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Saturday, June 9, 2018

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Liturgy- 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 9, 2018- Co-Presiders Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Joan Meehan, Mindy Lou Simmons Music Minister



Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Joan Meehan Co-Presiders at MMOJ Liturgy


Norman Rockwell



Liturgy to Celebrate "We are one spiritual family with all creation, new wine in new wineskins"

GATHERING SONG AND GREETING
MIndy Lou Simmons, Music Minister

Opening Song: In the Name of All That Is


by Jan Novotka

In the name of all that is we come together.
In the name of the stars and galaxies;
in the name of the planets, moons and the sun;
in the name of all that is we come.

In the name of all that is we come together.
In the name of the ocean and the sea;
in the name of the mountain, desert and plain;
in the name of all that is we come.

In the name of all that is we come together.
In the name of the buffalo and bear;
in the name of the turtle, eagle and whale;
in the name of all that is we come.

In the name of all that is we come together.
In the name of the cactus and the fern;
in the name of the flower, tree and the herb;
in the name of all that is we come.

In the name of all that is we come together.
 In the name of the elements of life;
in the name of the soil, water and air;
in the name of all that is we come.

In the name of all that is we come together.
In the name of the children of earth;
in the name of the Spirit breathing in all things;
in the name of all that is we come.

GREETING:
Presider:  In the name of God of heaven and Earth, and of Jesus our brother and of Spirit Sophia, our wisdom. we come together.   ALL:  Alleluia

Rite of Reconciliation and Healing:
Presider: We pause now to ask forgiveness for our failures to love one another and all beings on earth.

ALL:  Glory to God glory, O praise God alleluia, Glory to God glory, o praise the name of our God. (3 times)
Left to right: Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Joan Meehan -Co-Presiders

OPENING PRAYER
Presider: O Holy One,You are the passionate presence of love from which life began on earth and continues to evolve in unending delight in daffodils and oak trees, sparkling oceans, and majestic mountains, strong bears and tiny kittens.  In the name of our Creator, who dances on moon beams, and leaps for joy across the heavens; we give thanks and praise.
All: Alleluia

LITURGY OF THE WORD
Sally Brochu ARCWP proclaimed first reading

Readings: First Reading: We Who Are Alive Today by Jan Phillips

We who are alive today are the eyes and ears,
the hands and feet of the Creative Force.

We are Thought Incarnate, Word made Flesh, Love materialized.

We are the consciousness of the earth:
the universe knowing itself, seeing itself, singing to itself.

We are prophets of a new time, makers of a new myth,
where our Source dwells not on some heavenly throne
but in the very breath of living things: among us and within us.

We are made of heaven and earth, starlight and clay,
minerals and meteor dust.
We are the Infinite Wave transformed into finite particles,
spacetime compressed into the spec of a lifetime.

As the Cosmos multiplies and expands forever outward
so does it expand forever inward
evolving us into beings of higher consciousness.

We who are alive today came here with a purpose,
are in service to a mission: to extend mercy, to bring forth justice,
to re-member ourselves and converge as one.

We are creating tomorrow with our thoughts and words.
We are shaping ourselves and families, our communities and cities,
our cultures and civilizations by what we do and failed to do.

We are ascending into our potential, evolving into our God-ness,
co-creating the Whole that is the sum of our parts.

We who are alive today; let us sing out that the heaven we seek
is already around us, that wherever we look,
the Holy One is there, looking right back.

No matter what storms batter and buffet us, let us not lose heart,
for we are One with All and life holds us firmly in the palm of its hand.
The Word of Jan Phillips

Psalm 113: 1-9: God restores joy and gladness of heart.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4: 16-5:1, 6:1-3
Janet Blakeley ARCWP proclaimed second reading

Gospel Acclamation:  ALLELUIA!    (sung)
Gospel: Mark 2:18-22, 3:31-35


Homily for 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Everyone is Family


Bridget Mary Meehan

I combined two passages in today’s Gospel proclamation:
In Mark 2 Jesus said: “new wine must be poured into new wineskins”
In Mark 3: Jesus said: ‘who is my mother? Who is my family? Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my sister, my brother, my mother.”

