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| Left to right: Sally Brochu ARCWP and Janet Blakeley ARCWP co-presided at liturgy |
WELCOME AND
GREETING
Janet: Welcome to Mary, Mother of Jesus, an
inclusive Catholic Community where all are welcome to share Eucharist at the
Banquet Table. We use inclusive
language in our Scripture readings and prayers. We invite respectful sharing at the homily
that is related to our readings. We welcome all of you to share your intentions
at the Prayers of the Faithful. In the Eucharistic Prayer we invite anyone to
‘voice’ one of the prayers if you are comfortable doing so and all pray the
words of Consecration. We welcome all
newcomers and we are so pleased that you joined us today. All are invited to join us for supper after
the liturgy.
Opening
Song: #432 “Blest Be Our God”, verses 1,2,3
Opening
Prayer:
Sally: Holy One, your words are on our lips and in
our hearts. Like Jesus, we embrace you
and rely on you for our strength and courage. We are ever- expanding our
awareness of your unconditional love for us. Help us to keep your love at our
center of being as we struggle, not only with our own wrongdoings but with that
of the world, and yes, in our Church. When we fail, your love is unfailing. With this awareness we trust in the power of
your Spirit moving within us to make wiser choices to liberate, heal and
empower all as we work for justice and equality. Amen
Communal
Reconciliation Rite
Janet: We
pause now to remember the times we have not asked for forgiveness.
(Pause
briefly. Please extend your hand in
blessing and say the Ho’oponopono Prayer)
I am sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
I love you.
LITURGY
OF THE WORD
First
Reading: Book of
Esther (C:12, 14-16, 19-20, 23-24, 30)
Response: “With God there is love and renewal.”
If you, O God, should mark our
wrongdoings, who then could stand? Rather there is forgiveness with you, that you
may be revered.
Response: “With God there is love and renewal.”
I wait. My whole being waits for God,
and relies on the Word of the Holy One. My whole being hopes in God, more than
those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
Response: “With God there is love and renewal.”
O people, have hope in God. With God
there is love unfailing. With the Holy One is great power to redeem. It is this
One who will liberate God’s own people from all humiliation and wickedness.
Response: “With God there is love and renewal.”
Second
Reading: Letter from
Paul to the Philippians – 1:1-11
Gospel
Acclamation:
All sing: “Spirit of the Living God”
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
(us, all)
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt
me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Homily
and Sharing
Our first reading from the Book of Esther is the story of the queen of
Persia who saved the Jewish people in exile by her wisdom and courage, but more
importantly by her faith and trust in God.
Esther was a beautiful, intelligent Jewish woman and a woman of means,
who went into exile in Persia with her people.
Because of her beauty and intelligence, Esther became quite visible and
caught the eye of the king of Persia.
She hid the fact that she was Jewish and eventually married the
king. She glorified God by saving her
Jewish people from the destruction that the king had planned for them. This
faith-filled woman’s story needs to be continually told. Yet, the Book of Esther is not found in all Scriptures.
It is found in The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Scriptures, but not the
Protestant or Jewish Scriptures. This book is found in the Apocrypha – that is,
books that remained hidden, secret, or rejected. Critics felt that God was not the focus of
the story! But when I read it, I heard
the presence of God everywhere! God was
at the center of it. One could think that Esther is shown as a woman with
power. Perhaps it is a little too
threatening to show her – a woman – as an agent for change.
The Gospel reading is about a woman “caught in adultery” who was brought
to Jesus. This woman - unlike Esther
but like so many women in Scripture - is nameless. She stands before the crowd alone
because the laws concerning adultery did not apply to men. Looking at the situation through a
contemporary lens, we see that the “#Me Too” movement has already worked
significant change in our society.
Where what was previously considered acceptable, or tolerable, is no
longer. In fact, we may be approaching
a paradigm shift where greater justice and respect will begin to permeate
relationships within our society, especially how women are treated. That certainly is my hope, but we still have
a long way to go. This change has to be
fostered and supported where we need to speak out against these
injustices.
Returning to the story, I have always been intrigued by what Jesus might
have written on the ground that would give some understanding of why all the
men left the scene. Whatever it was,
they left and Jesus told her gently that he did not condemn her. What an impact that must have had on her –
to feel a sense of freedom and release from condemnation and harm. That’s the reason I chose the photo on the
liturgy to capture her exhilaration and gratitude for being saved from death!
Let me close with the words of the Second Reading. Paul wrote the Philippians: “My prayer is
that your love may abound more and more, both in understanding and in wealth of
experience so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct you may learn
to value the things that really matter.
It is my wish that you be found rich in the harvest of justice which
Jesus Christ has ripened in you, to the glory and praise of God.” To continue our quest for justice in our
world, our church, we need to ask God for the courage to change what we can,
most especially our hearts.
-->
Q. Our Jewish brothers and sisters say that in every parable or writings
of Scripture, there are at least 4 or 5 levels of meaning. What other meanings do you see in today’s
readings?
Statement of Faith (Taken from “The Friends in
Faith” and shared by Joan Meehan)
Gathered together as people of faith,
we profess our belief in God who is larger than we can name, unable to be
contained, yet present in each one of us. We have come to know this God in the
living of our lives, and in the holiness of the earth we share.
We believe in a God revealed in all
peoples – all genders, religions, and orientations. We embrace a compassionate
God, who champions justice and mercy, and is always faithful when we call. Our
God gives and forgives, patiently loving without conditions.
