MMOJ Book Club: Katy Zatsick led Discussion on The Unbearable Wholeness of Being by Sister Delio

Members of Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida spent almost one hour and one-half in a lively discussion of  Chapter 5 "love and suffering" in her ground-breaking book on evolutionary spirituality in  The Unbearable Wholeness of Being by Sister Illia Delio. 
One of our conclusions is that this book presents a deep mystical theology that most Catholics, in the view, of most of our group are not aware of even now.  God in institutional religion has been portrayed as a judging, avenging God. Some of the women in our group said they were told to stay in marriages that were abusive and offer it up. This book liberates God and the human spirit for an encounter with boundless love. 

 "...love is not what God does, love is who God. Faith is what brings us into the deepest truth that says we are in the image of a unlimited , unrestricted, unimaginable love." p. 84. 

"God is not the prime mover of a static cosmos but the dynamism  of love swelling up in space time through the process of evolution and rise of consciousness. "
p. 74.

"To have faith in a God of unconditional love is to realize how intimately close God is. So close we forget God's presence." p. 84

"The cross reveals to us the heart of God because it reveals the vulnerability of Gods love. " p. 85

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Celebrates Feast of Assumption: Co-Presiders: Imogene and Michael Rigdon

Imogene & Michael Rigdon Presiding

Mindy Lou Simmons, Music Minister

Welcome!

Gathering Song: Always Remember, v1&2, refrain; v3&4, refrain

Presider: In the name of God our creator, and of Jesus our brother, and of the Holy Spirit our wisdom. All: Amen.

Presider: God is with you. All: And also with you.

Opening Prayer. All: Mary Mother of Jesus, first woman priest, pray for us as we offer the gift of a renewed priestly ministry to our beloved church. Amen

Song of Praise: Glory to God, glory. O praise him, alleluia. 
Glory to God, glory. O praise the name of our God. (x2)

Readings: Two excerpts from Portrait of a Woman.

Response to both readings: #381 Celtic Alleluia

Shared homily

Profession of Faith. I believe in God, the creator of heaven and earth. 
I believe in Jesus Christ, child of God, born of Mary, human like us.
 I believe Jesus came to teach us God’s love and to show us how
 to live in the  fullness of grace. 
Jesus called for God’s people to focus on the kin-dom within. 
I believe Jesus was condemned to die because this
message threatened the establishment. 
Jesus was crucified and buried in a borrowed tomb. 
I believe that the women, faithful to Jesus, went to the tomb to 
anoint his body. 
I believe that Jesus’ body was gone, and Jesus overcame death through 
the resurrection. I believe in the Holy Spirit, 
living in our hearts and present in our world. 
I believe the holy Catholic Church is 
the people of God gathered in worship and song. 
I believe that all God’s children will one day be with 
God experiencing life everlasting. Amen.

Prayer of Intercession. 
(Response: Mary, be our channel of God’s grace)

Voice 1. May we have compassion to rescue victims of violence 
in our world.

Voice 2. May we continue to build a church where all are equal.

Presider: We thank you, O God, for hearing our prayer 
brought to you by Mary Mother of Jesus.

All: Amen Collection and Procession of Gifts to the table.

We sing: #361 Seed Scattered and Sown, verses 1&3

Eucharistic Prayer. We invite all to gather around the table for our community meal.

We sing : We are holy holy holy (x3) We are whole. You are holy (x3) 
You are whole. I am holy (x3) I am whole. We are holy (x3) We are whole.

All: Merciful God, send your Spirit now to settle on this bread and wine, 
and fill them with the fullness of Jesus We remember Jesus . 
All (hand extended in blessing): 
On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends, 
Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread 
and gave it to them saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat. 
This is my body which will be broken foryou.” ( Pause) 
In the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine. 
He said the blessing, gave the cup to his friends and said, 
“Take this all of you and drink. This is the cup of my lifeblood. 
Do this in memory of me.”

All: May the Spirit rest on us, converting us from the patterns of this 
passing world, until we conform to the shape of Jesus whose 
food we now share.

Voice 3. Remember, gracious God, your Church throughout the world. 
Make us open to receive all believers. We join with all God’s people, with Bridget Mary our Bishop, and with Francis our Pope.

Voice 4. In union with all people, may we strive to create a world where suffering is diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness.

All: Thru Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in union with the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, gracious God. Amen (sing)

Prayer of Jesus (Sing “Our Father and Mother”)

Group Sign of Peace: #532 Let there be peace on earth

Presider: This is Jesus who liberates, heals and transforms us and our world. All are invited to partake of this banquet of love.

