Upper Room Saturday Liturgy - Family Liturgy of Gratitude, September 2, 2023 - Co-Presiders:Kathie Ryan, Mary Theresa Streck, Dennis McDonald, Denise Hackert-Stoner

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155 
phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155

Family Liturgy of Gratitude

Welcome:  Welcome to the Season of Creation!  Every year during the month of September we especially remember the great gift of creation, and remind ourselves of our responsibility to care for it.  This year our theme will be “Let justice and peace flow like a mighty river.”  

Opening Prayer:

Holy One, we gather today in thanksgiving for the great gifts of creation.  We thank you for our Earth, for the air we breathe, and for the water we drink.  We thank you for the Sun which warms us and gives us life.  We know that when we treat the Earth badly we are treating you badly.  We will always try to honor you by honoring the Earth.  Amen. 

Our opening song this morning is about what happens when people do not care enough to honor the Earth. 

 

Opening Song:  Garbage, by Pete Seeger https://youtu.be/1ffBb2zaMjk 

LITURGY OF THE WORD

 

First Reading:  Amos 5:24 and Micah 6:8 (Adapted from The Message Bible and NIV)

Reader 1:  The Holy One says, “Do you know what I want?
    I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

Reader 2:  The Holy One has shown us what is good, and that is 

to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

These words are from the ancient prophets Amos and Micah, who understood how people should live.  We believe their words, so we say AMEN.

Alleluia:  https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk  

Second Reading:  From Psalm 104 adapted from Nan Merrill)

Reader 1:  

Because of you, grass grows for the cattle,

and plants for us to grow 

So that we might have food from the earth.

You give us oil and healing herbs of many kinds,

and bread, our daily food.

Reader 2:  

The trees are watered with the rain you send,

And with the sun they provide the air we breathe.

Every living creature has its home:

the birds nest in trees, the wild animals upon the mountaintop;

even the rocks provide protection.

Reader 3:

You created the moon to mark the tides and seasons,

the sun, that rises and sets in beauty.

In darkness, when night comes,

the creatures of the forest roam the earth.

Reader 4:

They eat their fill, as much as they need;

You provide their food.

When the sun rises, they disappear from sight

and lie sown in their dens.

Reader 5:

As your people go forth to their work,

You are there to guide them.

Praise the Creator of the Universe!

Bless the Heart of my heart, O my soul! 

All:  Amen.

This is a song our ancestors sang about the beautiful works of the Holy One.  We believe that the Holy One is present in all of creation, so we say Amen.

Homily Starter (This is an interactive, guided conversation.)

Once there were two girls.  They went to the same school and were in the same class.  Every day, one girl brought her friend a surprise at lunch time.  One day an apple, another day a candy bar, or maybe a peach or some grapes.  And every day the other girl ate the special gift her friend brought her.  And in return, she gave her friend the trash.  The apple core, the wrapper from the candy bar, the peach pit.  Never did she thank her friend.  As time went on, the girl brought more and more trash and gave it to her generous friend.  Old clothes that no longer fit her.  Toys that were broken or ones she no longer wanted.  Huge stacks of paper from old school work.  Her friend took all of the trash.  Until one day.  One day the generous friend did not come to school.  Many days went by and still there was no sign of her.  The girl began to wonder where her friend was.  She went to her friend’s house.  But she couldn’t even get into the front door.  Her friend’s house was so full of the trash that the girl had loaded on her that the door wouldn’t even open.  It was blocked by the trash.  

Every day our generous friend, the Earth, gives us gifts.  Food.  Water.  Beautiful plants and flowers to look at.  Air to breathe.  And every day we give our generous friend our trash.  So much trash that our friend the Earth has become polluted with it.  So much trash that some of the Earth’s water is not safe to drink.  So much trash that our Earth’s air is not safe to breathe.  

