phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome: Welcome! I’m so glad you’ve joined us today as we come together to celebrate love, the Holy One’s love for us and our love for each other and the Holy One.
Opening Prayer: Let us pray. Jesus commanded us to love one another, all the others, not just the ones we already like. Holy One, give us the strength to act lovingly to all we encounter, even those who try our patience. AMEN
Opening Song: These Alone Are Enough by Dan Schutte (stop at 2:35)
https://youtu.be/Mxg-qBhZ7M8?si=jwQxbSHtRUb2VPtk
LITURGY OF THE WORD
FIRST READING:
A Reading from the Book of Acts (10:24-28, 34-35, 44-48)
Peter arrived in Caesarea at the invitation of Cornelius, a Gentile. Cornelius was expecting him and had called together his relatives and close friends. Cornelius met Peter at the entryway to the house and fell at his feet in homage. Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said. “I, too, am only a human being!”
As they conversed, Peter went into the house and found many people gathered together. Peter spoke to them:
“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Judean to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean… I most certainly understand now that God does not show favoritism. All who revere God and do what is right are accepted by God.
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also. They heard the Gentiles speaking in tongues and exalting God. Peter responded, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?”
Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus the Christ. They asked Peter to stay on for a few days.
These are the inspired words of an Early Church Historian and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
PSALM
Psalm 98:1-4 (Merrill 1st and 2nd stanzas, 3rd stanza adapted)
Our response is: Love does marvelous things!
R: Love does marvelous things!
O Sing to the Beloved a new song,
for Love has done marvelous things!
By the strength of your Indwelling Presence,
we, too, are called to do great things.
We are set free through Love’s forgiveness and truth.
R: Love does marvelous things!
Yes, Your steadfast love and faithfulness
are an ever-present gift in our lives.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the glory of Love’s eternal flame.
R: Love does marvelous things!
Shout for joy to the Beloved, all the earth!
Burst into jubilant song with music!
Sing your gratitude!
Make music resound! Make music your praise!
R: Love does marvelous things!
SECOND READING:
A Reading from the 1st Letter of John (4:7-9, 11-13, 16)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God; for God is love.
God’s love was made manifest among us. God sent God’s Chosen One into the world that we might live as Jesus lived, that we might live in love.
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is made complete us, and thus we “see” God.
We know that we abide in God and God in us, because God has breathed into us God’s own Spirit. So, we know and rely on the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
These are the inspired words of an Early Church Theologian and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Gospel acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker – MT Video
GOSPEL:
A Reading from the Gospel attributed to John (15:9-15, 17)
As the Beloved loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. In the same way, I have kept our Loving God’s commandments and remain in God’s love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what the slave owner is doing. I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from the Beloved.
This I command you: love one another.
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call John and the community affirms them by saying AMEN!
Homily Starter:
God is love. There’s a part of me that wants to stop there. God is love. What else is there to say?
Oh, so many things. Let’s start with our first reading, in which Peter has come to realize that anyone, of any nationality, can be a believer. For someone was raised to believe that it was against the law to interact with those who were different, this was a big shift for Peter and only came after visions and discernment. He needed to understand and accept it himself. Then they were all, Jews and Gentiles alike, baptized in the name of Jesus, with water and the Holy Spirit.
Then our gospel ends with that most puzzling of commandments from Jesus: love one another. I say puzzling because you can’t force the feeling of love. But what you can do is act with love, even if the feeling isn’t there yet. Acting with love can look like a whole lot of different things: caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, holding the door for someone. And here’s the thing, often acting as if something is true, causes it to become true. So loving action can become loving feeling. Do an experiment and see what happens this week.
Now, before the sharing begins, I have an invitation for each of you. I invite you to let the questions of others here today remain unanswered. Just as Peter needed to discern and reach his own conclusions, so do each of us. Give the gift of space to discern your truth.
God is love.
What did you hear? What would you like to share about today’s readings?
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.
Prayers of the Community
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayers and intentions, starting with the words I bring to the table.
We pray for these and all the unspoken intentions held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice.
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.
You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here In This Place by Christopher Grundy
Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and washed their feet.
(Lift plate)
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread, and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, go, share your love with one another.
(Lift cup)
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.
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. Please receive communion with the words: I am Love.
Communion song: Become What We Love (St. Clare Prayer) by Carmen Boyle
https://youtu.be/98erkb5g88c?si=UBFKSr_BgRjUlrSu
Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our world communities.
We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within,
moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.
Amen.
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy One, you are 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
Loving source of our being, you call us to live the gospel of peace and justice. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity in your presence.
BLESSING
Please extend your hands as we bless each other.
ALL: May we be Easter people, living in joy and love. May we walk together in love, today and always. AMEN.
Closing Song: Canticle of the Turning by Rory Cooney, Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
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