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| “The Church of the Multiplication” by Alfred Muller is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 |
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
Miracles in our Midst
Welcome and Theme Julie: Good afternoon and welcome! We’re so happy you could join us as we celebrate the miracles that surround us every day as we walk the Way of Jesus. No more of “Heaven’s second-rate hand me downs” for us as we feel the overflowing abundance of this miraculous world we live in.
Opening Prayer: O Great Love, help us to let go of the busy and the worry and the crazy that so often blocks us from feeling your love around and within us. Help us reconnect to the quiet, still place in the center of each of us and to recognize it in others. AMEN
Opening Song: In This Quiet Place by The Many
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcq385i1kHE&feature=youtu.be
LITURGY OF THE WORD
FIRST READING
A reading, Small Kindnesses, from Danusha Laméris.
I’ve been thinking about the way, when walking down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little for each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead – you first,” “I like your hat.”
These are the inspired words of Danusha Laméris and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia
GOSPEL
A Reading from the Gospel attributed to Luke (9:10-17)
After the disciples returned from their mission, they told Jesus stories of all they had done. Jesus withdrew quietly with them to a town called Bethsaida, where they could be alone. The crowds, meanwhile learned about it and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about the kin-dom of God and healed those who needed healing.
The day was drawing to a close. The disciples came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and farms to find lodging and food. This is a deserted place.”
But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
They said, “We only have five loaves and two fish - unless you want us to go and buy food for all these people?” There were about 5,000 families.
But Jesus said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus looked up. He blessed and broke them. He gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. All ate and were satisfied. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter
Shared Reflections
Ah, the loaves and the fishes. Five loaves and two fish feed 5,000 families with 12 baskets leftover. What a miracle, right? We like these stories of the grand gestures, the big miracles. But this guy Albert Einstein, remember him?, had another view: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
How could this be? Science explains so much that sometimes it seems like we’ve explained the miracles and magic right out of this world. Your cancer went into spontaneous remission? Science can explain that. All the beautiful colors of a sunset? Science can explain that too.
Our first reading reflects on the small moments of tenderness between us. Complimenting a passerby, helping a stranger with their spill. Are those miracles? In our world of division and suspicion, maybe they are. That moment when we stop and make ourselves vulnerable by extending an open hand to a stranger, is that a miracle? Maybe it is. Maybe everything really is a miracle. I’m no Einstein. But as I look around—at your shining faces, at the amazing natural world surrounding us, feeling the love supporting us—I can confidently say that everything is holy, every one of us is holy. And that, that right there, is a miracle.
What about you? What did you hear? What will you do? What, if anything, will it cost you? We would love to hear your insights.
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
Julie: As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
Julie: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Julie: With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:
ALL: O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.
You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:
Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
ALL: Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and 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 plate 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)
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
Julie: Please receive communion saying: I am the Face of the Holy One.
Communion Song: Bread of Life by Rory Cooney - Video by MT Streck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7aYkPE5YDE&feature=youtu.be
Prayer after Communion:
Julie: Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our world communities.
We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within,
moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.
AMEN.
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
Julie: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing:
ALL: May the Fire of Love ignite our hearts and radiate through us.
May the Spirit truth and justice burn within us.
May we continue to be the face of the Holy One, and
May we be a blessing in our time.
AMEN.
Closing Song: Everything is Holy Now by Peter Mayer
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