Aligning with Grace

Advent: Emmanuel - God is With Us (A Repost) This is a time of year when there are songs we only listen to once... I like to pull out old Advent and Christmas classics and new ones as well, and allow their rich melodies to fill all the corners of my heart and soul... A friend recently asked me what kind of music I had on my ipod. I proceeded to describe the wide variety of genres and playlists I had so carefully organized - spanning from folk rock, to classical, to jazz, and to mantras and liturgical music. My friend stopped right there - totally surprised - though in the seventies - when we were in our late teens and early twenties, she and I earned our spending money by playing liturgical music in several parishes... I love classic Advent songs of awaiting like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and my favorite rendition is by Mannheim Steamroller. I wait all year to hear this song and enter into the deep longing and stillness it calls me to. I also love an or...

Advent - A Season for Peace (A Repost) I did not set out to write a series of Advent reflections. I write only when I am inspired to do so - and when I get a clear message that somehow something in my heart must be conveyed... And while I know that not everyone that reads this blog comes from the same spiritual or philosophical background - or even the same interests or convictions - I try to convey messages and values that are both timeless and universal, and accessible to all. And so today, I write of peace, because in the last few days, so many messages received have reminded me of its importance... As I mentioned a few days ago, I have been reading the daily reflections on a a site called "Following the Star," and this weeks entries focus on peace. Forty-two years ago today, Thomas Merton, perhaps the most prolific spiritual writer of all time - and most certainly of the 20th century - died accidentally, while attending a monastic conference in Thailand. ...

Advent - A Time for Miracles (A Repost) I arise in the darkness and am drawn to meditation after a deep, and nourishing sleep... I sit in the stillness, the gentle rain, and the quiet - and give thanks for so many things... I marvel at the beauty of the last few days - sweet time spent with soul friends - and with a community of kindred souls... I am grateful for so many messages given and received... I revel in the opportunities to share with like-minded souls the blessings we have received and the incredible work God is doing in our lives... I sit and I pray - and ask to be shown the way through some situations I must navigate - buoyed by the dearest soul companion who shared her own story and encouraged me to ask every day, to be shown the way - and be willing to discover that the path was always there in front of me - waiting for my recognition... I share with a lovely friend and student - that despite whatever may be - or not be in my life - God's...

ADVENT - A Season for Forgiveness (A Repost) Today, I send out a few Christmas cards, and in many of them, I simply wrote: "May the blessings of this Sacred Season inviting Stillness and Silence be yours. I am grateful for the gift of you!" Advent, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali - all more or less intersect - and echo and invite the celebration of light - and at heart are joyous occasions. It is also a time to set right things that aren't, and I found myself reflecting on this yesterday, as I read through the readings for the day. This weekend, I went down to the basement to retrieve and dust off my Lectionary - a remnant of the days I was a liturgist and responsible for worship services. I was moved to add the liturgical readings of the day to my morning reflections. Today, for example, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception... In my morning meditations, I read from the booklet "Walk With Me," that I picked up at St. Mary...

Advent - A Season for Balance (A Repost) This week, my yoga teacher asked us if the holidays had a way of throwing us off balance. At first I shook my head nodding no - and then quickly caught myself, because if truth be told, I have been out of sorts and dealing with some issues on the personal and physical front. The whole sequence of poses steered us - not only in the direction of attaining greater balance - but urged us to simply accept where we were, when we experienced ourselves as out of balance, in a non-judgmental way. My teacher, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic person I have encountered in my life, urged us to banish our inner self-critic - and send him or her packing indefinitely to the local watering hole! I loved that image! I had no idea how timely this class would be... Instead of succumbing to unbalance, my teacher reminded us, that tuning into the breath, and availing ourselves of all the skills that our yoga and meditation practices offered us, c...

Advent - Be Still and Know (A Repost) Perhaps the most unusual film to be released last year was "Into Great Silence." Some of the reviews described this film as: a transcendent experience, intoxicating, and breathtaking. The movie explores the world of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, where Carthusian monks have resided for centuries. The movie has no score, no speaking, and none of the usual things we would expect in a movie. Instead, this film invites us to immerse ourselves fully in the hush of monastic life. It is a world of silence... It reminds me of the psalmist who in Psalm 46 invites us to follow this exhortation from the Divine: Be still and know that I am God. This season invites us into silence. Yet when we venture outside - there is rarely any silence. Every public place we go to provides an onslaught of noises which barrage the senses. Many people have not experienced the joys or the delights of silence. Some are even afra...

Advent - A Season of Light (A Repost) The day begins with wind and rain, and later when I go for a walk, I note that the creeks are swollen, and I can only imagine what the river looks likes. A part of me yearns to take a look, but there are tasks waiting for my attention... Advent is a season that invites light into our lives, just as we are journeying more deeply into darkness... There is a wonderful site with Advent reflections called "Following the Star," that I wrote about on this blog two years ago. And yesterday, I read the selections for the day several times... " People of faith are not unrealistic. We know the world can be a dark place. But we also know that darkness is not all. There is a reason to hope, because there is a light always shining. Watch now for the light...And have your hope renewed..." I thought of the wonderful scripture passage from Isaiah 2:9, and decades ago, when I was a Liturgical musician, I often sang a song bas...

Advent - A Season of Change (A Repost) I make my way down to the river on this rainy morning, and offer my Advent Prayers, on its shores, under an overcast sky... I read this quote by Cardinal John Henry Newman, who began his life as an Anglican, and ended it as a Catholic saint, not that it matters to me. Even as a child, I felt we were all one, and I could not imagine or abide a kind of God that would exclude some of his children from the gift of eternal life, or from sharing at His t able... "To live is to change, and to be perfect, is to have changed often." As I I work through some deep issues, it is obvious that they are once more an invitation to change and to grow. Newman also is quoted as saying that "growth, is the only evidence of life..." Yet change is messy, and painful at times. We can deny what it asks of us - but only to a great cost to our health and well-being. What we bury deep inside has a way of gushing forth out of us ...

Reminders of the power of offering peace and blessings to others, sometimes arrives unexpectedly in our lives.  Like at Costco. Seriously! I was on my way out of Costco this morning, having run in just to get batteries for my new flameless candles which were destined for my fireplace. All I meant to do was to zip in - and just as quickly zip out. Being the introvert that I am, my favorite time to hit the stores is when they open or fairly early during the day, when they are still not relatively crowded or busy.  I was just on my way out, when the elderly Middle Eastern man who has worked there more than a quarter of a century greeted me. I had not seen him lately and had been wondering about him. He is always cheerful, mindful, and I often overhear him dispensing blessings to all he encounters as he checks our receipts and purchases. I stood there for a moment - it wasn't busy, mind you. I looked him in the eye, thanked him, and wished him a good day. He s...

When you surrender, as the sacred season of Advent invites you to do, you step into a river of grace, holding you captive in its flow. Miracles will open up like rose petals, only to reveal more blessings deeply hidden in its sacred inner sanctum... Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus! Holy, Holy, Holy! Holiness is everywhere! I drink a hot cup of tea and reflect on how I have spent years trying to deepen and cultivate greater compassion in all things, but now it seems, the cultivation of humility is the next step logical step to usher in deeper soul cleansing, healing, and transmutation... My heart is filled with many new and sweet memories... I am honored to have participated last evening in a service of "Lessons and Carols" at St David's Episcopal Church, in Ashburn, Virginia, near my home. I was profoundly moved by the readings, the exquisite music, and the discernible joy which exuded from all the participants, including the rector, who upon hearing of my experiences ...