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| Imogene and Michael Rigdon, Co-Presiders |
Welcome!
Gathering Song: #304 Gather the People, 4 , 8
All: In the name of God our creator, and of Jesus our brother, and of the Holy Spirit our wisdom. Amen.
Presider: God is with you. All: And also with you.
Opening Prayer. All: Let us pray. O God, make our hearts places of peace and our minds harbors of tranquility. Sow in our souls true love for you and for one another. And root deeply within us friendship and unity, and concord with reverence. So may we give peace to each other sincerely and receive it beautifully. Amen
General Absolution by Community. All, with hand extended in prayer: O God of all mercy, through his life Jesus revealed that nothing can separate us from your love. May God give us pardon and peace, and may we forgive each other our failures to care for one another and for our earth, in the name of Abba God, and of our brother Jesus, and of Spirit Sophia. Amen
Two readings from James Carroll’s The New Morality of Pope Francis.
Gospel Acclamation: #931 Celtic Alleluia
A reading from the Gospel of John.
Response. All: Glory & praise to Jesus the Christ!
All (sing): Celtic Alleluia
The Joy of Love by Imogene Rigdon
Profession of Faith. All: We believe in God, the creator of all, whose divinity infuses life with the sacred. We believe in Jesus the Christ who leads us to the fullness of humanity. Through Christ we become new people, lifted to the fullness of life. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God on earth, who keeps the Christ vision present and infuses energy into weary spirits. We believe in God who is life. Amen to courage, to hope, to the spirit of truth, to wholeness, to the partnership and equality of women and men in God’s plan. We believe in justice and peace for all. We surely believe in all this!
Community Petitions. Presider: Always mindful of God’s love and care for us, we bring the needs of the people to our loving God. Response: God of love, hear our prayer.
Presider: Energize us in our works for justice, equality, and peace. We pray this with Jesus our brother.
All: Amen
Collection and Procession of Gifts to the table.
All Sing: #361 Seed Scattered and Sown, 1&3
Eucharistic Prayer. We invite all to gather around the table for our community meal.
All Sing: We are holy holy holy (x3) We are whole. You are holy… I am holy… We are holy…
All: As we do in this place what you did in an upstairs room, send down your Spirit Sophia on us and on these gifts of bread and wine that they may become for us your body, healing, forgiving, and making us whole. And that we may become for you, your body, loving and caring in the world until your kindom comes. Amen.
We remember Jesus. All, with 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 for you.” (Pause) In the same way, Jesus took a 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 life-blood. Do this in memory of me.”
All: Remember, gracious God, your Church throughout the world. Make us open to receive all believers. In union with all people, may we strive to create a world where suffering is diminished, and where all people can live in health and wholeness.
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: Let us offer one another a sign of peace.
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.
All Sing: Holy gifts for holy people; come, you hungry, and believe. Come and take Christ’s body offered, come and be what you receive. (Repeat x2)
Communion: Instrumental music (Linda)
Prayer of Thanksgiving (Didache, Instruction, 100CE)
Men: 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.
Women: 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.
All: 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.
Prayers of Thanksgiving. Introductions. Announcements.
All Sing hand extended in 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 loving service to all continue! All: Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
Closing song: #440 Though the Mountains May Fall, 1&3 Anointing of those in need
constant love must prevail over judgmentalism.
In our family we have experienced this mercy & compassion.
The Joy of Love began when Joan and John fell in love years ago.
They were both divorced, Joan a devout Catholic and leader of her
parish choir; John an Episcopalian who served on the Catholic
Hospital Board ; a member of the choir.
They applied for annulments and waited and
waited without a response.
Ten years later, they talked to a monastic priest, a mystic,
Joanie said. He looked at them and said, “You are a gift of love
to one another. Talk to your pastor.” And they did.
To their surprise, he supported marriage on one condition:
‘Do not give up any of your parish involvements!”
Together the pastoral solution and moral discernment embodied
in primacy of consciences was made.
They were married on the Manatee River on Thanksgiving weekend.
The issue as Fr. Roy Bourgeois described his experience,
revolves around conscience and really living out in our lives—
all of us, what we believe.
In our journey of faith we are going to come across situations
in which we have to make decisions rooted in our belief in a
loving and; just God.
With the understanding that a Pope and a Church
and each of us can build a merciful and loving Catholic Church.