Upper Room Saturday Liturgy, October 18, 2025 - Presider: Kathie Ryan

Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am via Zoom

Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155 

phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656

Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155

Celebration of Belonging

Welcome:  Today was a big day across our country.  People came out all over to protest.  We each did what we could do today.  Tomorrow we will go out again and strive to help those in need, our neighbor, and our family and friends. We gather here each Saturday to pray, share, and provide spiritual nourishment for each other. 

Opening Prayer:  The Kin-dom of God is here and now.  We experience God’s loving presence in creation, and each other.  We are always and everywhere grateful! Amen.

Opening Song: More Light by Christopher Gundy

https://youtu.be/a8XaUlqb8t0

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: A reading from Testing Tradition and Liberation Theology (Finding your own words) by Val Webb

Laity doing Theology

The more laity become theologically aware and theologically involved, the more the concrete life and outreach of the (church) people will benefit. 

Dietrich Bonhoffer said the Christian task of the world is to be imitators of Christ. “To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, or to cultivate particular forms of rites and rituals, --but to be a human being!  Jesus does not call people to a new religion, but to life!”

These are the inspired words of Val Webb and Dietrich Bobhoffer.

Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker

https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk 

Gospel: A reading from the Gospel according to Luke (10:1-9)

Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples, men and women,
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them,
"The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.       
Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter,
first say, 'Peace to this household.'
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you,
for the laborer deserves payment.
Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you,
eat what is set before you,
cure the sick in it and say to them,
'The Kin-dom of God is at hand for you.”

These are inspired words from the writer known as Luke, and we affirm them with, Amen.

Shared Homily 

Tonight’s gospel is relatively long, and we could spend a lot of time on almost every verse. For a start let’s focus on "The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest.”      As soon as I read “so ask the master of the harvest” I thought be careful what you ask for!   

Jesus sent out “72” disciples.  Why ‘72’? The number 72 was not just a random number but had great significance to the Jewish people.  In Judaism, the number 72 primarily symbolizes the 72 Names of God (or Shem HaMephorash).  

Even more amazing they all knew the number 72 in Hebrew represents the word for "lovingkindness".   If we hear this through the ears of those listening to Jesus, we might hear go out, for each of you, a laborer is needed to harvest or share all the goodness and loving kindness that our Creator/Abba God has provided abundantly for everyone.  

When we go out, we do not have to bring money and belongings, our focus can be the many reminders of God’s love, how God has helped us in the past and continues in the present.  We are to offer all these reminders, and blessings, with an attitude of loving kindness, expecting nothing in return!   

The first reading tonight reminds us that Jesus did not send out “ordained” people.  He sent out 72 unknown and unnamed disciples not “the twelve”.   He said to ask for more laborers and never mentioned they had to be ordained. We are all asked to be laborers in the community. Everyone ordained or not, does what each are able to do. 

Finally, the last verse of the gospel says, “the kin-dom is at hand.”  Jesus again says Abba/God is present, always walking with us on the journey.  We have the presence of God, and each other.  What more do we need.

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.

 

Prayer of the Community

As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.  Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”

We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:

O Nurturing, Mothering one, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.

We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence, we long to sing our hymn of praise: 

Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ

Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation.

Please extend your hands in blessing

This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.

We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.

On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.

 lift bread. 

All: Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take, eat, share, and love one another.

 lift the cup 

Then he took the cup of blessing, 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.

Bread and wine is transformed by Your Spirit and we are transformed when we open ourselves to Your Spirit. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.

As we celebrate and recognize You in this bread and wine we love and recognize you in each other. Please receive communion with the words: 

Communion Song: The Summons words by John L. Bell & Graham Maule

https://youtu.be/V0aAkOe87mo

Post Communion Prayer:

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 be one with you, O Holy One, at this time and all ways. Amen.

 Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:

O 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 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.

 by Miriam Therese Winter

BLESSING

 Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together

May we continue to be the Face of God to each other. May the certainty of our connectedness to one another and all creation ignite us to love more fully.  May we, like Jesus be a shining light and a blessing for all. Amen.

