking what he really died for, in being too comfortable with a glorious Savior figure who “saves” the world. The danger is all too evident in some supposedly Christian countries where greed, profit, bullying, oppressing the powerless and ravaging the earth flow from political and economic systems that Jesus would denounce.
Palm Sunday invites us to consider what calling oneself “Christian” or a follower of Jesus is really about. Let’s wave our palm branches for the right reason.
Inspired words
Presider: Let us follow Jesus into Jerusalem, singing in praise and petition, yet truly understanding his message and being willing to take a stand with him for his beliefs. May our song of “Hosanna” or “Save us” be raised with an appreciation that ours are the hearts and minds, the arms and legs, through which we save ourselves and each other.
Song: Hosanna by Marty Haugen on the CD Song of Mark / 3.08 minutes Margie
HOSANNA (Mark 11:1-33)
CHILDREN/CHOIR: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.
CHILDREN: Blessed is the one, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Praise be to you, O son of David, blessed your Reign shall be!
ALL: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
MASK I: How can you speak? Where is your authority? How can you string these people along?
MASK II: If you should seek to forge a majority, you may find out how prophets go wrong.
ALL: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
CHOIR: O who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Only those with a clean and a true heart. Lift up your heads, O gates, fling wide every door to welcome in the King of Glory.
ALL: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
MASK III: You should take care what you will say to them. If there’s disorder, you will soon pay.
JESUS: You should beware, cheating and using them. God will avenge them, soon is the day.
ALL: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!
Opening Prayer Mike
We acknowledge the presence of God,
here on earth, here in each other,
present now in every moment and every being.
We pray that we and all people
will hear the message of Jesus
and live our lives in such a way
that what Jesus did not see in his lifetime
might be seen in our lifetime –
people trusting the power of love and generosity
more than the power of greed and selfishness.
Like Jesus, we want to be strong in standing up
for what we believe to be true and good.
We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Reading Peter
Isaiah 50:4-7
Our God has given me a well-trained tongue
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning after morning, God awakens me,
to hear as disciples do.
God opens my ears;
I was not disobedient,
I did not turn back;
I gave my back to those who beat me;
my cheeks to those who humiliated me;
I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
The Divine helps me,
therefore I am not dishonored;
therefore I have set my face firm.
I know I will not be put to shame.
Inspired words.
Psalm
I Say Yes by Jan Novotka on Together in the Great Work / 3.30 minutes Margie
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aW-dLBWLnqvTI78dQYxFIoXXPWKhwnMYkzbaP1l0lmQ/edit?usp=sharing
Words are on slides. Not needed for worship guide.
To the Mystery that calls me, I say, “Yes!”
To the longing that beckons, I say, “Yes!”
To the truth that disturbs me, I say, “Yes!”
I say, “Yes” to the One within All.
I say, “Yes” to the One that is All.
For the suffering and broken, I say, “Yes!”
For the lost and the forsaken, I say, “Yes!”
For the voiceless and the ravaged, I say “Yes!”
I say, “Yes” to the One within All.
I say, “Yes” to the One that is All.
For the exiled and homeless, I say, “Yes!”
For those poisoned and dying, I say, “Yes!”
For those pushed to extinction, I say, “Yes!”
I say, “Yes” to the One within All.
I say, “Yes” to the One that is All.
For the healing of the Body, I say, “Yes!”
For the sake of the Future, I say, “Yes!”
For the Life of the planet, I say, “Yes!”
I say, “Yes” to the One within All.
I say, “Yes” to the One that is All.
“And now our sung Gospel.” –
Sung Passion Mike
Look on Us, Savior (The Passion Luke 22:14 – 23:46) by Marty Haugen on Feast of Life / 5.26 minutes
When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:14-15)
When Jesus knew that the time of his death was near, he said to his disciples,
“I have yearned to eat the Passover with you before I suffer.”
When they were all gathered at table,
Jesus took bread and wine, blessed it, and gave it to them, saying,
“Take this, all of you, and eat it:
This is my body given up for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
This is the cup of life poured out for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
No more will I share this wine or this bread,
until that time I am raised from the dead;
then at God’s table we all shall be fed.”
Jesus led us to the garden.
He said, “This night you face the time of trial.
Pray now, and keep watch here awhile.”
All too soon he found us sleeping.
“Awake,” he said, “to face your grief and fear.
See now, my betrayer is here.
This is the hour; my time is at hand.
You who would take up your cross now must stand.
Pray that your faith is not founded on sand.”
Deep in the darkness, disaster, coming with torches and knives –
they bound up our Master, and we ran for our lives.
No one would stay to defend him; no one would stand by his side.
In panic, we fled then, seeking somewhere to hide.
Look on us, Savior, and show us your face,
fearful and weak, we rely on your grace.
You who have suffered and died in our place: Hear us, O God. Hear us, O God.
Then in the morning, they tried him – sentenced our Master to die,
while Peter denied him with a curse and a lie.
Soldiers who beat him and scourged him, called him to summon his might,
they mocked him, and urged him, “Bring your Reign in our sight.”
Look on us, Savior, and show us your face;
fearful and weak, we rely on your grace.
You who have suffered and died in our place: Hear us, O God. Hear us, O God.
Still he was meek and forgiving, bearing his cross to the end.
He died for our living, faithful brother and friend.
Deep in the darkness, we lost him; faintly we heard his last call,
the pain that it cost him – losing God and us all.
Look on us, Savior, and show us your face.
Fearful and weak, we rely on your grace.
You who have suffered and died in our place: Hear us, O God. Hear us, O God.
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Joan and Mary Lynn
On this Palm Sunday, we recognize Jesus’s call to empower people with the message that the Breath, the Spirit, the Life of God is within everyone. And this message led to his suffering and death. Now we recall people who also live the call that comes from deep inside them, some even dying for their convictions.
After each petition our response will be “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, Dorothy Stang, Martyr of the Amazon, who worked in defense of the poor and the environment, and was murdered by two gunman after she showed them her weapon, a Bible, and read to them the Beatitudes. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero, who spoke out on radio to the soldiers of El Salvador and pleaded with them to stop murdering civilians per government orders. St. Oscar Romero was shot by an assassin the next day as he lifted the host in the act of consecration. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Trappist monk Thomas Merton, whose outspokenness against the Vietnam War, his critical stance on nuclear weapons, his critical stance on made-in-America racism, and his cry against capitalism’s empire-building by way of global violence, most likely led to his untimely death. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Conventual Franciscan Friar, who assisted in publishing a number of anti-Nazi German publications, who was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. When the Nazi guards selected 10 people to be starved to death in punishment, Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Fr. John Dear, U.S. Catholic priest and author known for his peace writings and some 75 arrests for civil disobedience actions across the country for protesting a wide range of issues, including U.S. policies on Latin America, nuclear weapons development, and the cooperation of Jesuit educational institutions with American military recruiting programs such as the ROTC. He was dismissed from the international Jesuit religious order, after 32 years, which said he was “obstinately disobedient” to its directives. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of the four churchwomen-Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan, lta Ford, and Maura Clarke-who were raped and killed because of their work for justice and solidarity with the people of El Salvador. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Malala Yousafzai, who is a prominent activist for girls’ education, which attracted the attention of the Taliban in Pakistan. At fifteen, she was wounded by several gunshots to her head and upper body. At sixteen, she recovered and took her cause to address the United Nations. At seventeen, she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
We pray for the strength of conviction of Berta Caceres of Honduras, environmental activist and human rights fighter, who was co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, for “a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam” at the Río Gualcarque. Berta said, “I cannot freely walk on my territory or swim in the sacred river and I am separated from my children because of the threats. I cannot live in peace, I am always thinking about being killed or kidnapped. But I refuse to go into exile. I am a human rights fighter and I will not give up this fight.” She was assassinated in her home by armed intruders. … we respond, “As One We Pray!”
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM and RAMP and all other groups we participate in who have the conviction to support and build up the marginalized, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus… we respond, “As One We Pray!”
For what else shall we pray? we respond, “As One We Pray!” Allow up to 4 petitions.
We pray that we may always be attentive to the Divine’s call, and live it with conviction, perseverance and fortitude. We pray that our actions may bring healing and wholeness to this world. May we help bring justice to others as best we can. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sharing Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Judy L
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
All: We appreciate our giftedness and dignity. We pray that these gifts and all our gifts may be used in such a way as to be authentic and true to our beliefs.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike and Colleen Walsh-White
| P: We gather together today mindful of the many times we have professed our readiness to be true disciples of Jesus to be salt of the earth to be light in the world. | Voice: We acknowledge the daunting challenge of this profession in the society in which we live, with its economic systems that impoverish and disempower people, and its political systems that enable the rich to get richer and the earth to become poorer. |
| P: We remember that Jesus encountered in his day systems as unjust as those we experience in our day, and who surely felt powerless to change anything on his own. | Voice: We turn our hearts and minds to his message to his hopes and dreams to his ardent desire for a better society. |
| P: We focus on his struggle his reflection, his prayer his questions- where to start? how to start? what to say? whom to choose? how to keep going? how to be salt? how to be light? | Voice: We call to mind how Jesus urged his listeners to put their trust in the power of being neighbor in the power of the Divine’s Spirit within them in the power of conversion from religious thinking and practices that made them feel inadequate and worthless. |
| P: Our prayer today is a prayer of resolve, a prayer of determination that we, each one of us, will do whatever we can however small in whatever way to bring the real dream of Jesus to fruition in our lives and in our world today. | Voice: At the start of Holy Week we focus on Jesus human like us a man with a dream for a better world a man of extraordinary courage a man on a journey to the end of his life a man willing to die for what he believed a man who knew he would never see his dream fulfilled a man who had to trust that those who came after him would keep his dream alive. |
| P: As we gather once more around bread and wine we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine with his friends shortly before he died. He invited them to eat and drink as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive to give their all for what he believed and taught. We, too, eat and drink. We stand up as a sign of our readiness to be counted upon. We give our word. By our eating and drinking we commit ourselves to follow where Jesus dared to journey. We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
Prayer of Jesus Linda S
O Cosmic householder,
Source of our wisdom, protector and provider,
Embracing all that dwells in the Heavens,
Naming for all holiness and justice,
In the Companionship of Empowerment,
Spread throughout the entire Creation,
As willed by Holy Wisdom.
In justice may all be sustained by daily food.
And relieved of the burden of crippling debts.
Lead us not into collusion with any type of violence.
And deliver us from all forms of violent oppression.
For yours is the empowering desire to radiate on earth
The non-violent justice of enduring hope.
Amen.
by Diarmuid O’Murchu
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One now.
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song – Instrumental Mike
Closing Prayer Mike
Holy is the One for Palm Sunday by Jan Richardson
Holy is the One
who comes to us
by the way of love
poured out with abandon.
Holy is the One
who walks towards us
by the way of grace
that holds us fast.
Holy is the One
who calls us to follow
in the way of loving,
in the path of joy.
An adaptation from Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace – A Book of Blessings for the Seasons, pages 125
As we commemorate the day Jesus rode upon a donkey into Jerusalem amid cheering palm wavers, may we draw courage to face the challenges and consequences of following him. May our lives be filled with the conviction, perseverance and fortitude to do what it takes to live Jesus’s true story into the world, bringing healing and wholeness.
And acknowledging Jesus to be human like us, may we draw strength from his example that we’ll see during Holy Week, and accept the suffering in our lives. Amen.
Closing Song Mike
The Whole World Is Waiting – Lyric Video – The Many featuring Flamy Grant and Kate Hurley
5,570 views Dec 6, 2023
The Whole World is Waiting was originally written by Kate Hurley in 2008. This new version was born from a collaboration with some folks those of us in the band really love and admire: Flamy Grant, Ben Grace (of The Calendar Years), and the original writer herself, Kate Hurley. From the first line to the last, it gives us a way to sing about the realities we are living at this moment. When so much is heartbreaking around us – devastating war, climate crises, political upheaval, hatred, exclusion and division – this is a song we can sing honestly. It’s also a song that assures us there is a God that hears the “cries for justice and the longing to be free.” Who “heals and shows us what can be.” And it reminds us once again that love can change things – something that’s often so hard to believe.
Fifth Sunday of Lent – Cycle B
WAITING
March 17, 2024
We Pray for Others Mike
Opening Song Marie
It Is Well with My Soul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmo4qG26_iU – stop at 2 minutes
Wisdom Bowl Mike
Opening Prayer Mike
May the ears of our hearts be open this day as we listen for gentle guidance and wisdom in the form of words and melodies. May we be aware of the value of waiting and may we commit to being patient with ourselves and with each other. Amen
First Reading Geri
A reading from the Writings of Teilhard de Chardin
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time. . . .
Accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
These are the inspired words of Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit theologian and paleontologist. In 1926 he was expelled from France for his liberal teaching, and assigned as pastor to a small church in China. There he discovered the Peking man!
Second Reading Kathy
A reading from the Writings of Howard Thurman
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will, all of your life, spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.
These are the inspired words of Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King’s spiritual director.
Gospel Spot Peter
Words of Wisdom about Lent from Pope Francis
Fast from hurting words . . . . and say kind words.
Fast from sadness . . . . and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger . . . . and be filled with patience.
Fast from pessimism . . . . and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries . . . . and have trust.
Fast from complaints . . . . and contemplate simplicity.
Fast from pressures . . . . and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness . . . . and fill your hearts with joy.
Fast from selfishness . . . . and be compassionate to others.
Fast from grudges . . . . and be reconciled.
Fast from words . . . . and be silent so you can listen.
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Tom and Joanne
We pray that we may reflect the presence of quiet persistence as we actively wait for goodness to unfold.
After each petition our response will be “As one, we pray!”
That all houses of worship may help to lead all people to the unfolding mystery of peace and justice that is channeled through love and mercy toward one another…we respond,
For the impact of our witness on political decisions both domestically and internationally, especially on issues of peace and justice… we respond,
For our country especially in places where there is internal strife, for those circumstances where it is difficult to admit mistakes, ask forgiveness or forgive one another; and for those who work to heal those divisions… we respond,
For the serenity that comes when we realize that the universe is unfolding as it should and for the gladness that fills our hearts and for the grace to reflect that joy to others … we respond,
For those who are reluctant to change; and for those who have been too wounded to grant forgiveness, especially within our families… we respond,
For the desire to heal any divisiveness within this country and global community; and for those among us who are sick, dying, grieving or in any kind of need… we respond,
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, for our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus…we pray…
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray with confidence that these petitions and those unspoken concerns and needs deep within each of us will be heard and answered with loving compassion. Amen.
