Dear Friends,
As we build the Beloved Community, we pray for you every day that you might continue to bring it about in your little corner of the world.
Today's Meditation is a prayer by Joyce Rupp: "The Heart of Eternal Love."
As we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Jean and Ron
MEDITATION:
Prayer “The Heart of Eternal Love” (from Out of the Ordinary, Joyce Rupp)
Heart of Love,
Source of all kindness,
Teacher of the ways of goodness,
you are hidden in the pockets of daily life,
waiting to be discovered.
Heart of Gladness,
Joy that sings in our souls,
the Dancer and the Dance,
you are Music radiating in our
cherished caches of consolation.
Heart of Compassion,
the Healing One weeping
for a world burdened and bent,
you are the heart we bring
to the wounded, worn and weary.
Heart of Comfort,
Sheltering Wings of love,
Refuge for sad and lonely ones,
you embrace all who bear loss,
gathering their tears with care.
Heart of Understanding,
One who gazes upon the imperfect,
the incomplete, the flawed, the weak,
you never stop extending mercy.
Heart of Generosity,
Abundance of insight and hope,
daily you offer us gifts of growth,
leading to continual transformation.
Heart of Deepest Peace,
Center of tranquility,
Resting Place at the core of our being,
you are waiting always for our return
to this sacred home.
ORDER OF SERVICE
18th Sunday in Ordinary time
August 4, 2024
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
GATHERING SONG: Table of Plenty (Dan Schutte)
Come to the feast of heaven and earth
Come to the table of plenty
God will provide for all that we need
Here at the table of plenty
O come and sit at my table
Where saints and sinners are friends
I wait to welcome the lost and lonely
To share the cup of my love (refrain)
O come and eat without money
Come to drink without price
My feast of gladness will feed your spirit
With faith and fullness of life (refrain)
My bread will ever sustain you
Through days of sorrow and war
My wine will flow like a sea of gladness
To flood the depths of your soul (refrain)
OPENING PRAYER: Table 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 from 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 within 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 in communion,
in discord and in desire,
we come,
O God of Wisdom,
we come
Prayer © Jan L. Richardson from In Wisdom’s Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season.
FIRST READING: Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-18
RESPONSORIAL SONG At this Table" Stan Doherty
Refrain At this table gathered in Your Name all are blessed
In this circle sharing holy gifts all are fed
1 Call Your people to this meal, men and women all
Young and old...... all are welcome here
2 Call the broken and infirm All who yearn to be whole
Let them nourish at this table of grace
3 Call Your workers from the fields, those who live Your word
Give them strength to labor in Your name
SECOND READING: Fighting World Hunger with Peanut Butter
https://youtu.be/Py_tZC1GIaI?si=ckSK8Qu0z84c5LM0
ALLELUIA
GOSPEL: John 6: 24-35; Mark 8: 1-9
RECORDING BEGINS
HOMILY: followed by Sharing
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PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
OFFERING OF BREAD AND WINE
PREFACE TO THE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER
Side 1: We praise and thank you Gracious God for your faithfulness to us. You are the music of our souls, You are the poetry of our hearts. You come to us and give us peace.
Side 2: We praise you for things, trees and mountains, plants and animals, oceans and stars. We praise you for people who come into our lives and challenge us to grow and to become more fully human.
Side 1: We praise you for our imaginations, for the ability to dream and to conceive a world where all people live in harmony and the courage to work to bring it about.
Side 2: So, most holy and living God, God ever-near, we look to you with hope. We hear you sending us to spread your peace to all people and to our earth. And so, with all creation, we say:
ALL: Holy, holy, holy, God, Spirit of love and of peace Heaven and earth are full of your glory Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of our God. Hosanna in the highest!
EUCHARISTIC PRAYER
PRESIDER: The table we share is adorned with the gifts of creation, bread and wine, gifts given for all to share in equality and justice, a table where all are welcome.
As a Christian People, we celebrate the open table proclaimed by Jesus our friend, a table of abundant life and inclusive love.
We thank you for Your Spirit of Life and Love among us. We are grateful that Your Spirit sets us free to discover your presence within us and in our world. therefore, we ask that You send Your Holy Spirit afresh upon us and upon our gifts, that they may become for us, and we, for all the world + the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ.
