Note: Lisa Maria has provided instructions, below, to make this litany interactive and fun. One of her suggestions entails inviting an added written response from members of the congregation.
#1: We celebrate the memory of winter’s sleep and the quieting of our souls.
Response: Sing praises for spring, revealing holy love that grows from deep in our hearts.
#2: We celebrate the return of color and the rebirth of wonder.
Response
#3. We celebrate the treasure of new life and the promise within.
Response
#4. We celebrate the human cycle of joy and sorrow and the companionship of this community.
Response
#5. We celebrate the search for what is sacred and the lifelong pursuit of truth.
Response
#6. We celebrate the promise of summer’s bounty and how it will feed our souls.
Response
Instructions:
- Assemble plastic (fill-able) Easter eggs so that there's one for every person in worship
- Print out each line of the litany in a good-sized font (for easy reading) and will be cut out into a strip, so that each egg has a strip with a line, and the numbers are evenly distributed (i.e., if you have 120 worshippers, make 20 #1s, 20 #2s, 20 #3s….etc)
- Place each strip into a plastic Easter egg (along with some tiny chocolate if you are so inclined!)
- Distribute the filled Easter eggs throughout your worship space, so that (doing the best you can) there's an egg for each seat.
- Lisa Maria suggests keeping all of the #1 eggs together in one secion, all of the #2 eggs in another, and so on. (It doesn't work as well to randomly distribute the eggs.)
- You might give the response to the choir, or to a different group in your community for whom it would make sense for them to do the response.
- Lisa Maria also suggests doing the litany early in service, then following it with the invitation, below. You will need to provide pencils or pens, and to add a musical piece to the service so that people have a chance to write/draw on the slip of paper.
Invitation:
Today we celebrate Easter and through it make meaning for ourselves, our families, and this community. In the litany we spoke, we raised up in praise the love that can be revealed from our hearts. During this morning’s worship we will offer our thoughts on the season we find ourselves in.
You are invited to use the back of the strips of paper from our litany to write a word or a phrase, or draw a picture or symbol representing what Passover, Easter or the Spring season means for you; what you are celebrating today; or remembering today. After writing or drawing, place your paper strip back into your egg. We will collect the eggs during offertory, and when you depart today, you will be invited to take an egg with you to connect with another member of the community’s thoughts about today.