Closing Song: Anthem by Tom Conry

https://youtu.be/HP2gwC5TGFs

Moment of Oneness, October 15, 2025 - Prepared by Rosie Smead

Scientific and Spiritual Rendition of Face of St. Teresa of Jesus

Sculpture and Photo by Jennifer Mann

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656

St. Teresa of Jesus, OCD

March 28, 1515 - October 4, 1582

OPENING PRAYER 

Beloved St. Teresa of Jesus, on your Feast Day we remember your lessons which tumble down to us through the centuries. We praise you, our sister, whose wisdom, courage, and humor flow, bringing renewed life to the garden of our souls. With passion and grace, you transcended the limits imposed on you and became a timeless teacher of how to pray. You exemplified the exquisite balance between active service and quiet contemplation. Teach us to be passionate about helping others in our troubled world, at the same time that we cultivate joyous intimacy with our Beloved who is only a whisper away.  We ask your vision to identify and bless holy friendships with those who help us focus on our spiritual life, and continuing courage to engage in efforts to make changes in our world to bring peace to all sentient beings.  Amen    adapted from Mirabai Starr

VIDEO 1     About St Teresa of Avila    

https://youtu.be/vd0dpiodpCE 

Prayer          Courage          Oneness

Prayer transforms our life.

READING   1       PRAYER AS RELATIONSHIP

An earlier “Moment,” focused on the worldwide breadth of impact, historically, geographically, and spiritually of Teresian sanctity (Upper Room ICC, November, 2023).  A Christ-mystic; poet; monastic reformer; prolific chronicler of spiritual and lived mysticism; she is the author of unmatched spiritual canon on Prayer.   Prejudice, sexism, and clericalism are still battled today, but finally in 1970, hundreds of years after her death, St. Teresa was formally proclaimed as “Doctor of the Church” (first female), due primarily to her superlative instruction and writing on prayer, and life-giving effort to expand understanding of prayer to both religious and secular persons in her world.

In every age and culture, with vastly different worldviews, persons seeking a more profound spiritual life have sought instruction on how to develop an increasingly closer connection to the Divine. From far corners of the world came the answer: engage in prayer.  What are the secrets of how to gain more intense closeness to the Holy One through ritualistic and spontaneous types of prayer? 

POEM  1       The Mystic’s Journey   A Free Verse Poem by Dan

In the quiet corners of a Spanish convent,

A woman named Teresa sought the divine.

Not in grand cathedrals or holy relics,

But in the still, silent chambers of her heart.

Her prayers were not mere recitations,

But intimate conversations with her beloved One.

She found Him not in the heavens above,

But dwelling deep within her very soul.

Through her, we learn that the path to union

Lies not outside, but within ourselves.

And so, we embark on our own mystic journey,

Guided by the wisdom of St. Teresa of Avila.

 Carmelite Nuns in Mental Prayer   Simplycatholic.com

READING 2    PRAYER FIRST, THEN ACTION

Seeking and practicing the silent mental prayer described by St. Teresa makes no sense to someone who is not invested in enhancing their relationship with the Holy One, the Great Mystery. Prayers of petition, thanksgiving, and liturgical worship in community can be engaged in with little conscious focus on the Holy one who dwells within us and throughout the universe. Not so mental prayer. It is by definition in Teresa’s view, “nothing but friendly conversation with Him Who we know loves us. The important thing in mental prayer,” she says, “is not to think much but to love much.”  

Mental prayer becomes the way when the cataracts of unknowing drop from our eyes and we realize the gift of God dwelling within our soul. Referring to her earlier years in religious life, St. Teresa regretfully wrote: “I think that if I had understood then as I do now that this Beloved One really dwells within a little palace of my soul, I should not have left Him alone so often and never allowed his dwelling place to get so dirty. Mental prayer, you see, is nothing but our side of friendship with God—our “yes” to God’s call and invitation.”

In addition to teaching on mental prayer, St. Teresa wrote letters prolifically. There were 468 letters written between 1546 and 1582. Her correspondence was most extensive, including bishops, archbishops, kings, ladies of rank, gentlemen of the world, abbots, priors, nuncios, her confessors, her brothers and sisters, rectors of colleges, fathers-provincial of the Society of Jesus, nuns and superiors of her convents and monasteries, learned doctors of different religious orders, and even most eminent saints, such as St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross, & etc. (translators preface) If a person would only read her most advanced works, such as The Interior Castle, one would be left with the impression that all she did was contemplate with much sighing, levitating, and other overtly mystic behavior! Others might think our Saint to be grave, sober, austere, solemn, and scrupulous. Not so. Her letters translator further indicates that St. Teresa possessed great humor, love, tenderness and humility. She boldly rejected applicants who indicated a sad, melancholy, depressed attitude as she despised “gloomy nuns.” Here are examples of her other prayers. 

EXAMPLES OF ST. TERESA’S PRAYERS 

LYRIC VIDEO 1  Christ Has No Body Now But Yours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF7Yb9fobCg

READING 3

It took two decades in Carmel of a peripheral, wishy-washy relationship with Christ and a near-death experience for St. Teresa to understand this concept.  “Living with a lukewarm spiritual life, Teresa often gave up mental prayer entirely, blaming her illness for her lack of enthusiasm. But in her forties, she was encouraged by her confessor to take up prayer again. She did, but with great difficulty, and an hour of prayer became a grueling task of counting the minutes. She was constantly met with distraction.” She later recalled, “I was more anxious for the hour of prayer to be over than I was to remain there. I don’t know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer.”