Let’s try to change things.  Let’s try to become more like the generous friend who gives good gifts, and less like the girl who gives only trash.  Let’s look at some of the trash the girl gave her generous friend and try to think of alternatives….other choices that would have been better.  Please share your thoughts on today’s readings.

Statement of Faith 

We believe in the Holy One who is in everything we see

And even in everything we cannot see.

As far away as the most distant star and as near as the air we breathe.

The Holy One is there, creating everything out of Love.

 We believe in Jesus, who showed us the Holy One

In how he lived his life,
He showed us that the Holy One is 

In our lives too.

We believe that we are called to live like Jesus.

We are called to bring peace, and light, healing and kindness,

We are called to be brave and speak up, and help out when 

Others are suffering or things are not right.

We believe that the Spirit of the Holy One

Lives in us and in all of creation.  

We feel the Spirit in the wind, the warm sun,

The cold snow, and we see it in the faces of other people.

We believe that if we live in the Spirit of the Holy One,

If we remember to act with kindness and courage,

We will make the family of the Holy One larger and larger

Until the whole world is at peace.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

Holy One you have given us all good things.  Every friend we meet is a gift from you.  We are grateful for all of our friends.  We thank you for our bodies, we wouldn’t be here without them.  We are grateful for the moon because the sky wouldn’t be the same without it.  We thank you for the sun, because it gives us heat and helps the plants make food.  And we are thankful for love, Holy One; love that comes from you through the people in our lives.

We pray now for the things we are grateful for and for the things that worry or concern us.  As we bring these prayers today we begin with the words “I bring to the table.”

Conclude with:

In love and gratitude, and in faith, we pray for all these things and for all the prayers we hold in our hearts.

Holy, Holy, Holy by Karen Drucker  https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI

Holy One, we see around us all of your creation.  The trees, flowers, birds, animals and insects sing with joy for your creative power.  We are your creation too, and we thank you for our lives.

We thank you for sending Jesus, our brother, to show us how to live so that your love can show through in the world.  We thank you for your Spirit, which showers your love and wisdom on the earth like rain, and which opens our eyes in wonder.

Please hold your hands out like this… (demonstrate) as we bless the bread and juice. 

Holy One, you blessed the grain in this bread and the fruit in this juice as they grew on the earth. The people who baked the bread and made the juice blessed them with their work.  Today, with your Spirit, we bless them again, as they become gifts of love, light and truth and remind us that we too are blessed with your Spirit.

Jesus gathered his friends around a table like this.  He took the bread, and said a prayer of thanksgiving.  Then he broke the bread and shared it with his friends, saying, “Take and eat this bread. It is my very self.”

After the meal, Jesus took the cup of blessing.  He said another prayer of thanks, and then he offered his friends the cup saying

“Take and drink of the loving agreement

Made new again through my life in you.

Whenever you remember me like this,

I am among you.”

We are one today with all people who have ever lived, all the people and animals we have loved.  With them we ask you, Holy One, for the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do what is right.

- Help us to be kind to one another.

- Help us to take care of the earth.

- Help us to reach out to people who need our help.

And as we grow, help us to see where your Spirit leads us as our lives unfold in this world of pain and beauty so that we may become wise co-creators of the future.

Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live loving lives, for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Light within.

Amen. 

As you receive Communion remember the words, “Thank you for the Earth.”  

Communion Meditation:   For Her Speak, by MaMuse  https://youtu.be/Ms2Ar-yrMjA

Jesus taught us how to love and care for one another and all of creation.  We are grateful for our brother, Jesus, who taught us how to pray.

Let us pray like Jesus taught us:

Great Spirit, 

You are within, around and among us, 

We know you by many names: 

Beloved, Holy One, Great Mystery….

May we be wise.

May we live as you want us to live.

Each day you give us all we need.

You guide us and support us in our power.

For you dwell within us,  

and we celebrate you now and forever.  Amen

BLESSING

Holy One, we ask your blessing on all the children and adults gathered here today, and on all of your creation.  May we walk with joy and gratitude as we know that you are always walking with us. 

