Aligning with Grace

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...

"May I be kind and merciful. May I be humble and compassionate. May I be loving and forgiving. " Twelve years ago this week, I began this blog. It has taken many shapes and served many purposes throughout the years. This morning, on this Thanksgiving week, I went down to the river to do a gratitude practice. I was reminded of a "Gratitude Litany" I had created a few years ago as a 90 second meditation. As I did my practice, I found myself voicing these words out loud into the blue expanse before me as a white egret floated quietly on the river: "May I be kind and merciful. May I be humble and compassionate. May I be loving and forgiving. " Practices do not have to be elaborate. They need not consume hours of our time. Just a few minutes of our time to be mindful of those in need that we know - and those we don't - is all that is required. Just a few moments of presence and of gratitude will go a long way to changing us, our lives...