Opening Hymn: RETURN TO GOD (Wondrous Love Marty Haugen) Refrain: Return to God with all your heart, the Source of grace and mercy. Come seek the tender faithfulness of God Now the time of grace has come, the day of salvation. Come and learn now the day of our God (Refrain) I will take your heart of stone and place a heart within you, a heart of compassion and love. (Refrain) If you break the chains of oppression, if you set the prisoners free, if you share your bread with the hungry, give protection to the lost, give a shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked in your midst, then your light shall break forth like the dawn. (Refrain) Ant. 1 Turn to me with all your heart, says our God Psalm 25 (from Psalms/Now by Leslie F. Brandt) I am reaching for you again, O God. From the abyss of defeat, the suffocating shame of failure, I seek Your mercy and Your help. Enable me to see something of Your will for my life. Break through this stifling darkness with some direction, some meaning, some purpose for my existence. You are my God; You have promised me salvation. How long must I wait for Your response? Have You given me up, O Lord? Are You remembering the uncountable times that I have failed You? 1
Then I am remembering Your steadfast love, that Your concern is for those who fail and fumble, that You seek to restore those who humbly reach out for You. I know well that those who walk in Your course for their lives find contentment and fulfillment. I have tried to do so, and again I have failed. I am aware that those who serve You will know true security and abundance. I have sought this only to be snared and incapacitated by my own weaknesses. O God, have mercy! I know my guilt is great. Look upon my emptiness and loneliness, consider kindly my afflictions and despair, remember the perpetual presence of my human weaknesses and instincts. Regard once more the pernicious and violent forces that oppose Your will in my life; Forgive me my many sins, and restore me to Yourself. Watch over me and hold on to me, O God. lest I fall again. Glory to you. 2
Ant. 2 If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Canticle: Rev 19:1, 5-7 Salvation, glory, and power belong to you, Your judgments are honest and true. All of us, your servants, sing praise to you, We worship you reverently, both great and small. You, our almighty God, are Creator of heaven and earth. Let us rejoice and exult, and give you glory. The wedding feast of the Lamb has begun, And the bride has made herself ready. Glory to you. Reading from Journey to the Center by Thomas Keating The process of conversion begins with genuine openness to change-to be open to the possibility that just as natural life evolves, so our spiritual life is evolving. Each time you consent to an enhancement of faith, your world changes and all your relationships have to be adjusted to the new perspective and the new light that has been given you. Our relationship to ourselves, to Jesus Christ, to our neighbor, to the Church-to God-all change. It is the end of the world we have previously known and lived in. Sometimes the Spirit of God deliberately shatters one of these worlds. If we have depended upon them to go to God, it may feel as if we have lost God. We may have doubts about God s very existence. Such doubts many be the best thing that ever happened to us. It is not the true God of faith we have doubts about, but only the God of our limited concepts or dependencies; this God never existed anyway. If you repent and are willing to change, or are willing to let God change you, the kingdom of God is close; in fact, you have it; it is within you and you can begin to enjoy it. The kingdom of God 3
belongs to those who are poor in spirit, who have let go of their possessive attitude toward everything, including God. Response (from Journey to the Center by Thomas Keating) O Holy Spirit, may Your Light open our minds to the truth and strengthen our wills to accept the truth without wavering. O Holy Spirit, may Your Light. May the refining fire of Your Love reach into the hidden places of our inmost being, And strengthen our wills to accept the truth Glory to you, source of all being, ethernal word and Holy Spirit O Holy Spirit, may Your Light MAGNIFICAT OF REPENTANCE (Miryam of Nazareth- Woman of Strength and Wisdom Ann Johnson) Come forth, my soul, have courage, Bend low, my spirit, before you God, Trust in the love that is offered. Abba, bring us home to your teachings, Sovereign, bring us near to serve at your right hand. Turn us and we shall be turned. Return us to yourself in perfect repentance. Abba, remember what you have said, It s the charge of a father to teach his child, Can a mother forget the babe at her breast? Kings don t forget their inheritors. By you are all our actions weighed. By you alone are our gleanings measured Accept our prayer of repentance. 4
You alone are the Holy One. You alone forgive us and long for us to return. Our Father, our Father, we come. Mother us now as in days of old, Care for us as you did East of Eden. Our Living God great and faithful God, Who keeps covenant and troth with those who love ou, With those who keep you commandments. We have been careless Not once but again and again. We have left your teaching with intention and planning, Rebelled, turned from your face. Glory to you. Intercessory Prayers 1. In this Lenten season, instill in us a deeper desire to seek you Lord in all the moments of our lives. 2. Let us have the courage to de-clutter our hearts from criticism, harsh judgment and negativity. 3. Jesus, grant us the strength to carry our cross when we experience the effects of aging or prolonged illness on our bodies or our minds. 4. Help us to accept the challenges of each day when we feel the pain of our world and unite in compassion with the EARTH'S SUFFERING PEOPLE. 5. For all those who are caught up in conflicts and wars, may they know the Lord's PEACE. Our Father 5
Concluding Prayer (from Show me the Way by Henri J.M. Nouwen) Merciful God, you know our weakness and distress. Yet the weaker we are, the stronger is your help. Grant that we may accept with joy and gratitude the gift of this time of grace, and bear witness to your work in our lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 6