Upper Room Sunday Liturgy - Father's Day, June 21, 2026 - Presiders: Kim Panaro, Connie Fenton and Mary Theresa Streck

Zoom:   https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155  
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-865

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that 

we belong to each other.” ~Mother Teresa

Good morning and welcome to the Upper Room. Happy Father’s Day. We take time today to celebrate the gifts of fatherhood. For many it is a day to reminisce about having had a great dad: wise and loving and supportive. For some it is a chance to be recognized for having been a wonderfully kind, loving and wise dad. Some people struggle on Father’s Day as it brings up regret, loss and wounds. We are so happy to be here together to spend some time celebrating fathers and all men who have been called to navigate the many “ordinary moments” and opportunities found within this sacred call.

Opening prayer/song

This song is a prayer that may be on the lips and heart of every father. At least we hope it is. It is what lies in the heart of the parent who wants to do well for their children and their children’s children.

Opening Song: Let There Be Peace on Earth 

https://youtu.be/HPH4LRASWbo?si=7Puwle9BYsYtfR_i

First Reading: Excerpt from The Holy Ordinary by Mark Longhurst

At this point in my short life, I’m carrying a loaded pack of difficult emotions. My relationship with my dad has hit a rocky patch. I have extreme social anxiety about fitting in at school, and I’m simmering with self-hatred about being perpetually bullied. I reach the top and sit down on a rock. My legs are sore, but my heart is overwhelmed by beauty. It’s almost as if I’ve gone beyond myself and tasted unity with something greater. For that brief moment, sun now streaming across white-capped peaks, I experience the truth of the old hymn: “It is well, it is well with my soul.” Life is hard but it will be okay. It’s these moments that keep me going, moments in which I am reminded that I’m dwelling in and connected to a reality much larger and more loving than myself. 

These are the inspired words of Mark Longhurst and the community affirms them by saying: Amen.

Second Reading: 

Blessing in the Chaos by Jan Richardson

To all that is chaotic in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim on you,
that have made their home in you,
that go with you
even to the holy places
but will not
let you rest….

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath the chaos,
where you find the peace
you did not think possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm. 

These are the inspired words of Jan Richardson and the community affirms them by saying: Amen

Alleluia

https://youtu.be/uilfwfd-U_g?si=fbADZuJy6a5oMSQx

Gospel Reading: Matthew 10:26-31

Don’t let people intimidate you. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing is hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light. What you hear in private, proclaim from the housetops. Don’t fear those who can deprive the body of life but can’t destroy the soul. Rather, fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. Are not the sparrows sold for pennies? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Abba God’s knowledge. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. So don’t be afraid of anything—you are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows.

These are the inspired words of a writer known as Matthew and the community affirms them by saying: Amen.

Homily Starter:

I am happy for those whose dads have been kind, loving, wise, helpful and present.  I include among my list of amazing fathers the men of the Upper Room Community. I have been moved and inspired by each of you. We hold in sacred memory those who have passed: Ed Ryan, Jonathan Gradess, Tom Goin, Mike O’Brien, Ernie Sanford-Martinez and Dave Burtis.  Each one was a father and is remembered today. 

 I will admit that I used to struggle with Father’s Day because I felt like I was supposed to say glowing things about how my father raised us.  I didn’t know how to say the truth in a way that didn’t sound whiny or unkind. Now as a wiser adult I have come to believe that Father's Day is a day for honoring whatever is true. My father worked very hard as an iron worker.  He was raised in poverty in Harlem by an alcoholic dad and a violent mom with Type 1 bipolar disorder. He was convicted of a crime at 16 and was sent to the military. By 22, already an alcoholic himself, he and mom had 3 kids.  I remember a few small shimmers which I cherish. Growing up in New York City he took us to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade almost every year. I have a picture from when I was 12 when he was painting my toenails for me. When I was eight years old my grandmother, his mother committed suicide. On the day she died he told me it would make her happy if I watched Cinderella on TV that night. I am grateful that I can now understand that my father was a deeply wounded man trying to do a job for which he was woefully unprepared. I embrace the truth of his story and how it shaped who he was as our father. For some dads the legacy is of the wonderful things they did. For some dads their legacy are the shimmers that shown through their dark and heavy loads. 

