Mary Theresa: Welcome to our mid-week Moment of Oneness when we take time from our busy schedules to meet with one another and pray together. Tonight we will pray John Philip Newell’s Wednesday Evening prayer from Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayer.
Let us begin by centering ourselves and breathing together. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Look at one another with reverence and awe, seeing the communion shared through breathing together. Pause to be with the reality of both bodily breath and the divine breath drawing each of us into an invisible, strengthening union.
Opening Prayer
Glory be to you, O Holy One of the night,
for the whiteness of the moon
and the infinite stretches of dark space.
Let us learn to love the night
as we know and love the day.
Let us learn to trust its darkness
and to seek its subtle blessings.
Let us learn the night’s way of seeing
that in all things we may trace the mystery
of your presence.
Song Meditation: Holy Darkness by Dan Schutte and sung by John Michael Talbot
Presider 1: Welcome/Theme: Welcome everyone to our celebration. Today we consider the compassion of the Holy One who forgives all, understands all and calls us to have the same empathy and concern in our world of need. We begin with the Peace Prayer
Peace Prayer
Presider 2: Opening Prayer: We are blessed to be together, considering the ancient but still relevant words of Jesus and the boundless compassion of the Divine. Today, we learn from the Spirit among us how to make compassion and love into justice in our day. Amen.
Opening Song: “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke
Gospel Reading: A reading from the Gospel writer known as Mathew (22: 34-40)
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they gathered and one who was an expert on the Law, attempted to trick Jesus with this question: “Teacher, which commandment of the law is greatest?”
Jesus answered: “You must love the Most High God
‘With all your heart.
with all your souls
and with all your mind.’
“That is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it:
‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’
On these two commandments the whole Law is based – and the prophets as well.”
The community affirms these words from the gospel writer known as Mathew with Amen
Shared Homily - Lynn
It can be a challenge to live out the greatest two commandments that Jesus
mentions in today’s gospel. The first difficulty arises when we think about what
Jesus means by “love”. It is not a romantic or emotional love nor is it best friends
forever.
Theologian and minister Zina Jacque uses a phrase from Aquinas to explain
this love as willing the good of the other– wishing for the “flourishing of another
person”. It involves a certain amount of trust, loyalty, or neighborliness. We can
resent our neighbor wearing tacky clothes or using pesticides on the lawn, but if
we are willing to act for their well-being, don’t lie or gossip about them, treat
them with respect and wish the best for them, we are living the love of a
neighborly attachment based on equal footing; that we each deserve to be
treated as children of God.
The next difficulty is that we can’t wish for the good of another if we have
“quietly decided that they are beneath us”. The Thomas Aquinas love is built on
humility. The other person is to matter as much as oneself.
Our reading from Exodus gives examples of love that wish others well.
Surely, one must act on behalf of widows and orphans when the breadwinner dies
and the mother is not permitted to work. Foreigners and strangers, travelers and
those needing loans or charity must not be exploited if compassion and humility
rule. The Holy One hears the cry of the poor who are under-resourced as well as
those who are grief-stricken, depressed, lonely, addicted and injured.
Loving one another requires the social justice of not looking away.
We are reminded not to look away by “A mighty woman with a torch”, “The
Mother of exiles” in New York harbor. Imagine that she is a gift from a foreign
country that used to see the best in us. May we vote our way and resist our way
out of the cruelty of Empire toward a nation of compassion envisioned in the
Emma Lazarus poetry and the gift of Lady Liberty.
The Pharisees atop the Jewish hierarchy had power to interpret the laws of
purity, cleanliness, rituals, sacrifices etc. They were expected to keep Jews
observant, obedient, even subordinate so as not to anger the Romans. It might
have been a challenge to remain humble. Perhaps, their trickery and their part in
his arrest and murder was based on blind fear of Jesus as a radical threat. Is it
possible to be too scared to love?
A Richard Rohr meditation (shared on email with us recently by Dennis)
distinguishes the “Western Church” from the healing of Jesus. His words could as
well be about the Pharisees’ small picture of obedience rather than the bigger
devotion to love; we find in Jesus. Rohr states:
“By reducing the idea of salvation to a series of formulas, or disciplines, or
creeds, the Western church missed the whole point. Salvation … was not
something that could be bought with money, power, or obedience. Salvation is
about one thing: healing, restoring wholeness, bringing outcasts back into
community, challenging unjust systems…. Healing (or love) is the bigger picture of
God’s vision” as lived by Jesus.
What are your thoughts about the readings?
Resources:
Jacque, Zina Commentary on Matthew 22:34-46 - Working Preacher from Luther Seminary . Zina Jacque is a minister, leadership consultant, and public theologian whose work spans the pulpit, the boardroom, and the classroom. She serves as Board Chair of National Senior Communities, offers daily, online Sacred Pause devotions, and holds a recurring chaplaincy at the Chautauqua Institute. She is completing a book on navigating divine purpose across the stages of life’s journey, to be published by Simon & Schuster. Her daily devotions can be found at beacons.ai/zinajacque.
Rohr, Richard. Universal Healing — Center for Action and Contemplation . Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Explains the thoughts of Cherokee theologian Randy Woodley on the distinction between salvation and healing.
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
Prayer of the Community
Presider 1: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to our table our many blessings, cares and concerns. Please share your prayers beginning with “I bring to the table…”
We bring these and all our blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and love. Amen
Eucharistic Prayer
Presider 2: Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:
All: We are grateful for our brother Jesus teaching us the way of compassion through entering into the suffering of others. May we care for ourselves as Jesus cared for us, seeing humanity through the eyes of love. Through his loving eyes we are healed and we open our hearts to the pain and suffering of others.
Holy One, because of your unconditional loving Presence, we are never alone and we are empowered to live with kindness and empathy. Your love radiates from our hearts, minds, and bodies. The nurturance of ourselves and one another in your prayerful Presence emboldens our best selves. “We are not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the nurtured.” (Cozolino)
With joy and gratitude, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: “Here in this Place” by Christopher Grundy
All: Holy One, we imagine that you speak to our hearts saying, I don’t need anything from you for me to love you - I don’t need you to evolve for me to love you - I don’t need you to grow for me to love you - I don’t need you to succeed for me to love you. I will stay with you in any circumstance. I was here at the beginning, I am here in the middle, I will be here in the end. There is nothing you can do to lose me. Just your being, designed intentionally within Creation, is love to me.
We thank you for Jesus who heard the Divine voice of deep love for him as “this is my beloved son”. Jesus showed us a path to comforting ourselves as the Divine Beloved comforts us and as we would nurture our own children, family and friends. May we hear God’s voice as Jesus did, to love and forgive ourselves so that we may more fully love and forgive each other.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: Your Spirit is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with his 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.
All lift the bread and pray:
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.
(pause)
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)
All: Holy One, your love transforms us to discover your Divine spirit in all peoples so that we may love and listen and heal each other.We resolve to love as Jesus loved: without measure or exceptions.
May we follow the example of Jesus who loved and healed those who have been marginalized, including the poor, the unhoused, mentally ill, refugees and immigrants, and the outcast and stranger.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live in our lives; as we share communion, we become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge. Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and compassion.
Presider 2: Please receive the bread and cup with the words, you are God’s Beloved
Communion Song: “The Cry of the Poor”
The Feast of Christ the King Concert with Tom Kendzia
