“Imagining and Creating the Inclusive Church ”

Prayer Service

Welcome: Welcome to the family of God, where all the children of God are truly welcomed and honored! Today, we take part in concerted global action, together with groups that advocate women’s ordination around the world, to celebrate diversity and inclusion as we imagine and create the new inclusive Catholic Church!

Opening prayer: All

(1) Mary, Blessed Mother of Jesus,

Reflection of God’s warm mothering love,

Embrace us this day with the strength, peace, and healing we need

To reflect the presence of the Holy One in our world.

May we be prophetic voices for people of the world

Who suffer poverty, hunger and oppression,

Assuring them that they are God’s beloved people.

May we work for justice and peace around the globe.

Flower-garland of the ocean,

Flower-garland of the land,

Flower-garland of the heavens,

Mary, Mother of Jesus,

We praise you, we thank you, we love you.

Hymn:

Choices: Welcome to the Family or All Are Welcome.

Welcome to the Family

Author: Debbie Kerner, Publisher: Rettino/Kerner Publishing

Refrain:

Welcome to the family,

we're glad that you have come

to share your life with us.

As we grow in love and

may we always be to you

what God would have us be.

A family always there

to be strong and to lean on.

Verse:

May we learn to love each other more with each new day.

May words of love be on our lips in everything we say.

May the spirit melt our hearts and teach us how to pray.

That we might be a true family.

(back to refrain)

Or

All Are Welcome,

Text by Marty Haugen, tune is TWIN OAKS, © 1994, GIA Publications.

Liturgy of the Word  

First reading: Genesis 28:14

Your descendants will be like the specks of dust on the ground; you will spread to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, and all the tribes of the earth will bless themselves by you and your descendants.

Responsorial Psalm:

(2) Words from a Chinese hymn, “In adoration of the Holy Trinity”

You alone are the perfection of pure and purified virtue beyond description.

You alone are the changelessness existing with majestic dignity.

Being the Root and the Origin of all goodness, Your Goodness is boundless.

We now call to mind all Your Mercy and Grace, And sigh for such mysterious Joy coming to enlighten this part of our world. O Messiah! You are the Greatest and the Holiest of the Universally honored Beings! Widely delivering,

You save innumerable souls from the sorrows of life.

Other choices:

Psalm 66, “Let All the Earth” by Marty Haugen

Psalm 98, “All the Ends of the Earth” by David Haas

Psalm 113, “Praise God’s Name” by Michael Joncas.

Second reading: Luke 13:29

People will come from the East and the West, from the North and the South and will take their places at the feast in the kindom of God.

Gospel: Luke 10: 25-37

An expert in the law stood up to put Jesus to the test and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus answered “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

The expert on the law replied: “You must love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind”

Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”

But the expert on the Law, seeking self-justification, pressed Jesus further: "And just who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied: "There was a traveler going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who fell prey to robbers. The traveler was beaten, stripped naked, and left half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, the priest saw the traveler lying beside the road, but passed by on the other side. Likewise, there was a Levite, who came the same way; this one, too, saw the afflicted traveler and passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, who was taking the same road, also came upon the traveler and, filled with compassion, approached the traveler and dressed the wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then the Samaritan put the wounded person on a donkey, went straight to an inn and there took care of the injured one. The next day the Samaritan took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the request, 'Look after this person, and if there is any further expense, I’ll repay you on the way back.”

"Which of these three, in your opinion, was the neighbor to the traveler who fell in with the robbers?"

The answer came, "The one who showed compassion."

Jesus replied, "Then go and do same."

Response to the Word  

Ritual to celebrate Inclusion: Everyone is invited to be honored as being the light of Christ. Each person will come forward to light his/her candle from one of the leaders, who will say, “You are the light of Christ.” All respond Amen. The music accompanying this candle lighting is the “Exsultet Light of Christ” based upon the ancient Exsultet ( also called the Easter Proclamation, which is the traditional Western Rite hymn of praise intoned during the Easter Vigil) and a prayer by James Dillet Freeman; tune by Marty Haugen, © 1987, GIA Publications. 

Prayer:

We call upon our inclusive God, the God of many names, the God beyond all names, to bring the light of that inclusion into our lives. 

Each of the following is to be prayed in a different voice:

• O Creator God, “You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1)
• O God of Tender Mercy, You have proclaimed: “Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15-16a)
• O Laboring Mother God, You have promised: “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant… I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:14, 16)
• O Covenant God, You have said, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
• O Holy Wisdom, in every generation, You pass “into holy souls and make them friends of God and prophets.” (Wisdom 7:27)
• You ignite, enlighten, enthuse, infuse us with Your powerful light 

All: And in response, we gratefully share our light… this power for good in our world... this power to bring people together.

Sending Forth

Closing Prayer: (3) Prayer to Irish Saint Melangell

Boundless love, fill me. (Breathe in deeply.)

Healing Presence flow through me. (Breath out completely.)

Author of life,

May we live in harmony,

With people of every race, religion, and nation,

With all creatures of the sea and on the land.

May we praise you,

with sun and moon,

with birds and bees,

with wild creature, flowers, and trees.

Like Saint Melangell,

May we be quiet havens,

For those in trouble.

May we be precious companions on earth

and kin forever in heaven. Amen

Closing Hymn:

We are One inThe Spirit. Author unknown.

We are one, we are one,

We are one in the spirit

We are one, Hallelujah!

Hallelujah. We are one in the spirit, we are one.

Thank you Lord, thank you Lord.

We are one in the spirit

Thank you Lord, Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! We are one in the spirit we are one.

Praise your name, praise your name.

We are one in the spirit, praise your name.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We are one in the spirit we are one.

One Inseparable one...............x4

Or

We Are Marching (in the Light of God), text and tune is South African, © 1984, Utryck, Walton Music Corporation, agent.

Resources:

(1) Praying with Celtic Holy Women by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina Madonna Oliver. Page 114.

(2) Chinese Hymn. Adapted by Nidza Vazquez. Link: http://www29.homepage.villanova.edu/christopher.haas/chinese-trinity.htm

(3) Praying with Celtic Holy Women by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina Madonna Oliver. Page 143.

The 2008 World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination Liturgy was created by members of the Women's Ordination Conference: Myra Brown, Gloria Ulterino and Nidza Vázquez (WOC program director).

Women’s Ordination Conference

A Voice for Women in the Catholic Church

Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference advocates women’s ordination to an inclusive priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. For more information about WOC and how to become a member, contact:

Women's Ordination Conference, PO Box 2693, Fairfax , VA 22031, 703-352-1006

woc@womensordination.org

www.womensordination.org

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