All: AMEN

Closing Song: Blessings by Hollow Coves 

https://youtu.be/5M3JL9sHS5Q

Moment of Oneness, August 30, 2023

WELCOME!      Mystic Moment:  St. Clare of Assisi      July 16, 1194  –  August 11, 1253

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656

OPENING SONG: Become What We Love by Carmel Boyle

https://youtu.be/98erkb5g88c?si=n5hU9ezoJkh-aSmW 

OPENING PRAYER

Holy One, we thank you for the continual flow of spiritual models we celebrate in the communion of saints. Help us slow down daily distractions and approach the thin place in the veil between us and mystics who have transitioned to the other side as we listen, watch, and draw spiritual energy from them for our journey. 

St. Clare, we are grateful for your extraordinary lessons that affect our everyday life.  We ask for the strength, courage, and fortitude you showed by inspiring the Church hierarchy to trust women’s judgement and spirituality in the transformation of ideas and attitudes in the Church and throughout the world. By your determination and unending perseverance, you highlighted and jump-started the power of women’s work in bringing the Kin-Dom of Christ Jesus. By your words, deeds, and example, St. Clare, you taught us to reflect the good in ourselves, unlock what is already within us, and shine the light of Love to all creation.

ST. CLARE’S QUIET REVOLUTION Sr. Margaret Carney, OSF

https://youtu.be/VahdSq4B34Q?si=6ewsToO2KDmxp6zNb 

   

FIRST MEDITATION

On the cold and windy night of Palm Sunday, March 12, 800 years ago, an 18-year-old noble-born young woman, Clare di Offreduccio, escaped through a window in her parents’ home. Clare’s mother had instilled in her a deeply loving spirit toward everyone, and Clare longed to share this love of the Holy One in an authentic way. She wanted women too to have a profound spiritual life, to have a life where not only the friars and nuns could follow the gospel message, but where everyday people equally participate in Jesus of Nazareth’s message. After hearing Brother Francis preach on the streets of Assisi, Clare knew the Holy One was calling her through Francis’s way. His preaching had inspired a following of men; he had written a religious “rule” to return to living by gospel poverty. Francis connected with Jesus, who owned nothing but was rich in Love of the Holy One. So, Clare bravely left home that night, went to the Portiuncula Chapel, where Francis and his brothers cut off Clare’s hair, exchanged her elegant gown for a plain cloth robe and veil, and escorted her to a nearby Benedictine convent. Soon Francis gave Clare a small restored Church, San Damiano, where she and her “Poor Ladies” could live their lives according to the “Franciscan” way. 

PRAYER

Faith. Trust. Courage. O precious Saint Clare, you mirrored these virtue lights to us. We come asking you to show us how to be a mirror of the Holy One’s Love to everyone we meet.  Through your life of hope, peace, and poverty of spirit, point out to us every day opportunities to express love of our neighbor.  You and your beloved friend St. Francis taught us “love your neighbor” means to put into action a burning desire to care for all of Mother Earth with our earthly goods, words, and actions. It means taking action on behalf of the little ones whose voices are not heard, whether they be trees or bees, two leggers, four leggers, flyers, swimmers, and humans of every description. We are all sisters and brothers; love everyone, no exceptions. Thank you, St. Clare, we see the brilliant Light you reflect among us. 

ST. CLARE POEM

LIGHT By: Ilia Delio, OSF

Shining in the universe, pervading every corner of creation,

Invisible presence, Uncreated essence.

Light from Light radiating, diffusing, energizing.

Making all things alive, inwardly, outwardly uniting all things

Together along the galaxies of this visible universe.

Bending back time and space,

Filling black holes with hidden gladness,

To burst forth with energy, goodness love, New Creation. 

Light from Light 

In whom we live and move and have our being.

Diffusing through the stars into our hearts.

