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Saturday, December 12, 2020

Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Third Sunday in Advent 2020 - Presiders: Dennis McDonald, ARCWP, and Dotty Shugrue, ARCWP



Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am via Zoom

Here is the Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).
Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155

 

Welcome and Theme: Dennis

Today we celebrate Gaudete Sunday, or the Third Sunday of Advent. The initiation of Advent occurred around the 4th Century and originally was a longer time of fasting and preparing for the arrival of Jesus.  Gaudete means Rejoice, and this Sunday Celebration was provided mid-way during Advent as a break from the fasting and penitence expected during the rest of Advent.  It was a day to rejoice. When Advent was adjusted down to four weeks, the third week was designated for this purpose.  

The theme for today is Joy. It is the Joy that is born of the Divine. Our readings provide us insight into how joy exists in the midst of suffering and pain, and indeed provides relief and release by those whose lives are filled with love and joy.  So, let us gather together in recognition of the Joy we each bring to this celebration.

 

Opening Prayer: Dotty

God-With-Us, Sacred Presence, Divine Mysteries, Holy One, Emmanuel....many are your names, legions are your gifts to humanity.  We celebrate the gift of joy in this time of contradiction and fear.  We are the ones who bring joy to all situations in life.  We choose to find joy even in grief and pain.  We choose to bring joy to all those whose lives we touch during this time of waiting.  


All:  So be it!

Advent Candle Lighting Blessing Prayer

Kathie:  Like our ancestors, we honor the cycles and the seasons that remind us of the ever-changing flow of life.  Ritual acts give life meaning—they honor and acknowledge the unseen web of Life that connects us all.

  

We light this third candle and remember that in the heart of every person on this earth, and in all of creation there burns the spark of luminous goodness – the presence of the Divine. 

And so we respond: Let us kindle the light of joy!

 Dotty concludes: Indeed, let us welcome the light within each other!


Opening Song: Joy in Our Hearts by Karen Drucker

https://youtu.be/QRBSdrI1MBI


LITURGY OF THE WORD

 

Katie: First Reading - A reading from Enfleshed by Rev. Anna Blaedel

The Joy of God-With-Us does not come as naïve optimism, or surface level feel-good-ness. Joy cannot be imposed from on high. Joy cannot be commanded. The Joy of God-With-Us is mingled with grief, exists side by side with mourning, knows that pain and death are all too real, but do not have the final word. This joy tends tenderly to beauty, and softness, and the gladness that comes from paying attention to what matters. The Joy of God With-Us is collective, liberating us from deadly despair. Joy is gestating in darkness; it comes unexpectedly. Joy invites our expectation and demands our participation. Prepare the way, for joy with sorrow. May Joy be birthed among, within, and through us, this Advent. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel...

These are the inspired words of Rev. Anna Blaedel, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.

 

Jane: Second Reading - A reading from the Gospel bearing the name John


Then came one named John, sent as an envoy from God, who came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through his testimony everyone might believe. He himself wasn’t the Light; he only came to testify about the Light – the true Light that illumines all humankind. 


Now the Temple authorities sent emissaries from Jerusalem—priests and Levites—to
talk to John. “Who are you?” they asked.

This is John’s testimony: he didn’t refuse to answer, but freely admitted, “I am not the Messiah.”

“Who are you, then?” they asked. “Elijah?”  “No, I am not,” he answered.

“Are you the Prophet?”  “No,” he replied.

Finally they said to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who
sent us. What do you have to say for yourself?”

John said, “I am, as Isaiah prophesied, the voice of someone crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight our God’s road!’


The emissaries were members of the Pharisee sect. They questioned him further: “If you’re not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, then why are you baptizing people?”

John said, “I baptize with water because among you stands someone whom you don’t
recognize— the One who is to come after me—the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy even to untie.”


This occurred in Bethany, across the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.


These are the inspired words from the Gospel bearing the name of the Apostle John, and we affirm them by saying, Amen. 


