Call to worship
The church begins the month of November celebrating the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Those holy men and women lived and died in complete faithfulness to God.
November reminds us to cultivate our relationship with all the saints and with our beloved deceased who now share in God’s glory. Together, they inspire our faith and courage and they give us wisdom and direction to face our struggles with confidence in God.
To the point: The promise of the Beatitudes is that certain ways of living (poor, meek, merciful) surely lead to inheriting a place in the heavenly kingdom. The challenge of the Beatitudes is to embrace these ways of living and thus make present in the here and now God’s reign. The “land” of inheritance is heavenly and earthly, both future and now — always God’s gift to “God’s children now” (second reading) who are the blessed ones, the saints.
Connecting the Gospel (Matt 5: 1-12) to the first reading: The rejoicing and gladness and great reward in heaven mentioned at the end of the Beatitudes is expressed most sublimely in heavenly worship where there is an unending chorus of blessing and giving glory to God.
Connecting the Gospel to experience: While the Beatitudes are a challenging blueprint for Christian living, they are not an impossible goal. We all know people who have fruitfully taken up the challenge of the Beatitudes and thus inspire us to saintly living.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(Matthew 5:1-12a)
He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus,
we pray with those who are poor in spirit,
and all who hunger and thirst now for righteousness.
St. Francis of Assisi,
show us how to reverence and care for
brother earth and sister skies.
St. Mother Theresa
teach us how to feed all God’s hungry people.
St. Albert the Great,
show our scientists all the ways
to create vaccines to end the pandemic.
St. Luke,
protect doctors, nurses and all in the medical profession
taking care of the sick.
Sts. Martin de Porres and Peter Claver,
teach us how to find inter-racial
justice and harmony.
St. Catherine of Siena,
help us learn how to prevent the fires
ravaging our country.
Amen.
The First Reading
(Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14)
Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal
on the forehead of the servants of our God.
Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day
and Alphonsus Rodriguez
washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.
O God, please, cleanse us
as you did your saints.
and imprint yourself on our foreheads.
Teach us to lay down our lives
for our neighbor, out of love for you.
The Second Reading
(1 John 3:1-3)
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We are God’s children right now.
God does wait to become
our loving father until tomorrow
or next week.
God is Father today, this minute.
Dear Lord, love us more than we can fathom,
no matter what, right now.
Copyright © 2018, Anne M. Osdieck.
