The Mary Queen of Servants Community, which meets at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Palm Bay, FL, has been sponsoring these services and presentations for about a year. They occur about once a month. A topic is chosen for each service. Some of the topics have been Capital Punishment, Handicapped, Immigration, Children, Hunger and the Oppressed in Haiti.
The first half hour of the program is a Liturgy of the Word. It follows a fairly standard format:
- Gathering Hymn
- Greeting
- Opening Prayer
- First Reading
- Psalm
- Gospel
- Short Homily or Reflection
- Prayers of the Faithful
- Our Father
- Sign of Peace
- Closing Prayer
- Dismissal
- Hymn for Sending Forth
We generally have a parish musician. The presider has been a deacon, but doesn't have to be. The readings are chosen to relate to the topic of the day. The homily or reflection is given by the presider or a guest speaker. The prayers relate to the topic and are generally found on the Internet. We prepare prayer aids with responses to prayers and music or reference to numbers in the hymnal.
The presentation lasts no more than 90 minutes and can be done in different ways. Our diocese has a good media center and we often preview a number of videos on the topic. We have had guest speakers who may or may not bring videos. There is usually time for discussion and questions.
The time ends with secular order provided hospitality.
Publicity is through the parish bulletin, bulletins of close by parishes, Mass announcements and local newspaper religion pages as well as the diocesan newspaper.
We generally get a good turnout from the Secular Order Community and depending on the topic, some parishioners.
1 comment:
The Mary Queen of Servants Community made a decision to have the Peace and Justice Prayer Services and Presentations once a quarter as part of our regular community meeting.
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