EARTH DAY - April 22, 2026 Caring for Earth and All of Creation Introduction Each year Earth Day is celebrated on April 22!   Perhaps it is important to remember that we are called to be mindful that every day is Earth Day.  The theme of Earth Day 2026 is “Energizing Our Faith”!  Each day we are called to make a conscious effort to care for and to recognize the sacredness of Earth and all of creation. Song -  Sacred Creation – Rufino Zaragoza, https://youtu.be/Kmjhvp68zIs?si=

Easter Hope Introduction During the Easter Season we are awakened to the reality of the Risen Christ in our midst.  Our challenge today, as it was for the disciples over 2000 years ago, is to recognize him in every human being.  Secondly, we are challenged to love one another as he has loved u s. Song:  Enflame Our Hearts by Monica Brown, https://youtu.be/iSri3Y2nzdU?si=reQm6eH5kHrDkhA_ Enflame our hearts, O God of love, May we be your light of love. Enflame our hearts, O God

RESURRECTION Introduction Our Reading today is taken from an article by Sr. Nancy Sylvester, IHM entitled, “The Stubborn Hope of Resurrection.”  In the introductory paragraph  she tells how when their college, Marygrove, was closed, it’s fate was unknown.  But with vision, hard work, good luck and the stubborn belief in, as the CEO told her, “good bones,”  it has undertaken a new birth.  The close-to-100-year-old structure that was “destroyed” or torn down and had been the do

Contemplation and Transformation of the Heart Introduction In contemplative prayer, we quiet our minds with the intention to BE open to God who is Love, who transforms us.  As we enter into holy week on Palm Sunday, let us be guided by this quote from Rev. Thomas Keating: God, out of his infinite mercy, made himself equal to us in the incarnation by identifying with the human condition.  God makes us equal to him by transforming us into his own unconditional love. Song:  Brea

Human Trafficking Yesterday, we celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day.  As with many today, Patrick was a victim of human trafficking.  May today’s victims find a way out of slavery and find a way to bring Christ’s light into the world as did Saint Patrick.   Song: Christ Before Me · Keith Duke Sacred Dance ℗ 2005 Kevin Mayhew Records   https://youtu.be/7dZwCdulOpc?si=fJJPmdy_H7BCyZb3     Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ above me, Christ below me. Christ to left and Christ

Call to Conversion, to Compassion Introduction Despite the global consensus against the death penalty, with over 70% of nations abolishing it either in law or practice, the United States is a stark outlier.  It remains the only developed country in the Western Hemisphere that continues to execute its own citizens, perpetuating a profoundly flawed notion of ‘justice.”   And so we pray for the end of the death penalty, especially in our own country.   May we love as our God of

Peace be with you all! 100 Days of Prayer Our prayer today is part of a joint effort of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious called “100 Days of Prayer, Fasting and Advocacy.”    It started on Ash Wednesday and ends on the Feast of Corpus Christi.  Every Congregation is asked to choose a day during that period that they commit to pray, fast and advocate in response to the situation of our Country and our World. Song:  Peace be not anxious by Lori True https://youtu.be

Black History Month Introduction February is the month that was declared Black History Month in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.  For 50 years we’ve had the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.   Song:    For All the World –by Jan Novotka https://youtu.be/G1hxGL-0-FE?si=p6SsgnRVDvEwDbwo For all the world we gather here! For all the world we come, We gather now as one, one in love.   Loo

Light in our Darkness Introduction Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a time of lengthening days, when each day we experience increasing light in the midst of darkness.  Today as ashes are placed on our foreheads in the shape of a cross, we are reminded of    our humanness, its limitations as well as its promise in Jesus.  Let us pray for one another as we enter this Lenten journey, an opportunity for spiritual renewal leading to the celebration of New Life and Jesus’ Re

Heal Our World Introduction   Violence – in all its vicious forms we have experienced and that has been inflicted upon us -  is one of the hardest realities we have to live with, to forgive, and to somehow absorb.  We only need to look at our own contemporary histories to find this violence in endless experiences: wars, occupations, random mass killings, school shootings, hating others and seeking to exterminate their enemies whom they see as different from them, slow starvat