Sun beams, moon beams, star beams, 

All join in the cosmic light-filled dance of praise to the

Overflowing source of light, the trinity of beaming love

Spilling over with delight on the Lovers of creation.

Clare is among them. She shines brilliantly.

On earth her shining deeds set her apart,

On high the fullness of the Divine light shines upon her. 

O the wonderful brilliance of blessed Clare!

This woman grew bright in the world, radiated in her religious life, 

Shone like the sun in her home,

Like a burst of lightning in the enclosure. 

She gave light in life,

She is radiant after death, she was brilliant on earth, she is resplendent in Heaven.

~ O how great is the power of this light

And how intense is the brilliance of its illumination! 

She shines on us now - Enlightens our hearts - 

And shows us the way

To be Light 

To Join with her

In Light

For the life of the world.        Illia Delio, O.S.F.

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM ST. CLARE       

Susan Hines-Brigger   August 2022,   St. Anthony Messenger        

When I traveled to Assisi for pilgrimage 10 years ago, I thought I was going mostly to immerse myself in the life of St. Francis. I knew we would also be learning about St. Clare, source of inspiration and spiritual energy, but I didn’t feel as drawn to her. At the time, I knew very little of her story, other than she was connected to St. Francis.

Once I arrived, though, and began to also walk in Clare’s footsteps, I found myself drawn to her. I saw a strong woman who held fast in her beliefs, despite the many challenges she faced along her journey. Her resilience inspired me, her role modeling of bravery and courage in the face of crisis, and bold actions to convince the Vatican to sanction her way of life. 

How did Clare, who lived tucked away at San Damiano, make an overwhelming, immense impact on people outside of her monastery, and still does to this day? She couldn’t spread her message through traveling and preaching, as Francis and his brothers did. Instead, she did it through her words and everyday examples of humility and courageous life choices which demonstrate how we must speak up and speak out and act on injustices and toward making things right. 

Clare’s use of a mirror as a metaphor and example is famous. Just as I suspect, most people do, when I look into a mirror, I see my flaws. Unfortunately, given the standards of the society we live in, we have been conditioned to do just that. I focus on the gray hairs that I want to get rid of, the COVID-19 weight I’ve gained but not yet taken off, and the wrinkles I want to cover up. I also use it to help put on the products that I use to mask the things that I find troubling. What I don’t see reflected back at me, though, is what lies beyond that mirror. In her writing and leadership at San Damiano, Clare uses the mirror as a tool to show others how to live out their faith. One of Clare’s great gifts was to explain ways to follow our faith in a very accessible way. It is a gift that still guides us today.

The challenge, Clare told her, was to not only look into the mirror and see ourselves, but to also think of how the mirror is reflecting us to others. She once again used this reference with her sisters in her Testament, saying: “For the Holy One himself has placed us not only as a form for others in being an example and mirror, but even for our sisters whom the Holy One has called to our way of life as well, that they in turn might be a mirror and example to those living in the world. She told us: “Our body is not made of iron. Our strength is not that of stone. Live and have Faith, Trust, and Courage.”

MEDITATION

At that time in history, the Benedictine Rule was the one that both religious men and women were given by the Vatican to live by. Clare longed to have vows and a holy rule that reflected the “Franciscan” way, based on poverty, not owning property, money, or valuables and depending solely on the work of their hands and the generosity of those who knew their work. She became abbess at San Damiano in 1216, and although she did not traverse the cities and towns of Italy preaching as Francis did, her flame of love of the Holy One was felt because of her prayers and her bold actions to protect the city and people she loved. Two days before her death at age 59, the Pope approved her Rule. Approximately 20,000 Poor Clare nuns around the world follow this Rule or adaptations of it today. 

