Judy: Today we celebrate Mother’s Day on this 6th Sunday of Easter. Let’s us remember our mothers and anyone who nurtured us on the way. Our readings today remind us of the many ways we love and care for one another.
Kathie: Let us pray: Holy One, we are in awe of the birthing and mothering that occurs in all of nature. We experience your love as we care for one another. May we always be aware of how you taught us to love. Amen.
Opening Song: Namaste
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Barb P: A reading from The Monastic Way by Joan Chittister
It is the spirituality of creation—our affinity, our care, for the rest of creation—that really stretches us to the wholeness of ourselves and to the wholeness of God, as well.
Only when we see ourselves, humans, as part of creation, rather than as the crown of creation, will we ever be able to come anywhere close to really grasping the greatness of God and God’s gifts to us. Only then will we begin to see the glowing face of God everywhere. Only then will we begin to understand that we are all meant to come to fullness of life together—plants, animals, planet, and humans in one great reciprocal circle of a common creation. Until we do, all of us will go on living life with spiritual blinders.
These are the inspired words of Joan Chittister, a daughter of the Holy One. The community affirms these words by saying AMEN.
Mary B: A reading from Meister Eckhart: Love Does That
All day long a little burro labors, sometimes with heavy loads on her back, sometimes just with worries about things that bother only burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting them physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes to her stable and brings a pear, but more than that, he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears and for a few seconds the burro is free and even seems to laugh, because love does that. Love frees.
These are in the inspired words of Meister Eckhart, a son of the Holy One. The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
Dennis: Alleluia
Eleanor: A reading from the Gospel of John
“As my Abba loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
And you will live on in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I live in Abba God’s love and have kept God’s commandments.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Abba God.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask of Abba God in my name God may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
These are the inspired words of John, a disciple of the Holy One. The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
Shared Homily - Kathleen Ryan
Our gospel reading today is another very familiar reading, sometimes known as ‘The Last Discourse.” It is the last time the disciples are gathered together in a room with Jesus. Jesus sums up his life and ministry with two familiar phrases: Remain in my love and love one another. So easy to remember and so easily said. The phrase, “remain in my love” struck me. How do I remain in love? A few translations of this scripture passage said, “live in my love”. The best translation for me was “persist in my love”. Persist says, keep trying, don’t give up, commit and walk the path one step, one loving act at a time.
The Meister Eckhart and Joan Chittister readings put some ‘meat on those bones’ the ‘how’ we remain or persist in his love and love one another.
Joan Chittister describes the spirituality of creation as the path to love. When we acknowledge we are each “part of creation”, not the crown of creation, we begin to grasp “the greatness of God” and we see the “glowing face of God everywhere.” When we share communion at liturgy we frequently say the prayer “you are the face of God.” This prayer is even more meaningful if we recognize and remember we are talking about ourselves as well. Together with the plants, animals, the planet we “come to the fullness of life.” To come to the fullness of life we need everything, everyone, every part of creation.
Meister Eckhart makes it even more simple. At times we are the burros, laboring, worrying, and exhausted. Then someone brings us a gift of love: looks in our eyes, touches us and for a few moments we know we are loved. Sometimes we are the monks. We bring food to the pantries, help our neighbor, listen to a friend who is suffering. We protest and stand in solidarity with the marginalized, pray for one another, and gather at liturgy to be a community of love. To come to the fullness of life we must be the monk while never forgetting we are also the burro.
We are here for each other, we need each other. Remain in his love and love one another.
What resonated for you in these readings? Please remember to unmute to share.
Santa: Let us pray our Statement of Faith together
All: We believe in one God, 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 God's Word,
bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion,
bright star in the firmament of God's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of God's love,
a source of God's wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of God's peace in the world.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
The life of God that is our innermost life,
the breath of God moving in our being.
The depth of God living in each of us.
We believe that God's 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.
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
Dennis: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Judy: We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
O Nurturing, Mothering one, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.
We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence we long to sing our hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy Here in this Place
Kathie: Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation.
Kathie: Please extend your hands in blessing
All: This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.
We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.
Judy: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder 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:
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:
Kathie: Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
By Your Spirit we are transformed. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.
Through him, we have learned how to live.
Through him, we have learned how to love.
Through him, we have learned how to serve.
AMEN.
Please receive communion saying: I will remain in Your Love.
Communion song: May the Greatest Love
Judy: Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence.
Lynn W: Let us pray together 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 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 Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
Judy: Closing Prayer
Nurturing one
We thank you for the earth’s vegetation enfolded in your warmth.
We thank you for earth’s creatures encircled in your loving arms.
We thank you for all those women and men who mothered us.
May we always remain in your everlasting community of love. Amen
BLESSING
Judy: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together
May we continue to be the Face of God to each other. May the certainty of our connectedness to one another and all creation ignite us to love more fully. May those who nurtured us be remembered with love today and always. May we, like Jesus, persist in love and be a blessing for all.
All: Amen.
Closing Song
A mother’s Love by Jim Brickman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Z9sXqr44s
Thank you for watching over me,
All of the sleepless night you lay awake.
Thank you for knowing when to hold me close,
when to let me go.
Thank you for every steppingstone
And for the path that always leads me home.
I thank you for the time you took to see the heart inside of me.
You gave me the roots to start this life and then you gave me wings to fly.
And I learned to dream because you believed in me.
There’s no power like it on this earth. No treasure equal to its worth
The gift of a mother’s love.
Thank you for every sunlit day that filled the corners of my memory.
Thank you for every selfless unsung deed I know you did for me.
Thank you for giving me the choice to search my soul till I could find my voice.
And I thank you for teaching me to be strong enough to bend.
You gave me the roots to start this life and then you gave me wings to fly
And I learned to dream because you believed in me.
There’s no power like it on this earth. No treasure equal to its worth
The gift of a mother’s love.
I thank God for a mother’s love.
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