Sign of Peace Mike
Blessing of Bread and Wine Linda S
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike and Margie
P: We acknowledge that the Divine is beyond all imagining. We give thanks for the gift of reflective awareness that allows us to recognize this presence in our universe.
Voice: Everything we have, everything we see, everything we do, everyone we love, and everyone who loves us reveals this sustaining presence. We are grateful that this presence brings energy to life and all that exists.
P: We recognize that the Divine expresses itself in human life and that – through us – it can sing and dance, speak and write, love and create. In this, we never cease to hope, and for this, we are always filled with praise and thanksgiving.
Voice: This season of Lent invites us to be more and more open to the Divine’s call as we reflect on the life and mission of Jesus.
P: We acknowledge that the Divine is the Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind and spirit; in this Eucharist, we bring the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of all people.
Voice: We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and in our world.
P: May our hearts be awakened to the empowering grace of the abundant Spirit, the same Spirit in Jesus.
Voice: We recognize all is holy. As we celebrate our commitment to Jesus, we acknowledge these holy gifts of bread and wine, which provide energy for life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
P: As we gather once more around bread and wine, we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine with his friends shortly before he died. He invited them to eat and drink as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive and to give their all for what he believed and taught.
Voice: We recall the blessings and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew the gift of life, which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
P: May the Spirit of life and wholeness, who transforms the gifts we present, transform us, too, that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love and healing to those whose lives we touch.
Voice: The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life.
P: But that life is often impeded by greed and selfishness, and by the exploitation of people.
Voice: In union with all peoples, living and dead, may we strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the Spirit of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, until the Kindom arrives in the fullness of time.
P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move freely in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
Prayer of Jesus
The Lord’s Prayer in Irish Marie
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us one now. Make us one now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us one now. Make us one now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us one now. Make us one now.
Presider: We gather together this morning and every Sunday to remember Jesus and his teachings. We come to be nourished spiritually, so we eat and drink bread and wine in his memory.
Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our willingness to follow Jesus.
When sharing the bread, say: “This is and you are the bread of life.”
Presider: With great joy, we state. We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup, say: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Marie
Being in Communion by Jan Novotka
Being in communion, we are one.
Being in communion, being one.
Closing Prayer Mike
In this Lenten season, may we be more patient than usual with waiting. May we move beyond wishes to transform others. May we focus our attention on personal renewal which is so easy to resist. May we become more alert and accepting of the reality that the only person we can set about changing is ourselves. Amen.
Closing Song Marie
A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
Announcements
4th Sunday Lent Cycle B – March 10, 2024
Theme: Recognizing International Women’s Day
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Introduction Maryann
The history of International Women’s Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaN5nHMNFg8
This past Friday, March 8, was International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day, marked annually on March 8, is one of the biggest days of the year. Worldwide, groups and individuals unify to celebrate and support women’s advancement.
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women’s rights and world peace. It has since been commemorated annually by the UN and much of the world, with each year’s observance centered on a particular theme or issue within women’s rights.
The fact that Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th is strongly linked to the women’s movements during the Russian Revolution (1917).
In February 1909, the foundations of International Women’s Day were laid in the form of a “Women’s Day” held in response to a large-scale New York City garment workers’ strike for better pay, shorter hours, improved working conditions, and voting rights.
Originally a national day marked in the USA, the idea quickly turned international. It was first adopted by European countries after, at the International Conference of Working Women in Denmark in 1910, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of a permanent day in the calendar year during which women could make their voices heard. The first international day was celebrated in 1911, though the March 8 date we know would not be set until during World War 1. Celebrated and formalized by the United Nations in 1975, each year the UN now adopts a theme as a way to highlight a specific issue and focus attention.
IWD is celebrated in several countries. International Women’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States, though the month of March is known as Women’s History Month; a period of time to call attention to women’s achievements throughout history both past and contemporary.
The IWD 2024 campaign theme focuses on a global request to #InspireInclusion because when we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment. So the aim of the IWD 2024 #InspireInclusion campaign is to collectively forge a more inclusive world for women.
For #IWD2024, the campaign theme #InspireInclusion emphasizes the importance of #diversity and #empowerment in all aspects of society. This year’s campaign theme underscores the crucial role of #inclusion in achieving #gender #equality. It calls for action to break down barriers, challenge #stereotypes, and create environments where all #women are valued and respected. #InspireInclusion encourages everyone to recognize the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life, including those from marginalized communities.
Gathering Song Bill
Women’s rights suffrage song-Standing on the Shoulders by Joyce J Rouse, aka Earth Mama®
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Opening Prayer Teri
In gratitude we stand to welcome one another to this celebration of community and common life. We are grateful for each other and pause to remember that we are one in the spirit of life and love dwelling among us and in each one of us.
In this spirit of oneness let us stretch our awareness of community in ever expanding circles, like ripples of energy pushing outward from a pebble tossed onto a still and quiet pond. Let these circles expand to include the plants and animals living in and around us, the other communities in our town, our state and our nation until the entire globe is embraced.
Then let that globe, drenched in love, become a pebble tossed into the vast and silent cosmos until our embrace envelopes the entire universe and all that it holds. This is the power that lies waiting in our hearts, aching to be invited into action.
Everything belongs. The center of the universe is where we are standing. May we begin our celebration as if we believe this, for in the celebrating we make it true.
Written by Miriam Gill at Kirkridge Retreat Center during
A New Paradigm for Prayer with
Michael Morwood, June 7-9, 2015
Reader 1
Anna the Prophetess
There was also a certain prophetess, Anna by name, daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She had seen many days, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She was constantly in the temple, worshiping day and night in fasting and prayer. Coming on the scene at this moment, she gave thanks to God and talked about the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:36-38
Anna, prophetess of God! the little we know of you reveals a woman of awesome wisdom whose intuition and inner sight knew what was to come.
Your prophetic gift lives with us still, Anna
gestating deep in our feminine consciousness.
Your words still waiting to be uttered in our time.
You were, Anna,
a daughter of Ancient Tradition that embraced a Mother God and never questioned
the sacred role of women in prophecy, discernment and moral leadership.
For, in ancient times, women were honored
as the embodiment of wisdom, reflecting in the cycles of their lives
the wonder of creation and intrinsically connected to the divine
through the mysterious powers of birthing.
But when you had passed through the first two cycles of womanhood
Maiden and Mother-
you then entered into the dark age of the Crone, Anna
the Old One, wrinkled, wise,
known from time immemorial as The Saga-
“She Who Speaks,” the one who now, in her old age,
had reached the fullness of her time and was empowered by her years to utter sacred words and poetry, invoking the divine
in the Temple’s holy spaces. Oracle of the Sacred!
The Book of Proverbs knew you, Anna:
“She opens her mouth with wisdom” (Prov. 31 :26).
And the people of your time knew you too-
more connected than we to the wisdom of the feminine and the power of the Crone they honored your wrinkles as a sign of knowledge and experience
to be shared as a gift
with those who had not walked so far and deeply,
and were unfamiliar with the mysteries of life and death.
They called you “Hag” meaning in those early days
not one to be despised and cast aside, but a wise and holy woman.
Priestess and Prophetess, Counselor and Guide,
you were a comfort and a solace to God’s people, Annal
Ah, wise woman! We have lost you!
We are disconnected from the feminine power and energy that breathed through your wrinkled, craggy skin.
We are all too often bereft of the compassion,
born of long journeying, that shone through
your all-seeing eyes. But, above all,
we fear you, Anna, Prophetess!
We flee your cracks and wrinkles, your silver hair and fragile bones.
We fear all the signs of age that set you in a place of honor
beloved by all.
Now in our time they have become signs of shame and humiliation. Our world supplies us, Anna, with a vast array
of creams and colors and lotions, pills and masks and potions
to hide and change the image of the Crone!
To smooth out, wipe away, cut out, tuck away
those very signs which proclaimed you honored and holy!
Our menfolk don’t like it, Anna. They want us Maiden. or Mother.
Not Crone.
They want us-demand us- cute, pretty, safe or comforting.
The Crone is none of those things.
She stands apart in a darker place, a deeper place
where we do not wish to go …
She challenges our false imaginings and our flight from wisdom and dying.
Reader 2
We are so afraid of dark, old places. We do not want to be there.
It is not a popular place to be.
We will do anything to hold back the knowing.
We have made the cloak of the Crone so unacceptable.
So ugly.
So we do not want to know the mysteries it would hide.
We retreat from the feminine insights of your years, Anna-
lest our lives and our world be changed forever.
For if we embrace you, Crone, Wisdom figure,
Ancient Female lodged so deep in our psyches
stirring like an embryonic volcano
in our collective human consciousness
we, your sisters, silent so long, will also prophesy and
utter sacred songs and canticles!
And our prophecy will claim the honor in which age and all life must be held.
We will speak aloud of things hidden and denied and not recognized.
We, your sisters,
will proclaim as you did Anna, that God is in our midst- not ln power and triumph,
control and hierarchy, but in the small, the humble, the un-acknowledged.
Your wisdom, Anna, revealed to you
the deeper truths from which we hide when we deny
the beauty and significance of age. Anna, sister, prophetess,
speaker of the truth, help us reclaim
that which we have left behind our woman gifts- abandoned,
our journey aborted and denied in our sad efforts
to hide from all that we could be.
May we, Anna, women of today,
inheritors of a world unbalanced, bereft of feminine wisdom,
and grieving while not even knowing what we grieve,
may we retrieve the Crone, the Wise Woman, the Prophetess
from the layers of our history.
May we once again delight in access
to sacred mysteries
waiting and given to those who honor their years,
listen to their lives,
reflect on their experience,
embrace who they are,
discern their sacred path
and dare follow it-
distilling all they have encountered and experienced on their way into a chalice of Wisdom for others to taste.
May we, Anna, prophetess, stand up with courage,
breaking open our own truth, like you,
in the Temple’s sacred spaces.
Soul Sister.
Inspired Words
From Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today by Edwina Gateley
Psalm Bill
https://youtu.be/YT4S7aNHzQA Woman Spirit by Karen Drucker, video by Mary Theresa Streck and Juanita Cordero
Woman’s Spirit is beauty
Woman’s Spirit runs deep
Woman loves with compassion
our perfection is complete …
Woman’s Spirit is graceful
Woman’s Spirit is wise
Woman’s Spirit is moving
bringing love into our lives …
Woman’s Spirit is passion
Woman’s Spirit is birth
Woman’s power unfolding
to honor life on earth …
2nd Reading Maryann
I am Woman – Dedani Dlodlo – slides
I am Woman
Dedani Dlodlo presents her poem – I am Woman.
Dedani is a psychologist and poet who lives in London, England. Originally from Zimbabwe and having spent time in the US, Dedani works with young people at risk of serious youth violence and specialises in trauma. She helped co-found @the_ampersandcollective, a faith based art ministry bringing the community together through art.
#poetry #iamwoman #dedanidlodlo #streamsstudio
I am
Woman
And in the tradition of some religious men
I am more villain than victim
Though the weaker sex
I am still the greater sinner
I am no longer
The last of creation’s divine epiphanies woman
Or the one man once sang over
Singing bone of my very bone
Flesh of my own flesh woman
I am only
Fashioned from the rib of a man woman
The woman that was
Given and then blamed
She is me
Always and inexplicably ashamed
I am she
Deceived into conceiving sin woman
I have desires and needs
Of which I’ve been told I needn’t speak
Because after all God never spoke to me
Woman
Not directly
And not of anything
Other than curses and seeds
So though I am wild woman
Constantly coming undone
And though on most days
I runneth over
With tears and holy hymns
That I can only hum
I try hard not to be
That woman
Stuck on paper
Too open
And so easily read
Like a well known poem
About a brittle woman
Breaking herself apart
To scatter herself and her unloved heart
All over the halfway willingness of a man woman
I try hard not to be
That wild horse woman
Both terrifying and strange
Running alone in flames
Along tight ropes and fine lines
Between two poles
Not enough and too much
Trying to find peace of mind
Somewhere in the middle
Where the thunder roars
While the sun still kisses
After the world ends
Before the dawn breaks again
But there
Deep in the dialectical
Where few go
Where being good and woman
Feels more like a game of Marco Polo
The knowledge of who I can be
Always just beyond my reach
Something I can only navigate
By what their misogyny tells me
But they are the blind ones
Afraid to see that there might be
Something divine in femininity
Inspired Words
Homily Maryann
Intro to ‘Homily’
As we celebrate International Women’s Day I’ve decided to let some words from women be presented and reflected on, in place of the homily format Mike usually uses. Ten quotes have been selected.
As you look at each quote on the screen, I will read it. Then there will be a few moments of silence for pondering its message.
Once the ten quotes have been presented one by one, you will see a one page list of all ten. At this point, there will be a few minutes of silence for you to decide which of the ten quotes speaks to your heart and soul this morning. Write your favorite quote for reference during sharing and prepare a short statement about what these words are saying to you this morning.
Instructions before Sharing
I’d like to give as many as would like to speak about why a quote inspires them today, so you will hear a gentle bell to let you know it’s time for another to share. [I will time the statements and ring the bell after about 40 seconds.]
What quote influences me?
| Woman | Quote |
| Susan B Anthony | Men their rights and nothing more; Women their rights and nothing less. |
| Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis | We should all do something to right the wrongs that we see and not just complain about them. |
| Margaret Thatcher | If you want something said, ask a man; If you want something done, ask a woman. |
| Maya Angelou | I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. |
| Emma Watson | If you stand for equality, you are a feminist. Sorry to tell you. |
| Rosa Parks | Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others. |
| Indira Gandhi | You can not shake hands with a clenched fist. |
| Margaret Mead | Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. |
| Mother Teresa | Some people come into your life as blessings, some come in as lessons. |
| Audrey Hepburn | The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. |
Prayer of the People Joan Thomas, David Lorenz
R1: Our prayer of the people today is a Litany of Gratitude to thank women for their unique gifts to the world. Our response is: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States for promoting education and working to create a healthier country and world.
