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The eggs symbolize the Ukrainians' Catholic faith, and many Ukrainians risked persecution to make pysanky when Communists ruled the former Soviet Union. The craft began thousands of years ago, long before Christianity came to Ukraine in 988. |
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155The
April 16, 2022
Outside Upper Room worship space: (Jim)
My friends, in accord with our Jewish roots, this night is one of vigil to God by all in every generation (Exodus 12:42).
The Christian churches throughout the world invite members to come together in vigil and prayer to remember the night when our brother Jesus, the Galilean teacher, passed from death to life. This is our Passover feast.
As we honor the memory of his death and resurrection, by sharing Word and story and Eucharist, may we grow ever confident that we too will experience resurrection over death. So, let us prayerfully enter into this mystery.
Opening Song: Holy Darkness by Dan Schutte
Refrain: Holy darkness, blessed night, heaven's answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence, we embrace your holy night.
I have tried you in fires of affliction; I have taught your soul to grieve.
In the barren soil of your loneliness, there will I plant my seed. Ref
I have taught you the price of compassion; you have stood before the grave.
Though my love can seem like a raging storm, this is the love that saves. Ref
In your deepest hour of darkness, I will give you wealth untold.
When the silence stills your spirit, will my riches fill your soul. Ref
Blessing of Fire and Christ Candle
O Holy Mystery,
your first spoken word was “Light” and it came to be.
Bless and make holy this new fire from which we will light our Christ candle.
(candle is lit)
Christ, yesterday and today
the beginning and the end
the Alpha and Omega
May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness from our world. May this symbol inflame each one of us with a renewed hope of bringing your light to our world. Amen!
(“Lumen Christi, Deo gratia”, “Luz de Cristo, Gracias a Dios” and “Christ our Light. Thanks be to God” is chanted as procession moves inside)
Once inside, the Exsultet is sung (Dennis McDonald)
Easter Proclamation [adapted by Jim Marsh]
Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation in God’s presence!
Jesus, the Anointed One, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of life renewed!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of our God!
Christ has risen!
Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!
Rejoice, O Mother Church !
Exult in glory!
The Risen One shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the song of all God’s people!
My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
Join me in praising God,
as we sing this Easter song.
Our God is with you. R. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts. R. We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to our gifting God. R. It is right to give God thanks and praise.
It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices,
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful creator,
and the beloved one, Jesus the Cosmic Christ.
On this night, we remember our ancestors
who escaped their slavery through the waters of the Red Sea .
Abba God, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your infinite love!
To gift us with Jesus, your beloved,
born of Miriam and Joseph.
Jesus went to his death remembering the words of Micah:
Live justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God.
Yes, this is our Passover feast,
for Jesus, the Christ, broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.
This is the night when Christians everywhere
bathed in grace freely given,
promise to reject all that is evil and grow together in holiness.
Therefore, O Holy One,
in the joy of this night,
hear our evening song of prayer and praise.
Accept this Easter candle,
may it dispel all darkness and evil,
and renew our confidence and bring us joy.
May Christ, the morning Star,
who sheds peaceful light on all creation,
find this hope burning brightly in our lives,
today and evermore. R. AMEN
Liturgy of Word
Reading 1: The Story of Salvation History (proclaimed by Gayle Egan)
adapted from Hebrew Scriptures by Jay Murnane
In the beginning, there was only chaos and a void. God breathed life into it and said, "Let there be light." And there was light: sun and moon and stars in the heavens. There emerged vast bodies of water filled with live creatures. Then, birds flying across the breadth of the skies, and on the earth, reptiles and animals of every kind, color and shape. And all had a purpose. God saw what had come to be, and God found it very good.
God then said: "Let us make human beings in the divine image; women and men together to take care of all of this, and one another! When this was done, God viewed the whole of creation, and loved it, for it was very, very good.
But human beings did not take care of creation and each other. Human beings corrupted the good-ness of what God had made. Rain fell, a torrential, purifying rain, covering the earth and washing away all the corruption to which people had given birth. Only Noah, his family, and living creatures from every species on earth floated above the flood in an ark made of wood.
After forty days, the rain subsided, so that the water was no longer a flood, and the ark came to rest on high, dry ground. The people and the animals looked up into the sky and saw something beautiful. God said: "That is my rainbow, the sign of my presence with you and my love for you. It will forever be the sign of my relationship with you, and your responsibility to take care of creation, and each other."
