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

Moment of Oneness, June 10, 2026 - Prepared by Helen Albanese and Deven Horne

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

Saint Francis & Saint Clare

Opening Prayer: “For we have been called to heal wounds, to bind up the broken, and to call home any who have lost their way.”  St. Francis. 

May the words of St. Francis and our moment of reflection on his life instill in us the virtues and light of his life as well as the calling of St. Clare his companion in service.

First Reading 

Although St. Francis is widely known today as the “saint of nature and animals,” this popular image captures only a small part of who he was and what he set in motion. Much of this modern reputation comes from later artistic depictions—especially the gentle Francis preaching to birds or taming the wolf of Gubbio—which are memorable, visual, and easy to teach to children.

Over time, these stories overshadowed the deeper reality of Francis’ life: his radical commitment to poverty, reconciliation, humility, and solidarity with society’s outcasts. Francis was not simply a lover of creation; he was a reformer who challenged the economic ambitions of medieval Italy, a peacemaker in a violent age, and a spiritual innovator whose vision transformed the Church from within. The tenderness he showed to animals was rooted in a much broader and more demanding insight—that all life is interconnected, and that true joy is found in compassion, simplicity, and seeing the world as God sees it.

Pope Leo declares the 800 jubilee year of 2026 for St. Frances

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=zneFvmK3pAA&t=12s

Second Reading 

Clare of Assisi was not simply a follower of Francis of Assisi; she was a co-founder of the Franciscan spiritual vision, giving it a form that could endure within the contemplative life. When Clare left her noble family in 1212 to join Francis, her decision was radical—especially for a woman of her time. Francis did not establish a parallel movement for women on his own; rather, Clare shaped what would become the Order of Poor Ladies (later the Poor Clares). Her insistence on absolute poverty preserved the original intensity of Francis’ vision.

Clare’s role was also deeply stabilizing. While Francis traveled, preached, and lived a visibly apostolic life, Clare created a spiritual anchor at San Damiano, where prayer, contemplation, and community life gave depth to the Franciscan movement. Many scholars note that without Clare, Franciscan spirituality might have remained more transient and less rooted. Her monastery became a kind of “spiritual hearth,” sustaining the movement through prayer and example. In this sense, Clare was not secondary—she embodied the interior dimension of Francis’ outward mission.

Although Pope Leo XIV has centered the 800th anniversary on Francis’ death, Clare’s presence is implicitly honored because she was the faithful interpreter and guardian of his charism. Any call to return to Francis’ ideals—poverty, peace, humility—inevitably draws the Church back to Clare as well. In many ways, she ensured that Francis’ way of life was not just an inspiring moment in history, but a living tradition that could be sustained, deepened, and transmitted across generations. Where Francis moved outward into the world, preaching peace and embracing radical poverty, Clare drew that same spirit inward, shaping it into a life of contemplation, stability, and enduring witness. Together, they reveal two dimensions of a single Gospel vision: action and contemplation, movement and rootedness, proclamation and prayer. Any renewed call—such as that voiced by Pope Leo XIV in this Jubilee year—to “return to Francis” is therefore incomplete without also rediscovering Clare.

Third Reading: The Franciscan Friars

The worldwide family inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi remains one of the largest and most active religious movements in the Church. Today, the Franciscan friars—formally the First Order—number roughly 35,000 men spread across more than 100 countries, divided into the three main branches (Observants, Capuchins, and Conventuals). While their numbers have declined in parts of Europe and North America, there is notable vitality in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where vocations are growing. The friars no longer live primarily as wandering preachers in the medieval sense, yet they remain deeply embedded among the people: serving in parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, and missions, often with a deliberate emphasis on the poor, migrants, and marginalized. Their ministries have also expanded into modern concerns that Francis himself would likely recognize—care for creation, peacebuilding, and interreligious dialogue. Even within institutional settings, many communities consciously try to preserve Francis’s radical simplicity through communal living, shared resources, and a visible presence among ordinary people rather than positions of prestige.

Fourth Reading: The Sisters of Saint Clare

The sisters of Saint Clare of Assisi—the Poor Clares, or Second Order—continue a very different but equally powerful witness. Numbering approximately 20,000–60,000 worldwide depending on how branches are counted, they remain a cloistered, contemplative community rooted in prayer and radical poverty. Unlike the friars, their vocation has changed very little over eight centuries: they live enclosed within monasteries, sustaining the Church through a hidden life of prayer, silence, and Eucharistic devotion. Yet even here there are subtle modern developments. Many monasteries today maintain a quiet connection with the outside world through correspondence, spiritual accompaniment, and increasingly through digital means, offering prayer intentions and spiritual support to a global community. At the same time, like the friars, they face challenges—aging populations in the West, fewer new vocations in some regions, and the need to merge or restructure monasteries. Still, in many parts of the world, especially in the Global South, new communities are forming, suggesting that Clare’s vision of a life wholly given to God in poverty and sisterhood continues to speak to the human heart in every age.

Closing Prayer: Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi, 1225

Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!

All praise is yours, all glory, all honor

And all blessing.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong.

No mortal lips are worthy

To pronounce your name.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,

 And first my lord Brother Sun,

Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.

How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;

In the heavens you have made them, bright

And precious and fair.

All praise be yours, My Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,

And fair and stormy, all the weather's moods,

By which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,

So useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

Through whom you brighten up the night.

How beautiful is he, how gay! Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,

Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces

Various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon

For love of you; through those who endure

Sickness and trial.

Happy those who endure in peace,

By you, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,

From whose embrace no mortal can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin!

Happy those She finds doing your will!

The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,

And serve him with great humility.

Translation by Benen Fahy, O.F.M.

from St. Francis of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies

edited by Marion A. Habig, copyright 1973, Franciscan Herald Press

Closing Song - Sarah McLachlan - Prayer of St. Francis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPnMxp5Occ&list=RDagPnMxp5Occ&start_radio=1 

Course created by Helen Albanese To receive the complete course with links to movies and other videos and a transcript of the course email Helen at albanesh@gmail.com