Day 796: Saturday, May 21, 2022

Let's get ready to celebrate tomorrow:

Let There be Peace: a celebration by Enid

Announcement #1: Tomorrow before our Liturgy:

Zoom Synod Listening Session on Sunday, May 22 at 3:30 pm

Enid Macken and Denise Dixon are inviting you to a scheduled Zoom Synod Listening Session on Sunday, May 22 at 3:30 pm. Part of the session would include time to identify the positive aspects of our Emmaus Community that often are not found in parish communities.

Our time identifying these positive elements would have value to Emmaus and let us

consider ways to enhance these aspects in future liturgies and gatherings as well as conveying our hopes for the church in general.

Join Zoom Meeting Sunday May 22, 2022 at 3:30pm Pacific Time

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

Passcode: 1234

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

One tap mobile +16699006833,,5193158573 #

At 4:45 we begin our liturgy:

Let There be Peace a celebration by Enid

Join Zoom Meeting

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

Passcode: 1234

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

One tap mobile +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose)

Emmaus Liturgy for May 22, 2022

Opening Song – Let There Be Peace on Earth - Gladys Knight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoxV8MGzWQI

Introduction

Enid: The Gospel for this the 6th Sunday of Easter includes this message from Jesus, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” These words have echoed down through the centuries, but we humans have never been ready to receive this peace Jesus gave us. We have been involved in wars; we have considered some groups of people inferior; we have made power more important than justice.

As we look around our world today, we continue to struggle to find the peace that Jesus promised. Terrible scenes from Ukraine fill our nightly news. Last weekend, 14 people died and 39 were wounded in mass shootings in Buffalo, Milwaukee, a church in Orange County, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Houston and Amarillo, Texas. Political divides make it difficult for elected officials to work together for the common good. Covid cases bring uncertainty and fear into our daily lives. Racism is still prevalent.

This evening our liturgy will focus on the peace our world needs, and we desire. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “Peace is not merely the absence of some negative force — war, tension, confusion, but it is the presence of some positive force — justice, goodwill, the power of the kingdom of God.”

I've used the Sonoma County Interfaith’s recent peace newsletter as the source of many of our readings and ideas for this liturgy. I thank them.

Yes, let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!

Let There Be Peace on Earth – Children’s Choir with photos of children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57-0i7qghhU&t=7s

First Reading – Black Elk

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men. — Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk), Oglala Lakota leader and visionary 1863 - 1950 From The Sacred Pipe — Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux

Song/Meditation

Peace is Flowing Like a River: Carey Landry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ00H4Tavdo

Second Reading - The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Gospel – John 14:25-27

25 All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Shared Homily

Enid: The Sonoma County Interfaith peace newsletter includes Visions of Peace gathered by the Committee on Refugees and Peace of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations. We share a few here in preparation for our shared homily.

David: Peace is not just the lack of conflict, but it also the presence of harmony, friendship, and understanding between all people; regardless of any label one may come up for them. Fares, Kuwait

Enid: My vision for peace is the smile of a well-fed child, the “aha” of learning something new, the sharing of emotions in a group of people, the solidarity of a human with another in need. Peace is inside each one of us. Unknown

David: My “Vision of Peace” means a world without violence, where human rights and compassion are the primary interest of every person. Gniewko, Poland

Enid: Peace is an ultimate goal that every single person in the world should work hard to realize. Even though peace may have different meanings for different people, but I think that as long as there is love there is always a way to lead to peace. Eve, Taiwan

Questions for discussion

What is your vision of true peace?

How will peace begin with you now?

David: What do we bring to the table this evening?

Eucharistic Prayer

David: We gather together to share the mystery of the Divine

In every person, in everything we do.

Spirit of Life, Spirit of the Divine, come to us in this celebration and bless these gifts of bread and wine. Encircle us with your love and inspire us to become the transformation we seek to become.

We are on our journey and our road meets with those of everyone who is walking toward freedom and liberation tonight – wherever they come from, whatever the sadness they face. With Mary we keep the human family together, telling them “We must go on, we cannot turn back. We have a role in creating a world of peace for us and all our children. Everyone is welcome in this new world without borders. Lament cannot take hold if gratitude gets there first.”

Enid: This is the message of our brother Jesus who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Our brother Jesus now invites us to share with him this simple meal which he celebrated the night before he died with his mother and his companions. He knew the hours were precious and the time short. This gave new meaning to his words:

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

David: And then he raised the cup and looked with love at each of the people in the room and saw everyone who had lived or would ever live, and he invited them all saying:

All: Come and drink this cup of wine which we share together. Remember me and celebrate me by re-creating this meal whenever the Spirit moves you. It is a cup filled with love.

Our Father

All: Our Father, Mother, who are in this world and surpass the world, Blessed be your presence, in us, in animals and flowers, in still air and wind. May justice and peace dwell among us, as You come to us. Your will be our will; You will that we be sisters and brothers, as bread is bread, water is itself, For our hunger, for quenching of thirst. Forgive us. We walk crookedly in the world, are perverse, and fail of our promise. But we would be human, if only You consent to stir up our hearts. Amen. —Daniel Berrigan, SJ

Sign of Peace

Enid: (Unmute all) You have been unmuted so we can lift our voices together to proclaim the peace we wish for all.

Invitation to Communion

David: Everyone is welcome to this table.

The Spirit, whom the Universe cannot contain

is present to us in this bread

and meets us in this cup.

So, come, take this bread,

Drink this wine,

In them, the Spirit comes to us,

So that we may become one with the Spirit.

Communion Song

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi - Make Me A Channel of Your Peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcKcf5l_LM

Closing Prayer – John O’Donohue

For Peace

As the fever of day calms towards twilight May all that is strained in us come to ease.

We pray for all who suffered violence today, May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace, May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb, That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

And no hurt or harm be done Anywhere along the holy mountain.

John O’Donohue

Closing Song – Give Peace A Chance, John Lennon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3_0GqPvr4U