We gratefully believe in a God who
feels our deepest struggles, and celebrates our deepest joys. A God who both
dances with us in celebration, and holds us when we cry. This God is not the
“other” to us, but shares our breath in every moment and promises we are never
alone.
We believe in a God who believes in
us – believes that we are precious and incredible gifts, worthy to claim image
and likeness to the divine. We hold fast to our God who journeys with us, who
continually calls us to choose the shape of our days through the choices we
make. This God accepts us as we are and shares each hope we have for becoming.
This is the God in whom we believe, our Creator, our Mother and Father, who
became human in Jesus, our brother. Our God is the Spirit of Life, the voice
that continues to speak love, and asks us to answer. In this God we choose to
believe. AMEN.
Prayers
of the Community
Sally: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this
table our blessings, cares and concerns.
All please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
Our response is “Holy One, may we love and serve all.”
Janet: We
pray for these and all unspoken concerns that we hold in our hearts. Amen.
Offertory
Song: #391 – “Open My Eyes, God”
Preparation
of Gifts (presiders
lift up bread and wine and book of prayers)
Sally:
Blessed are you, God of all life, through your goodness we have bread, wine,
all creation, these prayers of the heart, and our own lives to offer. Through this sacred meal may we become your
new creation as we respond to your call to use our gifts in loving service to
our sisters and brothers.
All: Blessed
be God forever.
Janet: All
are welcome to join us around the table.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Sally: God is within you, blessing the world through
you.
All: And within you.
Sally: Lift
up your hearts.
All: We lift them up in the Holy One.
Sally: O
Holy One, the first passion of Jesus was his passion for you and his passion
for justice, namely, to incarnate your justice by demanding for all a fair
share of a world belonging to - and ruled by - your covenant with Israel. In solidarity with the unnamed woman who
anointed Jesus, the first to recognize the cost of his fidelity to you, and with
all believers who have gone before us, we lift up our hearts and sing:
All: We are holy, holy, holy (we,
you, I, we) by Karen Drucker
Voice: Holy One, we celebrate the
life of your son and our brother, Jesus.
He lived his life and walked forward to his death knowing that You were
leading him. We walk forward in his
pathway and follow his teaching.
Voice: We pray for the grace to let
go of money, possessions, pride and privilege, to become vulnerable and open to
You, to accept poverty of spirit and reliance on you.
Voice: We pray for compassion for all
human beings, to feel empathy and love for everyone, especially the poor,
oppressed, and mournful. We remember
all those who suffer and die each year from war, poverty and unjust
disease. We mourn for them, for all
creatures we destroy, and for the earth itself.
Voice: We pray to be gentle,
nonviolent, courageous and humble. We
pray to grow in awareness of our unity with all creation and to co-create with
You our earth as a sanctuary of peace.
Voice: We rejoice, O Holy One, and we
are glad as we join the lineage of your prophets of justice and peace. We, your daughters and sons, continue to
work with your grace as we arise and walk forward in the footsteps of our
brother, the nonviolent Jesus.
All: On the night before he died,
Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to him. He washed their feet. For this they would remember him.
Sally:
(Lifts bread as community prays the following)
All: When he returned to his place,
he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered
it to them saying:
Take and eat of the Bread of Life
given to strengthen you. Whenever you
remember me like this, I am among you. (pause)
Janet:
(Lifts the cup as community prays the following)
All: Jesus then raised a cup of
blessing, spoke the grace saying: Take and drink of the covenant made new again
through my life in you. Whenever you
remember me like this, I am among you. (pause)
All: Let us share this bread and cup,
and welcome everyone to the Banquet as we live the gospel of justice and peace
in our world.
Voice: We are called to do everything
Jesus did, to be the living presence of a love that does justice, of a
compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates laughter, of a
light that illumines right choices and confronts the darkness of every
injustice and inequity.
All: We trust you to continue to
share with us your own Spirit, the Spirit that filled Jesus, for it is through
his life and teaching, his loving and healing that all honor and glory is
yours, O Holy One, forever and ever.
Sally: Let
us pray as Jesus taught us:
Prayer of
Jesus: “Our Father and Mother…”
Sign of
Peace:
Janet: While
remaining in your place, please turn to the person on either side of you and say
“Peace be with you”
Prayer
for the Breaking of the Bread
Sally:
Please join in the prayer for the breaking of the bread. (Presiders break the
bread.)
All: O God of Courage, You call us to
live the Gospel of peace and justice.
We will live justly. O God of
Compassion, You call us to be your presence in the world. We will love tenderly. O God of Truth, You call us to speak truth
to power. We will walk with integrity
in your presence.
(Presiders
hold up the bread and wine.)
Janet: This
is the bread of life and the cup of blessing.
Through it we are nourished and we nourish each other. All are welcome to join in the Feast.
All: Through him, we have learned how
to live. Though
him, we have learned how to love. Through
him, we have learned how to serve. AMEN.
Communion
song: “Blessed Are the Gifts That We Receive” – written by Mindy Simmons
Sally: It is
time for our prayers of gratitude and announcements.
Blessing
Janet: Let
us raise our hands and bless each other.
All: May you be blessed with a
restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial
relationships.
May you seek truth boldly and love
deeply within your heart.
May you continue to be the face of
the Holy One to all you meet.
May your name be a blessing in our
time.
Closing
Song: #402 – “To Praise You” - verses 1,2,6
This liturgy
was, in part, composed for the Season of Lent by Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP,
and Mary Theresa Streck, ARCWP.
