Sunday, September 28, 2025: Please Join us Today to Celebrate Peace and Love with Ed and Mary

Today:  Join us for the Emmaus Celebration at 3:45 for our welcoming, followed by our Liturgical Meal and a Potluck:

In Person at Christ Church United Methodist

1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa CA 95405

We begin with welcoming at 3:45

Or On Zoom:

We are inviting you to a scheduled Zoom celebration

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

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Emmaus Liturgy for Sunday, September 28, 2025

Peace and Love

Opening Song: Peace, Love and Understanding - Holmes Brothers

Opening Blessing:  Jan Richardson

To your table

you bid us come.

You have set the places,

you have poured the wine,

and there is always room

you say, for one more.

And so we come.

From the streets

and from the alleys 

we come.

From the deserts

and the hills

we come.

From the ravages of poverty

and from the palaces of privilege

we come.

Running,

limping, 

carried, we come.

We are bloodied with our wars,

we are wearied with our wounds,

we carry our dead with us,

and we reckon with their ghosts.

We hold the seeds of healing,

we dream of a new creation,

we know the things

that make for peace,

and we struggle

to give them wings.

And yet, to your table

we come. 

Hungering for your bread we come;

thirsting for your wine,

we come;

singing your song 

in every language,

speaking your name

in every tongue,

in conflict and communion,

in discord and in desire,

we come.

O God of Wisdom,

welcome us in!

Alice’s Beatitudes (Each read a beatitude)

❖ We Stand With You, the humble in spirit who practice kindness. You will break open our hearts.

❖ We Stand With You the poor and oppressed, with people of color and immigrants facing brutality, detention and prison.  Your fearlessness will stir us to action as we seek to become fearless like you.

❖ We Stand With You Women, Gay men, Lesbians, Transgender Individuals, Queer and Questioning and all who live lives of authenticity.  Your struggles help us recognize the divine in every person. 

❖ We Stand With You who mourn for the world; You will find comfort in your chosen families and communities and build bridges of hope.

❖ We Stand With You who hunger for justice; for you will create a new world in which all of us share in the banquet of peace.

❖ We Stand With You  who show loving mercy; for you will empower us to be non-violent and merciful to all.

❖ We Stand With You who listen to your conscience and speak out your truth; you challenge the status quo and move us to act.

❖ We Stand With You  peacemakers and those who teach non-violence.  You will liberate  us from the madness of war, prison and hate.

Salve Regina: Thomas Merton

Our Lady is coming gradually to be the whole of my interior life.  And the more I leave everything to her, the simpler everything becomes, and the easier I travel.  And this morning I was reading marvelous things from Adam of Perseigne about Mary being “the way”.  She is that.  Through her we come quickly to — everything. 

At Mass I have hardly been able to think of anything but Our Lady.  Either that, or else I sink down into the depths where God is found alone.  But to do that is to be occupied implicitly with her, for she is the way there.  Yet I do not say I do all of this easily – I am surrounded by distractions and yet drawn into this love of her in spite of them.

More and more I abandon anything of my own that might seem to be a “technique of prayer” and throw myself upon her mercy, leaving myself to be moved and guided by her, certain that she alone, by God’s dispensation and decree can help my helplessness.

Homily

Mary and I will share about our pilgrimage to Medjugorje and Mary’s message to the world.

● We then invite you to share about your own relationship with Mary, and how she has brought you closer to Christ.

Intentions: What intentions do we bring to our table today?

Eucharistic Prayer

Holy God, you are with us always. You invite us to nurture wise and understanding hearts. Your love, which manifests all things, and is at work in all things, can be touched everywhere. May we embrace every moment of our days with our fellow travelers in love. May we prepare the visible Body of Christ, our Emmaus community, to receive your eternal approach and your loving embrace.

Through our hands, the Spirit prepares a table before us, breaks the bread that tastes of heaven, pours the wine that fills us with life. We share the bread and the wine of this plain meal so that love will be born in our blood, that mercy shall wedge in our flesh, that grace shall be the marrow in our bones, that the Christ within us may be shown in everything we do. 

For we remember the night Jesus was at the table with his friends, and he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying:

“This is my body, broken for you”.

As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine. Again he gave thanks, and giving it to his friends said:

“This cup is the New Covenant of my lifeblood, shed for you and for all. As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.”

We unite our thoughts and prayers with all who yearn for new life, those who are living and enrich our lives with friendship and love, those who have died and continue to sustain us in the cosmic communion of life, especially our beloved Alice.  In our daily lives, may we be blessed with wisdom and courage, with vision and resolve, forever committed to God's reign of justice, love, and peace, faithful to God's grace all the days of our lives. 

For it is through Him, with Him, in Him

in the Unity of the Holy Spirit

all glory and honor is yours

forever and ever.  Amen”

Together we offer to you, oh God, the prayer your beloved Son and our brother, Jesus, gave us; 

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, and One in All. So be it!

Now let us offer each other a sign of peace. 

Grace and peace to you!

Invitation to the Eucharist:

Everyone is welcome at this table. 

Our God, whom the universe cannot contain, is present to us in this bread.

He who redeems us and calls us by name now meets us in this cup.

So, come, beloved friends, take this bread, drink this wine,

In them, God comes to us so that we may come to God.

Communion Song: Peace My Friends - Ray Repp

Peace I leave with you, my friends:

Shalom my peace, in all you do.

Peace I leave with you, my friends,

I give to you, so you can give to others, too.

To share God's love is why I came,

To show God's kindness to the world

Go now my friends and do the same,

Until I come again...

Take my hand and be at peace,

The spirit of our love I send;

And with this love you will be free,

Until I come again...

With this love you all will know,

That loneliness is at an end,

Rejoice my people though I go

For I will come again...

Final Blessing and Closing Song

Let There Be Peace on Earth (hold hands)