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Welcome. Lee
Welcome to Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community!
Whoever you are, Wherever you are,
Just as you are, You are welcome at this table.
(Integral Christianity by Paul Smith)
Opening 🎶Laudato Si’, Canticle of the Sun. Words by St Francis, music by Marty Haugen, performed by Michelle Sherliza, OP
https://youtu.be/CfJ6WJPUff8
Theme. (Lee) Christ in all creatures, all creatures in Christ
(Teresa) Let us begin our celebration by sharing a sign of peace with one another. Bow toward the community with hands folded 🙏 as we say together: (All) The peace of Christ be with you. Namaste, Namaste, Namaste.
(Teresa) Please join in singing the Prayer of St Francis
https://youtu.be/pSnSZ1vtmZM
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, God,
and where there is doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only light,
and where there’s sadness ever joy.
Oh God, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled, as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving of ourselves that we receive
And in dying that were born to eternal life.
Make me a channel of your peace!
Opening Prayer. (Joan)
Holy One, you flow through us and all of creation as an eternal river of love and creativity. 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. All: Amen.
We break open God’s Word.
(Jerry) The first reading is from the book of Genesis.
God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life!
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”
God created the huge whales,
all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean!
Birds, reproduce on Earth!”
It was evening, it was morning—Day Five.
God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.”
And there it was:
wild animals of every kind,
Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
God saw that it was good.
We respond to this inspired message from Genesis: (All) So be it!
(Excerpt From The Message by Eugene H Peterson)
Second Reading (Suzanne) A reading from the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis Laudato Si’, On Care For Our Common Home
V. GLOBAL INEQUALITY
48. The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest”.[26] For example, the depletion of fishing reserves especially hurts small fishing communities without the means to replace those resources; water pollution particularly affects the poor who cannot buy bottled water; and rises in the sea level mainly affect impoverished coastal populations who have nowhere else to go. The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor, in conflicts sparked by the shortage of resources, and in any number of other problems which are insufficiently represented on global agendas.
49. It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
These are the inspired words of Pope Francis and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
🎶 Alle, Alle, Alleluia
https://youtu.be/gIHnZn3JjcM
(Anna) Today’s gospel reading is from the Good News attributed to Matthew. (Excerpt From The Message by Eugene H Peterson)
If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
Look at the birds 🦅 , free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.
People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.
Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
This is the Good News from Matthew, and we respond:
(All) Thanks be to God.
🎶 Alle, Alle, Alleluia
https://youtu.be/gIHnZn3JjcM
Homily Starter (Michael) and Shared Homily (All).
Profession of Faith (Teresa) & 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.
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.
Prayers of the Community. (Joan M) We bring to the table the needs of our community, our country, and our world.
(Response: Holy One, you hear our prayer)
May each of us contribute to the health and sustainability of our Mother Earth, we pray. R
May we support organizations and leaders who address climate change, we pray. R
We bring to the table community members, family members, & friends with health problems, we pray. R
We bring to the table our sisters & brothers in the US and around the world who are suffering from the wildfires and from the impact of tropical storms. We pray. R
Joan will bring to the table petitions in our community prayer book.
And for what else shall we pray today?
Holy One, we bring these needs to you in faith and hope.
All: Amen
We offer our gifts 🥖 🍷 (Anna) (Have bread and wine/juice on your table)
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 and one with each other.
Our communion prayer.
(Suzanne) Our loving God dwells on earth and speaks to us through wild flowers and butterflies
(All) And through every living being.
(Suzanne) Lift up your hearts.
(All) We lift them up to our Creator in whom all beings live.
(Suzanne) Let us give thanks for the Source of Life.
(All) It is right to give the Living God thanks and praise.
(Jerry & All) Holy, holy, holy God, Spirit of love of peace,
Earth’s abundance reflects your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed are all living things who reflect the beauty of God. Hosanna in the highest.
(Michael) Holy One, we bring you these gifts 🥖🍷 that they may become the Christ Presence. Fill us with tenderness toward our sisters and brothers, and toward all holy creatures.
(Teresa & All, with hand extended) On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them saying, “Take this all of you and eat. This is my very self. (Pause)(Lee & All) in the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine. He said the blessing, gave the cup to his friends and said take this all of you and drink. This is the cup of my new covenant with you. When you do this, remember me.
The Mystery of Faith. (Anna) We are one body in Christ, in communion with all creation.
Litany for the breaking of the bread (Anna & All)
Christ of the cosmos, may we live our oneness with you and all creation.
Christ of the cosmos, may we work to heal the earth.
Christ of the cosmos, may we celebrate justicerising up in the global communion everywhere.
(Jerry & All, lifting the bread & cup) This is the Cosmic Christ in whom all creation lives and moves and has its being. All are invited to partake of this banquet of love. And to celebrate our oneness with all living beings on the planet. We are the body of Christ.
(All receive communion now)
🎶 The Water of Life by Kerani
https://youtu.be/FvcedDyMqUU?si=sAWp4peAYsGWikfe
(Joan) Christ of the cosmos, we remember those within our world and church who are working for environmental healing, human rights, and justice for all.
Christ of the cosmos, we remember St Francis who sang canticles to brother sun and sister moon. We remember our sisters and brothers who have cared for earth’s creatures and have blessed our world with their loving service to God’s people most in need. We praise you in union with them and give you glory by working for a more just and peaceful world.
Lover of animals, we are filled with awe as we behold and give thanks for all living things. May we immerse ourselves in the beauty of nature that surrounds us each day. We ask this through our brother Jesus, in union with Spirit Sophia. (All) Amen
(Michael) Prayers of thanks.
Announcements.
Final Blessing (Michael & All)
May our nurturing God bless ✝️ all gathered here
in the name of the creator,
in the name of Mary‘s child, and
in the name of Spirit Sophia
as we serve one another and the earth.
Commission (Teresa & All) Let us go in the peace of Christ. Let our service begin. Alleluia! Thanks be to God!
Final 🎶 Of the Earth, by The Many
https://youtu.be/FDW_YEokpxE
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If you want to add an intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayer book, please send an email to Joan Meehan jmeehan515@aol.com
If you want to invite someone to attend our liturgy, please refer them to the day’s liturgy at MaryMotherofJesus.net
To support our community, please send your check to:
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community
5342 Clark Road #3079, Sarasota, FL 34233