Our first reading is from the book that many of us are reading now in our book club The Holy Ordinary. Longhurt shares an adolescent memory of having an opportunity, like Moses, to climb to the mountain top with his burdens and pains. There he found the vastness of God in the deep peace that would carry him through his own journey as a father. Like Saul on the road to Damascus, who got knocked off his horse, he saw reality with new eyes. This author realized that no matter how hard life could be, he would never be alone. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to know?  In our second reading, Richardson refers to the reality of life. There is chaos, there is clamoring, there are voices that won’t let us rest.  Our society doesn’t really give men very good models for how to do the work of nurturing, of being in that place of deep calm, in peace through all the challenges of the day. Parenting a child is not so much about the big moments but rather those trips to a sports game, taking them to get sneakers, helping him through a test, answering the tough questions for them when you don’t have them yourself, trying to provide for all their material needs in addition to their social or just growing up challenges. 

In our gospel today, Matthew tells us that God does not focus really on the kings and the warriors. God focuses on the sparrows the tiny birds, the vulnerable things. Nothing is outside God‘s awareness as God is in all of God’s creation.  Research has shown that children benefit from knowing that their parents at least thought about parenting and gave it their best shot. So for those fathers who may lie awake or spend their quiet moments wondering how they are doing, our faith says “be not afraid”. Every action that comes from your love, your dedication and your willingness to show up teaches your children that they are beloved and have great worth.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Presider: Let us continue our liturgy by reciting our 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 eucharistic meal, we recognize that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We pray today, this special litany of blessings and intentions in honor of Father’s Day.

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.  

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

Presider: Please join in praying the Eucharistic Prayer.

God Beyond All Names, who gives life and breath to everyone and everything in our world, let us find life, breath and meaning for ourselves and our world.

We celebrate and give thanks, together, for the men in our communities. That women and men are different invites us into partnership, invites us to share the burdens and the joys of life.

In the gentle care of the Holy one we find our home. And in the living Spirit we are united this day in offering praise as we sing: 

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ?si=Ckj9HhY9SpXJa4n2

Great Mystery with a father’s heart, you gather us as your children. You comfort and hold us in your warm embrace. Eternal and loving Source of Life, we thank you this day, for being part of your family.

Great Mystery, with a father’s heart, love surrounds and supports us, in good and difficult times, in the midst of joy and pain, always and everywhere. We are never left alone nor abandoned.

When we hurt we are held in love’s embrace. When we are afraid we are surrounded with compassionate care. When we are hungry we are nourished with the bread of life.

Presider: Please extend your hands as we pray the prayers of consecration

We are grateful for the God Beyond All Names at our FriendshipTable and for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world, standing in solidarity with all.  

All: On the night before he faced his own death, 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 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, this is my very self.

  

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. 

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.

Please receive communion with the words: You/I am loved.

Communion Song: His Eye is On The Sparrow by Tennessee Ernie Ford

https://youtu.be/HIMXvMrZz4c?si=hiwXEg2cG_AghzoN

Presider: Let us pray the Prayer of 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 your 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 yours is the dwelling place within us,

The empowerment around us.

And the celebration among us. Now and forever. Amen.

(From Miriam Therese Winter)

Presider: Please extend your hands in Blessing.

May you know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:

Know that

you are worth more than 

an entire flock of sparrows.

(Adapted from Blessing of Hope by Jan Richardson)

Closing Song: Teach Your Children by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

 https://youtu.be/jYQbjlMYLXA?si=D7uzMQZtOfGgOhw9

Moment of Oneness, June 17, 2026 - Loving Our Neighbor Created by Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice, RCWP

 

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: 1-301-715-8592

Opening Prayer: Words of Valerie Kaur (from See No Stranger pages 310-311) 

Reader 1: Love is a form of sweet labor: fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving—a choice we make over and over again. Love can be taught, modeled, and practiced. It engages all our emotions: Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects that which is loved. And when we think we have reached our limit, wonder is the act that returns us to love. 