All: We are the Body of Christ.

We sing: Holy gifts for holy people; come, you hungry, and believe. Come and take Christ’s body offered, come and be what you receive. (x2)

During Communion: Instrumental music (Mindy)

Prayer of Thanksgiving, Didache (Instruction), 100 CE

Voice 5: For the thanksgiving, give thanks this way: First, for the cup: We thank you, Abba God, for the sacred vine of David your son, whose meaning you made clear to us through our brother Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.

Voice 6: And for the bread fragment: We thank you, Abba God, for the life and wisdom whose meaning you made clear to us through Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.

Voice 7: As this fragment was scattered high on hills, but by gathering was united into one, so let your people from earth’s ends be united into your single reign, for yours are splendor and might through Jesus Christ down the ages.

Announcements

We sing the final blessing: You are the face of God, I hold you in my heart, You are a part of me, You are the face of God. You are the face of God, I hold you in my heart, You are my family, You are the face of God.

Presider: Go in the peace of Christ, may our service continue! Alleluia!

All: Let it be so! Alleluia!

Closing song: Always Remember, v5&6, refrain; v7,refrainExcerpts from Portrait of a Woman, Herbert O’Driscoll.

Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1981.
1st Reading: The Breaking of Bread

Acts 1:14. These all joined together in prayer, with the women and 
with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Sometimes she felt amazement when she looked at some 
of the people around her, especially the men. They came from 
one of the hardiest livelihoods in existence, 
subject to all the insecurities of seasonal weather, 
highly competitive, often dangerous. 
Lake fishing for a living did not encourage the gentler virtues. 
Yet here they were, haunted and held by something 
they had encountered on that lakeshore and
 had sacrificed endless time over, 
during the last few years. 
The extraordinary thing was that now 
there seemed to be no end to it. 
They had become a community, 
and she herself had survived and been given strength 
by the immense affection shown to her.

She found herself thinking of all this again 
as she watched the piece of home-made bread pass 
from hand to hand toward her. She had got used to this 
moment now. They did it whenever they were 
together, any small gathering of his followers. 
They were not all here in this house; 
others had gone to find shelter either with friends or 
relations or at an inn. Some had gone into Jerusalem 
hoping to stay with various families. 
In the Bethany house she had been welcomed 
by those whose friendship had meant so much to her son. 
John and a few others had stayed here.

The bread came near to her. Suddenly it was in John’s hand, and 
he was hesitating before turning to her. 
She had not so far been able to take part in
 this simple but terrible action. 

Even in symbolism her whole being rebelled against this 
eating and drinking of the body and blood of him 
who was of her own body and blood. Again she felt 
conflicting feelings sweeping over her, taking away
 her ability to think and act. She realized that every 
eye around the table was on her. She became aware of the 
circle of faces. Once they had been strange and often resented 
because of the close friendship they had had with him, 
the kind of friendship she had longed for so desperately. 
But now she saw them differently. 
She realized the love and support this circle, and 
even a greater circle not with them at the 
moment, had given her. The depth of all this 
love entered into her. It seemed to her swimming eyes 
that all their faces became one, and she knew that the
 single face was his, and that the love in their 
faces and the love in his face was one and the 
same love. She found herself eating and drinking, 
the rough bread melding with her body and the wine stinging its way into the center of her being.

Suddenly she was aware of absolute silence, and she 
knew she was with him again. She could never be 
sure later if any words were spoke. She often tried to 
capture his appearance, as indeed they all did, 
but she found it impossible. She and they could only 
say that it was him, yet more intensely and more 
vividly him than at any moment of encounter 
she had ever known. And then he was gone, and in 
some way they were released. Yet they felt released
 for a purpose.

This too is the word of God. All: Thanks be to God.



2nd Reading. The Roadway to the Stars

While Mary disappears from us as a woman of flesh and blood, 
living somewhere through the eventful first years of 
those growing communities which would one day
 in far away Antioch be called Christian, she 
remains in the forefront of Christian history. Whatever be our 
particular stance toward a concept such as her 
bodily assumption into the heavenly realm, an 
unarguable fact remains: in the consciousness of 
Christians, Mary never died. For the twenty centuries of 
our history we have remembered her in innumerable ways. 
This awareness has existed on many levels, 
from thankful recollection of her role in the 
divine drama as described in the New Testament to 
claims of her power so extravagant that more than 
once in history a responsible voice has had to 
counsel carefulness, and to call a retreat from 
ultimate claims about her. …

We begin to realize that the legend of the angels bearing 
Mary’s tired and worn body to her Creator is a 
human attempt to express something impossible to 
explain yet equally impossible to deny. 
This “something” is the fact that, at least in some sense, 
Mary does not die, and that she has proved in countless 
lives to be a channel for the grace of her son.


