Welcome: We hold our prayer service today as part of the ecumenical Season of Creation, a season of prayer and action for our common home that takes place every year from September 1 to October 4. The theme for the Season of Creation this year is “ Living Water,
Opening Prayer
In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
And God called them good.
All: Come Holy Spirit and cleanse the waters.
The prophet saw a river flowing from the Temple,
and wherever the river flowed, everything lived.
All: Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth.
Jesus cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me... Out
of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
Every living creature that wanders upon the face of the earth will be drawn to the river and will find refreshment there. There will be an abundance of fish, for
wherever these waters flow and everything they touch will be renewed.
Fruit trees of every kind will grow along both banks of the river. Their leaves will never wither and their fruit will never fail. They will produce fresh fruit, for they will be nourished by the waters flowing from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be food, and their leaves will be medicine.
Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation (p. 325). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Reading 2: The Quiet Pool by Joy Crowley
There is within each of us a quiet clear pool of living water
fed by one deep source and inseparable from it,
but so hidden by a tangle of activity that we may not
know that of its existence.
We can spend the proverbial forty years wandering
in strange deserts, sinking unrewarding wells,
and moving on, driven by our own thirst, but when we stop
long enough to look inside ourselves, really look
beyond our ideas about water and what and where it should be,
we discover it was with us all the time,
that quiet clear pool, which is ageless,
the meaning of our existence and the answer to all wanderings.
And as we drink, we know what Jesus meant when he said
we’d never be thirsty again.
(Everything ‘Round Us Is Praise, Joy Cowley, Ave Maria Press)
Petitions:
Reader: We pray for places where plastics, toxins, and oil spills blacken creeks and wetlands, for communities whose fishing waters are contaminated and whose children drink from polluted streams.
Heal what has been poisoned. Bring justice where profit has
silenced truth.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
Reader: We pray for all rivers dammed without the consent of the
vulnerable; for farmers whose soil dries seasonal flood; for indigenous peoples whose sacred waters are engineered for distant cities and data centers; for the suffering of communities whose livelihoods are stolen by corporate greed, and whose health is sacrificed for global consumption.
Free what has been unjustly controlled. Let rivers flow again with
dignity and life.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
Reader: We pray for oceans burdened by plastic and chemical waste; for coral reefs bleached by warming seas; for great whales navigating through labyrinths of nylon and ghost nets; for the microscopic life, the plankton and the krill, now mingling with the invisible dust of synthetic waste; for the rivers that carry our runoff — the fertilizers, the dyes, and the heavy metals.
Turn our guilt into grace and our apathy into action. Make us a people who live justly and bring healing to every shore and stream.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
Reader: We pray for communities where rising seas claim communities and ancestral lands, where saltwater invades freshwater wells, where graves are washed away with memory and belonging; for those who have contributed least to climate change, yet suffer first and most.
Hold them in dignity and strengthen global resolve for justice.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
Reader: We pray for informal settlements and rural villages where taps run dry or water is unsafe to drink; for children walking miles to collect water or women burdened by scarcity; for those whose sickness is caused by contaminated supply.
We pray for those whose lives are closely intertwined with water - coastal peoples, fisherfolk, marine biologists, water engineers - who can teach us wise ways to live with water. We pray for people to be moved to action and use their inherent or entrusted power to create change. Stir governments, corporations, and communities to protect and share water justly.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
(Methodist Church of Southern Africa)
Song: Water is Life by Sara Thomsen video by Denise
You who hold all of creation in your womb and spring us forward onto the Earth at birth. Spirit of Tides, remind me of the rise and fall of your rhythms so that I may discover them deep within my own being. Spirit of Greenness bring moistness and vigor to my life so that I might savor the experience of your energy moving through me out into the world. Blessings of water be upon me.
“May we be carried by the flow of the great river of life.
May we discover a hidden spring within, gushing forth.
May we be carried to the shores of the sacred and renewed.” Amen.
(Trinity wall street Lenten reflections based on St Hildegarde of Bingen)
Saying the Holy Rosary is a special focus of prayer and meditation that provides for each of us a state of contemplation and mystical connection.
When aligning to the Grace of Mary, we can have a sense of purpose in praying for others and ourselves. It can be a singular and private prayer or a community endeavor.
For those of us who are becoming steeped in Original Blessing Theology, the traditional prayers of the Holy Rosary can be daunting. When changing the wording to better reflect the concepts of Blessing Theology, it seems important to keep a sense of the timing and inflection of the prayers as we have learned them.