Reader 2: “Revolutionary love” is the choice to enter into labor for others, for our opponents, and for ourselves in order to transform the world around us. It is not a formal code or prescription but an orientation to life that is personal and political, rooted in joy. Loving only ourselves is escapism; loving only our opponents is self-loathing; loving only others is ineffective. All three practices together make love revolutionary, and revolutionary love can only be practiced in community. 

Reader 1: Seeing no stranger begins in wonder. It is to look upon the face of anyone and choose to say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Wonder is the wellspring for love. Who we wonder about determines whose stories we hear and whose joy and pain we share. Those we grieve with, those we sit with and weep with, are ultimately those we organize with and advocate for. When a critical mass of people come together to wonder about one another, grieve with one another, and fight with and for one another, we begin to build the solidarity needed for collective liberation and transformation—a solidarity rooted in love. 

Reader 2: Loving Source of Life, we stand before you with open hearts to discover the ways of Revolutionary Love. Help us to learn to love all our neighbors, to wonder about those who are different than us and to see no stranger in the faces we meet. All: Amen. 

Reflection Pause

Litany of Loving by Chett Pritchett, 2011. (adapted for this service) 

Reader 1: Holy One, Out of love, you swept over the waters and hovered over the face of the deep. Your love created all that was, all that is, and all that will be. All: Open our hearts to your love.

Reader 2: Out of love, you brought your people out of oppression. Your love gave them a law and a land. All: Open our hearts to your love. 

Reader 1: When their love for you failed Your love remained steadfast. All: Open our hearts to your love. 

Reader 2: Gracious One, Because of love, you gave us prophets to challenge and guide: Visionaries, dancers, dreamers, and scoundrels. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 1: Because of love, you sent Jesus of Nazareth, the full expression of your love. He healed the sick; he ate with sinners; he loved with abandon. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 2: Because of love, Jesus called together his disciples so that we might walk in the way that leads to love. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 1: Passionate One, Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our neighbors, Our unhoused neighbors, Our immigrant neighbors All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 2: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our neighbors of different faiths or who have no faith at all. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 1: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our LGBTQ neighbors, our heterosexist neighbors All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 2: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our undereducated neighbors, our neighbors who see race as a barrier to loving others. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 1: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love and empower us, O God of all creation, to love our neighbors because out of love, you first loved us. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. Amen. 

Song: We Are One by Joyce Johnson Rouse/Earth Mama 

https://youtu.be/DHCnT5PT-ew 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun, We Are One! 

I have sisters in Nicaragua, their skin is burning, from the chemicals used in the fields, where they make their living. I have brothers in Indonesia, their eyes are stinging from the burnings of the rainforest trees to clear them for grazing. 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun. We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! 

2) We have elders in ancient forests, who mourn the passing of species of flowers and birds crowded out by our taking. And there are children in war-torn countries, they are all of our children, they can’t remember a nighttime of peace with no shooting or crying. 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun. We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! (repeats 2 more times)

Closing Prayer

Reader 1: Our response to this Franciscan blessing is Amen! May the Holy One bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. All. Amen 

Reader 2: May Holy One bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. All. Amen

Reader 3: May Holy One bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. All. Amen 

Reader 4: And may Holy One bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. All. Amen 

Reader 5: With hearts on fire, let us go forth from here empowered to live a life of Revolutionary Love by loving our neighbors and seeing no stranger among us. All: Amen.

Closing Song: Power of Kindness by MaMuse

https://youtu.be/pfsRSoeC8Lg 

Upper Room Saturday June 13 and Sunday June 14 Liturgy - Kathie Ryan Presider. Mary Ann Mathys presider on Zoom.