And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist and youngest
Nobel Prize laureate, for defying the Taliban in Pakistan and demanding that girls be allowed to receive an education. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, Qiu Jin, China’s first feminist executed in 1907, for fighting for the emancipation of women at a time when such movements did not exist in China, for refusing to bind your feet, for leaving your loveless marriage to
study in Japan, and for starting your own feminist newspaper, Chinese Women. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, and the brave women who sparked the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, for refusing segregation. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, Sadako Sasaki, Japanese hibakusha, “bomb-affected person,” affected Hiroshima, for folding one thousand origami cranes before your death, a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear warfare. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Sally Ride, American engineer, physicist, and astronaut who became the first American woman and the third women overall in space in 1983, for showing the world, especially young girls, that women can reach for the stars and fly into space. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, K’iche’ political and human rights activist from Guatemala and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, for dedicating your life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala’s indigenous women and ethno-cultural reconciliation. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist and author, for giving a definition of feminism for the twenty-first century in your book We Should All Be Feminists. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you Mary Daly, American feminist philosopher and theologian, for challenging us to move Beyond God the Father. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Marie Sklodowska Curie, Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, first women to win a Nobel Prize, and first person and only woman to win twice, for your groundbreaking work in the field of radioactivity and for setting a new bar for women in academic and scientific
achievement. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, Helen Keller, American author, political activist, and lecturer who was deaf and blind, for campaigning tirelessly on behalf of people who are physically challenged and for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and antimilitarism. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: Thank you, Wangari Maathai, Kenyan ecologist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, for your contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace with women to reverse African deforestation. And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: Thank you, mothers, grandmothers, ancestors, and all who have nurtured in every family and country, for shaping generations with your inspiration. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: The list is endless. Who else would you add? (allow 4 additions)
And we respond: We are grateful!
R2: For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and our sisters and brothers in FCM, Voice of the Faithful and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus. And we respond: We are grateful!
R1: May we continue to raise up women. May we speak their names, tell their stories and thank them for sharing their unique gifts with the world. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen
From Litany of Gratitude in Stirring Waters by Diann L Neu
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Geri
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & Peter
| P. We who are alive today are the eyes and ears, the hands and feet of the Invisible Source. | Voice: We are Thought Incarnate, Word made flesh, Spirit embodied, Love materialized. |
| P: We who are alive today are agents of ongoing creation. We are the consciousness of the earth: the universe knowing itself, seeing itself, singing to itself. We are creation loving itself, hearing itself, healing itself through om actions and compassion. | Voice: We who are alive today are prophets of a new time, makers of a new myth, where our Source dwells not on some heavenly throne but in the very breath of living things: among us and within us. |
| P: As the Cosmos multiplies and expands forever outward so does it expand forever inward evolving us into beings of higher consciousness. | Voice: We are made of heaven and earth, starlight and clay, minerals and meteor dust. |
| P: We are the Infinite Wave concentrated into finite particles, spacetime compressed into the speck of a lifetime. | Voice: We are creating tomorrow with our thoughts and words. We are shaping ourselves and families, our communities and cities, our cultures and civilization by what we do and fail to do. |
| P: We are ascending into our potential, evolving into our Godness, co-creating the Whole that is the sum of our parts. | Voice: They never told us it would be like this: that we ourselves are the shapers of our world, called to be the light and the holiness we seek. |
| P: We who are alive today: Let us sing for joy that the heaven we sought is within and around us, that wherever we look, there is Holiness looking back. | Voice: Let us not lose heart. No matter what storms batter and buffet us Life holds us firmly in the palm of lts Hand. |
| P: We come here today and remember Jesus.He taught us how tolove, to live for justice and to become all that we are called to be. | Voice: As part of his Jewish faith, Jesus ate a Passover meal with his family and friends. At that meal, he shared bread and wine, and now we do the same. |
| P. Jesus took a loaf of bread, broke it like we are often broken in our relationships with one another, and showed us the way to reconciliation by asking us to share our bread with one another in remembrance of his own example. | Voice: We take and bless this bread of life As a sign of our oneness with the Divine With one another And all creation. |
| P: Jesus took the cup filled with the fruit of the vine, the vine that sustains us and links us to one another, and the fruit that nourishes the spirit of virtue that abides within and between each of us, and asked us to drink of that same spirit of loving-kindness and uniting harmony that was in him. | Voice: We take and bless these cups of wine As a sign of our oneness with the Divine With one another And all creation. |
| P: This ritual is a sign of our community, where the love we find at this table is reflected in our lives and the power we receive at this table makes us justice seekers and healers. | Voice: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen! |
From There Are Burning Bushes Everywhere by Jan Phillips, p. 42 adapted
and various other Eucharistic rituals
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Geri
Our Father, Holy Mother,
Creator of the Cosmos, Source of Life, You are in my mind, in my garden,
in my cup of wine and loaf of bread. Blessed be your names:
Mother, Allah, Goddess, Beloved, Great Spirit, Radiant One, Yahweh, HaShem, Sophia
Your presence has come, your will is done on earth as it is in the cosmos.
May we give each other strength, mercy, tenderness, and joy,
and forgive each other’s failures, silence, pettiness, and forgetfulness,
as we ask to be forgiven by those we’ve hurt.
Lead us home to ourselves and each other, to clarity, to oneness,
and deliver us from the darkness of our ignorance and fear.
So we pray and so we receive. Amen.
Our Father, Our Mother from There Are Burning Bushes Everywhere by Jan Phillips, p. 36.
Prior to the Breaking of the Bread Mike
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
Enya. – Only Time
Enya – Only Time (Official 4K Music Video)
Who can say where the road goes?
Where the day flows? Only time
And who can say if your love grows
As your heart chose? Only time
Who can say why your heart sighs
As your love flies? Only time
And who can say why your heart cries
When your love lies? Only time
Who can say when the roads meet?
That love might be in your heart?
And who can say when the day sleeps
If the night keeps all your heart?
Night keeps all your heart
Who can say if your love grows
As your heart chose? Only time
And who can say where the road goes?
Where the day flows? Only time
Who knows? Only time
Who knows? Only time
Closing Prayer Margie
The song of peace is Woman’s song:
She sings the song of life’s seasons –
rhythms of birth and death, receiving and giving,
times of waiting and fulfillment, suffering and joy.
She sings a gentle song of listening and hope,
of wholeness .and unity,
of harmony with earth
and reverence for earth’s gifts.
Her song is compassion,
her song is love.
If nations would be healed,
woman’s song must be sung.
If there would be peace,
woman’s song must be heard.
By Mary Southard, CSJ
Sisters of St. Joseph, LaGrange, IL
Sending Forth Song Maryann
The Power of Women by Karen Drucker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mRyyKNOGSg
Words & Music: Karen Drucker
Chorus: It’s the power of women – United we stand
We’re making a difference when we join hands
It’s the power of women who will heal this world
The power of women – the power of women…
1. It’s the Goddess, it’s the matriarch, it’s the maiden, it’s the crone
Every color, every race through the ages it’s been shown
That women have compassion women show the way
To a world that’s filled with peace and love let me hear you say
* Chorus *
2. As we stand in this circle feeling our connection
We can feel the power move as we state our intention
To bring peace to this world and right all the wrongs
Joining now in sisterhood we lift our voice in song and sing
* Chorus *
Tag: We got the power to change the world so what are we gonna do?
First we have to realize that it’s up to me and you
Every single day I’m gonna take the time to pray
And spread some lovingkindness to each person along my way
Whatcha gonna do with your power?
We are women of power!
Announcements
Additional Resources and Readings
Woman Empowerment | Oprah Winfrey motivational speech for women’s day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJq1qIBgUdE
“I Am Woman” – Angry On This International Women’s Day by Rev. Dawn Hutchings, published on March 11, 2016
Some Woman Somewhere Poetry for International Women’s Day, by Gretta Vosper
published On: March 20, 2023
other IWD links
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/theme
3rd Sunday Lent Cycle B – March 3, 2024
Theme: What Would Jesus Do…about Christian Nationalism?
We pray for those individuals in need Mike
Opening Margie
Confronting Christian Nationalism Curriculum by Vote Common Ground:
Katherine Stewart on What Is Christian Nationalism
https://www.votecommongood.com/confronting-christian-nationalism-curriculum/
God + Country Official Trailer
Introduction Margie
In our Gospel this morning for the Third Sunday of Lent, Jesus angrily defends his Father’s house from the animal sellers and money lenders who are using it for their own purposes of greed and power. His reaction to the corruption of his mission is not a gentle one. This morning we will examine the threat of Christian Nationalism and ask ourselves what Jesus would do about the exploitation of his loving message by this powerful political ideology. And we will explore what we can do:
Learn more about it so that we can have intelligent conversations,
Pray that the hearts and minds of Christian Nationalists may be reached,
and Act, to confront this dangerous ideology by education, civic engagement and being role models of the true way of Jesus whenever we can.
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening prayer Mike
We come this day seeking to remember the truth that lives deep within us, Divine truth. As we seek to uncover the holy truth of love, peace, and justice from the hateful rhetoric of Christian Nationalist lies that fill our ears, may we be reminded and strengthened in our beliefs. We believe that Divine love is available to all, regardless of the different labels we humans apply to one another. May we have the courage to be a reconciling presence on earth. To be pillars of love in a world defined by anger, fear, and separation. May we have the compassion to love our neighbors and ourselves, even when the world tells us we should not, and even when it is hard — especially when it is hard. We recognize the Divine Presence here with us, now and always, Amen.
Modified from A Preacher’s Toolkit for Confronting Christian Nationalism,
by Faithful America
First Reading Linda K
Gospel John 2:13-17
When the Passover Feast, celebrated each Spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.
Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “ Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”
Inspired Words
2nd Reading Colleen
What Is Christian Nationalism, Exactly? 7:01
by David French, NY Times Opinion 2/25/24
If you’re alarmed by the rise of Christian nationalism, the single worst thing you can do is define it too broadly. If you define it too broadly, then you’re telling millions of ordinary churchgoing citizens that the importation of their religious values into the public square somehow places them in the same camp or on the same side as actual Christian supremacists, the illiberal authoritarians who want to remake America in their own fundamentalist image.
Enter the new feature-length documentary “God and Country,” which examines the role of Christian nationalism in American politics. Even before I knew that Rob Reiner was involved in the project, I agreed to be interviewed by the filmmakers for two key reasons: First, I wanted to make sure that I could offer a sensible definition of Christian nationalism, one that didn’t cast aspersions on Christians simply for bringing their values into the public square. And second, I wanted to outline exactly why actual Christian nationalism presents a real danger to our Constitution.
To understand what Christian nationalism is, it’s important to understand what it is not. It is not Christian nationalism if a person’s political values are shaped by the individual’s Christian faith. In fact, many of America’s most important social movements have been infused with Christian theology and Christian activism. Many of our nation’s abolitionists thundered their condemnations of slavery from Northern pulpits. The civil rights movement wasn’t exclusively Christian by any means, but it was pervasively Christian — Martin Luther King Jr. was, of course, a Baptist minister.
Anyone may disagree with Christian arguments around civil rights, immigration, abortion, religious liberty or any other point of political conflict. Christians disagree with one another on these topics all the time, but it is no more illegitimate or dangerous for a believer to bring her worldview into a public debate than it is for a secular person to bring his own secular moral reasoning into politics. In fact, I have learned from faiths other than my own, and our public square would be impoverished without access to the thoughts and ideas of Americans of faith.
The problem with Christian nationalism isn’t with Christian participation in politics but rather the belief that there should be Christian primacy in politics and law. It can manifest itself through ideology, identity and emotion. And if it were to take hold, it would both upend our Constitution and fracture our society.
The sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead define Christian nationalism as a “cultural framework that blurs distinctions between Christian identity and American identity, viewing the two as closely related and seeking to enhance and preserve their union.” The author and pastor Matthew McCullough defines Christian nationalism as “an understanding of American identity and significance held by Christians wherein the nation is a central actor in the world-historical purposes of the Christian God.” Both definitions are excellent, but what does ideological Christian nationalism look like in practice?
In 2022, a coalition of right-wing writers and leaders published a document called “National Conservatism: A Statement of Principles.” Its section on God and public religion states: “Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.” That’s an extraordinary — and ominous — ideological statement, one that would immediately relegate non-Christians to second-class status. It’s utterly contrary to the First Amendment and would impose a form of compelled deference to Christianity on both religious minorities and the nonreligious.
But Christian nationalism isn’t just rooted in ideology; it’s also deeply rooted in identity, the belief that Christians should rule. This is the heart of the Seven Mountain Mandate, a dominionist movement emerging from American Pentecostalism. Paula White, Donald Trump’s closest spiritual adviser, is an adherent, and so is the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Tom Parker, who wrote a concurring opinion in the court’s recent I.V.F. decision. The movement holds that Christians are called to rule seven key societal institutions: the family, the church, education, the media, the arts, business and the government.
One doesn’t have to go all the way into Seven Mountain theology, though, to find examples of Christian identity politics. The use of Christianity as an unofficial but necessary qualification for office is a routine part of politics in the most churchgoing parts of America. Moreover, one of the common red-America arguments for Trump is that he might not be devout himself, but he’ll place lots of Christians in government.
But what is Christian identity politics but another form of Christian supremacy? How does Christian identity alone make any person a better candidate for office? After all, many of the worst actors in American politics are professed believers. Scandal and corruption are so pervasive in the church that when a person says, “I’m a Christian,” it tells me almost nothing about their wisdom or virtue.
Finally, we can’t forget the intense emotion of Christian nationalism. Most believers don’t follow ideological and theological arguments particularly closely. In the words of the historian Thomas Kidd, “Actual Christian nationalism is more a visceral reaction than a rationally chosen stance.” It is tied, in other words, to a visceralsense that the fate of the church is closely tied to the outcome of any given political race. That fervor can make believers gullible and potentially even dangerous. Its good-versus-evil dynamic can make Christians believe that their political opponents are capable of anything, including stealing an election. It artificially raises the stakes of elections to the point where a loss becomes an unthinkable catastrophe, with the fates of both church and state hanging in the balance. As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, this belief invites violent action.
Committed Christian nationalists represent only 10 percent of the population, according to a 2023 PRRI/Brookings Christian Nationalism Survey. But even members of a minority that small can gain outsize power when they fold themselves into the larger Christian electorate, casting themselves as “just like you.” That’s why we cannot conflate Christian activism with Christian nationalism. One can welcome Christian participation in the public square while resisting domination, from any faith or creed.