The Companions' Rosary is an attempt to combine the prayers of the rosary within present-day theology of original blessing.
To all whom feel called to pray in this way, prayers and blessings to you. May we all continue to connect, in whatever way we can, to the Holy One, to Mary and to each other.
And so it is.
The Sign of the “Cross”. A Shield of Protection and Love.
The sign of the cross can impress on us the concept of a theology of sacrifice and atonement. The sign of the “cross”, here, building on the trinity and St. Paul's greetings, can also be a Shield of Protection and Love.
In the name of Peace (hand at the forehead)
And Love (hand at the heart)
And Grace (The Infinity sign across from one shoulder to the other, and back to the heart.)
AMEN.
Rose Aglow,
DETrees, 2017
THE COMPANIONS’ ROSARY
Praying the Holy Rosary
In Original Blessing Theology
The Sign of Protection and Love
In the name of Peace and Love and Grace. Amen.
A Simple Companions’ Creed
I believe in the Holy One, Lover, Creator, Enhancer, WHO IS Infinite and Present all at the same time.
Our Field of PEACE in all things.
I believe in Jesus, Friend and Companion, who shows us the Face of God in our human form.
Our Sign of LOVE in all things.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, Our Heart and Soul, moving within and among us.
Our Show of GRACE in all things.
I believe in this, our creed, in our communion of angels and saints and in life everlasting. Amen.
The Prayer of Jesus
(From Miriam Therese Winter)
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 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.
The Hail Mary
Hail Mary, Full of grace, Our God is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother and Friend,
Be with us now, at our hour, and beyond. Amen.
The Glory Be
Glory and Joy Be to Peace and Love and Grace.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World without End. Amen.
Hail Holy Mary
Hail Holy Mary, Mother and Leader, Our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope. You show us how to live with Courage in our convictions. You teach us to stand by each other with unending support and love.
Thank you for being with us now. Walk this path with us as you did with your son, Jesus. May we follow his example of inclusive love, as you taught him.
O Clement, O Loving, Sweet Mary of Nazareth. Be with us as we look to you.
Praying the Companions’ Rosary
1.Make the Sign of the Protection and Love.
2.Say the Simple Companions’ Creed.
3.On the first bead, say The Prayer of Jesus.
4.Say The Hail Mary on each of the next three beads.
5.Say TheGlory Be on the fifth bead.
6.For each of the five decades, announce the Mystery or a special intention then say The Prayer of Jesus
7.While fingering each of the ten beads of the decade, say ten Hail Marys while meditating on the Mystery or Intention. Then say a Glory Be.
8.After saying the five decades, say the Hail, Holy Mary.
Diagram from USCCB, Accessed 9-29-19
A PRAYER FOR YOU
For all who say the Companions’ Rosary, a special Blessing from our Lady and Above. The Angels watch over you in Peace, Grace and Love.
Welcome to the Upper Room on this last Sunday in August. Today we will consider the idea of a change of heart. What does that mean? We come together today against the backdrop of incredible challenges and tremendous possibilities. Like Jesus we seek a world where love is at the center. Our opening sung prayer is from a Shabbat Service in New York City. Two weeks ago, on August 14th their services were interrupted by a man who sought to do them harm. He has been charged with a hate crime. As we consider our own Christian call let us stand united in solidarity with all people who seek truth and love.
First Reading: An excerpt from Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault.
Jesus teaches the art of metanoia or “going into the larger mind.” Underlying all his teaching is a clarion call to a radical shift in consciousness: away from the alienation and polarization of the egoic operating system and into the unified field of divine abundance that can be perceived only through the heart. But how does one make this shift in consciousness? I think it’s fair to say that all of the great spiritual paths lead toward the same center—the larger, nondual mind as the seat of personal consciousness—but they get there by different routes. In Jesus, everything hangs together around a single center of gravity, and we need to know what this center is before we can sense the subtle and cohesive power of his path.
What name might we give to this center? The apostle Paul suggests the word kenosis. In Greek, the verb kenosein means “to let go,” or “to empty oneself,” and this is the word Paul chooses to describe “the mind of Christ.” Everything he did, he did by self-emptying. He emptied himself and descended into human form. And he emptied himself still further, “even unto death on the cross.” In every life circumstance, Jesus always responded with the same motion of self-emptying—or to put it another way, descent: taking the lower place, not the higher.