In his worldview, Jesus knew that beyond all our differences, family, race, gender, status, we are one divinely connected in God and to one another.
His words were not a put down of Mary or his brothers or sisters, but rather, a mind-blowing, expanded consciousness that in God’s family everyone belongs. We are one spiritual family.

This means that every person everywhere- including all created beings- are my sisters and brothers- even the sometimes doves who nest in my bay window.

This means that the children who are wrenched from their parents’ arms when they seek asylum at our borders are our family.

This means that hungry children in Sarasota County and the homeless I meet on a daily basis – Randall and Charlie- who do not have enough to eat and who suffer drug, alcohol and mental issues are our family.

Jesus’ message today is clear-  everyone is family, and that we need to treat them with the same love that we are called to show to our families of origin.

In his book, A Bigger Table, John Pavlovitz reminds us that we need to see the beauty within everyone. It is not our theologies, or doctrines, but our love that matters.  
He writes: “The idea of universal family or kinship is at the core of Christian faith too, of all, of all people made in the image of God, all creations of the same Creator, all equally flawed, all equally worthy of compassion. The beauty of the bigger table is that it creates proximity the way Jesus did. It destroys distance between people, and distance - whether real or imagined- is the enemy of relationship...Our labels are never large enough for unique image-bearers of God…and will always shortchange the beauty within them. We’ll also be satisfied viewing them from this safe distance of our self-righteousness and shouting through bullhorns or shaking tambourines.

Ouch! I can remember seeing a few of those demonstrations and counter demonstrations! And participating in a few such demonstrations!

 “The kind of intimacy shared by Jesus only comes through the redemptive relationship forged when we are willing to sit across from people who believe differently than we believe,” Pavlovitz writes, “willing to get close enough and stay long enough to see both their unique humanity and their inherent divinity. Jesus’ call to embrace love as theology isn’t merely a sugary surface platitude. It’s the most difficult, time- consuming work of reflecting Christ to the world around us.”
( A Bigger Table, pp. 120-121)

This can be a tall order on days that my homeless friend, is obviously drunk, speaking loudly and exhibiting obnoxious behavior at McDonald’s. Yikes!

My sisters and brothers, let’s be honest this is one of the major challenges we all face today in our present milieu.
But, I am hopeful because we are companions on this journey in this struggle together. We offer insight, good humor and perspective to each other – which I really appreciate.

Let’s affirm the ways that we are the face of God’s love to each other and to our sisters and brothers who seek an open table in the Catholic Church.

We are a warm hearted spiritual family who welcomes people to a bigger table. We offer hugs and kind words to each other and to the visitors who come through our doors. In our shared homilies, we listen to each other with mutual respect even if we don’t always agree.

As Bishop Michael Curry said at the royal wedding of Harry and Megan when love is the way we treat each other like family. “With love,” he said, “poverty will become history” and “the earth will become a sanctuary.” 

I may be an over the top optimist, but, I believe that we are new wine and what we are doing is being poured into new wineskins. The Spirit dwells in each of us and all of us- in our humanity and divinity-as we evolve- liberating, healing and transforming us one tiny step and one day at a time! 

As we continue to reach out to those who don’t share our beliefs or theology, we will live Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel that every person is a member of our family whom we are called to love as we love ourselves and as God loves us.

Namaste!


Shared Homily
Share an example on how we can share Christ’s love with those with whom we disagree. 







Profession of Faith: ALL:  We believe in God, the creator and lover of all. We believe in Jesus, the Christ, who shows us how to live in the fullness of God’s love. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, who empowers us with spiritual gifts for loving service of our sisters and brothers. We believe in Shekinah, God’s dwelling among the people. We believe in Sophia, Holy Wisdom, leading us to justice, and equality.  We believe in Christ Sophia, nourishing us with abundant life as the Body of Christ at the table, on the table and around the table at the Banquet of love.

GENERAL INTERCESSIONS
Presider:  Let us rejoice together in  the dance of creation.
That we may care for the cosmos in which the Holy One is revealed, we pray
Response: We will  pour new wine into new wineskins
Presider:  That those in leadership in our church may let go of fear of the new and wholeheartedly join in the dance, we pray
Response: We will pour new wine into new wineskins
R. Presider:  That theologians may have courage to respond to the rhythm of truth in spite of condemnation, we pray...
We pour new wine into new wineskins
R.
Presider:  That the dead may dance forever in God's presence, we pray...
R. We pour new wine into new wineskins
(Other Intentions)

Liturgy of the Eucharist





PREPARATION OF THE GIFTS
Presider:  Blessed are you, God of all life, through your goodness we have bread, wine, all creation, and our own lives to offer.  Through this sacred meal may we become your new creation. 
ALL:  Blessed be God for forever. 

