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Welcome: For the
next few weeks we will continue to celebrate the Season of Creation. When I hear the word creation I think of the
amazing creatures, wildlife, plants, moon, the stars, including the sun and
planets. I think of the whole universe. I rarely think about us, you and me, my
family and friends or even my not so friends in this season of creation. We
humans are part of this ongoing Season of Creation too. Our theme is “Living Water.” We are one river, with many wells.
Opening
Prayer: May what we hear in our readings and our sharing open us to more
light, more truth, and more love. Amen.
Opening Song: More Light by Christopher Gundy video by MTStreck
https://youtu.be/a8XaUlqb8t0
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First
Reading: A reading from the Gospel of Mark.
Jesus was
questioned to put his knowledge to the test. “Which is the foremost of all the
commandments?” Jesus replied, “This is
the foremost: ‘Hear, O Israel, with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is
no commandment great than these.”
Acclamation:
Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU
Second Reading: A Reading from The Widom
Jesus, by Cynthia Bourgeault.
One of the most familiar of Jesus’ teachings is Love your
neighbor as yourself. But we almost always hear that wrong. We hear “Love your
neighbor as much as yourself” If you
listen closely to Jesus’s teaching however there is no “as much as” in there. It’s just “Love your neighbor as yourself” as
a continuation of your very own being.
It’s a complete seeing that your neighbor is you. There are not two
indiviudals out there, one seeking to better herself at the price of the other,
or to extend charity to the other; there are simply two cells of the one great
Life. Each of them is equally precious and necessary.
These are the inspired words of Cynthia Bourgeault and we affirm
them with AMEN!
Shared
Homily
“Love your
neighbor as yourself.” This verse always needled me. It made me question how much I love myself,
which sounds a little narcissistic or selfish?
My internal answer was I don’t love myself very much so no wonder I do
not really love my cranky neighbor. I
don’t even love some family members or friends sometimes.
And then we
have Cynthia Bourgeault ask us to listen more closely. “Love your neighbor as a
continuation of your very own being.”
See your neighbor as you. Not two individuals but one. Two cells in One Life. Ilia Delio, in her book The Not-Yet God,
goes even further and sees these two cells in one life as “God and humanity
entangled. God completes the human and the human completes God.” Imagine being entangled with God. Its complicating-twisting, not easy but we
are on the journey together.
When I read
Cynthia’s and Ilia’s ideas I experienced a kind of freedom and comfort. I love
the idea of us being a continuation of each other and entangled with God. We might
achieve more good things with a greater awareness of being a
continuation of each other while at the same time entangled with God!
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
Prayers
of the Community
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayers and blessings for one another:
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in
one voice:
O Holy One, you are always with us. In the blessed abundance of creation, we gather to celebrate Your nourishing gift of life. May our hearts be open as You invite us to participate in the wise and wonderful work of co-creation. May we be ever aware of Your Spirit within and among us as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty into the fullness of life.
We are grateful
for Your Spirit whose breath inspired the primal waters, calling into being the
variety and abundance we see around us. Your Spirit sustains and animates our
every endeavor, inviting us to act in wisdom and in truth.
In gratitude and
joy we embrace our calling and we lift our voices to proclaim a song of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by
Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ
As a community, we gather in the power of your Spirit, refreshing
wind, purifying fire and flowing water, for the variety and diversity of
Creation. We seek to live as Jesus taught us, wise and holy
as Spirit-filled people, courageous and prophetic, ever obedient to your
call.
Please
extend your 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, Jesus sat at the 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 the bread
At
the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it
to them saying:
Take
and eat the Bread of Life
Given
to strengthen you
Whenever
you remember me like this go and love one another.
lift the cup
Jesus then
raised a cup of blessing, spoke the grace and offered it 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.
(pause)
In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom to discern more wisely your call to us in the circumstances of our daily lives.
Please receive
the bread and cup with the words: We are entangled with God and one another.
Communion song: The
River by Garth Brooks
https://youtu.be/6hLhfPD7xFY?is=YvN6lldn23pce25D
Prayer
after Communion
We seek to
act justly and courageously in confronting the suffering that desecrates the
Earth and its peoples; to take risks in being proactive on behalf of the
marginalized who suffer the environmental injustices of fouled air, tainted
water, and a poverty of parks and public spaces that bring people together to
enjoy nature. We pray for inspiration to act with the harmony and unity and
synthesis that is modeled for us by the trees of the forest, and the stars of
the evening.
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 glorify You, O Holy One,
At this time and all ways.
Amen.
Prayer of
Jesus
Let us pray as Jesus taught us with an eye toward this Season of
Creation:
Generous
Creator, the intricate and elegant biodiversity of our world is your hallowed
autograph on our lives, on our souls and in our hearts.
We yearn
for the wholeness of being in harmony with Your will and with all living
things.
Each day we draw on your creative, life-giving energy with
gratitude and awe as we find nourishment in, seed and field, river and forest.
May we be stewards and co-creators with you in caring for
the gifts of Your Creation.
We acknowledge our shortcomings, especially our neglect of
the environment. We seek to be reconciled with those we have hurt and we
resolve to do better.
With your unfailing wisdom and the wind of Your Spirit,
inspire us that we may reach out and love one another and care for the world,
our home.
Strengthen us to work for local and global justice so that
we may one day reap a harvest of equality and fairness as if they were
wildflowers, propagating spontaneously, unerringly and in surprising abundance.
Amen.
We are
called to live the Gospel of Creation in harmony and gratitude with all our
sisters and brothers across the Earth. We will live justly, love tenderly and
walk with integrity in Your Presence.
BLESSING
Let us pray together our closing blessing:
Creator most generous and kind, your gift of
Earth and sky reveals your omnipotence and glory. May we go forward boldly to
live in the glory.
May we treat all of Creation as sacred and
discern the best path to an equitable distribution of the resources we share
with our sisters and brothers across the globe. May we love one another as a
continuation of each other all entangled with God. May we be one river as we
flow through life. Let us live as if the
future depends on it. Let’s dance. Amen.
Closing
Song: Can’t Stop the Feeling by
Justin Timberlake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw
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