Her definition of prayer became the nucleus of her teaching. Her greatness in the spiritual world is based on demystifying what prayer is, and how to foster this relationship with our Beloved over our lifetime. 

As her understanding deepened of how to “be” in this relationship of communication with her Beloved, she burned to spread the word about what and how to progress in the spiritual life. This intensity exploded into the reform movement of the Carmelite Order, and to take on a young friar 26 years her junior, John of the Cross, to help her expand the Carmelite charism to men as well. As a gifted writer and speaker, her ideas, feelings, and personal growth were spread with intense fire and zeal. To certain nuns of her convent who objected that mental prayer was beyond their ability she wrote: ‘I am not asking you now to think of Him or to form numerous conceptions of Him, or to make long and subtle meditations with your understanding. I am asking only to look at Him. It is as simple as that.’

LYRIC VIDEO  2   Let Nothing Disturb You

https://youtu.be/3wqyGnHwwlI

MEDITATION: 

Dear St. Teresa, you understood that prayer is often difficult

and full of distractions, especially for beginners. We take to

heart your advice to have a "determined determination"  to never

give up, emphasizing that spiritual progress is a lifelong effort; it

is the effort made in spite of “dryness” that brings eventual

success. We will follow your direction to put into action Jesus’

words: “When you pray, go into your room and close the door,

and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Mt 6:6)

Arinspiredpencil.com

IN CLOSING:  EXPERIENCING HER GLORIOUS HUMOR!

Growing Older

Holy One, You know better than I myself

that I am growing older and will someday be old.

Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking

I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to

straighten out everybody’s affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody;

helpful but not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom,

it seems a pity not to use it all;

but You know, Lord,

that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details;

give me wings to get to the point.

Seal my lips on my aches and pains;

they are increasing, and love of rehearsing them

is becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I dare not ask for improved memory,

but for a growing humility and a lessening cock-sureness

when my memory seems to clash

with the memories of others.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet, for a sour old person

is one of the crowning works of the devil.

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places

and talents in unexpected people;

and give, O Lord, the grace to tell them so. Amen.

(By St Teresa of Avila)

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES 

Alvarez, T. (2011). St. Teresa of Avila: 100 Themes on Her Life and Work. ICS Publications, Washington, DC. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD.

Avila, T. (2008). Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life. New Seeds, Boston. Translated by Mirabai Starr.

de Osuna, F. The third spiritual alphabet. 1981. (Mary E. Giles, trans.) Paulist Press. New York.

Foley, M., Teresa of Avila, & Rodriguez, O. (2012). Saint Teresa of Avila The Book of Her Foundations: A Study Guide. ICS Publications.

Giles, M. E. (1981). Francisco de Osuna: the third spiritual alphabet. Paulist Press.

Griffin, M. (1985). Lingering with my Lord: post-Communion experiences of St. Teresa of Avila. Alba House.

Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (1980). The collected works of St. Teresa of Avila. Vol. 1 & 2. Washington, ICS - Institute for Carmelite Studies.

Sackville-West, V. (2011). The eagle and the dove: a study in contrasts: St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Bello.

Sinetar, M. (2007). Ordinary people as monks & mystics: lifestyles for spiritual wholeness. Paulist Press.

Starr, M., & Bielecki, T. (2008). Teresa of Avila : the book of my life. New Seeds.

Underhill, E. (1999). The essentials of mysticism and other essays. One World Publications.

Wolcott, B. (2007). The flame that enkindles all [Master’s Thesis].

WEBSITES

https://heartsawake.org/spirituality/teresian-charism/

https://www.simplycatholic.com/st-teresa-of-avila/

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-teresa-of-avila/

PHOTOS, VIDEOS, ARTWORK 

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/03/31/scientists-reconstruct-the-face-of-saint-teresa-of-avila-510-years-after-her-birth

The study that made this reconstruction possible was carried out at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia. The Australian sculptor Jennifer Mann was in charge of creating the bust, harmoniously combining all available data sources: Anthropomorphic measurements;  X-ray images; a pictorial portrait of the saint painted when she was 50 years old; historical descriptions, particularly of Mother Mary of St. Joseph.

https://heartsawake.org/spirituality/teresian-charism/ 

 

How did St. Teresa of Ávila describe the human soul? | Simply Catholic 

https://prayingwithteresaofavila.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Option-8-C-Teresas-What-is-Prayer.pdf