Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Liturgies, Rituals and Ministries: Moment of Oneness

Source: She Lives! Sophia Wisdom Works in the World Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Wisdom’s Works of Caring for Creation

As we approach the Feast Days of All Saints and All Souls, we feel the sharp pangs of loss of someone, of all those in our circle of loved ones who have crossed over the veil. Some ancients say that observance of these days came about from pagan observation of the days each year when they believed the “veil” between our earthly life and the other side is thinnest. Christians saw this observation as a time to pray with and for our dear ones who are not with us on this side, the Saints and all Souls. Rev. Rebecca Kiser shares this passage expanding her understanding of divine images to include the Divine feminine. She writes:

After a crushing loss, when I began sorting out and dealing with my anger and grief, images of God in the feminine arose in my prayer and became agents of healing and restoration. This was surprising to me because, at the time, I was not comfortable using feminine pronouns of imaging God in the Feminine. I had talked of seeing God in the people who came to be with us, bringing dinners and fruit baskets and desserts as well as their love and care. Yet I had difficulty accepting this image or feeling any comfort from it. Suddenly, I remember that old picture from my catechism days, where Jesus is standing at the heart’s door and knocking -- only when I pictured it now, Jesus was carrying a covered casserole. The image captured me, so I decided to sculpt it. The form that emerged from under my hands was a woman, like so many of the people who had come to my door. She carried a 9x13 pan of either lasagna or chicken and rice, I couldn’t decide. She became a focal point of all my ambivalent feelings, for I felt gratitude and comfort from her presence at the same time that I experienced a raging anger that she didn’t do more. I raged at her, and still she stayed, her face concerned, her gift in hand. She was not put off by my anger; she didn’t take her gifts and go home. I came finally to realize that she is who she is, and the anger was mine, the expectations were mine, and the desires for protection and security were mine, the disappointment that came from a false image of God was mine. She is who she has always been, a compassionate, strong, present, passionate, truth, connected from the womb, unafraid, encompassing mysterious. Encountering God this way made me reevaluate the notion of God as beyond gender and see God as encompassing both genders- gender-full rather than gender less. I look on the growth of spirit and creativity I have experienced as gifts from my beloved ones who have departed, and think it is somehow appropriate that it was they who introduced me to the Great Mother in Godde. I had experienced a turning point in my experience and appreciation of the feminine face of the divine, making it a main focus of my spirituality.

With this in mind, we pray Deborah Hall’s Litany for Peace:

Mother Sophia, we pray for each other gathered here, for our Community, and for all of us on earth: