Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome: Welcome friends to this last Saturday liturgy in 2023. I invite you to quiet your minds and heart so that we can be present once again to each other and to the Holy One who dwells in and among us.
Opening Prayer: Loving God, you call us together this winter’s evening to rest awhile in You and in the bonds of community. While we are mindful of the challenging events in the world and in our lives, we are called to just be quietly present to You.
May this time of Sabbath renewing enlighten and guide our individual and collective journeys and our individual and communal call.
Opening song: We Are Bethlehem by Alana Levandoski
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: A Reading from Guerrillas of Grace Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder
It Would Be Easier to Pray If I Were Clear
O Eternal One, it would be easier to pray if I were clear
And of a single mind and a pure heart;
If I could be done hiding from myself and from you, even in my prayers.
But, I am who I am, mixture of motives and excuses,
Blur of memories, quiver of hopes,
Knot of fear, tangle of confusion,
And restless with love, for love.
I wander somewhere between gratitude and grievance,
Wonder and routine,
High resolve and undone dreams,
Generous impulses and unpaid bills.
Come find me, Lord.
Be with me exactly as I am, so I can begin to be yours.
Make of me something small enough to snuggle,
Young enough to question,
Simple enough to giggle,
Old enough to forget,
Foolish enough to act for peace;
Skeptical enough to doubt the sufficiency of anything but you,
And attentive enough to listen
As you call me out of my tomb of timidity
Into the chancy glory of possibilities
And the power of your Presence.
The community affirms these words by saying, Amen.
Alleluia: by Fr. J. Nez F. Marcelo
Gospel: A Gospel according to the writer known as Luke (Lk 2: 21-24a,25-32,36-40 The Message Bible)
When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.
Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law
In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name…The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God.
Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.
When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit.
And the grace of God was on him.
These are inspired words from the writer known as Luke, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Shared Homily
Can you believe it? We are at the end of 2023! How did that happen? Again! Another year has passed, another series of challenges and blessings have shaped our individual and communal lives. I don’t know about you, but I spend some time pondering at the end of the year. I look back at life lessons, joys and the inner callings unfolding within me for this stage of the journey. It’s good to see the bigger picture of my life. I wonder if Anna and Simeon ever did that?
What did it take for them to be faithful for so long, to their calls as prophets? The call to speak out the truth, even when it is painful to hear. What was the inner preparation for the great “Aha!” moment like?
I looked up their names. Did you know that the translation from the Hebrew for Anna is “grace or favour” and Simeon “To listen, he who hears”?
My sense is that in order to be prophetic in a way that reveals the Divine to the world around you-it starts with listening. St Ignatius said “Be slow to speak, and only after first listening quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those
who do speak.”
We can so easily get carried away with doing, doing, doing for others. Talking, talking, talking to get our point across. Perhaps we need to just stop talking and take a step back from all the doing. Just listen to the Voice of the Holy One within.
To whom am I really called to serve? The answer isn’t- “Anyone who asks me!”
Where am I really called to speak up and out? Where can I focus my energy and my voice so that justice is really served in a focused manner and not scattered along with shreds of my remaining energy? How am I called to reflect God’s grace/favour at this time in my life?
How does my life look like an anthem of praise? In the “mixture of motives and excuses” may we be “attentive enough to listen” to where we have really been in 2023 and where we are called in 2024. Most of all, may we recognize the Divine in the here and now and be able to exclaim “Aha!”
Please share what is striking you from the readings and homily today.
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.
Prayers of the Community
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.
EUCHARISTIC PRAYER OF BELONGING
KATHIE: 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:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place 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 are 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, go and share my love with one another.
(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: I am called to listen and know the favour of the Holy One
Communion Song: Bread of Life by Rory Corey (Video by MT Streck)
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:
ALL: O Holy One, who is within, around, and among us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom comes. 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 our blessing together
Faithful Companion, in this new year I pray:
To live deeply, with purpose,
To live freely, with detachment,
To live wisely, with detachment,
To live justly, with compassion,
To live lovingly, with fidelity,
To live mindfully, with awareness,
To live gratefully, with generosity,
To live fully, with enthusiasm.
Help me hold this vision and to daily renew it in my heart,
Becoming ever more one with You,
My truest Self. Amen.
(Sr. Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary Prayers ,Poems and Reflections for Every Season)
Closing Song: Shine by Collective Soul (Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.