ALL: On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends, Jesus took the bread & blessed it and praising You, our God, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: "Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which is given for you"
ALL: When supper was ended, he took the cup, again he gave you thanks and praise, gave it to his disciples, saying:
"Take this all of you & drink; This is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new & everlasting covenant .
It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me."
Mystery of Faith:
ALL: When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death and Resurrection, O Christ, until you come again.
PRESIDER: O God through Jesus, You entrusted this pledge of love to us. We celebrate the memory of his life, his teaching, his spirit and bring You the gift you have given us, the possibility of reconciliation, justice, and peace. Take away all that divides us and enable us to be accepting of all. Keep us in communion with one another and with all people throughout the world. Let Your Spirit make us ambassadors of unity, models of equity and instruments of your peace.
Then in Your presence, we shall give You Glory with all creation and with Jesus through whom Your goodness flows.
ALL: Through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, may all glory and honor be Yours, all-loving God, for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAYER OF JESUS
Presider: Together we pray: Aramaic Prayer that Jesus Prayed
ALL: O Birthing Father- Mother of the Cosmos
Focus your light within us - make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now
through our fiery hearts and willing hands
Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then
feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.
Untangle the knots within
so that we can mend our hearts' simple ties to each other.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
Out of you, the astonishing fire,
Returning light and sound to the cosmos.
May it be so!
SIGN OF PEACE
BREAKING OF THE BREAD:
Jesus left us in this sacrament his body and blood. Now we are called to become the body of Christ and through his mercy, we are what we receive. Just as we see that the bread is one loaf, so may we be one body by loving one another, by having one faith, one hope, and undivided charity. Thus, too, the wine existed in many clusters of grapes, and now it is one. It is one in this cup after the crushing of the grapes in the wine press. And now, we in the name of Christ, have come to drink of the cup of Jesus. There we are on the table, and there we are in the cup, for we are one with Jesus. We receive together, and we drink together because we live together. Adapted from a prayer of St. Augustine in Bread Blessed and Broken, by John Mossi
PRESIDER: This is the Bread of our lives, the Lamb of God who takes away the brokenness of the world. How blessed are we who are called to this table.
ALL: Jesus, You make me worthy to receive You, and by Your Word, I am healed.
COMMUNION SONG: Look beyond The Dameans
Look beyond the bread you eat;
See your Savior and your Lord.
Look beyond the cup you drink;
See his love poured out as blood.
Give us a sign, that we might believe in you.
Our fathers brought us manna from the sky.
Look beyond the bread you eat;
See your Savior and your Lord.
Look beyond the cup you drink;
See his love poured out as blood.
I am the bread, which from the heavens came;
He who eats this bread will never die.
Look beyond the bread you eat;
See your Savior and your Lord.
Look beyond the cup you drink;
See his love poured out as blood.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
“The Heart of Eternal Love” (adapted from Out of the Ordinary, Joyce Rupp)
Heart of Love,
Source of all kindness,
Teacher of the ways of goodness,
you are hidden in the pockets of daily life,
waiting to be discovered.
Heart of Compassion,
the Healing One weeping
for a world burdened and bent,
you are the heart we bring
to the wounded, worn and weary.
Heart of Comfort,
Sheltering Wings of love,
Refuge for sad and lonely ones,
you embrace all who bear loss,
gathering their tears with care..
Heart of Deepest Peace,
Center of tranquility,
Resting Place at the core of our being,
you are waiting always for our return
to this sacred home.
CLOSING BLESSING:
We are the Body of Christ, hands to heal, hearts to love, feet to meet people where they are, arms to gather the lost, tongue to proclaim the truth—God’s ministry on earth.
SENDING FORTH SONG: Room at the Table" Carrie Newcomer
Let our hearts not be hardened to those living on the margin. There is room at the table for everyone. That is where it all begins. This is how we gather in. There is room at the table for everyone.
Too long have we wandered, burdened and undone. But there is room at the table for everyone. Let us sing the new world in, this is how it all begins: there is room at the table for everyone.
Refrain: There is room for us all, and no gift is too small. There is room at the table for everyone. There’s enough if we share, come pull up a chair. There’s room at the table for everyone.
3. No matter who you are. No matter where you’re from. There is room at the table for everyone. Here and now we can be the beloved community. There is room at the table for everyone. Refrain
All music used with permission. One License #A716013