 Lee Breyer presided at lighting of Paschal Candle |
| Presiders:
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, Sally Brochu ARCWP, Janet Blakeley ARCWP, Katy Zatsick ARCWP, RC Priest Lee Breyer Musicians: Linda Lee Miska, Mindy Lou Simmons, Cheri McDonough Lectors: Mary Al Gagnon, Kevin Connelly , Jack Duffy
Part 1: Service of Light
Blessing of the Fire and Paschal Candle
We will gather around the place of the
new fire- in the courtyard outside the main doors of the sanctuary.
Presiders will invite each person to mention the names of those who have
gone before and who have ignited faith and love and wisdom in her/his
life. After each set of names, the
congregation will respond: They walk
with us!
Lee:
On this most sacred night, in which Jesus Christ passed over from this earth to
a new life, the People of God everywhere come together to watch and pray. If we listen to the word of God and live it,
and if we honor the memory of his death and resurrection, we will have the sure hope of sharing his
victory over death and living a resurrected life with our Creator.
Lee
sets the fire. When lit, the fire is
blessed.
Lee: Let us pray. O God
who, through Jesus, bestowed upon us the fire of your glory, sanctify (+) this
new fire -- and grant that, by these paschal celebrations, we may be inflamed
with new hope. Purify our minds by this
Easter celebration and bring us one day to the feast of eternal light.
Preparation of the
Paschal Candle
Lee: Christ, yesterday and today (pause)
The Beginning and the End
While saying:
The Alpha and Omega (put
in the first pin)
While
saying: All time belongs to God (put in the second pin)
While saying: And all the ages (put in the third pin)
While saying: To Jesus, be glory and power (put
in the fourth pin)
While
saying: Through all time and all
places, Amen (put
in the fifth pin)
ALL: May the light of Christ - rising in glory - dispel the
darkness of our hearts and minds.
Lee: We Rejoice. We Remember.
ALL:
The Christ - a spark that lit the cosmos at the beginning of time.
We Rejoice. We Remember.
ALL:
The Christ - a spark that is expanding across time.
We Rejoice. We Remember.
ALL:
The Christ - a spark that was borne, sheltered and passed to us by our
ancestors.
We Rejoice. We Remember.
ALL: The Christ - a spark that was fanned
into flame by those who ignited our lives in love and wisdom and joy.
We Rejoice. We Remember.
ALL:
The Christ - a spark that is a sacred trust held by us to pass on to
generations yet to come.
ALL:
We rejoice. We remember. We celebrate. (Alexander J. Shaia)
Procession
Cheri will bring the candle into the Sanctuary singing 3 times: “The
Light of Christ”
Response:
Thanks be to God!
BMM: May God be with you. ALL: And also with you.
BMM: Lift up your hearts. ALL: We lift them up to our God.
BMM: Let us give thanks to our God. ALL: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
Cheri (at the front in the sanctuary) sings: The Exsultet, “Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Easter Proclamation
[adapted by Jim Marsh ARCWP]
Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation in God’s presence!
Jesus, the Anointed One, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of life renewed!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of our God!
Christ has risen!
Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!
Rejoice, O Mother Church !
Exult in glory!
The Risen One shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the song of all God’s people!
My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
Join me in praising God,
as we sing this Easter song.
Our God is with you.
R. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to our gifting God.
R. It is right to give God thanks and praise.
It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices,
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful creator,
and the beloved one, Jesus the Cosmic Christ.
On this night, we remember our ancestors who escaped their slavery through the waters of the Red Sea .
Abba God, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your infinite love!
To gift us with Jesus, your beloved,
born of Miriam and Joseph.
Yet, this is our Passover feast,
for Jesus, the Christ, broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.
This is the night when Christians everywhere
bathed in grace freely given,
promise to reject all that is evil and grow together in holiness.
Therefore, O Holy One,
in the joy of this night,
hear our evening song of prayer and praise.
Accept this Easter candle,
may it dispel all darkness and evil,
and renew our confidence and bring us joy.
May Christ, the morning Star,
who sheds peaceful light on all creation,
find this hope burning brightly in our lives,
today and evermore.
R. AMEN
Part II: Liturgy of the Word
Reading: Story of
Salvation History – adapted from the Books of Hebrew Scriptures
These are the inspired
words of our prophets. ALL: Thanks be to God.
Responsorial: Sung Alleluia
The Gospel: John 20: 1-18 (Jack Duffy and Janet Blakeley)
This
is the Good News of Salvation.
Response; Glory and praise
to you, Jesus, the Christ.
Homily Starter - Bridget
Mary
Chant: “Come Be Beside Us”
– Jan
Philips
Come
be beside us, come be around us,
Come
be within us, Come be among us. X5
Like Mary of Magdala, we embrace the Risen
Christ who call us to be apostles of Easter joy.
