Come Join Us Today, May 26, 2024 starting at 3:45 with a welcoming
4:00 Liturgy
5:00: Yummy Potluck and massive sharing
A note from our celebrants Patti and Jacqueline:
On Sunday May 26, 2024, Jacqueline Hayes and I are presenting the Liturgy.
Our topic is ‘GIFTS’
We are asking each person present and on Zoom, TO BRING AN ITEM OR SYMBOL TO OUR SERVICE.
Imagine placing next to the bread and wine a favorite dish that you you put your food in when you prepare for the Sam Jones community, or a favorite book that you read to your children, or a favorite card that you sent to your friend who is grieving, or the yarn that you use to (knit) for the Prayer Shawl ministry or ……
Your gift reveals God in our midst.
Bring a gift or a symbol of that gift to add to our table. A Gift that is You!
Patti and Jacqueline
Join us In-Person at Knox Presbyterian and Thanksgiving Lutheran (a facility we share with both congregations)
1650 West Third Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
or Join Zoom Meeting with this link:
Passcode: 1234
Or Use the Meeting ID: 519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
Or by Phone: +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573# US
Intentional Eucharistic Community
Liturgical Order of Service
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Here are files for downloading in WORD and PDF formats:
Opening Song:
Welcome: Patti
Introduction: Jacqueline
Opening Prayer:
Gracious God, thank you for the Gift of today.May my living today reveal your goodness.May I discover your presence in each person I meet.Teach me when to speak and when to listen.In moments of challenge and decision may I be open to your Wisdom.Gift me with simple joy.When the day goes well may I rejoice!When it grows difficult, surprise me with new possibilities. When life is over-whelming call me to new waysto restore your Peace and Harmony. Amen
First Reading:
Even though we so often pray, “Come, Holy Spirit,” the gift of the Spirit is already given. The Holy Spirit has already come. We all are temples of the Holy Spirit, equally, objectively, and forever! The only difference is the degree that we know it, draw upon it, and consciously believe it. All the scriptural images of the Spirit are dynamic—flowing water, descending dove or fire, and rushing wind. If there’s never any movement, energy, excitement, deep love, service, forgiveness, or surrender, we can be pretty sure we aren’t living out of the Spirit.
If our whole lives are just going through the motions, if there’s never any deep conviction, we aren’t connected to the Spirit. We would do well to fan into flame the gift that we already have.
God doesn’t give God’s Spirit to those of us who are worthy, because none of us are worthy. God gives God’s Spirit in this awakened way to those who want it. On this Feast of Pentecost, quite simply, want it! Rely upon it. Know that it has already been given. Richard Rohr 2024
Second Reading
We all have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Gospel
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
All of them were filled with [the gift] of the Holy Spirit…….
Shared Homily:
What item or symbol of your gifts have you brought to our table?Do you want to comment on the concept of gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Following our shared homily:
Patti: What is it that we bring to the Table, tonight?
[As each person shares what they bring to the table, we use our silent hand motions of: opening our palms, then gathering these concerns up to our hearts, and then opening them out to be shared and held by our beloved community].
Offertory / Preparation of Gifts:
Eucharistic Prayer:
Patti: We pray today, aware that the same Spirit that moved in Jesus, moves in each one of us; a Spirit beyond all names, a Spirit embedded in all people, a Spirit embedded in all living things.
We pray today, grateful for the human gift of conscious awareness, that enables us to appreciate the bond we share with everything that exists; everything that exists on earth and in the vastness beyond this planet.
Jacqueline: We are bonded with stars, with galaxies, with space beyond measure; with rocks and mountains, with rivers, lakes and oceans, with flowers, ferns and forests, with the myriad species of animals, with every other human being.
We pray today, aware of the urgent need for humanity to acknowledge and respect this unbreakable bond we all share and to live in accordance with it.
We give thanks for men and women throughout the ages, who have increased our knowledge and awareness of the connectedness of everything in the universe, living and non-living.
Patti: Today we remember Jesus and the challenges he faced as he preached his revolutionary message – the misunderstanding, the rejection, the accusations, the insults, the pain and suffering he endured from people closest to him.
We remember the way he faced his death, alone, yet faithful to what he had preached; lonely, yet hopeful that his message would carry on.
Jacqueline: We gather as people who put our faith in Jesus’ message. We commit ourselves to bringing his powerful message to a world desperately in need of hope to carry on as he did in the face of opposition, misunderstanding or rejection.
Bonded in spirit with followers of Jesus throughout the centuries who, like him, faced great obstacles; we eat this bread and drink this wine as a sign of our readiness to be counted as true disciples of Jesus.
Patti: We give thanks for the Spirit,
active in our lives as it was in the life of Jesus.
At this Pentecost gathering,
We take bread as Jesus took bread
and we remember, as Jesus remembered,
The constant presence of the Spirit.
We break and share this bread,
As Jesus broke and shared it.
We share it as our pledge of openness
To the Spirit in our midst, and in the acknowledgment
Of our eternal connectedness with the Spirit.
Jacqueline: We take wine and drink,
As Jesus invited his friends to drink,
Mindful of a relationship of love and trust
Between ourselves and the Spirit.
Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us your new creation.
All: For it is through him, with him and in him, now and forever.
Jacqueline: 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: Creator God, who gives birth to all that is and was and will be!
Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruits of your mission. Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with your desire. Forgive us for the times our will has not aligned with your will.
Allow us the grace to forgive others from the entanglement of past mistakes. Do not let us be burdened by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment. For you are the vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.
Sign of Peace
Jacqueline: Let us offer some Sign of Peace to those around you.
Patti: All are welcome at this table. [Explain passing the bread and the cup.]
Communion Song: An Taiseirl - Gaelic Communion Song (song is on Jacqueline’s phone)
In lieu of a closing song: Jacqueline’s retreat video.
Closing Prayer: We are gifts to be opened and shared, called to be co-creators of an evolving humanity, Enablers of the “kingdom of God.”
We affirm our commitmentto expansion, to riskto possibilitiesto the gift we want to be, and can befor anyone whose lives we touch.
To wherever the Spirit of Life and Love may lead us. And this Beloved Emmaus Community says “Amen”