Zoom:   https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155  
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-865

Welcome: According to the institutional church we are back celebrating ordinary time.  Perhaps there is no ordinary time. Only extraordinary time, here and now.  

Opening Prayer: Holy One, help us live each day as an extraordinary day, as we learn and relearn  to live and love. 

Opening Song: Ancient Words by Michael W. Smith (shortened), video DHS

https://youtu.be/gqtEtqmjHf4?si=CRdqCFPNZsP5GwpK

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: A Reading from The Healing Light by Agnes Sanford

We must gently and patiently teach ourselves a new thought - habit. We must reeducate our subconscious mind, replacing every thought of illness with a thought of health, every thought of death with a thought of life. In other words, we must learn trust (faith).  How often we have heard a person say, “I guess I just haven’t the faith to get well”.  Of course you have not.  That is why we are learning it. 

One does not have mathematics at age six. But one can learn to add and subtract, multiply and divide. One is not born playing the piano. But one can practice exercises and drills to learn it.   In math we correct every mistake; in playing the piano we correct every slip of our fingers as we learn to play.  So, we learn faith by trying to understand we are children of the light and then correcting every thought that denies our heritage of life and love. Surely this is worth a little mental training.  

We affirm these words with AMEN

Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker

https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU

Gospel: A reading from the Gospel of Matthew

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved by them because they were  in trouble and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kindom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

We affirm these words with AMEN.

Shared Homily 

There is a famous book written in the 17th century by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, La Vida Es Sueno.  Life is a dream. Calderon did not write about the ordinary everyday dream, but he defined dream as an illusion.   Life is an illusion.  Perhaps one illusion that we are struggling with is who is God, who is the Holy One? My childhood illusion was if I prayed hard enough, did my penance, and was good, I would be acceptable and loved by God. 

Recently I discovered I had been living the illusion that our government, the Supreme Court, and many of our politicians would do the right thing most of the time. I was also  living under the illusion that the Roman Catholic Church would empower women, invite everyone to the table, including those who are divorced, or part of the LGBTQ+ community. We live under the illusion that our family and friends will always be by our side. 

Jesus understood illusions. He saw the crowds and was moved by their troubles and feelings of abandonment. He understood their hopes and dreams or illusions.  His followers wanted Jesus to save them; rescue them from the Roman domination. They were under the illusion that the long-awaited messiah, possibly Jesus, would destroy the Roman Empire. We know that Jesus did not come to destroy the Roman Empire or even start a new church.  We know he came to show them and us how to live and love. Jesus consistently challenged illusions.  

In this gospel Jesus offers a solution. Ask the Master, (ABBA God) to send out laborers. Did you catch that?  Ask for laborers to be sent out, not ask Abba God to fix the problems.   When we pray, we frequently ask for help in many ways.  There may be a solution to our problems, but sometimes we miss that each of us is the solution. Every day we try to live the gospel -we are the laborers that we pray for.

In the first reading Agnes Sanford asks us to practice changing our thoughts to increase our faith and trust.  Her challenge is simple or simplistic.  She is reminding us that living a gospel life everyday takes practice, focus and energy.  We are the laborers that Abba God is continuously sending out. We practice so we are ready and prepared.

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 this sacred meal, we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.

We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace. 

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

 Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer with open hands and open hearts 

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.

 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: 

Holy, Holy, Holy by Peter Mayer 

https://youtu.be/A4kiEGVb3E8

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.

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. 

All: Your Spirit is here in us and in the gifts of this Eucharistic table. May we 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.

Lift bread

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; share and go out to love one another.

 lift their cup 

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.

Please consume the bread and drink the cup with the words: We are the laborers.

Communion Song: The Summons lyrics by Bell and Maule, traditional Scottish hymn

https://youtu.be/V0aAkOe87mo

Prayer After Communion

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.  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.

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!

Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:

All:  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

Let us pray together our blessing:

May wonder and gratefulness fill us, may compassion pierce our souls, may we continue to work for justice and peace. And may we know that we are loved. Amen.

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

https://youtu.be/b-QR_OZB5ik