Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Liturgy, June 11, 2022, Presiders: Joan Pesce, Dotty Shugrue ARCWP, Readers: Anna Davis and Andrea Seabaugh, Prayer Leaders: Luca Cruzat, Mary Montavon, and Jack McKillip IT Team: Peg Bowen and Cheryl Brandi

Zoom link for video - 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Meeting ID: 815 3407 5389

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Theme:  Trinity Sunday:  Relationship and Accompaniment

Welcome:  Joan P

We invite you to pray the liturgy. We also invite your reflections at the time of the Shared Homily.  Remember to unmute yourself anytime you speak and re-mute yourself when you finish. As an inclusive community with a format of worship that encourages participation, we encourage you to say all prayers with us.  Please have bread and wine/juice in front of you as we pray our Eucharistic prayer.

Let us begin now with our Gathering Song:

The House That Love Is Building – Sarah Hart

https://youtu.be/dM69BAgvuXw

Opening Prayer:  Dotty

As we gather today as Christian Community to celebrate the mystery of the Trinity, our focus is on Relationships - the relationship we have with one another and therefore with the Holy and Sacred.  We hold one another in our hearts as we draw strength from the love we share. We recognize the overwhelming struggles of so many people in our world, especially the children. We commit ourselves once again to do all that we can to demand change that will remove guns from our streets, bring peace to warring countries and celebrate all forms of life.   And together we say:

ALL:  SO BE IT!

LUCA C.

Glory to the Spirit of Life, to the Holy One who surrounds us, who lives within us, whose Sacred Word is shared by us in our world.

Glory to the Spirit of Life, who offers us peace; peace in our hearts, peace in our thoughts, peace with one another as we reach out to one another and ask for blessing. 

Glory to the Spirit of Life, who cares for the health workers, postal workers, store clerks, garbage collectors and all those who those who serve our special needs in numerous ways.

Glory to the Spirit of Life, who sent Jesus who teaches us how to live the Gospel, who brings hope and healing to all those in need. 

Presider:  O Holy One, you are one with us.  We are strong in our faith and will live life in hope and faithfulness to you, to be Church committed to the message of the Gospels.

We depend upon the ever-present Spirit to walk with us as we journey in the present and rejoice in the life before us.  

Amen

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: ANDREA S.

Excerpt from The Divine Dance by Richard Rohr

God (and uniquely the Trinity) cannot be known as we know any other object--such as a machine, an objective idea, or a tree--which we are able to “objectify.” We look at objects, and we judge them from a distance through our normal intelligence, parsing out their varying parts, separating this from that, presuming that to understand the parts is always to be able to understand the whole. But divine things can never be objectified in this way; they can only be “subjectified” by becoming one with them! When neither yourself nor other is treated as a mere object, but both rest in an I-Thou of mutual admiration, you have spiritual knowing. Some call this contemplative knowing.

Such knowing intuits things in their wholeness, with all levels of connection and meaning, and perhaps how they fit in the full scheme of things. Thus, the contemplative response to the moment is always appreciation and inherent re-spect (“to look at a second time”) because I am now a part of what I am trying to see. Our first practical and partial observation of most things lacks this respect. It is not yet contemplative knowing. Frankly, when you see things contemplatively, everything in the universe is a mirror!

These are the inspired reflections by Richard Rohr and the community responds by saying:

ALL:  SO BE IT!

Psalm:  131

Come to the Quiet by John Michael Talbot

https://youtu.be/RFj2LWBccAw

CELTIC ALLELUIA

https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU

The Gospel:   ANNA D.

A reading from the gospel of the apostle known to be John. (Excerpts from chapter 16)

“I didn’t tell you this earlier because I was with you every day. But now I am on my way to the One who sent me. Not one of has asked,

‘Where are you going?’ Instead, the longer I’ve talked, the sadder you’ve become. So let me say it again, this truth: It’s better for you that I leave. If I don’t leave, the Friend won’t come. But if I

go, I’ll send him to you.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; what will be taken from me is delivered to you. Everything the Holy has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘What is mine is also yours. What is taken from me is also part of you.” 

“In a day or so, you’re not going to see me, but then in another day or so you will see me.”

“When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there’s no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the birth. This new life in the world wipes out memory of the pain. The sadness you have right now is similar to that pain, but the coming joy is also similar. When I see you again, you’ll be full of joy, and it will be a joy no one can rob from you. You’ll no longer be so full of questions.

“This is what I want you to do: Ask for whatever is in keeping with the things I’ve revealed to you. Ask in my name, according to my desires, and most certainly it will be given to you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks!

