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| Icon of St Mary Magdalene by artist Robert Lentz, osf — SAGRADA |
Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am 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
I am she, the Lord
Welcome and Theme: Julie
Good morning and welcome! We are so glad to have you join us as we celebrate the Feast of Mary of Magdala and explore the divine feminine. Christie and I invite you to consider the possibilities outlined in The Thunder, Perfect Mind, where it is written:
“I am the first and the last. I am she who is honored and she who is scorned. I am the whore and the holy woman. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the bride and the bridegroom. I am she, the Lord.”
Opening Prayer: Christie
Like Mary
the Magdalene,
the tower, the great
professor of faith
empty your heart
of failure, worry, shame
and seek the love
the peace
that is within you
be the proclaimer of the truth
that you know
be the embodiment
of the capacity
to enter the heart so fully.
See visions.
See who you are
holy, divine.
Opening Song Ancient Mother – Song by Jan Novotka, Video by MT Streck
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
A reading from “Jesus & God as Woman” by Herb Montgomery (adapted)
I find it telling that it is often the gender of Jesus that defines God, qualifies human men for ordination, and centers men while disenfranchising those who do not identify as male within the church. Rarely do we see Jesus’ ungendered concern for the poor, marginalized, and excluded on the edges of society or Jesus’ ethic of universal love and treating others as you would like to be treated as what defines God, qualifies one for ordination, or impacts how to view and treat those who are not gendered as male.
Some, seeing the above challenges, have chosen to adopt genderless symbols for God or the Divine. While part of me applauds this, we may have skipped a step. We don’t get to go from exclusively gendering God as male for two thousand years in Christianity to describing God as genderless. This conveniently bypasses the internal confrontation many have to face through the practice of gendering God as a woman. It doesn’t take long to realize that gendering God as a woman is not only life-giving, but it’s redemptive and restorative as well.
People of all genders should be able to see themselves as bearing the image of the Divine because we all do. In our language for God, in the symbols we use for God, we can and must represent that image more clearly. Language and symbols have a function! We must be honest in asking whether the language and symbols we use genuinely are life-giving for everyone.
These are the inspired words of Herb Montgomery and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary of Magdala
The Blessed One …greeted them all saying, “Peace be with you. Bear my peace within yourselves.
For the Child of Humanity is within you! Follow it! Those who seek it will find it. Go then and proclaim the good news of the realm. Do not lay down any rules beyond what I determined for you, nor give a law like the lawgiver, lest you be confined by it.” When he had said this, he departed.
But they were pained. They wept greatly, saying, “How shall we go to the nations and proclaim the good news of the Child of Humanity? If they did not spare him, how will they spare us?”
Then Mary stood up. She greeted them all, and said to her brothers and sisters, “Do not weep and be pained, nor doubt, for all his grace will be with you and shelter you.” When Mary said this, she turned their heart to the Good, and then began to discuss the words of the Savior.
Peter said to Mary, “Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of the women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember, which you know and we do not, nor have we heard them.” Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I will tell you,” And she began to say to them these words.
“I,” she said, “I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision.” He answered and said to me,
“Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.”
I said to Him, “Lord, how does she who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?”
The Savior answered and said, “She does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision.”
But Andrew responded and said to the brothers and sisters, “Say what you will about what she has said, I do not believe that the Savior said this…” Peter responded and spoke concerning these same things. “Did he really speak with a woman without our knowing it? Are we to turn around and all listen to her? Did he choose her over us?”
Then Mary wept and said to Peter, “My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?”
Shared Homily: Julie
I am she, the Lord. We’re not used to hearing that. In our first reading, Herb Montgomery talks about why that is and what we can do about it because words matter, symbols matter. Do we skip past gender all together, which is what I usually do, or do we spend some time resting in a nurturing, mothering female God? We use the term Creator God here a lot. But birthing is the job of women. In a few minutes, we’ll move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which Jesus modeled for us. But in most homes, feeding the family is the job of women.
So how did we get here? As we’ve all seen, the role of women was systematically stripped out of church life. Mary of Magdala is a prime example of this. She went from being a trusted companion, a disciple, of Jesus, the person he chose to reveal himself to first after the resurrection, to being declared a prostitute by Pope Gregory in the sixth century. This pronouncement by Gregory discredited teachings attributed to Mary (like the gospel we just read) and undermined women in leadership roles. Eventually, women as leaders of the church were effectively erased until we got the to the point we’re at now, where women priests like me do not get Vatican approval. You may have noticed that isn’t stopping us.