Third Reading - A reading from Thich Nhat Hanh

 

What does nirvana mean? It is absolute happiness. It’s not a place you can go; it’s a fruit that you can have wherever you are. It’s already inside us. The wave doesn’t have to seek out the water. Water is what the wave has to realize as her own foundation of being.

You are not static. You are the life that you are becoming. Because “to be” means to be something: happy, unhappy, light or heavy, sky or earth. We have to learn to see being as becoming. The quality of your being depends on the object of your being. That is why when you hear Rene Descartes’ famous statement “I think, therefore I am,” you have to ask, “You are what?” Of course you are your own thinking—and your happiness or your sorrow depends very much on the quality of your thinking. You are becoming now, you are being reborn now in every second. You don’t need to come to death in order to be reborn. You are reborn in every moment; you have to see your continuation in the here and the now.

I don’t care at all what happens to me when I die. That’s why I have a lot of time to care about what is happening to me in the here and the now. When I walk, I want to enjoy every step I take. I want freedom and peace and joy in every step. So joy and peace and lightness are what I produce in that moment. I have inherited it and I pass it on to other people. If someone sees me walking this way and decides to walk mindfully for him or herself, then I am reborn in him or in her right away—that’s my continuation. That’s what is happening to me in the here and the now. And if I know what is happening to me in the here and the now, I don’t need to ask the question, “What will happen to me after this body disintegrates?” There is no “before” and “after,” just as there is no birth and death. We can be free of these notions in this very moment, filled with the great joyful silence of all that is.

These are the inspired words of Thich Nhat Hanh and we affirm them by saying, Amen. 

(Pause)


Homily Starter and Shared Reflections


Dennis: This Sunday in Advent, Gaudete Sunday, celebrates joy, the joy that our first reading says is “mingled with grief, exists side-by-side with mourning, knows that pain and death are too real, but do not have the final word.” Joy “invites our expectations and demands our participation” in making straight the path, preparing the way.   

Today’s Gospel has the emissaries of the Jewish leaders questioning John as to who he is.  There is an anticipation that perhaps he is Elijah returned, or the prophet, referring most likely to Moses. There is hope in the questions of the emissaries, they want a clear answer to bring back with them. John’s answer is not what they wish for, he shares with them that it is the one in their midst, whom they do not recognize, that is the One whose arrival they await. 

Denise shared with us on the 1st Sunday of Advent, the meaning of the word Advent being “arrival”. She stated in her welcome, “The Divine Presence, or as Richard Rohr calls it, the Universal Christ, saturates the universe and everything in it, here and now.  We are all pregnant with it.”  The idea of being pregnant, the anticipation, the expectation that comes with it, that something new is coming, something that will bring joy and change to hearts, to homes, to the world.  This is what John the Baptist was about, preparing the way, creating the anticipation of those who came to him, to call to their attention that the Light had arrived to shine in the darkness, to bring joy where there was sorrow. 

And so we are invited to anticipate what the arrival means in our life, but the demand is also made to participate in and with the Light.  How does our arrival to a life of joy in the midst of sorrow, pain, and death happen? Thich Nhat Hanh provides us a road map, one that calls us to focus on becoming, “being born now in every second”, to “see your continuation in the here and the now”, to be constantly participating in bringing joy and change to hearts, to homes, and to the world.  

Thomas Aquinas, quoting from Matthew Fox’s book, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas says, “sheer Joy is God’s, and this demands companionship.” Aquinas proposes that the universe exists for the sake of Joy—God’s and that of the rest of us. “All beings are gladly doing their best to express God,” says Meister Eckhart. 

Aquinas goes on to say that “joy is the human’s noblest act.” Matthew Fox wonders why not “fighting for justice or dying for a noble cause” be the noblest act. But Fox says that for Aquinas “even justice exists for the sake of joy — a just world is a balanced world and is therefore conducive to joy for the many, not just the few.” 

According to Aquinas, “love is the cause of joy, the only person who truly has joy is one who lives in love.”  And so the call this Gaudete Sunday is to recognize the arrival of the Light, in the midst of suffering, pain, and sorrow, bringing love and joy to all.  Can we recognize our becoming, being born anew in every moment, as Thich Nhat Hanh states, “so joy and peace and lightness are what I produce in that moment?”  The call is to pass that on to others, who will then pass it on to another, and so on.  It is as he says, our continuation, or as Donna shared last week, in our following the example of Jesus, the Light, we become, like him, Life-Givers.  

