Wisdom’s Feast
Women Led Prayer
May 19, 2007
Sponsored by
Justice for Women in the Catholic Church
Catholic Action Network
Welcome
Introductions
Opening song: For the Beauty of the Earth #595
Opening Prayer:
Sophia, Wisdom we gather this morning to praise your name and rejoice in your word, for you are a Spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile clear, unstained, certain, not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits. We ask you who are one to make us mindful of your presence and shine within our midst.
Response: Amen.
First reading: Proverbs 8:27-31. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 24:3-5
A reading from the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus.
When God set the heavens in place, I was present
When God drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
when God fixed the clouds above,
when God fixed fast the wells of the deep
When God assigned the sea its limits—
And the waters will not invade the land—
When god established the foundations of the earth,
I was by god’s side, a master craftswoman,
Delighting God day after day,
Ever at play by God’s side,
At play everywhere in god’s domain,
Delighting to be with the children of humanity.
I came forth from the mouth of the Most High,
And I covered the earth like a mist.
I had my tent in the heights,
And my throne in a pillar of cloud.
Alone I encircled the vault of the sky,
And I walked on the bottom of the deeps.
Sophia’s word for us.
Thanks be to God
Response from Wisdom’s Feast by Cole, Melissa S., Mike Cole, Hal Taussing, and Marian Rowen
Leader: From everlasting I was firmly set, from the beginning before earth came into being.
The deep was not, when I was born, there were no springs to gush with water. (Proverbs 8 23,24)
People: You stretch the heavens out like a tent;
You build your palace on the waters above.
Using the clouds as your chariot,
You advance on the wings of the wind,
You fixed the earth on its foundations,
Unshakable forever and ever;
You wrapped it with the deep as with a robe,
The waters over topping the mountains. (PS 104:2b,3, 5-6)
Leader: Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I came to birth,
before the earth was made or the countryside
or the first grains of the world’s dust. (Proverbs 8:25-26)
People: At your reproof the waters took to flight,
They fled at the sound of your thunder,
Cascading over the mountains into he valleys,
Down to the reservoir you made for them.
You set springs gushing in ravines,
Running down between mountains,
Supplying water for wild animas,
Attracting the thirsty wild donkeys. (Ps 104:7-8,10-11)
Leader: When the heavens were fixed firm,
I was there when a ring was drawn on the surface of the deep,
when the clouds were thickened above,
when the springs of the deep were fixed fast,
I was there. (Proverbs*27,28)
People: From the palace you water the uplands
Until the ground has had all that your heavens have to offer;
You make the fresh grass grow for cattle
And those plants made use of by people.
An people receive food from the soil,
Wine to make them cheerful,
Oil to make them happy and bread to make them strong (Ps 104:13-15)
Leader: When the sea was assigned its boundaries— and the water will not invade the shore—
when the foundations for the earth where laid, I was there. (Proverbs 8:29)
People: What variety you have created,
Arranging everything so wisely!
Earth is completely full of things you have made:
Among them vast expanse of the ocean,
Teeming with countless creatures,
Creatures large and small,
With the ships going to and fro
And Leviathan whom you made to amuse you. (Ps104:24-26)
Leader: I was there, a master craftsperson,
delighting day after day,
ever at play everywhere in the world,
delighting to be with the sons and daughters of people.
(Proverbs 8:30,31)
People: All creatures depend on you
To feed them throughout the year
You provide the food they eat,
With generous hand you satisfy their hunger.
You turn away your face, they suffer,
You stop their breath, they die.
You give breath, fresh life begins,
You keep renewing the world. (Ps 104:27-30)
We’ll Dance As One Mary K. Wuller, Ph.D. July 1995
God seeks union with us!
We who experience the mystery of divine wooing
gasp in wonder as we behold the beauty –
find our longing encouraged,
our deepest truth revealed.
From returning ever again to Cherishing the Beyond
flows the compelling task
of proclaiming the divine dwelling in our lives.
We join with others who speak, dance, reverence the Divine,
acclaim with them God’s life in us.
Entering into the holy of holies,
our very inner self,
we experience non-separation anew.
We are one! She has made us in her image!
And so we too yearn to give birth to others,
to cradle them in our arms,
to feed them from the milk of our breasts.
We too fashion from earth’s clay
bodies for the divine,
arms to embrace, hands to touch and heal.
We weave together strands human and divine
and the threads of dark and brightness
tell of tears and hope and laughter.
a tale of two become one,
God at the core of our being!
