Feast of Theresa of Avila

 Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

Feast of Theresa of Avila

October 15, 2022

Zoom link for video - 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81534075389?pwd=TTdGY2NxS3AzTW13ODJESkdYME9aUT09

Meeting ID: 815 3407 5389

Passcode: 803326

(Note -- if you have a problem with the above link, open your ZOOM app and insert the Meeting ID number and Passcode)

One tap mobile: 1-312-626-6799

Presiders: Mary Al Gagnon & Kathryn Shea  

Readers: Joan Meehan & Beth Ponce

Prayer Leader: Lee Breyer 

Music Minister: Linda Lee and Rick Miller

IT Team: Cheryl Brandi and Peg Bowen 

Theme: “Perseverance in Prayer”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2cBJ4N7gJws&feature=share

Welcome and Gathering

Mary Al:  Welcome to our Zoom liturgy at Mary Mother of Jesus, an inclusive Catholic Community where all are welcome.

-We invite you to pray the liturgy and respond where it says “All.” 

-All participants will be muted during the liturgy except for the presiders and readers. 

-Please have bread and wine/juice nearby as we pray our Eucharistic prayer.

Whoever you are, 

Wherever you are, 

Just as you are, 

You are welcome at this table. 

(Integral Christianity by Paul Smith)

Let us now take a few minutes to collect ourselves as we prepare to focus our minds and our hearts on our knowledge that we are all one, brought together at this time to transform ourselves and our world through love; love for our Holy One, love for our neighbors, love for ourselves, and love for our planet.  Let us begin our liturgy by expressing this love through song.  

Gathering Song: Courageous Women by Jan Novotka, Video by MT Streck https://youtu.be/x8YdXUl4ZsQ

Opening Prayer

Kathryn: Oh Holy One, we are delighted to gather with you and one another today as we share this sacred space and as we celebrate the Feast of the Theresa of Avila.  She was one of the few women Doctors of the Church, a great contemplative, a Carmelite nun, and a great lover of our God.  St. Theresa gave us many spiritual lessons, one being the importance of prayer.  Even though she struggled for many years, she teaches us this basic but indispensable spiritual truth – Perseverance in prayer! Let us meditate upon her immortal words of wisdom and memorize her words: “We must have a determined determination to never give up prayer.” And to this, we say, AMEN.

Rite of Transformation

Joan M:  We pause now to remember the times we have not born fruit in caring for self and others. Take a moment to recall one missed opportunity, one broken or damaged relationship.  

(Pause briefly and extend your hand over your heart)

ALL: As we ask for and receive forgiveness, we open our hearts to Infinite Love embracing and healing us. Let it be so, Yes, Alleluia!

A Joyful Gloria: Linda Lee Miller and graphics by Rick Miller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lA5I0nODZI

Liturgy of the Word

Lee: First Reading:  A reading from Teresa of Avila from the Interior Castle

Perhaps we don’t know what love is.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that this is true, sad but true. Love doesn’t exist-as we like to think- in the degree to which we are happy. No, love exists in the strength of our determination to try to please God in everything that we do, each and every day.  The important thing is not to think much but to love much.  So, start doing whatever most stirs you to love.

These are the inspired words of Teresa of Avila, a daughter of the Holy One. We affirm these words by saying AMEN

 

Celtic Alleluia:  

https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU

Beth: Gospel Reading: Luke 18: 1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.
He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being.

And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’
For a long time, the judge was unwilling, but eventually, he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,
because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”
The Holy One said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of God’s chosen ones who call out to Holy Mystery day and night? Will God be slow to answer them?
I tell you, Abba God will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

These are the inspired words as recorded by Luke, and we affirm them by saying, 

ALL:  LET IT BE SO!

Celtic Alleluia:  

https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU

Homily/Community Sharing

Communal Statement of Faith

Mary AL: 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 God's Word, bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion, bright star in the firmament of God's prophets, mystics, and saints. 

We believe that we are called to follow Jesus as a vehicle of God's love, a source of God's wisdom and truth, and an instrument of God's peace in the world.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

The life of God that is our innermost life,

The breath of God moving in our being,

The depth of God living in each of us.

We believe that God's 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 and for the Community

Joan M:  We now bring our prayer intentions to the Table.

 

Our response is: ALL: You heal us as we awaken to your call.  

We pray for the devastated families of all those in Kentucky, California, and elsewhere impacted by deadly floods, wildfires, and other weather related disasters. R

We pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia that they may live in peace without fear and that goodness and sanity will fill the hearts and minds of those that would cause them harm.  R

We pray that our government puts children above guns, power, and greed.  R

We pray for our MMOJ intentions on our community prayer list. (Joan M shares)

For what else should we pray?  Begin with, “I bring to the table..”

Our response is: You heal us as we awaken to your call.

