Day 635 Saturday, December 11, 2021

Joy - Let's get ready to celebrate our liturgy tomorrow starting at 4:45

Join our Emmaus Celebration Tomorrow at 4:45pm

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573

Passcode: 1234

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

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Our Celebration for Sunday, December 12, 2021

(Victoria rings singing bowl three times)

Victoria: Welcome and Introduction of any new people.

Then introduce clip, and invite all to:

Listen and watch this 5 minute video…see what it brings up in you as you watch for as many details as you can…faces, expressions, sights and sounds, memories touched, and emotions surfacing. This is the Opening Meditation/Prayer of our liturgy tonight, this Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, the Advent Sunday of joy and rejoicing.

[ED will PLAY VIDEO] then following video, Victoria will continue:

During our dialogue homily, we’ll have the chance to share our thoughts and reactions. For now, listen for how the following words bring light to what we have all just experienced. Jeanine will now offer our Opening Prayer:

Jeanine: Opening Prayer: (from the words of Sr. Ishpriya, from Earth Prayers)

O Holy One, I ran through the fields and gathered flowers of a thousand colors —

And now I pour them out at Your feet.

Their beauty and their brightness shout for joy in your presence.

You created the flowers of the fields and made each one far more lovely than all the skill of man could design.

Accept my joy along with theirs,

This field of blossoms at Your feet.

Holy One, as the wind blows through these flowers ’til they dance in the ecstasy of creation,

Send Your Spirit to blow through my being ’til I too

Bloom and dance

With the fullness of Your life.

Dan Lambert: First Reading: (Zep 3:14-18a)

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!

Sing joyfully, O Israel!

Be glad and exult with all your heart,

O daughter Jerusalem!

The LORD has removed the judgment against yoy

he has turned away your enemies;

the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,

you have no further misfortune to fear.

On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:

Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,

a mighty savior;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

and renew you in his love,

he will sing joyfully because of you,

as one sings at festivals.

Marcie Dahlen: Responsorial Psalm: (from the Book of Qualities)

Joy

Joy drinks pure water. She has sat with the dying and attended many births. She denies nothing. She is in love with life, all of it, the sun and the rain and the rainbow. She rides horses at Half Moon Bay under the October moon. She climbs mountains. She sings in the hills. She jumps from the hot spring to the cold stream without hesitation.

Although Joy is spontaneous, she is immensely patient. She does not need to rush. She knows that there are obstacles on every path and that every moment is the perfect moment. She is not concerned with success or failure or how to make things permanent.

At times Joy is elusive — she seems to disappear even as we approach her. I see her standing on a ridge covered with oak trees, and suddenly the distance between us feels enormous. I am overwhelmed and wonder if the effort to reach her is worth it. Yet, she waits for us. Her desire to walk with us is as great as our longing to accompany her.

Song: (Ed will play: Joy Is Like The Rain (video of singing by The Medical Mission Sisters; written by Sr. Miriam Therese Winter)

Peter Schneider: Gospel Reading: (Luke 1: 39-45)

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, “Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

Shared Homily:

• As you watched the video tonight, what did you notice, what caught your attention, what surfaced within you?

• What things help you find your way to joy?

Jeanine: What is it that we bring to the table tonight:

Eucharistic Prayer:

Presider (V):

You have filled us, and all creation, with your blessing

and fed us with your constant love;

you have redeemed us

and knit us into one body.

Through your Spirit, you replenish us

and call us to the fullness of life.

Presider(J):

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.”

Presider(V):

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 blood shed for you and for all.

And as often as you do this, Do this in remembrance of me.”

Presider(J):

Now gathered at your table,

we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine,

and ourselves, a living sacrifice.

Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts that

they and we may be the Body and Blood of Christ.

Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us your new creation.

Presider(V):

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.

Both Presiders (holding up the bread and wine):

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.

Jane Riley: Now together, as one community, we offer to you O God,

our prayer, in the name of your beloved son and 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.

Offering Our Gift of Peace:

Jeanine: Let us offer to one another a sign of our peace and love.

Invitation to Communion:

Victoria:

Everyone is welcome at this table.

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

Our God, who redeems us and calls us by name, now meets us in this cup.

So, come, Beloved Friends, and take this bread, drink this wine,

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

Jeanine: (Communion Meditation: (from In The Sanctuary of Women by Jan Richardson, pg 286)

When your life has become

most frantic,

when fear and worry

have made their home in you

and anxiety attends your days,

may there come

from somewhere

the scent

of pomegranate and cedar,

apple and myrrh,

cinnamon, frankincense, fig.

We invite everyone to partake in communion now.

Song: (Ed will play Joy to The World (Video of: The Spirituals Choir singing)

Victoria: Closing Blessing: (from Circle of Grace by Jan Richardson, pg 45)

Blessing to Summon Rejoicing

When your weeping

has watered

the earth.

When the storm

has been long

and the night

and the season

of your sorrowing.

When you have seemed

an exile

from your life,

lost in the far country,

a long way from where

your comfort lies.

When the sound

of splintering

and fracture

haunts you.

When despair

attends you.

When lack.

When trouble.

When fear.

When pain.

When empty.

When lonely.

When too much

of what depletes you

and not enough

of what restores

and rests you.

Then let there be

rejoicing.

Then let there be

dreaming.

Let there be

laughter in your mouth

and on your tongue

shouts of joy.

Let the seeds

soaked by tears

turn to grain,

to bread,

to feasting.

Let there be

coming home.

And the good people of this beloved Emmaus Community say:

Amen!

David: Announcements: