Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am via ZoomHere 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
Love Within Us
Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
Welcome and Theme:
Judy: Welcome everyone. Our theme today is Love Within Us. As Thomas Merton said,” Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.” We stand with all as we confront life’s joys and sorrows, pleasures and challenges.
Opening Prayer:
Lindy: Holy Wisdom, we come to you today. Fill us with joy while we are here! Spirit, teach us how to take that wisdom you share with us, and the joy we find in it and in being together … Teach us how to take all this and more with us as we leave this site. Teach us how to spill this love onto our troubled world. Amen
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Lynn: Gospel Reading: A reading from the gospel book called John 13: 34-35
“A new commandment I give unto you. That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.”
These holy words were attributed to John. We as a community affirm them by saying Amen!
Dave: A reading from Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Love is the most durable power in the world.”
These holy words were spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. We as a community affirms them by saying. Amen!
Dave: Alleluia
Alleluia. We will praise your name forever.
The Holy One is sweet to all: using tender mercies with all blessed works.
Alleluia. We will praise you name forever.
We shall speak of the glory of your kin-dom, and shall tell of your power.
Alleluia. We will praise your name forever.
(Alleluia adapted from catholicgallery.org)
Terri: A reading from Teilhard de Chardin
“Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. We are one, after all, you and I….We suffer together, exist, and will forever recreate each other! “
These holy words were spoken by Teilhard de Chardin. We affirm them by.” saying Amen.
(a moment of silence)
Dennis: Alleluia
Shared Homily
Lindy …
Good morning!
The stories told most often about Jesus are of him reminding those he taught to remember that Yahweh loves them. And to live lives that can be, at the core, happy knowing that they are cherished. No matter what happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow. When asked what was the most important thing to do when living this Way, he always spoke of choosing to love everyone we know, meet, see…even ourselves.
This reading from the book known as John talks of Jesus reminding his followers that he has asked them many times to love Everyone, Everyone…Everyone. To treat everyone as they would like to be treated…… as we would want to be treated…to forgive everyone as many times as it takes, without stopping to consider whether or not they are worthy, as Thomas Mertin put it. “Love one another” is easy teaching from Jesus to remember, perhaps his most remembered. And for me, one that I sort out over and over!
One morning last week was clear. Usually I awake slowly, with a warm cup of coffee in my hand. Gazing vaguely to the east. I remember the blue/grey haze slowly becoming streaked with a dark red flash. Suddenly a curved swath of red/gold light spilled over the house behind us…It’s warmth washed over my face and into my soul…startling me wide, wide awake to all the wonder around me. Tiny diamonds of dew in every blade of grass…a bright gold/red light flowing through the first narcissis that had bloomed close to my feet. Alight reflected off the feathers of a red winged blackbird who looked as startled as I was!…
I knew inside my sleepy mind that the sun was coming up. Half awake, I was even waiting for it. Still the wonder of the love the Creatrix poured out onto our little planet …. I saw evidence of that in this quiet moment and it will be in my heart forever.
Love…we have a hard time accepting ourselves…sometimes even accepting other’s love for us. I wonder if it is because we don’t let ourselves think of the wonder of reaction as love spilling out from Her or His being…this Creative energy that formed all … each of the universes, each of the solar systems, each of the planets, each of the beings that walk on them. If we notice that never-ending Light washes over, around and through us, spilling out onto each person, we see….each creature around us, and onto this ecosystem, would be/ will be as natural as the sun coming up every morning.
Shane Glaiboren said “No one has seen God, but as we love one another, God Lives in us!”
Often here we say “We receive communion, we say “ we will become communion”….Until this week, I always thought of this kind of communion we become in Liturgy as being a beautiful way to build community…and it is. I've pondered this as Judy and were planning…I think if we take this love that splashes over and through us and pour that into what we create when we consecrate this wine and bread, becoming communion and share that with the each other in Upper Room, be it on Zoom, or in this room, we complete and fill each other…reaching into the depth of our hearts and lives. If we carry this inclusivity outside, to each person we meet the communion we have become here… our inclusivity…. will touch each we see in the depth of their being…and together we will re-create the world!
(pause)
“Love is the most durable power in the world.” Martin Luther King said
What do you hear in these readings? ………
Thank you, my friends…for your wisdom this day…for your kind word, and for the love we pour out onto each other.
(a moment of silence)
Statement of Faith
Lynn: Let us now make our 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.
Bringing Prayers and Concerns to the Table
Judy: Holy One, You reside within us, and we, within You. Hear us now as we bring our concern and our gratitude to this, our table.
Feel free to speak of your concerns, beginning with the words I bring to the table..”
We pray also for each thing for which we are grateful and for all unspoken concerns. Amen.
(a moment of silence)
Eucharistic Prayer
Judy : Please join us in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:
O Holy One, you have birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and cherished us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth.
In the power of that same Spirit, we lift our hearts in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment, that we may continue to praise and thank you.
Holy Holy Holy (Upper Room) – Karen Drucker
Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power. We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, hindering your creative presence in our midst.
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life.
Judy: Please extend your hands in blessing.
Judy and All: We invoke Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light, and truth which remind us of our call to be just, inclusive, and pour out loving-kindness onto the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at the Seder supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them. To fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
(All lift their plates and pray the following:)
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
“Take and eat; this is my very self.”
(All lift their cups and pray the following: )
Lindy: He then raised high 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.”
What we have heard today with our ears, we will live with our lives. As we share communion, we will become communion, both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge.
Take this bread and wine with the words “As we receive communion, we become communion.”
(consume bread and wine)
Communion Meditation: Loving God Loving Each Other by Gaither Vocal Band
Judy and ALL: Let us pray together.
In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom and courage: to discern more wisely your love for us in our daily lives, seen and unseen; to act justly and courageously in confronting the pain and suffering that desecrates the Earth and its peoples; to take risks in being creative and proactive on behalf of the poor and marginalized; and to love all people with generosity of heart, beyond the labels of race, creed, color, or sexual identity.
And may we ever be aware and alert to the new things Your Spirit makes possible in us, as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty, into the fullness of life to which we are all called, participating in the wise and wonderful work of building community and co-creation.
Like Jesus, we will open wide all that has been closed in and around us. We will live compassionate lives, as Jesus lived, so that we awaken to your loving Spirit within us and pour that loving-kindness out, first onto those around us, and then onto the whole wide world.
Prayer of Jesus
Ellen: Let us pray as Jesus taught his friends to pray:
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 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 (Miriam Therese Winter)
(a moment of silence)
Final Blessing
Lindy…. May our Love infuse every space around us with the perfume of Joy, Hope, and Peace. May we be a blessing on our world in our time. Amen.
Closing Song:
Love One Another - Mix
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