Collection: All Are Welcome

ARTIST: Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Let us build a house where love can dwell
and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children
tell how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions.

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All are welcome at the banquet table to which Jesus invites us. It is not for us to judge, scapegoat, stereotype, or attempt to change another whether it is done out of sincerity, loving concern, or a desire to earn another star in our crown. Since none of us controls God's invitation list we cannot tell others they don't belong.

 

ALL ARE WELCOME

 

Let us build a house where love can dwell

and all can safely live,

a place where saints and children

tell how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,

rock of faith and vault of grace;

here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

 

Refrain: All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

 

Let us build a house where prophets speak,

and words are strong and true,

where all God's children

dare to seek to dream God's reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness

and as symbol of God's grace;

here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

 

Refrain: All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

 

Let us build a house where love is found

in water, wine and wheat:

a banquet hall on holy ground

where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus,

is revealed in time and space;

as we share in Christ the feast that frees us:

 

Refrain: All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

 

Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,

and live the Word they've known.

Here the outcast and the stranger

bear the image of God's face;

let us bring an end to fear and danger:

 

Refrain: All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

 

Let us build a house where all are named,

their songs and visions heard

and loved and treasured,

taught and claimed as words within the Word.

Built of tears and cries and laughter,

prayers of faith and songs of grace;

let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

 

Refrain: All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

 

—From All Are Welcome -- GIA Publications by Marty Haugen