These are the inspired words of the apostle known as John and the community responds:  

ALL:  SO BE IT!

HOMILY STARTER: Dotty Shugrue ARCWP

Invitation to share personal reflections

Profession of Faith

MARY M.  We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery 
beyond all definition and rational understanding, 
the heart of all that has ever existed, 
that exists now, or that ever will exist. 
 
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word, 
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 vehicle of divine love, 
a source of wisdom and truth, 
and an instrument of peace 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 for the Community

JACK M.  We pray that the Holy One renew in our hearts our commitment to journey always in faith, hope and love as we reach out and support, comfort and love those closest to us, and all the needs of the people of our earth.

We bring the table our Congress and our Local Leaders that they may do the will of the people and pass gun laws that will save lives.

We bring to the table those in our country who have been murdered because of gun violence and we pray for their families and friends.

We bring to the table the people of Ukraine that they will have their country returned to them and we pray for strength as they struggle for their survival.

JOAN M. will now share the intentions from our community prayer requests.

Please share your intentions beginning with the words:

I BRING TO THE TABLE…

Pause until all who have requests

JACK M.  We recognize we are in relationship with all people, with animals with the earth.  We believe in our hearts we accompany one another on this journey through life.  We are confident that our thoughts and prayers will bring hope through the Sacred Spirit who makes us all One.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

LUCA C.  We invite everyone to place their plate of bread and cup of wine on their table of plenty.

(Raise YOUR bread and the wine):  

Ever present Sacred Spirit, you who hold us in your loving hands, we offer these gifts of bread and wine as we celebrate your life with us. These gifts are made sacred through our faith.

We ask this in the name of Jesus our brother.  Amen

The Holy One is with you. 

Let us all give thanks.   

(The Prayer of Thanksgiving - from the New New Testament)

DOTTY S. We give thanks to you, every life, and heart stretches toward you, O name untroubled, honoring with the name of the Creator /Christ/Sacred Spirit. To everyone and everything comes the kindness of the Holy One and love and desire. And if there is sweet and simple teaching, it gifts us mind, word, and knowledge; mind, that we may understand you; word, that we may interpret you; knowledge, that we may know you.  We rejoice and are enlightened by your knowledge; we rejoice that you have taught us about yourself. We rejoice that in the body you have made us divine through your knowledge. 

 

JOAN P. O Nurturing, Compassionate one, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends, and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.

Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ 

LUCA C. The thanksgiving of the human who reaches you is this alone; that we know you.  We have known you, O light of mind.  O light of life we have known you.  O womb of all that grows, we have known you.  O womb pregnant with the nature of Creator.

We call on Sacred Presence to bless with us this bread and wine which is made sacred through our faith.  We celebrate with one another as we remember Jesus walked this same earth we walk today.

During Jesus’s life on this earth, he lived and died loving the poor, healing the sick and challenging the injustices within society.   Because of his ministry Jesus was feared by the authority of his day.

DOTTY S.  On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again, he showed us how to love one another.

All present lift their plate

Back at the table, Jesus took the Passover Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread, and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.

(pause)

All present lift the cup as we pray 

Jesus then took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to all present 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.

JOAN P. Bread and wine is transformed by Your Spirit, and we are transformed when we open ourselves to the very Spirit that is our life. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.

 

Receive the Bread and the Wine and pray the words:

     *******The Spirit in me sees the Spirit in you. *******

 

Reflection Song:  Breath of the One Life by Jan Novotka

‘

https://youtu.be/FV8dQhTZe_o

JACK M:  Let us pray in the manner that Jesus taught his companions to pray:

O Holy One, you are 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.

(Adapted, Miriam Therese Winter, MMS)

LUCA C.  As we celebrate the memory of Jesus in our sharing of Eucharist, we remember all those people who walk with us in the search for the Divine.  We remember families we know and those we do not know who suffer much hurt and pain in their lives.  We remember the children who fear going to school because of violence.  We remember the parents who suffer beyond our understanding because of the brutal deaths of their children, because of the lack of gun laws.  We commit ourselves to stand up and have our voices heard.

Closing Prayer

JOAN P.  Melt us into Oneness, O Holy One, so that a new creation might be born. Help us all embrace Your wisdom, embedded in our sacred planet.  Enable us to always live the reality of the Cosmic Christ in ourselves and all creation and even beyond.

Amen

O Holy One, we give thanks and praise for your living presence among us.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS, THANKSGIVING, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

DOTTY S.  Blessing 

May the blessing of the Holy One hold us on our journey.