This too is the word of God. All: Thanks be to God.

COLOMBIA, South America: Woman Priest Liturgy, Rev. Aida Soto ARCWP Celebrates Eucharist on Feast of Assumption and the upcoming birth of a baby

https://evangelizadorasdelosapostoles.wordpress.com/2015/08/15/arcwp-rev-aida-soto-celebrando-la-fiesta-de-la-asuncion-y-el-advenimiento-de-un-bebe/

Rev Aida Soto, ARCWP, at the invitation of her colleagues of the College, Celebrated the Feast of the Assumption and the impending arrival of the baby of one of the companions of the College. The Liturgy was Conducted in one of the classrooms.

The celebration of the Virgin Mary's pregnancy and her mission as mother of Jesus.

A photo report of the celebration in Colombia.

Teachers, children and the Rev. Aida celebrating the Eucharist.

The Magisterium united Thanking the Divinity!

Celebration of the Life of Ford Peter Englerth National Crematorium Society, Sarasota, FL August 14, 2015, Co-Presiders: Sally Brochu, ARCWP and Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

      

Greeting: Welcome to each of you as we gather this morning to celebrate with joy the life of a good man and to release his body to be cremated. Those of us left behind acknowledge the pain of loss and separation and it is difficult. May you be comforted knowing that we are all part of God’s great creation and as such we, like all that exists, began as stardust. We believe that we are spiritual beings cradled in our human bodies that must return to the earth. Christians believe that in death life does not end but that we fall into the embrace of our loving God who raised Jesus from the dead, and will raise us into a new life in glory.

So too with Ford, yet we also believe that his spirit soars and he still walks with us. Just as the body returns to its origin so too does Ford’s spirit returns home to his Loving God.

Opening Prayer: Let us pray, Gracious and Loving God, we gather to remember your son, Ford. We remember the many ways that Ford revealed you to us. We remember the generosity of his loving and through his love we felt your generous Spirit. We remember the ways that Ford nurtured, encouraged, affirmed and supported us, and through him we felt your nurturing Spirit. We remember Ford’s extraordinary human spirit and his direct connection to you. We have come to know you, Generous Spirit, through your son, Ford. And for this we give you thanks. Amen.

First Reading: (from the book “Where Am I Now?”  Michael Morwood, 2011, p 109 – 111)

We believe we exist in God, but in a God beyond our images and descriptions. God beyond the many names we use: Breath of Life, Creator, Source, and Sustainer of everything that exists. Everywhere we look, this energizing presence comes to visible expression. We believe that each of us gives this presence and source a unique way of doing so.

Everywhere we look, we can observe the perpetual rhythm of new life, followed by death, followed by new life. So we do not believe that death is the final end of anything, nor is it for us the start of a journey to somewhere else. Rather, it is a transformation in the continuation of the ebb and flow of existence in ways we do not understand.

Ford’s death speaks to us of the wonder of being human in the universe so vast and so magnificent and of our existence within a mystery and a power that we cannot put into words. In a very real sense, this vast and magnificent universe of ours came alive and became aware in Ford. He gave God a way of coming to expression, here in our lives, here in a way that reached out and touched us, as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, and a loyal friend. He lived and loved God. God lived in him and loved in him. And in death, Ford lives on in God and in us.

Second Reading: (from the book “Where Am I Now?” Michael Morwood, 2011, p. 114-115)

Do you know that every atom

In my body, here before you, was manufactured in a massive explosion

In a start billions years ago?

Do you believe, as I do,

In the Spirit of life at work for the billions of years

That finally brought human form to those atoms?

In me the Spirit of Life and Love

Came to visible expression in human form

When I loved you,

When I called you my friends,

When I laughed

When I cried,

When I did whatever you loved about me.

Where am I now?

I continue to dance

With the Spirit of Life and Love

In ways beyond words and images.

But I am with you, and always will be

as this Spirit continues to move in your lives.

I am with you

And always will be,

In the Spirit of Life and Love.

Gospel Reading: (1 John 4: 11-12, 17)

Dear friends. Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and God’s love is made complete in us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is mad complete among us.

Reflection: Sharing of Stories of Ford

Psalm 23

Oh my Beloved, you are my Shepherd,

I shall not want;

You bring me to green pastures for rest.

And lead me beside restful waters

Renewing my spirit;

You restore my soul.

