Aligning with Grace

This week, for the first time in almost three years, I went back into the river... Yes, this same river that for several years, beginning in '08, first invited me in, and then beckoned... And so, I obediently responded to its calling, bought a kayak, and without any experience, launched myself off from the shore into a Great Unknown, relinquishing all control over where it would take me - both inwardly and outwardly... For the next few years, in stillness and silence, the River taught me all I needed to know. It yielded up its secrets, as I was companioned by blue herons and the bass fish that occasionally jumped out of the water to give me the once over... I forded into the waters and mists in the fog, performed penitential rituals during the High Holy Days, and chanted mantras in various sacred languages, over and over again. And in my ear the River whispered over and over again - "Let it go. Do not fight the current. Just flow"... and many more such sayings. I ...

On this first week of Easter, I taught and subbed several yoga classes, and I told my students that this past week, which was Holy Week to Christians, and Passover to Jewish brethren, was really about making connections through shared meals and rituals. And what else is there - really? Whenever two or three - or hundreds gather - there is an overwhelming sense of oneness...  Easter Sunday was also the first time in a long time - that Christians everywhere - Catholic, Protestant, non-denominational, mainline - and the Orthodox - celebrated at the same time as well. Because Western and Eastern Christians operate on different calendars, the celebration of this day most often happens on different weeks... I attended the Easter Vigil which is really a feast for the senses. It is the most beautiful liturgy of the year - unique and ancient - and yes, very LONG! It begins in darkness and then a fire is lit. The Easter Candle is prepared and candles of all those atten...

Alpha and Omega... The First and the Last - God is the beginning and the end... These are symbols etched into the Paschal candle as it is dedicated and as we begin the Easter Season... A singing Cardinal awakens me, perched on a bare branch on the Crape Myrtle outside my bedroom window, while I am flooded with dreams and reveries of a moving Easter Vigil spent in the Jesuit parish of Holy Trinity Church, founded in 1794, a stone's throw from Georgetown University... In the darkness, amidst a sea of flickering candles, the Proclamation of Easter, the Exsultet, is chanted, as it has been for centuries, and it touches me as deeply as it always has... "Rejoice heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels! Exult, all creation around God's throne...!" This liturgy is a veritable feast for the senses...darkness and light, incense rising to the heavens, a community sprinkled with holy water, the holy chrism oil with which new members are confirmed, a full choir of re...

Easter morning was magnificent, as I crossed the Potomac River, on my way to teach a friend's yoga classes, hours before I would meet my family for Easter Sunday Mass. The sky was a beautiful blue, but a slight carpet of foggy mist hovered over verdant fields, though it was thicker where it hung over the river. Halfway into my trip, something told me to flip on the radio, and I caught the Krista Tippett interview with Vigen Guroian , an Armenian priest and college professor, who writes about the joys of gardening in his book, The Fragrance of God . He says that it reveals the grandeur of God to him, more than anything else, for nowhere is the union of God with the whole cosmos made more evident than in a garden. In fact, Guroian affirms, that for him, gardening is nearer to godliness than theology. And having been a theologian for more than half of my life, that gave me pause for thought! During my drive, I was captivated by the many different variety of trees in bloom - especial...