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

Presidere The Holy One dwells within you.  ALL:  And loves through you.  
Presider:  Lift up your hearts. 
ALL:  We lift them up to the Great Spirit dwelling in all creation.
Presider: Let us give thanks that we are co-creators of a new heaven and earth
ALL:  It is right to proclaim our oneness with All.

Voice One:
God of amazing surprises, Creator of tiny bugs and awesome planets, Designer of earth's wonders, Giver of life and laughter, we praise your passionate love hidden, yet revealed, everywhere in the cosmos.

Voice Two:
Source of being, from the beginning, all creation joined in in the holy dance of life in your Divine Presence. In you, with you and through you, we jump for joy in an explosion of grace that resounds through the universe.

Sing: We are holy, holy. (Karen Drucker)

Voice Three:
We affirm the women and men through the ages who have danced Love's cosmic dream of communion with hearts ablaze. We pause now to remember those who have shown us how to step lightly on the path to holiness, pouring new wine into new wineskins. (Time for spontaneous remembrance)

Voice Four:
Heart of Love, we are grateful for this festive banquet that we share-  the Bread of Life and New Wine of Unending Delight- that nourishes us and makes us more deeply one as your beloved family.

ALL:
(please all extend hands as we recite the consecration together)
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with his friends. At this meal, he took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to them and said:
Take and eat.  Whenever you do this, you remember me
(PAUSE)
ALL:
At the end of the meal, Jesus took a cup of wine, gave it to his friends and said:
 Take this, all of you, and drink of the everlasting covenant. Every time you do this, you remember me.

Let us proclaim the Sacred Mystery:
ALL: Your  love moves through us to make a more compassionate and just world.

Voice Five:
Although we come from diverse backgrounds, we are one body, for we all share in this one bread. And so, as we join with one another in the cosmic dance, Creator God, as we celebrate your holy presence in every living thing.

Voice 6:
Let us live as a new body, brought to birth by the Spirit of the Risen One in acts of forgiveness, healing, and justice. Let us support all who suffer and work for peace in lands torn by violence and hatred.

ALL: Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the resurrecting power of Divine Love forever evolving everywhere, all glory and praise is yours, O Gracious God, forever.

THE PRAYER OF JESUS
ALL:  Our Father and Mother…

THE SIGN OF PEACE
.  Presider:  May the peace of Christ Sophia be always with you.  ALL: And also with you.  Presider:  Let us sing peace is flowing like a river as our prayer for peace among all God’s family.

LITANY FOR THE BREAKING OF BREAD
ALL:   Loving God, You call us to speak truth to power, we will do so.   Loving God, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice, we will do so.  Loving God, You call us to be Your presence in the world. We will do so.
Presider:  Let us share the Body of Christ with the Body of Christ! All are welcome. ALL:  Amen

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Presider:  Creator of the cosmos, divine dancer, you have lifted us up and swung us around to see your beauty in nature's awesome gifts everywhere and in everyone. May we continue to move together to the divine rhythm of harmony and peace, dancing joyfully in love with all created beings forever. You guide us to new life and inspire our work and play with creativity and joyful enthusiasm. We are new wine in new wineskins!  ALL:  Amen

CONCLUDING RITE
Presider:   Christ Sophia is within you  
ALL:  and within all people and all creation everywhere.



BLESSING
(everyone please extend your hands in mutual blessing)
ALL:  May we go forth as dancing prophets and mystic visionaries of our cosmic communion with all life, in the Name of the Creator, in  the Name of our brother Jesus, and in the name of the Divine Spirit dancing with us  . Amen

DISMISSAL
Presider:   Go in the peace of Christ Sophia.  Let us live as new wine in new wineskins!  ALL:   Thanks be to God.

CONCLUDING HYMN : In the Name of All That Is- Jan Jan Novotka


Bridget Mary Meehan
Association of Roman Catholic Woman Priests
https://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/


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