Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community
Celebration of the Season of Creation 2023
September 2, 2023
Liturgy team: Jerry & Suzanne Bires, Den & Jan Rigdon,
Andrea Seabaugh, Michael Rigdon, Cheryl Brandi on IT
Liturgy adapted from Season of Creation Ecumenical Prayer Service by international Laudato Si’ Movement
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93473708926?pwd=VHFKZGJ5N3ljbzZtVU1qQVRZY1lodz09
Meeting ID: 934 7370 8926
Passcode: 552967
Welcome Michael
Welcome to Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota Florida! All are welcome to participate with us.
We gather in the name of God,✝️ Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of the Earth and all creatures!
Whoever you are, wherever you are, just as you are,
you are welcome at this table!
Season of Creation
https://youtu.be/WyjUTvGmliI
(Stop at 1:20)
Greeting Jerry
Greetings in the name of our God who is good:
whose love endures forever.
Greetings to you, sun and moon, you stars of the southern sky:
Sunrise and sunset, night and day:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
Greetings to you, mountains and valleys, grassland and scree,
glacier, avalanche, mist and snow:
All: Give to our God thanks and praise.
Greetings to you, kauri and pine, rata and kowhai, mosses and ferns, Baobab, fynbos, yellowwood and aloe:
Greetings to you, dolphins and kahawai, sea lion and crab, coral, anemone, pipi and shrimp:
All: Give to our God thanks and praise.
Greetings to you, rabbits and cattle, moths and dogs,
kiwi and sparrow, and tui and hawk:
Elephant, lions, rhinos, and giraffes, ostrich, sheep, cattle Scorpion and dung beetle:
All: Give to our God thanks and praise.
Greetings to you, women and men,
Elders and children, women and men,
Diverse cultures of this rainbow land:
Typists and teachers, cleaners, and clerks,
learners, job-seekers, TV and sports stars,
All who care, who love and who pray,
Who laugh and learn, who rest and who play:
All: Give to our God thanks and praise.
(A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa page 457, Lynn Pedersen 2016, Inspired by Ps 148 & Song of Creation)
Opening 🎶 All Things Bright and Beautiful
https://youtu.be/FT_oDqOEGpc
Prayer of Lament and RepentanceSuzanne
God of our vibrant world,
You have given humans the responsibility to care for each other. Indigenous people have historical, spiritual, and personal ties to these lands on which we inhabit. But many of us have failed to recognize the presence of God in these traditions, and their voices have been silenced. We are thankful to Indigenous Nations for their continuing care and presence on the Earth. We all value the resilience and strength shown through the generations and today.
We turn to the Spirit who dismantles borders and celebrates life giving community.
Help us make a place where everyone is welcome and we acknowledge your grace at work in the ways of one another. Together, may we learn the spiritual richness of our relationships in the web of life.
Holy One, in your mercy
All: Hear our prayer.
O God of the whole of creation.
You have created land and trees, animals and all living creatures on the earth. We are destroying the forests through poisons and logging, the voices of the birds, insects and forest dwellers are silenced
You created the wonders of the ocean, the fish, shells, reefs, whales, waves, corals. The oceans are warming and as they drown in plastic, their voices are being stilled.
We turn to you in sorrow and repentance.
Please help us to care for the oceans, the land and the forest, and to recognize that it is your blessing for us. Creation is speaking to us, but their voices have been silenced by the roar of our greed.
Holy One, in your mercy
All: Hear our prayer.
Mothering Earth, our Sister, you sustain and govern us. We have silenced the voices of your people, especially the voices of women —protectors of the Earth who have been killed by land grabbers, mining companies and oil companies. Many are the voices of our sisters who have been silenced by flooding, hurricanes and drought as the earth’s warming brings destruction. May we listen to the voices of our mothers and sisters and learn to treasure and protect the web of life.
Holy One, in your mercy
All: Hear our prayer.
We turn to you in sorrow and repentance.Please, Creator God, forgive us for the human activities which have overpowered the weather and caused destruction of our environment.
Holy One, in your mercy
All: Hear our prayer.
(Adapted from a Prayer of Lament written by members of the four Religious Orders in the Anglican Church of Melanesia. Melanesian Brotherhood, Society of St Francis, Community of the Sisters of the Church, Community of the Sisters of Melanesia)
Opening Prayer Jan
Holy One, as an eternal river of love and creativity you flow through us and all of creation. As we learn more every day about how everything in this universe is inter-related, may we come to appreciate more and more about our connection with all that is. May we see you where you really are, deep within everything and everyone. Amen.