Have I recognized and accepted the Light that is born in me? What will I do to make straight the path, to bring justice, love and joy to the many? 


Statement of Faith read by Linda

 
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery 
beyond all definition and rational 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. 

 

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST


Dennis:  As we prepare for this sacred meal we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. As bearers of LIGHT and HOPE, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your intentions beginning with the words, “I bring to the table…..” 

Presider 1: We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen. 


Dotty: With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:

(written by Jay Murnane) 

 

Source of All That Is, we seek you in this season, when the earth is resting and preparing for new life. Like the earth, we long for new life and hopeful beginnings. This is the time of the pregnant woman, filled with life and hope powerful enough to topple structures of oppression.  This is the time of her song of fidelity and celebration. 

 

During this gentle season of Advent, we recognize that you have made us capable of bringing forth justice, like a rising sun. One with all who have gone before us, we sing a song of praise: 


Holy, Holy, Holy 

"Here In This Place" https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ


 

Dennis: We thank you for those in times past who believed the good news and lived what they believed. 

 

Blessed is Isaiah and every visionary who insisted on a better future that would break through the deception, disaster and broken promises of the age in which they lived. 

 

Blessed is John, in the stark desert of careful focus, inviting the people to be born again in your love.  

 

Blessed is Miriam, who believed the words of Isaiah and opened herself up to the unbelievable. 

 

And blessed is her child Jesus, who felt the sorrows of humankind in his soul, and responded with deep and tender compassion. 


Please extend your hands in blessing.


Dotty:  We are grateful for your Spirit at our Eucharistic Table and for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world. 


On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends.  He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and washed their feet. 

 

All lift their plates and pray the following:


When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying: 

Take and eat, this is my very self.

 (pause) 

 

All lift their cups and pray the following:


Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:

Take and drink.

Whenever you remember me like this,

I am among you.

(pause) 


Dennis:  Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.


What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives.  As we share communion, we will become Communion both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge.  


All consume their bread and wine at this time.


Communion Meditation/Song: Tis a Gift to Be Simple

https://youtu.be/baNueuDCue0 


Dennis: Holy One, we are grateful for the gift of Your Spirit, always drawing beauty and balance out of chaos.  And like Jesus…

 

Standing where he stood,  

and for what he stood,  

and with whom he stood, 

we are united in your Spirit, 

and worship you with our lives,  

 

All: Amen.  


Dennis: Let us pray as Jesus taught us: 


Holy One, you are within, around and among us.  
We celebrate your many names. 
Your wisdom come; your will be done, 
unfolding from the depths within us. 
Each day you give us all that we need. 
You remind us of our limits and we let go. 
You support us in our power, and we act with courage. 
For you are the dwelling place within us, 
the empowerment around us, 
and the celebration among us,  
now and forever, Amen.  

Adapted by Miriam Therese Winter   


BLESSING 


Dotty:  Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together.


May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.

May your soul calm, console, and renew you.

All: AMEN 

 

Closing Song: This Joy

https://youtu.be/1TbDPwA09Bc 


Friday, December 11, 2020

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Advent , December 12, 2020 , Presiders: Kathryn Shea ARCWP and Lee Breyer




Zoom link for video, Dec. 24, 2020 4 PM Eastern Standard Time

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86240868327?pwd=ZWNhdHRudTlFSjVBRlF5QVo5L3VGZz09

Meeting ID: 862 4086 8327

Password: 1066


Theme: Who am I and what do I have to say about myself?


Welcome and Comments


(Lee)  Welcome to our inclusive Catholic community, Mary Mother of Jesus, located in Sarasota, Florida. Everyone is welcome here, no exceptions.  In this liturgy, everyone has a part.  We invite the entire community to pray the liturgy where it says: All. In most of the service, the entire community will be muted but, at the time of several readings, an individual will be unmuted to lead us in a particular piece and then “remuted” when finished. 


