Wisdom Liturgy
OPENING PRAYER
Before we can really begin to work with the idea of hope dwelling within rather than coming from without, we need to have some picture of where and how it could dwell in us, what inside us could embody it. (p.20)
OPENING CHANT – We Swim in Mercy performed by Beth O’Neil (music at the bottom of the blog)
We Swim in Mercy, as in an Endless Sea (Psalm 103:11)
Lyrics:
We swim in mercy
As in an endless sea
We swim in mercy
A love we cannot see
READING FROM MYSTICAL HOPE CHAPTER 2
The term I will use to describe this embodying fullness is “the Mercy.” It is the water in which we swim. Mercy is the length and breadth and height and depth of what we know of God—and the light be which we know it. (p. 20)
Insofar as we are able to open our hearts and entrust ourselves to it, the Mercy is able to move us steadily toward that final letting go into the whole… (p 24)
READING FROM JOHN 1:1-3 (adapted from The Inclusive Bible)
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was present to God from the beginning. Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being.
READING FROM MYSTICAL HOPE CHAPTER 2
Mystical hope would simply be what happens when we touch (our) innermost ground and it floods forth into our being as strength and joy. Hope would be the Mercy—divine love itself—coursing through our being like lightning finding a clear path to the ground. (pg. 34)
…and you will know, in a way you cannot presently know, your absolute belonging and place in the heart of God, and that you are a part of this heart forever and cannot possibly fall out of it, no matter what may happen. (pg 52
SACRED POSTURE
As we sing this next chant, Mercy is the Warm Heartedness, we invite you to place your hands on your heart space….and then slowly begin to extend your hands outward, exploring the warm heartedness of the space around you…front, up, and on both sides — a gentle encircling slow gesture.
Following the chant our singing bowl will lead us into 3 minutes of silence.
CHANT – Mercy is the Warmheartedness by Elizabeth Combs
We wake up inside a warm-hearted and purposive intelligence, a coherence of which you yourself are part of the expression (pg. 31).
SILENT CONTEMPLATION – 3 minutes
A QUOTE FROM BARABARA BROWN TAYLOR
Where is God in this picture? God is all over the place. God is up there, down here, inside my skin and out. God is the web, the energy, the space, the light – not captured in them, as if any of those concepts were more real than what unites them – but revealed in that singular, vast net of relationship that animates everything that is.
At this point in my thinking it is not enough to proclaim that God is a part of this unity…God IS THE UNITY – the very energy, the very intelligence, the very elegance and passion that make it all go. (p 28 -29)
READING FROM MICAH 6:8
You are the breath of God. You are the way God is aware of God in the immediacy of your life. You are the way God feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, frees the wrongly imprisoned. You are the way God brings justice, mercy, and humility to life. – Cynthia Bourgeault (translation from Holding our Planet Wisdom School)
READING FROM MYSTICAL HOPE CHAPTER 2
This is the wager Cynthia invites us into. A part of us knows how to sail in the fog, to see in the dark. As we do this we will come to know, in a way we cannot presently know, our absolute belonging and place in the heart of God. (p 52)
CLOSING CHANT – We Swim in Mercy by Beth O’Neil (see above)
AMEN
Wisdom Liturgy Credits
This Wisdom Liturgy offering was contributed by Marcella Kraybill-Greggo and Henry Schoenfield. All chants and texts were credited above and used with permission from the authors.
A special note of thanks to our founding teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, whose teachings and writings have inspired so many across the globe in reclaiming the Mystical heart of the Wisdom Path.