Liturgies
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.
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ENTRANCE REFLECTION In the struggle to become Christ’s Body, we have only one weapon and one alone: Love…. Love is what first softened your heart and mine. Love brought us into the struggle. Love alone has the power to break hearts open so that we will all lay down our defenses and join in the cosmic movement toward a new heaven, a new earth, in a Holy City whose foundation is Love. Gordon Cosby,
ENTRANCE REFLECTION Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the Alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight. Joan Chittister, Uncommon Gratitude
ENTRANCE REFLECTION I have come to understand that the voice of God is all around me. God is not a silent God. God is speaking to me all the time. In everything. Through everyone. I am only now beginning to listen, let alone to hear. Joan Chittister,
ENTRANCE REFLECTION We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot hear it. But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. … I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God. In the end, God’s will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. ― Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, p. 81 Detail from photograph of paper doves hanging from the ceiling of the Church of the Most Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv, Ukraine thanks to SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News
ENTRANCE REFLECTION You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 2062022 Recommitment: Becoming Faithful
Seized by the Power of a Great Affection: Meditations on the Divine Encounter, p. 412022 Summer: Faith in Hard Times
2022 Trinity: Wisdom is Calling
Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir, p.182022 Easter: Good News on the Other Side
2022 Lent: Trusting God