You lead me in the path of goodness

To follow Love’s way.

Even though I walk through the

Valley of the shadow and of death,

I am not afraid;

For you are ever with me;

Your rod and you staff

They guide me.

They give me strength and comfort.

You prepare a table for me

In the presence of all my fears;

You bless me with oil, my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow

All the days of my life;

And I shall dwell in the heart of the Beloved forever.

Amen

(Translation by Nan Merrill, “Praying the Psalms”)

Let us pray the Prayer of Jesus:  Our Father and Mother……..

Closing Prayer: Prayer of Thanksgiving

Gentle Spirit, as we release Ford’s body for cremation, we give thanks for his human body who laughed and cried, loved and saw the wonder of creation in family, children and grandchildren. We give thanks for the many ways Ford’s life touched ours. We give thanks for the generosity of his loving and his faithfulness. We give thanks for his dedication to and healing through AA….and for Charlie. We give thanks for the courage through great suffering and how he faced death. We give thanks for Charlene’s love and faithfulness that anchored him as he faced struggles and medical challenges. We give thanks for his supportive family and for children and little ones who gave him delight and purpose. We especially give thanks for Ford’s extraordinary human spirit. Ford is now at peace with you, his Loving God, and Ford remains with us and in our hearts always. Amen.

Ford, go with and live on in peace with your God. To each of us here, go now in peace, knowing that Ford forever remains part of our lives and lives on in our beings. Amen.

Homily Assumption of Mary for Resurrection Community in Cincinnati: Embracing God’s Call To Do the Impossible By Donna Rougeux ARCWP

Donna Rougeux, ARCWP

First Reading: Proverbs 9: 1-6

Second Reading: Excerpt from VII document The Church in the Modern World #16 about primacy of conscience

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:39-56

The feast day of the Assumption of Mary will be celebrated in the church this Saturday and the gospel reading that we just heard will be used.  Have you spent much time thinking about the ex cathedra teaching about the assumption of Mary that was given by Pope Pius XII in 1950? Maybe that has not topped your list of things to ponder but it is a good place to start as we think about our theme tonight of primacy of conscience.  This infallible teaching of the 1950s has some flaws as it was based on the common theology when original sin was predominant.

The premise of this ex cathedra teaching says that our bodies undergo the corruption of death due to original sin that all people are born with except Mary because her body was assumed into heaven. One hundred years before the teaching about Mary’s assumption another infallible teaching was proclaimed that said Mary was conceived without sin. The teaching of original sin lead to elaborate theologizing in order to keep Mary untainted and well preserved. I don’t think Mary would approve especially if you look at the way she is pictured in the gospel of Luke.

Mary bravely accepts the angel’s news that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary rises up after this mindboggling news and goes on her own to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Mary embraces her call from God to do the impossible and then rejoices with her cousin Elizabeth who is also the recipient of a call to the impossible. The virgin and the barren woman are both pregnant and know that what is happening is of lasting significance and importance. They know that they are doing what God has called them to do. Mary responds from the depths of her soul by praising God. She sees how everything is being turned upside down.  She sings praises to God, “You have scattered the proud in their conceit, you have deposed the mighty from their throne and raised the lowly to high places. You have filled the hungry with good things, while you have sent the rich away empty…” (Bridget Mary would call this a holy shake up.)

I just can’t see this Mary in need of being proclaimed as one who was born without sin or as one who was assumed. Can you? Wasn’t it good enough that she bravely answered God’s call to be the mother of Jesus?

Fast forward from the time of Mary and Elizabeth to 1953, just a few years after this infallible teaching about Mary was given. The world was a place with rigid ideas about what was right and wrong or what was sinful or pure. The following scenario played out in the world in many ways and can give evidence to the need for us to follow our informed conscience even when the world around us beckons us to do otherwise.

A nineteen-year old young woman was dating a soldier and got pregnant. She was afraid to tell him. Instead she went to her parents. She asked them to let her move away and live with her aunt in another state so that she could quietly have the baby in a place where no shame would come to the family for this horrible sin of being unmarried and pregnant. Her parents did not hear her.  Instead her mother insisted that she go to a doctor who would “take care of the problem.”

What does this girl do? Just what she is told…she gets in her car alone and drives by herself to the doctor’s office. She tells him her mother sent her there. He gives her directions to the home of a woman who will “help her with her problem.” She returns to her car and drives to the woman’s home. The woman invites her in and performs an abortion.  After driving home home, the young woman goes into the bathroom, begins to hemorrhage and then passes out. She wakes up in the hospital. “You almost died,” the doctor told her. “I wish I had,” she responds.

