Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Sunday Liturgy - August 5, 2018

Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP, and Bridget Ball Shaw led the Upper Room liturgy with the theme: "You are Enough!  Kathie Ryan's homily starter is printed below the readings.

Opening Meditation - Peace Prayer

Close your eyes if you are comfortable.

Just Breath.

Find the place where your soul resides.  Be there. 

Find the blessed part of your soul.  Feel gratitude for it. 

Find the broken part of your soul.  Feel gratitude for it. 

You are enough. 

Let peace fill your body, your soul.

You are filled with peace.  Share that peace with the person to your right.

You are enough.

Share the peace that fills you with the person to your left.

You are enough.

Let the peace within you spill into the hearts of everyone here in our circle.

The peace within you is enough to share with the whole world.  Share it.

You are blessed.

You are broken.

You are enough.

Opening Song: Lead Me, God
 John D Becker

https://youtu.be/-Qm5JG8zVhk

Blessed are the poor in spirit, longing for their God,
for God's coming kin-dom shall be theirs.

Blessed are the sorrowing, for they shall be consoled,

and the meek shall come to rule the world.

Lead me, God, lead me, God, by the light of truth
to seek and to find the narrow way.
Be my way; be my truth; be my life, my God, and lead me, God, today.

Blessed are the merciful, for mercy shall be theirs,

and the pure in heart shall see their God.

Blest are they whose hunger only holiness can fill,

for I say they shall be satisfied.

Blest are they who through their lifetimes sow the seeds of peace;

all will call them children of our God.

Blest are you, though persecuted in your holy life,

for in heaven, great is your reward.

First Reading: Each Soul Completes Me

My Beloved said, My name is not complete without yours.

I thought: How could a human’s worth ever be such?

And God knowing all our thoughts—and all our thoughts are innocent steps on the path—then addressed my heart.

God revealed a sublime truth to the world, when He sang,

“I am made whole by your life. Each soul, each soul completes me.”

These are the inspired words of Hafiz and the community affirms these words by saying AMEN

The Gospel according to John

After gathering the leftovers of the loaves and fishes the disciples went down to the sea, boarded their boat and headed toward Capernaum. The next day, the crowd, which was still on the other side of the lake, remembered that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gotten into that boat with the disciples, but that his disciples had set off alone.

The crowd found Jesus on the other side of the lake and asked him “Rabbi when did you get here?”  Jesus said “you are looking for me because you have eaten your fill of bread. You should not be working for perishable food but for life giving food that lasts.”  They then asked: What are we to do to perform the works of the Holy One?

These are inspired words of John a disciple of Jesus.  The community affirms these words by saying AMEN

Rain Down

Jaime Cortez

https://youtu.be/pmOswvlS6CQ

Rain down Rain down

Rain down your love on your people

Rain down Rain down

Rain down your love, God of life

Faithful and true is the Word of our God

All of God's works are so worthy of trust

God's mercy falls on the just and the right

Full of God's love is the earth

We who revere and find hope in our God

Live in the kindness and joy of God's wing

God will protect us from darkness and death

God will not leave us to starve

God of creation, we long for Your truth

You are the water of life that we thirst

Grant that Your love and your peace touch our hearts

All of our hope lies in You.

Kathie’s Homily Starter:

John’s gospel loosely takes up where last week’s gospel of the loaves and fishes end. I say loosely because after eating and then collecting the leftovers the disciples left and rowed across the lake, while Jesus moseyed on and later walked across the lake, slightly scaring the disciples out of their skin.  The people realized the disciples had rowed off but also knew Jesus had not been in that boat. Hence their question “Rabbi when did you get here?”  Jesus doesn’t really answer them but rather reminds them to work for “life giving food”.  I imagine if we heard someone today say you should work for “life giving food”, we would have a good discussion of exactly what is life giving food? (Maybe Jesus is starting a new trend a shared homily) The gospel writer points to this likely discussion when the crowd asks: “what are we to do to perform the works of the Holy One?”

Before we start sharing our thoughts about this “life giving food and what are we to do?  Let’s go back a moment and look at the first reading and our theme. The question in the first reading: How could a human’s worth ever be such? Isn’t that just another way of saying to ourselves, who me? I am not enough, I am not possibly the one to perform the works of the Holy One. And the Holy One answers “Each soul, each of you completes me” You are enough.   Blessed and Broken, you are enough- Blessed we each have the grace to perform the works of the Holy One, Broken we make mistakes, we learn-we love again –we are enough.  As a matter of fact, just like the loaves and fishes we are not only enough we have leftovers too.