Inspired words
Psalm Margie
We Stand (3:29) by The Many, from All Belong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZOE7oOIHc4
3rd Reading Janet
Epilogue modified from The Power Worshippers,
by Katherine Stewart
The rise of the religious right should be cause for alarm among all who care about the democracy in America. Yet it should not be the cause of despair. If Christian Nationalism is a pathology rooted in America’s past, as I have argued, so, too, may the cure draw in important ways from our history. Overcoming this kind of reactionary and authoritarian movement isn’t just something Americans can do; it is what has made Americans who we are.
In this book, I have focused on the organizations and the people behind the movement. What I have necessarily left out are the many Americans who are mobilizing to confront the threat. When right-wing ideologies have sought to disenfranchise voters, to pervert the meaning of freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, to target the rights of specific communities, and to defend criminal actions by their enablers, Americans have organized to meet the challenge.
…There are many legal advocacy groups committed to protecting individual rights, freedom of speech and conscience, and the separation of church and state, working in opposition to right-wing legal advocacy groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom. These organizations may not have as much money to devote to the cause, but their efforts are critical. Other organizations are devoted to promoting civic engagement, defending voting rights, and fostering access to comprehensive reproductive health care, scientific literacy and historical accuracy in schools, and the pursuit of justice in other areas. Many faith groups are involved in seeking to restore the rights of the undefended and disenfranchised. All these groups and individuals working on different lines are advancing democracy against the claims of the radical right, and these are the Americans that inspire me. There are innumerable avenues of involvement, and they represent democracy in action. I believe they have the power to succeed, because they follow in the footsteps of those who have done so in the past.
…There are of course many other threats facing our nation today. But the answers to those challenges are in some instances the same as the answers to religious nationalism. Reactionary authoritarianism doesn’t come out of nowhere. It draws much of its destructive energy from social and economic injustices that leave a few with too much power and many others with too little hope. Rising economic inequality and insecurity has created a large mass of people, on all ends of the economic spectrum, who are anxious for their future and predisposed to calls for unity around an identity that targets others for vilification and degradation. And it has elevated the power of a small group of people with the means and desire to control the social order for their own benefit. Addressing inequality won’t by itself resolve the challenges of the Christian Nationalist movement, but it will take some air out of its bellows.
In some ways, Christian Nationalism is the fruit of a society that has not yet lived up to the promise of the American idea. There is work to be done, but for now, we are free to do it. We have met challenges in the past – well enough, at least, to make it to the present moment. Religious nationalists are using the tools of democratic political culture to end democracy. I continue to believe those same resources can be used to restore it.
Inspired words
Homily Mike
Shared Homily
Prayer of the People Kathy
Like those in the Temple defiling “God’s house,” the leaders of the Christian Nationalist movement today have twisted Jesus’s message to their own purposes of power and greed. Let us pray for a change of heart by those who are distorting Christianity in so many ways. May the leaders come to conversion, and may the followers be freed from the many beliefs that are doing great damage to the Christian faith, the American government and the common good of humanity.
Our response will be a visualization of light and love changing the hearts, minds and actions of Christian Nationalists in our nation and in the world.
May those steeped in Christian Nationalism come to a truer understanding of the Bible rather than viewing it as the inerrant “Word of God” to be used as a weapon against their enemies. We respond and see…
May Christian Nationalists change their view of women as second-class citizens to a recognition and appreciation of the many gifts and roles of women. We respond and see…
May people involved in Christian Nationalism recognize the beauty and rights of LGBTQ persons, rather than using hateful and cruel prejudice to degrade and ostracize those individuals, often with tragic consequences. We respond and see…
May leaders and followers in Christian Nationalism recognize the value of proven science, rather than sharing anti-science conspiracy theories that make the world a more dangerous place. We respond and see…
May Christian Nationalists recognize the value and equality of all, rather than recognizing that they are enabling a white supremacist ideology when they deny white privilege, systemic racism, and the racial history of our country. We respond and see…
May those in the Christian Nationalist movement recognize the importance of true democracy where opponents are not demonized, bipartisanship is valued and authoritarianism is not held up as a goal. We respond and see…
May the Christian Nationalists in our midst recognize the separation of church and state and the love of God for all nations, rather than seeking far-right Christian control of the government and conflating the love of God with the love of America. We respond and see…
May those Christian Nationalists so intent on demonizing immigrants and strangers be reminded of both the Bible and Jesus’s call to loving others as ourselves. We respond and see…
May Christian Nationalists, like the animal sellers and loan sharks in the Temple, recognize that they are violating the example and teachings of Jesus, his sharing of the Divine, in so many ways. May they remember Jesus’s call to love, kindness, inclusion, grace, mercy, compassion and justice. May they search their hearts in openness and honesty for the answer to the question, “What would Jesus do?” We respond and see…
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and our sisters and brothers in FCM, Voice of the Faithful and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue their true Christian work as they follow the Way of Jesus. We respond and see…
For what else shall we pray? Allow up to 4 petitions followed by we respond and see…
May we as individuals and as a community help to raise a prophetic voice against Christian nationalism. May we continue both to pray for, and do the work of: love, peace, truth, equality, and justice in our lives.
Amen
Modified from How The Religious Right Gets It Wrong And What To Do About It
by Martin Thielen, from Progressive Christianity, February 26, 2024
Sharing Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread Bill
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
Prayer over the Wine
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Liturgy (Please pray Voice part in your home) Mike & Sue
P: We acknowledge that the Divine is beyond all imagining. We give thanks for the gift of reflective awareness that allows us to recognize this presence in our universe.
Voice: Everything we have, everything we see, everything we do, everyone we love and everyone who loves us reveals this sustaining presence. We are grateful that this presence brings energy to life and all that exists.
P: We recognize that the Divine expresses itself in human life and that – through us – it can sing and dance, speak and write, love and create. In this, we never cease to hope, and for this, we are always filled with praise and thanksgiving.
Voice: This season of Lent invites us to be more and more open to the Divine’s call as we reflect on the life and true mission of Jesus.
P: We acknowledge that the Divine is the Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind and spirit; in this Eucharist, we bring the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of all people.
Voice: We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and in our world.
P: May our hearts be awakened to the empowering grace of the abundant Spirit, the same Spirit of Jesus.
Voice: We recognize all is holy. As we celebrate our commitment to Jesus, we acknowledge these holy gifts of bread and wine, which provide energy for life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
P: As we gather once more around bread and wine, we recall Jesus sharing bread and wine with his friends shortly before he died. He invited them to eat and drink as a sign of their readiness to keep his memory alive, to give their all for what he believed and taught.
Voice: So, we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and give thanks for the wonder of the Divine in, and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, and compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus.
P: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of the Holy One.
Voice: We recall the blessing and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew the gift of life, which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
P: May the Spirit of life and wholeness, who transforms the gifts we present, transform us, too, that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love and healing to those whose lives we touch.
Voice: The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life.
P: But that life is often impeded by greed and selfishness, and by the exploitation of people.
Voice: In union with all peoples, living and dead, may we strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the Spirit of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, ‘til the Kindom arrives in the fullness of time.
P: We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, Love and Goodness to move free in our words and actions. To this, we give our Amen!
Prayer of Jesus Linda S
Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything and from which all life flows,
We acknowledge this healing and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each
of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields, may we have the basics we need to live
and may we have the love and commitment to ensure that others have
what they need too.
May we have the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong,
to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt
and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace.
Amen
A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer by Roger Courtney adapted by Maryann Crilly
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Make us one now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Make us one now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Make us one now.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie
Faithful to the Gospel by Jan Novotka, Emergence
Closing Prayer Mike
We recognize that our nation and every other nation has been created with equal measures of love and care. May we have the wisdom to appreciate America’s many gifts, while having the humility to recognize that our country is but one very small part of the whole world and all of creation.
May we reach inside to find our voices through the noise of modern life and division.
May we learn, pray and act to confront the Christian Nationalist danger to Jesus’s mission, our country and the world.
Amen.
Modified from A Preacher’s Toolkit for Confronting Christian Nationalism,
by Faithful America
Sending Forth Song Margie
Standing in the Breach by Jackson Browne
Link to sign: https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/statement
Link to resources: https://act.faithfulamerica.org/signup/christian-nationalism-resources/
Announcements
Resources
Eight Ways the Religious Right Gets It Wrong
- The religious right is wrong about the Bible. It’s belief in biblical inerrancy, which is not taught in Scripture, leads to massive problems. And a 6,000-year-old earth, a God who condones genocide, and a literal bodily ascension of Jesus into the sky (to mention just a few problematic examples) is impossible to believe for most thinking people in the twenty-first century.
- The religious right is wrong about women. In the name of God and Scripture, it promotes second-class citizenship for women. For example, it tells women to submit to their husbands and insists that women cannot serve as ministers, even if they are gifted and called.
- The religious right is wrong about the LGBTQ community. It tells LGBTQ persons that they are an abomination to God. It constantly fights against LGBTQ rights. And it promotes hateful prejudice and cruelty toward LGBTQ persons, with tragic consequences.
- The religious right is wrong about science. It constantly rejects proven scientific facts including evolution, human-made climate change, and the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. It often shares anti-science conspiracy theories from its pulpits and social media posts, making the world a more dangerous place.
- The religious right is wrong about race. It enables white supremacist ideology in numerous ways including attacks on critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement. It resists teaching racial history in public schools and universities. It denies the reality of white privilege and systemic racism. And it supports numerous organizations with questionable racial positions.
- The religious right is wrong about politics. It engages in hyper-partisanship. It demonizes Democrats. It admires political authoritarianism. And it gives overwhelming and unyielding support to Donald Trump, who violates every value it claims to hold including character, decency, marital fidelity, truth telling, family values, and the preservation of democracy.
- The religious right is wrong about America. It conflates love of God with love of America. It supports an “America first” philosophy that ignores God’s love for all nations. It encourages the scourge of extreme Christian nationalism. And it assumes America is a new Israel, leading to bad theology, bad citizenship, and bad public policy.
- The religious right is wrong about Jesus. It violates the example and teachings of Jesus in dozens of ways, including his call to love, kindness, inclusion, grace, mercy, compassion, and justice. Although it likes to ask the question, “What would Jesus do?,” it consistently chooses to do the opposite.
Unfortunately, many more examples of the religious right getting it wrong could be given, including demonization of immigrants, prejudice against Muslims, neglect of social justice, and an overall spirit of anger, fear, negativity, and self-righteous judgmentalism.
Rough Translations by Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace
“Hoping against hope, he believed.” Romans 4: 18
Hope nonetheless.
Hope despite.
Hope regardless.
Hope still.
Hope where we had ceased to hope.
Hope amid what threatens hope.
Hope with those who feed our hope.
Hope beyond what we had hoped.
Hope that draws us past our limits.
Hope that defies expectations.
Hope that questions what we have known.
Hope that makes a way where there is none.
Hope that takes us past our fear.
Hope that calls us into life.
Hope that holds us beyond death.
Hope that blesses those to come.
Second Sunday of Lent
2nd Sunday Lent Cycle B – Last Sunday in Black History Month February 25, 2024
Theme: Light in Transformation
We pray for those individuals in need (Please be brief) Mike
Introduction Maryann
Today is the 2nd Sunday in Lent, Cycle C, where the Catholic Church does the reading of the Transfiguration, and the last Sunday of Black History month. Today’s liturgy has a reading and a prayer taken from the book Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley. She is also the author of the book This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us. The reading and prayer are from the book’s section on Lent.
Gathering Song Bill
HOLDING UP THE LIGHT by Doyle burbank-williams
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-Ry1GzYHM)
with the slide show you put together a while ago which can be found here (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1epZWfcBUh-GHMNTxtj399uCt2ehCLiO_TnZm2060wWI/edit?usp=sharing
or here
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Opening Prayer Mike
May it be revealed to us where the Divine is dwelling in those places in our lives where we forgot to be welcoming.
May we be taken to the places where we are moving toward change and deeper relationship with the Divine in all people
May we believe in the possibility of resurrecting what has been hidden in our path to growth
May we shake free whatever keeps us from accepting the invitation to be transformed
May our faith be strengthened, our hope cultivated, and our love widened
May we be drawn into the stillness essential for an alive and open awareness of the Divine Presence
May we be kept mindful of the large world one in urgent need of our compassion and dedicated care
May we be a healing presence for those who suffer and those for whom we have promised to pray
Restoring Awareness from Prayer Seeds Joyce Rupp pg 15 (adapted)
Called to be Transfigured
A reflection given by Karen Murphy to the Sophia community on 03/08/2020, adapted.
Today is the Transfiguration: And up on that mountain Scripture tells us “before their eyes, Jesus was transfigured — his face becoming as dazzling as the sun and his clothes as radiant as light.”
Let’s look at that word “transfigured,” which is the word used in all English translations. It’s from the 13th century, so not a word we use in everyday language. But when we look at the Greek of that verse in Matthew, we find that the word is metamorphosis. Now here’s word we can breakdown. The idea of metamorphosis is a big one in Ignatian spirituality, and what it means is that not only does something appear to be different, but in fact, structurally, cellularly, it is different. That a transformation has occurred that is so profound that the organism is literally a different being.
When Jesus was “transfigured” before their eyes, it wasn’t just that on that day he looked different to them, it was that a lifetime of work and service to God’s people changed him, changed his humanity so that there was no darkness in him to be seen. He was made new, in and through and by his life.
I think this is good news for us. What if, what if, the Transfiguration was never about Jesus? What if the Transfiguration, which is a moment of pause that takes place between healing and preaching and teaching and kindness and generosity and compassion – what if that moment of metamorphosis is inevitable in anyone who lives this path the best they can? What if any of us who choose the path of light and righteousness and service become transfigured before others? That our work of teaching, healing, serving changes us ontologically, and literally transforms how we are perceived by others – as being dazzling like the sun. In their presence we perceive only light, and we hear the message, “this is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus’ work precipitated his transfiguration. When he was “transfigured” on that seventh day, is it possible that his transfiguration, his ontological change in that moment was not to enable him to do the work of love, but a result of having been doing the work of love the previous six days? The previous 33 years?
And if this is possible, then we can all have great hope that we can also be transfigured, undergo our own metamorphosis to become new women and men in the life we have in following Christ to love, serve, and help others; to stand for justice and live with compassion. The Transfiguration wasn’t about Jesus, or I should say, just about Jesus. It’s about the potential in all of us to move toward that moment of grace in which our lives are so aligned with God’s intent and purpose of love, that others, looking at us, will only see spirits that dazzle like the sun.
