Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Liturgies, Rituals and Ministries: Upper Room Saturday Liturgy, June 21, 2025

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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155

Welcome: Welcome! I’m so glad you’ve joined us today as we come together to share our abundance with each other.

Opening Song: Your Peace Will Make Us One by Audrey Assad

https://youtu.be/hCZk20ayFwI

Opening Prayer: Holy One, you shower us with your abundant love. May we in turn shower each other in abundant love so that everyone may have what they need to live peacefully and joyously. AMEN

LITURGY OF THE WORD

Gospel acclamation: Bernadett’s Alleluia by Joseph Moorman

https://youtu.be/TgzsYa6A2wY?si=dXdZP4SEuJxHnRo4

Gospel

A reading from the Good News attributed to Luke 9:10-17

After the disciples returned from their mission, they told Jesus stories of all they had done. Jesus withdrew quietly with them to a town called Bethsaida, where they could be alone. The crowds, meanwhile, learned about it and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about the kin-dom of God and healed those who needed healing.

The day was drawing to a close. The disciples came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and farms to find lodging and food. This is a deserted place.”

But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

They said, “We only have five loaves and two fish - unless you want us to go and buy food for all these people?” There were about 5,000 families.

But Jesus said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. All ate and were satisfied. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke, and the affirms them by saying AMEN!

Second Reading

A reading adapted from Jesus’ Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount by Richard Rohr.

The tradition of table fellowship shows up in many places in the Christian Scriptures—for example, the several loaves and fishes accounts in the Gospels. Scholars say now that even while Jesus was still alive, there seemed to be two traditions of open table fellowship: one of bread and wine, the other of bread and fish. The bread and wine finally won out—that meal is what we call the Mass today in the Roman Catholic church.

But the bread and fish stories also point to an open table fellowship tradition. The exciting thing about these stories is that they emphasize surplus and outside guests. At the end of each event, there are seven or twelve baskets left over. That surplus seems to be a point of this form of table fellowship. It’s a type of meal we’d call a potluck supper today. Apparently, Jesus invited everybody to bring their food together and there was plenty for all the poor and then some.

It’s unfortunate that we lost the bread and fish ritual meal, because the bread and wine ritual meal didn’t emphasize this idea of surplus: real food that actually fed the poor. The bread and wine tradition lent itself more to purity codes, insider/outsider dynamics, and ritualization. The bread and fish tradition, if retained, might have contributed to issues of justice, community, and social reordering. We see this after the resurrection. In John 21:1–14, the apostles are out on the lake. They see Jesus on the shore, cooking fish at a charcoal fire. He invites them to come share bread and fish.

If we remember what happened after Jesus’ arrest, we see the significance of this charcoal fire. The only other charcoal fire in the Gospels is where Peter stood when he betrayed Jesus (John 18:18). Jesus invites him now to another charcoal fire, where they share the bread and the fish. He says, in effect, “Peter, it’s okay. Forget it.” At this second charcoal fire the risen Jesus initiates table fellowship with Peter, who just a few days before rejected, betrayed, and abandoned him in his hour of need. It seems the bread and fish meal also had a healing, reconciling significance. What a shame we have lost this.

These are the inspired words of Richard Rohr, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN!

Homily Starter I recently read this quote from Mother Teresa, “I used to believe that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that God will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do.” I can understand where she started from, about believing that God would do this or that. It’s what we were taught that today’s gospel was all about. Jesus did some hocus pocus, I mean a miracle, and there was enough food for everyone with 12 baskets leftover. That’s a fantastic story! But as Richard Rohr points out in our second reading, Jesus could have also invited everyone to share, and the miracle of potluck fed everyone with 12 baskets leftover.

Is one miracle better than the other? Personally, I think getting all those people to share with strangers was the bigger miracle! Not just because it requires them all to believe that they have extra food but also because it involves sharing with outsiders, with strangers. Sharing with our family and friends is a little easier in terms of human nature, I think. But sharing with someone you don’t know? That can be a little tougher for us.

And that’s where the end of the Mother Teresa quote comes in, “God will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do.” That doesn’t say that any one of us needs to do all of it. We’re just supposed to do what we can. And that is more than enough! That is the source of our surplus. That is the source of our abundance.

My friends, what did you hear today? What will you do? What, if anything, will it cost you?

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 – Christopher Grundy
ht

tps://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk

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 my 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 love abundantly!

Communion song: At This Table by Idina Menzel video by Denise

ttps://youtu.be/n9Xf4cHOcwQ

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 trust the Holy One’s abundance every moment of our lives. And may we love extravagantly, our cups overflowing. AMEN.

Closing Song: Room at the Table