Sunday, April 13, 2025: Let's Celebrate Today!
Here's the lovely liturgy by Patti and Jacqueline
Please Join Us this afternoon for our Emmaus Celebration
We start gathering about 3:45PM and begin our liturgy around 4:00PM
In Person in Classroom 8 at Christ Church United Methodist
1717 Yulupa Ave, Santa Rosa,
Or Join Us on Zoom using this link: (copy and paste it into your browser and remember the passcode is 1234
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=83564917450
Passcode: 1234
Or open Zoom and type in the Meeting ID (all numbers): 519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
Or by Phone:
Dial:
+16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,,5193158573# US
We celebrate our Eucharist (Thanksgiving Meal) on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. We gather at 3:45 pm. Our celebration begins at 4:00 pm. followed by an amazing potluck. All are welcome!
Emmaus Liturgy for April 13, 2025 created by Patti England and Jacqueline Hayes
Theme: Go And Do Likewise
Opening Song: Whatsoever you do by The Dominican Choir:
Whatsoever you do to the least of my people,
that you do unto me.
When I was hungry, you gave me to eat;
when I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.
Now enter into the home of my Father.
When I was homeless, you opened your door;
when I was naked, you gave me your coat.
When I was weary, you helped me find rest;
when I was anxious, you calmed all my fears.
When I was little, you taught me to read;
when I was lonely, you gave me your love.
When in a prison, you came to my cell;
when on a sick bed, you cared for my needs.
In a strange country, you made me at home;
seeking employment, you found me a job.
David: First Reading: Dream me God
It’s not you who should solve my problems, God, but I yours, God of the asylum-seekers.
It’s not you who should feed the hungry, but I who should protect your children from the terror of the banks and armies. It’s not you who should make room for the refugees,
but I who should receive you, hardly hidden God of the desolate.
You dreamed me, God, practicing walking upright and learning to kneel down
more beautiful than I am now, happier than I dare to be freer than our country allows.
Don’t stop dreaming me, God. I don’t want to stop remembering that I am your tree, planted by the streams of living water. Dorothee Soelle
Responsorial Psalm: Love One Another https://youtu.be/xq-BGRZewik
Marcie: Gospel John 13:2-5, 12-17 (adapted)
During supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wiped them with the towel that was tied around Him……
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Patti: The Towel
At first glance, it is easy to look at a towel as a most ordinary object. Have you ever stopped to think that for thousands of years, the towel has been used for many wonderful purposes. For example, the mother who wipes the tears of a child, the physician who binds the wounds of a patient, or the woman who wipes her hands as she moves from task to task.
Perhaps the most significant use of the towel happened nearly two thousand years ago when Jesus, only hours before He hung on a cross, took an ordinary towel in is His loving hands and dried the feet of His disciples. This simple, loving act personifies the selflessness and loving service we seek to give during our lives. It illustrates that an ordinary thing like a towel, in the right hands, and with a giving heart, can lighten another’s load. As with each action performed by Jesus on this earth, His act of service reminds us that simple day-to-day kindnesses are His way to bless and comfort.
Shared Homily:
Jacqueline:
How do you ‘wash the feet’ of others?
What acts of kindness do you do that provide service to others, etc.
Nancy McFarland: What do we bring to the table? (use hand motions)
We take all these spoken prayers and those that may remain silent in your heart and lift them to God.
Eucharistic Prayer (Eucharist = Thanksgiving)
Jacqueline: Spirit of the universe, you have filled us, and all creation, with your blessing, and fed us with your constant love; you have called us in Christ Jesus, and knit us into one body.
Through your Spirit, you replenish us, and call us to the fullness of life.
Patti: On the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends.
He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying,
ALL: “This is my body, broken for you.”
Jacqueline: As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine.
Again, he gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends and said,
All: “This cup is the new covenant of my lifeblood shed for you and for all. And as often as you do this, you do this in memory of me.”
Patti: Now gathered at your table, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves, as living offerings of your love. Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts and all of us that we may be Your Living Body, Your Lifeblood.
Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us all your new creation.
In the fullness of time bring us with all your saints from every tribe and language,
from every people and nation to feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.
Jacqueline: Let us pray the gift Jesus gave us.
All:
Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother, 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
Jacqueline: Sign of Peace
May the love of Christ be in our hearts as we offer each other peace.
Patti: Communion Prayer
Everyone is welcome to this table.
Our God, whom the universe cannot contain,
is present to us in this bread.
The God who redeems us and calls us by name now meets us in this cup.
So, come, take this bread,
Drink this wine,
In them, God comes to us,
so that we may come to God.
Communion Song: Servant Song
Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
We are pilgrims on a journey
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load
I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh, I'll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we've seen this journey through
Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
Jane: Blessing of Hope:
So may we know the hope that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:
Hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,
hope that has breath
and a beating heart,
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems little cause
hope that raises us
from the dead—
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.
—Jan Richardson from The Cure for Sorrow
And this beloved Emmaus Community says:
ALL: AMEN!
Closing Song: No Man Is An Island - by the Victoria Junior College Chorale
No man is an island
No man stands alone
Each man’s joy is joy to me
Each man’s grief is my own
We need one another
So I will defend
Each man as my brother
Each man as my friend
I saw the people gather
I heard the music start
The song that they were singing
Is ringing in my heart
no man is an island
no man stands alone
Victoria Junior College is a co-educational junior college in Singapor.
For over 30 years, the members and alumni of the Victoria Chorale and Victoria Junior College Choir have held this song dearly to our hearts as our anthem. Our joint battle against COVID-19 has demonstrated that neither person nor country can be disconnected from each other. Each person, or country, may play his or her part, but it is only together that any collective goal can be realised.
The 103-voice virtual choir is made up of singers from the very first batch of VJC Choir members (1985-86), to current members (2020-21). In the making of this video, many of us were initially in a position where we were not used to singing alone. Yet, our individual performances serve as our contribution to the collective performance. Together, we are greater than the sum of ourselves. Only if we do our part in containing the spread of the virus, can we change things for the better.
No man is an island, no man stands alone.
Artistic Director -
Nelson Kwei
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