And, at the time of a song, please, sing your heart out while you are muted!   Also, we ask all our readers to “unmute” for their reading and then “re-mute” again. Everyone is welcome to share as inspired to do so after the ending of the homily starter.  They will unmute themselves for their comments…and then remute themselves when finished. 


Please have your bread and wine or juice for Communion conveniently located near you as we pray our Eucharistic Prayer.


Gathering Hymn:  Song of Joy-Miquel Rios



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9tEp5b2Uvk&feature=share


Opening Prayer


(Pause briefly and reflect on the need to grow more in love with others and with creation.)

(Kathryn):  Nurturing God, you blessed us by becoming human in the person of Jesus.  He was born of his mother, Mary…supported by his father, Joseph…blessed in a local Jewish temple and engaged in the lives of those he loved and with whom he lived.  As he aged, he experienced life on earth and learned what so many people learned and taught what so many people needed to know. And through his examples, his blessings on those who loved him and even his blessings on those who killed him, he showed us how we are to live our lives on your creation, earth. 


Creator God, Jesus knew who he was … that he was the one who makes straight the road to you.  And that is what he showed us by his teaching and his mission.  May we, with the support of the Spirit, have the wisdom and strength to follow him.  Amen.


Penitential Expression and Community Forgiveness


(Lee): O God, we do not fully open our hearts to your Spirit within us.

(All):  May we use you grace to open our hearts to recognize and experience your love.


(Kathryn): Jesus, the Christ, we trust in your promise to send your Spirit.

(All): Help us to deeply believe in the message that you have made to those who love you.


(Lee): O Spirit of Wisdom, pour out your healing grace on us.

(All): Share your strength to us that we may open our hearts to receive your presence in us with joy and gladness.


(Kathryn): May the God of love, forgive us our lack of confidence in Wisdom Sophia who is moving with us, in us, and through us that we may be witnesses for justice and equality.  Teach us how to love one another, our brothers and sisters on earth, and to do so as you love the whole of your creation.

(All):  Amen, let it be so!  

Liturgy of The Word


(Lee): As we always pray in the Liturgy of The Word and in the way it was expressed last week by Kathryn and Mary Kay -- “Open our hearts to finding you in new and unimaginable ways during this time of waiting.  Plant the seed of your presence deeper in us and help us to nourish it into new life.”  


(Michael):  Today’s First Reading is from the gospel of John 1: 6-9, 19-22


There was a man named John, sent as an envoy from God, who came to point out to us the way to the Light.  He did so that, through his testimony, everyone might believe his message.  John himself was not the Light; he came only to teach about the Light -- the true Light that illumines all humankind.  And at that time, the Temple authorities, interested in Jesus,  -- who he was and what he was teaching -- sent priests and Levites to get some information from him. They asked Jesus “who are you?  After no direct answers, they used a few prompts. They continued to ask him again, while repeating themselves… who are you?  what are you doing?  Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us.  What do you have to say about yourself?”

  

This selection of John’s Gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was selected for today’s community responses since the same questions could be asked of each of us.  And the community responds, AMEN.  





(Janet):  Some responses could be understood from the second reading today.  It is from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 61, verses 1-2 and 10-11.  


The Spirit of God is upon me; God has indeed anointed me.  God has sent me as a messenger to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.  I am to announce a year of favor and vindication from God, who is the joy of my soul and who wrapped me in a robe of salvation and a mantle of justice.


Shared Homily/Community Reflections

            

These are the words attributed to Isaiah who, in this “collection of collections”, was written to describe his mission from God.  And, we – the community of today -- believes that the Spirit that inspired Isaiah centuries ago inspires us even now.  

And the community responds… AMEN.


(Lee):  And John - after denying that he was “the Christ,” “Elija” or a “Prophet” - summed up who he was in a few words to his inquirers --those who were in the first reading today, and to those in any day since: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert…make straight the way of our God.”


