Our inclusive language liturgies generally set the structure and theme of Sunday morning worship. Since announcements are an integral part of our life together, we offer some guidelines for those who make announcements towards the end of worship.
The Season after Epiphany 2009 – Straining Toward Salvation
REFLECTION
To love the world as God loves the world is to embrace it as it is and run with it, straining toward salvation.
from Rachel Reeder, "Art of Our Own Making"
in The Landscape of Praise: Readings in Liturgical Renewal,
Blair Gilmer Meeks, ed., p. 13.
Advent 2008 – Promises, Promises
REFLECTION
[We] must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today’s human and Christian promise be realized; and every tomorrow will have its own tomorrow, world without end. Every human act, every Christian act, is an act of hope. But that means [we] must be men and women of the present, [we] must live this moment – really live it, not just endure it – because this very moment, for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration, is pregnant with all sorts of possibilities, is pregnant with the future, is pregnant with love, is pregnant with Christ.
Walter J. Burghardt, quoted in An Advent Sourcebook, Liturgy Training Publications: Chicago, 1988, pg 81.
Jubilee 2008 – Beyond Now
REFLECTION
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
—Oscar Romero, from It Helps Now and Then
Recommitment 2008 – Loving Forgiveness
REFLECTION
O Lord, remember not only the men and the women of goodwill, but also those of ill will. But do not remember only the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember the fruits we bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship; our loyalty; our humility; the courage; the generosity; the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.
—Written on a piece of wrapping paper and found near the body of a dead child in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, where 92,000 women and children died.
Green Season 2008 – Chosen to Live: Choosing to Serve
REFLECTION
Our ordinary lives are given an extraordinary significance when we accept that our lives are about something larger…. I do not need to be the whole play or even understand the full script. It is enough to know that I have been chosen to be one actor on the stage. I need only play my part as well as I can.
Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World