From these survivors of the flood, creation was begun all over again. Many, many years went by and there were many gatherings of people all over the face of the earth. One of these was the people, Israel, and among all of God's precious people, the Jews were very precious. During a time of famine, the Jews were invited by the Egyptians, their neighbors, to share their land and their food. But some centuries after this hospitality, a cruel leader in Egypt forgot the old relationship and made the Jews into slaves.
They lived this way for a long time, until Moses came among them and risked his safety and security to convince the Jews that God loved them and wanted them to be free. So, they left Egypt, filled with the Spirit of God, led by Moses and Miriam through the desert in search of a new home where they could be free again.
During this difficult journey, they were often disillusioned and resentful, and they complained bitterly. Moses asked God for help, and God offered the ten commandments, so that the people might know the simplest possible way to love God and their fellow human beings. And from these survivors of oppression, Israel began all over again.
But the people forgot the simple way of God and were not always faithful, and at times they were as oppressive to each other and to strangers just as the Egyptians had been to them. They paid lip service to God, but their hearts were very far from God, and therefore, from justice and compassion.
May we be inspired by these words. Amen!
Reading 2: Beatrice Fernando’s story (proclaimed by Sandi D)
A divorcee at age 23, Sri Lankan Beatrice Fernando answered an ad from a local agency looking to employ housemaids. Desperate to support her three-year-old son on her own, Fernando agreed to travel and work as a maid in Lebanon.
“I am at the airport in Columbo, Sri Lanka, saying good-bye to my three-year-old son. With his eyes filled with tears, he asks, ‘Can’t I come with you, Mom? When you make a lot of money will you buy me a car to play with?’ I take him in my arms, my heart breaking, and tell him, ‘If I have the money, I will buy you the world.’ My desperation to give him a better life has driven me to leave him with my parents, to go to Lebanon and be a maid.
“At the job agent’s office in Beirut, my passport is taken away. The agency staff make me stand in line with a group of women in the same predicament as me. Lebanese men and women pace in front of us, examining our bodies as if we were vacuum cleaners. I am sold to a wealthy woman, who takes me home to her mansion up on the fourth floor of a condo building.”
My chores seem unending. I wash the windows, walls and bathrooms. I shampoo carpets, polish floors and clean furniture. After 20 hours I am still not done. There’s no food on my plate for dinner, so I scavenge through the trash. I try to call the job agency, but the woman who now owns me has locked the telephone. I try to flee the apartment, but she has locked the door.
I can feel the burning on my cheeks as she slaps me. It is night and her kids have gone to sleep. Grasping me by the hair, she bangs my head into the wall and throws me to the floor. She kicks me and hits me with a broom. If I scream or fight back, she will kill me. So I bite my lips to bare the pain and then I pass out. This is my daily routine, the life of a slave.
But now I am standing on the balcony of her condo, four floors up. I am holding onto the railing, staring down at the ground far below. I feel my heart rising. I miss my family, and I know my son is waiting for me. There is no other way to get home. I grasp the railing, close my eyes and ask God for his forgiveness if I die now. This is no suicide attempt. I am desperate for freedom, not death. With the tiny hope that I might survive, I let go of the railing. I dive backwards into the night air. And I scream.”
Fernando survived the fall and recovered at a hospital. Today, she lives in Massachusetts and continues to spread the word about modern-day slavery.
May we be inspired by these words. Amen!
Reading 3: The Prophetic Spirit by Joan Chittister, OSB (proclaimed by Bridget
Ball Shaw) from The Time Is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage
The eternal icon of the prophet occupies the corner of my desk. The gaunt, wisp of a figure, arms thrown wide, head up and shouting to the sky, looks to the casual observer to be made of heavy lead. I thought so, too—until one day I picked it up… the statue was almost weightless. Whatever the substance, there was nothing to it. The figure was empty. And then I understood. So, too, is the prophetic spirit empty of everything but the Word of God, of everything but what it means to be true to the coming of the will of God for creation.
First and foremost, a real follower of Jesus the Prophet is faithful, forever endures. It took over two hundred years to abolish slavery; more years to abrogate segregation; and now, it seems, even more years to extinguish the racism that is at our historical roots. Nevertheless, the prophetic promise of a world of equals never died out. The hopes of the human heart were impossible to extinguish. Generation after generation of prophetic people rose up century after century to speak a word of justice. The fact is that in our own time, we must do the same.
Second, the prophet does more than denounce evil. Instead, prophetic spirituality envisions a world in which justice and equality, peace and community are the norm rather than the struggle. It is the prophet of our time who leads the way to the development of an alternative vision of life by imagining a new normal. Today’s prophets prepare for the reconstruction of society by imagining the achievable and drawing others to see it as well. Vision is the first step toward change. Or as the poet e. e. cummings put it, “The first act of creation is destruction.” The old order—decaying and disturbing—must go in order to make room for the new.
