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| Kathryn Shea ARCWP, Son, Seth, Lee Breyer, Mary Al, and grandsons |
Theme: The Pure Joy of God Within Us
Welcome and Receiving the Stole
Centering Prayer
Co-presider: Oh Holy One, gather us in and be with us as we share this sacred space and as we celebrate our oneness in you. Help us learn to embrace with exuberant joy all that transpires in our world and our lives, knowing that nothing can separate us from your joy and your love. Be with us as we walk each day in conscious awareness of our responsibility to bring forth your kindom on Earth. Help us to emanate your joy in all that we do. For this we pray. ALL: AMEN.
Opening Hymn: “Gather Us In” #302, verses 1, 2, 4
Community Reconciliation
(Pause briefly and reflect on the need to grow more in love with others and with creation.)
Co-presider: Compassionate God, to you all hearts are open, no desires unknown, and no secrets hidden. We thank you for sending your Spirit to us so that we may live more fully according to your will. Through your grace, all peoples, wherever they may be on this earth, are one family …and you have made all of us – with no exceptions – worthy to be called your sacred people.
ALL: Christ Jesus, we ask for the grace to realize our continual need to grow in understanding, compassion and caring for ourselves, for others, and for our planetary home. We ask you teach us the virtues of pardon and peace so that we may – in turn – learn to forgive our brothers and sisters, whoever and wherever they may be. Give us the strength to extend your merciful and forgiving presence that is your gift – through us – to all those with whom you share your unending love. We ask this in your Holy Name. Amen.
Glory to God
Co-presider: Let us give glory to our loving Creator.
(Sung) Glory to God, Glory, O praise God, alleluia. Glory to God, glory, O praise the name of our God. (3x)
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 ALL: Thanks be to God
Responsorial: Psalm 420. All the Earth proclaim our God, sing your praise with joy!
Second Reading: Romans 8:28:30 ALL: Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation: ALL: Alleluia (Celtic version)
Gospel: John 15:1, 9-12 ALL: Thanks be to God
Shared Homily/Community Reflections
Profession of Faith
ALL: We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery beyond all definition and understanding, the heart of all that has ever existed, that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word, bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion, bright star in the firmament of the Holy One’s prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus as a vehicle of divine love, a source of wisdom and truth, and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One, the life that is our innermost life, the breath moving in our being, the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now, stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it, and hands to make it happen.
Prayers of the Community
Co-presider: We are a people of faith; we believe in the power of prayer. We are mindful of God’s unconditional love and care for each of us. And so, we bring the needs of the people to our merciful and gracious God. After each intercession, please respond: Compassionate God, we ask you to bless our petitions. (intentions)
Co-presider: Healing God, we ask you to strengthen us in our concerns and care for one another, here and throughout the world. We ask you to bless our efforts for justice and equality so that, with our sisters and brothers, we may promote cultures of peace and nonviolence in our world. We ask this in your Holy name. Amen.
Offertory Procession and Song: “We Are Called” #628 all verses
Co-presider: Blessed are you, God of Creation, through your goodness we have this bread to offer…this grain of the earth that human hands have made for our use. It will become for us the bread of life.
ALL: Blessed be God forever.
Co-presider: Blessed are you, God of Love, through your goodness we have this wine to offer…this fruit of the vine that human hands have prepared for our use. It will become for us our spiritual drink.
ALL: Blessed be God forever.
Gathering of the Gifted
Co-presider: Jesus, who has often sat at our tables, now invites all of us to join him at his. Everyone is welcome to share in this meal. (The invitation is to everyone to join around God’s family table.)
ALL: Loving and caring God, we – your people – are united in this sacrament by our common love of Jesus. We are in communion with everyone, everywhere, who shares your gift of compassion especially to all those who are marginalized and oppressed. May we love tenderly, do justice, and walk humbly with you in solidarity with our sisters and brothers. May we live always as prophetic witnesses to the gospel of Jesus. Amen.
Co-presider: Friends, let us recognize the presence of our God who is with us here now.
ALL: Fill us with reverence for our Creator, for one another, and for all creation.
Co-presider: Let us lift up our hearts.
ALL: We lift them up to the One who has gifted us with love so that we may be an expression of that love to all others, with no exceptions.
Co-presider: God dwells in each one of us.
ALL: Namaste! Namaste! (twice)
Eucharistic Prayer
Co-presider: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we lay our stoles upon the table as a sign that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each one of us. And we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. (Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words, “I bring to the table…”)
Co-presider: O Holy One, you have been called by many names by many people in the centuries of our planet’s life. Yet, no name truly defines you or describes you. We celebrate you as the marvelous, loving energy of life who caused us and our world to be. We celebrate you as the Source of light and life and love, and we celebrate your presence and all-ways care.