PRAYER

Beloved St. Clare, you gave us the image of a mirror as a powerful metaphor and symbol to remember who we are and what we are here to be. What matters is that God sees you reflecting Him in your life, both your tiny sacrifices and your huge efforts at reflecting His love to the world.  Give us strength to see the poverty of Christ mirrored back in our own actions. Help us to see in our self-consciousness the image of the Holy One, that we may grow in ability to see the needs of others and find ways to help them on their journey. 

MEDITATION

We have examples of women whose courageous actions, powered by Faith and Love of the Holy One, to guide us today. That was not the case in medieval Europe! Even women of wealth and status had very little ability to change the patriarchy of the Church and social order. Mother Clare dedicated much of her time to changing the governing rule (established by the pope) of the order from the Benedictine spirit to one of the newly established Franciscan rule. She was a powerhouse of service to all, and is credited with miracles during her life and afterward. Her loving spirit spilled out to her sisters at San Damiano and through her prayer, cured community members, the poor and sick from her Assisi town, and those brought to her from a distance. St. Clare’s mystic union with the Holy One reverberated from the monastery walls to the city center halls. She gives us an example and encouragement to live our lives in service of one another as the true life of a follower of the Gospels. 

QUOTES OF ST. CLARE

“Let the love you have in your hearts be shown outwardly in your deeds.”

“We become what we love, and who we love shapes what we become”

“Let the Holy One be your best consoler in your sadness and sorrow.”

St. Clare of Assisi is the Patron Saint of computers and television. One Christmas near the end of her life she was too ill to attend Christmas Mass. The images and sounds of the entire Mass appeared on the wall of her room. This story would have been well-known to Italian native Pope Pius XII, who in 1957 named her the patroness of this new invention—television—that, in his words, “is a wonderful instrument… which can be the source of very great wealth, but also of deep troubles.” This may be why he chose a saint steeped in humility, poverty, and love of God as its patroness. St. Clare is also the patron saint of sore eyes and embroidery, so let us invoke her prayers on our behalf as we learn to teach and work online and perhaps cultivate new hobbies as we shelter in place. St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us!  From website of University of Portland, Garaventa

Closing Song: Music by Cathy Tisel Nelson, sung by Wheaton Franciscan Sisters

(13) Blessing of St. Clare - YouTube

Monastery and Basilica of St. Clare, Assisi, Italy

REFERENCES

Bodo, M. (2010) A Light in the Garden. Phoenix, AZ.

Carney, M. (2021). Light of Assisi: The Story of Saint Claire. Franciscan Media. Cincinnati, O. 

Delio, I. (2007). Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love. Franciscan Media. Cincinnati, O.

Mary Magdalen, G. (2021). Visions and Revelations in the Spiritual Life. Sophia Institute. Rome.

Hugo, W.R.; Schatzlein, J. (2019). Studying the Life of St. Clare of Assisi: A Beginner’s Workbook. New City Press, Hyde Park, NY. 

Starr, M. (2019) Wild Mercy: Living the fierce and tender wisdom of the women mystics.   Sounds True. Boulder, CO.

Thoman, B. (2017). St. Clare of Assisi: Light from the Cloister. Tan. Gastonia, N.C.

MEDIA RESOURCES

https://ancroi.ie/an-croi-beguines.  An Croi Beguines.  The An Croi Beguines are a contemporary re-founding of a medieval beguine movement that emerged between the 13th and 16th century in Northern Europe. St. Clare Song is sung by Carmel Boyle, An Croi Beguines.

(Slideshow) A pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Clare - Page 11 (aleteia.org)

https://www.franciscanmedia.org

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/holy-quotes-from-st-clare-of-assisi/

An Croi Beguines.  The An Croi Beguines are a contemporary re-founding of a medieval beguine movement that emerged between the 13th and 16th century in Northern Europe.

https://ancroi.ie/an-croi-beguines/

Starr, M. (2019) Wild Mercy: Living the fierce and tender wisdom of the women mystics.   Sounds True. Boulder, CO.

https://carmelboyle.bandcamp.com/track/we-become-what-we-love