Prophetic spirituality comes with the grace of boldness. Prophets do not tiptoe around truth nor do they distort it or exaggerate it or embellish it for the sake of being heard. The truth itself is enough. The truth itself commits us all to something better. They simply challenge the establishment with the bare truth. They do not shrink from opening the conversation. Their sound echoes off all the mountains on the planet.
Finally, they do not despair. They know that God’s time is not our time. All of us hope that the harvest is soon. But in the course of its long, slow coming we do not fail in our faith that the Spirit of God is with us and God’s time is near.
May we be inspired by these words. Amen!
Gloria: All You Works of God by Marty Haugen (abridged version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTyaOcB4xk
Refrain: All you works of God, every mountain, star and tree,
Bless the One who shapes your beauty, who has caused you all to be
One great song of love and grace, ever ancient, ever new.
Raise your voices, all you works of God.
Sun and moon: Bless your Maker!
Stars of heaven: Chant your praise!
Showers and dew: Raise up your joyful song! Ref
Wells and springs: Bless your Maker!
Seas and rivers: Chant your praise!
Whales in the deep: Raise up your joyful song! Ref
(Jim) Let us pray ……………
O Holy, Eternal One,
You created all things in wonderful beauty and diversity. May we never take for granted our oneness with you or all creation.
You once saved a nation from slavery. May we take seriously our call to work for justice.
Time and again you have given us prophets to speak your vision of justice and mercy. May we be open to their inspiration to love tenderly.
You have brightened this night with the radiance of the risen Christ. Renew us in mind and body to glorify you by serving one another with integrity and whole-hearted faithfulness. AMEN!
Celtic Alleluia: (cantored by Lynn Kinlan)
Gospel: Luke 24:1-12 (proclaimed by Jean Talbot)
On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, the women came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back from the tomb; but when they entered the tomb, they didn’t find the body of Jesus.
While they were still at a loss over what to think of this, two figures in dazzling garments stood beside them. Terrified, the women bowed to the ground. The two said to them, “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? Jesus is not here; Christ has risen. Remember what Jesus said to you while still in Galilee—that the Chosen One must be delivered in to the hands of sinners and be crucified, and on the third day would rise again.” With this reminder, the words of Jesus came back to them.
When they had returned from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them also told the apostles, but the story seemed like nonsense and they refused to believe them.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. He stooped down, but could see nothing but the burial wrappings. So he went away, full of amazement at what had occurred.
May we be inspired by these words. Amen!
Homily starter – Easter Vigil April 16, 2022 - Jim
I dare say that this week we deem holy has been long and action-packed. What are we to make of it all?
We have just heard “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? Jesus is not here; Christ has risen.…but the story seemed liked nonsense …”
Although our first reading referenced our beginning, tonight we didn’t read from Genesis, the first book of Torah. Allow me to call your attention to that author’s words: “In the beginning, there was chaos and darkness covered the abyss, yet the Spirit of God was brooding… On the first day, God said, ‘Let there be light.’” In the Gospel, we are told that it is at dawn on the first day of the week when the women go to the tomb. Is there a connection in these stories?
We also recalled our Jewish ancestors slavery in Egypt and how Moses and Miriam, filled with the Spirit of God, led them to freedom and a new life. Beatrice Fernando speaks of her desperation to give her son a better life in our second reading. Her dreams are shattered as she endures years of enforced servitude as a maid, modern day slavery. Desperate for freedom with a tiny hope, she lets go and is rescued from her nightmare.
Back to our Gospel … we know the adulation that Jesus experienced on his entrance into Jerusalem was short-lived, and how he was betrayed, abandoned, tortured, and crucified. Fearing for their own safety and security, most of his disciples are in hiding. Were they thinking “This is it!” … “Is that all there is?” “Are we next?” Trauma can do that.
But alas, we have the women …. not paralyzed, but prepared to do something as simple as anointing the body of their teacher, the Rabbi. They go to the tomb and do not find darkness and death, but instead two figures in dazzling garments. They are told to go; do not linger here, but get on with life!
My friends, by reason of our baptism, we are a priestly and prophetic people of light. Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister reminds us that prophets are faithful and steadfast, bold and courageous, filled with hope and vision.
Resurrection is about life, life transformed and made new again. It is not a one-time event, but is true about every aspect of creation.