These are the inspired words of Cynthia Bourgeault and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Second Reading: Words of Rachel Corrie when she was in fifth grade at a local press conference.
I’m here for other children. I’m here because I care. I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger. I’m here because those people are mostly children. We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them. We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable. We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us. We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them. My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000. My dream is to give the poor a chance. My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day. My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there. If we ignore hunger, that light will go out. If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow.
These are the inspired words of Rachel Corrie and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
Gospel: A reading from the Gospel writer known as Matthew (Mt. 16:21-27)
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance[h]to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
These are the inspired words of the gospel writer known as Matthew and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Shared Homily
The gospel reading today immediately follows the reading we heard last Sunday when Peter said Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus told Peter he was the rock that would be the foundation of the church. Today we see a drastic shift between Jesus and Peter because Peter is unable to accept the idea that the Messiah will suffer and die. When Peter rebukes Jesus he moves from a foundational rock to a stumbling block in Jesus’s eyes. There is more to Jesus’s path than Peter can grasp. Peter did not have any understanding that he was going to lose his friend. Jesus teaches Peter and us a lesson about the cost of discipleship. He is teaching a mind-boggling lesson about the transformative power of love.
In our second reading we hear from a very young, Rachel Corrie, who already understood what Jesus is teaching Peter. When she was ten years old, she was already passionate about her life’s work that focused on justice for all. Her words at this young age show that she is living in a consciousness that comes from her heart. Rachel continued to live from her values by joining the International Solidarity Movement in order to protest the polices of the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She went to the Gaza and took part in a nonviolent action and was killed in 2003. She will forever be remembered as one who lived a soulful life that focused on the greater good. We are inspired when we see this kind of passion. I don’t think the goal is to be a martyr. I think most people who die as martyrs are simply living according to their values in a passionate way.
Every day we are invited to let go of our preconceived notions so that there is room for transformation within our hearts. With transformed hearts we find our longing to share our gifts. We notice a heightened awareness of our interconnectedness. From this stance we are more apt to follow the example of Jesus who showed us how to love God, self and others. I think there are many ways that we lose our lives for the sake of great Love so that we can find it. Examples of this kind of self-emptying are: being fully present to each person we meet, waking up in the middle of the night to feed an infant or take care of a loved one who is sick, donating food and other supplies to those in need, and volunteering our time and talent to important causes. We find our authentic lives when we courageously let go of anything that blocks us from being open to God’s higher ways. In that letting go we open to abundant giving, living and loving.
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.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Prayers of the Community
Presider: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu
Presider:With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
Gracious God, source and sustenance of life, redeeming presence to the pain and brokenness of our world, Holy Spirit, who enlivens and inebriates all that exists, we beseech your healing power upon us and all we pray for today.
Down through the ages, you rescue us from darkness. you light up our ways with wise and holy people. You restore our spirits and you revive our dwindling hope.
May the Spirit of life and wholeness transform us that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love, and healing to those whose lives we touch.
For all you bring to our lives, and for all we seek amid pain and suffering, we acclaim your love and greatness, and we join with all creation to sing our hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place –by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=53zwEjCLjcGJQnBK
Presider: Please extend your hands in blessing.
Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind, and spirit, we bring before you the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of your people. We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and in our world.
We ask you to awaken anew in our hearts the empowering grace of your abundant Spirit, who infuses these gifts of bread and wine with the transforming energy of life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
As we gather around this friendship table, we recall God’s blessing and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew the gift of life which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life. But that life we often impede by our greed and selfishness and by our exploitation of other people.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again, he showed us how to love one another.
All lift the plate and pray:
Back at the table, he took the Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
All lift the cup and pray:
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)
Presider: We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
Please receive communion saying: “Let go and Live.”
Communion Song: Compassion (Change the World) by Andrew Witt
Presider: In faith and hope we are sustained, In grace our dignity reclaimed, In praise we thank our God.
Grant that we may strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the God of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, until the Kin-dom arrives in the fullness of time.
This prayer we make in the name of our healing and nurturing God through, with, and in whom we offer these gifts, sources of life, love, and goodness, now and forever. Amen.
Reader: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
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
(adapted by Miriam Therese Winter)
Blessing
Presider: Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
May we seek to remove stumbling blocks so that our hearts are open to giving and receiving abundant love. May we be the face of the God to each other. May our awareness of our interdependence inspire us to live with great compassion bringing peace to a hurting world. May we be a blessing in our time. Amen.