May the blessing of the Christ give us strength and vision. 

May the blessing of Spirit Life give all families peace.

Closing Song:  Heal the World by Michael Jackson performed by World-wide Child Prodigies

https://youtu.be/h6d6Yo3DwVI

If you would like to add your intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayers book,

Please send an email to:   jmeehan515@aol.com

If you would like to invite another person to attend our liturgy, please refer them to

www.marymotherofJesus.org where the day’s liturgy is found. Zoom instructions are also included there.

Please support our community, send your check to:

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

% St Andrews UCC, 6908 Beneva Rd., Sarasota, FL 34328

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community joins March for our Lives in Sarasota, Florida to Call on US Senators to Ban Assault Rifles and Pass Gun Safety Laws to Protect Everyone

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community at March for our Lives to advocate that the US Senate ban assault rifles and pass gun safety laws to protect everyone Demonstrators gathered in Sarasota, Florida today including MMOJ  members Joan Pesce, Dotty Shugrue ARCWP, Lee Breyer and Bridget Mary Meehan

Music to Soothe the Soul, Lullabye by Jan Phillips, Video by Bridget Mary Meehan

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Yto-1Yklg

Lullabye (Cris Williamson) (BMI)

Like a ship in the harbor; Like a mother and child; Like a light in the darkness I’ll hold you awhile We’ll rock on the water; I’ll cradle you deep
and hold you while angels sing you to sleep

20 Years of Clergy Sex Abuse - Clericalism and Non-Accountability, 20 Years of Women Priests -Inclusiveness and Gender Equality

From left: Terence McKiernan, co-founder and president of BishopAccountability.org; Margery Eagan, co-host of 89.7 WGBH’s midday program Boston Public Radio; and Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org, speak during a panel discussion at a June 4 conference in Quincy, Massachusetts, which was titled, "Pivot to the Future: Marking 20 Years of Confronting Clergy Sex Abuse." (NCR/Brian Fraga)

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/survivors-praised-20-years-exposing-catholic-abuse-scandals

As the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement celebrates 20 years of women priests in 2022, the National Catholic Reporter is documenting 20 years of clerical sex abuse in the Church. 

The real tragedy is that after 20 years of clerical abuse and cover-ups, there is still no real accountability by the hierarchy.  The demolition of clericalism is what is needed to begin this process. That is apparently a bridge too far for Pope Francis and the bishops. But, not for our movement!

 Our goal is to dismantle the clerical culture of male supremacy by affirming the radical equality of every person as an image of God. In our renewed model, the assembly celebrates sacraments and makes decisions together in communities where all are loved, all are equal and all have a seat at the table.  

 On June 1, 2021, Pope Francis approved an update to the Code of Canon Law that placed the ordination of women priests  in the same category of serious crimes against the Church as priests' sexual abusers of children. "Can. 1379 § 3. Both a person who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished by dismissal from the clerical state." https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/just-catholic/new-canon-womens-ordination-nothing-new-can-be-changed

This unjust scapegoating of women priests attempted  to change the focus on the root of the pedophilia crisis- clericalism. No punishment against women priests has stopped us from serving the people of God.  In 2002, there were 7 women ordained, now there are close to 300 worldwide. 

In in an article entitled  Vatican Equates Women's Ordination with Priest Pedophilia, theologian Mary Hunt raises the following questions: "Maybe they think people will be so scandalized by women wanting to get on with the ministry of the church at a time when the institution is morally bankrupt that they will forget the cover-ups that necessitated this revision of law in the first place. Or, perhaps the foxes may really think that this effort to centralize power with even less accountability can take place quietly since so many people will be exercised over the mere suggestion of women priests."

 https://religiondispatches.org/vatican-equates-womens-ordination-with-priest-pedophilia/

"The Vatican doesn't care if the bishops follow the Charter, and the bishops know this. The only thing they have to follow is canon law," said Ann Barrett Doyle, who also criticized Pope Francis' 2019 motu proprio Vos Estis Lex Mundi ("You Are the Light of the World") for allegedly failing to deliver on its promise to hold bishops accountable for covering up or not investigating clergy sex abuse."

"Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told survivors during a panel discussion that  "the church hierarchy lied and lied and lied." She said that the United States bishops and the Vatican have failed to implement meaningful reforms. She referred to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — the norms the U.S. bishops adopted in June 2002 on responding to clergy sex abuse cases — as a nonbinding "public relations document..."

