Emmaus Celebration for January 26, 2025: We fondly remember John Poole

David - Welcome: We begin with a brief explanation of the sharing at Emmaus of our kinship with each other and the simple meal of bread and wine - both of which are central to our celebration. Now that we are all seated please understand that there are no guests here -- everyone is equal, everyone in the circle, everyone welcome.

 

Opening: We are here today to celebrate the life of John Poole, who had a deep commitment to humanity. He was resilient in the face of adversity and ever so kind, humorous, humble and quirky in the best ways possible. He was a gift to all of us.  He had a vision for the world and he loved people and during our time of shared remembrance we encourage you to share stories about John. 

We begin our celebration with a reflection from our brother Dan Vrooman who knew John well and accompanied him through many days of his health struggle.

Reflection by Dan Vrooman  

Comment: it’s appropriate we start with this simple song.

Opening Song: Let us Build a House

Let us build a house where love can dwell

And all can safely live, A place where saints and children tell

How hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions, Rock of faith and vault of grace;

Here the love of Christ shall end divisions;

All are welcome, all are welcome, All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where prophets speak, And words are strong and true,

Where all God's children dare to seek To dream God's reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness  And a symbol of God's grace;

Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome, All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found In water, wine and wheat:

A banquet hall on holy ground, Where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus, Is revealed in time and space;

As we share in Christ the feast that frees us:

All are welcome, all are welcome, All are welcome in this place.

David or Alice - Opening Prayer:

O Mystery, you know our hearts. Keep before us the wisdom and love you have revealed in our brother Jesus. Send us as witnesses of Gospel joy into a world of fragile peace and broken promises. You have touched our hearts with your love so that we may touch the hearts of our sisters and brothers. Amen

Victoria. First Reading: On The Death Of The Beloved by John O'Donohue

Though we need to weep your loss,

You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,

Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn

Brightening over our lives

Awakening beneath the dark

A further adventure of color.

Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,

As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Let us not look for you only in memory,

Where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

Beside us when beauty brightens,

When kindness glows

And music echoes eternal tones.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.

To serve the call of courage and love

Until we see your beautiful face again

In that land where there is no more separation,

Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,

And where we will never lose you again.

Responsorial Song: There is a Sanctuary Dana Couey 

Jacqueline: Second Reading: The Long View by Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. 

No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; We are ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

 --- Oscar Romero

Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia. Alleluia, alleluia.

Peter: Gospel: John 11: 21-27

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Dialogue Homily: Remembering John

Steve Lyman: Deep within us all lies the dream of a better world; our dream and longing for justice and fairness, harmony and peace, openness and honesty, comfort and warmth, freedom and choice, for light where there is darkness. We dream of people who are always free, like the clouds that fly, full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

Today we are mindful of people all around the world and throughout human history – people like John Poole, who have shared this longing; a deep longing that is embedded in our DNA, in our very humanity. It is our human dream, our human song, common to all people.

Enid And the vision John shareds with Native American Black Elk: 

That’s why John loved the vision of Black Elk: It goes like this: “I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.

Liturgy of the Eucharist

Song: Somewhere to Begin: Sara Thompsen

Somewhere to Begin

People say to me, “Oh, you gotta be crazy!

How can you sing in times like these?

Don’t you read the news? Don’t you know the score?

How can you sing when so many others grieve?”

People say to me, “What kind of fool believes

That a song will make a difference in the end?”

By way of a reply, I say a fool such as I

Who sees a song as somewhere to begin

A song is somewhere to begin

The search for something worth believing in

If changes are to come there are things that must be done

And a song is somewhere to begin

Additional verses: 2) Dream… 3) Love…

Eucharistic Prayer:

God is within us and God is among us.  All: Amen.

Let us lift up our hearts.  

All: We lift them into the Mystery.

Let us be thankful for all the ways in which we feel the Divine presence. 

All: It is good to be grateful.

Jeanine: With our bodies we expose ourselves to the subtle and creative breeze of God aware of a Mystery, open and receptive to others, cultivating a language of interiority, experience, and empathy. We live at the threshold of our time without a fixed, guaranteed abode. We are cooperative with the Spirit in opening the cages and the tombs of the world. We welcome discontinuities, weakness, crises, and even death with the hope of resurrection, of God’s transforming love.

Patti: And on the night before Jesus died, he compared himself to a woman in childbirth, knowing that her hour had come, but then rejoicing that her suffering has brought forth new life into the world.

We break and share this bread, as Jesus broke and shared it, and we give it to one another as our pledge of openness to the Spirit of Love in our midst and as our remembrance for the life of Jesus, who enlightened our minds and hearts and who was ready to die for what he believed.

All: Come to the table and break this bread with us and understand that it is life itself.

Jeanine: This cup of wine and drink is symbolic of the cup of life. As you share this cup of wine and drink, you undertake to share all the future may bring. May you find life’s joy doubly gladdened, its bitterness sweetened, and all things hallowed by true companionship and love.

We take this wine and drink. As Jesus asked his friends to drink, mindful of a relationship of love and trust between ourselves and the Virgin Heart, believing, as Jesus believed, that to live in love is to live in God and to have God live and love in us.

Sing: One Bread, one body, one life for all.  One cup of blessing which we bless. And we, though Many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this One Love.

All: Taught by Jesus’ command, we pray:

Heavenly Mother, heavenly 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 those who have none.  

Let forgiveness flow like a river through us,  From each one to 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. Amen PJP—

Sign of Peace

Marcie: All of us are welcome at this table. It remains for all of us to come with our deepest needs, our aching wounds, and our loving hearts. We simply come with the deep desire to enter the great mystery of the Divine so that our lives will be nourished and fed by the eternal grace that makes us whole again.

Communion Song: At This Table 

At this table, everyone is welcome, At this table, everyone is seen

At this table, everybody matters, No one falls between

At this table, you can say whatever, At this table, you can speak your mind

At this table, everything's forgiven, There's enough for everyone

So come as you are

Remember that the door is always open

Yes, come as you are

The perfect gift that you can bring is your heart

So, come, come as you are

At this table, there will be no judgement

At this table, mercy has a seat

At this table, we're all sons and daughters

There's no place I'd rather be

So come as you are

Remember that the door is always open

Come as you are

The perfect gift that you can bring is your heart

Come, Come as you are Come as you are, oh

At this table, everyone is welcome

At this table, everybody cares

At this table, everybody matters

So, come, pull up a chair

Announcement: Please join us for a potluck to follow.

Blessing of Gratitude from Sister Simone Campbell

Denise: Let gratitude be the beat of your heart, 

Let resolve flow in our veins, fueled by destitution, risking reflective action in a 15-second world.

Let compassion be our hands, reaching to be with each other, all others, to touch, hold, heal this fractured world.

Let wisdom be our feet, bringing us to the crying need to friends or foe, to share this body’s blood.

Let love be our eyes, that we might see the beauty, see the dream lurking in the shadows of despair and dread.

And let community be our body warmth, radiating energy, to welcome in the foreign stranger, even the ones who wage this war.

And the people of this beloved community, on behalf of our dear brother John, say: Amen..