Gathered on the side walk outside our chapel on a sunny morning we blessed each other’s locally grown and donated palm fronds and then processed into our chapel, led by two of community members, one in a wheel chair, the other with a walker. Michele Birch Conery and I co-celebrated our Palm Sunday liturgy that was based on Bridget Mary Meehan’s Lent liturgy. Our theme “Forgive and Ask for Forgiveness, Taking Flight” was also borrowed from Regina and Bridget Mary’s book, Praying with a Passionate Heart. Our liturgy was well received by the 15 people in attendance, and many loved that we spent time in meditation using the forgiveness meditation before the cross of Jesus. During the meditation, one of our community members was blessed with a vision of a beautiful white light encircling our group. Michele’s homily focused on the call of the prophet and was well received, and served as a reminder that we are all prophets. Afterwards, we enjoyed a lunch that included a Happy Easter cake. The picture shows Michele and me offering a final blessing.

EASTER VIGIL
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community                 Sarasota, Florida

Approximately 100 people attended our Easter Vigil.

Mike Rigdon singing the Exultet.

Katy Zatsick leading the blessing of water.
and renewal of Baptismal Promises

 
Last night's Mass with Janice Sevre-Duszynska and Donna Rougeux, ordained Catholic priests, and Diane Dougherty, ordained Catholic deacon, was a joyful celebration of hope, faith, and courage. Thank you to Janice, Donna, and Diane for this gift to our community. Thanks also to Bill and Debbie Quigley, who invited them and offered their home for their visit and for the Mass. Thanks to all who came last night (we counted between 45-50 in attendance---including seven children!). Thanks to all of you were with us in spirit but who could not attend.
~ Jennifer Molina

It's so good to welcome everyone to celebrate the Body of Christ with the Body of Christ. What is also life-giving is the uniqueness of each liturgy. While we follow the structure of the Mass, we are creating enriching new liturgies that empower the people of God.
~ Janice Sevre-Duszynska

Women Priests Enrich Church

Since the end of November (2011), 92 year-old Wisconsin Jesuit, Fr. Bill Brennen has been silenced by his order and barred from celebrating Mass following his participation as a co-celebrant in a Eucharistic liturgy with Roman Catholic Womanpriest, Janice Sevre-Duszynska as part of the vigil to close the School of Americas (SOA) in Columbus, GA. This silencing and the November announcement that Fr. Roy Bourgeois, leader of the movement to close the SOA has been expelled from the Maryknoll religious, his congregation of 45 years, prompted the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) to endorse the movement to ordain women as Catholic priests. The support for women’s ordination given by the NCR and Frs. Bourgeois and Brennen, among others, is a fitting response to the ongoing invitation by Roman Catholic Womenpriests specifically and marginalized members of the Church generally to join in the work of creating an ever more inclusive community of faith.

In September, I had the pleasure of participating in Mass said by Sevre-Duszynska at the home of a friend here in New Orleans. It was an extraordinary experience insofar as it was remarkably typical of the dozens of home liturgies and Masses that I have attended over the years presided over by a variety of priests and lay people. The order did not deviate from the customary rites of Roman Catholic masses other than to make use of inclusive language and benefit from the shared wisdom of those gathered in reflecting on the reading in the Liturgy of the Word.

Perhaps the most radical departure from tradition, apart from the gender of the celebrant, was the inclusion of everyone—regardless of age, marital status, or religious affiliation—during the sharing of the Eucharist. This insistence on inclusion — inspired by the open table fellowship practiced by Jesus and his disciples— is the radical strength and prophetic message of the movement for the ordination of women.

Women, gay, transgendered and divorced Catholics are among the many who are not fully included in the life of the Church and the vision of the hierarchy. Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors, adulterers, and his own enemies. His example and that of Woman Priest Sevre Duszynska and Frs. Bourgeois and Brennen are a model for inclusion that is the basis of authentic Christian community. The welcome table is not always (or often) a comfortable place for the privileged guests, nor does it come without cost or responsibility as numerous Gospel parables suggest. However, it is a place where all can find companionship in Christ. I pray that more male clergy and laity might accept the invitation of the women priests in envisioning and enacting the beloved community of faith together and in many various ways.

Joe Heeren-Mueller
From Seeds, newsletter of New Orleans Catholic Worker St. Thomas House of Hospitality
(http://www.nolacatholicworker.org/SeedsDecember2012.pdf)

About 20 members of the MMOJ community in Sarasota, Florida attended the community’s first Lenten retreat led by Bishop Bridget Mary and Marilyn Jenai on Sunday, March 3, 2013. The theme was “Our God of Love” and members took away that a good Lenten practice is to “love those who we would rather not be around in our daily lives”. The retreat was held at the Elliston, Florida home of Lee and Carol Ann Breyer, married priest partners of the community. They have called their nature preserve and home for spiritual gathering “Mercy-on-the-Manatee” (river). Spiritual experiences were shared and affirmed and God was present in the quiet times for reflection. After the retreat was completed, most of the attendees shared social time going to dinner at a local restaurant.

Yesterday about 90 people gathered in Cincinnati for our monthly Eucharist which was also our Ash Wednesday. Some came from the city, others from northern Kentucky and Dayton. Each month we have first-timers who come up to me and say, "I've been looking for this for so long. I am grateful to be here."

Ours is an ever-growing Eucharistic Community and truly a discipleship of equals. Our name is Resurrection Community and we have been gathering together as the people of God three years this May. In the emergence of our faith community we have had the support of loving and prophetic people.

During the summer when it is hot, we gather in the church which has air conditioning. During the other months, we celebrate as the people of God in the fellowship hall at tables where there is bread and wine for all to consecrate along with the priest. Our music and songs are coordinated with our theme. People are invited to give homilies and become part of the liturgy committee. For two years, we used ARCWP's worship aide and sometimes folks wrote original Eucharistic prayers. Now we are putting together our own liturgies and they, too, are grounded and meaningful.

At our Ash Wednesday liturgy last night, a first-timer told me she cried when she gave Eucharist to the person sitting next to her, saying; "You are the Body of Christ." In our faith community, we are living the Kin-dom experience of liberation and empowerment.