Upper Room Saturday liturgy, May 4, 2024 - Presider: Julie Corron

 

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

Welcome: Welcome! I’m so glad you’ve joined us today as we come together to celebrate love, the Holy One’s love for us and our love for each other and the Holy One.

Opening Prayer: Let us pray. Jesus commanded us to love one another, all the

others, not just the ones we already like. Holy One, give us the strength to act

lovingly to all we encounter, even those who try our patience. AMEN

Opening Song:  These Alone Are Enough by Dan Schutte (stop at 2:35)

https://youtu.be/Mxg-qBhZ7M8?si=jwQxbSHtRUb2VPtk

LITURGY OF THE WORD

 

FIRST READING:  

A Reading from the Book of Acts (10:24-28, 34-35, 44-48) 

Peter arrived in Caesarea at the invitation of Cornelius, a Gentile. Cornelius was expecting him and had called together his relatives and close friends. Cornelius met Peter at the entryway to the house and fell at his feet in homage. Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said. “I, too, am only a human being!” 

As they conversed, Peter went into the house and found many people gathered together. Peter spoke to them: 

“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Judean to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean… I most certainly understand now that God does not show favoritism. All who revere God and do what is right are accepted by God. 

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also. They heard the Gentiles speaking in tongues and exalting God. Peter responded, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?” 

Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus the Christ. They asked Peter to stay on for a few days. 

These are the inspired words of an Early Church Historian and the community affirms them by saying AMEN. 

PSALM 

Psalm 98:1-4 (Merrill 1st and 2nd stanzas, 3rd stanza adapted) 

Our response is: Love does marvelous things! 

R: Love does marvelous things! 

O Sing to the Beloved a new song, 

for Love has done marvelous things! 

By the strength of your Indwelling Presence, 

we, too, are called to do great things. 

We are set free through Love’s forgiveness and truth. 

R: Love does marvelous things! 

Yes, Your steadfast love and faithfulness 

are an ever-present gift in our lives. 

All the ends of the earth have seen 

the glory of Love’s eternal flame. 

R: Love does marvelous things! 

Shout for joy to the Beloved, all the earth! 

Burst into jubilant song with music! 

Sing your gratitude! 

Make music resound! Make music your praise! 

R: Love does marvelous things! 

SECOND READING: 

A Reading from the 1st Letter of John (4:7-9, 11-13, 16) 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God; for God is love. 

God’s love was made manifest among us. God sent God’s Chosen One into the world that we might live as Jesus lived, that we might live in love. 

Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is made complete us, and thus we “see” God. 

We know that we abide in God and God in us, because God has breathed into us God’s own Spirit. So, we know and rely on the love that God has for us. 

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 

These are the inspired words of an Early Church Theologian and the community affirms them by saying AMEN. 

Gospel acclamation:  Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker – MT Video

https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk 

GOSPEL: 

A Reading from the Gospel attributed to John (15:9-15, 17) 

As the Beloved loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. In the same way, I have kept our Loving God’s commandments and remain in God’s love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what the slave owner is doing. I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from the Beloved. 

This I command you: love one another. 

These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call John and the community affirms them by saying AMEN!

Homily Starter: 

God is love. There’s a part of me that wants to stop there. God is love. What else is there to say?

Oh, so many things. Let’s start with our first reading, in which Peter has come to

realize that anyone, of any nationality, can be a believer. For someone was raised

to believe that it was against the law to interact with those who were different,

this was a big shift for Peter and only came after visions and discernment. He

needed to understand and accept it himself. Then they were all, Jews and

Gentiles alike, baptized in the name of Jesus, with water and the Holy Spirit.

Then our gospel ends with that most puzzling of commandments from Jesus:

love one another. I say puzzling because you can’t force the feeling of love. But

what you can do is act with love, even if the feeling isn’t there yet. Acting with

love can look like a whole lot of different things: caring for the sick, feeding the

hungry, visiting the lonely, holding the door for someone. And here’s the thing,

often acting as if something is true, causes it to become true. So loving action

can become loving feeling. Do an experiment and see what happens this week.

Now, before the sharing begins, I have an invitation for each of you. I invite you

to let the questions of your fellows here today remain unanswered. Just as Peter

needed to discern and reach his own conclusions, so do each of us. Give your

fellows the gift of space to discern their own truth.