Things have changed since then and some for very good reasons. Listen again to part of our second reading from a Vatican II document, “ Deep within their consciences all people discover a law which they have not laid upon themselves but which they must obey. Its voice, ever calling them to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil…For all people in their hearts is a law inscribed by God.”

The nineteen-year old woman went against her own conscience. She moved against the law on her heart that was inscribed by God.  In doing so, she sentenced herself to a prison of deep pain and self-judgment that affected each of her relationships in a negative way throughout the rest of her life.  Her story is similar to the many people who have served in the military and suffer from PTSD. All through history many have been unable to stand up to sinful structures, systems and abusive authority figures despite the voice of God in their conscience. We honor and remember those who did.

In a Sunday Angelus address in 2013 Pope Francis reiterated Vatican II teachings about the importance of primacy of conscience, resurrecting what his predecessors  suppressed. “May Mary help us,” he said, “to become more and more…free in our conscience, because it is in conscience that the dialogue with God is given-men and women able to hear the voice of God and follow it with decision. Jesus wants neither selfish Christians, who follow their egos and do not speak with God, nor weak Christians, without will, ‘remote-controlled’ Christians, incapable of creativity, who seek ever to connect with the will of another, and are not free. Jesus wants us to be free, and this freedom-where is it found? It is to be found in the inner dialogue with God in conscience.” Will Pope Francis put actions to his words and lift the excommunication of women who have followed their consciences and were ordained as priests? How about the people like you who worship in these liturgies? Wouldn’t it be fitting for the Pope to lift threats of excommunication and loss of diocesan jobs?

We must admit that many solid teachings of the past have been proven wrong. We now know that the world is not flat, that the earth revolves around the sun and we come from original blessings not sin.  We are always learning new things about our world and ourselves.  The more we learn about ourselves the better we know God. With knowledge comes responsibility. We know how to send a person to the moon and how to genetically create an animal. We live in the information age and in a world of rapid change. Just because we can do something should we?

In this fast paced changing world it is imperative that we learn to make choices with an informed conscience.  We must prayerfully listen to the God voice inside and stay connected to our souls as we face each day that is filled with a multitude of decisions. There are many reasons we must listen to the law inscribed on our hearts by God.  What tops the list is what Pope Francis said: we can only be free the way Jesus wants us to be when we are in dialogue with God in conscience. If we are free in this way we will be able to rise up like Mary and embrace God’s call to do the impossible. Maybe we can even reframe the Assumption of Mary to the Rising Up of Mary. On this feast day she urges us to join her in courageously following what God has inscribed on our hearts. Then we will be filled with the same joy she had when she sang praises to God saying, “ My soul magnifies God—Let the oppressed hear it and be glad! Glorify God with me and let us exalt God’ s Name together!”

Nurturing Space: A Reflection on Art in Liturgical Celebration, Ordination of Barbara Billey, ARCWP

http://nurturingspace.ca/2015/08/12/fibre-art-commission-the-gospels/
Evelyn Ward De Roo

“I would like to commission you to use your sacred artist gifts to create a faux Book of Gospels for my ordination. The Book of Gospels contains the four gospels, will be carried high in the processional to the table of worship and then someone will dance with it to the lecturn, where the gospel will be read. The theme of my ordination is “be fire and light our world with justice and peace.”

My jaw dropped.

My first reaction was, ‘no way, too much pressure’. The weight of the request gave me pause.

Just breathe.

Who am I that I should attempt something like this? The words “carried high, processed, danced” all cried out in bold and I pondered whether I was worthy to say ‘yes’ to this request.   After a few days of thinking about it I came to the conclusion that if I didn’t accept I would be missing a tremendous artistic opportunity and challenge..."

Feminist Studies in Religion Online

http://www.fsrinc.org/blog/blogs-and-us-fir-roundtable-feminism-online-part-3

Homily Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 20 OT, Aug. 16, 2015 by Beverly Bingle, RCWP