Inspired Words
2nd Reading Louise M
Could you wander for forty years if it meant freedom? If you listen, you can still hear them groaning — they who were rescued, only to find that freedom is never so easily won. That liberation is a path marked by uncertainty and thirst and grief over all that was lost in the revolution. In Exodus, we are faced with a God of slow rescue. When the struggle of the wilderness became apparent, even the Israelites themselves began to pine for the bondage of Pharaoh. How fierce the grip of certainty — to know with clarity what is to come, however terrible and lonesome that fate might be.
Perhaps God knew that part of liberation is confronting anything you might hunger for more than it. Will you cry out longing for the chains that once held you? The wilderness is uncharted, and humans are prone to willful amnesia. We’d rather forget and return to bondage than remember and wade in the unknown. We grow numb.
Assata Shakur wrote, “People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows …. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” And the freer one gets, the more their hunger for liberation loudens. All the false appetites that spoke over this chief desire begin to quiet.
How does your hunger sound? What are the whispers of desire that drive you?
For forty days leading to the remembrance of the death of Christ, we commit to remembering our chains. We make our home in the wilderness – in the liminal spaces where liberation has begun but sorrow and hunger remain. In this season, we choose
solidarity with all who are suffering — the displaced, the abused, the oppressed and neglected.
Many of us have been trained to believe Lent is about solidarity with Christ alone. But Christ’s forty days in the desert mirror the forty years the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness after being rescued from slavery. The two journeys remind us that the wilderness can be both solitary and communal. That it can defy both the systems and powers of the exterior world, and the despair of one’s interior world. And that these were two physical desert journeys speaks to a necessarily embodied liberation.
As we move in solidarity, we remind ourselves presence is not solidarity. Knowledge is not solidarity. Solidarity is the kind of unity that costs us something. And we choose a form for our fasting that is not about the self, but about those who are most vulnerable. And for those who are suffering and in need, we must grab hold of a charity to self and take a posture of receiving. Lent shifts the scales of the cosmos back toward a balance of provision and justice. In Lent, there are those of us who will position our souls toward sacrifice, and some who will rightfully receive what has been kept from them. Every role holy and necessary for the healing of all.
So, despite prevalent teachings, the question of this sacred season is not, “What food are you giving up for Lent?” It is, “What practice of solidarity with the suffering are you choosing?” Or, “What needs do you need met this Lent?” We honor the complexity of hunger and desire, and we find ourselves liberated into a season not rooted in scarcity, but in justice, healing, and the welfare of those who have long awaited their portion.
Inspired Words
from the book Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley
Psalm Maryann
Who Lights the Stars
music/lyrics by Michael Singer, arranged ,produced and performed by Kathy Zavada video edited by James Mylenek Sr.
https://youtu.be/5jF_YWsM4SI stop at 4:00
Who lights the stars at night?
Who shines the sun?
To this one I give my life
Till my days are done.
to this one i give my heart
till we merge as one.
Who lights the stars at night?
Who shines the sun?
Who lights the stars?
Who shines the sun?
Who beats my heart?
Who is this one?
3rd Reading Colleen
The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But transformation, the mystery we’re examining, more often happens not when something new begins but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart–chaos–invites the soul to listen at a deeper level. It invites and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place because the old place is falling apart. Otherwise, most of us would never go to new places. The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, darkness, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is, it does not feel good and it does not feel like God. You will do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart. This is when you need patience, guidance, and the freedom to let go instead of tightening your controls and certitudes.
Transformation usually includes a disconcerting reorientation. Change can either help people to find a new meaning, or it can cause people to close down and turn bitter. The difference is determined by the quality of your inner life, what we call your “spirituality.” Change of itself just happens; but spiritual transformation must become an actual process of letting go, living in the confusing dark space for a while, and allowing yourself to be spit up on a new and unexpected shore. You can see why Jonah in the belly of the whale is such an important symbol for many Jews and Christians.
In the moments of insecurity and crisis, “shoulds” and “oughts” don’t really help; they just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding. It’s the deep yeses that carry you through. Focusing on something you absolutely believe in, that you’re committed to, will help you wait it out. Love wins over guilt any day. It is sad that we settle for the short-run effectiveness of shaming people instead of the long-term life benefits of grace-filled transformation. But we are a culture of progress and efficiency, impatient with gradual growth. God’s way of restoring things interiorly is much more patient–and finally more effective. God lets Jonah run in the wrong direction, but finds a long, painful, circuitous path to get him back where he needs to be–and almost entirely in spite of himself! Looking in this rear-view mirror fills you with gratitude for God’s work in your life.
Inspired words
Richard Rohr’s Meditation: Change as a Catalyst for Transformation. 6/30/2016
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Tom & Joanne Kyritz
Our response will be: May Divine Light Shine Through Us.
Transfiguration itself refers to a change in form or appearance, and the root, transfigure, simply means “to transform into something more beautiful or elevated,” so transfiguration is a specific form of transformation. This Lent, may we transform ourselves into more spiritual, or more spiritually aware, followers of Jesus’ message. And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
May we as a society recognize the inequities and injustices that come from our lifestyle. May society be transformed so that it respects all human life, all plant and animal life and the earth, our home. And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
Transformation usually includes a disconcerting reorientation. When something old falls apart, may we recognize the Divine’s presence. And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
Sister Joan Chittister says, “Transformation in any of us calls the rest of us to transformation. Change changes everybody. Relationships shift. Expectations alter. Insight deepens. We begin to see as we have never seen before.” And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
Lent is not about self-mortification or denial; it is a time to enter the desert, which means the willingness to reexplore those attachments that derail our soul’s growth, driving us through life without awareness of our true motivations. And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity and our sisters and brothers in FCM, Voice of the Faithful and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus. And we respond: May Divine Light Shine Through Us
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
It is long past time for us to let the LIGHT transfigure us. May we not be afraid. For it is fear itself which destroys life. May Divine LIGHT shine forth in, with, through, and beyond us, so that each of us might be transfigured into the fullness of all that we are created to be. We pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and Wine Linda S
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer for Black History Month Mike & Geri Moran
| P. We gather today mindful of the quest for freedom that cries out in the heart and soul of every woman and man. A quest that is fierce with resolve and will not end until freedom is won for all. | Voice: From the time of Moses, people enslaved others for profit and gain. When Israel was in Egypt’s land, the Israelites were oppressed so hard they could not stand. Let my people go! |
| P: Four hundred years ago, on the shores of the new-found land which became America, people were once again enslaved for profit and gain. Let my people go! | Voice: On the backs of these women and men this country was built. Let my people go! No consideration, no justice, no mercy for them. Let my people go! |
| P: A war began that tore a country apart. The Emancipation Proclamation brought a degree of freedom but injustice and greed still persisted. Let my people go! | Voice: New ways of indignities and injustices were invented: Jim Crow, Whites Only, Segregation and Red Lining. Let my people go! |
| P: And yet, in spite of all this, women and men of color have produced so many beautiful and meaningful creations. We thank: Dr. Shirley Jackson for fiber-optic cable, Lewis Latimer for carbon filament (inner light bulb), Marie Van Brittan Brown for closed-circuit television security, Otis Boykin for the pacemaker, Lonnie Johnson for the Super Soaker and thermoelectric energy converters, Charles Drew for the blood bank, Marian Croak for Voice over IP, Lisa Gelobter for animated Gifs on the web, Philip Emeagwali – a drop out, for the world’s fastest computer, Jesse Wilkins, Jr, for the math behind gamma radiation, Garrett Morgan for the gas mask and the traffic signal, Mary and Mildred Davidson for women’s feminine products and the walker and Onesimus & Cotton Mather for the method that would eventually become vaccinations against infectious diseases. Appreciating these contributions as just a few among many, we pray recognizing the worth of all, and being grateful to learn what was never deemed important enough to include in our educational experiences. | Voice: We pray, recognizing our true worth, and our understanding of what it means to be human. No longer unworthy exiles, we are people with a glorious cosmic history, with great responsibility, and a noble destiny. Along with everything else in the universe, we are on a journey beyond our imagining. |
| P: We remember Jesus. He challenged us to confront any influence within us, any social, family, religious or cultural influence, that prevents us from recognizing the power within us and within all people – the power of love; a power that could join all people as one in their common dream of a better humanity. | Voice: So we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and give thanks for the wonder of the Divine in, and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, and compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus. |
| P: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of the Holy One. | Voice: Our prayer is that Justice Rolls down like water. We have a Dream. That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all women and men are created equal.” |
| P: We have a dream that people of color will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. | Voice: We have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. |
| P: This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. | Voice: From every mountainside, let freedom ring! |
| P: To wherever the Spirit of Life and Love may lead us we give our, Amen. |
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Sue B
Radiant One: you shine within us, outside us —
even darkness shines—when we remember.
Focus your light within us, make it useful:
as the rays of a beacon show the way.
Create your reign of unity now
through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Let all wills move together in your vortex,
as stars and planets swirl through the sky.
Give us the food we need to grow through each day,
through each illumination of life’s needs.
Forgive our hidden past, the secret shames,
as we constantly forgive what others hide.
Help us not forget our Source,
yet free us from not being in the Present.
Out of you the astonishing fire, the birthing glory,
returning light and sound to the cosmos.
Truly—power to these statements—
may they be the ground from which all my actions grow:
Sealed in trust and faith.
From Giving Thanks With the Aramaic Jesus by Tom Leonhardt. Copyright 2002. (English Translation) page xvii
Prior to the Breaking of the Bread Mike
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus. Make us One Now.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Bill
Beautiful Instrumental Hymns, Peaceful Music, “A Hint of Spring Morning Sunrise” by Tim Janis
Closing Prayer Mike
We confess that we, as individuals and nations, have engaged in self-protection and delusion. Let this be a season when we reclaim the practice of telling the truth about our histories, that we would no longer shield ourselves and others from the harm we have caused by coddling our guilt and insecurity. Let our love be made of unapologetic truth-telling.
Let those of us who have been gaslit find our stories centered and affirmed in this season. May we be guided toward spaces that have grown weary of delusions, desiring to see the world for what it is, in all its complexities, beauties, tragedies, and oppression and as we cultivate honest communities, let our healing and liberation rise to meet us. Amen
Sending Forth Song Maryann
This Little Light of Mine by ODETTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2kDsqGeoLU up to 3:40
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
Ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
Ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
All in my room
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, all in my room
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
All in my room
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
Announcements
First Sunday of Lent and Black History Month 2024
1st Sunday of Lent and Black History Month; – February 18, 2024
Theme: Metanoia, Leadership, Giving up Blinding Perspectives
We pray for those individuals in need (please be brief) Mike
Gathering Song Mike
Civil Rights Music Video “We Shall overcome” by Peter Seeger
Wisdom Bowl Maryann
Opening Prayer Mike
As we reflect on the resilience of the Black community during Black History Month, we seek guidance. May we have the insight to understand the challenges faced, and the strength to appreciate the resilience displayed. May this liturgy lead to greater empathy and unity. Amen.
From Prayers for Life website (adapted)
Reading 1 Linda Schaller
A reading of the Gospel in the tradition of Mark (Mk 1:12-1)
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Inspired Words
Psalm Mike
Sweet Honey in the Rock performs, “Give Love”
Reading 2 Colleen Walsh White
By Krieg Published On: January 29, 2024
In about three weeks, spring will have arrived in areas of the US, the Super Bowl will be a game of the past, folks will be recovering from Mardi Gras, and some people will have ashes on their foreheads to mark the first day of a season called Lent. We can pretty much guess that the ashes symbolize mortality- ashes to ashes-, but Lent, what’s that about?
According to the gospels, when Jesus was baptized by John, he heard a voice come out of heaven affirming his mission from God, and he left John the Baptist and went into the wilderness for forty days and nights, where “the angels ministered to him” and where the devil tempted him.
Although fundamentalists will accept all this at face value, the story is symbolic but not historical. When Jesus left John after being baptized by him, he set off on his mission accompanied by some friends who were also former disciples of John, and he or they no doubt reflected upon their move. Having decided on a course of itinerant action he travelled about teaching and preaching God’s love and justice, and those who heard and followed were captivated by Jesus’ charisma. They got to see who he was. One of the key ingredients in their encounter with him was that he was not egocentric, he did not insist on his own way, he had no box into which he tried to force reality. A story -that of the temptation in the wilderness- came to be describing how he continually refused the temptation to impose his will on others,- no matter how pure. Think of what the devil throws at him. “You’re hungry. Command these stones to become bread. You want the world to see God’s power. Throw yourself off a high place so that God can save you. You want all the world to do God’s will. Make them! …and bow down to me.”
What do these temptations represent? They embody the inclination to make the world as I want it to be. When Jesus encountered people he listened, he understood, he led along a path they could follow. He did not command or impose or insist that others lived according to his prescription. His charismatic self showed others what they could be and invited them to become what at heart they already were. And so his followers created a story to show that side of Jesus, a story about how he refused the temptation to impose his perception on others, instead inviting them to see reality in a new and non-egocentric way.
That’s what Lent is all about. Historically, the essence of the season is self-denial, based on the idea that Jesus was denied earthly comforts while in the desert, and therefore so should we. What we understand now is that what Jesus denied himself was the egocentricity that seems to develop as life moves along, accompanied by the invitation to follow him in denying that egocentricity in our own lives. Lent is not about giving up chocolate. It’s about uncovering the blindness in our perception and being open to what others have to share with us. The irony is that when we give up our narrow and blinding perspective, a whole new world is opened to us and life becomes expansive and joyful.
This is not an exercise for Christians only. The Buddha also knew. Life is suffering, he said, and the cause of suffering is desire. When we desire, consciously or unconsciously, to have the world be according to our self- contained perception, we suffer, because reality refuses to be confined and distorted according to our ego, and we feel that refusal. The message from Jesus and the Buddha is clear: leave your cave, walk into the light, experience life anew. Whether we be Christian or Buddhist, agnostic or atheist, Lent is a good time to renew our unfolding process.
Inspired words
Homily Mike
Prayers of the People Teri Corso
We search for meaning, understanding and purpose in this wider world, as we do so, we make these desires known.
After each statement there will be a meditative silence (pause 5 seconds)
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in all houses of worship….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism at every level of government…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in our healthcare industry…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism at every level of education…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in our judiciary…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in our law enforcement agencies…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in our prison system…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in every branch of our military…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism at every level of sport…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in business…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the wage gap…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the wealth gap…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in theater….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the music industry….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the entertainment industry…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the renting of apartments and houses….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the buying and selling of homes…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in our pharmaceutical industry….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in the media….
