In case you ever need a prayer service for women to gain the right to become Catholic priests, here is one provided by the Women's Ordination Conference for use today, the National Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination.
Feel free to use it any time. :)
A Liturgy - Break the Silence on Women's Ordination.
Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling.
World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination
March 25, 2009: Feast of the Annunciation
Please note: The inclusive liturgy below is intended simply as a guide. Please feel free to adapt the liturgy to meet the needs of your community gathering. For example, you may wish to break up the "celebrant" text among all members of your community, use alternative readings, or shorten the liturgy for a prayer service.
In addition, we recommend you choose songs that are familiar to your community. If you have any questions or need additional assistance planning your gathering, contact Erin Saiz Hanna.
Greeting
Welcome to the family of God, where all are truly welcomed and honored!
Today we gather in solidarity with those who prophetically speak out publicly in support of women's ordination. This year's World Day of Prayer calls us to join in community and prayer on the feast of the Annunciation, so like Mary, we can prophetically and publicly proclaim "yes" to breaking the silence on women's ordination and speaking out against injustice, sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia in our Church and world.
Opening Song
Celebrant: Let us begin in the name of God, Source of All Being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit,
All: Amen.
Celebrant: May our God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Greeting of Peace:
God, grant us the peace and unity of your dwelling place as we gather in the name of the Christ who left your peace among us. Let us share that peace with one another.
Opening Prayer
From Praying with Celtic Holy Women by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina Madonna Oliver.
Mary, Blessed Mother of Jesus,
Reflection of God's warm mothering love,
Embrace us this day with the strength, peace, and healing we need
To reflect the presence of the Holy One in our world.
May we be prophetic voices for people of the world
Who suffer poverty, hunger and oppression,
Assuring them that they are God's beloved people.
May we work for justice and peace around the globe.
Flower-garland of the ocean,
Flower-garland of the land,
Flower-garland of the heavens,
Mary, Mother of Jesus,
We praise you, we thank you, we love you.
All: Amen.
First Reading - Isaiah 7: 10-14
10 Once more YHWH spoke to Ahaz and said, 11 "Ask for a sign from YHWH your God; let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as sky!"
12 But Ahaz answered, "I will not ask! I will not put YHWH to a test!"
13 Then Isaiah said, "Listen, O House of David! Is it not enough for you to weary those around you, must you also weary my God?" 14 Therefore the Holy One will give you a sign: This young woman will become pregnant and will give you birth. You will name the child Immanu-El."
Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 40:5-10 or Psalm 45
5 How many wonders you've worked for us,
YHWH, my God!
How many plans you've made for us;
You have no equal!
I want to recount them again and again,
but their number is too great.
6 You don't desire sacrifice or oblation,
Instead you made my ears receptive to you;
You asked no burnt offering
or sacrifice for sins for me.
7 And so I declare,
"Here I am! I have come!
8 In the scroll of the book
it is written about me."
I desire to do your will, my God,
And your law is written in my heart.
9 I'll proclaim your justice
in the Great Assembly,
and I won't keep my mouth shut,
and you well know.
10 I have never kept your generosity to myself,
but announced your faithfulness and saving action;
I have made no secret of your love and faithfulness in the Great Assembly.
.
Second Reading - Hebrews 10:4-10
4. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 And this is what Jesus said, on the coming into the world:
"You who wanted no sacrifice or obligation
Prepared a body for me,
6 In burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin
You took no pleasure.
7 Then I said, just as it was written for me
In the scroll of the book,
'God, here I am!
I have come to do your will.'
8 In saying that God doesn't want burnt offerings and sacrifices-which are offered according to the Law-
9 and then saying, "I have come to do your will," Jesus abolishes the first Covenant in order to establish the second.
10 By God's will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
Gospel Acclamation
Celebrant: Our God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Celebrant: A reading from the holy gospel according to John:
All: Glory to you, O God.
Gospel Reading - Luke 1:26-38
26 Six months later, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
27 to a young woman named Mary; she was engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.
28 Upon arriving, the angel said to Mary,
"Rejoice, highly favored one! God is with you! Blessed are you among women!"
29 Mary was deeply troubled by these words and wondered what the angel's greeting meant.
30 The angel went on to say to her, "Don't be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.
31 You'll conceive and bear a son, and give him the name Jesus- "Deliverance."
32 His dignity will be great, and he will be great, and he will be called the Only Begotten of God. God will give Jesus the judgment seat of David, his ancestor,
33 to rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his reign will never end."
34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have never been with a man?"
35 The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you-hence the offspring to be born will be called the Holy One of God.
36 Know too that Elizabeth, your kinswoman, has conceived a child in her old age; she who was thought to be infertile is now in her sixth month. 3
7 Nothing is impossible with God."
38 Mary said, "I am the great servant of God. Let it be done to me as you say."
With that, the angel left her.
Celebrant: The holy gospel of Jesus, the Anointed One
All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Homily: Shared discussion on the theme "Break the Silence on Women's Ordination. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling." (Those gathered share their thoughts on the theme.)
Prayers of the Faithful:
(The following prayer can be read as an alternative intercession response.)
Response: Out of our depths we cry to you.
Sophia Wisdom: Our world community today, broken, unhealed and full of suffering, cries out for women's voices and leadership.
We need women priests...to witness daily for nonviolence in a world gone mad with the power of weapons and guns and greed.
We need women priests...to put their bodies on the line and witness to the Powers that Be to stop bloodshed.
We need women priests...to name our government's squandering of the people's money.
