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Welcome! (Andrea) Welcome, and thank you for joining us for our Ash Wednesday prayer service this afternoon. We remind you that all are welcome in this holy place. Everyone please join together in our prayers and songs. Please mic on to read, speak a part, or to share your homily thoughts or your community prayer. Then mic off so the next person can speak. Have bread and wine or juice in front of you for communion.
Theme (Michael) The climax of Lent is Holy Week, of course, when we celebrate Jesus’s death and resurrection. Two sides of the same coin. Loss and renewal are the pattern of life and growth at every level. Let’s celebrate that theme in our Ash Wednesday prayer service to start the season of Lent.
Sign of Peace (Michael) Let us begin by offering each other a sign of peace. (Namaste pose or other greeting toward camera)
All: Namaste. The peace of Christ be with you!
🎶 Make me a channel of your peace (Prayer of St Francis)
https://youtu.be/hC77O0fMuL0
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury your pardon, God,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
Oh God, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled, as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that were born to eternal life. ...
Make me a channel of your peace.
Prayer of Transformation (Andrea)
Jesus the Christ, you emptied yourself to become human. May your emptying serve as a model for us during this Lenten season, so that we will be filled more and more with your loving presence. And so we can share your love with all those we meet. We ask this in your name. All: So be it.
Liturgy of the Word
(Joan M) A reading from John’s Gospel.
Jesus said, “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.”
These are the inspired words of the evangelist John, and the community affirms them by responding: All: Thanks be to God.
(Excerpt From The Message, translated by Eugene H Peterson)
🎶 Response: Unless a Grain of Wheat
https://youtu.be/9FzMQnCM3hA
(Reader 2) The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ. These are the inspired words of St Paul, and our community affirms our assent. All: Thanks be to God.
(Excerpt From The Message, translated by Eugene H Peterson)
(Andrea) The third reading is from Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ, chapter 16, Transformation and Contemplation.
Things change and grow by dying to their present state, but each time it is a risk. “Will it work this time?” is always our question. So many academic disciplines are coming together, each in its own way, to say that there’s a constant movement of loss and renewal at work in this world at every level. It seems to be the pattern of all growth and evolution. To be alive means to surrender to this inevitable flow. It’s the same pattern in every atom, in every human relationship, and in every galaxy. Native peoples, Hindu scripture, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad, and Jesus all saw it early in human history and named it as a kind of “necessary dying.”
If this pattern is true, it has been true all the time and everywhere. ...
All of us travelers, each in our own way, have to eventually learn about letting go of something smaller so something bigger can happen. But that’s not a religion—it’s highly visible truth. It is the Way Reality Works.
Yes, I am saying:
That the way things work and Christ are one and the same.
This is not a religion to be either fervently joined or angrily rejected.
It is a train ride already in motion.
The tracks are visible everywhere.
You can be a willing and happy traveler,
Or not. These are the inspired words of Richard Rohr, and we respond,
Reader & All: Thanks be to God!
Acclamation: Psalm 23. God My Shepherd!
Response (Michael & All):
🎶 My God is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.
(Reader 2) God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction. Response 🎶
Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I'm not afraid
when you walk at my side
Your trusty shepherd's crook
makes me feel secure. Response 🎶
Shared Homily (Michael and All)
Prayers of the Community
(Andrea) As we begin the season of Lent, we are aware that the needs of our country and our world are many. As a community and as individuals we do our part to be the healing power of Christ for the world as we bring our prayers to the community table.
We bring to the table our newly elected leaders, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are charged to address the many crises our country faces.
We bring to the table those who exercise leadership roles in all faith traditions.
We bring to the table those who are distributing and injecting the vaccines to protect everyone from covid and its new strains.
We bring to the table all those who are unemployed and underemployed, all migrants and refugees.
We bring to the table all those who work to promote justice by eradicating sexism, racism, and discrimination of every kind.
We bring to the table our desire to bring an end to the arms race and peaceful ways to resolve conflicts among nations. And we bring to the table the presidents of the US and Russia who agreed in their first conversation this week to extend a nuclear disarmament agreement that was due to expire next week.
We bring to the table our desire to be faithful to our pledge of nonviolence in every aspect of our lives.
We bring to the table our community members and friends who have current health concerns: Sally & Janet, Mary Kay, Diane, and others who have acute or chronic health conditions.
And who or what else shall we bring to the table? (Unmute, then mute again)
O Holy One, you know our needs even before we speak. Yet we must speak, if only to remind ourselves of our responsibility to care for the least among us. With your grace may we act justly and love tenderly in addressing the needs of our world. And may we walk humbly on the earth all the days of our lives.
All: Hear the voices of your people, Spirit of Compassion. May our faith and commitment to action will steer us forward to live that for which we pray.
Prayer of Jesus
(Michael & All) Let us pray as Jesus taught his companions to pray:
O 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 we need.
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in your 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, Miriam Therese Winter, MMS)
Concluding Prayer
(Andrea) O Holy One, we have been reminded that the path to transformation lies in loss and renewal, death and new life, being emptied so your Spirit can fill us with her presence. May we follow this path during Lent so that we will arrive at Holy Week ready to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection. We ask this in your name. All: Amen
Final Irish ☘️ Blessing
(Michael) May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
(Andrea) May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of God’s hand.
🎶 When the Saints go marching in
https://youtu.be/xvIHW-UbtgA
_______________________________________________________________
If you want to add an intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayer book, please send an email to Katy Zatsick: katyrcwp@tampabay.rr.com
If you want to invite someone to attend our liturgy, please refer them to the day’s liturgy at MaryMotherofJesus.org
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