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Feast of the Holy Family
Meditation Before Liturgy (2 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Welcome to our liturgy, and a blessed Christmas season to one and all. We gather to pray in community; to pray as family. Let’s think about what that means.
Opening Prayer: Holy One, you have called us together tonight and we have responded to your call. We pray as one for your blessing on each one gathered here as we celebrate your ongoing presence in our individual lives, in our families, in our world, and in the cosmos. Amen.
Opening Song: All You Works of God – Marty Haugen
https://youtu.be/vCTyaOcB4xk
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Alleluia: Misa Delgado Book1 https://youtu.be/uilfwfd-U_g
Readings and Homily Starter:
Our readings and homily starter take a bit of a detour tonight. I’d like us to meditate on the Holy Family using both a very narrow aperture and gradually broadening our view to take in a larger and larger family. I hope that when we reach the end you will share your thoughts on the concept of Holy Family.
Reading 1: Luke: 15-18
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Behold: This is a Holy Family.
Reading 2: 1 Corinthians: 15-20
Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? God has placed each part in the body just as God wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.
Behold: The Christian assembly, with all of our differences and all of our parts, is a Holy Family.
Reading 3: From “Human Family” by Maya Angelou
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.
I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.
I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
Behold: The vast human family, all over this earth, with all our differing cultures, religions, and languages, is a Holy Family.
Reading 4: From Saint Francis, Canticle of the Creatures
Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, The Highest, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which you give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night and he is beautiful
and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Behold: Everything in this solar system; the sun, moon, stars and planets; and everything on this earth; the elements, plants and animals, is a Holy Family.
Reading 5: From Brian Swimm and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story
“That the universe is a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects is the central commitment of the Ecozoic. Existence itself is derived from and sustained by this intimacy of each being with every other being of the universe.”
Behold: The ever-expanding Cosmos, with its solar systems, galaxies, nebulas, and energy, light and dark, is a Holy Family.
Shared Homily: The readings that we just heard illustrate the holy nature of family, from the micro, very specific Holy Family of scripture, to the macro, vast cosmic family of our universe. Please share your thoughts on these 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.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
As we prepare for this sacred meal we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. As bearers of LIGHT and HOPE, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your intentions beginning with the words, “I bring to the table…..”
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
(written by Jay Murnane)
Holy One, you are continually creating the universe, continually giving birth to all of us. We sense the need to do the same, to set ourselves free from a sense of emptiness and barren hopelessness.
We celebrate you as the Source of light and life and love, and we celebrate your presence and all-ways care. We give thanks, and joined with your vision of harmony and peace, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy by Peter Mayer shortened
https://youtu.be/A4kiEGVb3E8
Your wisdom invites us to draw on our tradition, as old as the stars, shining through Sarah and Abraham, shining through your prophets in every age and every culture. We join that enlightening, enlivening tradition with what we are as we risk fidelity to a dream.
Filled with your spirit, we, like Jesus, can give birth in our day to your living word for the sake of hope enfleshed in creativity and confrontation, healing and reconciliation, justice, universal and unconditional 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 faced his own death, Jesus sat at the Seder 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.
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.
(pause)
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.
(pause)
Holy One, we dare again to dream the ancient dreams and open ourselves to marvelous visions. There are mountains of arrogance to lower, valleys of fear and separation to fill in, to create a community and communion that stretches throughout our consciousness and around our world.
In this way, working to renew the face of the earth, we are opened up to your Spirit, the Spirit of light and life and love born in Jesus.
For it is through his life and teaching, all honor and glory is yours, Holy One, forever and ever.
All: Amen.
Please receive communion with the words, “For all the Holy Families.”
Communion Song /Meditation: Blue Boat Home, Peter Mayer
https://youtu.be/WhsXl1_rEwI?si=N4i2V5SndApbyoDa
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.
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 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
Presider 1: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together.
May the Holy Family that is all of creation live in peace and unity. May we bless one another with the infinite love shown to us in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. May we be a blessing in our time. Amen.
Closing Song: We are Family, Sister Sledge
https://youtu.be/WHwyTN-hw-8
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