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| Co-Presiders: left to right: Bridget Mary Meehan and Peg Bowen |
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Theme: The Spirit reveals the heart of the Holy
One in Jesus who shows us how to live healing, wholeness and justice.
Welcome and Greeting
Presider 1:
Welcome to Mary Mother of Jesus, an inclusive Catholic Community where all
are welcome to share Eucharist at the Banquet Table. We use inclusive language
in our scripture readings and prayers. We invite sharing at the homily that is
related to our readings and respectful, as well as the prayers of the community Everyone prays the words of Consecration in the
Eucharistic Prayer. We welcome our newcomers at the announcement time after
Communion. All are invited to join us for supper after liturgy.
Presider 2: Today
we encounter the Spirit resting on Jesus who manifests the heart of God who desires healing, wholeness and justice for all especially the marginalized and oppressed. Today the Spirit rests upon us to manifest the Holy One's All-Embracing Love in our world.
Opening
Song: #413 Sing a New Church
All: We open
our hearts to Spirit’s call to live the mission of Jesus of creating unity and
harmony within a gifted and diverse community where all are equally blessed and
important.
Rite
of Communal Forgiveness
Presider
1: We
pause now to remember times we have not treated one another as gifted and
diverse members of the Body of Christ, equally blessed and important.
( Pause
for a few moments of silent reflection. )
Presider 2: Let us now ask for forgiveness for
our failures to love others. (Extend arm over community)
All: Please
forgive us, we are sorry, we love you, thank you.
All: Glory
to God, glory, O praise God, alleluia, Glory to God, glory, O praise the name
of our God (sung 3 times).
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
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| Anna Davis |
Responsorial Psalm 19
Response: Ubi Caritas, et amo, ubi caritas, deus
ibi est.
Second Reading: 1 Letter to Corinthians 12:12-30
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| Cheryl Brandi |
Eightfold Alleluia (Charismatic)
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| Peg Bowen |
Gospel: Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Homily: Bridget Mary
The Spirit
reveals the heart of the Holy One in Jesus who shows us how to live healing,
wholeness and justice.
Today the
good news is that we are co-creators of a new Church that manifests God’s all
embracing love everywhere.
As we reflect together on our path in 2019 and beyond, we open our hearts to Spirit’s call to live the
mission of Jesus of creating unity and harmony within a gifted and diverse
community, Church and world where all are equally blessed and important.
My sisters and brothers,
our gift and our challenge is to be new wine in new wineskins as Mary Mother
of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community right now in Sarasota, Florida and
beyond.
In the reading from
Nehemiah, the Israelite people had returned from exile in Babylon and were
moved to tears as they heard the words of Torah proclaiming the heart of the
Holy One’s All-Embracing Love being read. Many in
our Church today weep as they witness the pain, suffering and resistance to
change and transformation brought about by the worldwide sexual abuse scandal
in our Church. How can we reach out with love and healing is a question
for us to ponder?
In our second reading,
Paul uses the beautiful metaphor of the human body to describe the unity and
harmony within the diverse Christian community where all the many parts are
equally important. Here I am conscious of one of the hot button issues in our
Church, will Pope Francis accept the Papal Commission's recent endorsement of
women deacons in the history of the Church? Then, will he affirm this tradition
and ordain women deacons now?
Last
week, at our celebration of Imogene Rigdon’s life, Michael
shared our MMOJ community's vision of Catholic life that is not structured
in a pyramid top -down hierarchy model of bishop, priests and people but rather
a circle of equals of ordained and non-ordained that is inclusive and always expanding and
welcoming.
In today’s Gospel, Luke
sets the scene in the synagogue, describing those present as spell-bound, when
he read from the prophet Isaiah:
“God’s Spirit is on me;
God has chosen me to preach the message of good news to the poor, Sent me to
announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind to set the
burdened and battered free, to announce, This is God’s year to
act!” (The Message, translation by Eugene Peterson)
Today, the
same Spirit resting on Jesus who manifested the heart of God’s desire for
healing, wholeness and justice for all especially the marginalized and
oppressed rests upon us as individuals and as a community.
In a recent meditation, Richard Rohr reminds us of the
challenge of Jesus’ mission to pour new wine into fresh wineskins: “Without new wineskins—changed institutions, systems,
and structures—I would argue that transformation cannot be deep or lasting...Christianity
has shaped some wonderfully liberated saints, prophets, and mystics. They tried
to create some new wineskins, but often the church itself resisted their calls
to structural reform. Take for example the father of my own religious
community, Saint Francis of Assisi. He was marginalized as a bit of a fanatic
or eccentric by mainline Catholicism, as illustrated by no Pope ever taking his
name until our present Pope Francis. Even today many Christians keep Jesus
on a seeming pedestal, worshiping a caricature on a cross or a bumper-sticker
slogan while avoiding what Jesus said and did. We keep saying, “We love Jesus,”
but it is more as a God-figure than someone to imitate.”
So,
sisters and brothers on the margins, this is God’s year to act through us as we
bring our different gifts and perhaps some new ones to promote healing,
wholeness and justice in our community here in Sarasota, in our Church and
beyond.
