Please join us between 4:30 and 4:55 pm via Zoom
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Liturgy of Radical Compassion of Self Love
Welcome/Theme: Welcome everyone. Together, we focus today on Jesus’ teaching about stopping our worrying and in its stead, to be compassionate toward ourselves through knowing our own soul’s desire and giftedness. When we are able to refocus, we see ourselves as the Holy One does; as recipients of the Kindom, delighting in beauty and managing the hardships and challenges together.
Opening Prayer:
Dearest Holy One, we seek to be free from fear and worry, from regrets and hurts that tell only a small part of our human story. Prayerfully, we gain perspective. Celebrating eucharist, we experience a kindred Easter spirit of dying and rising with Jesus. May we sustain the perspective to live in the here and now in the delightful kindom which is ours with you. Amen
Opening Song: Love Large by Earth Mama
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gyvM3g2my1o&feature=share
There is a love so great
I can not get my words around it.
It is bigger than the heavens and the seas.
I do believe this love is
growing ever stronger
but it needs a little help
From you and me.
Chorus: Love large
Larger than you have ever see.
Love large
Larger than you can ever dream.
If you believe in your heart of hearts
love can change the world,
we can learn to love ourselves
and everybody else
and love large.
Sometimes loving large means
hanging on a little longer.
Sometimes all it means is
letting go.
If you listen to the still small voice
there in your heart,
it will tell you all you need to know.
If you believe in your heart of hearts
love can change the world,
we can learn to forgive ourselves and everybody else.
and everybody else
and love large.
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: “Dig Here,” the Angel Said by St. John of the Cross
She caught me off guard when my soul said to me,
“Have we met?”
So surprised I was to hear her speak like that
I chuckled.
She began to sing a tale: There was once a hardworking man
who used to worry so much because he could
not feed and clothe his children and
wife the way he wanted.
There was a beautiful little chapel in the village
where the man lived and one day while
he was praying, an angel
appeared.
The angel said, “Follow me.” And he did out into an ancient forest.
“Now dig here,” the angel said. And the man felt strength in
His limbs he had not known since youth and with just
His bare hands he dug deep and found a
Lost treasure, and his relationship
With the world changed.
Finding our soul’s beauty does that—give us
tremendous freedom
from worry
“Dig here.” the angel said—
“in your soul.
in your
soul.”
These are the inspired words of St. John of the Cross and we affirm them. Amen
Second Reading: Easter: Personal and Political Transformation from The Last
Week by Borg and Crosson
Easter without Good Friday risks being sentimental and vacuous. It becomes a simple affirmation that spring follows winter, life follows death, flowers bloom again, and it is time for bonnets and bunnies. But Easter is the reversal of Good Friday. Easter is the vindication of Jesus’ passion for the kindom, for God’s justice a. Easter is God’s “no” to the powers who killed Jesus, powers still active in our world.
As the climax of Holy Week and the story of Jesus, Good Friday and Easter address the fundamental human question; What ails us? Most of us feel the force of this question—something is not right. So, what ails us? Perhaps, we need and must seek both personal and political transformation.
A central theme of Christian thought about the human condition is to try and not be centered in the self and its anxieties and preoccupations, what is sometimes called the “small self.” The path of Jesus offers a rebirth of the self, of rising to the moment, of being transformed.
Beyond this personal promise of Easter, there is the political meaning of Jesus tussling with earthly powers and priorities and imagining a world of truth and justice. Jesus’ passion was the kindom of God in which everyone has enough and systems are fair to all.
These are the inspired words by Borg and Crossan and we affirm them. Amen
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Gospel Reading: Luke 12: 22 - 29
Jesus was speaking to his disciples saying: “Don’t worry about your life and what you are to eat. Don’t worry about your body and what you are to wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Can any of you, for all your worrying, add a single hour to your life? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why worry about all the rest?
Notice how the flowers grow. They neither labor nor weave, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was robed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass in the field—which is here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow—how much more will God look after you!
Don’t set your hearts on what you’ll eat or drink. Stop worrying! All the nations of the world seek these things, yet your Abba God well knows what you need. Set your sights on the kindom and all other things will be given to you as well.
Fear not, for it has pleased your Abba to give you the kindom.
These are inspired words from the gospel writer known as Luke and we affirm them. Amen.