God is love.

What did you hear? What would you like to share about today’s readings?

Statement of Faith

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.

Prayers of the Community

As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayers and intentions, starting with the words I bring to the table.  

We pray for these and all the unspoken intentions held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN. 

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice. 

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.

You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:

Holy, Holy, Holy:  Here In This Place by Christopher Grundy

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ

Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good. 

We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times. 

Please extend your hands in blessing.

We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful 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. 

 

(Lift plate)

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, go, share your love with one another.

  

(Lift cup)

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.

We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.   Please receive communion with the words: I am Love.

Communion song:  Become What We Love (St. Clare Prayer) by Carmen Boyle

https://youtu.be/98erkb5g88c?si=UBFKSr_BgRjUlrSu 

Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world.  We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our world communities.  

We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within, 

moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.

Amen. 

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 

Loving source of our being, you call us to live the gospel of peace and justice. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity in your presence. 

BLESSING

Please extend your hands as we bless each other.

ALL:  May we be Easter people, living in joy and love. May we walk together in love, today and always. AMEN.

Closing Song:  Canticle of the Turning by Rory Cooney, Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner

https://youtu.be/b-QR_OZB5ik

Upper Room Sunday Liturgy, May 5, 2024 - Presiders: Kim ( Upper Room), Mary Theresa Streck (Zoom only)

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

What’s Love Got to do with it?     

Welcome and Theme. Good morning and welcome to the Upper Room. We are so happy you have joined us.  A startling quote from a beloved mystic provides our theme this morning. The Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila said “Maybe we don’t know what love is. I would not be the least bit surprised to find this to be true.”  Our theme today is Love. It is often said that God is Love. Together, let us consider the profound and beautiful implications of this. Let us take a few minutes to consider what this could mean in our lives as adult believers. 

Opening Prayer: 

We come together as companions on this journey toward Love. We are deeply aware that the Spirit is within, around and among us. May we draw on this Spirit to help us to listen. May all that we learn help us and all those we meet to experience the Love that transforms. We are willing to be transformed into the image of the one whom we seek. 

Opening Song: Endless is Your Love

https://youtu.be/hEkDQrN68ug?si=6eHmS4_IyNkXylKo

 

LITURGY OF THE WORD 

  

First Reading: 1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God. Those who do not love have known nothing of God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way: by sending the Only Begotten into the world, that we might have faith through the Anointed One. Love, then, consists in this: not that we have God, but that God has loved us and has sent the Only Begotten to be an offering for our sins.

Second Reading: Excerpts from What is Love? by Becky Zartman

To love and be loved is to begin a process of transformation.

The transformative power of love is always beautiful, but it is not pretty. It's always good, but it will hurt. A lot. Some things within us must die to make room for more love. It might help to think about roses for a moment. Not two dozen long-stemmed red roses, which is usually what we think of when we think of roses and love. These will be thrown in the trash a few weeks after Valentine's Day, so forget about them. Instead, think of a rose bush, a living source of beauty and grace all summer long. The thing about rose bushes, however, is that they need to be radically pruned to produce a bountiful display of truly stunning beauty. And humans must also be pruned. Love acts like our gardening shears.

With each cut of the scissors, we cut off the dead and non-productive branches, making way for new shoots. We begin to change the way we act. A trim. Things that seemed absorbing and important no longer seem to matter. Another cut. We begin to care more deeply about others, which makes us vulnerable. A trim. We might also begin to realize our true value, as someone loved, as someone who was created to be loved, as someone who was created to love. This begins to change our unhealthy relationships, wreaking havoc on our lives. When we finish pruning, there seems to be nothing left. Certainly, no rose, just a mangled stump covered in thorns. But every dead branch that love has cut off has left room in our lives for love to grow. And taking the weight off feels good. We can begin to discover what it means to flourish, to love ourselves, to love others.

Bernard of Clairvaux was on to this when he wrote in his treatise on love: "The more surely you know that you are loved, the easier it will be for you to love in return" After our pruning, a virtuous cycle begins: when we find it easier to love in return, so too. It is easier to know that we ourselves are loved, which makes it even easier to love. The transformation from stump to something stupendously beautiful does not happen quickly, but once it begins, when nurtured, love becomes stronger and stronger. We produce buds and leaves, then buds and finally roses. Rose, after rose, after rose. Eventually, we may barely recognize each other. Somehow, we are more ourselves than we have ever been, certainly more beautiful, and yet less concerned with the question of who we are. Life is filled with roses: purpose, grace, love. Having been pruned to the very core of ourselves, now knowing that nothing can separate us from this love, we are finally free to be ourselves fully and unabashedly. We simply bloom and fill the garden with fragrance and beauty, a gift to all who pass by.

