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| Left to right: Lee Breyer and Kathryn Shea ARCWP Co-Presiders |
June 18, 2016
Theme: We Are One
Gathering Prayer
Presider: Let us pray as we come together, as brothers and sisters in this one world, to break bread and share the blessings we have received from God our Creator. Through the Holy Spirit, may we learn to love as Jesus did; seeing no differences in anyone, all accepted as one with our God. May we open our hearts to the planet on which we all live, and to the people we encounter, whoever they may be.
All: Amen. This is the day that our God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Song: “All You Works of God” – Marty Haugen (song sheet)
Opening Prayer
All: God of life, wholeness and holiness, you who direct all creation to its 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 compassion may guide our lives. Loving God, bless all of us gathered here and all those of our community who are not with us today. We especially ask your grace on those who look to the life and death of Jesus for strength and hope in this time of tragedy. Amen.
Penitential Rite and Community Forgiveness
Presider: Creator God, to you all hearts are open, no desires unknown, and no secrets hidden. We ask you to send your Spirit to us so that we may live more fully according to your will. Through your grace, we are worthy to be called your blessed people.
All: Help us to prayerfully hear Wisdom’s messages, to faithfully understand them, and to continually receive the strength to follow them in our lives.
Presider: Christ Jesus, we ask for the grace to realize our continual need to grow in goodness and caring for ourselves, for others, and for our planet earth.
All: Help us to extend your forgiving presence that is your gift in us to all those people with whom we live, with no exceptions, including those who commit heinous crimes.
Presider: We join with you, Jesus the Christ, believing that the insight, direction, and strength of the Holy Spirit will lead us to deeper dedications to justice, equality, peace, and nonviolence. And together, as the family of God and sisters and brothers of one another, we pray…
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 to move among us and all creation. May that Spirit give us the wisdom to love you – and the courage and compassion to love one another whatever our differences. Compassionate God, teach us the virtues of pardon and peace so that we may – in turn – learn to forgive our failures to care for one another and for our planet Earth. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother and of the Holy Spirit, 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 evolving universe, we thank you for the breath of the Spirit sustaining everything that exists, everywhere in the cosmos. What ever the pain, whatever the loss, we know you are here in the midst of our suffering to give us strength we need to carry on, as you did your son Jesus. It was through his example and teachings that you gave us the grace to know that you are always with us – and that, through our acts of love, we can experience you in one another. In this, we give you glory and praise. Amen.
Liturgy of the Word
First reading: Isaiah 9:2-5 All: Thanks be to God.
Psalm: 116 – Responsorial: I will walk with our God in the land, the land of the living. #825 (Modified)
Second reading: Galatians 3:26-29 All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluja (Celtic version)
Gospel: Luke: 6:27-38
Homily: Holy Mystery (video) followed by silence to pray for victims and their families of Orlando shooting and meditation for peace)
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, believing in the power of prayer. We are always mindful of God’s unconditional love and care for all of us. And so, we bring the needs of the 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 and equality so that we may help develop 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, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, this grain that the 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, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, this fruit of the vine that 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.
Presider: Jesus, who has sat at our tables, now invites us to be guests at his family table. Everyone is welcome around the table of our God.
ALL: Compassionate God, we are united in this sacrament by our common love of Jesus. We are in communion with everyone, everywhere, who proclaims your mercy, especially to all those who are marginalized and oppressed. May we love tenderly, do justice, and walk humbly with you in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. May we live as prophetic witnesses to the Gospel, supported by the vision of Jesus and the wisdom of the Spirit. 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: Holy Spirit, we realize 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 God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks. In you we live and move and have our very 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. And so we sing in thankful praise:
All (sung): We Are holy, holy, holy… Karen Drucker
Voice 2: We thank you, God, for the gift of Jesus in history – and the gift of Jesus in faith. Through him, you breathe life into us. He was moved by his vision of your constant presence among all people. 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 die.
Voice 3: When his time had come, Jesus knew his destiny and gave up his life for the values he deeply believed and taught…his conviction that love is stronger than death. And then, as an example this insight for the ages to come, he opened wide his arms and died. The Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, showed us that life is eternal and love is immortal. Jesus is with us today as he will be through the end of time.
All: O God, let your Spirit of life, healing and wholeness come upon these gifts that we brought from your fields and placed on our table — this simple wheat and wine. May she make them holy so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus, our brother.
(With an outstretched arm as we pray the consecration together. 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 Jesus took bread, said the blessing and 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, Jesus 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, who was with God “in the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth,” is with us now in this bread. The Spirit, of whom the prophets spoke in history, is with us now 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 and 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, that moved in Jesus move freely in our lives as well as She did in that 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 family 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 would like to).
All: Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Creator God, forever and ever…and let everyone sing…. Amen. (5-6 X).
All (holding hands): Our Father and Mother, who are in heaven …….. Amen.
All: Lord God, we have prayed that your kindom may come among us. Open our ears to hear it, our hands to serve it, and our hearts to hold it. Amen.
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 and ….
All: … grant us your peace. O God, following the example of Jesus and with the strength of the Spirit, help us 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 peace to one another as we sing: “Let There Be Peace On Earth” #532
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 forgiveness and understanding, 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: Lord 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 for your people.
Women: We cannot drink this wine and forget those who are thirsty. O God, the very earth and its people cry out for environmental justice.
All: We cannot listen to your words of peace and not grieve for the world at war.
Post Communion Song/Reflection: “There Is Only Love” Karen Drucker ~
solo by Mindy Simmons
Introductions/Gratitudes/Announcements
Closing Community Blessing
All:
May our hearts be glad on our journey as we dream new dreams, see new visions, and create a new heaven and Earth.
May we all live and work for peace, justice, and non-violence in our hearts and those of all others as well.
May we learn to bless and honor and hold in reverence all creation, this earth, and
each other, even in our differences, always.
Closing Community Hymn and Commissioning: “A New Heaven and Earth” ~
Marty Haugen.
Presiders: As we leave here in the peace of Christ, let us be peace, compassion, and justice to the world in all that we do.
All: Thanks be to God; let it be so!
All You Works of God
Words and Music by Marty Haugen
Refrain: All your works of God,
Every Mountain, star and tree,
Bless the One who shapes your beauty,
Who has caused you all to be,
One great song of love and grace,
Ever ancient, ever new.
Raise your voices, all you works of God.
Verse: Sun and Moon, bless your maker!
Stars of heaven: Chant your praise!
Showers and dew: Raise up your joyful song!
Refrain
All the Earth, bless your maker!
Hills and mountains: Chant your praise!
Green things that grow: Raise up your joyful song!
Refrain
A New Heaven and Earth
Words and Music by Marty Haugen
Refrain:
Spirit of God, come, burn in your people, Spirit of Love that brought us to birth; Kindle anew the flame of your justice, Grant us your vision: a new heaven and earth.
- Now is the time, your Reign is upon us,
Now is the time, your great Jubilee;
Come, set your fire – burning within us,
So we may be all you call us to be.
Refrain
- Bring in the day of God’s mighty justice,
Bring in the day of mercy and peace;
Servants of God; bring hope to the broken,
So weak shall find strength, and captives release.
Refrain
- Heaven and earth could never contain you,
Much less our selfish yearnings and schemes;
Break down the walls that hold and confine us,
Come open our hearts and grant us new dreams.
