A Service for the Spring Equinox

We will be having an online communion service for the Spring Equinox on March 19 2023. It is open for anyone and everyone to participate. We ask that you bring your own wine/juice and bread/crackers. The Chapel zoom room will be open at 2 pm est for fellowship and the service will begin at 2:15. The readings and prayers in this liturgy are a mixture of ancient and modern sources creatively woven together into a new synthesis. Many of the texts are medieval Irish poems which would not have originally been used in a liturgical setting. You can get onto zoom by clicking HERE. You can read more about some of the ways people honour the equinox by clicking HERE. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

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Officiant

Beloveds, in this moment we are God’s children; what we will become has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when Christ is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. Let the mass begin in the name of the Holy Trinity: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen

Light the Candle

Everyone

God give me tears to erase my sins
     Let them come until I have been purified
Let my heart burn with redemption’s flame
     Give me clear tears for Mary and Ita

Reader 1

Spring has come, healthy and free
Whence the brown wood is leaning
The slender nimble deer leap
And the path of the seals is smooth

The cuckoo sings its sweet music
Whence there is smooth and restful sleep
Gentle birds leap upon the hill
As do the swift grey stags

Heat has laid hold of the rest of the deer
The lovely cry of curly packs
The white extent of the strand smiles
There is the swift sea 

A sound of playful breezes in the tops
Of a black oakwood is Drum Daill
The noble hornless herd runs
To whom Cuan-wood is a shelter

Green bursts out on every herb
The top of the green oakwood is bushy
Summer has come, winter has gone
Twisted hollies wound the hound

The blackbird sings a loud strain
To him the live wood is a heritage
The sad angry sea has fallen asleep
The speckled salmon leaps

The sun smiles over every land
A parting for me from the brood of cares
Hounds bark and stags tryst
Ravens flourish, spring has come!

Reader 2 

To make a pilgrimage to Rome
Is much of trouble, little of profit
The King whom you seek there
Unless you bring him with you, you will not find

Ah, little blackbird, you are satisfied
Where your nest is in the bush
A hermit that does not clink a bell
Sweet, soft, peaceful is my note

A hedge of trees surrounds me
The blackbird's lay sings to me
Above my lined little book
The trilling birds chant to me

In a grey cloak from the top of the bushes
The cuckoo sings a song
Certainly the Lord will shield me
Well do I write under the greenwood

Officiant

Beloveds, right now we see only a reflection of Christ, as in a mirror, but one day we will see each other face to face. Now we know only in part; one day we will know perfectly, even as we are perfectly known. The Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love

Light the incense

Everyone

We say the prayer three times in the depths of our hearts, breathing in the first line and out the second. 

May Christ dwell in my heart through faith
      As I am being rooted and grounded in love

Reader 3

I wish, O Son of the living God
O ancient and eternal king
For a hidden little hut in the wilderness
Where I can live out my days

A graceful lark who is grey
Living in the trees beside me
A clear pool to wash away sins 
Through the grace of the Holy Spirit

To be surrounded on all sides
By a beautiful green forest
To take care of the songbirds
Hiding in the shelter of the woods

A south facing opening for warmth
A little brook across its floor
A fruitful land with many gracious gifts
That are good for every plant

A few sensible friends there with me
We will decide how many
Who are humble and obedient
That we may pray together to the king

Four times three, three times four in number
Enough to meet all of our needs
Twice six people in the church
Both in the north and in the south

Six pairs of people besides myself
Praying forever to the king who makes the sun shine
A lovely church with a linen altar cloth
A dwelling for God from heaven

Shining candles above the pure white scriptures
One house for everyone to share
A place to care for our bodies
No rudeness, boasting, or evil thoughts

This is the way in which I would farm it
I will not hide the food which I would choose
Fragrant leeks, hens, salmon, trout, and bees
Enough clothing and food for our needs

All this would be a gift from the king of fair fame
And I would spend all my time
Sitting in meditation for a while
Praying to God in the beautiful places

Reader 4

The wisdom of the tradition
Speaks of a beautiful tree
It’s top reaches the firmament
It’s bottom is down in the earth

It has every song ever sung
Whispering within its branches
But the most remarkable thing
Is that it grows upside down

While other trees grow up from the earth
This one grows downward from the sky
It grows from a single root 
With many other roots growing from it

It has nine branches growing outwards
Each branch is more beautiful than the one above it
There are countless pure white birds
Listening to the music for all time

This tree is Jesus Christ himself
The pinnacle of all God’s creatures
He is above every creature
Because of his divine nature