Profession of Faith


(Kathryn): O Holy One, Creator of this expansive universe, we believe…


(All):  We believe that you are in us, and that we are in you.  We believe that your loving care is shown in the life, mission, death and resurrection of Jesus.  He showed us - in so many lessons in his life and mission while on earth – how we are to care for one another, our brothers and sisters, on this planet and all your creation. His love for all people extended from those who played with him in his infancy to even those who nailed him to a cross.


We believe that no one is beyond the reach of your love, and so no one should be beyond the reach of our care, despite differences in age, race, color, nationality, beliefs, and wealth.


We believe that we have in our hearts the grace, inspiration and strength of the Holy Spirit that we could live fully in your love when we open ourselves to your teachings shown to us in Jesus.

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


(Lee):  We are people of faith.  We believe in the power of prayer.  We believe that we send blessings to those who are struggling in the “whys” and ‘hows” of their daily existences and who need to experience hope and peace; to those who are grieving and need to be comforted in their hurts and losses, to those who are facing medical challenges that “drain their days” and who need hopeful healings. We bring the needs of people everywhere throughout our world to our gracious and comforting God. 

Response: Loving God, you are the peace of our prayers.


(Kathryn):  For what else do we pray? (Loving God….)

(Kathryn): Caring God, we know you attend to our prayers and respond with your wisdom and love.  In you, we place our faith.  ALL: Amen.


Preparation of the Gifts


Blessed are you, O God, through your goodness we have the bread we brought from home for your blessing.  It will become for us the Bread of Life.

(All): Blessed be God.


Blessed are you, O God, through your goodness we have this fruit of the grape for your blessing.  It will become for us our spiritual drink.

(All):  Blessed be God


(All):  Nurturing God, we are blessed in this sacrament by the love of Jesus Christ who proclaimed God’s power and mercy for the lowly and oppressed.   Like Mary, his mother and first disciple, may we live as prophetic witnesses to the Gospel.   


Song:  We are holy, holy, holy (3x).  You are...I am…we are…. 



https://youtu.be/orKBBIj5LZA


Eucharistic Prayer


(Mary Al): Ever living and ever-loving God, it is through you that we live and move and have our very beings.  And we know that in the days to come, that Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, will fulfill her promise to bring us to the paschal feast of heaven. Her presence with us gives us everlasting hope of unending peace and joy with you. 



(Russ): We thank you for the gift of Jesus in history – and the gift of Jesus in faith.  Through him, you breath life into us.  He was moved by his vision of your constant presence in everyone he met, everywhere he went. He revealed you in everything he did in his life well lived. And he showed us, through his example, not only how we should live, but also for what is worth dying.


(Judy): And when his time on earth had come to an end, Jesus surrendered his life for a value that he deeply believed, lived and taught…his conviction that love is stronger than death.  Ad then, providing a personal example of his insight for the understanding of people in ages to come, he opened wide his arms on a cross and died. Then the Spirit, one stronger than death, raised Jesus to life, showing everyone that life is eternal and that love is immortal. Jesus is with us – and lives in us – today as he will through the end of time


(Judy & All):  O God, let your Spirit of life healing and wholeness come upon our gifts – the simple wheat and fruit of the vine.  May She make them holy so that they will become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus, our brother.


Please extend an arm toward your bread and wine as we pray the consecration together.


(Keven & All):  We remember the gift that Jesus gave us on the night before he died.  He gathered with his friends to share a final Passover meal.  And it was at that supper that Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and shared it with them saying take this, all of you and eat it.  This bread is you; this bread is me.  We are one body, the presence of God in the world.  When you do this, remember me and all that I have taught you.  This is the new and everlasting covenant.   (Then pause…)


(Kevin & All):  In the same way, Jesus took a cup of wine, said the blessing and gave it to his friends saying: take this all of you and drink it.  This wine is you; this wine is me.  We are one blood, the presence of God in the world.  When you do this, remember me and all that I have taught you.  This is the new and everlasting covenant.


(Kathryn):  Let us proclaim this mystery of faith…


(All):  Jesus has died.  Christ has risen.  The cosmic Christ lives in and through us in the world today.


