A LITANY By Rita Lucey ARCWP In gratitude for who I am

DEARLY BELOVEDS:    Rhea, Artemis, Ops, Ge, Mata, Urania, Urunome, Ida, and Maia in Crete; Venus, Vesta, and Anna in Italy; and Hubbel in Arabia, Isis, in Egypt and Gaia, our ancestors long before our time.

---

 We STAND ON YOUR SHOULDERS

TO LILLITH, FIRST WIFE OF ADAM,

WHO REFUSED TO BE SUBSERVIENT(from ancient Jewish myth)

Refrain:

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR  YOU CALL ME*

TO EVE, WHO TOOK THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

WITH HER WHEN SHE LEFT EDEN (non biblical myth)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME*

TO SARAH AND HAGAR, WHO  EACH BIRTHED A SON OF ABRAHAM (Genesis 16)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO KETURAH, WHO BIRTHED TWELVE SONS TO ABRAHAM (Genesis 25)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME.

TO BATHSHEBA,  THE WIFE OF DAVID, AND MOTHER OF SOLOMON (Chronicles, II Samuel, Kings 4:15)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO SHIPHRAH AND PUAH, VALIANT  MIDWIVES, WHO DEFY THE PHAROH’S COMMAND TO

KILL FIRST BORN MALES(Exodus 1: 15-22

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO SHEERAH, WOMAN OF VISION, BUILDER OF CITIES (1Chron 7:24)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO MIRIAM, A PROPHET, SISTER OF MOSES AND AARON,  WHO LEADS HER PEOPLE IN A LITURGY OF THANKSGIVING AFTER THE CROSSING OF THE SEA (Exodus)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO JOCHEBED WHO BIRTHED MOSES, MIRIAM AND AARON, LEADERS IN THEIR WORLD (Ex 1:2)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO HANNAH, PROPHETESS AND CITIZEN OF JERUSALEM, MOTHER OF SAMUEL (1 Samuel)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME*

TO ESTHER, QUEEN OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE WHO SAVES HER PEOPLE AS SHE APPEALS TO GOD FOR STRENGTH (Esther)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO DEBORAH, PROPHET AND JUDGE OF ISRAEL,

WHO LED HER PEOPLE TO VICTORIOUS BATTLE (Judges 4-5)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO RUTH, WHO SHOWS DEVOTION TO HER MOTHER IN LAW NAOMI(Ruth 1-4)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO HULDAH, THE PROPHET, CONSULTED BY KING JOSIAH, WHO RECOGNIZES HER

INTELLECT AND KNOWLEDGE(2Kings 22:14-20

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO JUDITH, WHO JEOPARDIZES HER LIFE FOR HER PEOPLE (Judith)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO THE MOTHER OF THE MACCABEE BROTHERS,WHO ENCOURAGED THEIR BRAVERY(Maccabes)

ANCIENT MOTHER I HEAR YOU CALL ME

TO PHOEBE, A DEACONESS, OF THE CHURCH OF Cenchrae (Romans, 16:1-2)

STRENGTHEN ME IN  SOPHIA JESUS

TO PRISCA AND AQUILA, PAUL’S CO-WORKERS IN PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL (Romans 16: 3-4)

STRENGTHEN ME IN SOPHIA JESUS

TO EUNICE THE MOTHER, AND LOIS THE GRANDMOTHER OF TIMOTHY (Romans 16:1-12)

STRENGTHEN ME IN  SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE SISTERS TRYPHAENA AND TRYPHOSA WHO WORK HARD

FOR OUR GOD (Romans 16:12)

STRENGTHEN ME IN  SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE MOTHERS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, AND JESUS OF NAZARETH

WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND THEIR SONS UNTIL THEIR DEATHS(synoptic gospels)

STRENGTHEN ME IN  SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE UNAMED WOMAN, A DAUGHTER OF ABRAHAM,  HEALED AFTER EIGHTEEN YEARS (Luke 13:10-17)

STRENGTHEN ME IN  SOPHIA JESUS

TO MARY MAGDALEN, BELOVED OF JESUS, AND FIRST AMONG THE APOSTLES

(John 20:10-18)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS

TO ANNA, THE MOTHER OF MARY, (LUKE2:22-40)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS

TO TABITHA, LYDIA, AND PRISCILLA, WOMEN LEADERS IN THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (Acts 4)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS

TO THE UNAMED WOMAN WITH THE HEMORRHAGE, WHO AGAINST THE CULTURE, DARES TO TOUCH JESUS (Mark5:21-43)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE UNNAMED WOMAN WHO ANNOINTS JESUS’ HEAD AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS PASSION (Matthew 26:6-13)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS  SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE WOMEN WHO STOOD BENEATH THE CROSS WHEN ALL OTHERS HAD DESERTED THE DYING JESUS.  (Matthew 26)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS SOPHIA JESUS

TO MARY OF BETHANY WHO ANOINTS JESUS AT THE BANQUEST SERVED BY HER SISTER MARTHA. (John 12:1-8)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS SOPHIA JESUS

TO THE SINFUL AND PENITENT WOMAN WHO WASHES JESUS FEET WITH HER TEARS, (Luke7:36-50)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS SOPHIA JESUS

TO JOANNA AND SUSANNA, WOMEN DISCIPLES, AND OTHERS WHO GO UNNAMED (Luke 8:2-4)

GUIDE ME IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS SOPHIA JESUS

Prayer:

For we, as women, are full  “partners in God’s great triumphant parade” (2 Corinthians 2:14.)  We are all part of the Kin-Dom,  brothers and sisters on the journey of a lifetime - a communion of saints.

“Both the weakness and the glory of your ancestors are within you.  You carry the lived and unlived lives of your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents as far back as DNA and genomes can trace  ---which is pretty far back. We are the first generation to know that this is literally and biologically true.  Living in the communion of saints, or in what some now call “deep time,” means we can take ourselves very seriously (as part of the whole communion) and not too seriously at all (precisely because we are just a part!) at the very same time.”  Richard Rohr (OFM) daily meditations.

November 2013- a litany engendered by the words of Fr. Richard Rohr.

The term Sophia Jesus calls upon the Shekinah, the Divine Wisdom that dwells within.

( Ex25:8,29:45-46)

It means that the powerful feminine presence is among us.. (She Who is, Johnson, 85)