(pause)
Homily and Shared Reflections;
In our first reading by St. John of the Cross, an angel sings about someone who found a treasure that had been lost — the soul’s beauty that gives “tremendous freedom from worry” and changes one’s “relationship with the whole world.” There are probably as many understandings of the concept of soul as there are souls in the world but to name a few, we know that Plato understood it as an “interior sense of God.” St. Catherine of Genoa is quoted as saying “My deepest me is God.” Richard Rohr calls the soul “the True Self,” However we think of it, Easter season is as much a time of transformation and exploration of our souls as was Lent — 50 days to dig deep with bare hands and discover God’s grand design for us, a time to confirm how lovely is the spark of Spirit that makes each one of us who we are and who we are capable of becoming.
Our second reading by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan makes clear that searching one’s soul is not navel gazing or self-absorption. If we learn to be kind to ourselves and feel gratitude to our Holy One and it stops there, we have only brushed the surface of the treasure within. The truly examined soul has the fortitude, the temperament, the confidence to bring compassion and kindness to others by working for equality, inclusion and justice in all the bureaucracies and systems that disenfranchise people. The True Self is gritty enough to face the many personal and political hardships that come our way.
So, when Jesus enjoins his followers to stop worrying and focus on what matters most, he is not dismissing the degree of pain and suffering in our world. Certainly, Jesus understands the terror and despair of the Mariupol soldiers and civilians hiding for months in the steel plant and running out of food and water. Those of us who are able to occasionally stop worrying about the “small self” are available to pray, write letters and protest signs and send medical supplies. The bereaved spouse, the person dealing with a life-threatening diagnosis, the parent whose child is ill, the addict trying to get clean, our neighbors and friends need us as much as anyone in our hurting world.
And sometimes, we are that lonely widow, that scared patient, the worrying parent or troubled addict. When we are present with them and help out another, we are using our soul’s beauty to beautify the kindom. The invisible blessing is that we stop worrying about ourselves.
I love the last line of the gospel. “Fear not, for it has pleased your Abba to give you the Kindom.” You and I are blessed to hold it graciously and preciously in our hearts and hands.
What did you hear in the readings? What do they mean to you?
Statement of Faith
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
Prayer for Radical Compassion of Self Love
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to our table our many blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to share your prayers beginning with “I bring to the table…”
… we pray for these and all unspoken concerns deep in our hearts. Amen
Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:
All: We are grateful for our brother Jesus teaching us the way of compassion through entering into the suffering of others. May we care for ourselves as Jesus cared for us, seeing humanity through the eyes of love. Through his loving eyes we are healed and we open our hearts to the pain and suffering of others.
Dearest, Holy One, because of your unconditional loving Presence, we are never alone and always empowered to live with kindness and empathy. Your love radiates from our hearts, minds, and bodies. The nurturance of ourselves and one another in your prayerful Presence emboldens our best selves. “We are not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the nurtured.” (Cozolino)
With joy and gratefulness, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy
You are whole Karen Dr
All: Holy One, you speak to our hearts saying, “I don’t need anything from you for me to love you - I don’t need you to evolve for me to love you - I don’t need you to grow for me to love you - I don’t need you to succeed for me to love you - I will stay with you in any circumstance. I was here at the beginning, I am here in the middle, I will be here in the end. There is nothing you can do to lose me.” “Just your being, designed intentionally within Creation, is love to me”.
We thank you for Jesus who heard the Divine voice of deep love for him as “this is my beloved son”. Jesus showed us a path to comforting ourselves as the Divine Beloved would comfort us and as we would nurture our own children, family and friends. May we hear God’s voice as Jesus did to love and forgive ourselves so that we may more fully love and forgive each other.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: We call upon your Spirit that is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with his 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 bread 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:
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)
Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and compassion. Please receive the bread and cup with the words, you are radically loved.
All: Holy One, your love transforms us to discover the Divine spark in all people so that we may love and heal each other. We resolve to love as Jesus loved: without measure or exceptions. May we follow the example of Jesus who so loved those who have been marginalized, including the poor, the unhoused, the mentally ill, the refugees and immigrants, and the outcast and stranger. Amen.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live in our lives; as we share communion, we become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Communion Song: Holy Angels by Three Altos
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
Please extend your hands in blessing.
ALL:
May the love of God inspire us to love with extravagant generosity
May we find the unique beauty of our souls and exert the courage to reveal it to all the world
May we be liberated from worry so that we might have our eyes on the kindom
And may we rest assured in the eternal Presence of our God.
AMEN.
Closing Song: May the Longtime Sun Shine Upon You by Sara Thomsen
Photos by Scott Stoner and Denise Hackert-Stoner
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