Emmaus Liturgy for Today:
November 24, 2024 Gratitude and Rituals
PLEASE NOTE: NEW TIME FOR OUR CELEBRATIONS: We begin at 2:15 for Greetings and Welcome
and start our liturgy at 2:30.
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We begin with Native American Music: Call of the Ancestors
Ring the Singing Bowl
Steve: WELCOME/INTRODUCTION:
Pat: OPENING PRAYER:
Grandfather
Look at our brokenness
We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the Sacred Way.
We know that we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk in the Sacred Way
Grandfather
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion, and honor
That we may heal the earth And heal each other. Ojibway OjibwayPrayer
Steve: CALLING IN SEVEN DIRECTIONS
Pat: Invite community to write one thing they are thankful for on an index card and put into the basket.
David: Song: Glory to God by John Michael Talbot: https://youtu.be/q6V_aU-SueM?list=PLEhKnbYtxwiKi0tn_a-9xwNhILbqEZ-gw
FIRST READING: A Prayer of Blessing John Philip Newell
May the angels of light glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul and fresh awakenings rise within us.
May the mighty angels of light glisten in all things this day. May they summon us to reverence, may they call us to life.
Reader 1 RESPONSORIAL: God who sings through us, we thank you.
For the talents and the abundance of gifts that are ours…
All: God who sings through us, we thank you.
For the faith that stirs and grows in our hearts…
All: God who sings through us, we thank you.
For the many people who have been instruments of goodness in our lives… All: God who sings through us, we thank you.
For moments when we have known the song of your presence in a special way
All: God who sings through us, we thank you.
For the times when your goodness has made music through us
All: God who sings through us, we thank you.
Reader 2 God of goodness, help us to trust in you: When fear rises up in us and we do not believe in our ability to be your instrument…
All: God of goodness, help us to trust in you…
When the busyness and schedules of our lives press upon us and create questions about your song within us
All: God of goodness, help us to trust in you…
When we doubt your presence in the difficult aspects of our days…
All: God of goodness, help us to trust in you…
When we lose sight of the truth that we are called to be instruments of goodness
All: God of goodness, help us to trust in you…
When emptiness, loneliness, and other struggles keep us from hearing your melody of love…
All: God of goodness, help us to trust in you…
Reader 3 God of love, sing your song through us…
As we grow in believing in our goodness…
All: God of love, sing your song through us…
As we allow more and more of who we are to be influenced by your presence…
All: God of love, sing your song through us…
As the song of your love grows in us and the call to be your instrument becomes clearer to us…
All: God of love, sing your song through us…
As we struggle to know how and when to share our gifts and goodness with others
All: God of love, sing your song through us…
As we go forth from here with the desire to be your instruments of love…
All: God of love, sing your song through us…
By Joyce Rupp, OSM
THE GOSPEL READING: The Hill We Climb: Amanda Gorman
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never- ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast, we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one. And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect, we are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
So we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one should make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all of the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it. That would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can periodically be delayed, but it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us, this is the era of just redemption we feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves, so while once we asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us.
We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, our blunders become their burden. But one thing is certain: if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left, with every breath from my bronze, pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one, we will rise from the golden hills of the West, we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution, we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful, when the day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.
All: Hear what the Spirit is saying!
Steve & Pat: SHARED HOMILY:
Pat: Starter Questions:
Steve: What do we bring to the table. What do you want to pray for?
Pat & Steve: OFFERTORY BASKET:
Reading of the Congregations Gratitudes; Pat and Steve Alternate
Steve: EUCHARISTIC PRAYER:
Blessed are you, loving and faithful Creator. All your works, the heights and the depths, time and space echo the cosmic hymn of your praise. From the Abyss of Eternity your
Silent Word summoned existence: oblivion withdrew and creation dawned. Eons passed as your Love gave birth to untold stars and galaxies, while unseen waters gathered on the face of the deep. By the power of your immanent Spirit life emerged.
In the fullness of time, as your cosmos struggled to become, humankind evolved and the Universe came to self-consciousness, reflecting your own divine image. Flesh-inspirited, inspirited-flesh, you gave us minds and hearts, breath and voice, that we might join with all
Creation in the ageless hymn of your glory:
All: Holy, Holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
BLESSING OF THE BREAD AND WINE:
Pat On the night before He died, Jesus was at table with His friends, He took bread, He gave thanks to God, He blessed it, He broke it, and shared it with His friends and said,
ALL: “This is my body, shared with you.”
Steve: As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine, He gave thanks, He gave it to His friends and said, This is the cup of my love for you and for all creation.
ALL: Go forth, be my hands and my feet; carry my love into the world so that it can be saved.
Steve: Let us proclaim the Mystery of Our Faith
All: For it is Through Christ, With Christ, and In Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit all honor and glory are yours, now and forever and ever.
ALL: Amen
Pat: Now together, as one community, we offer to you O Creator, our prayer, received from our brother Jesus:
ALL:
Our Mother, Our Father, holy and blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come. We pray that your good will be done.
Let heaven and earth become one. Give us this day the bread we need. Give it to those who have none. Let forgiveness flow like a river between us, from each one to each one. Lead us to holy innocence beyond the evil of our days.
Come swiftly Mother, Father, come. For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy: Forever your name is All in One.
ALL: Amen
Steve: The Kiss of Peace:
Now offer a gesture of peace to those in our beloved Emmaus community.
Invitation to the Eucharist: Pat: Through this Eucharist, and in the spirit of our Beloved Community, we extend the invitation of Jesus to each and everyone of you to take and eat this bread, and drink from this cup. Let us come to this table, this is the table of the Risen Christ, where all are welcome.
David: COMMUNION SONG: I Am the Bread of Life: John Michael Talbot
https://youtu.be/Uhk42nq1jwE?list=PLEhKnbYtxwiKi0tn_a-9xwNhILbqEZ-gw A MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION:
CLOSING BLESSING: A Prayer of Gratitude Joyce Rupp, OSM
All: We are grateful for eyes that can see and ponder, for taste buds that know the sensuous pleasures of eating and drinking, for hands that hold and touch and feel, for ears that can delight in music, and the voice of a friend, for a nose that can smell the aroma of newly mown grass or delicious food, and can also breathe the air that gives us life.
We are grateful for the treasure of loved ones whose hearts of openness and acceptance have encouraged us to be who we are. We are grateful for their faithfulness, for standing by us when our weaknesses stood out glaringly, for being there when we were most in need and for delighting with us in our good days and our joyful seasons.
We are grateful for the eyes of faith, for believing in the presence of God, giving us hope in our darkest days, encouraging us to listen to our spirit’s hunger, and reminding us to trust in the blessings of God’s presence in our most empty days.
We are grateful for the ongoing process of becoming who we are, for the seasons within, for the great adventure of life that challenges and comforts us at one and the same time.
We are grateful for the messengers of God — people, events, written or spoken words — that came to us at just the right time and helped us to grow.
ALL: And this Beloved Emmaus Community says: AMEN!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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