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in hiring practices….
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus…
Let us pray for an end to systemic racism in those areas not mentioned here and you may say aloud….
As we search to find who we are in this world and to find our meaning and purpose, we are secure in the knowledge that there are many people like us who share our dreams and goals to form a better humanity to bring peace, harmony and justice. Amen.
Sharing Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread Margie McFadden
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
Prayer over the Wine
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer for Black History Month Mike & Kathy Schiro
| P: We gather today mindful of the quest for freedom that cries out in the heart and soul of every woman and man. A quest that is fierce with resolve and will not end until freedom is won for all. | Voice: From the time of Moses, people enslaved others for profit and gain. When Israel was in Egypt’s land, the Israelites were oppressed so hard they could not stand. Let my people go! |
| P: Four hundred years ago, on the shores of the new-found land which became America, people were once again enslaved for profit and gain. Let my people go! | Voice: On the backs of these women and men this country was built. Let my people go! No consideration, no justice, no mercy for them. Let my people go! |
| P: A war began that tore a country apart. The Emancipation Proclamation brought a degree of freedom but injustice and greed still persisted. Let my people go! | Voice: New ways of indignities and injustices were invented: Jim Crow, Whites Only, Segregation and Red Lining. Let my people go! |
| P: And yet, in spite of all this, women and men of color have produced so many beautiful and meaningful creations. We thank Dr. Shirley Jackson for fiber-optic cable, Lewis Latimer for carbon filament (inner light bulb), Marie Van Brittan Brown for closed-circuit television security, Otis Boykin for the pacemaker, Lonnie Johnson for the Super Soaker and thermoelectric energy converters, Charles Drew for the blood bank, Marian Croak for Voice over Internet Protocol, Lisa Gelobter for animated Gifs on the web, Philip Emeagwali – a drop out, for the world’s fastest computer, Jesse Wilkins, Jr, for the math behind gamma radiation, Garrett Morgan for the gas mask and the traffic signal, and Mary and Mildred Davidson for women’s feminine products and the walker, and Onesimus & Cotton Mather for the method that would eventually become vaccinations against infectious diseases. Appreciating these contributions as just a few among many, we pray recognizing the worth of all, and being grateful to learn what was never deemed important enough to include in our educational experiences. | Voice: We pray, recognizing our true worth, and our understanding of what it means to be human. No longer unworthy exiles, we are people with a glorious cosmic history, with great responsibility, and a noble destiny. Along with everything else in the universe, we are on a journey beyond our imagining. |
| P: We remember Jesus. He challenged us to confront any influence within us, any social, family, religious or cultural influence, that prevents us from recognizing the power within us and within all people – the power of love; a power that could join all people as one in their common dream of a better humanity. | Voice: So we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and give thanks for the wonder of the Divine in, and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, and compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus. |
| P: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of the Holy One. | Voice: Our prayer is that Justice Rolls down like water. We have a Dream. That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all women and men are created equal.” |
| P: We have a dream that people of color will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. | Voice: We have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. |
| P: This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. | Voice: From every mountainside, let freedom ring! |
| P: To wherever the Spirit of Life and Love may lead us we give our, Amen. |
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Geri Moran
The Lord’s Prayer – from the original Aramaic
O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your “I Can” now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
Amen!
May our future actions grow from here!
© 1995 – Neil Douglas-Klotz – Desert Wisdom
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Mike
Duke Ellington: Single Petal of a Rose
Mike will advance a slideshow of Black Inventors.
Closing Prayer Mike
In our efforts to dismantle racism, we understand that we struggle not merely against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities – those institutions and systems that keep racism alive by perpetuating the lie that some members of the family are inferior and others superior.
May we have a new mind and heart that will enable us to see sisters and brothers in the faces of those divided by racial categories.
May we have the grace and strength to rid ourselves of racial stereotypes that oppress some of us while providing entitlements to others.
May we create houses of worship and a nation that embraces the hopes and fears of oppressed people of color where we live, as well as those around the world.
May we heal the human family, and make us one with the Divine and all people. Amen.Pax Christi (adapted)
Sending Forth Song Mike
Sweet Honey In The Rock – Ella’s Song
Announcements
Celebrating Sister Thea Bowman
Be Courageous and Speak Truth to Power
February 11, 2024
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/aGpolr1PRUAehtS79pWZkw2Vcl4xTr0RbZOHzA5TqYHz9eoBSNpMH8uamef5sLY_.5sZe7vkqC_23KDps?startTime=1707663609000
We Pray for Others Mike
Introduction
Sister Thea Bowman and Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes 5/3/87
START THE VIDEO AT 40 SECONDS IN [13 minutes]
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
Sister Thea Bowman was filled with an ardent love for all people, a love expressed through her indomitable spirit, deep and abiding faith, dedicated teaching, exuberant singing, and unwavering witnessing of the joy of the Gospel.
May her prophetic witness continue to inspire us to share the Good News with those whom we encounter, most especially the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. May Sister Thea’s life and legacy compel us to walk together and to pray together.
May we be filled with Sister Thea’s grace and perseverance. For in turbulent times of racial injustice, she sought equity, peace, and reconciliation. In times of intolerance and ignorance, she brought wisdom, awareness, unity, and charity. In times of pain, sickness, and suffering, she taught us how to live fully until our time on this earth is over. Amen.
Adapted from the prayer for her canonization
First Reading Spot Two voices alternate reading the quotes.
Judy and Dave
Words of Inspiration from Thea Bowman
Slideshow of Quotes – Marie will advance the slides
- God is present in everything. In the universe, in creation, in me, and all that happens to me, in my brothers and sisters, in the church – everywhere.
- Remember who you are and whose you are.
- I try to make sense of life. I try to keep myself open to people and to laughter, and to love, and to have faith.
- I know that God is using me in ways beyond my comprehension.
- I think the difference between me and some people is that I’m content to do my little bit. Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change. But if each one would light a candle, we’d have a tremendous light.
- God has given me the grace to see some of the seeds that I have sown bear good fruit, and I am so grateful.
- I find that when I am involved in the business of life, when I’m working with people, particularly children, I feel better. A kind of strength and energy comes with that.
- I know that suffering gives us new perspectives and helps us to clarify our real value. I know that suffering has helped me to clarify my relationships. . . Perhaps suffering stops us in our tracks and forces us to confront what is real within ourselves and in our environment.
- Part of my approach to my illness has been to say I want to choose life, I want to keep going, I want to live fully until I die.
Gospel Spot Marie
Thea Bowman – What Does It Mean to Be Black and Catholic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6pBrBOawII&list=RDTT5Yv97zF-Q&start_radio=1 [4.26 minutes]
Homily Bill Stevens
Prayer of the People Joanne and Tom Kyritz
We lift up our prayers in confidence knowing that we stand united with Sister Thea Bowman.
Our response will be: Let justice flow like a river.
For the citizens and leaders of the global community, may they enact policies that uphold the dignity and equality of all people, that ensure a sustainable and equitable distribution of our resources to advance the common good, we pray: Let justice flow like a river.
For an end to systemic racism: that we may reform and rebuild all our institutions – policing, education, healthcare, housing, politics, and economics – with justice and love as our guide. And for reconciliation and reparation for centuries of violence and oppression against People of Color, we pray: Let justice flow like a river.
For us gathered today: that we may honestly seek to understand ourselves and others, as well as the ways we benefit from privilege and power, that we may be allies who confront bias and prejudice in ourselves and one another, we pray: Let justice flow like a river.
For those marginalized, especially young women of color: that they may be emboldened by the witness of Sister Thea Bowman to embrace their wholeness, to lift up their voices, and to claim their rightful place in our midst, as they seek to respond to the Spirit within guiding them, we pray: Let justice flow like a river.
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, and for our sisters and brothers in Voice of the Faithful, FCM, and RAMP, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus…we pray…
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
We pray with confidence that these petitions and those unspoken concerns and needs deep within each of us will be heard and answered with loving compassion. Amen.
Adapted from Future Church’s Witnessing for Racial Justice Prayer Service in
The Sister Thea Bowman Resource Packet, page 40
Sign of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and the Wine Linda Schaller
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer for Black History Month (modified)Mike & Tom Schaller
Presider: We gather today mindful of the quest for freedom that cries out in the heart and soul of every woman and man. A quest that is fierce with resolve and will not end until freedom is won for all.
Voice: From the time of Moses, people enslaved others for profit and gain.
When Israel was in Egypt’s land, the Israelites were oppressed so hard they could not stand. Let my people go!
P: Four hundred years ago, on the shores of the new-found land which became America, people were once again enslaved for profit and gain. Let my people go!
Voice: On the backs of these women and men this country was built. Let my people go! No consideration, no justice, no mercy for them. Let my people go!
P: A war began that tore a country apart. The Emancipation Proclamation brought a degree of freedom but injustice and greed still persisted. Let my people go!
Voice: New ways of indignities and injustices were invented: Jim Crow, Whites Only, Segregation and Red Lining. Let my people go!
P: And yet, in spite of all this, women and men of color have produced so many beautiful and meaningful creations. We thank Dr. Shirley Jackson for fiber-optic cable, Lewis Latimer for carbon filament (inner light bulb), Marie Van Brittan Brown for closed-circuit television security, Otis Boykin for the pacemaker, Lonnie Johnson for the Super Soaker and thermoelectric energy converters, Charles Drew for the blood bank, Marian Croak for Voice over Internet Protocol, Lisa Gelobter for animated Gifs on the web, Philip Emeagwali – a drop out, for the world’s fastest computer, Jesse Wilkins, Jr, for the math behind gamma radiation, Garrett Morgan for the gas mask and the traffic signal. Mary and Mildred Davidson for women’s feminine products and the walker. Onesimus and Cotton Mather for the method that would eventually become vaccinations against infectious diseases. Appreciating these contributions as just a few among many, we pray recognizing the worth of all, and being grateful to learn what was never deemed important enough to include in our educational experiences.
Voice: We remember Jesus. He challenged us to confront any influence within us, any social, family, religious or cultural influence, that prevents us from recognizing the power within us and within all people – the power of love; a power that could join all people as one in their common dream of a better humanity.
P: So we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and give thanks for the wonder of the Divine in, and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, and compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus.
Voice: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of the Divine.
P: Our prayer is that Justice Rolls down like water. We have a Dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all women and men are created equal.”
Voice: We have a dream that people of color will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
P: We have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight.
Voice: This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
P: From every mountainside, let freedom ring! Amen.
By Michael Corso
Prayer of Jesus Spot Florence Noctor
An Act of Commitment to Racial Justice
We stand in the shadow of the prophets crying out for justice and peace. We are called to be a people of reconciliation, serving a country in need. Courageous women and men have taken the risk of standing up and speaking out for the least and the lowest. This work involves risking ourselves for the sake of love and moving beyond ourselves in order to serve one another. We are all called to the work and ministry of social justice and reconciliation.
The response to each question will be I will.
Will you proclaim the good news of reconciliation in both word and deed? I will.
Will you acknowledge and address the prejudices that keep you from loving all persons? I will.
Will you strive to see Jesus in all persons, and value those with whom you disagree? I will.
Will you seek to mend what is broken by greed and inequities? I will.
Will you strive to speak words that liberate, heal and break the bonds of silence about racism throughout our country? I will.
Will you work toward dismantling the abuse of power? I will.
May we be empowered to continue the work of reconciliation. May we have the courage to overcome our fears and embody love for all. May we have the grace to grow in self-awareness of our white privilege and may we use our personal integrity to work for racial justice and equity in our neighborhoods and throughout our country. Amen.
Inspired by the Act of Commitment to Racial Justice in
Liturgical Resources for Black History Month
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we knew you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Presider: We gather together this morning and every Sunday to remember Jesus and his teachings. We come to be nourished spiritually, so we eat and drink bread and wine in his memory.
Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our willingness to follow Jesus.
When sharing the bread, say: “This is and you are the bread of life.”
Once everyone has the bread.
Presider: With great joy, we state.
We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup, say: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie slides and music
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child – sung by Thea Bowman on the CD Songs of My People – The Complete Collection – Disk 1 #3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT5Yv97zF-Q [3.17 minutes]
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
A long way from home,
Margie: start to lower the sound here and stop at 1.23.
a long way from my home.
Closing Prayer Mike
Our closing prayer is from the conclusion of Sister Thea Bowman’s address to the Catholic bishops in June 1989 at Seton Hall University where she spoke to them as a sister having a “heart to heart” conversation with her brothers.
May her hope become our prayer.
Today we’re called to walk together in new ways and to celebrate who we are and whose we aren’t.
If we walk and talk and work and play together and stand together in Jesus’ name – we will be who we say we are – truly followers of Jesus and we shall overcome – overcome the poverty – overcome the loneliness – overcome the alienation – and build together a holy city, a new Jerusalem, a city set apart where they’ll know that we are here because we love one another. Amen.
Adapted from Future Church’s Witnessing for Racial Justice Prayer Service in
The Sister Thea Bowman Resource Packet, pages 40-41
First Sunday of Black History Month 2024
1st Sunday of Black History Month; 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 4, 2024
Theme: Accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope
We pray for those individuals in need (please mute yourself)Mike
Opening Song Margie
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder
Introduction Margie
As we begin Black History Month, we think about the song Ebony and Ivory, sung by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney in 1982. What a beautiful image – the black and white keys of the piano truly exist in “harmony.” It seems like it should be so simple. Yet, here we are over 40 years later and we wonder if things have improved. We can certainly feel disappointed by the pace of change … sometimes a little forward, but then always backwards as well.
With our theme this morning, “Accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,” taken from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we will look at reasons for hope in race relationships. And in all honesty, this started out with a “pollyannaish” desire & need for good news.
But our readings and prayers, all written by people of color, point to a hope that is far from flowers and rainbows. This hope is difficult, hard-won, and comes from a place deep inside of human beings who have experienced great hardship and struggle. May their determination to go on, move forward, and never stop hoping, teach and inspire us as we do all that we can to live as antiracist allies.
Wisdom Bowl Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
Today’s opening prayer is modified from “Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me,” by Howard Thurman from “Meditations of the Heart”.