We continue today with Chapter 6 of John's Gospel,
another piece of the “bread of life” discourse.
Again we find a developed Christology
that is not from Jesus
but is a story about how Jesus' followers felt about him.
_______________________________________
Fr. Flor McCarthy notes that “flesh and blood”
is a Jewish idiom for the “whole person.”
When the Gospel has Jesus say
that his flesh is real food and his blood is real drink,
it means that the followers have to accept the whole person.
They can't pick and choose the teachings they want—
they have to swallow the whole thing.
_______________________________________
In the Book of Proverbs
Wisdom and Folly both invite us to a banquet,
and we are free to choose which invitation to accept.
Today's first reading is Wisdom's invitation.
We can't be “cafeteria followers,”
picking a piece of Wisdom and a piece of Folly.
We have to choose one way or the other,
the whole thing.
_______________________________________
Sometimes those of us who choose
to disregard one of our institutional Church's rules
are called cafeteria Catholics,
but that's not a fitting metaphor for what we're doing.
Doctrine and rules
are not the same as the free exercise
of an informed conscience on a moral issue.
_______________________________________
I prefer to see us as “grocery store” Catholics.
We're already in the store.
We look carefully at the array of options
in scripture and theology and history and tradition,
and then we choose the best,
the most moral for us
in the life we're living
at the time we're living it.
In a grocery store, we buy it or we don't,
depending on what's in it and where it came from.
In the church, the same goes:
we buy it or we don't,
depending on what's in it and where it came from.
_______________________________________
Before we had a Federal Food and Drug Administration—
the FDA—to require ingredient labeling,
our food routinely contained dangerous chemicals
like copper sulphate, salicylic acid, borax, and formaldehyde.
Today we learn that some foods are tainted
with things we shouldn't eat, like pesticides, BHA and BHT,
food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and refined sugar.
If we eat beef, we may find out
that our hamburger comes from a South American cow
that grazed on pasture planted where a rainforest used to be.
We routinely hear of salmonella breakouts from contaminated food.
So we are more careful now
to read the labels when we go to the store.
_______________________________________
The same thing is happening in our Church.
We grocery store Catholics want to know
where the rules came from, and why.
We want to know who made it, and when, and what is was for.
We want to know its history,
just like we want to know
if the people who grew the beans for our coffee
were paid a just wage
or if they were trafficked kids sold into slavery.
_______________________________________
What are we eating these days?
When we listen to Jesus,
we learn how to read the labels.
When he taught the commandments to love God and love neighbor,
he pointed to Wisdom's choice, not Folly's.
When he practiced open table companionship,
he showed us how to include everyone,
not to exclude anyone.
_______________________________________
What is our institutional Church feeding us?
Pope Francis has been making improvements.
About homosexuals, he said, “Who am I to judge?”
About the environment, he issued an encyclical
that makes the moral choice clear.
_______________________________________
On the other hand,
we can recite cases of food poisoning
from our institutional Church
because we have swallowed it whole and found it bad.
Among other things, history shows us
that our scriptures have been used
to massacre and enslave and oppress.
And we know of the damage—
some of us have experienced it personally—
from the rule that divorced people
who remarry without an annulment
are banned from communion.
We've seen the damage done
by pedophile priests and the bishops who covered up for them
and set them loose to prey on even more children.
We've seen the damage done
when homosexual people commit suicide
because they can't live by the Church's rule
that requires them
to try to be something other than what God made them to be.
_______________________________________
We don't want our children and our grandchildren
to go through what we did,
so we teach them to disregard the silly rules
and to reject the harmful and hateful rules.
And we work to make our institutional Church better—
to reform it,
that is re-form it
where it has strayed from the way that Jesus taught.
_______________________________________
Today's reading from Ephesians tells us
that we are to be filled with the Spirit.
We are to live as children of the new age,
an age that chooses wisdom over folly,
that chooses love over hatred,
inclusion over exclusion,
an age full of love of God and neighbor.
When we live like that, we re-form ourselves,
and that re-forms our Church...
because we are the Church.
When we live like that,
we take in the flesh and blood of Christ,
the whole person.
We become what we eat.
Just as we have shared the food of the scriptures,
let us continue
as we share in the breaking of the bread.
Amen!

--
Holy Spirit Catholic Community
Saturdays at 4:30 p.m.
Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
at 3925 West Central Avenue (Washington Church)

www.holyspirittoledo.org

Rev. Dr. Bev Bingle, Pastor
Mailing address: 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006
419-727-1774

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Liturgy , Aug. 8, 2015, Presiders: Lee Breyer and Kathryn Shea, ARCWP

Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

                                    Interesting, Inviting, Involving, Inspiring

                                      Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

     August 8, 2015

                                Lee Breyer, Kathryn Shea, co-presiders

                                        Theme: “...enough…get up and eat...bread of life.”

                             Greeting and Gathering Hymn: “Song of the Body of Christ”  #324, vs 1, 2, 3

Presider: Let us pray as we come together to break the bread in the namess of God, our Creator – and of Jesus, our Liberator - and of the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier.  All: Amen.

