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Theme: “We Reflect on our Sacred Time of Lent Experience 2021”
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Photo by James Lee on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/ww-g7AEbn6U |
Photo by Jerry Larry on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/photos/7uvixXrQkfw
Welcome -Jan:
Welcome to our MMOJ liturgical gathering for the last Sunday of Lent. We rejoice that we can celebrate liturgy together during difficult times. We extend to one another words of welcome, peace, and thanksgiving assuring each other that all here are a part of this holy gathering. We invite you to pray the liturgy with us. You will be muted during the liturgy except for the presiders and readers. We thank our readers Jerry and Joan, our music minister Linda Lee and our ITs Peg Bowen and Pat Macmillan. For the shared homily and sharing gratitude, please unmute and re-mute yourself. Please have bread and wine/juice in front of you for communion and a lighted candle to remind us that God is always present.
Katy- Theme: Today we celebrate the last Sunday of Lent and our prayers, writings, and reflection focus on our spiritual experience of this Lent. How have we experienced God who is all that exists as Love Energy of Evolution and creation? Have we spent time alone with God and what have we heard and experienced of Holy Mystery’s presence in our lives? What is now written on our hearts? Jesus asks us to follow his Way, have we heard a Word from our Wise Elder Brother and how are we responding? And will respond as we experience Jesus’ resurrection in our souls once more?
Opening Song: There is Only Love by Karen Drucker
https://youtu.be/MLRcGBAIccQ
Jan and All: Opening Prayer
Loving God, we come to listen to your Word, to experience your Word alive within us. May we find springs of Living Water as we journey through this wilderness time. May we learn and grow into who you call us to be following your path for our unique life. In the closing days of our Lenten journey may we spend time uncovering your gifts within us. May we discover new beginnings through your Unconditional Love and your Presence in our lives. Amen.
Remembering our living in the Communion of Saints and inviting their wisdom as we complete our Lenten journey
Katy and All: Loving God, we live and move and have our being in You. We give thanks for those throughout history who witnessed to your presence through lives characterized by love, mercy, compassion, generosity and forgiveness. We remember Mary and Joseph your parents and our own special saints we have known in our life time. May our ancestors in life and faith (pause: recall to mind those who shared wisdom with you) journey with us now as we spend time listening to Jesus Christ who is our Way
Katy-Sign of Peace: Let us offer each other a sign of the Peace of Christ who walks with us through our Lenten journey. (Namaste pose or other greeting)
Katy and All: Namaste. May the Peace of Holy Mystery be yours as we journey with Jesus’ in his final weeks of earthly life.
Liturgy of the Word
Joan: First Reading taken from Sr. Ilio Delio, “The Unbearable Wholeness of Being; God, Evolution, and the Power of Love” p 69-70
If God is at the heart of this physical, evolving cosmos, then love is the energy that makes everything precious and alive. God is the ultimate wholeness and depth of love, the inner Omega of everything from the smallest quark to the largest galaxy. Because divine love is totally (author’s emphasis) other- centered the whole cosmos is a theophany, a revelation of God’s glory. Michael Meerson states: “God’s ultimate reality cannot be located in substance (what it is in itself) but only in personhood; what God is toward another. God exist as the mystery of persons in communion. God exists in freedom and ecstasies. Only in communion can God be what God is, and only in communion can God be God at all…Since love produces communion among persons, love causes God to be who God is” …The revelation of God as love (Jn 4:13) means that God is the most dynamic, most relational, most unitive, and most personal love---the love of all love. The inspired word of Ilio Delio and we affirm by saying. All: So be it.
Responsorial Psalm: Karen Drucker “I am the one within you”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xpa1U_Pa-E
Jerry: Second Reading Jeremiah 31:31-34
Behold the days are coming, says YHWH, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the House of Judah. …But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: I will put my Law in their minds and on their hearts, I will be their God and they will be my people. The inspired word of Jeremiah and we affirm by saying All: So be it.
Katy and All: Holy Mystery, Loving, Creating, Liberating, in you we live and move and have our being.
Jan: the Gospel is from John 12:20-26 (from the Message, the Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson)
There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee; “Sir, we want to see Jesus. Can you help us?” Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip together told Jesus. Jesus answered, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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.
If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. Holy Mystery will honor and reward anyone who serves me. We affirm these inspired words of John and affirm them by saying: All: So be it.
Katy All: Holy Mystery, Loving, Creating, Liberating, in you we live and move and have our being.