When humans were created by the Holy One, we were told to be responsible stewards for all of creation. The Spirit of God is with us and within us and God’s time (kairos) is now. It’s up to us! And so, may we be “resurrection people” bringing light, hope, peace and joy to those we encounter each and every day.
Christ is risen – dance and sing Alleluia!
Water Ritual - Renewal of Baptismal Promises (Kim)
(water is poured into bowl, and community extends hands in blessing)
Abba/Amma God,
You grace us with the wonders of creation, sacramental signs of your constant presence.
At the dawn of creation, your Spirit breathed upon the waters making them holy.
The rush of water announced the immediacy of our birth as human.
Water enables the seed to grow and yield bountiful crops for food and sustenance. It quenches our thirst. We bathe in it and are refreshed and made clean.
Through the waters of the Red Sea, your people Israel escaped enforced slavery.
In the waters of the Jordan, Jesus was baptized by John and declared beloved.
After his resurrection, Jesus told his followers to “Go, tell the Good News, baptizing all through the power of your holy spirit.
And so, we bless this water. May it remind us of our baptism into the Christian family of which Paul writes, “when we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were buried with Jesus, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we too might live a new life.”
As we renew our commitment, let us be united with all our sisters and brothers across our world, who are baptized this very night.
Do you promise to see what is good for your sisters and brothers everywhere, rejecting injustice and inequity and living with the freedom and responsibility of children of God? All: Yes!
Do you promise to work for the realization of God’s vision of harmony and right relations among people and peoples, rejecting the idols of money and property and color and sex and position? All: Yes!
Do you promise to seek peace and live in peace in one human family, rejecting prejudice and half-heartedness in every form, and all barriers to unity? All: Yes!
Do you promise to cherish the universe, and this precious planet, working creatively to renew and safeguard the elemental sacraments of air, earth, water? All: Yes!
Do you believe in God, the Creator: in whom we live, move and have our being;
in Jesus, the simple servant of justice and love who lived among us so that all might live with abundant fullness;
in the breath of God, the Spirit who continues the work of forgiveness and reconciliation, birthing and blessing, challenge and hope, so that together we can continue the work of creation? All: Yes!
(community is now sprinkled with water)
Liturgy of Eucharist
(Jim) Friends, our God is present; let us pray together in thanksgiving!
O Holy One, you are always with us.
We celebrate your gift of life! In wonder, we stand in the beauty, abundance and variety of creation.
We remember Jesus, the Galilean teacher: who took children in his arms and blessed them, who cared for those who were poor, who cured sick people and wept with those who were sad. He taught us how to forgive and live as one with you and all creation.
On this special night, we remember Jesus, the Christ, who rose from the tomb of darkness and death. We remember those first witnesses to this event: the women who went to bless and anoint his body, and then courageously told the others what they had experienced.
You invite us to be “resurrected people” who participate and co-create in making all things new in our world.
We stand in the presence of all those joyous troubadours and our ancestors in faith. Together with all of creation, we dance and sing:
Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
HOLY ONE, may your presence here open our minds
may your Spirit among us help us to find you are rising up now
like a fountain of grace from the holy ground
here in this place, here in this place.
Holy, holy, holy God of love and majesty
the whole universe speaks of your glory
from the holy ground here in this place, here in this place.
[extend hands in blessing]
(Kim) We are ever aware of your Spirit in creation. Intensify your Spirit anew in these simple gifts of bread and wine and in us, that we might truly be the Christ presence rising in our world.
On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with the people closest to him. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly, he bent down and washed their feet like a lowly household servant.
[lifting bread]
When he returned to his place at the table, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and offered it to them saying: Take and eat, this is my very self. [pause]
[lifting cup]
At the end of the meal, Jesus 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]
(Jim) Let us proclaim the mystery of faith:
Christ has died in all who have died.
Christ is rising within us and in all who work for justice and promote peace.
Christ is present with us everywhere.
Be nourished and savor the goodness of God! As we eat and drink, let us be mindful of all those cares and concerns we carry in our hearts as we listen to music of Dan Schutte, Litany of Peace © 2003. Let us be light!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YldPJMxELYM
(Deven H) Let us pray as Jesus taught:
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.
(Adapted by Miriam Therese Winter)
Blessing (extend your hands)
Let us raise our hands and bless each other, with these words:
May we know ourselves as God’s beloved each and every day!
May we be Easter people and beacons of light in our world!
May our encounters with the Risen One prompt us to respond generously, tenderly and extravagantly!
Indeed, may our living and loving be a blessing in our time! AMEN!
Closing Song: Joy in our Hearts by Karen Drucker (video by Mary T Streck)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRBSdrI1MBI
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