All: Infinite God in whom I live and move and have my being (arms outstretched), Holy Spirit Sophia in every person and all Communities (hands in Namaste position, bowing to person across from you), Inner God, my brother Jesus: I am your light for the world (hands crossed over heart) Amen.
Presider: God is within you and our community. All: And also, within you.
Opening Prayer.
All: O Holy Mystery you gave humanity the ability to work with our hands, hearts, words and actions. May St. Joseph help us to do the work you have planned for us and to respect the work of all who labor for their families. May we stand in solidarity with those who have no work and minister so all will have work with dignity. Amen
See Sheet for Readings
First Reading
Psalm Response
Second reading
Gospel reading
Shared Homily: What kind of work did your parents do? What positions have you held? How have you been treated as a worker? How do/can I support the dignity of workers? How do you respond to Pope Francis?
Profession of Faith. All I believe in our God the Divine Creator who desires us to know we are Your beloved daughters and sons. I believe in Jesus, God of Compassion and Loving us unconditionally that we might learn and live following his Way. I believe in Sophia God’s Spirit of renewal, healing humanity, calling us into our evolutionary future to be God’s Compassion enfleshed in our lives and for the world. Amen.
Presider: Always mindful of God’s love and care for us, we bring the needs of the People of God to our loving Holy Mystery, Wisdom Sophia and our Risen Jesus Christ. Response: St Joseph intercede for our needs and prayers.
Presider: May we pray and work so that all families will be able to meet their needs for food, shelter, and health care. We pray…R
Presider: For what else should we pray…R.
Presider: We know you hear our prayers; those we speak and those we keep in our hearts. With the aid of St. Joseph may our acts of compassion support all who need jobs to provide a living for their families.
All: Amen
PREPARATION OF OUR GIFTS
Presider: Blessed are you, Jesus Christ Lover of all. This bread is your MMOJ community standing in solidarity with all who need jobs with dignity across the world. We offer this bread for it will become for us the Bread of life. ALL: Praising God, with the aid of St. Joseph, may we deepen our life in Jesus Christ our Risen Brother.
Presider: Blessed are you, O God, Divine Compassion for all. This wine is our desire to join with St. Joseph and Pope Francis in treating all workers with dignity. We have this wine to offer, it will become our spiritual drink. ALL: Praising God, with the aid of St. Joseph, may we deepen our life in Jesus Christ, our Risen Brother.
All: Blessed are you, God of all creation, through your goodness we offer our own work to you. May we join in solidarity ministering to provide jobs with a livable wage to all. May St Joseph guide us in our work for economic equality. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer.
All Sing: We are holy holy holy (x3) We are whole; You are holy holy holy (x3) You are whole; I am holy (x3) I am whole; We are holy holy holy (x3) We are whole.
All: Come Sophia Wisdom, Holy Spirit and settle on this bread and wine. Fill them with the holiness and wholeness of our Brother Jesus our Cosmic Christ who is leading us to justice and dignity for all. Amen
Remembering Jesus. (hand extended in blessing):
All: On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends, Jesus took bread, broke it, and shared it with those present, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat. This is my body which will be broken for you.” (Pause)
Then Jesus took a cup of wine and shared it with those present, saying, “Take this all of you and drink. This is the cup of my life-blood, lived for you. Do this in memory of me.”
All (2nd Invocation of Spirit, with hand on each other’s shoulder): Come Holy Spirit to rest on us. Refreshed from our worship together and joined within the Communion of Saints with St. Joseph may we extend your justice and dignity to all.
Prayer of Jesus “Our Father and Mother”
Song of Peace: Love is flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me, flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free. Peace is flowing…Hope is flowing...
Litany for 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 Good News of our resurrection. We will do so!
Loving God, you call us to be your Compassion in the world. We will do so!
Presider: This is Jesus who lived and walked to his death in solidarity with those poor and marginalized. All are invited to partake of this banquet of love and to live our resurrection journey in hope. All: With St. Joseph, we choose to be the Body of Christ for all whom we meet on our way.
Prayer of Thanksgiving (Didache, 100CE)
Men 1: For the thanksgiving, give thanks this way: First, for the cup: We thank you, Abba God, for the sacred vine of David your son, whose meaning you made clear to us through our brother Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.
Women 2: And for the bread fragment: We thank you, Amma God, for the life and wisdom whose meaning you made clear to us through Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.
All 3: As this fragment was scattered high on hills, but by gathering was united into one, so let your people from earth’s ends be united into your single reign, for yours are
splendor and might through Jesus Christ down the ages.
Prayers of Gratitude from community
Presider: Let us continue our resurrection journey with St Joseph in solidarity for work with dignity for all across the world. Let our service continue in the name of our Brother Jesus our Cosmic Christ. All: Amen
Final Blessing.