 

Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia

https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU?si=h2g7ynAckbawVAcK

Gospel: John 15:9-13, 16-17

As my Abba has loved me, so have I loved you. Live on in my love. And you will live in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I live on in Abba God’s love and have kept God’s commandments. I tell you all this that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It was not you who chose me; it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that whatever you ask of Abba God in my name God will give you. This command I give you: that you love one another.

Shared Homily

The love that these readings refer to is the Greek term Agape. This love is sometimes thought to be the love of friends and community but this is just one narrow aspect of it. Agape is the all encompassing love that includes and exceeds love of self, neighbor, spouse, community, animals and the planet. If God is love and we are called to follow Jesus, then we are drawn into the mystery of faith. Augustine said “If I can understand it, it isn’t God”. So, I would suggest that this invites us to tremendous humility. Love is more than an emotion, a feeling, a person to care about and more than deeds of service. Love is the very essence of God and the innermost part of our being. The path to God therefore is to be loving, to be humble and willing to change. We must be open to the pruning of our egos and our self image. We must be open to the pruning of the resistance to loss and change. We must be open to the pruning of the anger and bitterness that block our blooming. We must be open to the pruning of our grasping .  Anything that blocks our way can and will be pruned by the action of seeking the mystery in a way that is active and risky. We often kid with the phrase “Be careful what you pray for”. Do we really want to be transformed if it hurts , if it’s scary, if it challenges our human preference for security and predictability? I believe that we in the Upper Room would say yes. Still as our dear brother Fr Leo O’Brien would ask “what did you hear and what would it ask of you?”  

What did you hear in these readings and theme? 

  

Statement of Faith 

 

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. 

 

Presider:  As we prepare for the sacred meal, we voice our intentions beginning with the words, “We bring to the table…..”  

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

Presider 1: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:  

 

All: O Holy One, you have birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and cherished us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth. 
 

In the power of that same Spirit, we lift our hearts in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment, that we may continue to praise and thank you, in union with all who sing the ancient hymn of praise: 

 

Holy, Holy, Holy: Here In this Place

https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=KP4CbR8DqjBPhAav

 

ALL: Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power.  We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, thus hindering your creative presence in our midst. 
 
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life. 
 

Presider 2: Please extend your hands in blessing.  

 
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.

All lift their plate and pray the following:

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.

All lift their cup and pray the following:

He then raised high 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.

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.

(consume bread and wine)

Communion Song: The Rose

https://youtu.be/9te_6kUZqgY?si=UJTAnbdqmvNhotNK

Prayer after Communion:

In faith and hope we are sustained; in grace and dignity reclaimed. In praise, we thank you. 
 
In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom and courage: 
- to discern more wisely your call to us in the circumstances of our daily lives; 
- to act justly and courageously in confronting the pain and suffering that desecrates the Earth and its peoples; 
- to take risks in being creative and proactive on behalf of the poor and marginalized; 
- and to love all people with generosity of heart, beyond the labels of race, creed and color. 
 
And may we ever be aware and alert to the new things Your Spirit makes possible in us, as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty, into the fullness of life to which all are called, participating in the wise and wonderful work of co-creation. 
 

Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live compassionate lives, for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to glorify you, O Holy One, at this time and all ways. 

Amen.  

 

Presider 1: Let us pray the prayer Jesus: 

 

O Holy One, who is 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 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  

(Miriam Therese Winter)   

 

 

BLESSING

Presider: Let us pray together our blessing:

Holy Spirit Sophia wisdom fill our hearts with a burning Love. Help us to be courageous and persistent pilgrims on this path. May we seek the pruning of ourselves so as to bloom with the joy and the love of Christ. May these blooms bring all good and blessings into our own lives and the life of the world, may it be so, amen. 

Closing Song: Love Large

https://youtu.be/8ehQRPknqtg?si=rL6gHEah8hoRCrvk