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Feast of All Saints and All Souls
Welcome: Welcome to you all! I’m so happy to be here with you all today as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls, honoring all holy people.
Opening Prayer: Let us pray. Holy One, at this time of year, the veil between the worlds is thin. Help us feel the continued love and care of those who have gone before us into eternity. We may no longer walk beside them on this earth, but we carry their love forever. AMEN.
Opening Song: All Saint’s Day by Carrie Newcomer
https://youtu.be/8BNa6C775bM
LITURGY OF THE WORD
FIRST READING
For Those Who Have Died
Eleh Ezkerah – These We Remember
‘Tis a fearful thing
To love
What death can touch.
To love, to hope, to dream,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
Love,
But a holy thing,
To love what death can touch.
For your life has lived in me;
Your laugh once lifted me;
Your word was a gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
A holy thing,
To love
What death can touch.
These are the inspired words of the 12th century poet Judah Halevi and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
ALLELUIA Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk
GOSPEL
A Reading from the Gospel attributed to Mark 12:28ac; 29-31
One of the scribes asked Jesus, “Which is the foremost of all the commandments?”
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Holy Name, our God, is one. Love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Mark, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter—Julie: This fall, the chaplaincy class I’m teaching is focusing on grief. Loss is inevitable in life. And to lose one we love, oh, the pain is exquisite. We have all that love in us and nowhere for it to go. Our first reading describes that holy love, that painful joy, that so many of us have known on the loss of our beloved. Love is such a powerful force that it even survives the death of the body. We have all lost loved ones and yet still felt their love surrounding us. We carry that love forever, just as someday, in the far distant future, when we’re gone, those we love will carry our love within them forever.
Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as well. Neighbor isn’t just about proximity. Our neighbors are also the imprisoned, the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick. Guess what, all those neighbors? The imprisoned, the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick? They’re all holy, divine, God in disguise. We are ALL holy, divine, God in disguise. By loving and serving each other, we love and serve God. And in so doing, we might just also mend our own broken hearts. Love is that powerful. Love is that healing.
What did you hear? What will you do? What will it cost you? Which is my way of asking—what would you like to share about today’s readings?
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
Julie: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. This weekend we remember all those we have lost so I’d like to start with a remembrance of those we’ve lost. If you brought a photo or memento, please hold it up so that we can all see it, and unmute yourself and say their name so that we may all hold them in our hearts. Even if you didn’t bring something, unmute yourself and say the name of someone you would like us all to remember.
Now, please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all the unspoken concerns held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN
O Holy One, you have birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and cherished us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth.
In the power of that same Spirit, we lift our hearts in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment, that we may continue to praise and thank you, in union with all who sing the ancient hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here In This Place – Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk
Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power. We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, thus hindering your creative presence in our midst.
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life.
(Extend hands in blessing.)
We invoke Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light and truth which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced his own death and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
(Lift the bread)
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 and love one another.
(Lift the cup)
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.
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.
In faith and hope we are sustained; in grace and dignity reclaimed. In praise, we thank you.
Please receive communion with the words: We are all holy.
Communion Meditation: Everything is Holy Now, Peter Mayer
https://youtu.be/s_SgAmljIJc
Prayer after communion: Let us pray. 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 glorify you, O Holy One, 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
BLESSING
Please raise your hands as we bless each other:
May we love and care for each other always, in this life and the next. May we see the Holy One in every face. May our name be a blessing in our time. AMEN.
Closing Song: See You Again (Charlie Puth, Wiz Khalifa), by One Voice Children's Choir
https://youtu.be/zXdWWHjjx4c
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