All (hand extended over community):
May Jesus and his father Joseph bless our prayers and actions for the dignity of, and in solidarity with workers in the USA and around the world. May Sophia, God’s Wisdom be with us. Amen
Individual Blessing, around the circle. Place your hands on the head of the person, look into his/her eyes and say:
Remember that you are
highly favored,
deeply loved,
and greatly blessed. Amen
Thanks to and adapted from a liturgy by Michael and Imogene Rigdon of MMOJ-Sarasota
Sites regarding workers:
https://ufw.org/ United farm Workers
https://networklobby.org/ -Nuns on the Bus
https://fightfor15.org/ raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour
Without dignity, without a living wage.
Readings for May 2, 2019
The Feast of St. Joseph and the Dignity of Work.
First Reading-Statistics regarding employment in the USA
Unemployment Statistics 2018-2019
Number of unemployed 6.2 million nationwide.
Rate: 2019 March 3.8 %, Florida 3.5% February
Long term unemployed (more than 27 weeks) 1.3 million and 21% of unemployed.
Major groups of Unemployed: Whites 3.4%, Blacks 6.7%, Hispanics 4.7%
Poverty rates (2 adults, 2 children making less than $25,500 a year.)
- The official poverty rate in 2017 was 12.3 percent,
- In 2017, there were 39.7 million people in poverty.
- About 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, a measurement that has been shown to underestimate the needs of families. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses.
- In 2017, the proportion of children in poverty, by race/ethnicity, is highest among black and Hispanic children (29 and 25 percent, respectively, compared with 11 percent among white children).
- In 2017, children who lived in families headed by a single mother were much more likely to be poor (41%) than their counterparts living in families headed by a married couple (8%)
Income Inequality in America data from Wikipedia
The U.S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, meaning 70% of countries have a more equal income distribution.
- Most of the growth in income inequality has been between the middle class and top earners, with the disparity widening the further one goes up in the income distribution.[33] The bottom 50% earned 20% of the nation's pre-tax income in 1979; this fell steadily to 14% by 2007 and 13% by 2014. Income for the middle 40% group, a proxy for the middle class, fell from 45% in 1979 to 41% in both 2007 and 2014.[34]
- To put this change into perspective, if the additional pre-tax income received by the top 1% in 2012 were redistributed to achieve the more egalitarian 1979 income distribution, these funds would be sufficient to give $11,000 more to each family in the bottom 80% ($916/month).[35] Alternatively, this figure would be $7,100 if the funds were redistributed to the bottom 99% of families ($600/month).[5]
Instead of psalm response; The Litany of St. Joseph (adapted from)
Response is “St Joseph Pray for us”
Renowned offspring of David, R… Spouse of the Mother of God, R... Diligent Protector of Christ, R…Head of the Holy family, R…Joseph must just, R…Joseph most faithful, R…Model of artisans, R…, Pillar of families, R…Solace of all those suffering, R…Protector of the People of God, R…Guardian of those seeking work, R… Protector of those without resources, R…Guardian of young persons starting their work life journey, R…In solidarity for the dignity of all workers, R…
All: Let us pray. O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to choose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother; grant we beg you that we may be worthy to have St. Joseph for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our Protector: you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: “Pope Francis on the Dignity of Labor” (Selections taken from “John Coleman commentary,” November 20, 2013)
Francis said, “What have we come to?” Pope Frances noted that Jesus was a worker and lamented companies that put much more attention to profits that the dignity of labor. He noted, “We do not get dignity from power or money or culture. We get dignity from work…Work is fundamental to the dignity of the person. Work, to us an image, “anoints” with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God who has worked and still works, who always acts.” Pope Francis ended the homily with “I address a strong appeal that dignity and safety of the worker always be protected.”
Francis underscores a point found in the social teaching of St. John Paul II “…dignified work not only implies remuneration sufficient for adequate housing, food, medical help etc. but also includes a kind of justice as participation. Through work we participate in society and have an active voice.”
After speaking with unemployed workers, Francis prayed, “God give us work—teach us to fight for work” that last phrase would seem to include unions and an active participation of workers in finding and co-creating work. Francis also said “Not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at how to make profit, that goes against God.”
Meeting with the Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder who said of the meeting, “I think we shared very much a concern that the way the global economy is working right now does not always work in favor of those weakest and this needs to be corrected.” One is reminded of the two gnawing issues of growing income inequality around the world and low wages.
Pope Francis mingled widely with ordinary workers in Argentina and, rather a new thing, as pope offers mass for various workers in the Vatican. He has talked about the danger of “the globalization of indifference” that is to say, that we stand back, look at these phenomena and somehow regard that as inevitable and normal in our world. That is aa reaction we must absolutely refuse and react against. We need to fight for the dignity of work around the world!”
Antiphon All: Praise to you, most Loving God, who chose Joseph to be the faithful provider and protector of Jesus, the Word made flesh and Mary his mother. Alleluia.
Gospel: Matt 13:53-57
Jesus came to his home town and began teaching the people in the synagogue, and the people were amazed. They said to one another, “Where did he get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judah? His sisters, too, aren’t they all here with us? But where did such gifts come from?” And they found him altogether too much for them. The inspired word of Matthew. All: Thanks be to our brother Jesus Christ
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