We proclaim with Love on our side: Our bodies are sacred. Our minds are blessed. Our spirits are beloved.

May we remember that we each carry inside of us a spark of the Divine.

The miracle of grace is available to us even when it has been left untended.

In our lives, people sometimes do us wrong.

From this ground, let us sow mercy, justice, and compassion.

12-Step recovery has provided me with perspective, forgiveness, and freedom from shame.

May we be our descendants’ bravest heroes, keepers of the flame.

We are learning to regroup and remember perfection was never the point.

For me, “surrendering everything tenderly” brings an awareness of grace.

May we know that our interconnectedness is a miracle, and may it be a refuge for us.

Spirit of love and life, these are trying times, and sometimes we are at wits' end trying to figure out what to do. We have all this extra time, and we are busier than we have ever been....

The word liturgy is a fancy word meaning the formulation of a religious service. Its etymology tells us that it means “the work of the people.” In many Unitarian Universalist contexts, the verb worship is intransitive. We do not worship something or someone. We claim the act of worship as...

This recipe has been tweaked over time, so adjust as necessary. Sometimes it yields more servings than anticipated. Sometimes it needs a bit more of this ingredient or that. It comes from generations who have gone before me, and I've added my own flavor along the way. A Recipe for Resilience One...

When I internalize cultural messages about the definitions of success or failure—or anything, really—I undermine my own sense of self-worth.

This work isn’t all prayers and beautiful moments, nor is it laments and trauma. It’s not even both/and, because this work is something greater than you, greater than us, greater than the whole of those we serve. This work is a calling. And we’re doing it. Day after day, night after night,...

A white woman pulled over and ran over to me with a shopping bag. As I looked down at the bag, I had very mixed emotions.

It is my only memory of a lesson from Kindergarten Sunday School class. Maybe it’s the only one that counts.

We light our chalice as a symbol of gratitude as we celebrate the abundance of our lives together. In this sanctuary we harvest bushels of strength for one another, and offer our crop with the hands of compassion and generosity....

One: Despair is sapping our spirits, damaging our souls, hurting our hearts. Many: We need to be resurrected into hope, faith, and trust. Today, may we be resurrected. One: Violence is shortening our lives and robbing us of our joy. Many: We need to be resurrected into peace and its many blessings.

"With our minds and our hearts and our hands, may we choose to bless the world." Sheet music available in 4-part harmony.

Worship Leader: In this moment of worship we call to mind those times of failure and regret common to all of us. We remember first, in silence, those times when we have failed to do all that we meant to do, or through our actions failed to be all we were meant to be....

These are anxious days. Hair-pulling, hand-wringing days. We are bombarded from all sides with new and unprecedented developments. Grave threats to our national values and institutions on one hand, and countless calls to action on the other... and then the flood of critique and analysis. Whose...

Now has come hard winter, With whip of wind and slash of snow and the diamond-bright stars in the black ice of the heavens. Just as we resist the season with shovel and scraper, wool and windbreaker, we embrace it with sled and snowboard, cocoa and comforter. Winter is here: let us find warmth in...

Let’s start with the people we love and those who love us, thankful they are in our lives obliging us to open our hearts. Let open hearts embrace the Earth, the sea and soil and stars, blessed by bold beauty, the bounty of being. Then with hearts open to beauty let us embrace the arts and the...

For those we have hurt in any way, whether through words or deed or thoughts. Here is a place to forgive and to be forgiven. For the excuses we have made, just to be right. Here is a place to forgive and to be forgiven. For the blame we have placed on someone else, again and again....

Six weeks into the church year, I have realized that I am the minister of a church where things usually go wrong. This morning the copy machine jams repeatedly. The bulletin describing the order of worship has been copied with the second page first and also upside down....

Early in the morning, before the children are awake and while the grass is still dewy, I like to walk in my garden. It’s “my” garden only because it shares the same small plot of land my family and I inhabit. The garden does not really belong to me; I belong to it—at least for the short time...

She called to ask if I would baptize her infant son. I said, "What we do is like a baptism, but not exactly. And we normally do it only for people who are part of the church family. The next one we have scheduled is in May." She said, "Could we come to talk with you about it anyway?" They came to...

Spirit of Life, Source of all, to this beautiful place to this hallowed time and in the midst of this kindred company we bring hearts broken yet again by senseless violence....

Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love, Spirit of Generosity, As we draw near to that quiet essential side of ourselves, may we open enough to consider the sacred choices we make each minute, each hour, each day that add up to a lifetime. Let us become aware that here is the place to be forgiven, and to...

“Each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being to receive, to carry, and give back.”—Dag Hammarskjold Each morning we hold out our chalice of being To be filled with the graces of life that abound— Air to breathe, food to eat, companions to love, Beauty to behold, art to cherish,...

When I begin to bless this food and close my eyes I lose myself first just in green: how do leaves grow themselves this green and how do they grow at all to be so large and how do they make themselves from soil which in itself is only brown and sunlight helps and water but how is the end of this,...

(Can be preceded by singing the first verse of "Bright Morning Stars," Hymn 357 in Singing the Living Tradition) Day breaks on our gratitude for family and friends, For the freedom to find our own truth, For the company of those who gather here, And the promises we offer one another....

I am one of those people who love to make New Year’s resolutions. Why not create a vital, remodeled persona, new and improved? Just write down all the things you want to accomplish, all the projects you want to complete, all the character improvements you want to make, and all the skills you want...

Who cast a spell over my world? Who opened the doors, stirred the crowd of possibilities, put gold dust in my dreams causing my life to turn? O Fate, O Love, O Spirit, O God: is it true that all good things must end? Or have you set me on a path of meaning Not luck Of clarity Not magic And this...

Holy One We gather this day to be reminded of the sacred in the ordinary. The holy moments of waking yet again to a new day. The feel of the earth beneath our feet The crisp cool on our skin The joy of being welcomed by our fellow travelers The warmth of this place. Help us this day to be fully...

Ultimate Grace, the heart of every matter, in every perfection and imperfection, in all senses and: tenses, in moments of every right and wrong, presenting choices to inquiring hearts. You are in the purpose and the journey of mishaps. You are in moments of understanding and misunderstanding. We...

Gracious Spirit, Who makes the first to be last and the last to be first, Who makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine upon all, Help us to understand that life is not an contest Where having the most toys is the point of the game, To realize that the victor’s circle can be the loneliest spot...

"Whatsoever you wish that others do unto you, do so to them; for this is the Law of the Prophets."—Matthew 7:12 I should probably get one thing clear at the outset: I don’t claim to know much about stability, much less to possess it. In fact, when I think about what I’ve experienced in life,...

Does the match love the wick? Does the wick love the wax or the air it consumes? “Yes, without question.” To melt together, To burn together, To change together, The pieces of the candle must love each other. Though not necessarily wisely, and not necessarily well.

We pause this hour to honor the spirit and to accept ourselves as fragile humans, equally full of nobility and strength. We gather, weary of life’s trials, yet cheered by infinite possibilities for love’s grace. We meet with smiles and glad voices for old friends and new—every stranger a gift...

As must be obvious to every one of you, these are times of great tension and conflict in America. Much of this turmoil in our nation is focused on what many observers have called The Culture Wars...the very vocal and visible battles that are occurring on many fronts to determine whose values,...

Spirit of Life and love known by many names and worshipped in a rainbow of ways Infinite Mystery, Spark of Ah-ha and Ahhh and Awe Conspiring energy of interdependent co-arising Be with us now. Surround us. Push us forward. Pull us together....

We are five days away from what is has come to be traditionally celebrated as the birth of Jesus of Nazareth....

Divine spark from sacred dark Symbol of our holy intent Illuminate this hour.

(May be read responsively) We light this chalice to affirm that new light is ever waiting to break through to enlighten our ways: That new truth is ever waiting to break through to illumine our minds: And that new love is ever waiting to break through to warm our hearts. May we be open to this...

Spirit of life and love, In this season of beginning Some of us are hurried and harried. Some of us feel sorrowful and afraid. Some of us are not yet ready to step forward into the future. May we minister to one another with wisdom, Meeting our friends with open ears, open eyes, and open hearts....

May we go forth from this place thankful for the life that sustains and renews us, and open to the grace that surrounds and surprises us. May we go forth from this place with openness and with thanksgiving.

Many years ago in the land of Transylvania, in a mountain valley watered by quick rushing streams and shadowed by great forests of beech trees, there was a village of small wooden houses with dark-shingled roofs....

We give you thanks, O God, for all that is good and kind and just. For all the wonders of nature that speak of your continuing divine presence: the sunrise and sunset, the rainbow, the waterfall, the roaring ocean and the quiet stream, the majestic mountain peak and the serene desert. We give you...