The Good News is the God who raised Jesus from
the dead, triumphs over evil, suffering, oppression, injustice and death
today.
On Holy Thursday, Roman Catholic Priests
Janice Sevre Duszynska, Jane Via and Roy Bourgeois occupied the steps of the
Vatican Embassy in an overnight Vigil of fasting and prayer for women's
ordination and for equality for gays in the church. The good news is that the
pope's representative in the United States, the Vatican Nuncio, turned down
police requests for their arrest and engaged in two conversations on women's
ordination.
Let us rejoice that Christ is rising up in
our movement as we begin a dialogue with church officials for justice and
equality.
This week we witnessed horrific suffering in
Belgium when hundreds of innocent people were killed and injured in a suicide
bombing there.
While we may not have answers to the age old
question of why there is suffering or evil in the world, we do believe as
Corrie Ten Boom, survivor of the Holocaust, reflected: there is no pit so deep
that God's love is not deeper still.
The Risen Christ is beside us, among us,
within us and before us, in all our worries, setbacks, hurts.
Like Mary of Magdala we rise each day to
embrace Christ anew and are sent forth as apostles to proclaim Easter joy. May
those whom we encounter, respond as the disciples did to Mary of Magdala in the
Gospel of Mary (40:7-8) "And they knew the truth of her and were all filled with
great joy and believed."
So our question is how is Christ rising up
each day in us as we are sent forth to witness God's love triumphing over
suffering, oppression, injustice in our world today?
Dialogue Homily
Chant: “Come Be Beside Us” X5
Part III: Liturgy of
Baptismal Water
Blessing
of the Water
Kathryn & Seth: May God renew us and keep us faithful to the Spirit
we have all received.
ALL (with
arms extended):
God, our Father
and Mother, we know you are with us as we recall the wonders of creation. Bless this water that you have made a servant
of your loving kindness to us. Your
Spirit, “in the beginning of the universe, hovered over the surface of the
waters” so that its very substance would take on the power to sanctify. Through water, you set your people
free from bondage and quenched their thirst in the desert. With water, your prophets announced a
new covenant that you would make with humanity. By water, you made holy by Jesus in the
Kathryn: Holy people of
God, through the Pascal Mystery we have been buried with Christ in Baptism and
we now walk with our God in newness of life.
And so let us renew the promises that brought us to this point in our
lives and will support us until we walk with our God in the next.
Hymn: “Come
to the Water” #609 (during the water sharing rite)
Renewal of Baptismal
Promises (adapted
from Jay Murnane)
Katy: Let us renew the promises
we made in baptism and try to fulfill in the years since.
ALL: I promise to see what is
good for my sisters and brothers everywhere, rejecting injustice and inequality,
and living with the freedom and responsibility of the family of God.
I promise to work for the realization of God’s vision of harmony
and right relations among people, rejecting the idols of money, property, race,
gender, and position.
I promise to seek peace and live in peace in one human family,
rejecting prejudice in every form, and all barriers to unity.
I promise to cherish the universe and this precious planet,
working creatively to renew and safeguard the elemental sacraments of air, earth,
and water.
I believe in God, the Creator, in Jesus,
the teacher of justice and love, who lived among us so that all might live
with abundant fullness;
I believe in the Spirit, the breath of God, who continues the work
of birthing and blessing, of forgiveness and reconciliation, of challenge and
hope, so that together we all can continue the work of creation.
Katy: God has given us a new birth
by water and the Holy Spirit, and forgiven all our sins. May God also keep us
faithful to Jesus the Christ forever and ever. Amen.
Profession of Faith
Janet: Now
that we have renewed our promises originally made years ago, let us now express
the beliefs that give us strength and courage today.
ALL: We believe in God, the
fountain of life, flowing through every being.
We believe in Jesus, the Risen Christ, who reflects the face of God and
the fullness of humanity. We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God in the cosmos, who calls us to love and
serve without counting the cost. We
believe in our global communion with all in the circle of life. Amen to loving actions on behalf of justice,
healing, compassion and equality for all in the cycle of life. In all of this, we surely do believe.
Part IV: The Prayer of the
Faithful
Sally: Always mindful of
God’s love and care for all creation, we bring the needs of the people to our loving God. Response:
Loving God, hear our prayer.
Sally: For what shall we pray?
Sally: Healing God, we know that you hear our prayers. May we celebrate our planetary oneness in our
works for justice, equality, and peace.
