CALL TO WORSHIP & CENTERING PRAYERS

Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

Call to worship

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. God’s promise to love us has lasted since the beginning of time. Jesus became our nourishment and our healing so that we could learn how to give ourselves to others.

To the point: “Eat the Passover.” Jesus clearly gives us his Body and Blood to eat and drink in the context of his ultimate passing over from death to life. His gift of the Eucharist is an ongoing expression of this total gift of self. We who partake of his Body and Blood also participate in his Passover. In the Eucharist we give over our lives and receive back fullness of Life.

Connecting the Gospel (Mark 14:12-26) to the second reading: Once the people hear the words, understand them and commit themselves to the covenant, Moses sprinkles them with “the blood of the covenant.” This ritual gesture suggests that any violation of the covenant brings death; it is also a reminder that all life is in God’s hands.

Connecting the Gospel to experience: When a couple offers one another the gift of self-expressed love in marriage vows, they pass over together into a new way of relating and being. Old ways must die. New life is experienced. Eucharist is Jesus’ ongoing gift of self to us, through which we continually pass over from old ways of being to new life.

Centering prayers

The Gospel

(Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26)

“This is my body.”

Jesus, you call us all priest and penitent,
the homeless and CEO’s,
immigrants and border agents,
Italians, Asian-Americans, Japanese.
Those who stand back and those who don’t,
None of us are worthy, but you tell us,
“your souls shall be healed.”
“This is my body; take it and eat.”
Oh please stay with us forever.
Make us one with you one with each other.
Let your love course through our lives and heal us.
Make us one in your one body.

The First Reading

(Exodus 24: 3-8)

“This is the blood of the covenant.”

Blood: a sign of the covenant.
Moses splashed some on the altar and then
some onto the people, recalling the solemn bond
they had entered with God.
They would be God’s people.
God would love them forever.
Christ’s blood, Christ’s body, Christ’s love:
marks of the new covenant.
Sprinkle it, splash it, drown us
in your love, O, Christ.

The Second Reading

(Hebrews 9: 11-15)

“Christ entered once for all into the sanctuary,
with his own blood, obtaining eternal redemption.”

Once for all time, Christ sealed the covenant.
With his own blood. He pushed straight into
the sacred place with all of us in tow.
Who could love us more?
Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

Music for reflection