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A Sanctified Art LLC | https://sanctifiedart.org/ |
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
Deb: Welcome to you all. We gather today to celebrate the third weekend of Lent. It is a time of peaceful transformation into unity, where separation and divisiveness can be healed. Joan Chittister has helped us see how this is possible, “Hospitality is the key to new ideas, new friends, new possibilities. What we take into our lives changes us. Without new people and new ideas, we are imprisoned inside ourselves.”
Opening Prayer: (Deb)
Come, all who are thirsty.
Come, all who are seeking.
Come, all who are waiting.
Come, all who labor.
Come, all who need rest.
Come, all who dream dreams.
Come, whether you’re young or old,
confident or curious,
lonely or hopeful.
All are welcome here.
Let us honour the Holy Creator.
Adapted from a prayer by Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC | https://sanctifiedart.org/
Our Opening Song of Peace: Deep Peace, Sara Thomsen, video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: (Kathy W) Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, (1987, page 73)
The situation of the world is still like this. People identify completely with one side, one ideology. To understand the suffering and the fear of a citizen of another country, we must become one. To do so is dangerous - we will be suspected by both sides. But if we don't do it, if we align ourselves with one side or the other, we will lose our chance to work for peace. Reconciliation is to understand both sides, to go to one side and describe the suffering being endured by the other side, and then to go to the other side and describe the suffering being endured by the first side. Doing only that will be a great help for peace.
These are the inspired words of the writer known as Thich Nhat Hanh and the community affirms them by saying, AMEN.
Responsorial Psalm: (Kathy) - Psalm 95:7-9
If only you would hear God’s voice today!
“Harden not your heart as at Meribah,
in the days at Massah in the desert,
where your ancestors tested me.
They tested me even though,
they had seen my works.”
Second Reading: (Sharon) from the poem ‘If you only knew’ by Kathy Worotny
I see a woman standing near the well.
She is hardened, filled with fear, she is not happy with her life.
She longs for inner peace and freedom,
to move towards the grace of new life.
She pictures her life as the earthen vessel,
cracked yet still able to hold water from the well.
It is revealed, her life is like the fragile jar,
she carries each day, longing to be filled.
These are inspired words from Kathy, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia: Deb Trees
Gospel: The Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well: A reading attributed to the Gospel writer John 4:5-42
Narrator: Jesus left Judea and was on his way north, back to Galilee when he stopped at Jacob’s well in the ancient town Sychar near Samaria. His disciples had gone off to the town to buy provisions. Weary from His journey and around noon Jesus sat at the well, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water:
Jesus: “Will you give me a drink?”
Woman: “You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
Jesus: “If only you recognized God’s gift, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink instead, and he would have given you living water.”
Woman: “If you please, You don’t have a bucket, and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get this ‘living water’? Surely you don’t pretend to be greater than our ancestors Leah and Rachel and Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it with their descendants and flocks!”
Jesus: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But those who drink from the water I give them, will never be thirsty; the water I will give them will become fountains within them, springing up to provide eternal life … Go tell your husband!”
Woman: “I do not have a husband!”
Jesus: “You are right, you have had five, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. So, what you have said is true.”
Woman: “I can see you are a prophet!”
Jesus: “Believe me, the hour is coming when you’ll worship Abba God, neither on the mountain nor in Jerusalem … real worshippers will worship Abba God in Spirit and truth.”
Woman: “I know the Messiah, the Anointed One, is coming and will tell us everything.”
Jesus: “I who speak to you, am the Messiah.”
Narrator: The disciples returned and were shocked to find Jesus having a private conversation with a woman, but no one dared to say, “Why are you talking with her? We should eat!”
Jesus: “I have food to eat, that you know nothing about. Doing the will of the One who sent me and bringing this work to completion is my food … One person sows; another reaps. I am going to send you to reap.”
Narrator: Meanwhile, many Samaritans from the town believed in the woman’s testimony and begged him to stay for two more days, and through his own spoken words, many more came to faith.
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call John, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter: (Suzanne D.) Transformation as Renewal and Peace
The Responsorial Psalm reminds us of a time in the Exodus journey, when the Israelites lacked faith and quarreled with Moses that Yahweh was not providing water in the desert, the symbolic gift of spiritual and physical nourishment. In the year-long contemplative journey that Brian McLaren provides in his book We make the road by walking, Brian explains that the fall of Israel followed centuries after the Exodus. It began in 722 B.C. when the northern Assyrians invaded taking many of the Israelites into captivity. As a result, intermarriage took place and the mixed descendants later became known as Samaritans, creating a lasting tension with the southern ‘pure’ descendants of Abraham in Judah.
Our imaginations light up as we see Rabbi Jesus in an everyday situation centuries later, addressing the social realities of his day head on by going to the people rather than expecting them to come to Him. A deep theological conversation is shared with an ‘impure’ woman that is powerful, challenging the norms of tension and prejudice that hinder peace and unity.
Jesus crossed the religious taboos of race and gender in a calm, relaxed way by simply asking to share water from the same jar. His knowledge of her life choices, without outright judgement, led the unnamed woman in this scripture to truly believe the Messiah had arrived. Unable to contain her excitement she rushed to share the good news with her village. When hospitality was extended by the villagers, the Christ-like attitude even shook the disciples who believed the walls of division were truth. A crack of light has appeared into the hearts and minds of everyone.
The hospitality extended by the estranged Samaritans to the Jewish strangers, sparks our imagination. We can imagine the celebration and wonder about the conversations that brought about renewed unity to one of the lost tribes of Israel. And we can also wonder if the disciples understood the deeper meaning of what was unfolding that day. As so many women are unnamed in scripture, it was refreshing to find out that the unnamed woman who created so much controversy has been named St. Photini by the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Christians and the followers still tend Jacob’s well to this day.
The symbolism of life-giving water is an extension into the world of beliefs, that love brings hospitality, hospitality brings cooperation, cooperation brings unity, unity brings peace and peace is the essence of life, as written by Nigerian author Bafferh Muhammad, and echoed by Thich Nhat Hanh and Joan Chittister. In this season of Lent, can we imagine the possibility of transformation? Can we invite the gifts of hospitality into our lives? We would love to hear your insights on the readings. Please remember to re-mute yourself when you are finished sharing.
Shared Reflections
Statement of Faith: (Kathy W & Sharon)
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
adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu
Deb: 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 intentions held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN.
Presider: With open hearts and 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
(Words and music by Karen Drucker)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTewBnxBy30
We are holy, holy, holy (3X)
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 (3x)
You are whole.
Presider: 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.
Please extend your hands in blessing
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.
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.
(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.
Please receive communion saying: “I am the Spirit of Christ.”
Communion Song: May Peace Be with You by Annie Garretson
May peace be with you
Peace be with you now
May peace be with you always
Peace be with you now and always
Following verses: substitute ‘peace’ with ii) love, iii) grace – Closing is first verse repeated
Prayer After Communion:
Sharon: 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 of unity 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.
Kathy: 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 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
Deb: Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
In all of your living, and breathing, and being,
May you find yourself full to the brim with God’s Holy Spirit, and may it transform your life.
In the name of the Lover and the Beloved, go in peace. AMEN.
Closing Song: Turning of the World by Sara Thomsen
Let us sing this song for the turning of the world
That we may turn as one
With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along
And our lives will feel the echo of our turning
With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along
With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along
And our lives will feel the echo of our turning
Following verses: substitute ‘turning, turn’, for ii) loving, love
iii) healing/heal
iv) dreaming/dream
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