(Lee): We believe that the Spirit of God works through us. She can and will do more than we could ever know or even imagine.  The Spirit give us the strength to be compassionate carriers of the Gospel message.  

(Lee & All):  Amen. In deep truth, I say “Amen”.


The Prayer of Jesus

 

(Kathryn):  So let us, then, pray to our God with the words that Jesus taught us.


(Kathryn & All)  Our God who is in Heaven and in all of us here on earth…the rich and the poor, the well-satisfied and the hungry, the free and the oppressed, the leadership and the marginalized, and everyone in circles of community and those excluded from society… you hear our prayer. 


May Your kindom come and Your will be done in our actions as we struggle with the complexities of this world and work to confront greed and the desires for power in ourselves, in our nation and in the entire global community of peoples.


Anna D & All: Give us this day our daily bread... bread that we are called to share, bread that you have given us abundantly, nourishing the health and welfare of all your holy family, with no exceptions.


 Forgive us our trespasses… especially for those times that we have turned away from the struggles of other peoples and countries, and for those times we have thought primarily – and sometimes maybe even only – of our own selves.


Joan M & All: Strengthen us in times of temptation… the temptation to close our minds, ears, and eyes to the unfair global systems that create ever-larger and long-lasting gaps between the rich and the poor, the temptation to think it is just too complex and difficult to bring about more alternatives.


Deliver us from evil…the evil of a world where violence happens in Your name, where the wealth for a few is more important than condition of the poor. 


May your kindom come…as a blessing of peace and justice for all the members in your family, everywhere. 


Passing the Peace of Christ


(Kathryn):  In Christ, we are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters to one another. You have given us the gifts of compassion and peace. As members of God’s Blessed Family, let us share those gifts with one another in song.  


Song: Let there be peace on earth



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_DxNpW1kHQ&feature=share


Communion 


Lee: Loving God, you call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice.  We will live justly.

Kathryn: Loving God, you call us to be Your presence in the world.  We will love tenderly.

Lee: Loving God, you call us to speak truth to power.  We will walk with integrity. 

And what we have just said, we will live with our lives.


Lee & All: We have Jesus with us now in the Bread of Life and the Cup of the New Covenant. Let us now eat and drink this Sacred Meal -- Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.

(Please take/share Communion at this time.)



Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion


Lee: O God, we rejoice in your amazing love for us, having each one of us as your brother or sister, a member of your Beloved Family.  May we be challenged, encouraged and empowered so that we may continue to live as partners in creating a world filled with love and ruled by justice.


Post-Communion Meditation/Reflection:



https://youtu.be/m-0HKpTEbts


Gratitudes – Introductions – Announcements


Closing Prayer


(Kathryn):  Let us go forth in compassion and peace; holding fast to what is good and rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.  And may God, who promises peacemakers a place in the kindom of heaven, guide us on our different paths through our pilgrimage on earth to our heavenly home.  May we do so with God’s gifts of Christ-like love for one another – and with a hunger for justice everywhere – in ourselves, our homes, our countries, and the world in which we live … and do that with no exceptions.


(Lee):  May we continually remain clean of heart in the coming kind-dom and open to the will of the Spirit .  And may we always be the Face of God to the world reflecting well God’s compassionate and caring presence in us to everyone we meet.


Closing Blessing  (please extend an arm in mutual blessing


(Lee & All):  May our gracious God bless all of us who are gathered here (in Zoom)…and for all those for whom we lovingly prayed in this liturgy.  We ask this --   as always – in the name of our God, our Creator - in the name of Jesus, our Liberator -   and in the name of the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier, as we minister to one another and to all those we meet on our journeys.  Be with us as we continue on our paths and follow in the footsteps of Jesus – for we are the face of God to the world…and may be reflect our loving God well to everyone we meet.  Amen.


Closing Song-



https://youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE&feature=share


If you want to add an intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayer book, please send an email to katyrcwp@tampabay.rr.com

If you want to invite someone to attend our liturgy, please refer them our website at MaryMotherofJesus.org      

To support our community, please send your check to:

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

St Andrew UCC, 6908 Beneva Rd, Sarasota, Florida 34238