I open myself and share …light for darkness
I open myself and share … courage for fear
I open myself and share … hope for despair
I open myself and share … peace for turmoil
I open myself and share … joy for sorrow
I open myself and share … strength for weakness
I open myself and share … wisdom for confusion
I open myself and share … forgiveness for sins
I open myself and share … tenderness for toughness
I open myself and share … love for hates
I open myself, recognizing the Divine within
…and my connection to the whole human family.
We learn to live, when we learn to give
each other what we need to survive, together alive.
May it be so.
Reading 1 Margie
Hope Is a Woman Who Has Lost Her Fear by Alice Walker
Inspired words
Reading 2 Sue
MLK and the Limitless Legacy of Hope
modified from an article by James Peterson 1/12/2024
Hope is infinite. In one of his writings from shortly before his death, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. advised us that “we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” This is King-as-Preacher, ministering to the congregation of humanity, delivering a salve for what ailed us then and, of course, what ails us now.
These days, the disappointments feel infinite. How then, can we talk about hope in this moment and in this time of critical crises at home and abroad?
This is where the power of infinite hope kicks in. King’s words about finite disappointment and infinite hope compel us to take his directive as a whole. These words are a bifurcated rhetorical model, one through which we can wrestle with disappointment — accept disappointments at some point — but … and the “but” in the aforementioned King quote is doing yeoman’s work here. That acceptance is inextricably linked to an infinite reservoir of hope available to all of us.
Hope is not a commodity. It is the essence of the optimistic energy accessible to us in our times of need. Hope is at the ready to motivate us through and beyond the mundane disappointments that too often threaten to overwhelm us. We will not be overwhelmed.
Our hope that things can get better — that things will be better — is embarrassing sometimes. Many people feel hopeful and don’t always (or ever) want to show it. And still others would rather center on the disappointments, ad infinitum. It is so much easier to talk about everything that’s wrong with the world than it is to do something about it. This is why the MAGA mentality is so compelling to a certain segment of the American electorate. The acronym — Make America Great Again — represents a statement of faux hope that America might return to a mythological greatness that Dr. King dedicated his life to deconstructing. The MAGA slogan represents those who truck almost exclusively in grievance culture, a hopeless political enterprise designed to feed off of pain, anger, and racial resentment. The truth is that America wasn’t ever that great for a whole lot of Americans through much of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
In Dr. King’s “Other America” speech he said, “[t]here are two Americas. One America is beautiful … But there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this other America, thousands and thousands of people … walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. In this other America, millions of people are forced to live in vermin-filled, distressing housing conditions …” This is King-as-Professor. But like a preacher, he makes it plain: “The most critical problem in the other America is the economic problem.” This is true even today. As of late last year, 66.6 percent of the total wealth in America was owned and controlled by 10 percent of the richest families and corporations in this country.
In “A Proper Sense of Priorities,” a speech that King delivered less than two months before he was assassinated, his critical assessment of America was on full display. “I need not go into a long discussion about the [Vietnam] war and its damaging effects. We all know.” he said to an audience of thousands in 1968. This is King-as-Prophet. “We live in a nation that is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. And any nation that spends almost $80 billion of its annual budget for defense channeled through the Pentagon and hands out a pittance here and there for social uplift, is moving towards its own spiritual doom …. We’ve played havoc with the destiny of the world … Somewhere we must make it clear that we are concerned about the survival of the world …”
King-as-Prophet is probably the King we will continue to hear less and less of, but we should not confuse this deliberate cover-up with the enduring truth of Dr. King’s critique of this nation. Late last year, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. This act allocates $816.7 billion for the defense budget. The United States spends more on defense than any other nation in the world. Meanwhile, 12 percent of our fellow Americans live in poverty; we boast the largest prison population in the world; have the highest infant and maternal mortality rate among developed countries — especially among Black Americans; and one in five children here go hungry. The criticisms of America brought by King-as-Prophet continue to ring true. Our priorities are hopelessly out of alignment with our humanity.
Most people will likely associate Rev. King’s sense of hope with his most widely-quoted (and truncated/edited) “I Have A Dream” speech. Far fewer will reference King’s much less popular “Unfulfilled Hopes” speech, a sermon that predates King’s hopeful “I Have a Dream” message by nearly a decade.
In “Unfulfilled Hopes” King says, “We discover in our lives, soon or later, that all pain is never relieved. We discover, soon or later, that all hopes are never realized. We come to the point of seeing that no matter how long we pray for them sometimes, and no matter how long we cry out for a solution to our problems, no matter how much we desire it, we don’t get the answer.”
This is King-as-Preacher, again. He connects with the congregation of humanity through a transparent analysis of our “shattered dreams.” But he won’t allow the hopelessness of his message to outstrip the power of hope itself. Later in the sermon, Minister King points to the concept of the “dynamic will,” a concept he borrows from Deep River, by the great and influential theologian Howard Thurman. In his sermon, King defines the dynamic will as existing in “the individual who stands up in his circumstances and stands up amid the problem, faces the fact that his hopes are unfulfilled. And then he says, “I have one thing left. Life has beaten it down; it has broken away from me many things, sometimes my physical body. But at least it has left me with a will, and I will assert this, and I refuse to be stopped.”
The vast valley of difference between “I Have a Dream” and “Unfulfilled Hopes/Shattered Dreams” is a critical chasm across which we are all called to continuously revisit Dr. King’s rhetorical mastery and the many ways that his thinking about this world (and the next) evolves through his work, and evidences itself in his words over time. The power of this critical exegesis of King’s work is that it directly confronts the naivete of any sanitized versions of King’s legacy in perpetuity. King’s vision for infinite hope was not naïve; it was cultivated in the cauldron of conflicting conceptualizations of hope — hope unfulfilled and hope infinite.
Understanding King in these complicated ways should give all of us hope. His is a limitless legacy of hope bestowed upon us in ways that challenge us to embody all of its infinite potential. But —and here I hope my “but” can do the work of King’s, “but” – hope in both its infinite and unfulfilled meanings, ultimately requires us to act.
Inspired words
Psalm Margie
Those Who Dream by The Many
Reading 3 Kathy
Opinion: ‘Origin’ brilliantly exposes America’s caste system. Here’s how we tear it down modified from an opinion by Keith Magee, CNN January 20, 2024
I know it will take a long time to deconstruct race. However, there are reasons for optimism. Among Black Americans, attitudes to race are evolving. Although most Black adults in the US still see their racial identity as being important or extremely important to how they think about themselves, young Black Americans are less likely than their older peers to say this. I suspect this trend will continue, as identity becomes an increasingly complex mix of factors, including ancestry, economic status, faith and sexuality.
At the same time, the racial makeup of the US is changing. According to the 2020 census data the proportion of people who identify as non-Hispanic White is in decline. The good news is, most Americans don’t actually think this matters — the majority of adults (including, significantly, 62% of White people) now see this demographic change as being neither good nor bad for society. So maybe, as we begin to redefine and expand the intersecting communities to which we feel we belong, rather than the castes to which we are assigned, race is gradually losing its hold over us.
I hope DuVernay’s powerful movie will inspire everyone who sees it to defy racism. I would urge you to go and watch “Origin,” then walk out of that movie theater determined to make a connection with someone who is not considered to be of what society could consider to be your caste. Listen to their stories, learn about their aspirations, look for the things you have in common.
If we each do that on a regular basis, we will eventually sweep away the rotten social structures that have divided us for far too long. Together, we can fix up this country, just as Wilkerson fixes up her old house in the movie, by building new foundations based on true equality, empathy and love.
It’s never too late. Every single one of us has skin in the game, for, as Wilkerson points out, the caste system diminishes us all, wherever we may sit in its fabricated hierarchy.
Inspired words
Homily Mike
Shared Homily All
Prayers of the People Linda K & Maryann
Linda K: Litany for Those Not Ready for Healing by Dr. Yolanda Pierce
Let us not rush to the language of healing, before understanding the fullness of the injury and the depth of the wound.
Let us not rush to offer a bandaid, when the gaping wound requires surgery and complete reconstruction.
Let us not offer false equivalencies, thereby diminishing the particular pain being felt in a particular circumstance in a particular historical moment.
Let us not speak of reconciliation without speaking of reparations and restoration, or how we can repair the breach and how we can restore the loss.
Let us not rush past the loss of this mother’s child, this father’s child…someone’s beloved son.
Let us not value property over people; let us not protect material objects while human lives hang in the balance.
Let us not value a false peace over a righteous justice.
Let us not be afraid to sit with the ugliness, the messiness, and the pain that is life in community together.
Let us not offer clichés to the grieving, those whose hearts are being torn asunder.
Instead…
Let us mourn Black and brown men and women, those killed extrajudicially every 28 hours.
Let us lament the loss of a teenager, dead at the hands of a police officer who described him as a demon.
Let us weep at a criminal justice system, which is neither blind nor just.
Let us call for the mourning men and the wailing women, those willing to rend their garments of privilege and ease, and sit in the ashes of this nation’s original sin.
Let us be silent when we don’t know what to say.
Let us be humble and listen to the pain, rage, and grief pouring from the lips of our neighbors and friends.
Let us decrease, so that our brothers and sisters who live on the underside of history may increase.
Let us listen to the shattering glass and let us smell the purifying fires, for it is the language of the unheard.
Let us pray with our eyes open and our feet firmly planted on the ground.
And as we turn to our own community and the whole world…
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester and for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, Voice of the Faithful, RAMP, and FCM… may they continue to allow hope to power their works of justice, we pray. (Allow prayerful silence)
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions, followed by prayerful silences.
May we allow ourselves to feel the pain and hurt, and have the humility to see our complicity in injustice. May we rouse ourselves from our indifference. May we speak out and not remain silent. May we dream fierce dreams. May we learn to accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Amen.
Sharing Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread Janet
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
Prayer over the Wine
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer for Black History MonthMike & Peter
Presider: We gather today mindful of the quest for freedom that cries out in the heart and soul of every woman and man. A quest that is fierce with resolve and will not end until freedom is won for all.
Voice: From the time of Moses, people enslaved others for profit and gain.
When Israel was in Egypt’s land, the Israelites were oppressed so hard they could not stand. Let my people go!
P: Four hundred years ago, on the shores of the new-found land which became America, people were once again enslaved for profit and gain. Let my people go!
Voice: On the backs of these women and men this country was built. Let my people go! No consideration, no justice, no mercy for them. Let my people go!
P: A war began that tore a country apart. The Emancipation Proclamation brought a degree of freedom but injustice and greed still persisted. Let my people go!
Voice: New ways of indignities and injustices were invented: Jim Crow, Whites Only, Segregation and Red Lining. Let my people go!
P: And yet, in spite of all this, women and men of color have produced so many beautiful and meaningful creations. We thank Dr. Shirley Jackson for fiber-optic cable, Lewis Latimer for carbon filament (inner light bulb), Marie Van Brittan Brown for closed-circuit television security, Otis Boykin for the pacemaker, Lonnie Johnson for the Super Soaker and thermoelectric energy converters, Charles Drew for the blood bank, Marian Croak for Voice over Internet Protocol, Lisa Gelobter for animated Gifs on the web, Philip Emeagwali – a drop out, for the world’s fastest computer, Jesse Wilkins, Jr, for the math behind gamma radiation, Garrett Morgan for the gas mask and the traffic signal, and Mary and Mildred Davidson for women’s feminine products and the walker, and Onesimus & Cotton Mather for the method that would eventually become vaccinations against infectious diseases. Appreciating these contributions as just a few among many, we pray recognizing the worth of all, and being grateful to learn what was never deemed important enough to include in our educational experiences.
Voice: We pray, recognizing our true worth, and our understanding of what it means to be human. No longer unworthy exiles, we are people with a glorious cosmic history, with great responsibility, and a noble destiny. Along with everything else in the universe, we are on a journey beyond our imagining.
P: We remember Jesus. He challenged us to confront any influence within us, any social, family, religious or cultural influence, that prevents us from recognizing the power within us and within all people – the power of love;
a power that could join all people as one in their common dream of a better humanity.
Voice: So we take this bread, as Jesus took bread, and give thanks for the wonder of the Divine in, and with us, and we eat, committing ourselves to love as Jesus loved, wholeheartedly, generously, and compassionately, so that people will see expressed in us what we have seen expressed in Jesus.
P: We take this wine, and we remember Jesus drinking wine with his friends. We drink, giving our “Yes” to being on earth the heart of the Holy One.
Voice: Our prayer is that Justice Rolls down like water. We have a Dream. That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all women and men are created equal.”
P: We have a dream that people of color will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Voice: We have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight.
P: This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
Voice: From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
P: To wherever the Spirit of Life and Love may lead us we give our, Amen.
Prayer of Jesus (Please pray along) Colleen
Our Prayer of Jesus this morning invites us to see the words and dreams of Jesus expressed in the poetry of Langston Hughes:
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom’s way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
Amen.
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Communion Mike
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Song Margie
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Closing Prayer Mike
“Seeds grow in the dark
Hope’s born in the dark
Dreams start in the dark
So don’t give up
Don’t give up, Don’t give up”
These words from “Those Who Dream” by The Many, remind us not to give up even when things seem dark. Despite disappointments, we can believe. Like Jesus, our guide and teacher, as well as many throughout history, may we hold on to infinite hope! Amen.
Closing Song Margie
Let Justice Rain by the Many
Announcements
Resources
I Dream a World by Langston Hughes
“Langson Hughes, the first Black American to earn his living solely from his writing and public lectures, lived his life as a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright and columnist. He is a renowned leader of the Harlem Renaissance.”
A Culture Where We All Belong
MLK AND THE LIMITLESS LEGACY OF HOPE BY JAMES PETERSON
Full article: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/mlk-limitless-legacy-of-hope/
Today’s closing prayer is by Howard Thurman from “Meditations of the Heart”.
Thurman was born in 1899 and raised in the segregated South. He is recognized as one of the great spiritual leaders of the 20th century renowned for his reflections on humanity and our relationship with God. Thurman was a prolific author (writing at least 20 books); perhaps the most famous is “Jesus and the Disinherited” (1949), which deeply influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Thurman was the first black person to be a tenured Dean at a PWI (predominantly white institution) Boston University. He cofounded the first interracially pastored, intercultural church in the United States.
Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me
Open unto me, light for my darkness
Open unto me, courage for my fear
Open unto me, hope for my despair
Open unto me, peace for my turmoil
Open unto me, joy for my sorrow
Open unto me, strength for my weakness
Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness
Open unto me, love for my hates
Open unto me, Thy Self for myself
Lord, Lord, open unto me!