Celebrating St. Josephine Bakhita of Sudan, patroness of human trafficking survivors   Introduction :  Bakhita was born in southern Sudan in 1869. As a young girl, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Sold and resold in the markets of El Obeid and Karthoum, she was treated brutally by her captors. In 1883, she was bought by an Italian diplomat who sent her to Italy to work as a maid for the daughter of a friend studying with the Canossian Daughters of Charity. It was ther

Choosing Nonviolence as Gospel Witness Introduction We pray in earnest today that there will be a resolution to the violence and injustice that is occurring across our country especially in Minneapolis.  And we pray for ourselves, that we may each experience a greater peace in our own hearts. Song:  Lord, I Want to Be a Chrisitan by Lori True https://youtu.be/dGC5juqHH7Y?si=jxv9JkDOTcp6eZ6C   In my heart, in my heart, Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart. Lord, I want t

There is One Body and One Spirit Introduction Every year, Christians around the world come together to observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  During this week, which runs from January 18 through January 25, they celebrate the truth that “What unites us is much greater than what divides us”  (Pope John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 20) The theme this year comes from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:  “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hop

Christ Our Light Introduction As we draw to the close of the Christmas Season with the Feast of the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus, the following words of Jim Wallis are especially timely and meaningful: As many have done before, it is time again to trust the light of Christ, join the light of Christ, and take the light of Jesus into the world—believing that the darkness, in the end, cannot overcome the light. Christ in Crisis:  Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus In the words of

Message of Pope Leo XIV for the 59 th  World Day of Peace   January 1, 2026 INTRODUCTION From the words of Pope Leo XIV,… “Peace be with you all:  Towards and ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace.  Peace be with you.  This ancient greeting, still in use today in many cultures, was infused with new life on the evening of Easter on the lips of the risen Jesus.  “Peace by with you” is his Word that does not merely desire peace, but truly brings about a lasting transformation in those w

Caring for the Immigrant Introduction Scripture scholars remind us that caring for the stranger (variously named as the alien, the foreigner, the immigrant, the refugee, the pilgrim), is one of the most often repeated commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures, second only to the law to worship only the one God. Jesus also challenges us to care for the stranger because whatever we do for the most vulnerable among us, He counts as done to Him. Mantra :  Monica Brown, Quiet My Soul:

Empowering Others Introduction Monday of this week we celebrated the feast of Our Blessed Mother on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.   We remember how Mary was “full of God’s Grace, God’s love” and we continue to turn to Mary for her intercession today, as we experience the needs in our world. Song: Holy Mother https://youtu.be/x9uYu4R2nk8?si=u_9jCch7Z-dZhbG0   Holy Mother, where are you? Tonight, I feel broken in two I've seen the stars fall from the sky H

A Call to Non-Violence Introduction:  Today as we begin this Season of Advent, we reflect on nonviolence as a way of living.  We are each called to follow the nonviolent Jesus on the road to peace. As Pope Benedict the XVI observed: “For Christians, nonviolence is not merely tactical behavior but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God’s love and power that he or she is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone.” Mantra

Thanksgiving Introduction Our Prayer for the World this week will focus on Thanksgiving.  As we celebrate our National Holiday tomorrow, it is fitting to offer prayers of gratitude and petition. We will begin with a song of “grateful praise!” Song:  For the Beauty of the Earth, Mormon Tabernacle Choir https://youtu.be/6BPq3sJa-FA?si=yxjfIG86yq2fkWmn     For the Beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies: (Refra

Ecological Crisis, a Threat to Peace Introduction The UN climate conference in Belém, Brazil, COP30 (Conference of Parties), is taking place from  November 10-21, 2025 .  More than 50,000 people have registered to attend this year’s COP in Belem, including journalists, climate scientists, Indigenous leaders and representatives from 195 countries.  The Conference will have no representation from Washington.  President Trump cited the economic burden of climate initiatives on