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Welcome and Theme
Mary Theresa: Good morning and welcome to our liturgy for the second Sunday in Lent. Many of us are using the Lenten devotional: Living Well Through Lent. The theme for today's liturgy aligns with the theme for the second week in Lent: Prophetic Obedience - Listening and Responding to the Divine Voice Within You. The third reading is today's mediation in the Living Well devotional.
Thomas Keating, a holy mystic who taught many the art of centering prayer, reminds us that our spiritual journey does not require going anywhere because the Holy One is already with us and in us. As we pray together, let us listen in prophetic obedience with the ears of our hearts and respond to that voice of love within us.
Opening Prayer
Bernie: Holy One, you are within, around and among us.
Today we respectively dare to listen to you, truly understand what you are saying to us, not what we think you said. Open our hearts and minds as we collectively listen and share the Good News!
Please join in singing our opening song: I Am the One Within You
Opening Song: I Am the One Within You
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: Spirituality of Listening by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Pat Gumson: Time and again in the last month of his life Moses told the people, Shema: listen, heed, pay attention. Hear what I am saying. Hear what God is saying. Listen to what the Holy One wants from us.
Speaking and listening are forms of engagement. They create a relationship. We can enter into a relationship with God because we are linked by words. In revelation, God speaks to us. In prayer, we speak to God. If you want to understand any relationship, between husband and wife, or parent and child, pay close attention to how they speak and listen to one another. Ignore everything else.
There is something profoundly spiritual about listening. Listening lies at the very heart of relationship. It means that we are open to the other, that we respect him or her, that their feelings matter to us. A good leader listens to those he or she leads. Listening does not mean agreeing but it does mean caring. Listening is the climate in which love and respect grow.
Listening is the prelude to love.
These are the inspired words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Song: Breath of the One Life
Gospel: A reading from the Gospel of Mark
Mark 8 31-37
Judy Stamp: Jesus began explaining things to his disciples: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! You have no idea how God works.”
Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You are not leading; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
These are the inspired words of the Gospel writer, Mark, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Third Reading: I Will, With God’s Help by Malcolm Laurin
Ellen Garcia: Peter, Peter, Peter…
Let me be honest here. In some ways…in MANY ways, I find myself in the same boat as Peter.
Wanting to deny the difficult, the scary aspects of discipleship. Peter was just being honest. He didn’t fully connect the dots. Yes, he truly and deeply believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but his definition was pulled from human sources. His definition was one that was fashioned by the world in which he lived, not the one that Jesus was revealing. His thinking was based on another model for Messiah-ship, not Jesus’ model.
A Messiah who suffers?
A Messiah who is rejected?
A Messiah who is killed?
These were not a part of Peter’s idea of the Messiah. Peter’s rebuking of Jesus reflects this.
Peter’s rebuking reflects his shock and his fear.
Like Peter, I am often left in disbelief and denial about where Jesus is calling me to go. And while I may not rebuke Jesus (WOW! What a bold move), I do choose not to listen. Or maybe it is that I choose to listen – not to my heart and soul – but to my desires and fears. Their messages are clear. They tell me to turn my eyes away from injustice. To ignore the pain of others. To worry about me and mine. Their messages tell me that the material is the measure of worth. Their messages run counter to my baptismal promises. To seek and serve Christ in all; to love my neighbor and myself, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of everyone. The messages from my baptism are dangerous, while the former are safe and comfortable.
Following Jesus often involves moving against the grain of the world around us. But following Jesus – discipleship – always leads to new life.
These are the inspired words of Malcolm Laurin and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Homily Starter – Mary Theresa
Theme: Prophetic Obedience: Listening and Responding to the Divine Voice Within You
In today’s first reading, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us that we are invited into a relationship with the Holy One. We simply have to speak from the heart and then listen with the ears of the heart. And, in that profound engagement, love grows.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus is communicating to his disciples his wisdom from listening to the Holy One. His words are counter to the culture and are disturbing to some of his closest followers who are longing for a mighty warrior messiah to free them from the dominating, oppressive Roman Empire. These followers watched messiahs come and go. Some advocated for a violent revolution and put their hopes in a God who would crush their oppressors. But Jesus was a different kind of messiah. He spoke and listened to the Holy One and he grew in prophetic obedience to this Divine inspiration – and Love grew in him.
In the Gospel and in the third reading we meet ourselves in Peter. We are reminded of the cost of discipleship when we listen and respond with prophetic obedience, and follow the way of Jesus. From his profound engagement with the Holy One, Jesus led by example. “He embodied service, reconciliation, and self-giving. He modeled transformative nonviolent resistance and encountered the ‘other’ with respect and mutuality. He advocated stewardship, generosity, sharing, and a vision of abundance for all. He explained that the message of love was not just for his tribe, and sent his followers into the world to be agents of positive change, like salt, light, and yeast. And finally, he empowered them with a vision of faith, hope and love that could change the world.” (adapted from The Seventh Story: Us, Them & the End of Violence by Brian McLaren and Gareth Higgins)
As you listen to the tug of your inner Divine voice, what speaks to you in today’s readings?
Shared Reflections
Statement of Faith
Bernie and Lynn: 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
Dennis: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our blessings, cares and concerns.
We bring these and all our unspoken blessings, cares and concerns to
Mary Theresa: 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.
Joan: 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: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
Bernie: 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.
All lift the plate 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:
Mary Theresa: 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)
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: I am / We are the Face of the Holy One.
Communion Song: Be Still and Know by Shaina Knoll
Mary Theresa: 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.
Joan: 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.
Bernie: 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
BLESSING
Bernie: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing:
Holy One, you are within, around and among us. You do give us all that we need when we dare to listen to you.
May you urge us to risk; boldly swim against the tide, and drink from your sustaining waters.
Then, we may find the inner peace only you can give which we can model in our daily actions.
AMEN.
Closing Song: You Raise Me Up
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