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Thursday, October 9, 2025

Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community Liturgy October 11 & 12, 2025 Presiders: Denise Hackert-Stoner and Gayle Egan

 


Renewal of Commitment for Debra Trees and Stephen Trimboli

40th year Wedding Anniversary, October 12, 2025


I renew my commitment to you because I love you.

I promise to share with you all that life brings us, the joys and the sorrows.

I want to continue being surprised by you, laughing with you, dreaming with you and dancing with you. 

I pray that we might always remain in the Holy One who blesses us and all those whose lives we touch. 

Amen


Community Blessing:

May the Holy One bless and keep you.

May you grow in trust in the love and support of family, friends and this community.

May you know peace, health, happiness and joy in abundance.

May you wake up in the morning welcoming our God of surprises.

May you find rest at night with gratitude for God who gives us each day our daily bread. 

May it be like this all the days of your lives.

Blessed be God, Creator of all. 

Amen

Welcome and Theme:

 

Welcome to this gathering of dear friends, the Upper Room Community.  Today let’s consider the sources of deep healing in our lives.

 

Opening Prayer:

 

Beloved, you created our infinite universe, and included in that grand creation is the familiar ground upon which we walk each day, the friendly smiles and comfortable embraces of the ordinary people in our lives.  Help us to recognize these as treasures of healing and wholeness.  Help us to recognize your presence in them.  And help us in our gratitude.  Amen. 

 

Opening Song: Come be in our hearts – Sara Thomsen


https://youtu.be/gwxldz6oH2w
  

  

LITURGY OF THE WORD

 

First Reading:  A reading from the Second Book of Kings (2Kings 5:14-17)

 

Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of Elisha, the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean of his leprosy.

Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said,
"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.
Please accept a gift from your servant."

Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it;"
and despite Naaman's urging, he still refused.
Naaman said: "If you will not accept, please let me, your servant,

have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust

or sacrifice to any other god except to the God of Israel."

 

This story is passed down to us from our ancestors.  We acclaim their wisdom with, Amen.

 

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia by Jan Phillips



https://youtu.be/IC4nbwmQDVw


Gospel:  Luke 17: 11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."

 

This is the Gospel from the writer we know as Luke.  We affirm his words with "Amen."

 

Homily Starter:

 

For many years, whenever I heard this gospel, I assumed it was a simple rebuke about ingratitude.  Be more grateful, like the Samaritan leper.  But nothing is ever simple in the gospels, is it?  The stories Jesus tells, and the stories told about Jesus always seem to have deeper meanings, often subtle, sometimes radical, meanings.  I think that today’s gospel is an example of that.  And it helps tremendously that Luke’s gospel is paired with the beautiful story of Naaman, the leper.

Naaman, a Syrian, is a foreigner.  The grateful leper in Luke’s gospel is a Samaritan, another foreigner.  Why is this important?  Why does the author of the book of Kings so strikingly describe a foreigner who is so overwhelmed with gratitude for his healing that he begs for Israelite soil so that he can pray on it from his own homeland to the God of Israel?  And why does Jesus double down on that idea by adding another 9 lepers, who we presume are not Samaritans, and who show no such gratitude, while the Samaritan leper is effusive in his own thanksgiving?

 

I think that part of the answer can be found in another gospel.  In verse 4 of Mark’s sixth chapter, we see the townspeople turning on Jesus.  They resent that Jesus, son of the local carpenter, is speaking with authority and healing people.  Jesus seems kind of amazed by their rejection, and is, I imagine, more than a little hurt by it.  But he comes back with a statement for them.  A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”  In other words, the closer we are to someone, the less we appreciate them. 

 

Coming back to today’s gospel, I ask:  How often are we in need of healing in our lives?  How many times are our minds clouded with doubt, fear, disappointment?  How many times do we feel empty?  Maybe even a little bit guilty about something we’ve done or not done?  For me, a completely honest answer would be, “quite a few.”  And when I have felt ill, or hurt; when I’ve sunk down into the dark places, I know quite well that redemption has been offered to me in the familiar faces and embraces of the everyday people who share my everyday life.  Or redemption might wait in the wings of a butterfly, or the song of a bird in my own neighborhood.  And yet so often I don’t recognize these gifts.  I don’t linger in an embrace, I don’t stand to watch the whole sunset, I move along from the butterfly without really seeing it, because these are familiar things, everyday magic that I fail to really see.  And so how can I be saved by them?  How can they heal me in my distress if I’m so quick to turn away from them?  How can I be grateful…truly grateful for gifts that I don’t even unwrap? 

 

Naaman and the Samaritan, strangers among strangers, unwrapped the gifts, and so they were deeply grateful.  The other nine lepers were healed of their skin disease, but were they so blinded by their familiarity with their healer and their God that they continued to suffer from complacency?  

 

When I see – really see - my own beautiful world and the familiar beloveds that inhabit it; when I see them with the eyes of a stranger, with the soul of a foreigner, I begin to see the glory within them.  In my amazement I allow them to heal me.  I am redeemed because I have unwrapped the gift.  And I kneel on the soil at my own feet in gratitude.

 

What did you hear in today’s readings?  Please share your thoughts.

 

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 this sacred meal we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our prayers for the community.

 

We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen. 

 

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

(Written by Jay Murnane)

 

Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together.  

 

Blessed are you, Holy One, source of all creation. Through your goodness you made this world and called us to be Your co-creators. We give thanks for the diversity and beauty of life around us and within us.

We open our awareness to the goodness of all creation. You have surrounded us with beauty and love, and we are grateful for it. You offer us healing in familiar faces and you have made us healers as well. 

In joy and in thanksgiving we join with all the everyday healers, both living and eternal, and we sing a hymn of praise.


Holy, Holy, Holy by Karen Drucker



https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI

 

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

He lived among us to show us who we are and challenged us to know you. He taught us the strength of compassionate love.  

 

Please extend your hands in blessing:

 

We are grateful for your Spirit at our Eucharistic Table and 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 died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet, so that they would re-member him.

 

(All lift their plates and pray the following)

 

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, this is my very self.

 

(All lift their cups and pray the following)

 

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.

 

What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives.  As we share communion, we become Communion both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge.

 

You are called, consecrated and chosen to serve.

 

Please receive Communion with the words, “I am open to healing in everyday life.”

 

Communion Meditation/Song: I Am the One – Janis Ian



https://youtu.be/83CKYR9uyFI

 

Prayer after communion: 

Holy One, we are willing to do everything Jesus did, to re-create the living presence of a love that does justice, of a compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates hope, of a light that illumines people and confronts the darkness of every injustice and inequity.

We trust you to continue to share with us your own spirit, the spirit that animated Jesus, for it is through his life and teaching, all honor and glory is yours, O Holy One, forever and ever. 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 

 

BLESSING

 

Please raise your hands in blessing:

May we welcome the healing love of family, friends, and the world around us. May it enter us and make us whole.  And may we respond with gratitude.  Amen.

 

Closing Song: GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World


https://youtu.be/sO2o98Zpzg8


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