He came to the earth, the incarnation
And assumed humanity from Mary
The songs whispering in the tree
Are the perfection of all joy
In the deep of the divine mystery

The tree grows downwards from above
Because it comes from the heavenly Father
Its large single root represents 
The divine oneness of the Godhead

The many roots below it represent
The apostles, disciples, and saints
The nine branches represent the angels
The heavenly orders which are ranked by nobility

The pure white birds on the branches
Are the radiant souls of the good
Who now live among the heavenly orders
But were once on earth like us
	
We who still live here together
Pray to God for mercy so that we too 
May live in the branches of that tree
With the nine orders of heaven

Everyone prepares their bread and wine

Officiant

When his time was coming near, Jesus took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Everyone

Loving Mother God, from whom all things come and to whom all things will return, bless this bread and wine that it may be for us a Celestial Medicine. Open our eyes that we may see these simple elements for what they truly are – the body and blood of Christ. May we rejoice in the gift of our own embodiment through the grace of your embodiment in this simple food and drink. As we take the body of Christ into our own bodies, may the sacred harmony of the angel song fill our hearts and minds and may we be united with your Son, who is beyond all nature and yet is the substance of all nature. Amen

Officiant

May the mixture of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be salvation for us unto everlasting life. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Everyone takes communion

Officiant

They knew the Lord, alleluia
In the breaking of bread, alleluia
The bread that we break, alleluia
Is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, alleluia
The cup which we bless, alleluia
Is the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, alleluia

For the forgiveness of our sins, alleluia
May your mercy be upon us, O Lord, alleluia
For we have hoped in you, alleluia
They knew the Lord, alleluia

We believe, O Lord
We believe that in this breaking of the body
And the shedding of blood
That we are redeemed
And we trust that by receiving 
This sacrament we will be strengthened 

So that what we hold at present 
In faith we will come to enjoy
 In true heavenly fruitfulness 
Through Christ our Lord

May our prayer ascend, alleluia
To your throne of brightness, Lord, alleluia
And let our prayer, alleluia
Not return to us empty amen

5 min silence

Officiant

The light of the sun reveals and enlivens the potential of the earth which was always there, sleeping. The seeds of the grass are lying in wait for the thawing of the waters. The heat of the sun invites the new flowers and leaves to burst forth from the hidden wealth of nature. In the same way, the springtime of our soul is the enlivening of the virtues which are created within us. If we use the virtues implanted within us appropriately, we shall be like God. Whatever virtues God has sown within us, we are to return to her. First she gives us the gift of her image, then we return the gift by growing into her likeness. 

We are the image of God, but we can paint false images which cover and obscure the original image. If we do so, the light of the sun does not reach the seeds, which have been groaning as if in the pains of childbirth since our beginning. Let us not paint the image of any other on our hearts. Those who are cruel, full of anger and pride, paint the image of a tyrant in themselves. The light of the sun is the truth and when it shines on these false images they are unveiled as nothing more than phantoms. The light discerns between truth and lies, justice and oppression, love and hatred, dedication and laziness, affection and pretence. So that we do not introduce tyrannical images in ourselves, allow Christ to paint his own image within you as he did when he said “My peace I give you, my peace I leave you.”

God of light and truth, illuminate our inner selves so that new life may emerge from the coldness of our hearts. Give warmth to the seeds you have planted within us so that we may nurture them and help them grow. Dispel all prejudice and pretence from our hearts so that your light may shine unobstructed in the innermost recesses of our souls. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen

Reader 6

The sacred writers lift up a hymn of praise
To the goodness of God
They call it beautiful and beauty
They call it love and beloved

They give it names which convey
That it is the source of loveliness
And is the flowering of grace
Creating beauty in the world

From beauty comes the existence of all things
Each being shows its own way of beauty
For beauty is the cause of harmony
Of sympathy and of community

Beauty unites all things together
Beauty is the source of all things 
It is the great creating cause
Which bestirs the entire world

Beauty holds all things in existence
By the longing inside them to be beautiful
And there it is ahead of all as the goal
As the beloved cause towards which all things move

It is indeed the longing for beauty
Which brings creatures into being
It is the model to which they conform
Beauty is the reason for creation

The beautiful is therefore the same as the good
Everything looks to the beautiful and the good
Together as the cause of all being
There is nothing in the universe
Without a share in the beautiful and the good

Officiant

Dearly beloveds, I pray that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Holy Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to understand, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and also to know the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The mass is completed, go in peace


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