Women theologize,
for we must write of what we have seen and heard:
God lives with us -- flesh of our flesh
marrow of our bones.
Our life experience testifies that God chooses us
to love into life the helpless, the hopeless.
Jesus found welcome in a woman’s womb,
And now every woman knows herself
a birth canal for the Divine.
Woman’s body is fashioned to cradle life
to comfort the lonely and restless
to speak through silences the awe and mystery
of a God who cannot be captured or verbalized
by the reasoning mind
but who touches, holds, embraces, laughs
and cries with the beloved
-- who is each of us!
Woman’s body theologizes about the cycles of spring, summer,
autumn, winter – spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Her life has its monthly, daily dyings and risings
Her body tells her to wait in patience for the unveiling
of the mystery, the revelation of the Holy One,
God born over and again in her.
It is Sophia, Wisdom, who offers all insight.
She is the Divine Woman of the well
who offers drink from clear spring waters.
(Not the well poisoned by patriarchal ancestors
who denounced woman’s body and blood,
who claimed control over women as their birthright.)
Sophia’s well has living waters for all who seek
refreshment, strength and insight,
waters of abundant flowing affirmation.
Divine life is Sophia’s gift.
She sits wrapped in meditative silence
offering cool and crystal clearness
to all who bring empty vessels.
Flowing, overflowing waters reviving, cleansing,
refreshing all.
No mediated grace here,
no priest dispensing measured portions.
All are invited to truly behold themselves,
then dance their way to other villages,
carrying water jars to desert people,
offering lonely seekers water, friendship.
She, the divine Sophia,
embraced by Michelangelo’s God of Creation
smiles her wisdom in multiple modes
in quiet - - -
in music and art, poetry and dance,
in songs both old and new,
in wind whispers and thundering waterfalls,
in sighs, sounds, silences of all creatures.
Where and how does Sophia invite trysting with the Divine?
Where two or more gather in Jesus’ name
there she seeks to bond and renew!
Where people circle together, form a sacred hoop,
share questions, longings and hungers,
tend hidden wounds, dispel gnawing emptiness,
She inspires story-tellers
who dare to speak of their uncertain questings,
their narrow escapes and caves of hiding,
their views of earth and heaven.
In this very diversity of stories and insights
we over and again behold abundant gifts and mystery,
the many-splendored approaches of Divinity.
And in the circle of shared stories, Sophia sings of
the Lost Found, the Beloved Returned.
She celebrates each one’s cache of priceless gems
and brings forth from each
the “Ohs” and “Ahs” of Shekinah recognition:
“There the cloud by day!
“There the pillar of fire by night!”
She stands in our circle
singing the beauty of our diversity,
celebrating the sharing of this bread and wine
most joyous of us all.
Always, in all ways, God-With-Us!
God chooses as revelation’s channel
our coming together
to break the bread of our lives,
to share the wine of our dreams.
And the dancing!
All peoples, all of creation circle round,
rejoicing in the suppleness of bodies –
of lives that bend and lean into each other --
led by the Divine Dancer
who dances the three-in-one,
DIVINE PROCESS—PERICHORESIS!
To what purpose this feminine theologizing?
To acclaim God’s self-revealing action.
The Divine One offers transformation to a life of joy
where the lost have been found, have been found!
where the wretched and poor no longer suffer wrongs,
where footwashing ennobles her who kneels,
where the comfortable find most comfort in sharing,
where there is enough for all, weapons forgotten.
The Divine One reveals Herself
a Singer of songs in us,
a Composer of harmony among us.
She weaves a tapestry to canopy our lovemaking,
a blanket to shelter our sleep.
She breathes her Breath into the once-thought-dead
and we breathe Life Eternal!
Homily: Elsie McGrath
Sharing: Please take a few minutes to reflect. How does Sophia breathe her breath into your dance of life?
Mary Wueller whose poem we heard could not be with us today, however her spirit is here in these peace candles she has made for us. Sharing Sophia’s breathe will surely bring peace to our world. You are invited to come forward and light your candle from the Easter candle as you share Sophia’s breathe in your dance of life. And let us all respond with the following refrain.
Sign of Peace:
Presider: Let us greet one anther with Wisdom’s peace.
Closing prayer:
Presider: Wisdom, Sophia you have graced us with your dance. Remain in us as we go forth to delight in all of creation and remind us to set your spark anew in all we meet.
Amen.
Closing song and dance