Celebration of the Season of Creation
“A Sustainable Mother Earth, and Our
Responsibility as her Daughters and Sons and
Co-Creators with Holy Mystery”
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Welcome. Katy
Today’s theme of our liturgy is our moral and ethical obligation to take care of Mother Earth, living revelation of Holy Mystery. I hope you took time to read and reflect on Joan Chittister’s Monastic Way thoughts “What is Religion and What is Spirituality”. For August 20 “There is no religion without love,and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to human and beast, it is all a sham.”-Anna Sewell. A deep spirituality equals the possibility of participating in the Oneness of Creation, of taking our place, of knowing our interconnectedness.”
“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 Song Psalm Of Creation (orig. by Patrick Richard - "Psaume de la Création". Eng. version by Jim Hayes) Stop at 3:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41W2eVW3dyQ
Silvia and All:
Mother of the Universe who dwells in bright darkness,
We who are creatures of the one earth,
All the human race; the animal kindom,
Every growing thing, all the continents and oceans,
The atmosphere and the fertile mantle
Are sibling from the same womb,
Your brood and kin.
Your cosmic maternal voice
Cries out in terrible laments to give birth
To an ever-new creation
And to overcome whatever might destroy it.
Safe in your perfect care, Holy Wisdom,
We rejoice in hope and entrust ourselves to your mystery.
All: Creator Mother, birthing, feeding, freeing, in you we live and move
and have our being. Amen. (She Who Is, #58 William Clearly)
We break open God’s Word.
Jerry Bires: The first reading is from Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox
The crises we find ourselves in as a species require that as a species, we shake up all our institutions—including our religious ones…Change is necessary for our survival, and we often turn to the mystics at a critical time like this. Jung said: “Only the mystics bring what is creative to religion itself.,” The mystics walk their talk and talk their walk.
Deep down, each one of us is a mystic. When we tap into that energy, we become alive again and we give birth. From the creativity that we release is born the prophetic vision and work that we all aspire to realize as our gift to the world. We want to serve in whatever capacity we can. Getting in touch with the mystic inside is the beginning of our deep service.
We respond to this inspired message from Matthew Fox (pg. 2-3)
All: Thanks be to God
Psalm Response 119 (Nan MerrillPsalms for Praying, adaptation)
Jim Brandi: Response All: Guide my steps according to your Wisdom
Jim: Breathe on me, O Breath of Inspiration, in the silence of my tranquil heart, infill me with your wisdom. O, that I might radiate the compassion and peace, the truth and beauty of the Beloved. All: Guide my steps according to your Wisdom
Direct my steps, O holy One, that I might humbly walk with you. The unfolding of your Way gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. Guide my steps according to your Wisdom, and show me how to lovingly co-create with you. All: Guide my steps according to your Wisdom
May your face shine upon your friend, as You teach me of Love. I weep over our wounded world, our earth ravaged by greedy, insensitive hands. All: Guide my steps according to your Wisdom
Suzanne B The second reading is taken from “Teilhard de Chardin on Morality, Living in an Evolving World” (by Louis M. Savary pgs. 38-39)
God’s purpose is to have us spend our lives on Earth helping one another—and God—make our “perfectible” planet an ever-better place to live. In other words, God want us to spend our lifetime finding ways to love one another more deeply so that our planet would eventually become covered with people loving one another. Teilhard saw many ways of showing love, ways that might not immediately spring to mind. His ways to show love for one another might involve, as examples, using new technology, … developing new ways of relating and so on.
Creaturely activity can be done only by creatures and not by God independently of those creatures. The moral insight is that human cooperation and commitment is necessary for the building of the world. …The Earth cannot be transformed without human beings each doing their part of the work for God’s project. From Teilhard’s perspective, God cannot accomplish what God wants to accomplish without our cooperation. God counts on our dreams, our longings, our creativity and our determination in figuring out how to build the Earth. More directly, for Teilhard, the will of God is a project to be co-created with God through the exercise of our minds, hearts and bodies (author’s emphasis) We respond to this inspired message from Louis M. Savary: All: Thanks be to God
🎵 🎶 Alle, Alle, Alléluia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID5UGWcS6Ws
Silvia B: Today’s gospel reading is from the Good News attributed to Mark 7:31-37
Jesus left the region of Tyre and returned by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Ten Cities. Some people brought an individual who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and begged Jesus to lay hands on that person. Jesus took the afflicted one aside, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the deaf ears and, spitting touched the mute tongue with his saliva. The Jesus looked up to heaven and, with a deep sigh, said, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!” At once the deaf ears were opened and the impediment cured; the one who had been began to speak plainly.
Then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone; but the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. Their amazement went beyond all bounds “Jesus has done everything, will! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!” This is the Good News from Mark and we respond:All: Thanks be to God.
Shared Homily: Katy
What challenged you from our readings
What did you hear that affirmed what you are doing for a sustainable world.
