Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, Liturgy for Solemnity of All Saints with Co-Presiders: Kathryn Shea and Lee Breyer and Music Minister Mindy Simmons

     

         

                       

    Theme:  Minding the Gap from Here to Blessedness 

Welcome and Music Preparati

 Greeting and Gathering Hymn: “We Gather Here to Celebrate”

                                                                                          

                                                        Gathering Prayer

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

All: God of life, wholeness and holiness, you who direct all creation to its complete 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 all of us gathered here and all those of our community who are not with us today.  We ask this of you, our brother Jesus, and our Wisdom Sophia.  Amen. 

Penitential Rite and Community Forgiveness

 Presider:  Creator God, we may not fully open our hearts to your Spirit living within us and calling us to be a blessed people.

     All: Help us to more faithfully understand her message and be your voice among your people.

Presider:  Christ Jesus, grant us the courage we will need to grow in grace in all we do.

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

Presider:  Holy Spirit, pour out your healing mercy on us, your People, and all of creation, everywhere.

     All: We ask for your love and understanding of the frailty of our human natures. Help us to extend your forgiving presence in us to all those with whom we live.

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 and compassion 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 for our failures to care for one another and for our planet Earth.  We ask this of you, our healer and comforter. Amen.

Glory to God

All:  Glory to God in the highest, and peace to all God’s people on earth.  Creator God, heart of the universe, we thank you for the breath of the Spirit sustaining everything that exists, everywhere in the cosmos.  Through the example and teachings of Jesus Christ, you gave us the grace to know that you are always among us – and that we can experience you in our brothers and sisters.  We give you glory and praise through Jesus Christ, our brother, and the Holy Spirit, Wisdom.  Amen.

Liturgy of the Word

First reading: Hebrews 7: 23-28                 All: Thanks be to God.

Psalm 18         Responsorial: “I Love You, God, I Love You God My Strength”  #746

Second reading: 1 John 3: 1-3                   All: Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation: “Alleluia! Raise the Gospel”       #629    (Note the change from our usual one)

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12                             All: Glory and thanks to our Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Dialog Homily/Community Reflection

Discussion starter:

In today’s reading from the first letter of John, we were told who we are (children of God) and how our life will end up (we will see God as God really is).  John added that “it has not been revealed what we are to become in the future.”

In today’s gospel, Matthew has drawn up a list of Jesus’ teachings on behaviors that lead to a blessed life.  However, as we all know, there are gaps between our aspirations or intentions and their outcomes.  We acknowledged that those gaps are due to the “frailty of our human nature” and we asked for forgiveness in our penitential prayer as we began this liturgy.

That said: how do we “mind the gap” so that, someday, we can say that we have lived a blessed life? 

Profession of Faith

All: We believe in God, the Creator of the universe whose divinity infuses all that exists, making everything, everywhere, sacred.   We believe in Jesus, the Christ, who leads us to the fullness of humanity.  Through him, we become a new people, called beyond the consequences of our brokenness.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Wisdom who keeps the Christ-vision present to all those who are searching for meaning and wholeness in their lives – and the Sustainer who heals and energizes us when our spirits may grow weary in our journeys.  We say: Amen to courage, to hope, and to truth.  We say: Amen to the partnership and equality of all people of different genders, races, and faiths.  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 people of faith.  We believe in the power of prayer.  We believe that we send blessing to those who are struggling and who need to experience hope and healing; to those who are grieving and need comfort in their loss. We bring the needs of people throughout the world to our merciful and gracious God.   After each intercession, respond: Compassionate God, hear our prayers.

Presider: Healing God, 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 in a world without violence.  As always, we make this prayer in the names of Jesus, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, our Wisdom.  Amen.

Offertory Procession “We Are Called”   #628 

Preparation of the Gifts

Presider:  Blessed are you, gracious God. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, grain which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

All:  Blessed be God forever.

Presider:  Blessed are you, gracious God. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and human hands have made. It will become for us our spiritual drink.

All:  Blessed be God forever. 

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

ALL: Gracious God, we are united in this sacrament by our love of Jesus Christ and we are in communion with all, everywhere, who proclaim your power and mercy to those who are marginalized and oppressed.  May we love tenderly, do justice, and walk humbly with you.  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 among 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 present and always caring, loving God, we do well to always and everywhere give you thanks.  In you we live and move and have our being.  Your Spirit dwelling in us gives us the hope of unending peace and joy with you. Your gift of the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven. We join together with that community of saints who have gone before us and now live in the eternal now, as we sing…

ALL:  We are holy, holy, holy X3, we are whole.  You are holy…I am holy…we are holy.

Voice 2:  We thank you, God, for the gift of Jesus in history - and the gift of Jesus in faith. You raised him up from among your people to baptize us in your Spirit.  His life was moved by a vision of your presence among us. He burned with insight and truth, revealing you 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:  When his time had come, Jesus suffered for what he deeply believed and taught…his conviction that love is stronger than death...and then, as a model of this for the ages to come, he opened wide his arms and died.  The Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, showed us in this action that life is eternal and love is immortal. She is, for us, a foretaste of the paschal feast of heaven.

All:  O God, let your Spirit of life, healing and wholeness come upon these simple gifts that we have brought from the fields and laid on 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.  And so … (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 and, after breaking it, shared it with 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, whom the universe could not contain, is present to us now in this bread. He who redeemed us and called us by name now meets us 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.  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 the life 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 People everywhere - especially those who live on the margins of church and society. Remember also all those, 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).

All: Our Father and Mother …….. Amen.

All:  Lord God, we have prayed that your kingdom may come among us.  Open our ears to hear it; our hands to serve it, and our hearts to hold it. 

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.  O God, following the example of Jesus and with the strength of the 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 extend that by offering a sign of peace to one another. 

Litany for the Breaking of Bread

Presider: Loving God,  All: you call us to Spirit-filled service and to live the Gospel of non-violence for peace and justice.   We will live justly.

Presider: Loving God,  All: you call us to be your presence in the world and to be bearers of healing and compassion everywhere in your name.  We will love tenderly.

Presider: Loving God,  All: you call us to speak truth to power.  We will walk humbly with you.

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.

Pre-Communion Prayer

Presider:  God, as we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the poverty of so many of our brothers and sisters.

Men:  We cannot eat this bread and forget those who are hungry.  O God, your world is one world and we are stewards of its nourishment.

Women:  We cannot drink this wine and forget those who are thirsty.  O God, the very earth and its parched people cry out for justice.

Presider:  We cannot hear your words of peace and not grieve for the world at war.

Communion Hymn “There is Only Love” 

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 our 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 and  Announcements

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, honor, and hold in reverence the Earth and one another.   Amen.

Closing Community Blessing  

All: (with an outstretched arm):  May our nurturing God bless us gathered here and all those in our community – 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 Community Commisioning and Hymn  “A New Heaven and Earth”

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!