Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
Loving Our Neighbor
Created by Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice, RCWP
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.
3. 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.
Reader 2: And so together we sing...
4. Song: We Are One by Joyce Johnson Rouse/Earth Mama
https://youtu.be/DHCnT5PT-ew
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.
Used with permission for Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice, RCWP
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