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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome: Today is the feast day of Teresa of Avila. She is a woman who was real and genuine. Let’s see if we have any of her qualities.
Let us pray: Holy One, there are many saints in our church. Some are fictitious and some are real. Some are from the past and some live among us today. All of them have something to teach us. May our hearts be open to learn from them. Amen.
Opening song:
Courageous Women by Jan Novotka, Video by MT Streck
LITURGY OF THE WORD
A reading from Teresa of Avila from the Interior Castle
Perhaps we don’t know what love is. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that this is true, sad but true. Love doesn’t exist-as we like to think- in the degree to which we are happy. No, love exists in the strength of our determination to try to please God in everything that we do, each and every day. The important thing is not to think much but to love much. So, start doing whatever most stirs you to love.
These are the inspired words of Teresa of Avila, a daughter of the Holy One. We confirm these words by saying AMEN
Celtic Alleluia
A Reading from the gospel of Matthew
You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor-but hate your enemy’. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. This will prove you are children of God. For God makes the sun rise on the good and the bad alike; God’s rain falls on the just and unjust.
We affirm these words by saying: AMEN
Shared Homily:
Today is the feast of Teresa of Avila. She was born in 1515 and lived in a culture where women were considered less than. Scholars say Teresa was quite beautiful, and her family was wealthy. She was a social butterfly, flirtatious, head strong and stubborn. She had many suitors and could have easily married. The Holy One had different plans for her. When she was 20, she heard a call from God and entered the convent. She could have joined the austere Augustinian convent but instead chose the easy-going Carmelite order. If she had to heed God’s call and live in a convent she was going to have a good life. God also knew she was head strong.
A contemporary papal legate described her as a “restless wanderer, disobedient, and a stubborn feminist who, under the title of devotion, invented bad doctrines, moving outside the cloister against the rules of the Council of Trent and taught as a master against Paul’s orders that women should not teach”. Teresa did not accept the status quo and went about reforming the convent and then the church. Teresa had a close relationship with the Holy One. One day she was on her way home from visiting one of her newly built convents.
It was pouring rain, and she was walking in mud up to her ankles. She asked God to please stop the rain. Instead of stopping it rained harder. The story goes she looked up and said, “if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies”. She had no problem talking to the Holy One.
In the first reading, Teresa says “we are to try and please God in everything we do.” And what pleases God…. love one another as God loves us.
You and I grew up focusing on the rules of the church, we know now what is important, do everything we can to please God and love one another.
I think today we would call Teresa a rebel, a bad ass. We are here tonight because we are bad asses. Like Teresa, we are restless because we are trying to find our way. We are also disobedient feminists who go against the man-made teachings of the church. We are reformers because we are breaking new ground. We are following the path of Jesus as he meant it to be. What a great journey we are on together.
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.
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
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….”
We pray for these and all unspoken prayers and blessings. Amen.
We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
All: O Nurturing, Mothering One, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.
We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence we long to sing our hymn of praise:
Here in this Place – Holy Holy Holy by Christopher Grundy
All: Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation
Please extend your hands in blessing
All: This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.
We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.
(All lift the bread)
All: Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
(All lift the cup)
ALL: Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
Bread and wine are transformed by Your Spirit and we are transformed when we open ourselves to Your Spirit. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.
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.
Please receive the bread and cup with the words: There is nothing I cannot do in your love.
Communion Song:
Everyday God by Bernadette Farrell
Communion prayer:
Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence Amen.
Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:
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.
The Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
BLESSING
Please extend your hands and pray the blessing of Teresa of Avila.
Let nothing bother you. Let nothing scare you. Everything changes, always. Only God is steady and changeless. Patience hits the target. Only patience always gets what it wants. The person who possesses God possesses everything. That person lacks nothing. Only God satisfies your every need. May it be so for each of us. Amen.
Closing Song
Anthem by Tom Conry
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