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Monday, December 8, 2008

Homily of Janice Sevre-Duszynska: Walking with Mary in Prophetic Obedience



Janice Sevre-Duszynska conversing with Fr. Roy Bourgeois who co-celebrated ordination of Janice as a Roman Catholic Womanpriest in Lexington, Kentucky on Aug. 9, 2008
This photo was taken at SOA Watch in Ft. Benning, GA. (above)

Liturgy SOA Watch: Janice Servre-Duszynska gave homily and presided. (photos below)




Homily for the Friday Night Mass at Ft. Benning (Progressive Catholic Coaltion): November 21, 2008

...And Fr. Roy accepted my invitation to participate in my ordination ceremony as a Roman Catholic woman priest.

Join with me: How sweet to my taste is your promise! How sweet to my taste is your promise!

We the people of God welcomed Fr, Roy to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Lexington, KY, where he co-celebrated my Ordination Mass with women priests and the non-ordained. He laid his hands on me in blessing after woman Bishop Dana Reynolds ordained me the 33rd Roman Catholic Womenpriest in the United States. (tambourine)

Then in a homily that shook the Earth all the way to the Vatican -- which will never be the same -- he proclaimed: "We need the wisdom, sensitivity, experiences, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood if our church is to be healthy and complete."

It is written: "As many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Paul in his letter to the Galatians 3: 27-28. (tambourine)

And every day Fr. Roy was teaching about women priests. And whenever and wherever he spoke about the School of the Americas, the people of God grew excited and were full of joy (tambourine) as they clapped for his courage to walk alongside women . And with tears of joy in their eyes they asked him questions about his participation in my ordination -- his solidarity with women priests and, truly, women everywhere... (tambourine)

And everyday he has also been teaching his fellow priests who live in fear of the Vatican, (while Christ calls us to liberation, not fear) asking that "we break our silence and address this issue of the ordination of women in our homilies, in our clergy meetings and with our bishops." "Silence is the voice of complicity," says Fr. Roy.

Many of the chief priests, bishops, cardinals and the pope, meanwhile, were seeking to muzzle him through excommunication, but they could find no way to keep him quiet because all the people were hanging on his words and rising up (tambourine) ...rising up (tambourine)...rising up (tambourine).

Fr. Roy -- who has ears which hear the Living God -- will not recant what his conscience tells him Jesus would do.

For after witnessing the atrocities of the war in Vietnam, Fr. Roy had taken the scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and land. Yes, he took it and swallowed it and ....hmmmm (tambourine) hmmmm....it tasted as sweet as honey...the vision of a just and peaceful world where human beings live into the fullness and richess of God's glory....
(tambourine)

But, when he had eaten it, what? His stomach did turn sour and churned with the chaos of the injustices, the inequalities, the sufferings of the poor, the exploited, the killings, the lack of peace...the crucified Living Christ , the Living Christ crucified...especially in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Columbia, Iraq...within the United States Government, within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and, yes, within the Vatican.

Now as then, the voice from heaven continues saying to him: "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings"...even those who sit on the throne in Vatican City. (sound of The Wind).

So Fr. Roy goes up to the angel. You know our Fr. Roy. He tells the angel, Okay, give me that small scroll." (The Wind) . He swallows it...(tambourine)

-----

Today is a day of much meaning for justice and peacemakers. Today the Church celebrates the feast day of The Presentation of Mary in the Temple of Jerusalem. Some Jewish parents, not content with the general conscecration of their children to God, brought them to the temple at three years old. Joachim and Anna took Mary to live in the Temple for the next nine years of her life. (Introduce archaeolgist/theologian Dorothy Irvin's calendar on Women's Leadership in Early Christianity and show pictures). Here these girls and boys were dedicated to divine service and learned how to prophesy...through song and dance as well as with the harp, tambourine and lyre...

Let's make a noise unto our God now as we prophesy as justice and peacemakers this weekend. (Feel free to stamp your feet, shout out, sing out...)

In the first centuries, in both the eastern and western churches, Mary was considered a priest in addition to a prophet.

We remember her also today for a poignant prayer for the oppressed throughout the ages that came to her through the prophetesses Hannah and Anna. I think I'm going to rename The Magnificat -- "Dominican Sister Marge Tuite's Prayer." Like she taught me in the early 80s, it makes the connections between sexism and racism, sexism and militarism, sexism and imperialism...

This prayer has taken on even more meaning since Fr. Roy's prophetic action for me as a woman priest and all women called to ordination, for our Roman Catholic Church and the discipleship of equals to which Jesus calls us.

Today I ask you -- prophets of justice and peace -- to pray with me, this modern version. I prayed it daily in federal prison for crossing the line at Ft. Benning...

The text is from Margaret Cessna of the Sisters of the Hearts of Mary.
It is based on the prayer of Mary, woman of all women. Let us join our hearts and spirits with hers as we sing a new song to celebrate the women of all times and places. (tambourine)

Let us begin:

My soul magnifies the Word...And my spirit rejoices in God who loves me....For this God, Who is, has done great things for me...My heart and my body give breath to the world...My spirit, courageous, gives meaning to hope...The God Who Is tender lives deep in my heart, holds close the children, my gift to creation...Fills friends who hunger with goodness and peace...The God Who Is mercy forgives when I fall...Welcomes my efforts...Heals deepest pain...The God Who Is promise gives life to my word...Gives glory to my life, the life of the world...My name is called blessed on the lips of all ages...Holy is God's gift...Holy is God's name.

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