phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Week 1
Deb: We open our hearts and our minds as we begin this Season of Creation, knowing that we ourselves are a part of the process, and a part of the solution. We dedicate ourselves to the awareness of what is needed, not for our Earth or the creatures upon it, but for the Divine in all of us. We create, with the Ultimate Creator, the atmosphere of Love and Longing, of Beauty and Divine Hope. Welcome, dear Friends, to the Season of Creation.
Jean: Opening Prayer: O Holy One, make our hearts open to your longing, and to your beauty. Keep us safe to concentrate our life and living on “Just Being” and on living the “Desires of the Divine” in our lives. Help us to be flowers and fruits of your Love to all of Creation, including to ourselves.
Opening Song: Follow Your Heart’s Desire by Jan Phillips
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: The first reading is from Theodore Roszak, , Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society
“You and I…
We meet as strangers, each carrying a mystery within us.
I cannot say who you are; I may never know you completely.
But I trust that you are a person in your own right,
possessed of a beauty and value that are the Earth’s richest treasures.
So I make this promise to you:
I will impose no identities upon you, but will invite you to become yourself without shame or fear.
I will hold open a space for you in the world and defend your right to fill it with an authentic vocation.
For as long as your search takes, you have my loyalty.”
We affirm these words by saying a resounding, AMEN.
Reading 2: From a letter of James. (James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27)
Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
These are the writings and words from a letter of James, and we affirm them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
Gospel reading from Mark (7: 1/-/23)
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
These words are from the gospel of Mark, and we affirm them by saying, AMEN.
Shared Homily
What is God’s commandment as Jesus saw it? Obviously, not human tradition; to follow rules made by humans, who could not possibly even fathom the amazing grace of God. Humans can only follow human knowledge and human experience. So, what is Jesus asking of us? What is Jesus asking of You?
I personally try my best to follow the Desires of the Divine in my life. Often, that may put me out of my comfort zone. LOL. But that seems to be what Jesus is hinting at… What are those Desires, and how do we discern them?
John Philip Newell notes in his Introduction to The Great Search, Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home: “Our spiritual yearnings are like the seeds of new life. To be alert to them together, to name them and nurture them, helps them grow and unfold in ways we may not yet even have imagined.”
I think that Theodore Roszak realized this as he explored the relationship of honoring the mystery of becoming our authentic self. Loyalty to that search is key in honoring the Divine in our Life. We are each beautiful and sacred beings of the Divine. And we can honor the Divine in all of Creation by our awareness of that.
Blessings to each of you and to all of us on our journey in life and hereafter. We are part of the mystery, and part of the Creation. Please share what you hear in these words?
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
Deb: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayer of intentions:
Deb: We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Jean: With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:
O Holy One, you are always with us. In the blessed abundance of creation, we gather to celebrate Your nourishing gift of life. May our hearts be open as You invite us to participate in the wise and wonderful work of co-creation. May we be ever aware of Your Spirit within and among us as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty into the fullness of life.
We are grateful for Your Spirit whose breath inspired the primal waters, calling into being the variety and abundance we see around us. Your Spirit sustains and animates our every endeavor, inviting us to act in wisdom and in truth.
In gratitude and joy we embrace our calling and we lift our voices to proclaim a song of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy
Deb: As a community, we gather in the power of your Spirit, refreshing wind, purifying fire and flowing water, for the variety and diversity of Creation. We seek to live as Jesus taught us, wise and holy as Spirit-filled people, courageous and prophetic, ever obedient to your call.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We invoke Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light and truth which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at the Seder 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. When he returned to his place, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and offered it to them saying:
All lift their plate as the community prays the following:
Take this bread and eat it;
This is my very self.
(consume bread and pause)
All lift their cup as community prays the following:
Jean: Jesus then raised a cup of blessing, spoke the grace and offered the wine 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.
(drink and pause)
Jean: We are called to live the Gospel of Creation in harmony and gratitude with all our sisters and brothers across the Earth. We will live justly, love tenderly and walk with integrity in Your Presence.
Communion Song: Only Love, By Fearless Soul
Jean: In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom to discern more wisely your call to us in the circumstances of our daily lives.
We seek to act justly and courageously in confronting the suffering that desecrates the Earth and its peoples; to take risks in being proactive on behalf of the marginalized who suffer the environmental injustices of fouled air, tainted water, and a poverty of parks and public spaces that bring people together to enjoy nature. We pray for inspiration to act with the harmony and unity and synthesis that is modeled for us by the trees of the forest, and the stars of the evening.
Holy One, your transforming energy is always moving within us and working through us. Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live compassionate lives,
for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Spirit within,
Moving us to glorify You, O Holy One,
At this time and all ways.
Amen.
Deb: Let us pray as Jesus taught us with an eye toward this Season of Creation:
Generous Creator, the intricate and elegant biodiversity of our world is your hallowed autograph on our lives, on our souls and in our hearts.
We yearn for the wholeness of being in harmony with Your will and with all living things.
Each day we draw on your creative, life-giving energy with gratitude and awe as we find nourishment in, seed and field, river and forest.
May we be stewards and co-creators with you in caring for the gifts of Your Creation.
We acknowledge our shortcomings, especially our neglect of the environment. We seek to be reconciled with those we have hurt and we resolve to do better.
With your unfailing wisdom and the wind of Your Spirit, inspire us that we may reach out and love one another and care for the world, our home.
Strengthen us to work for local and global justice so that we may one day reap a harvest of equality and fairness as if they were wildflowers, propagating spontaneously, unerringly and in surprising abundance. Amen.
BLESSING
Jean: Let us pray together our closing blessing:
Creator most generous and kind, your gift of Earth and sky reveals your omnipotence and glory. May we go forward boldly to live in the glory.
May we treat all of Creation as sacred and discern the best path to an equitable distribution of the resources we share with our sisters and brothers across the globe. Let us live as if the future depends on it. Amen.
Closing Song: All You Works of God – Marty Haugen