Katy: Let us listen to our reflection music, then you may share your thoughts/experience of God’s Presence this Lent or your thoughts on our readings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fnOG6jyIJo
Katy responds: In reflecting on our journey in the desert with Jesus this lent, what has been your spiritual experience?
“God doesn’t always ask for huge things. God asks for the doable things to be done differently.
SEE! God is PRESENCE even in the unlikely ones around us. PRESENCE is the familiar and the stranger because GOD IS and we must be.
KNOW! God is PRESENCE in the cool refreshing water of success and the wholeness.
TRUST! God is PRESENCE in the dirt and in the doubts, in the trying and in the wondering, in the starting over and in the going home.
PRESENT ONE: Act in us—for us—save us—come.” (Linda Ballard, OSC, 2006)
During this Lent, what has Holy Mystery placed on my heart? Has Holy Mystery creator of all touched me through nature?
How has Jesus the Universal Christ asked me to follow on his Way? How has Holy Mystery shown love toward me this Lent?
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
(from ARCWP Community of St Bridget)
Jan and all: We believe that where people are gathered together in love,
God is present and good things happen and life is full.
Jerry and all: We believe that we are immersed in mystery, that our lives are more than they seem,
that we belong to each other and to a universe of great creative energies, whose source and destiny is God.
We believe that the spirit of God beat in the heart of Jesus of Nazareth,
and God’s Good News was heard by the broken and wounded.
Joan and all: We are glad that the spirit of peace is present with us, the People of God
as we gather to celebrate our common existence, and the fidelity of God.
And most deeply we believe that in our struggle to Love, we incarnate God in the world.
Jan and all: And so aware of mystery and wonder, caught in friendship and laughter,
we become speechless before the joy in our hearts as we celebrate the sacredness of life
in this bread broken and wine poured out to be shared by all. Amen. (John Shea, adapted.)
PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY
You, O Holy One are our place of refuge; You continue to call us forth to be your people in a world of division and distress. You speak to us in the silence of our hearts, and we listen. And then we speak to you from the fullness of our hearts. And this listening and this speaking comes from an awareness of your presence within us and all of creation. Response All: May we listen for Sophia Wisdom as we journey.
Jan: For the healing of all those impacted by Covid 19 especially for those who have lost friends or family. R:
Jerry: For the Biden-Harris administration, all State and local elected officials that the American Rescue Plan will bring relief to all especially those most in need. R.
Joan: That all Americans will support the Constitution of the United States and the Rule of Law with equal justice for all. R.
Jan: That House bill HR 1 pass in the Senate to protect equal voting rights across this nation at Federal and State levels. R
Katy: (lifting up MMOJ Book of Community Prayers) For all the intercessions in our MMOJ Book of Prayers. R.
Katy: For what else should we pray:
Katy and All: O Holy Mystery, you bring to birth your ever evolving creation of the universe and humanity. During our Lenten journey give us courage to act justly and work collaboratively to change systems that keep people poor and marginalized in our society. May our lives give praise to you as we walk you Way. Amen
PREPARATION OF THE GIFTS
Jan: (lifting up the bread) Blessed are you, O God, Creator of all. In this time of our Lenten journey, our bread is your MMOJ community as we gather together bringing our souls’ openness to know you ever deeper. Through your divine providence, we have this bread to offer, it will become for us the Bread of Life. ALL: Jesus, fill our souls with your Spirit as we journey to be with Jesus on Palm Sunday
Jerry: (lifting up the wine) Blessed are you, Holy Mystery. This wine is our desire to live following your Way of Love, as we complete our Lenten journey, we remain open to be filled with your grace and presence. Through your divine providence, we have this wine to offer, it will become our spiritual drink. ALL: Jesus, fill our souls with your Spirit as we journey to be with Jesus on Palm Sunday.
Katy and All: Blessed are you, God of all creation and life, through your goodness we have this bread and wine and our own lives to offer as our gifts to you. Through this sacred meal and the gifts of Sophia Wisdom may we on our Lenten journey become your Loving Presence for all. Amen.
EUCHARISTIC PRAYER
Holy, Holy, Holy: MMOJ We are holy, holy, holy …you, I, we.
https://youtu.be/orKBBIj5LZA
Jerry: We thank you for Jesus, who loved so greatly, taught so clearly, and proclaimed so courageously. Jesus set people free from images, ideas and religious practices that bound them in fear and a false sense of separation from you. Through Jesus, we know our loving actions become a share in your life. In Jesus, we see your Spirit challenging us to make your presence more visible on earth.
