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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Feast of the Transfiguration
Welcome
Presider 1: Welcome to our liturgy for the second Sunday in Lent. Today as we journey to Mt. Tabor we are blessed by Jesus’ radiance that illuminates our hearts. We pray to become beacons
of love and hope as we transform that light offering it to others and to our world in need.
Opening Prayer
Presider 2: Holy One, as we gather in prayer, we open our hearts to Your presence. May your light dispel all darkness within us for You Transform us by Your grace. May we listen to Your Son, follow Him faithfully, and be renewed in holiness. Amen.
Opening Song: Transfiguration by Carey Landry
https://youtu.be/FfJw-xh0opE
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: Our first reading is from Letters to A Young Poet by Ranier Maria Rilke
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and to try to love the questions themselves
like locked rooms and like books that are written
in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day
into the answer.
These are the inspired words of the Mystic, Ranier Maria Rilke, and we affirm them with Amen.
Psalm Response: Psalm 27 adapted by Nan Merrill
Love is my light and
my salvation,
whom shall I fear?...
One thing have I asked of Love,
that I shall ever seek:
That I might dwell in the
Heart of Love
All the days of my life,
To behold the Beauty of my Beloved...
Call upon the Beloved,
be strong and trust
in the heart's courage.
Trust in the power of Love;
the Beloved's unconditional and
everlasting love for you.
Second Reading: Our second reading is Changed and Transformed, from Living the Questions by Jeff Procter-Murphy and David Felten
As people expend their energies arguing over conservative or liberal principles, the spirituality many are seeking is not to the left or to the right, but deeper. Christianity is not about things we should or shouldn’t do, or about just being nice. It is about reveling in the beauty of creation, about taking part in the wonderment of it all by living, loving, and being. It’s about embracing the pain and suffering of the world and transforming it into new life. It’s about harnessing the creative Spirit that is so much a part of defining what it means to be human and using that creativity to, as Aquinas said, “preserve things in the good.” This is not a discipline reserved for monks or ascetics, but a defining attribute of what makes us truly human: When we integrate our passion for justice and for joy into our work—whether we be therapists or preachers or doctors or carpenters or repairers of car engines or growers of food or parents parenting—all this is creative. Creativity is something that flows through every human being, every day. This is what distinguishes us from other species. The path toward transformation is different for every traveler, but the need for transformation is an integral part of the human experience. In the words of that great theologian, Bob Dylan, “If you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.” As we pursue the growth we’re called to seek in order to reach our full potential, it may be helpful to remember what Taoism teaches its adherents: so long as bamboo is alive and growing it is pliable and flexible. Once it dies, however, it becomes brittle and is easily snapped. Creativity and transformation are principles that stave off our tendency to become hard and brittle, and open us instead to the transformative power of God’s unconditional love and grace.
The community affirms these words with, Amen.
Alleluia: May the Christ Light Shine in You by Kathy Sherman
https://youtu.be/81vQ9UIYxT0
Gospel: A reading from the Gospel of Luke
( 9:28b-36)
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up a mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
and what he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Teacher, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.
May this good news, attributed to Luke, inspire us. Amen.
Homily Starter – Ellen
The light of the transformation of Jesus is the same light within us. When it is unveiled it will reveal who we really are. We hold divinity beneath the surface. In this moment on Mt. Tabor Jesus offers us enlightenment. This is a bold light that shifts our focus from a comfortable and private relationship with the God of our understanding to an opened and inclusive one.
Jesus invites us to be ‘light’ for the world and to not hide our light under a bushel basket.
Buddha’s last words were: “Make of yourself a light”.
Our light must shine now more than ever during these dark times as we invite others to remember their inner light and let it shine. Our transfiguration light can invite us all to really see the holy light beaming from our eyes.
Before I entered the convent. I was drawn by what I saw as a light in the eyes of each sister I encountered. That light grew and I saw that same light in others as I see it here in each of you.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote:” Live a life of radical amazement. Say yes to your embodied experience . Recognize yourself as part of a luminous tapestry.”
Within this radical amazement we live our way into the answers by embracing that light of Christ within us as a great gift from him in showing the way of transfiguration into light.
Our transfiguration removes our separateness and makes us one. It is our true nature, our call to wildly embrace a life of transformation removing the layers of that which keeps us separate from God. We embrace our Divine light.
We pray:
I am created by Divine Light.
I am sustained by Divine Light.
I am protected by Divine Light.
I am surrounded by Divine Light.
I am ever growing in Divine Light.
To paraphrase Father Thomas Keating who reminds us ’this transformation of our consciousness which is the grace of the transfiguration – Whose primary purpose is to empower us to live in the presence of God and to recognize God’s radiance in all events, people, the cosmos and ourselves.’
We claim our illuminated and mystic hearts and we become our authentic selves, created in the image and likeness of the heart of God.
Live your way into the answers. Break the chains that tell you that you are not worthy. We are the light for the world, it is our legacy from Jesus who gifted us with our transfiguration that is the light of love.
Illumine our hearts, reflecting the Word as we embrace the mystery of that which resides within each of us.
Shine on my Sisters and Brothers – You are beacons of hope. Make of yourselves a light. Shine ON.
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.
Presider 2: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we voice our intentions beginning with the words, “We bring to the table…..”
Presider 2: We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
Presider 1: Let us pray together our Eucharistic Prayer:
All: O Divine Fire of Love, how often have we felt your tender love, for you love us without limits or boundaries! How often have we been consumed with delight by your love in human touch!
How often have we felt your embrace through Earth's beauty, as part of your beloved creation! Your Spirit energizes us to work for a just and peaceful world and we raise our voices with grateful hearts as we sing:
Holy Holy Holy: Here in This Place
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=oWzbhfonvWMsaBx0
All: Holy One, we recognize Your Spirit in the gifts of this Eucharistic table and the gifts within each of us. May they become gifts of wisdom, light and truth.
We thank you for Jesus whose message blesses and transform our lives. He showed us how to live as your new creation.
Presider 1: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: 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.
All lift their plate and pray the following:
All: When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat; this is my very self.
All lift their cup and pray the following:
He then raised high 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.
(pause)
All: 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 communion with the words, “Let your light shine.”
Communion Meditation: Lean in Toward the Light by Carrie Newcomer
https://youtu.be/fxAUmNjWaIs?si=C3zPErMnwumMLMpI
Prayer after Communion
Presider and All: Holy One, your radiant energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for wise and compassionate leaders in our church and in our world communities. May the values of peace and mercy be elevated above the temptation for power and control.
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.
Presider: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy One, who is 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 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
(Miriam Therese Winter)
Blessing
Presider: Let us now bless each other.
All: We are created by Divine Light.
We are sustained by Divine Light.
We are protected by Divine Light.
We are surrounded by Divine Light.
May we ever grow into Divine Light. Amen
Closing Song: We Are Light by Unspoken
https://youtu.be/mSTICRRhb7Y?si=JvixA2JtC8zyGXj_
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