M3M Sept. 25, 2008
MASS FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
OPENING CHANT: NO. 23 - “The earth does not belong to us
PRAYER CHANT: NO. 30 – “Heart’s Desiring”
TABLE CHANT: NO. 21 – “Come to the Circle”
SANCTUS: NO. 32 – “Holy, Holy, Holy One” (2)
CLOSING CHANT: NO. 41 – “May All Beings Be at Peace”
OPENING PRAYER BY JOYCE RUPP
GREAT TEACHER
YOU DRAW ME TO YOUR HEART.
YOU REACH ME WITH YOUR LOVE.
YOU INSPIRE ME WITH YOU MESSAGE,
AND THEN YOU SEND ME OUT TO OTHERS.
MAY I LOVE WELL.
AS I GO FORTH FROM MY PRAYER, MAY I REFLECT THE RADIANCE OF YOUR GOODNESS.
AMEN.
READINGS
A reading from the Christian Gospel (Luke 9:12-17)
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions, for we are in a deserted place.
But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish – unless we are to go and ….
Food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men.
And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
Reading: Millennium Development Goals:
1. Eradicate eztreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
The Arizona Diocesan Convention voted in October of 2007 that we should commite .7% of each church’s budget to MDGs.
A Reading from the Continuation of God to People of Faith, from Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.
“I you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways.” Haiji Ali said. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die.
Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea. To slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.”…”Doctor Greg,” he said, “how can you know what the people need if you don’t ask them?”
By August guests arrived for the opening of the Korphe Women’s Vocational Center. In the bak of Haji Ali’s home Korpe’s women gathered each afternoon, learning to use the four hand-cranked sewing machines that Mortenson had purchased.
“Balti already had a rich tradition of sewing and weaving,” said Mortenson. “They just needed some help to revive the dying practice. Hawa’s idea was such an easy way to empower women vocational centers wherever we built schools.”
What motivates me to do this? The answer is simple: when I look into the eyes of the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan, I see the eyes of my own children: full of wonder — and hope that we each do our part to leave them a legacy of peach instead of the perpetual cycle of violence, war, terrorism, racism, exploitation, and bigotry that we have yet to conquer…..
Jake Greenberg, a thirteen year old from the suburbs of Philadelphia was so fired up to read about Mortenson’s work that he donated more than a thousand dollars of his Bar Mitzvah money to the Central Asia Institute and volunteered to come to Pakistan and help. He said, “it makes no difference that I’m a Jew sending money to help Muslims. We all need to work together to plant the seeks of peace.”