Joan and All: We thank You for Your Spirit of life and love among us. We are grateful that Your Spirit sets us free to discover your presence within us and in all of creation. And for this we thank and praise You. All: Loving God, intensify the presence of Your Spirit in these our gifts, as they, and we, become the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ for our holiness and the wholeness of all creation.
(Please extend your hands in Blessing over the bread and wine)
Katy and All: We remember that on the night before he died while at supper with his friends, family and disciples, Jesus took bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it all those present saying: “Take and eat, this is my body.” (Pause)
Jan and All: When supper was ended, Jesus took the cup of wine, spoke the blessing and offered it to his family, friends and disciples saying: “Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life in you. Do this in memory of me.”
Jerry: Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.
Jerry and All: Nurtured by your Word, nourished by your food, called anew to be your people as we journey through Lent, we acclaim your praise.
Jan: Loving God, through Jesus You entrusted this pledge of love to us. We celebrate the memory of his life, death and resurrection, and bring to You the gifts You have given us: reconciliation, justice, and peace. You fill us with Your Spirit in the sharing of this meal. You keep us in communion with one another and with all living beings. Your Spirit makes us a sign of unity, a model of equality and instruments of Your peace.
Jan and All (Lift up the bread and wine) and sing:
Great Amen: Linda Lee Miller
https://youtu.be/Dy76fpfkNsg
Katy and All: Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus who knowing we would walk through our Lenten desert in challenging times taught us this prayer:
Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Father,
Holy and Blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come,
We pray that your good will be done,
Let heaven and earth become ONE.
Give us this day the bread we need,
Give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river through us,
From each one to each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence
Beyond the evil of our days.
Come swiftly Mother, Father, Come!
For yours is the power, the glory, and the mercy—
Forever your name is All in One. Amen
(Parker Palmer, Quaker Writer and Teacher, WI)
(All: Lift up the Bread and wine/juice)
Jan and All: This is the bread of Life; we will taste and see that our Loving God is good. We are worthy to receive the Body and Blood of Christ because we are the Body of Christ. Amen.
Jerry and Joan: Let us now eat and drink mindful that The Holy One is present in each of us as we journey through entering into a deeper relationship with our Brother Jesus and our human family. All: Jesus you affirm our worthiness and by your word, we will heal the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaLQuVNrh2Q
Irish Blessing by Bill Leslie
Katy
God of new beginnings, thank you for nourishing us in your sacrament. Reminding us again of the power of your Infinite Presence within; we complete our journey through Lent. May we continue to open our hearts to the daily miracles of life that surround us each day as you speak to us through our thoughts, feelings and events of each day. We ask this in Your Holy Name. All: Amen
Katy-Prayers of Gratitude, Introductions, and Announcements.
Katy and Jan: Let us raise our hands in blessing as we pray:
All: O God, may we give praise and rejoice for your call to renew and deepen our relationship with you this Lenten journey.
May we be ready and eager to accept your invitation to grow deeper in relationship with You in the depths of our souls and being.
May we hear Your truth for us in the silence of our bodies, minds and souls.
May we be open for healing transformation of our character defects during this holy season.
May we have the strength to serve you more faithfully as we await resurrection with you on Easter.
May our efforts to grow ever deeper into our relationship with you be pleasing to you.
This we ask through Jesus Christ who is our Way, our truth and our life. Amen
All: Thanks be to God. Let our journey be so!
Closing Song: “I have loved you” written by Michael Joncas, adapted and sung by Linda Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNIQL9zotuY
“Jan’s response: This Lent my journey to awareness of God’s presence has taken me outside to nature. We have a flowering plant called “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow “. Each blossom opens in its own time. The first day each blossom is a deep purple color. The second day that blossom becomes a pale lavender, and the third day it transitions to brilliant white. This spoke to me of the journey we take from our mourning purple of Good Friday to our dazzling white of Easter Morning. A Resurrection message from God in our garden.’
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/yesterday-today-tomorrow/
yesterday-today-tomorrow-plant.htm
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 to the day’s liturgy at www.MaryMotherofJesus.org
Or www.BridgetMarys.blogspot.com
To support our community, please send your check to:
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community
St Andrew UCC, 6908 Beneva Rd, Sarasota, FL 34238
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