Our Homily
Reflection Question: How can we live the mission of Jesus that includes both personal
and structural transformation in a gifted and diverse community, Church and world where all
are equally blessed and important?
Statement of Faith
Presider 2: Please join
in praying our statement of faith.
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding, in whose infinite love all creation exists and evolves.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Presence,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that we are called to follow Jesus
as a reflection of divine compassion and healing
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace and healing in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Prayers of the Community
Presider
1: As
we prepare for the sacred meal, we pray for the needs of the people of God in
our community and around the world.
Our
response is: Holy One, you hear our prayers.
Please
share your spontaneous prayers.
Presider
2: We
give thanks for all whom we held in the circle of grace and will continue to
pray for and use our spiritual gifts to serve our sisters and brothers with
joyful hearts in the coming weeks. Amen.
Preparation
of The Gifts (Presiders lift up the bread and wine)
Presider1: Blessed are
you, God of all life, through your goodness we have bread, wine, all creation,
and our own lives to offer. Through this sacred meal may we become your new
creation as we respond to your call to use our gifts in loving service to our
sisters and brothers.
All: Blessed be God forever.
Presider
2: All
are welcome to join us around the table.
Liturgy of
the Eucharist
Presider 1: God is within you, blessing the world through you
All: And
also within you.
Presider
2: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift
them up in the Holy One.
All: O God
of_____(say your name), we rejoice that You call us beloved. We give thanks for
the rich diversity of spiritual gifts we have in this community. We open our
lives to serve our sisters and brothers in their needs. We remember the angels
and saints and all who have gone before us. Joined with all creation, we lift
up our hearts and sing:
We
are holy, holy, holy by Karen Drucker
Voice
1: We
rejoice in Jesus, our brother, who called us to proclaim the Good News of
divine healing, wholeness and divine justice. He lifted up the oppressed, and
invited us to care for the poor, the marginalized, and to bring release to
those who are held captive.
Voice
2: We
celebrate our call to use our spiritual gifts to reflect the One Who Embraces
All with love in our relationships and actions each day.
(Extend hands
in blessing toward bread and wine for Invocation of the Holy Spirit)
All: Now, as we
share the bread of life and lift the cup of joy, we pray: Come Holy Spirit,
deepen your Presence within us and in these gifts of bread and wine.
All: On the night
before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to
him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet, so that they
would re-member him.
Presider
1: (lifts
bread as community prays the following:)
All: When he returned to his place
at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread
and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat of the Bread of Life
Given to strengthen you
Whenever you remember me like this
I am among you. (pause)
Presider
2: (lifts
the cup as community prays the following: )
All: Jesus then raised a cup of
blessing, spoke the grace 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. (pause)
All: Let us share
this bread and cup,
and
welcome everyone to the Banquet as we live the gospel of justice and peace in
our world.
Voice
3: Like
Jesus, who was aware of the power of the Spirit upon him, we are called to do
everything Jesus did, to be the living presence of a love that does justice, of
a compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates laughter, of a
light that illumines right choices and confronts the darkness of every
injustice and inequity.
All: So, we trust
you to continue to share with us your own Spirit, the Spirit that filled Jesus,
for it is through his life and teaching, his loving and healing that your presence and action is manifested to
the world through our lives.
All
sing: Amen.
Presider
1: Let
us pray as Jesus taught us:
All:
Sing Prayer of Jesus: Our Father and Mother
Presider 2: Sign of Peace: Let us hold hands sing “Peace
is flowing like a River” as we pray for peace and justice to spread through our
world.
Prayer
for the Breaking of Bread
Presider
1: Please
join in the prayer for the breaking of the bread:.
(Presiders
break the bread)
All: O God
of Courage, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We
will live justly. O God
of Compassion, You call us to be Your presence in the world. We will
love tenderly. O God of Truth, You call
us to speak truth to power. We will walk with integrity in your
presence.
(Presiders hold up bread and wine)
Presider
1: This
is the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Through it we are nourished and
we nourish each other. All are welcome to the Feast.
All: What we
have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives; as we share communion,
we will grow in unity and harmony in our blessed diversity.
Communion
Song: Spirit of the Living God (me, us, all)
(Sung by Michael Crawford)
Spirit
of the Living God
Fall
fresh on me
Spirit
of the Living God
Fall
fresh on me.
Melt
me mold me
Fill
me use me
Spirit
of the Living God
Fall
fresh on me.
Presider
1: Prayers
of Gratitude, Introductions and Announcements
Blessing
Presider
2: Let
us raise our hands in blessing and pray together:
All: May we
continue to be the face of God as we serve our sisters and brothers. May we
call each other to be blessings as we share our diverse gifts with
all. May we walk with an awareness of our call to live as the heart
of God and make our world a better place. May we, like Jesus, be a shining
light of the presence of the holy in our time!
Amen.
Closing
Song: God Has Chosen Me #378
This liturgy was written by Bridget Mary Meehan and Mary Theresa Streck
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| Community gathers for dinner |
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