Aligning with Grace

I have been delinquent in posting of late. But as we ease deeper into this summer season, I - like many of you - am just slowing down to more natural rhythms. What gets done gets done - and what doesn't - just doesn't! Right now, I am done teaching yoga for the summer, except for an occasional class here or there, and I am slowly making my way through every closet, drawer, and room, weeding out things I do not need, and organizing as well. It feels good! A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor and pleasure of studying once again with my Reiki teacher, Frans Stiene, who was here visiting from Australia. I decided to re-sit the Reiki III training since I had not done so for a few years. It turns out, the group I spent time with, was the best group ever. They were the most interesting, educated, sensitive group I have ever done any training with. No one spoke out of turn, or constantly, and there was mutual respect and a space for healing was held for others at all times. The ...

A magnificent Holy Saturday begins with a Cardinal singing on my dogwood tree, even though it is still bare and without any buds yet. Cardinals remind us of our lives' true purpose... Then, I meet the morning with a brace of rich images dancing within the kaleidoscope of my mind; they are simply beautiful memories from yesterday... Where to begin? And where to end? Different scenes from the tableaux of my own spiritual journey, gently come into focus, and so, I share them in a stream of consciousness... My spirit is touched profoundly in ways I can hardly describe... I am blessed to spend the day in silence, and am called to prayer, meditation, and contemplation... I reach out for my oldest rosary, blessed by Padre Pio, the Franciscan priest bearing the stigmata, who died in the late sixties and was sainted about a decade ago. I think of his faith, his simplicity, and how there was a time I prayed this rosary often, choosing to do so today, to commemorate the Passion of the...

Today, I celebrate the birthday of a child I once knew, now a young woman. I gave her the gift of a rosary to mark this occasion. This particular rosary contains a relic from the Chapelle of the Miraculous Medal in Paris, where Mary appeared to St Catherine Laboure and asked that a medal of her image be struck. In this year of many changes, but really, in the year or so prior to this one - I found myself drifting back to spiritual practices that had nourished me in my youth and young adulthood - such as the saying of rosaries, novenas, and so forth... While in the last several decades I immersed myself in the study of Buddhism, Hinduism and Tantra, and Judaism in the decade before that - I never veered too far from what a dear friend once referred to as my "default setting." As a theologian and educator for nearly twenty-five years, I was blessed with the opportunity to teach comparative religions - a subject near and dear to my heart. When in Rome - I do as the Romans ...