How have your eyes/ears been opened to our Climate crises
Do you commit to taking action on behalf of life on Earth
Beholding With Respect (our profession of faith) Adapted from ”Beholding with Respect” by Mary Jo Hazard, CSJ Associate. From Imagine ONE, Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph, Fall 2024
Jane S.: I am the tree outside my window.
All: I am the leaves: glowing in the sunlight and dark in the shadows, blowing waving dancing like crazy and also becoming still…present…expectant…non-judgmental.
All: I am the branches strong as sculptures, feeling heavy, carrying so many deceptively light leaves; yet solid…unshakeable…steady as Jesus’ Vine and Branches.
All: I am all of this tree, this one right here outside my window
Jane: I am the woods across the road
All: I am each oak and ash individual grounded into Earth and delighting in standing together as a community of arbors.
Jane: I am the sky
All: The Chagall blue I see behind, anchoring the leaves of green, red and brown as well as the puffy white frolicking joyfully clouds.
Jane: I am this sunshine
All: Giving and giving and asking for nothing in return, only delighting in the evolving life of all creation.
All: I and all of us are One in All, Christ in all. Thanks be to God! Amen! Alleluia!
All: We affirm this truth of our Oneness, Holy Mystery Creator, Sustainer and Receiver in whom we live and move and have our being.
Our Community Prayers
(taken from “Our Common Home; a guide to caring for our living planet”; A joint initiative of the Holy See and the Stockholm Environment Institute) “Everything is Connected,” Pope Francis, Laudato si’ (91)
Jerry and Suzanne alternating
Loving God help us to “urgently renew our relationship with our living planet” May we understand the ecological crisis and its roots in over-consumption and current models of economic development. All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
“The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all” Laudato si’ (23) May we turn from fossil fuels to clean energy, halt deforestation, change how we farm the land and consume food. We pray All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
“Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect” Laudato si’ (42) We need to protect and restore habitats on land and at sea. Tackling the Climate crisis will prevent further loss of biodiversity. We pray All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
“Access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right” Laudato si’ (30) Water must be treated as a scarce and precious resource. Wasteful irrigation practices must be addressed. We must reduce pollution in rivers, groundwater and seas. We pray All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
“Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.” Laudato si’ (2) Globally 9 out of 10 people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. At the same time, air pollution contributes to global warming and harms the natural world. All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
“There is a great variety of small-scale food production systems which feed the greater part of the world’s peoples.” Laudato si’ (129) Acute hunger is rising in more than 50 countries, while a third of all food goes to waste. As the world population grows, we need to ensure food security for all as well as safeguard the ecosystems that are the very foundation of agriculture. We pray
All: Love is the hope and promise of all the Earth.
And for who and what else shall we pray? (Response: Holy One, you hear us)
Jeanne Schmitt: Loving God, you are revealed in Mother Earth and all her living species, her earthly beauty in forests, waters, mountains and all her ecosystems of diversity. We are your daughters and sons called to care for your Revelationnow in our time and place. We, your co-creators and Mother Earth’s sons and daughters, ask Sophia Wisdom to guide us in making decisions for all life of your blue planet. All: Amen.
Rite of Transformation
Jane S: We pause now to remember a time we have not born fruit in caring for Mother Earth and God’s diversity of species including our brothers and sisters. Take a moment to recall one missed opportunity to care for earth, one broken or damaged relationship. (Pause briefly and extend your hand over your heart)
Suzanne B and all: As we ask for and receive forgiveness, and You bring us to consciousness and transform energy into Love, open our hearts to Your Infinite Love embracing and healing us on our life’s journey. May we, co-creators with you, commit to taking care of self, others and actions to take care of all species on God’s earth. May God’s Love within each of us grow.
Presentation of the Bread and Wine
Sylvia B: (all lift up the bread) Blessed are you, Holy Mystery, Creator of all life, this bread is your community of MMOJ We have this bread to offer, it will become for us the Bread of Life. May your Love flowing through us nourish all our brothers, sisters and the diversity of life on our Creator’s planet . All: Praise to you Jesus Christ, Wise Elder Brother, our Way and our Love.
Jim B. (all lift up the wine) Blessed are you, Holy Mystery, in whom we live and move and have our being. This wine is our desire to know we are One with all Love creates, within Holy Mystery. May the Love who you are flow through us as a river renewing the life of all whom we meet as we care for Mother Earth and her diversity. We have this wine to offer, it will become our spiritual drink to sustain us in expressing you who are Love in words, thoughts, and actions. All: Praise to you Jesus Christ, Wise Elder Brother, our Way and our Love.
