Upper Room Liturgy: October 10, 2021 - Presiders: Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP, and Ginny O'Brien

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

Welcome everyone. We are in the process of setting up our new space and making sure our technology is working well so we can continue to share liturgy together.  In the midst of Covid we have become a new and I daresay improved community. We are here for each other, and we are a blessing for each other.  May we continue to see each other with eyes of love and live our lives to the fullest. 

Opening Song:  You Can Relax Now       

https://youtu.be/z-mfPQIEaUA

Opening Prayer
Holy One, help us have the courage to awaken to greater truth, greater humility, greater care for one another. May we place our trust in what matters and what lasts, trusting in your eternal peace and presence.  Amen (Edwina Gately)

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: (Terri) 

A reading from The Brothers Karamazov

Love people even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.  Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. 

These are the inspired words of Dostoevsky and the community affirms them by saying: AMEN

(Dennis) Alleluia

Gospel: (Deven)

A reading from the Gospel of Mark 

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? 
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing. 
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions

These are the inspired word of a disciple of Jesus and the community affirms them by saying: AMEN

Shared Homily 

The recent Gospels we have heard at liturgy are full of people following after Jesus asking him questions.  There are Pharisees who are asking him questions to try and trip him up.  There are people who are curious and may be hoping what they have been hearing is true. Maybe they are looking for a miracle.  And then there are those like the young man in this gospel who are seekers trying to do the right thing, trying to live a better life. 

Today’s gospel question is “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  And what does Jesus do with this question?  He sidesteps it by asking another question. “Why do you call me good?  God alone is good.  Jesus focuses the young man’s attention away from his goal of inheriting eternal life and refocuses his attention on what is really important---recognizing the goodness of the Holy One and living life now. 

What happens to us when our focus is on the Holy One? What do we see? What do we experience? We see as the first reading suggests and what we have been sharing during our Season of Creation liturgies and prayers.  We see and experience the Holy One in all creation. We love every grain of sand, every leaf, every ray of light, every animal, and plant.  We love everything.  

Jesus was attuned, saw and loved all of creation including each of us.

Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. Jesus looks at us and loves us.  

In our amazing, loving, full of awareness moments, and I say moments because we often find it hard to stay focused, we are free to give all that we have, our gifts, talents, treasures, indeed we give our very selves. As John Shelby Spong said we are free “to live fully, to love wastefully and to have the courage to be all that we can be”. In those moments we have not just inherited eternal life we are living eternal life right here, right now.

(Mary B)

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

Ginny: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our blessings, cares, and concerns. 

Dennis:

We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace. 

Kathie: With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.

You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:

Song: Here In This Place

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ

Ginny: Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good. 

We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times. 

Please extend your hands in blessing.

We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful 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 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. 

Community lifts the plates

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.

Community lifts the cup

Kathie: 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.

We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.  Please receive communion with the words: We are loved.

Communion song: Beauty in You – Karen Drucker

https://youtu.be/m5Jz6gLDOhg

Ginny: Loving source of our being, you call us to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity in your presence. 

(Ann)

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 

Closing Prayer

Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world.  We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our world communities.  

We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within, 

moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.  Amen. 

BLESSING

 Please extend your hands in our final blessing.

ALL:  May the Fire of Love ignite our hearts and radiate through us.

May the Spirit truth and justice burn within us.

May we continue to see the face of the Holy One in everyone and in all creation.

May we be a blessing in our time. AMEN.

Closing Song: Canticle of the Turning, Rory Cooney

https://youtu.be/b-QR_OZB5ik 

Moment of Oneness - October 6, 2021

Moment of Oneness: Loving Our Neighbor

Created by Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice, RCWP

7:00pm EST
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772

To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656

Opening Prayer: Words of Valerie Kaur (from See No Stranger pages 310-311) 

Reader 1: Love is a form of sweet labor: fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving—a choice we make over and over again. Love can be taught, modeled, and practiced. It engages all our emotions: Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects that which is loved. And when we think we have reached out limit, wonder is the act that returns us to love. 

Reader 2: “Revolutionary love” is the choice to enter into labor for others, for our opponents, and for ourselves in order to transform the world around us. It is not a formal code or prescription but an orientation to life that is personal and political, rooted in joy. Loving only ourselves is escapism; loving only our opponents is self-loathing; loving only others is ineffective. All three practices together make love revolutionary, and revolutionary love can only be practiced in community. 

Reader 1: Seeing no stranger begins in wonder. It is to look upon the face of anyone and choose to say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Wonder is the wellspring for love. Who we wonder about determines whose stories we hear and whose joy and pain we share. Those we grieve with, those we sit with and weep with, are ultimately those we organize with and advocate for. When a critical mass of people come together to wonder about one another, grieve with one another, and fight with and for one another, we begin to build the solidarity needed for collective liberation and transformation—a solidarity rooted in love. 

Reader 2: Loving Source of Life, we stand before you with open hearts to discover the ways of Revolutionary Love. Help us to learn to love all our neighbors, to wonder about those who are different than us and to see no stranger in the faces we meet. All: Amen. 

