Who do you say that I am? (- Mark 8:29)

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1 24 th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 12, 2009 Delle McCormick and Marisa Werner Who do you say that I am? (- Mark 8:29) 1) Announcements and Prayer Requests 2) Opening Meditation (- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed) In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation. 3) Opening Song: Veni Sancte Spiritus - Taize 4) First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Sovereign God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning God wakens - wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. The One is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let that man confront me. See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong?

2 Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Thanks be to God. 5) Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living. I love God who has heard my voice in supplication, Because the Lord inclined an ear to me the day I called. R Death s cords encompassed me; the snares of the netherworld seized upon me; I fell into distress and sorrow, And I called upon the name of God, O Lord, save my life! R Gracious is our God and just; yes, our God is merciful. The Lord keeps the little ones; I was brought low, and God saved me. R God has freed my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Holy One in the land of the living. R 6) Second Reading: (-Life in a Jar website.) A reading from the continuing revelation of God to people of faith. Irena Sendler, born in 1910, was raised by her Catholic parents to respect and love people regardless of their ethnicity or social status. Her father, a physician, died from typhus that he contracted during an epidemic in He was the only doctor in his town near Warsaw who would treat the poor, mostly Jewish victims of this tragic disease. As he was dying, he told 7-year-old Irena, If you see someone drowning you must try to rescue them, even if you cannot swim. In 1939 the Nazis swept through Poland and imprisoned the Jews in ghettos where they were first starved to death and then systematically murdered in killing camps. Irena, by than a social worker in Warsaw, saw the Jewish people drowning and resolved to do what she could to rescue as many as possible, especially the children.

3 Working with a network of other social workers and brave Poles, mostly women, she smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto and hid them safely until the end of the war. Sendler took great risks obtaining forged papers for the children, disguising herself as an infection control nurse, diverting German occupation funds for the support of children in hiding. She entered the Warsaw ghetto, sometimes two and three times a day, and talked Jewish parents into giving up their children. Sendler drugged the babies with sedatives and smuggled them past Nazi guards in gunny sacks, boxes and coffins. She helped the older ones escape through the sewers, through secret openings in the wall, through the courthouse, through churches, any clever way she and her network could evade the Nazis. Once outside the ghetto walls, Sendler gave the children false names and documents and placed them in convents, orphanages and with Polish families. In 1942 the Polish underground organization ZEGOTA recruited her to lead their Children s Division, providing her with money and support. Her hope was that after the war she could reunite the children with surviving relatives, or at least return their Jewish identities. To that end she kept thin tissue paper lists of each child s Jewish name, their Polish name and address. She hid the precious lists in glass jars buried under an apple tree in the back yard of one of her co-conspirators. In 1943 Irena Sendler was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death by firing squad. She never divulged the location of the lists or her Polish underground contacts. At the last moment she was saved by ZEGOTA which bribed a guard to secure her freedom. Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Thanks be to God.

4 7) Gospel Acclamation 8) Gospel Reading: Mark 8:27-35 God be with you. And also with you. A reading from the holy gospel according to Mark. Glory to you, O God. Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am? They said in reply, John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets. Then he asked them, And who do you say that I am? Peter said to him in reply, You are the Christ. Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. The good news of salvation. Glory and praise to our savior Jesus Christ.

5 9) Silent Reflection 10) Discussion 11) Intercessions (- adapted from For the Benefit of All, by Tony Singleton, at R: God, hear our prayer. As we enjoy our abundance of wealth, we pray for all who are hungry. May they be freed from unnecessary lack of sustenance. R As we celebrate the joys of creation we pray for the people who are denied their share. May the earth and everything in it be for the benefit of all human beings. R As we benefit from cheap farm labor, we pray for the producers and workers who are deprived of their just reward. May all created goods flow freely and abundantly for all. R 12) Bread Breaking Prayer (-adapted from a prayer by Janet Chrisholm) Beloved God, we give you thanks for your guidance and inspiration and the promise of Hope in our time. You call us to love in a time of indifference, to nonviolence in a time of injustice, and to life in a time of death. You teach us not only how to live, but how to die; how to transform not only the world but our own broken hearts, as well. Your Incarnation transcends all our dreams for a better world and declares your reign here and now, at this very moment in human history. In Jesus, we meet you, our beloved God. We see your true face. And we remember that, as one of Jesus last acts of earthly life, while at table with friends, Jesus took bread, thanked you for it, broke and distributed it among them as so many times before, and said, This is my body that I now share with you. Remember that I am with

6 you whenever you do this. Likewise, Jesus took the cup of wine, thanked you for it, and passed it among them to drink saying, This is my blood that I now share with you. Remember that I am with you whenever you do this. From now on we know that you are not a god of despair but of hope, not a god of wrath but of mercy; not a god of condemnation but of compassion; not a god of imperial power but of suffering; not a god of domination but of loving service; not a god of oppression but of liberation; not a god who blesses injustice but the God of justice; not a god of war but of peace; not a god of violence but of nonviolence; not a god of death but of Life. From now on we know that we all have been created to share in the fullness of life, in your love and unending mercy. It is in that spirit we step forward into the future, supporting each other, building community, making peace, practicing nonviolence, creating justice, and reconciling with our enemies, come what may. We have met Jesus the Rebel, who is alive and goes before us, summoning us to carry on the mission of justice and peace. We have been changed forever. Beloved God, you have begun the transformation within us. And so we pray Eternal Spirit, Earth-Maker, Pain-Bearer, Life Giver, Source of all that is and that shall be Father and Mother of us all, Loving God in whom is heaven: The Hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by peoples of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb form one another, forgive us. From trials too great to endure, spare us From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.

7 13) Sharing of Bread: 14) Silent Reflection 15) Closing Blessing May God bless us and keep us, may God s face shine upon us and grant to us and to all our broken world, peace. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Creator, the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit, come upon us and remain with us forever. Amen. 16) Closing Song: 17) HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cameron Davidson - Sept 10 Miriam Davidson Sept 11 Kathy Norgard Sept 15 18) Sharing the Peace