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
Welcome and Theme: Julie: Good morning and welcome! We are so very glad to have you here with us, whether in the room or over Zoom, as we explore and celebrate the healing power of love and gratitude in our lives.
Opening Prayer: Bridget: Holy One, as we gather in, help us to feel your love and peace in our own hearts and in the heart of our beloved community and in the heart of our very world. We are grateful to know your peace in ourselves and in our interactions with others, both those near and dear to our hearts and to the strangers we encounter each day. AMEN
Opening Song: Room at the Table by Carrie Newcomer
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Alleluia: Bridget
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel attributed to Luke (17:11-19)
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten adults with leprosy came toward him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, you command all things: Have compassion on us!” When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were made clean.
Then one of them, realizing the leprosy had been cured, turned back, praising God with shouts of joy. The one who came back laid down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. It was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to the one who returned and gave thanks, “Rise up! Go on your way. Your faith has made you well.”
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Second Reading: A reading from The Healing Power of Prayer by Bridget Mary Meehan.
Jesus is not someone who simply takes away the sicknesses and hurts of our earthly life. Rather, by the power of his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus gives life that endures through suffering and death. Faith in the healing power of Jesus invites us to believe that the same Spirit who healed through Jesus now moves through us, gives us the ultimate gifts of healing and peace, and works through us to bring healing and peace to human beings and to our earth.
To be healed in mind, heart, body or spirit is more than just a foretaste of the eternal glory. It is the real thing! To be healed is to be gifted with the “first fruits of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:23) Luke connected Jesus’ healings with his future victory. He saw Jesus’ acts of empowering love in healing the sick as significant pointers to Jesus’ future sovereignty over all oppression, negativity, and evil in the Companionship of Empowerment. Jesus’ healing miracles were primarily symbols of that grace and hope which the Holy One would bring to all people. They were reflections of divine inclusivity for all creation. They remind us that everyone ought to have a place at the table, especially those who have been marginalized and excluded.
These are the inspired words of Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Shared Homily Julie:
What is healing? Is it simply the removal of illness? In the second reading, Bridget Mary invites us to imagine that it could be so much more than that. Healing, she writes, is both heaven on earth and also a reflection of divine inclusivity. After all, Jesus healed foreigners too. In fact, a Samaritan was the only one of the ten who came back to say thank you to Jesus for the healing. How often do we say thank you? Is flinging ourselves headlong into life after being healed a kind of thank you or do we need to be more intentional? Apparently, even Jesus liked hearing the words. I confess that the thank you I recently wrote to the nurse practitioner who finally, finally!, stopped my migraines was a first for me. Seeing the smile on her face when she read the note made me realize that in the future, I need to be vocal in my own gratitude.
And then there’s leprosy. What do you think is the leprosy of our time, the thing that everyone fears and therefore avoids the sufferers of for fear of catching? Is it COVID? It did cause a pandemic after all. Mental illness? Dementia? Autism? Who are the people that you find yourself avoiding? Is it the elderly uncle who only remembers three stories, all involving people that you’ve never heard of? Or is it the neighbor who is fun and friendly one day and confused and disheveled the next? Or maybe you’ve been the one people avoided. How did it feel when someone wouldn’t meet your eyes and hurried past?
We would love to hear your insights on the readings. What did you hear? What will you do? What, if anything, will it cost you? If you’re online, don’t forget to unmute and then mute yourself again when you’re finished.
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.
Julie: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. 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 concerns. Amen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu
Bridget: With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
Gracious God, source and sustenance of life, redeeming presence to the pain and brokenness of our world, Holy Spirit, who enlivens and inebriates all that exists, we beseech your healing power upon us and all we pray for today.
Down through the ages, you rescue us from darkness.
you light up our ways with wise and holy people. You restore our spirits and you revive our dwindling hope.
May the Spirit of life and wholeness transform us that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love, and healing to those whose lives we touch.
For all you bring to our lives, and for all we seek amid
pain and suffering, we acclaim your love and greatness,
and we join with all creation to sing our hymn 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 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, lives in me.
You are holy, holy, holy.
You are holy, holy, holy.
You are holy, holy, holy.
You are whole.
Julie: Please extend your hands in blessing.
Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind, and spirit, we bring before you the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of your people.
We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and in our world.
We ask you to awaken anew in our hearts the empowering grace of your abundant Spirit, who infuses these gifts of bread and wine with the transforming energy of life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
As we gather around this friendship table, we recall God’s
blessing and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew
the gift of life which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life. But that life we often impede by our greed and selfishness and by our exploitation of other people.
Bridget: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for 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 plate and pray:
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 and pray:
Julie: 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.
Please receive communion saying: “May you choose healing.”
Communion Song: Healed, Whole and Healthy by Karen Drucker – video Mary Theresa Streck
https://youtu.be/zvCU9ZqXEWw
Prayer After Communion
Bridget: In faith and hope we are sustained,
In grace our dignity reclaimed,
In praise we thank our God.
Grant that we may strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the God of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, until the Kin-dom arrives in the fullness of time.
This prayer we make in the name of our healing and nurturing God through, with, and in whom we offer these gifts, sources of life, love, and goodness, now and forever. Amen.
Reader: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
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
Julie: Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
ALL: May we continue to be the face of God to each other.
May our companionship make us new each day.
May our name be a blessing in our time. Amen.
Closing Song: GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World
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