January 23: Opening the Stained Glass Ceiling

On this joyous day, we celebrated Eucharist and among us
was Fr.Roy Bourgeois, Maryknoll priest. Fr. Roy Bourgeois is calling for the ordination
of women priests in the Roman Catholic Church. On this day we gave thanks for the
ordination of women priests as a matter of justice,
and pray that the Vatican sees the Light and recognizes the "sensus fidelum"
---that the People of God want women priests.
The reading from Corinthians says it well:
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Jimmy Carter also says it well:
Today, when religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies and rituals, the inevitable implication is that females are inferior. "The Elders" are right that religious groups should stand up for a simple ethical principle: any person’s human rights should be sacred, and not depend on something as earthly as their genitals.

January 9, 2010: Epiphany and Baptism

At our Eucharist, we celebrated the Nativity, the Epiphany, and the Theophany all in one. We were reminded in our shared homily that the in breaking of G-O-D into time is sometimes brilliant LIGHT, but just as often, beholding life in a soft LIGHT, even sometimes slightly out of focus. And too that the rupture, the parting of the clouds over our brother Jesus in the Jordan was most astonishing in saying "This is my Beloved." That this in breaking heralds for all of us if we but claim it that we too are called "Beloved" by the Holy. Yes, astonishing!

James Joyce wrote that the epiphany was the sudden "revelation of the whatness of a thing," the moment when "the soul of the commonest object ... seems to us radiant."
Yes, we, as our brother Jesus has shown, are all radiant to the Holy in our common humanity.

And now, sisters and brothers, as radiant beloved people let us turn our Light and Love to the needs of others in our world as Howard Thurman reminds us:
The Work of Christmas?
When the song of angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the wise men and wise women are back home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild nations,
To bring peace to all,
To make music in the heart.
Howard Thurman (adapted)

NOV. 28: The Empty Crib

As part of our Eucharist on Nov. 28 we created embodied prayer
with this lovely poem:

This crib is the waiting space of our emptiness.
This crib is the waiting space of our loneliness.
This crib is the waiting space of our longing.
This crib is the waiting space of our hunger and our desire
for intimacy
for justice
for truth
Come ,O Christ-child
into the cradle of our emptiness
into the crib of our loneliness
into the space of our longing,
into the arms of our hunger,
into the heart of our desire.
In this crib we are laying this cloth of our woven dreams and aspirations.
We are bringing the fabric of our lives:
many textured,
multi-colored,
torn, frayed and fragile,
yet tense with a strength woven out of conflice, laughter and tears.
Come, O Christ-child
Clothe yourself with the cloth of our humanity.
Wrap us in the your vulnerability, compassion and tenderness.
Come and live among us.

[from Praying Like a Woman, Nicola Slee]


A blessed Advent to all.
We will gather for a Christmas Yule Prayer Sing on Saturday December 26, 10:30am.
Lead by our director of song, Evelie Delfino Posch.

October 24 That I May See

BARTIMAEUS: Enacted
I want to see him, I want to see him.

Of course I can't see him! Let him see me!

Prophet Jesus! Jesus!

Thank you, yes thank you

Would you let me touch your face.

[HE REACHES OUT HIS HANDS AND SEES THROUGH TOUCH THE FACE OF JESUS;
HE SIGHS WITH HAPPINESS]

You want to touch my face?

[his face and eyes are touched by Jesus]

I begin to see. Yes...oh God, I begin to see. My heart is broken. I see now
the joy and the suffering of so many: the mother in birth, the child in joy,
the Roman soldiers that whip us, the feeding of the hungry....yes, I see....


WHAT PAINS HAVE BEEN PASSAGE WAYS FOR YOU TO COME TO KNOW THE REALITY OF GOD MORE CLEARLY IN YOUR LIFE?

October 10: The Road to Wisdom

Saturday, September 26

OUR THEME: PROPHECY
Today we focused on women in religious orders who are being "investigated" by the Vatican and who are our modern day prophets. They hold the vision of Vatican II. And they remind us what a discipleship of equals means. We heard heard the good news from India that the Catholic Bishops Conference of India will soon come out with a policy that recommends equal representation for women at every level of the church to "redeem" centuries long "injustices." We looked to the prophets in our midst, Trudy and Lynn, who were celebrating the 14th anniversary of their committed relationship [see picture above], and Victoria and Kathryn who celebrated their 1st year anniversary of being legally married [though they have been life partners for over 20 years!]. We wondered out loud together how each of us is called in our daily lives to being prophets, as we work to re-create the Roman Catholic Church as accountable, transparent, inclusive, and just. Evelie inspired this mood for change with her selection of "The Times They are A-Changing!"

Saturday, September 12

SONGS OF PEACE, BEING PEACE, PEACE ALL AROUND

Since this was the day after the anniversary of 9/11, our music director Evelie Posch chose the theme of Peace. Instead of a spoken homily, she selected many songs of peace. This was our musical meditation and greatly deepened our experience of the Eucharist.