phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome and Theme (Lynn):
Welcome to everyone on zoom and here in the Upper Room room. We gather today to think about Jesus in prayer and what brings us to pray, what it means that “we commune with God”. Is prayer as the first reading suggests, the sum of our relationship with God?
Opening Song: Breathe In by Peter Mayer
https://youtu.be/JJ0horvBHWc?si=xgPcQqIeWE1pLoI6
Opening Prayer (Bernie):
Holy One, we are grateful to be with you and one another. We are drawn to communion with you. Your son, Jesus, has shown us how to live full and meaningful lives. We seek nourishment in our liturgy today through song, inspired readings and shared reflection. Amen
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: “We are What We Pray” by Carlo Caretto
Prayer is the sum of our relationship with God.
We are what we pray:
The degree of our faith is the degree of our prayer. The strength of our hope is the strength of our prayer.
The warmth of our charity is the warmth of our prayer. The story of our earthly-heavenly life will be the story of our prayer. Thus, above all, it is a personal story.
Prayer is a word of infinite variety because it is given life by the Spirit of the Holy One and this is always news. Understanding prayer well means understanding that we are speaking with the Divine. All that is the One we call Holy together with the Spirit searches our will and settles there in love.
And love shows itself in action.
These are the words of Carlo Caretto from Letters from the Desert and we acknowledge them with Amen.
Second reading: “What Thrills the Heart” by Richard Rohr
We are not human beings trying to become spiritual. That has already been done for us by our creation “in the image of God”. We are already spiritual beings. Our desperate and needed step, one that we have not succeeded at very well all these centuries, is how to become fully human!
Jesus is always moving down, descending into the fully human, identifying with our finite situation. We miss him entirely when we are always running up the down staircase.
Our task is to follow and imitate him, not offer him incense, titles, and shrines that he never asked for. Most of the world is really tired of “spiritual people”. We would be happy just to meet some real, fully human beings. They always thrill the heart, just as he did.
These are the words of Richard Rohr from “Soul Brothers: Men in the Bible Speak to Men Today” and we acknowledge them with Amen.
Celtic Alléluia: Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk?si=bwJM9mkIqal6kY0j
Gospel: Luke: 5:15, 6: 6-12
The reputation of Jesus continued to grow. Large crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to some place where he could be alone and pray. On one Sabbath, Jesus engaged with the people in the synagogue. The religious scholars and Pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they were watching him closely to see if he was going to heal on a Sabbath day.
But Jesus knew their thoughts and asked a man with a withered hand to stand in the front of the crowd. He asked those assembled if “it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good—or evil? He looked around at them all, then said to the man with the infirmity, “Stretch out your hand”. The man did so and the hand was perfectly restored.
At this, the religious authorities were furious and began to discuss with one another what they could do to Jesus.
It was about this time that Jesus went out to the mountains to pray, spending the night in communion with God.
These are the words of the gospel writer known to us as Luke and we acknowledge them with Amen.
Lynn: Shared Homily
We are all familiar with the many scripture stories in which Jesus eludes a crowd to go off and find time alone to pray. As a public figure of growing fame and infamy, Jesus needed to be alone, talk with the Holy One, and be reminded of the comforts of quietude and Divine love.
Jesus knew the Pharisees were watching him, following him around and biding their time. Jesus unsettled some with his new interpretation of the Torah, perplexing parables and acts of healing that many saw as mind-blowing, heretical, possibly criminal.
The crowds Jesus attracted placed the Pharisees in a tough position. They were charged with keeping the Jews docile and obedient to Roman laws as set out by the powerful Empire that occupied Jewish lands. They interpreted the Torah to maintain the peace and submission of the oppressed population.
A Sabbath’s day of rest was threatened when Jesus made a show of engaging crowds in the temple and doing the ‘work’ of healing. Jesus was a threat to powerful men in an oppressive time.
What we have here is a face-off between strict adherents to rules and a charismatic subversive out to change the rules, as necessary, to preach the gospel of love and justice and human dignity. As the Captain in the movie, Cool Hand Luke, says to the rebellious prisoner, “What we got here is a failure to communicate”.