Martin Luther King, Jr. on ‘Infinite Hope’
- HOLLY LEBOWITZ ROSSI
- 2 MIN READ
Today’s challenges should never stop us from imagining a better tomorrow.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke these words in a Washington, D.C., address in February 1968, just two months before he was assassinated in Memphis. They echo across the decades and endure as one of the most positive messages of the great civil rights leader’s legacy—that the challenges that weigh us down today should never dissuade us from imagining a better, more just, and more love-filled future.
I was taught—and I believe—that no feeling can last forever. Disappointment, sadness, embarrassment, excitement, relaxation, joy—not one of those emotional states, for better or worse, can be sustained indefinitely.
But could hope be the single exception to that rule? Dr. King thought so, and the impact of that belief continues to reverberate, even a half century after his death.
In his personal and public life, he endured many disappointments. Dr. King encouraged that we “accept” those challenges even as we hold onto the hope that makes his message so relevant. A disappointment or setback can put any of us in danger of giving up on our goals, hopes and dreams, whether for ourselves or for the world. Accepting that setback is simply part of the road toward what he famously called “the promised land” frees us to process our failures in a larger context of progress, connection and above all, hope.
So is hope in fact “infinite?” The poet Emily Dickinson said as much in her famous verse:
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder
Lyrics
Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why don’t we?
We all know that people are the same wherever you go
There is good and bad in ev’ryone
We learn to live, when we learn to give
Each other what we need to survive, together alive
Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord why don’t we?
Ebony, ivory, living in perfect harmony
Ebony, ivory, ooh
We all know that people are the same wherever you go
There is good and bad in ev’ryone
We learn to live, when we learn to give
Each other what we need to survive, together alive
Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord why don’t we?
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why don’t we
Ebony, ivory, living in perfect harmony
Ghat GPT on
You
tell me reasons for hope in race relationships in the US
ChatGPT
ChatGPT
While challenges persist, there are several reasons for hope in race relationships in the U.S.:
- Increased Awareness: There is a growing awareness of racial issues and systemic inequalities. Conversations about racism have become more mainstream, leading to increased understanding and empathy.
- Youth Activism: Young people are actively engaging in social justice movements, advocating for equality, and challenging discriminatory practices. Their energy and commitment can contribute to positive change over time.
- Policy Reforms: There is an ongoing push for policy reforms to address systemic racism. Efforts to reform criminal justice, voting rights, and other areas aim to create a more equitable society.
- Representation: Increasing representation of diverse voices in media, politics, and various sectors is helping to break stereotypes and promote a more inclusive narrative.
- Interconnected Movements: The intersectionality of various social justice movements (racial, gender, LGBTQ+, etc.) is fostering solidarity and collective efforts toward a more just and inclusive society.
- Education and Awareness: Educational institutions and organizations are implementing programs to educate people about the history of racism and its impacts. This knowledge can contribute to a more informed and empathetic society.
- Community Engagement: Many communities are actively working towards building bridges and fostering understanding between different racial and ethnic groups. Grassroots efforts can have a significant impact on improving relationships.
- Technology and Social Media: Social media platforms provide a space for marginalized voices to be heard and for information to be disseminated rapidly. This can lead to greater awareness and mobilization for positive change.
- Corporate Initiatives: Some companies are taking steps to address racial inequalities within their organizations and in the broader community. Corporate initiatives can influence societal norms and practices.
- Legal Advocacy: Legal organizations and advocates are working to challenge discriminatory laws and practices, leading to legal victories that promote justice and equality.
While progress may be slow and challenges remain, these factors provide reasons to be hopeful for positive developments in race relationships in the U.S.
MLK Speech
We as a people have long dreamed of freedom, but we are still confined to an oppressive prison of segregation and discrimination.25 Must we respond to this disappointed hope with bitterness and cynicism? Certainly not, for this will only distort and poison our personality. Must we conclude that the existence of segregation is a part of the will of God, and thereby resign ourselves to the fate of oppression. Of course not, for such a course would be blasphemy, because it attributes to God something that should be attributed to the devil. Moreover, to accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Our most fruitful course of action will be to stand up with a courageous determination, moving on non-violently amid obstacles and setbacks, facing disappointments and yet clinging to the hope. It will be this determination and final refusal to be stopped that will eventually open the door of fulfillment. While still in the prison of segregation we must ask, “How can I turn this liability into an asset?” It is possible that, recognizing the necessity of suffering, we can make of it a virtue. To suffer in a righteous cause is to grow to our humanity’s full stature.26 If only to save ourselves from bitterness, we need the vision to see the ordeals of this generation as the opportunity to transfigure ourselves and American society. Moreover, through our suffering in this oppressive prison and our non-violent struggle to get out of it, we may give the kind of spiritual dynamic to western civilization that it so desperately needs to survive.
Of course some of us will die having not received the promise of freedom. But we must continue to move on. On the one hand we must accept the finite disappointment, but in spite of this we must maintain the infinite hope. This is the only way that we will be able to live without the fatigue of bitterness and the drain of resentment.
Movie Review: Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ is a powerful, artful, interpretation of ‘Caste’
BY LINDSEY BAHR Updated 9:26 AM EST, January 17, 2024
Alternate Theme: Everything is harder for people of color
Black Mamas Matter Alliance – Advancing Black Maternal Health, Rights & Justice
Hold for later
I Belong Here – what we tell young women
Holy Family 2023 – All Families are Holy
Holy Family Liturgy 12/31/2023
We pray for others
Opening Song Mike
Christmas Heart
Slide Show
©1996 Rouse House Music, ASCAP. All rights reserved. www.earthmama.org
Wisdom Bowl Maryann or Margie
Opening Prayer Mike
(from Upper Room Adapted)
Let us remember the greater part of the life of Jesus was led in humility and respectfulness to Mary and Joseph. He came to enlighten our world by sharing his teaching and example. We now have a more encompassing view of our tumultuous everchanging world. Let us hope and pray with hands linked in unity, with voices lifted in joyful noise and with works of dedication. May we have wisdom to make the best choices for this global family. Amen.
First Reading Linda Kaul
The implications of Christmas
Christmas is the celebration of small things, particular things, barely noticeable things. It is Jesus in a manger—an animal byre—the child who will grow into the voice of God that is heard around the world.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the magnificence of Jesus and so miss the simplicity of Jesus, the normalcy of Jesus, the invisibility of the Jesus who lives almost totally unseen, unheralded, for the first 30 years of his life. Just like us.
The implications of that reality, especially at a time like Christmas with all the gifts and glitter, all the great Christmas icons and triumphant hymns—cue trumpet, hit flashing lights, turn spotlight on angels—turn real life upside down. There weren’t any trumpets, the night was quiet and dark as pitch, no heavenly choir sang. It was a moment of crisis, of abandonment, of loss, of total dependence for this little family. They knew too much of what the families of the world know yet, in fact.
This was a refugee family. They were homeless. In a highly communal society their survival depended on the hospitality and support of strangers. That’s the real story. Where has it been for so long?
Maybe we’ve never wanted to face the implications of this birth, its social status, its neediness. Maybe it has been so well-masked that we have never realized the demands it makes on us. It has implications for now, for the world we’re in where we ourselves are turning refugees away so we can make “America first.” First in wealth. First in power. First in prominence. First in isolation from the racial reality of the rest of the world—from the pain of all of it.
Isn’t it time to grow beyond the fairy tale spirituality and face our own part in the drama? Aren’t we the missing people in the Christmas frieze, the people absent from the beggar’s birth, the real deciders of what this birth will bring? At least in our own time. Now.
Isn’t it time to realize that this birth is meant to change us all? To make us the bringers of a Merry Christmas to others.
—from The Monastic Way by Joan Chittister, Dec. 2018
INSPIRED Words.
Second Reading Sue Bove
Human Family by Maya Angelou
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.
I’ve sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I’ve seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I’ve not seen any two
who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.
We love and lose in China,
we weep on England’s moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we’re the same.
I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
Inspired Words
“Psalm” Marie
We Are Unity.. edited by Bhanu..
Gospel Colleen Walsh-White
A reading from the Gospel in the Tradition of Matthew.
After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”
Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight.
They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”
Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.)
Later, when Herod died, God’s angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt:
“Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead.”
Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel.
When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee.
On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Inspired Words.
Homily Mike
Prayer of the People Margie McFadden
(Slowly): We gather today, painfully aware for the need of mercy in our country and in our world.
AFTER each petition there will be a prayerful silence: (allow 5 seconds)
That we dwell on the simplicity of Jesus, the normalcy of Jesus, the invisibility of the Jesus who lives almost totally unseen, unheralded, for the first 30 years of his life. Just like us…we pray,
For all Holy Families in moments moment of crisis, of abandonment, of loss, of total dependence… we pray,
For all refugee families. They are homeless. Whose very survival depends on the hospitality and support of strangers. …we pray,
For non-traditional families especially those in the LGBTQ community, that all may come to not only accept but to welcome and love them…we pray,
For the implications the refugee story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph has on our present-day world… we pray,
For the sick of our community, for those to whom we have promised our prayers, for those who struggle with mental health or addiction, for courage to reach out and ask for help… we pray,
For all who have died, especially those who died violently… we pray,
For our sisters and brothers in Sophia, in our sister parish in Rochester, for all those involved with Pathways to Prosperity, Voice of the Faithful, RAMP and FCM, may they know of our love and care for them. May they continue to do good as they follow the Way of Jesus, we pray,
For what else shall we pray? Allow 4 petitions.
May the Spirit of Jesus live in us, that a new world can take shape in us and keep growing. May we grow beyond the fairy tale spirituality and face our own part in the drama that now unfolds. May we be resolved to be agents of mercy in all out comings and goings. And we pray this and all prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sharing of Peace Mike
Prayer over the Bread and the Wine Linda Schaller
We are grateful – for this bread,
Which earth has given and human hands have formed.
This bread nourishes our spirit.
We are grateful – for this wine,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It is our spiritual drink.
Eucharistic Prayer Mike & Grace Collins
Eucharistic Prayer Michael Morwood: Prayers For Progressive Christians
(Please pray the part of the voice at home)
Presider: We come together at this special time,
moved by a light within us
and within all people,
a light embedded in every baby,
in every child,
in every woman and in every man,
a light that burns and shines brightly
a light that is the precious gift of love.
Voice: We believe that this light,
this love within
has a dimension beyond our words and images.
It is the light of the Great Mystery
that grounds and sustains
everything that exists.
P: It is the light we name
God
Love
Creator
Infinite Spirit
Breath of God.
Voice: The light burning within us
burns in galaxies and stars
in everything that exists,
in everything around us,
in everything within us.
P: Like Jesus we give human expression to this light,
in our love,
in our compassion,
in our co-operation,
in our deepest hopes and desires
for a world of good will,
peace,
and respect for the earth.
Voice: We rejoice in the birth of Jesus.
We rejoice that today
we are able to see and believe
that his birth,
his story,
is the story of every human baby,
that the light that burned inside him is burning inside each of us.
P: We rejoice that he is more like us
that we ever imagined.
Voice: Like each of us
he grew in wisdom as he aged.
He questioned,
he searched for meaning,
he shaped his convictions,
he experienced love
and came to know love’s connectedness
with the reality he called God.
P: Standing firmly in his own religious tradition
he preached good news
to people dreaming
of a better humanity,
dreaming of reaching out to one another
in the truth that binds us all.
Voice: We rejoice that his teaching
sets us free from
imagining a punishing God
and thinking we are distant
from the Ultimate Light
that grounds our very existence.
P: We rejoice that Jesus led people
to discover the sacred in the ordinary:
in the crowd,
in the lowly,
in the everyday life,
in human yearnings to be better people,
in being neighbor to one another.
Voice: We rejoice that his teaching
set us free to believe
that we give human expression
to the Light and Love
underpinning all that exists
and giving meaning to who we are.
P: Our Christmas prayer
is that we may recognize
and actively acknowledge
the presence of the sacred
in places we are reluctant to look.
Voice: We are thankful for Jesus’ courage
in the face of opposition
and powerful influences
wanting to silence him.
P: We remember the night before he died
when he shared a meal with his friends.
He gave thanks
for all the blessings in his life
and shared the bread with his friends,
asking them to gather in memory of him
to keep his dream alive.
Voice: We break bread
as Jesus broke bread,
mindful of the call
to love generously and faithfully,
whatever the cost.
P: We eat this bread,
giving our “Amen”
to living in love,
as Jesus lived in love.
Voice: We take wine,
mindful of our responsibility to be bearers of forgiveness, tolerance,
and understanding.
P: We drink,
committing ourselves
to allow the spirit of generosity
that moved so boldly in Jesus
to move in our lives.
Voice: To this commitment
we give our “Amen”
and offer it as our Christmas gift
to our family and friends
our colleagues and our neighbors.
Prayer of Jesus Geri Moran
(Please pray at home)
O Divine Birther of all that is – from the smallest particle to the vastness of
the cosmos, you are present. Holy are your infinite names chanted, sung or whispered.
Abba, Beloved, Divine Breath, Great Mystery, Sophia
May we walk in peace, speak with tenderness, touch with compassion and love unconditionally. With gratitude for the abundance we’ve been given, may we always share with any who hunger or are in need. May we be filled with humility and regret for the times we did not reflect your love. May we always offer forgiveness to those whose words or actions have caused us pain. May we understand our individual purpose and seek to fulfill it without distraction.
We pray what we believe and believe what we pray. Amen.
By Colleen Walsh White 2020
Breaking of the Bread Alice or Colleen
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
In the breaking of the bread, we know you, brother Jesus, Alleluia.
Presider: “…happy are we to share in this meal”
All: Our sharing in this meal is a sign of our gratitude and commitment to be one with Jesus.
When sharing the bread: “This is, and you are, the bread of life”
Presider: With great joy, we state.
All: We are followers of Jesus.
When sharing the cup: “The cup of the Covenant”
Communion Meditation Song Mike
With Slide Show
Closing Prayer Mike
(from Upper Room Adapted)
Jesus signaled a new consciousness, a new way of looking at the Divine, self and others. We are this holy family, this kin-dom here and now. May we be mindful that our spirit impacts each and every person we meet. As we are blessed, let us be a blessing.
Closing Song Marie
We Are Family Sister Sledge