November Prayer Service, CELEBRATING COMMUNION OF LOVE

Introduction (The Government just announced that cemeteries, crematoria, etc. are closed to the public from October 29- Nov2, 2021.)
No Pandemic can stand in the way of honoring our Departed Loved ones. On the contrary, the moments of isolation, of lockdown have given us more time to commune with them. They are not just memories; they are part of our lives. This is what Communion of Saints means for us, Christians.
When we celebrate All Saints Day, we honor not only the officially canonized saints of the church but all dear persons whose lives reflect goodness (God-ness). And we usually spend more time re-membering them throughout the month of November. Thus, this Prayer Service could be a help.
This Prayer Service is meant to be flexible and adjusted according to the participants, their time, their intention, attention, etc. It could be a “buffet” where you choose what you can chew and nourishing for relationships.
Picking from different sources and favorites, I added my own flavor here and there. But through it all, follow the SPIRIT who prays deep within us.

Opening Song, Optional
Amazing Grace by Sissel. https://youtu.be/7DFQRBXZa9Y
You’ll Never Walk Alone. https://youtu.be/Aj5qrhUih6A

Part I: three options, as starters: I would call them: (a) Lectio Divina, (b) Visio Divina (c) Audio Divina

(a) Lectio Divina. Some Quotes to Ponder
Allow the text to think of your Departed Loved ones….

Together the living form with the dead one community of memory and hope, a holy people touched with the fire of the Spirit, summoned to go forth as companions bringing the face of divine compassion into everyday life. —Elizabeth A. Johnson
I am connected to the past and the future by the ligatures of well-lived lives, the mysteries of “beyondness,” and the memories and narratives that lovingly bind and support me. —Barbara A. Holmes
The dead have returned to the nest of their identity within the great circle of God. God is the greatest circle of all, the largest embrace in the universe, which holds visible and invisible, temporal and eternal, as one. —John O’Donohue
Gospel of John. “There are many rooms in my Father’s house’ (John 14:2).”

We are in deep, growing communion. What qualities of the Departed remain alive in me?

(b) Visio Divina. If you cannot visit a cemetery on All Souls Day, perhaps contemplating a picture of the cemetery, or Autumn Park, or portrait of the Departed may help you to pray for your departed loved ones. While gazing at an image, a painting, a photo, an icon, a sculpture, a piece of pottery… something may leap out at us, calling our attention to something of God just waiting to reveal itself to us.
Who are you remembering today? What would you like to say to each one in your prayer?

(c) Audio Divina. Listen to the music from these sources (or any of your choice).

Song: “Candles in the Night,” (CD: Ever With You, Jan Phillips)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXakEhDq6Z8
Richard Strauss – All Souls’ Day [Fennell, TKWO] by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra; The Special
Concert Vol. 66 – Conductor: Frederick Fennell; April 20th, 2000 / Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.
Song: To Where You Are by artist Josh Groban As one commentator says: “Love transcends
beyond this life.
Magnificat by Fr Bong A. Panganiban https://youtu.be/9wv4DAC72HA

What sentiments are evoked in you? Listen to the stirrings of your heart….

Part II (If the family is praying together, you can spend some time for Faith-sharing)
We have been invited—even now, even today, even this moment—to live consciously in the communion of saints, in the Presence, in the Body, in the Life of the eternal and eternally Risen Christ.
All Saints Day celebrates the times we enlarge the circle, “break boundaries and create hope.” It is a feast to celebrate the best of ourselves and to give thanks to our Loving God!
All Souls Day celebrates the times we fall a bit short of our true selves and our deepest desires to include and celebrate diversity in ideas, in ideologies, and in the persons who hold them. It is likewise a feast to celebrate the struggle it is to be our best, our deepest hopes for ourselves and to ask our Merciful God to continue to offer us insight, courage and friendship as we journey together.

You can either choose any of the parts of Prayer Service 1 or 2; or proceed to the following, or create your own.

PRAYER FOR AUTUMN DAYS, by JOYCE RUPP, OSM
God of the seasons,
there is a time for everything;
there is a time for dying and a time for rising.
We need courage to enter into
the transformation processes.

God of autumn,
the trees are saying goodbye to their green,
letting go of what has been.
We, too, have our moments of surrender,
with all their insecurity and risk.
Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves,
lying in colored patterns on the ground,
our lives have their own patterns.
As we see the patterns of our own growth,
may we learn from them.

God of misty days
and harvest moon nights,
there is always the dimension of mystery
and wonder in our lives.
We always need to recognize your power-filled presence.
May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons
and fields of ripened grain,
many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender.
We must wait for harvest in faith and hope.
Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south
for another season, your wisdom enables us
to know what needs to be left behind
and what needs to be carried into the future.
We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers
touched with frost and windows wearing white designs,
may your love keep our hearts
from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life,
you believe in us, you enrich us,
you entrust us with the freedom to choose life.
For all this, we are grateful. Amen.

Reading: John 6:37-40. A reading from the holy Gospel according to John:
Jesus said to the crowds: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

The Gospel of the Lord. // Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

INTERCESSIONS
Leader. We bring our prayers to God as we remember those who have gone before us in eternal life.

We pray for all who experienced especially painful deaths, particularly victims of violence, natural disaster, and covid-19, may they be brought to rest in God’s loving arms and the comfort of God’s peace.