Co-presider: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together: (Eucharistic prayer taken from the work of Diarmuid O’Murchu and Jay Murnane)
All: O Holy One, we stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history – a time when humanity must choose its future.
As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future holds both peril and great promise.
May we recognize that, in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms, we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny.
United with our vast universe, with our Mother-Planet and her people everywhere, with one another and You, Loving God, our spirits dance and sing this song of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy by Karen Drucker
We are holy, holy, holy
We are holy, holy, holy
We are holy, holy, holy
We are whole…
You are holy, holy, holy… I am holy, holy, holy…We are holy, holy, holy.
We give grateful thanks for those who came before us, for all those who gave from their hearts, who gave from their lives, that there might be a better world, a safer world, a kinder world, we pray for peace in their names.
And for the children, that they may live, that they may have children of their own and that it will go on – this great blossoming that is meant to grow and spread in all time – we pray for peace, in their names.
And for all peoples of this earth who have no voice in this, For the animals that have no voice in this, For the plants, the trees, the flowers that have no voice in this, For all who share this earth with us, we pray for peace in their names.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus. He showed us so simply, so tenderly, how the world is in our hands. He had nothing in this world but your love, companions on the journey, and his very self. Together, that was more than enough, and that remains our clarity in the midst of confusion: the miracle of healing, new hope, nurturance, nourishment, liberation and life.
(Please extend hands over our gifts as we say together)
You pour out your spirit anew upon this bread and wine and upon us as we reflect more deeply the Christ Presence in our world
On the night before he faced his own death and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at the Seder supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat; this is my very self.
(pause)
He then raised high the cup of blessing, said the grace, and offered them the wine saying:
Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life, for you and for everyone,
for liberation from every oppression. Whenever you do this, Re-member me!
(pause)
Loving God, we have looked for others to save us and to save our world. Yet, we are called, and consecrated and sent into the world to establish justice and show the blessed fulfillment that comes with simplicity and the giving of ourselves in love. We will make new our commitment to the harmony of the original vision of creation.
We will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and our small circles. Like Jesus, in all openness, we will be filled with your own Spirit and renew the face of the earth.
For it is through our learning to live as he lived, and why he lived, and for whom he lived,
that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to worship you truly, Life-giving God,
at this time, and all time, and in all ways. AMEN
Co-presider: Gracious God, through us you have set the banquet table and invited all of us to the feast. Here we celebrate your divine love beyond what words can describe. Here your divine compassion connects us to the young and the old, the most and the least, the first and the last…your whole creation.
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 everyone sings)…Amen.
ALL: (holding hands): Our Father and Mother, who are in heaven, blessed is your name…
Co-presider: God, we have just prayed that “your kindom may come among us.” Strengthen in us your grace and love so that we may open our hearts to make it real – and our hands to serve one another.
The Sign of Peace
Co-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 that peace. O Loving 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.
Co-presider: May the peace of God be always with us, and let us extend that peace to one another as we join hands in a circle of love and sing Let there be peace on earth #532 using the following:
( “… with God as creator, family all are we …” and “With every breath I take, let this …” )
Litany for the Breaking of the Bread
Co-presider: Loving God… All: you call us to Spirit-filled service and to live the Gospel of peace and justice, we will live justly.
Co-presider: Loving God… All: you call us to be your presence in the world and to be bearers of understanding and compassion, forgiveness and healing everywhere in your name. We will love tenderly.
Co-presider: Loving God… All: you call us to speak truth to power and live equality. We will walk humbly with you.
Co-presider: This is Jesus, who liberates, heals, and transforms us and our world. He calls us, his sacred people to open doors that are closed and share our bread on the altar of the world. All are invited to partake of this banquet of love. ALL: We are the Body of Christ.
Communion: Instrumental
After Communion Song/Reflection: “God Is” by Mindy Lou Simmons
Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion
Co-presider: Loving God, may this Eucharist in which we share Christ’s healing love deepen our
oneness with you and with one another. May we reflect, like Mary, your liberating, mothering
love for all your people everywhere. And may wonder and thanksgiving fill us with our knowledge, understanding and experience of your love and compassion in us, your sacred people. We ask this in the name of her Son, Jesus the Christ. ALL: Amen.
Introductions, Gratitudes, and Announcements
Closing Community Blessing
(Let us all extend an arm to one another in mutual blessings)
ALL: May wonder and thanksgiving fill us. May compassion so permeate our very beings that we may penetrate the numbness that continues to spread in so many of our society’s injustices. May we know that we are loved. May we continue to be the face of God to each other and may our name be a blessing in our time! Amen.
Closing Community Commissioning
Co-presiders: As we leave here in the peace of Christ and the joy of God, let us be the joyful people that God created us to be. Let our service continue.
ALL: Thanks be to God. Let it be so!
Closing Hymn: “Sing a New Church” #413 verses 1.4.5