Reflection Pause

Litany of Loving by Chett Pritchett, 2011. (adapted for this service) 

Reader 1: Holy One, Out of love, you swept over the waters and hovered over the face of the deep. Your love created all that was, all that is, and all that will be. All: Open our hearts to your love.

Reader 2: Out of love, you brought your people out of oppression. Your love gave them a law and a land. All: Open our hearts to your love. 

Reader 1: When their love for you failed Your love remained steadfast. All: Open our hearts to your love. 

Reader 2: Gracious One, Because of love, you gave us prophets to challenge and guide: Visionaries, dancers, dreamers, and scoundrels. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 1: Because of love, you sent Jesus of Nazareth, the full expression of your love. He healed the sick; he ate with sinners; he loved with abandon. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 2: Because of love, Jesus called together his disciples so that we might walk in the way that leads to love. All: Fill our hearts with your love. 

Reader 1: Passionate One, Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our neighbors, Our unhoused neighbors, Our immigrant neighbors All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 2: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our neighbors of different faiths or who have no faith at all. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 1: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our LGBTQ neighbors, our heterosexist neighbors All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 2: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love our undereducated neighbors, our neighbors who see race as a barrier to loving others. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. 

Reader 1: Teach us, as Jesus did, to love and empower us, O God of all creation, to love our neighbors because out of love, you first loved us. All: Set our hearts on fire with your love. Amen. 

Song: We Are One by Joyce Johnson Rouse/Earth Mama 

https://youtu.be/DHCnT5PT-ew 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun, We Are One! 

I have sisters in Nicaragua, their skin is burning, from the chemicals used in the fields, where they make their living. I have brothers in Indonesia, their eyes are stinging from the burnings of the rainforest trees to clear them for grazing. 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun. We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! 

2) We have elders in ancient forests, who mourn the passing of species of flowers and birds crowded out by our taking. And there are children in war-torn countries, they are all of our children, they can’t remember a nighttime of peace with no shooting or crying. 

Refrain: We all live on the same earth, we fish and swim in the same oceans, we breath the same air and gaze at the very same moon, we feel the warmth of the same sun. We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! We Are One! (repeats 2 more times)

Closing Prayer

Reader 1: Our response to this Franciscan blessing is Amen! May the Holy One bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. All. Amen 

Reader 2: May Holy One bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. All. Amen

Reader 3: May Holy One bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. All. Amen 

Reader 4: And may Holy One bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. All. Amen 

Reader 5: With hearts on fire, let us go forth from here empowered to live a life of Revolutionary Love by loving our neighbors and seeing no stranger among us. All: Amen.

Closing Song: Power of Kindness by MaMuse

https://youtu.be/pfsRSoeC8Lg 

Upper Room Liturgy - Season of Creation 2021 - Feast of St. Francis of Assisi - Presiders: Donna Panaro, ARCWP, and Margaret Dilgen

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

Margaret: Introduction of Theme: 

We welcome you to our final celebration of seasons of creation. It is so fitting to honor St. Francis of Assisi today. Francis teaches us that the divine is as close as the forest we walk in, the animals we love and the hands we hold. Today we sit with one another in reverence and with awe of this simple message of love.

This morning our opening song is our opening prayer. As we listen with the ears of our hearts may we be touched by the spirit of the Holy One.

Opening Song: Everything is Holy Now

https://youtu.be/s_SgAmljIJc 

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: (Kim)

A reading from Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis by Ilia Delio

As Francis came to know God more deeply through prayer, meditation, and long periods of solitude, he came to see that he was not alone in this world; he was created by God and in God his life had meaning and purpose. Coming to this knowledge allowed him to loosen the reigns of control on his life; he was at home in his own skin and being at home within himself he could open himself up to love. Compassion blossomed in Francis’ life like a seed on newly tilled soil. Love softened his heart to feel the pain of others whose pain became his own, in the same way that our pain belongs to God. He showed patience and kindness to those suffering because he felt something of his own suffering in theirs. Compassion is realized when we know ourselves related to one another, a deep relatedness of our humanity despite our limitations. It goes beyond the differences that separate us and enters the shared space of created being. To enter this space is to have space within ourselves, to welcome into our lives the stranger, the outcast, and the poor. Love is stronger than death and the heart that no longer fears death is truly free. Compassion flourishes when we have nothing to protect and everything to share. We have the capacity to heal this earth of its divisions, its wars, its violence, and its hatreds. This capacity is the love within us to suffer with another and to love the other without reward. Love that transcends the ego is love that heals. When we lose ourselves for the sake of love, we shall find ourselves capable of real love. 

Compassion flows best from a heart open, free, and deeply in love with life. It rises above the individual and yearns for oneness of heart. Compassion knows no other language than the language of love. 