Holy, Holy Holy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orKBBIj5LZA
Eucharistic Prayer
Jerry & 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 and the human made crises of Mother Earth. We remind ourselves daily to remain faithful in our words and actions to our commitment to nonviolence to stop the violence in all its form destroying life on your Revelation of Blue Planet Earth. We are called to deepenour spiritual life, to be open to the new beginnings of lifegiving actions for earth with our lives. We walk with Jesus seeking Sophia wisdom and Healing for ourselves and Mother Earth. (Hold your hand over bread and wine)
During Jesus’ life on earth, he lived and died loving the poor, healing the sick and challenging the injustices within society. Because of his ministry proclaiming the kindom of Sophia Wisdom, Jesus was feared by the religious and Roman authorities of his day, and they sought out ways to bring him to his death.
Jeanne S & 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:
Silvia and All. When Jesus returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them and us saying: Take and eat, this is my very self.
Pause, then lift the 🍷 and pray:
Silvia & All. Jesus took the cup, spoke the grace, and offered it to them and us saying: Take and drink. This is the new covenant. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you. (pause)
Jane S & All. God of compassion, God of mercy, draw near me this day. Meet me here and now. Love me I pray. Open your table. Include everyone. Break rules…share bread. Teach us to love. Redefine power through a common cup. No one excluded. All welcome to sup. Blessed and broken, we feast at your feet. Those on the margins, each heart that beats. Share with the poor. Sit with the meek. This table of love is the table I seek. (adapted from Mary Ann Matthys, ARCWP)
Silvia & All. Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice for all life on and for Mother Earth itself for we are One. 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,
“Blessed are we co-creators with God”
🎶 Communion Song The Creation by Kate Simmonds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41W2eVW3dyQ
Jim B After Communion reflection:
Modern ecology can learn a great deal from a people who managed ad maintained their world so well for 50,000 years –Bumum Bumum. Australian Aboriginal Writer
How do we “live with” the land? What do we need to learn in order to develop an awareness that we are dependent upon the earth for our very existence? Reverence cannot evolve from an attitude of raping, exploiting, and using up.
How do we find our proper place on this planet? Saving aluminum cans may make us feel better, and it is doing something. Yet, what we really need is to shift our focus from one of dominance to one of reverence and participation. We need to realize that we are humans participating in a living universe where we are only one part of a huge cast of characters that includes everything around us-the seen and the unseen.
from Native Wisdom for White Minds, by Anne Wilson Schaef January 11
Jerry B We pray our common prayer that Christ taught us:
Jerry B and 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 Māori theologians)
Jane S. Sharing of Peace
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 us in all things.
All: Namaste 🙏🏿 Namaste 🙏🏼 Namaste 🙏🏻
(adapted from Celebrating Creation: Honoring Indigenous People, Kelly Sherman-Conroy)
Thanksgiving. Introductions. Announcements.
Our Final Blessing for your ministry for the Earth
(St Theresa of Avila’s poem Christ has No Body adapted)
Katy and Silvia : As we go forth may we lift our arms in mutual blessing from Holy Mystery Sophia.
Katy, Silvia and All: May you live your mission of co-creation in Words and Actions for all life of Mother Earth.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on Earth but yours.
Yours are the feet in which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands with which he blesses the world.
Yours are the hands,
Yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes,
You are his body.
Christ has no body now on Earth but yours.
Let us go forth to serve all life on earth and to come.
Alleluia
Final 🎵 Psalm Of Creation (orig. by Patrick Richard - "Psaume de la Création". Eng. version by Jim Hayes) Start at 3:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41W2eVW3dyQ
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community
5342 Clark Road #3079
Sarasota, FL 34233
HAVE A BLESSED FALL TO EVERYONE.
Silvia Brandon Perez ARCWP Pictures from Standing Rock.
I am at Standing Rock in North Dakota, staying here for the second time. I came out in November and then went home and came back in a caravan with three other women. I have been staying with a grandmother from the Bear Clan who is sewing skirts for some of the elders with a sewing machine donated by a woman I know who donated many other things including horse feed.
This place is absolutely amazing and beautiful but it is also the coldest place I have ever stayed in, and most everyone has a cough which they call the DAPL cough because the company that is building the pipeline has sprayed chemicals on the camp.
People share everything, including food and clothing, and yesterday and the day before they also gave everyone goodie bags with small presents, including salves and drops and hats and mittens. My favorite hat is the ugliest hat I've ever owned but it is also the warmest.
A friend (Daniel) who is also a musician lent me his car, Big Al, so I could come out here, and Big Al has been used by the medic tent as an ambulance...
Coming and staying here has been an incredible gift. There is so much love and kindness and concern for our Mother the Earth... Camp has horses and dogs, and today there may be a storm/blizzard with up to 15 feet of snow. I slept outside the first night I was here in my sleeping bags under a tarp. I found out later it was 19 degrees but I felt warm. All night you could hear the native flute and the singing, and also the drums.
To add an intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayer book, please send an email to jmeehan515@aol.com
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May be purchased directly from the author Mary Ann Matthys,ARCWP, email mamatthys@gmail.com