Opening Prayer

All: God of life, truth and compassion, you who directs all creation to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, the Christ - open our hearts to the message of the Gospel so that your peace may rule in our hearts and your justice guide our lives.  Loving God, bless the hearts of all of us gathered here now and all of those of our community who are not with us today.  We ask this in your name and those of our Savior Jesus, and our Wisdom Sophia.  Amen.

 

Penitential Rite and Community Forgiveness

Presider:  Loving God, we do not fully open our hearts to your Spirit within us.

All: Help us to open ourselves to Her message and be your voice among your people.

Presider:  Christ Jesus, we do not really trust enough in your promise that you would send your Spirit.

All:  Help us to grow in our understanding and confidence that your word brings peace.

Presider:  Holy Spirit, pour out your healing grace and supporting strength on us.

All: Help us to respond to your presence in us and bring that blessing to your family.

All: (with an outstretched arm):  God, the Father and Mother of mercy, through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he bonded the world to you. He sent the Holy Spirit among us to give us the wisdom to love you and the strength to love one another. Loving God, teach us the virtues of pardon and peace so that we may – in turn – learn to forgive each other our failures to care for one another and for our planet Earth.  We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother and of the Holy Spirit, our comforter.   Amen.

Glory to God

All:  Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.  Heavenly God, Creator of the universe, we thank you for the wonder of the Spirit at work in everything that exists, everywhere in the cosmos.  Through Jesus Christ, you opened our minds so we could realize that you are always among us and that we are able to experience you among our brothers and sisters.  We ask you to receive our prayers, for you are the Most High, with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Liturgy of the Word

First reading: 1 Kings19: 4 - 8                    All: Thanks be to God.

Psalm 34: 2 – 9                     Responsorial: “Taste and see….”    #331

Second reading: Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2                  All: Thanks be to God.

Gospel:  John 6: 41 - 51      All: Glory and thanks to our Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Dialog Homily/Community Reflection

Discussion starter:   How many times have we told ourselves “enough” and how many times have we been told (in effect) “get up and eat”?  In those situations when we may feel like Elijah in the desert, how do we understand Jesus’ claim to be more than the passing manna but, rather, is the very bread of life that restores and supports us?  Short version: how do we understand Jesus as the bread of life, our life?

Profession of Faith

All: We believe in God, the Creator of the universe whose divinity infuses all existence, making everything everywhere sacred.   We believe in Jesus, the Christ, who leads us to the fullness of humanity.  Through him, we become new people, called beyond the consequences of our brokenness.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Sustainer, who keeps the Christ-vision present to all those who are searching for meaning and wholeness in their lives – and the One who energizes us when our Spirits may grow weary in our journey.  We say: Amen to courage, to hope, to the Spirit of truth.  Amen to wholeness, to the partnership and equality of all people of different gender, race, and faith.  We believe in a world of justice and peace for everyone, everywhere, with no exceptions.  In all of this, we surely believe.

Prayers of the Community

Presider:  We are a community of faith in our Creator and compassion for our sisters and brothers. Then, mindful of God’s love and care for us, we now bring our concerns and needs to our God.

All:  After each intercession, respond: Loving God, hear our prayers.

Presider: Healing God, we know that you faithfully listen to our prayers.  We ask you to strengthen us in our caring for one another and in our works for justice, equality, and peace.

Offertory Procession and Hymn: “Gather Us In”  #302

Preparation of the Gifts

Presider:  Blessed are you, O God. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,

the grain from the earth and work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life.

All:  Blessed be God forever.

Presider: Blessed are you, O God.  Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,

the fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become for us our Spiritual drink.

All:  Blessed be God forever.   

Presider: In this bread and wine, Jesus has promised to be present; through our sharing of them, Christ will make us whole.

Gathering of the Gifted: All are welcome around our family table

ALL: Gracious God, we are united in this sacrament by the love of Jesus Christ in communion with all those who proclaim your power and mercy to the marginalized and oppressed peoples. Like Mary, the first disciple, and all the saints through the centuries, may we live as prophetic witnesses to the Gospel.  We ask this through Jesus, the Christ, Amen.

Presider:  God dwells in each one of us.             All: Namaste!.

Presider:  Let us give thanks to the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists.

                  All:  With hearts full of love, we give God thanks and praise.

Presider:  Sacred Spirit, we recognize your presence with us as we gather at our family table.

           All: Fill us with reverence for you, for one another, and for all your creation.

Presider: Let us lift up our hearts.

                        All:  We lift them up to the Holy One, living in us and loving through us.