Where do we go from here? I think we follow the example of Mary of Magdala and, with the eye of the heart, we look to the future and our role in it. We can’t cower like the disciples for fear that no one will welcome us; in fact, some people will threaten us. Who cares if the Vatican doesn’t approve? If we turn our hearts to the Good, if we rest in the grace of Jesus, it will all fall into place.
What did you hear? What will you do? What will it cost you? We would love to hear your insights on today’s readings.
Statement of Faith
All: 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.
Christie: O Holy One, you have been called by many names by many people in the centuries of our planet’s life. Yet, no name truly defines you or describes you. We celebrate you as the marvelous, loving energy of life who caused us and our world to be. We celebrate you as the Source of light and life and love, and we celebrate your presence and all-ways care.
Julie: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:
(WomanSpirit Rising written by Jay Murnane.)
O Holy One, You give us life, and we live and breathe with your Spirit. You create us and love us as female and male and beyond these binaries; You call us good, and we live as equal partners. You share the earth with us, and we, as co-creators with you, complement your ongoing activity of creation.
Among all our blessed ancestors, we celebrate the women who gently and firmly confronted the structures of oppression in their times with unique vision and compassion: Sarah, Deborah, Judith, Miriam, Ruth, Esther, Anna, Miriam of Nazareth, Miriam of Magdala, Julian, Hildegard, and so many more.
United with them, with WomenSpirit rising, with our Mother-Planet and her people everywhere, with one another and You, O Holy One, our spirits dance and sing this song of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy https://youtu.be/nTewBnxBy30
(Words and music by Karen Drucker)
We are holy, holy, holy,
We are holy, holy, holy,
We are whole.
Spirit Divine, Come to Me,
healing Love, healing Me.
Open my heart, allow me to see,
Beauty and love, live in me.
You are holy, holy, holy…
Christie and All: We give grateful thanks for all your faithful servants, opening for all of us a path to life. We are thankful for all the women who risked everything they had so that all of us could live in a better, brighter world.
We give grateful thanks for our brother, Jesus who showed us so simply, so tenderly, how the world is in our hands. He showed us how to be free of the blindness and paralysis of fear.
He had nothing in this world but your love, companions on the journey, and his very self. Together, that was more than enough, and that remains our clarity in the midst of confusion: the miracle of healing, new hope, nurturance, nourishment, liberation and life.
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:
Julie and All: 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)
All: O Holy One, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We will live justly.
You call us to be Your presence in the world. We will love tenderly
You call us to speak truth to power. We will walk with integrity in your presence.
All: What we have heard 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.
Christie: Our Eucharistic celebration is all-inclusive. You are a spark of the Divine and nothing can separate you from God’s love. All are welcome to receive at this table. Please pass the bread with the words You are holy, divine.
Communion Song: The Heart of God (An Easter Song) by Alana Levandoski
Prayer After Communion
Julie: O Holy One, we have felt deeply the barrenness of our lives and of our community. Yet, we have always been pregnant with your creative Word and your life-giving Spirit.
We make new our commitment to the harmony of the original vision of creation living
justly, loving tenderly, and walking this earth with integrity. We will bind and blind and burden no longer and use our gifts only for life.
We will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and our small circles. Like Jesus, we are filled with your Spirit and with You, we renew the face of the earth.
For it is through living as Jesus lived,
That we awaken to your Spirit within,
Moving us to glorify you,
O Holy One,
At this time and all ways.
Amen.
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
All: 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)
BLESSING
Christie: Let us raise our hands and pray the blessing, A Prayer for the Co-Conspirators of Mary Magdalene, together:
God of mischief,
You call us, in the words and life of John Lewis, to make “good trouble.”
You remind us, in the words and life of CT Vivian, that we are made by the struggles we choose.
You have blessed us with the calling and the choice to proclaim equality for all genders to serve your people as ministers.
Bless us as we go forth to celebrate the example of Mary Magdalene.
Bold disciple, apostle to the apostles, woman of strength and courage.
Grant us courage as we act in defiance of the unjust status quo.
Grant us safety in our movements.
Give us a sense of the communion of saints surrounding us as we go.
We are making your resurrection gardens.
Displaying new signs of life,
Of the blooming of equality.
You are with us in our holy mischief,
Which is, after all,
How we bring your kin-dom into being.
Amen.
(Women’s Ordination Conference, 2020)
Closing Song Woman Spirit by Karen Drucker – video by MT Streck
https://youtu.be/YT4S7aNHzQA
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