These are the inspired words of Ilia Delio and the community affirms them by saying: Amen

Responsorial: Canticle of Creation (Margaret and Ed)

https://youtu.be/QS4Dvhe6-xo

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia (Dennis)

Gospel: (Ginny)

A reading from the gospel writer known as Luke 

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”

These are the inspired words from the gospel of Luke and the community affirms them by saying: Amen

Shared Homily: (Donna)

Do This and Live

Today we celebrate our final Sunday in our month-long celebration of the season of creation. It is fitting that we celebrate Francis of Asissi as he is an iconic figure in earth centered Christian spirituality.  Brother Francis’ life is an example of the richness found in simplicity, beauty, art, music, poetry, awe of nature and love of neighbor. Instead of idolizing Francis, we should admire him and emulate him. If we want what he had, we should do what he did. His life of gospel poverty and service may seem very frightening and too radical to our 21^st century sensibilities. Our culture teaches individualism which fosters greed and protective territorialism. Still authentic spirituality that follows the two greatest laws of compassion is accessible to all of us today. 

Francis viewed the world and everything in it as God’s glorious creation. The beauty of Franciscan spirituality is that it teaches us how to live in harmony with the flow of life. Fullness of life comes about when we are creative and in awe of beauty, nature and mystery. These attributes can open our hearts to compassion.

The gospel writer says, “Do this and live.” I think this speaks of living with the freedom that Francis grew to know.  In our first reading, Delio says we have fullness of life when we no longer fear death.  This is how Francis opened space in his heart for compassion. When we spend time and energy protecting ourselves from physical, emotional, or spiritual death we cannot love freely. We like Francis must transcend fear in order to have more space within ourselves to love and live with fullness. 

The more we open our hearts to love from God and from others the more we can transcend our fear of death. When we move from seeing holy as happening only in church to seeing that everything is holy, as our opening song said, we are opening to a fuller life. Beauty and the act of creating can be channels of opening our hearts to love. When we experience awe and wonder our hearts become more open. When we create a garden, write a poem, take photographs, we tap into something bigger than us which also creates space in our hearts to love. We, like Francis can eventually let go of the need to protect which gives us the capacity to lose ourselves to love. This is the key to living with the deep compassion found in following the two greatest commandments . This is fullness of life. It takes courage to embrace life in the face of fear but doing this will unlock the door to our hearts. We are then free to love and live as compassionate people. “Do this and live.”

Statement of Faith – (Julie)

 
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. 

Margaret: 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 blessings, cares and concerns.

Intentions read- (Dennis)

We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace. 

 

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

Donna: Please join us, with arms raised, in the praying of the Eucharistic Prayer. 

Great Mystery surrounding us, we lift up our hearts to understand that our spirits are one. You are with us, and we live. Everything lives because of you, and everything is one. 

Your wisdom moves among us like the wind, and we are blessed.

So now we enter into the oneness of creation, attune ourselves to join in the harmony, let ourselves embrace that oneness with thankfulness and joy. And so, we join with all of creation and sing in glory for the beauty that encircles us.

Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ

Margaret: Creator of the whole universe, we glory in the environment, especially forests, that surround us. May we have the vision and strength to protect all forest ecosystems and the whole of Your creation, which have been corrupted by human exploitation, pollution, and destruction, so that the whole of creation may be renewed and made whole, 

We join with the earth and with each other, to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air.

We join with the earth and with each other to renew the forests, to care for the plants, to protect the creatures.

We join with the earth and with each other to celebrate the seas, to rejoice in the sunlight, to sing the song of the stars.

We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the earth and the renewal of life.

We join together and call the Spirit upon the gifts of the earth, bread and wine, as we bless them and remember our call to be the Body of Christ in the world. 

On the night before he died, he sat at a table with friends and relived with them his work, his teaching and wisdom of the universe. Then he went among them as servant, washing their feet, touching their hearts.  

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 

Donna: Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying: 

Take and drink. 

Whenever you remember me like this, 

I am among you. 

Pause

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

Please receive the blessed bread and cup with the words, “I am a steward of Creation”. 

Communion Meditation: Canticle of the Feathered Ones

https://youtu.be/YmvOW4wzcpg 

Donna: Mystery of Life present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures, embrace with tenderness all that exists. May the power of divine love rain down upon us, that we may protect life and beauty. Help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards divine light and love. We are thankful for the pulse of life that fills us each day. May we be encouraged and strengthened for our struggle for justice, love and peace in the world.

Lindy: Let us pray the 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 on this Creation Sunday. 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.          Written by Lynn Kinlan

BLESSING

Margaret: Let us raise our hands and pray our closing blessing:

Blessed are you, Lord God,
maker of all living creatures.
On the fifth and sixth days of creation,
you called forth fish in the sea,
birds in the air, and animals on the land.
You inspired St. Francis to call all animals
his brothers and sisters.
We ask you to bless this animal.
By the power of your love,
enable [him or her] to live according to your plan.
May we always praise you
for all your beauty in creation.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.

Closing Song: Being Kind by Empty Hands Music

https://youtu.be/mJhZ64BvvFU