Seems like a prelude to prayer. Where does a person of faith go when fear knocks on the door? Or, when joy and rescue and healing arrive? When others condemn one’s foundational beliefs? How do we check our motives, our ego? How do we turn despair into hope and suspicion into love?
The miracle alchemy of prayer is our golden heritage. Prayer that leads to love and then to action is our route toward self-actualizing. As Rohr says, prayer is the way to becoming “fully human”. We might add that prayer enjoins us into becoming a force for ethical action in the world just as it empowered Jesus.
We don’t know what Jesus said in prayer that evening (but we can always hypothesize if you wish). We do know that he was in “communion with God”. How blessed we are to have the always accessible Abba God to commune with in good times and worried times and all times.
What are your reactions to Caretto’s letter from the desert? Rohr’s assertion that we are already spiritual beings? The prayerful dilemma of Jesus?
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
Bernie: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please voice your prayers beginning with the words, “I bring to the table...”
Bernie: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns in our hearts. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Lynn: Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:
All: We yearn to be close with the Holy One in divine kinship. We know that our God is with us always, even in moments when we are not paying attention. We are heirs to the gifts of divine wisdom, compassion and the power of divine grace. We are anointed and sealed with the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit. And, as if these blessings were not enough, we claim Jesus as our brother. Like him, we seek to live a life of faith in prayer and action, of persistence and progress.
Nurturing source of life and love, we pray today for the good judgement to recognize and admit our talents. We resolve to deploy them as best we can to foster love and insist on justice in a polarized time. Just as you sent the Twelve out in pairs, you have gifted us with community, the strength of which awes us and enlivens us. May we be bold like Jesus to make the most of our talents and to be clear about our values.
Because all things are possible with You, Holy One, we see light in the darkness. We dare to be a prayerful and hopeful people. Our thirst for change is quenched in gratitude. Your loving Presence here with us today and always, brings us to sing out loud with joy:
Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=xAc1gOkkEdxoz3sv
All: Compassionate One, there are times when we feel scarcity and emptiness even though we know You love us more than our human imagination can grasp. May we have the presence of mind to live in Your love. We strive to see You reflected in every person we meet. Guide us in sharing our gifts as well as in being open hearted to accept help from others.
We thank you for Jesus, who knew what it was like to be an outsider in occupied and foreign lands. May his presence prompt us to bring gospel kindness and understanding to disputes among nations, citizens and neighbors and within families.
Bernie: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: We recognize your Spirit that is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of Christ to the world. We are blessed to welcome anyone and everyone to join with us at our friendship table to celebrate the ministry of Jesus and the mystery of grace that holds us all in unity and love.
On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with his friends and companions. On that evening, he did more than ask us to remember him. He showed us how to live in humility and generosity when he washed the feet of his friends.
All lift the plate:
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, Go and love one another.
(pause)
All lift the cup
Then he took the cup, 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.
(pause)
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. Let us share this bread and cup to pray and live the justice and peace of Jesus.
Lynn: Please offer communion to your neighbor with: “May you be at peace in Christ”
Communion Song: I Will Not Leave You Comfortless by Jan Phillips
https://youtu.be/qqyPIk9aZ2E?si=r0g5yRaf1In1WwmP
Post-Communion Prayer
Holy One, your transforming grace inspires us to be in communion with you and each other, praying as Jesus prayed and loving as Jesus loved. May we awaken to your Spirit within that allows us to live lives of compassion and willingness. Guide us, Holy One, to fruitful prayer, that we may be with those in need of healing and justice in both intention and action. AMEN.
Lynn: 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
CLOSING BLESSING
Bernie: Let us raise our hands and bless each other:
May our hearts expand with love.
May our humble grasp on justice reach high and wide
May our prayer - infused faith bring us serenity
And may we be willing to see the other as a mirror of Abba God and ourselves.
Amen.
Closing Song: By the Stream by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/bKL3RvAEc9w?si=s6xQnh9P1FRW4jds
