Aligning with Grace

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...