First Reading Intro—Michael. A reading from Never Alone, by Woniya Dawn Thibeault (recounting her 10½ weeks alone in the Arctic as a participant in the reality program Alone)
Part 1—Andrea
Each day I work from first light until it’s time for the sunset song. The wobbliness in my thighs comes and goes, but though the hunger never leaves me, my legs continue to carry me and do what I ask of them. There are still a lot of cranberries around, but just thinking about them still makes my stomach clench and my mouth water with nausea.
One day I decide to wander down to the blueberry zone.
The bushes are getting harder to see as more of their brilliant red leaves lie faded on the ground. Every time I come the berries are more shriveled and increasingly apt to squish before I can get them to my mouth. I lick all I can off my fingers, where the sour juice mixes with the bitter spruce pitch and gets significantly less delicious. But still, they’re blueberries, and even bitter blueberries are amazing compared to none at all.
I’m probably not gaining many more calories than I’m spending, but I carry on, crawling into the thickets on hands and knees, until the front of my buckskin pants are stained a deep purple.
When I’m cold enough that I have to stop or risk hypothermia, I pry my eyes from the low bushes in front of me and see that the sky is already glowing with color. There’s just enough cloud cover to bounce the dusky golden light back down on the rocks, where the pale granite diffuses it over everything. It’s that magical time of day when you feel like you’ve suddenly stepped into another world.
First Reading Part 2–Den
I’m out on the end of the peninsula, where the rocks are wide open and I’m more aware of the wind and the waves and the vast scope of this place. Everything feels magnified—the sky above me immense, the cliffs on the distant shore even more rugged and mysterious then usual, the water in front of them impossibly wide. The exhilaration warms something inside me even as the wind sucks the heat from my hands and face. I want more. I want all of it, so I climb a little higher until I’m as far up the rocks to the north as I can go. From here I can look out across the lake in three directions. It’s been more days than I can remember since I’ve had a real meal. I have been working to the edge of my capacity, and still not bringing in any food but these meager berries every few days, but I can’t remember the last time I felt so incredibly happy, so blessed. There’s no other place in the world I want to be. I can’t believe my luck. I could have been
dropped anywhere, but they put me here—here on this jaw droppingly beautiful peninsula, the most incredible place on earth—where the chickadees flit and the aurora dances before my eyes and I can hear the voices of the ancestors whispering through the trees.
My heart aches trying to hold it all. A gust of wind sets the brilliant birch leaves fluttering in the golden light. Emotion wells up behind my eyes and I let it flow. I turn in slow arcs, overwhelmed by it all, salty tears stinging my crusty lips. I don’t even know why I’m crying, it’s just all so wild, so impossibly wild and rugged and untamed that I can’t hold myself back. I love it so much there are no words for it, there are only tears, and laughter, and then more tears. I weep with awe at this place, and with joy and wonder and gratitude. I adjust the tripod, hating to film this moment, but knowing this is the most important footage I can give the world. More real and true than anything I can share about traps or shelter.
“This right here,” I tell the camera. “This is what it’s all about. Loving the world so much that you can’t help but weep about it. This, everyone… This is the real survival skill.”
And I feel warm all the way back to the shelter.
🎶 Alle, Alle, Alleluia Linda Lee and Rick Miller
https://youtu.be/gIHnZn3JjcM?si=aryXAqRivIZD6jpY
Second Reading Jerry, from What does is mean to believe in an ecological God? By Elizabeth Johnson
Death is deeply structured into the creative advance of life which arises in the midst of perpetual perishing. In creating the world, God is present here and now to each creature, loving each into existence and future.
If we ask where God is in the midst of this trouble, bedrock biblical faith answers “here,” in solidarity with creatures crushed by pain and death. The Creator spirit is present amid suffering with the intent to heal, redeem and liberate. … Things fall apart. There is hope for the future. “I will be with you” is the proper name of the Creator of Heaven and Earth.…
“(T)he final purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather, all creatures are moving forward, with us and through us, towards a common point of arrival, which is God” (Laudato Si’, No. 83).
Indeed, “eternal life will be a shared experience of wonder, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place” (No. 243). Will I see my dog in heaven? Here is the answer. We cannot imagine this, but Francis is drawing out the logic of belief in God the Creator.
Michael, Poem by E. E. Cummings
(first published in Zaire, Oxford U Press, 1950)
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Shared Homily Michael & All
Profession of Faith Suzanne & All
We believe in God, who creates all things,
who embraces all things, who celebrates all things,
who is present in every part of the fabric of creation.
We believe in God as the source of all life,
who baptizes this planet with living water.
who is present in every part of the fabric of creation.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the suffering one, the poor one, the malnourished one, the climate refugee, who loves and cares for this world and who suffers with it.
And we believe in Jesus Christ, the seed of life,
who came to reconcile and renew this world and everything in it. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God,
who moves with God and who moves among and with us today. We believe in everlasting life in God.