We ask this through the risen Jesus, our brother, and the Spirit, our
sanctifier. Amen.
from left to right, Lee Breyer, Bridget Mary Meehan, Sally Brochu, Janet Blakeley, Katy Zatsick
Part V: Liturgy of the
Eucharist
Preparation of the Gifts
BMM: (raise
the bread and the wine): Ever gentle
God, as co-creators of our planet, we offer you these gifts of bread, wine and
our lives. May we celebrate our oneness
with all creatures, large and small, in your earthly family. We ask this of you through Jesus, our
brother, and Sophia, our wisdom. ALL: Amen
Sally: Pray
that we become more aware of our oneness in the Cosmic Christ through the grace
of the Risen Jesus.
(Please join us around the altar)
ALL:
We are gathered as a community to celebrate the gift of life pulsating
in the glories of Nature everywhere.
Eucharistic Prayer
Janet: Holy One, You stirred the waters of creation,
and you dwell in us.
ALL:
And in every living being.
Katy: Lift up
your hearts.
ALL:
We lift them up to our Creator in whom all are one.
Lee: Let us give thanks for the Breath of life in
all forms throughout the Universe.
ALL:
It is right to give glory to God, present everywhere and in everything,
with thanks and praise.
ALL (sing): We are holy (3x); You are holy (3x); I am
holy (3x); We are holy (3x). (Karen Drucker.)
ALL:
Holy One, we bring you these gifts that they may become the Christ
Presence. Fill us with reverence for all
creatures, great and small.
ALL: (extend arms): On the night before Jesus died, while at
supper with his friends, he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and
gave it to them saying: Take this all of
you, and eat. Do this in memory of
me. (Pause)
In the same way, Jesus took the cup of
wine. He said the blessing, gave the cup
to his friends and said: Take this all of
you and drink. Do this in memory of me.
BMM: Let us
proclaim the mystery of faith.
ALL:
This bread is you; this bread is me.
We are one body in communion with all creation.
Voice 1:
Christ of the Cosmos, we thank you that our bodies are made of stardust
and that every place we turn, you are present, loving us. You invite us to join the dance of creation
in a mystical celebration of our oneness with all living things in your divine
love.
Voice 2:
Risen Christ, we remember that it was you who said: “Anything I have done in the name of the
Creator, you can do too…and even more.”
So we remember all those in our world who are working for environmental
healing, human rights and justice for all.
Voice 3:
Christ of the Cosmos, we remember Mary, mother of Jesus, faithful
disciple, and we remember St. Francis
who sang canticles to brother sun and sister moon. May we praise you in union with them and live
your compassion now.
BMM &
Sally: Through Christ, with Christ, in
Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit,
all glory, honor and praise to you, loving God, forever and ever. ALL:
(sung): Amen (5x)
ALL (sung): Our Father and Mother, who
are in heaven….
Sign of
Peace
Lee: Risen Jesus, you said
to your disciples, “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you.” Look on the faith of all those gathered here.
ALL: Grant
us your peace. Help us to spread your
peace throughout the world, always and everywhere, no exceptions. Amen
BMM: May the peace of God
be always with us, and we will start by offering a sign of that peace among
ourselves. Let us experience that in a
group hug.
Peace
hymn: “Peace is Flowing Like a River” -
#501
Litany for the Breaking of the Bread
ALL: Christ of the Cosmos, may we live
our oneness with you and all creation…may we work for the healing of the
earth…may we celebrate justice rising up in a global communion everywhere. Amen.
Communion
Sally: This is the Cosmic Christ in whom all
creation lives and moves and has its being.
All are invited to share in this banquet of love and celebrate our
oneness with all living beings on the planet.
ALL:
We are the Body of Christ.
Communion: Instrumental
Communion Hymn: “Room
at the Table” – Mindy Lou
Prayer after Communion
Janet: Lover of the Universe, fill us with awe at
your extravagant love flowing through us.
May we immerse ourselves in the beauty of nature speaking to us each
day. We ask this through our brother
Jesus, in union with the Holy Spirit. ALL:
Amen.
Concluding Rite
Kathryn &
Seth: The Risen Christ is with us. ALL:
and loves through us.
ALL: Christ has come back as spring comes back out of the
ground, renewing the earth with life, to be a continual renewing of life in our
hearts, that we may continually renew one another’s life in his love, that we
may be his Resurrection in the world. We
are the resurrection, always on going, always giving back Christ’s life to the
world.
Caryll Houselander, The Risen Christ.
Closing Community Blessing
All (with arms extended): The blessing of God is upon us as we go in the
peace of the Cosmic Christ to live justice!
Thanks be to God.
BMM: Let us go forth in peace and share the good
news: The Risen Jesus is with us today and for all time.
ALL: Thanks be to God. Let it be so!
Closing
hymn: “We Will Rise Again” #447
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