"What we've seen" from Vos Estis, Doyle said, "is a process that is totally controlled by the hierarchy, especially the Vatican." She noted that under Vos Estis, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York oversaw an investigation into his "good friend," Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, that resulted in DiMarzio being exonerated last year of decades-old sexual abuse allegations.

"It is the very essence of clericalism," Doyle said. "It is completely nontransparent. We don't know which bishops are being investigated or when they are sanctioned. And we don't know why they are sanctioned."

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/survivors-praised-20-years-exposing-catholic-abuse-scandals

Homily by Rev. Richard Vosko, Pentecost 2022, Year C

 For many years I used a 1492 Venetian woodcut, “The Building of the Tower of Babel,” for the logo on my stationery. The mythical story of Babel refers to the origins of multip
le languages on earth that prevented people from understanding one another. (Genesis 11:1-9) Babel is a Hebrew verb and means to jumble or confuse. In my work I tried to do the opposite, to bring diverse voices together to work for the common good.

Today is Pentecost. The familiar story in Acts 2:1-11 offers a constructive way to look at the baneful Babel story. The dissimilar groups that gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles¹ [1] understood the words of the disciples in their own languages. To stress this point, the author Luke went to great length to list all the different ethnicities present. 

Theologian Greg Carey wrote: “The pleasure of visualizing this diverse crowd hearing the gospel reinforces the power of the miracle.” Comparing the Pentecost story to Babel, Carey added, “Language no longer poses a barrier. The gospel reverses the misfortune of Babel … it names, respects, and embraces diversity”

Pentecost is a story for our time. The reality is this: we are all linked with different voices from all across the planet. The Internet gives impetus to the notion of globalization where economies, ideas, politics and cultures converge. No one religion or nation can be parochial, nationalistic or dominant in this human ecosystem. 

To survive in this age we have to find ways to reach out to all of God’s creatures, to listen to one another, to elevate the unique gifts and identities of all people who wish to live in ways that are interconnected with the environment and other human beings. 

The psalmist (104:1, 24, 29-31, 34) begged God: “Send out your spirit to renew the face of the earth!” Some linguists suggest that “advocate” would be a more appropriate word than “spirit.” Advocate, used in one of today’s gospels (John 14:15-16, 23b-26) is both a noun and a verb.

Philosopher and theologian John Kavanaugh wrote that this Advocate is not found in one place, one group or one person. It does not reside only in laws, sanctuaries, hierarchies, sacraments, scriptures, or people who are rich or poor, powerful or weak. ² [2]

The Spirit of Pentecost advances new hope for all oppressed peoples whose voices are most always misunderstood or not heard — people of color, women, children, the LGBTQIA+ community, transgendered persons, refugees and immigrants. This holy Spirit broke language barriers, blew down walls of division and opened up doors of justice.

As advocates we do not work alone. We advocate for justice by relying on each other’s gifts and strengths. (1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13) Our task is to peacefully synch a diverse human race with the borderless divinely infused cosmic enterprise where there is no geo-theological heaven or hell. 

Here and now, a boundary-less cyberspace offers us endless possibilities for communicating with others to spread goodness and not evil. Some call it working to bring about the kindom of God on earth.

In commenting on the work of American contemplative Beatrice Bruteau, scientific theologian Ilia Delio wrote: “Bruteau describes a ‘grid of wholistic consciousness’ whereby the world is seen as a pattern of inter-independence, complementarity, cooperation, friendship, and creative joy.” ³ [3] Achieving such harmony may appear as an elusive goal but given the evils that confront us it is urgent that we advocate blessings for all.

This ever evolving Advocate is not a “spirit of slavery.” (Romans 8:8-17) It will continue to growl and grow inside everyone of us until at last all are transformed, liberated from whatever holds us back from becoming all we can be, from doing all we can do. We can choose to ignore the Advocate but we cannot avoid its incomparable presence. Where, actually, is that Advocate? It is already deep inside our beings waiting to burst forth.

______

¹ The Feast of Tabernacles - Sukkot — is a celebration of God’s provision for the Israelites all through their wanderings in the wilderness and during harvest time. Today, Jews understand it as a time to renew their covenant with God.

² Kavanaugh, John. The Word Engaged: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures (Maryknoll: Orbis Books) 1997. 72-74.

³ Beatrice Bruteau, “The Whole World: A Convergence Perspective,” The Grand Option, 39-52 in Ilia Delio, The Hours of the Universe: Reflection on God, Science and the Human Journey. (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 2021) 99.