And we believe in the hope that one day
God will put an end to death and all destructive forces.
(Gurukul Theological college, India / adapted by Keld B. Hansen 2009)
Our Community Prayers Jan
Loving God, even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near your altar. You are attentive to all you have made.
God, who listens to every living thing,
All: Help us listen as you do.
Loving God, help us provide refuge to every animal and plant with whom we live. Help us be attentive to all you have made.
God, in whom all creation subsists,
All: Help us listen as you do.
Loving God, when Jesus cried out and gave up his Spirit, the earth shook and the rocks split. You are known by the whole of creation that listens to you.
God, to whom all creation responds,
All: Help us respond to you.
Loving God, help us hear and know you just as the earth and rocks do. Help us to learn from the way in which we see creation to recognize your glorious beauty.
God, to whom all creation responds,
All: Help us respond to you.
Loving God, you are present in your creation and seek to heal her wounds. You can be found walking in the garden. Open our eyes to see you, the gardener.
God, who is present with your creation,
All: Help us be present too.
Loving God, we often abandon your creation and cause its wounds. Help us to follow in your footsteps and learn to walk in the garden like you.
God, who is present with your creation,
All: Help us be present too.
Loving God, who hears every voice, knows each cry of injustice, and is attentive to the suffering of the earth: teach us to listen. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may listen to the world you have created and not close ourselves off from it. Reveal to us the ways in which we have failed to hear your voice in how we treat the earth.
God, who listens to every living thing,
All: Help us listen as you do. Amen
Offering (Have bread and wine/juice on your table) Den
O Holy One, we bring you our gifts from creation, bread 🥖of the grain 🌾 and wine 🍷 of the grapes 🍇. We recognize that they are holy in you their creator. And we know that they will make us holy, one with you, one with each other, & one with all creation.
Eucharistic Prayer
Andrea & All. We commit ourselves to live the ministry of the Gospel as we speak clearly with respect and love, as we challenge the contradictions within our society, especially during these times of division and fear. We remind ourselves daily to remain faithful in our words and actions to our commitment to nonviolence. We are called to the inner life, our spiritual life, to be open to the new beginnings in our lives. We walk with Jesus seeking wisdom and peace.
(Hold your hand over bread and wine)
Suzanne & All. Jesus, we remember the last meal you had with your followers. We call upon Sacred Spirit, ever and always with us, to bring blessing on this bread and wine as they are made sacred through our faith in the presence of Christ with us.
During Jesus’s life on earth, he lived and died loving the poor, healing the sick and challenging the injustices within society. Because of his ministry, Jesus was feared by the authorities of his day, and they sought out ways to bring him to his death.
Jan & All. 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.
All lift 🥖 and pray:
Jan & All. 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 lift the 🍷 and pray:
Jerry & All. Jesus took the cup, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying: Take and drink. This is the new covenant. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you. (pause)
Denis. 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.
Suzanne & All. Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice. We listen to the groaning of creation, remembering that we are bearers of light and hope. We are Christ alive today.
We now share the bread and wine, saying, “
🎶 Communion Song Lady’s Grace by Kerani
https://youtu.be/ghOcVwoJYeA?si=ubBo7EPcjTKVocLv
Andrea. We pray our common prayer that Christ taught us:
All: Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echoes through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
May your beloved community of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.
(Adapted from The New Zealand Book of Prayer | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa. This version of the Lord’s prayer was influenced by Maori theologians)
A Prayer for Our Earth (Pope Francis in Laudato Si’) Jan
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
And in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
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 your
infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace. All: Amen
Sharing of Peace Den
If we are in Christ, we are becoming a new creation.
We see God around us. We see God within us.
We give thanks to our Creator.
Let us show the caring nature you have instilled within us by greeting each other as a sign of God’s peace, love, forgiveness and grace. The peace of our Creator be with usin all things.
All: Namaste 🙏🏿 Namaste 🙏🏼 Namaste 🙏🏻
(adapted from Celebrating Creation: Honoring Indigenous People, Kelly Sherman-Conroy, ELCA)
Thanksgiving. Introductions. Announcements. Michael
🎶Final Blessing Water Is Life, Sara Thomson
https://youtu.be/fzPjkG3akrc?si=IKBNlYPPaFeIAZx4
Andrea. May God who established the dance of creation,
Who marveled at the lilies of the field,
Who transforms chaos to order,
Lead us to protect creation,
To listen to the voice of all creatures that reflect God’s glory.
(adapted from the CTBI Eco-Congregation Programme)
Final 🎵 Blessed Unrest
https://youtu.be/pLAZ9q6JDj0
(Stop at 4:20)
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Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community
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