We need women priests...to call our government, church, and all institutions to transparency, conversion, and accountability.
We need women priests...to speak up to the government and voice the basic needs of the grassroots -- which have gone unmet for so long.
We need women priests...to preach the Good News to the poor, the oppressed and exploited, and to empower them mightily.
We need women priests...to boldly proclaim the Gospel so that it afflicts the rich and comfortable -- who need shaking up.
We need women priests...to name the injustices-which are many-that take us away from the fullness of our humanity.
We need women priests...to demand respect for our Earth and her life-giving waters.
We need women priests...to restore us and our lives to wholeness/holiness-and to recreate us as community.
We need women priests...to celebrate the holy passages of our lives, the sacraments, including the Eucharist.
Offertory Song
Celebrant: Blessed are you, God of all creation, through your goodness we have this bread to offer which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.
All: Blessed be God forever.
Celebrant: Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.
All: Blessed be God forever.
Celebrant: My sisters and brothers, let us pray together that these our gifts may be acceptable to God our Creator.
All: May God accept these gifts from our hands, for the praise and glory of God's name, for our good and the good of all the church.
Celebrant: Ever gentle God, Christ washed the feet of the disciples as an example for us. Accept our gifts and our worship. By offering ourselves, as a spiritual sacrifice, may we be filled with the spirit of humility and love. We ask this through Christ, our brother.
All: Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
Celebrant: May our God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Celebrant: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to God.
Celebrant: Let us give thanks to our gracious God.
All: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
Celebrant: Blessed are you, compassionate and faithful God. We do well always and everywhere to give you thanks. You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift to us. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace, through Jesus, the Anointed One, our brother. In our joy, we sing to your glory with all the choirs of angels:
Holy, holy, O holy God, Spirit of Love and God of Peace,
Heaven and earth are filled with your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of our God.
Hosanna in the highest.
Celebrant: How wonderful the work of your hands, O God!
As a mother tenderly gathers her children, you embraced a people as your own, and filled them with longing for a peace that would last, and for a justice that would never fail. Through countless generations, your people hungered for the bread of freedom. From them, you raised up Jesus, the Living Bread, in whom ancient hungers were satisfied. He healed the sick, though he himself would suffer. He offered life to sinners, yet death would hunt him down. With a love stronger than death, he opened wide his arms and surrendered his spirit. Loving God, let your Holy Spirit move in power over us and over our earthly gifts of bread and wine, that they may become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
All: On the night before he met with death, Jesus came to table with the women and men he loved. He took bread and praised you, God of all creation. He blessed and broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples saying: Take this, all of you, and eat it: This is my body which will be given up for you.
All: When supper was ended, he poured a final cup of wine, and blessed you, God of all creation: He passed the cup among his disciples and said: Take this, all of you, and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.
Celebrant: Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.
All: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Celebrant: Ever gentle God, we commemorate Jesus, your son. Death could not bind him, for you raised him up in the spirit of holiness, and exalted him as the first of creation. May his coming in glory find us ever watchful in prayer, strong in love, and faithful to the breaking of the bread. Rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, your whole church offers thanks and praise, together with Benedict, our pope, with all our bishops, men and women, and all whose lives bring hope to this world. Awaken to the undying light of pardon and peace those who have fallen asleep in faith, and those who have died alone unloved, and unmourned. Gather them all into communion with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with all your saints. Then, at last, will all creation be one, and all divisions healed, and we shall join in singing your praise through Jesus Christ, Eternal Word.
All: Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, All-Loving God, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer of Jesus
Celebrant: Let us pray together as Jesus taught us.
All: Our father/mother in heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your kin-dom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from all evil.
For yours is the kin-dom, and the power and the glory
Now and forever. Amen.
Celebrant: The peace of God be with you all.
All: And also with you.
Celebrant: As we share our joy, let us take one another's hands and wish our neighbors peace.
The bread is broken.
Celebrant: This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the brokenness of our world. How blessed are we who are called to this supper.
All: Jesus, you make me worthy to receive you. By your word, I am healed.
Celebrant: This is the table of Jesus Christ. All are welcome to participate in this feast.
Communion Song
Closing Prayer
Celebrant: Let us pray, All-Sustaining Mother, Gracious Father, you renew us with food and drink from heaven. Bless and strengthen your people. May they remain faithful to you and always rejoice in your mercy. Grant this in the name of Jesus, the Christ.
All: Amen.
Final Blessing
Celebrant: Our God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Celebrant: Let us pray for God's blessing. May God bless all gathered here in the Spirit as we minister to one another as the People of God.
All: Amen.
Celebrant: May God bless the church and move her forward in prophetic obedience to the Spirit.
All: Amen.
Celebrant: May God bless all creation, and set us free in Her love. We ask this in God our Creator, in Jesus in whom we share the Good News, and in the Holy Spirit who sets us free.
All: Amen.
Celebrant: The Mass is ended. Go in the peace of Christ and bring compassionate presence to all the world.
All: Thanks be to God!
Closing Song
* Liturgical Readings for the Feast of the Annunciation from The Inclusive Bible by Priests for Equality
Erin Saiz Hanna, WOC Assistant Director, created the 2009 World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination Inclusive Liturgy with input from Roman Catholic Womenpriest, Bridget Mary Meehan.
"In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28
"Humankind was created as God's reflection: in the divine image God created them, female and male, God made them." - Genesis 1:27
http://www.womensordination.org/
© 2008 Women's Ordination Conference PO Box 15057, Washington, DC 20003 (202) 675-1006 written for today, a National Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination sponsored by the Women's Ordination Conference.
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