Holy Mystery may we respond to the needs of our sisters and brothers in loving prayer and solidarity. Amen

Liturgy of the Eucharist

Mary AL:  O Holy One, you have been called by many names by many people in the centuries of our planet’s life. Yet, no name truly defines you or describes you.  We celebrate you as the marvelous, loving energy of life who caused us and our world to be. We celebrate you as the Source of light and life and love, and we celebrate your presence and all-ways care.

Lee: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:  

(Eucharistic prayer taken from the work of Diarmuid O’Murchu and Jay Murnane)

Lee: O Holy One, we stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history – a time when humanity must choose its future. 

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future holds both peril and great promise.

May we recognize that, in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms, we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. United with our vast universe, with our Mother-Planet and her people everywhere, with one another and You, Holy One, our spirits dance and sing this song of praise: 

Song:  Holy, Holy, Holy (Karen Drucker)

  https://youtu.be/orKBBIj5LZA

 

Kathryn: We give grateful thanks for those who came before us, for all those who gave from their hearts, who gave from their lives, that there might be a better world, a safer world, a kinder world, we pray for peace in their name. 

And for the children, that they may live, that they may have children of their own and that it will go on - this great blossoming that is meant to go on and on – we pray for peace, in their name. 

And for all peoples of this earth who have no voice in this,

For the animals that have no voice in this,

For the plants, the trees, the flowers that have no voice in this,

For all who share this earth with us, we pray for peace in their name.

Mary AL: We thank you for our brother, Jesus. He showed us so simply, so tenderly, how the world is in our hands. He had nothing in this world but your love, companions on the journey, and his very self. Together, that was more than enough, and that remains our clarity in the midst of confusion: the miracle of healing, new hope, nurturance, nourishment, liberation and life.

(Please extend your hands in blessing) 

Joan M and All: We invoke Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light and truth which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ to the world. 

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

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

Take and eat; this is my very self.

(pause)

Lee and ALL: He then raised high the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered them the wine saying: 

Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life,

for you and for everyone, for liberation from every oppression.

Whenever you do this, Re-member me and all that I have taught you!

(pause)

Mary AL: Loving Source of All, we have looked for others to save us and to save our world. Yet, we are called, and consecrated and sent into the world to establish justice and show the blessed fulfillment that comes with simplicity and the giving of ourselves in love. 

Joan M: We will make new our commitment to the harmony of the original vision of creation. 

We will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and our small circles. Like Jesus, in all openness, we will be filled with your own Spirit and renew the face of the earth.

Beth and ALL: For it is through learning to live as he lived,

And why he lived,

And for whom he lived,

That we awaken to your Spirit within,

Moving us to worship you truly,

O Holy One,

At this time and all time and in all ways.

And we say yes to You!

The Abba Prayer

Kathryn and All: 

Gracious Spirit,
Who loves us like a mother,
Whose realm is blooming among us now.
And within.
We pray that your compassion guide us in every action.
Give us what we need for each day,
and help us to be satisfied with the miracle of that alone.
Forgiver, whose embrace brings us to wholeness without our asking,
May we reconcile ourselves to one another in humility.
And may we cancel the crushing debts that imprison our neighbours
So that communities of joy and health may flourish.
May we neither profit from nor ignore evil.
But ever work to thwart it with non-violence
As we co-create the realm of peace in this world.
Now and each day.
Amen. (Bret Hesla/wsj)

Sign of Peace:

Mary Al:  Jesus said to his disciples, “My peace I leave You.  My peace I give You.”  Let us now extend a sign of peace to one another by saying, “Namaste, Namaste, Namaste”.

Beth:  Please join in praying the Litany for the Breaking of the Bread:

Beth and ALL:   Holy One, You call us to speak truth to power; we will do so.

Holy One, You call us to live the Gospel of healing and justice; we will do so. 

Holy One, You call us to be Your presence in the world; we will do so.

This is the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Blessed are we who are called to Christ’s table.  

Lee and All:  What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives.  As we share communion, we become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.  

Please receive/share Eucharist now, saying: “You are the bread of life.” And “You are the cup of compassion.”

Communion Song: 

Everyday God by Bernadette Farrell

https://youtu.be/f3an4O13BzE

Introductions/Thanksgiving/Announcements

Community Blessing 

Kathryn:  Please extend your hands and pray the blessing of Teresa of Avila. 

 

Let nothing bother you.  Let nothing scare you.  Everything changes, always. Only God is steady and changeless. Patience hits the target. Only patience always gets what it wants.  The person who possesses God possesses everything.  That person lacks nothing. Only God satisfies your every need.   May it be so for each of us. Amen.

ALL:  Thanks be to all that is holy! Go in Peace to be love in the world!  Alleluia! 

Closing Song:  

Day By Day from Godspell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoHxB4idmg

_________________________________________

This liturgy is adapted with gratitude and permission from Kathie Ryan, ARCWP, Upper Room Community in Albany, NY.

If you would like to add your intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayers book,

Please send an email to jmeehan515@aol.com

If you would like to invite another person to attend our liturgy please refer them to

www.marymotherofJesus.org where the day’s liturgy is found. Zoom instructions are also included there.

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Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

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