Eucharistic Prayer

Voice 1:  Ever living and ever loving God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.  In you we live and move and have our being.  Each day you show us your love.  Your Spirit dwelling in us gives us the hope of unending peace and joy with you.  And so, we sing with thankful praise:

All (sung):  Holy, Holy, Holy God, God of power, God of light.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed are all who come in the name of our God.  Hosanna in the highest… Hosanna in the highest.

Voice 2:  We thank you for the gift of Jesus in history and the gift of Jesus in faith. Through him, you breathe life into us.  He revealed you to us in his life well lived.  He showed us, through his example, not only how we should live, but also for what we may even die. 

Voice 3:  And when his time had come, Jesus suffered for what he deeply believed…his conviction that love is stronger than death...and then, as an example for the ages, he opened wide his arms and died.  The Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven.

All:  O God, let your Spirit come upon these simple gifts that we have brought from the fields to our table -- this wheat, gathered and grown and this wine, fruit of the land.  May She make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus, our brother.

(With an outstretched arm):  We remember the gift that Jesus gave us on the night before he died.  He gathered with his friends to share a final Passover meal.  And it was at that supper that he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them saying: take this, all of you,

and eat it.  This bread is you; this bread is me.  We are one body, the presence of God in the world.  Do this in memory of me.  [Pause]

In the same way, he took a cup of wine, said the blessing, and gave it to his friends saying: take this, all of you, and drink it.  This wine is you; this wine is me.  We are one blood, the presence of God in the world.  Do this in memory of me.

Presider:  Jesus, who was with God “in the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth,” is with us now in this bread.  The Spirit, of whom the prophets spoke in history, is with us now in this cup.  Let us proclaim this mystery of faith.

All:  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ lives in us and through us in the world today.

Voice 4:  In memory of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we offer you, God, this life-giving bread, this saving cup.   We thank you that we are in your presence and serve you.  May all who share this sacred meal be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.  And may that Spirit, that Wisdom, move freely in our lives as well as She did in that of Jesus.

Voice 5:  God, remember your church throughout the world, help us grow in love, together with Francis, our Pope, Bridget Mary, our Bishop, and all your family everywhere - especially those who live on the margins of church and society. Remember also all those people, living and dead, who touched our lives and left their footprints on our hearts.  We remember especially….(mention names, if you like).

                                                                                                                                                    

All:  Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Our Creator God, forever and ever…. Amen (sung several times)

All: Our Father and Mother, who are in heaven, blessed is your name…..

The Sign of Peace

Presider: Jesus, you said to your disciples, “My peace I leave you; my peace I give you.”   Look on the faith of those gathered here today and ….

All: Grant us your peace.  By the example of Jesus and with the strength of your Spirit, help us to spread that peace throughout the world, to everyone, everywhere, no exceptions. Amen.

Presider: May the peace of God be always with us, and let us start by offering a sign of that peace to

      one another. 

Hymn: “Let there be Peace on Earth”  #532

Litany for the Breaking of Bread

All:  Loving God, you call us to speak truth to power, have mercy on us.  Loving God, you call us to Spirit-filled service and to live the Gospel of peace and justice, have mercy on us.   Loving God, you call us to be your presence in the world and to be bearers of compassion everywhere in your name.  Grant us peace.

Presider:  This is Jesus, who liberates, heals, and transforms us and our world.  All are invited to partake of this sacred banquet of love.  All:  We are the Body of Christ.

During-Communion Hymn:  We are holy; you are holy; I am holy, we are holy.  (3 times)

Post-Communion Period Reflection: “Let Us Break Bread Together”  #334

Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion

Presider:  Eternal God, may this Eucharist in which we always share Christ’s healing love deepen our oneness with you and unity with one another.   We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Christ, and the Spirit, the Wisdom.   All:  Amen.

Community Prayers of Gratitude

Closing Prayer

All: May our hearts be glad on our journey as we dream new dreams and see new visions.   

May we all live and work for peace, justice, and non-violence in our hearts for ourselves and our brothers and sisters -  whoever they are and wherever they are.

May we learn to bless and honor and hold in reverence the Earth and each other.   Amen.

Closing Community Blessing

All: (with an outstretched arm):  May our nurturing God bless us gathered here and all those in our communities – in the name of the Creator, in the name of Jesus the Christ, and in the name of the Spirit, our Wisdom, as we minister to one another as the people of God.  Amen. 

Closing Hymn and Commissioning: “Take the Word of God  with you”  #373

Presiders: As we leave here in the peace of Christ, let our service continue in all that we do.

All: Thanks be to God. Let it be so!